The Search for the Perfect Tree

Okay so I have to admit I’m still a country bumpkin at heart. One of the things I used to do with when I was young was climb trees in the park (I was a massive tom boy).

So after realsing the other day I am literally a 20 minute walk from Hampstead Heath (and Dirty Burger! OMG!) we went for a jolly round the park. In search of the renown ‘climbing tree’.

Squirrel!

Take 1.

So the best climbing tree is suppose to be off the beaten track about halfway between Parliment Hill and Kenwood House.

http://www.panoramicearth.com/3098/London/Tree_Climbing_on_Hampstead_Heath

However after being full on burgery goodness and starting in the bottom right corner of the park, the good intentions of getting this far into the park diminished rather quickly. So we found a broken one, climbed on it a bit (probably not the best time to be wearing my best Reiss word trousers) and wandered home.

it started getting dark, probably not the best thing with our combined lack of internal compass….

Take 2.

So another Sunday I headed up solo, just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and write my journal (and possibly read a trashy magazine, but it sounds all cultured to say write my journal).

Pretty scenic viewamondo

This time I delved deeper into the woods off the track. But after a time got a bit bored. HOWEVER I did actually find some proper standing up climbable trees this time. So I chose my culprit…..

My culprit

And up I went like a cat (or a sloth depending on who’s telling the story) to the upper branches (or about 5 ft from the ground, again who’s telling).

Good branch spacing for optimum footholding

Dare I venture further, or do I call the fire brigade?

Ties my bag on and lay back and relaxed. Well as relaxing as you can get sat in a hard tree, in the wind and errr the shade.

Bag secured

Okay so the idea was probably more serene than the execution, but I had a nice couple of hours writing and heckling passers by. Chasing squirrels, watching children with kites. Then I realsied I am not an 84 year old pensioner and headed home to do some extreme sports.

Awww i miss my kite!

Buuut one thing I know I will be back in search for the big ass tree, and I’m so gunna take some friends there for rounders when the sun finally decides to get its blimin’ hat on!

Untill we meet again Hampstead Heath.

London Love

xoxoxo

The Rave Diaries Part I, II & III

So ever since chatting to my older cousin Little Hil last summer about her time in London, I’ve been itching to get to one of those renowned raves!

In my head I envisaged a proper 90’s underground dirty bad boy. The beat so loud you cant hear yourself think, people rammed in with very minimal florescent clothing and where the only thing distinguishable are strategically placed ‘glow in the dark’ bands. Underground. Illegal.

this is what i had in my head…..

So I typed in ‘London Rave’ into Google (underground and illegal quickly diminished). Booked one for Jeni and I on Resident Advisor (you cant just turn up now they sell out! @residentadvisor ), so ~£10 later off we went.

TAKE I – FLUX presents at THE SIDINGS WAREHOUSE, 53 Southwark Street, SE1

So Jeni and I headed down on Friday 5th April for a evening of late night raving. I don’t think we got there til about 1am as we had been out for Beer-Pong’s birthday at the London Cocktail Club (@LDNCocktailClub). I have to admit I was slightly tiddly by this point which was lucky as it was freaking freezing outside and we bloody had to queue!

Queued like sardines

When I said Q, I meant it! We were absolutely rammed in, I had to like cage poor Jeni she’s only small!

We could see the entrance, buuuut stuck

So when we finally got inside we tried to get rid of our coats, and were greeted with yet another queue. So we sacked it off and squeezed into the main hall. In the first 30 mins we were there I think I was asked if I sold drugs about 3 times, and also asked if I wanted some pills. Fantastic, and errrr no. We were then chatted up by a med student and his wing man and couldn’t sort of get rid of them! (we were trying to be polite but we just wanted a bit of a jam.) SO about an hour later we got bored of the predominantly drunk under 18’s and left feeling old.

Consellation? These…..

the light were pretty cool

Stroke lighting! Not so great for the epileptics in the crowd….

Verdict?

Shit, go if your in a massive group or are super keeno to get pills. Or sell pills.

