London Bloggers Afternoon Tea at the Milestone Hotel

There's nothing I love more than the English tradition of afternoon tea.

                       

Afternoon tea in England dates back to the early nineteenth century wherein people would feel peckish in the early afternoon and would partake of tea and small sandwiches, and then maybe a walk about the gardens in order to hold themselves over till dinner. Most frequently it was a social occasion for people to catch up and enjoy each others company. So, something that was clearly going to be right up my alley. I am all about the mid-afternoon meal disguised as a snack.

Selena, over at Oh, The Places We Will Go, organized the blogger afternoon tea get-together a few weeks ago. I had seen over social media (Twitter is the best) about her putting together and hosting other afternoon teas at different places around London and I got in touch with her to join up. We used the hashtag #LDNBloggersTea if you want to search through the social media posts about these events.

 Blogging has turned into a great way to meet new people and I was excited to attend something as lovely as afternoon tea as a way to meet other bloggers. A fantastic idea from Selena and very well executed, I might add.

The tea itself was held at Milestone Hotel in Kensington. Right across from Kensington Palace and Gardens. Posh location indeed. And the hotel suited it's surroundings.

Don't be fooled by that photo, above. I may not be wearing my usual attire...pajamas pretending to be school clothes...I just wanted the other bloggers to think I was an adult too. And I put those heels on a block from the hotel, with Kensington Palace staring me in the face, being all judgey. What? Flats are perfectly acceptable commuting shoes. I wear heels for parties I get to sit down at. I'm, like, classy on a part-time basis.

Once we were all seated, we had introductions all around and Selena gave us all a warm welcome. The servers came around and offered us a selection of two different teas, English Breakfast or Early Grey. I'm sure there would have been more of a selection if there had been less of us. I think they may have narrowed our options down because we were a very large group of 23 camera ready bloggers. Typically you'd get to pick what tea you'd want from a large selection at all other afternoon teas I've partook of (and they've been numerous. I love a good afternoon tea.)

All of our sandwiches, scones and desserts were quite tasty, albeit very traditional. I got a little jealous over the other bloggers talking about their last tea they had where it was all very unique selections and the chef would tweet back and forth with them after. I do love a company that has a handle on social media.

But in all honesty, if you're visiting London from outside the UK and haven't had the pleasure of having afternoon tea, I would highly recommend The Milestone Hotel. If you're looking for traditional and quintessential, they've got it right here, and in such beautiful surroundings it's easy to be quite charmed with the place. 

Their desserts definitely held a lot of delight for me. I can't exactly tell you what they are, but they were extremely tasty. A good tip for other places, when you serve afternoon tea it's always helpful to provide a menu of the items at the table so you know what you're eating. Especially if someone wants to blog about it later!

Dessert on a stick. Yup. That's my favourite. With a caramel popcorn stuck on it. I want this for breakfast every day. Or as a reward when I do something good.

I hereby name this 'creamy thing with graham crackers'. Except England doesn't have graham crackers. But this was squishy and crispy all at the same time.

Overall it was a lovely tea. I really went to meet some other lovely London bloggers and I'm really glad I did.

After the tea, I took myself on a walk around Kensington Gardens. It really is remarkable how many people turn up to the parks when the sun is out. Seeing everyone out makes me very happy to be living here.

Purty London. 

xxLindsay

*We received a discounted rate for this tea, £30, No review was required and all opinions were my own. And I took a goodie bag of leftovers afterwards. Cause I'm classy and care about the environment. Don't waste that shit man, give it to me.

For the Love of Beer: Meantime Brewfest

The very first time I got drunk was my first time living away from home, freshmen year at uni. I went to a football players house with my future best friend, Jomi, and I ended up drinking a six pack of Natty Light (AKA 'Natural Light'). I got so sick later that I vomited all over my dorm room (CLASS, right there folks) and had quite the bonding experience with my floormates as they helped shower me off and wash my things. Honest to God, I went to the best University ever, ace people there. Then I did the incredibly awesome (AKA uncouth) thing wherein I called my mother while hungover and cried. Apparently...this is not what you do when completely drunk or hungover, when underage...or at any age, as my mother keeps telling me when I call her drunk or hungover even now. Whatever, Mom, I just want a little sympathy for my poor decisions!

