Around the world in five foods

I was recently Blogger of the Week over on Love your Larder’s fantastic food blog. I had so much fun writing the post on “Around the World in 5 Foods” that I thought it would be good to do a regular feature on here – as a self-indulgent (sorry) way of combining my love of travel with my love of food, both of which have always been so tightly intertwined. What do you think readers? Along with the five foods, I’ll highlight where to find them in London.

So here’s a slightly amended re-hash of my post on Love your Larder:

China is where my travels really began, and so did my foray into blogging. It was half way through my year there in 2004 that I got a digital camera (before then I was lugging Kodak disposables around, remember those?) and a love of taking photos of food. China is also where I met my future husband (though I definitely wasn’t aware of it at the time) and learned what travelling is about – experiencing completely different cultures and soaking it up like a sponge. It wasn’t until years later that I realised just how much food was shaping my travels but my best memories from there are pretty much all based around the dinner table. It took me ages to narrow down what my favourite Chinese meal is, but it all comes down to the humble pork dumpling, something so warm and comforting on a cold winter’s day, and always enjoyed with friends.

Dumplings in China

I’m still not sure where the best dumplings in London can be found but you can buy them in the freezer section of the supermarkets in Chinatown and easily steam them yourself (I love New Loon Moon, it’s huge and they’re also really friendly). I would also recommend my friend Pei’s Chaya Teanamu Tea House in Notting Hill for a Chinese afternoon tea and My Old Place near Liverpool Street for authentic Szechuan food. If you’re after good Dim Sum, there are plenty of places in London but my favourite is Lotus Floating Restaurant at Cross Harbour, near Canary Wharf.

China is also where my obsession with tea began. Which leads me onto Japan – after years of drinking all sorts of tea, it was in Japan where I was introduced to matcha tea, something often thought of as too bitter by novices, but if you get it right it can be so smooth and velvety. Served with a tiny Japanese cake, it becomes tea heaven for me.

Matcha tea in Japan

The best place I’ve found in London which prepares Matcha tea in front of you is the Tea Smith in Spitalfields, but you can also buy your own matcha powder from the Japan Centre on Lower Regent Street and again, online at Teanamu for around a fiver. It’s so easy and is ridiculously good for you.

I firmly believe that the world’s best food is always found in markets. Here are some tacos being made in Guadalajara, Mexico:

Taco stand in Mexico

Talk about melt in your mouth. You only need two or three, but I’m sure I had at least four and Mr Man got up to seven… The best we’ve had in London have been at Wahaca, but there are plenty of good Mexican restaurants in this city, my actual favourite being Lupita near Charing X and Embankment tube stations (they do great things with an avocado and their cerviche is to die for). I’ve heard that Poncho8 does a pretty good burrito too (their chilli sauces are amazing, I have 3 jars of it in my cupboard~).

Last year we got married in Sri Lanka. This is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and it has food to match. You can’t get away from rice and curry, so make the most of it. It generally consists of five curries surrounding a plate of rice. You end up ridiculously full, but it takes away the indecision of only picking one. Everywhere you have it is different, apparently it even varies from village to village. The best we had was in some tree houses that we stayed in near Sigiriya where the owner employs a local villager to cook for his guests. Thinking about it still makes me ridiculously hungry.  Don’t forget the tea plantations either…

Rice and Curry in Sri Lanka

Tea plantation, Ella, Sri Lanka

Unfortunately I have yet to try Sri Lankan food in London, but I’ve heard there are some good Sri Lankan restaurants in North London and Tooting (Dosa & Chutny along with Sekara in Victoria seemed to have the biggest Twitter recommendations).

And finally, considering that this is Britain’s big year, you can’t forget High Tea. I must have had at least 10-15 in my seven years based in London, but I still think you can’t beat Knightsbridge’s Berkeley Hotel for quality and quirky combined. This is the Pret a Portea:

Pret a Portea at the Berkeley Hotel

I also very highly recommend Beas of Bloomsbury at St Paul’s, Camellia’s Tea House in Kingly Court (off Carnaby Street) and London Review Cake Shop (opposite the British Museum) for those looking for a somewhat cheaper but still awesome cake/tea experience.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Where are your top 5 foods to be found?

