Trying to get back to myself

It's been almost two months since I wrote something here. Things have happened in my life and I guess I have tried to just find my place again. All the things I used to do have been slightly forgotten. I almost never read, never blog, I forget to keep in touch with people, I don't spend as much time alone with myself. Now, for Easter, a lot of people have left Cambridge and I decided to do what I sometimes did before. Namely, go to a coffee shop/pub with computer and a book and just relax and watch people. I am in one of my favourite places, the Cambridge Brew House, again. Unfortunately there was a dog in here when I arrived and I didn't notice it until I sat down and ordered my coffee. I am very allergic to some dogs and this was apparently one of those. I was sneezing and had difficulties breathing after about 10 minutes of arriving. The dog has left now though and it is getting better. I've seen dogs in some pubs here and bringing dogs to pubs or bars is something that people just don't do in Stockholm. At least not that I have seen. I get that people want to bring their dogs to places but for very selfish reasons I wish they didn't.

Anyway. I'm rambling. What is it that I want to achieve with this blog? I want to tell you about my life here. And I will get back to that. My life here is good. I've made quite a few friends and I am always looking for more. I enjoy my job. My home is wonderful. I feel like I really live here now. When I moved to Cambridge my intention was to stay here for about a year but I have thought about it and now there is no time limit anymore. I will stay here until I feel like I want to move on. Who knows when that will be. 

Now if you'll excuse me I am going to return to my coffee.

Cambridge Brew House

There is a new restaurant open close to where I live! The Cambridge Brew House opens today and last night I was fortunate enough to win a dinner for two, simply by retweeting something from Twitter! I went there with my flatmate to taste their menu and I was not disappointed. We  had prosecco and shared a platter with hummus, bread, olives and the like. After that I changed to sticky things! Twice cooked sticky beef as a main course (it was goooorgeous as Jamie Oliver would say) and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I enjoyed both, though I couldn't really fit all of the pudding in at the end. And it was all for free! Lucky lucky me. I know this might seem like some kind of food or restaurant blog but I will try and change that, I just had to tell you about this new place! I expect the Cambridge Brew House to be one of my new favourite places actually. The decor is just exactly what I like, I loved the food and even the music was good. I think the only complaint we had was that the server didn't really know that much about wine and I've heard from someone else that someone working there didn't know about beer, which is kind of bad when it's actually suppose to be a Brew House. Right? I guess they'll just have to work on that though. On the webpage they call it a pub but I would say it's more of a restaurant with a little pubby corner. It doesn't matter to me though, as I enjoy it no matter what they want to call it. I will definitely go back. It's my local now.

FYI

I was at the Market Square today. Saw a guy in flipflops. It's just wrong.

It's 2013!

Yay! A new year! And I live here now. I've been in Cambridge for almost three months and I have started to get to know the place a bit. I've been to colleges, restaurants, theatres, pubs and bars. I have been walking around a lot – I love to just stroll the streets of Cambridge! But now I need to dig a bit deeper. For 2013 it's time to step up.

So what are my plans for 2013? 

• I want to explore Britain. As a kid I went with my parents around Britain and we drove around and visited B&Bs. I wouldn't mind doing something like that again. Now that I live here I definitely want to see more of the place.
• Go to London more often! I've been once since I moved here and it's so easy to go from Cambridge. I want to get to know London a lot better. 
• Find my very own favourite places – pubs and bars and restaurants. I haven't really found any great bars here, I don't know if there are many. I have been to Baroosh and Browns and they are nice I suppose, but I want more.
• Find more friends. I do have some friends here and I have met some people I really like. But good friends are hard to come by and I want to meet more people! 
• Put things on my walls. I have a small room with a bed, drawers and a chair and not much else. The walls are empty. I do feel at home in the flat but I need to make it even nicer.
• Go punting in the spring/summer. I've done it once at Halloween but it was so cold my feet turned to ice. Not a nice feeling.
• See Shakespeare plays in the summer. Oh my, how I am looking forward to seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream! 
• Visit Grantchester. Everyone keep saying how lovely it is but I still haven't been. I'll wait until spring arrives and then I'll go visit the Orchard.

I suppose that's it. High and low. I also have a standing plan to drink more champagne. I expect the list of things to discover to keep growing though.

Restaurants in Cambridge

I had quite a few visitors during December. Three weekends in a row actually! Aren't I lucky? I have been walking around a lot with them and we visited a number of restaurants. I have been to a few restaurants before but when people are visiting there is definitely more eating out than usual. I don't know what you think of the restaurants in Cambridge but this is my experience.

Last time I went to Jamie's we
sat just by the Christmas tree!

