Birthday Times

Last week was my twenty second birthday, and my friends took it upon themselves to thoroughly spoil me. Needless to say, I had no problem with their decision.

Wednesday morning I was woken up with breakfast and a big pile of presents, and sat in bed surrounded by my house-mates. I love gifts, there's something incredibly special when somebody chooses to give you something. My house-mates truly out-did themselves though, buying me a stunning black dress, a necklace, a watering can and some stationery. I felt 5 again, carefully peeling back the corners of the wrapping paper in anticipation. 

Breakfast and Cards

We spent the day in South Kensington, munching on cupcakes in The Hummingbird Bakery and visiting the Natural History Museum and the V&A. One of the things I love most about London, is the free access to stunning history and culture. I've lost count of the hours I've spent strolling through the grand halls of the museums and marvelling at the world that has been captured in the cabinets. It makes my heart sing to see so much beauty in one place, and I loved spending my birthday there. 

Four different types of cake

Rhinos! But with fake horns in case of stealing.

After running home in rush hour, we threw some different clothes on and headed out to meet friends at a cocktail bar near Spitalfields. We had a corner of the bar reserved and packed as many people as possible around a couple of tables and packed it with drinks. Later in the evening, the cheesy music got increasingly loud and so we created our own little dance floor. Surrounded by such lovely friends, I was a very happy lady. 

Birthday dress

One of my besties

Over the weekend, our house threw it's first party. We use our house for numerous things, including a student community at church, and our house is forever full of people. I'm surprised when it's only the people that live here that are sat in the lounge! We bought a BBQ, everyone else bought meat and we spent the night toasting marshmallows and dancing away. Rather amazingly, a car full of my closest friends from home drove all the way from Bournemouth to London, turning up on my doorstep in what was quite possibly the biggest shock I have ever had. It's times like those that remind me of the incredible blessings that I have in my life. 

My Bournemouth Girls, all together

BBQ and Bunting

The girls I live with.

It was an exciting week. There was so much London fun, it reminded me again just why I love this city so much. I took a couple of the girls I went to school with into Victoria Park for breakfast - one of the places I consider at the heart of East London. We say by the lake, drank some of the best coffee known to man, and admired the wide green spaces. Not exactly what most people associate with an urban centre. But it's all about knowing where to look. 

It's been a rather great few days, and I definitely couldn't imagine spending a birthday better. So if you were with me, or sent me cards, messages, presents and love, thank you. I had a great time. 

Much love x

How to do Spring

Evening all!

So I've been back in London for a week, and the past seven days have been surprisingly hectic. Uni is still ongoing, although with no structure, I'm learning that I need to get things done by myself. I managed to research and write an essay in between starting my new internship, and taking part in some exciting things with the ParliaMentors programme I'm on. 

But, just to fill you in, I had an incredible Easter break, full of the outdoors, the most delightful and beautiful places in Dorset, good friends and good conversations. It was pretty hard to leave. Here are a couple of highlights...

Trudging through the New Forest

Naturey lichen.

On top of the world in Warbarrow Bay

Lyme Regis

Since arriving back in London, I've embarked on one of those overwhelming weeks where I feel more than a little out of my depth, and whilst everyone tells me that's a good thing, it is beyond uncomfortable. In the midst of it all, I've been challenged about trust - the difference between accepting something is true, and actually letting it change you. When you get to trust in God, it means that there is a life of hope, promise and adventure available. I need to get better at not just knowing this, but putting it into practice with all of the things going on in life. Mission for the week ahead I believe.

In an ideal world, this is what we hope to see.

This weekend I had a packed day of dreaming and planning about the student group I help to run. It was a great day of strategising, looking at diagrams and chatting to our team, getting excited about what God might want to in the next six months, as well as years down the line. There's something incredibly exciting about putting these plans together in a building off of Oxford Street on a sunny spring day, the rest of the world passing by as we all sat about thinking about how much we want to see this city made even better than it is. Kinda surreal.

Housemates and cocktails - perfect combination.

  Saturday evening, a friend had organised a private party at The City of London Distillery, an incredible gin bar, tucked down a small lane in one of the oldest parts of London. We arrived slightly late, and by that time the place was heaving with people dressed in snazzy clothes, clutching cocktails and G&Ts. They make their gin on site, and boy was it good. I'd love to pop in there on another evening to see who else was about, but the bar staff were ultra friendly and that's always a plus. 

