#Staycation and coping with sadness

I wish I could tell you that I am typing from Bondi Beach, or Melbourne as before of the Covid19 mayhem, I was supposed to be there right now. However, since I booked the flights and got my visa, all hell broke loose in my area as it the virus badly hit it with thousands of people dying in my town and surroundings. As many of you know, I live in London, but all my family and friends live in Brescia, in Lombardy so talking to them and thinking about could happen to them is really overwhelming and this obviously has an impact on me. I mean, I don’t even know when I will able to see them again and not only, I am sad, but I am also very angry. I have many reasons to be worried and I want you to understand that I am not one of those wearing rose-coloured glasses or like we would less fashionably say in Italian ”gente con le fette di salame sugli occhi” who believe that this is something God sent us to teach us the value of life and respect for nature or whatsoever, however today I don’t want to focus too much on the horrible things that are happening all over the world, but I would like to talk to you about how I try to stay afloat and cope with the anxiety that would otherwise eat me alive if I’d only allowed it.

I am on day 17 of my self-isolation with my boyfriend and if I can be honest, this is honestly not the worst thing that could happen to me right now. I don’t mind staying home at the moment if it helps to contain the outbreak. When I feel bored and winy, I just think about how many people I know who have lost their lives already and I instantly feel grateful for mine and my family’s. So, I made a deal with myself: instead of planning the next holiday in Japan (arrrg we were supposed to go next November!), I will plan my current Staycation in my London flat.

The first few weekends and days of this self-isolation were harsh, but then a very wise lady recently told me: ”Giada, it doesn’t make sense to waste the time we are given now. In a few months this will hopefully be over, and you will never have all of this free time again. Make sure you make the most of it and cherish your health”.

I figured that the only way I had to cope this, was to prevent myself from getting lazy and trying to stick to a routine, doing plenty and diverse things every day. I don’t do that because I feel better than anybody else or because I am actually trying to achieve something in particular, but because I know myself by know and as I analysed my behaviour while I was facing difficult challenges in the past. I would like to clarify again that this is what works for ME: I live in a flat with my partner, we don’t have any children or pets, nor we have a garden. JD still works full time (from home) so the silence can be overwhelming and depressing during the day. I can’t even do a nice spring cleaning because we moved here a few months ago and my flat is still basically unfurnished lol

Watching 4 movies in a row while laying in bed simply doesn’t work for me. I can lounge for a day or two and it’s totally okay, but then I need to go back on my feet as soon as I can because when I don’t move, the only two things I want to do are eating and pointlessly scroll my Facebook wall. That inevitably leads to a series of bad thoughts, depression and it is very hard to get back to my normal-self, so I have learned (also my mum always suggested me to) to  tackle the issue or to do any kind of activity to fight the urge to get to that bad place.

The good news is that it actually works for me. Maybe this could work for someone else too, so I thought I could share what I have learned these past few days and as we cannot travel, let’s at least try to make the most of our Staycation.

It is very important to me to keep a schedule which is remotely similar to what I was used to before the CoronaVirus-life. I used to wake up early, eat, walk 2 hours a day, go out and see friends and obviously work. Now that working and going out are out of the picture, I still need to hold on to what I have left. Every morning my alarm still goes off at 07:30am. I give myself until 8:00am to chill, then I’m off to have breakfast.

NEW IG ACCOUNT

A couple of weeks ago, shocked by BoJo’s revelations and by people who were still partying and going to the market – just to name a few of the many stupid behaviors,  JD and I decided to open up a new Instagram account dedicated to couples who have to spend their quarantine together and every day suggest some activities and distractions. Without ever leaving the flat :S Check out our account: @ourquarantinetogether

EXERCISE

Unfortunately I am one of those people who gain weight over the weekend just by relaxing on the couch and indulging, so I need to make sure to keep moving, or wrinkles won’t be the only annoying thing I will earn at the end of the isolation! It also helps to get me tired. If I get tired, I sleep well. If I don’t get tired during the day, I won’t be able to sleep at all, which leaves room for anxiety and bad thoughts. I work out on average 2/3 times a day, except for the weekend. This is what I do MON-FRI:

