Bill's Restaurant, Covent Garden

There's nothing better than trying out new restaurants and discovering uh-may-zing food.

On a recent trip to London Town, Ashleigh tagged along with me and had said about wanting to visit Bill's Restaurant, after reading a post on Vivianna Does Make-Up. So we hopped in a cab and popped along to try out the supposed tasty food.

Bill's certainly didn't disappoint and I LOVED the whole vibe of the place. It was cute, friendly and served the scrummiest eggs you will ever taste in your life!

 



I was a greedy little pig as I was starving and opted for a chocolate brownie milkshake and home-made blueberry and buttermilk pancakes. To say they were incredible would be an understatement!

Heaven.

 

Must have pancakes.

 

 

We were left feeling very full, but after the sweetness that was pancakes and a milkshake, I was left craving something savoury.

 

So I ordered the royale free range poached eggs on a toasted english muffin and I didn't regret it once.

 

Eggs are one of my favourite things to eat (poached, scrambled, fried, dippy, you name it) and it was the best choice I made all day.

 

 

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5173665/?claim=ws2awhktdb9">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Beyonce - The Mrs Carter Show World Tour

If you haven't seen The Mrs Carter Show World Tour, I apologise for the spoilers I'm about to drop, however, if you haven't got tickets, WHO ARE YOU!?

Apologies for the craziness, but Ashleigh and myself are massive fans of Bey!!

Very excited about the road trip to see Bey.

I can confidently say that Beyonce's tour, without a doubt, was the best thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

The set, the lighting, the dancers (Les Twins are incredible), the graphics. The whole thing - AMAZING!

The way Beyonce can just walk up on stage and totally own it, as well as busting out dance move after dance move whilst singing is simply beyond me. Friends and I have come up with a clear suggestion - she isn't human!

Yes we were that close!

 

These were taken on an iPhone so excuse the quality.

 

Her flawless looks, humble nature, those dance moves and that voice. Nobody can be that perfect in our eyes, but alas she is.

Our highlights of the tour? The whole damn thing. From her immense entry to I Been On/Run The World to her classic hit, Crazy In Love complete with THAT booty shake.

Or how about when she 'dutty wines' to Baby Boy? Or flies across the audience and lands on the 'Bey Stage' to perform Love On Top, Survivor and Irreplacable?

Who run the world? Bey!

 

 

The last part of her show was simply magical. A gorgeous montage set to I Was Here was followed by a beautiful rendition of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You and lastly Halo.

After standing right in front of Bey and then witnessing her singing her infamous ballads, it all proved a bit much for Ash and I and we cried. Yes, we are those crazy fans who cry. Who knew!?

All hail the mighty Queen Bey.

 

LA Adventures: Part 4 - Arclight Hollywood, Saddle Ranch & The Grove

So my last part of my LA adventure was definitely memorable.

I didn't want to come home and not have a proper American 'movie' experience. I visited Arclight Hollywood, in you guessed it, Hollywood, to watch the hottest man alive in The Place Beyond The Pines.

I'm talking of course about dreamy Ryan Gosling. I adore him and couldn't wait to check out his latest film. What I didn't realise about this particular 'movie theater' is that they house some of the actual costumes from the latest films out.

Here is a picture of me absolutely loving life and chuffed to bits, standing next to the costumes which Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes and Ryan 'dreamboat' Gosling wore.

If you haven't seen the film, it's a good 'un.

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling's costumes.

 

Bradley Cooper's police outfit.

 

Seeing as my time in LA was coming to an end (sob), Lorna suggested we head to Saddle Ranch to meet some friends of hers and Lucy's. It's a really cool, cowboy style bar situated on Sunset Blvd, which reminded me a lot of Coyote Ugly. The staff are extremely friendly and all wear bandana's around their heads. It's also a pretty big place AND there's a bucking horse for any brave/drunk people willing to have a go.

