My Review

Delivery: I was pleasantly surprised by timely hand delivery at 5:18 pm.

Presentation: The challenge with most delivery/local light haulage for higher-end food delivery is keeping everything looking nice. The box contents were slightly in disarray but not bad really, all things considered. I LOVED the handwritten note card. That’s hard to scale but it was a lovely personal touch, as was the addition of the vegan cocoa balls, which I hadn’t ordered but they included for me to try.
 
Taste: OK, so mistakenly, I ate one of the vegan cocoa balls without checking the ingredients. I have a pollen allergy and the three things that set me off are raw hazelnuts, raw carrots and raw celery. (Trust me, I do not enjoy being allergic to these things. Particularly celery which I have since learned is often used as a margin-preserving filler in a lot of dishes.) I definitely experienced some “oral allergy syndrome” after eating one of the balls. There were no ingredients in the bag so I had to go online and see what was in them. Apparently, there were no hazelnuts so maybe I am also allergic to some other nut? Not sure. I wish they had included the ingredients but it’s my own fault for eating one of the balls without checking.
I LOVED the onglet and thought it was perfectly done. This is something I pretty much never make for myself, which is exactly why I ordered it and not chicken or salmon. The rice was great too — I love macadamia nuts and am not allergic to them at all! — but I did find I had to add some salt to the dish. I’m okay with that because I’d rather do my own seasoning than get something that is over-salted.

Overall, this was a great experience. I don’t know if delivering one 10 quid meal at a time is a scalable business, but as a busy professional, I certainly enjoyed it. I liked that they include the calorie count too! I could see myself ordering this a few times of the month when I am super busy so that I have something waiting for me when I got home that isn’t crap.

Discount for Readers

Special offer for Passportdelicious.com readers! Get 20% of your Cookoo order! Just enter PASSPORTDELICIOUS when you check out.

Giveaway

Cookoo is giving away a champagne picnic hamper made by two of their lovely cooks, Amy & Faye.The competition is open until June 10th. Enter here.

I received my meal and the vegan cocoa balls in return for sharing my opinion, which I have done honestly here. 

The post Cookoo Meal Delivery Service and 20% Discount first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Because it’s really hard to write about a Thermos.

It’s easier to write about coffee or well, making coffee. So in many ways, the Thermos PR team were absolutely brilliant in coming up with this event. They chose a great location — Workshop in Clerkenwell — conveniently located down the road from me. They brought in a fantastic barista. And they served us some great coffee. (Or, well, we served ourselves great coffee after we made the coffee ourselves under the expert tutelage of the instructors.)

The Genuine Thermos Brand Beverage Flask keeps drinks hot (or cold) for up to 24 hours, thanks to the double-wall vacuum insulation. The team demonstrated this magic by filling our Thermoses with coffee the night before the event. I had a cup the next morning — 36 hours later — and the coffee was still pretty warm. Definitely drinkable.

The baristas at Workshop showed us how to use an Aeropress and a coffee cone — aka the V60. I like the idea of a coffee cone because it’s so low-tech. I like low-tech a lot these days. Life is too complicated already. Here’s a Vine I made of the coffee cone process:

This was a fun event. I learned a lot about coffee-making and left so caffeinated that I had to go buy a banana afterwards to slow myself down. (The potassium in bananas are good at absorbing caffeine, apparently.) And now I have a nice new Thermos.

I was invited to attend this event. I received a Thermos and a traveling coffee mug in return for my attendance and writing up the event.

The post Coffee Workshop at Workshop with Thermos first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

The Best Posh Hand Wash

Posh hand wash and lotion is not cheap! I’ve been doing some research — prices correct as of February 2019.

Posh Hand Wash: Aesop at St. John

Aesop: £29 for 500 ml of hand wash!

Aromatherapy at Kouzu

Aromatherapy Associates: £21 for 300 ml hand wash!

Elemis at the Corinthian Spa

Elemis: £56 for 300 ml of posh hand wash and lotion!

Malin & Goetz at Duck & Rice

Malin & Goetz: £18 for 250 ml of hand wash!

