Results matching “Christmas”

Earlier this month, I went to Fork N' Film's showing of "Home Alone" in London. I love the film "Home Alone", and it is one of my favourite Christmas films which features a young boy named Kevin who finds himself home alone during the holiday season while his family leaves to go to Paris, and he finds himself protecting the family home from burglars. Form N' Film decided to host the evening at Eight Embankment, which I had an awful time locating as online maps told me the wrong location. When I finally arrived, I just made it on time, although the movie did not begin until much later. 

Eight Embankment is located just on the north side next to Waterloo Bridge.

When I entered, I was greeted and given a cocktail (Prosecco and orange juice) and shown to my table. A live band was playing Christmas music to get us into the Christmas mood. 

I ordered a Prosecco at the bar while I waited. We were given popcorn to share. As I was on my own, I was seated at another table with a couple and their sister.

Before the movie started, we were also given a festive-looking wreath of mozarella and tomato and rocket for "Season's Greetings".

The film started with cheers, and we were promptly given the second and third items. 

The ice bucket came onto the screen with the old man using salt from a trash can to clear the sidewalks, so we received a cocktail with a shovel served in a metal bin bucket (trash can). This was the Shovel Snowcake Slipper and was a wintery version of a Pina Colada cocktail. Coconut flakes were served on the side to give an indication of snow.

Next up, we had the cheese pizza, which came in a miniature pizza box. This came at the start of the film as well with the family having their pizzas delivered.

The next surprise came when Kevin finds he is at home alone, and he makes an ice cream sundae. We received a miniature version of the ice cream sundae complete with marshmallows and a cherry and syrup. 

There was a bit of a wait for the next items. We were meant to get the shrimp or prawn cocktail as seen in the film when the family are in Paris, but it never materialized. When asked about it later, I was told that the menu had changed and they were not doing the shrimp / prawn cocktail.

So, we had to wait awhile to receive the firecracker pot roast, which I had the vegetarian version of as the non-vegetarian version is beef. I cannot remember which part of the film would have inspired this.

At nearly the same time, a Christmassy cocktail in a bauble was delivered. This "Christmas Tree Cosmo" is a version of the Cosmopolitan cocktail.

The macaroni and cheese dish came at the point in the film where Kevin sits down to enjoy his dinner before the clock rings with the time to let him know to prepare for the burglars. I had the vegetarian version which came without lobster meat.

Toward the end of the film, we see Kevin leave cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve. We were given an eggnog cocktail and a couple of M&M cookies. 

The cookies did not look so great and the presentation was not so well here with half of a cookie missing.

Would I recommend Fork N' Film? Fork N' Film is a different concept of having food and watching a film inspired by the food. I've done this before with Edible Cinema (which I blogged about here), which doesn't seem to host events since I went many years ago. Fork N' Film is expensive. The online ordering system isn't great as they only had vegan and standard options, but I informed over email that it's vegetarian, though they did not have this listed as they should have. Also, locating the venue was difficult and instructions would have helped. The venue itself was adequate, but the tables were difficult and small and items kept being dropped and there wasn't always enough room. In terms of food, the food was average. The alcoholic drinks did not taste of alcohol at all, and the presentation on some of the items (cookies) was not great. I feel that it is a little bit expensive, but I've always liked this concept of dinner and film tied together.

Carnaby Street's Christmas lights went up this year in early November, and they change each year. This year, Carnaby Street have a simplistic Christmas lights display dubbed "Into the Light" which features giant Christmas crackers and stars. The display this year is set to be reused for the next five years as sustainable with different designs for the display possible.

In past years, the lights on Carnaby Street have been more colourful. This year, the yellow-white giant crackers rise above the street. 

I visited the Fulham Palace Illuminated Light Trail at the end of November. I tried to get tickets to another well-known and long-going light trail in London, but when I last looked to book, the day that I went to book had sold out on all tickets. So, I was left with the opening day of Fulham Palace Illuminated Light Trail. My photographs are below.

First, the cafe next to the palace entrance was open, so I had a hot chocolate.

Finally, we got to enter. We walked past the small Christmas market, which consisted of about four stalls, four of which were selling food items and one selling crafts and jewellry. In front of us, the palace was illuminated with snowflakes.

The trail commenced with a heart tunnel.

In the distance, we saw some illuminated animals, but these were rather far away to really appreciate.

We saw a couple illuminated trees, but I was expecting a lot more than this.

Another illumination was a bauble, which I walked through.

The rest of the trail continued with some quite small displays and immersive "selfie" displays. The angel wings and sleigh allowed some photographs. There were a few other small displays of trees, polar bears, and penguins. These were all very small lights.

A couple of the trees were also covered in lights.

And some lanterns were hung around here and there but did not make too much of impact.

More light illuminations on the trees would have had a nicer impact.

