The last weekend of summer perhaps? The city was full of activity. With plenty of venues displaying the latest of the latest in the world of design. The event covered many galleries & shops, Earls Court with 100% Design and the Truman Brewery (East London) with Tent Design, Berlin design, Portuguese designers.. lots of inspiration for students and professionals in this sector.


Dali-ean inspired lamps?

This lamp was quite interesting, you could put your head inside… and look at the softer side of the feathers. Whilst from the outside it was spikey!


This was the basement at Hackney Townhouse - very scary!!
Also Open House allowed us to enter many private buildings and the queues were totally bereable.


I bet you never knew of this hidden treasure! Some old Turkish baths now converted into a famous Italian restaurant, with walls covered by world stars that have visited for a meal.
Armed with comfortable shoes and many maps, we traced various venues and discover hidden treasures of London. There was a great vibe, the streets were full of colourful people. The coolest trends were to be seen, visitors and journalists from all over the world have come to take notes on the latest styles and producs.


This is a very interesting project, whereby some old tube wagons were recycled into studios, where people can rent space to work. It is populated mostly by freelancers who work in design, arts and technology.

Truly, we cannot recommend any harder to make the most of your bicycle!! With plenty of miles along the canals and the mayor pushing for an environmentally friendly and healthy method of transport, how can you resist? (mind you.. let’s see when the rain starts pouring).

Freewheel was a fantastic opportunity to cycle freely through the most reknown streets in London. The roads were closed to the traffic so no stressing over cars and buses. It gave us a chance to admire the sights from our bicycles.

Here in LondonAmigo we believe images speak for themselves, so check for yourself:

The summer is ending and the best thing London could have done is organise a city festival. Hundreds of events, concerts, street performance, art and stalls were installed all over the Southbank. Good weather and great vibes made the weekend irresistibly fun! Once again, is great to live in London!!

Despite the not-so-warm weather, the few Londoners left here (most have fled in search of sunshine), numerous tourists and other UK visitors have filled the streets to enjoy a busy weekend in town. Starting with Friday, with a superb VJ act of AddictiveTV’s at the National Theatre followed by the Visa London 2012 Olympics celebration (synchronised with the Closing Ceremony in Beijing) - right infront of Buckingham Palace, then we come to Sunday and Monday, with the internationally reknown Notting Hill Carnival.

But it is not all about crowds if what you are looking for is a relaxing time. It was nice not having to queue for once to get a nice table at one of the usually-too-popular cafés in Angel. With people trying to make the most of what is left of the summer, some heading to Reading festival, others further afield to the Burning Man in US and the rest just getting last minute deals for an European escape… the city of London was for once not over crowded and a bike ride was a great way to enjoy the day.

Starting at the New River walk, we pedalled all the way to Camden markets via the canal - another great way to view London. Once at the market we saw a folk bank playing and discover the new Stables (which make the shops more cosy than when they used to be before). We bought one of those “mix-whatever-you-want” take away oriental food for £4 and ate it by the canal whilst we watched a barge (canal boat) get through one of the numerous locks - a curious and interesting procedure (think Panama Canal but a few hundred times smaller).

It was one of those weekends that make me feel happy to live in this fantastic city, where there is always so much to see and do. I can hardly keep up with the numerous events, exhibitions, concerts, restaurants and new bars, park festivals or shopping sales! If anyone ever says that London is boring its because they haven’t tried hard enough…

Last night I went with friends to Tre Viet on Mare street, to mark the beginning of a journey back to New Zealand from London after 5 fun-filled years. It followed a pattern of final supper farewells at one of Hackney’s many fine Vietnamese restaurants, and as always it was a fabulous meal served in great company, which got me thinking that I really should pay tribute in words.

The arc of Vietnamese restaurants starts around Old street tube station on the Northern line, and makes its way up Kingsland road from Shoreditch church, with a cluster of cheap, basic and tasty establishments. Song Que and Tay Do are my personal favourites in the area. Further up Kingland Road, over the canal and past the mosque, the Vietnamese Canteen is housed in a former Turkish Bathhouse, which was converted into a Vietnamese community centre on Englefield Road. This would have to be the pick of the bunch for mine and by straw poll consensus, many others. The setting and atmosphere and menu set the Canteen apart from the others. Moving into Hackney proper there are more restaurants on Mare st. Tre Viet and Green Papaya being of significance in this area. Also if you were interested in doing your own cooking there are several Vietnamese supermarkets in this area.

Salt and pepper squid, Vietnamese pancakes, fresh prawn summer rolls, char grilled pork rice vermicelli, are just a few of the classic signature dishes. Pho, arguably the national dish is more than food; it’s a way of life. Here are just a few websites to sate you appetite detailing the interesting history of Vietnamese in Hackney, and some reviews to help make your task of choosing easier!

http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/united-kingdom/london/tips/vietnamese

Interesting Guardian article on Vietnamese in Hackney

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jan/21/britishidentity11

Independent article on history of Vietnamese in Hackney

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20031012/ai_n12746787

More restaurant reviews

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/499325

Sorry for the lack of update… is not that the LondonAmigo team was on holidays, we have just been busy working “behind the scenes” to improve our service. We are also mingling with other start-up companies in all sorts of entrepreneur networking events and trying to win awards. We attended the UKCatalyst awards where Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented part of the ceremony and we met some exciting people there!