• FitBit App on XboxOne: After breakfast I work out with Jean using one of the many free program on the FitBit App for about half an hour.
• TwerkAfterWork: every day either at 1pm or 7pm. Come on, Twerkouts were a thing of ”real life” before CoronaVirus. I used to attend  the amazing Twerk classes in Aldgate East twice a week. Since then, our amazing teacher Bami and her team have fully moved online. I try to join in at least once a day for a lot of fun so we can all twerk it out from our living room! Check out their IG account 🙂 you won’t regret it! @twerkafterwork
• Dance workouts: as you may have guessed, I love dancing and I am sorry to sound so Two-thousand and late, but yoga and pilates are not for me – I need to have fun and sing. So I follow many Personal Trainers, either on Facebook or Youtube, here are a few: Savio Los streams a live Karate/Aerobics class every day on Facebook at 5:30pm and my favourite ladies on Youtube so far are:

Fit Body By Ashley

Hip Shake Fitness

Superherofitnesstv

• TimeoutLondon: every Tuesday at 7pm, dance instructors go live on Instagram to teach Londoners some Diva moves. The other day I became a wannabe-Beyoncé for about an hour! Get your sass on gurrrl and show it off in the next choreo!

I am sure that there are lots of other great dance-friendly Youtubers out there, feel free to let me know in the comments who you follow and I will be grateful to try them all out.

FOOD

Every day I make sure to prepare a nice balanced meal, combining proteins and vegetables as much as this will be possible.  Erm erm and of course a bit (or a lot, depending on the day) of dessert. It keeps me a bit sane, I guess!

EDUCATION

Last January, I have bought a Digital Marketing course with the intent to do bit by bit everyday. Except as you can imagine, I didn’t do anything at all as everyday I would come up with a new excuse: ”I’m tired, I need to go out, it’s the middle of the week, it’s the weekend…”. Since I have started to self-isolate, I have made a significant progress on the course. So guys, I think that it is important to keep up and learn new skills. Less Netflix, our brain needs to be worked out too! The Digital Marketing course I am ”attending” is from The Digital Marketing Institute (also featured by Westminster University), but there are hundreds of other fun and cheap courses on https://www.udemy.com/ and https://www.skillshare.com/ and I am definitely going to check some other courses out.

UKULELE

I frankly do not know anything about music, but I have decided to get out of my comfort zone and give it a try so I bought a cheap Ukulele off eBay and started to ”pluck it’s chords”. Yesterday it took me about 2 hours to figure out how to tune it, but hey, it keeps me off Social Media!

RANDOM ACTIVITIES

What do I do to fill the gaps?

• Travel Journal: last year I have started my travel journal with loads of hand-drawing and photos of my travels. Will I be able to finish it this year?
• Secret Diary: I try to write down how I feel everyday. I let it all out in there, happy or negative thoughts. It helps me a bit and one day in the future, I hope my future grandchildren will be able to go and read about this very particular moment in history, not just from a book but also from a personal perspective.
• Trampoline: yes, in one of my most recent online shopping spree I actually bought an indoor trampoline to make the most of my living room on the ground floor. I haven’t actually used it yet, but for once I won’t feel that I threw my money out the window and I will actually try it.
• Read a book: I have actually been struggling to read books lately, my mind wanders off too much but I try every now and then. Maybe I haven’t found anything interesting yet or maybe I simply have to take it easy and focus on other activities at the moment.
• Cooking and baking: as the 3kgs I gained in the past two weeks are suggesting, I am doing my share of cooking and baking off like many other people hehe
• Planning next trips or drooling over fantastic pictures. I am 100% sure that as soon as this is over, I will spend at least two weeks at home (in Italy) and then I will try to visit other places I had always took for granted in my country. If you want to dream over your next holiday in Italy – and you totally should, check out Selene’s Facebook group ”Io Andro in Vacanza In Italia” which literally means ”I will spend my holidays in Italy” – members post amazing pics of amazing places where they live or visited all over from North to South Italy. It’s an amazing group and will give you a lot of inspiration for your next trip!
• Beauty routine: as I like to believe, you can’t improve perfection (JK, I am just very lazy when it comes to beauty care), I actually don’t have any beauty routine in place and never had it in the past except for applying moisturizer and coconut oil hair masks once every three months, but in the next few weeks I will try to Selene’s amazing beauty tips – if you can read Italian, check her page: https://lunabeautysecrets.com
• Blog: well, last but not least, I am try to keep this blog alive. I will hopefully be more focused in the next few weeks and try to publish more posts.

