Winter in the sun!

Welcome to paradise, also known as Harbour Island.

Happy Fake Christmas!

Unlike most, if not all of you, I won't actually be celebrating Christmas tomorrow as I'm going to be sitting a few of thousand feet above you all, in a long cylinder like tube, with wings. In other words I'm going on holiday.

So in a bid to ensure we didn't miss out on any festivities we celebrated a couple of days early with all  of my grandparents.

Street Feast!

Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to Hawker House Street Feast.

Dishoom!

I had a lovely dinner with my parents in Central London earlier this evening. We went to the mouth-wateringly delicious, Indian restaurant, Dishoom, in Covent Garden. Which my mother has been banging on about for the last two years, and you're about to see why I will be doing the exact same.

I think it's time for an ice cream!

I had the best sorbet of my life yesterday afternoon and so I would like to share this experience with you all.

First let me introduce you to my lovely new friend Julianna, she's from Colorado and we study at uni together, second let me introduce you to her cousin Emit who is currently over in London visiting on his year off. And lastly let me introduce you to Snowflake, a gelato bar that will potentially change your life forever.

After delicious dim sum in Chinatown...

The final stretch!

The final destinations on our list for Adventure Sunday were Spitalfields and some food!

Meandering along Brick Lane

Meander is such a great word isn't it?! I feel it really captures exactly what you want to say.

Meander.

Okay it sounds weird now.

Anyway enough of that and more of what I promised you yesterday - our venture along Brick Lane!

Venturing East!

Sunday's are for three things - a lie in, a roast and adventure time! 

So we thought we'd tick at least one of those boxes and leave the comforts of West and Central London and head East to explore some of what it has to offer. 

So that's exactly what we did. 

Our first destination being the Columbia Road Flower Market. 

A Market of Meat

As i'm sure you're all fully aware, if you've been reading my blog for a little while, I love meat. And as you can probably imagine from the title of this post this involves meat and a lot of it.

Yesterday, I went to meet Katie (remember her? The owner of Captain Sassy?) after I'd finished uni for the day and she'd finished work. We met in Covent Garden and were both pretty hungry and fully prepared to eat a lot of food so headed over to The Meat Market on Tavistock Street.

Possibly the best burger in London

After our afternoon of being artistically inclined tourists, Charly and I (yes she is still here) were in massive need of a carb filled dinner.

So naturally our first thought was burgers. And our second was Five Guys. So that's exactly where we headed.

Being tourists

We live in a city that people fly miles to come and visit yet we never really go and make the most of London's famous and iconic landmarks.

So Charly and I (yes she's back, yet again) thought we'd take a couple of camera's...

Disgustingly good grilled cheese

I've had a really great last two weeks. 

I've been lucky enough to be doing a work placement at a company called freuds whom i've wanted to work for since I was about 16 and it's been wonderful. 

Today one of the guys in the department i've been working with, received an email about this quirky little pop-up sandwich shop, aptly named F.A.T, in Soho just down the road... So naturally we both decided this was going to be our lunch time destination.  

As the clock turned 1 we headed out, into the surprisingly freezing cold London weather, in search of our grilled cheese sandwiches. 

The pop up shop is situated at the front of SHARPS Barbers on Windmill Street. 

A beautiful sunset

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. 

I honestly think that on a sunny Autumn day in London there is nowhere I'd rather be.

And I can't think of many better places to watch the sun set over the city on a day like yesterday, than from a rooftop looking over all of London's most famous landmarks, can you? 

No I didn't think so. 

And when a sunset looks quite as exquisite as this one did, there couldn't have been a more perfect setting. 

Captain Sassy takes on the funfair!

If you haven't already met Captain Sassy, just a pre warning you will need to prepare yourself for the cuteness that is about to appear on your screens. 

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Captain Sassy. 

A British Goodbye

So once again Charly Cox is featuring on my little space on the internet, however this time the occasion had a rather sad undertone.

How do you say goodbye for someone for 6 months?

We had to get our thinking caps on and come up with an inventive way of surprising Ella (you haven't met her yet, but you will have done by the end of this post) and saying goodbye before she leaves us for life on the other side of the world.

So we started to think... What's very British but something very Ella...?

We decided afternoon tea was a must, but we needed a little twist.

That's when we stumbled across BRGR.co.

Getting down with the trumpets

I had another lovely afternoon with Charly Cox, who you all should know by now as the wonderful writer of the Style the Natives blog and my companion on a number of adventures into the midst of Notting Hill and down the Kings Road.