The food was amazing and I had to have a chicken burger whilst I was in America. Not content with the main course, Lorna and I decided on pudding - a giant chocolate chip cookie topped with cream, ice cream and strawberries. Basically it was a heart attack on a plate, but it was SO good.

 

The flash went off so you can't see just how glorious this pud was.

 

 

 

Thanks to the lovely Brian, who was a friend of Lucy & Lorna's and worked at the bar, he got us some cocktails and boy were they strong. Oh and we had shots as well.

 

Cheers!

 

I was wearing a waist cinching dress, and after you've had a huge burger, cookie, two cocktails and multiple shots, needless to say I was quite restricted.

We ended up crashing and burning in bed all before 11pm. Absolutely wild, but in all seriousness, such a fun night!


The last major place I wanted to tick off my list whilst I was in LA was The Grove. Plus it was where Extra was filmed with Maria Menonous and Mario Lopez.

It's such a pretty place filled with restaurants, a 'movie theater', designer stores and the likes of Forever 21, Topshop and A&F.

 

 

 

It's a fab place to people watch and see what everybody is wearing. We did some shopping (we tripped and fell into MAC), watched Spring Breakers (weirdest film ever), stopped for lunch and snooped around the Extra set. It was a cracking end to a fabulous trip.

 

 

 

Extra set with Maria Menonous.

 

Amazing 'candy' shop.

 

 

 

 

 

I literally fell in love with LA. Maybe even not so much LA, but the Californian experience. The people, the lifestyle, THE WEATHER. I was so not ready to come home.

I've been fortunate enough to travel literally around the world with family and friends and visit places such as Australia, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and of course Europe, and I was always ready to come home by the end of my trips.

LA was a little different. I felt at home, I didn't feel like I was miles away from home and I don't know, I was just really happy there. So I fully intend to go back and I thoroughly recommend it to anybody.

If you've stashed some money aside and you're itching to spend it, book a flight to California. I promise you won't regret it!

LA Adventures: Part 3 - Beverly Center, Griffith Observatory & Vernon Canyon

If there's one thing I enjoy more than chocolate, it's shopping!

I had been told before I departed to LA about a magical, wonderous place which I must visit called...... the BEVERLY CENTER.



The view from the top of the Beverly Center.

 

It's a huge shopping mall situated nearby Beverly Hills. filled with stores such as Sephora, Forever 21, Bloomingdales, Macy's, through to designer stores such as Burberry, Versace and Gucci.

Basically if I was religious, my religion would be the Beverly Center. I also just so happened to have a $125 dollar Victoria's Secret voucher given to me by my wonderful friends as a birthday present, which I was dying to spend.

I will do a post on all the gorgeous bits I picked up at a later date, but let's just say that Victoria's Secret, Forever 21, Sephora and Bath & Body Works got absolutely raided. I left with a very empty purse, but my hands full of goodies.

Woopsie.

After a hard earned day shopping, naturally Lorna and I thought it would be a great idea to head out to a bar for some drinks. We ended up at Bar Stella on Sunset Blvd and after one too many (strong) vodka's later, we wound up watching a fab gig at Bar Cafe just in Hollywood.

Needless to say we felt a bit groggy the next day, so Day 6 was kind of a write off. Instead we relaxed up in Los Feliz where we were staying with Lorna's friend for a couple of days, and shook off the hangover.

This is how we relax after a night out.

Easter Sunday was the first day where it actually rained a tad since I'd touched down a week ago. It was still really quite mild, so we popped on our gym clothes and headed up to the Griffith Observatory to take in the views.

Inside is a space museum, so if any of you do visit LA and decide you want to indulge your inner space geek, this is the place for you. I walked away with a few interesting facts in my head.

Griffith Observatory.

Easter Monday and the Sun came out again, so we decided to make the most of being close to the Hills by embarking on another hike. This time it was the turn of Vernon Canyon and it was incredible.

Once we got to the top, we literally chatted for a good hour about all kinds of things as well as gazing out to the view. Another energetic day of pounding the pavement and feeling good with all the exercise. I literally love Cali!

