Live music @ Pizza Express

You may know pizza express as a place where you go to sit down and eat pizza, well you wouldn’t be wrong but you can also do so much more on your visit. As I have previously posted about, you can attend a pizza making party and create your own dinner before it is cooked and served to you at the table. Well did you know that you can also indulge in your favourite dough balls while listening to sultry sounds of Jazz music from some well known artists and up and coming singers?

There are four locations that host live shows everyday and tickets are available to purchase to attend these, there are also branches across the country that feature free live performances every Thursday. One of these playlist venues is the newly furnished Greenwich Pizza Express restaurant.

Situated within a world heritage site in the heart of Greenwich the warm blue and brown tones in the décor are designed to compliment the tradition design of the building and the walls are adorned with photographs of artists performing live, including Amy Winehouse who had previously sang at the Soho Jazz club branch of Pizza Express.

I attended Pizza Express with a group of other bloggers to experience the live music performance and sample their food which now includes a much wider range for vegan and gluten free diets.

While waiting for our food to arrive our performer for the evening, Darren Campbell, started his set and I browsed the programme on the table to see who else would be on this month.

Darren was great, he played a number of well known songs and really blended in with the atmosphere without being over the top. It was nice to have someone singing live in such a small setting and the room wasn’t full so it felt intimate and cosy. Would probably make a great first date for somewhere relaxing with an added something special!

We started our meal with a platter of classic Italian antipasto which included a selection of Italian meats, olives and sundried tomatoes. It is probably not something I would have chosen to order so it was good to try something I wouldn’t normally eat and I particularly loved the bread with Calabrese sausage and buffalo mozzarella. There were also vegan dough balls and bruschetta for the vegans among us.

For a main course I chose the pollo pesto which is a penne pasta with a pesto and béchamel sauce, chicken, mushroom and a nice added crunch of red onion. The pasta wasn’t as hot as I would have expected it but warm enough to eat. It was really tasty and flavoursome and something I would order again. The other dishes looked equally as delicious too.

I was actually feeling really stuffed after eating the whole bowl of pasta and finished my meal with a latte while a few others went for the sticky toffee Bundt cake – if only I didn’t eat those starters!

I had a really lovely night of food, drink, music and company.

I often go out to eat and then cant be bothered to go onto another venue because I am stuffed and just want to relax. If you are the same then the live performance at Pizza express is the perfect way to combine your evening all in one sitting.

If you want to find out more about the Pizza Express live or to see what artists are performing at a branch near you then check out their website. If music isn’t your thing there are also some comedy shows included in the line up too!

 

*written in collaboration with pizza express, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

 

A movie on the roof

Last year I went to watch The wolf of wall street in the park. It was my first experience of an outdoor movie and after leaving halfway through after nearly catching frostbite I thought it would be my last.

Fast forward to 2017 with an invite to the rooftop film club and I think how bad can it be? Well it did include deckchairs rather than sitting on a blanket on the grass and they do provide blankets so possibly warmer than previous experience.

The rooftop film club has four venues across London and I attended the Bussey building which is a rather old, industrial concrete building that has been saved from demolition by being turned into a top arts venue.

After breathlessly reaching the sixth floor we were told to enter the left hand side which is where the rooftop bar is situated. As the event was in collaboration with Corona we were given a bottle to enjoy accompanied by some tapas from Rockadollar dogs to eat while taking in the stunning sunset views of the city until the film was ready to start.

Luckily the weather at this point was quite mild and there wasn’t a raindrop in sight. We were given a fleecy blanket although it was quite thin so I’m glad I wrapped up for the occasion. We were also given a pair of headphones like the ones used for the silent discos with adjustable volume so you can listen to the film as loud or as quiet as you like, it also drowns out the sound of other people talking and doesn’t make you feel so self conscious about making a noise as you would in a normal cinema. An added bonus is that the headphones also keep your ears warm!

The views on the screening side were just as great and the deckchairs were more comfortable than I expected. The movie on show was Romeo and Juliet (it seems outdoor cinemas have a thing about Leonardo DiCaprio) and most of the films on show are cult classics from across the decades.

I hadn’t previously watched The 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and it was explosive to say the least, a lot more action than I was expecting from a love story but the visual cinematic version definitely brought the story to life. The rooftop was a perfect setting for the movie, as the wind blew in one of the scenes you could see and feel the wind blowing around you which made you feel cold like you were there with the characters. Sitting under the stars watching aeroplanes sail above makes for a rather romantic evening of movie watching, and if it was warmer it would have been a perfect date night. As I am adverse to the cold I think I will look forward to my autumn evenings on the sofa and wait until summer comes back around before attempting another outdoor movie night.