La Jolie Vie in Carcassonne

Carcassonne’s Sleeping Beauty castle

My beautiful friend Raja (abbreviated name, but doesn’t this sound exotic!?) is getting married soon. I can’t tell you how excited we all are about this wedding – she caught the bouquet at mine and when she returned early from Sri Lanka her very own Mr Man was waiting at the airport where he proposed (the story in full brings tears to most peoples’ eyes). They are planning what sounds like the worlds’ most awesome wedding. But first up, her gorgeous bridesmaid G planned what turned out to be one of the best hen parties I’ve ever been to with five of Raja’s best friends in the entire world.

R’s lovely ladies~

Turns out she has great taste in friends. We all got on like a house on fire – everyone quite laid back, quite girly with travel obsessions, all gorgeous and all who know how to laugh, a lot. This was the recipe for one absolutely fabulous weekend in the South of France. Off to Carcassonne for a three day weekend we went.

G chose Carcassonne for two reasons: that her friends went last year and said it was awesome, and that there was a cheap Ryan Air flight there at a really good time. For £80 each we flew from Stansted at 10:10am on the Friday, landing early afternoon in Carcassonne. The taxi was €15 from the airport to our adorable hotel, Hotel Aragon, which is by the castle walls in the heart of the town.

Hotel Aragon

The ladies who ran the hotel were exactly like us – really girly,  young, pretty, very friendly and really liked people (or maybe it was just us?). Every time we saw them they’d make comments like “tres jolie” and wish us well on our excursions. For €100 per room per night we had comfortable rooms and a brilliant location. I’d stay there again.

We spent the first afternoon (ok, most of our time actually~) eating and exploring the town, the castle of which is what Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle is based on.

The first meal, right in the centre of the castle grounds, was goats cheese salad and a litre of wine (between 6 of us) with plenty of baguettes and frites. This set the standard and was followed up with ice-cream/sorbet and plenty of walking after. It was so bright and sunny – our English skin was soaking it up. There was a bit of pool time before more eating out.

A typical French meal – yum.

The French just do everything better, especially bread.

Our first night meant a five course meal at a restaurant in the heart of the city walls. I can’t remember the name of it (must remember to get cards in future~) but most of us had salad followed by the local speciality, cassoulet, cheese with honey and dessert. Of course, served with the local sparkling wine, Blankett, which is the original sparkling wine that local monks discovered in the 16th century.

After dinner it was onwards to Le Bar a Vins which we went to both nights. I think it might be the only bar inside the walls of Carcassonne which has good music and a nice drinks selection, also a good young crowd. By the time we’d finished with two more bottles of Blankett it was time for bed in our adorable quirky hotel.

Blankett – a lot of this was consumed.

Saturday we were in for a big day – up at 10:30am for breakfast at the town’s Saturday market which is a must do in Carcassonne. Think big fresh fruit, vege and deli food everywhere. We ended up at the same Patisserie twice where we bought baguettes and mille feuille. The ladies who ran the place kept correcting our pronunciation of mille feuille and we spent most of the day saying the word after scoffing it and wanting more…

We also bought R a cake in the shape of a love heart, coeur fruites rouges, which she loved.

Lunch back at Hotel Aragon was a giant baguette with comte cheese and mille feuille before being picked up by Jean Michel Sobler – our host for the afternoon’s wine tour.

Proper cake love going on here.

Blimey…

Carcassonne Market

A recipe for happiness: mille fuille, comte and a fresh baguette finished off with Orangina..

My god did we have a great time on this. He took us to the abbey where they first discovered sparkling wine (a bottle of wine exploded in a cellar, then they were determined to find out how to recreate it) followed by a few too many glasses consumed at Robert vineyard where we had absolutely divine Blankett and another tiny place run by a husband and wife who specialised in Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Jean Michel was like a character out of a French movie – dressed perfectly with a delightful French sense of humour who kept us entralled with stories about his fascinating life and tales of his family. I think he quite enjoyed our company too – who wouldn’t though – six gorgeous ladies!

