It’s the most wonderful time of the year

After a busy couple of days off, I decided to do the absolute opposite to what a rational person should do and decided to have a very busy weekend. Or rather, a very busy Saturday.

Having almost passed out as soon as I got home on Friday from sheer exhaustion, I had a little lie in on Saturday morning. Having bought croissants and fruit for  myself and Rudy's breakfast, Saturday had a started off well. Eventually, we both got dressed and headed out to do some more shopping. I had to venture out to Clapham Junction first for one particular present (which is all I will say) and then trekked up to Westfield. The walking around was kind of half-hearted since both me and my brother were still shattered from our busy weeks (I may have walked and exercised too much, but the little one had quadruple PE on Friday! – that’s “gym class” to the non-English readers). There wasn’t much shopping done, my brother’s Christmas list simply expanded and since mine is already full, I added some stuff to my post-Christmas sales/birthday lists (now that’s early planning).

We ended up by Embankment and having the pickest eater ever for a brother made finding lunch was excruciatingly difficult so we settled on Bella Italia for some quite delicious pizza. With very full bellies, I got Rudy on a train home and headed up to meet Richard who was down for the weekend. Being his last weekend in England until New Year’s (he’s spending Christmas in South Africa), I promised to show him Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. That wasn’t the best idea ever. The place was absolutely packed and we weren’t let in for 15-20 mins because of overcrowding. We eventually got in and just walked around, taking in the Christmas cheer. 

We rushed back to the flat, where I cheated and made pasta (I used shop-bought sauce which I am usually against) just in time for Rosie's visit. Me and Rosie had a lovely catch up over food and wine, whilst Richard ate, drank and listened to/droned out our chatter. We then got ready and headed out to Wimbledon for a night out at the Slug, followed by Watershed. Me and Rosie have been planning a cheap and cheesy night out for ages and ended up having an absolute blast!

Sunday proved how much fun Saturday was, as I woke up a little worse for wear. Without any exaggeration, the day was spent on the sofa, watching tv and surfing the internet (the most active part of my day was a trip to Sainsburys for Doritos and Chinese food). I started going a little stir crazy by evening time but actually think that a lazy Sunday was exactly what I needed after the busy couple of days I’ve had.

And now, manic Monday is finally over (it’s never fun to roll three days of work into one!) and it’s time to start getting ready for bed.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Muah,

Roo xx

A little me time

I don’t know about everyone else but I find this time of year a bit stressful. As much as I love Christmas (most of the time), the crazy festivities, endless amounts of people and this awkward time when it’s close enough to start Christmas preparations but too far away to take it a little easy and fuly enjoy the festivities can all be a bit headache inducing. So with a couple of days of annual leave left, I decided to postpone the craziness and have a little me time.

I had the perfect start to my Thursday with a little lie-in, followed by a run around Wimbledon Park. I eventually got myself dressed and ready for a journey up to Oxford Circus. I spent the morning walking around some shops, buying a couple more Christmas presents and eventually  ended up at the Sumarria Lunn Gallery for the Lieux de Memoire exhibition which turned out to be really interesting. Paintings and pictures I generally either like the look of or don’t and don’t have too much of an opinion but I find political/historical exhibitions quite interesting and this one didn’t disappoint.

After the exhibition, I had lunch at the Everbean café. It was a cute little café with decent food (I had a sandwich which I think is hard to get wrong) but slightly too busy and small. I sat on a large table with other people, trying to read the paper but failing miserably since the men on my table were talking really loudly and expressively hitting the table. After lunch I walked around some more, up Old Bond Street and ended up at the Spruth Magers Gallery for Stephen Shore’s Something + Nothing exhibition. This exhibition was a photography one and slightly less impressive but pretty good anyway. You can’t go wrong with some pictures!