Gin Distillery

After all of that, I felt it was about time that I had a lie-in and a bit of a rest. This morning I finished the latest Neil Gaimon book I've picked up, and I can thoroughly recommend. Perhaps because it's set in London, I'm a little biased, but the way he blends fiction and reality absolutely blows me away. He writes about a 'London Below', which consists of society's outcasts, every person in the city that drops away, falls beneath the cracks, is ignored by the system. And then he creates an entire universe, showcasing skills and abilities, personalities and adventure. Needless to say I was blown away. 

My afternoon was spent sitting in the sun, with iced coffee before heading to church and then to the pub. It's been the restful day every one should get to have before heading into another manic week. 

What have you been up to?

xo

The High Life

Yesterday I met up with an old friend for a bit of a catch up, and to walk his dalmatian. Obviously. 

Being the shortest day of the year and all, it was getting dark rather early so we decided to give our usual Purbecks trip a miss, and go local, rather than braving the hills and the rain. Unfortunately, we made a bit of a mistake (possibly my bad choices) and went for a wander in some local fields that surround the river Stour.  Needless to say everything was a bit muddy, and by the time my boots were sunk, we decided it was time to abandon ship, and so headed to the beach which was much less squelchy. 

Throop Mill

Squelchy Fields

Charlie the Dalmation

Flooding River

 We topped the evening off with an incredibly civilised dinner (made entirely from the reduced section of Tesco) including Crab Salad, Coffee Martinis and Ben and Jerry's

Crab and Salad. Om nom nom.

Coffee Martinis. Oh yes.

New Festive Flavours!

I can wholeheartedly recommend. 

All in all a very fun, very Christmassy day.

PS - This is my new favourite website - it recommends drinks based on your music choices! I can't think why I didn't come up with such an idea. It's called Drinkify. 

Jesus like Cocktails?!

People get mad at me when I talk about London. Possibly because it happens a lot. But, I feel I'm justified in blabbering about the city so much because everything I say about it, is true! Don't get me wrong, it's not my universe, I mean, it doesn't have beaches to start with (and no the sand banks of the Thames don't count!) and it doesn't have all my friends, or my family, and you can never really see stars. 

Still, as places go, I'm quite a fan. And particularly of East London. Yes, the hipsters run riot, it's like their not-so-secret hideout, but you've got to grant it to them, they know how to make things cool. There's a place called The Breakfast Club. Looks like a bar or restaurant, and yet there's this uber cool little fridge inside. Yeah, you won't have guessed it...but it leads to a cocktail bar. 

To me, that's what East is all about. The surface is one thing, but it gets exciting when you dig a little deeper. 

This week, last night in fact, was the launch of something called Connect. As part of the student work that my church runs, we've just multiplied our mid-week student stuff (mainly because there's too many of us) and so I and my friend Joel are leading the group out East. It's one of those amazing things that's just kind of happened, and last night was full of surprises, and full of grace. 

If East is all about digging deeper, I reckon it shares a lot of parallels with Christianity. Most people assume on the surface that it's kinda boring, not really the place you want to live. And if you talk about it, they think you're a bit nuts. And then you dig deeper, and discover that it's not about the restaurant on the surface, it's all about the secret cocktail bar behind the fridge. Getting to know Jesus is a bit like cocktails. It's this blend of wonderfulness, this constant surprise, and you just keep wanting more. 

All we'll be doing out East is focussed on showing people that there's life in Jesus, and he promises that it's life to the full. And if he promises it, then we want to pursue it, digging through all the surface level stuff to find that epic Mojito hiding just out of sight.

So with all of that in mind, you should come along. We'll be meeting at The Williams pub in Liverpool Street most Wednesdays. It's going to be a good time, and if you're really lucky, I might just buy you a cocktail one of these days. 

Big love! xxx

Unexpectedly Free

This week I had a rather unexpected amount of time off from work. Working only two days freed me up to do some exciting things. We ventured out to Salisbury on Tuesday and visited the market, and I spent an obscene amount of money on new make up and smart jackets. These things I have termed an 'investment' and therefore justified them. I'm not sure that a silk jacket and primer are essential to life but I refuse to consider these things too deeply.

