A Summer Summary

I've been on summer now for several weeks, don't ask me exactly how long, for I could not tell you, all the weeks merge together after a while! As I woke up nice and early again because of the natural light that brightens up my room until I'd basically be experiencing the same brightness as outside, I realised that I hadn't done a blog post in quite a while. This isn't that I haven't done anything interesting, quite the opposite actually, I've been more busy than, quite frankly, ever before! 

I thought I'd do a nice summer summary (try saying that with a lisp, sorry) to fill in all the missing days and all the fun things I got up to whilst the sun was still shining and the kids were still at school! 

The week after Kew Gardens, my friends and I had organised my other friends birthday surprise to the zoo! This was such a fun day, she didn't suspect a thing and we were able to do everything we'd planned. We went to London zoo and wandered around there for a few hours having a picnic and gawping at the cuteness of the Penguins and goats (yes, they have goats at a zoo!). 

After the zoo, we went on the pedalos in Regent's Park. We took out 2 pedalos with 2 people in each and just had a lovely pedal around the lake, feeding the birds the leftover sausages and praying that they won't all die from overfeeding and not very nice gristly  cocktail sausages! 

After that we made our way to heaven on earth, otherwise known as GBK! It was a lovely way to finish the day, having a long catch up about everything, which hadn't happened in a rather long time! 

This summer I also went bowling. Twice. Once with a group of guys from my new hometown (Sevenoaks) which was interesting...but fun. And another time with my friend. 

I've been to a lovely deer park in Sevenoaks, knole park where I climbed trees and dubbed the deers #squadgoals because obviously that's what normal adults do! 

I went on a lovely day out with my friends in westerham where we had a delicious pub lunch and soaked up the incredible sun which had graced us that perfect day! Following that we went for a walk in the country, a very British day, one may say! 

I've also had a work barbecue this summer which was a lot of fun but ended in a bit of disaster! The barbecue was lovely, but being locked out of your house at 12:30 at night having decided that actually rescuing a stray dog was more important than clubbing, was not the highlight of my summer! But it all makes for a good memory! 

Then this week I went to bluewater shopping centre with one of my friends, picking up some dungarees for, I kid you not, £10 in Topshop! We had a curry in wagas at 11:30 in the morning and a Krispy Kreme (in a gift tin of course) to help it go down! 

I went to visit my nan who isn't too well at the moment and had a lovely day playing cards and eating a roast, the typical grandparents kind of day! 

I've had a couple of chill days with some of my best friends watching films and eating good (other than the pizza I made) food! 

Yesterday I spent the day making a cheesecake with lotus biscuits, quite possibly the best biscuits in the world, and watching both Inbetweeners films! 

Summer has been rather magnificent so far! I've loved spending so much time with friends and family and being able to go out and do things with so much freedom! Even if the day is bad, weather-wise, you can still have a blast! 

I hope you all have tremendous summers too, I'd love to hear about them! 

Fran x

A Night in London

So a couple of weeks ago my mum proposed that we have an evening in London because she was scheduled to work up there.  Of course, having lived near London most of my life, I've never stayed in London before, just travelled up for the day. So I said yes! 

We hopped on the train with far too much clothing and toiletries around 2pm and headed to the hotel to dump our bags. 

Once we had, we went to Covent Garden and seven dials, window shopping and (I was, anyway) admiring cute coffee shops and restaurants. After (literally) hours of deliberating, we concluded that the best option for dinner would be Carluccios. And let me tell you, I had probably the best 3 course meal ever! I adore Antonio Carluccio as a person, his two greedy Italian series with Gennaro Contaldo remains to this day one of my most favourite series ever! 

I ate for a starter/primi, bruschetta with tomato and rocket, for my main/secondi I had ravioli with spinach and ricotta with butter. And for dessert I had vanilla cream with caramel apples, caramel sauce and hazelnut meringue biscuits! This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted! Try it if you ever find yourself in Carluccios!

After this we strolled back to the hotel completely satisfied, and joked about clubbing or going to the casinos in Leicester Square etc (I hate that sort of thing). 

