• Added: 20th of February 2008
• Area: Kentish Town
• Category: Sports and Leisure

London NW5 4DS
020 7692 6900

Glen_Bailey said
Sweat your way to Success
It’s not often (well at least in my circle of friends) that you get to stand around topless (guys only, and it’s optional by the way) in a heated room wearing gym shorts, looking at yourself in the mirror for 90 minutes and sweating like you’ve never sweated before.

If that hasn’t scared you off (it nearly scared me off when my partner explained it to me half way through her month long yoga challenge – and I mean every day for a month) then it’s well worth a try.

I first heard about this type of yoga back in New Zealand where I was taken along to try it out. I’d done several types of yoga before so wasn’t really apprehensive about this style. Maybe slightly concerned when I was told I’d need to drink about one and a half large bottles of water before I got to the class, and probably the same again during the class – and that I’d probably want to do it topless. I was ok with the water, I’m a big water drinker from way back, and as far as the topless aspect went, I said I’d wear a vest and see how it went.

Well, the vest lasted around 10minutes before it was drenched in sweat so off it went, never to be seen again.

I was pleased to find several Bikram Yoga studios around London, especially Bikram North, two tube stops away. Perfect for those 6:30am classes they held before Christmas.

There are a variety of teachers at Bikram North, all of whom have there own teaching styles and comments as they move through the 26 postures (each repeated twice – the 1st generally 1 minute and the 2nd generally 30 seconds). Friday night is a favourite of mine, although I hardly ever make it. It’s done in the dark with tea-lights around the mirrors – a truly meditative experience. Oh, and there’s really good Chai Masala tea on offer afterwards.

I find that no two visits to a Bikram Yoga class are the same. Sometimes you’ll find it hard and have to lay down for some of the postures (and you’re not made to feel guilty) and other times you’ll rock through the whole class doing every posture. You are just encouraged to do what you feel is right for your body on the day - and that will change day to day.

What I find different about Bikram Yoga is that it’s not just physical exercise which works you inside and out, but it is a challenge mentally to yourself. The first challenge, which the teachers set to new students, is to just stay in the room for the entire 90 minutes, regardless of if you’re participating or lying down watching. Another challenge the teachers set is to not think about upcoming postures, just accept them and do them the best you can. This can help to hear when your mind starts to wander when you know a challenging posture is coming up.

But the challenge I find the hardest, and I know I’m not alone here, is to just stay absolutely still between the floor series postures, otherwise known as the dead posture. You are told to lie back down after a position and relax your entire body, every single muscle, look at one spot on the ceiling and stay still. It’s not as easy as you think. The distractions mount up for example the sweat dripping (sometimes pouring) into your eyes, the person next to you moving, someone somewhere groaning, or just the simple fact that sometimes it’s just really hard to stay still. But, when you get it, it’s great! Even more, when the whole class gets it, it’s fantastic! The energy created by everyone staying still is amazing.

If you’re new to it, drink lots of water before and after the class, don’t eat 2 hours before (trust me you won’t want to, some of the postures push on your stomach), take two towels (one for the yoga mat which will probably end up soaking wet, the other for the shower) and be prepared to be sore the next day. Good news is that the more you go the easier it is! Sounds odd but it’s true.

And for those newbies of you out there, when I started at Bikram North, they had a really good deal on where you pay £10 for 10 days of classes. Great introduction!

Oh, and it really does wonders for your body! You can see it in the mirrors!

Happy yogaring!

• Added: 20th of February 2008
• Area: Chalk Farm
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

London NW1 4RY
020 7722 3333

Glen_Bailey said
A cold day at the zoo
I have conflicting thoughts about zoos. I think it’s great that the population of a city can visit a zoo and see animals that they may never otherwise see in their lifetime. I also think a zoo is a great way to educate people about different species of animals, their habitats, threats to their survival and ways to prevent this.

On the other hand, I feel that the animal’s recreated environments should closely reflect that of their individual needs and be as concrete free as possible. I don’t see the need to build enclosures in concrete and with minimal features. It surely is not beneficial for the animal and certainly is not appealing to look at.

With that in mind, I feel that the London Zoo has a little way to come to make its enclosures more appealing to both man and beast. The zoo has clearly grasped this idea as there are several new enclosures, namely the Gorilla’s, a walk in bird enclosure, the Penguin’s (I walked past the old penguin enclosure and was shocked to see that it was all concrete) and the tropical.

