London, April 2022: The journey there.

Mittens and Sunglasses

It’s really good to be in London again! The journey here went surprisingly smooth. Since my tickets are SAS plus, paid for with bonus points, I had access to fast track. No queueing at all.

When I arrived at the airport in Oslo, and had checked in, I headed to the lounge. I had plenty of time before my flight to Copenhagen, so I enjoyed some refrehments.

A table with a bowl of crisps, a glass of cola, a glass of apple juice, and a glass of white wine.
Refreshments
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

The reason I flew via Copenhagen, rather than getting a direct fliggt, was that I got my flights on sale. SAS had a bonus point sale, and I was a tad bit late to the ball, so it was either flying via Copenhagen or getting up ungodly early. The choise was easy.

View from an airplane. You can see fields and woods unddr a scattered layer of clouds.
Goodbye, Norway!
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

Arriving in Copenhagen I started hunting for food. I wanted a warm meal. I ended up buying wokked tofu and vegetables with rice, which was supposed to have ginger. I with it had more ginger and less salt, but all in all ot was a totally OK meal.

A white bowl on a table. In the bowl there are rice, and wokked vegetables and tofu.
Dinner
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

In Copenhagen I had to go through passport control, and was surprised there was no queue at all. Since I expected it to take a long time, I ended up having plenty of time before my next flight. Fortunately we got to board early, and soon enough I was on my way.

Boarder control at Heathrow was busy, but that’s normal. I think it took maybe 30 minutes before I was out and able to pick up my bag.

Having picked up my bag, I headed to the underground station. I was happy to see my Oystercard was still working, and still containing money. I topped it up, though, just in case, and headed to King’s Cross where my hotel is.

I checked into to hotel, and had the choice of having a room in the ground floor or fourth floor. I definitively prefer it to be higher up, so fourth it was. The room was quite nice, and it didn’t take long before I was under the duvet sleeping.

Bookshops I’m planning on visiting in London

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London is such a great place for book lovers. There are so many bookshops and other book related places to visit. Some I visit pretty much every time I’m there, like Waterstone’s Picadilly (which is huge!), some I’ve only visited a handful of times, while others remain to discover. Of course I’m planning on visiting a few this time around as well. There are some shops that aren’t around any longer, like Silver Moon, and that’s sad. Fortunately, there are still a bunch of good ones still around.

One bookshop I’ve been to a couple of times, is Daunt Books in Marylebone. It’s an independent book seller, and the address is 83-84 Marylebone High Street, London. It’s such a beautiful shop.

I love second hand bookshops, and one of my favourites in London is Skoob Books. Every time I’m there it feels like I’m in a treasure chamber. Books from floor to ceiling. Of course, visiting Skoob in a hurry, is a bad plan. You need enough time to browse the shelves, and take your time. If you do, you might fine something really cool. I once found an annotated edition of Alice in Wonderland. I’m always excited to visit! What will I stumble upon this time?


A collage with photos from outside and inside of Skoob Books.
Snapshots from Skoob Books.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

A shop I can’t remember ever visiting is Gay’s the Word in 66 Marchmont Street. Which I find really odd. Not the shop, that is, but that I haven’t been there. I have a feeling I might be a tad bit poorer money wise after visiting them (but richer for books). I think they have both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ books, though it’s the LGBTQ+ ones I’m more interested in, especially if they’re YA. On the same street (82 Marchmont Street) there’s a book shop called Judd Books, that looks really interesting. They have both new and used books. It would make sense to visit that as well.

Another bookshop I stumbled upon googling, was Bookmarks. They’re the largest socialist bookshop in Britain, and have books on politics, economics, trade unionism, labour history, the environment, black struggle, women, culture, fiction, and more. That sounds really interesting to me, and their address is 1 Bloomsbury Street. Also, they seem to have some cool merchandise that I might interested in getting my paws on.

Do you have some favourite bookshops in London? If you do, which ones?