TAKE II – MUTANT DISCO WAREHOUSE PARTY – 588 Kingsland road, Dalston, E8 4AH – 20th April 2013

Ummm Beer-Pong and I never got to this one. We went out with her friends from the bank to DSTRKT. Most horrible place ever, never again. Felt proper out of place. To discuss. So ended up in the grimy Obar (@Obarsoho) where a chap was sick on the bar. Loved it 🙂

After exiting these places we sacked off the rave and went to McDonalds instead. Try their new criss cross fries, magic.

TAKE III – SHOGUN AUDIO – SOUTHWARK WAREHOUSES, SE1 0NR – 26th April 2013

So after a bit of a cock up on my part teamed with Wahaca’s (@wahaca) dodgy signal. Athena and I didn’t make it to this one as a team, but I went for a couple hours with G beard on the way home (on the way home, as you do. Head home after dinner, go to a rave……only in London)

So with expectations considerably lower than last time and fueled with food rather than alcohol off we trotted. The line up I knew none of. Well I thought I knew Alix Perez, but I got him mixed up with Perez Hilton…..

Alix Perez? Notorious gossip columnist?

When we entered (about 11.30 pm) it was still quite empty. There were like 3 arches, one with more life than the others. However come 12.30 pm the beat dropped and it picked up! Everybody danced and it was actually well good like a sort of concert on speed (with pill fuelled people, older than 16 opening sort of mosh pits).

Pretty groovy graphics

To be honest I just saw it as an opportunity to wear my new crop top 🙂 oh and I was more impressed with the ‘neoness’ this time….

See!? all dark save some neon tubes

So about 2 am we were dog tired and headed home. Not quite the crazy mind blowing experience I had pictured when someone had originally said rave, but a pretty good evening nonetheless.

Aaaaannnnnnddddd………..

We are off to another on Saturday. Stay tuned :-O

London Love

xoxoxo

I Feel A Change in the Wind

Okay, so this weekend I’ve lived in London for a year. All my fellow Chem Eng placement students will know how bizarrely quickly this has gone! I swear I was moving in yesterday!

But after a year, I’ve got a bit of itchy feet. I love Jacobs Consultancy where I work, but London has so much to offer that I haven’t discovered. So in one week, due to my boss being absolutely totally amazing, I go down to part time.

Igora and gthena I’m Going to miss these guys

I’m going to miss them all!

Awww the awesome view

Sunrise on the way to work.

Boris, playing basketball!!!

What I didn’t mention is about a month ago I got scouted by a really cool model agency called Nevs (cheeky little link to my page….). I was in Primark and a ace chap called Orlando came over and chatted to me. Needless to say I was skeptical, but after visiting Nevs, doing a few shoots and going to some castings it seems like a pretty cool way to spend the summer. The funny thing is there are quite a few girls called Abi out there, so the agency suggested I change it. After deliberation my name is now erm Aspen.

A poplar (genus Populus) with rounded, long-stalked, and typically coarsely-toothed leaves that tremble in even a slight breeze.

If anyone asks I had hippee parents 🙂

Lets just say its taken a bit of getting used to, but no I kinda like it 🙂

My first polaroid, on my first ever card

the other polaroid set

The reason I haven’t mentioned it in my blog is because when someone asks you ‘What do you do’, and you open with……..

‘Ummm I’m a model’ or ‘I do modelling’

I feel sort of weird. I really don’t want people to think I’m pretentious or up myself or anything. Also I’m quite a slight girl, I always have been. I like to run (i’m not going to say I’m one of these people that bum around all day, eats MacDonalds all the time and doesn’t exercise!), I am always outdoors and doing stuff but I also really like cake. I think it balances 🙂

First ever polaroid! Any former ‘prude’ I had has gone out the window now!

But people do automatically think you have some sort of eating problem or something. It sucks a bit.

HOWEVER. as of next week that’s what I’ll be doing. A sort of Chem Eng/Model/(Hopefully, to discuss)Waitress mash. So I never minded what people thought of my bizarre personality, or clothing or hair. So why should I mind about this? I’m actually quite excited 🙂

trying to do the whole ‘smising’ thing, but ended up just looking a little cross eyed…

one of my first shoots, so serious! 🙂

Okay so I understand modelling is a really difficult business. I have to be able to pay my rent. I know this summer is going to be good honest hard work, so this post was promoted by……………

a) Having a musing mooch on a Saturday morning eating my iced coffee and apricots on cereal (that’s right) in my Jim Jams……………

Iced coffee, shreddies/all bran and apricots, yuum! Oh and of course tea, standard 🙂

and

b) I had a test shift at the bar/restaurant La Bodega Negra last night.

