In safe hands

Is this Narnia?

No, it is Regent's Park in London.

Street library

Take a seat, grab a book!

Hotel with one window

This hotel's facade near Russell Square does not look very inviting. It has only one window. It must be the presidential suite!

Christmas tree

Sunday details

Chocolate cuteness

My most avid readers must be aware of my soft spot for Hello Kitty. It all began when I moved to Asia. Even now in Europe Hello Kitty is haunting me. Last week I got a Hello Kitty baking mould as a present from a friend - thanks Emilia! Today I used the mould for the first time and made some chocolates filled with fudge. Cute, isn't it?

Golden city

Candy from the past

These legendary PAX pastilles by Fazer were first in production in the 1950s. I have heard that my granddad always used to have a box of them in his pocket. Now they are again for sale in Finland and online. I like their taste of tar and the simple and nationalistic box.

20/10/2010

Finnish food patterns

Karelian pasties

Pulla

Finnish donuts

Autumn in Helsinki

Three wise men from Babylon

Piece of Ishtar Gate from Babylon at Berlin's Pergamon Museum.

Gingerbread house

I wonder if the evil witch from Hänsel und Gretel lives here?

Some bubbly

I love my drinks bubbly. On my recent Berlin visit I tasted Austrian sparkling water called Römerquelle. In addition to its nice texture, it has been nicely branded. The bottles are beautiful, not to mention their glasses. Their branded glasses have Roman soldiers as reliefs on their bottoms. I wonder can I find them in London?

Afternoon tea at Hyatt Regency Churchill

My jasmine tea flower opening.

Better the devil you know

Window display of a shoe shop in City of London.

Shoreditch

Streetview in Shoreditch

Pattern Lab

I saw this store window in Soho on Saturday evening. It seems I am not alone with my love of patterns.

£113,019,926.00

I had my hopes high this morning. There was a jackpot of £113,019,926.00 in EuroMillions lottery yesterday and I read in the news that there was only one winner. Sadly, it was not me.

Anniversary

There are coins and there are Coins. I discovered one of the nicest two pound coins last week. It has been made for the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth last year. I shall keep this beauty in my treasury.

Can one love patterns too much?

Sugar beans, cucumber and baby plum tomatoes in heavenly order.

Borjomi mineral water

I had my Saturday lunch at Maroush Express, my favorite Lebanese restaurant in London. I ordered sparkling water to drink with my usual houmous and tabouleh. I got a bottle of Borjomi mineral water which turned out to be excellent, just the right amount of bubbles.

After finishing my lunch I started examining the Borjomi bottle etiquette. It has the name Borjomi written with Roman and Georgian alphabet on it. The Georgian alphabet look so beautiful. They have an ancient feel to them although they were discovered only in 405AD, much later than their Roman cousins. It also turned out that Borjomi is a small but famous town in Georgia and renowned for its healing mineral water.

Now I am waiting my next encounter with Borjomi.

FT graphics

Graphics by Angus Greig for Financial Times

I have become a fan of Financial Times' graphics. They are simple yet informative and very Bauhaus, like the graph from the FT Money issue from last week.