Nine Things to do this Summer in London (Ideas for Summer activities in London)

This is my second London summer and I am loving it. It's surprising all the beautiful sunny days that we have had so far! Obviously, there was rain here and there, but it is still a beautiful season in London. It actually got really hot two weeks ago (30 degree) and I had to order a cooling fan! It arrived after the weather cooled down, but I am hoping it will get a little hot during July and August! 

Things to do in London this summer

Every summer, I make a list of things I want to do before the season ends. My list has lots of things and I thought it will be fun to share with you all! Hope you get to try some of these idea!  

Summer in London Activity 1: Park Picnics

I know this is the most obvious one, but it's so much fun! I would recommend that you go to a few this season and make most of your summer outdoors! By the way, forget Hyde Park. I seriously don't go there unless I am forced or there is something extra special happening there! I like: Regent Park, Greenwich Park and Richmond Park. Regent is the most central one of the three, but the other two are out of the way and can be great for a more peaceful park time away. The added benefit of Richmond is the deer you can spot there! There are also gardens that allow picnic like Kew Gardens.   

Find more London parks on: 

The best parks in London

24 quiet London parks and secret gardens to escape to

Ps. You can see some of the Greenwich Park in my Greenwich video below!

Summer in London Activity 2: Art Festivals

The first one that comes to mind is Shubak Festival and it's an Arab art festival with lots of art related activities happening across two weeks. It only started three days ago, so you have time to checkout the rest of the activities they have on offer! I am planning to go to the art exhibitions they have arranged. 

Summer in London Activity 3: Music Gigs and Festivals

I have to admit. I got this idea slightly late! Most tickets are sold out at this point, but there are still few going! There is a great lineup happening in Somerset House. I am slightly sad I am not spending most of July in London because there is just SO MUCH to see and attend. There are also few music and art events to check in the Barbican Centre.   

More Music gigs and festivals from other websites: 

Music Festivals in London during 2017

Summer in London Activity 4: Rooftop Crawl

I haven't done much of this *yet* but I went to a few spots last. The only rooftop garden I have been to was the Canary Wharf: The Crossrail Place Roof Garden. It's small, but it's nice to chill after grabbing some food from one of the restaurants downstairs!

I have four more places to try this season on evenings with nice weather: 

• Culpeper Roof Garden

• Frank's Cafe

• Ham Yard Hotel Roof Terrace

• Camden Roof Gardens

I would also like to go to the fancy Sky Garden one of those days.

A full list of the best Roof spots can be found (here). 

Summer in London Activity 5: Outdoor Cinema

This is very weather dependent. Although it is technically summer, but with the unpredictable British weather, this could be taken over by rain. It's still worth doing and luckily there are few venues that do that! 

The Luna Cinema has a list of movies that are shown in a number of London venues.

The Nomad Cinema does cinema pop ups at various venue around London too!  

Summer in London Activity 6: Stuffing face with Ice Cream! 

Like seriously this is my favourite thing to do the second I see sunshine! There are lots of great locations to get yummy ice cream from such Chin Chin Labs, Snowflake gelato, Gelupo or even your local supermarket. Doesn't matter where from just stuff your face with as much as ice cream as possible! 

Summer in London Activity 7: Lavender Fields

I don't know if you noticed all the instagramers last year posting beautiful photos in lavender fields. My instagram was seriously flooded with those photos and I just had to get one there too! I went to the Hitchin Lavender Fields (45mins from London by train). I still have my full bag of lavenders from last year, so I am not sure if I am doing it again this summer, but it was so much fun! They have a really nice cafe too that is worth chilling in! 

Summer in London Activity 8: Fruit Picking

This is basically the same idea as the lavender field above. I haven't done this yet, but I am planning on going next month! There are a few strawberry and berries farms that are very close to London such as

Stan Hill Farm

Hewitts Farm

Copas Farms

Here are more choices from other websites: 

• London's best pick your own farms

• Nearest Pick Your Own Farms To London

Ps. I suggest checking google maps for the nearest locations to you! London is huge, but since I am closer to the South I have only focused on that area. There are plenty scattered around.  