Penhaligon at Hix Soho

Penhaligon’s: £19 for 300 ml of posh hand wash!

Ren at Rex & Mariano

Ren: £17 for 300 ml of hand wash!

I think the Australian Aesop might be my favorite posh hand wash and hand lotion combo in London restaurant loos these days. What’s your favorite posh hand soap and posh hand lotion? And where?

The post The Best Posh Hand Wash in Restaurants Today first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

1. Have fifty coffees with fifty people. My friend Antonia told me about this article in Inc. about making big life decisions. I like it. I’m going to do it. I’ve already started doing it. Do you want to have coffee with me and talk London and travel and social media and life changes? Let me know and I’ll add you to my list of 50 people to have coffee with. (Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be coffee. We can eat too. Or drink. I’m kinda on a fiscal diet though, just to be clear.)

2. Do the things I said I was going to do in this post and do them soon. Like this summer. Before the August bank holiday weekend, if I have to give myself a deadline.

3. Do more with social media. Instagram, Twitter. In the early days, 3,000 followers on Twitter was a big deal. Now it is nothing.  London moved on in the four years I was gone. (Four years!) Things changed. People changed. The London restaurant blog scene changed. I’ve changed. I’ve been working too much. I gotta get back IN IT. I can’t decide if I should do more with Vine because part of me thinks I should concentrate my efforts on one photo/video platform and Instagram lets you do video so why should I use Vine too? Please advise. Also, I have looked at Snapchat but I am not sure about that one either, but maybe I will try it out and see. I will set a goal of three two Snapchat videos by the August bank holiday weekend. That sounds good.

4. Get rid of stuff. I am trying to lead a simpler life. I’ve downsized a lot already — stuff expands to fill the space, my people — but I want to downsize more. Purses, shoes, old documents I’ve been carting around. A lot of it has to go. I want to live in an oasis of calm. I want to be able to move at a moment’s notice.

5. Spend more time with my London restaurant blog. I love my blog, even though I hate it (and Wordpress) sometimes. I’ve missed my blog. It makes me a better  person. I plan on spending more time with my blog. (“More” is to be defined.)

6.. Go to cardio boxing more often. Like I said before…stuff expands to fill the space.

7. Go to Berlin in July. And travel more, in general. I’m at 48 countries so far. I’d like to hit 50 before the year is over.

I think seven goals is enough. Don’t you? Oh and before you think I’m totally crazy for leaving a good job with a good company — my parents don’t  think I’m crazy and that’s very important! Everything is going to be a-ok!! I promise. I’ve got a new gig that I’ll tell you about soon…when we have coffee!

The post Now That I’ve Left My Employer… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

This Article about Snapchat in The New York Times: I thought Snapchat was for kids! I like reading something that inspires me to do something different. So I’ve downloaded Snapchat as a first step. We’ll see what happens next. I’m scared! Please don’t send me any naked photos.

Law & Order: When I have nothing to do, I seriously ask myself “I wonder if Law & Order is on?” I love Law & Order. I hate to bow down to the god of television, but I can always guarantee that I will watch ALL of a Law & Order episode, no matter how old it is. Ice T!

Spotify Premium: I am seriously grateful for Spotify Premium. I love it. I listen to Spotify all day long. They are probably losing money on me. But I love the random playlists! (Go to Browse/Genres & Moods and poke around.) Music for every mood!

My flat. I love my flat. I want to buy my flat. It is very small and compact and the bathroom really needs to be re-tiled and the toilet seat is wonky but it is perfect. I need to make millions on the Internet in order to buy my flat though. Help.

Tweaking.com Windows Repair: Sometime around December, I started having problems with my wireless card and no one could help me. Do you know what it’s like to have your laptop refuse to connect to the wifi every three hours?? My other devices were fine. It was just my laptop. I restarted everything — laptop and router — twenty million times to no avail. And then I saw a few mentions of Windows Repair on a few forums and I ran it AND IT WORKED.  After nearly two months of my wifi dropping every hour or two, it hasn’t dropped since. Not sure what the mysterious culprit was, but thank you Tweaking.com.