This time our adventures took us further away from the comforts of West London and into Central, more specifically to Burgers & Cocktails off Oxford Street and then onto the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square.

Unfortunately neither of us were intelligent enough to look whether Patty and Bun was open, which on a Monday it's not, just for the record. 

So once we'd settled for Burgers & Cocktails just over the road, we obviously had to start by refuelling ourselves with copious amounts of nachos and a burger, which we shared, as neither of us could decide what we wanted more.

Burger & Cocktails is situated on James Street just off Oxford Circus, and just as it says serves burgers and cocktails, with a couple of other things such as salads and hot dogs if you don't like burgers (which you should).

It's my birthday!!

If you follow me on any of my social media's then you will have been more than aware that it was my birthday today! How exciting I hear you all cry. I know guys, it is the most important day of the year so you've probably all been counting down for months and didn't need any reminders, but i hope you all enjoyed my countdown as much as I did. 

Don't kid yourselves now, you know you loved it. 

Giggling Squid

I love Thai food a huge amount so when Giggling Squid opened it's doors a few months ago close to where I live in Surrey, I was very excited to go and check it out.

Giggling Squid is in a number of towns but it most recently opened in Reigate, and my god is it good.

If you enjoy Thai food you will love this place, it's probably close to the best Thai food i've tasted out of Thailand. Apart from my mummy's Thai curry's, obviously...

So I went along the road with Carlotta (after our incredibly productive afternoon of baking goodies) and my parents to indulge ourselves in some asian cuisine.

Healthy Candy Bars... say whaaaat?!

Remember me telling you about Gwyneth Paltrow's cook book? Well I had another little experimentation with it the other day with my best friend Carlotta, remember her from a day out to Kew Gardens?

Well having been on holiday for a couple of weeks I decided it was probably time to start being healthy again and with a massive craving for something sweet this was not proving to be particularly easy, that was until I stumbled across this little beauty of a recipe, for healthy candy bars. A healthy candy bar?! Surely that kind of treat is too good to be true you may be thinking. But I assure you it is, and look no further than this little list of ingredients;

It's never too early to celebrate your birthday

As you may know if you know me or if you follow me on Twitter I get far too overexcited about my birthday, I always have done and I probably always will do. 

I've never quite understood people that don't look forward to celebrating their birthday, after all it's just an incredibly good excuse to eat cake and be spoilt for a day, nothing too strenuous about that. 

So last night I was taken to start my birthday celebrations in Soho, London. 

I wasn't told where we were going until the taxi pulled up outside the bright blue glass front that Yauatcha sits behind. Being a massive lover of dim sum this couldn't have been a more perfect choice. 

And what better way to start the evening than with a drink, you would have thought this bright pink, incredibly feminine, cocktail would have been chosen by me, however it was actually chosen by my  boyfriend, worringly enough.

A couple of days at the Classic Yacht Challenge

Sorry for not posting for a little while, however the wifi in Menorca was being silly and wouldn't let me upload any photos for you so i've had to wait till I got home!

After an amazing week in Ibiza I flew to Menorca to spend a couple of days with Daisy (remember her from our adventure to a rooftop bar?) at her villa near Mahon harbour.

There was a brief lapse in my relaxed Ibicencan hippy state when I discovered my wallet had been taken at some point during my connecting flights to Menorca, however this was soon fixed with a little trip to the police station and another large dose of sunshine.

Lunch amongst the orchards

I'm thinking I may have to change the name of my blog. 

I have no intention of returning to London next week, i'm going to become a hippy braid my hair and live here in Ibiza forever. 

Just need to figure out a way to make this happen...

After a few days enjoying the beauty of this island, I thought I should share a little bit of it with all you lovely people. 

Aren't I nice?

Today we ventured out to a little village called San Lorenzo which is in the centre of the island a short drive away. In this village you will find the beautiful restaurant that is La Paloma, hidden in a midst of citrus orchards. 

An Afternoon in Chelsea

You all remember Charly right? The one with the brightest of blue eyes, a fabulous smile and a wondrous blog of exciting interviews, adventures and beautifully shot photos - also known as Style the Natives?

Yes I thought so. 

And just to clear it up this is not a round of the adjective game I am just feeling incredibly complimentary this afternoon. 

I spent a lovely afternoon catching up with this beauty, and where better to start than in the garden at The Phene off Kings Road?