Summer in London Activity 9: Day Trips!

Yes this is not technically in London, but very accessible from one of the Central London train stations. Few weeks ago, I went on a country forest walk to Ashridge. Being under the shade, walking and eating ice cream was one of the best things I have done! There are many possible walks all around London. There are beach walks too! Last summer, I went on a beach one to Hayling Island. This summer I want to go to Portsmouth and Brighton!  

For even more ideas here is a list of activities for July and August from the London Time Out website:

• London events in July

• London events in August

Over to you: What's on your summer activities list? 

How Can You Afford Living in London?

This is the million dollar question that I get at least once a week or whenever I meet new people. Let me start by saying when I say I live in London, I am no where near Big Ben, London Eye, Harrods or anything in Central London really. I live an hour away and that's still considered London. This city is expensive no doubt, but here is how I can afford living in London

• Being a Full Time Student in London is GOLD

I think being a student in London gives you so many possibilities and DISCOUNTS! I have a discounted Oyster card, which means I pay 125GBP a month for a travel card from zone 1 to 4 and that includes all forms of transportation in London (Bus, DLR, Tube, Trains and the Overground). I also get a student train card (Rail Card) to travel in the UK  for a significantly cheaper prices. Plus, I get 10% off in most stores with MyUniDays or you can get the NUS card. 

As a full time student, you don't pay council tax too, which makes rent cheaper as well. 

• Give up Central London for Zone three or four

As I said in the introduction, I don't live in Central London. I live between zone three and four, which happens to be on the other side of the River Thames that you probably would not have visited. It basically takes me an HOUR to get ANYWHERE. That's a sacrifice you have to make if you want to stay in an affordable place that is slightly bigger than a shoe box. With my discounted Oyster card mentioned above, it makes sense to live further.

• Meal Planning and Home Cooked Meals is a great method to SAVE MONEY!! 

This saves so much you have no idea! Those supermarket sandwiches and crisps you buy at lunch for 3-5 pounds add up and become crazy! Think of this: A whole loaf of bread is 80p and humous is 1 pound and a bag of spinach for another 1 pound you can even treat yourself with 6 small bags of crisps for 2 pounds max. There you just made 5 lunches for 5 days for the cost of one! You see what I mean. Another thing, plan your meals before you get groceries, so you don't waste. Each meal I cook has two portions, so I have it for two dinners. Try a few vegan meals a week and that saves loads if you are using one type of vegetable, a can of chopped tomatoes and rice that's like 3 pounds for a filling meal. You can get very creative here and there are like a bazillion pages on instagram and pintrest to help you with that!    

• Meet Your Friends At Art Galleries or do other free activities

The wonderful thing about is London is the amount of free activities! (Read: How to find cool events and things to do in London). Big museums and art galleries are my default meeting point now. It gives you something to do and it is a fun. If the weather is good, you can also go to parks for picnics and catch ups. 

• Only Go out to Cafes    

I am a social butterfly and I love hanging out with my London pals. As a Muslim, we can't meet at Pubs, so I used to meet my friends for restaurant meals (Read: My Ultimate Favourite Food Guide in London). That started costing me so much!! Now, I try to meet at cafes in the afternoon for tea or a just desserts. We sometimes only get tap water and stay there for two hours or more. Even buying a cup of tea or coffee is much more affordable than a main course.

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Over to you:

How Can You Afford Living in London? Are there any other things you are doing I haven't mentioned above? Please Share your thoughts in the comments below! 

More Posts from London: 

Travel Inspiration for your gram

My Ultimate Favourite Food Guide for London (Including Halal)

You will probably find me in one of these! These are the places I choose from when I go out for food in London. These are purely based on my taste and what I like to eat. Thankfully, my friends love them as much as I do. I surly need to expand the list. I tried loads more, but I only put the ones I really enjoyed here. 

For Arabic food: you are really spoiled for choice. There are so many options in Edgware Road and I only tried a few. I like Beirut Express for breakfast. I love the Green Valley to get some fresh or frozen Arabic special food. Maroush and Abu Zaad are also yummy! 

