February Madness: PART 1

Right, guys...

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on Steemit, or for that matter even been on Steemit. 13 days to be precise. Which doesn’t sound that bad but it feels like an eternity to me and I genuinely feel bad. A bit like this little guy here...

Image sourced via Pinterest

Work has been mad busy lately and my social life has been non-stop. So, I’ve decided to dedicate this post to my last two weeks here in London and give you a little taste of what I get up to. Which hopefully will also make you realise as to why I’ve been a little radio-silent since the 8th of Feb.

Let me just begin by saying this…

February’s been f*cking mental. I 100% didn’t follow my rule of “spread the fun” and ended up doing 1000 things more. Typically my weeks don’t fill up like this (actually… no, that’s a lie - they do because it’s London). Anyway, here is a screenshot of my calendar, including all my plans for this week too.

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first.

I love exercising and I genuinely get short tempered if I don’t get my load of endorphins on a regular basis. So things like Fight Klub (boxing to Drum & Bass music) and Get Ripped (weights class) are vital in my life. I also try and do yoga once a week (that’s if I can get up at 6.40am on a Tuesday) and swimming (which you can’t even see in my schedule). 

You might remember a similar photo from my Seven Day Black & White Challenge: Day 4 which was taken after one of the Fight Klub classes...this time in colour though :-)

But I see gaps in your calendar?

Yes, that’s right. You may see that Friday the 9th and Thursday the 15th are empty so I probably could have written something up for Steemit then but in my defence:

1. I spent that Friday with @allasyummyfood doing absolutely nothing. I honestly have never been this excited to head home on a Friday night to catch up with my sister and watch some trash TV series (I won’t reveal which ones just yet. Lol). And eat naughty FOOD. Food always. AND...
   
2. I was meant to go to a talk about - The Science Behind Game of Thrones (evidence) but sadly it got cancelled last minute so I think I went home to prep last bits and bobs for Alla’s big 30th birthday coming up that weekend.

Now, let’s look at all the fun shit I’ve done!

Each activity could easily deserve its own separate post but if I were to do this - I would probably be here till the morning so we’re gonna do Inga-style summary of each fun thing that I’ve done in the last 2 weeks.

Tuesday, 6th of Feb

Best F(r)iends with Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero LIVE

Sooo...for those who’ve never even heard of Tommy Wiseau and the film called “The Room” - go and watch it now, like right now. It is literally THE WORST film you will ever see but it’s also an absolute classic. It’s SO BAD - it’s good.

I mean, I don’t even know where to start....

Liam mentioned it to me about a year and a half ago so we ended up getting tickets to go and see it at the cinema where you are given plastic spoons (I’m not making this up) to throw at the worst/best moments, and a Q&A session with Tommy Wiseau himself (i.e. the director, writer and the main star of the film).

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So, of course, as soon as we heard that Tommy was starring in another film, i.e. Best F(r)iends - we just HAD to go. We booked this probably a good few months in advance (like you do with most of the things in London) and Liam and I actually got to meet Tommy and Greg before the screening started. And even got the copy of the original script of “The Room” signed.

It turns out “Best F(r)iends” is a two part film so those who would like to catch Volume 2, you can still get the tickets for September the 10th or 11th at the Prince Charles cinema here.

But before you do this, I recommend that you:

a) watch “The Room” - ideally also at the Prince Charles cinema with some plastic spoons, and

b) watch the first part of “Best F(r)iends” - which I’m still very baffled about, haha

Wednesday, 7th of Feb

The Lion King Musical

This was definitely one of those things that Liam and I should have planned for much later in the year but hey, he managed to hustle some free tickets with work, and so we picked this date back in December. We didn’t ‘spread the fun’, no.

This was probably by far one of the best musicals I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to a few). The set, the production, the costumes and the sheer amount of creativity that meant into this - just blew my mind. Acting I would say was on the weaker side (not for all but a few performers), regardless - I would give this 5 out of 5 stars without a doubt. No one was allowed to take any photos so I managed to dig this one out from the good ol’ net.

Image sourced from lionking.co.uk

I also cried at every other song. The Lion King brought up a lot of childhood memories for me, as I think it was my first ever Disney film. And I will never forget how our mum stopped the film half way through (just before Mufasa died) and told us to go to sleep as it was late - Alla and I were devastated. Though I can imagine she didn’t want us to get all upset right before bedtime so, fair play.

