Wednesday 31 July 2013

Yogini

 I have a new obsession and that obsession is yoga. I've recently joined Virgin Active via Pru Health (50% off so £46 a month as opposed to a wince-making £92) and while one of the gym instructors has given me a good circuit to work through in the gym, I hate the gym,so I'm favouring the classes instead, opting for pilates and yoga. All of the instructors are brilliant, I really rate them and I find I'm thinking about yoga all the time, I want to get better at it, I want to be able to stand on my head. I want to be able to do the stuff the gorgeous girl in this video can do.


However, yoga is about discipline, patience and control. I am going to keep going so I can reach these advanced poses in my own time, not try and rush forward to be the best (yoga isn't about competition), injuring myself in the process. Once I've moved house this weekend, I am simply going to try and fit more classes in.

One act of discipline might be actually managing to make it to the morning classes (and I am googling my new train route right this minute to see if it's doable). I can even go to later classes than I do currently. I like 6pm classes as it's straight after work, but I could wait for a 6:30pm one. My beloved is moving back to Sheffield to finish university and while I have a good social life, I'll miss him terribly so this will be a very nice, wholesome distraction.

Yoga is so good for the mind, I've been super stressed recently, with the move, wedding planning and everything seems to be just going every so slightly wrong,  but yoga seems calm me right down, and does wonders for the body, beyond improved flexibility and potential weight loss, like your heart function, brain function, lymphatic drainage, immune system, digestion...the list goes on...

My workout gear is a pair of yoga pants I picked up in TK Maxx, so very comfortably, and any old top I can find, but I've recently been ogling the ranges at Sweaty Betty and No Balls. Perhaps one day when I have some cash again I can splash out.

No Balls Tank Top at Shopyoyo.co.uk
I got a book for Christmas which was quite an amusing read, Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morisson about a city woman who goes on a yoga retreat in Bali, I'd recommend it as a far more light-hearted, self-deprecating, and far less self-indulgent read than Eat, Pray, Love!

I'm doing the exercise, wearing the clothes, reading the books, I'm well on my way to being a full-on yogini!

Thursday 25 July 2013

Good Morrow, Miss Magpie

They call me the crap magpie. Well, they don't, but my flatmate does. Although we are very shortly moving from North to South London (eek, panic attack, so much to do, so much to do), I can't stop accumulating stuff. A couple of weeks ago I was walking home and I found this amazing wooden box sitting on the street outside some house. So I took it. It's now filled with makeup supplies.



We live in a block of flats at the moment, so there's always someone moving in or out, and soon that'll be us. The other morning I was leaving for work and by the bins I found these linen-lined wicker baskets, perfect for my larger toiletries and things that I just need a home for. I was planning to buy some anyway but have this aversion to spending money on boring stuff so it was great to find these, crying out for a new home.



Then on Friday night, I got lucky again outside our flats when I found a big Nikon camera case in perfect condition lying by the rubbish. As I'm planning to buy a new fancy camera, this saves me the trouble of buying a case for £40+, brilliant luck! I better make it a Nikon then...



I am returning the favour though, I've been freecycling our old possessions like crazy. Freecycle is the actual best. Over the years so many of my things, from kitchenware to old pc monitors has gone to good homes, and I've acquired a dining table and chairs and other useful things I needed at that time and couldn't afford to buy, and stopped those things from going into landfill.

O2 Priority Moments currently has a deal with Office where you can get a free pair of espadrilles just buy showing them a code on the app. The offer is on for another 4 days only, so get in quick. I grabbed mine the other day, great lightweight summer shoes, for zero pence, I got some men's ones because of my big old feet! I know I don't need more shoes, but hell, free ones are not to be sniffed at! There are loads of great offers on the app, from 20% of at Coast to free Molton Brown shower gel (with spend).

Friday 19 July 2013

Penhaligon's Vaara

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to the Penhaligon's Vaara launch at their longest-standing, beautiful Wellington Street Store. Vaara is the new fragrance inspired by the Royal House of Marwar-Jodphur in Rajasthan. In its beautiful packaging in vibrant orange and sky blue and the trademark elegant Penhaligon's bottle, with headnotes of quince, rosewater, carrot seed, coriander seed and saffron, Vaara is certainly a fragrance fit for royalty and it's perfect for these roasting summer days we're experiencing. You can read more about the launch event here.