For the following four years of uni, I could not force myself to drink beer. I hated it with a passion. My gag reflex started to flex it's muscle every time I got any whiff of beer.

But lo and behold, thank the Lord, that dark period has passed. Since I graduated I have discovered my love of beer and developed it into a true passion. It's even become quite the family bonding thing for my siblings and I. Almost every time we're all at home, we bound off to another local brewery in Rochester, NY and have an afternoon of tastings. 

My absolute favourite birthday of all time, even surpassing my 21st birthday, would have to be last summer when I turned 29. My little sister planned it all, with my only stipulation that I wanted to tour the local gin and brewery places around the finger lakes. We took a party bus around, my whole family and my best friends Danielle and Brandon, and had a blast tasting local gins and delicious brews.

Since being in London, I haven't gotten to get out there and try what local beers there are to offer here. Which has been quite a disappointment, honestly. The majority of my friends here are not beer drinkers. Even a lot of the guys prefer cider or wine and I often just stick to wine myself in the face of following the crowd when out at the pub.

Luckily, I have found a fellow beer drinker in my classmate, Tonje! Hallelujah! (Also, shout out to my American-DC expat friend, Molly, who also will grab a beer with me anytime.) Tonje and I recently checked out the Meantime Brewing Company Brewfest right over in local Greenwich. If you have a chance when you're in London, I would HIGHLY recommend coming and trying out their craft brews over at their Brewery. Beers from the UK, Europe and even America were on tap at the Brewfest. And a lot of which you can get around London pubs as well.

I think they'll be doing this again later this summer, and I will definitely be attending. We managed to get out to the Brewfest on the last day. A bit rainy, but a really good turnout. And just as a tip to my single lady friends, you should drink beer in London. Out of all the people that turned up for the Brewfest, 90% of them were men. We were quite outnumbered. There were many attractive guys, right alongside some very delicious brews. A lot of the European beers would even be palatable to even the most beer-adverse person. Quite on the fruity side. Some of Tonje's favourite beers tasted like sparkling fruit juice to me. I didn't even know you could do that with a beer. WHERE WAS THIS BEER IN COLLEGE??!

Free glass upon arrival. As well as 6 beer tasting tickets...though mine came with 7 accidentally. We were pretty pumped about that.

My favourite beer out of all of them was a beer from the UK. It's from Harviestoun Brewery, and it's called Ola Dubh "18". A Scottish beer that tastes of whiskey and is dark like coffee. I am such a big fan of the dark beers. The thicker and darker it is, the happier I am. Give me something I might mistake as espresso, please. Additionally, there was a few amazing coffee porters as well!

Another good one was from our very own Meantime Brewery, the London Porter. I will always look for this one whenever I'm at a London pub from now on. This, and the Chocolate Porter, are my go-to beers. And the Londoner Porter is a bit lighter, almost like a Guinness. So don't be frightened by this dark beer.

Inside of Greenwich's Meantime Brewery

You could use your beer tickets inside the Brewery, which made us pretty happy when the rain started to pick up.

  

The beers were all on tap outside the Meantime Brewery and there were tables for ping pong (my American brain immediately thought they could be used for beer pong instead, obvi).

All the guys working behind the bars were really great at answering any nerdy questions we had, and also gave great suggestions when I'd come up with the explicit demand, 'dark. Give me dark. Beer dark as my soul.' They did not think this was weird at all. Bless.

In our welcome gift bag we also got a really fantastic guide book on all the beers with little sections to take notes. For the next Brewfest, I'll get ultra nerdy and go for the whole weekend and try all of them. I have still kept this guide for future reference....also because I have a crap memory and have more than once just brought the guide with me to Greenwich Union Pub and just shoved it at the bartenders, pointed and grunted 'I want this one.' Class.

We were double fisting by the end. Thanks to that spare ticket I got in my bag. What a happy surprise.

I definitely plan on attending the next one. Hopefully all the ridiculously cute guys show up for the next ones as well. I mean....I'm going for the beer of course...but the cute guys totally help.

