New Blog Design! And Brighton adventures..

So I've decided to streamline my blog by adding pages along the top bar to separate out my posts, seeing as I blog about various topics. I'd love to know what you think!

I happened to come across an amazing blog designer on Twitter called Trisarahtops Smiles, who did me a swift re-design for £20!! I'm so happy with it - it's pretty much exactly what I wanted and she managed to work that out without much prompting from me either, which must either make her a psychic or a genius. Anyway, I would recommend you check her out - not only did she do a fab design, she also installed it for me too.

In other news, lately I've been doing a bit of travelling for work across the Country, which has enabled me to catch up with a few friends whilst I'm off the clock! Last week I covered Norwich,  Cambridge and London all over the space of four days so it was certainly an adventure. I also popped over to Brighton in between all of this for fun to see my friend Nansi, after I managed to get a cheap bus ticket on the National Express. We've been cooking up a madcap business idea that I hope to be sharing with you in the near future, which we're both very excited about. Hint; if you're a dog lover you might love this!

Anyway with business planning comes the need for creative prompts, and by creative prompts, I actually mean prosecco. We may have had some prosecco.

I helpfully forgot my ID and it turns out they ID check everyone in Brighton, so we slunk into a bar in the early evening with a lady on the door who took pity on me, and could clearly see I wasn't a teeny bopper trying to sneak in. I cheerfully ordered us a bottle of wine, and they looked a bit shocked to be honest (perhaps that doesn't happen often) and ushered us into our own booth.

Unfortunately, said bottle of wine turned out to be the worst thing we had ever tasted on earth to date, (here is me looking very sad about having to drink the offending article).

So this is where we decided to up our game and splash out on some bubbles. This practically in-sighted a fanfare from the staff, who asked us three times if we were sure we wanted it, and that we generally understood it was £35. We re-assured them repeatedly that we were okay with this, so they brought the much anticipated bubbles out with sparklers, which was good fun.

Anyway - one thing led to another and we may have accidentally ordered a third one. I can't help  but think that this decision may have affected the business planning talk somewhat.

Still, it's always nice to catch up with friends! Even if that does mean a slight headache the next day :)

Alice x

Kuala Lumpur - Unexpected Adventures

It's been quite a few weeks now since I returned from my little stint around Asia, and the all too familiar nostalgic sense of what already feels like some sort of past life carefree adventure has already piqued my deep set desire to explore the world even more. In other words, I'm itching to get out of here, but my worldly responsibilities and the voice of reason in my head reminding me that I have a tax bill to pay by the end of the month has thus far stopped me from booking some new flights. It's all far too easy when you know how to get them on the cheap! But enough about my desires for new adventures. I've yet to update properly on the last one!

Kuala Lumpur was only ever meant to be a three day stop, but it ended up being so much more. It was our crossover point between Singapore and Thailand that would be 'kind of nice to see' on the way to our island hopping adventures, but what I didn't realise when we were planning was just quite how much I would fall in love with Malaysia in such a short space of time. This has resulted in me promoting it to near the top of my travel list, in order to explore surrounding areas and Borneo too.

 We opted for an Airbnb and rented a really luxurious apartment in a condo, which barely cost us anything. One of the best things about it was its incredible view infinity pool, which was on my list of things to tick off as we traversed through a number of hotels across Asia.

Kuala Lumpur is a city undergoing a lot of regeneration, and never have I quite been in a place which looks so destitute on one street and so cosmopolitan on the next. We met a lovely man called Colin in (our new favourite) bar in Istanbul, who told us we needed to visit an Irish pub in KL called 'The Green Man'. He told us a story about the owner, a Scottish man who had been offered millions to give up the pub because they wanted to regenerate the area, but refused to budge. So effectively his little run down Irish bar was surrounded by swanky venues. It sounded perfect for us as we love little bars with character! More about this later.

The first thing that we discovered really was that the food in KL is incredible, if not a little too deep fried after a while. There aren't many vegetables in sight, but if you're only there for a few days a little indulgence isn't a bad thing! We stumbled across a restaurant called 'Opium' in a plethora of classy establishments along the lit up, newly renovated side of the city, and it ended up quite possibly being one of the best places we have ever eaten in. I'm never one to go into too much detail about food in writing, I believe you have to taste it to believe it, but you'll just have to take my word for it on this one. We ordered food of a Chinese/Malaysian fusion menu that just completely blew our little minds. Drinking beer out of a bowl also amused us greatly.

What followed this was probably some of the most 'random' and 'spontaneous' days of my life to date.  We started off by looking for this 'Green Man' establishment that Colin had told us about. We found it, but there was no sign of a Scottish man in sight, so we wandered further up the road to see what we could see.