More Blankett at Robert Vineyard

The other vineyard in the Landouc region that Jean Michele took us to – this would be my dream life.

Jean Michele and his ladies (minus me, I’m taking the pic).

The rest of the time was spent consuming more food, more Blankett and perhaps a few cocktails. But what happens on hen tour stays on hen tour so I will leave you with that. One thing I know though – I definitely plan to take Mr Man back to Carcassonne and I would LOVE to spend the weekend with these ladies again. Thanks G for organising and thanks Raja’s Mr Man for proposing and giving us a great excuse to take our friend away.

Our beautiful bride to be… who we can’t thank enough for the perfect excuse to get away!

Beautiful New Zealand

A magic holiday in a magic country

Being an expat means that I don’t get to see my family all that often. Living on the other side of the world from them makes that all the more difficult. But us MacGregors do get to catch up on average once a year, sometimes with us all meeting in the middle and occasionally with one lot of us schlepping it for anywhere from 26-40 hours to the other side. Last year we met up in Sri Lanka for my wedding, in 2010 I took Mr Man to New Zealand, then there was Japan in 2009 where my sister was based for 2 years, at one point we all met in Malaysia (2006), then there was that magically lazy Christmas/New Year’s Eve in Fiji (2007)… we’re a well travelled lot. I’m certainly not breaking the mould when it comes to digging the passport out – let’s put it that way.

But this year is my Dad’s 60th birthday. He’s a former Air Force helicopter pilot so Mr Man decided we should get him tickets to an airshow set in New Zealand’s South Island – Warbirds over Wanaka. This meant us travelling to the other side of the world for an absolutely amazing holiday.

Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow

I’ll do some posts about the amazing food and some of the adventures we went on but here are some photos (more at this link):

Mum and Dad's back garden

Mt Cook

Milford Sound

Horse riding near Glenorchy

Highlights were seeing friends and family, the airshow (yes, never thought I’d say that in a million years), an overnight stay on the Milford Sound, horse riding in Paradise eating amazing food everywhere and some great road trips with Mr Man.

Great food, wine and views everywhere.

People kept asking when we’re going to move back there. My answer to that question is that while we adore going there for holidays, we’re just really happy doing what we’re doing right now. We’ll revisit that question sometime in the future, but in the meantime, isn’t it lovely?

Waiake Beach - where I spent much of my childhood eating fish and chips and hokey pokey ice-cream along with swimming with the fishes...

Drink, Shop & Do

Drink, Shop & Do

I hadn’t seen Friend N for ages. London is one of those places where a couple of months can go by and you realise that you haven’t caught up with several of your best friends in forever so we made a date and decided to have a big long chin wag over afternoon tea.

Venue this time was Drink, Shop & Do near King’s Cross Station. I’d heard quite good things about it over Twitter and with N living in Angel, last Sunday seemed like an ideal time to go. London is in full blustery bone chillingly cold winter swing now, so walking in there felt wonderful.

So bright and cheery~

Drink, Shop & Do is warm, huge inside and it has a bar smack bang in the middle; in other words, my kind of place. It is also full of vintage furniture so has a home-like feel to it. Everything in there is for sale too.

N and I weren’t in the mood for ‘doing’ anything so we settled on afternoon tea and a good old fashioned gossip for a couple of hours. We were impressed with their very filling and somewhat quirky spread – three different types of sandwiches, cakes, sweets and tea for £12 each. We spent ages trying to choose our teas as the selection is really good. N went for Green Maharani with saffron and papaya (and apparently lovely) while I went for Arabian Nights, another green with black currant, papaya, sunflowers, rose petals and mallow in it – sounds full on but it wasn’t at all and I could have drunk it all afternoon.

