Photo Diary Adventure – London

I have literally just got back from a trip to London to visit my friend Sophi, and it was very much needed! They house has been very stressful to say the least and my trip to London came up in good time. I booked the trip back in April/May, and due to that it cost me next to sod all! Only £6.00 each way! Can I hear a woo to the motherfuckin’ hoo??!!

Anyway… I decided I would do a little photo diary of my trip down to “the big smoke” (as my dad calls it), because why not?

Due to my anxiety I was really nervous about traveling on my own, but it was really straight forward. I just had to get on a train and sit for just over two hours.

My dad gave me a lift to New Street half an hour before my train was due, which I liked as it gave me time to grab a magazine, a drink (I drink a flat white with vanilla if you were curious), and get to my platform in time to get a good seat.

I managed to grab a good a window seat with a table which was good as it meant I could lean on the table and do some writing. Throughout the journey I did just that whilst listening to my music and wrote some blog posts. I was also talking to a lovely woman from New Zealand throughout the journey, and she was telling me how she had been traveling around Europe for nine weeks, and was getting close to her trip ending.

Finally after the two hour and a bit journey I arrived at London Euston, and was greeted by Sophi up by The Body Shop. YAY! I was pleased that she was able to meet me as I was anxious about getting lost attempted to get out of Euston, or going down to the underground. London does set off my anxiety a tad, even though from this trip I feel more comfortable about it now.

Day I Arrived:

As soon as we met up we decided that food was needed, and went to YO! Sushi for some lunch. We had a good gossip whilst we had our food and it was pretty standard for YO! Sushi really. If you know what I mean.

Soon as we finished our food we headed to the shops, starting off at M&M World. Me and Dane were meant to go there when we were in London last year, but we never did and so I wanted to see what I missed out on! Not going to lie… I didn’t miss much.

Don’t get me wrong, M&M World was good and is definitely somewhere you need to go at least once, but the only thing I liked about it was the pictures I got to take with Sophi. A lot of the products for sale were well overpriced and whilst they were nice, I wouldn’t buy them for myself. Only a massive M&M fan will get a kick from this place. Alas, I didn’t. It was cool though, and I loved nosing at all the stuff that they had on offer, especially the create your own M&M’s! But they were extortionate prices so I left it… Otherwise I would have bought some for me and Dane for when we move into the house.

The next shop we popped in was just next door, which is the Nickelodeon Shop. I prayed that they would sell some Adventure Time goodies, but sadly they didn’t. The majority of stuff for sale in there wasn’t anything I was really interested in, such as Spongebob Square Pants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paw Patrol, and Dora the Explorer. They did have something I was interested in mind, even if the section was only small. The Rugrats selection they had wasn’t very big, with only four pieces of clothing on offer, including the t-shirt that I picked up. I will show it off a lot better on a haul post soon, but I love this t-shirt so much! I loved watched the show growing up, so it has some nostalgia to it.

After that we had a walk around various places all the while including (name of shop) which is an old sweet shop, where I got a few goodies, Hamley’s, Japan Centre, and then we went to Choccywoccydoodah!

Choccywoccydoodah is a chocolate shop that also make cakes. But the store in London has a café at the top of the shop which me and Sophi ventured to for a naughty chocolate lunch. I had never heard of it until she told me about it, and insisted that we go. It was pretty damn amazing to be honest… The café that is! It was all done out and reminded me of Moulin Rouge. We had orange lemonade and some dark chocolate melted in pots with biscuits to dunk. It was a real treat to say the least and I’ll definitely be going again, especially with Dane.

As much as I loved the café upstairs I sadly can’t say I felt the same about the shop downstairs. I’m being honest, but I just found that it looked tacky and was crazily overpriced. I guess I’m just a boring cow and love my cakes plain and simple. Is that such a crime? Although I say this I bought me and Dane some chocolate to try, because why not?

After a spot of chocolate overdose we headed to Oxford Street, what I was most excited about! I don’t know why I love shopping on Oxford Street so much but I have a feelings it’s due to how big the shops are. Of course the first shop we had to go into was Lush, why would I pass that up?!

I had some black pots that I wanted to exchange for a face mask, and I knew for ages that I wanted to give Prince of Darkness a go. A lovely member of staff let me try it, as well as a few other face masks on the back of my hand. I knew I’d like this face mask due to the charcoal, and I cannot wait to try it and now and review it for you guys. Alongside that I also picked up a few other goodies including my Oxford Street favourite Supertramp bubble bar, and the new bath bomb Lava Lamp. I was very good to say the least and didn’t buy more things, even though strangely I didn’t want much more.