I really enjoyed the shift last night! I so hope they let me come back as I loved the atmosphere, all the staff were really eclectic, kooky and upbeat. Everyone springing around and dancing. I was paired with Evangelina, who is literally the grooviest person ever. By the end of 3 hours I felt like I’d known her for yonks! If she ever reads this good luck with the cycling (don’t get a no braked bike!) and stop eating prawns 🙂

To be honest even if I don’t get the job I’d love to go back and review it for the Chomping Guide. The place is as cool as a cucumber.

Soooooooooo if the plan doesn’t work out? Ill go and plead to go back full time so Athena and I can do this 🙂

I personally think this is an improvement 🙂

Nah I jest, I’ll go back to uni having had an amazing summer.

So from here on out, its Aspen 🙂

New updated cards!

Ready to rock and roll!

London Love

xoxoxo

p.s I wont forget I’m still this girl! Muscly, gangely Abi from Cornishland.

TOTAL WIPEOUT!

The Gig Handbook 1 – C2C and Swim Deep

Being in London I have been exposed to so many new bands/genres of music. I love the fact you can just nip down to a record store (My favourite is Rough Trade on Brick Lane) and spend hours just jamming to some tunes!

Additionally there are about a gazillion venues hosting these musical geniuses everywhere, all the time! So I thought it was time to jump on this bandwagon.

C2C

Sooooo last night the 21st June 2013, we went to see C2C at The Forum in Kentish Town. C2C are like funk DJ’s with a hint of Basement Jaxx and Beastie Boys. They created the only album this year that I can listen all the way through and like every song.

Such suspense!

Jazzy enterance

The set was great all the songs from their first released album Tetra. The animations on the front of the decks was sick, sadly my camera didn’t do it justice.

Groovy graphics

The graphics continued throughout!

The whole set was really raw (good word G beard), they moves the decks themselves and it wasn’t perfectly smooth, but I think this made them rather endearing.

Quite pretty right?

Not great photo, but I loved the mouths!

The guys obviously love what they do. They really got the crowd going with sound battles and singing etc. Luckily the croud was a good bunch, upbeat but not stupid and like just going to mosh (which I found a lot of people seem to go to any gig for, especially if they are under like 16 years old)

I’m excited to see where they go from here! I would definitely go to see them again, I think they would be ace at a festival. Watch this space!

 

SWIM DEEP

Okay so I went with the Spyrou fam to see Swim Deep on May 29th at The Village Underground in Shoreditch.

The village underground wall always changes

I love this band, Athena got me into them, mellow but really catchy and easy listening. I was looking forward to see a group that I knew the words to the songs and could just have a good old dance.

Such good lighting, multicoloured!

We caoght the end of the support acts, but Swim Deep where what we came to see. They opened with ‘The Sea‘ and didn’t disappoint throughout the whole set. Songs I knew mingled with unfamiliar ones, but the atmosphere was really good 🙂

Groovatious

The only downside was the crowd was very young, like ~15yrs. They also predominantly were there to mosh rather than actually listen to the music. So when ‘King City‘ came on Athena and I got really excited. However a mosh pit opened around us and some boys tried to push us too the edge. Athena and I don’t take any shit, so got proper agro and just danced in the middle and elbowed the little derps out the way. We’d had a stressful day, it was fun 🙂

The best bit was they were filming a live video for ‘She Changes the Weather‘. So there was massive confetti guns, Austin jumped into the crowd and narrowly avoided getting his shirt ripped off by crazy hormonal teenagers 🙂

confetti explosion!

Fiming for ‘she changes the wether’, bouncer tried to break up a mosh put….erm without much success….

Like c2c I would go and see these guys again for the music, but sadly the following is mega young a a pain in the arse. The actual bands performance was great. So maybe I’ll just listening to their new stuff on my mp3 or see them at a festival 🙂

 

London Love

 

xoxoxo

He was oblivious. You cant stage this shit. Enough said.

