I thought this Santa was rather freaky.. (ie My kinda Santa.. haha)

Some sort of haunted house.. I bet it’s not even really scary. Hehe.

Someone in the group chickened out of ice skating in the end because of the condition of the ice that night.. but the rest of us carried on. UNfortunately, the ice wasn’t kept very well by the management and it was completely waterlogged. At some parts of the rink, the water was up to about 4 inches deep!

I skated SO CAREFULLY (ie slowly, like a snail) as I warned myself I would NOT fall on the wet, slobbery ice..

In the end, we only stayed for about 20 minutes at most before giving up and heading for the mulled wine and food instead..

…at the Bavarian Beerhouse. This reminded me of Oktoberfest the year before! Prost!

You could order mulled wine with a shot of rum, bourbon, or ..whiskey (my memory might not be 100% correct here) for something between £4-5.

Reena and I had a few and we ended up dancing up a storm.. or rather.. dancing like morons (what’s new!)

Paul & Steven

Steven used to live with me in Euston/King’s Cross; that’s how we met. We’ve both now escaped.. haha, I say escape because there was a third person in the flat whom we both just didn’t get along with ;p

They also sold 1L beers a la Oktoberfest.. for £9.

I won’t say too much about the rest of the night as it’s rather embarrassing but the conclusion is I HAD A REALLY GREAT TIME!!

Winter Wonderland is open at Hyde Park until 6 January 2013.

The post Winter Wonderland 2012 appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I took the Carnival as an opportunity to wear some bright colours.

But.. I guess that sentence doesn’t really mean anything when I wear bright colours on an almost daily basis anyway.

Three different styles of cooking jerk chicken. I LOVE jerk chicken. I had two servings that day.. and also goat curry. I LOVE Caribbean goat curry..

In fact whilst typing this I had a short pause/moment of insanity in which I contemplated running out to find some of that delicious food. But it IS 9.30pm, dark, and cold out so NEVER MIND.

Me and my friend Kuha after some of those laughing gas balloons.. I LOVE THOSE THINGS. At least this time, I didn’t end up drooling on my own face.

All photos taken by Ryan; edited by Me.

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ENJOY

The post Notting Hill Carnival 2012 appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Everyone met up in East London, where the car had to be collected. Surprisingly I was the first to arrive. Linda and I had no time for brekkie so the car made a detour to McDonalds. Looking back at road trips or day trips I’ve been on in the past.. I think it’s safe to say that possibly 90% have involved a McDonalds takeaway or drive-thru. It can’t be a real road trip without Maccas, right?

In the end I was glad we left early.. ish. It took freaking ages to arrive in Bournemouth!! It turns out the WHOLE WORLD wanted to visit Bournemouth beach and wanted to drive there USING THE SAME ROADS and AT THE SAME TIME. I wished we had taken the train instead. But then I guess I wanted my Maccas drive-thru experience so badly that I judged it to be worth the traffic jam.

We got to the beach at about 1pm. So here are some photos! It was only my second time in Bournemouth.

The square ones are obviously stolen from my Instagram, and the rest are from my ‘real camera’. The colours differed so much that I actually re-edited the Instagram ones to match the rest more closely… am I anal or what?? No. I just had a lot of time to spare tonight.

We parked on the upper road towards the East side of the coast. You can either walk down or take a lift for about £1. Obviously, we took the lift..

I had SUCH A GREAT TIME just lying there in a REAL beach (i.e. beach with sand).
The water was icy cold but I managed to brave it at least twice – because I needed to pee..

I’m the kind of person who can’t really sit or BE still for long.

I’m not one of those people who can relax on the beach with a book for hours or lay down and fall asleep intermittently. No, I can’t. I have to play!

If there are pebbles, I’ll pick them and hurl them into the sea. I’ll collect seashells and bird feathers and washed up seaweed. I’ll draw on the sand using a twig or a stick. I’ll dig holes in the ground and see how deep I can go. Using a combination of digging holes/drawing shapes, I’ll make up a game that I can play with whoever I’m with. If I’ve brought it with me, I’ll blow bubbles into the wind. I just have to DO something.

