February

We had had a very mild winter so far with temperatures not getting too low and no real sign of snow to date. That all changed at the start of February as the mercury dropped and we got our first look at Dalston covered in a layer of snow. One night we looked out the window and we could see that there was some slow gently making its way down and it got thicker and thick so that by morning there were a good couple of inches everywhere. Enough to be pleasant but not enough to cause any trouble. Nonetheless London was a ghost town that day. We made our way down to Spitalfields, normally buzzing with people and there was hardly anyone to be seen. (Just to keep things in perspective, hardly anyone in London is still way more people than you would see in Wellington on a normal day...)Shopping without the hustle and bustle of the crowds just wasn't quite the same.

The cold weather stuck around and Marcus was lucky enough to not only have the day off work for his birthday but it snowed that day too. First time he had ever had a snowy birthday. Jess made him a tasty late breakfast and it was a lazy morning before we went out into the snow. While we had been in the UK we had become mildly obsessed with the UK version of Masterchef. One incarnation of the series in the UK was Masterchef: The Professionals were young real chefs would compete against each other, not just the usual home cooks. The head judge was a Michelin star winning chef called Michel Roux Junior and Jess had booked us in for lunch at his restaurant, Roux on Parliament Square.We entered through the main door, had our coats taken and were taken to our table. It was a small restaurant converted from an old terrace house so we weren't sharing our lunch with too many people. Never one to pass up multiple courses we treated ourselves to the seven course degustation. Mmmmm. Degustation....We felt very fancy and very full with yummy food. Good job Michel Roux Jr. We made our way back the flat for a bit of a rest after all that eating before round 2. We were meeting our friends at the Railway Tavern in Dalston (not the one across the road from the apartment, or the one next to Dalston Kingsland Station...the other one...) Our friends had secured a nice corner with tables and a booth so we grabbed an ale to warm us from the cold night. After comfy and settled in we upped sticks and walked through the freezing night to Mangal Ocakbasi ("Meat" for the well informed).  We had a great big table booked and lined up for the Turkish goodness. It was the same chef as  last time, slaving away. Everyone ordered far too much food, so there was plenty for everyone, including the vegetarians amongst us. After all that meaty goodness even the cold couldn't get through us as we waddled our way back to the flat/ An excellent birthday all round.

That weekend we decided to check out a sight which we didn't know much about but had spent plenty of time going past, the British Library. We weren't sure if it was just going to be a bunch of books or there was something more. Turns out there was, with an excellent free exhibit containing all manner of historical documents from original works of Shakespeare, to all types of ancient Bibles and even the Magna Carta. Who would have thought that looking at a bunch of books could be so interesting? We had ourselves some lunch at the cafe before finding a spot to sit back and read our own books. Alas, you had to have a special pass to go into the various reading rooms so we didn't get to see what was behind the big wooden doors....

London is packed full of gigs going on somewhere every night. We hadn't exactly taken advantage of that too much but thanks to Tree we made a little journey into the city to see some North London DJs, the Next Men. We met for a drink at Electricity Showrooms before wandering down to the bar where the Next Men were playing. We were a bit worried when we got there and it looked to be some sort of crazy futuristic lounge bar with plenty of silver and people in skinny suits and small dresses. Fortunately we discovered that down in the basement there was a great big room with a DJ booth at the front and a bar along the side and the Next Men pumping out the tunes. Just what we were looking for. They started with some funky reggae tunes before moving into the hip-hop beats and then rounding it out with some dance music. We had some great fun dancing (even some of the rest of the London crowd got into it for a change). We couldn't help smiling seeing Keith from the Office up there DJing away. (Not really him but we think the resemblance is uncanny.)

One of the things we like to do when we visit a site is to climb the tallest structure and get a view around the place. Now with the advent of Skyscrapers there are monstrous buildings that loom over the City of London, but for hundreds of years one of the tallest things you could climb was the Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known as the Monument. A column designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built in the 1670s to commemorate the Great Fire of London and the rebuilding of the City. After climbing the stairs around and around and around we had a great (although chilly) view of some of the great sites of the East End, like Tower Bridge, St Pauls, the Gherkin, the City of London Corporation building and London's newest (and incomplete) high rise, the imposing Shard. We made our way back down again before nipping across to Covent Garden for a cup of tea and some lolly cake.

Jess' parents had got her a voucher for a cooking class for her birthday which we had managed to find time to book in at L'Atelier des Chefs in Wigmore Street. We arrived plenty early and checked out some of the fancy cooking equipment you could buy in their shop a the front before it was our turn, along with all the other Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson wannabes. We were teamed up with three other girls and rather than each of us cook the whole meal we each had a task to do to get the overall job done. We were cooking crispy duck breast on a bed of cabbage and celeriac with a berry sauce followed by a gooey chocolate fondant. There was chopping and frying and simmering and sauteing. We weren't quite sure how it was all going to turn out but were very impressed with our efforts. Then came the best part of it all, we got to enjoy our efforts and wolf down our tasty lunch. Although we were feeling pretty full we still managed to make it around to Ian and Amy's for dinner. They made a yummy dinner with some fancy Artichoke and plenty of wine all round.

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