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Upfront: this blog isn’t about life in London. But because I don’t know where else to shout about this amazing beverage and because I like to give away good business ideas on this blog; I think everyone should know about Clamato.
Clamato is a combination of tomato juice, clam broth and spices. If the thought of this combo makes you want to vom, don’t worry, when I first heard what it was made of I felt the same. But the taste! – oh, the taste! OK, well, it mostly tastes like tomato juice (which funnily I’m not a big fan of), but with MORE and BETTER in it.
And to cap it all off it is the key ingredient in my favourite cocktail of all time; the Caesar. It’s just like the Bloody Mary except with clamato juice instead of tomato making it MORE and BETTER! Actually, its possible it was originally invented as a mixer specifically for this purpose (?)
I feel like you aren’t getting what I’m trying to say. You’d better just please go taste it for yourself, I don’t think my message is sinking in. Ah, herein lies the problem. Of course, with the good, comes the bad.
…The juice seems to only be sold in Canada. WHY!?!?! for the love of god! It’s so good! According to the official website (which has a cool little Clamato rap song on it, bless), it would appear that it is sold in the USA too, but I’m telling you; they’ve never heard of it! It’s funny when you hear that the Caesar is Canada’s most popular cocktail, and yet, no-one at Motts (the biggest seller of Clamato & premixed Caesar’s) has cottoned onto the fact that there may be a market outside Canada. THINK PEOPLE.
Anyway, the business idea is obvious. Bring Clamato to the UK people, bring it to the world.
…please!
PS on the upside, here is yet another reason to love Canada!
London and New York City: the 2 great cities of the western world. I’ve just spent a fabulous New Years Eve in New York and I couldn’t help but wonder: which city is better?
First and foremost, both cities are HUGE, have lots of great sites & attractions to see and have even more to offer once you get to know them (restaurants & bars you never would have found without some inside help). Basically they are top of the list when it comes to travel destinations.
Both cities have culture, but New York is vibrant, buzzing with youthful energy where London is historic & old school – at least at first glance. I think London can be just as vibrant, it’s just more niche, concentrated in certain areas and communities and times. London has more variety in this way – the portrait of London is the sum of its parts rather than a whole throbbing city like New York.
New York has better weather; and considering my latest visit was just after a massive snow storm, that’s saying a lot! But the sunshine was there and it made me feel happy after a couple of grey London winter months.
London’s Underground beats NYC’s Subway; trains are more frequent and the information about next trains is more readily available. However I will say that the subway trains seem very wide in comparison to the tube. Staying on the travel theme, New York Airports kick butt over anything London has to offer (except London City Airport, my “diamond in the rough”)
Despite popular belief, New Yorkers are SUPER friendly in comparison to Londoners. New Yorkers are proud, born and bred, rough and tough and fabulous. If I have one more visiting relative/friend who has asked for directions and been told to “f-off” by a Londoner I will scream. Grumpy, grumpy Londoners (but wouldn’t you be with this weather?!?)
Both are multicultural cities to be sure; but it feels like there are a bigger variety of cultures in London. I only know 1 person who was born, raised and still continue to live in London.
London has more parks; but New York has the best park.
New York has bigger skyscrapers, but London has the better architecture.
One’s got a big apple…the other the original big smoke. (I’ll take apple on this one methinks).
Bother cities are loved and hated – but for me, it’s LOVE all around baby.
Could there possibly be a better magazine than Stylist mag? I’m going to save you the hassle of finding out the answer yourself and just tell you it’s a big, fat NO.
The articles are just so good. I just went to their website to find some examples and there is an article there called “Luxury gifts for wine lovers”. It’s nearly Christmas and I’m trying to think of a great gift for my wine-loving boyfriend. Seriously, it’s spooky how specifically perfect they are for me. I swear this magazine’s target audience is me. It feels like every week I’ll be discussing something with friends and next week I read the answer in stylist. Let’s see… some more examples: “Does Travel Bring Enlightenment?”, “The Rise of the Repsonsibility Drinker”, “How to Network Effectively”, “How to Apply Foundation” (I just don’t know!) “Top 5 Cosy British Breaks” … I could go on.
