As the sandals go in, the trench (and jumpers) come out

For non-Londoners, you may be interested to know that the weather here in the city is horrible and very cold. Today was the day that I gave in to the weather and wore my trench coat to work for the first time since summer began. This should be noted as a very sad day indeed.

As a result, I have decided to start my search for some jumpers. I am liking the loose, chunky jumpers (although am not quite sure I can pull it off, without looking 3 sizes bigger) found a few that I really like and thought I would share with you guys. Hopefully this will stop me from clicking the 'add to basket' and 'checkout' link.

Apparently hearts are in right now.
Asos seem to think so!

If this doesn't bring a smile to your face,
I don't know what will. (Topshop)

(Urban Outfitters)

I know I am actually a London gal but I love this.
And it looks pretty nice on too.  (Mango)

             

Notting Hill Carnival

Usually, I spend my Sundays the way they were meant to be spent: being lazy. I am going to be honest (and risk sounding like a complete bore) but I love to spend my Sundays in bed, watching tv, reading a good book and just generally chilling out. But I decided to live a little this extra-long weekend and ventured to the Notting Hill Carnival with my cousin Donatas  and his (already mentioned) girlfriend Edita.

I had never been to the Carnival before and wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised. We chose to ignore all the maps we were given on exiting the station and the policemen everywhere, offering directions, instead deciding to wander from street to street and seeing what we find.

We came across a tiny parade but didn’t manage to see much aside from these bizarre, decorated face moulds (they probably have a real name, but I don’t know it) which were pretty cool. Walking around, the atmosphere was awesome, with lots of great music and people dancing around everywhere. There was also amazing-smelling food everywhere but unfortunately I didn’t get to try any. Instead, I settled for some Rum Punch which was absolutely delicious! It didn’t taste like alcohol at all which meant it didn’t last very long!

In the end, whilst I didn’t see anything in particular, I had a great time taking in the atmosphere, dancing around a little and enjoying the beautiful sunshine (which I did not foresee, following Saturday’s weather and so was all layered-up). I think I will aim to go to the Monday session next year which apparently is adults-only. Going on a Sunday though was a great way to introduce me to the very popular Notting Hill Carnival.

Hope you all enjoy your week,

Muah,

Roo xx

Change of plans

My plan for Saturday was to have a "me" day. I am not talking about pampering but just spending time on my own (with the city that I love). That didn't quite plan out. Nevertheless, I have to say I had a great day in the end. I'll start from the beginning to let you all in on my Saturday shenanigans.

I absolutely love to read but haven't managed to read many non-law textbooks during my degree, so since finishing my studies, I took the opportunity to read, read and then read some more. I have (finally) finished the book I have been reading, The Lucifer Effect. It's a pretty intense psychology book which I have been intending to read since doing my Psychology A-level but only started it recently. Having finished it, I was looking forward to going to a bookshop and buying some more easy-going books. By far, my favourite bookshop is Foyles in Leicester Square. I think I could have spent the entire weekend there. Along with having endless amounts of books (pretty much what you would expect from a bookshop), it has this lovely, welcoming feel which allows you to sit in a corner and escape from the world for as long as you like. I started my day there (on my own) and bought "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield". I haven't really been impressed with the recent non-fiction that I've been reading, so I figured you can't go wrong with a classic or two. 

With my ipod in, this is a pretty good depiction of my day

My mum had called me to let me know she'd be joining me for the day -which is a rarity. I had intended to go to the National Gallery (which I love so much) and figured would stick to this plan. When the rain is pouring (which is the only way to describe Saturday's weather) I think there's nothing better than spending the day in  a museum/gallery. We spent most of the day there, walking around and enjoying being safe in the dry building. I intend to one day rent out those headphones that all the tourists wear and actually develop a better understanding of the paintings which I think are so beautiful/amazing (in my amateur opinion). 

Seems like I wasn't the only one who thought the gallery
would be a good idea

We were later joined by my cousin's girlfriend, Edita and all headed down to the Haagen Dazs cafe in Leicester Square and treated ourselves to some delicious desserts - I had a crepe with strawberry and chocolate ice cream - which did not disappoint. It pretty much acted as our dinner because the desserts are so filling. We tried to walk off some of those delicious calories, so we headed down to Covent Garden and just walked around there. My mum then headed home as she wasn't really dressed for the sudden drop in temperatures in her sandals and short sleeved top (it was sunny when she had left home). 