This is one of the poems on which the exhibition was based on

I spent the rest of the day walking some more up the Mall and ended up at my mum’s work in Victoria where I took her out for some coffee and a little catch up which was really lovely! I came home absolutely shattered (my legs were killing) but agreed to go for a couple of drinks with Natz in Wimbledon. We started with a couple of happy hour cocktails at Suburbiton which although a nice place, the cocktails weren’t all that great (it might have been our cocktail choices though). We later ended up at The Old Frizzle for some live music and a couple more drinks which was really nice and chilled. It was fab to spend some time with Natz – we’ve both been really busy and haven’t had the opportunity to hang out even though we live in the same flat! – and I had an awesome night!

On Friday, feeling a little worse for wear, I eventually got myself up and ready to meet my cousin Aurelija at London Bridge for a walk by the river. After some walking and talking, I went up to the gym and eventually met my brother Rudy who was spending the weekend with me. We spent the day walking around some shops (he was picking his Christmas presents out) and returned home shattered and all shopped out.

To sum up, I had a great couple of days off work!

Muah,

Roo xx

V&A visit

It has been a while since I have looked forward to a weekend this much. Of course, I look forward to every weekend but this has been one of those weeks. After a busy Monday and Tuesday (already addressed in the last post) Wednesday wasn’t all that great either when I discovered a disgusting amount of mould on my wall and even some of my books. We’ve had mould issues for a while which our landlords promised to fix but it’s taking a while.

Anyway, on Thursday night I had a catch up with my friend Katherine. I hadn’t seen Katherine in forever so we spent the evening chatting over some lovely food at Wahaca (we had a selection platter of tapas) and then walked by Southbank. It was a lovely evening!

I had a lazy, early night in on Friday and after way too much sleep, woke up fresh-faced on Saturday and went into crazy-cleaning-lady mode. I decided to completely rearrange my room, move my bed and shelves to different sides of the room (away from the mouldy wall), deep clean the entire room, including the disgusting wall. This ‘lovely’ task took my entire morning and quite a bit of the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day watching plenty of telly and trying to keep warm (the latter part was unsuccessful).

In the evening, my friend Rosie came over for dinner. We were supposed to go out for some dancing but since she was on antibiotics and Steph was unwell, we stayed and chatted over some homemade veggie chilli (pretty yummy, even if I do say so myself), lemon tart (shop bought) and wine (not for Rosie, of course). It was the nicest evening!

Today, after an awful night’s sleep, I spent the morning in bed with too much coffee, some leftover lemon tart and Hart of Dixie (it’s my addiction!) Being sick of all the lazy, I eventually got myself up and ready and headed to the V&A. I had never been there before and figured it was high time I gave the place a visit.

I’m not a fan of sculptures and didn’t look enough into the exhibitions enough to buy a ticket for one so I was a little doubtful on how well the trip would go but actually it was really interesting! I did end up ignoring all the sculptures but the some of the architectural pieces were incredible, as were the East Asian rugs and furniture- the work was so intricate, I was amazed someone did that 100s of years ago in a pre-computer age!

After a bit more mooching, I got the train up to High Street Kensington to pop into some shops, including WholeFoods. I haven’t been there for a while and bought the odd “healthy” snack, including my new food obsession; pitta chips (I ate so much, I now feel a little sick). The evening was spent watching more Hart of Dixie and sorting some admin stuff out on my computer which has made me so sleepy and my eyes slightly square!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Muah

Roo xx

Failed Sunday brunch

After an early night on Saturday, I hoped to wake up fresh-faced on Sunday morning, ready for Sunday brunch with Chloe. That didn't quite work out. Although I managed to get an early night, numerous texts and calls from drunken friends meant that I miserably failed at having a good night's sleep. I woke up shattered and clearly was not the only one, as Chloe slept through her alarm and we changed our brunch date to lunch.

