Birthday Weekend in London

Saturday !!!!!!!!

We first went to Camden Market, now one thing I have to say is at first I thought is this it but we kept walking and finally arrived at the lock which was full of food stands of every culture. It was AMAZING!! If you are visiting London this should be on your list.

While we had our lunch we noticed this fish spa that had a great deal and I had never tried it before. I always try and do things that I have never done before on my birthday so its an adventure. It was quite early and we were the first customer's so she actually gave us 10 extra minutes for free which was very sweet. The Garra Rufa fish feed on the dead skin on your feet making them very soft afterwards. It was nice to just relax in there while outside was manic.


After the fish spa we explored Camden and found some weird and wonderful places. Then headed to Lion King at the Lyceum Theater which was spectacular and at one point the women actually brought me to tears as her voice was so perfect and the lyrics were so beautiful. If you ever come to London, I recommend The Lion King so highly especially if you want to treat a partner, family member or kids. I would also recommend that you bring food and drink with you into the theatre as the drinks were about triple the price they are normally.

After the theatre production we actually went round Covent Garden for about an hour which at that time they had a small food market selling Deserts, Duck Wrap, Pull Pork wraps and organic fruit. The food wasn't expensive for the amount you got and the views at pretty amazing while you have a snack.

Something that I had never done before is climb a landmark and i saw there was an offer for Up at the 02 which is where you climb up the 02 to a platform that has a 360 degree views of London.

There are different times you can choose from and we actually went up at 7:15 which meant we got the end of the sunset. It was breath taking and we really had an amazing time. It's something that you will only do once and I would recommend the summer time because it can get very windy at the top.

Sunday !!!!!!!!!

The next day was my 19th Birthday and we travelled to Harry Potter World. An absolute must for Harry Potter fans. Extremely detailed, exciting and interesting. The whole experience tells of all the love and passion everyone involved in the films invested in making them. One thing that I was suggested to do by a friend was to take our time around the tour as there was so much to see. We spend around 4-5 hours in the actual park and I am sure we didn't see everything. I would also recommend that you get the package that comes with the digital guide and paperback souvenir as they were definitely worth the extra money.

You see that everything in the movie has such detail, they spend a lot of time and money on little objects that in the background of even things that are probably not even seen such as there is a crest in the fireplace that was made but never actually seen on camera. There are secrets to the movie that come out in the tours that you have ever of guested. It has now inspired me to re-read the Harry Potter Books to gain a different perspective.

I had to say that is was one of the best birthday weekends that I have ever had. I wanted to share it with you all as it might help a few of you on idea's for a day in London or a birthday. I hope you all loved an insight into what I did on my 19th.

Jess
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The Fault in our stars.....

I know this isn't a beauty review but this is something that is close to my heart. Even though I am not big on reading books this is a book that just tore me up and i couldn't stop reading it. I know most people think the books just predictable and cliché however to me at the end it showed the true darkness of cancer. This is one to read before you watch the movie and I promise you won't be disappointed. In one of the scene's she said ' I'm a Grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties'. Just that sentence brought back all my memories as in 2006 my Nan lost her battle with cancer. 

This book truly got me thinking about my Nan and the importance of living life to the full. I wanted to share a bit about my Nan as I have always struggle actually talking about her. Let me just start with saying she was one of a kind, she helped out at play ground with the children, she baked cakes for charities and she would help out anyone that would ask. A week before she died she even drove elderly people to their hospital appointments so they didn’t need to get the bus. Those of a few things that my Nan did. 

She had fought cancer over nearly 10 years where she was in and out remission. It started of as breast cancer which then went to her liver, heart, and lungs. She was the most wonderful person that you would have ever met and I will never forgot her. The day she died my parents had arranged for us to go see a theatre production in London. They didn't want to spoil the day so they waited until the next morning to tell us. I remember them waking me up and sitting us down in their room. My mum burst into tears and I remember thinking please don't be Nan, please don’t be nan, anything but her. She was like my mum, she looked after me most of my life but I didn't know how sick she really was. I couldn’t catch my breath and all my emotions seem to crash down on me.  

Cancer is one of the worst, ugliest and scariest thing I have come across in my life. I live near a huge hospital where they test all these new drugs to cure cancer. My Nan was basically their guinea pig, she tried these drugs years before anyone knew about them. However none of them worked. The chemotherapy soon started to actually make my Nan mad. At one point when my mum visited my Nan, she started trying to call my mum even though she was sat right next to her.

Her funeral was all a blur but I remember a few things such as that everyone was asked to wear colour and that I wore a pink fluffy dress. The church was so full people were standing at the back and outside. She was loved by everyone. Instead of people giving flowers we asked people to donate to the hospital to get more equipment for the patients. I remember it rained at the burial ground and my mum said ‘the heavens are crying’.

It tore my family apart but made us stronger in the long run. Sorry about the rant but there are a lot of things that I can never speak about but instead I can write about. This book brought all my emotions back while I was on holiday and I believe it is a great book for people to understand the effects of cancer. I don’t want to give anything away but I recommend it very highly.

Please feel free to comment.

Jess
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