Actually I will – there are funny snippets, an actually quite good recipe, they review books I may actually read (and not just fashion coffee table books), interesting suggestions on goings-on in London, life coaching, the list goes on
So good articles, easy to read, not too long, not too highbrow – but highbrow enough that you still feel good about reading it!
And oh yes, did I mention it’s FREE!
Haha! No brainer!
But I do have a criticisms – ever since building work started at Oxford Circus I am having a little trouble getting my grubby paws on the mag at all! Usually distributed on Wednesday mornings, it is handed out Tuesday night in some areas – Oxford Circus being one. But sometimes they aren’t there! Where are you? Maybe I need to go to a different entrance because I see lots of ladies with them – and I’m jealous! I need my Stylist Fix! J
Well I woke up yesterday and started my morning routine as usual… shower, dress, makeup, etc… I was a bit hungover after work xmas party the previous night so you can imagine my surprise when I opened my blinds to discover a magnificent winter wonderland outside!
What happened to my street? The trees? The cars? All covered in beautiful fluffy white stuff! So yes, it had been snowing. But nothing usually stays on the ground in zone 1; I just get to hear about the winter wonderland’s happening out in the burbs from friends.
Excitement overload! I had to Skype mum and dad so I could show them; then take a walk around our common garden (see photo) and then a little stroll around Kensington Gardens. I actually contemplated walking all the way to work but my shoes were highly inappropriate and really, I’m too lazy.
But here’s my quandary – I love the snow, but it now seems highly likely that it will ruin my trip to Copenhagen. And now for the gripe: HOW can an international cosmopolitan city like London deal SO TERRIBLY with snow? Seriously, when it snows, half of our staff cannot get to work because the snow stops all the trains and closes all the roads. And also, the snow stops all the bloody planes because the airports close. What the?!? It’s absolute chaos! It snows at least once every year right?!? I’ve flown in and out of Canada in -20̊C blizzards no problemo. But a couple of centimetres of powder in London and the entire city comes crashing to a halt. The mind boggles. (Note: the exception to this rule is the tube, which becomes a wondrous beacon of warmth in the cold).
So here I am. The night before scheduled departure; checked in, packed and ready to go. Will I get my mini-break?
PS I must admit that the lazy loner inside me revels in the idea of a weekend at home with nothing to do! (Yes, very sad).
The first time is always the most exciting 
OK, so its not my first time EVER seeing snow, just for this year. But it is still exciting. In fact, all the things I said about it last year (see the post here). Soft, quiet, peaceful – even in rush rush London. It may have been freezing, but I grinned the whole way to work this morning. And I caught many other people with stupid grins on their faces too! It is unlikely that they were natives of course, such eternal pessimists (in an affectionate kind of way)!
But I tell you something; if this snow ruins my weekend mini-break to Copenhagen, I’m joining their mummble-grummbling! You’d think in a country that receives some snow every year that the public transport system would have been built to withstand some lousy snowflakes. Apparently not.
Now here is an amazing fact-according-to-Lou: there are no bugs in London, not really even in summer.
Think about that for a second.
On one hand it’s awesome. No cockroaches lurking in the back of cupboards. No ants crawling over you (OK, actually there are still ants… but not many). No mosquitoes. In London, when I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I don’t bother turning the light on because I know there is zero possibility of a dirty big huntsman hiding behind the toilet. In fact, there is no walking through spider’s webs you never knew were there. I’ve only seen 2 moths in the last year!!! (I have an irrational fear of moths… I don’t like the way they flutter).
On the negative side, what kind of dead city to we live in that not even bug life is supported?!?? I read somewhere that cockroaches can survive a nuclear bomb… but apparently cannot handle the London ecosystem. This side of the coin makes me a little distressed about what London could be doing to my general health and wellbeing. Naturally I guess bugs don’t like cold weather, but in Canada at least they come out in summer…in fact, they get some scary looking bugs in Canada; fluorescent ones. Anyway, I digress, no bugs in London is to me an indicator that prolonged exposure to London may be damaging to your health.
