They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but what about an OG blogger!? Inspired by the number of weekly vlogs and blog post round-ups I love to read and watch, I thought I would try my hand at it. Every week is an adventure for me, from events, to travels, cool new product discoveries, shopping finds, new London hotspots, and many, many more. I’m going to try a new format – blog post summary and more in depth YouTube video – depending on how you prefer to consume content. Please let me know if you like these formats and what you would like to see or hear more about!
Highlight #1: An Industry Event & Making New Friends
I went to an SEO event in London hosted by DeepCrawl, the most comprehensive website crawler that is trusted by the world’s biggest brands. I work in marketing and thought this would be a great way to learn. Not only was the event fantastic, but I ended up meeting a few people that I could see becoming new friends. It reminded me of a conversation that I had recently with a friend who has lived in London for a long time (like 10 years). She had commented how in only a few year’s time I had met so many people in London and always had a full social calendar. This event reminded me how important it is to be open to meeting new people and try to attend events or meet-ups where they make it easy to connect with people. It can seem daunting, but the more we challenge ourselves to put ourselves out there, the more confident we will be in talking to new people and making new friends.
Highlight #2: A Chic New Bar Discovery In The Great Northern Hotel
Later in the week, I had plans to meet a friend for drinks in the King’s Cross area of London. I had assumed that because there are so many bar and restaurant options, we would have no problem to find a spot for drinks. Wrong! Everything was paaaaacked. Tip to those coming to London…it is very much a city where you should book a reservation if you can. Not every bar allows it, but if they do, do it! With our initial meet up venue so overcrowded, I remembered a hidden gem – a little gin bar on the 1st floor (US 2nd floor) of The Great Northern Hotel.
While The Great Northern Hotel does have a ground floor bar, it’s always packed. However, upstairs they have a cute little gin bar (named Snug bar aww!) off of the restaurant Plum + Spilt Milk (food there is great too, by the way!).
We had two different gin cocktails, my favorite of which was with a Scottish gin called Caorunn Gin and served with cinnamon sticks and dried apple slices. Simply divine and would not be hard to make at home!
However, on the way out we discovered that the Great Northern Hotel has a new bar that has opened as well – called Anthracite. It’s a sexy martini lounge with a chic interior. The best part? You can book tables at Anthracite on Open Table. Woooooot! I’ll definitely be back to try this one out.
Highlight #3: Embarrassing Myself On The Internet My H&M Clothing Haul – Tops & Dresses
My third and final highlight for the week comes from a fun little side project. I made a £200 H&M Haul clothing haul! Yes, I tried clothes on on camera and filmed my reactions to them. Hehe. My friends are always asking me where I get various clothing items, so I want to experiment more with this and see if it’s a format people like. In general, a goal of mine in 2019 and beyond is to get better at filming and editing videos. I love how videos are a much more personal form of content, from chatty storytelling videos to useful content like hauls or how-to tips, expect to see more of me in this space.
I would love it if you checked out my H&M Haul and gave me feedback on it!
Final Thoughts
All in all, it was another fun week. Looking back on this, I’m really proud of myself for being open, putting myself out there and continuing to develop new skills. And for having fun while doing it! Not too shabby!
Until next week….