Casa Morita, Brixton

We stumbled upon Casa Morita in Brixton Market when we were in London last month to see The Postal Service at Brixton Academy. We were spoilt for choice in terms of the range of eateries but it was a busy Sunday afernoon and places were starting to get busy. We were both in the mood for Mexican and noticed that Casa Morita had some tables free. In we went!

The restaurant is small and welcoming with colourful decor. Little pots of chilli sauce and cutlery tins decorate each table. The 'door' opens onto the market walkway and there's a fun, if not slightly 'hipster', atmosphere about the market itself. The menu at Casa Morita is small but each of the dishes sound tasty. I went with a chicken enchillada served with refried beans. It tasted far better than it looked! It was very flavoursome and not at all heavy. 

Drink prices were reasonable (around £6 for a cocktail). I had a mojito, which was nice enough. M had a beer cocktail called a Michelada which was made up of his beer of choice, tabasco sauce, salsa and lime (I think). He wasn't too taken by it in the end. Serves him right for ordering the most obscure drink on the menu!

For us, the only thing that let Casa Morita down was the service. I liked the relaxed atmosphere but the food took quite a while to arrive and we'd ordered some tortillas to start, which we didn't get, and my drink was brought over after we'd more or less finished eating. 

I'd go back to Casa Morita because their food was delicious, the atmosphere was good and it was nice to eat more authentic Mexican food, rather than the 'American Mexican' I've become more used to. I'd just make sure I had a bit more time to spare!

UK Festivals: Greenman August 2009

Our Green Man experience was a while ago, sure, but this was, and I'm certain still is, a great festival and writing about Indietracks made me want to make a record of my Greenman weekend.

Greenman is another independent annual music festival. The festival borrows the stunning stunning Brecon Beacons as its backdrop and, in contrast to festivals like Glasto and Leeds Reading, tent pitches are within a reasonable distance of all the stages and workshop tents. The festival opened with an alternative ceremony of druid rituals, and the fun, folksy, family friendly atmosphere of the festival continued on from there.

Bon Iver, Wilco, Jarvis Cocker and Grizzly Bear were all on the bill for 2009, as well as British Sea Power, She Keeps Bees, Beach House and Camera Obscura and loads more. People sat out on the sloping hillside watching bands perform on the main stage, armed with great food and drink from the host of street food carts and real ale tents. Then there were smaller stages with more music, comedy, literature, poetry and science, and a hookha tent showcasing djs until the wee small hours.

There was an area dedicated to alternative therapies and wellbeing. I was tempted by a 'gong bath' but didn't get around to it. We went to a talk on 'Penisology' and, in complete contrast, went went on a guided walk to learn about worms! Einstein's Garden was another family friendly area with play areas, craft tents and lots of creative pretty. The massive wish tree was one of my favourite things at the festival. People were adding tags over the whole weekend.

This giant sculpture of the Green Man was set alight on the last night of the festival to mark the end of an awesome weekend.

I loved Green Man and wish we could have planned to return. We'll be getting ready for our Southeast Asia trip this year, but if you fancy a laid back, family friendly festival with opportunities to hear new music, chill out in beer tents playing board games, be part of a tough crowd for new comedy acts, or just fancy the opportunity to wear fairy wings, face paint and a daisy crown, I'd recommend Green Man. Did I mention that the toilets and showers are cleaned at least twice daily? Yes, that worked fine for me, too!

Liverpool's Giant Spectacular: Sea Odyssey April 2012

Last April, Liverpool had three larger than life tourists. I finally got around to watching the documentary about Liverpool's Giant Spectacular which has been sat in our Sky+ recordings for months and months. It took me right back to that weekend, almost one year ago.

The story, played out magically by the Royal De Luxe street theatre company, was inspired by a real letter that was sent by a little Liverpudlian girl, May McMurray, to her father the day before he set sail as a steward on the Titanic. Of course, sadly, the letter never reached him.

Image Source

In this magical story, created by Jean-Luc Courcoult, the artistic director of Royal De Luxe, the Titanic held a Giant stowaway:  

"...loaded on board during the night, unnoticed - a thirty foot tall Giant capable of travelling through time, on his way to another continent to meet his daughter, the Little Giant...