Still, in the meantime, I quite enjoy my bug-free life!
PS Uh-oh, I just googled “bugs in London” and apparently London is the perfect breeding ground for one type of bug… bed bugs. EEwwwww, now I’m going to be paranoid.
OK so no news there… yes, I know Harry Potter is in the UK, but the point is so am I! Apart from a Royal Wedding, seeing a new Harry Potter movie while here in London is something I was looking forward to. My reason is that I will enjoy the books living where it’s all happening.
For people who don’t know – I’m a massive Harry Potter fan. Of the books really, the movies are OK. They usually disappoint in the end, but I can’t help getting myself all excited when a new one is coming out – and this one was no exception.
However I will say that expectations weren’t as high for this one as others, and not just because I should have learnt my lesson by now. This movie was the first half of the last book, so I wasn’t really expecting a proper ending which was lucky as there definitely wasn’t one. The other reason I was going in with low expectations was that to be frank, not much happens in the first half of the last book. It’s mostly just Harry, Hermione and Ron jumping from forest to forest in an effort to hide from Lord Voldemort – and again, that’s what we got.
But I have to admit even as a sceptic, there were flashes of genius in this movie. I loved the way they opened showing the trio preparing their families for the Voldy onslaught. Hermione obliterating her parent’s memories and her image fading from the family portraits; the Dursleys, who never took anything Harry said which much seriousness, actually moving out of Privet Drive! GAK! It really brought the seriousness of the situation home to me. (But why can’t I remember what they did with Ron?) The following scene with Voldemort at Malfoy Manor was equally chilling.
And between the seriousness there was some humour! Harry acting out Fleur/Hermione in the Seven Potters stands out, more than the usual Weasley twins comedy act. The acting from the kids was great, but the adults are even better – the brief appearance of Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour was excellent (but then he was promptly murdered which was a shame), Alan Rickman does justice to my fav character Snape as always, the Death Eaters in general really. I also really like David Yates as director and the tone he gives the movies, it now feels like a real consistency through the last 3 movies. Oh yes! And finally, I loved the animation sequence used to tell the Tale of the Three Brothers. Beautiful! Artful!
So all in all from me – low expectations lessened any of my usual disappointment with the HP movies, and the flashes of brilliance made it truly worthwhile watching. Go see it. Unless I guess, you have no HP background and then you won’t likely understand what on earth is going on. Maybe you’d be better off buying the first book.
But don’t believe me – read some reviews that kick butt over mine (not hard): Variety, The Telegraph, Roger Ebert and Newsweek (which pans the movie actually, oh well).
PS back to my original point of enjoying the movies more because I live here, well, it was true! The scene on Tottenham Court Road was pleasurably familiar (even if the road is dead dreary) J I love Harry Potter!
Well I don’t know what kind of blinders I was wearing last year, but WOW is London beautiful in autumn!
I usually find the end of summer and the coming of winter somewhat depressing. And in London I only expected that feeling to get worse. After all, autumn in London is characterised by the coming of cold, dark, rainy days. Not a lot to get warm and fuzzy about. Not to mention the knowledge that this weather change in London corresponds with an equal yet completely opposite change home in Oz.
But oh these autumn LEAVES! A stunning display of reds, yellows and oranges floating around above my head, at my feet, blowing in the wind… yes, poetic, romantic; it simply makes my heart soar.
I’ve seen 2 stages of autumn over the last month or so.
First it started with clear, crisp, blue sunny skies with beaming rays of sunshine filtering through the Technicolor leaves that are still on their branches. The kind of days that not even the most evangelists of winter-haters could hate (me), these are the rose coloured glasses, uplifting crazy happy moments that make you want to sing from mountain tops! TIP: Top spots to enjoy this fall are the paths leading to Hyde Park Corner in Hyde Park and the paths leading to Buckingham Palace from Green Park tube station in Green Park.
