[Ad- gifted experience]Â The Sarah McGuinness Story is a very personal musical cabaret, a completely one-person show, about Sarah McGuinness’ life, played by her. We went to see this show in The Circle & Star Hampstead, which is a small venue, attached to a pub – and it was packed. The venue being super intimate and sort of filled to the brim did feel right for this type of performance, in a lot of ways.
Continue reading “The Sarah McGuinness Story at the Circle & Star Hampstead”
While in Austria, it felt like a must to try wiener schnitzel – a traditional meal of very thinly-pounded pork, breaded and fried. Figlmüller has become the place for wiener schnitzel in Vienna, as they have been serving it there for 120 years. They also are known for their home-grown wine, but we aren’t big wine drinkers! I did have grape juice there, which was absolutely the best grape juice I have ever had.
Continue reading “Eating Traditional Wiener Schnitzel at Figlmüller”
[Ad- gifted experience] Amelia and I have been to the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch quite a few times over the years, seeing a large number of plays! Dann and I also go there from time to time, but when faced with Taylormania, it was a girls night with Amelia and Robin only. Amelia is such a big fan of music in general, being fantastic at a few instruments herself and Robin is a big Taylor Swift fan, so we were pretty excited to get along to one of our favorite theatres, where Katy Ellis was preforming for the third year running. This show goes through a bunch of Taylor Swift’s iconic songs and eras, complete with backup dancers and costume changes, showing a variety of her music.
Continue reading “Taylormania at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch”
[Ad- gifted products – Updated on March 11th, 2026 with new gifts.] Mother’s Day is just around the corner, so you might be looking for some amazing ideas as to what to get that mother figure in your life. Whether it’s your mother, grandmother or auntie, or someone else. It’s always nice to celebrate the people who have made a difference in your life, especially on days like Mother’s Day. When it comes to finding the right gift, we’ve put together some suggestions that are worth taking a look at!
Matisee: The Bigger Picture is a beautiful, well written book full of art. This collection contains fifty works of art, along with essays that talk about the individual pieces. The outside of the book is bound in cloth, which feels fantastic to hold. It’s much more than a coffee table book – it’s a statement piece. This book is available from good booksellers. For stockists visit prestel.com
Vienna is full of Coffee Houses. They are something that is super popular, often with tons of coffees and cakes, and always with a line out the door. We went to a handful of coffee houses while on our trip, but one of the fanciest ones were Demel. Demel is a more historical coffee house, where there are stunning window displays, tons of pastries and breads that can be purchased indoors, and a little cafe. Some of the cafe seating is inside and some is outside – we opted for inside which is such a better choice, even if it is a little bit of an extra wait.
Now, we were seeing Kaiserschmarrn all over Austria, at almost every coffee house, in the Christmas markets, and just at street stands on the road. This is a very popular dish, but our tour guide for the adventure said the best of the best is at Demel Cafe, so we tried it there. This is a sort of broken apart pancake, lightly sweeten, covered in powdered sugar with a plum jam. The jam itself isn’t very sweet and is almost more on the sour side! It’s a very interesting way to eat such a simple dish, with a funny history of being one of the favorite dishes from Franz Joseph I, who was the emperor. Dann very much liked the jam and the pancake, and I am glad we got to try such a famous dish.
