London, day 2

Sooo, here I am again, writing about the Bank Holiday weekend which was already three weeks ago, but feels like only few days. I have had so many other things in my mind, but today I'll write the whole trip here, so that it won't haunt me forever.

On the second day V wanted to go sightseeing before the Warner Bros studio, so we decided to take the Piccadilly line from Kings Cross and started our adventure. With my normal luck, it was raining quite heavily, I did not have good waterproof shoes and my umbrella broke down. We walked from Leicester Square to Victoria Embankment, had some "breakfast" from Starbucks and continued walking and taking pictures. There was Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and so many different locations to see and all the time it continued to rain. My shoes were soaked. Then we decided to walk to Victoria Bus Station so that we would know where our bus would be leaving for the studios. Went there, but we still had way too much time before so I googled the nearest Waterstone's and we walked there, because my fried had wanted to buy a London tourist book.

On the way, I bought a new umbrella and we also visited a tea store called T2 Tea. They had different teas to taste, nice looking cups and teapots and I felt like in heaven. My tea addiction here in UK has gone to new dimensions. I did not buy anything, but I know where it is, they more stores in London than one and they also have a online store, so I'm going to buy their tea soon. Maybe buy a new teapot and a travel mug for tea.

Then at Waterstone's I saw so many good books that I wanted to buy, but only got two, that is enough for me now. My friend did not find a good book and soon we started to walk back to the Victoria Station. I wanted to buy something to eat, I was so hungry after walking so much. We had booked our HP tour from the Golden Tours, because it was the easiest way for us, because it included the trip to both ways and the ticket there. Our trip begun from London at 3 pm and they showed Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone on the way.

Soon we were there and I can say that it was so amazing and I really wanted that it would have been real.Some people have so good imaginations and J.K. Rowling is one of them, and I'm really happy that I grew up when I did and reading the Harry Potter books. They were a big part of my childhood and I love the books so much.

We took huge amounts of pictures there, so I let the pictures do the speaking for you.

The end of the pictures. I tried to put them in some kind of good order and that there would be a "theme". We took so many photos with my friend and I had to leave some of them out. But if you're a Harry Potter fan, I do recommend visiting the studios. You can buy Butterbeer and different candies from there.

London, day 1

Finally posting about first day in London. It was awesome!

Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Watson, Colin Firth, Patrick Stewart and Johnny Depp.

Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, Kate Winslet, Katniss Everdeen and Sherlock Holmes

On Sunday we woke up, had a big breakfast, tidied my room quickly, I packed my stuff and continued towards Reading Train station and from there to London Paddington. Because we were staying in London for almost three days, we decided to buy visitor Oyster cards, put some money on them and then took the tube to Kings Cross Station and walked to our Hostel called Keystone. It was okay price, on a good location, but our room was underground, smelled quite badly and the air was moist. Also there were people still in the room when we arrived. They had paid for extra time, but they thought they could stay until midnight and not midday. We had to wait at least 30 minutes for our room to be cleaned, so we went to Backpackers pub that was upstairs and I had a sider. From there on my diet went south.

Sister Mary Clarence, John McClane, Terminator, James Bond and Shrek

 I had noticed that I had forgotten all of my products home, so the whole time in London, I was eating normal food, which was not a good thing. And I ate chocolate, candy and all these unhealthy things, but it’s now history, I’m going to concentrate in this day and the future. We settled to our room, had a small break and then continued towards London.

Elvis, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson and The Beatles

Adele, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Rihanna and Britney Spears

We had booked the tickets to Madame Tussaud's closer to the evening, around six pm, so before that we went to Baker Street. There was this Sherlock Holmes museum and a gift shop, but we did not visit the museum, it was quite expensive. Before Madame Tussaud's, we went to Sainsbury’s, bought something to eat and ate them in Regents Park, quite near Tussaud's. At 5:45 we walked to Tussaud's, and started our magnificent tour there.

Princess Diana, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama

All the wax people were really well done. We took pictures and the whole tour was around two hours of even more. My favorites there were Robin Williams, Benedict Cumberbatch, Morgan Freeman, Captain America and the whole Star Wars section. Some of my photos are blurry and does not look that good, but luckily my friend had her camera also, so we both took huge amounts of photos. There was also this “car tour” in London aka we sat in this lookalike taxi and it went this route inside the building. After that came the 4D Marvels Avengers movie and last, but not least, there was Star Wars section. They were so awesome. I’m such a nerd.

