Ming Bridges: London Calling

Hi guys!

So I've currently been enjoying my time off before returning to Taiwan for promotion and to start my, dundundun, CHINESE COURSE. AT A UNIVERSITY. I'M GOING TO BE ATTENDING A CHINESE COURSE IN A CHINESE UNIVERSITY. Crazy where life brings you, huh? So not what I thought I'd be preparing for a year ago.

So anyway - I've been in Singapore doing lots of jobs and all but managed to grab a few days to go visit family before having big blocks of being alone again. SO. England here we come! As much as I love travelling it gets kinda tiring spending more time on planes than in actual countries - but I'm so grateful I even get time to go see them so, can't really complain! AND as per usual I don't know how to go about doing this post so I'm gonna go 'diary style' and post a few photos (when I took photos..) and, yeah!

Got to London. 7am. Nap time and then OFF TO SEE ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. The wonderful Miss Rebecca Turczynowicz. Urgh I missed this girl so so much! And on top of that it was PANCAKE DAY! Basically dad tells me that Ash Tuesday is pancake day because its the day everyone pigs out before Wednesday which is the start of lent (sacrificing something you love for 40 days - I gave up peanut butter haha.. Mum virtually forced me after I couldn't stop eating it out of the jar! Past ones have been giving up Facebook and not wearing shorts, etc etc etc - what did you give up?). ANYWAY this was the first time I actually got to 'celebrate' it so we went to one of the best pancake places we could find.

Granger & Co - owned by Bill Granger who has 'Bill's' in Australia. Ultra famous. This was my first time having ricotta pancakes - I usually go for my blueberry pancakes but man oh man were they good! Except on my first bite I mistook a slab of butter as a piece of .. I'm not sure what!

Rebecca and I

We then spent the day walking, talking, browsing and catching up. Can you believe Rebecca is the first person my age (apart from family) that I've seen since OCTOBER!? Crazzzzzzzy crazy crazy!

Chanel!

ARCHIE!? MAC!? WHAT!!

ARCHIE COMICS FOR MAC!? HOW AMAZINGLY COOL! I kid you not I was out of control excited.

I got a 'Caramel Sundae' eyeshadow set and a lippy ('Betty Bright' lipstick and 'Kiss & Don't Tell' lip glass) from the Betty line. I'm such a sucker for the cute names, hah! I may look more like a Veronica but I've always been more of a betty. I don't suit dark shades of lipstick unfortunately! However there was a blusher called 'Va-Va-Veronica' that looked amazing but I already have blusher so I passed!

Couldn't resist. Rebecca was too embarrassed to join me, hahaha.

SELFIRDGES FOOD HALL! LOVE IS IN THE AIR! I LOVE LOLA CUPCAKES!

My first time in Liberty. I'm not going to bombard you with all the random photos I took but look at their cute valentines campaign!

They put their top love songs all around the store - very cute!

BABY CLOTHES WHY YOU SO CUTE.

The coolest rice bowl I've ever seen. I. Need. This. I hate spending money on things I don't need - I really should have got this.

Random selfie to end the day. We then went to meet more friends for a DELICIOUS meal at Yalla Yalla but I unfortunately didn't get any photos :(.

So my grandma's house is situated by the river and no one ever believes me when I tell them that during high tide the whole road is flooded with water. COLD HARD EVIDENCE.

It's very pretty though. But a pain in the neck when you come home, forgot to check the tide schedule and you're like … crap (has happened one too many times).

SUCH A COOL RESTAURANT. Basically in London there are loads of ultra hip places which are too cool for bookings and people line up outside for ages ages ages to get in. This is one of these bad boys. Been meaning to try for ages but its hard finding other die hard foodies who are willing to line up with you in the cold (except when my family want to get steak and chips - but my dad goes before it opens because he hates queueing). ANYWAY I was over the moon when my friends (a few I had made in my short month and a bit at uni) decided to meet here at lunch for a catch up.

The beautiful Salla! Check out the cute minnie mouse shot glass I got for her shot glass collection. Thats right. she has a shot glass collection.

EMPTY. Lunch is the best time to go! The guy told me at dinner time the place is so so packed and the ambience is completely different. I fell in love with the restaurant (and him), such a sweetie. He even gave me a free umbrella!

Collage Salla made - Salla, Myself, Chris and Rollo!

