12 hours in London

Yesterday was definitely one of the best days of this year so far.

Hamdah and I went down to London, early, tired (already) because of the lack of sleep from the excitement of leaving Sheffield (at least for a day anyway) and of course, our plans to meet our London friends.

The wonderful Micah being one of them.

And of course, our favourite Landaners – Chynna and Mutay.

Micah

Once we arrived, I first went to meet Micah. We decided to meet up at a cafe, Half Cup, just by St. Pancras station.

Isn’t it super cute? Y’all know how much I love cafes.

Having only had a protein shake and Mikado (oops) for breakfast, I was STARVING. I usually have a fruit acai smoothie in the morning, sadly I didn’t have time to make it before leaving that morning. I seriously was craving it – does anyone else get HYPED by fruit smoothies or is it just me? 😆

I decided to order an acai fruit bowl and Americano. Once Micah arrived, she had the same (after I spent a good 5 minutes raving about how great acai/fruit smoothies are haha)

I’ve known Micah for years and we regularly stalk each other on social media (I was that person who turned on post notifications when she went on holiday because her photos are bomb asf and need to be appreciated!), read each other’s blogs and have just really related to each other over the years.

Seeing her yesterday, sharing stories and experiences, relating to each other a lot and just interacting exactly how we interact online all these years was just another reminder to me of how friendships shouldn’t ever be restricted to what’s convenient to you (i.e. location or people you see everyday work, school or uni) I know I’ve never been one to restrict my friendships ever since I was younger, but it was an awesome affirmation after today.

Micah has always been one of my biggest supporters not only with my success but also failures and bumpy roads. I honestly don’t think I would’ve snapped out of a bad time a few months ago and grown the way I have in the past year if I hadn’t had such an overwhelming amount of love from everyone – but especially Micah who continued to remind me of my self-worth 💖

I enjoyed getting to know her more and confirming what I already knew: she’s so freaking genuine and humble, has a glowing personality, is so prettyyyy (seriously, make up ON POINT, have you met anyone who is always Instagram ready before? No? Meet Micah) and is just as inspiring and empowering (her drive towards everything is #goals) I’m looking forward to seeing her again and continue watching her grow and achieve her potential – because she has so much of it.

Also: People who understand the importance of lighting and framing to obtain quality photos are the type of people you need in your life.

You can find Micah at:

Blog: Micah Lee
Twitter: @MicahALee
Instagram: /Micah.A.Lee

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Chynna & Mutay

In the afternoon, Hamdah and I got on the tube to Victoria. On my trip to London last year, I mentioned how much I love the tube and I can confirm that that’s still the case. Super busy. And I loved it. ⚡

Meeting Chynna and Mutay was like catching up with your childhood friends. I felt instantly comfortable and it was like we resumed a conversation on WhatsApp or Twitter 😆 The first few minutes we all found ourselves saying things like, “omg, I can’t believe you’re here” “omg, are you real? Can I touch your face? *touches face*” (this was Chynna) “omg, am I dreaming?!” “Omg, you’re so pretty. Omg, I totally would!!!” We might’ve attracted a lot of attention with our excitement but it was hilarious.

Chynna kindly booked us a place to eat for brunch – M. Incredibly fancy. It was the type of fancy where you’d pay £11 for water (that’s exactly what happened) and even more for food that were tiny portions. I’ve had my fair share of tiny portions up in Sheffield but M was shockingly small – Hamdah and I weren’t used to 😂

This was actually the first time I was meeting old-school blogger friends. I had previously met up with a local blogger earlier this year but it definitely was different meeting Chynna and Mutay who had been reading my blogs for years – ever since the days I would blog about my hair, Korean-pop obsession, boys I declared my love to (and gave wooden roses) and High School Musical (which was a lonnnnnggg time ago!)

Just like meeting Micah, I was instantly comfortable with them both and enjoyed learning more about them, confirming things about them e.g. I can confirm Chynna is petite and has size 3 feet. Just. Like. Me. Soulmates or what? And the fact that they are both EXACTLY how they’re like online 😍

I’m always overwhelmed by the love I receive from both of them online (throwback to August last year where I phoned Chynna for the first time and broke down 🙃) but in real life, I was even more overwhelmed and just filled with so much appreciation, love and positive vibes towards them.

After paying the bill (£127 – yikes! But in Chynna’s words: That’s London for you m8), we headed down to Notting Hill. On our way there, we went into a tea shop, T2, where Chynna rightly mentioned Georgie’s love for shopping there.

As we were browsing, I mentioned to one of the shop assistants, Helen that we were bloggers and that we had just met over an hour ago. She was really shocked by this because she thought we had been friends for years (which is true but 😆) It really shows how well we all just clicked!

Notting Hill

“Can we go to Notting Hill so I can take cute photos?”

YES.

You need people like this in your life.

Chynna and Mutay got to experience mine and Hamdah’s bomb photo taking process. Chynna even got really into it and yelled the famous, “#whenwillyourboyfriendever” as Hamdah was taking my photos 😂

It was my first time in Notting Hill and I had built up expectations based on Instagram photos – beautiful and empty. It was beautiful but definitely not empty. But this is London. It is all about the shot, after all 😉

Holland Park

We initially started walking up to Holland Park because Chynna had thought it was “just around the corner” but we ended up catching the bus because Google Maps had failed us. Although we tried to avoid hills, we had to walk up a hill to Holland Park where Mutay and I had a race. NOTE: I let her win this time (or *cough* I don’t do cardio *cough*)

Although we didn’t see any tulips and it was a little underwhelming, I do love walking around in parks. Chynna commented on my excitement as I was walking ahead in excitement to see some green space – imagine me in a week’s time in Central Park! 😁

Something a bit different for dinner: Italian food

“I bet you that Pauline is going to get risotto” GIRl YOU’RE NOT WRONG.

*continues to spread Italian food obsession to everyone I meet*

Hometime 😭

Yesterday was a good day.

I had so much fun meeting these beautiful ladies and can’t wait to see them all again. Thank you all for the best day out in London! A big thank you again to Hamdah for coming along with me and always looking out for me, I can talk about her for ages but now you can read all about her here.

I’m exhausted but I am so damn happy. This experience has definitely made me want to meet other bloggers!

Keep rocking gals! 💪🏼

You can find Chynna at:

Blog: The Invisible Child
Twitter: @ChynnaWebley
Instagram: /chynnashley

You can find Mutay at:

Twitter: @OhMutayy
Instagram: /mutayy