BEDTIME

I go to bed at the same time as I would if the virus wasn’t here. I like to keep my balance and 2/3 workouts a day actually kill me 🙂

OTHER TIPS

I am not wearing heels or getting dressed up to go to the supermarket and I am not ashamed – at least for now lol but other than keeping myself busy, I always make sure that even if I am stuck home, as soon as I get up, I wash my face, brush my teeth, get dressed and only wear my pjs when I go back to sleep. I also open all the windows first thing in the morning and then multiple times during the day as I believe that letting fresh air in helps and makes me feel better.

I know it’s annoying, but on a great scheme of things how much is a couple, or six months or even year? Even during this storm, many of us are lucky to have a roof on our head so it’s better to focus on the present, not on the future. I try not to count the days until a vaccine will be out or our borders open, as we realistically do not know when and if it’s going to happen. I just focus on planning day by day and sit outside in my pathetic patio while reading when I need some London breeze.

Now it’s your turn, what do you do or don’t do to keep busy and positive?

I think that while it is very important to be informed and aware during this storm, I also think that it is important to look after ourselves. At least we can try.

Finally, I have been listening much more music than before and I ended up on Nelly Furtado Spotify channel and oh my God! Where is she at? I forgot how much I used to love her songs WOOOW. So yes, why not using this time to discover some ”old” and new emerging singers and genres? I am pretty repetitive with my music choices, so this could finally be the time when I listen to something new.

That’s it for today, don’t forget to stay home!

My 2019 travels in review

Happy new year!  I hope you are all spending these Christmas holidays either with your family or sunbathing on a sunny beach or if like me you had to go back to work on Monday, I hope you had lovely food and still spent the festive days with your loved ones! 

I spent a few days in my home-town in Italy and I came back to London last Saturday night. I spent most of my Sunday morning cooking healthy food as I need to recover from all the naughtiness of the past two months, grocery shopping and running the washing machine. During my boring chores, I have realised that I would like to be as basic as possible and review this past year. I highly doubt that any of you’d be interested in hearing where I moved, whether I lost any weight or how any other highlights of my personal life (boring stuff anyway), so I have decided to write a recap of my travels of the past 12 months. I can say that I am overall very happy with my life and I hope that 2020 will be as bright as 2019 was for me. 

Like any other year, my 2019 was filled with long and short trips, mostly planned randomly and last minute as usual. Luckily, my boyfriend loves to procrastinate as much as I do, so planning a last-minute trip with him doesn’t usually require too much stress (except for that time when he realised he left his passport at home on our way to the airport, but this is another story – JD, I know you’re reading). As I grow older, memory gets shorter and I am not lying when I tell you that I need to check my emails in order to remember where the heck I’ve been this year, so please bear with me while I look for my glasses and learn how to download photos from iCloud without connecting my iPhone in my laptop…. so here it goes: 

1. March 2019: Italy – Brescia and surroundings

As I was in between jobs, I took a well-deserved break from my previous intolerable job and chilled at my parents’ home while eating chocolate eggs. I am not sure whether Italy still counts as a trip though. The highlight of this trip was a hike somewhere on the mountains with my mum, sister and Loris (dog). I have just chilled on the sofa or met friends at the bar most of the time. 

    2. April 2019: Italy – Brescia and surroundings (again lol) 

Long story short: chilled at home, stuffed my fast with Easter goods and visited a couple of places (or more?) and helped Mirko and my sister Gloria to clean the levee of the river crossing our area. It’s not really travel-related, but you won’t believe the shit we found while cleaning up somebody else’s mess they left behind! It was eyeopening and loved to take part in such a useful initiative.