I wasn’t sure how new the butterfly enclosure or the bug house was, but these are also along the lines of what I expect from a zoo (the fact that the butterfly enclosure is inside a giant bouncy-castle style caterpillar is brilliant). Seeing butterflies with transparent wings is something of a novelty. Even more so when they land on you and you can see your hand through their wings. Inside the bug house I was suitable impressed with the display of ants near the doors. They do ant things like taking bits of leaves from one area to another via several ropes. It was only after I got close enough to them that I realised that it wasn’t an enclosure as such, you could reach out and touch them if you so desired. I had no desire to do this having seen what happened to my sister when she sat on an ants nest in Australia or my partner when she stood on an ants nest in Costa Rica.

Whether its butterflies or bugs you’re into, both are worth looking at.

If you’re at the zoo on a cold day, make sure you swing past the Tropical Rain Forest enclosure (maybe more than once depending on how cold it is). The highlights for me were the two, two or three toed sloths (I’d seen them in the wild in Costa Rica also much to my excitement). And by the time we got down to ground level, the “tropical rain storm” had come and they were both sopping wet. What a funny sight!

The drawback of being at the zoo on a cold day is that while you walk around thinking how good it is to be in a warm place, either your coat or the tropical enclosure, a lot of the animals are having similar thoughts and are either inside keeping warm or being very brave and venturing out briefly. I would suspect that visiting the zoo during warmer months is more a productive animal seeing experience and better if you have young ones in tow.

An inside enclosure where the animals can’t hide (apart from the camouflaged ones) is the snake house. They have their very own heated rooms! I always enjoy a good look at snakes, venomous, non-venomous, big and small. Probably due to coming from a country which is snake free. I’m a big kid at heart really. Also, that scene from the first Harry Potter is filmed there, if you’re into visiting movie sights.

My advice, try going in the warmer months.

• Added: 19th of February 2008
• Area: Tufnell Park
• Category: Restaurants

London NW5 1DJ
020 7482 2833

Glen_Bailey said
My Valentines Dinner
It’s not often that you arrive at the restaurant you think you’re supposed to be at, only to have a small man run at you from out of the darkness asking “Do you want to go in?”. My travelling instincts immediately kick in and I’m about to politely yet sternly tell him “No thank you” and walk briskly off. Luckily my brain jumped in before my mouth.

I remembered a sign on the front door saying something like ‘This door is not usable. Please use the side door.’ As the realisation flowed across my face, the very helpful small man (who I could clearly now see was a waiter and dressed appropriately) explained the person with the only key was late and would we mind following him through the side door.

We followed and had a brief tour of the kitchen where the three chiefs (who all greeted us with a cheerful hello) were preparing for the night ahead. The aromas they were creating convinced me that we had chosen a good place to celebrate our first UK Valentines.

The décor was nothing to write home about nor was it shabby. It was more the little touches like the miniature bouquet of flowers on each table and the heart shaped balloons scattered throughout that made it special.

We were the first people there, and our very attentive waiter let us choose where we wanted to sit. He then promptly took our coats (ladies first – of course) and gave us enough time to peruse the menu. We decided on two beers, Cobra and Kingfisher, and a starter of two papadums which came with four delicious dipping sauces. My favourite was the spicy concoction with ground cinnamon.

The mains took us a little while to choose only because everything we looked at seemed to be better than the dish before, including dishes we’d already looked at! I’m a sucker for goat which sadly was not on their menu, but made my decision a little easier. Eventually deciding I was craving a red meat, I decided on the Lahore Palak Gosht (a lamb dish using only A Grade Halal meat), my partner chose the Ginger Chicken Kerala Style (again using high grade meat) and due to the lack of greenery, she also chose the Saag Paneer (an old favourite of ours from New Zealand). To compliment this we chose a plain (basmati) and lemon rice.

We’d just ordered two more beers when the hot plates arrived, much to our please followed closely by our fantastic looking food. All three dishes were superb. The lamb could have stood out on its own. It was so full of flavour and the accompanying spices did well to bring this out further without disguising it. We appreciated the flavours of the ginger chicken dish, especially the sizable slithers of ginger waiting at the bottom of the bowl which I was allowed free run of. The paneer dish surprised us in its presentation as we are used to seeing it in a spinach puree style. It looked more like wilted, reduced, fresh spinach with accompanying spices but was not disappointing.

As the dishes were taken away (completely empty I might add), we pondered the need for three of them. Perhaps if we’d been thinking sensibly we would have got two, but it was a special occasion and we didn’t want to leave thinking “I bet that so-in-so dish would have been good”. We sat in Valentines bliss seriously considering our combined favourite to top off the evening, a refreshing lassi. Talk about eyes bigger than stomach syndrome! Sadly, we went with our stomachs (both of whom were rumbling with content) only to be asked if we would like to look at the desert/hot drinks menu. Phewf!

After deciding that a lassi would push us over the edge, I managed to convince myself that a chai tea would see me right, only to be disappointed when the waiter came back with that knowing apology of a smile and the sad news that there was to be no chai tea for me tonight. Probably for the best. I was rather full.

