A new love of outdoor activities

For the past year I have started getting into rock climbing, though more precise bouldering. A bit of a different form of activity to the usual gym or running. 

Thanks to my friends who roped me into climbing again, as they took on the Social deal that was happening beginning of the year, I decided to join them! Now kind of hooked!

We mostly climb in Bermondsey's Arch in the Biscuit Factory. I prefer this branch compared to the one in London Bridge as it is bigger, lighter and airy. 

On the weekend just gone I somehow got roped into getting some climbing shoes! It was quite funny especially as it felt like I was going to buy school shoes with my friends & finding out my proper shoe size! (^.^)

This week I have go even more hooked with climbing as behind my work Walkers were doing a campaign launch of their new crisp, they built a temporary high climbing wall!

Since Monday till today I had climbed on my lunch break! ranging from 18m to 22m walls on the crisp, I thought why not! I now have my own climbing shoes, put good use to them and get many bags of free crisps! hehehe :P

I managed to conquer the 18m wall but still not good enough to reach the top with the 22m - forearms just tired out 3/4 way up the wall. Top rope is challenging and it doesn't help that the holds on the wall were turning >:(

I don't want to climb too often that I'll get hench on the upper body! After this weeks climbing, a grazed elbow grazed knee and calluses building up on my hand, I need to take it easy! hehe

I hate Tuesdays

Garfield is not a Monday person. Personally I don't mind Mondays, Tuesdays on the otherhand I hate.

This morning was definitely one of those bad days- oversleeping for work as I am still having a rough time sleeping due to the wonders of coughing fits (lurgy). Took me only half an hour to get ready which is good, bad thing was whilst on the bus, was stuck in the joyful ruch hour traffic (-.-). Worst part of the journey, I was still half asleep so getting off the bus I didn't realise my phone dropped out of my pocket until I was near the office to work.

So half an hour late into the office, fortunatley was not too manic but this is

definitely not been a good morning. Post fit meeting had to ring the good old phone provider to block the phone & Sim card, replacement will cost me £72 (not what I really wanted to have spent before midday ~.~) but had to be done.

Come lunch time ready to eat, half my lunch falls out of the fridge onto the floor... I want my bed

Worst Tuesday *sigh* severe bad day

A Summer Punch Up with Kotki Dwa

The last time I ventured into Homerton in Hackney was when I went for an interview to be an intern for Satoshi Date over 2 years ago. Reason this tone to head to this part of London this time round was that my friends band Kotki Dwa were performing in a National Trust building and launching their new album "Staycations". The timing of releasing this is perfect since 2012 in Britain has been very patriotic with the likes of the Queens Jubilee and now we have the London Olympics around the corner. 

I really love the concept behind it the album, as we are still in The Recession, many are penny conscious, so Staycations are the answer to the holiday getaways! They managed to get the National Trust to be associated with the album and the band recorded the album in various National Trust buildings to get the right feel for the music.It's really lovely to hear the band developing and growing with their music 

To be honest I didn't think London had any National Trust buildings but there's actually three! The venue that is Sutton House is quite a lovely Tudor building, a little gem 

buried in Hackney borough, it was just such a lovely building <3

In typical Kotki Dwa style, there was free food at their event consisting of lovely picnic foods - sandwiches, Scotch Eggs, pork pies and an array of cupcakes (-^.^-) there was also exciting beverage concoctions of Summer Punch relating the theme and mood of the event and the most exciting thing of all was the Ice cream with Pimms sauce!

Music was really good, bands playing folky electro music in the hall room of Sutton House with true Britshness decorations of the Staycation feel of hay bails, binoculars, flip flops little things that give a typical British holiday vibe, so eccentric but I love it! I found it funny when Alex was announcing the support bands were about to start in the 

court yard where majority of people were having their conversations, it felt like we were getting rounded up lol XD

A very lovely evening with good music and was quite intimate; catching up with friends 

and adding another piece of my London Mind Map

Radio1 Hackney Weekend

On the weekend I went to my first festival! I know right? But the thought of camping I don’t mind, but I just have trouble with justifying with the travel & ticket prices. However day festivals I’m ok with.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Hackney weekend, when I asked my friend who also had tickets I asked her which day, she said Saturday…. Crap I had Sunday ticket, such a shame that Radio1 tickets you don’t have a +1 but oh well

I managed to find a friend to go with luckily, I’m fine with flying solo, but it’s more fun with company.

