life in london | productive days finding work life balance, shopping in spitalfields, winter recipes

It's a wonderful day. The sun is actually out and I'm getting ready to go to the office. So let's go for it. Perfect. I'm gonna keep my makeup so super simple. I'm just gonna go with my Merit blush. I've actually been recently enjoying the color Mood. It's quite like a deep like purple aubergine but it's really really nice and I put it on my lips as well and my cheeks. And to be completely honest that's the only that's the only product I'm gonna use. I already have some concealer on. You know I love minimal makeup because I'm lazy. I'm really looking forward to go to the office today because I haven't been for a while. So it's always good to get out every now and then you know. I work from home most of the time so going to the office is usually a treat. And I'm also thinking about what to get for lunch. I feel like every time I go into the city I kind of want to treat myself to a nice lunch as well because I usually obviously make my lunches at home. So quite nice to try something new. And I might go to the thing it's called the Salad Project. I've seen lots of Instagram girlies go there and I'm kind of influenced to be honest. I want to try it out. I love salads so I feel like that's gonna be up my alley. This is all I'm gonna do for makeup. I'm kind of keeping it really simple. I do have to brush my hair but I can't find my brush right now so I need to fix that but I also need to hurry a little bit. I have to catch the overground and if you live in London you know that the overground doesn't come too often. It comes like every 15 minutes which for Londoners is already quite a long wait if you miss it. So I have to time it well. So let's go. I'm just quickly going to get a sandwich. I'm so hungry. I never pack enough food when I go to the office so I just need to quickly get a meal. It's like 10 30. I didn't even make it to lunch. I'm on my lunch break now. I'm so quite full for my sandwich so I'm just gonna hit up the shops. I want to browse. There's a cardigan I want to buy from cost so let's see if they have my size in stock. I think I'm gonna pick up a salad later at like two or three when I'm hungrier. So let's go. It's so cold. There it is. Okay this is it in extra small. I think small will be better but they only have medium. So cute. Okay unexpected but I love it. So cute. I didn't end up buying the cardigan because like medium was a bit too large and extra small was a bit too small. So I'm just gonna order online. It's a bit of a hurricane. I'm in one of these we work little boxes for calls and the light is shining in my face as you can see and you can't turn it off. It's very unfortunate but we crack on. On the way to get my salad. I'm absolutely starving. I'm so excited. It's actually quite interesting how it works. My little salad was just in a little window and I guess because we just take it but I didn't have to like speak to anyone or show like a confirmation that that's mine but you know we're trust based. Sorry if my voice sounds a bit strange. I'm not quite sure what's going on. I'm a bit under the weather I would say since I came back from New York. I can't really seem to shake it off but it's also not like fully developing into actually being ill so yeah I'm just kind of in between but I had to make myself a second coffee even though it's only like 9 30 but I'm also really tired so I really need some extra extra caffeine today and I'm also really excited to work from home today. It was good to get out and and see the city again and kind of work around people you know because I'm usually by myself so it's quite nice to have some company even though I'm just in WeWork. It does kind of help having people around you and speaking of having people around I might go to a coffee shop later. I just kind of want to see how it goes for us working from home because sometimes I'm really productive working from home so I'm just kind of waiting to see if today is a day like that. Another reason why I'm tired I've been writing quite late yesterday. I'm kind of working on my little newsletter project you know I've been talking about it for a while. It must be so boring to you because there's nothing you can actually read but I promise you it will be with you very soon. It's gonna be free so I'd be really excited if you guys take a look. Yeah for now I've been kind of diving back into my personal and creative writing which has been so fun and at this point I would like to thank today's sponsor which is Skillshare and if you haven't heard of Skillshare before Skillshare is one of the largest learning communities for creatives. They offer thousands of classes across marketing, photography, illustrations, writing, there's really something for everyone on there. What I really love about Skillshare is that all the classes are led by creatives for creatives and you can really tell that the classes have been based on real life experience which I really appreciate and I've been taking a class on Skillshare about story writing which has been really inspiring to me and it's called Creative Writing Crafting Personal Essays with Impact by Roxane Gay and it's all about turning your personal stories into impactful essays and it's really more a hands-on experience encouraging you to write as you learn which I love because the only way to improve your writing is to actually write. What I also find really lovely is that Skillshare is celebrating gratitude in November and it's all about reflecting on how creativity brings us joy which I absolutely love. Getting back into my personal writing has definitely brought lots of fulfillment for me. It was satisfying to write what I want as opposed to sort of getting paid to write what others would like me to write about. If you've been wanting to explore a new skill now is a great time to do so and the first 500 people who click the link in my description box get one month of Skillshare for free which is so exciting and thank you again to Skillshare for sponsoring this part of the video. If you do end up taking a class on Skillshare I would love to know which one you're taking and what you're learning and if you can recommend one. I'm always looking for classes sort of in the creative field and particularly in writing so if there's anything that sort of sparks your interest or if there's a class that you took and really liked please share. That being said unfortunately I have to go back into the writing that I am paid to do which is my job so cheers. I'm gonna drink this coffee, work for a few more hours and then we're gonna assess if we're going to the coffee shop or not. Made it out, decided to go to the coffee shop to get some fresh air and just to get out the house. I felt like I needed it in the end so let's go have a second coffee. I changed my coffee order to Cortado's and it's honestly been life-changing even though I feel like the double shot of espresso sometimes is a bit much but it tastes really good and I like the little small cup. I'm absolutely starving and I'm making this bean veg stew with halloumi which is so so nice. I'm gonna link it in my description box if you wanna check it out. I usually go on BBC food and get some food inspo and my boyfriend and I were also sort of switching with cooking and today is my day and