Salla and I, Rollo and I!

FOOD!!

THE FOOD WAS AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!! The guy recommended the pulled pork & pickled apple sliders, their famous Mac & Cheese and their Truffled egg toast. Oh and the eggplant chips?? Amazing. We also got some amazing shoestring fries and some other bits and pieces but this is all I managed to photograph (hungry people, hehe).

Went back to my old halls after to see everyone else and have little catch ups. Found this on Salla's wall and remembered my first week when we got given all this free stuff. Pretty much sums up uni life hahaha. Actually pretty interesting though. Took a photo of this to send to my sister (who is in uni - hah).

DESSERTS (surprise surprise). Little snack with the family.

OK WHAT'S NEXT.

Ah. The dreaded Valentines Day.

I spent mine with my delightful christmas present from my little angel of a sister. I can safely tell you I do not love GuyLian as much as I used to anymore. No - finishing a box of chocolates this size will do that to you. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

My valentine

Greediest girl in the world

Pink pajamas. Tried to be pink for V Day but its probably more fitting to say pink for pig. Blah! At least it was yummy while I was eating it!

Anyway - I decided to start the day off productively and went to the gym! After mum and I decided to go check out Whole Foods which I'VE WANTED TO GO TO FOR SO SO SO SO SO LONG.

So cute!

A healthier valentine alternative! Cute!

Ok I initially had LOADS AND LOADS of food photos to post but they're literally going to bore you to tears and make me hungrier than I already am. TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT mum told me off for running around like a little girl in a candy store - brown rice sushi, shabu shabu, pastries, AMAZING salad bar, asian food, mexican, burgers, every amazing product I could dream of ahhhhh. YOU MUST VISIT WHOLE FOODS!

Got home to find this..

Awh! Dad was away and sent mum some long stemmed roses - what a cutie!

Anyway - after our 'healthy' expedition we went home, picked up Grandma and went to Harrods for an afternoon coffee. Ran into some of my best friends..

WAAAAAAAA VALENTINES DAY YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

A few of my friends who decided to come home with me

Valentines Day is my excuse. They made me very happy. This also made me very happy!

YAYAYAYAY WITH MY OWN MONEY. BASICALLY I've been looking at this bag for over a year but as I'm so stingy with money never went out to get it. Saw it again in Harrods and was informed that starting from the next day the whole store was going up 12%. I panicked. I got it. I'm so happy. I'M SO HAPPY I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH! BEST VALENTINES DAY GIFT EVER! (Don't worry, there are some photos of my new baby at the end of the post! Hehehehehehe)

Snapchat photo

Ok so I lied a bit. Valentines Day did get to me and I got a little depressed. BUT ITS OK. Mum and I decided to go on a little trip to Bath to visit Bianca (my sister) the next day.

Bath is so beautiful. I wish I had took more photos. We had a delicious lunch at Cote then went shopping around the city.

Time to go :(.

We really do love our snap chat...

So we got back to London. I went to watch 'I Give It A Year' which was HILARIOUS. Then next day started off pretty crappy so I did the only thing I could think of to make everything better. Go back on a 2 hour drive to see my sister.

Wearing my new jumper I got in Bath the previous day haha. Urban Outfitters <3

Did she make things better? Oh yes she did. We made some more new friends at Patisserie Valerie!

And then we went back to her halls and she cooked me a very yummy healthy meal. Man I need to learn to cook! Look how tasty it looks!

From then on after my dessert binge galore we voweled to be healthy.

Avocado and poached egg on sourdough toast babyy

BREAKFAST DOES NOT GET ANY HEALTHIER THAN THIS!

AND THEN I COME HOME TO THIS. THANK YOU MUMMY THANK YOU VERYYYY MUCH. Resist resist resist.

And then it came time to go back to Singapore and I got the chance to take out my new baby for the first time!

Isn't she beautiful! I've wanted this LV backpack for so long! Its just so convenient and beautiful and gorgeous and ahhhh I'm so happy with it!!

Flight essentials

Bye bye beautiful view

I'm so happy I got to spend a few days in England. Was so nice getting to see my friends and getting to spend a few days with the family. I was pretty sad when I got to the airport but my mood was immediately lifted when I found out I got the biggest upgrade ever! And Singapore airlines is so sweet. When they offered me BOTH desserts being healthy just went out the window.