The trail was also a little confusing in knowing which way to go. Santa was there outside of the walled garden, which we entered to see more lights and had a multi-colour light tunnel.

The greenhouse was also illuminated and one of the glass houses contained a row of illuminated nutcrackers.

We had another light tunnel.

A small herd of illuminated deer lit the grounds.

The illuminated tree looked like it was not completely finished.

A "Cinderella" style display was at the end of the light trail with pumpkins and illuminated carriage, dress, and slipper.

We walked back out through the same gate and went past the Christmas market.

Overall, I felt that this was very overpriced and did not offer a good value for money. There were not too many illuminations, and what there was was at a very small scale with a couple of strands of lights here and there. Also, there wasn't any music except for two small points of very quiet music on the trail. I do not know if they were having trouble with the displays. There was also meant to be a magician. I was very disappointed in this trail. 

Each year, The Connaught hotel in Mayfair, London have a Christmas tree in the front of their hotel that celebrates an artist's work. This year, the tree has been designed by British artist Conrad Shawcross. The artist was inspired by visiting the hotel when he was younger and being served delicious food, so he used copper lanterns (like the pans used to cook with) that are designed with geometrical patterns.  

Previous Connaught Christmas trees that I covered on my blog are below:

This year, a couple of friends and I booked a hotel to visit the Winchester Christmas Market in the middle of November during its opening weekend, and we had been looking forward to it for the past couple of months. This was the first weekend of the market, and it turned out to be a horrible weekend weather-wise with Storm Bert over both days. Nevertheless, we went as we had our train and hotel tickets and planned to make the most of it.

We arrived late on Saturday and had a wander around the market. The weather was very bad with wind and rain, but we made the most of it. 

We had some mulled wine and walked around the rainy market and bought some items.

We had more mulled wine, which was even stronger and closer to the German version of mulled wine, gluhwein.

We had a little bit of food. I got some Indian with paneer, but it was not that enjoyable.

I had crumble for dessert, and the crumble was delicious.

Afterwards, we headed for some drinks. 

We ended up at The Eclipse Inn pub and had some bubbly and mulled wine.

After a couple of mulled wines, I got a little hungry as I hadn't eaten much earlier. I bought a pizza from Three Joe's, and I shared with my friends.

The Eclipse Inn pub is a small pub near to the cathedral. I was surprised that it was not busy.

Afterwards, I had a walk around Winchester to get my steps in.

The next morning, I also woke early to take advantage of the decent weather. The rain and wind had ceased. I had a walk around Winchester and then went to the market once it opened.

I bought a few items from a couple of the sellers while my friends were sleeping in.

I had lunch booked at Bishop on the Bridge, which is a pub next to the river that I have been to before that I have enjoyed. My friends and I went straight there after they were ready. While we were there, it started to rain and the wind picked up again.

We finished the meal and headed back to the market, but three minutes from our arrival to the market, we saw that they were closing the market. The sellers that my friends wanted to go to had closed before we got to them, and we were disappointed because the day before was much worse with the weather, and it wasn't even raining (but had rained when we were inside having the meal). We eventually made our way back to London, and it was a long trip with busy trains. 

The year and all of the seasons have flown by, and I thought that I would blog some of the photographs that I took over autumn that I have not posted. So, this autumn I had been busy with doing my walks. I have been walking in the afternoons and evenings, often listening to audio books. I have been consciously trying to lose weight that I put on. I have had a few walks to Ruislip Lido and enjoyed the last of the warmer days with autumn colour.

The trees have turned beautiful golden and orange colours this year. 

Some nice postbox decorations have also appeared on some of the postboxes locally with themes of rememberance.

A Gail's Bakery (part of a chain) opened up locally too. The first time I went to one was in South Kensington in 2012, and you can read my post here: Gail's Bakery in South Kensingston. I enjoyed the maple scone, chai latte, and a penguin biscuits on different visits. Sometimes they have soup.

Throughout November, a few cafes and restaurants are doing deals with two-for-one cocktails. I had some at a local cafe, Anabella's. You can read more about Anabella's here.

I also had some at The Arth Indian restaurant, which you can read more about here: Bottomless Brunch at The Arth.

As the weather has been so cold recently, I sometimes have a hot drink (mainly chai latte) before I walk back.

I also had a few walks to Eastcote. I had a hot chocolate and strawberry tart at Cafe Brione, which is a French cafe in Eastcote.

I also had a chai latte and two macaroons from a new cafe that popped up where a cafe I liked had been. The nw cafe doesn't do the amazing hot chocolate, but the chai latte (which I get them to make with a spoon of spiced chai) and macaroons are good. The macaroons are actually made from the previous cafe owner.

I also did get a Halloween cupcake treat.

That concludes my autumn. Note that the Christmas stuff has come along very early this year.

