New Year, New Decade

Why hello 2020.....

Its the beginning of a new year. A time where most of us look at how we can get the best out of the next 12 months. There is going to be some "New Year, New Me" going on in my life. I’m ready to change certain aspects as part of the Better Me Movement. Lets be clear though, I’m not going from who I was in 2019, to moving to the woods, growing my own and food and living off the land in 2020. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.... but if you know me or have been following this blog, you’ll know that I’m simply not built for that life. I don't need a life of luxury, but I do need my favourite hoodie and toilet paper. 

My main motto for this year is“ Looking After Myself” I have it written on my whiteboard on the wall opposite my bed, so it’s the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. A visual reminder. I’ve spent most of my adult life looking after others and I don’t regret that, but now it’s time to look after myself. I'm not just talking about being a bit more selfish and putting my needs first more. There are a couple of other things I have in mind.

• Physically (Working Out) - Not just to lose weight and gain a better shape, but to have a stronger healthier body.

• Eating (Learning a better balance) I eat quite well , but I also have times where I binge eat, so I'd like a better relationship with food.

• Focusing Inward - Looking to myself rather than others to discover what I want and what’s best for me

• Appearance - Playing around skincare, fashion choices, make up, hair - so I that I like the epic princess I working towards becoming

• Hobbies - Finding more as well making more time for some of the ones I already have, like reading, writing more and watching cartoons

• Mindfulness - Looking into ways to be calmer, less stressed and more in the moment

•  Happy - Reminding myself daily to be happy in the life I'm living rather than waiting for the above to happen before I'm happy

Yeah....that was more than a couple. A lot to get through. But I’m taking the "Focus on the step in front of me, rather than the whole staircase" approach.

So apart from starting the new year with the worst cold, it’s been a pretty productive couple of weeks. I’ve started back with HIIT workouts - forgot how difficult they were when you’ve had almost 3 months off. I've been getting in those 10 min meditations 3-4 times a week. I'm doing dry Jan - with the exception of a dinner and lunch for dads 60th birthday I've stuck to it. Have started  2 new books “Still Me” by Jo Jo Moyes and "Victim of Thought - Seeing through the illusion of Anxiety" by Jill Whalen. I’m making the effort to read for pleasure and self help. Watched “You” Season 1 and 2. Joe Goldberg will have you so hooked, you'll be  seeing the 'next episode starting' message on Netflix at midnight and still not turn off your TV. The fact that I watched both seasons in a week tells you how good this show is. So clearly for pleasure. However, with the amount of tips you'll get about how easy it is to end up dating  a gold medal stalker....also self help. Great entertainment, but will probably have you doing background checks on the guy you met in Starbucks. 

As previously stated, my dad celebrated his 60th birthday

 As it was a big one, we went all out to make it memorable. This consisted 4 days of celebrations. Lots of food, lots of laughs and even more cake. It was great to see so many people join him, in making this birthday so special, so a big thank you to everyone that was apart of it

 

Deraliye 

Deraliye

We kicked off his actual birthday with me taking him to my nail shop, so we could get joint pedicures, followed by our usual daddy daughter birthday lunch at Deraliye

Deraliye 

The next day he was surprised by his girlfriend with dinner and an overnight stay at The Collective - Canary Wharf - judging by the pics of this place,  I'll be adding it to my list of places to visit.

The Saturday we had a dinner with family and friends at Gem Restaurant. A cute little restaurant tucked away in upper street. They have the main eating area upstairs and a space downstairs for group bookings. There were 2 other parties celebrating birthdays, which added to the fun of the night. That coupled with the  live music and a belly dancer for entertainment created a great atmosphere. They offer set meze menus for group bookings which comes with free flowing prosecco, wine and juice. I will say there wasn't as much food offered on the night as the menu options stated, meaning we had to hit McDonald's on the way home and they also stated the free flowing included cocktails, which when we got there, were told it didn't, but it wouldn't stop me going back to Gem for dinner with a smaller group as the restaurant itself was rather intimate and cosy and I found the staff lovely. 