Settling at a bar, I noticed there was a Scottish man sitting on a bar stool next to us and struck up a conversation. We'd come all this way, so I had to know if it was him! Turns out it wasn't, but he ended up telling us about his huge multi million pound water project that he was running for Shell. His name was George and he was such an interesting man, it ended up being one of those encounters that we'll probably never forget. He wiped our bar tab (despite my protests) and had the sambuca and rum on a constant supply from the bar whilst we chatted about our lives, his project, our lives in England, his family in Scotland, and his life in Malaysia. It was fascinating.

The next day, feeling a little worse for wear, we booked a tour to visit some of the local sights. Our tour guide took us to the Batu Caves, a local sacred beautiful temple. On the journey up the steps (which believe me, was not easy considering the amount of rum we had consumed the night before) we encountered quite a few monkeys, who were not shy creatures. One tried to steal my bag! We were warned that they were vicious and prone to attack, and I don't think I've ever run up so many steps that quickly before in my life.









Inside the Batu Caves, I felt really peaceful. Our tour guide really kindly took us to a few other temples on the way to our next stop, and the intricacy in their architecture was just completely stunning.





















Luckily we had a tour arranged for the evening, and met some much more friendly silver backed monkeys at that one who were more than happy to make friends in exchange for a banana or two.

Later that evening, we went on a boat ride alongside a river which was surrounded by fireflies. It was pretty magical!

The next day we visited a converted Helipad bar to try and catch the sunset. We missed it, sadly, but struck up a conversation with two really lovely people. Andrea was visiting her friend Souna from Chaing Mai, and Souna was a local who had lived in KL for the past 6 months. Our conversations ended in Souna offering to show us some local secrets, which we gladly took him up on! He took us to see some dancing lights and a water show in KL, and showed us a great spot in front of the absolutely stunning Twin Towers where we could get a picture.

By a stroke of complete luck and synchronicity, it turned out that one of my best friends from the UK and her brother had travelled to KL at the exact same time as us, on a pre adventure stop before moving to Australia for the year. We'd told them to meet us at The Green Man, and Souna and Andrea offered to walk us there. On the way, we bumped into a group of Irish people who were a bit lost and were heading a a bar right next to the Green Man, so we offered to walk with them. You can probably imagine what happened next. I'll blame it on being half Irish! Now this may be generalising, but it is widely known that the Irish, like the Scots, can really drink. The problem with KL, and equally the great thing about KL, is that the drinks are actually very reasonable. Having travelled from Singapore, where the drinks cost us the price of a small mortgage, we were really ready to take advantage of cheap beer. Julia and John joined us later and we ended up sharing travelling stories as a big group, laughing lots and just making some great new friends. They had to catch a flight at 6am the next morning - we were praying for them!

We never did find the Scottish owner of The Green Man, but thanks to Colin, we met some amazing people and created the best memories in Kuala Lumpur!

A Week in Singapore

It has always been on my dream travel list to go to Singapore. I had a friend at university who used to live there and seeing her photos was enough - but something about the small, relatively new little Country has always intrigued me. We managed to score plane tickets to Singapore (via Istanbul) and back from Bangkok for £490 each, which is unbelievably good, through the wonderful STA travel.

Singapore was therefore our first stop on our recent Asia 'tour' - we opted to spend almost a week there to recover from the jet lag and get our bearings properly. Because the Country is quite small, this allowed us plenty of time to get to know the different areas within it well. 

All I can say is - Singapore didn't disappoint. We spent the first few days exploring Chinatown, Little India, Downtown, and discovered the wonderful drinking district of Clarke Quay. We also met up with Trig's friend Theresa who lives out there (I swear he knows someone everywhere in the world!) who gave us a great local tour of street food places and took us to the best view in Singapore at the Sky Bar, and we visited the nicest little haunts. Local secrets are always great. I will say that Singapore isn't the cheapest, a few drinks in Clarke Quay can set you back a bit - roughly £9 a pint, but the atmosphere is great and if you can get past that, it's a great place to party. We saved money by drinking 2 for 1's during happy hour, between 8-10pm, although this seemed to vary right up till 2am in some places, which made it a little more bearable on the bank balance!

We learnt a lot about the way Singapore has been built and has become prosperous whilst we were there. You could really see the difference between the financial district, where Theresa informed us that the average wage was around 13k (£6000) per month, and in some of the poorer areas, where there was no minimum wage. We met a new friend in our favourite Chinatown bar (which had nothing to do with it being called 'Knobs and Knockers') who informed us that in many places in Singapore didn't have employment rights for the worker, which he knew from experience working on a market stall in Chinatown. Poverty seemed to be relatively hidden, but it seemed that there was a disparate and vast disconnection between the working class and the prosperous. It was interesting to glimpse at the two very different ends of the scale.

