ladies who lunch // ledbury Posted by Helena

I've got a few more posts to make from, erm, last year (whoops!) and here's one of my favourites. Everyone who knows me knows I love my food and as a special treat to myself before I left London (literally the day before I left), I went to The Ledbury for a long lunch. It's only the 14th best restaurant in the world doncha know. Now... Let me relive the best meal of my life (not kidding - every dish was amazing).



Goats curd on squid ink cracker

Cheese and bacon brioche - this was mind blowingly amazing and I had to stop myself from eating all of the bread every time they brought the bread tray around.

Amuse Bouche - quail egg on mousse (was it mushroom?)

Ceviche of hand dived scallops with radishes, seaweed and herb oil and frozen horseradish

Flame grilled mackerel with avocado, celtic mustard and shiso - one of my favourites!!

Hampshire buffalo milk curd with saint-nectaire, Iberico ham and a broth of grilled onions

Fillet of brill with sweetcorn, razor clams and ginger - this was another favourite!

Breast of quail with walnuts, cepes and figs

Short rib of ruby red beef (cooked for 8 hours) with baked celeriac, bone marrow and grated english wasabi

Pre-dessert - somewhat like a mandarin Eton Mess. Mandarin granita and ice cream and meringue yum yum yum.

Mille-feuille of mango with kaffir lime ice cream.

olympics // tennis at wimbledon Posted by Helena

when the olympic games ticket ballot opened, i only applied for the tennis and the swimming finals. unfortunately i didn't get any swimming tickets, but i did get three lots of tennis! i ended up selling two lots back to the olympics as i didn't want to take three days off work to just see tennis, so i kept the centre court tickets and went with a friend.

we certainly had an action packed day with serena williams up first. man, oh man, does this lady have a powerful serve. she completely pummeled poor zvonareva.

djokovic vs hewitt

hewitt played really well in the first set and djokovic was looking like he was struggling, but then he came back in the second set to completely dominate and then hewitt was the slow mover on court. amazing to see the world number one in action!

i left my friend at centre court since she wanted to see the and murray vs marcos baghdatis match, but as i'd already seen murray play at wimbledon, i was ALL about trying to get onto court 18 to see THE KING ROGER FEDERER. have i mentioned i love roger federer? no? well i certainly am now. switzerland's biggest dreamboat, fo sho.

look at his perfect hair!

ugh. such perfection. such elegance. i should stop. he and his doubles partner stanislas wawinka lost to the israeli team, but roger is such a fine player to watch. i really wanted to see one of his singles matches, but i'm so grateful i got to see him play at all!

london living // wimbledon 2012 Posted by Helena

i am probably the most unsporty person you would ever meet. i was that girl in primary school who'd tip the ball on the teeball stand and run like hell on advice from the boys on my team who knew i sucked at sport. but that's okay because when i was 6 i came third in my 100m sprint (just don't ask how i did in the years after that). so yes i am not sporty, but i love watching tennis. mum and i are two of the biggest rodger federer fangirls you could possibly meet. from his serve to his hair we love him all. all of the fed.so after i missed wimbledon the first year i was in london i couldn't possibly miss going to see it in my second year! along with some friends we made the commitment to wake up ridiculously early and join the queue to get in. we started lining up at about 6:30am and we were in by about 10am, before the first match started. the brits know how to queue. there's no pushing, there's no disrespect and we made friends with the two lovely ladies in front of us who had been attending wimbledon for the last two decades. they shared stories of when they used to camp out on the footpath and gave us tips on how to see the players - like going straight to the practice courts. we did that and saw maria sharapova, as well as a bunch of other players who i'm afraid i didn't know...








when at wimbledon, one must have pimms.






john mcenroe!!



rafael nadal vs thomaz belluci



rafa constantly picking out his wedgies.



recognise the lady in the front row in the cream blazer? yep, that's jk rowling. MY HERO.







rafa always stops to sign autographs. bless.



andy murray vs nikolay davydenko

london // things i miss Posted by Helena

things i miss about london

• my friends
• pret ham, bacon, cheese and tomato croissants
• big red buses
• walking everywhere
• random celebrity spotting (yes, i really walked past andrew garfield and he was just as dreamy in real life)
• cheap berries
• cheap gigs
• cheap books
• seeing the london eye while walking across one of the bridges

things i'm enjoying about brisbane

• family and friends
• avocados
• sushi
• asian food

so there's a bit of a discrepancy in the lists at the moment...