Rollerblading it begins….

Right summer is here! Well sort of, the British summer is here so its a few degrees above the British winter and erm raining.

However time for new adventures!

So when strolling in Hyde Park in like April, G beard and I saw loads of people dancing and generally having a good old jolly on rollerblades. Boom boxes, cones the works. We decided come the end of the summer we are gunna be soooo good and just go an show all these blading whizzes what we are made of. Rock up, look really unassuming then wack out some moves.

I will be this good!

After popping out a couple of times of my current blades, feeling proper cool, I was advised by the Club Blueroom skate shop in Marble Arch to bin my old aggressives 😦 So as an early birthday present from folks a la Glencross, I purchased some new urban hybrids. If I was crap at least i’d look the part.

New bad boys, luckily I have purple socks to match…..

Training started last week. Needless to say the going is slow. I like my old ones, but my new ones are a bit scary! They actually move smoothly!

So I dragged Beer Pong to the Hyde Park last Saturday (she hasn’t rollerbladed in like 10 years) for a much needed practice. We did however miss our stop and try skating in the wrong park at the start (I think it was Green Park?)

However when we got back on track (much putting on and taking off of the blades, bloody hell) and eventually got to the right place, she was fearless! Me? Not so much. I have a nice skating scar on my chin that makes me a little more tentative, but getting there.

Little dubious about being so close to the water. If we hold onto each other, its harder to fall….

Who knew one could be so happy when its pissing it down 🙂

It was great though, when Pong needed a cigarette break I practiced 🙂 It was even fun when it absolutely whizzed it down! She got chatted up by a ten year old and we tried conversing with a French chap, living the dream 🙂

And there was only one fall between the two of us! It was minor, nothing serious (and not me I add with glee!). Sorry Beer Pong.

A quick wave before I stack it.

The mean machine.

Verdict?

I can now skate forwards 🙂

oh and turn around and skate backwards then turn back (that’s a bit more impressive right?!)

Properly, a basically free (need capital expenditure for blades or can rent them!) thing to do anytime. Hyde Park is great to skate in, Battersea Park is the next port of call as its flat. Regents Park is a little dodgy on where you can bike/skate.

 

Ill keep you updated throughout the summer.

 

London Love

 

xoxoxo

Club Blueroom skate shop: http://www.clubblueroom.com/

Backyard Cinema

Summers acoming (apparently, its June and the sun has definitely been minimal…) so the season of the ‘pop up cinema’ has arrived. They are everywhere from Somerset house and the Parks to Rooftops.

So G beard and I signed up for Backyard Cinema’s London Fields Brewery in Hackney screening of Django. We didn’t really know if it was inside or outside but we just went with the flow.

Backyard cinema – London Fields 15th June

So on the overcast evening of 15th June we were pleasantly surprised when we entered the Brewer cinema. There were comfy bean bags and deck chairs all set up, a little courtyard supplied I have to say some top notch food and a sort of summery terrace supporting the bar.

Inside the ‘screening room’

Fairy lights!

Django began promptly at 6.30 pm (we wandered in a little late, it was dark, we had hotdogs, navigation was difficult 🙂 the film is smashing, I’ve seen it before and I would see it again! But it was made so much better by the comfy climate. The cozy seating, ambient temperature (I just had on a tee and dungarees) and low level lighting made the experience loads better than the normal cinema!

Beanbags or deckchairs?

Verdict?

I much prefer this to the normal cinema, a much nicer experience and £10 for a ticket or £15 with food it doesn’t break the bank! Be careful all these events sell out pretty quick!

http://www.backyardcinema.co.uk/

After Hours:

Yay they are everywhere!

So the food was good but the portions were modest so we headed to one of my fav go to eateries for pudding. The Diner in Shoreditch. The music is always sooooo good and when teamed with great food, sultry lighting and a buzzing atmosphere makes me love this place. An Oreo milkshake (2 large glasses for like £4) and warm peanut butter cookie and ice cream later I exited a jolly person 🙂 The Diner will be reviewed the chomping section don’t you worry 🙂

Orea milkshake with Nutella! Warm cookie and ice cream….yum……….

http://www.goodlifediner.com/

This logo is how you tell the proper diner!