Before all this Brewfest delightfulness, I learned the most amazing, wonderful, joyful, loveliest thing about England. You can go to bars and get a beer, or two, to go! So I marched down to my local after my flatmate informed me, chuffed look on my face, and got some beer to have with dinner one night. I was so excited I took pictures of it. Look! Beer at home! Not bought at a supermarket! SO EXCITED. (And it was CHEAPER too!)

Seriously...it does not take much to make me happy.

xxLindsay

Playing Catch Up

Hey there friends, how's life? It feels like so long since I've last overshared way too much information with you that you didn't ask for and secretly wish you could forget. Did you miss reading random posts of weird food, illegally taken photos, and book obsessing? I have so much more to tell you. But give it time. Patience is a virtue. Apparently. I mean, I think so. I'm not sure, cause I don't have any.

Things that have been happening in my life: my grandmother passed away and I went home for whirlwind trip for not only the funeral, but a wedding of a good DC friend. I've been devising away at school coming up with new material for our very last project of the course (what? I can't believe I'm already here so close to the end!), I've been eating many delicious things that I have either posted on Instagram or just talked about obsessively to friends (they missed me posting about it here cause then I wouldn't have talked their ears off about it), and I've been reading loads of good stuff for my summer reading challenge.

Actually, I've kind of forgotten about the summer reading challenge and just been finding loads of good stuff to read and completely abandoned a lot of my books I planned on reading. I just finished Mindy Kaling's book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and I'm about half way through Caitlin Moran's book How to Be a Woman. Both absolutely delightful reads that are really making me feel good about myself as a result. I love good comedy writing. I need to sharpen my game and these ladies are showing me how.

A lot of why I haven't been posting recently is because I've been taking most my pictures on my fancy new camera and then avoiding figuring out how to put the pictures on to my computer. Technology frightens me and there is much wine drinking and avoidance when I think about it.

Clearly, I am going to have an interesting time in life.

Here's a few stellar test shots around my neighborhood in London:

This picture is so stellar that it took 3 minutes to upload. ENJOY! I don't know if I have the patience to add more. This will now probably be a one picture per post blog.

Kidding. I did wait. Here's a selfie and another shot of the walk way by my house.

A girl and her camera. A love story. Told in selfies.

Look nature! In London! 

I actually think this took just long enough to write for me to get hungry. So now I'm going to go eat. Are you surprised?

xxLindsay

Why Breakfast Is The Best

Some people drink a little too much and reminisce on past romances....I drink a little too much and whip out the photos of past meals I've loved.

What? You're on Instagram I'm sure, who do you think they created that for? Food porn lovers.

Out of all the meals I cook that I'm most likely to photograph, breakfast is the top contender for most pictured.

My breakfast creations, sadly, are not pretty. Which is why I'll share a few of my favourites now, while the wine is flowing and I'm feeling reminiscent.

Most often they resemble something that your cat barfed up after a night out on the town.

And with that image in your head....

My breakfasts are my favourite thing to cook out of anything. My favourite meal to eat at restaurants is usually going to be breakfast. If a restaurant claims to be all-day breakfast, it's usually my favourite restaurant. And the most looked at, most drooled over recipes in my cookbooks is always breakfast.

I think I've trained myself to love breakfast the most because, as an adult, it's the one meal that is most often cooked just for me and not for anyone else in mind. Because of how my Crohn's operates, breakfast literally is the most important meal of the day. My body has had a nice 6-8 hours of fasting during the night, something my Crohn's loves (intestinal rest period), and a lot of times, the first meal of the day will help determine how well I operate or how low energy I'll be for the rest of my day. So my breakfasts usually revolve around high protein, low sugar, low carb for the most part, and always, always easily digested veggies.

GF bread (it just tastes good to me), smashed avocado with lemon and salt, and nitrate-free bacon. Just trying to keep it hipster-friendly, obvi.

Current fav: avocado, lemon, salt and 'pancaked' eggs...not scrambled, pancaked.

I'm one of the crazy people that will lose sleep if it means getting up early enough to cook myself a big breakfast. No porridge or cantaloupe and cottage cheese for this girl. Take your diets and get out of my kitchen cause that is not how I play. Sure, if I'm trying to lose weight I'll eat soup for lunch and salad for dinner, but damnit there is a good chance that I'll be having three eggs and/or bacon for breakfast.

