2026 / Georgina Does

April. Yay

Monday, 11 May 2026

April was a lovely time. There were multiple days of 20+ degree sunshine and with that, I felt the life come back into me. I had fun with my friends, met some cool new people and took every opportunity to be outside enjoying the sunshine. That meant warm afternoons at the park, dining by the river and touring SW London's many beer gardens, Yay!

Big Bank Holiday Weekend

This feels like a lifetime ago now but my early bank holiday weekend was totally packed. The Ned, the boat race, steak, family.. read all about it here

Soho Farmhouse

Early on Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed out of London for some R&R. After lunch at Berenjak, (and a Jamie Laing sighting) we headed to the spa for a swim and sauna before finding the perfect spot in the courtyard for an afternoon of drinks and people watching.

Skating Lessons

Remembering how happy roller skating has made me over the years, I decided to invest in a course to learn some new skills. I had my first few group lessons this month with Roll Happy and learnt some cool new drills.

Spring Wreath Making

This was my second event with Well Crafted and I love how loosely guided they are. Rather than a controlled masterclass with instructions and processes, Alex's classes are pretty much self guided social events. Left to your own devices with all the props and crafts you need, I switch off from the world for a couple of hours and enjoyed some interesting conversations with the people around me.

Luke visited London

I've been friends with Luke for verging on ten years now (he's been featured here many times) and whilst he was back in London, we went for lunch at Fallow. I haven't seen him in six months so it was great to catch up over oysters and fish heads. (iykyk)

New jeans

This was an unexpectedly huge part of my month. After a lifetime of black, skinny jeans, I ordered a pair of loose fit, low rise, blue jeans and fear I may now have to rethink my entire identity.

Friday, 10 April 2026

Aren't Bank holidays just one of life’s joys? And to add more excitement to the mix, this one just gone lined up with 5 days of sunshine. What a win.

My long weekend started after work on Thursday. I made the most of being in East London (from the office) by heading straight to The Ned at 3:30pm. The sun appeared out of nowhere and we spent a lazy afternoon by the pool with a passionfruit lemonade in hand and the warmth from the sun on our faces.

Another benefit of being in East London is that it's already halfway back to my parents, so I took the opportunity from there, to go home for a couple of nights. Friday consisted of a fresh gel manicure, a countryside dog walk, and an afternoon coffee and catchup with my mum - and dinner at the local Chinese once my dad got home from work. Very wholesome.

Saturday, I was back in Shoreditch to attend an Easter egg decoration class with LOTI & Well Crafted. It was set up a beautiful light, and airy space and just a great way to relax, unwind and be creative.

After a very zen start, I rushed across town to drop my egg back home and then went straight back out to watch the Oxford Cambridge boat race in Hammersmith, arriving just in time to see them speed past. We stayed for a jug of Pimm’s and then walked along the river, back home for a quite night in since Paige had a roller blading lesson in the morning.

I have been looking for friends to skate with since I started so it was the perfect opportunity to head to Hyde park and skate with her afterwards. A two hour lesson was pretty intense, so we first wandered into the cute back streets of Gloucester road, grabbed lunch and a coffee and then went back to the park to skate along the Serpentine in the sun. Bliss.

Monday, I didn’t have much planned so decided to go for my 2nd 5k run and somehow managed to shave 4 minutes from the first time. That came with a huge sense of satisfaction, and I enjoyed it very much.

The afternoon started with a couple of Huge spritz’s back by the water in Putney before heading further upstream to Richmond to continue our riverside afternoon at Gaucho. An extra large steak, a couple more cocktails and a very chocolaty dessert later, we were in an uber back home having enjoyed a wonderfully full bank holiday weekend.

Thursday, 2 April 2026

I cant believe it's April already, this year is flying by - it feels like yesterday I arrived back from Bali but that was four months ago now. March was an interesting month for me; big changes, new routines and I found it quite hard, but looking back on everything I did this month, it was actually quite a positive one. Funny how things feel better when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Dim Sum Masterclass

Another LOTI excursion; I headed Tao Tao Ju in Chinatown to attempt to make my own dim sum. It started well, with very simple custard buns, which was a good start considering the staff couldn't speak English but it went downhill from there. As the techniques became more and more intricate, my initial confidence quickly faded.

