Mooey's In Town...

.... and that means FOOD!!!!!

Yes that is a whole roast duck.  Don't worry, Smee was there to help us out. 

This Made Me Laugh

Yes, this indeed made me laugh.  I so want a dog! :D

Santa Maria del Sur

All that rope climbing and zipwire flying left Smee and I hungry, so what better to feed our muscles than a good lump of protein?  Smee had been wanting to try Argentine grill, Santa Maria del Sur for while but couldn't bear the thought of eating all that meat alone, so of course, I'm here to help.  

To share we had the Parrillada Deluxe (£27.50 pp) which includes a 14oz prime Argentine Sirloin steak, a 10oz grilled Argentine Fillet steak, two Argentine style pork sausages, morcilla and provolone cheese.  All served on a hot grill still being cooked by.. coals I think.  If your meat isn't cooked to your liking, just chuck it back on the grill :D  Don't let the cheese get burnt though.  

The meat was super succulent and the grilled cheese, well who doesn't appreciate the ooziness of grilled cheese?  Delish!  Mmm mmm mmm!!! 

Well we were definitely satisfied but I still had room for dessert.

I had the cheesecake de dulce de leche (£5, milk toffee cheesecake) while Smee had the flan casero con dulce de leche (£4.50 home made crème caramel with milk toffee).

Ok so the desserts were fairly so-so.  Smee's creme caramel was better than my cheesecake though.  I realise that I prefer my cheesecake more creamy than baked and dry.  

Santa Maria del Sur is a bit out of the way for us to get to but for a local, it's definitely worth a try.  Have a  bottle of red though - that'll help wash out the artery clogging effects.  

Go Ape

After deciding that we weren't flying out of London for the weekend, Smee and I decided to take advantage of the weirdly excellent weather and get our chimp on at a Go Ape ropes/zipwire course.  I first went two years ago and it was super super fun!  If it was possible, I would do this every day!  Smee couldn't make that occasion and had to run away on a jet place back to Oz.  His fear of heights certainly caused an excessive reaction.  But just recently, Smee had decided that Go Ape was 'easy'.  I showed him clips - 'Easy' he said.  I showed him the Tarzan rope - 'Easy' he said.  I don't disagree at all, it is easy!  But for Smee, I was a bit worried.  

We initially wanted to do the Leeds Castle course but it was booked out for the day :( so we headed back to where I first did the course at Bedgebury.  A word of warning when travelling to Bedgebury.  Give yourself a buffer of about 30 minutes 'getting lost' time because the GPS will direct you to the wrong entrance of Go Ape!  (Don't worry, the correct entrance is just a few hundred metres down the same road.)  This is what happened to us and we ended up arriving 15 minutes late to our safety briefing and understandably annoyed many of our fellow climbers.  We can also blame the extra slow service of the Park Gate Inn who took far too long to serve our food.  Nice surroundings in the pub though.  

With the harness and carabiners on the ready, we started on the first section which involved a short six metre rope walk and a zipwire with a maximum height of I dunno, two metres.  Smee initially got off the zipwire and said 'I'm going home'.  We didn't end up going home - he then decided he wanted to prove he was more manly than me! 

The second course.  So tough at the base of the rope ladder.  Smee found the rope net quite comforting.  Smee giving me the thumbs up from the ground.  

Smee's nervousness eventually gave way but only after verbally abusing the ropes.  'This is bullshit', 'Wtf', 'I should be home playing computer games'.  All lovely things to be heard by the very confident seven year old girl behind Smee and egging him on.

Smee goes across the wobbly planks.   

Hmmm.  They should probably think about replacing some of their ropes.  

There are some videos of today's adventure but they are full of expletives.  Anyway, we completed the course and had HEAPS of fun.  I got a few bruises from bumping the ropes too hard and Smee ate too much tan bark from his bumpy landings but all in all, a good day out.   More importantly, Smee is less scared of heights and wants to do the course again!  :D 

Hurrah! 

Seriously peeps, get your butt down to a Go Ape course.  

Buckingham Palace

Whilst serving a self-induced banishment in Rad-City, I came across something that tickled my excitement - Kate Middleton's dress going on display!  In the same way I was confused about how much I cared for the British monarchy, I was again a little confused about my excitement for Kate Middleton's dress.  The whole concept of royalty is outdated and based on battles and plundering!  But.. but... I couldn't shake off The Royal Wedding fever!  