Bacon. The lover that loves you back. It handles you well......heh, heh....get it? Love handles....


Nevermind...

GF toast, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, spinach, lemon, salt.

As much as I love cheesy pick up lines, don't ever ask me 'how do you like your eggs cooked in the morning?' cause I would most likely go off on a crazy person rant about how I'd be the one cooking the eggs cause I'm particular and you don't get to voice an opinion on how you want them cooked cause I'm gonna go make some shit up in the kitchen when I'm cooking them and you're gonna like it. DON'T PRESSURE ME.

Future post: Why Am I Single?

I don't know why I'm single, LOOK AT THE GOOD THINGS I COOK.... For myself....cause if I tried to cook this for anyone else, I'd burn the house down and somehow undercook the eggs.

I've always felt the Brits have breakfast down pretty good...or elevenses. I could always go for a sausage roll and a cuppa. The best in Southeast London are either at Heap's Sausages or, as pictured below, Hand Made Food in Blackheath.

A meal I miss from America.

You'll need:

to hang out in your pjs early on a Saturday morning

watching Doctor Who

eating Organic Peanut Butter Bumpers with Almond milk and a side of milky tea. 

It's all in the details.

As much as I love tea, thanks for that addiction England, I will always be a coffee addict at heart. It's literally my family's business. So these are just pictures of love. Enjoy!

Notes Coffee, London

TAP Coffee, Wardour Street, London

 And the creme de la creme....Monmouth Coffee, brewing in my V60 at home.

xx Lindsay

Corporate Acting Gigs...and Why I Am OK Being Paid in Food

One of the many delightful ways to earn some money as an actor is the ever interesting Corporate Acting Gig. 

Not actually what it's called, I think, but that's just what I decided.

I heard about these things from my friend Raven back in DC when she regaled me with tales of working at training facilities where an actor is hired to play an abused child (because clearly getting a real one would be absolutely NOT okay) in order to have a doctor train how to properly question a patient (this is just one example of the different parts you'd play). There's also jobs out there of the same thread but with law enforcement.

And then there's the odd ball gig. This is what I did about a month ago now. 

My friend's partner does a lot of stuff for events at a big hotel in London and for this particular event he needed to hire some actors. To sit in a hotel room to make it feel more homey....for three hours....while tourist agents came in to have a look.

Yup. Totally a gig. 

Are you jealous yet? Do you totally want to ditch your career and sign up for the bohemian chic actor lifestyle?

Well don't quite yet. We weren't able to get paid in cash for this gig but we were offered to be paid in a free ticket to the party afterwards...with free food and free wine.

So, duh. That's, like, my favourite thing ever...I mean, after money, of course.

This particular event was put on by Thistle at Marble Arch and boy do they know how to throw an event.

My cohorts and me at the after party. Brazil World Cup themed. 

First, the actual job.

I didn't think to take a picture in the hotel room, but I should have. The room we were in was actually really swank and lovely. Me and a fellow actor, Mark, were requested to bring a packed bag to make the situation seem more real. So I brought a few things and hung out barefoot in the room, with the tv on, chatting with Mark about my London food obsessions.

See, if we hang out in real life, guys, that's how riveting my conversation gets. FOOD.

The dessert selection was ON POINT.

The event that was organised involved bringing tourist agents around to see the different room options. A pretty good idea in my opinion. If you're gonna be selling people on this place, you should know what you're selling.

It was pretty hysterical to see the reactions to us being in the room. First the guide would warn people, 'don't mind the actors'. Which confused us as much as it made us laugh. 'Hi, we're the actors, feel free to ignore us!'

Then they stopped doing that and people would walk in and almost always say 'Oops! Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone would be in here. Umm...are you enjoying your stay?' or my favourite 'I hope they're paying you to let us into your room, that was nice of you!' All the tourist agents were delightful people with a great sense of humour for such a unique situation. I do wonder if other hotels have done this. I think it was a great idea.

After we were done, we were invited to take our fill at the party. And boy did we. You really need to be comfortable offering a bunch of students/actors free food and drink. We definitely consumed our pays worth. I basically just camped out at the station with the STEAK and YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS.

