The best coffee shop in London…..?

The best coffee shop in London…..?

The best coffee shop in London? After many trips to America where I found amazing coffee shops, the atmosphere was relaxing, you could sit in them and chill or if you wish, study/work. I longed for this kind of coffee shop in London, as faith would have it, I first came across Absolutely Starving three years ago when working in the area. From the moment I walked in, I saw an amazing range of cakes…..immediately I realised this is my place!

Fancy a delicious treat?

The very tasty cakes at Absolutely Starving

Why do I think it is the best coffee shop in London…..? Firstly the location, besides it being 4 minutes walk from London Bridge underground, it is near Hay’s Galleria, which is a mixed use building in the London Borough of Southwark situated on the south bank of the River Thames featuring offices, restaurants, shops, and flats. Originally a warehouse and associated wharf (Hay’s Wharf) for the port of London, it was redeveloped in the 1980s. It is a Grade II listed structure. This building and surrounding area is a must see!

Hays Galleria, a stunning building

A stunning building called Hays Galleria. A must see.

Secondly, on entering Absolutely Starving, I felt the same amazing and positive vibe as I did in America, also, I quickly forgot about the hustle and bustle of London.

At the counter I was greeted in a very friendly manner, which was a surprise, well this is London where I find a lot of people working in the restaurants and shops very rude, it is like you are causing them an issue by asking them for service!

Absolutely Starving being a family run business with Egyptian blood, I recommend you try their signature dish, the Koshari. This is a vegan Cairo street food, people who are allergic to veganism can add meat! This is sold in a wrap or box. The dish is bursting with flavours and a must try!

Counter with great customer service

A great service is always had from the staff.

Their range of snacks, foods and sandwiches is huge and delicious!

Freshly made food

Freshly made and very tasty food is always available.

A fantastic selection of goodies!

Great selection of goodies!

 

Tasty salads

Freshly made everyday salad bar

There is plenty of space available to eat in and people watch.

Plenty of seating, perfect for digital nomads

Eat in or takeaway the choice is yours

More seating

More seating

more seating again!

Sit here and watch the world go by.

This is a great place to sit and watch the world go by:

Sometimes you just need cake!

Very tasty cakes

Sometimes, it is good to be naughty!

Don’t believe me? Go and see for yourself and let me know…..

Absolutely Starving Website
51 TOOLEY STREET, LONDON.  SE1
T: 020 7407 7417
Mon-Fri 7am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9am-8pm

Nominated for the Liebster Award 2017

Nominated for the Liebster Award 2017

Nominated for the Liebster Award 2017, after a personal revamp and also a revamp of the blog I am delighted to announce that I have been nominated for The Liebster Award 2017 award.
The Liebster Awards is a digital awarding ceremony given to a community of bloggers since 2011. Liebster in German means ‘kindest’ and ‘nicest’.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to thank Valeria Estrella for this nomination.  Her blog Deeply Chromatic is a lifestyle and travel blog. Witness Valerie’s all-around adventures in the millennial youth Wanders of a Milennial.

ANSWER TO VALERIA’S QUESTIONS

1. What inspires you to blog?
I survived cancer, realised there is more to life then the rat race, so decided to travel and blog

2. Games or books?
Books.

3. How can you influence the younger generation with writing?
Give them a pen and paper and ask them without google how to figure out using those two items!

4. Traveler or tourist?
Traveler

5. What is your favorite movie?
Godfather 2

6. Photographer or Model?
Photographer

7. What is your blog all about?
About living life, every day is your last and to make the most of it, forget the material things and go out to travel!

8. If you have a chance for an overnight stay, where would it be?
Jinja, Uganda

9. Pizza or pasta?
Pasta

10. Give a tip for backpackers.
Do not plan too much, enjoy the journey and always at the positive for each adventure/day

FACTS ABOUT SELF
1. I was born and raised in England.
2. Snakes scare me!
3. I love eating out and traveling.
4. I am a passionate about Muay Thai.
5. I love and talking to people of different cultures, whatever we look like on the outside, inside we are mostly all the same.
6. I live to travel.
7. I am generous and loving to the right people.
8. I love to have daring adventures
9. Enjoy exploring.
10. I am outgoing and cannot stay at home for so long, I call myself a wanderer.

 

Chance Encounter…..

Chance Encounter…..

Two years ago in Singapore, Sangeet and I were fortunate to meet Andrew and his wife. Fauja Singh had come to Singapore, we went to see him running at Mount Emily Park. I was approached by Andrew who asked if that was the oldest marathon runner in the world. I answered yes and invited Andrew to the Gurdwara to listen to Fauja Singh give a talk, little did I know the talk was in Punjabi!! I translated the best I could…..I probably made up some stuff as well!

Here is a link to that post:

101 years young and still running…..

Since then we have kept in touch, Andrew and his family are now back in London. He is an amazing entrepreneur and gave me very good advice on business and the internet!!

Andrew sent me a link to Google Campus. At Campus, their mission is to create an environment that encourages innovation through collaboration, mentorship, and networking. With speedy wifi, a café, frequent networking and speaking events, and coworking space, Campus is seven floors dedicated to startup success.

Their website: Google Campus

I registered for the talk by Alexander Asseily, he and his business partner started Jaw Bone….

Jaw Bone

We arrived promptly at 6:30pm and got told that Alexander was running late due to traffic, finally this scruffy looking man turns up.

