February Madness: PART 2

Hello Steemians, it’s me again!

If you want to know where this photo was taken, read on... ;-)

I’m trying to stick to my goal of posting on Steemit at least once a week - so far so good. Let’s just hope March isn’t as mental! 😱 In case you haven’t read my February Madness: PART 1 - check it out before reading on, it will give you some background as to why I'm blogging about mad February in the first place.

So. Week 2.

Here’s a quick reminder of what my calendar looked like this month...

So let's crack on!

Tuesday, 13th of Feb

Kendrick Lamar

This was by far one of the best performances I have ever seen. And even though Kendrick is more of a Liam’s thing (i.e. @liambagnall, I found you!) - I absolutely loved him. He is touring his latest album DAMN. which is a pretty amazing album as it stands but seeing him perform it live was unbelievable. That man has so much talent and SO MUCH SWAG - it’s impossible to not have a good time OR fall in love with him. Lol

I mostly took videos so if you want to get a sneak peak of his live performance, click here

Even the O2 Arena (i.e. the biggest indoor venue in London which can fit 20,000 people) wasn’t so bad this time. In the last year Liam and I have gone to see artists like Drake, Bryson Tiller, The Weeknd, Anderson Paak and J.Cole there and every time we went - the venue was packed with screaming 16-year olds in heels, recording the ENTIRE gig on their phones. With a flash in your face. I mean… I don’t know about you but that’s my idea of hell.

So when it came to see Kendrick, we promised to each other that this was going to be our last gig at the O2. But we actually forgot that King Kendrick is not all that commercial which makes a pretty big difference when it comes to the crowd.

Anyway, Kendrick was great and I would definitely go see him again. Him and The Weeknd are now in my top 2 live stage male performers so far. Other artists that I really want to see live are: Frank Ocean, Miguel, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and Solange. What about you?

Wednesday, 14th of Feb

Valentine’s Day

In a way you can say that seeing Kendrick Lamar was mine and Liam’s pre-Valentine’s thing and on the actual Valentine’s Day Liam cooked me a gourmet 3-course meal from scratch.

It all started last year when he mentioned "how good his rack of lamb was" (no, that’s not what she said, haha) and I personally hate the idea of going to a restaurant and paying 3 times the price JUST because it’s the 14th of February. Maybe if we weren’t living in London, I would think otherwise but in general, I’m not a fan of commercial celebrations like Valentine's.

On that note, Liam and I agreed to make it our tradition that every Valentine’s Day he would prepare a 3-course gourmet dinner at home, with wine (always wine) and cocktails (optional), and we would also dress up (to make it a little bit more special). So this year Liam surprised me with the following menu...

1) Cocktail: Pineapple caipirinha in ‘The Boss’ mug

Which was a pretty strong cocktail as I think Liam forgot to add the actual pineapple juice to it but I give him credit for the mug. AND the card. Definitely the card, lol

2) Starter: Seared foie gras with a citrus puree

Foie gras was shipped all the way from France and it tasted pretty incredible. Maybe a tiiiiiny bit salty but then “the recipe said to be generous with salt”, is what Liam told me ;-) And that citrus puree... let's just say it was more like jus, haha (which I loved regardless)!

3) Main: Beef wellington with hasselbeck potatoes and cabbage with bacon

I have to say, that cabbage at first didn’t look all that appealing but it tasted f*cking great. And that beef wellington... blew. my. mind. And don't worry, I've never even heard of 'hasselbeck potatoes' either. 😳 So yeah, he absolutely smashed it with the main course.

4) Dessert: Mango and passion fruit fool

From what I understood it was meant to be fruit swirls mixed with yogurt and it looked great, but... it wasn’t all that sweet and the texture was kind of grainy... haha. Even Liam admitted that he still had some room for improvement when it came to desserts. And I mean... it’s pretty hard to compete when I live with the Queen of Desserts @allasyummyfood :-)

All in all, dinner was amazing and so was the rest of the evening. We put some jazzy vinyls on, danced, had some “pineapple” and watched a film Manchester by the Sea - which wasn’t as romantic as we’ve hoped but still a very good film.

And all that effort that went into the menu prep, food prep and cooking a 3-course meal at home wouldn’t even come close to any dinner date at a restaurant (regardless how fancy it is). So if you’re reading this, Liam - thank you for an incredible evening and I can’t wait to see what’s on the menu for next year! 😬

Friday, 16th of Feb

Psychedelic Funhouse

This was another one of those things that I got tickets to a looong time ago (think it was October last year?). Liam and I didn’t really know what to expect, we imagined it to be a pretty trippy experience with funky rooms and props so we went with an open mind.

The event was set at the Islington Metal Works (which was built to stable horses in the 19th century - interesting fact for you there guys, haha) and was spread across 3 floors with multiple rooms and doors to go through (kind of like a big club).

There was a bubble room, a frog room with some reggae music and a few other rooms with I don’t know what. And a bunch of trippy looking actors who interacted with you throughout the evening so a bit like immersive theatre but in a club? 🤔

I took way more videos than photos so I really need to work out a way of how to embed multiple videos in a single post. Is there a way but not via DTube or YouTube?

