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Stacey

Whitecross Street food market

When you are on a restricted diet, making sure you get plenty of variety is essential. If you are basically eating meat and veg and fish and veg then you’re going to get pretty bored pretty quickly if you don’t mix it up a bit.

I’m lucky to spend a lot of time in London, in the Clerkenwell/Barbican area so I get to go to Whitecross Street food market a few times a week. Many moons ago I nearly rented a flat in Whitecross Street and then it was a bit of a run down dingy street with a few average restaurants in. Now, it’s completely changed. It’s actually one of the oldest markets in London, dating back to the 17^th Century, and at one point was known as ‘Squalors Market’. After some investment and regeneration it’s now a must-visit for anyone working or living in the area.

If you go down to Whitecross Street any weekday lunchtime you’ll find some of the best takeaway food vendors in London. You can eat your way round the world with curries and tikka boxes, burrito’s, Thai, sushi, Italian, Turkish and everything in between. A walk down the street is a mouthwatering delight and the hardest thing is to decide what to have. There up to 50 stalls on a Thursday and Friday, but there is a pretty good selection all week, from 10 – 4pm.

Everyone knows about Borough Market, but in my mind Whitecross certainly gives it a run for its money on takeaway, and prices are still reasonable for London. This week I’ve had a fantastic tikka box and a bun-less burger with salad, and I’ve got my eye on the Brazillian chicken skewers for later in the week.

The Market opening times are 10-4pm Monday to Friday , with many more food stalls on a Thursday and Friday.

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20th January 2016

Live

Snow

I woke up to this.

It all looks so peaceful, with that wonderful light. Lovely to look at, not great to try and get to work in. But I love this bit, while it is all still so unspoilt.

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17th January 2016

Live

Good beginnings

The first week back at work is over and finally the jet lag seems to have receded. Along with the return to work came a return to the low carb diet that had been so successful 18 months ago.

In the intervening time I’ve put on about 8lb, and am determined to shift these and a stone more. So out go the pies and chips and chocolate and in comes the protein and salad. So far, so good and I don’t feel too hungry. The plan is to do this for 2 weeks as strictly as possible, then to start some light exercise. I already feel much better for eating healthily. Cutting the majority of sugar out of my diet definitely suits my body and helps with my Polycystic Ovaries. Taking up some exercise is also going to improve this.

I’m planning to keep the exercise and a weight-losing carb maintenance plan going until mid-March. I should then be able to get a view on how much I’ve lost and how far there is to go. And then have a few days being a bit more relaxed while I swan around in New York celebrating my belated 10-year wedding anniversary.

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16th January 2016

Live

New Year, New You…yeah, right.

It’s taken ages to unwind and relax. I knew it would, you can’t work all year without much of a proper holiday, have a crazy December and end the year feeling burnt out then miraculously expect instant relaxation the minute you finish work. But I’m still surprised how long it’s taking and I’m not sure I’m fully refreshed yet.

I’m loathe to make resolutions as they just get broken and I’ve never been much good with sticking to rules, even ones I make for myself. The whole ‘New Year, New You’ stuff is largely unachievable as I don’t think you can’t change yourself overnight; it’s much more subtle than that, much more about evolution and tweaking and gradual improvements – and not losing the awesome bits of you in the process or becoming a change/diet/fitness bore. I’m going to think much more in terms of goals and things to achieve this year, but for them to be foundations to be built on in years to come. The fact I’m about to tip over ‘mid-forties’ in 2016 isn’t entirely lost on me and it might be time to start thinking about a bit of ‘mind, body and soul’ long-term attention.

I definitely want to lose weight, and I know I should drink less and move more. But I’m going to focus on the ‘moving’ bit, rather than the ‘weight’ bit and hope one follows the other. I’ve set a goal to buy a pushbike around Easter-time and I’m going to learn to cycle. I mean, I can ride a bike, but haven’t done so since I was a child and not properly on a road. Seeing as how I’m so hideously unfit that will be quite a challenge, but I think getting out and about in the fresh air at the weekend will be good. Until then, it’s going to be about finding a rhythm and routine around going to the gym.

I am really interested in some of the School of Life classes and events and I might book myself into a couple of the shorter ones as a taster to see what they are like. I’m curious as I’ve never done anything like that before and there’s a wide range of topics. They are short enough to be doable and not too long to sit through if they are dull.

I’m also intending to plan my holidays and time off work better, making more of my weekend and evenings, rather than being so washed out by the week that it just becomes recovery time. I might even try and get a hobby or volunteer. I’d quite like to do something around mentoring, but don’t really know where to start, so might look into that. I want to focus on some key things at work and I also need to have a big clear out of stuff I don’t need at home – downsizing an office leaves you with lots of surplus furniture and it’s cluttering up the house, along with my mind.

I signed up to this fun website called Only Do 1 Thing, which sends you ‘nudges’ – something different to do every day. Not sure I’ll do them all (pretty certain I won’t) but it’s fun and might be an inspiration to do something I wouldn’t normally do.