St. John. I love St. John. I stop in to the bar every so often and have some soup and their delicious green salad. I didn’t know it was possible for green salad to be this delicious. Whoever makes their dressing knows what they’re doing. (Although it’s been less mustard-y as of late.) Sometimes, when I’m walking around the neighborhood, I see Fergus in the street. Hello, Fergus! The other day, I sat next to Chris Gillard in the bar as he ate a sandwich. A few months ago, I sat a table over from both Fergus and Chris as someone tried to convince them to make posh turkey twizzlers. I really didn’t understand where that was going but my salad dressing was so delicious, it didn’t really matter.

The Smart Passive Income Podcast: I stumbled across Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Podcast and now I am kinda hooked. I just need an idea to get me started. Someone has already invented wine stoppers with dates on them. And someone else is already making fashionable compression socks. What else is there that’s left to invent?? I need something.

Writing about Gratefulness: My poor blog has gotten more traffic in the last few days with me writing about gratefulness than it’s gotten in a long time. Now what does that say?? Maybe I’m in the wrong line of hobby. Hmmmm.

What will Friday bring?? I don’t know either. Gotta keep some mysteries in life, my friends. Be grateful for mysteries.

The post Don’t Worry, This Gratefulness Thing Will Be Over Tomorrow first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Gratefulness week, Day #3! I’m still feeling it, people.

I get a lot of random emails via this blog, some more random than others. (No, I am not interested in advertising your online casino.) But every so often, the right pitch arrives on the right day.

Here is the situation. Every so often, I work from home. And working from home is weird for me from a food standpoint. What do I do? Do I cook something? What if the phone rings? Do I go out for lunch? What if someone wants to talk to me on Lync (instant messenger). For a while, I was really into Waitrose and Marks & Spencer’s meals, but I’ve been thinking a lot about preservatives and fillers and sodium lately so I’m trying not to do that. Then I went on an Itsu and Pret binge — Itsu has nice discounts in the evenings — but that got a little monotonous.

So timing-wise, Bonapeti got me at the perfect moment. I was debating the perfect “working from home” lunch when their email dropped into my  box. The e-mail was short and sweet, which I appreciated. And it started with a bang…

I’d like to get a delicious lunch/dinner delivered to you next week.  We’re really keen for you to try the new Bonapeti with our compliments.

Thank you, knowledgeable PR, for knowing how to write a pitch and getting my attention from the get-go.  You got me! I responded immediately!

And while I was working from home the other day, the Bonapeti box arrived.

And I opened it immediately…because I was HUNGRY. I was also very fascinated by the recyclable, biodegradable sheep’s wool everything was packed in.

After perusing the contents of the box, I, uh,  promptly proceeded to eat the spiced poach pear cake first. Forget the rest of the box. I wanted dessert. And it was really good. I wasn’t a huge fan of the coconut yogurt — too tart for me in that yogurt-like way — but the cake was great.

Hunger abated, I waited. (Rhyming intended.)

And waited.

And waited some more, the contents of the box calling to me, softly, from the refrigerator.

And then finally, when it was time for dinner, I helped myself to the “vine ripened tomatoes stuffed with butterbeans and feta, served with mixed quinoa and roasted cauliflower.” I don’t even like tomatoes, but apparently, if you stuff them with butterbeans and feta, I am totally okay with tomatoes! Because these were really good, and as a dinner option, the dish was much better than the Waitrose mushroom risottos and Itsu  Omega 3 Salmon Supremes I’ve been surviving on lately. I wasn’t expecting the chili in the Bonapeti dish — I should have read the menu card — so I had a bit of a coughing fit, but otherwise, I was very pleased with my healthy, veggie lunch.

