28 August 2016

A holiday home

Hallooooo!!!

I can't believe it is time again for another weekly update. Time is flying past! We'll be September next week :o

Anyway, I'm going to keep this post very short as I don't have much to say anyway. I went home (Belgium) for 10 days to see friends and family and just enjoy time off of work. It's been 5months since I last went home. The longest time since I moved abroad. I have had a blast. Quick run down on how my week looked like:

Saturday 20th August morning at 7am, the train left from St Pancras to Brussel Zuid. Around noon I was home. In the afternoon I met up with my sister and we catched up until the evening. Sunday I've visited my grandpa and picked up my grandma as she was staying with us for the next week. We were back home in the afternoon and my other grandparents stopped by for tea and cake. Monday morning was quite chilled but my eldest friends stopped by in the evening to sit around a bonfire and eat marshmellows. Tuesday morning I had breakfast with my brother, which turned into a 5hour event and in the evening I met up with Mollibol to eat Mexican. Wednesday morning was chilled again, but in the evening I met up with my sis again to eat sushi. Yum. Thursday morning another chilled morning, but in the afternoon I left for Brussels to meet up with my friends from college. Friday afternoon I met up with another friend and in the evening we went out for dinner for my dad's birthday (last week) with the family.

Saturday and Sunday are for next week's post, but I'll mention them here anyway. Saturday evening my aunt, uncle and cousin came over for a barbecue and Sunday was, I think you can say, the highlight of my week. I've followed a discovery course for motorcycles. An introduction. Was really cool, but I'll talk about that more in next weeks post ;)

Here a few pictures I've taken whilst being in Leuven and Brussels before I met up with my friends or sister or whomever I was supposed to meet.

Leuven

This is the city hall in Leuven, build in 1433 I think.

The massive libary in Leuven as well.

Brussels

Smurfs, basically my childhood and now an animated movie series... Jeez, that makes me feel old oO





Old Market in Brussel

It was such a lovely week. So relaxing and calming. Everything a holiday should do. Just because you're not traveling, doesn't mean you can't enjoy your 'holiday', even if you're at home :)

And with those words, I'll leave you to it :)

Ap per usual, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

22 August 2016

Being fancy in Polesden Lacey... Maybe not so fancy x)

Halloooo!!

On 13th August I didn't stay in London, but I ventured out. To Polesden Lacey to be exact. My parents were in the neighborhood so we decided to meet up. On Sunday I headed to Edinburgh for a mini break, just because :)

Polesden Lacy was the party house of lady Margaret Grevill, daughter of a rich Scottisch brewer who had an affair with the house maid. Margaret was the result of this union. Although she was a 'bastard', her father always ensured she and her mother had a comfortable life, that she had the best education, etc. But as she had the status of 'bastard' she wouldn't be able to marry well in in the early 20th century, that was, unfortunately, still important for a woman. So her dad married her mum and Margaret met an agreable, wealthy man whom she married and lived happily ever after. -Ish.

WARNING this is a picture heavy blog post.

Being fancy at Polesden Lacey

Her husband and she had a town house in Mayfair, London, where they entertained friends, family and royality, but they wanted a smaller country house were people could come for the weekend, relax, party and generally have a good time. Polesden Lacey was the perfect candidate. It needed a little glamouring up (she hired the architects who designed the Rits in London). Near the end of her life, she wanted to give the house to the Royal family, more specifically to queen Elizabeth (queen Mum) and king George VI, but as they became king and queen unexpectant (surprise!), she decided to leave the place to the National Trust, as she did with her London town house.

The story speaks to the imagination. She was a socialite of her time (early 20th century), organising parties and entertaining and match making people. The interior is truly glamourous. Unfortunately a lot is still closed for public, but as of September a few new rooms on the first floor should be accessable to the public. And over the next few years more and more rooms will be opened up. I'd definitly like to go back :)



The view is absolutely stunning and we sat around for a while on the chairs provided by the National Trust. The we did the guided garden tour which was quite interesting and a nice way to explore the gardens. We had an afternoon tea, walked a bit more on the grounds and eventually ended the visit to the house by sitting a bit more in the garden chairs with our faces in the sun ^^ It was an incredibly relaxing day.



