Beas of Bloomsbury

This place is lovely, the staff are lovely and the food and cakes are insanely good. I mean, I didn’t have any because I have issues with food but they looked good, and the people in our party that ate said it was superb. The coffee wasn’t so great for me. I had a macchiato and it wasn’t strong enough, and bizarrely, it was in a cappuccino style cup (half full). That said, they were using Square Mile coffee, and it wasn’t awful by a long stretch, I guess I am comparing it to some of the other coffees I had that day which were amazing. After all, Beas doesn’t boast to be a coffee shop before anything else.

I’d fully recommend this place, definately pay a visit if you are hungry more than in need of a caffeine fix.

Outside Beas with coffees, food & dare I say it, tea!

The Espresso Room

Espresso's and a macchiato at The Espresso Room

Just a short walk from Beas, The Espresso Room is also situated in Bloomsbury. A super cute little coffee shop with friendly staff who really know how to make good espresso and serve a variety of coffees from Square Mile and Hasbean. There isn’t a lot of seating but we managed to sit down for ten minutes whilst drinking our coffees. This place is perfect to grab a coffee on the go too.

Photo: Rick Nunn

Taylor St Baristas

The entrance to Taylor St.

This is quite an upmarket coffee house, but not in a pretentious way, it was still a welcoming environment and the seating arrangements mean that on a busy day you end up chatting away to strangers who are sharing a table with you.

It was really nicely decorated, pretty large for a coffee shop, big tall ceiling and the staff have a massive area behind the counter where everyone can see what they are getting up to.

Service area in Taylor St

Taylor St uses coffee from Union Hand-Roasted, so I opted for a for a filter to try out the taste. It wasn’t the best I’ve had and it wasn’t made in a Chemex which is my favourite method, but it was very good nonetheless.

I really like these words on the Taylor St website, so very true:

The first time you have a really good coffee can be a bit of a curse. With one sip, your expectations are radically transformed. All other coffee is ruined for you.

Penny University

If you follow me on twitter you might have saw that Shoreditch based Penny University kind of pissed me off a bit. Now that I have calmed down, here is my account of things.

There were five of us, we really wanted to try a coffee from this highly acclaimed coffee shop, we turned up and the person who dealt with us didn’t do so in a way that made us feel welcome. As soon as we walked in he told us (in a very vague and unconvincing way) that there were too many in our party for them to serve us, as they already had people sat inside and on the benches outside. He said we could try again in a few hours. I can’t even describe the way he chose to articulate all of this. We all walked out with confused faces asking each other what had just happened.

On reflection, I realise that this shop provides a very unique service, one which we were intrigued about to begin with (they only make filter coffee and refuse to serve milk or sugar – sounds awesome). I understand that they want to take time to make sure each coffee they make is to the highest of standards, they are sacrificing having loads of customers (and more money), for quality, and that is fantastic. But honestly, we were not asked if we wanted to split up and be served in two seperate sittings, or wait outside until the people inside were finished. If you are a coffee shop that only has six seats and provides a very particular service then you should know how to manage the people that come in wanting to try the experience out.

Really wanted to have a coffee here too – Shame!

Maybe I need to become a Shoreditch hipster…

Prufrock

This place is difficult to spot, we actually walked right past it the first time. Situated in the front of a boutique which sells expensive looking clothing, there is just a bar and a few seats outside, but holy fucking wow, you really need to try this place out.

Prufrock is owned by Gwiliym Davies (World Barista Champion 2009), but we were served by Mattias Björklund (Swedish Champion 2009). The espresso I had was hands down the best coffee I drank that day, and that is all I will say. Here are some photos of my espresso being made:

Mattias Björklund concentrating!

Making coffee!

Mmmm!

Taste Of Bitter Love

Taste Of Bitter Love – Photo: Rick Nunn

Based on Hackney Road, Taste of Bitter Love boasts, and I quote, “really really good food and coffee”. They are serving coffee from Square Mile roasters, somewhere which I will be ordering coffee from for home brew in addition to buying from Hasbean.