We spent the afternoon in Hyde Park, walking around, taking in the fresh, crisp air and having a much over-due catch up. We eventually ventured towards Bond Street, skipping most shops, aside from the one or two that weren't overcrowded and grabbed lunch at the Slug & Lettuce, just off Regent Street. I had limited the Slug & Lettuce to post-work drinks with colleagues but actually, their food is really good! Me and Chloe both had lasagna (which came with garlic bread) which was delicious. It would have been the perfect place if it weren't for the overly loud guy, two tables away who was talking loud, people were unable to zone out his conversation. 

Autumn chill was in the air and the
leaves were on the ground

For dessert, we grabbed a Starbucks on the go. It was my first Christmas drink (I went with the gingerbread latte) in a red cup which is the first sign that Christmas is on its way! After yet more walking, we ended up by Southbank and sat by the Eye until we were so cold, we had no choice but to head home. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon!

As for the last two days, they have been mental, with me running errands like a loony (I think I may have planned to do too much). Luckily, aside from a trip to the gym, I have nothing planned for tomorrow and am determined to have a relaxing evening. 

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Muah,

Roo xx

Lazy/productive: same difference?

We're halfway through the weekend and I chose to spend the first half of it being lazy. Kind of. Being lazy, meant I wasn't rushing around like a loony, trying to do 101 things like I seem to have been doing, nevertheless it turned out quite productive.

Missing a day and a half of work this week meant that Friday flew by. Before I knew it (and before I managed to cross everything off my to-do list) it was 5:30 pm and the start of the weekend. After work, I took Edita to the gym, as promised. After a very long gym session (probably because of all the chatting), we went out for a bite to each. Most of the places around Fleet Street were already closed so we picked the only place that was open: Poncho 8 - a burrito place on New Street. The burritos were delicious and the staff were incredibly friendly so all in all, it was a great dinner! After way too much food, me and Edita walked up to Southbank where the little Christmas market was officially in full swing! It was hard to ignore the festive atmosphere. That, coupled with a Baileys Latte (I know!) and a girly catch up, I had the perfect Friday evening!

No thanks to my body clock, I failed to have a lie in this morning and felt a bit groggy and under the weather. Using that as an excuse, I had a lazy morning on the sofa, searching for Christmas presents. Eventually I got myself ready and out of the house to head up to Westfields. It was nice to spend the day on my own (whilst also being surrounded by endless amounts of people, of course) and just mooch around from shop to shop. I managed to get quite a few Christmas presents which feels great! I know we are still quite a while away from the big day, but I want to get all the shopping out of the way, leaving me with all the fun of wrapping and card-writing closer to the time. In the midst of all of walking, I found some beautiful home decorations at Next which reminded me that I haven't bought anything for my room in forever! It took every fibre of self-control not to buy everything!

Addicted to this picture frame (or 9)

I returned home absolutely shattered. Although I feel like I haven't done that much, the day really took it out of me and in spite of my best intentions to go out for a friend's birthday, I decided that a night in is probably the best thing for my immune system at the moment. I spent the evening watching rubbish telly with Steph over some Dominos pizza and although it feels really weird and unnatural to be lazy on a Saturday, doing so little, I think it's exactly what I needed.

Night

Roo xx

Spa day

Not many girls would say no to a spa day. So when it came to buying my mum’s birthday present (back in August!) I bought her a voucher for the spa and afternoon tea at Montcalm Hotel for her and myself. Well yesterday was the day that we (finally) made use of that voucher!

Having booked the Wednesday off, I had been looking forward to it all week but had the worst start to the day, waking up sneezing, with a sore throat and a headache. The morning was really rushed and quite stressful too: I headed up to Wimbledon to pick up my mum’s Christmas present which I had ordered online and tried to fix my phone at the store but before anything could be fixed, I had to rush off. major fail!

From there on, however the day got much better. I met my mum at Charring Cross, so we mooched around Leicester Square before walking by Southbank where we grabbed a Baileys Latte at Benugo at BFI (this might be a new addiction), up to St James Park and eventually ended up at Marble Arch.

