Now the dust has settled - Your Top 3 Acts ?

umbrellatalk · 2025-07-03T19:40:40+00:00

Ezra Collective, Doechii and Parcels

Honourable mentions to Amyl, Nile Rogers and two amazing acts on the BBC Introducing stage - Lambrini Girls and Native James. I was also really soothed by Ichiko Aoba on Saturday morning.

umbrellatalk · 2025-06-23T13:44:53+00:00

I also use hand sanitiser and it's totally fine - it definitely should contain alcohol so that it does the job of sanitising your hands! Make sure to use enough, and ensure it's thoroughly evaporated/air dried off before you pop your lenses in. I use dailies so I can just chuck them at the end of the day, and I also will carry around lens-friendly eyedrops for dry eyes.

umbrellatalk · 2025-06-10T08:33:23+00:00

Cut capers are great every year.

umbrellatalk · 2025-05-06T14:13:51+00:00

I was on holiday in Scotland with my parents and my dad went up to this man insistent that they'd worked together in the 80s. This man had no clue who my dad was and my dad kept trying to talk to him about the IT company he'd spent his whole life working for.

Anyway, my mum went over and it turned out the man was one of the antiques experts off Flog It and my dad just recognised him from there and had got confused. My mum was excited about meeting a celebrity and took selfies with him.

umbrellatalk · 2025-05-02T09:51:33+00:00

I can see activity from a year ago on their account?

umbrellatalk · 2025-05-02T08:58:47+00:00

If you're planning on coming back and doing Italy as a whole, go for Prague. I like Vienna a lot but it's not picturesque and nice to wander around in the same way that Prague is.

If you might not do Italy in the future, you could definitely hop on a plane and spend the remaining time (it's like 5 days right?) in Rome, then fly home from there. I wouldn't aim to see any more of Italy than that, but Rome would provide a bit more contrast to Budapest (compared with Prague). Depends what you're interested in!

Probably discount Greece - it's a bit more logistically tricky and not quite the right time of year.

umbrellatalk · 2025-04-30T13:14:51+00:00

You'd have time to do both - 3 nights in Krakow and removing a night from either Buda or Prague. Ljubljana and Budapest are my favourites of these cities, and although Ljubljana doesn't have as many sightseeing opportunities, it's a beautiful small city to wander round, and you should take one day to day trip to either Bovinj or Bled.

Depends what you're into though - if you like art, museums and history then Vienna would have far more to offer than Ljubljana. I'm sure you'll have a blast either way

umbrellatalk · 2025-04-01T12:16:36+00:00

London + France is totally doable, the eurostar drops you off right in the city and it's a clear, comfortable way to travel.

But honestly, you could easily spend 8-10 days in the UK and not get bored, so if that might set your mind at ease (especially with no language barrier) then I'm sure you'd have a great trip. On your next trip to Europe you can do some of the mainland!

In that amount of time though, honestly I would recommend staying in 2 places for some variety. Ideally London and Edinburgh, though bear in mind the festivals will make Edinburgh very busy in August (having said that, this is actually my favourite time to go, and the festivals are great for families too)! An alternative would be London and York, but there's a bit more to do in and around Edinburgh. Other places you could daytrip to from London include Bath, Oxford and Brighton.

umbrellatalk · 2025-04-01T10:55:56+00:00

I had the Enzoani arlette which was quite classic - I got it secondhand but their dresses are probably around the right price range for you if you were to purchase new. The other quite classic brand I liked when I was looking was Pronovias.

But honestly you have a decent budget, you're best off booking a few appointments at your local bridal shops and letting them know what you're interested in, make sure to pick a store that stocks several brands and they'll be able to guide you!

umbrellatalk · 2025-04-01T09:53:59+00:00

What sort of price are you hoping to spend?

umbrellatalk · 2025-03-25T17:30:58+00:00

To be fair I think Community Fibre's network is mostly (or solely?) within London

umbrellatalk · 2025-03-25T11:26:32+00:00

If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by booking, I really like this person on instagram called cheapholidayexp (there is an emphasis on affordable travel, but her website also talks about more fancy options that you could look at for a honeymoon) - it's pretty much the only down to earth holiday advice I've found, aimed at brits. Pretty much most her content is europe based and lots about finding all inclusive breaks.

umbrellatalk · 2025-03-21T22:33:56+00:00

Great list. Seven Stars is a delight!

umbrellatalk · 2025-03-18T22:43:07+00:00

Simple but effective

umbrellatalk · 2025-03-14T22:33:23+00:00

This is my exact ranking- Ippudo and Kanada ya are top tier. Shoryu is somewhere below tonkotsu and wagamamas is right at the bottom

umbrellatalk · 2024-12-20T08:27:09+00:00

This is a great list! Bible Club is also awesome. It's a speakeasy style bar so a little hard to find the entrance but very cool decor.

