We've all seen the Instagram feeds of Londoners haven't we? The beautiful houses, the parks filled with autumn leaves and the late night lights of Tower Bridge twinkling. It's easy to think of London life as glamorous, but really, I will never be able to afford to houses, the park is cold and the only reason I'm at Tower Bridge to see the lights is because I was working till 1am.

The whole thing of not believing everything you see on social media has been said a thousand times before, but today I got thinking about an even more shitter side of London that nobody really talks about.



I was sat on the Tube on Friday, when an announcement came over the tannoy saying that the central line (aka the depths of hell) wouldn't be stopping at Bond Street or Oxford Circus. There wasn't a reason given and you could see everybody looking round edgily on the Tube. Apart from the drunk man who didn't even realise anything.

Someone else got on the Tube and told someone else (yes, strangers were talking on the Tube, that's when you know it's going down) that there'd been a shooting in Selfridges and then there was this weird kind of atmosphere across the carriage.

There was a look on everybody's face, but it wasn't the look I was expecting, or thought I should see. There wasn't really any panic, or shock, it was a kind of acceptance and pity.

I think that's what scares the most about this whole thing is that nobody is shocked anymore. I feel like everybody kind of expects it. I've been working in Central London now for a year and a half, and I've sort of pushed away the thoughts in my head that each day something could happen on my journey, or something could go wrong, because, quite frankly it's not worth worrying about.

But today it made me realise just how much it does scare me. And how much when you put everyone in a situation where it's right in front of them, it scares them too. I think everybody has become numb about the risks we put ourselves in every day. Nobody is shocked by anything anymore, it's become kind of acceptive and I think that's what scares me even more.

Whilst it turns out it was just a stampede on Friday (I believe), it does kinda show just how something can turn so quickly, clearly people on the platform were scared and the first thought in everybodys mind was terrorism. Because, well, thats what we think about a lot these days.

I don't really know what the point of this post was, but it kinda felt good to write it...

Gonna start this post with a little bit of a shock announcement. Hold on to your horses here peeps. I don't like summer.

You've got it by now haven't you?
I met up for the cutest little Instagram trek with Sarah, Gwennan and Sairah and it's the only thing that's kept me motivated to write for a while so I'm gonna stretch it out.

I don't know how many of you have actually met people from the Blogosphere, but it really is a strange but wonderful thing. You know when you go out with friends and really want a picture of yourself surreptitiously walking through a field of lavender but don't want to ask them? A regular occurrence for me, and going out with bloggers means they want these things too...


I mean it doesn't even look slightly posed does it?

But things that I wouldn't have even thought about before I knew that I wanted them, things that you wouldn't have even realised make you feel kind awky because you would never ask. There was a stage when all four of us where in a canopy of trees throwing fallen flower petals around for that perfect boomerang when it struck me how weird this kinda was. All of us wanted our own little flower petal boomerang picture thing and none of us got fed up with the retakes, or the different angles. Although tbf there was a point where my inner child came out and I decided to climb a tree... I'll pretend it was for 'that perfect angle' but really I just like to climb.

And no, I didn't get stuck... much.


Of course to get the perfect picture you do need to get the perfect angle and sometimes that just means crouching or getting in a position that you'd only ever find in a game of Twister. There is a much better picture of this in action that we were proper LOLing at in our little WhatsApp group (we do sometimes talk about useful stuff) but this one is slightly more blogger-y.

Unless you don't follow me (massive mistake), Gwennan, Sarah or Sairah on Instagram you must have noticed that we went on a cute little tour last Friday. Now I can hear your shock from here, but Friday? That was only a week ago Mel and you're posting about it already?!

I really did lose my blogging mojo, I was, and still am, in a constant routine of work, eat. eat, nap repeat. Trying to slot in seeing people, watch all the new films I wanna see and ya know, stay sane, blogging has had to take a back seat. But this day out with the blogging gals was exactly what I needed. And now I'm here to stay. Sorry.

Anyway, that's a story for another less photogenic post, so grab a cuppa and some cake cause this post is gonna be super photo heavy. Sorry, not sorry.

One of the most wonderful things about living in a city as huuuuuuuge as London is that you will never run out of things to do. There's something new popping up pretty much every week, things that you always think 'Ah I'll do another day' or always walk past on your way to work but never go inside.

One of my fab friends Sophie has recently moved back to London to finish Uni, and together we have a cute little list of these types of things that we want to tick off before she leaves again. We had a pretty jam packed day last Sunday visiting loads of amazing places and I wanted to share it all with you guys.

So as many of you guys might now, wait, you should know, that I went to University in the big old smoke of London.