The Wellington Street store is having a summer party on the 1st August from 18:30 to 21:00, to again celebrate the launch of this new fragrance. Onsite there'll be a henna artist and traditional folk dancing to entertain you, as well as Annesh Popat, chocolatier to talk about the creation of the divine Vaara chocolates that were created in collaboration with Penhaligons. so head on down for refreshments, a goody bag and discount of 15%. I know I will be!
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Vaara, £120 for 100ml



Saturday 6 July 2013

The Ladykillers (Play)

The Ladykillers is back in the West End from 29th June at the charming Vaudeville Theatre and I had the pleasure of seeing the show on Monday night. The play is Graham Linehan's (Father Ted, The IT Crowd) adaptation  of the classic Ealing Comedy, about a little old lady with an active imagination, who unwittingly takes in a band of criminals, who claim to be musicians needing a space to rehearse, but are actually plotting their next robbery.
Cast - The Ladykillers, picture from Londoneer
With familiar faces like Ralf Little (The Royle Family) and Simon Day (The Fast Show) cast in the motley crew of wrong-doers, and with Angela Thorne's innocent sweet old lady and her constant interruptions to the rehearsals, the play is a very, very silly, madcap adventure, with a very, very impressive set by Michael Taylor.

Go, see, I implore you not to laugh your socks off. Tickets start at £20.


Wednesday 3 July 2013

The Sleeper - Emily Barr (Review)

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Emily Barr's latest book, The Sleeper to review, so even though I have a thirty-book high pile at home, this book got fast-tracked to the top of the pile for immediate consumption.

From the back of the book, "Everyone thinks she has a happy life in Cornwall, married to the devoted Sam, but in fact she is desperately bored. When she is offered a new job that involves commuting to London by sleeper train, she meets Guy and starts an illicit affair. But then Lara vanishes from the night train without a trace. Only her friend Iris disbelieves the official version of events, and sets out to find her. For Iris, it is the start of a voyage that will take her further than she's ever travelled and on to a trail of old crimes and dark secrets. For Lara, it is the end of a journey that started a long time ago. A journey she must finish, before it destroys her..."

It's so hard to write about a book without giving away to much of the plot. The main characters are Lara, the one who disappears, and Iris, an acquaintance who tasks herself with finding Lara. Lara is a bored woman who lives with her sweet but dull husband, drowning in debt after failed IVF attempts. Iris is someone she barely knows and wants to get to know better but seems to always push other people away. When Lara disappears, it transpires that both women have pretty big secrets that they want to keep but that are inevitably all going to come out.

I really rated this book, like all of Emily's so far. I love Emily Barr. She is like, my favourite. Her books are great psychological thrillers, always containing a slightly messed up character who you can totally relate to, with so many twists and turns in the plot it's impossible to see what's coming next. I've now read all but two of her books, but they are firmly on my to-read list, because they are just so easy to read yet not at all chick-litty.

Emily was a journalist, but hankering for other things, she asked her boss if she could go backpacking and write a column on her travels. When they surprisingly said yes, she went off, and ended up with an idea for her first book, Backpack. Now she has written 12, and they're all brilliant. Nearly all of Emily's books have at least a portion that is set somewhere else, like Italy, France, Spain, Cuba and a few recently have been set partly in Cornwall, it's no surprise to find out that's where she lives. The Sleeper has an overseas section too, although you'll have to wait and see where.

The Sleeper is on sale from 4th July, RRP £7.99 but available from Foyles at £6.07. I recommend it highly. A great read for your commute, or if you're off on your travels, your sunlounger (I am jealous).

Saturday 29 June 2013

Skipping over to Sydney

Our trip to Melbourne was a short one at only 2 weeks, holiday allowances and real life prevented us from going for longer, but naturally we wanted to see as much as we could. Before we travelled, we bought domestic flights to Sydney for an overnighter during the second week of our trip.

We booked through Jetstar which is an Australian budget airline to travel early on a Tuesday morning (flight time 85 mins) and return on Wednesday evening, which cost $136/£90 each including booking fees. As we were there for one night only, we took just hand luggage. We used our return ticket for the shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport, although as we landed back in Melbourne late on the Wednesday night, we had to take the Skybus from the airport back to the City ($17 each) and then the tram back to our hotel.

