The Saturday Agenda: Prepping for British Summer Time

The clocks are moving forward tomorrow! British Summer Time, am I ready for you? For those who live outside UK, British Summer Time or BST is when UK time is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less.

Shot near Mile End

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I woke up really early today and got the rare opportunity to literally keep watch of the sunrise from my window. I patiently waited for it to slowly come out from the clouds until its ray started filling my room albeit blindingly.




Good morning London!


After my weekly call to Mama (always a delightful pick-me-upper), I prepared to get ready for my Angel/Islington weekender.



Moxon's

• My picks for the week (L-R): A slice of tuna, two slices of salmon and scallops





Cass Art

• Time to take my interests and passion seriously.
• I'm starting with watercolour!!! What a perfect excuse to bask in the sunshine when daytime is now longer.
  



After a truly serious shopping for watercolour materials at Cass Art, I was so famished and so tired. I realised I didn't get the chance to sit down since I boarded the tube. Hmm, the quirks of aging, hahaha.



Agree.
Unfortunately, this coffee shop didn't have enough seats.
So sorry, not today.



Kobo Café

• 346 Upper St, London N1 0PD
• The café was about to close when I came in so I ordered a take-away.

The icing was sweet though not the crazy headache-inducing type. The cake itself was excellent. I'd go back for this and probably the Swedish brew coffee (to break away from my usual flat white).

Five Guys

• I felt that I really needed to be inside warm and sit down. Just then, I spotted Five Guys, further down Upper Street.
• I ordered Little, i.e., Little Bacon Burger and Little Fries.
• But mind you, they were all far from 'little'.
• The burger may be just right size for my little tummy, but it took me close to an hour to finish the fries.
• And I will not have burger and fries for a very long time.
• Don't get me wrong, the burger and fries were as what you'd expect from well, burger and fries. Five Guys is said to be Barrack Obama's favourite, and that probably says something.
• If you see bags of peanuts, it's only because they use peanut oil for cooking. (Beware if you have peanut allergies!) They also serve you peanuts while you wait.
• The drinks include free refills. They come in one size, the usual American size. I only managed two refills.
• I think I still like In-N-Out most (maybe this is personal to me; I had only wonderful memories of San Francisco). And Shake Shack, second.
• The real problem is: I've had burger the other day. From Honest Burgers. That too was good. However, I felt quite queasy after my Five Guys dinner. It must be the oil and my body may have been sort-of 'shocked' by the now almost-foreign entrant.
• So there. No more burger and fries for a LONG while.

Cass Art Buys - The Unboxing

• I was so excited to go home to open my watercolour purchases!!!
• I know that this may not be relatable but nonetheless, I'd like to share my joy with you :)



This is my travel-size watercolour palette. The colours are not professional-grade but I made sure that this can accommodate the standard-size pans so I can replace them with professional-grade ones when I needed to.

I bought an extra brush from the Series 7. I'm starting out with a really good quality Kolinsky sable brush.
In watercolour, I was told that the key words to quality brushes are: sable + Kolinsky.
So say no to synthetic and while there are loads of sable options, get a Kolinsky when you can. 
I also made sure that my brush will fit in my watercolour set below.



Here it is!!! I love the vintage-y French feel of this walnut box.
I also got a travel journal (5.5" x 5.55" - the perfect square) which can be used for random sketches and light watercolour washes while on the go. It's got 128 pages of acid-free drawing paper, wrapped up with an elastic closure. There's even a clear envelope at the back cover for what-nots and mini souvenirs.

Tadaa!!!
l'Aquarelle literally means watercolour.
Sennelier is the French brand.

Excited to swatch!!!



The box contains 24 half-pans of professional-grade honey-based colours.
As mentioned above, these half-pans can fit my travel-size palette.





The box also contains two watercolour brushes and a porcelain palette.
The extra brush is my Kolinsky purchase.

Well, hello there BST? How did I prepare for you?

I woke up really early. I finished my weekend chores in the morning, laundry included, to make sure I have enough time to unwind on the last weekend before BST starts. I put my heart to start taking my hobbies seriously. Starting with watercolour!! I still have my regular calligraphy practice and I do have sketching, and oil painting in my pipeline.

In summary --- make the most of the sunshine and have something to look forward to!

How about you dear? How are you prepping for BST?