Catch up time... with myself

The first couple of days back at work proved to be very busy and tiring. Having only been back for two days, I, along with everyone else in the office were relieved to have reached the weekend. Having made no major plans for the weekend, I decided to spend the days relaxing, sorting all sorts of stuff out and generally having me time. 

On Saturday, I had too long-a-lie-in and spent the day yawning (the irony) and feeling a bit bleurgh. After a chilled morning having breakfast, watching telly and sorting and tidying around, in the afternoon I headed off to South Kensington to meet Aurelija and her boys for a trip to the Natural History Museum. We spent much of the afternoon in the dinosaur area which the boys didn't find quite as interesting, as I hoped; their attention spams proving to be far too short that afternoon. After a mooch around, we grabbed some coffee at Cafe Nero (not my cafe of choice) which probably wasn't the best choice, given that we probably ruined most of the customers' relaxing afternoons with two noisy, screeching boys. After a somewhat hectic and stressful couple of hours, I headed home for a few hours in front of the telly and eventually got myself ready to head off to Rosie's. 

Having brought myself and wine, Rosie prepared a lovely dinner of chicken fajitas. After our catch-up, we started pre-drinking on wine and messing around on my phone (warning: after much-too-much wine, do not trust a friend with your tinder account!!!) Having postponed the taxi a couple of times, we eventually headed out to Fulham for some dancing at Mare Moto. We arrived very late (and in hindsight should have either added ourselves to the guest list or arrived earlier) but with a twist of luck and Rosie's amazing PR skills, we managed to get in. The place was busy and we just about managed to find a spot to dance in; the music was typical chart stuff. We managed to have the perfect balance of dancing and chatting and I had an amazing night out!

Thankfully, I woke up on Sunday feeling considerably better than I feared. Following a min lie-in, I got myself dressed and out of the house for a trip to Westfield which turned out to be incredibly disappointing. I specifically had put some money aside for some retail therapy and didn't buy a single thing. Not a thing!!!!! Following the disappointing lack of purchasing, I decided to stop off at Fulham and buy a week's worth of food (not all that satisfying) and even bought a coffee maker (really quite exciting). Once home, I spent the rest of my Sunday having a very domesticated evening which left me tired but really quite proud of myself! 

Overall, a rather successful (if only too short) weekend, if you ask me!

Muah

Roo xx

Easter weekend

I hope everyone has enjoyed a lovely Easter, whether it was spent with family, friends or by their wonderful selves. Mine was the perfect combination of the three and turned out to be relaxing and quite enjoyable.

Whilst my housemates all used Good Friday to commence their travels, across the country and its borders, I enjoyed the peace and quiet and spent the day chilling out at the flat, sorting my room out, going for a run and cooking some lovely food (whilst catching up on The Hart of Dixie).

Failing to have a lie in on Saturday, I started my morning with a run and headed out into central for a quite relaxed day in and around Soho (really not quite so a great in the bleak, cloudy, smelly light of day) and Embankment. Having missed any decent showings at the BFI and National Theatre, I headed out to Wimbledon and enjoyed a quiet, relaxing walk through the village and eventually home. After a bit of a sit down, I packed my bags and headed out again, journeying up to my parents' with a pit stop to buy some apple and almond flan at Paul (amazing!!!!!!!!!!)

I didn't reach my parents' house till quite late in the evening, by which point my aunt and uncle from Worcester had already arrived. We spent the evening eating too much food (the Lithuanian way of life), drinking slightly too much and watching Saturday night telly. We ended up having a late night, having a family catch up and even entering the conversation of politics (mainly Russian and Ukranian) which was really quite lovely. My grandad always provided stories and information on the Cold War and Eastern European history and there was something quite poignant with my uncle filling this role now. Or maybe it's just the history geek in me...

Sunday presented even more eating and drinking. The day was completely unproductive but very relaxing and a perfect day to spend with the family. The plan had been to leave later that evening but having spent the day watching football (thanks to my brother) and drinking way too much Prosecco (thanks to mum), I was unwilling to leave the comforts of the sofa and spent another night there.

With an early start on Monday, I met up with Chloe mid journey and we headed back to my home. Having dropped our bags at the flat, we went for a slow, long walk up to Richmond park, enjoying the sunshine and having a little picnic on the way. When we could walk no more, we grabbed some ingredients from Sainsbury's, cooked up some lovely dinner and spent the evening in front of the telly, having a much overdue catch up.

Thankfully, I had today off work. The day was completely unproductive and mostly spent on the sofa, with the Big Bang Theory in the background and me and Chloe talking about anything and everything.

All in all it has been a fairly lovely weekend. If only they all lasted this long!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Muah

Roo xx

Worcester visit

I made up for a not-so-great last weekend, a very busy week at work and very little sleep with a trip to Worcester this weekend to visit my gorgeous friend Bex.

The trip has been in our diaries for over a month now and typically, waiting for 5:30 on Friday proved to be rather painful. When the weekend did finally begin, I grabbed some dinner from Itsu, rushed off to Paddington and made it just in time for my Worcester-bound train. Bex picked me up from the station and both being shattered after very long weeks, we spent the evening catching up over everything until we were no longer able to concentrate and decided to go off to bed.

