London goes high tech

We've seen a couple of great high-tech gadgets here in London. The first is a great combination garbage/recycle can and mini-billboard.

The crystal clear screens on the sides of these cans show stock prices, headlines, weather reports, coming events and tube line updates.

On one outing to catch a flick, we ended up at the giant Westfield Mall (sister mall to the brand new one connected to Olympic Park).

The mall itself, aside from being gargantuan (in downtown London!), is your regular mall. A balance of yuppie Banana Republics, sprinkled with Build-a-Bears and topped off with some Gucci for good measure. The food court was a step up from KFC and Opa! though - hot meat pies, Vietnamese noodle soups and fresh sushi. And to really elavate the dining experience - real china and metal forks/spoons for the food. It was great not feeling like you're eating with Barbie's picnic set.

And while you're noshing - why not have your smartphone/mp3 charged securely, for free? These towers were scattered thoughout the area.

Simple choose an available spot, plug in your device and lock it up to charge.

The Ace Cafe

Our visit to the Ace Cafe.

If you are a "petrol head" of any sort, you will definitely find yourself drawn to the Ace Cafe in northern London for a visit. Not only is the cafe a daily hangout for motor bike riders, but each evening features a show and shine for a certain brand or genre of bikes or cars... So we went on the MG Midget and Austin-Healy Sprite night!

We arrived a little early, sat down to eat dinner and watched all of the cars roll into the cafe's parking lot. Not only was it the Spridget night, but other classic cars (and an old British tank) were also arriving.

Here's a shot of the parking lot once it began to fill up.

Sebring Sprite: this is a car we've never seen before. It is an Austin Healy Sebring Sprite, which is essentially a Bug Eye Sprite with custom coupe bodywork, originally created as a racing model. This may be a replica, based on one of the few originals.

This is an example of a really clean, custom Mini Cooper, set up for road rallying.

In a world of Cobra replicas, this is the real thing! It is an early, small block Ford version, and is absolutely impeccable.

...and, indeed, a fully street-legal 'tank' was there too. Okay, maybe it isn't a true tank, but it sure was cool!

All in all, it was a really great evening spent at the Ace Cafe!

Hanging with the smart kids

Being so close to so many interesting cities and sites is one of the benefits we love about London. So into our borrowed car we hopped and onto the wrong side of the road we drove.

Brad said it's not the shifting that's hard (which is the same pattern, just maneuvered with the left hand) or driving on the left (which only feels a little odd on those right hand turns that are now w-i-d-e) but the constant changing of speeds from 20km/hr to 60km/hr while rally driving through an on-going length of chicanes. Because the streets are so narrow, you're constantly pulling over, in an effort to be courteous, and letting the on-coming car pass. The up-side here is everyone waves or flashes their headlights for a "thanks for pulling over", which is a courtesy that's generally forgotten in Victoria.

The town of Oxford is only a 90 minute drive from where we're staying and on the way is the town of Abingdon. A tiny little dot of a city, it once was home to the MG factory. The factory is now gone, but the final MGB to roll off the assembly line is on display in the town's newly opened museum.

The museum is housed in the town hall, built in the late 1700's and thirty feet up, on the third floor, sits the MGB. Many renovations have taken place in the museum, but adding a car-sized elevator was not one of them. The British Motor Heritage group helped to disassemble the car, mostly consisting of removing the engine and transmission to reduce the weight. It was then lifted by crane up and into the third floor via a window with only cm's to spare on either side. It was then reassembled and displayed for all MG enthusiasts to see, like this lass:

The town of Oxford is very compact, with cobblestone streets winding around amazing historic buildings educating the elite of Britian. Varsity shops are filled with navy sweaters, crested ties and wool scarves representing each college in town.

Here's a snap looking down one street. The farthest back is St. Mary's University Church, covered mostly by the Radcliffe Camera (library with the large dome) with the Bodeleian Library in the foreground. The latter two are the main academic libraries for Oxford university. As the Bodeleian is a reference library, you are required to recite an oath that you will not remove or harm any books found within.