Having lived in London for three years, it was never my priority to tour inside Buckingham Palace.  But now with the dress on display, hey, why not?  I had initially try to book tickets online on the day of release but the server crashed and I was left a bit disappointed.  Knowing that tickets are limited, I figured I missed my opportunity.  However, the drive from Heathrow to London home, passes the palace and I thought, 'Hey, I'm gonna try to get tickets again!'  Yay.  Ticket purchase successful!  Smee and I opted for the full works ticket which included access to the palace state rooms, Queen's gallery and mews.  The importance of pre-booking tickets was shown when we turned up at the palace gates.  So many other tourists were turned away as the daily quota for ticket sales had been reached.  

First stop, the Queen's Gallery.  

The Queen's stuff... for public adoration!  

Appreciating the stuff.

Next stop, the State Rooms within the palace.  No photography was allowed indoors - boo.  But it's as grand as one would expect.  Detailed decals, gold plated staircase, all that stuff.  I had the audio tour but I've pretty much forgotten everything that was said.  Kate's dress looked as it did on TV but even more impressive up close (or more like, as close as the general public were allowed).  Her shoes looked unworn and more importantly - my size!  Also on display were Kate's earrings, a replica of her bouquet and part of the original wedding cake.  The tradition is that the newlyweds keep the top two layers of the cake aside t o serve at their first child's christening.  Wedding cake can last that long?  

The only photo I was allowed inside Buckingham Palace was actually outside the palace back entrance.  

Next up, the Royal Mews.  This shows how poor my English is - I had no idea what was a mews.  In my defence, I've never come across a real mews in my life because living in Oz, they probably never built any!  Anyway, it's where the horsies and their handlers reside.  

The Glass Coach.  Wow so much history!  I'm so close, I can almost touch it!  Believe it or not, there weren't any security personnel in close range either. 

The Gold State Coach.  Even older!!  That wheel is massive. 

A brown horsey.  The youngest of them all.  *pat pat*  Smee got a lucky shot because when it was my turn to pose with the horsey, he turned around and showed it's bum.  

This is a Royal Watcher's delight but for everyone else, it's just an optional touristy activity.  For those interested in tickets, just be aware that the palace is only open over the Summer months.  As I said before, try to book your tickets at least the night before and avoid the lottery of trying to purchase them on the same day.  

Wahaca

On the other side of the world, Smee and I decided to check out the new Westfield Shopping Centre in East London.  Being a weekday and post-hype, we were fortunate enough to be not be squished among squillions of people.  It was pretty much a replica of the West-End Westfield. *yawn*

After all that mall trawling, we needed to fill our stomachs.  We'd always wanted to try Wahaca in Covent Garden (always full) so we were happy to see an outlet at Westfield Stratford.  A table for two please!

Wahaca serves Mexican street food and I had kinda been skeptical of the concept.  Mexican... for British tastes... hmmmm.  Would it be much like Wagamama (yuck!) which desecrates much of Asian cuisine?  Very possible.  With the not-so-pleasant experience of the cuisine-similar Newmarket Hotel in mind, I wanted to see how Wahaca stacked up.  

To start, Smee and I ordered:

Pork pibil soft tacos (£3.95 for three on a plate) and a Chipotle chicken quesadilla £3.85.  

Then we also added:

 MSC ceviche salad £7.95 (edible tortilla bowl!) and a British steak burrito £6.85 with Baja cheese (45p extra). 

Smee showing me the portion size.  Pretty generous! 

Ok, I'm going to discuss the tacos first only because I can directly compare them to the Newmarket Hotel.  Wahaca gave us three for £3.95 (AU$6.25, approx $2 each), whereas Newmarket served us two for AU$14-$16 (approx $7.50 each).  Taste wise they were just as tasty.  Wahaca's had a little less greenery but portion size was otherwise identical.  Eating tacos at Wahaca made me even more angry about Newmarket Hotel.  As a gross generalisation, food is better in Oz, but now Wahaca has made my world topsy-turvy.  I can't believe that London food is better than home!  The quesadilla chicken was nicely smokey and cheesy.  The ceviche salad surprisingly massive and filling.  The burrito was good too.  

Wahaca can't really be called a chain yet - it only has five outlets - but for a mini-chain, Smee and I were pretty impressed.  Whether Wahaca serves genuine Mexican fare, I can't really comment.  A Mexican person might express the same attitude I have for Wagamama - blergh!!!  All I can say that I'm happy to try more of the menu at Wahaca.  Give it a shot if you're sick of the usual British fish and chips, sandwiches and curry.