NEW BLOG ADDRESS

Hiya! Finally breaking the blogging silence but in a new address www.doubleu1.com! Update your bookmarks and come and say hello over there.


Minna x

SORRY FOR SILENCE!

I haven't been swallowed by the earth... The "couple of days" break has just been stretched into a couple of weeks whilst I've been juggling a million things. Oranges amongst others. (Flattering picture, don't you think, ha?) We have some technical issues to sort out with the new layout before I can start properly blogging again. Next week that will be and that's a promise. In the meantime you can always follow me on my fav social media Instagram.

Hope it's a lovely summer's day where ever you are! I'm in London town with my girlies and tonight I have a fun hen night ahead of me with my older girlies! Stay tuned.


Minna x

LONDON WEDDING AND A NEW LOOK

Hello lovelies! W1 will soon have a new, cleaner look. To get that going there will be a couple of days' blogging break as of tomorrow.

I on the other hand went for the opposite of a new look at last Saturday's wedding. I chose some good old pieces from my wardrobe. This dress has appeared on the blog already a couple of times. I keep on going back to it as I love everything about it, the shape, material and colour. The sandals and the Chloe bag are my wardrobe staples that I keep on wearing time after time too.

The wedding was a lot of fun! I love weddings; deciding what to wear, seeing what kind of wedding dress the bride has chosen and how beautiful they look, being part of the couple's special day, seeing them walk down the isle (and getting teary over it, obviously!), hearing the speeches and just enjoying the day with old and new friends. 

We have another wedding to attend this weekend in Italy. I say "a wedding" but in fact it's a whole of three parties! Plus a lunch! Imagine the outfit planning... Luckily for one of the parties everyone's outfit is provided for. A type of outfit I've never worn before and am very excited about ;-)

As soon as I get the new blog layout working smoothly I'll tell you about Italy. Shouldn't be too long. 

Minna x

FIRE AND FEATHERS

Sorry for a couple of day's silence on the blog. I travelled back to France from London very early on Sunday morning and wanted to embrace the one family day we had that week. Then yesterday it was a day of unpacking and tackling mountains of laundry. 

But let's get back to London. I really want to tell you about a great, brand new spot on Fulham Road called Fire and Feathers. It's a new restaurant that serves the best ever piri piri chicken. The cuisine is from Portugal, the food delicious, atmosphere casual and relaxed and the bill won't break the bank either.

Let me show you some of the dishes. Some nibbles in the format of garlic carrots. Yummy! I wouldn't eat these on a date though... they are seriously garlicy!

Especially if topped up with these; garlic prawns. Soooo tasty.

Meet the proud owner and my friend, Harry.

Back to the food; a grilled vegetable and halloumi salad. There aren't many things better than halloumi are there?

Some side orders; rice, peas and tomato. I could have eaten the tomatoes as their own dish, they were that good.

And then the signature dish of Fire and Feathers, their chicken. It was unbelievably good. You can choose the level of your preferred hotness. I liked the hottest!

A quick drink outside on the street in the warm summer night. 

And some posing! This is how casual Fire and Feathers is. Jeans are totally appropriate even on a Friday night.

Back to the bar. I have to tell you, they make the most incredible cocktails. And the bar is nice and lively to hang out in.

Bye! I went home with a very full tummy of delicious food.

Well done Harry!

Minna x

LONDON LOFT

Here's some Saturday inspiration in the format of a very cool East London pad. Shoreditch is a total contrast to West London where I used to live. It's cool, edgy and young. And so is this flat. I love the decor. Very New York1

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. I'm soon going to get across town again for our friend's wedding. Will be a lovely day no doubt!

Minna x

LONDON CALLING

There is no better place on earth than London! To me, at least! When I got here yesterday I was literally smiling to myself whilst walking through the busy streets. I was trying to find a cab, dragging my suitcase through endless building works (Why is my suitcase always so heavy? Must be a manufacturing problem.) and clutching onto my M&S bag of goodies and I felt like I was in heaven! (Why oh why can't there be an M&S everywhere in the world? Btw I'm proud to tell you that all those goodies in that bag were "clean"... berries, nuts, chicken and tomatoes. That bag could have easily contained chocolate covered Brazil nuts, Jelly Babies and Percy Pigs but I walked past them as quick as I could!!)

