Wimbledon weekend

Another successful weekend has come and gone. And to top it all off, with Friday off, it was extra-long!

I booked Friday off so that I could take my brother to Wimbledon for the day. Living in Southfields, even if I wanted to (I don’t), I couldn’t ignore the fact that Wimbledon was in full swing. All week long, the area has been crazy busy with people queuing and walking to and from the grounds. This made for a less than easy walk to the flat from the station, with me trying to push past the endless amounts of people. It turns out I picked one of the worst days to go since it was raining most of the day. We had a very early start to the day (5am!!!), queued for about 5hours and once we got into the grounds, it started raining. We managed to see some play (Haas v Wang and Brown v Mannarino) so it turned out to be a successful (and incredibly expensive) day. We returned home (within 10 minutes) absolutely exhausted!

You can't mention Wimbledon without
strawberries (and cream)

After a very long sleep, me and my little brother headed out to play a game of tennis at the park. The weather was stunning (I even managed to get a decent tan) and we didn’t even have to pay for a court, since they had a special events day, with activities and coaches, encouraging people to play tennis. We left the courts hot and exhausted, had lunch and then I dropped Rudy off at the station. I returned home to BBQ preparations (making the most of the gorgeous warm weather). Having bought half of Sainsbury’s supplies, we spent the evening chilling out in the garden with a couple of friends, enjoying amazing food and a few too many drinks. We even headed out for a night of dancing in Wimbledon town centre, all equating to a fab night!

Feeling a little worse-for-wear this morning we lounged around in the living room before heading out at Rubino. We all had Panini’s in the sun (managing to grab the last outside seats) which were lovely but the service was a bit slow. The rest of my day has been incredibly productive: I bought food for the week, did laundry, tidied the garden (a little), cleaned my room and the whole flat and enjoyed the rest of the day in the garden, taking in the sun.

Summer!!!!

Safe to say, I had an amazing weekend which has been topped off by Bex deciding to come for a visit at the end of July which I am already incredibly excited about!!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Muah

Roo xx

A (rather long) round up

Apologies for being so rubbish with the blogging recently. Life has been a little mental and in spite of the best intentions to post something, very clearly I have failed. So here is a little insight into the last couple of weeks in the life of Roo…

Last weekend started out with a Friday night out with Chloe. We headed to Club 49 in Soho which was a little disappointing. We had a few cocktails (quite delicious, but not the best I ever had) and danced for a bit until they started playing R n’ B from the early ‘00s which reminded me of being 12 again and at school. The music, coupled with the overheated dance floor made us leave pretty soon and we headed to the fail-safe (yes, I know; it’s shameful!) Roxy's. We ended up having a successful night until I left the club and ended up getting drenched through 3 layers of clothing and had to sit on a night bus in wet clothes until I reached my warm bed.

I had a relatively lazy and relaxing start to my Saturday; sleeping, having a leisurely breakfast and watching some good old Big Bang Theory. In the afternoon, I headed up to Tottenham Court Road for a catch up with Jess (which turned out to be a mission and half since I got drenched again – this time with an umbrella – and my tube station was closed so the journey was horrid). We went to Tap Coffee for some coffee (what else?!) but the place was far too small for a proper catch up and we left to find a Starbucks where we could happily overstay our welcome.

As for Sunday, it being Father’s Day, I headed down to my parents' for a visit. I had a great day with some amazing food which included my mum’s special cake (yum!) and I returned home absolutely shattered (mostly down to the very long journey which involved tubes, trains and replacement buses).

After a very busy couple of days at work, on Thursday I decided to go for “a drink” with my housemate Natz and a couple of our friends. We headed to the Alexandra Roof Terrace for some post-work drinks. The place was really nice and with the weather being quite lovely, it was really nice to hang out in the fresh air and chatter away (the food looked pretty great too, so I will want to try some of that eventually). Unfortunately, I lost all common sense after a few gin and tonics and agreed to go to the Slug afterwards. Long story short; it all ended with a lot of dancing, my getting home at 1am and a very sore head on Friday.

Friday was rather mellow. I spent the night at home relaxing and fish-sitting Natz’s goldfish, Max which I found to be a huge responsibility (especially when I broke his fishbowl – he is alive and well).