The Sunday we went for lunch with more family & friends at Fishworks in Covent Garden.  They also have a restaurant upstairs and an area downstairs. I was very satisfied with what I ordered and had complete food envy over some of the dishes other people had. I will definitely be making another trip back, to this restaurant to sample more of what they had on offer. I had the scallops for starter and they were probably some of the best I've ever tasted. I had the mackerel for main course which came with tenderstem broccoli and cauliflower puree. Now I don't normally like cauliflower, but there was not a trace of it left, when the waiter came round to clear my plate. I finished then meal off with a peach and passion fruit eton mess, which if I had room would have probably ordered another one. 

Fishworks

Fishworks

So, you may have noticed that I've made a few minor changes to the blog. I hope you like it, but if not, I do, so there's that's 😅 Wishing you all a great start to 2020, Lets Do This.👍

Have a great day, remember you are a unicorn and don't let anybody shit on your rainbow 💖

So Long 2019

I say it every year, but seriously....... this flew by. It's like I blinked in Dec 2018 and opened my eyes about to go into 2020.

Its seems crazy that in less than 48 hrs, at least 50% of us will be exchanging party clothes for gym wear. We'll be writing the date as 2019, before crossing it out for 2020 for at least... 2 months, whilst sending our easyjet apps into overload booking  holidays.

So as I'm wrapping up the end of another year, I've been looking back over the past 12 months. Looking back at the things I've enjoyed as well as the things I've learned. I've also taken note of the things I'd like to work on next year. Its been a tidal wave of a journey of experiences I never could have dreamed of or could have seen coming. But most importantly its given a sense of optimism for 2020. Great things are going to happen.
I thought I'd jot down a few highlights....

5 Things I'm Grateful for

• My Family
• Visiting Geneva
• Working on myself
• Eating meals with less or no meat
• Re-Kindling friendships and letting go of others

4 Things That Made Me Happy

• Trying Fondue
• Reading more
• Listening to Jazz Music
• Being Nominated for The Liebster Award

3 Things to work on in 2020

• Loving myself
• Yoga & Meditation (I know they're 2 different things, but...its my blog so .. yeah..lol)
• Learning Spanish

2 Things I Regret

• Not travelling as much as I'd have liked
• Overthinking

1 Epic Thing that came from 2019

• My Blog

As I've been stuck at home for whats felt like an eternity, there's not much else that's gone on in my life for me to write about. So I'm going to end this post and this year with a few quotes I've found inspirational. I wish you all loads of Love and loads of Laughs in 2020. May you smile more than you cry. May your focus be on point, your head and heart be at peace and may you be wrapped in a blanket of comfort so that loneliness cannot find its way into your life 😚

                        

Happy New Year Luvlies 

Have a great day, remember you're a unicorn and don't let anybody shit on your rainbow 💖

Chicken Liar

Just to be clear, no chickens were lied to in the creating of this post 

A couple of weeks ago, I got to tick another item off  my bucket list. I went to see a my first ever Burlesque show with The Lovely Sabs, Navjit and Side-Eye. I was aware it involved half naked ladies, emanating confidence, whilst busting a move, but had little other insight. After getting lost walking in a circle around Leadenhall Market (only to find out that the place we we’re looking for was pretty much where we started off) we ended up at Grace hall. We were greeted by long red velvet curtains and 2 rather eccentric,  ladies, who were so bright & bubbly they could have made the Grinch smile at the beginning of the film. As we entered we had unicorn dust sprinkled in our hair - which is apparently the new hand stamp and escorted down to bar area to wait until the doors to the main event opened.