You can probably spot from the pictures that they were not taken anywhere that I used to live! I'm in the East End for the weekend... Shoreditch to be exact. A whole new experience for me! But now... I'm going to take the tube across town and head to Notting Hill ;-) Have a great Friday everyone!

Minna x

SUPER SPECIAL CHEAT MEAL

Thank you so much for all the comments to my previous post! One of the best thing about this blogging hobby is definitely interaction with you all. On the Finnish blogs that I follow (or I try to follow, I've been useless at it all year but getting better now that I have more time) I've noticed a very unpleasant and also rather odd phenomenon... When you talk about food or exercise you receive a lot of nasty comments. People get awfully angry over it. I fail to understand why but nevertheless I was very happy to not receive any. All the comments were so thoughtful and smart. They made my day.

I mentioned in that post that I'd tell you about my cheat meal last week. This was the setting I had it in. In the most beautiful little hillside village between Nice and Monaco called Eze. In Eze there is the most beautiful restaurant called La Chevre D'Or. I have spent many summers in the South of France already but had never made the effort to dine there before. Mostly due to the fact that the menu is fine dining and it's not the kind of thing my other half and I normally go for. However my Mother-In-Law and I made a pact that this summer the two of us wouldn't just stick to our usual haunts but go and explore new restaurants. Small and big, near and a bit further, cheap and expensive, smart and casual... just everything. Well La Chevre D'Or ain't cheap and it ain't casual but it's an experience worth having. 

La Chevre D'Or is located in a small boutique hotel by the same name. Upon arrival you walk through their beautiful gardens overlooking the most stunning views over the Riviera.

My usual camera was out of action that evening but my backup one didn't do too bad of a job capturing this pink beauty!

My Mother-In-Law tried to get me to pose properly and position my feet the way they were told to position them in her modelling days. Ha, no chance of that! 

I was wearing my Issa dress from some years ago. It felt grown up and smart enough for the occassion.

How about this pose then? A school teacher comes to mind! (No offence to school teachers but you know what I mean... I hope!)

The views really were breathtaking. It's a shame that a camera can never capture it like your eye can.

Here she goes! She puts my poses to an absolute shame! What's also a shame is that you can't see her handbag more closely. It's the most beautiful, special edition Louis Vuitton little number from years ago. I can't stop drooling over when ever she wears it. It's incredibly impractical and only fits in credit cards and an iPhone, not even a lipstick but who cares, it looks the part!

The bar inside La Chevre D'Or.

And the bar outside. How lovely is that?

I can't even be bothered to say anything about my poses anymore. But cheers!

After enjoying a glass of champagne whilst enjoying the views we got seated to our table.

The restaurant itself is inside but the views are equally incredible and the room itself stunning. I didn't find the setting too stuffy either, which fine dining can often be.

Let's get started. Some amuse-bouche. I can't remember what they were exactly but I can remember that I ate them all with pleasure! 

The bread. I had already eaten half of it when it occurred to me to take a picture of it. Sorry. It looked much nicer whole. It had a pinch of lemon in it and it was warm and fresh and soft and salty. Amazing. And like I told you in the comments of my sugar addiction post (those comments are in Finnish though, sorry) I'm not a bread eater normally. This was no ordinary bread and well worth it.

Then onto the starters. I had foies gras. Kind of felt like the dish to have in a French fine dining restaurant. And good it was!

And then they brought us a little in-between-dish, which happened to also be Foies Gras... this time pan fried. Delicious.

Mother-In-Law's pigeon. 

And my lamb, which tasted incredible. 

Then... this dish would really deserve a little fanfare... The most unbelievable lemon dessert. The lemon is actually made of chocolate. White chocolate. Inside it there's the most delicious lemon... something. Custard, merengue, and all sorts of sugary, creamy goodness. I went for it based on our lovely waiter's recommendation and he was right indeed!

Here he is, with more sugary treats! Yes, I had one of these too. The chocolate one on the left. 

So that was my cheat meal. From beginning to finish. BUT... it didn't lead into a binge. The next morning I was back on my clean eating. I used to try and not eat pretty much anything the day after an indulgence like this and that's where I always went wrong. Hunger feeds sugar cravings. This time I started the day with a healthy breakfast of eggs and spinach.

I'm up late because I've just finished packing. I'm heading to London tomorrow! I can't wait! I have two reasons for my trip... To celebrate a close friend's 40th and to attend another friends' wedding. 

Minna x