My new room, Sommertown

I feel so much more settled into my room than before (probably due to the good night's sleep). Its just so relaxing to be sitting at my desk with the sun delicatly coming in through the window onto the wardrobe. So here's a picture of the room (note the rock family on my chest of drawers - I'm trying to start a tradition where I'll bring them with me each term, no matter what). You can just about see the vintage wardrobe built into the wall - this is probably my favourite feature! It feels pretty cosy here with a slanted ceiling that gives it a sort of cubby-hole atmosphere. Its also pretty tucked away down the corridor so I don't have any neighbours (although the lunge is downstairs and sometimes you can hear people talking through the floor). You can't see it in the picture but I also have a sink, some bookshelves and some room to put more of my stuff! Sommertown is secluded and away from the hustle and bustle of the city - perfect when you want to escape the Oxford bubble. I saw James today and he mentioned this, I totally agree with him.

Bubbles UV party

Rushed to central London for some last minute Uniqlo and H&M shopping before leaving for Oxford in the evening. We had to fit in some more stuff along with my bike in the abck of the boot so it was pretty squashed in the back seat! Once there, Alice and Tom helped me unpack and we dumped everything into my room before getting stuff ready for the night out at Coven. We all cycled from Sommertown to Warnock where we got changed in Talia and Sam's room and waited for everyone else to arrive. I was so happy to finally go to this night as last year, during Fresher's week, Talia Jonny and I left early before the bubbles started as we thought it was really rubbish! Anyway, I really regretted doing this so it was great to re-live it and change what I had missed! Like all other club nights the music was pretty good (and REALLY loud) but the bubbles really made it! Fun times :) Alice, Tom and I then cycled back (slightly tipsy) back to Sommertown!

Chesca's Birthday

We have a tradition in our family where we all wake up really early and the birthday person sits in mum and dad's bed with the lights off. Everyone else then brings in the cake with candles and the presents and cards whilst singing "Happy Birthday" and "Las Mananitas" in Spanish. This is then followed by the usual candles being blown out and we all shout "tantiaguri!" (Italian). We've always got to be careful not to light the candles under the smoke alarm in the hallway as it's pretty sensitive! Anyway, this morning Fudge also decided to creep in and sat on Chesca's lap as we came into the room singing so I got this cute pic of them together as Chesc reads my birthday card - woot! Abu also rings from Mexico and theres then a rush to get to school on time after having cake for breakfast!

Chesca's Birthday Tea

This morning mum dad and I quickly drove up to Oxford with some of my things to drop them off in my new room in Summertown as we also need to bring the bike up on tuesday. In the afternoon we all went to Picadilly Circus to the Sofitel hotel in St. James' park for Francesca's birthday tea. Dad had reserved us a table at this hotel which has a tradition tea room. It was so beautiful when we arrived, with rose decor armchairs and squishy sofas. Chesc and I ordered rose tea which came in a clear glass teapot with dainty french china cups. We then all had a high tea which was laid out on those plates which are arranged one ontop of the other. There were finger sandwiches, tiny french pastries and scones with lemon curd or clotted cream and rose-infused strawberry jam. By the end of it we were all very full and couldn't handle seeing, smelling or eating anythign rose-related! We didn't want to take a picture in the tea room as it looks quite tacky so mum took this one outside Picadilly circus before we got the tube home.

Saturday Brunch

Dad and I were the only ones in the house this morning so we made ourselves brunch complete with eggs, bacon, croissant and orange juice. It was nice finally be able to sit down calmly and talk.

A Ditzy Day Out with Chesca

Chesca had a day off school today (target setting day) so we planned an expedition to London. Our first stop was to South Kensington where we bought a Red velvet cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery and then proceeded towards the NHM chatting away in Spanish (we decided to be touristas for the day!). We then sat down in the gardens outside the museum and spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of our beloved cupcake before actually managing to eat it. Although it took us less time to consume this delicious delicasy of ours it was totally worth the wait!
Once inside the museum we headed towards to the Blue Whale via the mammals exhibit (this was, of course, after having spent sufficient time in the entrance hall taking pictures of the huge dinosaur!). It doesn't matter how much I've grown but the whale is still as large as I remember it - I'd love to visit the museum really early in the morning when theres no-one around...
We then had a look at the birds exhibit and I was especially drawn in by the hummingbirds and birds of paradise as I find their bright plummage so beautiful and delicate - as Chesca pointed out, its also easy to see where the fashion world gets it's inspiration from! Our day of amazing amazingness was then followed by a trip to the Earth's Treasures exhibit where they keep all the diamonds and precious stones including the collection above. I was wondering what it'd be like to just find the briefcase containing the collection on the tube or something....
When we felt a bit tired of the NHM we went across to the V&A where there was a short collection of art on the theme of surreal fairytale fantasy which included pieces like huge tulip vases made from stacked crockery - pretty good but some pieces were slightly disturbing. By now we were getting quite hungry so took the train quickly to Liverpool street viz High St. Ken. and found the Beigel Bakery Alice had shown me in Brick Lane. They had the best cream cheese and salmon bagel in the world! A quick 3 minute walk got us to Beyond retro which always feels like its your own secret gem hidden among the emptyness of Cheshire street. As I heard one guy comment, "this is dress-up heaven!". I love this shop with its strange assortment of mis-match clothes from different periods. However, I've always got to be careful when I buy stuff from there as its really easy to get something thats pretty average when you're there but very OTT in the real world. We finished our day off lazily walking back through Spitelfield's market and browsing the stores as they closed for the day. We were unlucky enough to hit the peak of rush-hour which was pretty rubbish as we didn't get to sit on the tube and rest our sore feet. It was so nice to finally get home and sit on the sofa. This day was so beautiful and inspired by www.theunicorndiaries.com which Chesca and I love for due to its dainty charm.

and I did what?

Another "relaxing" day spent lounging around the house and getting ready for Oxford.