Student Saving on Travel.

City Mapper. If you don’t have the app, download it this second. It will be your new favourite app.  

Get a student oyster card. You will need a photo, but you can do a passport style ‘selfie’ against a plain wall. It doesn’t have to be exact and will save £5 at a photo booth. 

If you have a 16-25 years old rail card, link it with your new student oyster at a service desk, or call over an underground assistant at the top up machines in each station.  It is best to go to a large station where there is a lot of staff around to help. It will make single journeys extra cheap, but unfortunately doesn’t make the week/ month passes cheaper.

If you have to travel by bus or tube everyday for a couple of journeys at peak times (and you’ll soon learn when peak times are!) then it’s worth getting a week/month pass. Multiple journeys will soon add up. You can look at all your journeys and work out which is the best option for you, if you log into your Transport for London account. 

Of course there’s walking for FREE, but I was being over ambitious with how long it would take me to get to my internship by foot, resulting in buying a travel pass!

Home Hunting.

With summer now at an end, the search for a new place to live in London is underway. Tips for helping you find a perfect apartment/room in the city are below.

 

The market moves at a ridiculously fast pace in London, therefore the best thing is to look last minute. Most places advertised will be “available now” or available in a week’s time.

It is much easier to secure a home if you can actually travel to London and stay for a couple of nights. I can guarantee you will find something suitable within that time frame. Remember people want to fill their properties fast! Viewings will usually happen after 24 hours of contacting the agency or landlord if not sooner.

I’m using www.spareroom.com  to find a room. The advance search is really helpful as I set mine up with 20-minute tube commute duration. Then you can add a maximum price, your gender and any preferences like a smoke free household. It is best to be specific while searching, as it can get a little tedious continually looking through property adds. If you're un-able to be in London, like I currently am, Google street view will become your new best friend! I’ve used this before to pick a place to live, along with some online research of the area and it works well. 

When considering a place to live, factor in what times of day you need to travel and are the transport links good. In addition to this, would you feel safe walking alone at night? I find living a short walk to/from the tube station more reassuring especially if it’s a quiet residential area. For evenings out also bear in mind the night tube is currently open! The Central line and Victoria line have never looked so appealing!

Mademoiselle Prive

 

Absoute chaos... Free exhibition by Chanel, informing you how the brand was created and has evolved. I had to queue for about an hour it was so popular, more to due to the word Chanel and free in the same sentence.

Actually in the exhibition, the presentation of the garments with the use of light was spectacular, and the re-creation of the garden at the house Coco Chanel grew up in which influenced Chanel's logo was clever. However moving around the exhibition space was a nightmare with an overflow of people, I felt sorry when leaving watching all the hopeful faces queuing to see what the Saatchi gallery had hidden behind it's walls... Simply mass carnage.

Little Slice of Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Exhibition may have been free, but perhaps more of an advertisement campaign?   With a wrap around advert on the Strand in central London, its wasn't exactly discrete. Filled with impressive light installations and sculptures,  there was very few products being showcased. 

Squad.

Victoria Secret Show in London 2014

A truly amazing day spent at the Victoria Secret show, for the first time in London. Stunning and entertaining like always, with the collections: Gilded Angels, Exotic Traveller, Dream Girl, University of Pink, Fairy Tale and Angel Ball. 

Ralph & Russo

From the Paris couture fashion show in january, Ralph & Russo showed their collection for one more day at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. The handmade and elaboratively decorated garments being shown in a museum created an effect of each piece being documented, like an archive of Ralph & Russo, with an expectation of many more collections yet to come.