WONDERLAND - New Year in London

I hope you guys all had a fab start to the year... Cos I certainly did!

Me and my boyf (Sam) decided that we'd start the new year off in my fave city (haven't been to many cities to be fair though)... LONDON!!! This did come with a price unfortunately, as we stupidly decided to travel up on New Years Day, which meant that of course I'd be nursing a hangover - a real bad one as well :( 

However, we were travelling up in first class, so it could've been a lot worse! 

We stayed in a Travelodge in the Kings Cross area, which indeed meant we could see platform 9 and 3/4's?! Anywho, we got up to an awful lot, so I'm not going to go into great detail; I'll just leave you with a brief overview, and a bunch of pictures - I'll also suggest if anything is worth going to.

DAY 1:

- travel up in first class on the train

- check into the hotel

- get tube to Westminster

- see Houses of Parliament, fancy buildings and Buckingham Palace

...have tea with the queen....

- go to Hyde Park to go to... WINTER WONDERLAND?!?! Coolest place to go to! I recommend everyone to go to this around Christmas, it's so magical, and what's even better is that it's free entry! I do suggest that if you want to go ice-skating, ice-bar... All that jazz, book online first as the que to buy tickets is pretty hefty!

DAY 2:

- go shopping

- literally shop 'til you drop... My feet D:

- chill in hotel until you feel more human

- make reservations in the only available place you can think of - Maxwell's in Covent Garden, which I highly recommend for their cowboy beans, those things were incredible! Our dinner was ruined a little by some right snobby customers sat behind us. They complained about the silliest things, and although I do like to earwig, they complained far too much for me and Sam to properly talk and fully enjoy the meal.

- Explore again! You might realise that a lot of my pictures are taken in the night, this is because London is so much quieter at night, and so it's easier to look a specific things! That night me and Sam followed our feet with no specific sense of direction, however we saw some really cool things! We ended up in Somerset house, trying to get tickets for ice-skating, but there wasn't any spaces :(, we then went to Southbank, saw where This Morning is filmed (I had a bit of a fangirl moment), we then walked across the funky looking bridge that's in one of the Harry Potter films, pondered outside St Pauls cathedral, and then made our way to the tube back to the hotel.

DAY 3 - THE LAST DAY :(((

- Pack and check-out of hotel

- Go to Paddington to leave luggage

- Go to Natural History Museum - surprisingly, I don't recommend going here if there is a massive que. It was pretty boring, apart from the dinosaurs, which we only saw a couple due to the other massive que to view the proper dinosaur section. Although it would've been cool to see, me and Sam had already qued to get in for an hour in the pouring rain, so to que up again was a big no-no!

- Go to the Science Museum located next door. Out of the two, I definitely recommend this museum!! If you only have time to check out one museum, definitely go here, there usually isn't as big of a que, and it is far more interesting and interactive.

- Go to Harrods, obviously! Harrods is one of those places that you visit, so that you can tell your mates that you've been. Totally cool, but leaves you feeling incredibly skint... I mean there was a TV going for over £17,000?! Me and Sam were stood there like wuuuut, and then a woman came over asking if we needed any help.... Errrr yes please, can you give me money so I can actually buy something here? Lol

- Go back to Paddington, get luggage and get a maccy's duhhhh

- Hop on board to first class, and eat your maccy's like a queen.

Still with me? Cos that's all folks!

If you read this whole post then you are an absolute legend - extra brownie points for you!

Thanks for reading, let me know if you agree/disagree with any of my opinions, and tell me if there's any other cool places in London to visit for my next trip up!

Cheerio!

@xo_chelseey

WONDERLAND - OOTD & A Yummy Trip

Hello m'lovelies, this blog post may not be that spectacular. I may be a tad bit stressed because I just spent an hour writing this post, but the weather took a bad turn which in turn slowed down my internet, and the worst possible thing happened. I. Lost. All. My. Work.

Now, you might be sat there thinking 'Chelsey, why didn't you save your work you numpty' - oh trust me, I bloody well tried! I guess I shouldn't dwell on the past... Stupid goddam internet, losing all my goddam work that I spent a whole goddam hour on... and get cracking again...

Before all this stress, I did have a lovely day with my famalam (that's family to all you unfamiliar to my weird terms). Previously this week, quite a lot of exciting things have happened; my mums birthday (Wednesday) and my AS level results (Thursday), so we thought why not celebrate by treating ourselves to something delicious. Therefore, instead of eating out in Morrisons Cafe after our weekly food shop, we decided to be a bit more adventurous and go to the Seco Lounge in the Royal William Yard, Plymouth.

For this somewhat 'special' occasion, I thought I'd dress up just a tad - here's what I wore:

Sunglasses - River Island (in the sale)

Necklace - H&M (again, in the sale - sorry)

Sweet-heart neckline jumpsuit - Fearne Cotton for Littlewoods (another sale item, what can I say? Girl loves her sales!)

Denim jacket - Hollister

Chunky sandals - New Look

Here are some, really quite awful but I'm learning, splendid shots of the Royal William Yard in all it's glory. Do not be fooled by the blue skies though, it was rather chilly - typical British weather, it's always so deceiving:

Okay guys, get ready for some super scrummy food pics:

I ordered myself a 'Sherbet Lemonade', something new that I'd never had before. However, I had tasted this before... in sweet form. It tasted exactly like the lemon sherbet sweets - extremely sour, but also refreshing. It definitely made me more awake this morning/early afternoon.

My lunch: 'Lounge Eggs' - this consisted of two poached eggs on two English muffins, covered in hollandaise sauce and served with mushrooms. Yup, I scoffed the whole thing #noregrets (and yes, I did just hashtag and ironically, I'm kind of regretting it...)

Duhhh, of course I had to get dessert. I got the 'Raspberry Frangipane Tart' served with vanilla ice cream, and oh. my. god. Just yum.

Overall, the Seco Lounge was a delightful experience! The atmosphere was so chilled, despite the bustle of the busy environment. It was so chilled and relaxed in fact, that the staff didn't wear a uniform! Now, this wasn't a problem for me, however it was hard to distinguish who worked there or not, especially as it was so busy. The food was lush, and there was so much variety! It took us ages to choose (which is not a bad thing, it just shows how good the menu is) - even my grandad had a tough time to decide which meal he was going to have, and that's saying something as he is such a fussy eater!

I urge anyone - if you are in the Plymouth area - to visit the Seco Lounge, as it isn't too bad for price and is worth every penny! However, if the Seco Lounge (for some absurd reason) doesn't tickle your fancy, please go to the Royal William Yard for a stroll around, it's absolutely beautiful and there are loads and loads of other dining options. For example, there is a fresh bakery where you can sit down and eat, Wagamamas (we all know what that is, surely), a River Cottage canteen (serving local food, mainly fishy), there's an Italian and a French restaurant also... Ooo and Las Iguanas - I think that is what it is called. Trust me, there are a lot of options!

Well, that is it from me. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Have you ever been to one of the 'Lounges' that are dotted across the UK? If so, how was your experience? Also, I would love to hear if you have any suggestions on good places to eat around the South West area. Thank-you so much for reading :)

Cheerio x

Twitter: @xo_chelseey