Oh la blah - Disappointing Paris!

Hi everyone,

It has been quite a while since I've last written a post, so the plan is to write a 3-part post over the next few days about my holiday adventures from the beginning of this month!

First up: Oh la blah - Disappointing Paris!

So my boyfriend asked me a few months ago, what three places I'd like to visit most in Europe. My answer: Paris, Venice and Rome.

The outcome of this discussion was, that he booked a 10 day holiday weekend for us to go and visit all of those places. First up was Paris.

Now, my expectations of Paris were huge, especially since everyone says that it's 'One of the most romantic cities on earth'!

Upon arriving, we ended up in a rather rough area of the city. Picture army people walking around with machine guns, full grown men walking around kicking bins over out of anger, and a whole lot of alcoholics sitting on benches, drinking and gawking at anything that had legs. And that wasn't even the worst of it: the Metro had a constant smell of wee about it, which was rather unpleasant after a romantic dinner in the nice part of town.

Don't get me wrong, there were also a few nice moments in the city, like a boat tour on the river, climbing up the Eifel Tower, and seeing it glitter and sparkle every hour, on the hour, as it was lit up with shining lights. But was this my favourite place on the holiday? No!

The city has put me off of French food, one particular restaurant served something which resembled a mix between chicken, and pressed organs, but was actually meant to be fish - I still feel sick thinking about it now!
In another particular restaurant, the waiter was actually trying to tell us that a corking bottle of wine was, in fact, not corking at all but that the 2009 wine was just quite old...
On the bright side, I have quite a few funny stories to look back on, after stripping away the aggravation, aching feet (from hours upon hours of walking around the city, going sightseeing and more), and the smell of wee!

Other things that happened in Paris? I met my boyfriends cousin, who took us to some dodgy looking (and smelling!!) "underground" bar. The bar was covered in graffiti inside and out, but the cocktails (although strong) were pretty good.
I had breakfast on the Champs Elysees (which I've always wanted to do), I saw and climbed up the Eifel Tower, I went up the Arc de Triomphe, went to see Notre Dame cathedral, and saw various amazing views of Paris by day and night!

All in all, even though I didn't love Paris, it's still worth a visit and definitely an interesting experience.

Next on the 3-part post: Rome Wasn't Built in a Day - But Visited in Two!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Social Media - help appreciated!

Hi Everyone,

So it's been just over a week since I've last posted, and the heat wave still hasn't let up - amazing!
It did rain a little bit earlier, but that's pretty much it.

In terms of what I've been up to, honestly? Not much! I've been writing my first chapter for Life Throws a Curveball (check it out!), and otherwise I've been working lots. The annoyingly stressful client at work is currently reviewing our work, meaning I've got a bit of time to relax - a little like the calm before the storm!

On to the main part of this post:

So I've been trying out various types of social media to promote this blog - I've used everything but Facebook to get some more traffic in, and whilst I've gotten it up to quite a few page visits, the number of unique visitors is (apparently) only around 54 for this month.

What do you guys suggest I do - should I make an anonymous Facebook profile and start promoting it there too? Are there any blogging communities you could recommend which work well?

In terms of Google analytics, how do you embed the code on your blog on blogspot, so that it works best - I've had a bit of trouble getting it to work properly, does anybody have any suggestions?

I'd be really happy if you could help me out here, I really need to know a few more things, especially as I'd like to start promoting my new blog, which I'm hoping to generate a lot of traffic for.

Thanks in advance.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Summer Daze

Hi Everyone,

So the last few days have been a perfect Summer Daze! Warm mornings, hot days, and gorgeous, summery evenings.

Of course most of my day was spent at the office (oh the joy!), and I was so busy that I didn't manage to leave the office before 7.30 in Wednesday.

My weekend isn't looking any better, as most of last week was spent working on just one client, meaning I have loads of work to catch up on!

Anyway, enough work talk, and on to the more interesting stuff now!

I've decided to try something new, a Book Blog called Life Throws A Curveball. The concept is this:

• The blog will take the shape of an online book, and will be the length of a novel.
• Each post will make up one chapter of this "book".
• Posts will take between a week and a month to come out (depending on how much spare time I've got outside of my full-time job) - I'm hoping, of course, that posts will take closer to a week to come out, to keep everyone interested.
• The story will most likely take the form of a chick flick!

Please do have a look at the blog, and if you like it, spread the word - and don't worry, I won't abandon this blog - I intend to keep posting here at least once a week!

Now, just to quickly round up this post, here are some of my favourite fashion items from this week:

Aqua Kimono Maxi Dress - ASOS

Jimmy Choo - Candy Printed Acrylic Clutch

Alexander McQueen - Unicorn Skull Embroidered Satin Box Clutch

Christian Louboutin - Alti 140 Spiked Patent-Leather Pumps

Alexander McQueen - Skull-Embroidered Suede Pumps

Giuseppe Zanotti - Swarovski Crystal-Embellished Contoured Wedge Pumps

Anyway, That's all from me today - I hope you are all enjoying your Summer Daze as much as I am!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

What would you wear on a date with a celebrity?

Hi Everyone,

I'm dedicating today's post to a hypothetical thought I had this morning, and of course, what's been happening in my life for the past two weeks (sorry for the lack of posting!)

So as I woke up for the third time this morning (at 9am believe it or not!), my boyfriend had gone to work, and I had a particularly random thought.

Hypothetically speaking, if you had a date with a celebrity (say Chase Crawford or Taylor Lautner), what would you wear?