Another highlight was definitely the 'Alive' museum - which puts you in various different scenarios. We spent a really great afternoon here in fits of giggles.

We stayed in an Airbnb off the beaten track, which saved us lots of money, but wasn't easy to navigate around. We arrived late in the evening on our first night and google maps took us miles away from where we lived. Luckily a kind taxi driver rescued us 2 hours into our expedition, when we were on the brink of melting in the humid heat - (we British don't get any of that) and took us to the right place. Our airbnb host, Gwen, was absolutely lovely and had a beautiful home with a huge swimming pool, so we soon adapted! We then found some local eateries hidden off the beaten track, which although we were initially skeptical of, I think were much better than the main places we found in the city centre. It is certainly true that everything is very clean in SP, the fines were stern and people seemed to obey the rules. People also seemed ridiculously polite everywhere we went, too, which was really lovely.

We also visited Singapore Zoo. I never know how I really feel about zoos, though it seems to be the thing to do when you're in a new place. I felt that they did seem to really care about their animals, and had large open spaces for them to roam.  We had breakfast with the Orangutang's, and they seemed utterly unfazed around people. They also had a river safari which looked fantastic, but we had no time left to go!

On one of our last nights we took a visit up to Universal Studios in Singapore to see Halloween Horror Nights. This was absolutely amazing - with monsters and scary creatures roaming around a ghost town. People were hanging off buildings and zombies were roaming the streets. Halloween Horror Nights was split into 'zones' - from a scary clown house zone, to alien UFO abductors and scenes based on Horror movies, such as Bogeyman (complete with that all important never ending hanging clothes scene). There was a New York zone which was overrun by demons, a Forest of Disenchantment with the re-telling through screens of fairy tales with a twist, the characters are now trapped in their bad endings. We queued up for two hours to visit 'Jings Revenge' - an Asian horror themed haunted house, which takes place in a Chinese secondary school. I was jumping all over the place, Trig, however, was less easy to scare.

We opted to fly out a day later because there was a Queen tribute band at the Expo. It would have been Trig's dads birthday, it was also nearly the anniversary of his death, and his dad was probably the biggest Queen fan, so we thought it was fitting to stay. This was a really touching way to end our stay in Singapore. Though there may have been a tear shed or two we also found some fake moustaches, so all in all a great Saturday night!

Singapore, we will be back!

Have you been to this part of the world before? I would love to hear your stories!

Alice x

5 Reasons why I used to hate Christmas, and 5 reasons why I now love it

Merry Christmas!

It finally feels like the festive season! I know this because Trig and I managed to get our first Christmas tree up the other day in our flat and, within 24 hours the cat had smashed 80% of the glass baubles, all around the house. He'd hidden glass in some areas too. That was excellent.

I am being somewhat reflective this year. I have in the past been a bit of a yoyo when it comes to my feelings about Christmas, as a child, obviously, it filled me with excitement. My dad used to type up letters from Father Christmas at his work and post them through the door, and that to me was sheer evidence that he must exist, as who else in the world had a computer when I was five?

But into my teens and early 20's, there were a number of things that did used to bother me about Christmas.

1. You couldn't leave the house. No one was around and - dammit, and (God forbid) I'd have to spend time with my family and watch re runs of 'A Miracle on 34th Street'.

2. Jumpers. So many jumpers.

3. Seeing the scales and feeling guilty. Actually this one still gets me, but also the guilt that a large percentage of this world is currently starving, and I have just eaten my weight in cheese and crackers.

4. The whole extended family would come to our house on Boxing Day and there would be nowhere to run or hide, especially with a raging hangover.

5. Too many parties, too little time.

It's interesting now how the tables have turned. I genuinely do believe I might be becoming a grown up. Here's why;

1. My life is now so busy and I work a lot, so one day a year in 'housebound' mode is actually amazing.

2. We have no central heating in my flat, so, this year I actually asked for jumpers.

3. I have started to really care much less about what the scales say and more about how I feel. I do try to eat food that makes me feel good, and I'm more conscious nowadays about the nutrients I'm getting, but regardless I'll definitely be tucking into the mince pies this year.

4.  I miss those family get togethers. Took me years to realise that not everyone has their families travelling all the way to see them on Boxing Day, and now that it no longer happens. I rarely get to see them, I really really miss the yearly get together. Most importantly, now my Grandmother is older and less mobile and lives quite far away, it's so much harder to see her. I have realised that she is the linchpin that brings everyone else together, too. Food for thought.

