My time in London officially came to an end this week. After a Pancake Day feast of chocolate, honeycomb and ice cream crepes (you HAVE to try this), I packed my bags and said arrivederci to London. For a while, anyway.
I wanted to go home for a couple of reasons – to prepare myself for Italy, to save money and honestly, to eat and drink less! The constant going out, drinking in the pub and overall lack of the gym (sorry, I don’t believe Insanity does make you burn 1500 calories +, well it may have done, I think I just ate enough to feed a small army when I did a work out. Justified, right?!) has really taken its toll so I had the intention to avoid all temptation this week. And I did very well, until Bath at the weekend! In fact, I hadn’t gone out to eat ONCE, I had a lot of friends over and was invited over for ANOTHER evening of pancakes – who said it just needs to be on Shrove Tuesday?!
While at home, I’ve done a lot of TV watching – I do kind of feel my brain being sapped off intellect with some of the mindless atrocities I’ve been watching, I mean I managed to sit through, and enjoy programmes about Strippers, Ladyboys and multiple dating shows. Oh boy, I need to get to Italy and fast! But it hasn’t all been mindless, I looked into my financials, have delved deeper into the world of pop ups and supper clubs, so watch out for these developments upon my return from Italy as it’s looking more and more likely.
Bath was great, I love it’s stone architecture, underground world of restaurants and clubs and beautiful greenery. It’s always been one of my favourite places. Despite this, I’ve never really considered it as a location for MYO, so this weekend offered me a perfect opportunity to scope it out. Although I can see MYO’s trendy concept working in Bath, I think for a first venture it’s not quite right. The city seems to be over-run by chains, implying that the overheads and rent are quite high, so not ideal for a start-up. Anyway, it did introduce me to La Perla, a cute Spanish restaurant which served an awesome range of Spanish delights. You can read the review here. It also saw me lose at crazy golf and croquet (despite him never playing before) to Andrew. Not a great weekend on the winning stakes!
Today’s weather was amazing! It felt almost like summer, with a slight chilly breeze. I had my first picnic of the year, albeit it being on a bench because the previously flooded field was too muddy. I then watched England – Wales play rugby and AGAIN Andrew won, betting that England would win by a margin of 11 – 15, resulting in him winning a grand total of £7, which he nicely donated to me. My little sister came back from university for the weekend so we went to our grandparents for dinner. This is never a small affair but tonight nearly killed me. After a main course of roast beef with all the trimmings, Grandma as usual excelled herself with banoffee pie, etons mess and jelly. I had 3 portions, only to find that a birthday cake and champagne was soon to follow (damn it, how could I have forgotten that a birthday usually meant cake). So, I had to have some – it’s rude not to have birthday cake after all, or is this just my theory?! And then, as if we needed any more food – out came the celebrations. Oh boy.
So, what’s on the cards this week? Most importantly, Italia! I go on Thursday – first stop, Palermo – Sicily. I’m beginning to get that half nervous-half excited thudding feeling in my chest. So, I’ll be busy packing, saying my goodbyes and preparing for my big trip
Next time I write, I’ll be in Italy! Oh, and I’m also going to be recording some travel videos (Cringe) so look forward to those!
Ciao!