Eid Mubarak

first of all, i just wanted to wish all my readers a lovely, peaceful and prosperous eid and a wonderful year to come. why haven't i posted in the past month? one word: busy. i've changed my contracted hours at work from a mere 16 hours on weekends, to a full time hard core 39 hours. the perks i get from this include being in the bakery, freedom to take my break when i need to, do an active job - challenging both my mind and (fingers crossed) shifting the body mass. speaking of which.. i can't believe i didn't lose any weight while fasting during ramadhan! perhaps it was related to the time i ate.. 3am seriously doesn't make you lose weight, especially when you break the fast about 8.30. there simply isn't any activity between these two times, and with work consuming the day, when i get home, all i want to do is hit the bed.

what i found impressive was that i could go on my day and still be active regardless of how hungry/thirsty i was. i was honestly expecting problems to occur, but alhamdu'allah i was fine throughout the month.

for my sister's birthday treat, the whole family went to bournemouth. yes! sandy beach ftw! but.... 2 weeks later, we find out that she caught chicken pox! this not only meant that she couldn't fast with me, but also that she had to deal with all the symptoms associated with the plague. 2 weeks later, brother comes home to help out clean the rented house, and on his second day, he develops chicken pox (his second time getting the disease). after wiki reading and research, we all know that pox affects adults more severely.. and this truly showed on his face, back and front. i just want him to get better, i've never seen him this ill all my life its really sad. when am i gonna get it? alhamdu'allah i didn't get the disease despite my frail immune system, at least i hope i don't get it in the coming weeks.. the incubation period varies from person to person so for all i know, it could be cooking right now as i blog (eek..)

shopping, exploring and uhh....

teeth whitening. i come here today, firstly because i am extremely uncomfortable wearing these 'miracle workers' crest 3d white strips. not only am i burping whitening-flavored... burps, but also, i can't close my mouth, they feel so weird!! no i'm not taking pictures because they look frikin ugly and disgusting!

aghh they are so disgusting..

why did i choose to do this? simple, graduation. despite how i am regretting everything this year, i want to set things right, or at least some things.. one of those are my teeth. if you know me, you'd know i love to smile and so i feel like this is an important step to getting myself back.. in a sense. no more depressed dania, time to be confident, no more regrets, no more feeling worthless, hopeless and out of touch with reality - i guess i just want to improve. over the past weeks i have spoken to so many people and given so much wonderful advice i don't know why i'm not following it myself! i need to listen to myself, so yeah. this week i have been travelling, exploring cities of the north of nottingham such as leeds, sheffield and derby. i have to say, i really liked derby's shopping centre 'westfield' its huge, spacious and has all my favorite shops.

awesome shop is sooo awesome! <3

i really loved the fashion in bershka - oh my oh my, i think this was the first ever store that i went into, and i spent at least an hour flicking through their wonderful fashion. they were all so wearable! i really liked their tshirts and how affordable everything was! it was amazing, even the staff were amazing, this is one shop i will revisit again and again, even if i have to go oxford street to see it!
eghh just took off the whitening strips. not only do they look gross but taking them off also looks gross. i hate the after-taste of whitening in my mouth. i don't know how i'm going to sleep tonight having half of what i had in my mouth, now lingering my stomach. i'm very very disturbed by these whitening strips. plus, it doesn't look like they did anything at all :L
back to my exploration - the city that i really found was architecturally stunning has to be sheffield. their town centre was a little difficult to navigate to, but i really enjoyed strolling (blindly) through the streets in my quest to find the shops! the moment that you step out of the train station you're welcomed by a beautifully designed  and complex fountain spanning the front of the station in different levels, reflecting the hills and breadth of sheffield. i found it very inspiring. the city looks very beautiful with the contrast of modern and archaic buildings - it really looks like a pretty place to live in.
so leeds, what did i think of leeds... well, it was a little further away than sheffield, and despite the popularity of the place by so many people i couldn't really agree. the shops were indeed spread out and i found the extra walking quite rewarding - but somehow it reminded me of nottingham, or to be more precise... a downgrade version of nottingham - i kinda prefer nottingham. with regards to sheffield's town centre shopping experience, i also prefer nottingham as it has way more shops, at a closer proximity and also easier to navigate to.
ofcourse, i took pictures but atm its kinda late to go through them, edit and upload them on here, so pics should be coming soon :3

Montemartre, Paris

Feeding pigeons at Montemartre, Paris

this was most likely one of the highlights of the trip - so as i whipped out my crêpes au sucre and fed a little to the pigeon, soon there was an invasion of pigeons swarming across the floor, following me and yasmin as we donated our food to them lol it was fun - heres a clip of it when my lil sis started feeding the pigeons, enjoy :3

paris trip

last week i was away and isolated from internets, i was in paris. it was a bit of an unexpected trip, but somehow on short notice everything came together, and organised (to a certain extent! the majorly of the trip was improvised very well). the only disappointing part was that mum decided against coming along. other than that, it was most definitely an amazing trip. for 3 days, me, dad and yummie went exploring, plenty of walking, and driving. i took so many pictures and never once did my camera fail me in both battery life, quality of pictures and capacity to hold all the movies and pictures i took on the trip. i really really really love my camera, its like the best ever purchase i ever did. i love it!
the places i visited included Eiffel tower, Louvre museum, Champs-Elysee, Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries, Montemartre, Notre Dame, latin quarter. considering that we only spent 2 nights there i think this trip was very productive and we got to see so many amazing attractions and sample the culture and cuisines of paris. i really loved the people - they were all so polite and friendly despite the fact that we were tourists, it really made the trip so much less stressful and distressing when exploring the city.