I was exhausted and my feet were covered in blisters so I took a seat outside the coffee shop and didn’t even order anything. But I had a sip of Rick’s flat white and it was outstanding. Everyone liked this place, and it was really quaint and cosy inside, and it had a cool sign…

Aforementioned cool sign! Photo: Rick Nunn (Click it)

Kaffeine

This place was very impressive. Located on Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia (near Oxford Street), Kaffeine is a really inviting and spacious coffee shop. We met a few of the Barista’s and the owner and they were all really passionate about what they do. They are also using Square Mile coffee, and my latte was the best milky coffee I had all day. Really, really nice. Infact, I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoy latte’s in Coffee Aroma, and that is saying something.

The interior was awesome, there is a big naked brick wall behind the counter, and the seating at the far end resembles a swedish sauna room. Very modern but still cosy.

This place is so easy to get to, I’d advise anyone visiting central London to try it out.

Food at Kaffeine!

Sauna style seating in Kaffeine!

Monmouth (again!)

So that is the seven coffee shops we had on our itinerary. I thought I would also say a few words about Monmouth in Covent Garden again though, as myself and Rick had a coffee there before we met up with the others. It was a perfect start to the day, Covent Garden is gorgeous, Monmouth Street is particularly nice to sit on, even if it is on the curb, and the Monmouth shop in Covent Garden just has so much character. Again, it is really central so if you are visiting London, this is one you can easily swing by.

Photo: Rick Nunn. Click to view on Flickr!

So there we have it, seven more coffee shops visited. I could never get bored of this activity. I am sure there will be more in the future, perhaps in different countries too. Myself and Rick travel around the UK a fair bit and whenever we hit a new place we check up for independent coffee houses on the Cosy Coffee Shops website, and try them out. I’d advise you do the same, especially if you usually just drink in chains. It will change your life. Thanks for reading coffee lovers.

So what’s been going on?

Well, I have finished my undergraduate career, and it feels good. Waiting on results now, whilst busying myself with work, looking for more suitable employment and applying for a Masters degree beginning in September. I have decided to stay at Derby, I really do like the University and the lecturers in my school, it definitely meets my needs for an MA, then hopefully I can spread my wings a bit when it gets to thinking about a PhD. It is actually an MA in Humanities, which obviously covers a broad range of diciplines, so it will give me a chance to further push myself without specific subject relevant guidance in lectures. Learning to learn from my own research is something I am working on and definitely need to get better at. I am currently deciding whether my thesis proposal is going to be based on either (in very basic terms) Third Cinema or East Asian cinema. Research has already begun.

A project I have been working on all year with Dr. Jason Lee at Derby University is also coming to an end. He is a member of the Flying Start project based at Liverpool Hope University, and he has written a booklet giving writing advice for students in the transition period of going from further to higher education, aimed primarily at students going into Creative Writing degrees. We think a short booklet is what prospective degree students need for tips on how they can improve their writing skills and what will be expected of them at University. I’ve been helping him research this and put it together, it’s been enjoyable, and this week we are presenting our work at the Flying Start conference in Liverpool.

What about photos?

On to my hobbies. I have become a hypocrite and bought myself a (relatively) cheap & simple strobist set up. I always said off camera flash wouldn’t be for me, but so far I’m finding it enjoyable; it is another thing to learn and experiment with. Luckily, Rick gave me one of his Sigma 430 flashes and lots of advice, so I just had to buy myself a stand, bracket, trigger and umbrella. I have done a few strobist shots and I have more in the pipeline. So far I’ve took these:

My first strobist attempt with the help of Rick!

A shoot with my friend Sam!

A low key self portrait after following Rick's blog tutorial.

If you are looking to have a go at off camera flash yourself, check out Rick’s startup kit blog post and his tutorial explaining how he shoots a low key portrait, it is very informative. Also keep an eye out for further posts from his how I shoot series.

So that is an update on my comfortably hectic lifestyle. Hopefully soon I will have something more interesting for you to read, there is talk of another coffee tour in London… so expect even more coffee shop reviews & photos from me soon.

