Week In The Life #2: Theatre, Eid and I Turned 17

3/7/22 - 9/7/22

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my second week-in-the-life. I've got a busy week ahead so I hope you enjoy!

Sunday

My family from New York have come over to stay with us for the next couple of weeks so it's a hectic house at the moment. A grandmother, 3 adults, a 17 year old (me), a 13 year old, an 8 year old and a 6 year old. Cue a couple of hyperactive kids singing 'Ring Around The Rosies' in the middle of the night. 

My English teacher told me that next year we're studying King Lear in English and encouraged me to go see it as it was being performed at The Globe this summer. So me, my mum and my aunt went to see the 1 o'clock show while the others went to the RAF museum. 

It was a great experience- we had really really good seats and it was set up proper old-timey. We were sat right in the sun though- a lady actually fainted because it was so hot. But other than that, I had a really nice time. The acting was phenomenal and I enjoy the storyline (although my mum and aunt said that it was one of their least favourite Shakespeare plays!)

After that, the original plan was to go to a Halal sushi place a 10 minute walk away from The Globe but, as we looked it up on Google Maps, we found that it was closed on Sundays. So we decided to go to the Yo Sushi on Bond Street as it was on the way home but, when we got there, literally 2 restaurants away, we found a Halal steak place! 

We went in there instead- big big mistake. We had to wait for an hour for our food to come, they didn't have the steaks we wanted and it didn't taste nice. Bit disappointing but an experience all the same. 

We felt a bit drained after that (having sat in the sun for 3 hours and having not-nice food; they're such first world problems I feel silly writing about them) so, to perk ourselves up, we went to M&S and picked up some strawberries and squirty cream. The plan was to melt the massive chocolate bar we had at home and make chocolate-covered strawberries with cream. It went divine and went down incredibly well. 

To finish the day off, we sat and watched the first 2 episodes of Ms Marvel with the whole family and it was a huge hit. As a teenage Pakistani girl of the diaspora, it felt really nice to be decently represented on TV for the first time ever and I know everyone else felt the same. I really, really recommend it. 

Monday

The gardener was supposed to come and sort the garden out on Saturday but he didn't, so the whole family went out and did some gardening. I resoiled (I don't know the right word for it) some of the garden and then messed around a bit with the kids. 

For dinner, we went to Nando's (there's a Halal one at our local Tesco) which I don't think ever gets old. I have heard a few people calling Nando's 'overrated' but I have to disagree; I think it's reasonably hyped. 

After that, we came back home and my aunt and uncle gave my brother and I a tonne of presents they brought from New York. It was honestly so generous of them, they really shouldn't have gotten all of that bless them. I got some clothes and a few makeup/skin care bits. I think I might do a little mini haul in another post. I'm feeling very grateful to have such nice family. 

Tuesday

We went to Westfield's for pretty much the whole day. We went to a few shops and ate at Pizza Express and were back by around 6 PM. I didn't manage to pick much up unfortunately- I was expecting to buy a lot of stuff since I have money saved up and haven't been shopping in a while, but I couldn't really find anything. I managed to get a top from Next (I think), a set of earrings from Primark and a necklace from Accessorize. I was pretty tired by the end of the day. 

Wednesday

It's my birthday!! I turned 17 today- exciting. 

My family surprised me this morning by decorating the living room- there were pink balloons and streamers and a 'Happy birthday' sign on the wall. So cute. My younger cousin also made me a charm bracelet which I was very very impressed by.

For lunch, we ordered in food from a doner place and, straight after that, we went to the cinema to watch The Minions movie (we had to keep it child-friendly for my cousins and Thor wasn't coming out until the next day). There were a whole load of teenage boys dressed in suits there and some of them were playing with water guns at the beginning of the film (until they hit the adults and got told off). After that, we were supposed to go bowling but my cousin hurt his finger on the chairs somehow so we went home for a bit instead. In a way it worked out better because it meant that people could rest before we went out again for dinner. 

While we were chilling at home, my other younger cousin and I painted these things she got from a magazine. They're both obsessed with a show called Bluey (that's probably quite famous amongst their age group but I'd never heard of it before unsurprisingly) and this was a Bluey-themed magazine. We painted the two main characters of the show and chatted for a bit. 

After that, we went out for dinner at my favourite Turkish restaurant that happens to be just down the road. It was divine. The table ordered a large mixed grill but I ordered my own separate ribs. 

There's a dessert spot a short walk away so we went there next (we'd never been before). We walked through one of my favourite parts of this area and the weather was so nice. Before COVID, I didn't realise how built up and how nice the walk was around here- I think they renovated it during the pandemic. 

We got to the dessert place (called Haute Dolci) and it was very aesthetically pleasing. I ordered a crepe with chocolate and strawberries (my go-to) and wolfed it down as soon as it came. 

Overall, it was a fantastic day and I had so much fun, and I feel like my enjoyment was heightened because my last 2 birthdays were spent in lockdown. 

Thursday

People were a bit tired out today so it was a super chilled day. I went for a walk in the garden and read some of my book. 

After dinner, the whole family sat and watched the latest episode of Ms Marvel and my aunt put Henna all of the girls' hands for Eid on Saturday. She's incredibly talented and I reckon she should go professional. After we finished the episode, we sat and watched Father of the Bride and then we went to bed. 

Friday

I wanted to leave the Henna on overnight so that the pigmentation was stronger, so I scraped it off in the afternoon. I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

My dad arrived from the Middle East (he doesn't come to the UK with us for the full summer because he has to work) so that was nice. 

Saturday

 Eid Mubarak! If you didn't know, Eid is a festival that Muslims celebrate twice a year and this is Eid ul Adha (the second one, not the one after Ramadan). It's usually a day where Muslims dress up and go visit family and that's exactly what we did.

We went to my dad's brother's house (the family staying with us at home is on my mum's side so it was different having both sides together) for pretty much the whole day. I had a lot of fun and basically just gossiped with my cousins who I haven't seen since December. We are all girls and are at similar ages so it's really easy to talk to them about whatever's going on. 

So, that's how my week went. It was really busy and I'm aware of how long this post is so I apologise for that. I also apologise for this coming out later than it should have done (like I said, it's been a busy week). Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll hopefully see you on Thursday with a new post, and again on Sunday for a weekly blog.