That being said, I enjoyed the experience very much, and even if the result wasn't quite the prettiest basket of dumplings I've ever seen, they were just as delicious.

My first 5K run

With the sun shining, I decided it was time for my first outdoor run! I'd been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks and when I woke up on Sunday with no immediate plans, I decided to give it a go and ran by the river for 32 minutes to be precise! My legs were sore, but I'm excited to try again!

Eating Out

The sun came out for a few days at the start of the month and that was all the encouragement I needed to visit my favourite summer spot - Seabird! Apart from that, I ate at some awesome places this month. A visit to Annabel's, prompted a quick return for a repeat experience of one of the best steaks I've ever eaten. The Cadogan Arms on the King's road set the scene for one of the best roasts I've ever had - a sharing patter of lamb, beef and pork accompanied by copious glasses of champagne and a girls brunch meant I finally ticked off trying the croissant benedict at Fallow.

Al Fresco Wine!!

As well as the food, there was a lot of wine consumed through March. I enjoyed a return to The Ship - showing new friends, an old favourite spot (walking distance home is a definite plus.) A sunset glass on a pedestrianised street that felt like mid summer in Europe; and my first (and second) glass of wine from the mini golf hut at the park with my neighbour!

Help! I've sexted my boss Live

Jordan and William have become a big part of my day to day routine so I really enjoyed the opportunity to see them live at Wembley as they took Help! I've sexted my boss on tour!

Roller Skating at the Barbican

It's been months since I've been able to go out skating, mostly because of the weather, but this indoor event, meant I could practice rain or shine. I headed out east to skate inside the Barbican centre which was pretty cool. It was a small rink, but I got there very early so I was able to take advantage of the space before it got busy. It was great to see some of the marshalls from Flippers, where I used to skate, running the event and they were really helpful in giving me some tips for my spins - which improved exponentially as the day went on! Plus I made a couple of new skating friends along the way!

Friday, 6 March 2026

At the start of this year, I decided that I wanted to expand my life a little. Things had gotten a bit samey, and I wanted to break the monotony; try new experiences, learn new things, and meet new people. My plan worked! Four weekends and four fun, new adventures. February was packed full of activity, and I had a great time - which would you try?

Afternoon Tea

Ok, this one wasn’t completely new for me, but it was for my (American) friend Paige who I took along with me! I love being able to introduce people to new experiences so I very much enjoyed this, whilst laughing at her trying to eat a scone like a sandwich.

What was new for me, was doing it drunk. Having not seen each other since our respective trips abroad over Christmas, we decided to go for the champagne option and spent the afternoon catching up on each other’s drama over tea and tiny sandwiches.

Lemon Meringue Pie Masterclass

This was such a unique event, I'm very glad I got to experience it. I spent the morning in Shoreditch constructing my very own version of Gloria's massive 8” lemon meringue pie at a class in their wine room. After handing out all but one slice to everyone who would take some, I’m three days in and it is still going strong! I really enjoyed the whole format of this LOTI class, so I’m hoping there’ll be some more that catch my eye over the next few months. (spoiler: I've already booked 3 more)

I wrote a full post on this if you’d like to read more about it.

Floating sound bath at The Mandarin Oriental

I've done the odd sound bath before. The first time I did it, was in Australia and I had a bit of a strange out of body experience so I've been interested in these types of experience since then, but always on solid floor until now.

Keen to try a floating sound bath, I booked one at the new Mandarin Oriental in Mayfair which included four hours of spa access after the session. It was a really wonderful experience, regardless of the crying it triggered, and I look forward to doing it again.

Matcha Masterclass

As someone who drinks matcha laced with milk and sugar, it was really interesting to do a matcha masterclass and get to experience it in its purest form - before lacing it with sugar and milk. I learnt a lot, met some great people and I got to try making my favourite drink from scratch.

Other February highlights include:

The sun finally came out so I spent a lot of time enjoying it by the river.

I got gifted a lava lamp which was very exciting.

Went to the Science museum.

Celebrated Chinese New Year with fancy dumplings

Visited 2 rooftop bars (it's been a long winter!!)

Got roses on Valentines Day

Tried sunset yoga

Monday, 23 February 2026

I've been searching out my favourite foods and making it my business to learn more about how they're made, where they come from etc so this weeks solo adventure was a matcha masterclass.

