London swallowed my purse!

London was good to us..providing a break from the icy cold in Berlin and more than anything the chance to see friends we miss.  Aside from these happy times I had a bit of a miserable afternoon in our second to last day there.  The morning went swell..some meandering around the streets and climbing up The Monument with great friends in tow.  Whilst the afternoon was not so ideal, my cold progressed at an undesirable rate (Rudolph aint got nothin' on me!) and I lost my purse during my Harrods experience.  I will never forget my adventure in Harrods..sadly for the wrong reason.  Bloomin' Harrods swallowed up my purse and all the irreplaceable items inside.  After retracing my steps for a good half hour, Daniel and Abby kindly waited in Topshop for me to return complete with lost goods.  Unfortunately I did not, tears aside I sucked it up and enjoyed an evening out at Brick Lane with some old friends. I'm pretty glad I didn't throw a big paddy and call the night off because I had too much fun.  Much later in the evening the necessary follow up commenced, including the cancellation of credit cards and informing the insurance company of the incident.  Let's hope the German side of things won't be too testing on my patience!

Daniel and I are miserable and sick in bed on the eve of New Years, here's all my fingers and toes crossed that we make a speedy recover for tonight.  Our first and possibly last NY in Berlin, we better be up for machen party ya.

Happy NY 2011 all my lovelies out there,
xxx

Christmas in London

Christmas day couldn't have gone more smoothly.  We began the morning with a well deserved sleep in and brekky..complete with perfectly scrambled eggs, bacon and Moet champagne.

We all settled into the couch watching 'Boy' just to put a Kiwi feel to Christmas in London.  I tell you despite being in our mid 20's opening pressies was a rather big deal! Complete with 'wows!', 'pretty look at this' and 'Ohh just what I wanted!'.

Warrington is a goodie

Our Christmas Eve dinner at Gordon Ramsey's 'The Warrington' was delicious, all the courses tasted just like Christmas should.  In the safety of a warm and cozy dining room we watched the trees swaying in the bitter cold through double glazed windows.  Did you know that having a Winter Wonderland Christmas is the best thing?  Not only does all the food make sense with the cold weather but today while our chicken was roasting we took a walk through the park and played in the snow.  I love you Christmas in London:)

Weihnachtsmarkt Withdrawal

I'm not going to lie and say that it wasn't hard leaving the Weihnachtsmarkt fun (Christmas markets) in Berlin.  Special in a hundred wonderful ways and complete with all the trimmings..ice skating rink, giant sized christmas tree, gluhwein and ferris wheel.  Magical magical magical, I hope anyone visiting or living in Berlin takes full advantage of the festive season and checks out Berlin's finest.  Top 3 on the list were: 1) Gendarmenmarkt Weihnachtsmarkt - ritzy and romantic.  2) Weihnachtsmarkt am Fernsehturm - authentic and charming, I found someones adorable set of pictures here.  3) As for you Weihnachtsmarkt Alexa, you will be sadly missed.  You and all your bright lights and crazy fun.

Gendarmenmarkt

Weihnachtsmarkt Alexa

View from the top!

When did I develop this new fear of heights?

I am still feeling sufficiently festive after making trifle with our lovely host Petra tonight.  And after the minor prepping for Xmas day I can taste the traditional Kiwi deserts on the tip of my tongue.  One ingredient is missing, where oh where is the snow London?  Give us a white Christmas..go on.

London how pretty are you?

Safely landed in London, a pretty big mission waiting around sprawled over airport chairs for a couple hours.  Being contained within our plane on Gatwick tarmac for over 40 minutes as ground staff sourced a spare set of stairs to get us all off!  Running through the airport battling with 30kilos worth of luggage to make the last scheduled train to Victoria.
Estimated travel time: 3 hours
Actual travel time: 8 hours

Despite the headache, we are so happy to be here to experience yet one more city and spend time with some very wonderful people for Christmas.

Grumpy face for 2 losses in 2 days

Indoor Winter Hobby

Knitting
I have been teaching myself how to knit over the past 2 weeks.  My new hobby, made for sitting snuggled up indoors and creating sweet pieces to add to the Winter woolly's selection.  At times extremely frustrating but more therapeutic than not.  My clever little friend inspired me with all her wonderful craft skills.  She promised to teach me to knit but somehow our busy Berlin schedules got in the way.  You can see her wonderful blog here she is truly truly gifted.

15 chilly things

Chilly bikes in the garden

Feet chilling in the mound of snow

Pumpkin pie for hungry eyes

On the 25th of November 2 American's, 3 Kiwi's, 1 French Canadian and 1 token German indulged in a night of thanks. 

Host: Sarah the amazing American who nailed the Turkey despite being a vegetarian and who was fabulously adorned in floral cooking pinny.  Together Sarah and her visiting brother cooked and slaved away over their first SOLO thanksgiving dinner.  Their mother would be so proud! 

More after the jump...