Hulk, Nick Fury, Clint Barton and Captain America

From there we took the tube, went to buy some burritos from nearby restaurant, ate them and went to bed. It was a really busy day, lots of walking. Even the weather was okay. It was not awesome, but not raining.

Sherlock and I, George and V, Sister Mary Clarence and I, Shrek and V, Robin Williams and I, Hulk kidnapped V. 

It felt weird to eat normal food again, but I got used to it quite fast and I knew I would gain some kilos back, but life is. This whole journey is about learning how to eat right, and sometimes there will be these days that you do not follow the plan. Life gives you lemons, but maybe you do not like lemonade. You just have to go with the flow. That is something I’m doing. From last Wednesday, I have been following the plan to the t, so I suffered the withdrawal symptoms again, but this time it was not so horrible, because I was sick and did not smell anything and my appetite was gone.

Star Wars, so marvellous and brilliant

I so wish these would be real!

September is here, autumn is near

Time has flown away, because a moment ago I was on my way to Heathrow airport, picking up my friend, waiting for this long bank holiday weekend and London. That was last week. Now it’s already the 7^th and I feel like there are so many things I’m missing.

The weekend started by me leaving little bit earlier from work, cleaning my room and then getting a rail air bus from Reading station towards Heathrow. Luckily the return ticket was cheap, around 20£. At the airport I had to wait, her flight was few minutes delayed, but finally we could take a bus back to Reading. We went to Tesco’s, bought some breakfast for her, extra pillow and a comforter, because I did not have any. The extra mattress/bed looked awful and I’m so happy that I did not have to sleep on it. My poor friend.

On Saturday we had breakfast, I cleaned up my cappuccino shake that exploded in the kitchen and around noon we started towards Reading centre. My friend wanted to visit Hobby Craft store, because she had read they sell some kind of glow in the dark paint. I managed not to buy anything new, even if I felt like buying everything for projects that I do not have any time to do. We also walked around Reading, went to Oracle shopping centre, I bought BareMinerals lipstick, mascara and a face primer for oily skin, only costing me around sixty pounds. Feel so poor at the moment.

That afternoon we also went to see a movie called Inside Out and I think it was really great. Imagine these little emotions like joy, sadness, anger, disgust and fear living in your brain and they decide all your reactions. It was well done and not just for kids. There was also a short movie called Lava before the actual movie. It was about a lonely Volcano who dreamed about love. There also was a song that can be stuck in your head for days. Happened to me. It still there, the song stuck in my head. Not nice and bit annoyed about it.

After that we went to Tesco, bought some ingredients to make dinner. After eating we watched another movie from my computer, it was called Lucy. Interesting, but would not say that it’s completely my type. Then we started planning more for London, stuff to do, places to visit. She really wanted to visit Madame Tussaud's, so we bought tickets from online, they were cheaper that way.

We both were excited and not tired, so we played a board game called Hotel. The main idea was to buy property and build hotels there and later on upgrade the hotels. Very similar to Monopoly, but still not the same. I bought it from eBay, well technically my sister bough it, but it was cheaper to post to UK than to Finland. I just have to take it to her in October.

Later on postings about time in London and days after my vacation.

Freezing feet

Today was again a London day. My normal London days are that I'm going to London in the morning, taking a paper to legislation office, waiting there 30 to 60 minutes that its ready and then head back to the office. So mostly I just sit in a train or a bus, because it takes quite some time.

It was okay weather when I left home, forgot my jacket home, but luckily did remember my umbrella. It started pouring when I arrived to London. I was so soaked even when I took the tube, there were these huge puddles and I had to step on some to get on the other side of the road. My converse shoes are not waterproof so my feet got soaked. Like totally. You could hear the splish splash noises when I was walking. So not good for my poor feet.

Need a washup

Short story even shorter, I did not drink enough water during the day, got a really back headache, freezing feet that started to get little warmer around eight pm. I decided to have a lazy day, just browsing different blogs, watched The Prince of Egypt and drank lots of water and some Chamomille tea. No evening Bootea today, next time tomorrow.

