Nivea daily essentials double effect eye makeup remover: review

I have found the best eye makeup remover! “Nivea Daily Essentials, Double Effect EyeMakeup Remover”.  It’s always essential to take off your eye makeup before bed, and for me, it was even more so this weekend.

This IS a daily essential! 

Sensational butterflies – live butterflies at the National History Museum

I love butterflies. Always have. So when I heard that the National History Museum was hosting a live outdoor butterfly house, I insisted to the Boy that we had to go to this exhibition. And that he was paying. He was terribly excited.

So Monday afternoon, before I closed the book on the chapter of my life that was the wedding, we had one last day before I trekked back to work and we headed off to the “sensational butterflies” exhibition.

Betty Blythe, 1920s vintage tea room - dress up and cakes!

With my mum now living in Cambodia, I missed both her birthday and mother’s day this year, so as she is now back in London for my forth coming wedding, I thought I would treat her to a surprise. I booked us an afternoon tea for two in Hammersmith, with all the usual trimming such as triangle sandwiches with the crusts cut off… but vintage style! It was at Betty Blythe, a cute tea room, filled with nostalgia, where you get to dress up in 1920’s inspired bits and bobs!

how cute is this! 

getting in to the spirit of it! 

Dress up and cakes… a perfect combo!

Before the sandwiches and cakes even started to arrive, we had already delved into the opportunity to try on everything – from hair pieces to top hats, to gloves to garters.

delve in to the drawers...

Sofra Turkish restaurant, Covent Garden

I adore Middle Eastern food and for me, it is one of my favourite cuisines. Today I went on my friend’s recommendation and had an amazing dinner at “Sofra” a Turkish restaurant on Travistock Street, in Covent Garden.

spacious conservatory at Sofra 

Whitstable – seafood, seaside, sunsets and sugared donuts

My parents are in the UK at the moment, visiting from Cambodia for a few weeks, so I thought I would take a couple of days off to see them whilst they were staying in Whitstable. 

I haven’t been in my adulthood so can’t remember a thing about it but it was such a cute little place. What with this heat wave too, it actually felt like a mini summer break!

In all honesty, we didn't do that much, except taking lazy strolls along the beach and enjoy the glorious weather! 

Whitstable Oysters at the "Crab and Winkle"

Oysters. They are the marmite of the sea. A delicacy that doubles as an aphrodisiac or a disgusting edible live creature?

I had my first real oyster experience last night. I have been staying a few days with my parents in Whitstable and as Whitstable is famous for its Oysters I thought “why not give them a shot”.

We had a table booked at the “Crab and Winkle” restaurant on the Whitstable harbour with my dad’s friend Simon who highly recommended the place, including the oysters. But they did some other excellent seafood too, so don't think you'll just be served these critters!

Summer special - Packing tips for your holiday!

This week has been a summer holiday blogging special. I have shared with you my top 20 staples to take on holiday (part one and two), my flight bag saviours and the make up/beauty products and toiletries that will see you through the holiday, as well as my must have items to pack on your holiday.

Today is the last in the week long special and I will be sharing with you my top packing tips.

Picnicing in Brockwell Park

This weekend I added another two spots to the list of places I love about London – Portabello Market and Brockwell Park.

I felt the need to venture out of my “park comfort zone” and picnic in a park other than Hyde Park, St James’s or Regents Park.

Brockwell Park

So Friday evening, I packed a picnic and took the Boy to Brockwell Park for a romantic evening at dusk.

Brockwell Park is a beautiful and vibrant park, sandwiched between Dulwich, Stretham and Brixton.

Smoked mackerel pate - a healthy dip

Last Thursday me and the family had planned a BBQ get together at my nans in the Garden of England, aka Kent.

Although, nonstop rain and grey skies meant we had to do the stereotypical British thing of nominating someone to stand outside with the brolly whilst blackening the meat.

Then we ate indoors in the living room.

delicious and creamy

To accompany the BBQ meats, we had a delicious selection of homemade sides and salads, from guacamole to cous cous.

I went a bit different this with my contribution though and went for smoked mackerel pate.

A lover of any food sourced from the sea, I love fish and love smoked mackerel. When I was aimlessly wandering through the aisles in Sainsbury’s one day, I came across a pot of smoked mackerel pate in the chilled section. Intrigued, I took to google and found that there was no need to buy a pot. It’s soooo easy to make, with simple every day ingredients that you most likely will have in the fridge.

something a little different for a BBQ buffet

Ingredients

3-4 smoked mackerel fillets (take the skin off)

200 g low fat cream cheese

2 tablespoons of natural low fat yoghurt

Juice and zest of one large lemon (unwaxed)

Half a red onion, finely chopped (optional) 

One teaspoon of Dijon mustard (or even wholegrain)

simple ingredients for a fresh flavour 

Skin the mackerel and pop into the food processor. Blend until a course pate consistency. If you don't have a food processor, use a good old fashioned wooden spoon and arm muscle, which in all honesty is just as easy

In a bowl, mix the blended mackerel with the cream cheese, yoghurt, mustard, lemon juice and onion

this is so easy to make!