You can purchase tickets ranging from standing to VIP Ringside. Our group, went for the VIP show tickets, which for £22 included -  a table just for our group, with a good view of the stage and our own waiter service. We got a lovely waitress, whom when I asked if the popcorn was salty or sweet replied... “Neither”. She advised that one was chicken and one was olive. Consider my mind blow. I mean I’m a huge fan of Walkers Sensations Roast Chicken & Thyme, but chicken flavoured popcorn ......hello 2019. Turns out,  I was wrong about that. The popcorn actually came with pieces of shredded chicken on it, which to me was still worth sampling, so I ordered some. 10 minutes into waiting for my chicken popcorn to arrive, I was given the displeasing news that they were out of chicken and therefore my order had to be cancelled. Now facing the prospect of getting lightly salted popcorn without chicken, I decided that our waitress would now be referred to as  “Chicken Liar”  Which after a bottle of Prosecco is funnier than it may sound. However after 2 bottles and telling her that’s what I'd renamed her, it was hilarious. Especially as she was such a good sport and not only found it funny AF, she agreed based on the lack of chicken for my popcorn that she would indeed  carry the name for the night.

So I settled down with my salty popcorn and  Side Eye ordered her favourite - A cheese platter. Bless her, this girl is never happier than when there's a cheese platter parked in front of her. So with snacks and alcohol at the ready, we were prepared for the show to begin. Now I’m not going to give you a play by play of what happened, you need to see a show first hand to truly enjoy and appreciate it, but I will share a few things that would encourage me to see another show and maybe even take a class.

Highs

• Energetic - The MC  gave so much animation to her performance, that she held the audiences attention the whole way through 

• Dancers - Its not just  women getting up on stage and shaking ass's in their underwear. Some of the moves preformed required the skill and flexibility that goals are made of

• Confidence - There were women of different shapes and sizes, proving sexiness has now boundaries and does not conform to one look. They all wore their confidence, better than their nipple tassels.

• Entertaining - The moves, the lights, the outfits, the performances - all great

Lows

• There weren’t any lows to speak of, however there was a part of one of the acts where one of the ladies pulled a condom through her nose and out of her mouth - I’m in no hurry to see that again. Despite that, this is still a great way to spend girls night or even date night

So my month was off to a good start. Fast forward 72 hours, to me being told by my doctor, that the antibiotics had in fact, not worked and that I needed to head to the hospital as surgery was Inevitable. Considering I’d been in pain for 36 hours prior to this conversation as the abscess had started swelling again, I’d made peace with it, by the time  pre-surgeon had confirmed it would be happening the next day. So after being knocked out for a couple of hours, and waking up to an IV of Fentanyl, surgery was a success and I’m now housebound for at least the next few weeks, whilst I recover, with my only outings being to the GP to endure the whole packing re-packing saga. Thankfully Santa dropped off an early Christmas present in the form of Dihydrocodeine - Which FYI makes you  drowsy as fuck, so I wouldn't suggest taking it for long periods of time  - Especially as you cannot drink whilst taking them. 

I'm disappointed that I'm missing being able to socialise for the most wonderful time of the year, as well as the Starbucks eggnog latte and seeing Frozen 2 in the Cinema (although I did consider buying 2 tickets for a sofa at Everyman so I could lie down to watch it). But its dealing with the feeling of Isolation that's been the biggest challenge. My friends and Family have been great, but being stuck at home for the majority of the day everyday, not even able to sit has been a little hard to deal with. So I'm working on ways to keep my spirits up.  I'm working from home and trying to watch a new Christmas film everyday. Today I watched Rise of The Guardians - LOVE IT. Getting this post out is a reminder that having more time on my hands doesn't have to be all bad. Yes, its difficult, especially for me, who is so used to being around people, but its also helped me to see it from the perspective of other people that may be housebound or just on their own at this time of year or always. I love Christmas and I'm grateful I have family and friends to spend at least parts of it with. But for some people, this is the hardest time of the year. So I want to send out some some Christmas Love to anyone who may be feeling a little extra lonely right now, or anyone that is struggling to deal with life at the moment. My Christmas wish is that you get through it and don't lose your smile 💝

I'm off to continue my Annual  Harry Potter marathon - because whats Christmas time without Harry Potter?

Have a great day, remember you are a unicorn and don't let anybody shit on your rainbow💖