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Painshill and the Crystal Grotto
Sometimes you just gotta take impulsive decisions and go. After my friend told me about a Crystal Grotto outside London late at night, we just said yep let’s go tomorrow morning. No planning, no research… Taking a train to Vauxhall, we were going to a place called Cobham & Stoke D’Abernon (even the station’s name sounds foreign). We got there and the place we were headed, Painshill, was a bus ride away from the station. But the way we take buses for granted in London doesn’t exactly work in small English towns. After waiting 10mins for the scheduled bus to come, we decided to just head down and walk the…
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The Return to Insta (& other news)
I am backed up with blog posting so here comes a bunch of disconnected tales at full speed – a short story compilation if you may: A Fishy Experience Many of my foodie posts have been quite sophisticated dishes but that is actually not as often as you may imagine. A blistering hot day in Madinah and having had red meat consecutively for too many days, we went to a fish place for lunch. Now this is no any ordinary place, the shop is located in a major street selling pretty much the same thing! The way it works is you pick out a fresh fish from the freezer, often…
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The City of Light
Mothers are strange creatures – they are hybrid humans with maxed out levels of empathy, care and love. I don’t know any other person who has come to pick up and drop off someome at the airport without actually travelling – for every journey since I first set off from Jeddah. Today was no different and on getting home at 8am, the table was overflowing with delicious dishes to feed 10 and I was only allowed to get up after I gained back an extra couple of kilos. Having not slept all night and now fed, I immediately crashed in my bedroom. Only to be woken a few hours later……
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Return to the Land of Sand
Saying “it’s hot” in London (or anywhere in Europe, actually) can never compare to a Jeddah summer. Never to disappoint, Jeddah was a balmy 35 with the sun having not even risen completely as I walked down the steps from the plane. But wait, let’s rewind a bit! Anticipating the weekend too early, I had a lie in on Friday and went out for a run first thing. As the adrenaline slowed down and hunger began to growl, I was already close to Euston where I was meeting my friend for lunch. After talking about halwa with him in Vienna, I had promised that we would go for a proper…
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Pancakes and a ZNotes Dilemma
Working with the EDUCATE programme, my Wednesdays have turned into insightful “ZNotes days” (as if all the other days aren’t…). But really, being around some amazing entrepreneurs and experts, it is an awesome opportunity to learn new things and re-assess my next steps. This Wednesday was a fully packed one too, starting with an intense hour-long session with my professor and learning some neat stuff about surfaces. Looking at topology and spaces from an algebraic and geometric perspective is definitely becoming one of my keen mathematical interests. A quick walk to King’s Cross, next on the day’s agenda was catching up with an old school friend and having the best…
