Perfect Equations

The last weekend was Lauren’s birthday weekend since her birthday falls on March 31st, we decided to celebrate over the weekend. On Friday, I was rewarded with a day off from work as we had a flood because a water pipe broke in my department and all of the electricity was turned off. So I lounged around making plans for our European trek and for my mom’s visit. After a nice long nap, I met Ellie and we headed off to Baron’s Court where Lauren lives. The three of us shared two pints of Leffe and Hoegarden and then headed off to Richmond by bus to meet Lauren’s coworkers for Thai dinner. The thai food at HillTribe was ok, not half as good as garden and grille in Notting Hill, but it was fun meeting all of her co-workers that she always tells us stories about. After that we took the tube home and it was nearly midnight as we had a very long dinner.

Lauren spent the night on our newly borrowed air mattress and we had a birthday beer with George upon our arrival home. Lauren went to bed quickly and Ellie and I chatted with George for awhile.

The next day we woke up slowly and went through the process of attempting to get the fixings for a picnic lunch to take with us to Kew Gardens for the day to see the Henry Moore sculptures as it was the last weekend they would be there. We went to Fresh and Wild and tasted all the samples and finally decided on some cous cous and hummus and pita from Sainsbury and sandwiches and salads from Pret. We got on the tube for the long ride to Richmond. Richmond is a little town-like place that feels separate from London. Kew gardens is located between the town of Kew and Richmond. Kew Gardens is a leading centre of botanical research, a training ground for professional gardeners and a visitor attraction. In 2005 Kew received 1.48 million visitors, which was the most since 1949 and is the largest number for any paid entry garden in the United Kingdom.[3] The gardens are mostly informal, with a few formal areas. There are conservatories, a herbarium, a library and eating places. In the winter months there is an ice rink. Henry Moore’s work was chosen to be exhibited in Kew Gardens and is the 3rd open air exhibit Moore has ever done. We joined the Henry Moore tour when we arrived but then the rain began to come down on us heavily. We walked with the tour to two different statues but then realized that we should just go indoors and eat our lunch to get out of the rain. We spread out our picnic lunch and ate it for awhile until an employee told us we had to leave since we were not paying customers. So Lauren got up and bought an orange and then we continued on eating, smugly. After our picnic the rain has slowed/stopped and we went to the most impressive glasshouse that had plants from every region. It was warm like a Florida day and we loved it. Afterwards, we mostly tumbled in and around other glass houses, snapping shots of the Moore’s along the way. Moore apparently works with three themes: mother/child, the leaning figure and one about external vs. internal or something like that. These themes were pretty evident as you can tell in the photos. Here are a bunch of shots we took throughout the day:

Our favorite one!





Inside the glasshouse!

















After the gardens, the three of us took the overground train right back to Camden where we laid around and finally decided to head over to Brick Lane to Curry Mile and get some Indian. We took a couple of buses and weird routes and ended up in brick Lane where the first restaurant offered us a bottle of red wine and 25 percent off our meal so we took that offer and were pleasantly surprised how good the food and chutneys were.

We ate a huge meal with red wine for only 20 pounds total. That is unheard of in London. Afterwards, we wandered around looking for something fun to do and explored Shoreditch some before we decided we were exhausted and wanted to call it a night.
The next day we all awoke to absolutely beautiful and fairly warm weather so we decided to take advantage of it and head to the Camden market and see what was going on since the fire and do some shopping.


My beautiful neighbourhood!
We were very pleasantly surprised to learn that the part of the market that burned was the Hot Topic part that we hated anyway. Our vintage stores and beloved food carts were still intact! And thriving even! We walked throughout the market, checking out the vintage boots and hats and purses. Lauren and Ellie both got vintage purses.

New purses!


The Loch!
Everybody was out and eating noodles and curry and donuts on the sidewalk next to the loch. We had made vegan pancakes for breakfast that morning, but were hungry anyways so we decided to try 3 beers, one from Japan, one from Wales and one from somewhere else

and we shared a plate of fries/chips with lots of vinegar and English mustard and ketchup. We sat on the ground outside as all of the good tables were taken.


Afterwards we walked up the loch some more and then headed back to Camden High Street to check out The Stables markets.

Camden High Street gets crazy on a Saturday! I love it.
We stumbled across the restaurant Spiral on the way which is this organic café on the loch and we decided to share a light lunch there so we got a small sampler of the hot foods they served, something amazing with beetroot and some other noodle like thing and it was unbelievably good. Lauren then purchased a piece of vegan cake that took the chef 15 hour to make and was raw. There was nothing cooked in the entire cake and it was made out of vegetables and tasted like Bavarian chocolate. 15 hours is a really long time to make a cake where nothing is cooked.


The infamous cake
It was supposed to give you energy and it worked!

Afterwards we went to the stables.


We walked around some more where I found a vintage dress on sale for 12 pounds and purchased it. Lauren knocked a model off a wall and tried her first donut ever, the kind in the bag with powdered sugar and she was amazed at how it melted in your mouth. Afterwards, we went to Soho and walked around and deciding on dinner at Maoz, our favorite place.


Unlimited salad bar to shove in your pita and your faces, a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.