It is difficult to decide when I first ‘got into’ photography. Should it be the first time I used a camera? When I realised I loved photography? When I bought my first dSLR? If it is the latter then it was at the very beginning of this year, but my story goes back much further than that. I always loved looking at photographs, in magazines, on the internet and I would spend hours as a child pouring through my parents and grandparents old photo albums (I still do this from time to time), but on family holidays I was never really the one taking the photographs.

I think I first started taking photos when I got my now deleted MySpace account. When I was 16, when MySpace was cool, I used to do a lot of self-portraiture with a compact camera, I’m not ashamed to admit this, as it is something that is still very prominent in my photos today and I will elaborate on this later.

As Susan Sontag wrote,

Photographs do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality, that one can make or acquire.¹

I fell for this accessibility of photography and its ability to capture moments in time. In consuming photography I could access parts of the world, or of other peoples lives, that I would otherwise never see, and in taking photographs I could create a permanent record of my own life.

I decided that I wanted to take this further and I actually did an A-level in photography whilst studying in further education. It was okay, I learnt the basic technical stuff such as aperture, ISO, shutter speeds and how they worked, but other than that the course was taught purely from an artistic approach. I did two main projects for my assignments, the first was a study of nature vs urban, lots of photos of nature and lots of street photography, and my second project was people. I did some candid shots of some friends and family, a band at a local gig and I also did a MySpace themed project, asking people at my sixth form college to write on a piece of paper what they thought of MySpace and to hold it in front of them for a portrait.

It was fun, but my photos weren’t great at all. I was shooting mainly with a Fujifilm Finepix s5600, something which I bought purely so I could play with the manual functions… I really didn’t want to use a camera on automatic. See, my intentions were good.

OLD PHOTO ALERT! A portrait of my friend Karim taken on the Fujifilm, May 2007.

After the A-level I wanted to carry on taking lots of photos, and I promised myself I would buy a better camera as soon as I had the money, but I went off to University and this just never happened. I did continue to take photos, but not very often.

Then at some point during the summer of 2009, I suddenly feel back in love with photography with a force. I put this down to ditching DeviantArt for Flickr, where I much prefer the community, and being utterly inspired by some of my favourite Flickr members.

My camera timeline progressed, finally getting hold of a dSLR and some lenses and accessories, and my awesome birthday gift of a 35mm film SLR. Taking up shooting film was an idea I had romanced with for some time. I grew up in a digital age but there is something so enticing about taking photographs on film, and you can’t beat the way film looks when it is processed. I think to truly love and enjoy photography one must experiment with film, after all, it is where it all started.

Photography is an elegiac art, a twilight art. Most subjects photographed are, just by virtue of being photographed, touched by pathos.³

An elderly man I snapped recently in Nottingham city centre.

I am now obsessed with bokeh and shallow depth of field, I continue to enjoy taking self-portraits, still life and I often find myself taking photographs of people in public without them realising it like some sort of ninja. I have always been a curiously voyeuristic person. I am always very aware of who is around me when I am out in public, and I watch people, they fascinate me; but I like to keep my distance and my camera provides a good hiding spot. I am very interested in individuals, in society and in culture, and my love of photography can encompass this by allowing me to take photographs of these things, and more importantly to consume photographs of these things.

To this day I thoroughly enjoy consuming photography as much as I love taking photos. The Flickr community is really friendly and inspiring, and being able to share my attempts at taking good photos is motivational to say the least. I enjoy the knowledge that I have a lot to learn and a lot to improve with my hobby, that is what makes it worthwhile.

Photographs… help people take possession of space in which they are insecure.²

Again Susan Sontag’s words, (such a good read), words that I believe to be very true for me. Taking possession of the space in which I am insecure… in society, in my own body, in education, in relationships and so on.

One of my latest selfies, it made the front page of Flickr explore

As I said, self-portraiture was something I started in my teens, and now it is something I often turn back to. Other than enjoying the challenge (getting focus can be a bitch), and using myself as a subject because it is easier than finding other subjects (that would mean I have to spend time with other people, which I don’t often like to do), I like the way that I can express my feelings through my physical appearance. Some of my photographs are revealing, not just physically but mentally. I’ve never been good at expressing my feelings but doing it through photos just seems right… and less invasive.