Fast forward to the next morning. Breakfast. What to do? I have always been an unorthodox breakfast eater. I am not a huge fan of pancakes, waffles, cereals or eggs. (Who are these people that line up outside The Breakfast Club by the way???) I like the occasional omelette, but that’s about it. Lately, I’ve been eating jamon and grits for breakfast. Sometimes, with some random cheese. on the side. So I had the next meal — baked kohlrabi with a spiced tomato preserve and pumpkin seed gremolata — for breakfast. Although I realized afterwards that I forgot to use the tomato preserve and the pumpkin seed gremolata.

This was a nice and filling, dense and spicy breakfast dish. (I need to have baked kohlrabi for breakfast more often!) I felt virtuous too because there was a side of kale.  Given the relatively large size of the portion, I ended up saving half of it for my dinner. (Hoping to remember to use the tomato preserve and the pumpkin seed gremolata.) My other plan is to polish off the salad that Bonapeti also included in the box, a salad of quinori, mushrooms, Jerusalem artichokes and celery with sunflower seed pesto. (Given my celery allergy, I requested no celery.)

So all in all, I am enjoying my Bonapeti box. I am grateful for it! In sum, here are my pros and cons:

Pros

• Bonapeti were really good about my carrot and celery allergies. The salad has a specific sign on it that says “without celery,” which is reassuring.
• I like the  handy cards for each dish in the box. The cards outline the ingredients and the nutritional information.
• I like that these are meat-free options. I’m trying to eat less meat and eat more plants in 2015. (According to the Bonapeti website, there are some meat and fish options.)
• For me, the price is about right. I work a lot and have rationalized £10 a meal for a healthy dinner that I don’t have to do much about when I get home. Call me lazy. I call me a single professional woman who works a lot and doesn’t want to eat Chinese food all the time.

Cons

• They don’t really deliver east of West London just yet. I am in Clerkenwell, so I am still fairly central but not in the delivery zone. They delivered to me anyhow, but you should check their delivery zones before you get too excited.
• The “enjoy by” dates were pretty quick. Mine said I should enjoy on the day of delivery or the next day. The problem with my life right now is that I don’t know where I will be at any given moment. I would be afraid to order a box on Monday to be delivered on Tuesday only to find out I wasn’t going to be home on Wednesday. Thank God for freezers, I guess.
• My microwave is much stronger than their instructions. For example, the Baked Kohlrabi required five minutes in the microwave. I knew that was going to be too long. I got away with two minutes. (My microwave goes up to 1000 watts.)

The Verdict: Would I order from Bonapeti again? If I knew that I was going to be in town during the week and working long hours, I definitely would. Unfortunately, my schedule is not that predictable so it’s hard to say when I will next order a box. It’s good to know the option exists though if I need it.

Here’s the Bonapeti spiel from their press release…

Bonapeti specializes in creating impressive restaurant quality, plant-based dishes, which are delivered super-fresh and chilled to your door. There are meat and fish options on the menu too. Look out for some of London’s brightest new chef names, guesting at Bonapeti. Nutritious mains are priced around £10 and desserts from £3.50, plus just £5 per delivery. They are freshly made on the day in the Bonapeti kitchen and require just a few minutes for you to heat up. Orders can be taken for same-day delivery at no extra cost.

Big Bad Disclosure: Bonapeti provided me with this gorgeous box of healthy food at no cost. My estimate based on the prices on the Bonapeti website is that the contents of the box would retail for roughly £30 quid plus delivery. I am grateful to Bonapeti for feeding me. 

Bonapeti is offering 40% off first orders (plus free delivery) to anyone who uses the code BON201502. 

The post I am Grateful that Bonapeti Sent Me a Box of Food When I was Hungry… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

HelloSign (website, Google Chrome plugin). I had to sign a lot of documents in 2014 (Finally sorting out my 2010 UK taxes (oops), moving, new job etc etc) and my home printer was on the fritz. I knew someone must have invented a solution to my problem and I was RIGHT. HelloSign is a very awesome website that lets you upload documents and then insert an image of your signature and create a PDF. It’s amazing. Use my link for a free try (because then I get more free documents): http://bit.ly/kristahellosign

Boden: Returning to London renewed my obsession with Boden, the mostly online clothing retailer. I love their dresses, even though their prints can be a little wacky sometimes. They have online sales so frequently that I barely ever pay list price. (Similar to my recommendation a few years back about Cole Haan online.) You shouldn’t pay list price for Boden either! WAIT FOR THE SALES. Also, check the clearance section. Oh yes, they have clothing for guys too.

