Feelin' Good: Recapping Jan - Mar

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, for me... and I'm Feelin' Good.

That's one of my fave songs of all time, and that's how I'm feeling today.

Nothing, of course, related to the fact that we've FINALLY booked a 2014 holiday.

I'm Makin'Whoopee (kinda), and excited for Summertime. Yup, I've gone all Jazz and Blues in homage to the fact that we're gonna be coasting around the deep, deep south in the heat of summer - I'm *squeeeeeeee*ing with excitement at all the music and cocktails in New Orleans.

#Sizzling

So, it's the first day of April and I'm feeling HAPPY. You would be forgiven for thinking that that's an April Fool, but I'm very superstitious, and it's after midday, so no, I actually am happy, after months of walking around like the grumpus!

It's the start of a new quarter, I have some solid travel plans in the diary, we can finally feel springtime in the air and I'm feeling like a breath of fresh air has finally wafted through my life.

So, onwards.

But first, a quick three-month re-cap...

January

It was my birthday, I kept it low key and took myself off for a ski trip with work. I had SO. MUCH. FUN. But only when I wasn't wearing ski boots. Ski boots are the devil. I hate ski boots and ski boots hate me.

I had some low key birthday celebrations with various groups, drinks on the sofa, dinners out, afternoon teas in (Chez Wal-cey), and an amazing Sunday brunch at Hakkasan with the Mister.

We celebrated some other big birthdays as well, including a 60^th for Mummy Anne and a 21^st for Baby Griff and christened the dining table Chez Katy with a boozy Sunday brunch.

February

February is where I always plan to reduce my alcohol intake after the excesses of Christmas, New Year and the Big Month of Birthdays (there are about 10 in January and early Feb), but this year that just didn't happen. We started it off with a glorious hen house party for the lovely Laura, full of food, fizz, cocktail making, arts, crafts, country walks and old-school film faves (in our own private cinema room, no less) showed Gemma the sights of our home town city with a bar crawl through Chelmsford, Katy, Claire and I thoroughly disgraced ourselves at Proud Cabaret, dancing with (pilfered) feather boas on our heads until 3 in the morning. We tried to reign it in for the rest of the month, to no avail, with Katy and I wreaking havoc in our onesies in the conservatory on Valentine's Day and then Gemma and I caused our Beaux much embarrassment with our havoc-wreaking  slick moves on the dance floor at the Gilbert nuptials

Let's just have a pause for that wonderful, glorious day...

...sigh...

And we're back in the game.

February ended with another trip to The Drowned Man (read about it on Florence Finds here) I'm still thinking about it...

March

March began with a fringe, a Tea Shop Luvvie brunch  (which of course lasted until tea time), birthday love potion cocktails for Nicky and a shopping trip for Indian wedding outfits. Which turns out to be dangerous... so much embellishment means multiple face and arm lacerations when being pulled in and out of multiple outfits. I found an outfit though, so it was a successful day.

March continued in much the same way as January and February: BOOZY. A night of Indian food and cocktails with Kim followed by an all-you-can-drink brunch and a bottle of Veuve at Sushi Samba with the god family, a trip to the Quaglino's Meringue and Bellini Bar, a visit to my grandparents in Yorkshire (including a stay in my parents' and grandparents' wedding night hotel) were all filled with fizz and fun.

Next up was a weekend in Paris (ahhh, Paris, my love) for Bhavisha's hen celebrations – food, fizz, hot chocolate, LBDs and colour pop shoes... I came home a stone heavier and with some new friends.

I rounded off the month, and Q1 2014 with Caroline's  birthday dinner a trip to the James Bond inMotion exhibition at the London Film Museum, a burger-fest Chez Gilbert, a big family-and-friend gathering for Mothering Sunday at a friend's lovely country pub and some much needed pampering time. 

So, April, and the rest of 2014... I'm ready for you.