5. All my friends who once lived in one place now live in separate parts of the Country, so once a year it's really really great to get together and be festive. Though this year, I'm attempting to do so without drinking alcohol. Lemonade can be just as fun as cava, right? Hmm.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Alice's Adventures in Istanbul

Hello,

I have been very much enjoying a month away - which means I have so much blogging to do now! My plan was to blog on the move but unfortunately my tablet helpfully self destructed, which means I now have a LOT of catching up to do.

Our first stop on our travels was Istanbul. I had heard so much about Turkey and the capital before I went, including that it was listed as one of the most beautiful places in the world. What started out as a brief stop off on our way to Singapore, actually ended up being a highlight of our trip away.

We stayed for three nights in the little district of Taxsim, which just so happened to also be the modern end of the city and its party central to boot. We opted for an Airbnb, and stayed with a lovely man called Melik and his girlfriend, who made us feel really welcome and included unlimited free tea! There are lots of cafes and bars around Taxsim square, and the area really comes alive at night. We found  solace in a little Irish bar called U2 (we didn't judge based on the name) whilst lost looking for our Airbnb, and ended up subsequently spending most of our evenings there. The bar owner was a lovely friendly Turkish man called Leo, who bought us stuffed mussels, local street food, and kept us stocked up with bar snacks. Leo generally gave us a great insight into what it was like to live in the city, and by the end of the three days we were all good friends, he even invited us back to stay with him whenever we wanted to! We also met lots of friendly Irish people, almost all of which seemed to have somehow originated from Tipperary (the same place as my Grandparents). It really is a small world.

Central Istanbul has so much to offer, including the Grand Bazaar in Sultanahmet, the Blue Mosque and the Spice Bazaar to name a few. I was really in awe of the buildings and architecture. You can do some serious shopping there too, which tons of knock off brands if that's your kind of thing, particularly around the Grand Bazaar area. Trig hated the Grand Bazaar as he said it was just full of bags and jewellery, which is conversely my idea of heaven, so we had to agree to disagree. It is absolutely huge, and to step into a side alley can easily mean hours of being lost. This reminded me a bit of the souks in Marrakech to me with the bartering and trading,  although it did seem slightly more structured. Although the drinks prices were similar to the UK, everything else seemed to be a lot cheaper and quite flexible, we found that with the exception of bars and restaurants, there often wasn't a fixed price for anything.

We really wanted to catch a Turkish show on one of our evenings but couldn't manage it. I was also very disappointed that we didn't make it to the Turkish baths! However if there's one thing I won't miss out on, that is sampling the local cuisine, and I have to admit doing so turned the whole concept of kebabs (pronounced 'kebabs' there) on its head for me. If you buy a kebab in the UK, it's usually because its 3am and you've had a heavy night drinking, followed by waking up by a greasy wrapper and a feeling of deep regret in the pit of your stomach. Not so in Istanbul. We had some amazing grilled food with incredible seasoning, which I think may have been some of the best food of the whole holiday for me!

Istanbul was just intended to be a short stop over for a few nights, that we took because it was on the way to Asia, and not necessarily to visit in its own right. However after spending the few days there, I did fall for the charm of the city and would now quite happily go back and visit Leo, do some budget shopping and eat some amazing 'kebaps' again in a heartbeat!

Alice x

5 Autumn Favourites

I absolutely love the colours that come with autumn, and the rich, earthy tones that you get to play with when the leaves hit the ground. This year, I am trying to stop myself from making too many seasonal purchases, as I'm off to sunnier climates in Asia for a month this week, so when I return we'll practically be into winter! However below are my top 5 picks for the autumn season that still carry over into winter, too.

1. Pencil Kimono Dress - Asos £42.00 - I love this dress and I always associate this sort of green with autumn. It's one of my best colours with my pale skin and red hair so I was all over this on Asos! This is a perfect work to evening dress, which can be quite versatile depending on how you dress it up or down.


2. JF Alex Boots, JustFab, £28 - Every girl needs a good pair of boots, especially at this time of year! I find it hard to find good flat boots (especially with my gigantic feet) so I need a bit of a heel that is still easy to move about in, and I feel most comfortable in this kind of style. For you UK girls, Justfab are doing two pairs of shoes for £35 at the minute too. Bargain!

3. Rimmel Kate Lipstick in #1. £5.49 Dark red is perfect for autumn, and this rich hued lipstick doesn't break the bank, but delivers a great lasting colour nonetheless. Plus if it's good enough for Kate..

