July! July!

My backlog of July photos starts with... Brighton! We celebrated Tom's birthday by cycling to Brighton, it was a tiring ride for me but it was a great feeling to arrive somewhere having not spent a huge amount of money getting there and having seen all the lovely villages along the way. It was just a quick visit, we stayed over at nice B&B by the sea, with a very lovely breakfast and friendly owners. We went out for some drinks, italian food and had to try out Okinami, Fat Boy Slim's japanese restaurant/bar, we didn't try the food but we did load up on cocktails. It was a nice place to have cocktails in and see in Tom's birthday but a little too swanky for a japanese meal. But we did get to have some japanese food the next day at Pompoko, a little place that is quite clearly very popular with locals, the food was VERY quick and cheap, not really to my standards but it was cheap, quick and filled me up. There was also the required Pier visit and a sunny afternoon checking out the Lanes. In the end I decided to let Tom cycle back alone, and I took the train home so I could prepare a birthday cake, dinner and decorations for his arrival.

Herne Hill Market

A couple of goodies from the newly established weekly Sunday market outside Herne Hill Station. Didn't take any snaps of the market but I shall surely be back there in weeks to come. Today we got 12 sausages (4 southern italian pork herb, 4 chicken, lemon and pepper and  4 chorizo sausages) for £5, half a loaf of a raisin and walnut sourdough, 2 for £2 raspberries and 2 for £2 rhubarb! Hurrah! Buying fresh food at markets possibly excites me a little too much. I will make a rhubarb crumble tonight, but after that I'm not sure what else to do with it... ideas?

Otohsama

I love this photo of my Dad and his fellow classmates on a beach somewhere in Japan.

Carson Ellis

To get me back into posting more regularly again, I will start with some illustrative eye candy, from the enchanting Carson Ellis. The worlds she illustrates are just so beautiful, I'd so very much love to live in a world created by Carson Ellis.

Naturally also being a Decemberists fan, I am dying to read the books the Wildwood Chronicles - written by the lead singer Colin Meloy and illustrated by none other than his wife, Carson Ellis. Joy! (So if anyone out there is reading this - it's my birthday coming up! Wink wink nudge nudge)

Images via Carson Ellis

Okonomiyaki

For date night we finally tried out the Okonomiyaki place in Brixton Village called Okan. And it was really lovely! I was in love with the wooden kitchen area of the small box they occupy and just about everything. I had one with  pork and for an extra £1 had kimchi and noodles on top. Very nice, very filling and nice and cheap. I think some might find the okonomiyaki without noodles not quite enough. After some more drinks around the corner we went to the Ritzy to see the new Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom - it was everything you'd want from a Wes Anderson film.

Film : Fine Totally Fine

Having signed up for Love Film recently, I have mainly been enjoying 30 Rock Series 1 & 2 coming through the post (although massive sad face that you can't 'rent' any other series), anyway I have also been making use of their instant streaming. Some strange but cute (as well unbelievably cheesy) films. Most recently I watched 'Fine Totally Fine' (全然大丈夫 Zenzen daijōbu)  Sometimes it's hard to tell how good a japanese film really is, as I generally find any film with a wide enough depiction of the inside of a regular japanese apartment and scenes of eating japanese food pretty bloody fantastic! This film was cute, sensitive and a just a little bit stupid. I could easily imagine native japanese film lovers to perhaps not find this film appealing at all. Nevermind. I took some film stills... 

Wow - pastels!

The main characters were so sweet! 

Jubilee

I have finally started cycling to work. A comfortable 7-8 miles each way, it is less scary than I had imagined, although I eased myself in by starting over the Jubilee weekend which I so luckily had to work. My bike failed me a few times but I hope with a few more tweaks I should have a good runner.

                       

• Felt I should be a bit more festive on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend so made some paper bunting and hung it over the bed. 
• Then headed up to the Myatt's Field Jubilee party up the road - cake competition! 
• I bought a slice of the 2nd place cake... and understood why it came in 2nd place
• Spotted Joe Cornish of Adam and Joe (and Director of Attack the Block) and took a creepy stalker photo of him
• Band stand played some jazz as swing dancers danced in front and held a small lesson - would love to try it out some time
• The next day along the Thames people gathered in the rain to watch the Flotilla