that recipe has been very much in our weekly rotation so I can highly recommend. Usually I just really crave something like comforting and warm but so like satisfying so it needs like some protein in there. I find cooking quite like relaxing and comforting as well to be honest, just like chopping stuff up. I listen to my little podcast and yeah and then I just kind of try to relax so let's get cooking. I was in calls all morning and I'm honestly exhausted and it's like 12 30 so that's great, love that for me. I'm also on my lunch break and I'm starving. I didn't really eat anything this morning because I was kind of rushing and prepping for my meetings and then I had meetings all all morning so I couldn't really eat on camera obviously so yeah I'm really hungry and I'm really craving a cheese toastie which is one of my favorite lunch things to make. I think it's like on the same level as my tuna toasties I like to make but I don't have any bread so we're gonna go out get some nice sourdough bread, get some fresh air, get a little walk in and then we'll make a nice toastie. I'm back and I got a big loaf of sourdough so let's make the sandwich. I'm actually in a bit of a rush because I have another call in 10 minutes so we need to do this quickly and the key to a good cheese sandwich in my opinion is good bread obviously, nice sourdough, a bit of butter, real butter not fake butter, good cheese, I like to use cheddar and then I also put chili oil on one side to make it a bit more spicy and have some more flavor so that's my recipe and I always put them in the air fryer. I feel like that's easier than frying it in a pan and I feel like it's also quicker so let's do that. Hi babes I'm back at the desk I'm just waiting for my last call of the day and honestly can't wait I've been talking so much today which usually I feel like doesn't happen, I usually don't have that many calls, not sure what's going on today but yeah anyway I really want to make a tea but um as I said my call is in three minutes so I don't really have enough time but I'm gonna make a nice tea and then I have like two hours left of work and I'm going to the cinema today with my boyfriend which I'm really excited about. He booked the ticket so I'm not actually sure what movie we're going to see and that didn't surprise me I'll update you later before we go um he's coming back around five so he'll let me know what we're gonna see in the cinema and I'm honestly really excited I haven't been to the movies for quite a while but now that the weather is how it is I think this is a perfect time to go to go to the movies and I also feel like there's so many new movies coming out so I'm also like fully in the winter spirit I'm wearing my little Christmas themed jumper and I honestly love this it's so warm and cozy um I bought this on sale it's from Dems and Mada but I got this last year so I'm not sure if they still have it but if they do still have it I highly recommend getting it because it's actually really warm and nice even though I think it's quite um high percentage of polyester which I usually try to avoid with my my jumpers but I made an exception because it looks really cute another exciting thing in the world of work I I've installed my second screen which you can't see because it's here in the corner and honestly low-key been life-changing I had this lying around for ages because my company sent me this when I started working there um as part of the sort of working from home setup and it's honestly been so good like I don't know why I never thought of like installing a second screen if you're kind of dumb but if you don't have one and if you have the space on your desk I recommend getting one I think they're also not very expensive and they do honestly make a difference um especially if you have to present a lot in calls so yeah this is a very basic tip I'm sure most people who work from home actually have a second screen I was just kind of rocking it with my laptop but yeah anyhow my call starts now so I'll talk to you all later made myself some nice tea um I went for a peach tea which I got from Germany it's called Militarana Pfirsich from Teekanne for all my Germans um this is so good it's so nice and sweet and just like the perfect little sweet treat in the afternoon um also one okay you already know I'm a grandma but I got my heated blanket out I sound so old and boring but I work from home and it's getting colder and honestly if you don't have a heated blanket I highly recommend one it's so good because we moved I kind of forgot that we had it I needed something else from our little storage area so I went through everything and I found the heated blanket and it's honestly the best moment of this week so far yeah if you don't have a heated blanket yet get yourself one even though it always gives me like grandma vibes I always feel really old when when I sit down and turn my heated blanket on full speed also in other news my mom's coming to visit this week um I'm honestly kind of freaked out because you know when your like parents visit you in your flat or your house you can obviously have to deep clean everything and like organize everything I don't know if that's just me or my family but I don't know it's just like a lot to organize and it's her birthday as well so I need to think about sort of what cake to make and I'm taking her out for for lunch um so that'd be really nice but yeah I don't know it's just always a bit of a stressful experience because I make sure she has like a nice time here so yeah it's nice I'm really excited but also I feel like it's always a bit of pressure to sort of have a good schedule and you know plan where to go and all of those things I need to get back to work and I really don't want to I've got like two hours left and you know like the last two hours always the worst um especially in the winter it's just getting dark and you're just kind of like oh my god I stayed up to work for like two hours but it's dark so yeah wish me luck I'm gonna I'm gonna need to pull all my three brain cells together to finish this day okay just got ready to go to the cinema we're going to see an anora anora anora um my boyfriend picked the movie so let's see I hope it's good we've got all of our snacks we have comfy clothes on so ready to go I haven't been to the cinema for ages you excited yeah me too I made it back home the movie was so good I really enjoyed it even though it's quite like heavy it's got like funny and like exciting bits but also I feel like there's just quite a heavy undertone um and the end was quite like can't even describe it without spoiling it or anything but um I feel like everyone was just kind of like silent and left the cinema in silence but it was a cool movie I'm definitely gonna think about that for a while which I always feel like is a sign that it's a good one also I want to show you the book I'm currently reading one sec I'm currently reading this one which is called The Forgiven I took this to New York but I didn't actually end up reading very much so keep reading this I think I'm like I'm like 50 pages in so far so good I think it's just gonna be like a light and easy read I'll I'll report back if it's really good um but yeah that's what's currently on on my reading list yeah anyways I don't talk to you again I wish you good night sleep tight good night