Perfil de absinthecity

Jigami is one of those salons I keep going back to despite temptation elsewhere, and I've been a repeat customer over the past 10 years (really can't believe it's been so long!). What I love about this place is that despite its very convenient central location, it doesn't have the stuffiness you can get in many other Soho salons, and the atmosphere is always very friendly and laid-back. I also love knowing that none of the products used on my visit will be unnecessarily harsh or loaded with chemicals - which is ideal for someone like me with sensitive skin that reacts to almost everything!

The stylists here are highly knowledgeable, and always happy to discuss what you want in detail, and I've never been disappointed with a haircut. I'd also recommend the seaweed lightening which I've had on a couple of occasions and found to be really gentle on my dry, frizzy hair. I will definitely be going back to Jigami (soon re-branding as Natural Colour Works) as it's so rare to find a salon that ticks so many boxes! 

Harringay Market is one of London's newest regular foodie events and well worth a visit for those who like to include a bit of culinary magic to their Sunday while getting a bit of fresh air. There are some top quality sellers here, and on my various visits I've recently picked up amazing pesto from Pasta e Basta, gorgeous macarons by Ellie Makaron, freshly-baked bread, roasted coffee and some truly mouth-watering Portuguese doughnuts.

More recently there has been live music at the market, which really adds to the atmosphere, and there's a real community vibe as it's become increasingly popular with local people. I like to incorporate a visit here with a Sunday morning run or walk, as it's close to Finsbury Park, Parkland Walk and lots of other great walking routes - and it's always nice to have a tasty treat at the end of it!

I'd been wanting to find out what this restaurant/bar/shisha lounge was like to visit ever since it appeared earlier in the year, mostly as I was intrigued by the decor: the building has been done up to an impressive standard, with fresco-style paintings on the wall, lots of wood cladding and a very grand-looking sign. It's all a tiny bit kitsch, but definitely in a good way.

On our visit this weekend, the staff were immediately inviting and friendly, quite happy for us to come in just for drinks and a snack if we wanted. As we'd come in late on a Friday night after dinner, we were mostly keen to try out the massive shisha garden at the back - which really has to be seen to be believed! it feels a bit like stepping in to a grotto, with rock-style cladding all around and a huge water feature at the end. The 'shisha man' soon came over and attended to our needs...it has a late licence till 2am on weekend days, and plenty of people were clearly settled in for the evening, playing chess and enjoying a beer or two!

We decided to sample a bit of the food as well which was really tasty, fresh and excellent value for money. I'd recommend the Imam Bayaldi in particular! Slightly better vegetarian selection than other Turkish places I've visited too. There was live music all through the evening, which certainly added to the atmosphere!

All in all, a great experience.

Nice, quirky restaurant with some decent dishes - good veggie selection too, and I love the decor! However, the service when we attended was awful: our starters arrived before our drinks did (bit of a pet hate for me) and not especially early, either. Normally when this happens a waiter/ess will immediately remedy the situation, but on this occasion we were told 'oh, the drinks will take a little while'(!)

So, after waiting 20 minutes for our drinks (by which time we were done with the starters) we had another extended wait before the mains arrived, missing one dish. Again, staff weren't particularly apologetic, and left us a good ten minutes without the dish - which did kind of ruin the meal tbh.

I'd go back, on the assumption that the staff were having an off day (they all seemed very young and some may have been new) but I wouldn't give them a third chance if it happened again!

Golden cars is by far the best cab firm I've found that serves the South Tottenham/Harringay/Manor House area. Having almost given up on finding a passable company in the area (see my review for West Green cars as an example) I was delighted to find these guys who are prompt, reliable, friendly and very well-regarded locally. Thank God I don't have to suffer the embarrassment of sending my friends off in a dodgy minicab when they come round for dinner any more.

Before visiting LAX airport for the first time, my only impression of the airport was what I saw in magazines: well-groomed celebs arriving looking amazing and being photographed in the smart-looking terminals. HOW WRONG COULD I BE? The actual experience was horrible: this has to be the most over-crowded and claustrophobic airport I've ever set foot in.

As soon as we got through immigration (which took forever) we were jammed in to what felt like a cattle pen with not much in the way of decent stores or cafes - massive queues in Starbucks. Landing in San Francisco was an enormous relief.

I'm not a fan of flying to in so far as it's possible for me to associate an airport with anything other than terror, I rather like Gatwick. Gatwick feels smaller and more manageable than Heathrow (the one obvious point of comparison) and the transport links are second-to-none: even though I live in North London on the Piccadilly line it is so much easier to get a train from Victoria when I'm going to Gatwick and it always feels less of a stressful journey than the Heathrow trip. I'm always massively relieved to discover my flight is going from Gatwick! 

It's a hotel...in a giant Pyramid...in VEGAS. How can you possibly go wrong with that? I stayed here on my first trip to Sin City and think I would probably opt to stay there again: the South Strip worked well for me as much as I like to party it offered a slight respite from the excesses of the areas further up, where you often can't move on the street. That said there is a huge amount going on in this area, and we didn't feel cut off from the action at all.

The Luxor offers fantastic value for money and is widely seen as one of the better lower-cost options. Its prices were about the same as the Excalibur's last time I checked, and having had a brief look in there I'm frankly relieved we went for its next door neighbour! 

The pool is lovely and a great place to hang out in the dessert heat. Casino has everything you need, and the novelty value is spot-on. My only gripe is the patchy Wifi access - I ran up a massive bill on my cellphone because I wanted to go online and most of the time it was impossible.

If you're looking to get new carpet it always pays to go with an independent retailer - the price difference isn't always that huge, but you will get a much better selection of products and a more personal service. Having tried the well-known chain further up Holloway road for a previous fitting we were keen to go with Batten carpets on the subsequent occasion as they had some lovely products including Alternative Flooring and Kersaint Cobb. 

The service was generally great - they don't offer massive deals but will knock off a few quid here and there if you ask nicely (in our case, my partner pleading that he didn't want the cost to go beyond a certain 'psychological barrier!) and are quite helpful about getting the fitting at a time to suit you. We were a little disappointed at the amount of wastage that was left after the fitting (I've done this enough times to know roughly how much spare you should expect at the end of the job and this was a little over what I'd call average) but we were carpeting a slightly awkward shaped room and possibly the amount left over was just testiment to the quality of the fitter - who was great and very professional. We were offered re-funds for items not used, but not the spare carpet

Overall though, a breath of fresh air after the frantic, inpersonal 'service' we had from the fitters sent by the larger chain (Carpet Right), who could not get out of the door quick enough and even damaged part of our newly-plastered wall by leaning their heavy equipment on it.

So, all round pretty good - would use again