Proper Pizzas

After a tediously boring afternoon of standing in a dimly lit shop selling customers over priced, but very pretty underwear and getting hungrier by the second there was only one thing that was going to brighten up my day. 

Pizza. 

Okay well maybe my boyfriend as well, but mainly pizza. 

So we ventured out down the road to Franco Manca in Chiswick. 

Let's go paint a pot...?!

Yes you did hear me correctly, I have just invited you to come paint your own pot, or plate, or tile or whatever floats your boat.

Do you want to know why I have requested the pleasure of your company for such a seemingly bizarre activity?

Well hello there Fulham!

If you remember a little while ago myself and Georgia went on a little house hunt for an apartment that we're going to be sharing with our friend Harry, well we found a property near Fulham Broadway and yesterday was our moving in day! 

I went to collect the keys as Georgia is busy sunning herself Marbella, and yesterday Harry and I moved our stuff in. 

So if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen this photo before, but i'm quite proud of it so you can have a look again!

Gallivanting around Notting Hill

Hello there, apologies for neglecting my little space on the internet for a week or so but I have been a very busy bee working away to earn lots of money to spend on holiday in a couple of weeks! So I hope you'll forgive me for the fact I hadn't done anything particularly blog worthy in a while.

This all changed however when I got my weekly dose of the lovely Charly Cox.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Today is one of my closest friends birthday's. So I think we should all take a moment to wish Sophie a very happy birthday! 

Thankfully for her, her limelight was not stolen by the birth of the royal baby, that would not have gone down well. Although personally I think it would be quite cool to share a birthday with the future king. 

Anyway, to celebrate I along with the girls from my old school, all of whom I think you've met in previous posts, drove up to London yesterday to Sophie's dad's flat which is very conveniently located just off the Kings Road. And after a quick pit stop at Waitrose the pre drinking began pretty much as soon as we got there. 

Sunday Funday!

I got incredibly excited when at the beginning of the week, my friend Sophie suggested that we should all go to the Brockham Victorian Fair on Sunday. Despite the fact i've almost reached the age of 20 I still find the prospect of most childish activities very exciting. And yes we were probably the oldest there, apart from the parents of the toddlers that were running around. However that didn't make it any less fun. 

I can see the seaasiideee!

Almost every summer for about as long as I can remember I have visited the beautiful beach that is Sandbanks.

Sandbanks is situated on the south west coast of England in Dorset close to Poole.

One of my oldest friends and technically my 'godsister' (if that is even a thing), Alice, stays down at her grandparents apartment every summer, which is on the spit between Poole Harbour and the coast/ Sandbanks beach.

Champagne and Hot Dogs?!

You know when you have a really good weekend and you don't want it to end and wanna do it all over again? 

Well this weekend that was how I felt. 

And i'm now definitely experiencing Monday morning/afternoon blues. 

So to cheer myself up a little I thought i'd share with you one of the fun activities we got up to in London on Saturday afternoon and relive it a little whilst writing. 

And yes that's right it does include both champagne and hot dogs. 

Together?! You may be thinking, yep Bubbledogs serves both champagne and hot dogs, certainly an original idea. 

Soy Berry Froyo!

And the detox continued...

I absolutely adore frozen yoghurt, it's quite simply one the best culinary inventions. And after a few very intense hours of sunbathing after lunch Sophie and I (yes that's right she's still here) were craving something cold to cool us down from the surprisingly warm English weather. 

And seeing as my parents have not yet invested in a swimming pool, despite my insistence of it's necessity. I thought why not cool ourselves down with the second best thing to a pool.. Froyo!

However being in Surrey the nearest Snog or Pinkberry is not just conveniently round the corner as it is in London so we made our own. And a healthy version as well!

It's very simple, all you need is frozen fruit, soya yoghurt and maple syrup (if you want it especially sweet). 

Detox Day in the Sunshine!

As you may have noticed by now I really enjoy cooking, and recently my mum decided to buy me Gwyneth Paltrow's new cook book. 

Gwyneth Paltrow cooks?! Yes that's right apparently she does and she's kindly decided to share with the public how she's kept her figure looking as incredible as it does.

Looking for a present?

It was my best friend Georgia's birthday at the end of June and as she was incredibly helpful and decided to not give any suggestions as to what present she might like. I was left to my own devices. 

After a couple of weeks of struggling to decide what I should get, I was recommended to go and visit fab.com. Fab is quite aptly described by the name of the website itself. It has some really cool stuff on there, usually from designers that you wouldn't find in many places, which makes buying presents on here even better as it's unlikely anyone will have got them the same! 