I want to tell you about the car crash

Mittens and Sunglasses

In July 2008 I was in a car accident. Today it feels like something that happened a long time ago, and in many ways it is. In July it will be 14 years ago. The accident happened on Sunday 6 July 2008. I think it’s one of those things that one think about from time to time.

A friend and I had been to a wedding, and were on our way home. It had been raining heavily, and on our way home we had to drive through several tunnels. Right outside of Drammen, we drove through a tunnel, and suddenly the car windows fogged up. We quickly rolled down the side windows, but all of a sudden we could feel the car spinning. Another car had somehow gotten into our lane, probably due to the same problem, and crashed into my friend’s car. I remember someone asking me if I was OK, and I answered “No!” Next thing I remember is waking up, laying on the ground inside the tunnel, with people standing around me. Right then in that moment, I thought I had a nightmare, and tried to wake up…

I was so scared, but there were people by my side comforting me. Strangers, how showed nothing but kindness. My friend was also there. It didn’t take to long, though, before the ambulance arrived and we were brought to the hospital.

At the hospital I was surrounded by staff who did a lot of tests, and I was brought to do a CT scan. I had to wait outside the CT scan room, as someone else needed it more urgently. With me was a medicine student who was very sweet and really helped me feel safe. When it was my turn, I got an IV inserted contrast agent. It was really unpleasant!

Fortunately, I had no serve physical injuries, but I was in a lot of pain. It was a big relief when I got to go home in the evening, and could sleep in my own bed.

Something I’ve thought about later, is the fact there was never an offer of psychological help after the accident. Never a question if I needed to talk to someone. Even though I’m fine today, that might not have been the case.

If there’s something I’ve learnt from this, it’s that life is precious. You never know what tomorrow brings, and you should never let an opportunity pass just because you’re scared of what you don’t know. The future is uncertain, take chances! Follow your dreams, don’t let your fear stop you.


A golden coloured car, with a big chunk of the front ripped off.
The car after the accident.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2008

Places in London I want to check out!

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The vegan scene in London has pretty much exploded. Even a few years back it was pretty good, but I know it has gotten even better. The last few times I’ve been to London, I’ve visited several places I’ve loved, but I know some of them are now sadly gone. That being said, I’m looking forward to check out some new places I haven’t tried before!

One of the places I want to try out is Copperhouse Chocolate, a 100% vegan chocolate café and artisan hot-chocolatier. They’re not open every day, so I will have to aim for a visit either Wednesday or Thursday, as I’m going home on Friday (as mentioned in my previous blog post).

A place that I’ve heard a lot about, but for some unknown reason never tried out, is Temple of Seitan. It was a big deal when they opened up their first shop back in 2015, and today they have a few branches in London. The food is mostly fast food/junk food, but that’s OK with me. It’s still on my list of places to eat, as long as I’m in the mood for that sort of food.

It’s no secret I love tofu and noodles. One place that has those exact things on the menu is Vegan Fusion, a predominantly Asian fusion vegan restaurant. I haven’t been able to find a webpage for them, which really is a pity, but they’re address is 71 Chapel Market.

Something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, is to have afternoon tea in London. The Savoy has a long tradition of serving afternoon tea, and they’re now offering vegan afternoon tea, and I hope I’ll be able to book a table for afternoon tea there one day, but you’ll have to book well in advance. There were no openings when I’m in London, so I simply had to look for somewhere else. After some searching the Internet, I finally ended up booking a table at Dukes, which has a vegan afternoon tea menu. The afternoon tea is served in the Drawing Room at Dukes hotel, which is only a short walk from Waterstones Piccadilly, one of my favourite bookshops.

I’m sure I’ll not have any problems finding vegan food in London, there are plenty of places I’d love to go back to.

Icecream in a paper cup saying "Yorica! free lovin' treats".
I had vegan icecream at Yorica! on a previous trip to London.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2018

London, we finally meet again!

Mittens and Sunglasses

London has had a very special place in my heart ever since I first visited in 1988. It was the summer before I turned 14, and I remember how magical it felt like visiting. Since then I have been there so many times I lost count years ago. Actually, I used to visit several times every year.

