A chocolate making let down

Last weekend Jasmin and I attended a chocolate making class in Paxton Chocolate in trendy Shoreditch. This was one of Jas' 30before30 experiences and I was happy to help out with ticking it off! 

After booking the class, we didn't get any instructions sent to us about the class, I only had a reciept to prove I'd paid. I would have expected an email with travel instructions and things we might need on the day - or just to say that we don't need to bring anything. Anyway, using our own initiative we found the shop on the Saturday.

The class started well. The classroom was in the basement of the shop, quite compact but well equipped. Our teacher was friendly and all seemed good. Seven people were scheduled to come, although one person didn't turn up at all. 

Our first demonstration was ok, our teacher gave us a demonstration, and then we were given time to do it for ourselves. We melted the chocolate over a double boiler, warmed some cream and then mixed it all together with some cognac. This we poured onto a metal baking tray and put in the fridge to set.

We were then supposed to make hand-rolled truffles. However, when the ganache we were to use came out of the fridge, it hadn't set. So handling it and rolling it into balls was impossible. At this point I felt bad for our teacher. It was clearly quite an embarrassing thing to happen, since she had made the ganache the night before and explained to us that she must have used incorrect measurements. As we couldn't do this part of the class, and our chocolate mixture had only just gone into the fridge and needed more time to set, we basically had nothing to do but wait. 

After switching our baking trays into the freezer to try and speed the process up, we had a practise of piping the gone-wrong ganache into spare chocolate cups. This in itself was ok, piping isn't the easiest thing so it was good to have a go. What I didn't realise was, that this was exactly what we were going to do with our own chocolate. 

So after doing this is a big group, we then split into our pairs, took out our chocolate from the fridge and started the whole process again. After filling more cups, organising these into a box and tying a ribbon around it, we were done.

I was really disappointed with this experience. Although this was a simple mistake that isn't something deliberate. Our chocolate making class, costing £35, to learn how to pipe and make hand rolled truffles ended up being half of what we were promised. I really thought our teacher would offer an alternative for us to take with us - since we had paid for two different chocolates to take away from the class. At the end of the class however, she quite awkwardly stood by waiting for us to leave. Barely even acknowledging that we'd missed out, except to admit this hadn't happen in any of her other classes. So we left knowing that everyone else who'd been had recieved double what we had.

I've contacted the shop to explain what happened at our class and hope that they come back with a solution to raise my opinion of the company. So far I just feel short changed.

This was us with our gloves on, ready for the hand-rolled truffle making...

Edit: I contacted Paxton Chocolate to explain our experience and how disappointed we were and they immediately offered us a 50% refund on our class fee.

The SATC Tour

Essex's answer to Miranda, Samantha, Carrie and Charlotte

One thing I knew I wanted to do when I visited New York was to take the Sex and the City tour. SATC has been a constant presence in my life since I watched the final part of season 6 when I was studying for my A levels. When I was living abroad, I watched the series over and over. I would put on episodes in the background when I was cooking, or getting ready to go out because there were no English channels on my TV or radio. It became a familiar soundtrack to my day, Carrie's constant questioning and the glamourous nights out and outfits of the characters. When the first film came out, my 3 friends and I, having assumed a character inspiration each (I was Carrie), got dressed up for a trip to the cinema, smuggled in some wine, and then headed out for our own cosmopolitans when the film ended. I bought the film on fake DVD in China and watched it with my girlfriends. The second film came out when I was in Liverpool, and I went with a new set of girlfriends to watch that as my boyfriend at the time wouldn't be persuaded! I watched the prequel TV series 'The Carrie Diaries', which I also really enjoyed and was disappointed that it was cancelled.

So going to New York, I was extremely excited to see all of the places featured in the series. I already knew about the Sex and the City tour bus, and couldn't wait to step aboard and delve into that world again, surrounded by other people as equally obsessed as me. I managed to persuade Samantha to come along with me, and I'm glad to say she was pleasantly surprised at how much she also enjoyed the experience. 

The tour begins at The Plaza, and as we walked across to the meet up point, I immediately clocked the Paris Cinema - pointing out that this is where Carrie went to the cinema on a Saturday night 'date' night alone. One the bus, our guide was enthusiastic and entertaining. As the bus drives through the city, our guide pointed out each of the 'hotspots' we could see from the show and we were also reminded of the scenes on TVs around the bus. This was really great as it brought to life what we were looking at. There were a few stops throughout the tour - at an Ann Summers style shop, cosmopolitan bar, posh restaurant from the film and Magnolia Bakery. Samantha and I, of course induldged in a cupcake from the Bakery and enjoyed wandering around empty Buddakan restaurant (where Carrie and Big have their wedding rehearsal dinner). We skipped out of the midday Sunday Cosmopolitan drinks to briefly walk around Little Italy, and didn't stick around the site of Carrie's apartment steps or to look around the sex toy shop (preferring to grab a coffee nearby instead!) The tour ends at the HBO shop, where you get a slight discount, and where Samantha and I both bought a little souvenir.