Sydney is incredible. We travelled mid May so the getting deeper into Australian winter, but the weather in Sydney was much better than in Melbourne, and we had two very warm sunny days. When we arrived we took the Airport Link (approx $16) train straight to Circular Quay and stopped for a coffee overlooking the harbour and the incredible Sydney Opera House. We strolled into the Botanical Gardens and then around the harbour to The Rocks, where we visited the tourist information centre to pick up leaflets, and found a cafe for a breakfast burrito. Our bags were getting heavy so we took the 555 free city shuttle bus down to Museum to find our hotel and drop our bags off.
The Opera House
Harbour Bridge

City from the Opera House

Harbour

Harbour Bridge
We stayed at the Cambridge Hotel ($119) in the leafier Surry Hills area, which I'd booked through booking.com. Our room was pretty nice, a decent sized twin room with a bath and shower and mini bar. I always thought that Sydney was far more spread out that it is, so I was expecting far more of a mission to reach our hotel, but it was easy peasy. My only real gripe with it was that they charged for wi-fi. I mean, who does that, in this day and age!? In Australia, loads of bars and cafes have free wi-fi so I decided to forgo it on this occasion.

Bags dropped, we headed back to the 555 route bus stop to travel the rest of the circular route back to the Quay and took a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art. My mum, bless her, contemporary art isn't really up her street, and I must admit I can find it pretty puzzling, so while we walked around I tried to understand the point of all the installations and exhibits, but she just assumed her usual position of muttering, "weird... weird" until we left. The Museum has a sweet little shop selling all manner of interesting gifts and books though, so naturally we had a potter. Kati's main thrill in life is a gift shop.

We took another coffee stop and bought our tickets for the ferry to Darling Harbour ($5.80 each). We must have timed this trip just about right, as we ended up making the trip just as the sun began to set so I got some gorgeous shots of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and it was a very peaceful ride. It was interesting to see the other people on board as some, like us were tourists, but others were just commuters. And what a commute. I know we have our Thames Clippers, which I haven't yet had the pleasure of using, but we rarely actually have the weather to make it as spectacular as this trip.
The Opera House from the Ferry 
Harbour Bridge just before sunset
Sunset from the ferry
Once there, we took a walk around the shiny new Darling Harbour area, crammed with restaurants and bars, all with various happy hour offerings. We walked past Madame Tussauds and spied an actual koala in a tree in the foyer, so ogled him for a while before I got totally papped with Eric Bana, awkward.
I promise there's a koala in there
Chillin' with Eric
Darling Harbour also has a big entertainment centre with cinemas, a Chinese Garden (alas, shut by the time we got there), a shopping centre and galleries and museums. We took a wander around the Harbourside Shopping Centre, and spent a while chatting to an English ex-pat who ran an Aboriginal art shop. We headed back to a restaurant my sister's friend had recommended, The Helm, where we both tucked into enormous seafood paellas at $25 each, and glasses of wine for $5 each. Helm does daily offers on food, but that night was steak night, and neither of us fancied it, but a $10 steak is surely not to be sniffed at. We sat outside as it was a lovely evening, overlooking the Harbour. It was very quiet due to being a Tuesday night, so we had the barman's full attention. As we rocked up at about 18:45, he suggested we ordered two drinks each before the 7pm deadline for happy hour, and he'd bring over the second when we were ready, which was very nice of him. The dinner was luscious, and sated us entirely. I do hate a seafood paella which has a couple of measly prawns in, but this one was massively generous. Afterwards we started to walk to find some transportation back to our hotel, but ended up being able to walk it in just over 20 minutes which shows how easy it is to get around Sydney.