I soon found out that it wasn’t just me with the “puffy eyes” as Liam put it...

I blurred out the names and twitter handles to keep people’s data private

Again, if you have not been - I suggest you pick a reason to either celebrate your birthday or an anniversary, or just plan a nice family trip to the theatre and get those tickets booked ASAP! Then come back to this post and tell me what you thought of it :-)

Saturday, 10th of Feb

Bottomless Brunch, Chalked Out Vol. 3 and Jon Grayson’s gig

A pretty packed day, what can I say. First of, @allasyummyfood and I were about 40 mins late to a brunch with HER mates because she decided to join ME for a morning swim, AND a “quick” sauna sesh, AND a “quick” jacuzzi sesh, haha.

Blurry @allasyummyfood and I on our way to the London Grind!

Anyway, we made it and I decided to go for the bottomless prosecco for 1.5 hours for only £13. THIRTEEN POUNDS. I don’t know about you but that’s f*cking CHEAP for London! Usually you would pay anything between £20-£30 for 2 hours (and 2 hours can get you pretty wasted) so this was perfect. Plus I knew I was going out later so it was a win-win type of situation ;-)

Caught one of the funniest moments of @allasyummyfood holding her friend’s baby Boris

I got pretty tipsy with all that prosecco and headed to Shoreditch for a rap battle event - Chalked Out Vol 3 that my boyfriend Liam was filming on the day. He once was part of his own rap battle company called Don’t Flop but after 8 years it ended, yet Liam stayed very well known in the scene and introduced me to the world of rap battle and bars.

It’s nothing what I expected it to be when I went to his first few events. I imagined to see a lot of hood guys, freestyling ‘yo mama jokes’. But instead, I was pleasantly surprised with how diverse the crowds were and how incredibly technical and thought-through everyone’s bars are. Some guys write them weeks and months in advance which makes it a pretty amazing performance.

I would have loved to share a short video of Liam’s flatmate Sam (i.e. ARK - yes, everyone has a rap name) but I need to figure out how to embed them first, lol. But for now, here is a trailer that Liam put together to give you a little taster. Brrrrap! Haha

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The last stop (and by this time I was very pissed) was this little pub in Islington to see my school mate Johnny Gray (i.e. Jon Grayson - I guess everyone needs a different stage name too, lol) perform live. This was exciting as I’ve seen a few of his bits and bobs on social media but never been to his actual gig. Here is his page if you ever want to check out a fresh new talent in indie/pop music.

To top off the night, Liam and I ordered a pizza with stuffed crust (obviously).

Sunday, 11th of Feb

Dim Sum lunch and vinyl shopping

I might have been a little (just a little) hungover the next day so I decided to take Liam for lunch at my favourite Dim Sum place in Chinatown - London Chinatown Restaurant (I know, they really couldn’t come up with a more original name, haha).

Anyway, as I’m doing a meat-free month (I’ll talk about this in another post), we ended up trying a few new dishes, to spice things up a bit.

Mussels with black bean sauce (they tasted kind of interesting…lol)

and

Prawn and shark fin dim sum (and before you say anything - I do feel bad for those sharks but I also never tried this type of dim sum. And to tell the truth, it tasted pretty good…)

After this we went on a mission to get a few new vinyls for my collection. I was particularly interested in getting something Jazzy/Bluesy, just in time for the Valentine’s dinner at home. So I ended up buying the following three:

1. The Essential Miles Davis
2. COLTRANE 
3. Bill Withers - Just As I Am

I have to say, some of these vinyls like Bill Withers - were much cheaper to buy in a vinyl store (£25 vs £37), whereas Miles Davis one I actually ordered off Amazon after seeing that it was almost 10 pounds cheaper on there. So my suggestion is to always cross-check the prices online when you’re in a vinyl store (that’s if you’re a little cheapskate like me, haha).

Beautiful street art piece we came across around Covent Garden area

That’s it, folks. PART 2 to follow...

Let me know your thoughts on all of the above, especially if you’ve done any of the things I’ve mentioned - in the comments below! 

Share, love, spread… (butter). Haha

Love,

Inga x