Summer 2018!

I know August has barely started but the weather in the UK has been SO sunny that it feels like summer has lasted forever this year! To make the season feel even longer than it really is, I have been incredibly busy. From attending my very first ballet (that has nothing to do with my ballet school) and playing Top Golf for the very first time, to back to back madness on the weekends! I've already blogged about Weekend 1: Helsinki, Finland, as well as Weekend 2 to 3: Anita & Samantha visits (not forgetting Amsterdam + Paris in between), so let's continue from there!

Weekend 4: Visited Leanne in Bristol + bowling in Watford

I feel like Leanne and I might make for the laziest two people to be together but we legit just ate lunch (albeit we ate like 3 times), barely walked around Bristol, went back to her flat to watch "Would You Rather" - no I'd rather not watch that movie ever again. Went out for dinner at a spicy noodles place but their menu changed!! Then back to her flat for what was supposed to be another movie but we like social media-ed ourselves to sleep. #millennials 

Stewed lamb from Al Bab Mansour (inside St Nicholas Market) was AWESOME

PSA: no millennial is younger than 22 years old this year

Weekend 5: Brighton / Arundel / Selsey / Southampton / Beaulieu / Milford

Gorgeous Late May bank holiday road trip + picnic with the work friends on the Monday! 

Weekend 6: Lilly visits

My weekend started with a late lunch with Joanna. Jokes, my weekend started with an insane Friday "London" house-party that lasted well into Saturday morning. Still stuffed from a really heavy breakfast, I went to meet up with Joanna at Notting Hill for... LUNCH LOL. We then strolled around that area + Portobello Market and then walked by a Parisien cafe that Joanna wanted to try, so guess I continued to eat! Honestly, not that much time passed between then and us ending up Soju & Co where Amelia and LILLY joined us for K-BBQ dinner. The four of us also had a little fancy time together the next day and enjoyed afternoon tea at Dandelyan. 

Weekend 7: Lavender field / 7 Sisters / Brighton

Another gorgeous road trip weekend! Visited Mayfield Lavendar Farm where I learnt lavenders are not in full bloom in June. Seven Sisters is a series of chalk cliffs by the English Channel that is absolutely beautiful! This time around we actually didn't get too crazy drunk in Brighton and actually explored the city the day after! 

Weekend 8: Bratislava, Slovakia

Visited Bratislava for the very first time with my work ladies Maria and Marion. It was supposed to rain but guess what... IT DIDN'T! We had about 30 hours in the city (not planned this way trust me), so you can imagine, we got up, had our breakfast and got to business! There are tons of art installations all throughout the city, so we checked those out and pretty much every major "must see" in the city. Probably the two biggest things to see in Bratislava is Slain (WWII memorial site) and the Bratislava Castle. It was around mid afternoon when we came to a realisation that we saw everything in Bratislava, that's when we went in search of the "secret" bar but as it wasn't opened yet, we went to a hip cafe instead - Urban Bistro!

We did up end going to the secret bar after a nice local dinner at Slovak Pub (yes that's the name of the place). Michalska Cocktail Room is themed around the prohibition era, so it was quite the awesome vibe. We also made our way to SubClub in hopes to dance the remaining hours in Bratislava but realised it wasn't the dance club we had envisioned, so we went back to the hotel to sleep instead. I must say we did manage a game of table football in SubClub though. Not during the weekend but guess who stopped by London real quick after this weekend...

Weekend 9: Oxford with Joanna

It has been a while since I've been to Oxford, and what a nice way to revisit with my lovely friend Joanna! We almost missed the bus (not realising you can hop onto the next available bus with the same ticket) and I almost got hit by a car before we even came close to being on the way to Oxford but all is good. A huge shout out to Sasi Thai for reminding me of the AMAZING SE-Asian "economy rice" vibe! I need to go back to Oxford just for this, it was so great. Of course, we did some typical touristic stuff but I was also incredibly lucky because there was FREE Tolkien exhibition at the Bodleian Library!! p.s. Joanna, never forget "flash, flash, flash, flash, flash" and the dude in the bus. 

@Sasi Thai

Weekend 10: Packing with Amelia

Summer 2018's theme is new beginnings, and Amelia too is on her way to a new beginning. But that does mean she is leaving London and myself. It was a wonderful time helping you pack / catching THREE interesting world cup matches, and enjoying a wonderful Sunday picnic!! We said our goodbyes in the middle of the week after, until next time my darling! Oh let's not forget my first Silent Disco experience at the London Aquarium!

Weekend 11: Pamper session with Joanna

If I ever ask you why I don't currently have enough money, it's because I do things like bring Joanna to the Conrad London St James (with team member rates because Hilton #workperks right?) and went to Lush for a nice massage session. Not going to lie though, that one massage at Lush can get you a LOT of luxurious massages in Malaysia, so I'm not doing that often. I also got myself a yellow Muji pen and we tried Lobster Rolls at Smack! 

Weekend 12: Shoreditch + Incredibles 2 with Joanna

I think this is my second time at Dishoom and usually I frown upon Asian chains in the UK because they are so cringe, but Dishoom is actually an Asian chain I would support in this country. After lunch, we loomed around the Shoreditch / Spitafields Market area of London. We also tried this pretty unconventional interpretation of a sundae at Soft Serve Society (cute though) and watched the Incredibles 2 with so many children who were so young they weren't even born when the Incredibles came out. This weekend Joanna also made me seafood soondobu!! 맛있다 !!

Weekend 13: Packing with Joanna

Chicken is for the soul, so we went to Nandos. LOL! Then the craziest series of packing / throwing things away ensued for what felt like pretty much the entire weekend!! I suppose she made me budae jjigae again (the proper spicy kind this time because Jojo and I can handle our spices) so I can't complain.

Out of all the people that have left this summer (either left work or the UK), seeing Joanna leave was definitely the hardest. Goodbye to THE best "ex-남편" in the world and cheers for being the few people that make me appear like I the craziest drunk in the world without even needing a sip of alcohol. Already looking forward to our next time together, #SK2019 #SouthKorea2019 #韓國2019 

Weekend 14: Scrapbooking & rainy weather

Needless to say when I had absolutely nothing planned this weekend, I was REALLY excited. I practically sat at home the entire time like the hermit that I am, read a book, finished, finished a Netflix series Joanna introduced me to, took an afternoon nap on BOTH days of the weekend (omg so luxurious), and started scrapbooking life in the UK so far. See how my table was like after I organised all my "resources" by year:

Last time I did my uni scrapbook, the mom commented about how messy I made her dining table and said I was playing around. Which is obviously TRUE, there is nothing business critical about sticking random shit into a book and I'm not even artistic. But because of what she said, the table ONLY remained that messy for one day, I've put it all away before the end of the weekend as I am waiting for my prints to be ready! #fabulousdaughter ;)

May I just add the weather has been great all 14 weekends too - first 13 were nice and sunny when I was out and the last one was really windy and rained which was so perfect cause I was indoors!

Anyway that is all for today's post (currently weekend 15). I wouldn't say I have nothing else planned for the next few weekends, but definitely nothing to the extent of what I've been doing so far. Which is great for the bank account!

Listening to "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 & Cardi B
Images by Me