We didn’t get to the Hackney Marsh until 1.30pm and it only took us 40min to get in, better than some people who took 3hours to go through.

Saw so many bands and listened to quite a bit of Dub Step, which isn’t usually a choice I would go for, but I had a good time dancing and bouncing away to Skream & Benga

Santagold was entertaining, wish we stayed a bit longer to watch but wanted to see other acts, Shame when we were watching Plan B perform it started to pour for 10min, luckily I had my umbrella and jacket! Florence and the Machine I thing would have been good if we stood around a decent spot of the stage, the music from the sound systems let me down, which was a shame.

Azzelia Banks sent the Tent jumping with her final song “212” good tune!! Just Banging!!

Jessie J was really entertaining to watch a very good performer too! What made it better was the sun finally came out and there were very little clouds in the sky ^.^

Couldn’t believe we saw 14 different acts, I was exhausted at the end of the night and thighs were killing as we only sat down and rested for 10mins during Lana Del Rey. However Dizzee Rascal who was the special guest, perked us up with his tunes especially “fix up look” sharp & “Bonkers”

Finale was Rhianna, which was good and entertaining, was awesome that Jay Z showed up as well and did three songs with her, but not sure how much lip-syncing she did. All I can say was I loved her eye make up and she has some very toned thighs!!

Radio 1 Big Weekend festivals are definitely a great musical adventure and so cheap for so many acts!!

A bit of Fun Cheap Bling

I've just realised, I've managed to get out of my slump and started blogging a bit more regularly now :P then again, makes up for lost time!


What girl doesn't enjoy quirky jewellery thats quite different to the usually High Street buys? Did I mention it only costs from as little as 25p to £6!


My friend Louise e-mailed me this website of this company based in England that has an online jewellery boutique that she said was very affordable and quite my style ^.^


The company is called Kukee, and certainly relates to it's name! Selling assortments of earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets & even badges. I will definitely say the style is quite like Urban Outfitters, slightly Topshop and Forever 21 but cheaper! :p


I do enjoy my interesting jewellery and when I was browsing at the pieces, the snake cuff earring in particular caught my eye!! Only for £2.50 at that! Such a theatrical piece I can't wait to wear out and about! ^.^


I also got myself a cute little ring for 80p, can't complain!

P&P is also quite reasonable and the shipping duration was good too, typical 1st Class Royal Mail service

Definitely recommend you checking out the website for something different and affordable ^.^ I shall definitely keep my eyes peeled for more bargains on the site!


Yes Please to affordable shiny things!

A Perfect Sunday

 I admit it is nice to have a free day with nothing to do but something spontaneous. As I went out to water the plants in the morning, my friend Whatsapped me asking if I had any plans. I thought why not join her to Brick Lane and Columbia Market as it was a sunny day for a change.

What made it better was 3 other girlfriends joined us, which made the company even more fun, including my friend Maggie, who I haven't seen for quite a few months; plus was the first time to see her in the daylight hehehe :P

She was so excited to come out with us, as it had been a long time since she's headed East on a Sunday as we passed Petticoat Lane as we passed it to go towards Brick Lane

I have to admit, Brick Lane is the best on a Sunday ^.^

After lunching in Brewer House, we ventured over to Columbia Market, as it's the first time Wendy & my Cousin Jade have ventured to Columbia market, was such a good day out and perfect timing as 3pm onwards, the stalls usually start closing up and the bargains come in ^.^

Maggie was so easily excited it made me laugh, complementing strangers' buys from the market, shame hayfever kicked in and we all were sneezing (=.=")

As we were about to leave we all decided on heading into this Vintage shop with a quintessentially quirky coffee shop called Cake Hole

The afternoon tea of scones & tea was just amazing, the Boss Louise was just so lovely, and Maggie was just so chatty it made us laugh XD

What was such a sweet surprise was that the boss gave us some free cake as it was end of day & we did a favour to her asking some other patrons to move around slightly so the five of us were able to sit together. She told us that customers were usually arsey with her if she asked them to budge up. 