Oh good.

 

Vernon Canyon.

 

 

Top of Vernon Canyon. Looking pretty pleased with myself.

 

 

Views across to Downtown LA.



LA Adventures: Part 2 - Santa Monica & the Hollywood Sign

Day 3 was by far one of my fave parts of my LA adventure. It was another beautiful day so we decided to head down to the beach - Santa Monica beach in fact.

Santa Monica I love you.

We didn't have a car (I know, crazy right!?) as it was far too expensive to hire one between two people, so we headed onto the no.14 bus which cost a sweet $1.50.

It was a glorious day and when we arrived about 35 minutes later we were in for a treat. Santa Monica was just incredible! Endless sand stretching to the Pacific Ocean, littered with The OC style beach huts and nestled right next to the Santa Monica pier, which has been featured in a whole host of movies.

Me & Lorna absolutely loving life!

 

Posing away and thinking how damn lucky I was.

 

Lorna looking all pretty and beach ready.

 

 

We settled down and sunbathed for an hour or so before heading off to explore the shops and get a bite to eat. Santa Monica is in fact its own little 'city' and the shopping reminded me of a British high street, but better.

Full of stores such as H&M, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21 and my personal favourite, Victoria's Secret, I had to try not to go too crazy as we were gearing up for a big shopping spree at the Beverly Centre (more on that another day).

Santa Monica 'high street'.

If you ever find yourself in California, I would thoroughly recommend a trip to Santa Monica. It's pretty, quaint, but has a vibrant vibe about the place!


Day 4 was a much more active affair. It was another fabulously, sunny day and I was desperate to get some pictures of the Hollywood sign up close and personal.

We've all seen it in the movies and it was just something I wanted to tick off my list of things to do in LA. We walked to Los Feliz (about 3 miles, we are troopers!) and got a taxi up to the Hollywood Hills.

There the views were incredible. We could see the whole of LA stretched out before us in a sunny haze and of course we had a cracking view of the Hollywood sign.

 

 

 

After we sat in silence for a bit staring out to the distance, before walking down the hill and stopping off for a bite to eat to regain our energy.

So far this trip was turning out to be absolutely incredible!

LA Adventures: Part 1 - Sunset Blvd & Hollywood

I'm a massive travel lover and if there's an opportunity to travel to distant shores, I will take it!

One of our mutual best friends, Lorna Harris, is currently living in LA for pilot season. I thought it would be a fab idea to combine travelling across the other side of the world to experience a slice of the Cali life, and to see a very good friend.

Lorna Harris channelling her inner Silver from 90210.

I booked my ticket, packed my bags and flew across to the West Coast of the States. I arrived tired, but full of beans. Having left the icy island of Britain, I was VERY happy to see blue skies and feel balmy temperatures. Bliss.

Seeing as I arrived late afternoon and US immigration is like a military operation, it was kinda early evening before I finally got to take in some sights. First stop - Sunset Boulevard and Mel's Diner.

Giant Iron Man 3 poster. So excited for this film!

Let me introduce you to (in my opinion) the best milkshake I've ever had. Mel's Diner is a chain of restaurants with a 50's vibe to it. I loved the Grease-esque jukebox and celebs such as Stephanie Pratt and Khloe Kardashian have all regularly been papped inside this yummy find.

Heaven in a glass.

 

 

I crashed and burned shortly after my chicken and avocado salad, but Day 2 showed plenty of promise.

We decided to descend upon Hollywood's Walk of Fame the next day. I knew it wasn't as glamorous as it's portrayed to be on the TV, but I was even more surprised when you're actually there how commericial it is.

Where the Oscars are held. Not very glam right!?

 

Walk of Fame

 

 

 

People try and sell you those annoying 'star tours' and dare I say it, it's quite trashy. It's something I'm glad I'm able to tell people I've seen, but it's nothing too special.

However, I did have a picture with Johnny Depp's star so it's all good.