31-Dec-2014

Happy New Year!

This is it! 365 blog post later, it's almost 2015! Cheers to everyone who took this journey of a blog with me! Thank you, thank you so, so much!

Pour the sparkling wine, grab the hands of your loved ones, take a breath and enjoy the HAPPY NEW YEAR! May the New Year be full of goodness, happiness, goo health and best of luck for everyone. Cheers!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

30-Dec-2014

The Adventure Continues...

As promised, I have a new outlet to share all of adventures in the world of food, books, movies and travelling! If you click on the title above it will take you directly to the new blog. So far there you can find my adventures from this past years, the recipes, the reviews, the good staff. More, new!, content to come soon... because The Adventure Continues!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

29-Dec-2014

A Year In Life

I think it's time for me to think about the past year and the crazy adventure this blog has been. When I started the blog I wasn't sure if I will be able to keep to my promise and actually write a post every day. As it turns out - I can. It takes a bit of preparation and the right mental set, some planning ahead but other than that is real fun!

2014 was a good and generous year for me. I had a relatively successful first year at university, and hopefully this one will be even better. I'm still greatly enjoying what I study, although I'm getting the Second Year Blues, which means that I question everything I do, why I do it, how I do, should I actually do it, why is nothing what it seemed to be, why everything changes so fast and why nothing hasn't changed. The usual drama.

I also managed to change 3 jobs in just 1 year. Beginning 1st of January 2014 I started working at the AMEX stadium in Brighton and stayed there for 3 awful and miserable months until March. When this gig was long gone, I tried my luck at McDonald's where I spent yet another 3 horrible months from June to August. This was an experience that I'll try and spare my children from. To put it nicely, there's a reason why McDonald's is always needs to hire new people after the previous ones have left. And last, but not least, late June I started at The Jolly Poacher and I'm still going strong. This place has become my second home, my sanctuary and my safe haven. I love the fact that I'm working with people I love and respect, people who are passionate about what they are doing and the way they do it. It is also a very nice, practical change from my university life - here I always know when I do something right and I can see that I'm getting better at it one day at a time. The people at the Jolly are my family and my colleagues, so what can be better than that?

In my personal life 2014 has been a smooth sailing, more or less. I was extremely happy to have my grandparents over for a week in the beginning of the Summer. They are now planning their second visit, and my sweet sweet grandma is trying to convince my parents that it will be one hell of an adventure if they decide to come and visit me here! I also managed to go back home for 2 weeks in the beginning of September, so my Mum and Dad had the opportunity to squeeshy-squash me for 2 weeks before I came back to my duties. Hopefully next year we'll have more opportunities to spent time together, because I know how much they miss me and how much I miss them!

Mr.Boyfriend and I have been very happy together, thank you very much! We celebrated our 4th anniversary this year and we marked the occasion with a lovely dinner at a small Italian restaurant, and a treasure hunt in London (that was massive fun, y'all). After a summer spent working, working, working, we took our well deserved break in late November going for a long weekend in Barcelona. Apart from me, getting food poisoning, our stay in Barcelona was the perfect place for us to have a little rest and time for just ourselves. Definitely will go there again. As for next year, we are planning a Brighton to Paris cycling vacation and maybe a short break in Southern Italy. Who knows...

This year I also saw my cooking skills developing on a whole new level - from the confidence to make a layered cake to preparing  my own pastry to making pasta from scratch! I also experimented a lot more with vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free recipes and was more or less successful. Or at least told you guys only about the success stories. I hope next year to be able to spent a little bit more time in the kitchen, perfecting the things I already know how to make well and experimenting even more.

The thing I regret the most this year is not doing enough exercise. I started alright, then had a very strong Spring-Summer period (remember the month when I did yoga daily? plus the 20-min-a-day exercise minimum I had during the whole summer?) but the autumn and the winter were not so good for me. I am constantly too tired to be bothered to do exercise when I come back home from school or work. However, I'm eager to change that. And I think I am going to do it very soon and very much for real!

Because my new year-long dedication is to do yoga every day for one whole year. That is, 2015 is officially the healthy fit me year! 

Bang-Bang!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

28-Dec-2014

Dinner For Two

V.I.P. (Very Italian Pizza), Brighton

I think my now it has become abundantly clear that Mr.Boyfriend and I have a thing for Italian food. If it wasn't for me trying to stay in shape and him, wanting a steak every now and then, we'll probably never ever eat anything else. Pizza and pasta are The Best! Full stop. That's why finding a good pizzeria is incredibly important for us, a place on which we can rely on to deliver good quality pizza made with authentic ingredients and without costing us more than a weeks rent.

That said, I've been eyeing a new place new Old Stein, Brighton, for a while now. I've only heard good reviews for this restaurant, which have to say something about it, right? Even our snobby-and-hard-to-satisfy-about-everything-Italian friend Sam gave it his approving nod, so we were ready to give it a shot! So last week, before the whole Christmas craze started, Mr.Boyfriend and I dressed up and paid V.I.P. a visit.

The service is extremely friendly, they are all Italians and this is their family business, so you can imagine the picture. The interior in the restaurant is somewhere between rough chic and authentic Italian smallness. It is nice, but nothing shiny and fancy about it. We were seated on a table close to the door, that wasn't much of a problem but I would've preferred one of the other empty ones that weren't so close to the drift. After a quick look at the menu, we chose to start with Capresse, because this is like the most basic Italian thing ever. Even though it took them good half an hour to slice a tomato and drizzle it with salt and olive oil. On the bright side, this was probably one of the best Capresse salads I have ever had - the tomato was perfectly ripe, juicy and fresh, and the mozzarella was beyond delicious.