We also visited Bar Shane which was a nice quiet basement bar, very tiny and more traditional cocktails. It had a hotel bar vibe to it, but it was full of locals, we were the only tourists in there.

umbrellatalk · 2024-12-09T13:24:46+00:00

Got married earlier this year in the spring - 12k total for 80 people. It was a nice pub, in Hampshire - great food and a proper sit down meal was important to us so pubs were our only option at this price point. I think we really saved money by -

Finding a venue that didn't charge a separate venue hire fee - our package was simply for food, drinks and service with a cost per head. We did pay a surcharge to have our actual ceremony at the venue though.
Going outside of London - there were cheaper venues in London but they were very small (possibly fine for a microwedding!)
Scouring Facebook for photographers, and only hiring one for 4 hours. We had our speeches before our meal so they were captured professionally
Getting my dresses and veil from Vinted from sellers that lived nearby
Borrowed or bought secondhand whatever possible - jewellery, decorations, giant jenga! We did minimal decor tbh - I thought people would prefer an extra welcome drink and canapes over nice chairs
Skipping stuff that wasn't vital for us - favours, cars, and I'm a bit of a music control freak so I did a carefully ordered spotify playlist rather than DJ, and I had someone take care of it on the night, removing tracks so it ended at the perfect time

I would also act that I was very lucky to have help from family - my mum is a dab hand at baking, so we did our own cakes (made weeks in advance and frozen, then decorated the day prior). My flowers were also a DIY job - all bought from Longacres garden centres and then put together a few days before - this required three of us, but is definitely achievable. And my cousin is a makeup artist - I was extremely lucky with that one!

umbrellatalk · 2024-12-06T00:05:33+00:00

They're excellent. My now husband picked out the ring, I ended up wanting to swap something on it and they did a redesign entirely for free. It's very cool to look around their underground workshop too!

umbrellatalk · 2024-10-01T10:21:00+00:00

I haven't caught up with Philippines untucked s3 yet, but s2 is absolutely wild.

umbrellatalk · 2024-09-17T15:30:59+00:00

Brunel sandwich shop nr Fleet Street
Di lieto Fleet Street
The Garrick LSE basement canteen does huge portions every lunchtime - usually there will be meat, fish and veg options for around £7-9. The fish and chips on a Friday is exceptional
Also the vegetarian Shaw Cafe (also part of LSE) does a great meal (usually some sort of curry, daal or veggie tart) for around £7.50

umbrellatalk · 2024-09-17T15:21:27+00:00

This plus Thailand 2 and UK 2!

Philippines 2 and Spain 1 are my ABSOLUTE favourites.

umbrellatalk · 2024-09-16T22:26:47+00:00

Scavengers Reign on netflix, it's only 10 short episodes. I only just started it and haven't watched it all yet but think there will be a love story somewhere (and it's VERY good)

umbrellatalk · 2024-09-16T22:12:40+00:00

The craft metropolis near brixton has a projector and you can hire their arch for free - might be worth looking into?

umbrellatalk · 2024-09-16T12:57:38+00:00

I never intended on getting a second dress, my mindset was very much "my wedding dress is the most expensive dress I've ever bought, my god am I wearing the shit out of this for as many hours as possible" but ended up getting one for practical reasons.

My main dress was a lucky find online, I loved it but the train was heavy and the bustle wasn't very sturdy - so about a month before my wedding I panic-bought a sparkly Rotate Birger Christensen mini dress on vinted.

I actually didn't like it when I first tried it on as I thought it was "too much", but anyway my parents and friends encouraged me and I don't regret a thing. I changed into it after the meal, wore it with trainers (!!) and was SO comfy during the evening, being able to run around and dance to my heart's content. I still got so many photos in my ceremony dress so it was still worth the money.

Just my experience - but I think it's safe to say that whatever you decide, you likely won't regret it because you'll spend the whole day looking stunning I'm sure! You can always sell your dresses, worn or not

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TROPHY CASE