The second kind of autumn – which we are enjoying now, is all melancholy beauty. It’s dark and cold and wet and grey skies and sadness. It’s cuddling in coats and scarves and hats, huddling against wind and sheets of rain. The leaves have mostly all fallen now and all you can do is kick them around as you walk pass. They make the grassy fields look like a patchwork quilt; something to snuggle under if it wasn’t actually freezing mud underneath. TIP: top spots to enjoy autumn #2: anywhere in St James Park and the park next to Westminster Abbey by the Thames (steely gray water adds to the atmosphere in my opinion)
And beyond all the park vistas are the simple changes, just a perfect autumn tree as I wander through Notting Hill (see photo).
A few of you know my life-long (ok, the last year) dream of being in the UK for the wedding of William and Kate Middleton – and yesterday’s engagement announcement have made my dreams come true! And it’s in London – I’m going! (Well I guess I’ll more likely stand outside amongst another million or so diehard loyalists).
I was seriously excited at hearing the news and immediately texted all my nearest and dearest. I saw David Cameron on TV declaring a “great day for the country” and was nodding my head vigorously in agreement. I stayed up late watching the same footage of the couple over and over just because I couldn’t tear myself away.
Did you all watch the interview (If not, here’s the link)? Oh em gee. I can’t believe it hasn’t been talked about more. Poor Kate – so clearly nervous and tongue tied – still looking gorgeous of course – wonderful William! So cool and calm and collected and looking after Kate. So awkward, so restrained, but still, to me (romantic to the end) these guys seem to love each other and actually seem like nice people. What about the interviewer asking her about stepping into Diana’s shoes! Eeek – how inappropriate! (But I still wanted to hear what she said! Ha) Yes, I’m gushing.
But the cold light of this morning’s papers has left me shivering. So cautious! So nervous! So sceptical! Yes, I know there are parallels with Charles and Diana and that was a disaster and everyone was disappointed, I know the monarchy doesn’t actually do anything, I know it’s going to cost a lot but C’MON!! Who cares? We’ve known all this for ages! Let’s be happy! It’s FUN! Sheesh. Forgive and forget and better for it I say. I think Britain needs to get their act together on their opinion of the monarchy. If you don’t like them just revolt (do the peasants still do that in this day and age?) and get rid of them. If you think they should stay then shut up! Maybe because we had the Republic debate in Aus already back in the Keating days I feel much clearer about my stance on the monarchy – there’s no harm, they’re quite comforting and as good as anyone else (especially a politician) so why not? Anyway, point is Brits – Let yourselves indulge and just enjoy this for now OK? Its alright to get excited, over-the-top, in fact you might like it. And if you’re having trouble getting into the festive spirit just fake it til to you make it, no worries.
Expect much, much more from me on this topic (I haven’t even mentioned the ring!!!). But I’m off now to buy a commemorative tea towel on ebay.
I was led to believe before my arrival in London that Guy Fawkes Night was the closest holiday that the UK had in lieu of our Australia Day. Except that it’s for a guy who was trying to assassinate the king.
C’mon really? Firstly, no body seems to know exactly when Guy Fawkes day is. The best answer I’ve ever got when asking this question was from a non-English person (the English seemingly have no idea) who replied “Something about remember remember November the 5th…? I think”. Secondly, it’s not a public holiday. Thirdly, it seems to last for a week or so – I’ve been hearing fireworks going off all week.
Despite all this, somehow it works! I’ve just spent a lovely evening in the common garden of a friend’s house that put on quite the spectacular fireworks show followed by a bonfire. Everyone was milling around drinking mulled wine and they even had a hog spit roast – fantastic!
It’s the perfect holiday interpretation of the British character; rather than saying or doing anything directly you go round and round and eventually end up where you want to be. Australia Day is a formal public holiday with formal celebrations and everyone knows why we are doing it. Guy Fawkes Night is some time in the week before or after the 5th November and has dodgy fireworks and bonfires organised in backyards. But it all comes up trumps in the end.
But I still don’t really understand it.
PS I was mulling over the idea of a UK version of Australia day and decided it would be too hard. What would it celebrate – the monarchy? The Church of England? Democracy? And who would in include – England? United Kingdom? Great Britain? Nah, best just stick to this Guy Fawkes thing.
louashton