On Day 2 we checked out, but were able to leave our bags with the hotel, so we hopped straight on a 333 bus to Bondi Beach, which took about 20-30 minutes. Bondi is spectacular. I loved it and wanted to stay all day and just stare at it, but with only a day left in Sydney we knew we had to head back, so we grabbed a hearty breakfast (God, avocado with everything, I love this place) and bussed back to the city and to the Domain and Botanical Gardens.
Bondi
Me on Bondi rocks
Bondi
Bondi Brekkie
We entered the parkland at noon, and as we did, hundreds of city workers poured in in their sports gear. Everyone was running, playing football or frisbee and generally exercising (there was a half marathon on the following weekend, so I expect many runners were training for that). And after seeing the runners and surfers at Bondi that morning, it was clear that it would be difficult to live in Sydney and not exercise. The weather and the open spaces are made for it.
Botanical Gardens
The City from the Domain
After wandering through the Botanical Gardens we decided to hit the shops so headed back on the 555 bus to George Street where the shops are at. I found a Kinokuniya bookshop which I loved, after experiencing the store in Tokyo last year, selling loads of Egnlish, Japanese and Chinese books which I loved browsing and could have spent all day in. Then we headed down to Paddy's Markets and Chinatown. When we reached the market, we headed up the escalators and found ourselves in Market City which wasn't quite what we expected as this was more of a mall than a market. Mum nursed a cup of tea as her little legs were hurting while I scoped out our surroundings. It was basically a mall stuffed with discount stores, so I found a Cotton On and Cotton on Body outlet, in which I picked up yet more cute PJ shorts, and once she'd recovered mum picked up a silk robe like she'd been looking for for $10.

We stopped a passer-by and found that the actual market was downstairs, and there we found a much more markety vibe, with knock-off handbags and tonnes of cheap souvenirs, way cheaper and exactly the same as we'd seen in more upmarket gift shops, so we stocked up on as much as we'd be able to fit in out hand luggage. For mum, this was tea towels galore, and for me, a set of wooden Aborigine style coasters which were $10 instead of the $18+ I'd seen them sold for in Melbourne.

Late afternoon, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags, and took a wander along Surry Hills' Crown Street were we found vintage shops and opp shops galore. We picked up a tasty burrito from the very cool Cantina Mobil and made our way to the station where we found a nearby bar with wi-fi for a quick drink and email check, and then we were on our way Melbournewards once more.

I loved Sydney. I loved Melbourne. I can't decide which I liked better. I feel closer to Melbourne but I spent 12 days there, compared to 2 in Sydney. I found it perhaps a shinier city, and everything was more compact, whereas Melbourne is rather sprawling. The weather is generally better too from what I gather, it certainly was for those two days. But then the people in Melbourne seemed friendlier. I would jump at the chance to spend more time in both cities so I could decide! Any offers to take me back?

Wednesday 26 June 2013

This week I are been mostly...


  • Flathunting. We live in North London but are looking to relocate to South London. The fiance is moving back to Sheffield to finish uni so my flatmate and I are looking for a new pad. This occasionally means we end up looking at things we can't afford. But that's part of the fun, right? We have so much viewings lined up, we don't know what we are doing anymore.
  • Eating Ben and Jerry's. Our local shop is doing it half price, so between the 3 of us, we are keeping the fridge well stocked. Favourites are Half Baked and the Vermonster but I got my eye on Peanut Butter Me Up.
  • Buying pretty dresses. I got this Yumi treasure from Rhoda in Crouch End for £30 on Saturday.

  • Realising it's now less than a year til our wedding, and bar the venue, nothing is booked in. Cue a million emails to photographers, marquee hire places and DJs.
  • Watching Arrested Development. Late to the party as usual, but we're watching a couple of episodes with dinner most evenings so catching up quickly.
  • Gymming it. I have Pru Health private medical cover through work, which also gets me 50% off membership at Virgin Active, so I've been heading to the Strand branch to work out after work. Which makes up in a small way for all the ice cream. I love the yoga and pilates classes, and have enjoyed a swim tonight. The pool is only 16m so I had to do 65 lengths to cover 1km! One of the gym instructors has also put me together a killer circuits workout, so I should have arms like Madonna (or something less scary) in no time.
  • Remembering. My Boy's Nanna died last week, aged 79. She had been diagnosed with Dementia a couple of years ago and was in a bad way. Her funeral was yesterday so we popped to Essex to remember her with the family. Dementia is a horrible, horrible, undignified thing but she was a brilliant, feisty woman and I am choosing to remember her that way. Should you so wish, you can donate to Dementia UK here.
  • Laughing: My flatmate introduced me to Louis CK yesterday. Very funny. Live at the Beacon Theatre is available on Netflix.