Dear Thistle,

Feel free to hire me again if you're paying in Yorkshire Puddings.

Kind regards,
Lindsay

P.S. I'm serious.

They had a mariachi band walking around at drunk o'clock part of the night. Good idea, guys.

The room the party was in was masterfully decked out.

This is my 'HOW FANCY IS THIS BATHROOM?!' photo.

And the best way to end the night....free cupcakes in a carrier box on our way out.

Blue Cupcake. Not sure of flavour, but it was delicious...and blue. 

As a thank you, they also have offered us a free afternoon tea on a day of our choosing with whomever we want to attend.

Guys, it's like they just knew what my heart wanted.

Or my stomach.

xx

**Thistle Hotel in no way asked me to write this post. This was just an interesting experience I had, and enjoyed and didn't mind writing about their fabulousness. All opinions are my own. 

Pretty Dresses, Sneaky Photos, and Acting Advice

Is there any better way to spend a sunny day in London than hidden away inside the dark halls of a museum? Well normally, if I was truly English, I'd be pulling my clothes off and indecently sunning in the parks with some booze (no really...people go crazy when the sun comes out here. Goodbye modesty.)

A new exhibit just opened at the V&A called Wedding Dresses: 1774 - 2014. I may have snapped a few photos in a possibly, maybe, I just can't remember no-photo zone.... I'm only showing a few here, but you really should go check out the exhibit if you're in London. Have a girly day and enjoy 'ohh' and 'ahh'ing over the lovely dresses they have on display. (My only qualm, other than no-photos, was there just wasn't enough. I wanted so much more! But the two floor compact display space was spectacularly filled regardless.)

 I dragged Amanda along with me from Rhyme & Ribbons, one of my favourite expat friends to adventure around with in London! Additionally, she didn't bat an eye over any sneaky photos in the museum. I mean, come on people, DRESSES! Pretty, sparkly, WEDDING DRESSES. Of course I'm gonna take quick, sneaky photos with my iPhone. #sorrynotsorry

We were pretty happy with a lot of the purple dresses. This was an old maid's wedding dress. She was past 30, so ya know...practically dead. She did what she wanted.

By far my most favourite. Check out my Instagram for more info on this piece.

I want them Louboutin's. Dream a dream.

And another favourite. So gorgeous. Look how it sparkles!

After drooling over the dresses we quickly found our way through the rest of the photo-friendly and free fashion exhibit, also worth a good look around.

Before we headed out into the sunshine, Amanda showed me the joys that is the Theatre and Performance collection, which is nicely hidden away in an even darker corner, where you'd only really stumble upon it if you were in a school group having lunch...or you were really lost.

There we learned some hard facts about acting. Don't know why I even bothered working on my master's degree. Let me hit you up with some knowledge:

'Building a character: Acting is central to any performance. The way an actor speaks and looks and moves onstage changes the audience's emotional response to that character. There are many approaches to acting technique that consider both the external and internal life of a character, from emotion through to the way of speaking and moving onstage.'

I'm off to get my Oscar now that I understand it all.

I just thought this was fascinating. And kinda what I'd like to wear to breakfast.

Amanda introduced me to her favourite section...the costumes. They didn't smell so pretty, but neither does theatre, kids. And don't you forget it. It's smells of tears, sweat, ambition, and poorness. ... Ya know, if it could smell like that, it would.

But we smelled pretty cause it was a girly day.

Oddly enough we were the only ones enjoying this thoroughly enjoyable collection. Maybe because it was put off in the dungeons of the museum. Where no hope survives. Welcome to the Theatre collection, where dreams come to die.

So that got morbid. Go back and look at the dresses. Preeeeetty.

Overall it was a delightful visit and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. I would recommend going to visit the pretty dresses, and please, if you have time, go say hi to the lonely Theatre and Performance section. There's even stuff on Shakespeare!

xx Lindsay

Summer 2014 Book Challenge

Hello, old friends....

So maybe I don't blog as regularly as I'd like...silly MA getting in the way of my creative outlet. Whatever, dude. One thing about me that you can count on not changing is my love of reading. Serious book addict right here. I will always love some good YA fiction, sci fi/fantasy, mysteries and a few non-fiction comedy books thrown in for good measure.