A scrumptious feast~

The crowd was great. In the back there was a jewellery class taking place, while beside us was a small family playing games and there were lots of other groups of girls and guys having catch-ups over tea and cakes. I’m definitely keen to come back here with more of the girls, perhaps to take part in some of their really cheap ‘do’ activities like fascinators and 1920′s headbands, musical bingo or vintage hair and make-up nights. If Mr Man and I were in London for New Year’s Eve I’d almost definitely be pushing for us to go to their Dapper and Diamonds Party at Drink, Shop and Dance (which I’m determined to organise a night out to with the girls, likely to celebrate that well needed January pay-day).  This place is fabulous and it is fun.

'Shop', a treasure trove of birthday and Christmas presents.

A tray of sweets and macarons that spoke to my heart.

Beautiful Sri Lanka: preparing for a wedding at The Frangipani Tree

So Mr Man and I took a trip to Sri Lanka and came home husband and wife!

What a time it was. We had some interesting days: some were the best I’ve ever had, others weren’t so (like getting chased off a giant rock in the middle of nowhere by a swarm of wasps!) but overall is was one incredible holiday.

I can’t recommend getting married in paradise enough. Our big day was held at The Frangipani Tree in a little hamlet called Thalpe on Sri Lanka’s South West Coast. The Frangipani Tree is a set of villas designed by an Italian architect created with a focus on elegant simplicity and working with the environment around it. It’s hard to explain how pretty the place is – photos don’t seem to do it justice but when you walk in the world just feels so calm.

One of the outdoor bathrooms (totally private!) - ideal for a bubble bath in Paradise the day before your wedding~

The service we were to have over our three days there was to be by far the best we would have in Sri Lanka, if not the best we’ve had anywhere in the world. The staff there were genuinely just really nice and couldn’t have given us a better experience if they tried. It started with being looked after by the general Manager Mr Warnalathika from the very beginning before we even saw the place; to being offered chilled coconut water and fresh juice on arrival; to having one of the girls there help me with my sari pinning one night; being given a cold lime and soda moments before going down the aisle (total initiative!) and ordering in fresh water lillies to give the place an extra special touch on the wedding day. It was just so perfect.

The Frangipani Tree infinity pool

Water lillies

Very fresh breakfasts - I don't eat eggs so they gave me pretty much unlimited fruit (Sri Lankan avocados are gorgeous by the way).

The next few days were great fun. The parents met for the first time on the first day which went remarkably well. On the second day all the girls arrived to stay and again, we had a blast just chilling out and enjoying Sri Lanka for what it is. Some went and had lunch at a five star hotel down the road, some just hung out in the Frangipani Tree’s infinity pool, others sunbathed beside the postcard beach (with violently crashing waves) and several went sari shopping and exploring in nearby Galle.

The Frangipani Tree's wild beach

For the “night before dinner” we took everyone to a place called Wijaya Beach Restaurant where we held a birthday party for three of the girls who were having their birthdays that week. We made the theme “Sri Lanka” so everyone turned up in something colourful, many of us in saris, one of the men in a traditional sarong and Mr Man in a Sri Lanka cricket shirt. We had a total blast drinking cocktails and eating a lot of food ranging from grilled prawns to vegetarian pizza and mango curry.

Mr Warnalathika had also helped us secretly arrange birthday cakes for the girls and we had what were honestly some of the best sponge cakes any of us had ever had (could easily rival London’s best cake makers). We were very quickly getting used to Sri Lanka’s best everything.

We kept it an early one due to the next day being what it was but we all had loads of fun.

And then the big day came… and that, my friends, requires a post all of its own.

Friend G and I all dressed up

Hello!

Hello real world,

How are you? It has been a long time hasn’t it?

Well, I’m back. Exhausted after a month on the go, but here and plan to update this big time over the coming weeks.

Sri Lanka was incredible, as was our wedding. Keep posted as I update soon! I was going to do so today but unfortunately ended the honeymoon with a charming dose of food poisoning… probably a good thing as otherwise I would have put on about 5kg from all the amazing food we ate on the trip.

So what’s news?

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and oh yes, a blue dress.

Soho’s Yumchaa

June has been one of the most expensive months I’ve ever had, I could go into where all the money has gone but I think you all know that all my thoughts right now are on the big day in seven weeks time.

