Restaurant Review: Banana Tree Milton Keynes

Whoa I'm seriously starting to get so random right now. I've been writing about so many things in my blog but I think this is my first restaurant review haha. Expanding!

I was eagerly waiting for this restaurant to open in The Hub, Milton Keynes for a few months now. The cuisine is said to be Indochina. I've never tried that before but was really interested. I joined their mailing list as they were promoting it on the soon-to-be-opened restaurant but sadly I joined it too soon as the free dessert I received was valid only till the start of July and the restaurant opened like a week ago (it's now August). (╯︵╰,)

        First impressions: interesting. There's a chill zone as soon as you enter and bartenders greet you straight away. If you want to eat, you have to pass by the open kitchen on your left which is really weird. Never seen it before. (2023 update: haha, what a noob)

        Interior: something's missing. It has unique interior. Everything's wooden and it has lots of different spaces for you to sit and eat. But it feels like something's missing though. It looks like it hasn't been finished yet haha. Also the kitchen is all white tiles and it doesn't really fit all wooden front of house interior. (2023 update: wow, 2014 me really didn't understand the importance of materials used in kitchens. As somebody who has now worked in kitchens, it pains me to reach such bullish*t I've written before. But I'll keep these shameful posts to prove that we all grow up and mature. 🤣)

        Service: not too bad. The manager or supervisor who greeted us was really nice. Explained the menu since we were really confused. I still was confused even after his explanation but let's ignore that. Our server was obviously new in this kind of job. Self-conscious introverted girl. Was really hard to make her laugh even though my bf and I were all funny and easy going. I don't blame her. I was like that too when I started haha. I hope she'll improve. ｡◕‿◕｡ 

        Mains: weird portions, weird taste. I really wanted to try this Indochina cuisine. The ingredients sounded all randomly thrown together. It was so hard to choose. Also the main component of the dish comes by itself so you have to order sides separately. My bf ordered crispy chicken with mango and lime sauce and I grabbed seafood curry. My choice was probably the worst choice in history lol. Teeny tiny pan with I don't even know what. Honestly I found like one tiny piece of tilapia fillet, 3 prawns, 2 random weird fish cakes and some sponges (I've no idea what that was). Had all this with jasmine rice. Was pretty bad but I don't blame the kitchen. I wanted to experiment so I chose it. The rice didn't have much taste. (´＿｀。) My bf really liked his crispy chicken with egg fried rice though. Although I wasn't a big fan of his food either. I guess it's just not my kind food hahaha. What I didn't like was a big difference in sizes of main courses. All the prices were pretty much similar but the sizes were like WOW WHAT? After eating a teeny tiny pan of something I saw a huge plate of salads and meat and everything on other table. