I'll be there for you

Yesterday I had a really great day with the family. Me, my sister, her boyfriend, my parents and my grandparents set off early on the train up to taste a little New York in London...


After an hour and a half (!) of queueing outside the infamous coffee shop, we finally entered the legendary Central Perk. I loved it!! It was a precise replica of the one in New York and I got a Moccachino. I had my first ever coffee in Central Perk - how brilliant is that statement? All the props (e.g. the Turkey head that Joey/ Monica wore; Mock-o-late that Monica had to try and come up with a new recipe; the list for choosing Rachel by Ross; Rachel's bridesmaid dress etc) were in glass cabinets to stare in wonder at.



It was really only me, Brooke and Paul who could appreciate it fully - being crazy Friends fans. Yet we all had a brilliant time - especially sitting on the orange couch which you just *sunk* in to. Totally want to buy a replica when I'm older!


Once leaving the cosy cafe and being brought back to reality via the cold weather, we cruised down Carnaby Street and walked up to this Starbucks stall that were giving out free coffees and muffins!! Absolute heaven. Grabbed a GIANT blueberry muffin (my second ever, totally in love with them now), I relaxed on my cab home and munched...


Haha only joking - this cab was unfortunately not my ride home, instead it was next to the stall to advertise the New York Swap. Apparently this month, New York and London are swapping shops in the form of Pop-up shops so you can taste a little bit of the famous cities on opposite sides of the world... am totally going back. [Am sorry - am still totally impressed by the free muffin.]

We dawdled on to the Back Show. Doesn't sound as fun, right? We almost nabbed a free massage but other than that we tried not to get coaxed into a half hour sales pitch by all the assistants. [Thankfully we managed to find a way to sort my back out. Can't remember what it's called but am booking an appointment. Just in case you didn't know I have mild scoliosis of the spine + hypermobility. Which basically equals a back that gets sore quickly and clicks a lot!]

Our last stop was a trip to the Museum of Childhood, which was a lot of fun as me and Brooke looked at all the old toys we used to have. Also, there was a punch and judy theatre you could step in, some crazy mirrors, a jukebox and a wooden police car! A lot of fun.

Had a really great day, and already I want to go back to Central Perk [btw if you live in London there's only 3 days left of it and then it shuts so get there quick!]. Although I would much prefer to go to the one in New York. *Sigh*...

Strike A Pose.

This was a while a back now but I just loved this party and couldn't miss out on sharing the awesome photos with you!

I had such a great time! It was a surprise 40th Birthday party for my Dad's cousin Karen and she was so shocked! Kirsty and I were the first on the dance floor with our official dance moves (ie Vogue, Robot, Llama, repeat). Even Karen's husband Simon came up to us and said: "If I don't speak to you two again tonight, I'd just like to thank you for getting everyody dancing!". Why thank you, we do try.




It was an incredibly good night, but I wish people had dressed up more - there was only about 40% in 80's outfit. Um, hello? It's a fancy dress party. Don't be rude and wear a green t shirt and jeans.

Urgh.


But on a lighter note - ooooooooooooooh I wanna dance with somebody!!

Center Parcs

I've just got back from my holiday to Center Parcs avec Kirsty and my family. I had such a great time - Kirsty and I could NOT stop laughing :).

I totally love Center Parcs anyway - you feel so free the whole time as there are no cars allowed inside the forest and you ride your bike everywhere! There's also the super cool swimming pool which sports three awesome slides and a rapids slide which is so powerful you get twisted along everywhere. It was the most fun ever!

This is not including all the activities you can do - from Zip wires to pedalos on the lake, as well as a treasure hunt and pretty much anything else you can think of! Me and Kirsty (and my family!) had such a brilliant time, but instead of my describing it to you, I'm making 4 individual youtube videos for the 4 days we spent there so you can see for yourself how much fun we had:



I will add the other videos onto here once I have completed them. I haven't finished them all yet, as I have actually been quite ill since I got back - just a cold and headache though, so nothing to worry about.

