The Ballad of Valentine

I saw this lovely garden, in memory of a man named Michael Valentine who used to live in Putney and loved rowing on the Thames. I just had to grab a photo because it reminds me of one of my favourite songs, The Ballad of Valentine by The Killers. In case you don't know this song, check it out. It's a great tune and the perfect road trip song!

RIP Amy Winehouse - You Were a Legend!

I am very saddened by the news of Amy Winehouse's death today. She was an amazing talent, regardless of her problems and the world lost a shining star today. RIP Amy Winehouse. This is my favourite of your many amazing songs.

Birthday Blowout Weekend

I have been having the best long weekend celebrating my 30th and my husband's 44th birthdays! I started off the weekend on Wednesday evening by making our birthday cupcakes. I love chocolate cake with chocolate icing, but hubs is mildly allergic to chocolate so I also make him lemon cupcakes with buttercream icing. They were yum!


The Friday before, I met a lovely friend Juliet and her kiddos for lunch in Richmond! She gave me a birthday goodie bag full of products by Soap and Glory! I've tried a few already and they're brilliant! Will be doing a review of each product in the future. Thanks Juliet!!!

On Wednesday night we headed out to toast my 30th at midnight... we had a bit of a hard time finding a place that would be open that late on a Wednesday, but we succeeded. When we woke up on Thursday morning, we saw this really cool car outside our window.

I gave hubby one of his little presents early... honestly, I think I bought this for me more than him, but we had a good time playing with it for at least an hour. I bought this little make your own balloon hats kit at Liberty of London for about 8 pounds. Cute, huh?

Here we are modelling our creations. It really was fun wearing these around the flat all day, pretending to be Lady Gaga!

Paws up little monsters!

After all the balloon shenanigans were over, we headed to my new favorite, Wagamama for lunch and it was YUM!!!

After seeing this picture of myself, I have immediately thrown away the rest of my birthday cupcakes... I'm a fat head and need to lay off all the bread, pan au chocolat and sweets! I'm getting just a wee bit chubby for my liking... okay, a lot chubby! Back to egg whites, soup and fish for me!!!

After lunch we had our cake and candles ceremony. Just because there's only 2 of us doesn't mean we throw ceremony to the wind. We are cake and candles people!

Hubby's birthday isn't until Tuesday, but since we have this time off together and our birthdays are so close together, we always celebrate together... it's like having 2 Christmasses every year and we usually go all out.

He liked his cupcakes!

A close-up of my yummy cupcakes! They aren't too pretty, but they sure were yummy!

Really glad I didn't have to blow out 30 candles... that would've surely set the house on fire!

I received lots of lovely cards and I'm still getting them in the mail. I love placing them all over the flat.

Two couples we're friends with sent the most gorgeous bouquets of flowers as well! I have loads of beautiful pink flowers in the flat now which is something I always enjoy! It was such a lovely surprise that these came straight to my door!

After we had our cake, we opened our presents. I made hubby go first... I like a little suspense.

I got him an Alexander McQueen t-shirt (pictured above), some Keihl's products and fancy soaps he likes (not pictured). I think he was pleased. He digs his cool designer t-shirt! I love that I can share my love of fashion with him to a point... after a while he tends to space out though.

And then we moved onto my mysterious Liberty bag of presents!!!

He even splurged on the hand-printed Liberty of London wrapping paper! It is gorgeous and yes, I saved it! I know, I'm silly... What was inside?

This beautiful blue, black & white Missoni scarf!!! Ack! I nearly died! I love it!!! I said I would like any of them, but he somehow picked out my favorite!!! I can't wait to wear it soon!

He also threw in some cute Liberty of London pencils because I told him I love the little things they make with their cute patterns.

And an amazingly fragrant Lavender Leaf Dyptique candle. Just opening the box makes our entire living room smell good! I haven't lit it yet, but I suspect these pricey candles might be worth every penny!

After gifts and some relaxing on the couch, I was quarantined to my room so hubby could prepare the big surprise event for the day. I had no idea what he was up to! I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the door. Knowing that Eat, Pray, Love is one of my favorite films and how much I've been wanting to travel, but can't until my residency is approved and my passport is returned, he made me the movie. We started with Italy....