Palace of Westminster seen from the other side of the river.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2008

Due to the time we’ve been through, I haven’t been there since 2019. I was supposed to go in May 2020, but we all know the world shut down shortly before that, and needless to say, the trip got cancelled.

I’m thrilled to know that I now have booked a trip, and am finally going to visit my beloved London again! I’m arriving fairly late on 11 April, and am leaving again on 15 April. That means four nights! It will be my first trip outside of Norway since my partner and I visited family in Ireland for Christmas in 2019.

I am super excited! Now I just need to make plans for things I want to do and places I want to eat at!

Have you ever been to London? Do you have any favourite things there?

Spring Is In the Air!

Mittens and Sunglasses

After almost three weeks inside with Covid-19, I went outside for the first time today. Last time I was outside it was still winter and February. Now we’re well into March, and spring has happened while I was couped up inside. I was only outside for a couple of small errands, so it wasn’t exactly an expedition.

The sun was shining, and I decided on getting a take-away coffee. It was so nice to feel the warm weather, enjoying the warm oat latte, and walk slowly home.

A hand holding a papercup of takeaway coffee outside. Brown grass in the background, after the snow has melted.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

That Matcha Thing

Mittens and Sunglasses

My first meeting (if you can call it a meeting) with matcha was when I visited Copenhagen in December 2016. I had read about a place called The Byoh Matcha Bar over at Silje Alice’s blog a couple of months previously. I love trying new things, so of course I needed to try out this as well! I remember going for a matcha latte with cashew milk, and that I really liked it!

A series of three photos, where Elin drinks matcha latte from a while bowl.
Tasting matcha latte for the first time!
Photos: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2016

Since then I’ve had it a few times, and a little while ago, I wanted to try to make my own. As I don’t really have the equipment for making it the proper way, I decided to try my luck with what I have. I used a small battery driven whisk I have to mix, and heated oat milk (barista version) in a small pot on the stove. Except for tuning out a bit too hot, it actually wasn’t bad at all!

A hand holding a seethrough mug with matcha latte.
Fist try making matcha latte.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

I am planning to make it again, and have been drooling over matcha sets over at Etsy. I am still doing a bit of thinking whether to go for it or not… We’ll see.

YA Horror Books 📚🦇

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Young Adult horror books are SOOO my jam!

I read «House of Hollow», written by Krystal Sutherland, in November/December 2021 and it has such a wonderful creepy atmosphere. Also, there were twists and the ending was a surprise to me!

The book «House of Hollow» on a table covered in a fabric with sparkly purples, to the right there's a mug of tea, with the text "Bat brew" on it.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2021

In November I also read «Watch Over Me» by Nina LaCour, and really enjoyed it! Creepy atmosphere (love it!), ghosts, and a main character I really liked. It’s a book full of grief and overcoming that trauma.

The book «Watch Over Me» in tucked into a grey cardigan. To the left there are some beige, dried leaves.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2021

Another book I read last year was the second book in a Norwegian fantasy/horror YA series called Dødens spill (meaning Death’s Game), «Den sorte bruden» (meaning «The Black Bride») by Anne Elvedal (the title refers to the black wedding dress). I can’t wait for book three!

The book «Den sorte bruden» on a table with a white tablecloth, to the right there's and amethyst, as well as a lit. black candle with a purple pearl necklace around it.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2021

And I also got around to read «Cemetery Boys» by Aiden Thomas. In this books we meet Yadriek, and his goal is to prove to his family (and himself) he’s a real brujo. But his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, and in attempt to show he can be a brujo, he releases a dead person’s spirit – and can’t get rid of it! This is just the start of something far larger than he had ever expected! So hard to put down!

The book «Cemetery Boys» on top of a rainbow flag.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2021

I’m absolutely looking forward to finding some new YA horror gems in the future!

NOTE: If you need trigger warnings, please visit the page Book Trigger Warnings, a site dedicated to helping readers feel more prepared, better informed, and safer with their books.