For Burgers: Stax, Burgista Bros and Guanabana for chicken burgers: GBK. 

For Indian: Hands down Dishoom. It's just so so good! There is also Roti Chai. It's in a similar goodness range. 

For Turkish: Iskele (Barbican area) and Babaji Pide. 

For Mexican: I still haven't found the prefect Mexican place in London, but Wahaca is nice. It's not halal, but I get their veggie or fish tacos.

Pan Asian: Busaba and Pho

For Pizza: Homeslice and Zizzi

For Noodles: Shoryu Ramen (be careful though. About 95% of their menu is pork. I go for the one vegetarian noodles that they have. It is so good!)

For Sushi: Sticks n Sushi (beware! It's really pricey, but so yummy!)

For Persian: There are so many amazing Persian restaurants in London. These are my favourite. I really enjoyed eating in all four: Behesht (Kensal Green),  Alounak (Bayswater), Kish (Maida Vale) and Kabab Mahdi (Hammersmith). 

For Stake: Steak and Co (they have a special halal stake) I haven't found another good halal stake in London, but the search continues. 

For General/Please everyone classics: Jamie's Italian. It's not halal, but their prawns linguine and vegetarian dishes are nice.

More favourites on the London map: 

Over to you: what are your ultimate favourite halal spots in London? 

How to find cool events and things to do in London

I love being in London. It's an amazing city with so many things to do. You can even plan every night of the week to be out doing something entertaining. I keep getting asked how I find all the cool events I go to. I also get responses to my Snapchat story that say "oh wish I knew" "how did you even find that?" The answer is simple, I look for interesting things to do with my time because interesting events lead to interesting people. Sometimes I go alone and sometimes I take my friends. Either way, I make sure I go there and enjoy myself! Here are my go-to places to find events

Events at museums and galleries

The start of the month, I take a look at my favourite museums, art centres and venue just to check what's on. Some events are free, but others are paid. Usually they are reasonably price and under £20. The places I check are:

Barbican Centre, British Museum, National Gallery, Vitoria and Albert Museum, Leighton House Museum, Prince's School of Traditional Arts, Somerset House, Saatchi Gallery, Fashion and Textile Museum and The Design Museum.   

Events at cool London venues

There are so many trendy venues around the city that host events. The ones I check are The Book Club in Shoreditch, The Forge in Camden and Soho Theatre. 

Events via Meetup groups

I mentioned meetup.com in a pervious post "Ten Ways to Make International Friends". It's not only good for meeting new people and making friends, but there are so many groups that are based in London that do all sort of events from drawing at galleries  to socialising at new London spots and etc. 

Events from event websites

There is always the dependable Timeout London. I also like Le Cool London and the Nudge. I am sure there are other cool ones, but these usually fill up my schedule and notify me with the major London events.   

I hope you find these locations and links useful. By the way, you should also ask your friends to share cool events that they might have heard of from work or other friends. This city has lots to offer and you will surly find something you enjoy. You can mix it up and go to events that you aren't sure about. It is fun to experiment! 

Over to you: How do you find cool events in London? Do you know any cool venues and websites that I didn't mention? Please feel free to share them in the comments below. 

London After Midnight

When my friend suggested to keep walking around the river in South Bank and cross the main footpath bridges in London at 11pm, I jumped at the opportunity! I always wanted to experience London at night, but I never felt comfortable doing it on my own. The weather has been warm and glorious. I haven't spent a July in London before. I am usually away during that time, but this year I came right when summer started. It was surprisingly busy, but when the weather is good in London people stay out longer. I only had my Canon G 7X mark 1 with me and I thought the photos turned out really well for a point and shoot. Here are some of the photos I took on the walk.  

Canon PowerShot G7X Digital Camera (20.3 MP, 4.2x Zoom)

London Eye at Night

Westminster at night, London

Big Ben, London

Big Ben and Westminster with water reflection

London after midnight

St Paul Cathedral at night

St Paul Cathedral closeup

Roses on the fence around St. Paul's Cathedral

Look down and carefully at the bridge you are walking on, London

St. Paul across the footpath bridge

Full moon and the Shard in London

How to protect yourself from horrific flatmates in London?