On another note, you can follow Mirko on his new travel adventure along the river Chiese on instagram: @alpassodelchiese

      3. June 2019: Aruba – Netherlands Antilles

This trip had been booked over 8 months before – such a news for JD and I! Way back in November 2018, the stress in our nervous system reached levels as never before, so as I pointlessly scrolled through my Facebook feed, I stumbled upon a video of a dreamy beach filled with flamingoes somewhere in the Caribbeans. I am not sure how or why it happened, but a few days later we booked flights and hotels! Finally, on June 7th we jumped on a plane to Aruba! Our high expectations were met by this little desertic island just a few kms from the Northern coast of Venezuela. We truly had the time of our life there: we hiked in Arikok National Park, swam in the infamous Natural Pool, swam with a turtle, did water ski (for the first time in my life!) and I even convinced JD to snorkel with me! So far, the marine life I have seen in Aruba was the best – although I haven’t visited many places yet! Boca Catalina and Mangel Alto were the beaches were the marine life was most accessible and complete. I am going to write a more detailed post on Aruba soon: stay tuned! 

When I came back to the U.K., reality hit me hard and I spent all summer working a lot in the office. My visit to Aruba was what I thought one of my last trip of 2019. I was so wrong! I am still not sure how or why it happened, but for some reasons I found myself travelling way more than I expected during the last 3 months of the year. 

           4. September 2019: Gothenburg, Sweden. 

This was my first time in Sweden and I was forced by JD as I only mostly like to visit warm and sunny places so I honestly had no interest in visiting this town. However, I was wrong again! Gothemburg was the perfect 2 days romantic gateway from London. I ate the best prawns and salmon of my life, stayed in a super fancy boutique hotel, took the ferry and visited Brännö, a small island of the Gothenburg archipelago. It was quite interesting, quiet and relaxing. We had a drink in probably the only bar on the island and enjoyed the sunset. The following day we had a brief walk through Gotemburg, visited a couple of museums, had Swedish Fika on the Haga – to all my Italian friends laughing, I will now translate this into English for you: we had traditional Swedish pastries (fika) on the most popular high street in town; bought wooden handmade objects for myself and my family, had the last piece of salmon of the week and headed back to London on the same night. 

5. September 2019: Paris, France 

Like Italy, you guys will read a lot about my adventures in Paris. I don’t have family, nor I work there,  I often visit Paris because JD is from there so we often go back to visit his parents and for other events. This time we went there for his sister engagement party. As I have visited Paris a few times already, I now take it easy and try to visit something off the beaten path. I always see something new, for example I had never seen the Moulin Rouge before and here I am! Dressed for the occasion too – adding my red handbag was a little too much, please Fashion Police don’t arrest me! 

6. October 2019: Madrid, Spain. 

Unbelievably, I also planned this trip months before, I will never do this again as like you are reading, I went to visit many other places for one reason or another and I was starting to be tired of travelling. Sometimes it’s nice to chill at home and get bored too. To be honest, Madrid didn’t impress me that much, but I knew what expected me, so I wasn’t that surprised. I didn’t find the city itself particularly interesting, however, I love Spanish food, people, culture and weather so we still managed to make the best out of this weekend too. 

7. October 2019: Sicily, Italy. 

I spent 6 days in Sicily for work. I have literally been all over the region in such a short time. This stay was very short but intense. I landed in Palermo, visited Scopello and its famous timeless Tonnara, Mondello, Favignana, Trapani. I drove through the hills and countryside of the areas surrounding Porto Palo, Menfi and Sciacca. On our third day, we drove back to Palermo, where we got a 3 hours bus to Catania. It was surprisingly comfortable and nice. The following morning we headed to the very trendy Taormina and pretended to climb Mt. Etna. We proceeded to visit Noto, Siracusa and briefly even the Vendicari Natural Reserve and Catania. There was so much to see and discover, I hope I will be able to be back and calmly visit. Next time I’ll go to Sicily, I will definitely not miss Caltagirone and I will spend my monthly wages on their ceramics and jewelry. I could actually add this to my 2020 travel-bucket list. OMG I was about to forget about the food. Well, I can just tell you that at every single meal and in between, I was eating the food of the Gods. I have never eaten that many aubergines and pistachios my life before, but it was freaking worth it! I enjoyed the food so much that I completely forgot that I was gaining weight and frankly no f***s were given! The food was so rich, delicious and varied that I might also write a post entirely dedicated to everything I had in Sicily. Italian food differs within regions and being from Northern Italy, I had never had a real cannolo or arancino before. How did I live before October 2019 anyway? 