Spotify Premium: I went totally digital this year and got rid of the 600+ CDs I’ve been carting around the world these last ten years. Before I did that, of course, I ripped all the CDs to an external hard drive and also uploaded everything to Google Play (which you should also consider). I then subscribed to Spotify Premium. Pretty much every song ever made, available for a small monthly fee. $9.99 a month in the US and £9.95 in the UK. And you can even stream music on your phone! If you need to get the young person in your life a gift this year, get them a Spotify Premium subscription. I particularly enjoy their canned radio stations. Something for every mood.

Hiring Personal Assistants Online: Also related to moving my life to another continent, I spent a decent chunk of change on personal assistants in 2014 and I wouldn’t change anything. My Chicago personal assistant, Shelley, took my cable boxes back to Comcast for me, picked up my dry cleaning, and brought me Chinese food for lunch. In London, my personal assistants unpacked my kitchen, got my bike fixed, and carted away all my old CDs. Services like Task Rabbit offer a plethora of assistants but if you live in a large metro area, try a Google or two to find specialized companies that focus on this sort of personal assisting/organization stuff.

Uniqlo: Another renewed obsession. Uniqlo is a Japanese brand that I love for its simplicity and high quality construction. I loved the cashmere cardigan I bought from Uniqlo so much that I went online and bought one in every color. (Hey, they’re a good value. And I’m trying to be like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and dress in a uniform every day — black dress, black tights, cashmere cardigan — and simplify the decisions I have to make.) Uniqlo doesn’t have as many 20% sales as Boden so buy it when you want it.

GrubHub (US) and JustEat (UK): I’ve been getting a lot of dinner delivered. Healthy stuff mom, I swear. I love sushi! Well, in the US, I’d use GrubHub to get anything and everything I wanted to eat delivered. No more drawer full of old takeout menus! In the UK, I use JustEat, and while it’s not as good as GrubHub (no GrubTracker, which automagically tells you where your food is), it’s still pretty awesome.

DarkSky (app): A great weather app with a lovely design. Dark sky will tell you when it is about to rain! That’s amazing. The best is when it starts warning you that there will be heavy rain, as I experienced this summer when I was at my friends’ barbecue (Hi Andrew and Vanessa!) and we got the alert and then all had to hide in the garage, away from the rain.

My FitBit Aria Scale: Last year, I told you all about my love of my FitBit (basically, a fancy pedometer). Well this year, let me tell you about my Aria scale. I weigh myself and it logs my weight through the magic of wifi on their site and on my phone. And it also does something crazy with my feet with bioelectricalness to determine my percent body fat. It’s pretty cool. You should get one. Don’t be afraid.

Hotel Sites I Really Love: For many, many years, I’ve been a TripAdvisor user. But after a few years of heavy travel, I’ve decided that TripAdvisor is now a little too much lowest-common-denominator for me. (There are a lot of people on the site who have never stayed in a hotel before, so anything is wonderful to them. Also, I don’t trust anyone who eats breakfast in a hotel restaurant unless they are on a tropical island.) When I’m looking for a place to stay, here are the curated sites that I really use as the base of my decision:

• Jetsetter.com: Originally known for their flash sales, now I turn to Jetsetter.com when I want to know the best places to stay and where.
• Tabletotels.com: This is more than just hotels to book. It’s a lifestyle. I really like their newsletters. Particularly good when you don’t really care where you go…you just want to go somewhere and need inspiration. I like the user ratings they do too. If the hotel falls below 15 out of 20, they take it off the site.
• MrandMrsSmith.com: The original curated list of hotels.

Muji pens! I have loved Muji pens for years (thank you Renee and Julie for introducing me to them) and now I want to share the love with you. Find a Muji and buy all the gel pens. Love them!