Season. Serve. Enjoy 

Making it yourself too means you can cut the addictive crap, the flavouring and preservatives. Sea food has a multitude of health benefits and mackerel is no different. Mackerel is wonderfood of health benefits, including a brilliant source of protein and fatty acid omega-3, which can help to protect the heart. 

So this mackerel pate is low fat, tasty and a great healthy snack all round.

I served with these morish crostinis, a bit like a giant crouton type bread thing and baked pittas chips. Delicious.

X x X 

Too much to do, too little time...my hints for work/office productivity!

In the past few weeks, I have had quite a few days off, for various reasons such as visiting an unwell grandparent, meeting up with my dad who was visiting London for a few days, Easter holidays, various appointments, external work meetings, seeing the in-laws etc etc. Which was all very fun, interesting, or plain necessary, but has resulted in only working two days a week for the last few weeks (yay) but now meaning I have twice as much to do for the rest of April...and maybe May (boo).

My lovely weekend away in Manchester and good mood was abruptly bought to a stop this morning at 9am when I realised I had 256 emails that needed my attention!!! opps.

start loving Monday 

My out of office auto response will have bought me a little more time to respond to the emails’ authors but it did slightly panic me!

This got me thinking about work/life balance, productivity, and effective work habits.

Over the years I like to think I have learnt a great deal from the people I work with, picking up hints and tips along the way. So to help anyone else in my situation, here are my hints and tips. I have also labeled this as “fulfillment” in the blog categories as I am hoping that getting a good work/life balance brings contentment!

Hope this helps.

1. first off, write a to do list of everything you have to do this week and if possible, try and separate the list into

a) things that are urgent

b) things that can wait until the end of the week

c) things that don’t need action but just involve you chasing

d) things that you can delegate

2. also, stick a couple of things on there that you have already done/ are near completion, because ticking that off right away will trick your mind into thinking that you have already accomplished something and make you more motivated!

use a list to keep on track 

3. if possible, before a long stint away from the office, try and write a to do list that you will need to get through prior to going away. I did this before Xmas and it massively helped, as the dread of going back into the office and not knowing what I was doing was softened by the fact I already had a list on my desk!

4. if there are things that need chasing, try not to send emails, and pick up the phone to that person. This will probably be quicker than batting emails back and forth, back and forth, especially if either of you have questions. It will also help build rapport and relationships.

5. scan through the emails quickly at first (microsoft office has a preview reading pane) and mark the ones that nee urgent attention. Once you have accessed what the inbox contains you can go about actioning the emails. (I am not sure “actioning” is a word but you get the meaning of this made up verb).

6. try and only check emails at designated times, say fist thing in the morning, after lunch and hour before home time. Don’t attend to each email every time you notice it ping up in the bottom right hand screen! Turn this “pop up” off if necessary!

7. decide what to do with your emails. My dad taught me to either “delete” “do” “delegate” or “delay”. Sometimes he actually talks sense.

8. Tab and label your emails! I have green for urgent, purple for events, black for chasing others, red for funding etc, in that way I can group these tasks together. Which brings me onto the next tip...

9. don’t multi task! Instead do one “thing” at a time. Do it properly, efficiently and get it done quickly....

is this how you feel?

10. ..and if it helps, group activities together. Sometimes it helps if you do things in bulk, especially if you have to open certain folders, talk to certain people etc to access the info you need. If you take this approach, dedicate a time slot to getting it all done in one go. This is where the coloured labels help too in tip 5.  

11. I recently read that the mind is very quick to adapt (think of a time when an alarm goes off, it annoys you, and then later you suddenly realise it stopped and you didn’t even know cos you got so used to it!)Therefore, it is best to do the boring stuff altogether as your mind will adapt to it and it won’t be so painful to do!

12. learn the art of cut and paste! I have a “bank” of letters, emails, template posters etc that I use time and time again. all that is required is slight tweaking. Although, be careful, I have made the mistake of sending the email to the wrong person using the wrong template! Embarrassing and probably not seen as professional

13. clear your mind and don’t stress! Easier said than done, I know. But if something is troubling you or won’t leave your mind, just write it down and tell yourself you will deal with it later. It is simple but really works for me!

14. be wary of the unnecessary meetings or the ones that drag on for far too long! And I also learnt the hard way not to schedule in a load of (unnecessary) meetings straight after a long break on the first day back in the office. It’ll take up so much time and probably result in more work as meetings have a habit of producing more work for you!

15. perhaps sometimes you just need to say “no”. Easier said than done (especially to the boss) or at least be honest with your time scales, and not just promise to have it to them by the end of the day when you know realistically it’ll take several!

16. take breaks and most importantly a healthy lunch break! I see colleagues skip lunch all the time in an attempt to obtain half an hour, hour max, more working time.  but all that happens is you are drain and grumpy and unproductive in the afternoon. I love my food. I need my lunch break.

17. this may sound silly but learn to type quickly! I watch some people type using the two index finger technique. seriously! I am pretty quick at typing and I am sure this is in my favour as I can get twice as many emails answered as I am so quick at typing. What with spell check, it doesn’t even matter if you can’t type quick and accurate!  

and finally, don’t forget to switch off when you get home. I have never taken work home to do after office hours! And I don’t plan to start. I have never missed a deadline, so fingers crosses these tips are working for me so far! Oh, and after all that, don’t forget a little treat for you!

X x X