On this occasion, after feeling gutted that we didn’t have any plastic beach toys with us, I managed to find two plastic beer cups left behind by some LITTERBUG and so we used it to make a rubbish sandcastle!

I skulked around and collected what I deemed ‘the best feathers on the beach’.

After the completion of ‘Feather Fortress’, I laid down to admire our work for a bit.

On the way back to the car hours later, we saw this cute brother-sister pair prancing naked by the sidewalk. They were giggling and chasing each other and seemed something out of a cartoon!

Later on, I saw this family walking ahead of us carrying two bodyboards and I thought DAMN, THAT’S WHAT I SHOULD HAVE GOT!

I love bodyboarding!

The post Sandcastles in Bournemouth appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I was surprised that I bought these shoes
I don’t normally like clogs, but these proved to be amazingly comfortable, and so I did the obvious thing and got them in both colours – red and white.

While it was warm, I wore them nearly every day..
Such a tragedy that it’s suddenly gone cold again.. it’s actually a tease!

I was so excited that I took a photo of the sunny sun.

Look how beautiful the ground is with all the fallen leaves!

I am in love with this gigantic tree
Look how far its arms stretch out, as if to say ‘hug me!’

We had a picnic near it – not under it; the Big Tree loves the sun too so it barely has any gaps for any leftover rays to meet the ground

They’re a bit ugly, aren’t they? haha
I still like them

I took Martin, my toy alien, out too and we recorded a video together
And then I played frisbee and tried to climb Big Tree (but didn’t get very far)

The post Beautiful Boston Manor Park appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

The sun.. it makes you do great things
And it’s true – during the warmer months I never want to go home if I know the sun’s still out!

We packed up our cocktails, beer, and ice-cream into a cooler
At the park, the boys played football
Emma and I danced, jumped, and went crazy to Bob Marley
You could say we had a bit of Sunstroke Madness

Here are some photos from the day

Top – H&M
Shorts – H&M
Shoes – Bertie

I was having a bit of fun with Photoshop!
Which effect do you like best?

What crazy things does the sun make you do?

PS – I changed my banner/header yet AGAIN!

The post Sunstroke Madness in Putney appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I love looking at these
Cos it reminds me that we really are just three girls trying to have the best time in London
We face similar troubles, obstacles, and down-times in the quest for the ideal work/travel/play balance

But essentially, I think, we have so much determination and positivity inside us that I have no doubt that each of us will leave London smiling, satisfied, and our minds filled with vibrant memories of numerous holidays, festivals, parties, and colourful people.

My nicknames for them are Booby (Aysha) and Pecan (Emma) – pronounced with a stress on the A, like Pe-CAHHN. I’m glad I met them. Plus, we all do Crazy Dancing, what a bonus.

Tummies full, we then tumbled down to Bar Kick, a really cool bar on Shoreditch High Street so the men could watch the footy while we.. did not.

We had JUST missed the 2-for-1 cocktails offer
Normal price: £8.50 each

Sian is determined to make a trip to Tallinn, Estonia this year
I’d like to join her, I hope
I wonder what’s good to eat/see/do/play with/drink there!

The Shoreditch – MUSIC//DANCE//FOOD
145 Shoreditch High Street
London E1 6JE

The post La Dolce Vita, Bar Kick, & The Shoreditch appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

We had lunch there one day in January
I really liked it
The food was delish and I was lucky enough to get what I thought was the best table in the house – the corner one right by the window

Oh and the service was exceptional
They made me feel like the most important eater in the restaurant

I hadn’t explored Marylebone High Street much before that day; in fact I think I’d probably only been there a maximum of two times. There seemed to be lots of French cafes/brasseries/pastry shops lining the street. One day I’ll go back to buy and eat those yummy-looking things I saw in the pastry shop windows.. !

