On Friday, I flew out of Gatwick on a 21.45 flight, bound (ultimately) for Auckland, New Zealand.
Nearly 28 hours later, with a stopover in Dubai and a refueling stop in Melbourne, I arrived in NZ on Sunday lunchtime.
I have done this journey before with Malaysian Airlines but flew via Kuala Lumpur and stopped there for a 3 day visit. I also did that trip on my own whereas I was with my parents this time.
Here’s a real-time look at how I spent those 28 hours… Continue readng…
The weekend saw the Central heats of the British Street Food Awards take place at Spotlight – home to Digbeth Dining Club – across Friday and Saturday.
The British Street Food Awards comprises five regional heats with the winners heading to a live, national cook-off, judge by members of the public as well as top chefs. This year sees an added bonus in that the British winners will represent the country in Berlin at the European Street Food Awards.
The Central heat line-up consisted of 17 vendors, some who are ‘regulars’ on the Birmingham street food scene Continue reading…
After the disaster with some of last month‘s beauty samples, I took a while before I started testing out the current batch as my skin felt like it needed a break to recover!
I chose a lot of face products from both Feel Unique and Love Me Beauty this month as I’m really keen to find Continue reading…
Non-blog life has been a little consuming and stressful over the past few weeks so I apologise for not popping up here to post very often. I should be able to share a bit more about what’s been going on in some future posts but for now, I was thoroughly relieved to get an opportunity to get out of the flat for a fun evening last week to go and eat my bodyweight in desserts!
Pirlo’s Dessert Lounge in Digbeth has been open a year and to celebrate its first birthday, I attended a tasting event Continue reading…
With two bank holidays this month, Easter a not-too-distant event and a bunch of family birthdays, I’m struggling to add my usual amount to my holiday fund. I’m sure there are plenty others feeling the pinch too so I thought I’d share a few tips on where to magic up a few extra quid from. 
Here are 4 ways to make easy savings: Continue reading…
I’ve struggled with feeling motivated or inspired in recent months and, naturally, my motivation to sit and write blog posts has also really dwindled. Apologies to my readers for that. I am going to try and write more again now that we’re into a new month.
I always try and find things in my day to draw positivity from even if I’m not feeling great and so often, like many others I’m sure, I love listening to music. I have go-to albums and artists for every mood and I have pretty eclectic tastes in music, from classical to country, hip-hop to house, pop to punk, and so much more in between.
This is my April playlist… Continue reading…
Apart from two posts back in early 2015 (this one and this one), I deliberately haven’t written about politics on the blog. It isn’t a focus of my usual writing but as my readership has grown beyond my wildest imagination, I’d like to use my platform just this once to put it out there and say:
“UK Politics: what on earth is going on?”
For those who know me well, they know that politics is extremely important to me, it always has been, and I’m an active member of the political party I support.
Those same friends and family members know that I love getting up on my soapbox and that I have an opinion on pretty much everything. However, they also know that I’m not one for shouting about my political views online or through my social media.
This post isn’t about what I think or you think, it’s not about the Party I support and the ones I don’t, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing, it’s not about who can shout the loudest about their views or who can post the most politically-driven messages on social media. It’s about Continue reading…