When the Little Giant heard the news, she sought out her uncle, the Great Giant's brother. While listening to her, the uncle made a decision that was to take him a century to carry out.

First, he would make himself a diving suit. Then he would scour the ocean floor for the shipwreck. After that, he would bury his brother in the deep-sea bed. Most importantly, he would come back with the letter the Great Giant had written to the Little Giant Girl. This is why he walked for many long years across the ocean floor, pulling the Titanic's mail trunk to bring back the post to Liverpool.

This is a story about my Giant adventures in Liverpool last April.

Saturday 21st April

We (me, M, my mum and my brother) set out to find the Giant Uncle as he searched the city for his niece, the Little Girl Giant. When we caught up with him, he was wandering through the city centre looking for her. He was incredible. Massive. Dare I say it, a little bit scary! We joined crowds of people lining the roadside watching as this giant in a diver suit, brought to life by puppeteers in funny little red outfits, made his way down towards Liverpool's Chinatown. He jumped over the beautiful Chinese gate and continued down to Liverpool's dock area.

As we arrived at Kings Docks we saw the Little Girl Giant on a massive boat, led by her Giant Dog, Xolo, travelling down towards us from a different direction. Amazing sight! She was beautiful, with big eyes that took in the sights of the people below her.

Then, after 100 years of searching, the Little Girl Giant was finally reunited with her Uncle at Kings Dock. He read her a letter written by her Great Giant father that he had kept hold of for all of these years. She did a little dance suspended in the air and then moved to rest on his lap and fell asleep. Giants have a very loud snore. True.

Naturally, we wanted to be giants, too.

Sunday 22nd April

M's mum and dad came to visit and we went on a second day of giant hunting. By the time we had managed to find somewhere to park, the giants had woken up and started to make their way around the city, exploring Liverpool's sights together. The giants were in a celebratory mood and littered the streets with sparkles and letters as they moved through the streets to music. We joined the crowds at the edge of the Albert Dock, waiting to say goodbye to the Little Girl Giant and her Uncle as they sailed off down the Mersey. It's a bit of a 'Spot the Uncle' in this first photograph but he's there, I promise!

We rushed over to the main dockside and said 'ta-ra' to the giants for the last time.

Liverpool is an amazing place to live and makes a great place to visit for a weekend. There are so many brilliant, often free, events throughout the year and there is so much to see around the city. Over the next two month's Liverpool is hosting a literary festival and a late night culture-vulture night, where museums and gallerys are open into the wee small hours. The Albert Dock has long been a favourite spot of mine. If Fred the weather man's map isn't enough to draw you there, it's full of history and the former warehouse spaces house museums, galleries, restaurants, bars and lovely shops, including my childhood favourite sweet shop, Quay Candy. If you get there, try their homemade fudge which comes in pretty much every flavour you could want! Needless to say, we stopped in after our Giant adventure and stocked up on fudge before heading home to look at all our photos!

Did you manage to see Liverpool's giants last April? I want to do something with some of these pictures; maybe make one as a large canvas as a way to help us remember such a 'Spectacular' weekend, but which one to pick?

Birthday Fun: Bringing In My 28th Year

March 18th was by 28th birthday. Birthdays can be lots of fun, but I'm perhaps an unusual case and don't typically get very excited in the run up to my birthdays. I think this is something that changed when my dad died before my 17th birthday. It's a little bit the same with Christmas and other celebrations, too. That being said, I had organised a few things to bring in my 28th year. Here's how I celebrated.

Saturday I had a spa day at a Bannatyne Spa in Manchester with my girls. We started the morning with a relaxing back neck and shoulder massage followed by a scalp massage. Afterwards, we moved around between the pool, sauna and spa pool catching up on each other's news. The spa experience was nice, although there was no steam room or poolside loungers and the wet area was small and became crowded very quickly. We followed up our spa with a Nandos and vino. Two mains were around 10 minutes later than the rest arriving to us and we received a complimentary chocolate cheesecake each, served with it's own little jug of cream, as an apology. You're forgiven, Nando's!