My Saturday was spent shopping at Westfield in Shepard's Bush (a bit of a loony idea considering the sales were on) and spending far too much money but in turn getting some very nice dresses. To break up all the queuing and clothes-purchasing, I had lunch at Benugo which was so good! I mentioned the Cannon Street Benugo in an earlier post and have only just managed to try the place. I had an Indian Chicken Summer Salad and some lemon drizzle cake for dessert (because you can’t be too healthy!) and it turned out to be a delicious lunch which got my energy levels back up and allowed me to continue to shop. In the evening, Chloe came over for a couple of drinks and we later headed to Thirst Bar in Soho. Having read the reviews, we thought it would be a bar/club but were really disappointed as it was in fact just a bar with music on in the background. We left pretty soon and once again ended up in our old-favourite (I dare not write the actual name of the place). We had the best night out – I love going out with Chloe!!!!

Benugo

As it turns out, I had a pretty successful Sunday too. My friend Richard came over to play some tennis. I am shamefully bad at the game so he offered to teach me a bit. We managed to play for quite a while without getting caught in the rain. I forgot how much I enjoyed playing tennis! We chatted for a bit and grabbed a bite at Fonda Mexico right by the flat (being far too hungry to venture out anywhere) and I was quite impressed. The place is really quite small and has the cheesiest Mexican-style music but the food was pretty good (I had enchiladas with a lot of cheese). All in all, I had a very successful (and tiring) weekend.

Now, I am going to try and catch some sleep and survive the 3 remaining work days (I have Friday off: yay!!!!)

Sorry about the essay-long post! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Muah,

Roo xx

A walk (or two) in the park

Another successful weekend has come and gone and it came to an end with the perfect Sunday.

Saturday morning was a little mental, with me running around (and getting a little lost), running errands - it was a little more stressful than I cared for but I managed to sort out what I needed, leaving me to enjoy Saturday afternoon with my cousin Aurelija and her two little boys.

We met at Green Park and after buying a loaf of bread to feed to the ducks, we headed to St James's Park for a walk. The boys were running around, chasing pigeons and squirrels and feeding the (rather aggressive) ducks whilst me and Aurelija managed to have somewhat of a catch up. We had lunch at Inn the Park which I last visited about 10 years ago with my parents (changed quite a bit since). I had lamb stew which was actually rather nice (if a little overpriced). After some more walking around and the kids playing around in the little playground, I headed home and had a lazy evening at home, watching films.

Today, I had a lovely lie-in, following which I headed to Notting Hill for a catch up with Chloe. We walked down Portobello Road, mooching past the shops and down to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for a light lunch and then to Paul Rhodes cafe for a very long catch up over coffee and cake. Although the weather wasn't great today (far too much wind and not enough sun) we walked around Kensington Gardens, all the way up and around Hyde Park, wandering aimlessly and enjoying the fresh air and (relative) quietness. I had the best day, with a wonderful friend and am now feeling more than a little tired and not at all ready to start the new week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Muah,

Roo xx

Relaxing weekend? Complete fail

For the last couple of weeks, I have been intending to have lazy, relaxing weekends. As my posts probably suggest, that hasn't happened. So for the weekend just gone, I made absolutely no plans, assuming that would mean I'd have to be lazy. Long story short: I failed. Majorly. And now for the long story... 

Friday started off perfectly with a catch up over lunch with my friend Kelly. I know her from my old work and after our numerous failed attempts to try and plan a catch up, we finally penciled in a pub lunch. The weather was gorgeous and the food was pretty good too - we met on Chancery Lane, it being half way between both of our offices - and it turned out to be a perfect Friday lunch. The evening was more than a little manic, with me rushing off to the gym, only to rush back home, dump my bags and leave again with Natz to head into the city. We met some of Natz's friends at a pub, The Counting House (trivia: it used to be a bank). After a couple of drinks, we had a delicious Indian dinner at Bangalore. I had never been there before but the food was delicious and the interior was quite cool and non-traditional, with geometric wallpaper. After the very filling dinner, some of the guys headed home while the rest of us headed to Agenda - a city club. The music wasn't really the type of music I like to dance to but since it was free entry and it was so close to the restaurant, it turned out to be quite a nice, fun start to the weekend. 

My delicious Biryani looked a lot like this

On Saturday, I managed to have a relatively relaxing morning and afternoon, whilst at the same time being quite productive. Having tidied my room, I spent most of the day in the living room, with the French Open on in the background and my laptop in front of me - I did quite a lot of research into law firms to try and figure out which ones I really want to work for - a very tedious task made better with some tennis watching. In the evening, me and Natz planned to go to a beer garden for a couple of relaxing drinks but by the time we sorted ourselves out, the sun had gone in and we thought better of it. I planned to stay in but after numerous attempts, Natz convinced me to head up to Wimbledon for a "couple of drinks". That didn't quite go to plan. We met some friends at the Old Fizzle - a restaurant/bar. I had a great evening as there was endless live music, so we just danced around and had a couple of drinks, meeting quite a few new people too (mostly Natz's friends). Me and Natz then left to go to the Slug (and interesting place and not so different from what it was like during the Rugby 7s) and on it's closing we went to Watershed - yet another club. All in all, it was a long night with lots of dancing. 