The main reason why I wanted to visit Polesden Lacey is because of Hannah and Stef, two YouTubers who have a son of nearly 3. I saw they've visited the house in one of the their vlogs and I just really wanted to visit it as well :)

Here are the two vlogs that gave me the inspiration:

 



Mini break to Edinburgh
Sunday morning at 8am I arrived at King's Cross to this:


A nearly empty train station. Something I had never seen before. As my train left at 9am (I was one hour early) I bought myself a coffee and apricot croissant and sat at a tafel with over view on the station below. Harry Potter and coffee, I couldn't have imagined a better start of the day.

As I was only staying one night, I was able to pack all the essential in my trusty old back pack of the North Face. Say again that women always pack too much to go on holiday.


I arrived in Edinburgh Waverley place around 1.30pm, a little too early to check in in my hotel, so I headed to the Royal Mile as I knew the Fringe, biggest free festival in UK (I think), was happening. August is a massive month for the city. As my two previous trips to Scotland were in June I always missed out on this big event. Well, not this year ;)

There were a few shows I actually really wanted to see, such as a play of the Chronicle of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ('Aslan is on the move') or an acapella group. But unfortunately I was only there for one night and those shows were on Monday evening and after. Bummer, again... Maybe next year?

This is Aslan


I had never seen the Royal Mile so busy though.

I made sure I had a tea at the recently discovered Starbucks in New Town with view on Edinburgh Castle.


And in the evening I made my way up on Carlton Hill to see the sunset over Edinburgh.

But I actually managed to snap this gem on the North Bridge on my way back to the hotel.

Monday morning I had breakfast in the Rabbie's Cafe (it doesn't always have to be Costa, Starbucks or Nero) and then made my way to Holyrood House. Before I went in, I sat for a couple of hours in front of the parliament, looking at people posing with the miniature Kelpies statues. I'm truly fascinated with them. I also saw two lines of clouds cross in mid air with the blue sky as the back drop... The sign of St Andrew's... The inspiration of the Scottish flag... I wasn't sure what to make of it so I just took a picture x)



Holyrood house was fabulous. Current home in Scotland of the queen and former home to Mary, queen of Scots. Lizy was in town at the beginning of July so the house (palace more like) was closed (how dare she?) so I couldn't visit it :( But yes for being able to visit it now. I highly recommend it!! You actually get to visit the chambers of Mary, queen of Scots, and if you don't know yet, I'm fascinated with her and her life.

I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside, so here are a few shots from the garden and exterior.




This is a picture I've taken when I was on the train on my way back to London, on Monday evening with this mind blowing sunset oO


The rest of the week was normal. Working all day, going home, eating, sleeping and repeating. Pretty boring, so I'll keep it on the travel stuff ;)

If you've made it this far, congrats! Thanks for reading (or looking at the pictures), I appreciate it :)

Thanks!
xo - Sara

13 August 2016

Lightsaber combat in the garden

Halloooooo!!

Saturday 6th August was a particular happy day. It ended with lightsaber combat in the garden. How cool is that? Sunday was spent relaxing in doors and then Monday the work week started again. Thursday evening I met up with some friends so the week passed by pretty quickly :)

Some of you might not know yet, but from February 2016 until June 2016 I followed a class called Ludosport. This is basically lightsaber combat. Yes, you've read that correctly, lightsaber combat. Lightsabers. Inspired by the things Jedi's fight with in the Star Wars universe. Anyway, the classmates turned out to be pretty chill and we started going to the pub after class. And then a Ludosocial and before you know it you're part of a somewhat weird group of friends. Age, gender, sexual orientation,... nobody cares. We're all there because we're all geeks in a certain degree ^^ I'm not claiming I've met friends for life, but it is a nice change to my solitairy life. I'm not going to lie :)

So Saturday 6th August we were invited for a barbecue at a friend's house. We were so lucky with the weather! It was sunny and warm. There were two beautiful labradors running around. We drank and talked and messed around with the garden hose. After dinner it was time to get the lightsabers out and start battling or chilling on the grass. It was such a blisfull afternoon and evening. Michelle and I were planning to leave around 8pm, maybe 8.30pm... Next time we checked the time it was 10.30pm. Oops. We did catch the last train back to London and from their each their way home.


