Summertime Self-Care

Back at it again with the travel posts! I swear that’s all I have the energy for these days. To be honest there’s lots I could have blogged about so far, but I prefer to micro-blog it on my personal Twitter and Facebook as I don’t want to deal with ignorance or trolling in my comments. I’m finding that even on those platforms I’m still dealing with the wildest ignorance, and that’s largely from people I know, let alone inviting the whole internet to spin my spirit. The world is in a dark era right now, and even as a social commentator, you need to work out for yourself when to speak, where to speak, and what to speak. And above all, how to do all of that whilst protecting your mind from repetitive negativity. For now, in this particular space, I’m choosing to share carefree things; things that hopefully inspire people to know that all these issues may consistently be attempting to drown you, but there will always be days where you’ll be able to get up and swim, and on those days you need front crawl to your place of peace.

Split, Croatia

I’ve wanted to go to Croatia for the longest time, so when some friends said to join the end leg of their trip, I said ‘of course’ :).

I don’t really have much to say in this post except that it was as beautiful as I expected it to be. When you land in Split, one of its greatest attributes are its amazing mountains which you can pretty much see from wherever you are. It’s also in these mountains that some of Game of Thrones was filmed…which I found out on my last day whilst speaking to my taxi driver. Sigh.

The beach closest to where we were – Znjan beach – was interesting…and by that I mean that the sand was literally only about 1 metre’s worth from the sea, and after that it was pebbles, lol. So if you’re thinking about visiting Split for its beaches, make sure there is actually a sandy seashore…if you’re into lying on the beach and sunbathing. A lot of them seem to be of that similar calibre.

Další Zastávkou Praha

Where and why

As you guys probably already know, I try to do at least one solo European trip each year (or at least a European trip), and this year’s destination was Czech Republic. Prague to be precise. Shoutout to BA on Facebook for enabling me to get the package deal of life. It was actually cheaper altogether than any European trip I’ve ever done – and I’m usually on that budget airline and hostel tip O_O – so yeah…within approximately 5-15 minutes of seeing it advertised, I’d bought and booked my trip.

Tram stop off Wencelas Square

Burger @ Haché

In the beginning, there was the burger…
As an introduction, I feel it’s important to mention that when it comes to food, I have three commandments that I live by:

1. Eat Cake
2. Eat Ice-Cream
3. Eat Burgers

hence why any food post on this blog will most likely be fundamentally based on one of the above. If you follow me on instagram, you probably didn’t need me to spell that out as a small proportion of my ~1300 pics are of burgers, cakes and ice-cream. I mean…I only just realised this the other day. I’m that deeply entrenched in my own matrix. But really…if you cannot respect at least one of those commandments dont @ me, we will never see eye to eye, we can never be friends. I have spoken. Selah.

Bubbly Bubbly!

I was invited to the launch on 1st June 2013 to a new store in Angel Islington called Brew Box, specialising in Taiwanese bubble tea. I went never having had bubble tea before, and honestly most attempts by people prior to my visit to describe to me what bubble tea is were confusing/uninspiring. However, it meant I went with an open mind and genuine curiosity about this place I had heard so much about.

I don’t believe in waffling for the sake of it, so I’ll cut straight to the chase – it was a really great experience for a number of reasons:

1. I was treated with so much attentiveness by store co-owner Albert Yanit (below), and his staff, friends, and family, who with their genuine passion for the business of bubble tea, liveliness, and willingness to explain what several things I ate that I’d never tried before were, made me feel really welcome and quite honoured to be around them. The service was impeccable.

Southbank World Food Festival

First and foremost, I’d just like to say I will be resuming my more current-affairs/opinion-based posts again after this temporary foray into more lifestyle-ish posts. I’m just thinking of topics that will encourage conversation, yet invite minimal stress into my life with that treasured section of society who love to challenge every opinion/thought to death. Ain’t nobody got time for that…but I’m still going to say what I have to say.

Anyway…

Over Bank Holiday weekend, I went to the World Food Festival at the Southbank Centre with friends (and as it happens fellow bloggers – check out their blogs A’ppetizer and Practical PKU). We each had different motives for going to the festival: admittedly I was pretty much there only to stuff my face and take some shots of pretty or unique looking food, A’ppetizer was there to look for some inspiration for the A’ppetizer hamper giveaway competition, and Practical PKU was there to find food that could be good for people who have PKU.

Anyway my intent with this post was not really to waffle on about it, more share some shots from the day. It was a really fun day out, full of trying lots of different foods, cider, cakes, buying, sampling, and falling in love with unique food products.

Here’s what the day looked like in pictures:-

Fala Inglês?

In April I took a long weekend solo trip to Porto in Portugal.

Why Porto?

I knew from last year that I wanted to visit Portugal, and for a long time it seemed as if it wouldn’t happen, but things worked out. Initially when I thought of going, I did consider going to Lisbon…but only for a split second. Why? Because in my mind I can go to Lisbon anytime. And that’s a key component about when I choose to go somewhere solo; it has to be somewhere that I most likely wouldn’t visit again and is unique enough to be worth a visit. Porto fit the bill for me. Up until the moment I got there I didn’t know what I would be doing aside from making sure I visited the beach, and doing a cursory glance at the metro map to make sure I knew where to get off and get to where I was staying.

From Paris With Love

If you’re looking for a funny post. It’s the next one. Or thereabouts. This post is a mini update on my glamorous life.

Because you care.

So two weeks ago I went to Paris on a long weekend. The aromatic fumes of London were giving me headaches and it made perfect sense to me to exchange it for Paris’ classier brand.

I got what I didn’t really wish for.

Choked to death at nearly every foot by chain-smoking Parisians. I’m sure I even saw a dog with a cigarette in its paw. At times I thought I was going to die, then I thought to myself ‘stop being dramatic’. So I prayed against lung cancer instead.