So me and Edita headed down to the O'Neills pub in Soho for a drink. We chatted for a bit and enjoyed some pretty good live music - it was so nice to sit down after all that walking. Anyway, it's safe to say that despite the fact that my day was different to what I initially planned, I had a great, relaxing day. 

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Muah,

Roo xx

Don't you just love pasties?

So this is a quick random post which reminds me how much I love random London! Wednesday morning saw the grand opening of the West Cornwall Pasty Company on High Holborn which created much excitement! This was partly due to the (cheerful) man dressed as a pasty which put a huge smile on my face (and everybody else's)!

Anyway, whilst carrying out our work duties, me and my colleague-friend Claire decided to walk past the place and take a picture of Mr Pasty - and spread the smiles via facebook. The very pleasant manager offered to take a picture of us with Mr Pasty, which frankly we couldn't resist! To top it all off, we got free lattes! This was the most perfect (unexpected) start to a Wednesday morning and kept me and Claire happy for the entire day! I've been told they also have amazing bacon rolls which I very much look forward to trying!

Muah,


Roo xx

Bonjour, je m'appelle...

I know I haven't written in a while (which feels very weird indeed) so I thought I would give a quick update on the very few recent happenings.

My weekend has been very mellow. I spent Saturday at the beach with the family, alternating between swimming and sunbathing. We drove down to Broadstairs (so far!!!!) and whilst my mum was considering moving down there to enjoy the quiet, I was thinking: tan, swim and return to the city! I love beaches and sunshine but tend to have city-withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway, after all the sunbathing, I spent Sunday doing absolutely nothing and it felt awesome! I have been intending to have a relaxing, boring weekend for weeks now and finally managed to have one!

In other news... I am considering taking up French (hence the heading). Having finished uni in May, I have been slightly uneasy about the lack of brain power which I have been using. My job as an Office Administrator is incredibly mind-numbing and I fear that my brain cells will die. So my answer has bee French classes! I know Spanish is a more popular language but in the legal world, French and German seem to be more popular and I have always thought French to be a beautiful language. I have started researching some classes and will keep you all updated on any finds. If anyone has recommendations, they are also very welcome!

Hope you all enjoy your week,


Muah,


Roo xx

Happy birthday, mum!

Hi all,

I am a few days behind but I would like to wish my mum a wonderful birthday week (her actual birthday having happened on Tuesday) - I hope that all your dreams come true and that you have a fabulous year!

Me and my wonderful mum 

My mum (now being 42 years young) isn't really into celebrating her birthdays so as a family, we took a trip to Tayyabs - one of my parents' favourite places to eat out in. The restaurant is located in Whitechapel (which, since my History GCSE studies, always makes me think of Jack the Ripper) and serves curries and amazing kebabs. According to their menu, the food is Punjabi. All I know is, is that the place never fails to disappoint - the food's absolutely delicious!

The food really does look that good!

If you're looking to have a super-healthy, low calorie meal, this place is probably not for you - a lot of the curries seem to have a lot of oil in them - but as a rare treat, the food is great and the place is very popular and buzzing (it's best to make a reservation, otherwise you might be faced with a long wait). We always eat family style (which is the best) by ordering lots of dishes and sharing it all (perhaps not so great if you have picky friends, though) and as per usual we ordered too much! We took the leftovers home though (it's a great compliment to the restaurant if you have enjoyed your food so much, you want to take it home) which was equally delicious the next day! Also, the place doesn't sell alcohol, but customers are welcome to bring their own. Me and my mum shared a bottle of red wine and drank a lot of water, in an attempt to handle the lamb shish kebabs.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take any pictures: we were so hungry by the time the food was served that we just dived in! Also, in case you were wondering, I bought my mum (and myself) tickets to see Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House in October, so there will defintiely be a post on that later (I am incredibly excited about that!

Hope you all enjoy your last weekday and enjoy the weekend even more so!

Muah, 

Roo xx

Dance dance

It has been a very long time since I've been out to a club (since I finished my last exam in fact, which was months ago!) so after much planning and talking, me and Chloe finally picked Saturday as the night to go out dancing - and have a few drinks too, of course. The lucky chosen club was Zoo Bar in Leicester Square, which we had been to a few years ago (no, there is no typing error, it does say years) so we thought we'd give it another go.