Serial (podcast): Last one and then I’ll stop. I have my cousin Robert to thank for this one. A spin off of This American Life, Serial tells the story of a real-life 1999 murder, 15 years later and through a journalist’s perspective. Addictive! And harkens back to the old days of radio.

This is getting a little long so I shall bring this to its natural conclusion! Happy 2015 my friends! Hope to see you soon!

Krista

The post My Favo(u)rite Things in 2014 first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Chicago Anytime Assistants: The lovely Shelley took all my unwanted clothing and kitchen gear to the Salvation Army for me. Clothing I hadn’t worn in years, shoes I bought on a whim when all I ever wore were Uggs anyhow…all gone. (And don’t be hating on my Uggs. I’m a convert.) She also took back my cable boxes to Verizon, a task worth a gazillion dollars alone because I seriously would have had a breakdown if I had to queue up at Verizon for the 90 minutes she did for me. She even sent me a photo from the queue! Shelley picked up my dry cleaning, bought me Thank You cards and picked me up some Chinese for lunch while I waited at home with the movers! All for a very reasonable $45 an hour or thereabouts. Highly recommended. A lifesaver. And so very nice to work with.

Quintessentially: On the other side, here in London, I needed help unpacking. I knew that if I didn’t have help, I would never unpack. It would be like that time I moved back to Chicago in 2010 and four years later, I still had about eight boxes that I had never opened. So on the basis of a quick Google and only a quick Google, I hired Quintessentially. And although I get the sense that I was not their wealthiest of clients and they expected a lot more of me — I must have been such a disappointment to them — they did what I needed them to do and I paid them for it. A lot more expensive than I expected at £65 an hour + VAT, but worth it for my peace of mind. They took a lot of phone calls while they were here, and I guess I also paid for that, but there was some rounding town of their time so I guess it was okay.

buy:time: In hindsight, I probably should have hired buy:time for my unpacking. Thank you to Bon Vivant Concierge for the recommendation. After my move, for £29 an hour, my personal assistant helped me get rid of all my CDs via Zapper.co.uk and also took a bunch of my stuff to a charity shop. (It’s amazing the crap you discover when you unpack.) She also took my bike into a local bike shop for repair, which was a huge lifesaver. (When movers move bikes, they take the pedals off and let all the air out of the tires so the bikes are easier to move. So it kinda sucks when the bike gets to the other side because the movers don’t come with a bike pump and don’t have the tools to put the pedals back on.) In short, my buy:time personal assistant alleviated me of many tasks and for that, I was grateful. She checks in with me now every few weeks to see if I need anything else sorted, which is helpful too!

So…as a single woman living alone with a full-time job, I can’t tell you how helpful these services have been for me in 2014. I think I may have had a breakdown otherwise. Not only did they help me do the things that I wanted to do, but they also helped me (in a larger sense ) lead the simpler life I’ve been wanting to live. Since moving back to the U.S. in 2010, I found myself accumulating a lot of stuff. Let me tell you…what they say is true…stuff expands to fill the space. I went from having two bedrooms and two normal size closets in London in 2010 to having three bedrooms and seven closets in Chicago, plus a storage unit in the garage between 2010 and 2014. Now I’m down to one bedroom and 1.5 closets. Life is better this way.

The post On Outsourcing My Life first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

London, you are the best and the most beautiful. I love  you, totally and completely. I get lost in you. (Just like Mark Wallinger and Labyrinth, his London Underground art series of mazes .) But sometimes in love, there is not-so-love. Here is the bad and the good from where I am sitting today.

THE BAD…and/or the things I’ve forgotten…

Yelp London is useless! Barely any reviews for a lot of places.Where is everyone leaving their reviews? No one writes reviews on Time Out anymore. I am left with Foursquare, and even that is kinda sucky and lacking in reviewness. HELP. I want the voice of the people. Help me.

What is with hair color on women? I’ve seen a lot of washed out pink and blue hair. I don’t like it. It looks tacky. If you’re going to do it ladies, MAINTAIN IT.