In a nutshell, self-portraiture is just another reason why I love photography for all of the above reasons. I am very aware that my most interesting photos (the ones with the most views and activity) on Flickr are self-portraits with the exception of a few, and this doesn’t really bother me, such is the nature of society. If using my self and body makes for an interesting photograph then I am achieving something I set out to do. That said, I would love to get more recognition on my photos that are of other subjects, and, at the risk of contradicting my feminist side, although I know it is occurring, I do not wish to objectify myself; it is just a form of expression.

Showing my skin & using morning sunshine for a self-portrait.

I will conclude here by saying simply this, I love photography because it is the most mysterious way to look at and capture the world. A photograph is always ambiguous, often equivocal, and that is what is so enchanting about it.

Notes

1. Sontag, S., (2002) On Photography, Penguin Classics, p. 4.

2. Ibid., p. 9

3. Ibid., p. 15

I am her alter ego, pseudo-ninjar-pixie-kitty.

Last night I stole a unicorn from the forest and we played chess together all night whilst sipping on Jack Daniels and coke. His name is Fargo, he has splendid bone structure and a well kept mane.

He took my number and promised to call but I don’t think he will, he has dangerous dragons to fend off no doubt.

Today all I can think of is Fargo, I tried taking catnip to take my mind off him. It worked. For an hour.

Now I am on my come down and I’m laid in bed with a kitchen knife. I’m not going to kill myself I just had to sharpen my nails. This rogue cat next door keeps asking for a fight and I am going to give him one.

I think tonight I will dine on salmon on my own and watch Pulp Fiction with a bottle of wine.

Tomorrow I will go to the library to read up on Unicorn mythology.

I wish I took a picture of Fargo. I had to draw him from memory instead.

Goodbye.

Coffee, a follow up

So my coffee post had quite a lot of interest, which is awesome, so thanks to anyone who read some or all of it. I had some nice comments, which extended past the designated comment area for the post to real life and Facebook, from friends, people I don’t know and coffee shop owners.

I feel it is important to point out that although I fucking love coffee, I don’t know much about it at all. I mean, there is so much ‘technical’ stuff that goes with making good coffee, and I don’t know much about any of this stuff. I am just a girl who enjoys drinking coffee, both at home and in coffee shops. So my evaluations of the coffee houses in my previous post are an innocent opinion if you will. I think this can be just as important as well informed opinions. I often ask some of my friends who know very little about taking photos to give me their opinion on some of my shots, or people who know little about a topic or issue I write about in an essay to give me feedback. Innocent opinions are honest and that is what I like about them, and I hope that my post was received as my honest opinions.

Anyway, I think it is fair to say that Rick and I have become coffee elitists since our expedition. You don’t need to know about the technical stuff to know when coffee tastes exceptionally good. We have picked up bits of useful information and few hints and tips since the trip though, mostly from the staff at Coffee Aroma.

One of which is that using something like a Chemex coffee brewer is a much cleaner way to make filter coffee, we tried it out, and you really can taste the difference. I am used to making coffee with a french press or a percolator at home, but having tried a filter coffee using one of these, and seeing how simple it is too, it is definitely next on my to buy list.

A week of self

On March 1st, I started a mini photo project called a week of self, which is pretty explanatory, a week of self portraits for seven consecutive days. Having done a 7 day project before, I knew what to expect. I know 7 days is hardly a hardcore project but it can still prove to be difficult. On the first day I realised that I would have to be the subject of a photo for 7 whole days which made me feel uneasy, but other than that, the project went really smoothly for me, with the exception of the final day, I had no ideas or inspiration, and I just didn’t want to take or be in a photograph. This for me was possibly the best thing I took from this project, it made me realise that longer projects just wouldn’t be for me. I don’t like to feel pressured to take a photo, I would rather do it when the mood strikes, at my own pace. However, I could consider doing more short term projects, or perhaps a non time constricted project. Two of my photos from a week of self made it into Flickr explore too, which was quite flattering.

Anyway, here are a few shots from my week:

My face!

Jump.

