home sweet home

we finally moved in this weekend to our new home in kensington. although we had a pretty decent temporary flat, there's nothing quite like the feeling of your own place. all our stuff arrived safely from new york and cleared customs quite quickly but they did charge us about £50 pounds as customs duty for some wine and vodka that we had snuck in the shipment - i'm amazed they found it! the packers did a phenomenal job in less than a day. to my pleasant surprise, not a single item was damaged. we got lucky indeed with the move.

i love my neighbourhood already. the road we're on is lined with charming houses and is pretty quiet while still being just a few blocks away from all the action - shopping, restaurants, cinema and parks. we're a four minute walk from high street kensington tube station and a seven minute walk from the notting hill gate tube. we're also between holland park (one of the nicest parks in london) and hyde park. both are less than eight minutes away. i went for a long run in holland park this morning discovering the various trails. once inside the park, i felt like i was in the woods. it was unbelievably peaceful even at 9 am in the morning. just a few other joggers and dog walkers were enjoying the park. the mud trails, the ungroomed trees and the absence of "dressing-up " of plants give the park a very natural feel. there's a lot more to holland park that i'll blog about as i learn more.

here are a few photos of my kitchen. a bit plain vanilla but give me a few weeks and i'll be adding my signature look and feel! i've been told that it's a great size for a london kitchen as kitchens tend to be very small in this city. i guess a lot of londoners eat out or reheat prepared food most of the time! i love the huge windows that overlook a small enclosed atrium which has the sun roof of our neighbours below. the kitchen has plenty of storage which i'm pleased about because i have way too many kitchen items. the movers even remarked about that wondering how i was going to fit all my stuff. but i am confident of tucking everything away.





the two most fabulous aspects of my new kitchen are the bookshelves and the gas flame. i can proudly and neatly display all my cookbooks and the gas flame will let me roast peppers, brinjal etc quite easily. yeah!