Saturday morning started early with coffee, breakfast and a drive up to, followed by a walk around Malvern Hills. The walk was really peaceful and lovely (may have been too early in the morning for others). I definitely knew I wasn’t in London from the very fresh air and the fact that fellow walkers wished ‘good morning’ as they walked by. The wind was really quite strong at the top of the hills, so after a little walk about, we headed back to the car (with very numb faces) and headed into Worcester centre for a little walk around and to replenish our energy with some delicious burgers at an American diner. The music was from the swinging ‘60’s, the waitress was wearing too much pale make-up, with a short pastel-coloured dress and mannequins of famous Americans from a couple of decades ago. Overall, it was a stereotypical diner and the burgers were delicious, so it was a very good lunch indeed.

After a quick trip back to Bex’s house for coffee and biscuits, we headed out again to watch a live rugby match: Worcester Warriors v Exeter Chiefs. Although I’ve been meaning to go to a live rugby match for a while now, this was my first trip and I managed to not only understand most of what was happening but had so much fun watching it. We had the best seats in the stadium thanks to Bex’s work having a suite in the stadium. The match proved to be quite exciting and Exeter ended up winning which left me happy (if not the rest of the stadium).

With the match over, we headed back up to Bex’s for dinner and an evening of getting ready for a night out on the town. I cannot recall the places we visited as I was pretty much being led around Bex and her friends but I had the best time! There was a lot of drinking and plenty of dancing which was really all that was needed.

With yet another early start on Sunday morning, me and Bex spent the morning on the sofa, watching rubbish telly, waiting for Dominos to open so we could order our large pizzas. We couldn’t help but be amused by the fact that this was exactly the same picture that would be painted after most nights out in Exeter and it could not have been more fitting for this little reunion.

After too much pizza and an amazing weekend (thanks Bex!), I got myself on the train to make my way back to the city.

After a quick food shop, I spent the morning sorting myself out and preparing for the week ahead, with a very early night.

Happy Monday, everybody!

Muah,

Roo xx 

Theatreland

After last weekend, the plan was to have a chilled week and fully de-flu myself (I have decided that is the correct medical term). That didn’t quite go to plan. I had a very busy week, both at work and out of it and although I started this weekend exhausted, it turned out to be great and flew by without me even realising!

Tuesday was dedicated to a gossipy catch up with Rosie. I brought myself and wine, whilst Rosie made some delicious fajitas. I had the nicest evening; as always with Rosie, the evening flew by as we spent chattering about absolutely everything, there never being enough time to cover everything! Still being a little under the weather, it was the perfect way to spend a Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, my mum finally received her mother's day present; a trip to the theatre to see Les Miserables. Mum’s train was severely delayed, as were most trains to and from south east London so we had to settle on a quick dinner of sushi at Itsu with some frozen yoghurt for dessert. Although it wasn’t the meal I had in mind, as always Itsu’s food was delicious and we managed to find a quiet table and have a little catch up over dinner which was great. We then rushed off to Queens’ Theatre for the show. Both the theatre and the stage were a lot smaller than I thought it would be and the in the opening scene, the sound wasn’t quite right; the singing being slightly overpowered by the music but after the initial scene, everything was sorted and the show turned out to be absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! The music was as incredible as hoped, there were amazing effects during the war scenes (my mum jumped in her seat a couple of times) and by the end, there were sniffles all around and even a couple of men were seen shedding a tear or two. I was so glad I finally managed to see the production; it is by far my favourite so far and to top it off, my mum loved it just as much!

On Thursday I headed off to Clapham Junction for dinner and drinks with Frosty –my old housemate who I haven’t seen in a while and thought it high time to have a catch up with. We went for some Italian food at Osteria Antica Bologna. It was very understated inside, with a slight rustic feel which was slightly countered by the loud atmosphere inside. Although the menu offered the typical Italian options of pasta, pizza and some meat and fish dishes, there were some different twists to the classics such as Salmon Lasagne. I had a salmon, rocket and mango salad for starters (really nice and very different) and had pizza for mains, all which was quite delicious (and the pizza was huge!) It was a lovely evening and great to have Frosty back in London. I miss his no-nonsense straight talk which is quite a funny contrast to my girly, melodramatic approach!

I somehow managed to survive Friday with lots and lots of coffee and ever so slightly too much procrastinating. Having dragged myself to the gym, I later headed out to Piccadilly for dinner with C. We went to Chinatown which I hadn’t been to in absolutely ages! Dinner was had at the Royal Dragon where I went with one of the Chef's specials - Kung-Po’s chicken with cashews, with some rice. The chicken was really good and had a bit of a sweet kick to it which wasn’t too overpowering. The food was genuinely really good but the overly quick speed at which it was served made me question how fresh it actually was! A lovely meal and a bottle of wine later, me & C headed out to Covent Garden for a couple of drinks with Steph and friends, to celebrate Steph’s birthday. We went to a couple of pubs in the area, had a couple of chilled out drinks and even managed to catch the last tube home after a lovely Friday evening out.

Safe to say this has been a great week and I am absolutely shattered. I will do my best to relax for the weekend, but wouldn’t hold my breath on that actually happening…

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Muah

Roo xx