Jamie's Italian
Oh Jamie, aren't you just bloody everywhere?! OK, I admit I was actually sort of excited about going to your restaurant because in Sweden you actually aren't everywhere. I was told you couldn't book tables at Jamie's but I've heard later that you can now. I have been there twice and both times we were prepared to wait for a table and sat down in the bar. To me it's very important that the place I go to is nice and cosy and Jamie's Italian really is nice. I love the atmosphere and when we got to sit down in the bar we didn't mind waiting. The food has been a bit up and down to be honest. I had some sort of risotto the first time I was there and I loved it. The second time I had lamb and it was fine though I think I expected something else. Since it's supposed to be Italian you would think the pasta is the main thing here. My friend had pasta and was not happy about it. At all. I have heard some people say that the food is alright but nothing special and one of my friends had a meal that was amazing, so I think it's  definitely uneven. I so wish that it wasn't though, because it's Jamie Oliver's place and it should be great. Big plus for the very nice atmosphere and the good service though!

D'Arry's
This place is really close to where I live and I've been there a few times. I think the food is quite good and I always pass the room where they have private parties and think that I might want a private dinner party there myself one day. The place looks very nice, I love the style they have going on. The service has been so and so, I have skipped ordering more because I just got sick of waiting. They have music playing every other Sunday and I have been meaning to go for ages but when I finally went I was so disappointed. Not because the music was bad but because it was so extremely loud that I couldn't talk to my friend. I would have liked a table close to where the music was playing but we actually chose one furthest away from it. And we left quite early. I would say it's a nice place for food and wine if there isn't live music and the staff is attentive though. It's very pretty in there.

My friend Sandra and I
at the Chop House.

The Chop House
I have passed this place several times and I always think it looks quite nice in there. I got a table there with my friend Sandra once, in the very corner downstairs. It took a while before we got our menus but we ordered and the food was really good. I had lamb (yes, big fan of lamb) and it was perfectly tender! Very nice indeed. We thought about ordering dessert but were a bit full from the food so when they asked us if we wanted anything we said that we would like to wait a bit. A bit! But we waited and we waited and we waited. They never came to ask us again, we hardly even saw the staff again actually, so we just went up and paid. We did not tip them.

At the Punter with the
loveliest of friends

The Punter
My flatmate says that she rarely goes here because it's always been quite empty when she's been. I have only eaten here once but I've been for beer a couple of times and though it is a bit empty in the barn there has been just the right amount of people in the room where the bar is. This is probably where I've had the best meal in Cambridge. I went with a couple of friends and though we asked to sit in the main room, where the bar is, we got a table in the barn. I think they forgot about our reservation to be honest. Though we sat in the quite empty room we had the nicest evening! They had decorated the place very nicely and it felt a bit like British Christmas the way you see it in the movies. We all enjoyed our food. I had the pheasant and it was delicious. Though they were closing they let us take our time and they were quite attentive. I actually don't have anything bad to say about this place. The website doesn't look like much but I think the place is definitely worth a try.

Las Iguanas
We had tapas at las Iguanas once and for some reason I did not have very high hopes for the place. I don't know why. The setting is quite cool and the food was fine! We also had the funniest waitress and I do hope we tipped her enough. We ordered cocktails since it was happy hour (I mean, who am I to defy happy hour?) and they were good. All in all I would say that this place was good.

Yo! Sushi

Yo! Sushi
The rolling sushi! I had been wanting to go for a while and it was good fun and the sushi was fine but it got a big expensive in the end I think. I do really like the idea of it though, I suppose the experience is part of what you pay for. I would say it's more of a lunch place than a dinner place.

I've been to quite a few pubs as well but I don't feel like I have anything to report on there. I am quite sick of deep fried things for example. I haven't eaten anything I remember well enough to tell you about it apart from the Punter which is actually also a pub.

I really do enjoy eating out and I wouldn't mind other people giving advice on other nice restaurants in Cambridge. Have you visited any good places lately?

A New Year

Alright. I am really crappy at blogging apparently. It's just that I have so much to do all the time. I really don't know where time goes. I thought I would blog a lot but it really hasn't happened. So. New Year's resolution. Get better at blogging. Even though I don't have that many readers at least I'll like it when I look back. I am currently in Sweden for Christmas and New Year's but I'll be back in Cambridge soon enough. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our Christmas tree

We bought a Christmas tree the other day. We don't have the biggest flat but there's always room for a Christmas tree, right? So I went on my first Christmas tree shopping outside of Sweden and got a nice tree to put in the corner of our livingroom. We had some mulled wine and Swedish gingerbread cookies to go with that because everyone knows that you have to be in the Christmas spirit to decorate the tree. I suppose you can't really see the tree very well on that last picture because of the table that's in the way, but you can kind of see that it brings you the Christmas spirit, can't you?