So Tony and I set off to go shopping at Aldi, a grocery store owned by the same parent company as Trader Joes. It was snowing just a tiny bit, as we rode the bus 40 minutes (we planned it to be an adventure) to get there. We rode past Asda (part of the Walmart family) on our way there. That will need to be another adventure.
Aldi is no Trader Joes, though it has a similar open bin look, just without the class. You bag your own groceries, as the cashier throws them at you. At least the prices were good.
Little did we know that as we would emerge from Aldi, we would be greeted with a major snow fall. This was a Mammoth Mountain style dumping.
As we walked the last little bit from the bus stop to our flat, we got covered in Snow.
Tony may not have been amused, but I loved it. It was fun to see just how much snow was coming down.
We decided this was reason to enjoy some hot chocolate and make cookies. I'd downloaded a recipe for Speculoos (traditional Belgian spice cookies), and we made our first attempt at cooking them.
If you want to try them, you can buy them in the US at Walgreen's under the name "Biscoff", or in the UK at most grocery stores under the name "Carmelized Biscuits".
We broke out our Christmas Cookie cutters and got to work in our tiny kitchen. There are times I miss our proper kitchen back in LA.
In no time, the smell of the Ginger and Cinnamon filled our small flat with the aromas of Christmas. The cookies came out quite good despite it being our first time. We'll have to try making them again, but I want to tweak the recipe a little bit next time.
In about 1-2 hours, it stopped snowing after having dropped a good 6 inches. I quickly grabbed the dogs and emerged from our now snowed in building.
Everything was covered in this wonderful white blanket of snow.
Very, very pretty, and very, very Christmasy.
I took the dogs to the park, which by now was a classic Winter Wonderland. There were tons of people there with their children and dogs playing in this London oddity. I've been told that it hasn't snowed like that in London for over 100 years.
Our dogs love the snow, having gone to Mammoth since they were puppies. Pepper likes to eat it.
We had tickets to see Tron that afternoon, so we tucked the dogs inside to keep them warm, and started up towards the bus stop to catch the bus to Soho.
It was a beautiful walk up with all the snow everywhere. Even Tony got into the spirit.
As one would expect, the roads were all messed up, so instead, we braved hopping on the Tube. It was crazy busy, but we managed to make the screening in time.
After the screening, and having learned a few things from the British as to what to do when the weather is bad, we headed off to the pub for dinner. We both got these great Chedder/Bacon Burgers with Chips and Cole Slaw, and of course a beer.
That evening, I walked around our neighborhood again to enjoy the snow in the night light. People had built snowmen, and our local pizza pub looked particularly inviting.
We braved going out in the snow one last time that night to bid our friends Ziah and Hage off on their round-the-world odyssey. She just quit Double Negative where I work, and is now heading off to explore the world. Sounds like an amazing adventure.
As for us, we went home to what was probably Pepper's favorite part of the major snowstorm that hit London - cuddling with Tony on the warm couch.
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