28 Years Around The Sun

I haven’t done a good old blog update in FOREVER! and I miss doing these ‘diary’ entries..! Can you believe I started this blog 10 YEARS ago?!!! [EDIT : I am terrible at maths and dates… I started this blog in 2011 so 8 years ago.. not 10! I’ll do something big when we actually reach 10 years haha!) I can’t quite believe it either!!! (I genuinely didn’t know until I counted just now…!! edit : obviously need to learn how to count…) I have a full ‘decade’ of memories, thoughts, recipes filed away on this little corner of internet real estate that I’ve had the pleasure to own since my last year at university. 2 years deep into my law degree I was creatively starved and had to do something to get out of this dry spell and find my groove again.

I am so so very grateful I did, because it has introduced me to my very best friends (Freya & Rosie), it was the catalyst to my career (thanks Rose!), and more than anything it has brought me such a wonderful group of friends from all around the world ( yes, that’s YOU!!) Along the way I dived in and out of ‘normal blogging’, you know the kind where I used to blog about my day to day, what was happening in my life, where I was going, what I was eating, you know.. the good ol’ blogging days which made me fall in love with this world in the first place!

Along the way, it all got quite serious, I realised that this could be a career and the pressure of creating high quality content ALL of the time was exhausting, that I barely tried to be honest… it just wasn’t for me. but I don’t think I really ever found my feet at it again, because well… look at me, the last time you heard from me was a month ago, and it wasn’t exactly a personal update (it was hopefully very useful though!) Do you miss those personal updates?

Since finding a new passion for health and nutrition I’ve been wanting this space to transform and morph to be a platform where you can be inspired to take small steps everyday towards a more sustainable, ethical, kinder way of living for yourself, the planet and the animals - and this is very much my main goal, but like my Instagram, I have a hard time figuring out a balance between being ‘professional’ and sharing what I ate for breakfast you know?! Maybe I’m just overthinking it and I should just continue sharing what I want when I want.. maybe that’s the problem. Overthinking everything, and assuming certain things that aren’t true (ha, story of my life)

Anyway, I didn’t even come here to share about my blogging journey..! but this is what happens when I haven’t shared in a while, I just want to catch you up on EVERYTHING, and I could be at it for days haha

I came here because on Monday this week I turned 28 - this number means a lot to me because this is when my mama had me, she was 28 years old. So since forever I’ve had this age in mind as ‘I’ll have my life figured out with a baby on the way’ and filed it away. Well, well, well… we’re here now and weirdly enough I thought I’d feel strange about it all but it’s been fine, I mean let’s be honest who has it all figured out?! No one. and to be totally honest, I am so so incredibly happy about where I’m at in my life right now.

I am in a wonderful, happy relationship, we live in this cute flat we bought last year, across the park from our best friends, we love our neighbourhood, we live with our little pup Nemo who we rescued 5 months ago and he’s changed our lives for the better, I have made some exciting moves last year by enrolling in a health coaching course, my career is currently in a weird limbo, but I love what I do and the clients I work with, and you guys! I have found a passion for writing about food and wellness and it’s only getting better, I am working on a big recipe ebook project which is very exciting, and babies… well babies aren’t in the picture just yet! but they will be sooner than later I’m sure of it.

SO the lesson is, and particularly *note to self * don’t ever give yourself ‘life deadlines’ - I will be ‘this’ or ‘that’, or in ‘this’ position by this age… unless it’s motivating you to reach your goals. For me it was just a pre-conceived idea based on my mum’s experience..! It’s silly how we do that sometimes right?!

28 feels good so far. It feels very good. I feel more like myself than ever before, and that’s what matters most.

My sister and her boyfriend Theo flew over for the weekend to celebrate with us, it was so amazing to have them over! Last year they surprised me and I cried like a baby in the middle of a cafe, this year I begged them to come back and they did! Having my little sister around is just everything, she’s my very best friend… (read more below the photos!)

We had 3 days of non-stop eating.. ha! As it always is! Lizzie who is also vegan likes to go explore all our new spots when she comes over because she doesn’t have as many restaurant options in Toulouse where she lives. On Saturday night we had a pizza party at home picking up pizzas from the amazing “Death By Pizza” - they are so so good! If you live East London, they’re available for pick up and also on Deliveroo, highly recommend trying them out!

On Sunday morning we went back to our new favourite spot, called “I will Kill Again” - definitely don’t judge it by it’s name...! It’s not a 100% vegan spot, but their vegan options are amazing! Their vegan sausage roll is actually the highlight, so is their corn muffin/avocado/tempeh brekky. If you want to try it out, I’d recommend going there early when they open at 10AM, it gets packed very quickly!

The rest of Sunday was spent with all my close friends, eating this AMAZING cake Michael surprised me with, it was a Chai spice cake with a chocolate frosting and he got it from this amazing little bakery on Brick Lane called Vida Bakery. 4 days later and we’re still eating it… it was SO big! I’ve given cake to everyone who’ll let me! In the evening we started watching this series called ‘A Discovery Of Witches” on Amazon Prime, have you heard of it?! It’s a mix of Doctor Who/Sherlock/Harry Potter and it’s so good! I love the main actress Teresa Palmer, she’s an amazing mama and writes the blog Your Zen Mama - also highly recommend her videos on Youtube about manifestation, and her latest series all about her current pregnancy.

On Monday, M woke up very early and made me a delicious birthday green smoothie that I had cuddled up on the sofa with my pup. Lizzie woke up later and we made pain au chocolat (or chocolatines!) from a box by ‘Just Roll’ highly recommend trying it out! They also do cinnamon rolls, they sell in most big supermarkets like Waitrose and Tesco and they’re accidentally vegan!

We spent the rest of the day walking around in the sun, buying new plants (I got the big one in that photo on the right! it was a gift from my mama who couldn’t be there on the day), having cake and tea, naps on the sofa while trying to watch a movie, until some of my cousins came over for dinner - we were lazy this year and ordered in.. AGAIN and this time from the amazing Cook Daily - another local favourite.

I was spoiled rotten and nothing makes me happier than being around my favourite people! It was a quiet birthday weekend just like I like it, I hate making a huge fuss around my birthday, and I’m totally a grandma so tea and cake at home is where it’s at haha

I am now in terrible need of a LOT of greens!! We don’t normally eat out this much, so this was really quite a lot..! Absolutely delicious, but I’m craving cleaner, simpler foods for the rest of the week - with a side of leftover birthday cake of course…!