Safe to say, Sunday was spent recovering. This involved pizza and Disney films - the perfect Sunday! I felt a bit bad since the weather was gorgeous and we were spending the day indoors (with the exception of my trip to the supermarket) but I managed to have a somewhat relaxing Sunday. Kind of. 

I would like to say that I am hoping to have a lazy weekend this upcoming weekend but the last couple of fails make me only half-hopeful. 

Hope everyone has a great week and enjoys this beautiful weather that we've been having!

Muah,

Roo xx

Here, there and everywhere

I have had quite a hectic start to the week and to think, we’re already half way through it! So here is a recap of a quite busy weekend too - it’s a good thing that we had an extra day!

Friday started with a night out with my friend Alex. The night was a bit of a fail. I think I will it at that. It was an okay night out but was far too much hassle.

Alex had stayed over at my flat and we spent the morning and afternoon hanging out and eating quite a lot of junk food. Once Alex had left, I had to take a trip into town to return a dress and then stayed to mooch around the shops, only to return home, grab a bite to eat and leave again and head to South Kensington. I took a trip to the Natural History Museum  since I haven’t been since the age of 10 and refused to spend the evening at home. It was very therapeutic – I can only handle museums on my own- and I walked around, learning all about dinosaurs and mammals (yes, I am that cool!)

On Sunday, I gave my parents a visit. The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful, so we had a delicious barbeque and enjoyed the weather in the garden. Although I was lazy and did nothing other than eat and watch telly, the journey there and back (totalling over 3 hours!) really took it out of me and I came home absolutely exhausted.

As for Monday, I was in domestic mode. I cleaned the windows (quite a workout, if you ask me – I had to balance on the outside windowsill!), vacuumed, did the laundry and the food shopping. Whilst the day wasn’t quite as relaxing as I hoped, the evening was spent watching movies and munching popcorn with the flatmates. Absolute bliss.

And now I am going to unwind and get ready for bed. Two more sleeps until it’s the weekend again!

Night,

Roo xx

Monday Blues

Having had a lovely, albeit hectic weekend, returning to work on Monday did not feel great. Although I've had another productive day at work, my insomnia at night, coupled with me feeling very ill towards the end of the evening has meant that I didn't have the best start to the week. However, not wanting to be completely negative, I will give a quick summary of my rather successful weekend: it involved a lot of catching up with friends. 

I thought this quite fitting..

After my wonderfully lazy start to Saturday, Edita came over for a visit. We had a lovely (and much needed) catch up over some food, wine and more food (and Eurovision in the background - which I feel quite ashamed to admit in writing). 

Although Edita slept over rather than trekking down all the way to East London, she left quite early on Sunday, leaving me to laundry, food shopping and cleaning. In the afternoon, I ran to meet my uni friend, Rosie (who I haven't seen since graduation!) at Clapham Junction. We spent hours in a little cafe, catching up over the last year of our lives. In fact, we were there so long, we were given a bowl of pistachios on the house - random but oh-so-lovely! That left me with enough time to have dinner and watch What Happens in Vegas with Natz - a perfectly relaxing end to a very rushed weekend. 

A lot of this was needed this weekend

And now that Monday is over and I am feeling a little better, I am going to head off to bed, hope for a better Tuesday and will be counting down the days to the long bank holiday weekend.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. 

Night 

Roo xx

Good start to the weekend

This has been yet another long week. Without going into all the drama, I have had issues with my teeth and have been dreading my dentist appointment (which is at the end of the month) and trying to deal with the pain with plenty of painkillers - not the best thing for a good week. Anyway, luckily the week was broken up with a catch up with my wonderful friend Betul who I haven't seen in months. We had dinner at Thai Square on the Strand which was delicious and finished with frozen yogurt for dessert in Covent Garden. A successful Thursday night, if you ask me!

As for Friday, having finished a busy day at work (which felt so good: I love productive days!) I rushed home to get ready for a night on the town with Jess, Chloe and Naomi. We went to Roxy's (again, I know - I will try some place new next time) for a lot of dancing and a bit of drinking. The music wasn't as good as last time and the crowd felt very young (which is a weird thing for a 22 year old to say) but in the end we all had a great night out and got home absolutely exhausted.

I had the perfect start to Saturday with a mini lie-in and a lovely breakfast which consisted of croissants, orange juice and coffee - the perfect breakfast!

Got to love lazy Saturdays! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Muah

Roo xx