In the morning we had the most tremendous breakfast to wake up to. A buffet was laid out by the hotel which included: full English, pancakes, pastries, fruit, smoothies etc and everything on that list I ate, no joke! Buffets are not a good thing for me, I need to try everything no matter what! 

One amusing thing I found that morning was an American guest asking about  black pudding, with the chef explaining it was sheeps bladder, to which she replied 'are you joking?'. 

After this, we went our separate ways, me, for a walk in the park, and my mum to work. With exams fast approaching I really should be dedicating most of my time to working. But with such a sunny day, I wandered for a while in the area (in a couple of shops) and then jumped on the tube to Covent Garden where I found the loveliest cafe called 'The department of coffee and social affairs' where I actually did some work! 

After this I stumbled, ever so gracefully upon Kate Spade (oh dear) and ever so gracefully left with a pair of boots (very much oh dear) which I adore. In fact everything about Kate Spade I adore, I'm not a massive lover of bright colours, but I feel converted after seeing the flamingo print bag and hot pink purses! 

After this I had a costa (thankfully free due to my Costa card) and headed home, very content with a lovely night in London! 

Fran x

Berlin by Pictures

I can't believe it's been about 2 weeks since Berlin, time flies! I've finally mustered up the energy to write this blog post, although write would be strictly untrue. I took my dads camera with me to Berlin which is a better quality than my phone and so I thought, instead of talking you through every aspect of my 4 days in Berlin, I would just show you the pictures and do a couple of captions for some places which you may not know of. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Berlin, I felt that not only has it aided me in understanding my history course more, it was a great bonding trip for me and my friends (cheesy, I know) because we spent 24 hours a day for 4 days with each other. But anyway, here we go, before I write a massively long blog post unintentionally.

The Berlin Wall

My faves

Lovely Lauren

Street Style

Street Style

Holocaust Memorial

Memorial for Gypsy victims in holocaust

BURGERS

Best ice cream ever!

The Reichstag

The Olympic Stadium

This picture really stood out to me, it was taken by the girl on the left's boyfriend. Both of the girls were Jewish and a couple of weeks following this, they were both executed in Auschwitz, and the photo was donated  by the girl's boyfriend.

The cutest café in the Jewish museum.

Fran x

Friday Bakes: Classic Cookies

 Normally on Friday's I like to do my Tea Time Talks, bringing together all the happenings of the week into a nice little bundle of words. But because this week has been a standard school, work (I started Wednesday) and an overall not-very-interesting week, I thought I would save you from the repetition and do a recipe post instead (much more interesting, if I do say so myself!).
These cookies are possibly one of my all time favourite treats. I've made them once before and was told they tasted a bit like the waitrose cookies, which is a massive compliment (I think) because I adore waitrose and anything they produce! They're really simple little cookies which don't require much ingredients or much time, making them perfect for if you have a sudden sweet craving or feel the need to whip up a batch of cookies for whatever reason. Furthermore, they solidify very well, making them great for tea dunking - which of course is what everyone worries about when they make cookies! They don't involve any chocolate or any overly unhealthy ingredients, but I would definitely not class these as healthy, mainly due to the fact that after one you will most likely be working your way through the rest of them!
These are such a safe option to go with for a little gift or if you have guests, with just a vanilla flavour and being so buttery and delicious, the majority of  people will love them.
So here we go...

INGREDIENTS:

• 140g Caster Sugar 
• 250g butter 
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk 
• 300g plain flour 

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees celcius
2. Blend the Caster sugar and butter together until combined and fluffy 
3. Pour in the egg yolk and vanilla extract, then stir. 
4. Next, sift in the flour to the mixture and combine to form a dough 
5. Line your baking tray with baking paper
6. Place dessert spoon sized portions of the dough onto the tray, and gently push down with a fork 
7. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, making sure they do not turn golden brown, but are relatively firm yet still a little squidgy. 
8. Take them out and let them cool for about 5 minutes, then enjoy! 

Left: Before oven Right:After oven

I hope you all have tremendous weeks that are filled with happiness and cookies (one in the same, really) and thank you for reading my post!

Fran x