After seeing endless ads from Airbnb about renting the extra space to other travellers, I convinced my landlord to clean up the extra bedroom. By "convinced" I actually mean I took matters into my own hands and was on endless calls asking him if he needed all the old things in there that no longer worked. Thankfully, the landlord is somewhat of a friend so it was not painful to convince him. Once the room was emptied (as best as I could), I bought few extra things like a hanging rack, hangers, sheets, towels and the usual room essentials. After I listed it on Airbnb, a "friend" saw the listing and contacted me and asked if she could stay. She only wanted to stay a couple of weeks at first and I wanted to help her out so I agreed. I thought at least I "knew" her and she is probably better than random strangers. Little did I know. It turned out to be one of the most horrific experiences ever. Of course it was all flowers and rainbows in the trial period then things got wrong really fast. I actually still wonder what went wrong, but I am treating it as a learning experiences and sharing five ways to protect yourself from similar experiences.    

Tip: Let the payments and bookings be via Airbnb at least that way you get the payments and get to leave a review for the person. I removed my listing and privately lend it to her. BAD IDEA!

First: Is it really worth it? 

I was out of the country/city for about 60% of the time when I had a flatmate so I though it is worth getting some money especially that I am not even there. I did not consider how I will feel when I am back though. I realised the hard way that sanity is more valuable than money especially when the flatmate is loud, inconsiderate and uses your resources when you are not there. The rent I charged was not even enough to tolerate the inconvenience she caused. In the trail period it was 90GBP/week and then 120GBP/week. Keep in mind it was a flat in London (end of zone three) with a station that's 5mins walk that takes 20mins to get to London Bridge (Central London). I did not want a profit, all I wanted was to cover the necessities. You might need to consider the emotional sacrifice and the price of the area when you are setting the rent price. 

Source

Second: Be firm and be cautious especially if the new flatmate is a friend  

The flatmate who moved in with me was kind of a "friend". I "knew" her from mutual art classes we took and we had few friends in common, so I thought that was enough. The fact that I knew her made me go easy on rules and payments because that's what friends are for; to be supportive to each other. On the contrary, you really should be firm from the start because some people will take advantage of you. 

Third: Get a GOOD deposit

I was so naive and I did not take a deposit. I know rookie move, but I really wanted to help her out because she constantly said she had no money and her payments were delayed and I thought I did not need it. Obviously I was mistaken, she broke my chair, the toilet roll holder, broke a bowl, used my drinking cups to paint and almost broke my expensive juicer too. I was so shocked and so Arab to ask for any money. A deposit would have solved that issue and I could have deducted the cost of the broken items from there.    

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Fourth: Have a written and signed agreement from a lawyer

Another mistake! I thought it was only a short term thing and there was no need to hassle myself with a lawyer and a contract, but seriously you need one with set dates. After the initial agreement with the flatmate to the end of June, she extended the dates to end of July and later on to end of August. When I had a problem with her dates and told her that I was expecting her to leave end of July because the landlord wanted to bring another person in August, she snapped. I really don't like dealing with aggressive, confrontational people. I really wished I had a contract then.   

Fifth: Write all the household rules and agree on them before the move

When this flatmate first moved in she told me this and let me quote: "I am so tidy and neat, I think I have OCD." When someone makes such statements you kind of believe them. I know I am not the tidiest person. I have piles of papers and clothes in my room, but at least I am hygienic and clean especially in the kitchen and the bathroom. So, I expected her to be the same and even better since she claimed she is OCD clean. Sadly, that was not the case, I came from a trip and I saw plates of half eaten food left in the living room, dirty W/C, blocked drains from her hair and a total mess. I was only gone for a week. 

Remember Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory and his roommate agreement detailing every little thing from who sits on the couch to everything else?

