A girl in Paris

I love Paris! Three days go by way too fast when you're having an amazing time. To sum up, Paris consisted of a lot of walking, sights and spending. A.k.a the perfect trip. 

We covered all of the amazing sights in stunning weather and had delicious meals. By the final day, my feet were crying whenever I tried to slip my feet in to my shoes. Instead of waffling on about all the sights we've seen, I will instead share some pictures.

And now, I am going to enjoy a lazy, relaxing weekend. Hope everyone enjoys theirs. 

Muah,

Roo xx

Paris awaits

Apologies for the lack of blogging but this weekend was spent getting Paris-ready (along with a little catch up with my brother). And now, although it hasn't even reached 6am, we are getting ready to head off to Paris (said in a French accent). Super-early mornings are always better when you have a little adventure to look forward to!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and a fabulous week.

Muah,

Roo xx

Spring is here

Finally, Spring has arrived - along with April showers and I managed to both survive and enjoy the weather all in one weekend.

On Saturday I had a lovely catch up with my friend Alex. We had lunch at Tinseltown on Great Portland Street for some good, old-fashioned American food with some amazing milkshakes (and I am not even a milkshake person). We reached the place quite early in the afternoon so managed to miss all the crowds and had our lovely food served really quickly. After the endless amounts of food, we decided to burn a slight fraction of it with some cardio - around the shops. The rain started falling quick and fast so we were running in and out of shops, whilst treating ourselves to some of Lola's cupcakes in Topshop.

"The Big Apple" shake

 After the lovely afternoon, Alex headed back home whilst Jess gave me a visit. We spent the evening eating Dominos pizza and getting ready for a night out on the town. It's been a while since either of us had been out and decided to give Piccadilly Institute a try. We were hoping to find an indie/pop club but the Piccadilly Institute (with its 5 separate rooms) offered every type of music aside from that. The club was really cool, every room having a different theme - in the doctor/meds room, mixers were served in what looked like medicine pill boxes. The music was decent too - we alternated between the 80's/90's and the R n' B/pop rooms - and whilst it wasn't the type of club we were looking for, overall it was a great night.

Sunday started off perfectly with sunshine streaming through the window which is the perfect start to any morning. After a little lie-in, I got dressed and headed down to visit my parents back home. I hadn't been back for a visit since Easter and thought that a trip down was due (that, and I was in desperate need of my trench which I left behind and the numerous magazine subscriptions which are still being delivered to my old address). It turned out to be a wonderful day. My mum made "cepelinas" - Lithuanian potato dumplings - which she hasn't made for about 6 years and we had strawberries and cream for dessert (perfect to enjoy with the new found warmer weather). All in all it was a pretty lazy day with plenty of food and lots of bad telly - the ideal Sunday.

So another successful weekend has come and gone and I am looking forward to all the weekends ahead even more so than ever, with the weather warming up. Sunshine can always bring a smile to my face!

<3 Spring <3

As for today, I have been feeling a bit under the weather so I have decided on an early night and a good night's sleep.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Muah,

Roo xx

Cocktail hour

Usually I am very boring during the work week which consists mainly of work, gym, food and sleep five times over but when I my uni friend, Milla suggested meeting up for after-work dinner/drinks I couldn’t say no especially since I haven’t seen her since May! Milla has been studying for her year abroad in Germany and has returned to England for a few weeks – slotting in catch ups in the midst of writing her thesis.

Anyway, we met up at Covent Garden (yes, that place again, I seem to be unable to move away from it) for some delicious dinner at Wagamama. I love trying new food and places but you have to give your old favourites a visit too and in my defence I do try various dishes there and don’t stick to the Katsu Curry like most of my friends. After our delicious dinner, we went for a few cocktails at Covent Garden Cocktail Bar. The bar is members-only but having heard amazing things about it, I decided to sign up (it’s free to become a member and you only pay £1 for the card itself) and am very glad I did. It’s awesome! The atmosphere is really relaxed, the bartenders more than a little mental (making drinks whilst standing on the bar and multitasking by having a shot and mixing the cocktails and greeting every single person that comes in – we even helped make our cocktails by shaking them) and the cocktails absolutely delicious! I have to say, this may be my favourite bar in London (so far). We tested a couple of the cocktails whilst having a long-overdue catch up and even made some (temporary) friends. All in all, an incredibly successful evening!

And now, only one day left until the weekend and its shenanigans. Can’t wait!

