Restaurant Review: Laughing Buddha, Blackheath

Bank holiday weekend here in the UK and despite the rain it has been a lot of fun and a time to catch up on boring domestic issues that I have got behind on!

Saturday night was Ed's flat warming party. Readers of Ed's blog will know that he has been battling hard with DIY since he moved in a couple of months ago. The hard work is over (for phase one at least) and it was time to party! A bit of a Greenwood House reunion. Excellent evening, although Transport for London let me down on the way home with a painful bus journey that took over an hour!

Today I bought a new stereo for the car. The power button has a habit of falling off the current one and it doesn't play anything more advanced than tapes. I really wanted something that I could hook my iPod up to. Surprisingly for such an old car it has a steering wheel control for the factory stereo. I am fearing that I am going to loose this functionality when I install the new unit. Any ideas? Posts please!

Tonight was dinner with Jo and Matt. We were hoping to go to the Thai restaurant in Blackheath, but sadly it was closed, so we went to the Laughing Buddha Chinese instead. I think Matt summed it up best with his "a mixed bag" observation. The Kung Pho Prawns and fried sweetcorn was very good, but the roast duck and Jo's vegetarian main were a bit non-descript. One of the oddest touches was pictures of the inside of the restaurant hanging on the walls - look there's our table! It is good to have solid and reasonably priced local restaurants on your doorstep, but I don't think that it will be anywhere I can get enthused about.

Where to go for a weekend in France?

Very excited as some friends and I have booked a return ticket on the Euro Tunnel for a weekend in early October. But the big question is where should we go?

18 months ago we went to Le Touquet and loved it. The market, food, wine and a walk on the beach. We are looking for something equally good this time, but we don't want to go to the same place again. My only requirements are a bit of French culture and excellent food.

All suggestions welcome!

Humble Pie: Kennington is a great area

When my great friend and former flatmate Ed told me that he was moving to Kennington I have to say that I was a bit sceptical. When you think of good areas in London Belgravia, Hampstead, Chelsea, Kensington and the their ilk all roll of the tongue. Asked about bad areas and you think of Brixton, Lewisham, Harlesdon, Tower Hamlets, Elephant and Castle and well, places like Kennington too.

How wrong could I be. The streets are packed full of delightful Victorian and Edwardian houses. Side streets contain places like the delightful Cleaver Square where the sophisticated residents play boules in the summer (photo above). It is so close to central London that it is practically in W1. Kennington is brimming with positive indicators including gastro pubs, estate agents, regeneration of housing estates and new builds. The only thing it is missing is a trendy wine bar (thank goodness). We should all move there!

For the record I live in Brockley which no one has ever heard of, making it a safely middle of the road kinda area. It could do with some of the positive indicators that Kennington has!

My first car

The EdLog has been telling anyone on who will listen that my long haul foreign holidays mean that I haven't been green for a long time. I would argue otherwise. I cycle to work, recycle, live in a well insulated home and have modest energy bills. My killer argument has always been that I don't own a car.

All pretences must now sadly end as I have just bought my first car. So far I have only done 60miles in the little beauty, but that is bound to go up. I am hoping to avoid the short and unnecessary journeys that are so damaging and that it will open up lots of possibilities. Like weekends in the countryside and even the odd trip to France. All those of you that have been holding off invites of weekends away and mini breaks let the floodgates open........