Flowered trousers…perhaps a bigger thing when the weather was warmer but the patterned blousey trousers on women thing. I don’t know if I like it? Oh wait…hold on, my phone is ringing and it’s MC Hammer…

Smoking…After spending the last four years in the U.S., I have honestly forgotten that people still smoke. On the sidewalk/pavement in London as I’m walking, at work when they need to take breaks and then return to stink up the meeting room, everywhere, everywhere. Smokers are everywhere. Stop putting fire in your mouths, people. It is going to kill you a lot faster than a lot of other things.

Flats owned by people in Singapore and Hong Kong: I had no idea that this was a thing until I started flat-hunting this summer and when I would ask about the landlord, 9 times out of ten, they would tell me, “Oh, he/she is in Singapore/Hong Kong.” Apparently, people in Asia have bought up all the new construction property in east London these last few years. That’s fine, but if you’re going to do it love, hire a property manager. I’m not calling you in Hong Kong when the boiler’s out.

Taking a shower is still hard. In my new flat, I’ve got the two-and-a-half-foot bath and the shower half-glass. I have conquered the two-and-a-half-foot bath (I think) but I HATE THE HALF-GLASS. How do British people take showers?? I do not understand it. I flood the bathroom all the time, and if my bathroom floor tile is any indication, the last tenant did too.

They don’t bag your groceries for you anywhere. They just stare at you (or make no eye contact whatsoever) and then they wait for you to leave. #AWKWARD.

The importance of the past: I learned this hard during my first tour-of-duty. In my experience, British people don’t forget any sort of past. I’m not saying that Americans forget the past, but in general, my take is that Americans have a mindset that’s much more like “Ok, that happened. That was the past. Hindsight is 20/20. Let’s move forward.” Take me out for anything Japanese/Chinese/Vietnamese and I’ll tell you more.

Toasters everywhere but no toaster ovens. I just want an English Muffin pizza. Personally, I’m afraid of toaster-toasters. I’m always afraid the toast will catch fire inside. And I don’t want to fire up the broiler just for some cheese on toast.

THE GOOD…

Tethering: My iPhone came with a wifi hotspot, as opposed to in America, where you have to pay extra for that functionality. So if you’re in London and you wanna tether to my hotspot, you just let me know.

UHT MILK! I love long-life milk because you know, British milk goes bad in like less than five days. (American milk lasts a lot longer, like two weeks.) So I buy UHT milk and it lasts forever. I probably don’t want to know what they did to it to make it that way, do I? A lot of people use UHT milk to make yogurt, apparently. Me, I just use it for my morning coffee.

Charging for plastic bags: London started doing this ages ago. I believe California just started doing it. The U.S. is BEHIND.

Pizza Express Salad dressing: Haters, don’t be hating. This stuff is STILL delicious and I go through it like white wine.

The roads are smooth! I don’t know if it’s because I was unlucky enough to live in Chicago, but London roads are SMOOTH! There are no potholes! It’s amazing! I can ride my bike anywhere and not need any dental work!!

Recycling: My building recycles, we recycle at work, and anywhere I go around London, there’s one of those handy separators for recycling. Me and my empty Diet Coke cans feel so virtuous. Saving the world, people. Saving the world!

Direct debits! No checks! I’ve been here four months and I haven’t written ANY CHECKS. It’s amazing. I cannot believe that in America, people still write checks. It is crazy. My debit card is my favorite thing.

Kettles, kettles everywhere: I love my kettle. I use it more frequently than my microwave.

The weather! It’s NOT SNOWING! It’s not frigid. It’s nice. Thank God for that. Honestly, words cannot describe. On January 6th 2015, I am going to throw a “-40 degrees is where Fahrenheit and Celsius intersect” party. You’re invited.

xoxo

The post Hey, I’ve Been Back in London for Four Months Now! first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

London is amazing. My friends Gerry & Ben say it’s the best of the best of the best and I AGREE. London is amazing. Sure, the toilets are poorly ventilated and sure, sometimes the customer service is the absolute PITS (see my epic tweet about my most recent experience), but otherwise, London, you are the best and the most beautiful. Here are my favorite finds while I haven’t been eating…

The Great British Bake-off. (TV show.) Love it. I love the colors. (Greens, whites, pinks.) I love the characters. I love the cakes. I love Mary Berry. (Bet she wishes now she never smoked before.) Love love love.