Ciao Bella Twenty Thirteen

Woooooooah! All of a sudden it's NYE. I haven't posted in an aaaaaaage. I've just been so busy... living the last days of 2013, it seems.

It's been a year of spectacular highs and some rather upsetting lows. Ultimately though, the happy faces have outweighed the tears, and I can hand on heart say I've had a great year full of amazing opportunities, self discovery and life lessons... oh, and a LOT of fun with my loved ones. Even, a little on my own.

I shan't go in to it all. I shan't get all mushy and wordy about it. I shan't do a month-by-month analysis. I have NYE cocktails to plan and glitter to apply...

Instead, I shall reminisce in the way I know best - with pictures! Click play, or on the link below, and turn up the sound...

http://flipagram.com/f/Or2pnpUdYK
 

Ahhhh, memories.

Right now, at the same time as reliving my 2013 highlights, I'm mega excited about the funtimes and new experiences 2014 has to offer and putting a fresh start in to action. Oh, and the fact that Sherlock is finally back... tomorrow! *squeeeeee*

See you next year, peas and love!
x

Out and about: Chocolate, cocktails and London!

Here are some of my favourite things...

- eating chocolate
- eating in general
- drinking cocktails
- walking around London with no particular place to be.

This weekend I partook in a combination of all three when I signed the whole family up to a chocolate walking tour with Great British Tours. Aren't I the best? The tour took us via some of my favourite chocolateries, including tastings and discounts, through Soho and the west end and it even introduced me to a couple of hidden gems!

The meeting point was the Algerian Coffee Store on Old Compton Street where our guide met us with chocolate coated coffee beans and a gigantic grin!

First stop was Hotel Chocolat where I convinced my parents to buy some chili hot chocolate...

... then on to Paul A. Young introduced us to unusual recipes such as limoncello and cucumber, pink guava and lychee, goats cheese, rosemary and lemon and Marmite truffles and Aztec hot chocolate...

... a quick pit stop at Freggo to refresh the palate with some Malbec and berries sorbet...

...a browse round the sweet counter (and a quick dash to the Christmas boutique) at Fortnum and Mason...

... a quick history lesson at Prestat...

...all ending up at Charbonnel et Walker where I stuffed my face with my favourite violet and rose cremes (Queenie and I share the same taste, you see).

After all that chocolate I was desperate for something savoury so we grabbed some mini tacos, tostadas and quesadilas at Wahaca before settling in at the secret gin garden at Carom at Meza for some floral cocktails.

All in all a fun filled day! Great British Tours also do a cupcake and macaroon tour. Guess what I'll be doing this winter...

 

Summer of Slipper: Out and About (and hiding a little bit)

The nights are drawing in, the weather is cooling off, my opaque tights are out, my morning commute is full of kids (but thankfully not my evening one any more), the shops are full of berry shades and my Sky+ is full of new season telly.

Autumn is here! Yippee.

I love autumn.

But before autumn comes summer. This summer was a BUSY one, and an emotional one. Aside from attending 237,546 weddings (only a slight exaggeration) and some amazing and exciting events, trips and parties almost every weekend, I also had a lot of stuff to deal with. Rubbish stuff. It almost broke me. Almost.

For that reason, I was a bad blogger. Despite doing a ton of cool stuff, that I loved and enjoyed and appreciated, I wasn't at my most effusive.

But that's enough about that.

Now, though, I'm full of back-to-school beans. These past two weeks at work have been ALL the busy, I've got some exciting and amazing adventures coming up, and generally have lots to look forward to. Not least A/W clothing, a few trips and the countdown to Christmas.

Despite finding it hard to use my words (to quote TC), I didn't find it hard to use my camera, so, in pictures (and a few links), here's what you missed this summer...



Tea, cake and a nosey around Buckingham Palace with my Tea Shop Luvvies

More Mad Hatter's afternoon tea at The Sanderson Hotel. Read about the last time I went here.

I went back to the stadium, to re-live last year's London 2012 memories

The boy and I took a teeny tiny mini/city break to Barcelona. Read about it on Florence Finds.