Have any of you been to Center Parcs of somewhere similar before?

A long weekend :)

Yesterday was an incredibly long day, and so will this weekend be - just because I have so much packed into each day.

My mum was cooking all day, making homemade everything from cupcakes to sausage rolls (and it was all freaking delicious!) for when my dad's cousins came round. It was going to be a day full of eight ladies sitting in the sunshine (!) eating. It was so funny - especially when my mum got the hula hoops out and my dad's aunt had a go! Everyone also had a go on my mum's motorized horse. Please don't ask. It was sooo funny - just because they had never seen anything like it!


After they all went home (not before giving me a box of Rose :P), me and Brooke went to the big shopping centre which is half an hour away. It took us and hour and a half in the end, as there was so much traffic on the motorway. But it was the perfect day to be stuck in traffic, because the skies were an incredible blue and we were surrounded by impossibly yellow cornfields. Brooke was singing along like mad to the radio (radio 1 of course), and when we finally got moving she screamed "WOOO HOO!" out the window, and all these men in the van next shouted back haha. [there was also an incident where I ended up writing 'I want to take you to a gay bar' on a sheet of paper and putting it on the window... we were bored ok? And it's a pretty cool song!]

Brooke treated me to this really incredible Cameo ring [pictures later] from River Island and also to dinner - I had some pasta called :"Nice and cheesy" and omg it was delicious. When we sat down to eat we noticed this little toddler in a pushchair sucking on the corner of the table quite cheerfully whilst her parents ate their meal blissfully unaware of their daughter's antics. It was so cute!!

When we both got home we were immensely tired, but Brooke had to go and pick my parent's up from the Station, as they had gone to a Next modelling competition and were 5 metres away from Alesha Dixon. I instead had a hot chocolate in bed whilst watching a Lee Evans DVD.

Today I got up at the crack of dawn to walk around a junksale and bought Mathilda on DVD, I love that film!! I also bought a polkadot dress for a £1 which I might be wearing tonight... Because I'm going to see Take That the Musical tonight haha. Should be excellent :). AND THEN tomorrow I have my grandparents coming round. Geez I'm too busy!!.


Btw all the pictures shown are from my ebay, which you can check out here or you can just click on them!

Run Forest Run

Today I went to a race avec my family. It was supposed to be my whole family running but it turned out to be just my dad and my sister's boyfriend Paul (Mum hurt her knee during the last race and Brooke has come down with the flu - hopefully not of the Swine type).



We arrived too early because my dad panicked as he had read on the website that there were limited places left. But it was lucky we did go early otherwise we wouldn't have had time to walk around the beautiful and twee street fair (or fayre - I always get confused with that one). We went there last year for the race and I had decided back then that I would love to live there in Thurrock at some point in my life. It's so cute and village-y. It instantly puts you in a happy mood and gives you a craving for pretty dresses and picnics.



I took MANY photos of the whole village - I want to write about this magical and enchanted place and my memory sucks, thank god for cameras!! Whilst dad and Paul started the race (unluckily the weather was very 'muggy' so it was an incredibly hard as the heat was overbearing) my mum, grandparents and me walked around, looked at the animals (we missed the ferret racing this year!) and - a tradition for myself in any fair (sp?) setting - ate fudge. [For fudge lovers out there I had the strawberry and cream; plain vanilla; chocolate; and chocolate and mint. It was freaking delicious].



Then all of a sudden it was 50 minutes later and people were coming in from the race. We situated ourselves on the pavement next to the road they were finishing and watched as sweaty men and women forced their way through the heat to the finishing line.

*THE BEST DRESSED RUNNER* goes to the cute guy wearing bright red socks and blue rayban wayfarers.

As the first lot came in I sat on the pavement and read NYLON. Then as the majority arrived I stood up and continued to clap my heart out for every runner. [Yes, at points I was the only one clapping.] I can't believe how many people were there: over 500 runners, and just think there must have been at least 3 watchers to every runner! Paul, followed by dad finished - they did really well - and were soaked with sweat. I made them sit in the back on the way home.