Leyton City Farm

I've lived in London for ten years and have never visited a city farm, I know, it's a crime!  Yesterday I rectified this by heading to Brooks Farm, in Leyton.  It was muddy and wet but full of animals, in other words, a great way to spend Saturday morning.  The farm is quite small, sat next to a local park with an awesome climbing frame (oh to be a kid again) and has a good selection of animals, from donkeys, turkeys, llamas and lambs. After growing up in the countryside it was strange to think that this farm, and places like it, are sometimes the only way city kids can get up close to farmyard animals.  It's a great educational resource for the borough, and a lovely morning out for people like me who just want to see a goat, or cow.

For more information about the farm click here

As soon as we walked through the gates we were met by the smell of the countryside, as well as a couple of friendly donkeys who tried to nibble on my hand.  It's a very relaxed farm, allowing you to stroke the animals, if the animals are so inclined.  We did see a sign saying you could buy feed for the animals but nowhere to actually purchase the feed. I guess a Saturday in January is not their busiest time, which was great for us in one way, as there were only a couple of other visitors around, but bad as we couldn't find anyone to get feed from.  Some of the enclosures were a little depressing as they were just churned up mud with no grazing available, but I guess that's exactly what the animals would have to deal with at the countryside anyway; mud and hay. We got to make friends with a couple of lambs, a cow and Stuart was intimated by a giant goat.  Seriously, he was the biggest goat I have ever seen! I don't think the photo below gives a full indication of his size but he certainly took a disliking to Stuart for some reason, giving him a little headbut and threatening to walk out of his enclosure (he was so big no bars could contain him!)

More regular sized goats. I love goats, they are the best part of any farm! Always inquisitive.

This goat made friends with Stuart. It helped that he was at least half the size of the monster goat!

All in all it was a lovely morning out, and I look forward to heading back on less rainy, muddy day. I think it'll be a great place to visit in the spring, especially if they have more lambs!

Daytrip to Portsmouth

Yesterday I headed down to Portsmouth & Southsea for a day trip. It was a  chance to stretch my legs, get some sea air and catch up with my friend, George, who lives down there.  George met me at Portsmouth Harbour and we decided to take a stroll along to the local Sealife Centre in Southsea.  It was a lovely walk, nice and flat, if a little breezy along the harbour. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos as I've fallen out with my camera (a side effect of never working out how to use it properly) but here are a few that came out okay;

When we reached the Sealife Centre I have to admit it was a little underwhelming. The displays they had were good; we were able to see reef sharks, rays and a snapper turtle but I was expecting a little more (as the sea was right next to us surely they could have a section where we could see the local sealife!).  It probably took us a hour to go round, and George and I like to take our time. We've visited many animal parks together and one of the best games to play is 'find the animal' when the enclosures look empty.  My favourite thing had to be the leopard eels though, they really know how to wear animal print!

Film Review: American Hustle

January is my favourite time of the year for trips to the cinema as all the big award contenders are released in the UK. I have a long list of films I want to see this month and I started with American Hustle.

I hadn't even seen the trailer for this film, only the fabulous posters that are all around the tube stations at the moment.  The hair, costume and amazing cast were enough to draw me in.

Image taken from here

The story is set in 1978 and we begin with a caption telling us this story is 'mostly true'. My knowledge on America in the 70's is very limited so I'll leave you to figure out which bits are mostly true. We follow conmen Irving and Sydney (Christian Bale and Amy Adams) who have cut a deal with FBI agent Richie (Bradley Cooper) to bring in other conmen in return for clemency for their crimes,  It is an absolutely stellar cast and for me Amy Adams can do no wrong; from her first entrance, until the last scene she is completely mesmerising. Sydney is playing the long game, trying to find a way out of the circumstance she finds herself in and because of this, despite it being an ensemble cast, she is the one I felt held the story and different characters together. Actress of our time Jennifer Lawrence has a brilliant time playing Rosalyn, Irving's high maintenance and slightly unstable wife. However I most enjoyed Jeremy Renner's performance of Mayor Polito, a honest yet driven by circumstance corrupt politician. Or maybe I was just distracted by the quiff. I feel I can't talk about this film without more than a passing mention to the hair and costume. The film has an air of extravagance which the sets and costumes more than contribute to. Are they all conmen hiding their true colours behind layers of hairspray and curling tongs?  If you want to see Bradley Cooper in a perm and Bale with a comb over this film is for you.

It is a hard film to define; is it a comedy or a thriller or a crime movie? In all honesty it's a little bit of each. At times it can be a little hard to keep up with, as the con becomes bigger and more extravagant but it is worth staying with for the outstanding performances from the whole cast. I give it 4/5. A great start for my film review section!

In Bruges

Back in November Stuart and I headed to Bruges for a little weekend break.  We picked Bruges partly because of the film In Bruges (one of my favourite films ever) but also because I love Christmas, and Bruges seems like the most festive place to start the season.  We jumped on the Eurostar from St Pancaras, which although might take a little longer than flying was far more relaxing.  Once we arrived in Brussels it was an hour train ride into Bruges.

Now we hadn't done much research, or even really look at a map but as we discovered Bruges is pretty small, and extremely scenic so you're fine to wander and see where you end up.

 

We spent most of the weekend wandering aimlessly, eating waffles, chocolates and chips. Apparently Belgium chips, or frites are pretty special so we took at trip to the Potato Museum to find out more.

Stuart was captivated by the the different type of potatoes out there whereas I wanted to get behind the counter and serve the frites. In all honesty Belgium frites don't taste different to chips, but we learnt a lot about potatoes and that's the important thing.

Back outside we wandered around and stumbled upon this fountain in t'Zand Sqaure. It was pretty impressive, there are four sculptures which represent different parts of the local culture. I had a great time taking photos, but we made our move when a group of school boys came over. Needless to say they all spotted a particular sculpture which by the sounds of their laughter, made their day.

Although we didn't have any concrete plans, one thing I did want to check out was Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges.  This is a marble sculpture displayed at the Church of Our Lady and it is the only sculpture of Michelangelo's to have left Italy in his lifetime.  We  rocked up to the church in anticipation only to be greeted by scaffolding and builders. We were able to enter the church but unfortunately they were renovating the area where sculpture is displayed so we could only see it from across the room by tiptoeing and looking through blue tarpaulin. Luckily my disappointment was short lived as that afternoon we headed to the Chocolate Museum, and some kind person had replicated Madonna of Bruges out of white chocolate. Sorry Michelangleo, this version looked great!

I loved Bruges and a weekend is a perfect amount of time to see everything, relax and recharge your batteries. And the chocolate, don't forget about all the chocolate!

Happy 2014

Wow, I last posted in here back in March 2013.  Quite a break to take!  I hope to start blogging again soon but for now let me wish you a Happy 2014.