Rain rain rain

The short-lived drought is officially over. And has been since yesterday (when I went to sleep to the sound of the rain), continuing into today (when I woke up to the sound of rain).

I wish I looked this elegant and my hair looked this frizz-free in the rain

I love hot summer weather so it will come as no surprise that I am not loving this British-autumn weather. However, to help me deal with this rainy season, I have come across a brilliant find which I thought I would share with you.

This "find" combines two of my favourite things: keeping me relatively dry + shoes = a very happy Roo

And it looks like this...

I bought these Ted Baker ballerina pumps in the summer, in preparation for the rain (I do live in England, after all) and was amazed to find a pair of shoes made out of rubber which actually looked really cute! Another amazing thing about these pumps: they smell of watermelon!!!!! Yes, really: they are scented shoes!

Anyway, it took me a few weeks to wear the shoes in because of the rubber material, but precisely because of the material, the shoes have now perfectly molded to my feet, making them so comfy (and a life saver on a day like today).

Maybe instead of rain, I will wake up to this tomorrow?

Happy Monday everybody!


Muah,

Roo xx

Yummy pizza from around the globe

There is no better way to start the weekend with some cocktails and delicious food. And that it exactly how I started my weekend. On Friday, having finished work, I met up with my friend Jess (after months of intending to but miserably failing). We met up at Charring Cross and headed down to Covent Garden (I know quite a few of my posts have centered in and around the place but a) I love that place and b) it’s close to work and easy to get home from – win-win).

The picture quality wasn't great, so I decided to
step back in time to black & white

Having walked past Fire & Stone on numerous occasions, I finally decided to give it a try. The place boasted of having “deliciously different pizzas” which was an apt description. We hadn’t booked a table so there was a slight wait but we ordered a few cocktails at the bar, making time go a lot faster. When seated, there was a vast range of pizzas, all inspired by the seven different continents – I wish I could have tried a bit of everything but in the end, settled with a Canberra – with had roast chicken, garlic and rosemary potatoes, mushrooms, sour cream and chilli sauce, all adding up to a delicious pizza!

My delicious starter

Jess had the Sydney

After the very yummy meal, we weren’t quite ready to head home, so we walked around Leicester Square and settled on having a few drinks at O’Neills. This is only the second time that I’ve been there but it’s great at the weekend with a relaxed atmosphere and great live music (and on this occasion, a crazy-eyed, tall guy who was doing a hyper dance, jumping around the whole place and entertaining everyone).

All in all, I had a great evening, managing to finally catch up with the lovely Jess and relaxing after a relatively stressful week.

The rest of my weekend was pretty mellow, except for the very exciting event of me buying a new laptop! I have been using my netbook for a few months now and whilst it’s great, I’m trying to save it for when I recommence my studies next year as its ideal for travelling.

I have started my Sunday morning with yoga at the leisire centre (now feeling very calm and stretched) and will soon be heading down to the Stratford Westfield to have yet another, much-needed catch up with my cousin, Aurelija this time.

Well if he can do yoga...

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday.

Muah,

Roo xx

Relax and eat up

I have no London-adventure to share with you all this weekend but had a very lovely couple of days which, as always, I am going to share with you :)

I made no specific plans for my free couple of days so when Edita and Donatas invited me for a "barkanas" (a.k.a auto-correct's version of  a barbecue) I accepted their lovely offer and ventured out to Upton Park. I say 'venture out' because now that the Olympics/Paralypics are over, London transport has once again become a mess and I toured half of London before reaching them.

Anyway, we had some yummy chicken, salad and dips, plenty of alcohol and entertaining chatter too, so rather than venturing back home, I stayed over at Edita and Donatas'. After breakfast, I decided to head back to Central London to my absolute favourite food store: Wholefoods! I went to the Piccadilly store (which moved and expanded since my last visit) and stocked on some yummy (supposedly healthy) food. Whenever I'm at the place, I want to buy everything but managed to limit myself to some snack-foods.

I returned home to a lovely roast dinner and for dessert decided to bake a "Grape Harvest Cake" which I saw on the Wholefoods website - I have never had a cake with grapes, so I thought I would try it out and was quite happy with the result. However, as yummy as the cake was, I would definitely make some changes next time, including using less butter to what the recipe says and actually following directions on the size of the baking tray (mine was quite big and flat and some of the grapes weighed down and fell out of the base of the cake).

If you would like to try the recipe out for yourself, here's the website: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2831

Now as for the rest of my Sunday evening watching tv, enjoying my cake and reading a little.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.


Muah,


Roo xx

Being a tourist in London

This Saturday, I had a visit from my wonderful cousin Greta who has spent the summer here in England but whom I have only managed to see now – good timing since she’s returning to Lithuania in a couple of weeks. As a result, I thought the best way to spend the day was to visit the typically touristy London places and enjoy the stunning weather (my jumper post may have been slightly premature) with Greta and my little (but taller-than-me) brother Rudy.

We started the day off with a trip to Tower Bridge. I have seen posters for the Thames Festival all around the city, so we decided to have a look to see what was on offer. I am not really sure what I thought about it. I have always loved the walk from Tower Bridge all the way down  to Southbank and I thought the festival would make it even better but really, all there was were a couple of stalls selling cold beverages, a huge variety of food and a few shows. It made the walk by the river more pleasant, I guess but I honestly wasn’t particularly impressed. I think I expected more mini-shows with dance and music etc. Nevertheless, it was lovely to be walking in the sunshine, having a peek at all the different stalls.

Me on my tiptoes + Greta crouching = the first time in
years I am taller than my "little" cousin 

After all that walking, we headed down to Wagamama’s at Covent Garden. I have always loved the place and was determined to try something new –I chose the firecracker: chicken and veg in a spicy sauce with sticky rice. I am usually quite good at dealing with spice so I thought I would be brave and go for it – even after the waitress asked me if I was sure I wanted to order that because it was really spicy. Anyway, the moral of the story is that it’s always good to try something new because the food was really good (and spicy)!

Following the big, delicious meal (and three food babies) we headed down to Leicester Square, the M & M store (always puts a smile on my face) and then had some frozen yoghurt at Green Park. All in all, we returned home with filled bellies, lots of vitamin D (from the sunshine) and very tired feet. A.k.a. a great Saturday in London!

Sisterly love

Yummy fro-yo!

Muah,

Roo xx

A London girl in Worcester

After a very long week (in spite of it being shorter than usual) I left the wonderful city of London and ventured out to the Midlands, to visit my amazing friend Bex. I know that primarily this blog is supposed to be about London, but I figured I’d keep you all up-to-date with what’s happening in my life.

Me and Bex were housemates for three years at university and it has been quite bizarre to go from seeing each other every day, to not seeing each other for months. And as she refuses to come down to London (partly due to the Paralympics and partly due to her dislike for this wonderful city) I headed down to see her and her amazing new flat.

The weekend was pretty mellow. We walked around the town centre, shopped around, had some delicious “sandwiches” (which actually resembled burgers – I had chicken and pineapple) and just generally chatted away about all the recent happenings in our lives. We had dinner at Valentino’s – a delicious Italian restaurant – with some of Bex’s other friends and had a few drinks afterwards.

Me and Bex in Barcelona earlier this year

We had a lazy Sunday with a little lie in and later headed down to a car boot – which I was quite impressed with, having bought 5 books for £1! Before long though, I had to get back on a train to London. Suffice to say that I had a brilliant (albeit very short) weekend and can’t wait to see my wonderful friend again (preferably in London next time).

Hope you all enjoy your week,

Muah,

Roo xx

P.s. again, sorry about the lack of pictures - was having too much fun to remember the camera :)