Archive for December 2009

South Ealing Cemetery

29th December 2009

Last month I have been to one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in London: The South Ealing Cemetery.
The cemetery has an extremely atmospheric older part and a quite boring younger part. The western older part seems rather rural with cats, crows and a lot of squirrels roaming the place — and I have even seen a fox! (But unfortunately I was not quick enough with my camera.) Many of the graves are so old, they are often overgrown and either askew and lopsided or half sunken into the ground or completely gone with a few fragments of broken stones as the only remainder of a life long gone.
I often felt like I could be in the middle of the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow

If I wanted to be buried (which I don’t) then I would love to be buried in a similar place. And seeing all those kitschy angelic statures, I would love to have a stature with a sappy angel (with wings and innocent look and all) as the upper half and a Manneken Pis as the lower half. :D

Enjoy a selection of the photos I took:

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Best and Worst Hot Chocolate ever

5th December 2009

While I was in Oxford a few weeks ago I had the best and worst Hot Chocolate I ever drank in my life so far. (No, I do not drink coffee.)

I had the Worst Hot Chocolate right at Oxford Railway Station at VitaBurst. Their specialty is “Fresh juice and smoothies” and they really looked tasty and healthy (but I did not try them). I am afraid Hot Chocolate does not belong to their strengths. I got a cup mainly for keeping me warm that day on my way to the hotel. I threw it away after having drunken only about a third of it. I normally hate throwing food away, but it was really that awful.

If you need a Hot Chocolate at Oxford Railway Station, get one from AMT instead. It’s not the best, but decent.

I drank the Best Hot Chocolate ever of my life at Pret on Cornmarket Street!

I sometimes drink Hot Chocolate at Pret in Hammersmith Station, which is quite good. But this one in Oxford was nothing like it. It was so much better than any I have ever tasted, I asked them what was their “secret”. They told me, not every Pret uses the same Chocolate. They use a special kind of molten chocolate (in a machine which keeps it constantly molten)!
And maybe the great location (in a 16th century building with a great interior) is doing its bit as well …