northern cities beginning with L

We visited lil sis over in Leeds last friday, and she took us to the edgiest food court in the UK. If you can call it a food court (is essentially what it is). The Trinity Kitchen in Leeds houses around 30 small food&drink businesses which are constantly changing. It's so brill. We were taken aback by the state of the 'Love Rouge Bakery' cupcakes. BATTENBERG FLAVOUR ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Anyway, never in a mall food court have I been able to lunch on Coca Cola from the glass bottle, a Lebanese meze and a blueberry cupcake in one sitting. Highly recommend.

I've also managed to get over to Liverpool (the other of the two other-northern-cities-almost-as-good-as-manchester) this week while I've been at home: we managed to get our hands on tickets to see Miranda at the echo arena. Such fun. So much wine.

These are a few shots from my enthralling time at home otherwise: delivering Easter presents (there are creme eggs inside those - how ridiculous and wondrous); reawakening my love of peanut butter in the absence of chocolate; having my mind blown at the discovery that Coach from New Girl is the REAL SON OF the Dad from My Wife & Kids (I actually gasped); hopping on the #nomakeupselfie bandwagon.

I have a lot to say on that final matter and tweet me @meganclaire3 if you want to pull this apart with me, but I'm overall a bit disappointed with the criticism of this campaign. I'm not disagreeing with the point that there is something more sinister underlying the selfie-without-makeup but I've seen much worse narcissism and insecurity on facebook. (Aren't all pictures we upload to facebook an act of narcissism? Discuss.) This campaign has managed to draw in over £8million in less than a week, primarily from young people. I haven't seen many other campaigns manage this level of engagement with Generation Y/Z and so I applaud it. I don't wear that much makeup on a daily basis, but unlike others I did not take this as a reason to ignore/deny the campaign a picture and a £3 donation. I suggest you go donate to the cause of your choice now and feel happy and jolly in however much makeup you wear.

cambridge in the RGB

set honey, getinmabelleh

I'm really loving where we're living this year: this is Jesus Green & Midsummer Common by the river. It's pretty dreamy.

Couldn't not get a shot of this gal's crazy backpack as she picked up her daddy from the half marathon. What a babe.

cambridge in the BW

blueberry grilled cheezus

I'M FINALLY HOME. I still have one more coursework deadline before I can take a bit of time off, but obviously had some ultimate procrastination inspiration after seeing a Balsamic and Blueberry Cheese Toastie recipe on my friend Ed's mouth-watering food blog. Ermagahd. So tasty. I recommend using way better bread like in Ed's pictures (not Warburton's granary) and way better cheese (not tesco value cheddar) but still delicious anyway. I couldn't be bothered washing/getting a new pan out so I put the toastie right in there with the leftover blueberry and balsamic. Hence the remnants of murdered blueberries on the outside of my toastie. Thanks Ed!!

feasting

This post is very long overdue. Before we emptied the nest for uni this term Chef (Richard) cooked us up this amazing feast. Good egg he is. It speaks words about me that I often post pictures of food other people made on my own blog. There's no way you'll be seeing me trying this one in my grotty Cambridge kitchen. Mum made the cocktails - she's a pretty skilled mixologist these days. We had fresh pornstar martinis, of course heavy on the martini.

I got very up close and personal with this impressive assiette of desserts, and we went old-school and played cribbage afterwards. Spiffing. By the way no postproduction with these snaps - a mixture of couldn't be bothered / thought the food looked good anyway.

I've reached the end of my tether in Cambridge right now and plan on returning to the homeland tomorrow. Hope I haven't inspired too severe a bout of food envy. Naht.

rubbing shoulders with celebs

It happened. (See my last post). I met Darcey Bussell and looked her fully in the eye and couldn't stop just saying 'Thank you'. I'm such an idiot. Forgot to ask for a photo and everything. But she did see the shoes and a sharpie in my hands and figured out what I wanted so now I have a pair of pointe shoes signed by my idol!! I'm still a bit in shock from it. My cousin Iain shared in the joy with me (right).

I was lucky enough to have another celebrity meeting on Friday night - I've been a fan of The Other Tribe for a while now and saw them at Queen's May Ball in summer last year. Turns out they were headlining at my own college ball and I managed to nab a photo with the lead singer. (Looking a bit dishevelled after four hours of #balling). I asked him to marry me but he didn't hear me. Maybe next time.

broth and ballet

I made quite a tasty chicken & asparagus & noodle & some other stuff broth last night - with these gorgeous large field mushrooms. I took a picture of the finished project but it made quite an ugly dish so it won't be gracing my blog. Tell you who will be gracing my blog though: Darcey Bussell. I'm anxiously sat waiting at the Union for her talk to begin tonight (got here 2 hours early, I'm very serious about this). When I found out she'd be speaking this term I packed my pointe shoes to come back with me, and they've been hanging on my mirror for 10 weeks waiting to be signed by one of my favourite ballerinas. Hopefully in the next post you'll be seeing pictures of Darcey and I hugging, exchanging loving glances, and my first pair of pointe shoes marked forever with her autograph. I've got to develop a plan over the next hour of how I'm going to achieve this. So nervous. So much pressure.