Later during my stay, we went back to see the library, although it was unfortunately closed on a Sunday so I never got to see inside. We found the community garden featured in Miranda's wedding, which was lovely and I went back to the Flatiron building to get a decent photo. I really enjoyed the tour, and I think it was an excellent start to my visit to New York, as it takes you around the city and obviously it's an interesting introduction for any SATC fan. I also loved that I did this with Samantha, as she's completely familiar with the city and so as I continued my exploration of the city, she could point out how each place connected with what we'd see on the tour.

Buddakan restaurant

NY Public library

Turning 30

 So it happened. I couldn't halt the passage of time, and now I am no longer in my twenties. It mostly feels exactly the same. Although I had wanted to acheive a couple more things from my 30 before 30 list, I only managed one - which was to eat at Circus restaurant. This I did in celebration of becoming old! As luck would have it, the restaurant bumped up our party to the main table, which meant that we were right in front of all the circus acts for the evening. The restaurant was fantastic, the food amazing (which I wasn't particularly expecting) and the entertainment was interesting... It's definitely a novel concept and the performers are very good, especially to do their act in such a small space, with drinks and people so close by! I have to say that the music choices that accompanied the performers were a bit weird, and the toilets had quite ill-designed modernist shower like set up for washing your hands. But apart from those small things, the evening was fantastic! My friends arranged for a surprise birthday cake as dessert - which the restaurant kind messed up as they rang me the day before to ask what kind of cake I wanted! D'oh!! I would definitely recommend the restaurant, although it's very pricey so perhaps only for special occasions!

Netball Crew fun!

We celebrated Jasmin's birthday the weekend before as well!

Act 1 - Performed to Everybody Hurts by REM

She went from this... 

...to this!

CAKE!

 The following day, I had a smaller, more chilled out gathering at my parent's in Essex, with presents, sparkling wine and lots of nibbles!

New Year in Cornwall

I am not a lover of New Year's Eve. I've had a couple of shocker nights over the years, and I think there is so much pressure placed on this one night to have a great time. The one night of the year when the whole world is out celebrating, bars that are usually free charge entry, you cannot get to the bar to buy a drink for love nor money and getting a taxi home is either impossible or costs you a small fortune. This year however, I had big plans for New Year in Cornwall with my family and lots of friends! Despite the long car journey down the day before, and busy preparations for the day, New Year 2014 was epic! Cornwall is fantastic and New Year's Day was spent watching crazy people jump into the sea wearing all sorts of silly costumes! 

After a long journey back to Essex today, I'm home now, with a busy weekend ahead preparing for my MA presentation on Monday!

新年快乐！

It was weird being a back-seat passenger in my own car!

Beautiful sea view in Cawsands

Me and my brother

Brother showing off his moves (as he slipped around on the bench)

Some crazy people on New Year's Day ready for the sea dip (I know the penguins, clown and Top Gun pilot)

A few travel related gifts from the Christmas/New Year period!

I got a couple more steps for my El Camino bracelet this Christmas (Yellow Middle East and Ukraine)

A spiritual sunset on the Ganges

As I said in my earlier post, Varanasi was one of my favourite places visited on this trip. It's really interesting to visit a place that is so important, so revered, by local people. Visiting as an outsider, you remain respectful of their view, of their beliefs, but you can never understand or experience the place in the same way that they would. It's an important part of travelling however, to understand that we all have different places, or traditions, that might seem strange or unusual to an outsider but that make complete sense to us. These quirks are what make humans interesting, unique and diverse and these are things we should not just tolerate but embrace and they are worth fighting for.

During our sunset boat trip, we watched a guy swim right past our boat, bathing away his sins, cleansing his soul in the holy Ganges. We watched cremations, dust and ash floating in the air and out into the waters, we saw people washing their clothes in the river. All life (and death) flows through this river. 

We participated in our own small candle ceremony, lighting a candle in remembrance of our lost loved ones, placing it onto the water to float away with our good wishes and love for them in the afterlife. We drifted down past all the ghats and temples, with ceremonal fires burning. We sailed past a cremation (there are no pictures as a mark of respect). We watched a religious ceremony with music and chanting. All whilst the sun set behind us, over the sacred Ganges.