SFFF - We've Got That Hawaiian Feeling!

So SFFF has been somewhat AWOL through March so apologies for that. You may have seen that we have been busy on a Big Egg Hunt mission and celebrating our 3 year anniversary. As Spring has officially arrived and March draws to a close it’s party time. Our friend Martha turned 30 earlier this week and is having a Hawiian themed party so in honour of this SFFF has taken a Hawiian twist!

The state of Hawaii consists of eight main islands: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and the Big Island of Hawaii. It is the most isolated population centre on the face of the earth. Located 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China; and 5,280 miles from the Philippines. Or in my language a 17 hour flight from London, 11 hour flight from New York or a 7 ½ hour flight from Boise. And from east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.

Hawaii was first ‘landed’ in 1778 with the arrival of British explorer James Cook. Originally he named the islands the "Sandwich Islands" in honour of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. He published the islands' location and reported the native name as Owyhee. This spelling lives on in Owyhee County, Idaho, after three Hawaiian members of a trapping party killed in that area. Check out the Idaho link!!!

Cook only visited the islands twice. Upon his departure during his second visit in 1779, a quarrel ensued, involving Cook's men taking temple idols and fencing as "firewood" and The natives then took a small boat belonging to Cook’s ship. Cook then abducted the King of the Big Island of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, and held him as ransom aboard his ship for the return of the boat, a tactic that had worked for Cook in Tahiti however Kalaniʻōpuʻu's supporters fought back and Cook and four Marines were killed as Cook's party retreated to the beach and launched their boats. Not the best ending!

It was down to Cook's visit and the publication of several books about his voyages, that the Hawaiian islands received a lot of European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a convenient harbour and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen in the design of the flag of Hawaii which has the British Union Flag in the corner. Heck yes to the British link!

Nowadays more than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii- you know your tropical when that’s true.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Vowels: A, E, I, O, U Consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W!

The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest mountain range in the world. Not something I ever knew! In fact they were formed when under-sea volcanoes erupted thousands of years ago to form the islands. And it currently sits on Haleakala Crater (Ha-lay-ah-ja-lah), the world's largest dormant volcano!

Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the union on August 20th, 1959 and it has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time.) The time runs two hours behind Pacific Standard Time and five hours behind Eastern Standard Time. And for anyone in the UK the clocks will go forward by one hour on Sunday 25 March as British Summer Time begins for another year- yippee! The official time changes at 1.00 am, moving forward to 2.00 am across the UK.

There are four counties in Hawaii (Kauai; city and county of Honolulu; Maui; and Hawaii). Each city has a mayor and council in charge.

There are no racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii J Everyone is a minority. Caucasians (Haoles) constitute about 34%; Japanese-American about 32%; Filipino-American about 16% and Chinese-American about 5%. It is very difficult to determine racial identification as most of the population has some mixture of ethnicities.

Honolulu is the largest city in the world -- at least it has the longest borders. According to the state constitution any island (or islet) not named as belonging to a county belongs to Honolulu. What that really means is all islands within the Hawaiian Archipelago, that stretch to Midway Island (1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii) are part of Honolulu.

Then there’s the whole reason why people LOVE Hawaii and that’s the beaches! More than 100 world-renowned beaches ring Honolulu. Kind of makes my stay in Manly seem a million miles away. The island of Oahu draws more visitors than any other to Hawaii. One-third of the state's best surfing beaches are on Oahu.

So I hope where ever you are I hope you wake up to sunshine tomorrow…..

Enjoy you weekend

Love

Sarah

xoxo

The EGGcellent Mission Continued.....

Egg Mission Part 2:

For Mission Part 1 check here!!!

After a successful start to the Egg Hunt, Agent Sarah and Agent Laura had to keep up the hard work - and so on a sunny Saturday we hit the streets of London. Destination = Carnaby Street & Mayfair! If you've ever been to London on a Saturday you will know that Oxford Street is JAM PACKED and not for the faint-hearted, so on arrival we headed straight for Carnaby Street and set off in search for eggs!

Carnaby Street made headlines back in the 60's for being the centre of all things mod and the British Invasion - nowadays it's full of fashion boutiques and quirky shops - including David & Goliath- home of cute clothes and great phrases like our fav - 'Nerdvana'! Oh and of course right now you can find eggs - some hanging, all hidden and having fun. Our first egg was Sarah's favourite egg of the day 'The Post Box'! And did we mention we spotted Christian Siriano, Laura's all-time favourite contestant on Project Runway! Laura kind of freaked out about it.

Hanging out just outside Carnaby Street was Laura's favourite egg of the day - 'My Generation' with lyrics from The Who song....nice placement, as there are 'The Who' references everywhere in this area! We had the song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day...

The back streets are where you will find the unexpected side to London - the extravagant hotels are nestled quietly only a few streets away from the hustle and bustle. There are sculptures and fountains, boutiques and amazing architecture - just watch where you step, as you don't want to bump into the Bentleys or Rolls Royces!

There are SO many lovely parks in the middle of London! We chose Berkeley Square Garden to sit and catch our breath and enjoy the sun and tick off 4 eggs from our list!
From one park to another, the next stop was Grosvenor Gardens - Laura hung out by the American Embassy while Sarah ran to Hyde Park, got stranded in the middle of a roundabout and returned without any additional eggs :( Hydeparkfail.

