Life of a Short Indian Girl

For some reason, our accommodation has been given about 500 Planet Organic leaflets full of vouchers , one of which is a free coffee voucher. The Planet Organic shop is a two minute walk from our halls, so we decided to take advantage of the offer (i t saved me buying milk for about 4 weeks too- added bonus). The whole ethos of Planet Organic is kind of a given- everything is organic, natural and sustainable. There was a lot of choice, and so many weird ingredients that I would never think to put in a hot drink (e.g. tumeric latte, coconut oil coffee, reishi (which is a mushroom?!) cappuccino) which I didn't try, but I did want to try as many as I could. The first time I visited, I went for the Almond Cacao.  Almond cacao- cacao powder, coconut nectar and almond milk They asked whether I wanted the almond sweetened or unsweetened (obviously I went for sweetened), and after I tried it I found myself wondering how people drink unsweetened, because...

Waheeeey, we made it through freshers whole! Well, almost. Whether you were partying in London like me, or elsewhere, I'm sure we all had some of these thoughts...... 1) Wow, where did my money go? - until the student loans drops, you learn to live on veeery little. We luckily had a lot of free food at freshers events, which I definitely took advantage of! So. much. pizza. It's also a little painful looking at your bank balance after a night out. Our pub crawl was in Hampstead. Ouch. 2) Have I met this person before?? You will probably introduce yourself to someone, only to have them say 'we've already met'..... ah, awkward. You just meet so many people. 3) I'm so nervous - even people who seem confident on the outside are nervous. Of course we are- new city, new people, new EVERYTHING. 4) Damn you, freshers flu - most of us will probably have been struck down by some sort of illness during freshers. Tip, vitamin C tablets! I managed to avoid any real illn...

Sooooo, a little bit has changed since I last posted- I now live in London (for university)! After my first week here, I'm surprised to say that I'm loving it. I didn't think I'd like London too much, but it does have something magical about it. I've been trying to do some cool things this week as I only have a few lectures a day (as appose to the 10-5 days starting from tomorrow). One of the things I've been wanting to do for ages was go to the Cereal Killer Cafe, which is what it says on the tin - over 100 different cereals, 30 types of milk, and a whole lotta toppings....... I went to the one in Camden, as it's only a 25 minute walk from my halls. I've been walking as much as I can because a) I don't like the tube and b) transport is expensiiiiiiive. The downside is the ridiculous number of blisters on my feet, but  I live so central walking is not too bad. Anyway, the cafe is in the Camden Stables Market, and has an outdoor area. It was qui...

One of the things I was looking forward to doing in the longest summer of my life was to FINALLY be able to read the monster pile of books which were piling up on my beside table. Although I've still got a couple I didn't have time for, I got through a fair chunk of them! So here goes......... The Prince Of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafron -  this was a bit of a gamble. I never read the blurb or any reviews of this book, so I didn't know what to expect. I just saw who the author was and bought it. Turns out it's a teen fiction book, and it was pretty good! I would recommend this if you like dark, chilling stories. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - one of the best books I've read this year! (admittedly, there wasn't much competition, but even if there was this book would be up there). The story is so whacky it's almost unbelievable, yet it's just that that makes it almost believable. Definitely...

Apologies for not posting in so long, I can only describe it as an exam- induced hiatus. I wrote a bit after exams but nothing felt right, sooo going back to where it all began with a post about India- only 2 years on! Which means it's been 2 years since I've had this blog, c r a z y. So, what's changed since I was last in the city of joy? a.k.a. Kolkata Well, unsurprisingly, not a lot. I say unsurprisingly because although India is a BRIC economy, there is never much change when we visit. Very slow economic, social and political development, despite rapidly increasing growth. Oh, corruption. Weather is still pretty vile. 97% humidity + curly hair = no. And don't get me started on the heat. Although it's cool that your hair is dry literally a few minutes after you step out of the shower. Who needs a hairdryer? No need for moisturiser either. It's monsoon so it absolutely chucks it down randomly during the day - I love it, but I did ruin my Nikes by walk...