8. November: Paris, France (again!) 

This time, we went to Paris for the Christening of JD’s nephew. On this occasion we didn’t get to do too much sightseeing, but we decided to visit Disneyland Paris instead! It was my second time there, but this time it was decorated for Halloween. As usual, it was very busy but we got to do a lot of stuff! Unfortunately though, after queing for an hour to get to the Haunted Manor (my absolutely favourite attraction) it broke down. This seemed to be done on purpose, a tragicomic twist to an otherwise wonderful day. 

9. December: Home, Italy (for the third time!) 

As Christmas is not the same if I don’t spend it at home, I could never spend it anywhere else. I ate like there’s no tomorrow and spent time with my family and friends 🙂 The time I spend at home is not perfect, but I wouldn’t change it if I could. 

I am not sure what to expect from 2020, nor I cannot be sure that it will be a life-changing year, what I know is that I am going to do a few courses, take opportunities, travel and be happy with what life throws at me – as long as it’s something good! 

I wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR ❤  

 

Surprise trip to Mallorca with my mum

Before you start reading this post, I just want to warn you: this isn’t an informative post about what I have visited in Mallorca, nor any particular cultural or interesting aspects about its culture. This post is about me and my mum.

I was sitting here on the sofa and going through my old Facebook albums thinking about what my new blog post is going to be. One of the best things about living in London is that the weather is horrible even in Summer and that leaves room for a lot of thinking and writing as I am certainly not going out with this weather! Tomorrow is Bank Holiday in Italy, the 15th of August is ”Ferragosto” a day where people gather either in the garden or on the beach, have BBQs, sunbathe and have fun with friends and family. As I live in the U.K., tomorrow I am actually going to be seated at my desk thinking about that, while it is pouring and freaking cold outside already. This long and boring stream of thoughts led me to write about one of the most bizarre holidays I have spent in my life: Mallorca with my mum in July 2017. The year before had been very challenging for us under so many aspects and it was during that year, that I finally realised that we only have one chance. We only have one life, money comes and goes, we won’t be healthy forever and we won’t have back the time we spend worrying or crying so I thought to myself ”FUCK IT!! I’m gonna take my mum on holiday!” That surely sounds superficial and easy to many,  but to me at that time meant a lot. I was a student working part-time so it was a big deal to me and guess what: I still don’t regret it at all!

Yes, but how did it happen?

I was physically and mentally tired about so many things and I thought that I wasn’t the only one deserving a break, but my mum also did. Over the span of a couple of weeks, I organised everything and planned a surprise trip for my mum to Mallorca, the largest island in the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean.

I purchased tickets and accommodation, I picked my phone up, called my mum and told her: ”Hey mamma, you need to come here to London. No questions asked, just bring some summer clothes”. As you could imagine, she was startled: she is used to me being a weirdo and coming up with crazy ideas all the time but this was unusual even for me.

My mum packed her bags and arrived in London a couple of days later. We spent a day here and promised her I would never tell her where we were going until we’d land.

Right before leaving though, I thought it’d be funny if I told her that I was taking her to Scotland because that was the cheapest thing I could find. Obviously, she was shocked because that was too much, even for me …who wants to go to Scotland in August anyway – besides my sister Gloria?

So once we got to the airport, she started to look at every board, asking around for any information regarding this mysterious flight. She just didn’t want to accept that we were going to Scotland 😀 Surprisingly enough, no board in the airport (not even at the gate), was displaying our flight details nor destination. At that point, do you think I acted like a mature human being and finally revealed where we were going to stop annoying her?

Of course NOT! I just went with the flow, asked all the flight attendants not to tell anything to my mum and kept lying all the way until we landed. Eventually, my mum realised that we were flying south, but the destination remained hidden. After finally landing, we finally felt the warmth of the sun on our skin and my mum went straight to ask around where we were. A man joyfully answered: “Estamos en Mallorca!”. Woooow, you should have seen my mum’s face, the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life! She was so happy and excited, I was too.