I would wear this:

Paprika Bodycon Dress

But instead of those shoes and that bag, I would wear these:

Love by Moschino Clutch

Christian Louboutin - Yolanda Patent Heels

Now on to you - what would you wear on a date with a celebrity?

Anyway, onto the second part of this post - it's been quite a while since I've posted something, over two weeks as a matter of fact!
Quite a bit has happened so I will just recount the highlights quickly -

• Last Friday I went for a few drinks with my colleagues at the pub accross the road from work, which is always a laugh! I then went home to watch the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, which I have to say was pretty cool!
• Saturday I went to watch the Men's bike race (or a part of it) and in the evening, I to see the Wizard of Oz at the Palladium in London, and had a nice meal with my boyfriend. I quite liked the Wizard of Oz, definitely a classic and a must see (they even have a real dog on stage - a highland terrier - which was pretty cool)!
• On Sunday I went shopping with the boyfriend and just chilled.
• This last week I've just been working away, and the week flew by pretty fast. I'm enjoying work a lot these days, despite some annoying colleagues making a fuss about really unimportant issues in their lives. 
• I finally got my shiny, brand new iPhone 4S (the white one!!), which I'm pretty excited and happy about. 
• This Friday, I went straight home from work to spend some time with my boyfriend, as he went to watch an Olympic football game yesterday, and is working today, meaning I don't get to see him

So that's all from me today.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

My Saturday Night

Hi Everyone,

This post is dedicated to my Saturday night from last week.
I'd gone back to the old house in South East London, where I used to live, for a house party. 3 of my old housemates, and a the girl who moved into my room after I'd left, are moving out of the house simultaneously, so they had a leaving do.

Now, two of them are moving out because the landlord has basically decided he doesn't like them, and doesn't want them living there. One of the girls is moving to Australia (so awesome), and the fourth is moving in with her boyfriend!

So back to the party. I got there at around 7.30 (after leaving my house about an hour later than I'd actually planned to, and not realising how the long journey actually was). We all sat around in the garden, drinking and chatting, waiting for everyone else to arrive, and from then on everything started turning into a bit of a blur, but here are the key parts:

• We decided to have a little fire in the garden, which we put in a broken shower base - cracked from a previous fire. 
• I found my old door leaning against the garden fence (the landlord had obviously been a bit lazy in getting rid of it), which totally helped keep the fire going after dark. 
• It started raining, just when we decided to light some flying lanterns. We got a few going, and I really hope they didn't land somewhere and burn down a house or a tree, but I didn't see anything in the news, so I think we're safe.
• I managed to cut my hand in three places, on the screw top of a wine bottle.
• I drank a good bottle and a half of wine
• Someone spilled wine all over my (gorgeous) Top-Shop Blazer (dry cleaners please!!!)
• I talked to a lot of people about how they proposed/were proposed to (apparently the marriage talk comes out when I'm drunk).
• and the best of all, my old housemate (the only one staying in the house) decided to take pictures, complain to the landlord, and call the police because she didn't want to join the party, which is around about the time when I left.

After I left the party, I walked to the bus stop at about 1am (completely drunk I might add). Once I got there, I had a rather unpleasant encounter with a man - which I can only laugh about now. 

I called my boyfriend about 20 times and left 2 horrible voicemails and sent 3 horrible texts to him in my distress of not knowing how to get home (I should mention I was actually planning on leaving the party at 11pm, rather than 1 am!). 

Eventually, I made it home at 3am, a long bus journey and taxi ride later, McDonald's bag in hand!

Even though the journey was a bit of a pain, and I ended up getting ill from running around in the rain for hours, and ruining a perfect pair of white shoes with mud, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was happy to see my friends. 

I will leave you with this quote:

That's all from me today.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Life Roles Reversed

Hey Everyone,

Have you ever found yourself in a situation with someone, where your roles are completely reversed, compared to how everything used to be?

Well I'm finding myself in this situation now. Back when I was at uni, and living with my friend Amy (not so much my friend now, but still a 'Facebook acquaintance'). She had a boyfriend at the time, and they were one of those couples that only ever did things by themselves. She barely had any friends, and she thought I was crazy for constantly going out clubbing etc.

Looking back now, I am in her situation, with a boyfriend, and hardly seeing my friends (which is more due to the fact that they live quite far away from me), and Amy has a new boyfriend, and is constantly out clubbing, and really not doing much with her life.

I'm glad I got all the clubbing out of my system back at uni, however, because it means I can focus on my career and not have the whole "what if" situation floating around in my head.

Thinking about the whole situation, I can really see how people can change so dramatically over a short period of time. 

Anyway, it's a short one from me again today.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

PS: for those of you who haven't tried it - Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Frozen Yoghurt is a MUST HAVE!

Writing Inspiration - Kicking in!

Hi Everyone,

Today's post is dedicated to all you writers out there.

Isn't it strange, how inspiration can kick in at any time of the day?
For instance, I was walking along a busy road in London on my lunch break the other day, and all I heard was an American girl, uttering one sentence, a sentence that, when taken out of context, can be built into an entire story.

I went home and began to write, and plan a new story. I'm hoping this may be the big inspiration I was waiting for.

I must say, for anybody who is stuck, or has writer's block, take a walk along a busy road like (for example) Oxford Street in London, and just listen to the noise around you. Listen to people talking, take in the scenes, and you might actually come home with a few ideas to even just begin a new story or chapter of your book!

I know it's just a short one for today, but:

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A