NZ : Burgers and Christmas Lights

Hi blog xxxxxxxx

I'm finally home from my short weekend trip to London! I always do love London but I get so tired always hahaha I'm so used to being so inactive in Bristol that it gets admittedly difficult to adjust to such a quick-paced life there. But regardless, I had such a great time!

I spent dinner and lunch with Zaim - both times we ate at a burger place. First we ate at Stax and I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of it and has been there but it truly is such a great place for a hearty burger. It's really small and when we got there, they told us to wait for an hour. When she first asked "Do you have an hour?", I honestly thought it was just her being sarcastic because an hour????? But we did and it was a good thing it's so near to Topshop so we went there to do some sneaky Christmas shopping. I only got a pair of MUM jeans (my favourite type of jeans now, so roomy and so comfortable and it's so chilled and lai dback - kinda like me only in the form of denim hehe). There wasn't anything else that particularly stood out for me. I did get a furry keychain though and it's the cutest thing and so nice to play with! It's grey so it matches with my bag so well. I can't wait to get more! For all of my handbags!!

This was my second attempt on taking a photo of the very pretty Kingly Court and both INTERRUPTED by Zaim. See what I have to live with.

What a shopper, geez. (all actually mine)

I tried out the chicken and waffle and it wasn't bad!! The maple syrup oddly complimented the unlikely duo. But the cheese burger and Cajun fries still the bomb.

Probably sending a message or Snapchat to Iman who is the biggest lover of burgers. Only fair, she sends us like a million KGB snaps all the time.

I then also spent most of my time with Amal and Fatin and Najwa! Amal came over from Canada and was also the main and sole reason I came down to London. Don't think I would've made the trip if not to meet up with her. Was very nice to just chill with her and she's always the best reminder of KY to me. Everytime I hang with her, I'm reminded fondly of our days in KY and we're like the two biggest KY reps you will find hahaha

We went to eat at Roti King one morning which was something I was super super excited about. These past few weeks I have been craving for roti canai so so so so much and ever since I knew about the existence of Roti King, I was very determined to make a trip there.

Ahh, the beauty of Malaysia.

So for four girls, mee goreng mamak, kway teow, 2 portions of roti canai, roti telur, and lamb murtabak. Totes norms.

While waiting in the line for Roti King. Calling for any Malaysian entrepreneurs to please start more authentic Malaysian restaurants like this!

And then we went to Carnaby Street which was beautiful. The Christmas lights all around Central London is mesmerising and Carnaby Street was no exception! I didn't get anything from Brandy Melville this time round because as you know, I'm trying to refrain from buying winter things seeing how I already have enough boring sweaters at home to last the whole of winter. So I'm saving lotssssss of money from not buying knits and wooly goodies. I can't wait to go shopping there in Spring/Summer - their tees are lush. They're very Malaysia friendly seeing how they are so light-weight and forgiving.

This is Azam showing me photos of Taylor Swift on Brandy Melville's wall and that is me pretending to be interested...

I also went out for dinner with Dayana!! I've known her for a long time ago through social media (she's also the owner of the blog I mentioned in my November Favourites post) and she came to London for a few days before flying back home.

She suggested Vapiano - an Italian place on Great Portland Street and this was our first time trying the place out. It had an interesting concept to it - when you enter the place, the hostess will give you a card and it acts like your Touch 'n' Go. So you go to any counter where you tell them what you want - you can choose any type of pasta for any of the different dishes. I stuck to my old time favourite - aglio olio and when you order, you're asked to tap your card at the counter and after you finish eating, you just go over to the final counter located at the entrance of the store and from there they'll know how much your meal was. Which was pretty interesting. They also go by free seating so it was kinda like a food court almost ? Only fancy. And my pasta was really really good!!! I thought it was going to be pretty bleh because it didn't look particularly appetising but it was actually really sedap. I loved it and I'd love to go again next time if anyone wants to fulfil their pasta cravings.

Also, super nice to have had a sit-down dinner with her. The place is actually quite loud (maybe cause it was a Friday night) but it was really lively and so I guess it's not a very formal place which makes it great to have dinners like these! Laughed loads, learnt a lot and just overall such a good time with Dayana. We had a lot more in common than I thought and conversations went from Princess Diaries to how scary the future is for both of us.

After the dinner, I went to Leicester Square to meet up with Amal and Mun where we laughed and laughed and LAUGHED some more over pastries and tea. It was a great day - from one friend to another. Maybe this is the charm of London - once you're in the city, getting from one place to another isn't difficult and you meet lots of friends here and there. Hmmm maybe I get it now. I always see on Instagram and Twitter and on Snapchat especially of my London friends meeting up with their other London friends so often and here I hardly meet Zati, Azam and Sofia haha.

Ok fine London, I get it, you're charming, I get it.