Tickets for the rooftop film club are £15 which includes the headphones and blanket but there also membership options available.

Have you ever experienced outdoor movie watching?

Photography project – Kensington Palace

I recently attended Kensington palace to photograph some beautiful florals at an event that was taking place there. While waiting for the displays to be set up I thought I would take a look around and photograph the amazingly ornate rooms as I have never visited the palace before.

The rooms were really spectacular and I heard the gardens are just as beautiful but I didn’t have time or energy to go looking around after spending hours photographing so I hope to go back and have a look around the outside on another day.

Have you ever visited any of the royal palaces?

Fruit picking with Fruit Shoot @ Home cottage farm

With the stress of back to school looming we were invited by Fruit Shoot to take part in some fruit picking at Home cottage farm which made a lovely final summers day out.

Home cottage farm is a small family run ‘pick your own’ farm on the outskirts of Uxbridge. We travelled to the farm on the busy tube network which accompanied by four nosebleeds from Kieron made for an eventful journey. It was worth it to enjoy the tranquillity of the country surroundings, wading through raspberry bushes and apple trees. We were accompanied by other bloggers and unfortunately we arrived slightly late so the raspberries were sparse by the time we reached them with our basket, but it made it fun having to search for the perfect berries to pick.

We had the option of picking blackberries, raspberries, apples and plums but didn’t want to carry too much as we had a long journey back via rush hour mayhem so we just stuck with the raspberries and apples.

Although it was pouring down with rain on our journey the sun made an appearance later in the afternoon and we were treated to a lovely picnic on the grass with lots of healthy goodies to indulge in. We were accompanied by author and master baker Holly Bell who was a finalist in The Great British Bake Off and made us some delicious treats that were free from refined sugar and instead filled with the natural sweetness of fruit.

We had a selection of savoury treats followed by loaf cake, muffins and my favourite, this succulent and sweet flapjack that I never would have guessed contains no sugar! This was all washed down with refreshing Fruit Shoots in a range of flavours. We were given the recipes and a children’s baking set so we could make them at home or come up with our own delights. As this recipe is really simple (and I’m no Holly Bell) I will definitely be trying this out!

The message of the day is that you can enjoy sweet treats without having to compromise on your health and that real fruit is a great alternative to other artificial sweeteners and refined sugar.

Did you know that Fruit Shoot is made with real fruit?

There is real fruit in every drop of Fruit Shoot and each and every one is filled with multi-vitamins. Better still, there isn’t any added sugar, artificial colours or flavourings at all.

As somebody that eats far too many unhealthy snacks this was a great opportunity to find alternatives and I am going to attempt to give up refined sugars and enjoy more natural substitutes instead.

Do you have any tips for giving up sugar?

*written in collaboration with fruit shoot, all opinions are my own

currently reading

I have now read 21 books out of my 45 book target so still shy of halfway…eek!

I am back at University soon and will be writing my dissertation so will be including any books I have to read for that, only if they are novel type books, not text books that I will be scanning or skimming for information! My dissertation is all about people that make a living through their photographs via social media without having any formal training as opposed to the more traditional way of becoming a photographer. I have bought the books The cult of the amateur and The medium is the massage and will be visiting the library next week to find some more.

The other books on my list include my usual favourite thriller types Blood sisters and The breakdown which is by the same author as Behind closed doors, one that I really enjoyed a couple of months ago. I saw that Everything, Everything has now been released as a film and it has been in my wish list for some time so I ordered it to read before watching the movie. I also downloaded some books for my kindle so I can read on the go, I chose these two which were both free on the kindle store and can possibly help me to hold onto summer for a bit longer.

Now if you read my last update then I would definitely recommend A thousand splendid suns and Small great things. They are both completely different but as equally heart-breaking and thought provoking. As I was reading Small great things I imagined it being set in the 60’s but then realised it was actually 2015. It is easy to forget the struggles that others are facing in the world when you are not exposed to it and I am definitely grateful for growing up in a more accepting part of the world.

Another of the books that surprised me was The Saturday supper club. It has been on my shelf for ages and I wasn’t expecting much from it (that old chestnut – you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover) but actually I found it quite enchanting, think Come dine with me meets Jeremy Kyle.