This one had a lot of views… I'm sure that is nothing to do with the naked skin

)-( Pisces, the escapist

You can view the whole set on Flickr. Also check out Nat, Leah and Rick’s streams, as we all did this project together!

I’m 21…

I was born once. That means I have a birthday. A day in the year when everyone wishes me a happy birthday and makes too much of a fuss over it. Anyway, I guess I can’t complain too much because I got lots of cool stuff from friends, family & Rick including money towards a 100mm ƒ2, Jack Daniels, a whole bunch of coffee from Hasbean and a Canon EOS 3000.

A 35mm film SLR has been something I have been meaning to get, so I couldn’t wait to use it, I really wanted to experiment with film with something more serious than my Diana Mini. So I powered through a roll of Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 on my birthday and had it developed, so I will leave you with a few photos taken with my new toy.

Three Generations - I spent the afternoon of my birthday with my Mum & Grandmother!

Tibby is grumpy

Birthday Lunch!

The view from my Mum's garden.

Anyway, recently myself and Rick decided we would try out and rate six of the “Top 10 Coffee Shops for 2010″ as listed by Cosy Coffee Shops. Seriously, the extent of our geekiness knows no bounds, and I even fashioned some small evaluation forms that we could fill in at each coffee shop and then fold up and stick right into our Moleskine notepads.

We had a good think about what criteria we would be using to assess coffee shops to go on these forms, it is very serious business as I am sure you can understand. The finalised forms included a section where we rated the coffee on a scale of 1-5 for qualities such as presentation, flavour, smoothness, price and if there were any accompaniments. The second section used the same scale to rate the place itself for qualities such as atmosphere, character and service. We also recorded what we ordered and there was room for additional comments.

Right, enough explaining, here is the good stuff, the results, with photographs of course. I will warn you now, this post is hefty, but do stick it out, I believe in you.

Coffee Aroma

Coffee Aroma in Lincoln is a place we frequent, which we are both very fond of, and is actually the reason we ended up finding the Cosy Coffee Shops website; so this seemed like a good place to start.

Rick filling in the first form

This place does seriously good coffee at reasonable prices. They use their own special blend from the roasters Has Bean Coffee. The staff are really friendly and you can tell they all take great pride in their work. We both often order a latte because they are so damn good from this place, and you get a glass of water as an accompaniment and it is served on a little wooden plate; a cheeky little bonus.

Food in Coffee Aroma, photo by Rick on his AE-1

Failing that, all of the coffees they do are great, I am also told the hot chocolates are fantastic and I am pretty sure they do an array of different teas. Coffee Aroma opens late on Fridays and Saturdays (until 11.30pm) for all of those late night coffee cravings, and it is also worth mentioning, it is the only coffee shop we visited that sells alcohol too! I have never eaten here personally but Rick has a couple of times and he always looks entirely satisfied with the food.

A latte from Coffee Aroma

The place itself is fairly small, so on a busy Saturday it can get a bit cramped if you just wanted a quiet drink. However, having said that, the main room upstairs has this amazing massive wooden table, a few small tables, and a smaller, cosy room which is very inviting. The art on the walls changes quite a lot, at the moment there is a wall devoted to postcards on which people who have visited have written their secrets and fears on, I find this really quirky and interesting.

A lady studying on the giant table upstairs

In conclusion, Coffee Aroma is great, and if you are ever in Lincoln you should definitely drop in for coffee and lunch. If you have never been to Lincoln, go just so you can get a coffee here, it really is that good. Infact, after speculating on our coffee expeditions, myself and Rick have both concluded that Coffee Aroma is still one of our favourites, if not the favourite place of them all.

Opposite Café

Opposite Café in Leeds was the next place to get evaluated, but this time only by Rick as he was in Leeds for a web conference and I was in Derby being studious! So I am going to let him take over my blog post and write something short and share some photos.

Hi, I’m Rick Nunn. You probably recognise me from the internet where I live & work. If you don’t, don’t panic it’s not the end of the world all you need to know is that I am Rick, I like coffee, I design stuff & take photos. I was in Leeds last week for Speak The Web & I thought it would be rude if I didn’t check out the Opposite Cafe. I parked up in the centre & embarked on the 25 minute walk arriving at the cafe at lunch time, boy was it busy!