Booknerd who likes wine and giggling. Well, not really giggling, more like hysterical snorting.

My main guilt in life is that I feel I don't read enough. I would rather read all the books I currently own and haven't yet read (over 250 at this point, split between my home with my parents and my flat here in London) than catch up on all the trendy shows this season.

I'm feeling excited about this Summer Reading Challenge being put on by Megan over at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life. I'm a rule follower and I do love a good set of reading rules to follow (stop yelling 'nerd', Mom. I believe everyone is fully aware). Check out her page for the check-in rules, or you can just follow the point system if you want a good reading challenge for the summer. If anything, share with me what you're reading so I can add to my ever growing list of books to check out. I do love a good nerd chat over books.

So here's the points and here's what I'm, hopefully, going to be reading this summer:

Don't be judgy about my Blogging book. I never said I was good at this shit.

5 points: Freebie! Read any book that is at least 200 pages long.

--Take Your Shirt Off and Cry by Nancy Balbirer. Should be an easy read, an auto-biography about one woman's experiences as a struggling actor. Looks like a funny read and I'm trying to read more of those. Someday, I wanna write a comedic book. 

10 points: Read a book that was written before you were born.

--Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. No, I've never read it. *Hangs head in shame*

10 points: Finish reading a book you couldn't finish the first time around. (You must have at least 150 pages left in the book to use it for this category.)

--Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, it's what became my downfall for my Jane Austen Book Club reading challenge. I just couldn't get past Mansfield Park. Ugh.

10 points: Read a book from the children's section of the library or bookstore.

--The Giver by Lois Lowry. Always wanted to read it and my sister loved it. It was either this one or possibly The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which also comes highly recommended by my sis.

15 points: Read a book that is on The New York Times' Best Sellers List when you begin reading it.

--The Circle by Dave Eggers. Recommended by my other blogger friend, Taylor, who loved it. And hopefully it'll stay on that list until I can get to it!

15 points: Read a historical fiction book that does not take place in Europe.

--The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. My lovely friend Laura just gushed about it and lent me her copy.

15 points: Read a book another blogger has already read for the challenge. (So I'll be checking in June to see what other blogger's have read in order to get my next one...or I'll just take one from Amanda over at Rhyme and Ribbons as she's updating her post as she goes along. Win!) 

--The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester...I'm hoping Amanda reads that one soon, cause I've been dying to read it for years (I used to work at several bookshops, this title has always caught my eye).

20 points: Read a book with 'son(s),' 'daughter(s)' or 'child(ren)' in the title. No other words will count--including kids, offspring, etc. 

--Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

20 points: Read a book that was/will be adapted to film in 2014.

--Fault in Our Stars  by John Green. OKAY, OKAY, I will give in and read it. I've been avoiding it because everyone has cried over it and I hate crying. But alas, I must give in because I've heard too many good things. Damn you, John Green. I hope you're not going to be another Nicholas Sparks.
**Finished 19th of May....sobbing.**

25 points: Read a book written by a blogger.

--Straight Up and Dirty by Stephanie Klein. I had fun searching for this one. Nooooo, idea of what to chose other than cookbooks and any book by Jen Lancaster...oh wait, read all those. She's actually who I want to write like someday. Hopefully this Stephanie Klein author will be as funny and/or inspiring.

25 points: Read a biography, autobiography or memoir.

--The Disastrous Mrs. Weldon by Brian Thompson, and just for fun, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling, because I must read this book. 

30 points: Read a pair of books with antonyms in the titles.

--Ummmm, I'll get back to you on that one.

BONUS ROUND...just cause I want some of my own personal challenges:

Read a book you said you would never, ever, ever read:

--50 Shades of Grey .... ugh. Maybe I can't do that challenge...

Read a book that you've borrowed off someone and you really have kept it too long and need to return it soon...like, really soon:

--The Art of Acting by Stella Adler, borrowed off my friend Olivia...and I just really have had it too long.

I have so many other good books waiting for attention on my bookshelf.

I'm sure this will all fit in nicely while I freak out about getting a job and whattheHELLamIdoingaftergraduationfuuuuuuuuck!

xx Lindsay