I went round to Chloe's -which turned out to be quite a trek with me getting two different buses - where we had some of Chloe's lovely cooking for dinner (cue Big Bang Theory), got ready and had a few drinks (cue: music).

On reaching Zoo, there was quite a queue, with a huge pub crawl crowd and a lot of Olympic volunteers, all out celebrating. We got in quite quickly though which always makes for a better start to the night! The place was heaving (not really surprising, considering it was Saturday night) and one of the rooms (with the better music) was closed for quite a bit of the night. We eventually managed to get into the little room, with the better music and absolutely no air-con (yuck!) and ended up having a great night. The music was largely R&B with a bit of reggae - neither particularly my cup of tea - and although I wasn't too impressed with the place (and some of its funky smells), hanging out and dancing with a wonderful friend always makes for a great night - as does watching some hilariously drunk people dancing about!

Apparently dancing is a stressful business. Hence the club's masseuse.
Tough life! 

Needless to say, much of Sunday was spent sleeping and being lazy in the sun, preparing for the week ahead. And now that the Olympics are over, it means I can go back to getting my later train into work (which means a whole extra 20mins of  zzZzzzZzzs - making me one happy lady!)

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends!

Muah,


Roo xx

So much food, so little time...

For those of you who don’t know me, I love my food! And having given you an insight into my favourite places around my workplace, it is only right for me to let you all in on some delicious places to eat around there too! (All that touring of Holborn would make anyone hungry!)

So I love my sushi and have found some pretty great places in and around work (I am sorry to admit though that most of them are chains). Abokado, Wasabi and Itsu are by far my favourite places, and I fear that soon, the staff will recognise me as a regular (quite a feat with all the people coming in and out). Whilst all of the places have great food, I find Itsu to have the best sushi, Wasabi to have delicious bento and Abokado to have lovely salads and wraps. Even better, Abokado sells half portions of wraps and shwaps which is great when you’re not particularly hungry or can’t decide what you want, with all those yummy choices!

Moving away from Japanese food, I have to give credit to my colleague-friend Kelly for finding Chilango (apparently the best Mexican in London). So far I have only tried their burritos, but they are so good, I can’t bring myself to order anything else! You pick and choose what you like in the burrito, so can custom make it: I’ve had a few combinations and they have all been delicious! I must also point out that the place and its atmosphere is another huge plus. The place is always buzzing, with high tables and stools and the staff are so lovely! They are incredibly cheery and friendly and irrespective of the day I’m having, they are sure to cheer me up (what more could you want?!)

The picture really does not do this delicious burrito justice.
Excuse my photography skills :/ 

I have been meaning to go to John Charlick Foods for forever. Everyone at work seems to be in love with the place, so naturally, I had to try it too. On Fridays they have their very popular fish cakes, so I popped, ordering two fish cakes and a mix of their salads (also very popular, I understand) and it did not disappoint. The food was absolutely delicious (next time though, I'll stick to one fish cake and a salad). Anyway, I am very happy with this new (non-chain) discovery and will be sure to revisit the place soon.

Now as much as I love to eat out and try different places, I unfortunately can’t afford to do it every day and often alternate between eating out and making my own lunch. So I thought I would add this super easy salad (for the super time-poor city girl) that I’ve been making quite a few times. I’ll call it my “Cheater’s Chicken Salad”.

All you need is:

• Mixed salad/lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Onion 
• Feta cheese
• Your choice of dressing
• Avocado 
• Cooked chicken (I either poach my own or buy some cooked tikka chicken slices from Sainsbury's - hence the "cheating")

Basically, I chop everything up, bar the avocado and chicken and store it in a plastic box. When I get to work, I warm up the chicken and drizzle on the dressing (I’ve been using the be good to yourself balsamic vinegar and drizzling it last minute stops the salad from wilting and becoming soggy). Cut in some avocado and voila- you’ve got yourself a yummy salad (even if I do say so, myself).

And for dessert (because you have to have dessert) I like to pop down to the fruit vendors by Chancery Lane station. They have the nicest, freshest fruit that's really very cheap. Absolutely delicious!

Hope you guys get to try some of these places and love them as much as I do!