Lucy Sparrow is an artist who specialises in creating items from felt, and I have previously covered her work in this blog starting with her first exhibition in east London where she transformed a corner shop into being completely stocked with brands made of felt. Since then, she's done similar exhibitions in New York City, Florida, Australia, China, and other worldwide locations. She has recently returned to London's New Bond Street at Diptyque where she's created the Festive Felt Delicatessen. I went along to check it out.

The felt items created are festive with Christmas puddings, brandy butter, oysters, Christmas cookies, and other food items.

A shopping trolly or cart was filled with some of these items as well.

On the other shelves were felt candles. The candles featured Diptyque's scents and their Christmas range. The Christmas range real candles have a felt label on them.

The cash machine was also made of felt.

In previous years and in addition to the cornershop, Lucy Sparrow has created a pop up at a chemist and a shop at Russel Square selling all sorts of branded felt items.

For more Lucy Sparrow exhibitions on this blog, see:

Lucy Sparrow's Felt 'R' Us at Brunswick Centre
Lucy Sparrow Bourdon Street Chemist
Lucy Sparrow's Cornershop in London 

I visited Wightwick Manor toward the end of August, and this was my second visit to the house and gardens. I first visited it over the Christmas period when the house and gardens were decorated for the holidays, but the full house was not open. Wightwick is located in Staffordshire in the West Midlands, and it is maintained by National Trust. This timber-framed manor house looks medieval, but it was actually built at the end of the 1800s.

When I visited, I was told that the conservation on the windows had been completed. Some of the timbers around the windows needed to be replaced.

I first went to check out the gardens, which were at the end of the summer hurrah. There were still some of the late summer plants out and fruit, such as apples, on the trees. I also saw some vegetables in the walled garden.

After I had looked around the garden, I went inside the house.

On this visit, I got to see the upstairs of the house. This was closed over Christmas. 

One of the rooms that was opened was the nursery, where the children would play and learn. The nanny would also mind the children in this part of the house.

Next up were the servant quarters, such as kitchens and scullery and the servant dining room.

One of the other servant rooms was the laundry.

After looking around the house, I went to the gallery next door at the Malthouse. The gallery, De Morgan Gallery, contains the collection of ceramics and paintings.

Wightwick Manor has beautiful gardens and a house with interesting objects to explore, and there is also a shop, bookshop, and a cafe. For additional posts about the property on this blog, see the below posts:

Christmas at Wightwick Manor

When I was in Brussels in April, I visited the Chocolate Museum, Choco-Story Brussels. The museum opened in 1998, and it is located in the centre of Brussels near the main attractions. Belgium is known for its chocolates, so the chocolate museum was appropriate. The museum showcases the history of chocolate through the ages and offers free samples and a short chocolate-making exhibition about the pralines, which were invented in Belgium. 

The story of chocolate starts with the Aztecs and how chocolate came to be 'discovered' by Europe and then refined into what it is known today. There are also sections on the envrionment and sustainability for the production of chocolate and fair trade rules as well as health benefits of chocolate. 

The first part of the museum was dedicated to the Aztecs due to their use of the cocao bean.

Afterwards, when chocolate was transported into Europe and served as a drink, the various equipment for consuming chocolate were on display.

Chocolate was loved by the French and considered erotic. 

Information on the cocao farming followed and then the introduction of the praline by Belgian chocolatiers.

There was also a section on chocolate themes for different occassions, such as Christmas and Easter, with moulds on display.

There were also vending machines on display, and these would dispense chocolate.

Another room gave free samples of different qualities of choclate and location of the beans before entering the chocolate workshop, where we were informed about the praline and allowed a free sample.

Overall, the museum was interesting, and I learned about the history of chocolate while enjoying a few.

Welcome to my winter 2023-2024 and spring 2024 edition of empty products that I have used up. The purpose of this post is that I wanted to post products that I used up to help me remember which ones I would purchase again, and it may help others with deciding which products to purchase too.

H2K of Harrogate Sensual with Vitamin E Hydrating Conditioning shampoo: This shampoo had a citrus scent and conditions and cleans shampoo. Would I buy it again? No, it is a little bit expensive and I need colour-protecting shampoo.

Opatra nourishing day cream: I received a sample of day cream to test the nourishing of skin due to external factors . Would I buy it again? No, I just was not sold on the product.

Marks and Spencers Autograph nail polish: This nail polish is in a bright purple colour . Would I buy it again? No, I found that the nail polish was a little bit too thick.

Argan Smooth conditioner: Argan is rich in oil and good for hair conditioning, so I decided to give this a go. Would I buy it again? No, I did not find it as nourishing as I would have liked and prefer other brands of conditioner.