Anyway, it was a fun experience, super random but I’m glad we went - that’s exactly what London is for.

Saturday, 17th of Feb

Alla’s 30th Birthday Party

Some of you may have already seen @allasyummyfood’s post about her 'BIG 30th Birthday PART 1' 5 days ago (she is much quicker than me) which makes my life a tad easier. Although, my first half of the day was hell of a lot different to hers - I was running around, getting giant 3-0 balloons, last decoration props, picking up a cake, dropping off a cake, running home, wrapping up presents, getting ready and everything in between.

Even getting to the venue was stressful, with Alla telling us that she was going to be there in 20 mins and we (Ivar, Liam and I) were still in a cab on our way there! In my natural habitat I delegated some tasks to the boys before we even got to the venue.

My helpers @ivargereiko and @liambagnall - thank you!

We did a pretty good job at decorating the room but I'll let you be the judge of that :-)

The party was great. We had our own music, prosecco reception, canapés floating (and gone within seconds), great photos being taken (thanks to our dad who figured out how to turn the flash on, which Alla and I were convinced was broken for about a year now), presents and more!

It all went by almost too quickly (we did have to leave by 12.30am - really Alla?) so we had to cram in the birthday cake right at the last minute which was also gone within seconds (I wish my mates were always this hungry and excited for a birthday cake, lol)

It was also nice to catch up with some Steemians on the night - @redrica (bloody love that girl), @nanzo-scoop (who always patiently listens to me rant, haha) as well as @demotruk and @starkerz (even if I did tell some of them off for not mingling enough a couple of times on the night - sorry about that guys! I was too overwhelmed myself...) 😟

Sunday, 18th of Feb

Actual Alla’s 30th Birthday

The next day was actual @allasyummyfood’s 30th birthday (which she ALSO posted about here last night). I’m telling you - she is way too fast. In that case I’ll try and keep this brief.

This is what we had planned for the day:

1) Brunch at Duck & Waffle

An absolute gem of a restaurant in London and if you haven’t been yet - GO! However, if you want to go there for normal brunch, lunch or dinner time, you do need to book 3 months ahead. The good news is that it’s also opened 24 hours 7 days a week so you can easily turn up there at 3 in the morning and enjoy some food with a view. I know a few mates who have done that, mostly very drunk though :-)

Also, if you’ve never been before - you’ve got to try one of their Favourites - Duck & Waffle (crispy leg confit, fried duck egg, mustard maple syrup). It's all about that mustard maple syrup - @yasminep would agree with me on this. In fact she was the one to take me there for the first time, back in October 2015 (evidence to follow).

Before...

and after...

Brunch was great and even our dad made it to London for a day and a half which was extra special because he tries to avoid London at all costs as it’s too hectic and busy for him (fair enough). So when he does come to visit (which happens less than once a year), it’s actually incredibly nice and got me thinking that it would be so cool if we all lived in the same city...

2) Relax at the spa for 2 hours

Which is pretty much self explanatory. It was 4 of us (Alla, Ivar, Liam and I) so we chilled in the dry and steam sauna, swam in the pool and thanks to @ivargereiko I even managed to get a free arm massage(?!) but on my right arm only. Haha, how random is that?! It was pretty lush though 😏

By the way, if anyone wants to escape this freezing cold weather and relax at a spa - I would definitely recommend Tres Spa at Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel. It was £25 for 2 hours per person, the staff were incredibly lovely and helpful, plus you get to swim in a see-through pool like this...

3) Dinner at Dinings SW3

The last stop was at this cosy Japanese restaurant in Knightsbridge that I picked for the evening. As @allasyummyfood had already described it, the portions were definitely very small (though you can expect that from any fine dining restaurant in London), very overpriced (a single salmon sashimi piece costs £4-6. ONE PIECE!) and to top it off, the service was pretty appalling.

I can get pass the expensive menu and tiny portions (we are in London after all) but the service - simply cannot be this poor when you’re dining in a place like this. So personally, I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone who would like to try some authentic Japanese cuisine. Or if you REALLY want to, my suggestion would be to go in a much smaller group (2-3 people max.) as the sharing game doesn’t really work when it's 6 of you.

Here are 2 most bizarre dishes that I've ordered:

Freshwater eel and pan-fried foie gras roll with sweet soy sauce (which I thought was a rather random combination for a sushi roll)

and

Winter truffle ice cream (which tasted kinda great, but then again I love truffles...)

And their wagyu beef tar-tar chips (which look like mini tacos) were the best thing on the menu. To sum it up, it was still a nice evening (and a great day if anything!), and it was so good to see dad and Alla looking so happy and loved (even if we came back home still hungry, haha).

This was definitely one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in a LONG time and now that Alla’s big 30th birthday was out of the way - I could relax a bit and prep myself for another week of fun activities and a weekend in Dublin (which I will write about very soon)!

Thanks for stopping by! And if you liked reading this, feel free to also check out my February Madness: PART 1.

Comment below, share, love and spread…(jam this time). Haha

Love,

Inga x

P.S. Here is a bonus photo for you, guys (with almost 2.5 years apart!)

To the left: @yasminep and I in October 2015 |

To the right: same me and @liambagnall in February 2018