Everybody, it’s official. I’m 30. I know a birthday isn’t a usual Tourist Tuesday post, but it’s my blog and I do what I want. Also, I went to some nice places in London and ate some delicious food so it is relevant people.

I started my birthday festivities the Wednesday before with a picnic in Hyde Park. Luckily the weather was glorious! Lots of friends came out and we watched the Science Museum’s softball team play, we ate loads of food, we popped the bubbly, and even did a round of tequila shots. I know that I have young friends because when we suggested opening the tequila everyone was down for it. I feel like my 30-year-old friends would have hemmed and hawed and been unsure about it since it was a work night and all. If it hadn’t been my birthday I totally would have been less game. But then, maybe it’s just that I’m not as cool as maybe I once was. But there was loads of food: sausage rolls, cake, peanut butter cookies shaped like Darth Vader, and chips. It was wonderful. 

Then Sunday was the big day! Ryan sang me happy birthday and we had cake for breakfast (which has always been my tradition). That cake was a classic vanilla cake from a box with store bought chocolate frosting. Ryan and I went and looked at a beautiful fancily designed chocolate cake, but I wanted the box. There’s something about the sweetness and simplicity of yellow cake with chocolate that just feels like a birthday cake to me.

After cake I opened presents. Ryan bought me all the flavors of Candy Kittens that Waitrose had in stock. I loooove Candy Kittens and can devour a whole bag so fast – so I’m trying to pace myself. We did break into the sour watermelon flavor, which I hadn’t eaten before and was of course fantastic. I also got a Lego Star Wars TIE Advanced Prototype that came with three little guys (picture below in a bit) and something for the blog which will be revealed eventually. From my friend Charlotte, the one I went to Duck & Waffle with, I got a book about Abraham Lincoln and food – my two great loves combined in one!

I also got a new DSLR camera from my parents!! It’s the one pictured above. It’s a Canon EOS 100D. The lens on the left came with the kit and the one on the right is a Canon EF 50 f/1.8 lens. Hopefully between all of this new gear I’ll get some great new shots. I’m really excited about the camera because I want to become familiar with manual settings. When I was in high school I had a manual camera for a photography class, but I don’t remember much from it. I also remember that developing the film (yes, film!) was my favorite part. So, I have a lot to learn but I’m so excited about it! I can’t wait to have more control, learn a new hobby, and I hope it will improve the quality of my food photos.

Thus far, I’m intimidated but eager. I like that I have a project ahead of me where there’s so much to learn and I know so little. I set up my little photo studio (a box and some white fabric) and set up my new birthday Legos for a photo shoot. I played around for awhile and took about 100 pictures trying out different settings for aperture (the f number), the shutter speed (the fraction number) and the ISO. I was systematic about it overall, but here on the blog I wanted to share three photos with wildly different settings.

See in the first one how practically everything is blurry except the one spot by the wing? But then in the middle photo it’s mostly clear? Then in the one on the right, it’s clear except the back is blurry. I love that with the same subject and lighting the camera can do so much! I also like that some of it is a matter of taste. Ryan like the middle photo best because it’s the most clear, but I like the photo on the right because I like the background a little blurry. Anyway, I find it all really thrilling and plan on doing more Lego photo shoots.

For birthday lunch, Ryan and I made pretzel dogs (above). If you’re not familiar, it’s a hot dog baked inside a soft pretzel. I’ve been missing going to baseball games, and in large part because of the food. So for a birthday treat we made fries, dogs, and a cheese dipping sauce. It was an epic undertaking and we dirtied all the dishes. I even spilled flour on my foot and when I took my foot away there was a clear footprint. I’ve made soft pretzels before, but this was a new recipe for me, and I found it so frustrating. I think I needed a whole cup of flour in addition to what the recipe called for. I also used tons of methods to finally get the dough to come together. There was also some pouting. Because of that, I don’t feel comfortable sharing the recipe here – but I’ll work on it on my own and share when I have something more straightforward.

Even though the making of it was intense, the end product was delicious. Ryan said, “the best thing we ever made” and we both had big happy smiles on our faces. The cheese sauce was crazy good. Rich and smooth – we smothered it on everything. You can find the recipe here. The whole meal did taste just like being in the ballpark, which is something I love doing with Ryan. It was like being transported back to DC just for a meal, and I really liked that.

As if we hadn’t eaten enough the final birthday celebration was out to dinner at Ping Pong. Ryan and I went out with my friends Sarah, Abbie, and Charlotte and their boyfriends. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends to share my birthday with. They also gave me some great presents. Charlotte got me a 30 badge (shown at the top of the post) and it’s something I totally wanted. I love celebrating and showing off my birthday and it was perfect. Sarah gave me a pig card and a candle that smells like the sea (which she and I always sniff when we go to Waitrose). And the three girls are going to take me out for afternoon tea, which I can’t wait for! It’s the kind of thing I hoped would happen when I moved here – and now I’ll get to do it with my girls.