The Bodeleian Library building is absolutely massive and imposing. And subsequent additions to the building, creating a quadrangle, add to this feel. Here is the original main entrance to the original library, now the Divinity School (and used in Harry Potter films!):

Directly across from this a later addition, the Tower of the Five Orders, creates an imposing entrance from the street into the quadrangle (the five orders are the classical architecture columns in each layer - spot the Doric column level!):

Within this area, we did find Brad's door (Mr. English and History/Social Studies himself):

Further through town is the Oxford tower, used, until quite recently, as a prison. For you British TV fans, Inspector Morse filmed quite a bit here (as well as other parts of Oxford).

This shot of the cell block was used for the filming of the original Italian Job, starring Michael Caine.

And to maintain the historical integrity of the castle, snacks have been carefully chosen for the time period:

The lights of Broadway!...and the bread...and pies...

Another day, another market. But oh boy, was this a market! Where the Borough Market is the big, grand-daddy of markets (think Granville Island, with equal amounts tourists, gourmet shopping foodies and lunch-seeking office workers), Broadway Market is the neighbourhood market that residents actually shop weekly at (think Moss St. Market if it was three times its size).

It's a great balance of varied vendors - artisan loaves of bread, fancy pastries, organic vegetables, exotic spices, marinated olives, and, to keep you alert while shopping, individually dripped cups of coffee.

This stall has a plywood shelf with holes cut to hold ceramic filters, so each customer gets a freshly ground and brewed cup of coffee:

The selection of baked goods and cakes was fabulous - both high-end bakery style as well as rustic tarts and flans, and these gourmet two-bite delectables:

And if you need some sustenance while you're perusing all the stalls, they are near endless choices to fill your tummy. This place had lamb pies and sweet potatoe pies - and mini versions to have as an hors d'oeuvre until you reach the next stall:

If you have a bit of a need to appease your sweet tooth, this fudge selection was both wide-ranging and beautifully displayed:

And apparently it's not just the residents from the nearby streets that frequent the market. His Royal Highness is pictured chatting with the baker/owner of this stall. He has his head down when we snapped the photo - but his hat is the identifying element:

At another stall serving snacks while you shop, the owners were slicing the salmon while you watched:

And creating a mouth-watering aroma were these roasting chickens - sold in wholes or half. There was also sliced leg of lamb that had been roasted earlier.

The actual stall that brought us to the a Broadway Market was Eat My Pie, selling the scotch eggs created by Andy Bates. Currently he runs stalls at the Broadway Market and White Cross Street Market. He is also involved with a street-food network show that's just begun here in the UK. We heard and read all of this background after we'd already planned our visit.

We had been having a drink and dinner in a local pub in Kensington (Brad having a steak and Cassie a scotch egg and fish) when a gentlemen at the next table remarked how great the scotch egg looked and added that there was a bloke at the Broadway market who did eggs that were pretty good too. So the search was on. Little did we know it would lead us to such a fabulous market.

Some of the scotch eggs (soft boiled egg surrounded by sausage meat) included chorizo, Thai red curry, black pudding and Mexican three bean. Here is the Eat My Pie stall:

And here's Cassie's scotch egg (which they properly slice open for you and sprinkle with coarse salt and cracked black pepper). This one was the "Breakfast Egg" - soft boiled egg, surrounded by sausage meat and small bits of crumbled bacon.

Eat My Pie also served up a very British dish in an unusual way. Slices of rare roast beef with horseradish tucked into a yorkshire pudding. We managed to snap this photo before they all sold out - which was only another minute later:

And to prove the diversity of the market, it's not just your weekly loaf you can hope to find here. You can also pick-up a classic ride:

We're already planning our next visit.

Olympics - that's a wrap!

And now that the Olympics have finished up - we're with the rest of the Brits here in getting through our Olympic-withdrawals. It's been two weeks of watching highlights on the TV, planning our trips into town to see the free events (cycling, triathlon, marathon swimming) and running into pubs to watch the indepth coverage (and maybe a beverage to help with the cheering).

Truth be said, with the BBC coverage, you wouldn't have known that other countries were competing except Team GB (and Jamaica). Even the Canadian swimmer (actually, a Victorian to be more specific!) who won the bronze medal in the marathon swim had less coverage than the GB team member who came in fifth. Ah well, I'm sure it was the same if you'd switched on CTV two years ago - all red, white, maple leaves and Sidney Crosby.