After this we looked around various other shops on Oxford Street before our final destination being Topshop. Oh my God, it was huge, I couldn’t believe it to be honest. The floor you walk into is just nothing but accessories, no clothes or anything. I was taken back by how much stuff there was on the floor, including a Bubbleology, and a Lola’s Cupcakes. We bought some bubble tea from there to drink, and I’m not going to sugar coat it, the staff were rude and it wasn’t made properly. I drink bubble tea a lot and watch how it’s made, so I know when it’s been right or not.

Other than that, I wasn’t completely disappointed by my trip into the Oxford Street Topshop. I ended up buying a real treat from there that I will love for years, my new yellow raincoat. YES I said yellow! 😛 I will talk more about it in my haul that will be up in a few days, but I wore this for the majority of my stay in London, and it was so cosy, and warm, and of course was waterproof for all the crap rain we had down there. I cannot wait to do some look book posts with it.

After that we finally decided to call it a day and headed home. We stayed up until late nattering away about all sorts, as well as planning what we could do the next day!

Day One:

I woke up bright and early for the long, and exciting day ahead of us. In fact I woke up a whole two hours before Sophi did! It was because a delivery van woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to text Dane for a while as he got ready for work, and was at the house. I also sorted out my suitcase by putting stuff in there what I had bought the day before.

The weather wasn’t exactly amazing whilst I was down there and the majority of the time it rained… The full day I was there wasn’t any different and it rained a lot! Good job I had my new raincoat, eh? 😛

Something I loved about getting the train from where Sophi lives (Harlow) is on the way into London you can see the gherkin, and The Shard! I had to of course get a sneaky picture of this.

We had already decided months before that we would be going shopping at the Stratford shopping centre, but not until we had gone to Bubba Gump Shrimp for lunch! I wanted to go when me and Dane were in London but as never really got time, and we worried we wouldn’t like what was on the menu, as he isn’t a massive fan of fish.

I really enjoyed going there, and I loved the food we shared too. Sophi had been before, she knew what to recommend for us to eat. When I had looked at the menu back when I ordered my train tickets I decided on a chicken burger, but what’s the point in going to a shrimp restaurant if you eat chicken??? Exactly! In the end I decided on a cherry fizzer drink, and for food we ordered garlic bread (which let me tell you were HUGE!), shrimp shack mac & cheese, and Forrest’s seafood feast.

Not only did I enjoy the food, but I loved the decor of the restaurant too! To make it better, they had Forrest Gump playing in the background, which I loved. It isn’t the cheapest place in the world, but £39 for two people and drinks wasn’t bad in my eyes. I would and will gladly go again.

So our next stop was the Stratford shopping centre! Which I was really excited to go to as I have heard nothing but good things about it from Sophi, and I also heard how big it is before I went down to London. If you’ve never been, it is like two Birmingham Bullring’s, if not bigger than that!

I saw various things I liked and wanted to buy, and various things I liked and ended up being naughty and picking up. These are in my haul post here.

The one thing I really regret not picking up was this Deadpool picture from HMV. I can’t even find it on the website to order! As I always say on majority of my posts these days, I love Deadpool, and so does Dane. I would love this picture to put up in the spare room, as it would just look awesome! It wasn’t cheap at £14.99, but to be honest I don’t mind paying that for Deadpool. I can see me picking this up next time I’m near a HMV.

I also eyed up this Totoro bento box in The Japan Centre, but I didn’t get it because of the size of it, and I don’t really need it. It was only £12.99, so maybe next time I’ll pick one up!

Then after I was shopped out and very tired, me and Sophi headed home (aka her flat) and relaxed for the evening. We had something to eat, and watched Lilo and Stitch before we went to bed. I was shattered so we got an early night. Before I went to sleep I tidied my suitcase so that I wouldn’t need to do it the  next day.

Going Home:

It was time to head home, and as my train wasn’t due to leave until 2.13pm it meant we could chill out for a while in the flat before heading into London. We didn’t do much really, just made sure my bag was all packed and such, as well as have some breakfast and get showered and dressed.

We left the house nice and early to make sure we were in Euston for time to have a coffee before I left and a chat. We popped to Starbucks and Sophi treated me to their new S’Mores drink (which was really nommy!) and a toastie. I showed her Bee & Puppycat, and we chatted about what she could do with the rest of her day.

Eventually it came to be time for me to get onto my train, and I was really sad to be saying goodbye. I had an amazing couple of days with Sophi, and I honestly cannot wait to do it again soon!