Having never been to Montcalm before, I didn’t have the highest expectations but both me and mum had the nicest afternoon! We first had afternoon tea, which included way too much food and just enough tea (I am only a tea person when it’s too late in the day to drink coffee) , all of which was delicious! We then headed down to the spa which wasn’t particularly big – it had a Jacuzzi, a steam room, a sauna and a smallish-pool – but since we had the whole place to ourselves it was perfect!

After the spa, we were thoroughly relaxed (and a little sleepy) and had a walk down Bond Street, doing some window shopping, along with some actual shopping – I managed to cross another Christmas present off the list (only a million left). It was a bit chilly outside but I had my first glimpse of the Selfridges Christmas windows which were awesome and saw some fake snow outside Boots!

I returned home absolutely shattered! Today, I woke up, unable to open my eye which had become infected. I have been using eye drops all day but it has continued to sting and is incredibly swollen and red, so I was sent home and now I am feeling a little sorry for myself – not the most attractive thing to do, but sometimes it’s much needed.

This makes even me feel better

Hope everyone has a better Thursday than I’ve been having!

Muah

Roo xx

P.S. I hope everyone likes the new-look of the blog!

Time for tennis

So I survived the week! Phew! After an incredibly challenging week, I came home on Friday, plomped myself on the sofa and spent the evening chattering away with Steph. We both felt very old, having a lazy Friday night in but it was much needed!

My attempt to have a lie in on Saturday failed (thanks to my messed up body clock!) Without much stress, I had a productive morning, running errands and sorting myself out a bit. Later on in the afternoon, me and Steph headed out to Wandsworth for some shopping. It was a very successful trip for both of us. I bought a pair of boots which I was in desperate search for and some tops and Steph bought boots and a coat (both very important purchases for the upcoming season).

Steph's gorgeous new coat!

My snazzy new shoes

On returning to the flat, Steph made a Spanish omelette (I made the all-important salad) which was the nicest, relaxed lunch I’ve had in a while, so thanks Steph! Soon after lunch, Richard arrived, only to leave again to go to the o2 for the ATP World Tour Finals. It was incredible! The atmosphere was awesome (very American, upbeat, cheesy and over-the-top) and we saw some great tennis. We saw the Bryan brothers (who I adore and who won - yay!) and the Djokovic v Gasquet match which was really exciting with lots of great tennis (even if the winner was not the one I hoped for). It was an awesome evening and amazing to see the last tennis of the year. It was also my first time at the o2 Arena which was incredible! It’s huge!!!!!!!!!!!

After the match, not wanting to go home, we headed up to Wimbledon, where Steph joined us for some drinks. We didn’t reach Wimbledon till quite, and so were limited to where we could go before everything closed (and not wanting to walk too far since it was raining) so settled on O’Neills. The entertainment was hilarious! There were a bunch of middle aged people, dancing about, having the time of their life and it was just great to relax, watch them and chat too, every once in a while.

Having returned home quite late, we all had a bit of a lie in this morning and the day started off quite late (by my standards, anyway). I spent my morning back in Wimbledon, buying a couple of Christmas presents - I am trying to get all the shopping out of the way as soon as possible - before rushing home, dumping my bags and heading up to Embankment to meet my friend Rosie.

We went up to the café in BFI and had some coffee and cake (I had a latte with Baileys: amazing!) and spent the evening chatting and walking by the river. I’ve mentioned a couple of times how much I love the walk by Southbank but rather than walking towards Tower Bridge (my usual route) , this time we walked towards Vauxhall which was equally as lovely, with London all lit up. We also noticed that the Christmas market is being set up by Southbank which made us both very excited!

For the first time in a couple of weeks, I returned home at a reasonable hour which was lovely. I managed to have a relaxing evening, I am not exhausted (for a change) and although am not looking forward to the working week, I am feeling more capable of surviving it than last Sunday.

Hope everyone has a fab week!

Muah

Roo xx