Hopefully my next update wont be too long as I have a lot of books to catch up on! Any recommendations?

Jimmy’s world grill @ O2

After our adventure on the Emirates cable car which you may have seen on a previous post, we returned to Greenwich in search of something to eat.

As well as being one of the countries largest music and events venues the o2 is also home to a vast amount of food and drink establishments including well known restaurants such as Harvester, Nando’s and Pizza express. We decided we wanted to try something a bit different and opted for a mixture of food at Jimmy’s world bar and grill.

We thought the £9.99 price was really reasonable although I was surprised that this didn’t include soft drinks like similar buffet restaurants I have been to. I suppose the price would be higher because of the prime location. Children under 10 are half price and children under 3 are free which is great if you have little ones! unfortunately I don’t!

The restaurant itself is really large and seats 400 people. It was about half full when we arrived so seemed to be a popular choice for visitors to the o2. Usually you are given a 2 hour slot but because of the time we arrived we only had 50 minutes, this is because between 4 and 5 o’clock the restaurant changes over to the evening menu and so we had to leave by 4. If I had known this before going in I probably would have eaten elsewhere because I then felt like I had to rush my food and didn’t really get the opportunity to browse all the dishes that were available.

When we were shown to our table we were told that a waiter would come and take our drinks order and we could help ourselves to food. The waitress didn’t arrive until we were on our second plate of food which is another reason why a place that is so big should offer an option to include drink in the price so you can help yourself.

The food was tasty and filling but I was expecting a much wider range (maybemore is available in the evening as the price does go up then) I think because the food is kept in large lidded metal containers it puts you off trying out different meals because you cant be bothered to lift them all up to see what is in them We stuck with the curry and the pizza dishes but wanted to leave room for dessert too.

As our table was quite far from the food I asked the kids to bring me dessert while they were getting theirs. They thought the ice cream was really nice but wasn’t impressed with the options on offer.

Our experience of Jimmy’s wasn’t really great but I would go back because I think if we had more time we would have enjoyed our meal more and got better value for our money.

There are six branches of Jimmy’s across the country, have you ever visited any?

 

Afternoon tea @ Chelsea harbour

As somebody who loves to visit new places I was lucky enough to receive some lovely birthday presents from my family including a spa day with massage and facial which I am yet to use (it is booked for October) and vouchers for an afternoon tea for two at the Chelsea harbour hotel.

The Chelsea harbour hotel is situated close to the river Thames, a short walk from Imperial wharf station and is overlooking the affluent area of the imperial wharf marina.

My daughter and I arrived early for our booking so had an opportunity to take a stroll around the area and along the river, we were surprised at just how empty it was with just a few other people around. With the sun shining and the sights of boats on water is felt like we were exploring the Mediterranean for the afternoon.

As we entered the hotel we were really impressed with the swanky interior and with it being equally as quiet as it was outside we were welcomed straight away by the nice waiter on the desk.

The waiter informed us that we had a table booked inside but as it was such a nice day he asked if we would prefer to dine on the balcony which was really sweet of him and although I don’t usually like eating outside on street level (yes I can be a snob sometimes) I couldn’t say no to the views of the marina on the balcony.

We were first served with water followed by peach bellinis and then our platter of finger sandwiches, scones and cakes. While eating we were asked which tea we would like from a selection by Whittards.

It was nice to have everything delivered at once as we didn’t have to wait for anything the only problem was that the table became a bit of a squeeze! I really liked the presentation of the afternoon tea, the slate trays are very modern but it was accompanied by traditional, pretty china plates and cups.

 

Whenever I see an afternoon tea they always look tasty but I never expect them to be filling…I was wrong! Jasmin couldn’t even finish her cakes and I struggled to get all mine down. The sandwiches were a nice variety with really soft bread and the freshly baked scones were the best I have tasted, don’t think I could go back to shop bought ones after those!

Although I am very much a coffee drinker I do like a cup of tea on occasion. I chose the piccadilly blend which had a subtle floral flavour while Jasmin went for the English Rose. One of us kept forgetting to use the tea strainer so ended up drinking the tea leaves (In the words of Shaggy – it wasn’t me)

We probably spent around an hour at the hotel, the staff were very conscientious, constantly checking on us to see if everything was ok and we had a thoroughly  delightful afternoon.

I would love to try out afternoon tea at other venues, where is your favourite?