Whist we were waiting we all decided to check out the fast wifi. My ipad showed slow performance whilst Andrew's and Akash's smartphones showed a fast speed:

Andrew's smartphone:

We all thought to ourselves that they have probably picked somebody off the street and given him Alexander's script. It later occurred to me that we should be happy how we dress. Here is a guy worth millions and not giving that impression. Always seems to me that some people who are rich do not want to give that impression, whilst some people who do not have much want to show off a expensive exterior.

Alexander gave good advice about starting up in business, couple of points which stuck with me are:

If it is hard do not give up, others will also find it hard and give up.

If people do not understand the business, that is good. An easy to understand business has probably already been tried.

Alexander Asseily is a British Lebanese entrepreneur and founder of consumer electronics company Jawbone, one of the most highly valued private consumer electronics companies in the world. Asseily was named the 33rd most influential person in Silicon Valley.

Founding Jaw Bone

Raised in Beirut, Lebanon and London, UK, Asseily studied product design and mechanical engineering at Stanford University. His senior product design thesis became the foundation for the creation of Aliph, which he founded with his college friend Hosain Rahman.

He lived mostly in San Francisco, CA until 2010, when he returned to London. In 2011, Asseily and his brother Mark founded consumer software start-up Equal Media Ltd. to create State.com, and raised $14M in seed financing in May 2012. State was launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2013. Asseily is executive producer of the 2013 documentary, Aluna, and lives in London, England.

 

Thank You…..!!!!

Thank You…..!!!!

I have done it!!

Sparring and learning clinching from Master Pimu. I could spend a year here and still only have a fraction of what knowledge Master Pimu has. I have truly been blessed to have one to one training with him. He is a legend!

Whilst thinking about the people I have to thank for the help and support a few names became this huge list, I am very blessed and honoured that the following have supported me on this life changing journey:

Waheguru (God) without the creator none of this would have been possible, whatever I wished for came my way. I wanted to rent an apartment, I got it, I wanted transport, I got it. To name everything would be a long post!

Sangeet, for letting me go on this amazing life changing journey and for supporting me every bit of the way. When I was wanting to come home we would talk and Sangeet would give me so much comfort! I love and thank you so much!

Mum & Dad, well dad for planting the seed to make me! Mum for carrying me not just for the nine months but for a long time after that!

Master Pimu/ WPT, I have had about 8 weeks of one to one training with Master Pimu, he wants every single move to be perfect, it shows his love for the art of Muay Thai. On a personal level Master Pimu, Shum and the children have showed me so much love, it will be difficult leaving.

Randeep Singh, Meerat Kaur, Kiran Kaur, for the kind words of support and encouragement.

Shanti Kaur, where do I start?!?! Phenji (sister) has been an awesome inspiration to me, she has excelled in everything she has done. She is truly showing everybody how things are done!

Tony Myers, I have never met Tony, I hear amazing stories especially from Master Pimu, they have known each other for 30 years. Tony helped with my visa papers. He is a busy guy but always has time to answer my training, physical and mental questions. I am truly honoured to be able to come back to the UK and train under Tony

Bob Spour and Jagpual Plaha, in January this year, Sangeet and I were in Bangkok, I thought Thailand and Muay Thai, how difficult can it be!! I contacted my cousin Jagpaul and he contacted Bob. Bob gave us the details of the WPT gym. If it was not for Bob I would have probably gone to some “Muay Thai gym for foreigners” where they take your money praise how good you are doing and send you on your merry way!!

Kirpal Singh, back in January when I entered the WPT gym, I thought to myself this is definitely the real deal! All of a sudden I was nervous. Master Pimu approached me and said “we have a (now this is what I heard) sick boy here, Shum was knocking on the door and trying to get the “sick boy to train” in the meantime, Master Pimu said please go and change in that room. I sat on the bed now very nervous! I thought is it too late to get out?!?! After a while Kirpal walks in with a huge smile….all fits into place! This is a Sikh boy, not sick boy! Kirpal and me got on like a house on fire and have stayed in touch ever since. The weekend before I was due to fly out to Bangkok, Kirpal drove two hours, taught me some basics for 4 hours then drove back…entirely at his own expense.

Sukhdev masserji (UK), Rani Massi (UK), Keith Preston (Australia), Iris Yan (Brazil), for the amazing support through emails and comments on the GayGoat.com blog

My sisters from another murtha (& father!!):

Yiota, Frankie Smith, Alex Seaman, Karen Lim, Melanie Schafer and Julie Kauss, for the support and help

The original, WPT gang, Dan Costello, Simon Preedy, Chris McKenzie, Chris Aldridge, Matthew Wakeman, Yiota, Frankie and Bee, for making me feel very welcome at WPT, I was sharing a room with Simon, I walked into the room and said hi my name is Mandeep and I have a blog called GayGoat.com The look on Simon’s went from smile to “what the….”

Luke Smith, UKMF English Title 54kg winner, firstly a huge congratulations on winning the title fight. Secondly thanks mate for your huge support

Khalid Ali, Gareth Maunder, Amandeep Chana, Balvir Chana, Vladamir, Raj Singh Randhawa, Charandeep Singh, for support along the way!

English students, when you guys did turn up, you were all fantastic, you are all very good at English. Just have the confidence!

Best quotes well we have two winners:

Adam Atkins “let’s push the mattresses together” – please explain!

Chris McKenzie “you have become such a dick, since you went to your temple!”

 

 

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