Opposite Cafe, opposite Leeds University in Leeds. Isn't that weird.

I queued up along the counter which runs from the front to the back of the cafe, passing the home made sandwiches. I couldn’t resist picking up a beef, parsnip, mustard & mayo sandwich, when I got close enough to the counter I shouted over the quiet roar, “I’ll have an almond latte Please”.

There was quite a lot of seating inside but the amount of people in there made it impossible to get a seat, which was a shame, the atmosphere seemed good despite the hoards & there were lots of interesting things to look at on the walls. However all was not lost, it was a nice day & there was plenty of room to sit outside in their courtyard. The food & drink was top notch, the beef was full of flavour, the bread was chunky. It was very reasonably priced too, I think they would have to be as they mostly cater for students; I paid £4.80.

My Coffee!

The coffee was good, maybe not as hot as I would have liked, but it had a full flavour & was nice‘n’creamy. I was slightly disappointed that the only option was to have my coffee in a takeaway cup, but such are the perils of having filthy students as your main consumer group. The upside to this situation is that there are takeaway espresso/macchiato cups, awesome.

Then we went to London…

LJ Coffee House

As soon as we got into Central London we headed straight for LJ Coffee House in Soho and ordered some coffee and some lunch.

Coffee and lunch in LJ's

The place was very welcoming from the off and the guy behind the counter was very, very friendly. Rick had a flat white and I opted for an Americano and we both had sandwich/panini’s for lunch which were absolutely delicious. The coffee bean this place used was Union Hand-Roasted, which at first I thought was going to be one of those poor tasting fair trade brands, but it was actually very nice coffee. My Americano was superb, strong but smooth and not bitter. Having looked at the Union Hand-Roasted website, it seems they are very passionate about the coffee they roast, and offer training to baristas who use their beans in coffee shops, and audit their machinery to make sure it is all in working order and does the coffee bean justice. You can actually purchase their coffee online for a reasonable price.

Is this LJ? Who ever he was he was friendly and made nice cwoffee!

Back to LJ’s itself… as I said the guy who I thought to be the owner was very friendly. When he saw me and Rick taking photograph’s he started bringing over customers drinks for us to take photos before he actually gave the drinks to them. Very eager to show off his coffee artwork, and obviously taking lots of pride in his work!

Inside LJ's

The place was quite small, just one room, but the space had been used pretty well, with lots of comfy sofas packed in there. We noticed that in the corner there was a microwave, and a selection of cereals and porridge for the morning. Very cute. There is nothing much left to say for LJ’s, it is in Soho, it serves excellent coffee and great sandwiches, and you aren’t likely to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome at all.

Tina, We Salute You

Tina, we salute you from the outside

On the Saturday morning we ventured all the way to Dalston to visit Tina, We Salute You, which is right at the top of the Cosy Coffee Shops list, and we were not disappointed. As soon as you walk in you get a sense that this place means business, not unlike the feeling you get when you walk into Coffee Aroma in Lincoln.

The coffee bean they use is Square Mile Coffee, who are also a London based coffee roaster who sell their beans online and to coffee shops. This coffee was amazing, I had a flat white and Rick a latte and we both agreed that it was full in flavour and our drinks were very smooth and creamy.

A flat white from Tina, we salute you

The food menu in Tina’s was quite extensive, and the bit that amazed me the most was the fact that they served crumpets. The main table in the shop had a selection of toppings for breakfast food, I liked this a lot. There were a lot of people sat around this table having breakfast, reading newspapers, typing on MacBook’s. It was a great atmosphere.

Breakfast at Tina's

I didn’t eat but Rick had a sandwich which he claimed to be amazing. Another nice little touch was that there was bottled water near the counter with glasses that you could just go ahead and help yourself to.

Rick's sandwich at Tina, we salute you

According to the review on Cosy Coffee Shops, the decor in Tina, we salute you changes every 8 weeks. When we went in there was some art on the walls by Martina Ziewe which was intriguing to say the least.