On Sunday, my wonderful husband took me to a local Thai restaurant, Chaba Chaba. This wasn't the original plan. Before our rascal cat broke his tail, we were due to go to a spa hotel in Wales. Plans had to be reviewed now that we're manually emptying his bladder several times a day while we give him time to see if he can recover it for himself. Anyway, we live ten minutes away, at most, from a road full of restaurants from Greek and Chinese, to Mexican. We've not really made good use of any of these restaurants and so it was good to use my birthday as an excuse to try and find a new favourite. The menu was great and food was fresh and flavoursome. After a starter, main and dessert, I was very satisfied! I was spoilt for choice so I'm sure we'll go back and work our way through their menu.

After waking up on my birthday morning at 7.45am to express Jacques' bladder (!), I opened cards and gifts from my husband, family and friends. My friend had made me some beautiful cushions, too; the crafty lady. A good haul for 9am in the morning. I felt pretty darn spoilt.

Armed with a birthday pecan plait and massive mug of hot chocolate, we snuggled on the sofa watching The Graduate. We drove over to the Wirral and had a cold and wet walk along the Wirral Coastal Path and tried to take phone pictures of a beautiful rainbow. We had plans with my mum and brother later that night but fancied a light lunch so we stopped off at Hickory's Smokehouse in Caldy. Boy oh boy! This place is AMAZING. The restaurant had a fun, Americana feel, staff were super friendly, and we were served with water and complimentary popcorn on arrival. It was already looking good, and then I ordered a 'Big Pig Sandwich' (smoked pulled pork) and a 'Texas Cream Soda' cocktail: maraschino cherries, orange, and lemon, shaken with vanilla vodka and sweet cherry liqueur, finished with Goose Island Orange Cream Soda. It was gorgeous! Top marks for Hickory's. We've already planned a return visit with friends who live over 'that side of the water', as we say in Liverpool.

We raced home and had to find our appetites to make and eat a paella meal with my mum and brother and his girlfriend. More gifts, including a birthday balloon, a shopping day with my mum, Bumble and Bumble hair mask, Lily Flame 'Fairy Dust' candle, Mac goodies, musical earmuffs and lots of other girly treats. My mum's an awesome gift buyer! Just when I thought I couldn't eat any more, we polished off my homemade crème brûlée and I was presented with a One Direction birthday cake. Oh yes! M had taken care to place the candles directly into One D's members' lovely little eyes, making them look a tad demonic once the candles were out!

A wonderful birthday: quality time with favourite people, tasty food and lovely gifts. So, here we go; lets see what this, my 28th year, might bring! Make a wish...

Once Upon a Weekend

Another fun weekend. On Friday we tried out Lark Lane's Caribbean restaurant, Raggas. I had jerk chicken and M had jerk prawns, both served with coleslaw, rice and beans. The food was fresh, colourful, inexpensive and tasted delicious. Better still, it was BYOB so we took a bottle of vino and drank it out of tumblers.

Afterwards, we popped over to Bier, a busy, candle lit bar serving beers from around the world. Love a good unplanned dinner date and it was good to feel our age on a Friday night, even if we did mutter about how loud the music was!

Saturday I was in work for an open day but in the afternoon, my beautiful friend and her new husband came over to look at the photographs I took at their wedding last weekend. 

Saturday night we met up with friends for Mexican food and a showing of Grease at the cinema. Cue lots of singing and hand jive!

Sunday was February's official 'Date Day'. I cannot remember if I've mentioned this before, but basically for our wedding anniversary I made up a box of date day vouchers (paper), one for each month with a particular activity that we love to do together. This month was spa pampering. I am lucky that I have a man who jumps at the idea of a spa day, who has enjoyed countless massages and loves getting wrinkled in a hot tub.

We went to Rookery Hall and Spa in Cheshire, about an hour drive from us. After one of the most friendly, helpful spa inductions I've had, we changed and headed straight for the glass roofed pool side and worked our way through the sauna, crystal steam room, hydrotherapy spa pool and swimming pool. This area is open to all health club members but even for a Sunday it didn't get too busy. Wrapped in fluffy robes, we took advantage of the spa relaxation areas, available to spa customers only and complete with complimentary water, juice, herbal teas, and fruit. Our treatments were quite late in the afternoon so we had something in the spa cafe before enjoying a very relaxing aromatherapy massage. I think I floated out of that treatment room!