Chelsea Saturdays

One of my favourite things to do on the weekend is hang out in Chelsea. As well as my best friend Lisa living there, it is less busy than the rest of London during the weekend, with a distinct lack of tourists among the well dressed Chelsea-ites.

The Saatchi Gallery is particularly good - with often changing exhibitions, free entry and none of the usual queues buzzing around museums, this is a local gem.

They have a pretty surreal giant ant exhibition on at the moment..

And an amazing Media exhibition, by The Times - I couldn't believe that the below two are photographs taken by Times photographers in Libya/Afghanistan, the colours are breathtaking.

As well as other random arty bits..

Puts my doodling to shame!

A room filled with oil. Has been residing in the basement for a looong time now, but still serene and beautiful, worthy of a visit every time.

Being cultural is hungry work. Helpfully, just outside in Duke of York Square was the weekly Farmers Market. I LOVE this market - it's unique, not overly-busy or expensive, and all of the food is brilliant.

[Get the duck sandwich - you won't be disappointed]

We had a healthy-yet-delicious falafel wrap, and some amazing hand rolls from the sushi stall. (vaguely healthy, to make up for the ridiculously good, greasy Ranoush kebab that we had at 3am)

but all of the food is SO tempting - let the onslaught of food porn pictures begin!

^ This stall, Galeta has the BEST dessertss. Definitely try and grab a giant, £2 brownie before they are all gone.

For a relatively small market, the massive range of food on offer is very impressive. Everything from fresh root cane sugar juice, to the famous duck sandwiches, to oysters/lobster, to foreign fruit imported from Thailand (above), to the vast array of desserts (crepes, cakes, mini cakes, brownies, stuffed pancakes to name but a few).

(A truffle stall - major weakness!)

Some are true farmers (as above) who having home grown their produce, come to sell it to the stylish masses, some are families who can just cook really well.

A great place to go on the weekend to get away from the hustle and bustle of central London, with all the perks of great food and none of the cons!

Food phase of the moment.. turkey?

When I think of turkey, I instantly think of the giant bird that has been cooked to perfection for the Christmas roast. So when Dima decided last week to buy some turkey breasts I was all like 'is this a cheap version of chicken yo' but it was actually really ridiculously good. Then I found out a turkey breast has 90 calories with 10 from fat (as opposed to chicken which is 165 with 35 from fat) - low carb and low fat!

 

Generally I have been making the above - a mix of rocket, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, avocado, turkey and a spritz of lime = so good! You won't even realise it's salad ;) 

Or another really good way of eating it is with a poached egg (and avocado on the side, because avocado is just awesome.)

How I make it is just:

- spray a little low calorie oil into a pan, let it get nice and hot

- throw some seasoning over the turkey breast and pop it in the pan. Cook for 3 minutes per side until it's no longer pink in the middle - careful not to overcook! 

- take off and eat away!

Poached egg is easy: just boil up some water in a frying pan and crack your egg in. Leave it to cook for 3 minutes then take out and eat! :)  My kind of food - ridiculously easy, fast and good! 

I have also got really into snacking on frozen fruit lately...

At 30 calories per two handfuls of frozen berries, you can afford to eat as much as you want! I also freeze grapes and chopped bananas in a food-bag, they taste like sorbet/ice cream and in great bitesize pieces to keep you going throughout the day! Also if you blend them all up with a bit of milk you are left with 'ice cream' :) 

I leave you with an awesome piece of work by David Chihuly.

Exams finish in 11 days! Literally never been more excited!  

Saatchi Saturday

I am moving back to East London in a matter of weeks, so this has motivated me to go and explore the area I currently live in a bit more! I am living in Gloucester Road now with my boyfriend, and it is amaaazing. Amazing to walk down the street on your phone without fear of being mugged, being so central, always having someone there to listen to your days and give you a hug, right next to my best friend. Unfortunately uni is in the East so I will have to downgrade for another year!

We went to the market in Duke of York Square and decided to try out the 'best sandwich in Chelsea' - it did not disappoint!








For £5.50 each we decided to be greedy and get two, and hid around the back stuffing our faces - it was GOOD. In an attempt to burn off calories/be cultural and productive we wandered into the Saatchi Gallery. 





I like the Saatchi Gallery as they update their collections quite regularly, so there is always something new to see - and there are around six or seven different galleries so it is really diverse. Best of all, it is free! As always, there is completely random art which I probably could have done at home but there was also some really cool exhibits such at this:


made completely out of kites!

and the 'abstract'..




(thrilling - there were three giant canvases dedicated to this art) 

My favourite was the Hugo Boss Red exhibition they currently have on, as it is more interactive than the rest. There was a projector shining light and shadows over a wall, which we played in for ages!






and a giant red completely random dome, with no identifiable point other than ruining your hair whilst trying to get into it!






Would definitely recommend a visit to both the gallery and market, it was an amazing day!

Hayward Gallery Light Show

A couple of days ago I went with my boyfriend to the Light Show at Hayward Gallery. I wasn't expecting all that much, with museums etc I am not normally blown away but this did indeed blow me away! 

 the 'frozen water' room

There was a room with what looked like the projector light shining slowly moving lines onto a wall, and at first glance you are like meh but people were standing in the light and walking through it and the small dark room was quite captivating in a way where you are not sure why. We watched the sprials of smoke glitter in the light, and then walked through it and was truly amazed, the view was completely different!

Another of my favourite rooms was the picture above, a dark room with constant strobe lightening effects which made the flowing fountains of water look like they were frozen! (Though my boyfriend ruined it by shining his phone light onto it so you could see the water!)

We queued up for 15 mins for a room we had no idea about, but everyone seemed to be queuing so we did too (human nature..) When we went in the room we thought we were going to be given a show, and waited for ten minutes for the show! But apparently the show was the strange screen like lights infront of us, and after fifteen minutes they are supposed to change incredibly (but we are evidently not cultured enough for this as we didn't see much!)

me outside the gallery in a giant white chocolate drop (obviously)
wearing: - shoes: Asos
dress: Asos
scarf: Asos (I note a trend..)
coat: Erotokritos

me and my boyfriend, dima :)

 

 

 

 

new shoes of the day!

 

afterwards we stopped off at Ping Pong - their food and drinks are great but very pricey and tempting! I managed to restrain myself and just ordered this Goji berry juice and a chicken dumpling soup whereas Dima went for... the most calorific, fried set menu for one, extra dumplings and extra crackers (which i graciously helped him finish off)!