CityMapper App: Love it for getting me places in ways I had never considered. For example, I generally rely on the 55 bus or the Central Line to get me to Soho. I never ever consider the Piccadilly. Thank you, CityMapper, for reminding me that sometimes, Soho is closer to Piccadilly Circus than it is to Oxford Street.

Zapper App: I arrived in the UK with five boxes of CDs. It is time for the CDs to go. Zapper lets me mindlessly scan them while I’m watching episode after episode of Law & Order. (Yes, the UK does this too…Law & Order marathons all the time!) You can get anywhere from 10p to about £2 for a CD. (Average is probably about 25p per CD.)

JustEat App: Yes, I’m a sucker for getting dinner delivered. Love it. Love how it’s basically all Indian food or nothing. Says something about a country, no? Seriously, there is other food on there. But there seems to be A LOT of Indian food. I’m totally cool with that.

HelloSign App/Web site: Moving to another country means signing A LOT of paperwork. A lot. (Download, print, sign, scan, return. You know the drill.) Hello Sign is a Google Chrome plugin that let’s you open, edit and sign most docs and PDFs online without printing anything. (Except the super fancy PDFs that have code/navigation built into them, by my experience.) Seriously, this app is making it onto my list of favorite discoveries of the year because it has made my life so much easier. Get it NOW. It is seriously awesome.

The Cloud!! Not the Amazon one, but rather the London Cloud! Free wifi at random spots around the city! (Especially tube stations.) I love it! It’s the future! The future is here! The future is now! London is amazing. The Cloud works in New Cross!!

Uber: OK, not a new one to most people but Uber in London is different! It’s not regular taxis. It’s MINICABS. And they are nice cars and they are CHEAP. I took one last night from The Culpepper on Commercial Street to the Wenlock Arms and it cost just £6! SIX QUID. I love Uber!!

Kirstie’s Fill Your House for Free: These days, I am obsessed with not throwing things out but rather recyling them. (Or freecycling them.) I love that Kirstie Allsopp is promoting salvage.

I could, of course, go on and on and on. I’ll stop now because I don’t want to get distracted and tell you too much about how I’ve been outsourcing my life lately. That’s for LATER.

The post My Best Non-Food London Discoveries since My Re-re-partriation first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

So I love this video of Nick Kokonas, the owner of Alinea in Chicago, talking restaurant data. (And this makes me feel guilty about writing just the other day that I left Alinea hungry and went for tacos after. But it’s true. I did. The taco stand on the northeast corner of Chicago & Ashland in Chicago is quite delicious.) Also what I love about this video is that I can tell that whoever created his slides has some training in Lean Six Sigma…I love Lean in particular. Even more than tacos. Let’s go eliminate some waste, why don’t we? (And not in the scatological way.)

It all just makes me want to get my masters in statistics online…

The post I Want to See All The Restaurant Analytics first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

The Getaway, London

Everyone’s been telling me “You should watch that new show Getaway Esquire show. Anthony Bourdain has something to do with it. They just did a London episode. Quincy Jones’ daughter is in it. You’ll love it. She goes to some cool places.” And I did love The Getaway, London. Rashida Jones has excellent taste. (Although you know how I feel about The Dean Street Townhouse now.) Here’s a clip of her at one of my old locals, 69 Colebrooke Row. Bryan and Stacey, if you’re reading this, I miss you. xoxo.

Buy Episodes of The Getaway

The Getaway is a TV travel program that debuted on Esquire. It is now on Amazon! US readers can purchase full episodes here. Season 1 is on US iTunes. Season 2 too.

Oh and by the way, I did get away to London recently! It was amazing, as always.

Fun Tours of London

The post The Getaway, Esquire: London Episode first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.