Now consider this, a freshly turned nineteen year old, moving away from a tiny Island that doesn't even have a train service with more than 9 stops, to London. It felt at the time like there were more people on a Tube train than there were on the whole Island. To put it politely, I was terrified.

When I started blogging a mere 6 months ago (to the day, actually) I just expected to write a few posts, hopefully some people would read them and enjoy. I never expected to fall head over heels into such a welcoming community, and it's something I'm SO pleased happened. When I got the message from the lovely Sarah about organising a wee blogger meet up, I couldn't have been more excited to meet the people behind the blogs.

Coming back to London, I learn how it makes a switch turn on in my mind. I'm normally fairly patient with strangers, I am always late because I'm so laid back and I would always choose to stand rather than climb stairs.

ENTER LONDON.

I've been a bit rubbish this week, and I know it. Right now I'm suffering from bad bloggers block/life block and I thought a little old life update would be the best way to get a post out that wasn't half hearted.

To be honest the whole month of June has been a bit of a write off, for me. Don't get me wrong, I have had great days, the Festival was incredible but this whole month just seems to have been a bit meh. I know that there's nothing in particular thats gone spectacularly wrong but the little things add up don't they. Le sigh. 

AYE
Another exciting post!
(why does that sound so sarcastic, this genuinely is exciting... for me anyway!)

Again, we all know I love an challenge, so when my Dad suggested he would buy me a chance to climb over the O2 for my birthday/Christmas/who knows, I jumped at the chance!

For those not in London/living under a rock, the O2 is this great building, which kind of looks like a big tent but has huge gigs, events and places to eat inside. Here's a picture of it from kind of above, looks kind of unsafe to stand on top of, eh?

Sit down, grab a cuppa, lets have a chat...

As some of you may not know, I graduated last July from the University of the Arts London with an Upper Second Class Honours in Production of Television and Live Events. I had many trials, tribulations and regrets from my time at Uni, but thats a story for another post. In this post I want to talk about what I've done SINCE Uni, and what I'm finding difficult about living the graduate life (spoiler: a lot). Hopefully it will be an interesting read even if you're not a studier of Television, but will also be an insight into how different careers progress etc.

For someone who is only 22 (and yes, I feel about 500) I have already done quite a bit with my time here on Earth - and I only intend to do more! I have a sense for adventure, for working hard but enjoying myself and stretching myself to the limits. I try never to let anything stop me from pushing my boundaries, and exploring things outside of my tiny little Island.

So I wanted to write about some of the crazy adventures and experiences I have already had, hopefully to convince others to go out and experience life! I'm going to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) with my first adventure, and what a crazy one it was: Gamesmaker at the London 2012 Olympics!




 Amongst the time off exploring (I intend to write another post about exploring in London, watch this space!) I did many different shifts, from inside the centre to checking peoples tickets in. I also explored the wonderful park, from seeing the huge Orbit (what really is it?) and even getting to watch a Water Polo match free of charge, and watching Tom Daley practice (who would ever turn that down eheheheh). It really was, to this day, four years later (WAT) one of the most incredible experiences I have ever done. Volunteering anywhere is a wonderful experience, it is so satisfying; helping others and helping people enjoy a once in a lifetime opportunity, it just makes me insides so happy. I wish I could go back and do this again, but the chance of the Olympics ever coming to somewhere near me again is quite unlikely, but fingers crossed!

Have you ever done anything like this? Did you go to the Olympics? Let me know below!

'Ello!

So, anyone who knows me knows that I am a Harry Potter fanatic. I remember when the books came out running round at school trying to brag that you've read the most, and when the worst rumour about a certain House Elf went rushing round the school halls </3
So it is absolutely no suprise that out of two adult colouring books I have, one of them is the Harry Potter one. The other one is one about the busy scenes of London, where I spent all of my University life, living it up in the big city.


As someone who regularly struggles with sleep, Santa brought me these books as they've been rumoured to help someone slip off to sleep without the use of all this fandangle technology (which is something I struggle with), and switch off the brain.

First off, the Harry Potter one:



















This book is great - one of the wonderful things that comes with Harry Potter is that your imagination can be as crazy as possible, which is transferable in many of the pages such as the one above - as well as some flyers for Weasleys Wizard Wheezes products. However, there is also some scenes from the films as well, turned into colouring pages. Whilst I love the films, I sometimes think too much about these pages which makes them a little less relaxing - maybe these pages would be more use for something to do during the day, or other people may find it relaxing.

Next up, the London one:




What do you think about adult colouring books? Let me know below!