On Tuesday I found myself, once again, in London. I was actually there for an Edinburgh offer holder evening (yes, in London) which finished at around half 8, leaving me an hour and a half to trek around before my train.  Well, I hardly trekked. I mostly stuck around the Kings Cross/Euston area, where my brother and I rediscovered this little Turkish restaurant pretty much opposite King's Cross, where we have been to before but totally forgot about. Now, I absolutely love Turkish food (just ask Melissa), and this is definitely some of the best I have had. We started with hummus (houmous? who knows how to spell it) and freshly baked pitta- I easily could've eaten an entire basket of the stuff. They ended up getting mixed up with whether our order had been taken so we got an extra portion of hummus, which we were not complaining about!                             ...

Is it just me who thinks time has been going SO fast recently? It feels like just yesterday we were complaining about having to knuckle down with our personal statements. I suppose it's good on the one hand because the week doesn't drag so much, but exams and the prospect of university life are getting scarily close. But enough of the heavy, here are some thoughts that most of us have during the week.... Monday: Don't talk to me in the morning, I'm tired. Don't look at my face, I'm tired. Don't expect me to sing a hymn, I'm tired. Especially if it's Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer (come on Mandy, at least give us Shine Jesus Shine).  SO tired.   PLEASE let this be the week I have a free 1&2 so I have time to do that econ essay I should've done over the weekend. Just get me hoooooooome Tuesday: HOW IS IT ONLY TUESDAY? Aah, it's our form assembly today. Now, how many quotes and youtube clips can we play to fill up 20 minutes? Well let...

The half term boredom hit hard yesterday (there are only so many Sudokus I can do before my head starts to hurt), so I decided it was time for a little bit of baking. I haven't baked since summer-  crazy, I know- ,  so I decided to use the time I should've been revising to knock up some baked goods. I went for brownies, because I was really feeling the chocolate vibes, and I actually haven't made them before. I realised half way through making the batter that we only had 1 egg in the house.... and no walnuts... and I had forgotten to melt the butter. So I slightly adapted the recipe and braced myself for a potential disaster.  But I'm not even joking, they turned out amazing! Gooey, soft and reeeaallly chocolatey. SO, here is my (by default) unique recipe: 200g caster sugar, 125g butter, 30g cocoa powder, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, pinch of baking powder, pinch of salt and some milk chocolate to crush up/chocolate buttons/nuts/whatever you want ...

I have reached adulthood! I can't believe I am 18- as nice as it is, I'm not about this responsibility... I want to be a child again. However, I'm lucky to have had a wonderful 18 years of life so far. But I was thinking about some of the things which I thought I would've done at this point in my life, so I thought I would share them with you! I hope it's more interesting than an account of the presents I got and what my birthday cake looked like (a cup of tea with biscuits, if you were wondering). So here goes, 18 things I feel I should've done by 18.... 1) Had a McDonald's breakfast 2) Watched Lord Of The Rings... o r Star Wars/Star Trek (don't shoot me for putting them in the same category) 3) Watched Elf or Love Actually - next Christmas for sure  4) Travelled First Class, and that's not going to change anytime soon!! Student life here I come  5) Eaten beef - intentionally anyway, who knows what I might have eaten without knowin...

You may remember early last year I posted about a book challenge , where I wrote about the books I was planning to read during the year. Now, it's safe to say I completely failed that challenge! Between having little time because of school work and finding new books I'd much rather read, I didn't get too far down the list. So instead I thought I'd write a bit about the books I did read as well as those I planned to read: Books from the list (which isn't many) The Girl On The Train - I decided to read this after seeing lots of amazing reviews of it on Amazon. When I started reading it, I was quite disappointed. The plot was confusing, it wasn't interesting and I didn't feel sympathy for the characters (even the alcoholic who's partner left her). However, I persevered with it because thousands on people can't have given 5 star reviews if it wasn't good, and I'm happy I did because it got SO much better. Although I probably wouldn't r...