He even served Italian beer!

The first course was garlic bread and baguette buttered with salami and cheese... creative! Apparently he also bought Italian wine and frozen pizza just in case of disaster! Cute! We enjoyed the first course while listening to Italian opera music!

He decorated the entire flat with flags and photos! Above is the Indian flag.

The Taj Mahal....

The Indoneisan flag....

Bali.... (looks gorgeous! I can't wait to go someday!)

The Colliseum...

and the Italian flag!

Hubs at the stove working on the 2nd course!

Not sure how he managed to find Indian beer, but he did and I have to say, of the 3 we tasted, Cobra was my favorite. It's a very nice lager!

For the 2nd course we had Indian food. A Madras chicken curry with rice, naan bread and poppadums. It was delicious!!! He also switched the music to online Indian radio for some Hindi Pop music, which was super fun!

And for the 3rd course we went to Bali, but hard as he tried, hubs couldn't find an Indonesian beer, so he served a Thai beer instead, which I thought was a great accomplishment. This was my least favorite of the beers... Singha is way too sweet for my liking, but it was fun to try! We couldn't find any Balinese music, so we just kept the Hindi Pop blasting and danced away while moving onto the 3rd course!

For desert, he prepared Godoh from scratch, a Balinese dish consisting of bananas dipped in a rice flour batter and fried slowly so that they retain their crispness.

Honestly, I thought this was disgusting! I don't like fried bananas or plantains at all... in fact, I don't like most fruit heated or cooked in any way. But I tried it and it was fun experiencing it. Hubs ate one and then realized he wasn't a fan either. I was so touched though that he did this for me! It truly was the coolest surprise ever and we had a great time with our little theme night! It was the best birthday ever!

Because there wasn't much going on for Thursday night we went to bed after dinner and fell asleep watching tv on dvd. But we made plans previously to go see Eddie and the Hot Rods at the Half Moon on Friday night and they didn't disappoint!

After the concert, I met the band members and they all wished me a happy birthday! Pretty cool, I think! These guys have been around for 35 years and had 2 big hits.

The Half Moon is an excellent venue for small concerts! I can't wait to go back and see more shows! Some of the guys that were there said they've been going to concerts there for 25 years! We had a great time!

At some point, this bald guy just jumped up on stage and started dancing and singing with the band! It was pretty funny.

They ended the concert with a cover of Born to Be Wild, which was the perfect way to end it I think! And hubby and I left, branded from our night at the Half Moon!

It has been an amazing weekend so far and it's only Saturday afternoon! I suspect the rest of our lost weekend will be much more low-key, but we're enjoying our time together, celebrating another year of life we're lucky to have! I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Eddie & the Hot Rods: Tonight at the Half Moon, Putney!

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Firstly, thank you to everyone who left lovely comments on the blog or sent me sweet tweets for my birthday! You all really made my day! xoxo

Tonight we are headed to the Half Moon, a cool bar and venue in our neighborhood Putney that we discovered last weekend! The Half Moon has been around since the 60's and has a small venue that holds 250 people inside where they host concerts of all kinds. Previous performances include The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and Bo Diddley among many others. They have shows every week hosting cover bands, new bands, old bands and comedians. It's merely a 5 minute walk from our home and most tickets are 10 pounds or less!

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We're seeing Eddie & the Hot Rods, a band that has been around for 35 years and I'm so excited! I only know 1 song of theirs (that I know of) called Do Anything You Wanna Do, however I'm always up for seeing live music and I'm excited to go, have a few drinks and bop around like a groupie!

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This is a photo of the band quite a few years ago (I think). They look like cool dudes!

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We had the opportunity to go see Lizzy Pattinson play a gig at the Half Moon about a month ago. She is R-Patz's sister and I decided not to as the concert was billed as jazz. I'm not much of a jazz
fan. I'm kicking myself now because it's been rumoured (though not confirmed) that her sexy brother was in attendance that night... ARGH!!! He was literally a matter of feet away from me while I had dinner that night at a Tapas restaurant on Putney High Street! A bad dinner I might add.

Anyway, will report back on the concert! Have a great weekend!