So we'll put these shirts away for a little while - but they'll be at the ready in case people start mistaking us for Americans some more:

And as the networks have done, here's our montage of highlights of the London 2012 Olympics...well, the quirky stuff, at least.

The local "Bay" department store over here is John Lewis and they had the official rights to the Olympic souvenir sales. Their newest store, in the huge Westfield-Stratford Mall, overlooked the Olympic Park from the top floor. Also on this floor, away from the windows, you could get a close-up look at the inside of the stadium.

Yes, it's Lego. The near-scale version of the stadium was fabulous, but the real show-stoppers were the audience within. For everyone who has bought & built the little Lego figurines - you'll appreciate that they are all a part of this incredible display.

It's obviously the opening ceremonies because the torch bearer is on site...

And any stadium scene wouldn't be complete without Darth and Luke battling it out in the bleachers with light sabers:

And from small scale to large scale.

As with any it city hosting a big event, there is going to be street art. This series was entitled "Gifts from the Gods":

And his big brother the shotput:

And from implements to mascots. Prior to the start of the Olympics, the phone booths we blogged about earlier were gone overnight and human (?) sized Wenlocks and Mandevilles were installed.

Each was painted by an artist and was to be auctioned of after the Olympics and Paralympics finish off. Mandevilles (named after Stoke Mandeville, the nearby birthplace of the the Paralympics) and Wenlock (named after Much Wenlock, the town who held their own Olympian games before the rebirth of the modern Olympics) are posed throughout town.

Cassie's here with the Houses of Parliament/Westminster Abbey Wenlock.

And again, with the slightly smaller, plusher and affordable version. He/she/it will make a good shelf mate at home for Mukmuk:


And to close off the Olympics with a visit by the Queen. A very sweet, jelly-belly version of her:

And the song was right

This one is for all the Great Big Sea fans reading this.

We were out for a nice bike ride the other day, touching a few more communities than we'd planned due to missing some turns.

We were close to home and had planned on heading straight there when we came around a corner and saw a nice pub nestled beside a cricket pitch. A large garden area out front beckoned us to stop and have a pint. So we did.

While ordering two tall cold ones, we noticed this sign on the mirror in the main room.
No joke.

The song is true:

Pop-goes-the-store

With the Olympics in town, there are quite a few temporary or "pop-up stores" that have opened around town.

In Shoreditch a large scale pop-up retail experience has opened.

Boxpark is made up of stacked shipping containers turned into stores and restaurants. The bottom level of containers are all stacked beside each other while on the second level, they are set perpendicular to the lower ones (much like giant Lego blocks) with spaces left as walkways and patios.

The stack has mostly retail stores, with some companies leasing two or three containers and connecting them with passage ways, or completely removing the walls - and creating a regular sized store. Most stores are just one container wide and include companies such as Levi's, Kangol, Nike, and Puma.

The restaurants on the top floor have patios and seating around them, but this one - called Pieminister (serving, yes, pies & mashed potatoes), stuck to the one container - and even included seating!

It probably helps that they're not actually making and cooking the pies here. Their regular haunt is a stall at the Borough Market, so they're used to working in cramped spaces.

The whole Boxpark is a great concept - an incredible use of space and materials that really makes a statement in an already eclectic and funky area of London.

Putting the "Oh!" in Olympics

And back into London we come.

The Olympics are now in full swing and we were able to get tickets to some of the events. While watching rowing, equestrian or tennis was out of the question as they were long ago sold out, we hummed and hawed about various sports to consider.

We finally settled on disciplines with the smallest outfits worn by the atheletes - so off to beach volleyball and waterpolo it was!

Our waterpolo session included two matches - one involving Great Britain (Team GB as they are known here). The sound in the venue was absolutely deafening during the match.
In addition to going deaf, I almost drained the battery on the iPhone taking pictures....but really, with more six packs than a liquor store....

And then more washboards on display. You quickly forget about the funny hats....

Once the game gets down to brass tacks though, it's a killer sport to watch (and play). Very fast moving with many penalty-worthy moves (whether they get caught by the referee is another matter altogether). The players aren't allowed to touch the bottom or the sides of the pool - so they're swimming for the entire game.