For mains we went for pizzas, what a surprise, right! I ordered Quattro Stagioni (tomato, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, black olives and artichokes) while Mr.Boyfriend decided to have Parma (tomato, mozzarella, Parma ham, parmigiano shavings, rocket). The pizzas arrived promptly right after our starters, hot, fresh and full of aromas, including the one of stone-baked pizza (scored major points with me there). The pizzas were huge, by the way, big enough for sharing, if you ask me, but we all know how greedy we all become when it comes to sharing food. Especially pizza... So, back to the point. V.I.P are not afraid to load the pizzas with the good goods. Well, they are not overloading the pizzas, but they are not Donatello, they are making sure that you're having a bite-full of everything you wanted on your pizza. Mr.Boyfriend raised the point that his pizza was slightly on the salty side, but nothing too extreme and inedible. I was very happy with mine, but I', rarely not happy with pizza.
The only real issue I had with V.I.P. was that they are slow and forgetful. After they served our salad I asked for a glass of tap water and it took them only one whole dinner to remember and to bring my glass of water with the bill. That is unacceptable, but I guess everything cannot be perfect at the same time. Especially at the price that you're paying in V.I.P. - for the quality and quantity of food they are offering, it's dirty cheap! Our whole bill, including a pint of Italian beer and a large glass of the more expensive red wine, came to less than 30 GBP, High five for that!

Overall, this was an amazing experience and I understand why everyone have been praising this plase. They are really good, probably my new favourite staff-my-face-with-pizza place in Brighton. Look out guys, I found a new Italian little gem!

Food: 9/10
Service: 6/10

Interior: 7/10

Location: 8/10
Pricing: 9/10

Overall Grade: 8/10

Would we go back: Yes! Yes! Yes! But they have to speed up their service, you guys. As someone who runs around to serve clients and tries to get back to them with the speed of light - 45-50 minutes for a glass of water is too much! But the food, oh deer god, the food is GOOD!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

27-Dec-2014

Presents, Presents, So Many Presents!

Ah, what is more Christmas-y than opening presents all day long! Or maybe just once, because it can be a bit overwhelming, right? However, the reason I'mm still talking abut Christmas two days after it, is because I just feel the need to let you all know what the amazing people in my life got me and to finally revel what I got Mr.Boyfriend. So, drums please, it's presents bragging time!

Mr.Boyfriend outdid himself, truly! He did such an amazing job following my subtle hints, hitting the blog, and being creative himself. He found the softest, cutest, most amazing gray pajamas for me, that I will live in if that wasn't too weird, hah. He also got me The Dark Net, a book I have been very interested in and that may be very useful for the future. It's the exact right mixture between interesting, important and educational. We was creative enough to find me a decorative skull with ruby red eyes, that I completely adore - I've been dreaming of decorative skull for our bedroom for a while now. Then he continued his strike of awesomeness and creative abilities and bought me an amazing yoga mat, so I have no excuses not to do yoga at home, or for that matter anywhere else. And last, but not least, he found a loose leaf tea shop and chose two blends for me, so that I have something to keep me warm in the long term days.

On the other hand, he was spoiled by my with a beautiful laptop/work bag by Jeff Banks, that fits nicely with the rest of black leather goods that I've been buying him for the past few years. He also got 12 pairs of funky socks because he goes out of socks faster than anyone I have ever known. So now I have made sure that I have at least 2 weeks before he starts nagging again that he doesn't have any nice looking socks left to wear. Next, I got him a children's book by Gianni Rodari called "The adventures of Little Onion", my most favourite book from the childhood and one he haven't heard of before we moved in together. Oh, and I have the horrible habit of constantly quoting it, because it so hilarious! And because he's my most favourite boy in the world, he got a Toblerone and some home-made baked goods.

Then my lovely bosses, the owners of The Jolly Poacher (go check this place NOW), when overboard with making us at home on Christmas day and there were so many presents for us that it was almost embarrassing! I got a bottle of really good sloe gin, the cutest, most funky knee high socks, boutique chocolates, turron, the most amazing perfume and a pearl pendant necklace - they really really went overboard and I can't think of a way to express how thankful I felt for all the care and kindness they had for us! They also had presents for Mr.Boyfriend - a Calvin Klein scarf, Italian praline chocolates and a Japanese puzzle box, that will keep him occupied for a fair bit of time!

On top of all that, we got the care package from our parents, which included a handsome amount of chocolate for us, few nice woolen pairs of socks for Mr.Boyfriend and I, a wonderful top from Zara for me, and so many other little things. 

So yes, we both get royally spoiled. And fed. Best Christmas days ever! And I'm so blessed to have those amazing people in my life, that I can't simple put it other way! What a wonderful life this is!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

26-Dec-2014

Christmas on 100 Ditchling Street

Mr.Boyfriend and I had the most amazing Christmas day yesterday! I honestly think this was one of my best, most memorable, gorgeous and awesome Christmas days that I had ever had. We spent the day with my bosses and their families, so all the grandparents, the kids (!!!), the dogs, everyone was there. My little loving munchies were there, so we had lots of fun together and Mr.Boyfriend finally met my favourite little boy and they played some with Transformers together, which was amazing to watch. You know, it touched a very special string in my heart to see my lovely loving partner make himself absolutely and completely available to a child, and try and accommodate every single possible need that this child might have.

We also ate amazing food, courtesy of my boss and his father in-law, both chef-patrons at respected restaurants and both very good at what they are doing. And then there were some amazing bottles of wine, that Mrs. Boss chose for our meal, because this is what she's good at. Yes, a great day, the best Christmas day I had had in a quite a while!

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...

25-Dec-2014

A Very Merry Christmas Day!

Mr.Boyfriend and I have been very good (to each other) this year! Obviously! How else would you explain this pile of presents underneath our Christmas three? Squeeek! I can't wait to open mine, so ...

You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...