Muah, 

Roo xx

Shop till you drop

Hey guys. In spite of my plans to have a super-packed weekend, with friend-catch ups and paintballing trips galore, that didn’t quite plan out. I have been under-the-weather this week and haven’t managed to get better, so I decided on a mellow weekend in which I could relax and cure myself of this horrid flu.

I had an appointment for a haircut which I refused to cancel, as I haven’t had my hair cut in months. I usually go to a local Toni & Guy salon, but in attempt to try something cheaper and less chain-like, I chose another local (non-chain) place and had my hair chopped off. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the end result. The cut was nothing like I imagined (so much shorter than I wanted) and I feel like I look like a 30 year old (a little depressing, considering I am in fact 21) – I know it’s not the end of the world since hair grows back but it has not helped with my distrust in hairdressers.

Being a city girl, there’s only one thing to do when you’re ill and that’s shop! I ventured into Oxford Street with some trepidation, it being the Olympics and the weekend. I was, however very pleasantly surprised! I think there may have been less people around than on an ordinary weekend which felt kind of unnatural. Anyway, the plan was to abuse my credit card and shop my money away but it didn’t quite work out that way. Mooching from store to store, I failed to find anything that I really liked (incredibly unusual for me). I think part of it might have been the continuing sales. Although sale bargains are always great, I feel like they reach a point where they're just annoying, with scraps of clothing everywhere and nothing in your size. In the end, I did leave a fair bit of money in the Nike store. I never really understood the tourist-attraction that Nike seems to have – I always see tourists buying endless numbers of trainers, shorts, kits etc – but you couldn’t help but feel the Olympic spirit inside the store with all the national kits and loud music and of course some tourists! I left, with some trainers and jogging bottoms – deciding to spend a fair bit of money on them (which I don’t usually do) in the hope that they’ll last me a while. Making the purchases has certainly helped me want to go to the gym and wear my new kit, so that’s one plus!

Olympic-ready Oxford Street

I finished my day with a delicious baguette from EAT and a being the Starbucks-addict that I am, had a lovely Refresha (which I am loving for the summer). I returned home quite exhausted and so can confirm that shopping does not cure flu (very disappointing). As a result, I am spending Sunday watching all the Olympic action, determined to get better asap and try out my snazzy, new trainers and bottoms!

My cool , new (most comfortable ever) trainers 

Muah,

Roo xx

Reclaim your lunch

For those of you who don’t know me, I currently work in Chancery Lane. It’s a full-time (albeit temporary) position which doesn’t leave much time for an exploration of London during the weekdays. That’s probably best with the Olympics going on (I have already had some frustrating travel disasters in this first week).

Anyway, here in England, there is a campaign called “reclaim your lunch” which encourages people to utilise their lunch-breaks and not slave away at their desks.  I tend to take this seriously (I like my lunch-breaks very much) and so in support of it, I thought I would let you guys know about what Chancery Lane has to offer and where I wonder during my lunch breaks. 

The Chancery Lane area is “the City” of the legal sector. There are endless Chambers, solicitors firms and of course the Royal Courts of Justice and I absolutely love the place! And although part of that love comes from my inner law-geek , the place itself is generally really pretty!

My office building looks out onto Grey’s Inn Gardens which aren’t particularly huge, but are so green and lovely, especially considering it’s in the very centre of the busy city. The gardens are only open from 12:30 to 14:30 on weekdays but it offers a wonderful little escape from the cars and fumes of the city. It’s lovely to see people bring their lunches and enjoy the sun (when it comes out, that is). A little further down is the Lincoln’s Inn Gardens which are slightly bigger and equally lovely and tranquil.

The view of Grey's Inn Gardens from my work place

By far my favourite part of Chancery Lane is the walk to the Royal Courts of Justice –which by the way, I also think is worth seeing, even for non-law enthusiasts because the building (inside and out) is pretty awesome! Walking to the court via Stone Buildings is wonderful and I could do it every day! The area is so old-looking, I always feel like I am stepping back into 18^th century London. Although a short walk, in the small space of time, I tend to forget that I am in central London at all. For me, it's a place like no other and generally makes me feel so happy!

The famous Royal Courts of Justice

If anyone gives the place a visit, I hope you guys love the place as much as I do. In one of my later blogs, I’ll let you know on my take on eateries in the area.

Muah,

Roo xx

P.s. sorry about all the google-searched images: been quite ill recently so didn’t get to take any of my own pictures :/