Catching up with Carmen.

My friend Carmen has been living in Shanghai like a dude since last August and she's back for 2 weeks. Vietnamese food and gossip was obviously mandatory. 

We holed up at Mien Tay on Kingsland Road; one of about 10 vietnamese restaurants there, but for some reason this is the only one we ever go to.

The food is good but it the menu is a bit daunting - they have goat on the menu...

Salt, pepper and garlic squid, my fave.

This was amazing - some kind of pancake thing with pork. 

King prawns with chilli and lemongrass.

Loving Carmen's nails. 

She's got some boomtastic Michael Jackson feather earrings.

Weird smile here.

Prawns are my best food EVER.

I don't know if this is a normal custom in Vietnam but we got orange segments at the end of the meal. It hit the spot. 

Worth a visit.

 I love you Carmen!! 

Homeward Bound PART 2 - The Royal Norfolk Show!

I've been going to the Royal Norfolk Show since I was tiny, but haven't been for years - until yesterday. 

As it's a country fair it entails a lot of livestock, tractors, horses, horsey people and of course food and free samples, which we greedily snaffled up. 

Usually its hard to get the fam' together for anything other than birthdays and Christmas but the Norfolk Show is special - it's a tradition. Amazingly we managed to get 3 out of 4 sisters and 2 parents.

We set off for a big day of hearty Norfolk country indulgence.

As I said - plenty of horses and horsey people.

Unfortunately they put the pig pen right next to the hog roast, so that was off the menu for me. 

The blonde and the brunette.

The 'Fudge Lady' (the woman who makes the best fudge in the world) was not there sadly and despite numerous free samples, we were able to confirm that none measures up to hers.

Mmmm there was raspberry wine and other goodies..

Long thin waffles!!

Crispy duck wrap, too bad I don't eat duck, it looks good. 

Ah the delightful chocolate fountain - which I always long to stick my face in. 

My mum got this amazing cheese, mushroom and spinach toastie, which sounds boring but was incredibly tasty. 

The eternal hunt for the perfect cheese...

I'm cupcake-obsessed right now.

Getting stuck in. 

Eh fatty bom bom!

God these look good. 

The rabbits were huge - I mean the size of small dog. 

Black and white chicken sponsored by Chanel. 

My sisters tried to get my dad to get a new car - to no avail. 

One was hatching right then!!

I'd never wanted to snuggle a chicken until then.

Ah the egg-judging, yes.. its an egg.. yes there's another egg - clear winner.

I always loved little ornaments, I managed to resist this time though.

Turkish delight for the little prince?

Adorable little puppy, asleep on the shoulder. 

Churros - had to be done, but would have liked a more thorough dredging in sugar and cinnamon.  

The comfiest swing bed ever. 

This 99 (what a laugh, it was £2.40!) was surprising good quality.

Two hats, those crazy kids and their fashion. 

Didn't get a cup of tea til the end of the day - it was welcome.

Gloriously old-fashioned.

I always always do the archery, I like to delude myself I'm good at it. I'm not. But my dad had a go - he's excellent at it.

I love this - side saddle!

This tiny boy was helping round up the pigs, so cute!

My dad had the over-optimistic idea of taking a picnic. Needless to say we left it in the car intending to return but never did so ended up having a car park picnic at the end of the day. Very embarrassing. 

See you soon!