Monday, June 27, 2016

London 2015 Day 33: The Great ILM Bake Off

5/26/2015
London 2015 Day 33: The Great ILM Bake Off

For the last day of this adventure in Scotland and England, I headed in to meet folks at the ILM office for an event called "The Great ILM Bake Off", a riff on a show I've never heard of but is well-known in England ("The Great British Bake Off") and the fact that when you show the VFX at the Oscars short-list competition, it's referred to as a "Bake Off". This particular bake off, although, was about baked goods from the ILM staff!

Last night in my small kitchen I had desperately attempted to create some glorious rosemary shortbread, which basically ended up turning out as a "butter pie".

But first, Dishoom.

Last night the epic people at the epic Indian restaurant, Dishoom, had spotted my mad Facebooking as I was eating their incredible food and offered me a free breakfast coupon. I went back to get it in the morning and it was ugggh sooo good. An Egg Naan Roll, with sweet chili-like sauce. The egg was in a wrap that was similar to the Roomali Rolls from yesterday. So glad I went!





Then, to my surprise, my awesome friend Siobhan got be a birthday gift!!!! So thoughtful!! I skipped lunch in favour of "The Great ILM Bake Off". 10 or so people baked something amazing from home over the long weekend to share with the staff and it was so great. Lots of people came to eat and enjoy, and had a cup of tea along with it, of course!




Rosie's cake was fantastic. Cynthia's Oreo Chocolate truffles were crazy awesome and I had 2. Siobhan's cheesecake brownies.... yes.... (I had 2). Siobhan even graciously tried my "butter pie".... very brave, indeed! She said it wasn't bad, which was a huge compliment (it was, in fact, quite bad). Stu had stayed up until 2am making an incredible Han Solo Carbonite Cake. He was a little sad as "It turned green!" and was supposed to be grey, but was very good and super impressive. I had a lovely afternoon tea and chat with Sue later, and a ginger apple scone which was stellar. More baked goods!!

My awesome new friends, knowing that I love tea so much, presented me with an incredibly thoughtful Fortnum & Mason gift, with a Penguin hat "top hat" tea strainer!!! So incredible. Oh these people are just so lovely.

I walked back to my place via Oxford St... and then I think I stopped a robbery! Seriously!

From my Facebook post on the day of:
I think my hip just stopped a robbery! Was walking down Oxford St, chatting on the phone and carrying a bunch of stuff. Some dude runs full-tilt into my side/hip and I jump, exclaiming "whoa" and then noticing a ton of glass on the ground. Then realize a moment later the glass was caused by me dropping a glass Pyrex platter I was holding under my arm (the dude ran into it).

Dude must have the tripped over the glass (or was surprised by it like I was, as it made a large smash sound when it broke)-- and 2 sec later, two security guards are ON HIM on the ground, shouting at him to "be quiet" and "stay down"!! Insane!

Hung around for a sec as a huge circle of onlookers started forming, decided it wasn't wise to stick around, as who knows what the story was and they definitely had him. Continued my evening stroll home. Well done, hip!
That was SO crazy! Goodbye glass plate! I was gonna leave it at ILM for someone else to use, but I'm glad I didn't, it may have stopped a robbery! That was crazy.

I got back and needed "real dinner" after this entire day of tasty baked goods and crime fighting, so I went to the amazing "Ya Hala" again! Pita, eggplant meze dish, my favourite Hummus Beiruty, and a Pesto Halloumi wrap. And a Ribena and Appletiser on the way home. Goin' all out!

I ate dinner and rallied to pack. So much still to do. Another 1.5 hrs later, I got it all sorted and went to sleep for my last night in London.

Whew, what a trip!! It has been a long trip, but at the same time it felt like it went so quickly. I sure felt like I made the very most of my time here, exploring so many of the amazing places that London had to offer, food, city, parks, and so much more. What a fun place. :)

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