bike ride through the vineyards

When I'm home and I want to see my brothers, I usually ride my bike through the vineyards and along a little canal. It takes me an hour to get to their city and I much prefer it to taking the car :)
One morning when I went to help my brother and sister in law to move, I took my camera along. It was a cold morning and it looked like the harvest was about to begin.

In case anyone wants to know, the grapes tasted sweet and delicious :)

cycling to Bratislava

Usually before I head out of the country, I like to assemble all my favourite people. We always go out for drinks, which is lovely but this time I wanted to break with tradition and do something completely different.
I sent out an email if anyone was up for some bicycle action - a trip to Bratislava along the Danube river. I had talked to Ian at some point during the summer about it and how much fun this could be and he was the first to reply haha Most people weren't sure about it but in the end everyone was keen and for some reason Sami was the one most excited about it haha
Ten of us set out for the trip and only one made it. Kidding! We all made it and it felt like a big family day out. I think that during the entire journey everyone got to cycle with someone else, chatting as they were riding along. We were pushing those pedals, picnicked somewhere in the national park, ate cake and had a laugh.

 

  

 

Some call us crazy but those 75km were totally worth it. I guess everyone was very happy to take the train back though :) Thanks for coming out to play everyone. Next year we'll make it to Budapest haha Love you all x

Funny thing we found out later: the day of our trip was World Car Free Day - couldn't have planned that one better!

phone photos from the last week

I'm so guilty of being lazy and combining my instagram pics here, you can punch me next time we meet. There are lengthy posts - our adventure to Bratislava and playing tourist with Mr Simon here in London - coming up. Promise! Happy weekending people x

Bassment Project - can't even begin to tell you how amazing they were. Check them out here or follow here for musical goodness and news :)

 

 

Queues lining up to get into church, all part of the Sunday experience :)

the wedding of Sarah & Kaleb

A friend of mine recently accused me of attending too many weddings. Not my fault when everyone around me is getting hitched haha

For the finale of my little road trip I went to a place near Stuttgart to reunite with a few of my college girls and celebrate the marriage of Sarah and Kaleb. 

Sarah, being the sweet person she is, offered her apartment to us and Nela and I took that opportunity to come a day early to hang out and catch up. We had dinner at a restaurant where the waitress messed up our drink orders (we told her and another waiter brought the exact same drink out again) and forgot all about our entrees haha. Has anyone seen the Happy Endings episode with the waiter who doesn't write anything down? It was exactly like that :)  Never mind, we had a great time and were excited for the next day.

It was a beautiful wedding and we partied till the early hours. Woop woop!

These people hold a very special place in my heart. The last time we were all together in one place was for Rob & Dee's wedding, evidence here. Every time I see them it is refreshing and the most normal thing to all be together and we can't stop chatting (which happens when there are girls involved).

So much love was in the air...

 

Congratulations Sarah & Kaleb, this will be one fantastic journey for you guys. 

Next reunion in Berlin! 

beeswax/almond oil hand balm diy

Every time I come to England during the colder months, my hands and fingers start looking like I went over them with a cheese grater! Maybe it's the humidity or the water quality, actually I have no idea but the point is that it's not a pretty sight and it hurts!
Going with the idea of not creating more waste, I was thinking about options other than buying hand cream. Mostly because it comes in plastic packaging 90% of the time and so far I haven't found one that would be effective in these conditions around here.
I remembered coming across this post by 3191 and looked it up, saw that it was ridiculously easy and set out to gather the ingredients. Two that is!
Tracking down beeswax in a city proved to be a bit of a  challenge(or I can't google like other people?!) but I found the cutest shop in Clapham and I'm sure I'll be back. Almond oil on the other hand should be available in most shops. I never got essential oils to perfume it as I loved the beeswax and almond smell. Maybe I'll add lemon next time :)

Basically you take

• 1 part beeswax to 
• 4 parts of a carrier oil, I used almond oil

Heat up and melt beeswax in one jar, warm up oil in another and combine. Stir and let it cool down.
There are no tricks, it's as simple as that.
The jar I used turned out to be gigantic for the amount I made haha
It's not the cheapest thing to do but to be honest I paid about a tenner for 6oz of the finished balm and you get a Burt's Bees 2oz tin for the same price. In your face world, not going back to store bought creams!

road trip in September

About a month ago I went on a little road trip to Switzerland and Germany, as I had a wedding near Stuttgart to attend. Not that I need an excuse to go traveling :)
There's something about being able to get on the road and explore that is deeply rooted in my nature but it's even better when there are friends waiting for you on the other end!

First rest stop was just before Munich. If I happen to be going from Salzburg to Munich I always stop at this coffee shop/restaurant called Dinzler. I'm not a big coffee person but this place has great coffee, lovely staff and great interior design AND lactose free milk, which earns them about a million points in my books!

Anyway my first proper stop was just north of Zurich to see three of my favourite Swiss people :) There's something about people you've lived with. They see you in your best and worst moments and yet they're still friends with you. Surprising right!! D&P are some of the best people I know, just wish they'd be closer sometimes so I could pop over for a couple hours. Also Miss V is growing up so fast!

Next up was a stop just north of Basel to see bestie Simon. A couple of days of eating ice cream, going for runs, not having to get up and staying in bed to read all morning, watching funny movies, laughing a lot, watching the boys rock climbing and enjoying the last bit of summer sun. (Feel a bit spoilt since I got to see Simon so much this year plus he's sitting on my sofa as I'm writing this ha!)

On my way to Goeppingen for the big wedding I took the back roads and drove through the Black Forest instead of taking the motorway. Best decision ever! It was a cloudless, sunny day and the scenery is absolutely stunning!

Pics and stories from the wedding later but guess where I stopped on the way back haha