Wednesday involved more shopping and a very civilised girly lunch in front of huge open windows. We played a hilarious game of 'Pig or Horse'. Choosing the appropriate animal for the face walking past brought new hilarity to people watching. 

Thursday I went on a not-really-but-then-yes-really date. That was amusing. But also a little awkward pyjamas. Hmmmm. 

Friday and Saturday involved drinks with friends, hennaing my hair and causing lots of mess and then celebrating a couple of birthdays. Pizza, cocktails and dancing was the perfect combination, and the sun even  came out to aid our celebrations. There were also animal masks. I'm not sure why, but it was very good. The bar we in had a band that played blues covers and so this required a fair amount of dancing and loud singing. There was also a return of the cocktail in a tea pot. OM.

Here's a few pictures of the last couple of days. I bloomin' love my friends. 

Rabbit, Zebra, Giraffe all went out to dinner.

Chillin' by the River.

Bessies.

Catching Up

True to form, I've somewhat struggled to blog regularly since coming home. It's been a bit of a blur since coming back, and though I'm still struck every so often for Mile End and the joys of city life, I've got used to being back in the south. 

(After watching the football the other day, which in itself was a bit of a surprise, I caught some of the hackney weekend being aired and all I could see was the beautiful East. I might have squealed and got a tad emotional. Woops.) 

Anyway, tonight is my only evening in for the next two weeks. I've somehow acquired a job, but unfortunately it means working til midnight most of the time. Boo. I fear this could hinder seeing friends, but we shall see! The pennies will certainly be helpful as we've finally booked our summer holiday! to PISA we shall go. Well near enough, it's some sort of villa in the middle of nowhere. I am insanely excited considering it is months away. 

So for some more recent news, I've been to the beach and the forest a fair bit, might've got caught in some some sort of bog a couple of days ago too. Oh and it was the bessie's 21st birthday, so we had a huge BBQ and a lot of pimms. Today I went swimming, and then watched Toy Story 2 which was an absolute treat. I am one of those shocking people that has yet to see the third one, so I was getting prepared. 

I've also begun to learn guitar. Well, I say learn, I've learnt the strings or whatever for about five chords. I was greatly saddened by the need to chop my nails off though, so have yet to proceed. Also, it hurt my hands!

With all of that going on, there's not been much time for blogging so I do apologise. I've just found photos from my last days in London and my return to the coast, so enjoy some cocktail inspired photos, and a few with a nice dose of nature.

Jubilee Celebrations

Afternoon Tea at the Primrose Bakery

Our last night out in Shoreditch

The overflowing car as I packed up my life!

The view from campus to Canary Wharf

The hometown

The lake by Hengistbury Head

Watching the Sunset

A rather disgruntled cow

That's probably enough photo spamming for now! No doubt there'll be a few more over the next few weeks. I am ever so excited about the return of the rest of my friends. They've all become very old and are graduating and such, which is nothing but scary pyjamas. I am uber proud of them though, and think they're the absolute bees knees so I can't wait til we're all reunited!

Enough rambling, I must go to bed. In the meantime, I hope you are all as freaked out as I am that Harry Potter is 15 years old. The fact that I remember it all coming out makes me feel ancient.

You can check out old article clips here at The Guardian!

Love and peace amigos xxxxxxxxxx

My Life in Photos

At one point I had hoped to actually write up a few of the adventures I've been on over the past month, but as work, exams and other things piled up, it became impossible. Now, all I want to do is enjoy the sunshine, so you shall have to be satisfied with a few photos to fill you in on my life. Looking back over the past month, and even the past year I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God and the blessings He has given me. I get to live this crazy, exciting, tough, challenging, emotional, joyful life...and well, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

A fancy dressed C party

Watching 8 out of 10 Cats

Birthday's in Covent Garden

And relaxing in Trafalgar Square

Sisterly affection and a bit of cake

Family Time at the Beach

Cocktails for the 21st!

Cocktails that come in teapots!!!

Chillin' in Camden

Enjoying the Lock

The British Museum

Brighton Beach Fun

Bit more Brighton Beach

Floating about the city and enjoying the gardens

Marvelling at the beauties of the sunset over St Paul's

Loving the City

Who says urban life isn't stunning?