Muah,

Roo xx

Belly full of (Indian) food

In spite of only having a 3-day work week last week, I started my weekend in a state of exhaustion which made me incredibly grateful to have Friday off and have yet another long weekend (which I could easily get used to!) Of course the only way to beat an exhausting week is with a busy weekend. Maybe? I will be start from the beginning…

I had a rather domestic-goddess start to my Friday morning, doing a bunch of laundry and scrubbing my room clean, buying some food (mainly fruit) and even sneaking in a Starbucks latte – it is both a god-send and curse to have a Starbucks less than 5mins away from the flat for a Starbucks-addict like myself. Later in the afternoon, Aurelija came for a visit with her two boys to look at my new home and have a catch up since I haven’t seen her in what feels like forever. We had coffee and cake as the boys had lunch and sweets and then ventured out to the park (to let them burn off all the sugar-infused energy). I still hadn't toured the area properly so we headed to Wimbledon Park which has a play area for children, a lake with plenty of ducks and swans and plenty of grass. Walking around, it brought back memories of summers spent queuing for Wimbledon tickets, as it was in exactly the same area but without the endless crowds of people (and sunshine) it was almost unrecognisable. The day was immensely cold with a really strong wind so we didn't stay out for too long and went back to the flat for more coffee –and warm milk for the kids. The rest of my Friday was pretty mellow. I was supposed to go to the cinema with my brother but was ditched last minute so that he could play with his new i-phone. I tried not to feel too insulted by that!

On Saturday, I made an early start and headed to Covent Garden to have brunch with Jess. I love the idea of brunch and whilst it’s huge in America, not many people seem to be into it here. We had brunch with an Indian twist at Dishoom. It was amazingly good! I had a Bombay breakfast (an English breakfast with an Indian twist) and Lassi for the drink (a bit like a yogurt smoothie) and I was so impressed! I loved everything about the place, the interior was really nice – it had a restaurant feel but still had character with a bunch of framed pictures and two bright-painted bikes outside – the food was amazing, the staff were lovely and the atmosphere was relaxed. Win win and win. I will definitely be giving it another try! After our huge meal, we headed for a walk to Hyde Park, walking all the way through into Kensington Gardens. The day was absolutely stunning, although a bit chilly but with the sun shining, I didn't even care. I don’t think I ever walked through all of Hyde Park and had no idea how big it was! All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon and we got back to the flat with aching legs, leaving us with only one option: films and a couple of cheeky drinks.

As for the evening, Jess headed back home whilst I made my way to Brick Lane to celebrate my friend Amy’s birthday. I haven’t seen her in months and it was lovely to catch up and see some of my other uni friends. We had dinner at Aladin’s (which boasts of having the best curry in London), filling my tummy with even more Indian food. I had a chicken byriani which was incredible! The place didn't sell alcohol so we were able to bring our own which made the entire meal really affordable (once we sorted out the mess of them trying to overcharge our large group by over £70!) After dinner, we headed to some bars and had trouble getting cash (Brick Lane has very few cash machines and the ones that they do have tend to have no money in them) which made finding a club difficult (with little/no cash). I never made it to the club, deciding to head home – having never travelled to Southfields via night buses. My "early night" still came to end at 4am!

As for Sunday, I had intended to have a lazy day but was invited by my housemate Natalie to head to Wimbledon to Jimmy’s World for a buffet. I was a bit dubious since I had been to one at the o2 and wasn't impressed but decided to give it another try and meet some of Natalie’s friends. I have to say, this Jimmy’s World was far more impressive (the same can’t be said for the rather rude staff)! I had even more curry – and it was really rather good. It also turned out to be a great day since I met two of Natalie’s friends and we spent most of the day and evening chatting away over the endless amounts of food and later coffee at the flat.

Most of my weekends seem to consist of a lot of coffee.
This may actually be true!

Today has been back to work as usual. I got home late after a session at the gym and some food shopping to find a letter from my wonderful friend Mara. She is my pen pal from America (who I met when working at a summer camp) and reading her letter put the biggest smile on my face. You just can’t beat good, old-fashioned letters! And now, it’s time to have an early night and catch up on some Zzzzzz’s.

Night (and muah)

Roo

P.s. sorry about the essay-long post!

Easter weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their extra-long Easter weekend. I have to say that mine has been incredibly successful. Easter had a wonderful start with a trip to Bath with Edita, Donatas and their friend Julius.  The city is absolutely gorgeous and although we were a mere couple of hours away from London, it felt like we were in a whole new country! We spent most of the weekend walking around the city, eating a lot and walking some more. In the evening we went to our rooms where we drank a bit and played a lot of Uno - the best game to play in a group over a couple of drinks.

On Saturday, we had delicious scones at the famous Sally Lumm's, spent a couple hours at the Thermae Bath Spa, had a huge lunch and got back on the coach to return back to London. Rather than heading back to my new home, I went back to my parents' since I was going to spend Sunday with the family. Speaking of Easter Sunday, that too was incredibly successful. Donatas and Edita came in the afternoon and the day was largely filled with food, chatter and cheesy, classic films which included Miss Congeniality and Grease.

Today has been a mellow day, largely due to the endless amounts of engineering works which meant half of the tube lines were affected. I ventured up to Victoria, where I had lunch and coffee with my mum and then headed up to Baker Street where I found my new favourite bookshop, Daunt Books. I could have stayed there forever but thought it best for my purse to limit myself a little. I still left with a Paris book guide for myself and a cute little book for a friend's birthday present. I won't reveal the title, just in case she reads this blog and reads it before I she gets it but I really want to get myself a copy of it too!

Now I am back at the flat, ready to relax for the evening before starting the working week once again. All in all, this has been a very happy Easter weekend!

Muah,

Roo xx