 

Diner London Love

 

xoxoxo

 

(sorry about the dark pictures my phones not best mates with night time, bloody HTC desire no flash!)

Cheap and Cheerful, the Joys of TV Audience

Righto so if you sign up to some websites like Applause store, SRO Audiences and the BBC you can get weekly updates on all the free audiences you can apply for!

This is great if you’re on a budget/end of the month/generally skint. So on Friday 18th June I lured in 4 of my friends to Million Pound Drop Live at the Mill Lane studios in East London, with the prospect of heckling Davina Mccall and a free pint 🙂

ITS LIVE! and ermmm on 4od 🙂

Oh word of warning do read the small print, its not a ticket as they over subscribe and this was a standing audience……

But its live so that makes it cool right?

Anyway we got there (well Ms. Seep did I was a bit slow cooking pumpkin pasta…) about 6.30pm for doors 7.15pm. We were let in then briefed in groups of 50 (everyone got in this time, you also have to get there reasonably early as they massively over subscribe sometimes). The breif was brilliant. No eating/drinking/phones/money/taking on clothes/taking off clothes/chewing gum/talking too loudly/breathing/blinking/sweating in the studio. It will be hot. You will be standing. Seep starting freaking out at the start, I laughed. By the end I was a little concerned we were going to be locked in a small room and wouldn’t be able to leave unless we passed out.

But after stripping and a couple free biccies we headed into the studio about 8.30 for a 9pm start. Lots of practice cheering and whooping at the correct time. By the end of the warm up my voice hurt!

So it started at 9pm, Davina came out and the contestants won/lost their money. We cheered and it was pretty cool! Strobe lighting and the atmosphere was intense! I’m not sure who was more nervous the contestants or myself, I was worried I would cheer at the wrong point! (highlight was when Davina had to repeatedly say ‘vagina’) However come 10.15 we were knackered! It was so hot my veins were sticking out like I was on heroin, Seep looked woozy and the cups of water we collect were just not enough. 2 guys won £50,000 each and we couldn’t give a toss by this point.

Beer Pong and I on live TV!

When the klaxon sounded we were pretty happy to filed out into the night and set free like birds. All the same it was a damn fun evening.

After Hours: With a spring in our step we then headed on to Bar Kick in Shoreditch for some more cheap entertainment. Here there are a load of £1 a go fussball tables. Good music (offspring and the like), you always meet random people there (quite often Australian) and everyone’s jolly. We got there ~11.30 so it was a bit quieter as people went off clubbing, which was really quite nice. I think Seep and Matt had been practicing or Beer Pong and I were shite as we lost ALOT! But several over the top victory dances with dubious high fives made up for our low win count 🙂

Love Bar Kick, always a good atmosphere

Fussball tables!

A good hour and £4 later we wandered home after a great budget evening. Who said London had to be expensive?

London Love

xoxoxo

Bar Kick: http://www.cafekick.co.uk/

Applause Store: http://www.applausestore.com/

2.8 hours later

Bejabbers! I totally forgot to post this one! Okay mega late buuuut a must for an random evening junkies out there :0

Okay, so last November Lonnie and I embarked on a jolly to go and play with some zombies. Think 28 days later style.

So it begins

Thanks to The Nudge website, we purchased tickets to spend our evening running around canary wharf being chased by people in make-up and doctors scrubs.

Soo we got off the tube somewhere near canary wharf at about 8pm one Friday eve. Armed with a rucksack and errr our tickets and that was about it. We joined the queue of other ‘apocalyptic survivors’ and chatted to some other crazies. It was there we found Isabelle, Tom and Billy Raimes. As Lon and I were a twosome and we needed ~6 we all joined forces, and after a quick warm up given by a eccentric bearded Scottish man we were given our ‘map’ and sent on our way. Thank goodness for Tom is all I can say, as my sense of direction is about as good as trying to Riverdance with no legs.

SO our first zombie encounter was in a tunnel under a road. Just a nondescript underpass, but it was lined with four of our bloodied friends. They slowly moved in our direction nothing major, I laughed saying ‘aww they have been nice, starting our with the slow ones’, before it lunged at us and promoted an array of shrieking.

Nifty little buggers…..