My aunt gave me those woollen socks as a Christmas present quite many years ago, but I still love them. They say "Left" and "Right" in Finnish, because when I got them, I was in the army and had to remember which is which. Maybe I should learn how to knit socks. Its not that hard.

Now off to bed, normal day tomorrow, maybe even to the gym before work, we'll see.

Oxford Street Lush in London

Yesterday my co-worker L said that I have to visit the legislation office in London again, and who am I to say no. I like going to London, even if I'm there only for the morning and not having that much time to do different things. This time I went there little earlier, knew where to go and again was a good weather. This day trip would also be a good chance to walk and test the Fitbit, see how everything works. Last night I put an alarm to ring for me a bit earlier than normal on Fitbit, so that if I would not wake up on it, I would wake up on my normal alarm from my phone. It was weird feeling to wake up when Fitbit started vibrating on my wrist, but I did wakeup.

After waking up I went to make some tea, something that I do not normally drink at home in the morning. Time went fast and sometime before eight my journey towards London started. When travelling, it felt like everybody else was in a hurry, going really fast and just looked so busy. Except for me. Not walking too fast, trying to look around, seeing new things to enjoy. After dropping of the document to legislation office, the direction was towards St. James Park, this time just sitting on a bench and enjoying the weather. Took some selfies, no new thing, but I try to take pictures so that the change might show in them.

St James Park

Selfie Time, even felt pretty when taking the picture.

Then came getting the document back, I decided to tempt the fate and visit a Lush store on Oxford Street. It's really huge, there are three floors full of products and I just love it already, have to visit again. Before going there, I decided to have a limit of 20£ that I can use, so that I would not be broke after one trip. The total that I used was only 15£ so I'm good with that, even if I only got three different products.


I have been wanting to buy a moisturiser to workplace, because my hands are getting really dry after washing them. At the store I tested few and even got some good tips on products, but in the end I chose a Charity Pot. It's called Charity Pot, because they donate everything to charities except VAT, because that goes to the government. A very good thing to do. It smells really nice and feels good to use.

After starting to walk more, I wanted to spoil my feet little bit, so a good product for my feet were on the list. There was huge amounts, but Pumice Power gave me the best impressions. I'll be trying it next weekend, so then I'll tell more about it. It smells good, not too strong.

Yesterday I noticed that my toothpaste is almost done and it was time to buy more. Luckily did not buy some generic stuff from grocery store, because I have been wanting to try the Toothy Tabs from Lush and today I bought some. Have not brushed my teeth yet, but hopefully they are good and work for me. There were so many different products that I wanted to buy, but did really not need them.

After London I went to the office for few hours, came home and went for a small walk, so that I could get the 15 000 steps. But got even more, almost 20 000 steps and I feel great, so awesome. Tomorrow is weigh in day and I really hope to have lost more than few pounds. We'll see.

Morning in London

St James Park

On Tuesday I was informed that I'm going to visit London on Thursday to deliver a document to the Legislation office, wait there until it's ready and then collect it. So in the morning taking the train from Reading to London Paddington Station, continuing with the tube taking Bakerloo line till Chargin Cross Station and from there I walked to the Office, did not take that long. The legislation of the document took around one hour, so I had some time to walk around the city. Close by to the Legislation Office was St James Park and Buckingham Palace. I walked there, behaved like a tourist, took pictures of so many things and I was lucky, because I saw the change of guards.

Buckingham Palace

After returning to the Legislation Office, I decided to start walking towards SoHo, because I read that there is this Scandinavian Kitchen, that sells different kinds of sandwiches, salads and groceries. They also have a website and internet store. At the website they have a wider variety of products and for a foreigner in UK, I think it is really good thing to have here, if you happen to get homesick during your stay. I decided to different Finnish and Swedish sweets and bring them to the office, so they would have something new to taste. I bought some Turkish Peppers, different Liquorice from Haribo and Fazer Chocolate.

Ducks from the Park, really friendly

Around one I left from London, because had to get back to the office, so a train from Paddington to Reading and from Reading to Basingstoke and then finally a bus ride for 20 minutes and then you are there. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day, just waiting to work end, going to the Reading Central Library and then meeting with my consultant. People at the Office were not that enthusiastic about the licorice, but some of them were brave enough to taste, but even fewer said that they enjoyed them. The sweets are probably going to there a long time. Maybe even for 11 weeks and then I can have a taste after my Sole Source step is completed.