LondonAmigo.com wants to support other brilliant start-up companies because they offer perfect services to our users. This is why you can find now some award winning enterprises and some fresh and useful ideas to make your life easier in London.

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(Trafalgar Square filled with Spaniards celebrating the victory against Germany for the Euro2008 cup - Foto courtesy of Roberto García)



Yesterday was a great day for Spain. And we weren’t going to be less in London to celebrate. An inmense crowd of Spaniards living in London filled up pubs to watch a long awaited victory. After the match many supporters gathered at Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus to celebrate, Spanish style by jumping in the fountains.


(We got our own “Manolo el del Bombo” with txapela and a “torero” in London!!)

*And we wanted to give a thumbs up for the Met Police, they were extremely nice and patient with the crowd, taking a good joke and allowing the Spanish ex-pats enjoy the celebration.


The city was filled with a party vibe. Red and Yellow flags (bandera española) waiving, our characteristic bulls (toros) and lots of happy chanting. You couldn’t feel alone and far from home when such crowd was around you!

Campeones, campeones, oe oe oeee!!

As many people will tell you, London is at its best on the summer. Not only we get to enjoy Wimbledon and some fantastic festivals, but also magnificent events happen. Those who have lived here the last few years have had the chance to witness numerous historical affairs such as Live 8 (Make Poverty History), winning the Olympics for London 2012, watch one great Wimbledon final with
Ivanisevic winning in 2001 and this past Friday, the Nelson Mandela 90th birthday concert, 46664.

Despite the grey weather, Hyde Park was packed. Despite Glastonbury, some great artists of the calibre of Queen + Paul Rodgers, Annie Lennox, Dame Shirley Bassey, Amy Winehouse, Will Smith, Joan Baez, Peter Gabriel,… and many many more, turned up to congratulate the great “Madiba“.

Highlight was this young musician Emmanuel Jal, who having been rescued from being a child-soldier at the age of 7, now is a succesful singer who got to perform a song dedicated to the social worker who helped him.

Moving onto Saturday, the Carnival de Cuba in Southwark Park was a blast. Sun was shinning at its best, the crowd was happy and the good vibe from Friday followed on. Dancing, better said “salsa-ing” and eating great treats from remote corners of the world (Mexican, Cuban, Ghanan, Caribbean foods), the festival goers had a great time, judging for their big grins.

And moving onto Sunday, how can we not congratulate “España” for its victory!! Celebrations followed on at Trafalgar and Picadilly.. and the city was tinted in red and yellow.

It’s the end of the week and it is always nice to look back and feel that the working week has been productive! We are proud to say that CityAmigo Ltd has partnered with a very promising company called Skimbit. Skimbit has a very clever social online tool for decision making and we feel that it will be very useful for our users. You can now find this tool within our Shopping section and soon in other categories too, inside of the Survival Guide.

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StokeFest marks the beginning of the summer. They predicted 20,000-30,000 people were going to join the event. I can say that probably was true! The entire Clissold Park was filled with great music tents, numerous international food stalls, clothes & craft tents, various stages for performance and lots of portable public toilets and instead of plain rubbish bins, they installed proper recycling systems. Impressive.

Check out the various yummy food stalls from various corners of the world: Oriental, Indian, British, Spanish, Caribbean…

Stokefest is about bringing different communities together, embracing different cultures and caring about the environment. This is the reason why you could find many different stalls about social issues, environmental issues and artists from various corners of the world.

There was Latin music, 50’s Rock & Roll, reggae, electronic music, Arabic music, indie pop,… just a bit of everything to cater for all tastes.

The band featured here is The Penny Black Remedy, with a refreshing sound, mix of ska & rock and roll with a modern twist.. hard to describe but got everyone up and dancing!

We met Rebeca Carballo, from Spain, whose art is impressive. She created a fantastic collage about Festivals and organised a crafty welcoming tent where everyone was invited to create collages from recycled materials.

We also met Yolanda, from Trading For Development (TFD) who, through a knitting stall selling fair trade materials and giving free knitting lessons tried to attract interest and bring understanding about fair trade in the world of fashion. TFD works with women co-ops in developing countries and creates high quality fashion that they currently sell in Top Shop and La Redoutte. They are in constant look-out for young fashion designers to create new ranges, as well as chains and shops interested in selling their products.

LondonAmigo gives the Thumbs Up to StokeFest!! The event was well run, with great quality and all of it for free! These are the times when you really are glad of living in London, when you get the chance to enjoy events like this, with your friends and family, a great Sunday out!

Ever seen such a great amount of WCs in such great condition with no queues in a public festival?

The bad thing we spotted is that at the end of the event, some really unconsidered people left a lot of discarded packaging in the grounds. It is everyone’s responsibility to care for the environment and seems like the message hasn’t got as far yet…

Fantastic!! I love the simplicity of it (very handmade). Forget about massive plastic containers that create more environmental pollution.

Read more about Festivals in London here