So when Friend R emailed me on Friday to see if I fancy a coffee after work that evening I knew we’d have to go for something cheap and ensure that we don’t accidentally on purpose slip in a bit of cheapeats. Anything going into my belly over the weekend was going to have to come out of our fridge, not someone else’s kitchen as I had £3 in loose change sitting in my wallet.

We recently had this temp at work who had only just graduated in London and was really good for suggesting good but cheap cafes. Her top recommendation was Yumchaa, a relatively new tea room in Soho.

Yumchaa in the middle of Soho (and a good hideout from Friday's rainy streets)

Yumchaa started out as a little market trader on Portabello Road. On their first day they made a whole profit of just over £5 but they kept persisting, using their tiny flat as the base for their business, and can now be found in most of London’s weekend markets. Eventually Camden Lock became their business’s home away from home with London’s many tea fans stopping by each weekend to chat about tea (once you meet a fellow tea fan you’re generally stuck talking about it for a long time). They wanted a place to share their tea other than their market stalls and finally managed to open up a simple but purposeful tea room in Camden overlooking Regent’s Canal.

That tea room became really popular.

So they opened a second branch in Berwick Street in Soho, and are about to open another branch in Camden Town’s Parkway. Not bad for something that started out as a small market trader against all odds! If you want to read more of their story then go to the About tab on their website – they sound like my kind of people.

Behind the counter

Back to meeting up with Friend R. I remembered this temp’s suggestion that I must try out Yumchaa one day but the time had never really come so we agreed to head there. I’m gutted that we hadn’t been earlier. This is quite a good find.

Walking through London’s very heavy rain on Friday night, with sopping wet ballet flats and frizzy hair (even with our brollies) all we could both think about was a steaming hot drink awaiting us at the other end of Berwick Street. We were getting wetter and wetter and very cold, then finally after what was probably the longest 12 minutes in history we saw the light. Yumchaa’s nice white walls awaiting on the corner looking like they were there just for us.

What a relief to get in! We knew immediately that this was going to work well for us. The place has really simple decor but the kind of simplicity that has had a bit of thought put into it – the focus is to be on the teas rather than the seats. It’s like walking into a a hip friend’s super cool flat, just with a counter loaded with scrumptious looking cakes and the busiest selection of teas I’ve ever seen in a cafe, not a list, tiny milk jugs with the teas sitting in them for you to stare at and smell. I really liked the atmosphere too – this is somewhere that you could meet with friends to chat or just take your book for the afternoon and chill out whilst guzzling down some very nice teas.

Scrumptious looking cakes

Their tea selection - innovative!

Speaking of guzzling, it was hard to choose what to drink. R ended up going for a single shot latte so got to sit there warming up with a nice big cup of warm milk (just how she likes it) whilst I spent forever deciding. They all looked SO tempting! With names like Caramel Sweetheart (which smells just like its name), Chilli Chilli Bang Bang, Enchanted Forest, Lemon Sherbert, Mango Sunrise and Walk in the Woods I think R might have panicked that we’d be here all night – I could have picked about 10 of them and drank every single one. Conveniently they’re arranged by black, red and green teas – handy.

I went for the Chelsea Chai in the end and it was just what was needed for what was turning quite ugly out there. Made of Sencha green tea with cardamon, ginger, cloves, black pepper and spearmint it was the perfect remedy for sopping wet ballet flats. With a refill fitted in I was impressed with what only set me back £2.35.

Chelsea Chai - so perfect for what was one of London's more dire evenings... must start thinking of the rain as being more monsoon than nasty and freezing.

We sat there for nearly two hours gasbagging about this coming weekend (R is one half of the Queen Hen organising duo) and sorting out last minute details. We went on to talking about all sorts of girly goodness and were pleasantly surprised that even though it was very close to their closing time there was no pressure whatsoever to move on.

My verdict? Well, I think you can tell from this gushy review that R and I were very impressed. This is almost definitely going to become a regular for the end of month nothing left in bank account moments or times when you just want a nice place to go without the fear of emptying the purse. It’s so nice that she and I are finally back in the same city and work so close to each other; to help things along I think we’ve now found the perfect meeting spot. I wonder how many meet ups it would take us to work through their entire selection of tea???