Overall it was a lovely evening and we ate a TON! Ping pong is a dim sum restaurant and you order a bunch of small plates to share. We ordered set menus and ended up with a ton of food. You can see the stacks of dishes above. I loved the circular table because it meant our big group could actually see each other and chat. The food was great and we tried something like nine dishes. The dumplings had fillings like beef, chicken, and vegetables. The wrappings were clear, thick, chewy, green. I had no idea there was so much variety! At the end of the meal it was hard for each of us to pick our favorite dish. Mine might have been the tofu and vegetable – which I wouldn’t have thought much of but turned out to be delicious.

Thirty has started off wonderfully. It was a milestone birthday, and I felt a little nervous about it, but I’m feeling good. It began with lovely generous friends and family, terrific food, and a few new things – all indicators that it will be a good year.

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All over the tube there are big posters advertising Art of the Brick. They all have a photo of this yellow torso opening his chest and letting his insides all spill out. And finally the ads got to me, and this weekend Ryan and I went to check it out. Even though the yellow guy is a cool sculpture, we were a little skeptical about how cool the exhibit would be. Ryan and I love Legos, and we even have a few tiny Lego sculptures in our apartment, but we’d been burned before. A few years ago we went to an exhibit of Lego Architecture at the National Building Museum and we were really disappointed. The whole thing was literally and figuratively beige. We were hoping for something more exciting this time around.

The exhibit was created by artist Nathan Sawaya and includes over 100 pieces of art. Our expectation was that the exhibit would mostly be sculptures of everyday things just made out of Lego. And there was some of that, but it wasn’t like the sculptures you see at toy stores like Hamley’s. We walked in and were immediately blown away.

When we saw these reproductions of famous art, Ryan and I both said “whoa.” The Mona Lisa looks amazing! It’s incredible how detailed her face is and you can even see that cheeky look in her eyes and smile. Starry Night is also really cool too. What I love is that Sawaya used the sides of the Lego to make Mona Lisa, so it has a smooth finish. With Starry Night, he used the tops of the Legos and layered them (which might be hard to see), which evokes the feeling of van Gogh’s brush strokes and painting styles. I had no idea it was possible to be so accurate with Legos.

Throughout the exhibit, I was continually impressed by how he was able to create round shapes. I love the cello. It was life-size and so delicate and detailed. I like to picture what an entire orchestra would look like. And I really think he could do it. It would be so cool to see a whole orchestra – people and instruments – mid playing and all made of Legos. It sounds simple, but I was continually astounded by how Sawaya could make anything out of Legos. At work, I play with Legos and I have three items in my repertoire: chair, castle, and square person. I had never considered that so much was possible.

At this point in our tour through the exhibition, I was impressed with the sculptures. It was clear that a person needs creativity and a special eye to see how to create these things out of square Lego bricks. But is it art? I wasn’t sure. As we got further in and saw some sculptures whose subjects were all Sawaya’s own. And then I was convinced. This is definitely art. He captures the human form so well, and with such emotion and movement. Doesn’t it look like the blue guy might come alive and wail in pain at the loss of the gray guy? Doesn’t the hand look like its fingers might close or wiggle about? The pictures below show despair, but there were also sculptures that showed love, fear, and stress. He is able to capture so much feeling.

My favorite sculpture is the one pictured above in the bottom left. I like that the little blue guy is leaning forward, looking like he is working hard to get up the stairs and the multi-colored guy leans in slightly to welcome him. Overall, this room was my favorite – I was impressed by the subjects he created and that he put this all together with just Legos.

He was also good with faces too. Look at the detail! The curvature of the cheekbones, the fullness of the lips, and the long eyelashes – it was so cool. Each of the faces had a different expression too.

Towards the end there was an area called In Pieces. It was a collaboration between Sawaya and photographer Dean West. The photos are of American landscapes, like movie theaters or railroads, and within the photo is a Lego sculpture. It’s one of those things where at first you don’t notice, but then you look back and you see that the dog, the dress, or the train tracks are actually made of Legos. The room had both the photos and the original sculpture that was in the photograph. I took some photos, but they don’t translate that well – so you should check it out yourself.

At the very end was the largest sculpture – a T-Rex skeleton. It was really large, although not life-size. I wonder how much research had to be done to ensure the T-Rex looked accurate and correct. Once we exited, there was a little area where visitors could make some Lego sculptures – and also buy Legos to take home. It was really fun we were both totally impressed. The tube ads convinced me to go, and it was well worth the trip. Thank you advertising. Maybe now I’ll be inspired to try some new Lego creations at work.

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