They need to make business as they are only open 2 days a week and of course they'd want to be able to get as many customers in as possible

The cost for Afternoon Tea for 1 person is only £6.50, much cheaper than some high class Mayfair hotels and is not as pretentious, plus the food tastes so fresh

I would definitely recommend people going to this sweet place and will definitely want to visit this place again ^.^

This was such a perfect Sunday, no rush with good company and only spent under £5 everyone's happy (^.^)

Salyu X Salyu

I was checking out FB a gig my friend was going to I decided to check out the music on Soundcloud and Youtube, and quite enjoyed it. So I decided to go along to with my gig buddy Adam to the Jazz cafe in Camden to check out this gig by Salyu x Salyu. This was the first time they've every played in England, all the way from Japan so was pretty exciting ^.^

I have to admit this was the most beautiful gigs I have ever attended, it was quite intimate, the voacals were so beautiful, my friends. I couldn't stop smiling and when they started singing Sail away, I was nearly in tears because it was so beautiful


The band sang so well very harmonised, and looked like sirens 


I loved how the instruments they used were so acoustic, ranging from flute, drums, chimes and a keyboard thing you play with your mouth (not the harmonica)


It just brought music to a whole other level that is just so different and was even better to hear and listen to live

Salyu who is the main front woman was so humble when she spoke it was just so lovely.


I will definitely look out for them again when they come back here to perform ^.^ 

New Cupcake fun!

This Bank Long Bank Holiday weekend has been a good one - 4 day weekend ^.^


I really wanted to do something practical! My housemate gave me her print outs of recipes she wanted to try experimenting, so I decided to try out "Black Sesame Cupcakes with Green Tea Frosting"


I have decided to share this amazing recipe:-


Ingredients 


Cake mix
40g Butter
40g Granulated Sugar (I used Golden Caster)
20g Black Sesame powder (I ground it fresh with a Pestle & Mortar)
15g Honey
1x Egg
3 Tbsp Milk
100g SF Flour (I used Wholemeal to be healthier)
1 Tsp Baking Powder 


Frosting


300ml Double Cream
150g icing powder (pending your personal taste or thickness)
2 Tbsp Matcha Green Tea Powder
Sesame seeds for garnish


Pre Heat oven to 160C/ Gas mark 4


Method


Cream Butter and Sugar until fluffy


Mix rest of cake ingredients, but don't over work


Put cakes mix in the paper cases & put in over for 30min (or until you poke the batter with a toothpick & comes out clean)


Rest the cakes on a wire rack


Icing sugar just pour cream into bowl with matcha powder, 


gradually add icing powder whisking away until you have stiff peaks


once cakes are cool, apply icing to cakes


Enjoy! ^.^

Pintrest Interst

Thanks to having a weekend away in Bristol with my Friend Livi, she got me addicted to Pinterst.

The online moodboard is so fun, looking at people's pins of interesting images, really inspired me and I decided to join!

Great way of finding inspiration! ^.^

The Royal Windsor Horse Show 2012

Well weekend just past had been an enjoyable one, sunshine and 17C. A nice change compared to during the week of pouring rain and grey skies, I just think, it’s good for the plants to get the water.

 Wendy invited my to join her to the Royal Windsor Horse Show for the Sunday event, as Daks were sponsors to the event and supported the Pony Club. I thought why not! Free ticket to be a bit of a VIP for the day (usally the ticket cost £50!) free food and drink, and doing something quite highbrow and different – I needed to plough into my wardrobe to find a decent dress for the occasion; luckily we don’t need to wear hats!

This year's event was a bit more special as it was also Celebrating the Queens Diamond Jubilee

Fortunately the weather was great, so the grounds were not too muddy and saturated, but I stuck to flats anyway. Journey to Windsor from Waterloo was an easy train ride, was definitely not in London anymore, the place was so green, the air was cleaner and there was a great view of Windsor Castle from the Showground, very lovely.

The food inside the Pony Club was actually not too bad, a buffet of picnic foods like scotch eggs, sausages, salads, skewers, though the bosses at Daks were not use to this type of pallet of food, and eating from paper plates, will admit I was skeptical about the food as I heard last time they only served bland cucumber sandwiches, (I even brought some sushi for me & Wendy to have, but the food didn’t go to waste!)

The competitions within the show were national so many clubs within the UK competed, some events quite interesting to watch Dressage competitions and show jumping, was quite a nice day out and saw a little tiny pony that was adorable!! <3 was interesting to see how there horses were to perform, was pretty nice to see one of the Olympic contenders taking part in the jumping time trials with no faults.

The Royal family usually attend this event, but I think they didn't make an appearance until 5pm where the singing performances kicked in, but that time we left as both of us were tired

Definitely a lovely day out for a Sunday, definitely need to make effort with more day trips out of the M25 bubble