Shinos World

Wow! Check out these amazing ceramics from Shino Takeda. They are so beautiful they make me want to cry! I would so very much love to live in Shino's World an eat beautiful food out of these beautiful bowls.

July! July! July!

And a few more shots of July...

 I came home one evening to find a windowsill barbecue! Vietnamese Bun Cha!

 Bun Cha is barbecued pork patties served with rice noodles and lots of salad leaves and herbs, and a cold sweet vinegary fish sauce to dip it all into. We cheated as we didn't have minced pork, but beef worked nicely too.

Birthday Mojitos and nori maki

 My view cycling home from work, the only nice thing about working until 10pm!

 I also took a ceramics class, and made a vase/jug and mini milk jug, I have yet to pick up the finished ones. Hopefully I can get a place on another ceramics course as I absolutely love it!

 I found scary face in a toilet cubicle!

 Watched a lot of 30 Rock

 Cycled to Richmond Park/Wimbledon Common and enjoyed using the horse crossing!

 During a trip to Oxford for the best wedding ever, we fortunately had time before leaving to visit my favourite noodle bar - Red Star on the Cowley Road. I had many happy times in this place.

 Upon arriving back in sunny London we headed to a friends place for more barbecue fun

 Welsh cakes (and thanks) from the wedding

It finally felt like summer with fresh watermelon and corn on the cob.

We did a lot of hand block printing for our show in August - as well as these invites.

And generally it was a good month for sunny, blue skies and trips to the park.

Torkey

August was mainly filled with non-stop block printing for our show, but we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Torquay. We saw lots of the sea, nipped up to Ivybridge where there was a lovely dog with a pink ribbon, a baby duck and chickens, and a bathroom which made me feel like I was in the Prefects bathroom at Hogwarts (...), we also went to St. Gabriels where I tried out crabbing for the first time. Back in Torquay we took a ride on the cliff train and had one enormous scoop of ice-cream. It was a short but fun trip. Oh yea, and there a dog in a ladies backpack!

July! Olympics!

The Olympics came to town, so Tom and I got up early on the first day and cycled down to Box Hill where we (and many others) watched the Men's Road Cycling zoom by. Amongst all the Union Jack flags I stood proudly with my homemade Japan flag supporting Arashiro and Beppu

 Beppu coming round the bend, leading the Breakaway

 Arashiro just behind New Zealand at the front

Wiggins and Cavendish

It should be noted that my poster was not in vain, Arashiro definitely saw it and got some cheers from the Japan car too :) They may not have won Gold but they did very well and I had a lot of fun! After they made their 9 rounds of Box Hill everyone hopped on their bikes for the nearest pubs to watch the pros roll into the Mall. 

I also managed to catch the Ladies cycle by after work, they happened to cross my cycle route home and I arrived moments before The Netherlands, Russia and GB came by (aka Gold, Silver, Bronze). I surprised myself how much I enjoyed watching the Olympics and the atmosphere it brought to London, and was quite sad when it was all over, especially as it meant the tubes and traffic went back to it's busy self. Seemed rather than being completely packed, the Olympics scared people off and London was very quiet to get around. 

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.