I was definitely the most pathetic, I kept thinking we were being followed and was literally scared of my own shadow. Lon was pretty chilled, Tom was navigator and Billy was the entertaining derp who took on each characters accents. Surprisingly well I may add!

So next we were directed towards a seedy looking container yard, where of course you would stop off for a cuppa in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. We were herded in like groups of about 10 to meet a rather shady looking character inside a storage container, the happy chappy had a girl tied up in there! There was blood on the walls and he was soooo creepy! He like came on to the girls in the group in a strokey/fondling manner. I was freaking out thinking something was following us and at that point sweating like s a whore in a church. ITS WASN’T EVEN REAL!!! Then the guy flipped and was like crazy laughing like “GET OUT” and we ran and zombies came from EVERYWHERE! and I ran past everyone and past the exit. Needless to say I was ridiculed when I eventually did get out ……. 🙂

However we were urged to continue on our merry travels.

Next port of call. An inviting looking abandoned multi-story car park. Fantastic. So teaming up with another group of wimpy boys we headed in to meet Frank. Frank needed insulin, which surprise surprise was upstairs through several stories of bloody hungry zombies. This is where I realised, you know those stupid animals that run out into the road, get more than halfway and run back?

Yea I’m one of those.

So as the others scooted on, I ran back to err ‘gather more clues’ from Frank. He looked rather surprised. Needless to say I was shit at the whole ‘running away’ concept as I knew back the way I had come from was safe! I got there in the end and we got a jimmy on leaving the boys (and their lack of internal compass), and Frank with his drugs.

So then we hit ‘the field’. Basically what it says on the tin. A large field filled with our groaning friends (and no not the same type that were in the room above you in uni halls where and you just have to bang a broom on the ceiling, although there are similarities) and they were baying for blood!

You could see them bloody waiting for you!

We ran to the nurses cage (our next checkpoint) thinking we were safe but no! We now had to run to the tent in the middle of a pitch black field. Of course how silly of me. Soooo we went, and one of the little bastards got me! All slobbery and groany. I was infected. But well after a bit more running (Billy got bitten by the Eusain Bolt of zombies, he beelined for me and I just screamed in gibberish at him, apparently that scares zombie blokes…) we made it to the tent, and one of the scary shits come in the other end and I SHIT MYSELF! (thankfully not literally) Basically I pushed poor Lonnie out the way, ran out the door and kept going. Apparently I would be a shocking friend in a zombie apocalypse.

We ran with such conviction, one poor member of the public thought we were chasing him and jumped in a hedge 🙂

I was then dubbed Forrest Gump, ‘Damn girl you can run’

We regrouped, and continued. Everyone slightly flustered, me sweating like a fat bitch.

Then we got lost.

Oh dear.

This was probably the least terrifying point of the evening. Basking in the serenity of Canary Wharf, not a zombie is sight, climbing over peoples gardens, pretending we were on a quest like in Lord of the Rings………..

Isabelle was gandalf…..

Then we sort of stumbled upon the final ‘game’. Zombies guarding a vile with the antidote in it. Grab it your cured! We were sent in waves. I sacked in trying to get it and did a nice gangely dance for the zombies. I’m done for arn’t I.

So as we queue to have our ‘did we get zombified test’ to get on the last ship out of London, which of course had already set sail so we had to stay on land with all the zombies and get eaten anyway, I reflected on my evening. One word. AWESOME! It was so excillerating and fast paced, but you had to use your internal compass and noggin to get to the next place. Also we met a great group of new people and just generally had fun! PLUS if you were infected you got some jammie face paint 🙂

Issy, Billy and I cooking. Lon jamming. Tom looking rather smug 🙂

We then headed inside for some food and a well earned pint. Topped off with some zombie disco-ing.

Verdict?

I’ll be going to another one, armed with more friends and a tenor lady.

The dream team

Apparently I’m the blurred picture double for the grudge girl………

London Love

xoxoxo

Get your butt in gear woman!!!

Oh dear I’ve been mega busy the last couple of months and my blogging has gone out the window! But a good chat with someone at a photography exhibition last night has made me realise I need to document all the groovy bits and bobs that have been going on, so I’ll do a round up of the interesting stuff 🙂

I guess it starts in March…………..