Friday 31 January 2014

2014 January Favourites

My favourite things this January have been:



Candles


I love lighting lots of candles around the room after cleaning up to give the room a lovely scent. It's especially good when you're in a low mood from the weather and you want cheering up in the comfort of your own home. Just light some lovely scented candles and pop a DVD on and you're sorted! They're also so relaxing for when you want to wind down, meditate or write an essay after a stressful day. I am in love with my Merry Marshmallow Yankee candle that I was given for Christmas because it smells so sweet and mouth-watering and yet not sickly.

Hot chocolate


I love a warm hot chocolate when it's raining outside. In terms of coffee shops, although I am a massive Starbucks fan, I must say that Costa kicked their butt when it came to hot chocolate this winter! I treated myself to one of the Christmas specials hot chocolate with Arun and it was oh so tasty! I had the white hot chocolate which had cream and a strawberry syrup drizzled on top which was delicious. It also had little gold edible stars which I thought were super cute! I honestly wish they did it all year around and I also wish I tried all the other specials while they had them. I guess I'll just have to wait until next Chrimbo eh? If you ever pop down to the local garden centre Squires, they too do an amazing hot chocolate with cream, a flake andmarshmallows on top! If you haven't already guessed, I love marshmallows...


Films and popcorn



There is nothing in the world better than sitting in a cinema with a bag of sweet flavoured popcorn and watching an awesome movie in the warmth while it's chucking it down outside! There is something really satisfying about getting back at mother nature and having a great time without getting soaking wet outdoors. Also, I nearly always get a tango ice blast because it's the closest thing to a slush puppie near my house since they closed the old slush puppie machine down, much to my dismay. This month I watched: Paranormal Activity which was rubbish. The wolf of wall street which although I liked, I didn't think much about the ending and thus was left quite dissatisfied as it was really hyped up. Finally, I recently watched 12 years a slave which was spectacular and one of the best films I have seen in a long time. If you haven't yet watched it, I suggest you get up right this moment to book yourself a ticket and go watch it!! 



Socks



Nobody likes cold feet, because let's face it, when your feet are frozen so are you! When it's so cold outside there's nothing better than a little bit of feet-TLC. Treat your tootsies to a pair of fluffy socks to wear under your boots and wedges or when lounging around the house in your jim-jams. They also make great stocking presents and I genuinely ask for a pair every year from my mother because I know how handy they are and they come in useful all the time! They're even great outside of the cold season such as if you're hungover it's nice to have a bath, put a face mask on, drink mint tea and wear fluffy socks. Plus, some come with cute animals sewn on them. What's not to love?!  Primark and M&S tend to have a great range.

Pop tarts

The ultimate junk food treat. These calorific treats are so tasty that I don't even feel guilty after eating it! American outlets have the best flavours but you can now buy some at your local supermarkets such as Asda. I'm in love with chocolate fudge and confetti cupcake. Next I want to try out the strawberry sensation, strawberry milkshake and s'mores. Yes, I like strawberries. Slightly off topic but I also want to make my own s'mores because they look yummy!


Love O
x


Monday 27 January 2014

My Romantic Getaway to Paris

For Arun's Christmas present,  I got him tickets to go to Paris for the weekend. We went last week and had the most lovely time so I had to share it with you guys! We went by Eurostar and we stayed at the Avalon hotel which was great because it's situated right by Gare du Nord and our room had a balcony. In that weekend we went everywhere in Paris. Literally! You name a place and we probably went there! The travel system is great, like London they have buses, underground trains and national rail which come really often and the maps are so easy to follow that it makes going to many places in a couple of days so much easier. 

The tourist destinations we visited were: 
  • Montmartre (where Amelie is filmed) 
  • Sacre Coeur which is right by Montmartre and has the most beautiful view of Paris I have ever seen.
  • Le Louvre
  • Notre Dame
  • The love lock bridge which took us hours of walking to find!!
  • Chatalete 
  • The eiffel tower
  • l'arc de triomphe

  • we walked the stretch of the river seine from the Eiffel tower up to Pont de l'Archevêché (love lock bridge) which took us about an hour and then went shopping.

Whilst for shopping we went to:
  • Chatelet les halles
  • Marais
  • Anvers
  • St Paul- where we saw Hilary Swank!!
  • Hotel de ville
  • Centre pompidou
Just a few snippets of our fabulous weekend: 
Sacre Coeur is the best!
  

Us at sacre Coeur 

I had frog legs! They were actually quite tasty.
 
Lunch at Montmartre 
 
A Marilyn Monroe moment...


Saturday night dinner. Yummy!

Sunday morning breakfast

Guess where?!






Love lock bridge

Our lock





Le Louvre

Love O
x