The most battered player has to be the center man, who's parked in front of the goal (and the goalkeeper) a la Todd Bertuzzi/Alex Burrows. He probably spends 25% of the time being held underwater (but once play moves to the other end, he'll be doing the holding).

And we couldn't even see what was happening under water - but you had to assume some leg-dirty work as suddenly it looked like a player was part of a Jaws movie.

And then from poolside to beachside.

The hottest ticket at these Olympic games has been the beach volleyball. And everyone knows it's for the outfits, or lack there of for the woman's teams.

How small were the outfits you ask?

Well, the titillating beach volleyball dancers (show in two lines, facing each other) have more modest outfits than the players (in the blue bikinis to the right of the dancers)...

And the next question that's popped into your head - "they have titillating dancers at the volleyball venue?".

Yes Virginia, they do.

Much like a basketball game, at even the slightest break in play, either rock music gets blared or the dancers come running out to perform short routines:

The men's outfits weren't as revealing as the women's. But what they lacked in skin-flashing, the made up for with bravado. And as a bonus - we got to watch the Canadian men play! Just to confuse us - they're the ones in blue.

And if there was any doubt that there were Canadian fans in the crowd...

Some of what we ate - Paris

OK, this is a full on food-blog entry here, so if you're not into food porn, feel free to skip this entry.

Our first night in Paris, we stroll the streets, filled with restaurant after restaurant with menu boards outside listing delicious sounding offerings - but sometimes you need a visual - even McDonald's can sound fabulous....until you see it.

So we spied a charcuterie sharing platter at a restaurant called La Bombe. A small restaurant, with the obligatory sidewalk seating. We didn't see any camera-toting tourists in the crwod, so we plunked ourselves down on some outdoor seats and ordered the platter - which, upon closer inspection, we should have been sharing with two more people. We made our best effort at eating four or five different chunks of fragrent cheese, piles of prosciutto, ham, salami, salad and foie gras (some of which is obscured by the giant pieces of crustini (and a basket of bread, not in the picture).

There was so much food....we left cheese on the plate. Yes, that big.

One of our snacks was found on a walk through Paris (ok, not a walk, an actual trek to find this one patisserie - as patisseries in Paris look like the jewelry stores in Canada - including their offerings). If you've been to Thomas Haas in Vancouver, you know what I mean; now muliple the number of pastry chefs by 100, with each store having a unique look and selection of treats. This chocolate nougat, praline and candied hazelnut cream puff from Carl Marlotti was absolutely incredible - called the Paris-Brest. It was so amazing, we dove in immediately and ate the top from it, before dragging out the camera (we did attempt to take the shot so you couldn't tell, but we must be honest - those of you who forget to snap and dive right in can understand ;-)

Dinner one night was at a galette/crepe restaurant based on the cuisine of northern France (Brittany to be exact, where the galette is the savoury form of the crepe, usually done with buckwheat flour).
We didn't have a reservation, but the very nice and helpful (and perfectly bilingual) frontman squeezed us in with only a few minutes wait. Cassie had an asparagus, egg and prosciitto galette, while Brad opted for a fish one, topped with rocket and sausage slices. Both were washed down quite nicely with a bottle of cider (also a staple of Brittany and Normandy). We felt like locals eating there.

And even the grocery stores have fabulous food. OK, so maybe this was the food hall of Galerie Lafayette, so a few steps up from the Safeway bakery counter. We had the 'meal-deal' there of a baguette sandwich, drink and our choice of dessert - individually boxed, in a bag for take out. From the Eric Kayser counter within the food hall. Fabulous lemon flavour and beautiful crust.

Just down from the Sacre Coeur we found this little restaurant famous for its salads. And these aren't the 'hey, I'm being healthy' type salads, these are French salads. Every one is topped with a pile of thinly sliced potatoes, fried in garlic and oil. Brad is having the chicken salad (although the chicken is completely obscured by the potatoes, this shot was more for scale of the bowl size....).

This is Cassie's - a lardons (giant bacon bits), proscitto and egg...which actually turned out to be eggs! And a great deal too, most salads were priced around €12 - and they keep you full way into dinner.

Mmmmmm.