Life Lately 8

Chynna: So… I know it’s been a while. And I know that I’ve been neglecting you. It’s not nice being neglected, is it? I understand. Things have been super busy and exciting, and life is just so full, right now, you know? Excuses! Excuses, I know! What are we gonna do? WE’RE GONNA DO ANOTHER LIFE LATELY BECAUSE YOU CLEARLY NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON!!!!

Chynna: Trust me. It’ll be great. [smile]

Food

My last post was in May, so we have a lot to catch up on, don’t we? As you know I love food (this is not a new revelation) but I’m working somewhere that allows me to discuss food and expand on my list of restaurants to dine at… but I’ll get to that later because it’s pretty exciting stuff.

Pasta Evangelists

These guys popped up on my Instagram with an offer to try one of their boxes for £3. I love a food subscription box, so I jumped at the opportunity! You get fresh, artisan pasta dishes delivered to you and you can choose from their weekly menu of authentic pasta recipes. They have simple recipe cards in the boxes and the dishes are super simple and quick to make!

I opted for the Pappardelle with Beef Shin & Barolo Wine Ragù & Parmigiano Reggiano and “Carbonara of Dreams” with Fresh Bucatini, Crispy Pancetta & 12 Month Aged Parmigiano. FREAKING YUMMY. The carbonara was my favourite by far – super creamy and delicious. Both recipes took all of 20 minutes to prepare, maybe even less than that. If you are a fan of Italian food, then I would recommend you try this food subscription box!

Ping Pong – Southbank

I’m only including this because the food was so good, but I have to say that the service in this branch was rubbish. That aside, if you love dim sum you should go on a Sunday for their Lazy Sumday offer. All you can eat baos, buns and dumplings! Unlimited dim sum is just a way of life, right?

We may have over-ordered… but that doesn’t matter. What I liked is that they gave me a special nut-free menu, so I could order without having to constantly check with the server, “Sooooo… which one will kill me?” My favourites include the char siu buns (soft, delicious fluffy white buns) and the shanghai xiaolongbao.

Blacklock – Shoreditch

I finally met Claudine (more on that later) and took her to Blacklock, a steak and chophouse that serves some of the hugest portions of meat I’ve ever seen! I didn’t take a photo of my food (for once) because we were so busy chatting away, haha. One of the best steaks I’ve had and the sides they offer are so good – I went for the 10 Hour Ash Roasted Sweet Potato. It’s a cute restaurant set in an old furniture factory. Would recommend the cocktails, as well!

Melanzana

It was my mum’s birthday on Tuesday, so we went out to eat and because my mum always lets me choose where we eat, and I was craving Italian we ended up at Melanzana. Located in Battersea, this restaurant has such a homey feel and great service! I did notify the restaurant that it was my mum’s birthday and they brought out tiramisu with a candle to blow out. They also played birthday music in the background! Absolute cuties. I went for the Bolognese Tradizionale con Paglia & Fieno – simple, yet so tasty. The portions are decent, as well!

Books

I haven’t read that many books recently! It’s not that I haven’t had time, I just haven’t found a book that I want to read at the moment. Also, I’ve been trying to focus my efforts on working on my novel and sometimes I feel that when I read a lot, my writing gets affected cause I start writing like that author and then I get scared of plagiarism and it’s a wholeeee thing. Anyway, the two books I have read in the past months are YA ones:

• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
• Emergency Contact

Super cute, super quick to read, super fun! I really enjoyed reading both of them and I definitely want to read more in the TATBILB series.

Fun

Natural History Museum

They launched the Museum of the Moon at the Natural History Museum back in May and I just had to go! Museum of the Moon is a touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram. It is a six-metre model of the moon which features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface!

IT IS AWESOME! Literally just sitting underneath it is an experience in itself. The installation is free to visit, and it is on until 5 January 2020.

Claudine

YAY! Claudine reached out to let me know that she was visiting London and that we should meet up – how could I say no? As mentioned, I took her to Blacklock and we spent the evening chitchatting away. Claudine is soooo lovely and amazing and the cutest person EVER! I’ll be visiting the Philippines in December and I can’t wait to meet up with her again. She said she’s going to take me for crispy pata and karaoke and I’m super excited. ?

Work Sports Day

My workplace organised a work sports day and it was so much fun! I haven’t been to a sports day since I was in secondary school. We did old school sports day with the relay races and rounders, but also did flag football (the stupidest thing I’ve ever played – IT’S NOT FOOTBALL IF YOU’RE NOT USING YOUR FEET!) and volleyball. The last sport was an epic tug of war in which MY TEAM WON. I dashed out the crowd when we won (I tapped out because I was dead af and they only needed 5 people) and screamed like the freaking hooligan I am, haha. Such. A. Great. Day!

Barrio Fiesta

One of my favourite events of the year is most definitely Barrio Fiesta. It brings together all Filipinos to celebrate the best of Filipino food, cultural performances and live music from local musicians and artists flown from the Philippines. I ate so much food – it was beyond ridiculous, actually – got my face painted and just soaked up the good vibes. Hilariously, there was a basketball game at one of the stands where you could win an iPad and the guy tending to it was like, “Yeah, go ask your mum” and I was like “Huh, I’m a grown woman?” He looked so shocked, and said he thought I was 18. ? I’ll take it!

Work

I HAVE A NEW JOB! An awesome, amazing, lovely job and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in a work environment. They promote a work/life balance, treat you as an adult, no micromanagement, there is so much trust and encouragement and ugh. So much better than my old job. I could gush all day about my new job but yeah. I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon.

I’m still in Customer Support, but this time I get to help people AND also talk about something I love. I help restaurants deal with reservations, diners, system settings etc but I also get to drool over the amazing photos they send over to us! It’s like this job was made for me.

I finally got to cross getting a new job/quitting my old job off my bucket list and I never felt more accomplished. ?

Travel

Update on Paris trip in September: It’s all paid for and we have our Disneyland tickets! I’m so excited even though I’ve been to Disneyland Paris like 25435413213 times, but it never gets old. Something about Disney, am I right?

What’s been going on with everyone? I know it’s been a while since I posted but thank you to those who still commented months later. I’m in such a happier place right now and I’m excited to start reigniting passions of mine, so hopefully, I’ll be posting more soon. I haven’t written anything this long in a while (aside from a quick thing I did last month), so it’s been nice!

See you on the flipside! ?