Wall art in Tina, we salute you by Martina Ziewe

Some of the girls working in Tina's

All in all, Tina, we salute you impressed both of us a lot. Tucked away in the unlikely area of Dalston, which is not a nice place in all honesty, it is a fair distance from the tube stations and bus stops, but it is well worth the trek if you are in London and you want to visit an awesome coffee shop. I daresay it was my favourite of the London lot.

Monmouth Coffee Company

Next stop, Monmouth Coffee Company in Covent Garden. Last time we were in London we walked past this place just after having a coffee and saw the queue out of the door and made a mental note that we should try it.

Monmouth Coffee on Monmouth Street, Covent Garden

The shop was incredibly full, and there was a queue for seats downstairs so we decided to get a take out and sit outside, on the curb, because the benches were full. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that this makes this a bad place to get coffee because the lattes we had were one of the best lattes we have ever had. I mean, by this point it was getting pretty difficult to say what is better than what, we had consumed so much top quality coffee. But yes, this place has a good reputation and is obviously busy for a reason.

At the counter in Monmouth

Monmouth is actually a coffee roaster too, so it is the Monmouth bean that you are drinking, which is roasted on site. There were a lot of staff working so you should never have to queue for long. Behind the counter where you order drinks there are loads of bags of coffee beans that you can buy in any desired amount, which is quite a nice feature. There was also a pretty decent selection of fresh baked goods. I had a cake. It was sexy.

Barista in Monmouth

Then there is a second counter where you retrieve your coffee. Didn’t even get a look at the seating downstairs but we were more than happy to get our paper cups and sit outside on the curb and watch the world go by. Covent Garden is such a busy part of London, and this coffee shop is perfect for it because the coffee is good enough to just get it on the go. A place like Tina, we salute you, where sitting in is part of the experience, would be wasted in Covent Garden, because it would be too busy all of the time and it would lose its relaxing atmosphere where any one can go in and feel comfortable.

This is my favourite shot from the whole weekend. Just my latte sitting on the road.

Nude Espresso

Signage

Nude Espresso is just off Brick lane and first impressions included, “wow, lots of seating” and “this is where all the cool kids are”. This is the biggest one of the lot, with loads of seats, which is always good. Unfortunately the Grease soundtrack was playing, but I am sure (I hope), their music isn’t always that bad.

Chocolate Brownie

Again, coffee was great, perhaps not the best compared to Coffee Aroma, Tina, we salute you and Monmouth, but good nonetheless. I had a bit of blueberry cake and Rick had a chocolate brownie. Both were fantastic. Honestly I am running out of things to say, all of these places did great coffee, and the ones we had cake or food in did that well too. They each had their own different quirks that made them individual. For Nude Espresso it was its size, which meant that groups of people could socialise without getting in each others way, so everyone was minding their own business, which can be nice as opposed to the intimacy of smaller coffees shops.

Some girls reading in Nude Espresso

Flat White.

That is all the coffee shops on the itinerary from the Cosy Coffee Shops list done, but we did visit one more in Soho upon recommendation.

Flat white front

We got drinks to go from this place, it felt very much like regular cliques frequented it and without sounding too harsh, it was the least welcoming of them all. That said the coffees were very reasonably priced and the staff were friendly.

Take out!

I had a flat white (from flat white, ha), and Rick had a long black. We both agreed that the coffee had an odd flavour, not horrible, but sort of… fruity. I guess he could taste it more with his coffee, but my flat white was still very creamy. If I was walking past and needed coffee I’d go there, but LJ coffee house is just a five minute walk from Flat White, so given the choice I’d just go to LJ’s.

Nearly done now, I promise

This has been a very long post, if you have read it all you are a trooper, thank you. If you have read parts of it, or just looked at the photographs, thanks for looking too. I’d love to hear your thoughts? Will you ever go to any of these places? Or if you have been to any before, what did you think? I am guessing you probably think I am geeky beyond words but I am cool with that. I have had such fun prowling the streets of London, hopping between coffee shops and I am very happy that I can get to one of my favourites, Coffee Aroma, frequently. Obviously the whole thing has been made better by doing it with fellow geek/sociopath Rick Nunn of the Internet. Here is a picture of his face!

