Tag: Tottenham Riviera

Elaine’s Cuppa Cake

Elaine’s already gotta place to land when she gets to Scotland!

Our favourite Tottenham Riviera blogger elaine4queen has been threatening to move to Scotland, so I happened upon the perfect place for her. Her own café. Where we can all go and be sweary and inappropriate. As we are wont to do.

This isn’t easy – all this blogging. To be honest, I’ve never been a daily blogger. Well, there was a time I wrote a post everyday on my teablog, and that was enjoyable. Was even travelling a lot at the time, and wrote about tea drinking in Vienna and Hamburg and whatnot. I’m not against daily blogging in theory, but it’s really difficult to be out there living and documenting it simultaneously.

Lately, when faced with the choice, I’ve gone with the ‘focus on the life swirling round you‘ approach, and have taken sporadic notes along the way. At some point, I’ll get round to actually making those into blogposts.

There’s a great place where we stayed right outside of Durham, and I’d like to finally write a bit about the Lambton Hounds Inn, which is in the curiously named neighbourhood of ‘Pity Me‘. I mentioned in my last blogpost, and I assure you I’ve not forgotten it.

And then Fafa, which is my mother’s childhood nickname, and I went on to Lindisfarne in Northumbria. That’s worthy of at least three blogposts right there. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. And if you know me even a little, you know I’ve been a lot of places.

Here’s a taste of what’s ahead:

Everybody goin’ to the castle on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne…

Then we went to another castle that someone told us was involved in the filming of all of that Harry Potter nonsense, but when we got there, they were having a wedding and the place was closed off to visitors.

Turns out Bamburgh Castle has no connection whatsoever to the filming of those books that I’ve not yet read, but I suppose I will at some point. *sigh*

Mother claiming Bamburgh Castle for her own!

So, that’s a taste of what’s to come…aren’t you excited? Here’s your not-quite-humble-enough blogger at the same castle:

One of the few times you’ll see ol’ Lahikmajoe in less than formal attire.

time to join the @elaine4queen Admiration Society

The Once and Future Queen

You all know @elaine4queen, right? If you don’t, you should. She’s like the very best thing bout the Tottenham Riviera. She and her dog Poppet are the best hosts in the entire history of hosting.

There was even a statue of a goat in our journey. And, as you well know, you can’t always expect goats.

Elaine and the statue of a goat

What’s so great about Elaine, you ask? Well, she can draw and she can take the train into the city and she can throw Poppet’s ball when we’re playing in the park. I’m making her sound like she’s an imbecile, but she’s not developmentally challenged, at all. In fact, she seems to be above-average in intelligence and she happens to know lots of things. Things that it seems you’d have to read books to learn. Books with really big words.

practising her communication skills

Here’s where Elaine asked a passerby for directions. We were clearly well informed, because the lovely young lady on the right got us safely to our destination. And somehow Elaine was able to refrain from making any offensive jokes of a racial nature. Not our Elaine.

Then we were in Elaine’s friend Lisel’s house, and I was playing the guitar…the photo’s crappe, but that’s just how it is. It’s the only photo we have that proves I was even here in town that day. Here I am playing the guitar in a swirl of coulours:

guitaring while surrounded by 60s design wallpaper in Lisel’s front room

And finally? Here’s documentation that Elaine, Poppet and I were at some point all in the same place.

At the bikeshop/café where Poppet and I played boisterously while Elaine had an appointment

So, there you have it. Out on the Tottenham Riviera and in Hackney we smell different. And differently, as well. More bon vivantery soon enough.

‘Make good choices’