We went to pick up our car and we headed to our Airbnb, it was the first experience in an Airbnb of our life and I from that first time, I have learned the lesson: ”if it’s so cheap, there is valid reason”. The cleaning was non-existent and there were 4 dogs and 2 cats living indoors (I love and have pets myself but the smell was unbearable).  The fun of our accommodation was that the guy had a terrace and once we randomly found a plantation of marijuana. Ahah you should have seen my mums face lol I think that was one of the best laughs of my life!

 

Sorry for the detour on our place, let’s go back to Mallorca! As we had a car and 5 days, we did a bit of exploring around the island, but most importantly, what I enjoyed the most, was the mother-daughter aspect of the holiday. To be honest, I didn’t like Mallorca that much and partly it is probably because I wasn’t prepared, nor I read anything about Mallorca before going there, childishly I was expecting to see Spain, Spanish traditions and food, nature and beautiful beaches but unfortunately I fooled myself as Mallorca has barely anything of those things: I felt like I was in London but on an island. There were too many English pubs, too many fast-food places, the same London vibe on Saturday night, no fresh fish, no sangria, no Spanish people, barely any untouched beach. Nothing that I was expecting to find and in the past few years (maybe a consequence of living in such a big city like London) that on holiday I want to be with my loved ones, good food, culture, silence, hiking, exploring and nature.

Cala Fornells

Although there isn’t much I liked about the island, I had found this little gem called Cala Fornells, situated in the West.

 

 

Despite the negatives, I loved some of the things we visited, I can’t say much honestly because I didn’t write the list of places down when I was there, so it would be unfair to go and research on Google the most popular places on Mallorca and pretend that I-know-it-all, wouldn’t it? No. It wouldn’t and to be honest I feel too lazy now to do that so I am going to leave you with a few of the pictures.

 

 

I loved my time in Mallorca, I had a lot of fun with my mum, but I honestly wouldn’t go back there.

On another note, I hope I will be able to take my mum on another holiday soon. The time spent with your loved ones never comes back but the memories left are beautiful and will last a lifetime.

Happy Monday!

A midsummer sunday’s dream in London

Unlike what you have been reading in the Daily Mirror and on Facebook, the ongoing summer in the U.K. has been non-existent with sparks of heatwaves here and there (a couple of very hot days over a span of a couple of months) and the past few weekends have been rainy and cold. However, we had a bit of luck last Sunday, as the temperature was pleasant and it’s cloudy and only rained for about 5 minutes so we decided to leave the comfort of our sofa and venture outside for the day.

We first went to get a bite for breakfast at the Breakfast Club near Spietafields Market – I love their pancakes but as it is very popular, the wait is often more than half an hour and it is very convenient to book beforehand. 

After stuffing our faces with amazing pancakes, we went to the amazing Pettycoat Lane Market, a non pretentious street market where you can find many nice fashionable clothes for a few £ – the vibe is very different from your average Borough Market. The good news is that I love fashion and I definitely love a bargain! I honestly think that this market is very underrated, if you look closely you’ll find items of the past or current season of brands like Top Shop, New Look, Next, Urban Outfitters and just at very low prices. I got myself a £45 blouse by Urban Outfitters which I only paid £10! The tricky part is that it doesn’t have a “tourist vibe”, it’s not fancy nor tidy at all, there is a wide choice and to explore it all will take you half a day – as I previously said, I’m always hunting for bargains so I don’t mind at all! In my opinion, all the possible “downsides” are not relevant at all. This is the market to go to if you’re ever hanging out in East London on a lazy Sunday and you like the whole street market experience.

As usual, I ended up spending too much than I had planned before leaving my place that morning and since we were in the area and since it was still quiet early, we walked from Liverpool Street to a Columbia Road Flower market which is in fact, only open on Sundays.

Columbia Road Flower Market 

The market is really overcrowded so I would suggest you to visit it in the morning, but it is a must-see, especially if you have done all the basic touristy stuff. There is a long line of market stalls where you’ll find only flowers and vegetable plants. There are stalls entirely dedicated to every kind of orchids,  flower bouquets, seeds, giant apartment plants and tiny cacti.

Before today, I only had been there once a few years ago (in winter) and I have to admit that this time I enjoyed it more, even if the weather wasn’t the best we could ask for, Summer vibes change the whole perspection. The market itself is not big, but it will roughly take you half an hour to visit it all – unless you go there to actually buy flowers, in which case it may take you a bit longer.