Yes you should do something similar (not as insane) BEFORE the move. I was really upset when I saw the disgusting mess (the type that get rats into your house) and I wrote a paper for her with Dos and Don'ts. Such as please don't eat my food especially the food I brought with me from abroad that I can't replace. I also included the usual common sense things like please don't leave your clothes in the living room, please put your leftovers in the fridge, throw your rotten food in the trash an take the trash out when I am not in town since it's yours. She was so offended she did not even speak to me. 

source

The end of the story:

I didn't even have to speak to her face to face because she decided to leave the flat without notifying me or paying the rent. To top it off she purposefully stole my really nice cloth grocery bags and pay-as-you-go/top-up gas card and electricity key just to make my life difficult. This should give you an indication of the type of person she is. Without them, I could not get gas or electricity in the flat. I found out all of that after coming from an international trip. I was already exhausted after ten hours of travel and all I wanted was to sleep instead I spent a stressful cold dark night. I kept trying to contact her but she did not respond and then blocked me. I asked a mutual friend to intervene. I did not want the money just the card and key. The flatmate lied about having them and was out of touch.

It was one of the worst experiences of my life. It still sounds bizarre to me. Even my friends were in disbelief when I told them. I know why I was upset, but every time I was annoyed I stayed in my room either tired or working. I was never rude or out of order with her. I am sure she had her reasons but stealing and behaving like that was immature and silly. I am just glad it was over and really sad it ended this way. 

Hope you guys don't have similar experiences just make sure you follow the advice above and you will be alright. Some people ended up with really good relationships with their flatmates. It's just a matter of clarity and luck.  

More London Posts: 

Afternoon Tea in Sketch, London

Happy September everyone! 

During the long bank holiday weekend, I got to try Sketch, one of the nicest afternoon tea experiences in London! I have been wanting to go for the longest time and I am so glad I finally did. I had afternoon tea at the gallery. The space was mostly pink with pink chairs and pink walls. It was so girly and dreamy. I liked that they covered the walls with sketches. Some were funny and others were a bit strange. 

The afternoon tea was unlimited, which was something I did not expect and really loved! I was full from the first serving, but had a bit more because they kept offering so nicely. It was pure indulgence. It included a choice of tea, vegetarian finger sandwiches, traditional scones, pastries. There were two choices for pastries ones with beef gelatine and vegan ones. I went with the vegan ones and was pleasantly surprised of how yummy they were. I liked that we were able to try more than one kind of tea. I tried the oolong and the rose teas. Overall, the food was nice but nothing out of the extraordinary. The lovely tea selection, the interiors and the amazing service made it all so worth it. To top it off, they had MAD bathrooms that looked like they landed right out of space. It just added a fun twist to the space.

I will definitely be going there again. Keep in mind you need to reserve a table in advance because it gets booked up really fast.  

Cheap Eats in Shoreditch, London

Happy Thursday all! 

Last month, I was taking daily classes at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts. It's located in Shoreditch, which meant having lunch that area daily. The longer I stayed there, the more places I discovered. From the places I found, were these little hidden gems that I wanted to share with you all 

#1 Ruby. Be prepared to queue, but the Italian food is SO worth it! The staff are super friendly and very accommodating as well. It's very affordable. You can get something for a fiver or less. Ps. Chicken is halal! :D

Address: 8-9 Hoxton Square, London, United Kingdom

#2 The little indian cafe. I am not really sure what it's called, but it's really hidden. It's between Pod and Itsu on Eastern St. It's a corner shop, but with hot food inside. A plate of rice and three sides is around 3-4 pounds. It's also really yummy!  Ps. Chicken is Halal. 

#3 Apostrophe Cafe I love this little cafe and they have fresh vegetarian sandwiches, farm pressed juices and really nice desserts. It's also affordable. 

Address: Great Eastern Street EC2 42 Great Eastern Street London EC2A 3EP

#4 Box Park. I only went there quickly and I didn't even get to eat there, but they got a number of pop up shops and restaurants upstairs with a number of affordable eateries. It's super cool and the way they made a quirky use of the containers is brilliant. 

Address: 2-10 Bethnal Green Rd, London, E1 6GY, UK