Cheers R!

Slowly saying goodbye to my twenties: the final two years and a time to get responsible

I had the time of my life travelling the world and by the time I turned 28 I’d managed to stop in around 50 countries. When I started my job a couple of months before I made sure that in the first few days I booked my part of a family holiday to Japan the coming April. It was something to look forward to – we were living in a flat that wasn’t ideal (but did save us much needed money), Mr Man was at school and I was in a miserable job. But my friend sent me a chocolate pizza to my work so the day itself was great…

April rolled around pretty quickly and I flew into Tokyo to spend 2 weeks travelling around Japan with my parents who met up with me so we could visit my sister who was teaching on the coast that faces Russia. I know I say this about everywhere but I ADORED Japan. That place! It’s so wacky yet beautiful, the people are lovely and super helpful, the food is divine and the tea… brilliant tea…

Two weeks went by too quickly but we managed to cram in a lot including:

Visits to temples

Beautiful Zen temples

Snow monkeys

Famous tea houses in Kyoto (this is Ippodo)

Famous crossings

Hello Kitty

and cute things everywhere...

I can’t wait to drag Mr Man there one day.

I got back from Japan and was in for a tumultuous ride for the rest of the year. I got made redundant in July, got offered another (very poorly paying) role a few weeks later, then lost that job 6 weeks into it… I was jobless for around 2 months then finally offered my current job with its amazing view and friendly colleagues. Needless to say, the middle part of my 28th year wasn’t easy!! It was probably the most difficult time I’ve ever had and left a bit of a mark on me, but not without a few lessons. It definitely made me appreciate stability and the things that are important in life.

Whilst waiting to hear if I had an interview for my current job, Mr Man and I went to Italy for a week. It had actually been booked with my redundancy money from the first job so we decided to go and have a break from stressful life regardless of the fact that I was unemployed. Another magic trip and very much needed. We went by train from London to Paris, then overnight to Venice for 1.5 days and a day train to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. We went to Pompei which was super interesting, spent our days relaxing in the sun, exploring the seaside villages and of course, eating like we’d never eaten Italian food before… nom nom.

 

A random part of Paris

The Amalfi Coast

Pompei

Doing the donkey's work...

and Gelato (Mr Man's hand).

The year ended and I found a good stable job. I realised then that we had to cut down on our expenses and get a bit more serious about life. I can’t complain – my twenties were rockin! I described being 29 only a few weeks ago (found here) and that was another brilliant year (one to top them all I think).

Have I changed much over the past decade? Hard to tell. I’m definitely more open minded, certainly appreciate food (and can actually cook now), am much calmer and more settled yet well travelled, still happy-go-lucky and I still have my sense of adventure. I used to despise domesticity but am suddenly ultra excited about the trips to Ikea that are looming soon and am having a blast populating my wedding list (whoever thought I’d actually want a blender 10 years ago?). I sorted out my hair and have a huge appreciation for good dresses and fabulous shoes. I’m at peace with my curves though still complain about them (I wouldn’t be female if  I didn’t). I am more of a city girl than ever. Tea is entwined in my days almost no matter where I am and I think that I’m a much wiser person than the girl of 10 years ago was. Life was good then, life is great now.

As 30 looms at the end of this week I look forward to it with anticipation. Everyone keeps saying that the best is yet to come so bring it on! I can’t wait.

Thanks for listening. I’ll go back to eating cake and losing a few pounds again soon but first I plan to celebrate.

Kat.

Slowly saying goodbye to my twenties: 26 and in a very long distance relationship…

26 was a challenging year for me. I managed to land my dream job for the time (doing government relations for an economic development agency) and got all consumed in it. While I loved the job, I was back in Wellington only knowing a few people, had “interesting” flatmates and was in a long-distance relationship with both sides unsure of if they wanted to move to the other side of the world for eachother (New Zealand is about as far away as you can possibly get from the UK).