My train journey wasn’t as quiet as it was going into London, and I couldn’t wait for people to get off at stops so I could just chill out. I was going to try and get a blog post or two written, but in the end I just played games on my phone and listened to music.

Eventually I got back to New Street, and good ol’ Brum with my dad waiting to pick me up.

As much as I loved London and seeing Sophi, I just wanted to get back home so I could give Dane his box of goodies, as well as start working on the house again. It was nice to have a break and escape reality for a while, but you can’t run away forever.

I’m hoping to go down to London again soon to stay with Sophi, as it’s just too much fun to wait until Christmas to go again! I also apologise for not having so many pictures towards the end of this post, I was kinda too busy to take anymore. 😛

I’m hoping to start doing more photo diary related posts, as I love reading things like this myself. Did you enjoy this style of post from me? Make sure to let me know in the comments! If you liked it, I’ll certainly do more.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have a great weekend.

Japanese Series: Asian Food

Image taken from weheartit.com

Hello and welcome to the second post in my Japanese series!

As you can see from the title, my second post is about Asian food. I would have titled it Japanese food, but I think Asian food covers it pretty well as there are 3 places I’m going to mention that cover both Chinese and Japanese dishes, as well as drinks.

My mouth is watering just thinking about this post, not good! Best get on with it. 😛

There is plenty of choice in the UK when it comes to Asian food and drink and with more and more restaurants opening every year, the possibilities are endless. Whilst two of the places I’ll be naming are chains that are all over the UK (as well as in some other countries), one is only based in Birmingham so I apologise for this in advance, I have tried to add an equivalent of this in areas like London.

YO! Sushi

This is one of the popular chains that runs throughout the UK and also the first restaurant I will be talking about. Personally I haven’t been to YO! Sushi… Yet, but I want to go! As the name of this restaurant suggests, you can get sushi there but there are hundreds of Japanese inspired dishes to choose from, not just sushi and with over 80 dishes to choose from, you’ll have plenty to set your heart on.

Image taken from yosushi.com

How YO! Sushi works is that you go into the restaurant, sit down and pick up whatever dish you like the sound of from off of the conveyor belt. Each dish has a colour coded plate and depending on which colour you pick up, depends how much that dish will cost. As well as that you can order hot or cold dishes from the servers or chefs. At the end of your meal all your empty planets are counted for and added to the bill at the end. Simple!

There are so many dishes to choose from including hot (soups & broths, hot classics, rice & noodles, and katsu & tempura), sushi, salads, desserts, and of course specials.

I’m going to share with you some of the (okay maybe ALL) dishes I really want to try when I go to YO! Sushi, which I’m hoping will be soon (Valentine’s Day, maybe?)!

Hot (FYI most of them are chicken based!):

Chicken Yakitori, Chicken Teriyaki, Chicken Gyoza, Duck Gyoza, Chicken Katsu, and Chicken Katsu Curry.

Sushi:

Salmon Maki, Tuna Maki, and Spicy Chicken ISO.

Desserts:

Chocolate Dorayaki, Custard Dorayaki, and Chocolate Mochi.

Specials:

Duck Katsu & Moromi Miso.

I can’t wait to try out the food in YO Sushi, but I’m making sure not to spend too much at the same time! I’ve been told by my friend Poppy that it can all add up rather quickly! Also you don’t HAVE to sit in to eat at YO! Sushi, you can take food away as well, which I think is great.

Moo-Cha, Birmingham

This is a Bubble Tea and Frozen Yogurt stall that is in The Bullring in Birmingham and it’s an amazing place! Every time I go into town I make sure to pop to the stall to get my Bubble Tea fix! Bubble Tea is an Asian drink and is loved by both Japanese and Chinese people, as well as pretty much everyone else now thanks to all the Bubble Tea shops that are popping up everywhere.

Bubble Tea is a drink that originated from Taiwan and is also known as boba tea, pearl milk tea and tapioca pearl tea. Bubble Tea can be enjoyed cold or warm, as well as fruity or milky.

When I first tried Bubble Tea I was alarmed by the odd sensation I got whilst drinking it, due to what the squishy balls (tapioca pearls or popping bubbles) feel and taste like when they come up the straw in the drink. With tapioca pearls they’re squishy and taste like a coffee/chocolate flavour, whilst the popping bubbles can come in all sorts of flavours, usually fruity. My favourite are strawberry. When these enter your mouth they usually pop and when they burst they release the flavour that you chose.

