North London - Holloway Road - Indian Ocean

My first North London discovery since revamping the bloggy structure!  This wasn't much of a discovery as I didn't happen upon it, but rather used the lovely Yelp app on my iPhone to find a relatively cheap place to eat around the N19 area.  I was meeting a friend I hadn't seen in a while for dinner so it had to be somewhere we could chill and talk.

Luckily it was found and we made plans to meet at Indian Ocean for 8pm.  The many reviews I came across online seemed to put them as a top notch Indian restaurant in the area.  Arriving fashionably late (the joys of getting out of Central in a timely manner), the first thing I noticed was the design. I suppose because I was actually looking for the place I was able to appreciate the effort they took in making it look like an Indian escape from the bustling city high street. I've walked past it so many times and never really noticed it before.

Taken from WhoseView.co.uk

When you walk in there's a reasonably large open seating plan and a wall lined with cosy booths separated by hypnotising cutout patterns. My friend had taken a spot in one of the booths which was perfect for our three hour dinner/catchup session.  The servers tried to make you feel like royalty even though the prices are made for the pesants, so that was appreciated as well.  They were quite accommodating to the fact that we spent the vast majority of our time talking and not spending much money, so I'll forgive one of the servers for hinting that it was time for us to leave when we had finished our meal about 30 minutes prior.

The detail in the booths

I'm not much of a curry eater, which I'm sure is some sort of living-in-England sin, and the reviews seemed to praise Indian Ocean quite a bit; but I would say for the price, this was a pretty good meal! I even walked away with some leftovers.  I've been on a coconut kick when it comes to my curry so I had a Murgh Korma while my friend ordered a beef dish with mushroom rice.  We were both very satisfied and it was a brilliant setting for catching up.

Indian Ocean - nothing spectacular but decent for the price. I will more than likely make my way there again if I'm in the area and craving a curry or showing friends around.

Indian Ocean Tandoori Restaurant can be found at:

359 Holloway Road
London
N7 0RN
Nearest Tube: Holloway Road

Beef and Mushroom Rice

Chicken in a creamy coconut sauce

West London - Wood Lane - BBC Television Centre

This weekend my friend invited me to the BBC Television Centre to watch a live taping of So You Think You Can Dance.  As a dancer, I was pretty excited to see this taping, but soon realised the dancing wasn't anything to be excited about.  Let's put it this way, if the UK dancers were auditioning for the US version, they wouldn't make it past the bloopers stage.

Anyhow, that's not the main focus of this post. I'm not much of a reality TV watcher, but seeing a 'live' taping of a reality show made me realise just how not 'real' it is.  I'm not even sure if the tears I saw from the loser were real. It was definitely 'recorded' in front of a live studio audience.

To start, they taped the group dance that comes on before the results show before the show even started. Did a few of Cat's lines then as well. Then we waited for ages and the actual show started. They did all of that and opened the phone lines for voting. We waited for about 30 mins (and I missed Doctor Who while we were there waiting!!) before they played the pre-recorded bits. The 'live' band was actually filmed the day before and then the people were voted off. But to be honest, she didn't really seem that sad in real life, the family didn't look that bothered. Did they know she was going to be voted off ages before it was announced? Was she just a really good actress? Oh well, the highlight was that John Barrowman was judging!!! 

I love you sir!

Here are the few photos that I was able to take, since they took our phones and cameras away from us before we even made it into the studio.

All ended well with a beautiful sunset at Willesden Junction

North London - Hollway Road/Holiday Road

Anytime I'm walking down Holloway Road, which, as I live in Upper Holloway I do on a regular basis, this gets stuck in my head.



Your homework children, is to go and watch as many National Lampoon's Vacation movies as you possibly can. Class dismissed

Central London - SPOTTED - Free Breakfast

Woohoo! I love free stuff. It was a very pleasant surprise to my typical grumpy morning commute when I exited Goodge Street Station and was greeted by cheerful people giving me free food.  Free is always good, it's probably the first word I try to learn in any language. I wouldn't be surprised if it was my first word in the English language. :)

Free brekkie

However, these happy-little-breakfast-waker-uppers didn't mention one thing: it was a soya based breakfast. I reckon most people would cringe at the thought of soya milk but I'm here to say, it really wasn't that bad!

Soya milk, soya cherry yogurt, 2 bags of Tetley designed for soya and some vouchers

I wouldn't go out of my way to use soya products, but it was a nice alternative to milk (which I don't drink very often...it doesn't do my body good ).  If soya lasts longer than standard milk and works the same in baking/cooking things, then I may be converted.  I only had one real issue with this package...

Tetley for soya?!? Really?  You need to make a tea designed specifically for soya milk? Je suis not amused, Tetley and co.

Are there any other soya drinkers out there that have tried Alpro and can give a better judgement? Leave a comment and let me know, maybe I'll give it a try.

Did you spot the Alpro team around London? Leave your spotting in the comments.

LONDON - Maybe it's because you're a Londoner

Cooklikemumdid did an excellent take on these adverts! I completely agree and couldn't stop laughing at this. Please God don't let me fall asleep on the 43, I've done it going out West before and ended in Willesden Junction though... :S