Mr Man came out to New Zealand in April that year and we had an absolutely magic time. It was one of the best months I’ve ever spent in my country and I had a blast showing him the sites and going on big road trips.

Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand

Somewhere in the South Island

At the end of Mr Man’s trip we had to decide what we were going to do. Mr Man told me that he wanted to train to be a teacher which meant at least another few years in the UK. I wasn’t prepared to leave my job so wanted to wait another 6 months before making a decision. We decided to make our next meet-up in Turkey and in the meantime exchange lots of letters (yes, the written type!), phone calls, emails and texts. It was tough but not impossible.

In the meantime I focused on my fitness (running 5 mornings a week and gym 3 evenings a week for yoga and a bit of strength training), worked on my career and saved like mad for the trip to Turkey in November that year.

Turkey came around pretty quickly and wow, what a fantastic place it is! We both loved it. It was a shame we could only spend 2 weeks there but we made the most of our time:

Istanbul's Blue Mosque

There were cats everywhere in Istanbul (I'm a sucker for them).

Capadoccia

Getting lessons from a cute kid...

At the end of the trip to Turkey we knew we had to do something about our relationship. We were having such great times together and to be honest, I wasn’t ready to be back in New Zealand so I made the decision to try and come back to the UK, found out that I qualifed for a highly skilled migrant visa and got the ball rolling.

In the meantime my sister and I met up with our parents in Fiji for Christmas. THE BEST FAMILY HOLIDAY EVER. It was so chilled out and relaxed. Dad and I got to spend our days diving whilst my sister napped and Mum hung out on the balcony which sat on a lagoon drinking wine most afternoons. It was bliss. The perfect way to end a year of progress and adventure.

Fiji...

Slowly saying goodbye to my twenties: a bumper year for a backpacker~

When my 25th year started I knew that it would be an exciting one, I just didn’t realise how good it would really be. In my basement flat, various flatmates were constantly talking about travel, travel magazines were always around (we had a stash of about 100 of them) and I began to make a list of where I wanted to go. On that list were the following:

• Morocco
• Sicily
• Spain
• Bhutan
• Eastern Europe

and the list goes on and on. Of that list the only place I managed to get to was Spain but I ended up going to places I never imagined I’d see.

Early on in the morning of my 25th birthday a group of us went to beautiful Paris. I share a birthday weekend with my friend Caz and she was equally as keen to go so we could wake up in Paris, go oo la la at everything and drink dark coffee for breakfast while eating lovely croissants and pain au chocolates… It was a fun weekend and we got to see a lot, eat some lovely food and dream about living there some day.

Lovely Paris

It was my third time there but Paris still held this huge fascination for me. It’s just so pretty!!

After Paris we went back to London and I spent the next 3 months saving like mad for my next big adventure, this time by myself with almost 6 weeks hopping around Europe by train. I was so unbelievably grateful for work letting  me take all that time off. I met up with two friends along the way – Dan, a Royal Marine at the time, who accompanied me around Switzerland and the top of Italy; and Andy, my old China buddy, who joined me from Rome for the Cinque Terre, South of France and the South of Spain (ok, just Barcelona but it was awesome!). I would go into much further detail here but that can all be found on my old travel blog where Europe is written in almost too much.

An old lady and her dog in Monaco

I got back to London about 5kg heavier having munched my way around Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Spain but didn’t regret a single gram of it! I ate constantly on that trip – how could you not? Sausage in Germany, chocolate and cheese in Swizterland, basically everything in Italy (pizza, pasta pasta pasta, gelati, coffee, pizza, gelati, campari, olives, brilliant bread, more gelati all in one day~), pastries and cheese in France, paella and sangria in Spain.

Vino!

It was a thud back to earth when I got back to work the day after what had been an incredible trip but there was much more ahead. That summer was magic and seemed to go on forever. We did festivals, made the most of London’s bars, worked insane hours, hung out in the parks, I went to Ascot and Wimbledon, lots of West End Shows, oh those were the days!!