After the brief respite, the next stop was Selfridges - again not the best idea on a Saturday - but as there were 8 eggs hidden around in there we held our breath and cracked on ;) riding the escalators to the 4th floor and back!

And then to China Town - Mission Part 1 may have had TGI's but Mission Part 2 had yummy Chinese - oh yes, after 4 miles of walking it seemed only right that we rested our weary feet - and where better than our favourite Chinese restaurant - Canton!

To finish the Mission Part 2 we headed back to Covent Garden and found a new shopping area had opened up that linked Leicester Square to Covent Garden - St Martin's Courtyard - and it just happened to have 2 eggs - yay! Our second favourite egg of the day was also in residence around here - Busby!

Once in Covent Garden we enjoyed a musical performance and did a bit of window shopping that somehow ended in us getting a LARGE cupcake doorstop *cough cough Laura*, and of course meant we could finish our egg collecting for the day.

Can you spot us in this line-up?

Mission part 2: 59 Eggs collected!

Top 3 Fav Eggs:
Post Box
My Generation
Busby

And to finish the AlphaEgg - with a London theme!

We are on an EGGcellent mission!

In a world full of short skirts and drunken men, there were two girls clad in warm clothes and hardcore walkin' shoes, navigating the chaotic streets of Saturday night in London on a mission. That mission was to track down and photograph as many of the 200 eggs in the FABERGE BIG EGG HUNT as possible!

She's a dreamer

Why this and why now? Simple - it's coming up to Easter, and...because we can.

'Egg hog' - its a hibernating hedgehog!!

So here's the concept:


"This Easter, get ready for the most eggstraordinary event in the history of London – The Big Egg Hunt! There are over 200 very special eggs hidden across the streets of the capital, and now the hunt is on. How many can you find? You’ll have to look hard though – some of them are hidden in eggsceptional places!

The magnificent eggs have been created by leading artists, designers, architects and jewellers. You can grab  12 zone maps and get searching, and the more eggs you find, the more chance you stand of winning a fabulous prize: The Diamond Jubilee Egg! There's also the chance to be the proud owner of one of the unique pieces of art through the eggsclusive auctions, and there’s lots of great egg goodies to buy at The Big Egg Shop at Selfridges."

And so to the mission Part 1.....Agent Sarah and Agent Laura packed up the camera and the mobile phones and took to the London transport network, first by bus and then by tube...destination: PICCADILLY CIRCUS!

What we think we look like - bad-ass secret agents!

En route we had our eyes open, scanning shop windows and pavements to see if we could spot our first egg of the night! Agent Laura was first of the mark - in the National Geographic store was 'Polar Bear Ballet'! Then the 'Rooster Weather Vane' located in the street - spotted from the bus into the West End, at Knightsbridge.

That is genius bus photography!

The clock was ticking, and the next egg had to be 'Where's Wally?' (as he moves every few hours, fittingly) - following clues on Twitter, we tracked him down to Europe's largest bookstore - Waterstone's at Piccadilly- and found him hanging out with the 'Where's Wally?' books! Or, if you're American, 'Where's Waldo?' (What kind of a name is Waldo?!?!) <--- it's a really good name, thanks Sarah!

We then hit Piccadilly, and the shops & arcades to bring our total to 10!

Don't mind us mate, just keep rollin' your cigs and ruining our photo...

This hunt took observation skills- and took us into parts of London we hadn't wandered into previously. Our reward was a list of new places we need to go back and eat/shop at - oh and more EGGS! In one alley we came across the beautiful egg cage, cleverly disguised in the window display!

After an hour or so of searching, the Agent team needed a refuel - and where better than nestled among the scantily clad youth in TGIFridays! 

In TGIFs waiting for literally the best burger Laura's ever eaten in her life. Seriously.

And then back to the mission! Focused and determined, Trafalgar Square was the next destination - seriously, the stuff we've ended up doing at Trafalgar Square is so random! With Pall Mall in the background, and the Olympic clock counting down, we found another 2 eggs.

Eggs around Covent Garden!

Here's the great thing about central London - everything is walkable! So, from Trafalgar we strolled to Covent Garden, weaving in and out of police vans, and Agent Laura tried to pull a new bird!

Damn, girl, you're a hoot! Get it?

At Covent Garden, DISASTER struck! Technology started failing due to lack of preparation/charging, the eggs where shrouded in darkness and time was against us....AGENT FAIL!! We tried to quickly get around to the eggs hidden in the area but after photographing Agent Sarah's favourite egg of the night, it was LIGHTS OUT, ALL OUT! (Take Me Out reference? UK?)

Wow, there's no easy way of saying this... that egg looks like a hairy ball.

Mission part 1: 25 Eggs collected!

Top 3 Fav Eggs:
WOL the Owl
Gregg the Hairy Prehistoric Egg
Oooof (the egg that landed from space!)

The challenge: 209 eggs to collect around London!! The Agents don't for a second think we can collect all of them, but we aim to get halfway - 105 eggs! Lets see if we do it!!

Too many eggs, too many many eggs

What is your fav egg we found?? Check back for updates on our eggcellent goal!! Heehee.

Lots of love and happy hunting!

Sarah & Laura xo

See part two of the mission here!!!