Peace out!

Rick in Nude Espresso

It’s a beauty, I picked it up with the EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS kit lens, and I am probably looking at getting a nifty fifty at some point in the future. I’ve got lots of practising and experimenting to do, but luckily, my boy is a photographer guy who plays with cameras a lot. He has basically given me a crash course today, loads of pointers, and even let me have a play with his 50mm F/1.4 lens and speedlite. Thanks a bunch Rick, and thanks in advance for all further help you will be giving me!

One of the reasons I picked up the 500D over the 450D was because of it’s full HD video capability, which is pretty fucking fancy. I have had a bit of a play with this, and definitely need a bit more practise but hopefully I’ll get good enough to share some cool videos with you.

Anyway, here are some shots I have taken so far:

Cody being a poser, taken with Rick's 50mm F/1.4

Rick with a giant cone-headed snowman

Ritz - Lincoln

Some icicles, I actually shot this handheld with the shutter speed at 1/40! Go me!

SUSHI. It got nommed.

My Bento box, I had teriyaki tofu!

Let me know what you think!
Oh, and keep an eye on my Flickr.

I have been meaning to start blogging properly for some time, but using Blogger didn’t really inspire me, so I got myself a domain, and now (with thanks to Rick) I can write about… stuff, here. I haven’t thought of a particular direction for this blog just yet, I am hoping that will come with time, as one of the things I intend to do in 2010 is write blog posts frequently, but more of that stuff-I-intend-to-do-this-year in a moment. So, all previous posts to this are the few I imported from my old Blogger account, I think they are worth keeping, you know, just for shits and giggles.

Because I am feeling self indulgent, and because I can’t think of anything else to blog about, and then tweet about that blog to show off this new blog (3 points for over use of the word blog – oh fuck, I did it again), I am now going to tell you some stuff I have planned for 2010. These are not resolutions, because I think New Year’s resolutions are for suckers, but just stuff I have planned. Here goes;

• The aforementioned blogging frequently. I have stuff to say, and I don’t care if few or many people read it, it will be a good exercise and will give me the chance to write more freely, a nice break from all of those essays and that dissertation.
• Speaking of dissertation, another thing I have planned this year is graduation. You could say that is something that is just going to happen, and that I don’t have it ‘planned’, but third year is no breeze in the park, and lets just say if I didn’t have it planned, I wouldn’t be graduating at all. Fingers crossed I will get good grades again this year and come out with a really good degree. I can’t wait.
• This leads on to my plans to do postgraduate study, starting in September. I am looking at doing an MA, probably part-time whilst working due to finance issues.
• Get a dSLR. I am looking at doing this pretty soon and I have been eyeing up the Canon 450d, so this obviously means that I plan to take more photos. Watch this space.
• Get more tattoos. I have three placements in mind, and a few design ideas, but I like to sit on these things so this might not happen for a while. Plus the camera will mean I will have to wait for tattoos on a financial level, but this is a good thing, gives me time to think it over.
• Travel somewhere new & interesting and take photos of it.
• Spend time with him.

I’d love to hear what you have planned!

Here are three reasons why I have them:

1. I like the way they look, and how they reflect my personality a little. I wear them as an expression.
2. Facial piercings detract from my stupid face a little bit. I don’t have a great face, so why not decorate it with metal? Same goes for my stupid odd ears.
3. I enjoy the pre-piercing nerves, the during-piercing pain and post-piercing after care.

I really enjoy the pain, it is so… nice. Sometimes they don’t hurt, when I had my lip pierced, it didn’t hurt at all, it was just a feeling of pleasure. My Tragus and Nostril hurt quite a bit, but in a sharp, deep, scraping kind of way. My tongue web was like a pin prick, and then an ache. I like all of these feelings. My dermal implant didn’t hurt but I enjoyed looking at the circular hole in my skin made by the dermal punch before they popped the implant in. I am slowly running out of things I want pierced and this is a very sad thought indeed.

So now you have an indication of just how weird I am.

I hope you are happy with yourselves.