Sunday I decided to just stay in and watch YouTube videos and movies. I knew the next couple of weekends were going to be busy so I took advantage of the "I have nothing planned" moments.

As said at the beginning of this post, I met up with some of the Ludosport people on Thursday evening. As it was in an arcade I was not comfortable turning up by myself. It is unlike me, as I'm usually not really fased about showing up somewhere by myself, but because it was in an arcade, a scene that is not my style, I was intimidated as hell. So I went to Harrods to meet up with Michelle from where we went to the arcade together.

At the arcade we sat around a few tables, chatting, drinking, not really deciding what to do. I was game for a game of bowling, but I was the only one x) It isn't exactly an exciting sport/game, but I can enjoy it every once in a while, even though I usually loose. We ended up going for a late dinner at the local Slug and Lettuce and ended up staying there until people started drifting off home again.


The arcade was near the London Eye, nearby the Big Ben. I couldn't not take any pictures of it. Below you can see the view on the Elizabeth Tower over the Thames as the evening went by. The first one was when I arrived. The second one was when we left for the Slug and Lettuce. And the last one was on the way to the bus stop. I don't think I'll ever get sick of that view.




Thursday morning I woke up with a Friday feeling which sucked. But Friday turned out not to be too bad. After work I joined my friend to St Pancras as she left for France for the weekend and I needed to be at the Platform9 3/4 shop as I wanted to buy a present for a friend. And any excuse to surround myself with Harry Potter items or fans alike is a good one ;)

And this is it for this week!
As always, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

7 August 2016

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child midnight book launch *squeals*

Hallooooo!!

I hope you are all doing splendid! I have had the most amazing weekend. And the only reason being: I attended a midnight launch of a Harry Potter book! Well, script... It wasn't the same experience as it probably would have been say 10 years ago, but it was a midnight launch non the less and I was stocked^^

My friend had send me a link earlier in the week to an event on Saturday, but I was a bit 'naaaah'. I'm not the biggest fan of large crowds anymore, so I kind of didn't pay any attention to any event announcements. But when Saturday 30th July came around, I of course, changed my mind. I might have pre ordered my book, but I wanted to attend a mid night launch. The majority of the midnight launches at Waterstones in centre town were ticketed events and were of course sold out, but thank god that Waterstones Tottenham Court Road organised Quidditch beerpong with free entrance and the meanfocus on adults. Kids were welcome, but because it was an event that actually served alcohol, it was less likely to attract kids and was therefore free. Just to double check, I called the store and sure enough, it was free. My friend agreed to accompany me. She is familiar with my squeals and funny noises when I get excited and enthousiastic about something and yet she still wants to be seen in public with me...x)






Sunday I stayed indoors. There was an event that basically blocked all the major street in London, so I was determined to avoid going into town or anywhere with the public transport.

Monday I picked up my own copy of the Cursed Child and I started reading immediately. By Thursday I'd finished the book and I loved it ^^ I also have tickets for the play! They're for next year, so I'll have to wait a while. But it's been 14 years so far, 1 year is not going to make a difference^^

This is what my Thursday morning looked like from 11am. By 12.30pm I had tickets.



Unfortunately the tickets for the 2017 production are now sold out as well.

I had a few early mornings during the week as well, so I had time to grap a coffee at Costa coffee or Nero cafe and read a bit before heading to the office.


Breakfast on Regent Street

I had a Skype call with my parents on Thursday evening and Friday evening was the leaving party of one of my colleagues. It was fancy dress and the theme was Back to School as she is returning to uni to complete her master degree. It wasn't a late night, but it was a fun one :)

And that is it for this week's update. The high light was definitely the midnight launch party of the 8th Harry Potter story and being able to read a new Harry Potter book (well, script).

Thanks for reading!^^
xo - Sara

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