I can’t really put much of this into action until I get back from holiday, so I’ll spend the last few days continuing to relax and thinking about how to achieve these goals and coming up with some more…and of course researching online where I can buy a nice wallchart and a paper diary 🙂

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4th January 2016

Travel

New Years Eve 2015

The staff at The Lalit hotel put on an amazing evening, with a sumptuous buffet and entertainment from a local band called ‘Rhapsody Out Loud’. We had a great time, generously included in our room package and saw 2016 in in full Indian style.

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2nd January 2016

Travel

The Lalit Hotel, Bekal, Kerala

The Lalit Hotel in Bekal is about 2 hours from Mangalore airport in Northern Kerala. There are only a couple of hotels in this area, as it’s largely uncommercialised and not yet fully on the tourist trail.

We had the hotel car pick us up from the airport as we didn’t fancy a 2 hour drive in the back of a cab. The driving in India is a pretty crazy white-knuckle ride, but at least with the hotel drivers you have more of a chance of them understanding your frantic instructions to ‘slow down’ and ‘whoa…don’t overtake on a blind hill/bend/bridge PLEASE!’

First impressions were good, we were greated with a Bindi, and a glass of kiwi juice and cold towels. We were then taken to our room in a golf buggy. We’d booked the Spa Room, which was lovely – large and well designed, with a gorgeous private patio and an outdoor jacuzzi. We never used the jacuzzi, but it looked nice!

In Kerala, non 5-star hotels are not allowed to serve ‘liquor’ (basically, any spirits). The sale of spirits is not permitted in any part of the state other than certain hotels, so we had a pretty alcohol-free week, with just the odd beer. We found out later that the cost of the alcohol licence is huge and most places can’t afford to buy them, as they struggle to make their money back. Wine is incredibly expensive in India, even the local brand, Sula, so we didn’t bother with it. Being almost booze-free on holiday was a bit odd to start with, but was quite an enjoyable change as we got into it.

The extensive grounds backed on to the backwaters, a beautiful river, which was in our ‘back garden’ outside our room. The river was surrounded by palm trees – truly mindblowingly beautiful. They seemed to be constantly maintaining the property and it’s incredibly clean and tidy.

The hotel only had one restaurant, and we were worried that might be a bit limiting, but the range of food on the menu was really varied, and there was a full buffet pretty much every day. The food was excellent, lots of South and North Indian dishes and a good range of western food for the days when we fancied something bland. On New Years Eve they really pushed the boat out, with an amazing buffet and entertainment.

The Lalit has to be the quietest hotel I’ve ever stayed at – we were quite often the only people round the pool. At times it was like having our own resort, and when other people were around they were all Indian families – we were the only westerners in the hotel, which was lovely. There is a great spa in its own building, I thoroughly recommend the Auyervedic full body massage and there is kayaking on the river, which we didn’t try.

This is definitely not an average holiday spot, and I would only recommend it if you are happy doing absolutely nothing. There’s not much to do in the surrounding area either, so make sure you have plenty of books to keep you amused. But if you want somewhere to rest, relax and recouperate it’s perfect. The rooms are spacious an the beds comfy. Oh, and beware – there’s only 1-hour a day of free wifi access, which makes you really think about what you want to look at online!

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1st January 2016

Travel

The Taj Palace Hotel, Mumbai

The Taj Mahal Palace is a grand dame of hotels. Regal, grand, aged and full of splendour. One of my favourite hotels in the world. Located in the Colaba district, right by the Gateway of India, the original hotel building was built in 1903.

We arrived at 1am on Christmas Eve, picked up at Mumbai airport by a hotel car, with fresh cold towels and iced water on hand. We were even offered to order room service from the car, so that it would be ready for when we arrived and checked in. We chose from the in-room dining menu and our driver called it in, to be in our room 15 minutes after arrival. Because of course, the first thing you try in an international hotel after a long flight is the club sandwich, with a duty-free JD and coke!

One thing I love about the Taj is that when their car picks you up, you don’t even have to go to reception to check in, they whisk you straight to your room and do all the boring admin stuff there.

We stayed at the Taj Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and left on Boxing day. The purpose of the stay was to unwind for a few days before flying onto Kerala. Unwinding basically involved a lot of lying down and a lot of room service, interspersed with cups of tea by the pool, and a lovely meal at their rooftop restaurant, Souk.

As per the time we stayed here before we excellent service, a lovely room and the chance for total relaxation – however my still-too-full-of-work-and-life head didn’t quite allow for proper sleep. It was that or jet lag, or a combination of both, but we still had a lovely time and a lovely start to the holiday.

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28th December 2015

Travel

Merry Christmas

Christmas decorations, India style.

The Taj Palace hotel always looks wonderful at this time of the year, they go overboard with wonderful Christmas decorations and of course, amazing hospitality. I love staying there over the festive period.

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25th December 2015

Live

December madness

December is always a crazy month – client drinks, work drinks, friends drinks, parties, shopping. This year I tried to be organised but it still got pretty bonkers.