A peek at the menu

Other people who didn’t get ‘the best table’

My steak (perfect) with .. I cannot remember the name of the sauce

Not as tasty as the ones at 64th & Social in Clapham though *loyal*

Country terrine

Real French Fries
This was amazing

Nutella Creme Brulee
A little too rich
I’m not a big fan of chocolate so..

A couple of pics on the walk around Marylebone that evening:

I don’t know what this building was
Some gallery or something
But anyway it looked nice lit up

Three perfect benches in a row!

I wished it was warm and sunny and all my friends were there so we could fill the benches and then.. wonder what the point was in doing that

My duffle coat is by River Island.
It’s one of my favourites cos of its ginormous pockets that can fit my phone, camera, money, cards, food, and rubbish.

The post Lunch Date at Café Luc appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

At the end of our evening outside the tube station, there was a pause
I didn’t feel like going home
I wanted to stay OUT
I didn’t want my day to end
But what was there to DO??

Winter in London can be quite monotonous and boring sometimes – especially when you don’t want to be spending all your money in a club/bar/restaurant.

So, after some persuasion I was tricked into convinced to take a walk through Hyde Park just as the sun was disappearing i.e. in arctic (MY version of arctic anyway) conditions.

Ended up going from one end of the park to the other
If you know just how large this park is, you’ll also know that’s quite a distance (me trying to say I walked A LOT)

But surprisingly I enjoyed the walk/stroll/skip so much that my excitement numbed the cold!
Took a few pics and laughed heaps along the way.

I look horrible here but I don’t really care
It has to be here as it helps me remember the evening!

NOT the Serpentine
I don’t know which lake this was oops

Towards Kensington Palace.. or something of that sort

Pink clouds like a bed of pulled-apart candyfloss

The post Hyde Park at Night. In the Cold. appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

”The Famous Cock’”

I know it’s so childish but it cracks me up.. !

At the bar we ordered a glass of mulled wine each
We were so lucky because the pot was nearly finished, so we got whatever that was left it in – the RICH, fruity, heavily spiced, sinked-to-the-bottom, super saturated part.. and it was SO SO GOOD. It even had orange pulp in it. I love pulp.

It was THE BEST mulled wine I’ve ever had in my LIFE.

I’d never heard of WakeyWakey before this
Apparently the main guy has a regular role in One Tree Hill – which I don’t like and don’t watch, so actually it doesn’t matter

But he is so hilarious! I like musicians who talk to and engage with the audience when they perform. I notice it’s mostly the American or Canadian ones who do this. I can’t say I loved his music but I so enjoyed his personality, his humour, and how he burst out laughing mid-song because a FLY was buzzing in front of his face.. (I did too)

The post The BEST Mulled Wine in my LIFE appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

These were taken about two weeks ago when I spent a couple of hours with the bf, Emma, and Mark traipsing through Portobello Market in the cold. I still have memories of being there in December 2008 – this memory is unforgettable because of how much it felt like torture. It was so so cold I swear my legs ended at my ankles and I had no hands!.

Anyway here are the snaps
The first three were taken in a place called ‘The Knob Shop’.. what a name
But it does exactly what it says. It sells knobs. All kinds of knobs.

One of the most endearing things about Portobello Market (it’s my favourite market in the WHOLE of London) is the street performers.

I love them all.
They play happy music and lots of big-band.
GOOD music.
I always feel like dancing when I’m going down that street.

A stall selling old dolls’ clothes.. and old dolls
Really, the owner looked scarier than the dolls

I asked for a photo of her but she said no.. I tried!

This reminds me a bit of my mom’s jewellery drawer 🙂

Not too sure why but this photo makes me think of the movie Radio Flyer
I LOVE that movie

It’s about two young brothers who dream of FLYING away from their troubled family
They truly believe they can fly by building a flying machine out of their wagon (a Radio Flyer, of course).. and that’s exactly what they do

It reminds me of the feeling of being young
And so easily believing you can do ANYTHING and that NOTHING CAN STOP YOU
Unfazed by reality

Emma dug out this AMAZING dinosaur jumper out of the super packed rails at the clothes market! Isn’t it super cool??

Great food – always the best way to end the day 😉

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