Afternoon tea with a twist at BRGR.co Soho

Champagne tasting at Searcys Champagne Bar at One New Change with some lovely ladies

A special someone came to visit. We talked a LOT. We drank even more at Aqua. CP+CT+VH=4evs

We made hats out of junk in a field at Fling Festival.

I drank my house dry on the 1st anniversary of moving in - and slept on the front lawn.

I had WAY too many G&Ts

I tingled with goosebumps as I watched my fave Shakespeare play at midnight

I checked out Queenie's pimped up ride at The Royal Mews

I saw Harry Pot... sorry D-Rad on stage. And he was, surprisingly, flipping amazing!

I saw Top Hat and yearned for Strictly to come back soon... and for an occasion to wear a sparkly, feathered ballgown

My knees went wobbly as i looked down over London from The View at The Shard. Read about it on Florence Finds.

We were slightly disappointed by the 80s Club to Catwalk exhibition at the V&A



We hung out at Tom's Terrace and embarrassed ourselves for Claire's 30th

 

We checked out some new funky places, including this one... with cocktails. on. tap. That's right...

I got an education in weird wine, in the comfort of my backgarden...



... with my Pineapple Club ladies

When I look back, actually, the "sad" is starting to fade. I reckon before the first live show of X Factor 2013 it'll all be a distant memory.

Happy autumn, peeps!

Releasing my inner child at The Fling Festival

This weekend, some friends and I took ourselves in to our local town centre under the premise of "releasing our inner children" at The Fling Festival.

I'd heard good things and was excited about the promise of just being silly and having plain old simple fun in the sun. I like a good cocktail bar, a pretentious venue, a swish restaurant, the next big thing on the club scene and a dressy night out more than most (if I can afford it!) but I hate the "too cool for school" mentality.

I like to go out and have fun for having fun's sake, and not to have fun because someone else thinks it might be cool. I'm a geek, a goon and a bit fat goof.

I like fancy dress. I like cheesy tunes. I like being silly. I like hanging out with people who think the same.

Turns out The Fling Festival is my new silly happy place (after Disneyland and Vegas) and I fitted right in.

We turned up, collected our wrist bands and did a quick reccie of the site to discover, amongst other things giant water lilies, a chaise lounge set up for sung riverside therapy sessions (Melodies for Maladies anyone), an interactive metal "tree" and an army of moving bins that squirted water at passers by, a Human Juke Box (pay 10pence and Juke Box Jenny'll sing for you!), a story telling tent, a debating tent (I had to stay away from that one), a stand for checking in your "emotional baggage", an interactive puppet show with a full whizz-banging Roald Dahl style chemistry set and puppets, a skating rink, a school sports day arena (5-legged race? girls vs boys tug of war?) faery wand-making workshops, a tent teaching different styles of dance (from burlesque to hip hop and everything in between), a Bollywood tent (with food, music, stories and dance), body painting (both painting for your body and using your body to do the painting), a party bus (complete with conductor and tickets), a silent disco and a giant sandpit with buckets and spades in amongst your usual festival stands, stages and tents offering an array of food, drink, cocktails, music, comedy, cabaret and burlesque.

My favourite area by far had to be the Rubbish Area. On first look it gave me shivers as it reminded me way too much of one of my recurring nightmares about the junk yard witch from Labyrinth, but after a few Pimm's Slushies (yup, you heard me) I was brave enough to face my fears of piles of other people's junk and got settled on a floor cushion with my glue gun and did what my inner child does best... making silly costumes out of crap I find laying around!

After that I spent the rest of the day trying to keep it on my head and telling people I bought it at M&S.

I'm saving it for next year so I'm ahead of the game!

Hat and a mask

The Human Juke Box



Chemistry and puppets

Treasure from rubbish

Skating!

Wand-making



Dancing... silently

posing... stupidly



The beach



The Forum



The End!