The bill came to £36 and took a little working out. The only thing we may have done differently is instead of paying the £11 pounds for four beers opted for a bottle of wine instead.

Happy eating.

• Added: 13th of February 2008
• Area: Leicester Square
• Category: Events and Entertainment

London WC2N 4AU
0870 850 9199

Glen_Bailey said
Puppets on Stage
Firstly as a word of warning, if you've packed up your life in your home country to come and live in the UK and find that dream job - and find yourself doing repetitive data-entry where you have plenty of free time to ponder why you're here and where your life is going, then you might want to stear clear of Avenue Q (at least until you have more of a grip on your life).

If however, you have a resonable grip on your life, then what could be funnier than spending an evening with a bunch of colourful, loud, brash and downright hilarious puppets (oh, and the actual humans controlling them too).

Since puppets made the move out Seasame St et al and into the general arena of real life theatre - the world has become a better place. There are things that puppets can do on-stage that people would struggle to get away with (like walking around with someone's hand up your ....) or having flip-top heads or being cute little carebear type seemingly acid trip based characters who float around coaxing others to do bad things.

The musical struts along at a steady pace, with musical interludes, puppet sex scenes, a big, hairy monster who loves porn and is not affraid to let all in sundry know and the occasional audience member left in fits of laughter (and laughter is contagious so it's not long before those around start laughing at the person who is laughing at the puppets who in turn are laughing at the original laughing audience member!).

For those of you who think that Avenue Q is the first production to have puppets doing ridiculous things - I'd like to add that before Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings/King Kong fame) became famous, he made a movie called "Meet The Feebles". It's filthily good!

Overall, Avenue Q is an evening well spent - but be prepared to walk out with sore facial and stomach mussels from all the laughing.

Enjoy!

• Added: 12th of February 2008
• Area: Soho
• Category: Cafes and Coffee Shops

London W1F 0PT
020 7734 0370

Glen_Bailey said
Mmmm, my Flat White
Not since I left NZ (with the recent exception of Italy) have I found coffee that comes anywhere near being as good as the Flat White I got from Flat White - which:

A) makes me proud of the coffee in NZ and
B) makes me wonder why I bother to go to chain coffee houses here?

For any NZ'ers in desperate need of a good Flat White, make sure this place is on your list. For any UK'ers who don't know what good coffee is, head over and then make sure this place stays on your list.

Apart from supporting small businesses and not the major chains (who have forgotten, or perhaps never knew what coffee, let alone good coffee, is), there is a pleasant atmos going on - the sort of place you can relax into the comfortable decor and imagine yourself in any coffee house in a far away land, if that's your thing.

I was too stunned by how good my coffee was to eat, but the food I could see looked worthy.

Lastly, and I can say this because I did this for 14 months of my life, a big shout out to the guys for putting that little bit of extra love into their coffees. By this I mean the patterns/squiggles/smudges/whatever you call them that greet you when you look into your latte. It's not hard to do but makes a world of difference.

It's also fun to stare deep and long (well not too long, who wants to drink cold coffee!) into the pattern and see what your brian comes up with. I always find animals. Swans, clams and the odd phoenix so far! Go figure.

Enjoy! Oh, and spread the word!

• Added: 12th of February 2008
• Area: Soho
• Category: Restaurants

London W1D 6HG
020 7851 1586

Glen_Bailey said
Maoz Falafel
I'd heard about this small restaurant somewhere in Soho that did really good falafel with a salad bar you could eat as much as you wanted. Not much to go on while walking around Soho on the same day as the Chinese New Year celebrations.

But, a phone call to a friend with googling powers at finger tips, a mention of Maoz, and they're all "Oh yeah, that place!" So armed with an address and my A to Z (I'm not from here) and off we go.

Get there and it's packed! A good sign! When we get inside it's not too clear the procedure of ordering or where the line begins/ends, but hey! We found it, we were happy.

After finding a table and a 4th chair, we happily wait while enjoying the remarkable looking food that keeps appearing. Green and black olives, marinated mushrooms, delicious looking sauces etc, and before too long our own little wholemeal pita packets - which came pre-loaded with fried eggplant and little falafel packets (you get to choose if you want feta as well).

We all filled ours with a bit of everything, leaving them practically overflowing with goodness, and I choose the corriander sauce - which reminded me of a great thai dipping sauce - delicious!

The food was great and more than what we expected and left us with the post food silents. Then the "Oh wow that was good"'s started, for at least 5 minutes.

For around £4 each, we had our fill of healthy, tasty vegetarian food! And I only went up twice!

I'll be recommending this place to my vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends alike.

We left yelling (it was still busy) out to the guys behind the counter "Thank you so much that was great!" - too which they were cleary appreciative, and left on our merry ways.