YSL long wear glow and YSL All hours foundation: Logn Wear Glow is a product that can be applied thinly or thickly and allows skin to breathe as well as protects from the sun. All Hours Foundation is a breathable and full-coverage product. The samples I arrived were not my skin tone, so it was a little difficult to test, but i did think the product was light-wearing and comfortable. Would I buy it again? I would love to try my shade and see how I get on with the product, but I would consider buying them.

Ayres body butter: This body butter is a nourishing cream that absorbs into the skin to make it feel moisturised . Would I buy it again? No, I don't tend to use body butter, but there was nothing wrong with the product.

No7 Stay Perfect nail polish in 'taffetta': This is a candy-apple coloured nail polish that applies well but did not last as it would easily rub off. Would I buy it again? I have purchased this brand before, but it isn't the longest-lasting as it does rub off quickly.

Ren flash rinse minute facial: This facial product promises to restore radiance and reduce blemishes. Would I buy it again? I like this brand, and this did seem to clear my skin, so I would consider buying it again.

7th Heaven white chocolate fondue facial: This brand produces different facial cleansers, and this one smelled like white chocolate. Would I buy it again? I like this brand, and this one smelled good and seemed to leave my skin feeling soft.

Aveeno daily moisturising lotion: This moisturising lotion is absorbed into the skin and makes it feel soft. Would I buy it again? No, although there was nothing wrong with the product. I just don't need it.

Welda Pomegranate firming day cream: This day cream promises to reduce fine lines and give skin a glow, and it is made from organic products such as pomegranate seeds. Would I buy it again? No, I did not like the feeling of the product and found that it was not absorbed into my skin.

Blistex lip infusions: This is a chapstick that helps to moisturise dry lips. Would I buy it again? Yes, this was perfect for winter and helped my lips.

Clinique anti-blemish: This anti-blemish solution dries out acne when placed on it, but it does dry out the area of skin. Would I buy it again? No, this was harmful to my skin and created more issues when used. In the past several years, I went off this brand.

Burt's Bees deep cleansing cream: This hand cream is absorbed into the skin and helps to keep it moisturised. Would I buy it again? This was a good brand and did help my dry skin in the winter.

Molton Brown lip moisturiser: I received a few travel-sizes of coloured lip moisturisers, and this one was an orange shade. The products help moisturise lips as well as leaving colour, so I used this one in the winter. Would I buy it again? No as there are similar better products, and the small size makes it difficult to remove the product.

Sephora pineapple face mask: This is a sheet face mask with a pineapple scent that promises to hydrate skin. Would I buy it again? No, I did not feel or see any difference.

Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer in 'cococabana': This hand sanitiser came in a travel size, and it smelled like coconut. Would I buy it again? Yes, I like the brand, and these compact sizes are perfect to carry around.

The Body Shop grapefruit shower gel: This shower gel smells like grapefruit, which was uplifting when using. Would I buy it again? Yes, I like the brand, and it smells like grapefruit.

British rose body lotion: I received this body lotion in a gift set, and it does smell like roses. Would I buy it again? No, I do not use body lotion often, and it didn't absorb into my skin.

Benefit highlighter makeup: This sample of the highlighter formula was dried out, so did not get to see it, but it comes in a little tube with a brush. Would I buy it again? No, it dries out too soon and comes with an applicator that is too difficult to use, meaning most product is difficult to get to in the package.

Angel Mugler perfume: I received a sample of this very sophisticated and floral scent. Would I buy it again? Yes, I loved the scent.

Crayon Touch Me Up Gloss in 'Shiny Orange': This is a subtle orange shade of lip gloss that can be worn on its own or on top of another colour to give shine, but the colour faded to a yellow shade very quickly. Would I buy it again? No, this was a waste of money and a poor product.

Bath & Body Works Mahogany Apple hand soap: This hand soap was perfect for the autumn and winter months as it smelled like fresh apple, but this was more of a grown-up scent compared to Farmstand Apple, which was a fruitier and fresher scent. Would I buy it again? Yes, I loved the scent and brand.

Lush Berry Berry Christmas shower gel: This is a fruity and festive scent for the shower, and it smelled of frosted cranberry. Would I buy it again? Yes, I loved the scent and brand.

Elemis hand lotion: This hand lotion is absorbed into the skin and smells just like a spa. Would I buy it again? I like the brand, though I do not need lotion.

BalanceMe Gradual Tanning Drops: These gradual tanning drops promise to add colour to skin gradually over use. Would I buy it again? No, this was awful. The product gave my skin stains or streaks of a yellow colour.

Santuary Spa Signature collection body scrub: This body scrub was an orange-scented scrub that left skin feeling soft and exfoliated. Would I buy it again? Yes, the product was good.

Trene Forte night cream: This night cream helps moisturise and hydrate skin at night while asleep and is lightly-fragranced. Would I buy it again? No, I was not sold on the product.