A sunny Friday, a BBQ and a few jugs of Pimms

As I mentioned earlier in the week, the girls we lost to travelling round the world are starting to arrive back in Surrey and there's lots of missed time to catch up on. So I thought what nicer way to start doing this, than have a chilled afternoon in the sunshine with Pimms and a BBQ. So that is exactly what I did. 

Mexican Night!

Yesterday, Kings College finally decided to publish our results, and thankfully I got a 2:1 which i'm very happy with! For those who don't know what a 2:1 means, it basically means I passed my exams and have no retakes!

So last night, partly to celebrate and mostly just because we wanted to go out for dinner I ended up at yet another Mexican/Latino themed restaurant. I am half tempted to move to Mexico I seem to eat the cuisine enough. This one was called Las Iguanas in Kingston, however there are plenty around the country as it is one of a chain of delicious Latino restaurants so you can enjoy it wherever you are! 

Thai Curry and a Cheescake?

I had the loveliest of evenings last night, courtesy of one of my friends from school, Sophie.

As you may know if you read my first blog, I just finished my first year at uni. And whilst i've been hard at work at university (yes Mummy that's right I did work, as I know you'll be reading this) about half of my friendship group from school went off on very envious trips around the world. And now as it is nearing the end of their gap years, for all of us that decided to get education out the way first, we are incredibly excited to have them all working their way back into our lives.

The incredibly talented Lucy Blackwell!

On Saturday night I was lucky enough to go and watch one of my friends, Lucy Blackwell, launch her EP.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It's my Grandma's 70th birthday this coming week and to celebrate we had a big family lunch in London. We ate on the top floor of the Park Lane Hilton at the restaurant which is called Galvin at Windows. 

The hotel is located in the heart of Mayfair and is opposite Hyde Park. The restaurant has a bar attached to it as well so you can enjoy the views over drinks before sitting down to eat.

I had dinner at a sex shop

Okay it wasn't literally a sex shop, but I genuinely thought I was walking into one last night when we arrived at where my dad had booked our family dinner. And after being greeted by a skimpily dressed mannequin in the doorway I was just waiting for the maitre d to say to my dad 'sorry Sir your in the wrong place.' Luckily my dad had actually got the right address and saved both mine and my sister's embarrassment when we we shown downstairs to where the bar and restaurant are located. 

La Bodega Negra is situated in the heart of Soho, London in a converted sex shop. However unlike most restaurants it doesn't have the name written outside, simply neon lights with the words 'Girls Girls Girls', 'Adult Video' and 'Peep Show' lit up in the window. Hence my initial confusion. Bodega Negra, serves a Mexican style cuisine, more refined than your standard tacos and fajitas. 

It's tricky to describe exactly what the decor is like inside. Imagine a dimly lit, vaulted space, with every wall and detail being a piece of artwork in itself. The most incredible detail in the restaurant is what has been named the 'puppet room' and it was designed by the Shoreditch set designer - Eden. The walls are lined with the city landscaped cut out of cardboard with dolls dotted around and wooden chairs hanging from the ceiling. There's always something new to spot, including an upended grand piano. 

 The only complaint I have is that I couldn't take any really good photos due to the fact it was incredibly dark, until our waiter very kindly went and got a torch so I could at least share with you some of the delicious food, but I suppose this means you will all just have to go and check it out for yourselves. 

Onto the best part.. The food. Which was quite simply amazing. I love a good mexican and this is definitely up there with some of the best Mexican food i've eaten. 

The menu is ideally designed for sharing, not that i'm a huge fan of sharing my food but if there's enough of it I suppose this is a good way to taste a bit of everything. To start you have a huge choice, we decided to order guacamole with sesame tostados, lamb and crab tacos, prawn ceviche and some quesadillas. All of which I would highly recommend. Especially the guacamole. I love guacamole. 

For main courses both my sister and I wanted the chicken which was done with spicy chimichurri, asparagus and roast potatoes, but I was difficult and asked for it with coriander and lime rice. Oh and another side of guacamole, I told you I liked it. 

My parents went for the steak and lamb both of which looked just as yummy. 

When at a mexican restaurant you can't finish the meal with anything other than Churros. And churros with melted chilli chocolate for dipping are an exceptional end to a meal. 

Definitely worth a visit to Bodega Negra, they have amazing food and there's a really quirky atmosphere in the restaurant, certainly very different to anywhere i've eaten at before and I will without a doubt be returning.