Chat gpt suggested “your readers already know you’re a matcha girly” and matcha girly I am. I first became part of the cult in 2023, when I insisted that all of my un-foodie friends, came to Taste of London (the food festival) with me. We stopped at the Blank Street stand (little did we know) which was practically unknown at the time, but they were playing very loud EDM and we were there for an absolute age just vibing and chatting to the guys running the stand. I had quite a few mutual friends with one of them, who I later discovered one of the founders of PerfectTed, who are supplying most places (blank street included) with their matcha nowadays. Anyway, whilst we were there, they were handing out cups of this new drink and we were all hooked from that point on.

Fast forward three years and with the amount of matcha I now drink, I thought it'd be interesting to learn a bit more about it and try it in a purer, less sugar spiked form. After a quick google I found Tea Parlour, which according to their website, serve London’s best ceremonial-grade matcha, sourced from Uji, Kyoto. Seemed pretty specialist to me.

Just behind Leicester Square, they hold similar events in store every few weeks, an hour before opening.

This was a better class for people on their one than my last! The couples positioned themselves at one end of the table and at the other end, there were 5 of us on our own which was great and meant a lot more chatting and social interaction.

Yay, my plan worked!

We started by trying three different types of matcha, each with different characteristics as a results of where they were grown. Each were different grades which I was most interested to understand more about, turns out I couldn't tell the difference. I learnt 100% Japanese matcha is becoming less and less common as growers are having to mix it with Chinese grown to meet demand and clearly, most people, like me, don't notice the difference.

After inspecting their colours and tastes, we learnt about the best ratios of hot water to bring out the flavours and how to correctly use a chasen (the wooden whisk.)

Once whisked to perfection, we lined our plastic cups with whatever syrups we wanted. I went for strawberry, (although my usual order is vanilla,) filled it with ice, milk (coconut) and then carefully poured the matcha on top to get that very satisfying separation of colours.

It was a delicious matcha if ever I've tasted one, although it definitely wasn’t as sweet as I’m used to which showed me just how much syrup goes into my usual order.

Regardless, I left feeling a little bit more knowledgeable about something I consume daily, and having had a nice chat with some friendly strangers so it was a success if you ask me!

Wednesday, 18 February 2026

I have decided this year is going to be more fun than last, particularly my alone time. I have been signing up for all sorts of new things and this weekend, I kicked it off with a lemon meringue pie masterclass. Fun!

Although this was not just any lemon meringue pie. It was Big Mamma’s very extra, lemon meringue pie.

Gloria was Big Mamma’s first London restaurant which opened in East London in 2019. After taking over the London restaurant scene with their theatrical Italian dining rooms and OTT dishes, there are now six spots scattered across the city, with the newest recently opening in Canary Wharf.

I first spotted their famous lemon meringue pies all over Instagram during lockdown. Gloria is in East London, so I was ecstatic when they finally opened a dark kitchen serving SW London. With pizza, pasta, and pie in my basket, I expected a toned down, transport friendly version to arrive so you can image my joy when the Napoli gang delivered our food, with a sheet of stickers, and a plastic pint glass with a perfectly preserved slice of their 8” pie inside.

I don’t go to east London very often but now that I can freely travel across London again, I was happy to oblige for this. The district line was doing its usual Sunday thing, so I caught a bus to Clapham and got in the northern line direct to Shoreditch. Surprisingly more convenient actually.

Starting with a cup of tea and one of their giant cocktails, (I went for alcohol free since I didn’t need to spend Sunday morning drinking alone) we took our seats (me, between two couples) in the wine room.

Chef took us through the processes for each stage from the dough to the curd and then the meringue. We were lucky to have a bit of a know it all in the group. He was asking some very detailed and complex questions, which means I know far more than the average person about the protein content of different types of flour.

Soon, the aroma of freshly baked dough filled the room, and we were each handed a pie crust as multiple vats of different mixtures appeared from the kitchen downstairs. It was time to get to work on constricting our own pies.

My favourite stage was definitely the meringue. Filling the base with zesty curd required smooth precision but when it came to the meringue, chef demonstrated, gabbing handfuls of it and pretty much dumping it on top and pressing it down to fill any air bubbles. With the texture of sticky, but slightly more stable shaving foam, I was grinning like a kid once I got stuck in.

