Eat out: Nando's

Hey guys!

Hope you're all doing well :)

I'll be starting my second year at uni tomorrow so last week I met up with a few friends before everyone goes to their respective unis. We decided Nandos would be the best place as it's a pretty hassle free place to meet and eat! There were around 10 of us going so we decided to book a table beforehand.

Now this was my first time eating at Nando's so you could say I was pretty excited. I ordered the Chicken Breast Fillet Burger with one regular side- chips. My friend ordered the same but with a side of garlic bread so we split the sides between the two of us.

We didn't have to wait too long for the food to arrive after ordering, which was pretty good. But I wouldn't say I was amazed by what did arrive... Everyone else seemed pretty happy so maybe it was just my taste buds? It was edible and not bad so I wasn't complaining for too long, ha.

As I said at the beginning of the post, I start uni tomorrow so there might be less food related posts and more posts related to my studies ^*^

Speak to you soon guys!

Take care,

Santhiya

Baking?

I am not the greatest baker and that was evident yesterday when my little sister and I decided to bake some biscuits.

We had a load of blueberries in the kitchen that nobody seemed to be eating so I decided that I'd add them to my share of the "biscuit" dough. I ended up getting really lazy at the end and just spread the dough into the pan, hoping it'd turn out okay. 

Luckily, it did turn out okay (i.e. edible)! I wouldn't call it a biscuit though as it was a bit too soft in the middle but it wasn't quite cake material either.

My sister just stuck to plain almond biscuits, which were gone almost as soon as they came out of the oven :)

I really want to try baking more often but maybe not with my little sister as she's more of a follow-the-recipe baker whilst I'm more of a put-everything-in-the-bowl-and-pray kind of baker.

Speak to you soon!

Take care,

Santhiya

Day out: Chinatown London

Chinatown is a place me and my friends have wanted to go for a while now and for some weird reason, we never got around to actually going... Until last week!

We got the tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked to Chinatown, which took us less than 10 minutes.

We got there pretty early so most of the shops weren't open and there were a lot of people setting up. One of the shops that was open however, was a grocery store, which we spent ages looking around. I will definitely be heading back to pick up a few things for the kitchen! 

I didn't have a full breakfast before leaving so I picked up a little snack for myself to keep my happy til lunch. The sweet potato snack was a little sweeter than I thought it'd be but it was still yummy. 

We didn't actually eat at any of the restaurants in Chinatown and ended up picking up food at good old Wasabi. We were hoping to find a park to sit and eat at but it started to rain. So we went to a KFC that was nearby and order some food so we could use their shelter :P

And of course, what trip to Chinatown could be complete without some bubble tea! I got myself some watermelon flavoured bubble tea which was really good- I even liked the little tapioca pearls which I'm normally not fond of.

The weather was really weird throughout the day :/ It was slightly gloomy at first, then seemed to brighten up and then it ended up raining. Yay London.

Obviously seeing these lovely boys made the day way better! ;)

Speak to you guys soon ^^

Take care,

Santhiya

PS. I still haven't got the hang of aligning pictures side by side yet so sorry for the repetitive layout to posts :(

France 2014

Hey guys!

At the end of July my family and I went to France for a week and I thought I'd  do a post sharing some of the pictures I took whilst there.

Whenever we visit France we always stay at my aunt's house, who's balcony view is so pretty! She lives right next to a Church which you can actually barely see in the picture :(

One of the main reasons we went to France was so we can go to Lourdes and visit the beautiful Church that is present there. Although I haven't been to many countries or cities around the world, I am quite sure Lourdes has to be one of my favourite cities ever :) It has such a calm atmosphere and the people there are some of the sweetest I've ever met.

I did not try a variety of food whilst I was there and stuck to chips and chicken baguettes. BUT the baguettes there were sooooo yummy that I could not bring myself to regret not trying other things.

Glimpse of the Church on train journey back to Paris.

Hope you're all doing well!

Take care,

Santhiya

Travel Edition: What's In My Bag?

Hello again guys!

My family and I are off to France tomorrow for a week and I thought I'd write a little about what I'm taking in my backpack. I used to be am kind of obsessed with posts and YouTube videos on what people have in their bags so doing this post is quite exciting for me :)

Ok. Now the backpack I'm taking is not the prettiest or coolest out there but it's big and comfy to wear so that's the one I'm taking. I'm also taking a small messenger bag to use whilst in France as I won't be carrying all the contents of this bag around.

Onto the content of the bag:

 1. eBook

2. Purse

3. Box of jewellery- I just chose a few bracelets and earrings to bring with me and put them into the box my watch came in since I don't have a "jewellery carrier" of any sort.

4. Snacks- I bought a packet of goji berries (I've wanted to try them for a while now) and a packet of trail mix in Tesco so I'm emptied those into the container :)

5. Water bottle

6. Tin :P - This tin contains "girl stuff".

7. Plasters

8. Notebook and pens- I like to have some paper and a pen to hand in case I need to jot something down for future reference.

9. Glasses

10. Tissue

11. Comb and clips

12. Mirror- That's the pink heart shaped item in the picture which I got as a birthday present in year 6- so almost 9 years ago!