I didn’t buy anything there today as I didn’t plan and I may move soon, but as soon as I know what is going to happen to my housing situation I will go there and raid the market. There are plenty of good deals! Where else in London you can get away with 2 beautiful healthy orchids for a fiver (not even in Tesco!)? FYI: only a couple of sellers accept cards so make sure you bring plenty of cash or you may end up leaving your flowers there or missing on the best deals because you need look for an ATM!

There are also a lot of vintage and independent artists’ shops. Amazing to look at and get some inspiration! My favourite shop was the Mexican shop (not sure how they are called but they are very easy to see). They have crafts, furnitues, decorations and even chocolate from Mexican artists and companies! Here’s a few example below:

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I also learned a new quote while I was visiting this shop: ”El que lava un puerco con jabon, pierde el tiempo y pierde el jabon” (when you wash a pig with soap, you waste your time and the soap). Great quote that suggests that sometimes we just waste time and precious oxygen on people who don’t really deserve and will never change.

The Columbia Flower Market is probably the only market in London where you won’t find any food stalls. Don’t panic though, there are plenty of cafes around and even today, we’ll go on a diet tomorrow.

Abu Dhabi in 24 hours

I actually started to draft this post in October 2017 and I am only posting it now. Can you believe how lazy I am? Haha! Yep, that’s me.

I had the idea to visit Abu Dhabi and Dubai on a long weekend, I loved the cities but things didn’t go quite as planned – are we even surprised here, guys? I am sure that if any of my friends are reading this knows what I mean.  😷 As many of my holidays or breaks abroad, this one was basically planned a couple of days before. Well, I  actually didn’t plan anything as I often do and this has often got me in weird or dangerous situations in the past, thankfully I am able to laugh about most of them now!

Anyway, right after work I jumped on a cab directed to Heathrow Airport and quite surprisingly, the flight from London to Abu Dhabi ran surprisingly smoothly. The flight lasted about 7 hours and  I slept for the whole time and what is the best way to start a holiday?

As I landed in Abu Dhabi and stepped out of the plane, it was clear to me that the sun was burning my skin like never before and I had to ran quick indoors because the heat felt unbearable. It never occurred to me that there were human beings actually living in that heat. Pardon my ignorance, until then I never thought that 50C actually felt like T H A T .

I went through security and got a stamp on my passport – YAY (not sure what excitment is for though). Finally I got out of the airport, back in the heat again so I jumped on the first cab I’ve seen towards the Centre of Abu Dhabi, where Clara lives.

I got to Clara’s building at around 8am (poor her, I woke her up! – Clara is one of my oldest friend who now is based in Abu Dhabi. In the morning we chilled a bit, caught up on the last juicy gossips and with our crazy lives in general.

After a nice shower and nap, we headed to the Royal Palace. The luxury left me speechless. It is a huge palace, covered in GOLD. Golden doors, elevators, posh furniture. There are huge Rolex clocks hanging from the walls. That is where I had the most expensive cappuccino of my life: a cappuccino with sprinkles of gold instead of the more common sprinkles of chocolate. A Cappuccino Stellare, finally something matching my fantastic personality – haha I’m joking!

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There is even a pastry section: a good selection of cakes all covered and decorated with golden pieces. I was speechless, I occasionally have to attend flashy events and places for work, but I would have never even thought about having a coffee like that in a place like THAT as beside always being poor AF, it’s really not my cup of tea so I wouldn’t normally do that on my time off. However, where else can one find something like that if not in the UAE?

After visiting this sick place, we got on a taxi and went to Saadiyat island, where we got into an exclusive beach club called Saadiyat Beach club. Once again, I was more surprised to be in a place like that on my time off (I’m more of a backpacker/hostel/saving money lover-type). However, I don’t absolutely regret it! The staff was really nice, the swimming pool was big, there was good music. I even dared to venture on the beach. I would like to clarify that the first time I went to the Emirates was

August and as you are picturing yourself in head right now, as I walked on the beach, the sand was melting my feet away, the sea was boiling hot and in general I could only get around by taxi.

