Tag: cake

The London Eye – A Birthday Ride

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve been on the London Eye and surprise surprise that was on my birthday too when I was in my 20’s! ^_^ Gosh I feel so old.
I decided to revisit the London Eye since it’s one of those attractions that you should go on in London (although I didn’t think it was the greatest attraction back then) and I needed alone time to reflect on my age and what I’ve achieved so far in life… well, I think I’ve achieved a lot. I may complain about my work but I still love it (and I know my colleagues and friends think I should move on..), and there’s always my ever changing colleagues who change the atmosphere in the offices, I’ve learnt new languages and planning to learn one more then revisit Chinese and French… I’ve been to many countries and don’t regret any of the visits I’ve made so far. Hoping to see many more years of fun, fun and more fun!!! ^_^
After watching Cats The Musical I made my way to Westminster. Got off a bus stop early to take a picture of the London Eye from the opposite end… then realised my camera ran out of battery power. Noooooo!!! Thankfully I had my phone as the second option. 

Ahhh… Westminster is very pretty at sunset!

I practically ran to get to the queue, the reason being is that I wanted to watch the sunset… yeah, although I was by myself I was being all romantic… ¬_¬”” Not what I was expecting to do. Anyway, as I had pre-ordered my tickets I actually had to go and collect it from the ticket office which is in an actual building opposite the London Eye… Didn’t know that… It was different back in the day if I remembered correctly. So off I ran to the ticket office and thankfully there is an automated machine you can collect from, just make sure you have the card you used to order online (and swipe it the right way as indicated on the machine). I had bought a standard flexi ticket (£24.35) which means you can go at any time during the day if you don’t know what time you’re going to be there. Quite relieved I made that choice.

Ticket office is behind The London Eye

Ticket machine

Made my way back to the queue. They scan you for any suspicious things that could be on you or your bag. I skipped the professional picture with the fake background – like I do with so many attractions and waited for a few minutes… I was thinking they need to hurry up so that I could see the sunset!!

Back of the ticket

one of the pods passing by

Well, we managed to get on and it slowly made its way up… 

But yay!! I saw the sunset!! Slowly getting there!

It’s a 30 minute ride so I made my way around the pod and took a lot of pictures… 

Thought I should take a picture of my fellow pod people

It happened to be someone else’s birthday who was in the same pod as me… He was with friends… Well it seems that there are a lot of people like me. Happy Belated Birthday to those born on March 25th!! ^_^
When I got off I took more pictures from below… didn’t realise I missed the moon. 

I advise to buy a flexi ticket if you ultimately don’t know what time you’re going to make it.

Website: https://www.londoneye.com/

If you like street art, keep walking towards Waterloo Bridge…

And here’s my usual birthday from Arif Bakery…
My Birthday cake!! Thanks Mr Stingy!!

Cafe Florence – London Camberwell & Gourmet Burger Kitchen – London East Dulwich

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
One Saturday morning (in the middle of December) I decided to do a food crawl, well lunch and a dessert, or the other way around actually, a dessert then a lunch. I had seen this little cafe called Cafe Florence that just opened before I went on holiday, and I said to myself I must try it out when I come back! And I did.
It was after 11.30-ish when I got there, and it was raining too. I had seen the cakes outside before, and I really wanted to try out the cakes!!
Outside Cafe Florence
I had a seat whilst I waiting for my food and noticed that the place was owned by an Italian couple with another helper… hence the name Florence!! ^_^
Inside Cafe Florence
I ordered a strawberry tarte, a chai latte and a piece of chocolate cake! I looked so greedy, heheh. It’s food. I didn’t eat breakfast!! The chai latte was very good, it didn’t need sugar in it. The crust on the strawberry tarte was hard to get through as it was stuck to the foil, but I did like it. And the chocolate cake was the surprise. It tasted like a jaffa cake with marmalade / orange jam layered in between the icing and the cake… Oh it was delicious!! I want more!!
Strawberry Tarte
Chai Latte
Chocolate Cake
All three together
A proper close up of the cake!!
Cafe Florence does serve paninis and hot food, so I definitely need to go back there to try out the hot food!!
Total price was around £6 (I forgot the total!!). But awfully cheap for all three items. I thought I was going to be charged at least for £7.50… Very good!
My geeky rating: 4.5/5
Good points:
– Friendly service
– Good cakes and my chai latte was good
Bad points:
– Unfortunately the seating is a bit squishy, so I guess go early when no one is around!
– I had the spaghetti bolognese 2 weeks later… it was so-so… Needed seasoning, but the cakes were still very good!!
Address: 116 Denmark Hill, Camberwell SE5
(I think it opens around 7 or 8 am and closes around 5pm)

Next off was to walk back into the rain, cross the road and go to East Dulwich. I had been dying for an American style burger for weeks or days. One or the other.  So I went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen. It has been a while since I have been to this place… quite a few years… Forgot to take a pic of the outside!!

I ordered for myself a Speedy Joe burger. This was ok. Not the best burger in the world. But I enjoyed it.
Speedy Joe Burger
I had skinny fries thinking I would be less full by looking at it… I was wrong.
Skinny Fries
I needed a salad to help me digest.
Salad
And I asked for truffle mayonnaise sauce… yummy!!
Truffle Mayonnaise
Well, service was a bit too Americanized for me, but it was ok, Food on the other hand was too much after a big dessert!! Heheheh.
I forgot the total price, but it came up to around £16 or £17
My geeky rating: 4/5
Good points:
– Ok food
– Ok service
– Spacious seating layout
Bad points:
– Expensive for a burger, fries, drink and a salad. I think I can find cheaper! Maybe… ¬,¬”

Address: 121 Lordship Lane, London, East Dulwich, London SE22 8HU ‎
Telephone: 020 8693 9307


Kiwi Cake (Dan Cake) and Napolitain Cake (LU Kraft Foods)

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Cake is my weakness. But it has to be an awesome cake. Nothing too light and nothing too heavy.
I bought these two cakes in France out of interest really. Kiwi flavoured cake? I don’t think I have seen this flavour before… Oh and it’s actually from Denmark! Should’ve known it wasn’t French! ¬,¬”” It’s from a company called Dan Cake.
Kiwi Cake

Chocolate covered cake
Had two pieces of it, and it was quite a disappointment. The chocolate was ok, but I couldn’t taste much of the kiwi. Just an ordinary madeira type of cake… Boring!! ¬,¬
Had two slices!! (One was a big one)…
Cost: €1.54
The next cake is a Napolitain cake. Yeah I know, we get this in the UK too. But this is different. It’s French with more taste to it than you think! Ooooh. This is very chocolatey in taste, and I could eat the whole thing in one go… Yikes!! Well, I wouldn’t be that  greedy really. 😀
Napolotain cake

Wrapped in foil packaging

 This one is from Kraft Foods, and I always love their food!!

Really like this cake!
Cost: €2.17
Out of the two cakes, I would eat more of the Napolitain one… Maybe because it’s French! XD