13. Hand cream and sanitiser

14. Lip care- that's my little red tin and the Burt's Bee lip balm (I kind of regret buying the shade I did :/ I probably should have gone for something a little darker).

15. PEZ!!!- I'm so excited about finally getting to use my Winnie the Pooh PEZ dispenser thingy. Woohoo! ^^

I want to point out that my mum brings all our passports and tickets so that's why they're not there. 

I'm planning to follow up with a post on things we do in France soon but until then...

Take care,

Santhiya

The Fault In Our Stars

Okay. 

My little sister had watched the film yesterday and came home with a bunch of used tissues in her bag saying the film was amazing. Now, she'd read the book and had been looking forward to the film for a while. I, on the other hand, had not yet read the book but knew the overall story. However I was still looking forward to watching the film and decided I'd go today with a couple of friends.

We decided to go to the 3:30PM showing since it meant we could get lunch beforehand. 

We went to Picture House in Stratford where student tickets are £5 each, which I thought was pretty cheap! I think that price is only available Monday to Thursday though.

The film itself came as a bit of a disappointment to me. Maybe it's because I had set quite high standards after hearing amazing reviews about it or maybe it's because the plot itself just wasn't to my taste. Either way it just didn't wow me. My friends would definitely disagree though as both of them shed a few tears throughout the course of the film. 

To be fair though, the romance scenes were kinda cute in a very cheesy way >.<

Overall: Okay. That is actually how I would describe this film: it wasn't amazing but it wasn't horrible either. It was just okay. 

Eat out: Pie Factory, Whitechapel

Hey guys! 

The other day me and a couple of friends decided to go eat out at Pie Factory. I'd been before and I was super excited to go again! Now, for me this is a pretty unusual thing as I tend not to visit restaurants more than once (fast food places- yes, but not those "proper" restaurants). So from this you guys should know how great the place is :)

We got there around one in the afternoon and the place wasn't too packed. We did have to wait a few minutes for a table though. 

The restaurant has these cute little signs all over the wall but this one probably got the most attention.

Although the pie factory does make food other than pies, pies are their specialty so we all decided to go for those. I'd had the chicken & mushroom pie last time so I went for the spinach & feta this time. My friends both went for the chicken and mushroom.

Now each pie comes with two sides and gravy. I went for roast veg and mash and the other two went for spicy mash and wedges.

Mine :)

Theirs :)

The portions are really good and for £4.95? That's amazing!

Take care,

Santhiya

Day out: London Zoo

Exams were over and what better way to celebrate than a trip to the zoo? 

London zoo has been on my places to visit list for a while now and I was more than happy to cross it off this summer. It's not that I've never been before- I've been to London zoo twice in my nineteen years of livelihood, but I feel like it's one of those places that's meant to be visited more than once.

We made sure to buy our tickets online to avoid queues but there wasn't actually many people there that day so it wouldn't have been too bad anyways. 

At the entrance we were given a leaflet which contains a map of the zoo as well as a mini timetable with times of the shows and talks happening throughout the day: we only ended up going to 'penguin beach live', which was great!

Since visiting the zoo wasn't a regular thing I wanted to make sure we saw everything! 

Just a few of my favourites: the sloth, the giraffes, the penguins and the meerkat :)

We ended up spending around six hours at the zoo and saw all the animals except the kangaroos (not sure how we missed them though).

Our feet were aching from all the walking but we did stop in between to have a mini picnic style snack.

The ice cream was the only item bought in the cafe at the zoo as everything else was a bit too pricey!

I ended up buying the mini penguin and giraffe soft toys in the gift shop at the exit. They were just sooo cute!! 

Overall it was a great day :) I'd recommend day trips to the zoo to families and friends. It'd even make a pretty cute for a date too!

Take care,
Santhiya

Day out: Hyde Park

Hey guys!

So recently a couple of my closest friends and I went to Hyde Park for the day. It was quite a spontaneous outing, which for me is quite rare as I prefer days out which are planned a few days beforehand.

So we got the Hammersmith & City line to Edgware Road. We decided to get off at Edgware Road rather than the stations that were much closer to the park as my friend knew a nice place where we could get lunch to go. This meant we had to walk for around 25 minutes from the station but boy was it worth it. 

The restaurant was called Abu Zaad and served Syrian food. This was my first time trying Syrian food so my friend recommended the Chicken Shawerma, which cost us £3 each. We got a free canned drink each but my friend mentioned that the last time she visited she hadn't got one. So I guess we got lucky!

We stopped at a Tesco on the way and bought ourselves some crisps, muffins and biscuits. We were going to get ice cream too but decided we'd get it at the ice cream vans in the park.

Now, I'm a pretty stingy person and love getting my money's worth. Normally, I'm left a bit unsatisfied after buying wraps or sandwiches as they don't have enough actual meat in them but have more salad and general filling. This time however... I was definitely pleasantly surprised. There was soooo much chicken in the wrap! I felt as if the wrap was never ending. 

It was such a nice day- weather, friends, food and all! (However, I did get major spotty, dry skin the next day which I figured out may have been due to the sun exposure but the day itself was still great!)

I hope the post wasn't too long! >.<"

Take care,
Santhiya