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I am not even joking, I had never been to a place where the sea was as warm as my hot tub! I picked some shells and sand to bring back to my mum, took a couple of selfies because why not, then ran back to the club to cool off in the swimming pool while feasting on a very well presented fresh fruit platter.

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Chatting with Clara was awesome. I realised that sometimes or maybe even more often you need to catch up, have a laugh, exchange juicy gossip with people who really know you and whom you know that your friendship will never change.

After the beach club, we went back home to have a take-way dinner, got ready and off to the Grand Mosque. This mosque is one of the most significant buildings in Abu Dhabi and that you absolutely cannot miss. This is a religious place, so as a woman, you will be asked to wear a traditional dress, to cover your body and your hair. I guess you can bring your own gown, but at the entrance of the mosque, you go through security then if you are not wearing an abaja, you will be given one before going in – I guess this how it is called, please pardon my ignorance! The mosque is huge and breathtaking. It is obviously a religious place, so be respectful and expect a much more religious silence. The grounds are huge, on the floors are covered in white, shily marble. The marble is so polished that you can admire your own reflection. Drywall delicate flowers climb up the white walls. All around the main place, where I guess people go to pray, there are hallways, white and gold columns. What a dreamy place, it is unforgettable a made me feel like I was living a Thousand and One Nights story.

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It is a massive building and it will take you roughly an hour to visit it all.

After the visit at the Mosque, we went to have a drink drink at the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal. Only a drink was enough to make me realise how tired I was, so we just got back to sleep after a very interesting and satisfying day 🙂 Since October 2017, I only went back to Abu Dhabi once for a layover to the Seychelles…but this is a new story. Stay tuned!

Aruba, One Happy Island

This is my very first post on this new blog and I will try to commit as much as I can. Life is life and sometimes get in the way so we leave things that we like to do on aside, but I will do my best.

I wouldn’t say I am a traveller – at least not anymore as I have settled in London since a few years and as previously mentioned, life got in the way more than once which prevented me from travelling as much as I would have liked to.

Today I am going to tell you all about my most recent holiday in Aruba, in the Caribbeans. This was a much-desired holiday and part of my boyfriends’ Graduation gift to myself – I considered myself very lucky. As you might have guessed, we went to Aruba together. We booked last year after seeing a video on my Facebook wall, we really fell in love and as it is not a popular destination where I am from, we decided to go and experience it ourselves.

Let’s get into it!

On Friday 7th of June, we jumped on a plane in London City Airport towards Amsterdam, had a layover for a couple of hours and boarded another plane to Aruba. I guess that the flight lasted for about 12 hours but surprisingly enough, the flight went fast and Jean-Dominique (my boyfriend) and I just watched films, played Pokemon on the Wii, played cards and so on.

We finally landed in Aruba and the heat just engulfed us, coming from London it was quite overwhelming but obviously in a good way. We got a cab to our Airbnb in Oranjestad. We had to stay in an Airbnb because SOMEONE aka Jean-Dominique book the wrong dates for our hotel and noticed only a few weeks before our departure – this is a funny story though and very JD-style!

As we got to the Airbnb at about 5pm, we just had a shower and immediately head to the beach! We were knackered, but we also wanted to make the most of our time in Aruba and beat the dreaded jet-lag.

We walked and got to the first beach we have seen in Aruba, it looked very plain at first, but the water was warm, there were divi-divi trees and the vibe was amazing! We kept walking and slowly our bodies were restoring from the long haul flight which just brought us there.

We walked up to the very last square of the beach where there was a couple of beach bar/restaurant and collapsed at the least pretentious bar we’ve seen. The setting was very simple, the food was nothing special but there were tons of tables directly on the beach and the sky blessed us with the most magnificent sunset I have ever seen in my life. Maybe I was a bit stoned by the jet-lag, but that sunset & Latin music played by the live band made my sad Ceasar salad taste nicer than it should have.

This is the picture that our lovely waitress took of us. As you can see by my hair and the position of my fat back, this photo is not staged and the sunset colours are not retouched. The waitress simply came to us showing her the picture she took by surprise because she thought we looked cute together. Despite my fat, I absolutely agree!

It got dark quite early, so after dinner, we just headed back to our accommodation and fell asleep like two rocks just shortly after 9pm.