As well as these, you can also get jellies which in my opinion are vile! I can’t really say much on these other than them not being like proper jelly at all but more of a solid version of jelly and very chewy. They aren’t to my liking, but they might be to you.

Bubble Tea is something everyone needs to try at least once and everyone I have introduced it to has loved it!

Image taken from moo-cha.com

At Moo-Cha you can get all sorts of flavours to create all sorts of yummy combinations, just take a look at the menu above!

When you arrive at the stall you will be asked what flavour you want, which tea you would like with that (green, black or no tea), how you would like your drink to be (hot, cold, with ice or slush), and what toppings you would like (tapioca pearls, popping bubbles or jellies).

If you were to order a Bubble Coffee however, you would of course skip the part of the order where you pick tea. As of yet I haven’t tried coffee, but I think I will be next time I visit.

I’m going to give you a couple of my favourite drinks to order from the menu, just to give you an example of how you would order a drink from Moo-Cha.

Bubble Tea £3.00:

Milky Green Tea Latte with Green Tea, Hot, and with Tapioca Pearls.

Fruity Green Apple with Black Tea, Cold, and with Popping Bubbles in Strawberry.

Bubble Coffee £3.00:

Coconut, Cold, and with Tapioca Pearls.

The possibilities are endless with Moo-Cha Bubble Tea and they also have a Loyalty Card scheme so after you’ve bought (from memory) 10 Bubble Tea drinks or Frozen Yogurt’s you can claim one for free!

I know if you Google search for Bubble Tea shops in your area of the UK you will find loads! I know London have Bubbleology, which I really want to go to in the future.

Wagamama

Last weekend I FINALLY lost my Wagamama virginity when my boyfriend and I ventured to Milton Keynes for a day of shopping. It was amazing and better than we expected and we both want to go back again already.

Wagamama is inspired by traditional Japanese ramen bars and Asian flavours. The name of Wagamama has always intrigued me and I always wondered what it stood for or meant and upon checking out their website I discovered that it means ‘naughty child” in Japanese, which is pretty cool!

Like most Japanese inspired menus they feature a wide variety of noodle and rice dishes and you can choose from classic ramen, which is a big bowl of noodles in soap, teppan which is noodles cooked on a hot, flat griddle, and kare which is noodles in a coconut based soup, but there are many more dishes served with rice.

The great thing about Wagamama is that you don’t have to sit in to enjoy your food, you can take you food away as take-away too, which I think is great!

When my boyfriend and I went to Wagamama we noticed how the seating was rather odd, yet delightful at the same time. We were sat at a bench that sat two people on side and two or four on the other side, so you would essentially have to share your table with someone. As well as that you have someone come over to take your order for you, both drinks, food and dessert and bring your food over for you quickly. You can also watch your food being  prepared and cooked for your fresh in their kitchen, which I really liked.

As we hadn’t been to Wagamama before we went for something we always order if it’s on the menu, pulled pork! We opted for Pulled Pork Gyoza, which came with a spicy sauce. It arrived in no time and bloody hell it was delicious! We both said we could have eaten them all day if we were given the option.

For our main we opted for Chicken Katsu Curry, we’ve had this before at restaurant in Coventry but this was a hundred times better than the one we’d previously had! The chicken was succulent and beautiful, the rice gorgeous and sticky, but the curry was delicious and I ate as much of it as I could get from the plate, onto the spoon.

We didn’t get a desert in the end as we were rather full, but the choice of desserts is rather nice, although I do wish they would do Bubble Tea!

I loved going to Wagamama as the staff were friendly, quick to take our order and get our food out to us but most of the food was amazing and just writing this post is making my mouth water for it again.

I can’t wait to go again as I have loads of dishes I want to try including:

Duck Gyoza, Chicken Kare Lomen, Mahi Mahi Curry, Chicken Ramen, and Grilled Duck Ramen.

Overall we loved Wagamama and we can’t wait to go again, whenever that will be!

I was going to try and mention more places on this post but 1. This post is getting awfully long and 2. It’s making me bloody hungry!

Do you like Asian food? If so do you prefer Japanese or Chinese? Let me know in the comments down below!

As well as that, have you been to any of the places mentioned in this post? If so do you like them, or not? If you haven’t been to any of these places, do you intend to in the future? Let me know all your answers in the comments down below too.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post, I know I enjoyed writing it! Stay tuned for post number 3 in this series, where I’ll be talking about places I want to visit in Japan, which will feature a special guest! So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that next Wednesday.

Until next time, take care all!