4. Smashbox Fade to Black Photo Op Palette £21 - £59 (found on Ebay and Amazon). After initially lusting after Tom Ford Fall Quad Palette in Nude, and then realising it was out of my price range, I actually really fell in love with Smashbox whilst searching for an alternative. I love mixing the darker hues and rich shades with the autumn brown colours of this palette - this is a real day to night toolbox.

5. June Jacobs Pumpkin Peeling Enzyme Mask £24 (found on Ebay, around £50 found elsewhere online) This is a lovely seasonal mask and I've heard rave reviews about it, so I'm currently eagerly awaiting it's arrival at my door! According to its description, this mask uses Pumpkin Enzyme to essentially digest dead surface cells (not the nicest process I'm sure) which in turn stimulates new cells. Pumpkin is rich in essential fatty acids, and Vitamins A and C. Plus I love the smell of pumpkin, it reminds me of fun times giggling around bonfires and carving ghoulish shapes with my best friends.

What's your favourite thing about Autumn?

Review: Lush Haul!

I remember the first time I wandered into Lush, by accident, perhaps about 10 years ago now. I was in a different city, so I was already in explorer mode, on the look out for new exciting finds. I remember walking down the stairs into what felt like a strange magical cave like place, filled with an apothecary of rich and interesting flavours and scents. From that point on, I was hooked.

Sometimes, the strongest memories are linked to your sense of smell. It was when I walked past our local Lush base the other day and a familiar lavender scent hit me, that this memory came back, of a wide eyed younger me walking out of that Lush shop, clutching a selection of bath bombs with a big smile on my face. I felt all tingly, like I'd just stepped out of the shower. Lush has since been a great form of escape and retail therapy for me, because I know I'm investing in all natural, ethical products, and also in some much deserved chill out time. It's a small luxury, but you could spend your money on a lot worse than natural products that fill your bathroom cabinets and make the house smell nice.  Lush employ a clever marketing technique that most businesses don't tap into, by using your sense of smell in such a way that it physically lures you into their shop. Personally though, I'm glad that they do.

It's been a while since I treated myself to a few bits from Lush, but I have to say I'm really impressed with some of their newer products. This off the cuff visit resulted in about a £40 spend, but all has since been put to good use!

1. Light Pink : I have tried this once before and absolutely loved it, because I'm a pink toned redhead that can NEVER find a foundation that doesn't somehow always turn me slightly orange or look a little mismatched. This works for me because I am so pale, and allows me to wear foundation in the daytime that is a bit lighter and doesn't weigh my skin down. It works really well when you mix it with your foundation, for those days when you don't need much and you want a bit more of a healthy glow :)

2. Movis - A cleanser made of wholemeal bread? I didn't understand it myself, but apparently this sweet little bar includes wheatgerm oil, hop oil, and cocoa butter to soften. It lathers up very nicely and leaves my skin feeling really clean, although occasionally it has left it feeling every so slightly dry too.

3. Avocado Bath Bomb - As I touched on above, I have to be really careful when I walk into Lush, so as not to walk out with a whole basket full of bath bombs. Considering I've recently moved into a flat which doesn't even have a bath (sob) these can only be used when visiting my parents anyway, so I went for a moisturising, fizzy avocado bomb. This was lovely and did the trick. You appreciate it more when you don't get to soak as much!

4. Charity Pot - This was only £1 towards a good cause, and with winter fast approaching chapped lips are no fun. This has been living quite happily in my handbag. Bargain!

5. Feeling Younger - This was my favourite finds and reminds me of Benefit's Moon Beam. It achieves a similar effect, except it makes me feel a bit smug because it's a fraction of the price (and I know it hasn't been tested on animals). I've found that applying it before foundation under the eyes deflects my dark circles, especially after a late night. I also discovered that applying a thin line straight down the nose under makeup makes the nose appear straighter (blend though, obviously, or you'll just have a white streak!) I have been using this everyday since my purchase.

6. Brazened Honey - Aahh, I do love a good natural face mask. This mask is designed to wake up and stimulate, with a mixture of fennel, ginger root, coriander, parsley, juniperberry, rosemary, lime juice, honey, you name it, all the invigorating ingredients you can think of have been condensed into this little pot. I love the fact that if you bring several empties back you get a free one, too. I'm all for making your own face masks, but Lush face masks really do feel very well put together. I like the way they put a name to the person who has made your pot that day. I like to imagine that that is a really fun job, and that Lush employees get to stand over a huge cool vat (like a big chemistry experiment) throwing in a concoction of natural ingredients and mushing them all up. I really don't think for the price that they charge (about £5) that it would be much cheaper to make yourself, so I think it's a justifiable treat every now and again!

Are you a fan of Lush? What are your favourite products?