A real glimmer of joy on a rainy Sunday morning; and that’s what we’re chasing.

Adamant that it wasn't going to be wonky, I did also enjoy taking off my gloves and returning to the world of adult, smoothing it out with the palette knife afterwards.

Once we were happy with the shape, we took to torching our pies, one at a time, in front of everyone. Probably more of a health and safety measure - giant cocktails, small room filled with wine etc! The biggest challenge of the day, however, was getting it home on the tube afterwards.

If the rest of my solo adventurers look like this, I’ll be very happy!

This class cost £25 which was amazing value for money and was an exclusive event for LOTI members. Highly recommend! I signed up a week ago and have already made very good use of it.

Monday, 12 January 2026

And with that, another Bali trip comes to an end. I worked out that my recent Christmas visit was my 7th trip to Bali and I'm still not quite bored of it yet. Here were this times highlights:

The White Palm Boutique Hotel

Three of the four hotels I stayed at were amazing but the room at The White Palm particularly stands out as a favourite. It's a small boutique hotel with just a few rooms bordering a pool. The aesthetic was very black and white which is right p my street and the rooms themselves were super simple and very clean. I was upgraded to the suite which had a lot more space and added a lot to my overall enjoyment of the place! Sadly, there was construction next door so whilst the room was perfect for outside the hours of 9-5, spending time by there pool was a no go as not only way it loud, but it was very overlooked by the builders.

Lazy pool days

I didn't let that stop me enjoying my pool days however. I love to swim whilst I'm on holiday, and that was all I really wanted out of this trip so I spent most of my days lazing around the pool at the previous hotel I'd stayed at which was a 3 minute walk away.

It was more of a traditional, island resort type place with two pools and a restaurant so I picked my favourite of the two and set up on a shady sun lounger. Between swimming, sleeping, reading and drinking one iced tea after another, whole days disappeared.

Hiring a photographer

This was a case of serendipity I think, because usually I really enjoy taking my own photos on holiday, but this time around, I just couldn't be bothered.

The first hotel I stayed at offered a free photographer session and I was really happy with the outcome. A week later when I realised I hadn't taken any holiday photos, I reached out and asked if she'd come to my new location and take some photos for me.

The results was a fun afternoon activity, and some great, professional looking memories!

Spring Spa

I usually like to find new, niche salons and I did a couple this time around but often, I'm disappointed so I've realised that sometimes, it's best stick with what you know.

Spring Spa is a popular chain in both Bali and NZ and have never failed me before. They'd opened a new location in Bingin since my last visit so I got the benefit of trying somewhere new paired with the quality I have come to expect from them.

I booked in for a reflexology session on my penultimate day and it was great. I had a male therapist and his thumbs were so strong. After a bit of research, I now understand why I enjoy reflexology so much - it's all about nervous system regulation. Fine, makes sense. Anyway, it was so good that I went back the next day for another half hour on my feet and a wonderful facial just before I left for the airport. I'll definitely be doing that again next time.

Flight upgrade

I was adamant that I was going to fly business at some point on this trip and it was a definite highlight; of the year, not just the trip. I've flown upper classes before but I was so proud of myself for the first business class flight I had bought for myself.

Ice tea

I get hyper fixated on food in Bali. In the past it's been smoothie bowls, but this time around, it was iced tea. You never know what you're going to get when your order an ice tea in Indonesia, sometimes it'd get sugary, sweet milk tea, other times it was refreshing lemon iced tea and quite often it tasted like jasmine. I'm not quire sure what that one was but either way. I enjoy them very much.

Yoga Class

I did three yoga classes whilst I was away and I probably would have done a couple more if I felt like my back could handle it. My favourite class was Morning Light Yoga at Uluwatu surf villas. Their open air shala was overlooking the ocean and surrounded by palm trees which meant gentle stretching to the sound of the waves!

SLIDER

April. Yay

Monday, 11 May 2026

Easter Bank Holiday Weekend 2026

Friday, 10 April 2026

March Highlights

Thursday, 2 April 2026

A very fun February

Friday, 6 March 2026

Matcha Masterclass with Tea PArlour

Monday, 23 February 2026

Lemon meringue pie masterclass at Gloria, Shoreditch

Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Bali Highlights

Monday, 12 January 2026