August

It's funny how the epitome month of Summer can also feel like the beginning of Autumn - especially with the weather we have been getting recently! I've still been up to a few summery adventures though, mainly featuring food..



Recently discovered Amorino ice cream with Lisa - the most incredible ice cream ever, they let you pile on as many flavours as you can into your 'flower' of heaven.

Of course I went for a modest amount - chocolate, coffee, mango, coconut and lemon... and of course working it off by climbing to the top of these rocks ;)



The weather has been so nice recently (up until now..) that the treadmill has lost it's appeal and I've started playing football and frisbee with Dima most days in the park!

That's the nice thing about London - although there's not often enough room for a garden, there are so many parks around that there's really no excuse for not getting out in the sun!


We invested in a spiralizer.. 
I convinced Dima we need one in our lives - mainly so that I could make The Londoner's slutty pasta! Definitely worth it, and it's so nice being able to eat big bowls of 'pasta' without the guilt!


I also recently discovered Crussh - a really healthy cafe chain which I had never ventured into before. Their food was amazing and this smoothie (the fatburner) cheered up my day nicely.


August is quite a quiet month in the fashion world, so there has been rather a lot of lazing around with cocktails - the above are Watermelon concoctions at Eclipse in Kensington, their cocktails are divine! The watermelon martini is an absolute must :)



We also ventured up into Camden recently, to try out Camden Lock market on the weekend. I found the most amazing wrap from a stall called Chia - chicken and halloumi wrap with all different kinds of healthy nuggets in it such as pomegrante and purple cabbage - worth going back and fighting the crowds for!



The real winner of Camden though was Batch Brownies. I had heard of them and they did not disappoint - they exceeded my wildest brownie dreams. They had run out of their brownie stuffed cookies but we picked up a salted caramel and smores brownies. They were literally the best thing I have ever eaten. Ever. 




It is worth sourcing out Batch Brownies wherever they may be just for the salted caramel brownie. It surpasses any sort of brownie you have ever had, promise. I think they're mostly at Camden but feature at Spitalfields on a Wednesday, dangerously only around the corner.


Another important development this August is that Dima's mum randomly forced him to bring back a breakfast in bed table from Cyprus. This was actually a very good idea, because I get lots of breakfast in bed now!

Other than my recent fat-adventures, I have been in the process of packing up my life into boxes slowly in preparation of moving to Dima's in a couple of weeks. After four years it is probably about time we lived together rather than on opposite sides of London, the only thing I am seriously worried about is where to put all of my clothes!

What have you been upto this August? xx

Date Night

Last night I took a well deserved break from studying and went into central London with Dima :)

First of all we went to Wright Brother's in Soho, after trying their oysters at 'Feast London' (AMAZING food festival) and loving them! There they were £5 for 3, and naturally their restaurant was alot more expensive.



Here they were more like 3 for £8 (minimum!) so definitely not on a student budget, but they were great. We got three sets; two undressed and one dressed with coriander and japalenos, The French ones were absolutely out of this world! 

However I wasn't too impressed with the restaurant overall, the staff seem like they kind of want to rush you out of there (we stayed for half an hour!) and are quite pressurizing to buy things. But if you want amazing oysters, these were much better than Harrods Oyster Bar. Overall it came to £46 which was quite steep considering we only had the above and one cocktail (£10!) - I dread to think what dinner would cost. 





 

Then we set off for a long walk around London and ended up in Leicester Square. It was fairly warm and a Friday evening and there were huge groups of people standing outside the pubs, spilling into the roads and I got a quick vision of what my life would be like working in London. I kind of try to avoid central on the weekends, both clubbing and otherwise because the amounts of people that come out to play are astounding.

 
We went to La Bodega Negra cafe; which you can't reserve so I was expecting queues but luckily they just squeezed us in without waiting!



 The restaurant (on the other side of the road) is great (but also very very expensive) but they are almost always fully booked! After last time I had an idea of what was good so we went for the pork belly tacos (amazing), chicken quesadelias and corn salad. The tacos were much, much smaller portions than the restaurant but they were still good. 


 

I also got a mohito which was fab 
 

and there was a mix up with the salad - they brought us another one instead of the one we ordered (they tried to bring us a lot of plates we didn't order) so they gave us a complimentary tequila shot each! 

 

overall that also came to £46 (expensive times!) but it was much more worth it than the Oysters. 


After that, we went on our way to Adventure Bar in Covent Garden as I was hit by an idea of brilliance, on their website if you sign up for the newsletter then you get £10 off (most cocktails are £10) and there aren't any scams ie having to buy another drink, only on monday's between 2-3 pm! So we went with our vouchers and claimed our drinks :D 
 
 

we got a zombie (£11) and a Lemon Cheeseshake (£11) - I had the idea that Dima being the Russian who can drink anything would have the absinthe fuelled Zombie and I could elegantly sip on my cake cocktail. But it was rather the other way around. 

Both were great, and if you go I recommend the ice cream sundae cocktail!