October seemed to come around almost too fast. I had to leave the UK no later than 12 December for visa purposes so I decided to escape before winter began. 2.5 weeks before I was due to leave I went up to the North West to attend a football game with a good male friend of mine. Well, things happened, and this is when my very good friend D became Mr Man. We didn’t know what to do but decided to give it a shot. I went up there for one more weekend before I left, and he came down to London to help me celebrate my last few days in the country. Then it was long distance for an indeterminate time before one of us decided what to do about it… but that’s another story.

On 6 October I left London, extremely sad about leaving what had been 20 months of greatness but so excited about what was ahead (before another big thud down to earth back home in New Zealand).

Hello Delhi, India! From there I would travel all over the North and West of India before going to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands before landing in Auckland, New Zealand days before my 26th birthday…

On a cramped bus somewhere in the North of India.

I arrived in India knowing it would be a shock to the system but in my head I thought I was prepared for it. I don’t think anything can get you ready for the madness that is Delhi. I have documented it in great detail here but India was a love-hate relationship which tested me on every possible level.

Delhi Train Station

I loved the colour, the sounds and the smells, the crazy cows everywhere and the beauty amongst the madness of it all. I hated the chaos, the pollution, the nasty smells, the scariness of how brutal life can be to strangers (I met a lot of beggars everywhere), the stray dogs, the stray men who would call out to me no matter how much I covered up with shouts like “HEY LADY! NICE B&*BS!”

Early in the morning in Varanasi

But amongst it all I think I found a compromise and just accepted India as it was. It tested my patience to no end yet I think it made me more patient (a good thing, trust me~). It certainly tested my stomach which I was convinced was made of iron up until then (I lost 8kgs over 7 weeks there, most of it in the second week…). It tested my flexibility (at a yoga retreat in Rishikesh) which I can confirm is zero, couldn’t touch my toes then, definitely can’t touch them now. Yet I also made some wonderful friendships there and stayed with some amazing people whose hospitality I will never forget.

In a market, Varanasi

My friend’s family

You can’t sum India up in 2 paragraphs but I think “incredible” as a word and in all meanings of that word basically describes it.

I left India having made peace with it, especially after 13 days of bliss on Arambol beach in Goa. My Round the World flight meant that I had to stop in Sri Lanka. Having initially planned to use it purely as a stop-over due to the war, I changed my mind and decided on 10 days there. To this day I can still say it is my favourite country. The scenery is so lush, the food is out of this world and the people who have been through so much are so kind and good.  In fact, I liked it so much that 4 years later I managed to convince Mr Man that we should get married there. Yipee!

Elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka

From Sri Lanka is was on to the Philippines. That place is mad and fabulous. You can’t imagine more perfect beaches, more gorgeous interior or such positive people. It’s also where I learned to dive which changed travelling completely for me – under the sea is a whole other world!

Bontoc Rice Terraces, the Philippines

I left the Philippines a few days before Christmas to meet my family in Malaysia and had a few days of catching up on the real world, eating like a queen (I had to, India stripped me of all fat) before jumping on a short flight to Borneo where I spent 3 days at a camp in the jungle where I saw orangutans in the wild and all sorts of bizarre creatures; then 3 days diving at Sipidan Island where turtles and sharks continually approach you.

Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, Borneo

The tiny island where I spent the last day of 2006 – a perfect ending to a perfect year~

It was nearing the end of my long journey home but I had to make one final stop. My parents were living in the Solomon Islands and I had yet to go there. I spent 2 weeks chilling out in the tropical heat, diving, relaxing the way you can only do when you’re at your parents place and seeing what is a stunningly beautiful and lush place. Then it was onwards back home to New Zealand, where I’d last been 3 years ago.

Cute kid in the Solomon Islands

I got home 2 days before my 26th birthday and was welcomed by Rachael (who keeps appearing on here!) who let me settle in at her place for a few days before I moved to Wellington to find a job and start the hard part of what was turning out to be quite a fun long-distance relationship.

Sorry if that was quite a mouthful!! It was a brilliant year, one that I know I was lucky to have and that I’ll never have again (I can only afford one good overseas holiday a year now in both money and time). If you ever get the chance to travel for 3-4 months I would highly recommend you jump at it.