the weekend in pictures

A lot happened this weekend. It was a good weekend. Instead of describing it in painstaking detail like I typically do, I decided to give you guys a break and just show you in pictures. With a few captions. Because I love to talk. Let's get started before I give it all away and make the pictures less fun!

Friday, as you know, Lauren and I had our afternoon of fun, which involved Korean BBQ:


On top we have appetizers and side dishes. Kimchi, bean sprouts, miso soup and a veggie/seafood pancake. On the right is the glorious bbq. Shrimp, pork belly, spare ribs and mushrooms. There was also a scallion dish which was super yum. I loved this food so much, we're going there on Wednesday again for my BIRTHDAY! Going to a restaurant twice in one week hasn't been seen since.......a few weeks ago when I went to Mussel Bar twice in one week. Now I'm drooling over the thought of vanilla sweet potato fries....*sigh*

<----Elisa, me and Lauren at my happy place, Borough market, for Elisa's birthday! I can't tell you how friggin' thrilled I was when I was told all Elisa wanted to do for her birthday was go to Borough. We spent a lovely 3 hours there. I should be a tour guide for that place. For serious. Elisa wanted to wear the hula skirt for her birthday. So she did. Love this girl.

best.sandwich.ever. They asked what we should eat, what my favorite thing was, and I answered immediately with the mouthwatering lamb kofte sandwich from the little grill place at the back of the market. They have a few other grill choices, but this is the third time I've had this sandwich, it's so good. I haven't repeated any other food at Borough (save the chorizo sandwich which I've had twice). Not that all the food isn't spectacular, but I like to try new things. This thing is pure heaven. Especially with the homemade sauces - harissa, salsa verde and aioli. What more could a girl want?

Unfortunately I have no pictures from Saturday night's spectacle of a meal. But here's the skinny: breads from Whole Foods, meats and cheeses from the Italian stall at Borough, homemade Spanish tortilla and bruschetta made lovingly by Elisa. Quite a fabulous spread, if I do say so myself. We were definitely fat and happy by the end of Saturday, to say the least.

Sunday was boring. It was perfect. We stayed in all day. (Did I mention I lived at Lauren's the entire weekend? I'm allowed to speak of the house as "mine". Even if I'm not, I do it anyway. People definitely think I live there. I help play host when people come over. They're confused when I talk about leaving...)


Finally, Notting Hill Carnival. Definitely an experience worth having once in your life. Crowded, colorful, festive, and slightly (read: unbelievably) dirty. It's like they removed all of the bins in Notting Hill. Seriously. Regardless, it was a good time! We went today (Monday) because there was the main parade to watch. So many colors! I have a bunch more pictures but I thought just a couple would be good for now. This bad boy is 20 miles of closed off streets in the outskirts of London's city centre, and let me tell you, it is packed. In some places it was difficult to breathe, let alone walk. The music was so loud, and the base so strong, I could feel my insides shaking with the beat. Good day. Glad it's over.

And now, some quiet time.

check!

Check another item off my list! That's right folks, I've been busy, having fun!

Actually, it wasn't planned.

Which really, is the best kind of fun!

Ok, maybe part of it was planned.

But still, it was a great time!

Want to hear about it? Ok ok I'll tell you!

So I met up with Lauren today to go shopping. We really love shopping, but try not to shop too much because well, it's London. And not only are we spending lots of $$$, but we're spending £££! Which is more than $$$. But today, we actually had a reason (excuse?), so we trekked over to Oxford St to do a little damage.

Let me tell you something about Oxford St. It's friggin' crowded as heck. I believe I read somewhere it's one of the most (the most?) crowded shopping areas like, ever. Or maybe in Europe. Or in the UK. Clearly I need to recheck my facts. Anyway, it's super busy! Think Black Friday shopping crowds all year long. Yeah. Way fun. Unfortunately, it also has the greatest concentration of fabulous stores. Which I guess is why it's so stinkin' crowded.

So. Lauren needed a birthday present, and I needed shoes. Shoes to go with the pants I bought earlier in the week, which are too long. Unfortunately I bought a pair of shoes that would have been perfect for this purpose (and were in fact bought for this purpose) and left them at home. So of course I needed another pair. Darn. In case you were wondering, I was successful! I bought these.

After the shopping we randomly decided it would be fun to go to a show! This is why I love London. We walked down to Piccadilly and started perusing the streets for shows we might want to see. We came across Hair, and were pretty much sold! So we bought some tickets. No big. While waiting, we went for dinner at a Korean bbq place we had passed on our way there. Neither of us have had Korean before, so we decided to give it a whirl. It was so delicious! We definitely want to go back.

Anyhoo. The point of this post is that I checked another thing off my list! I've seen 1 show now (and have another one coming up on Tuesday!). Yay!

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post. I promise I took some, but my computer's being funky and won't read my camera card so maybe I'll post some pictures randomly with no post or captions or anything because I know you really want to see pictures of the food we ate tonight. Because I already showed you the shoes.

Anyhoo, It's like, 1am. Shouldn't I be sleeping?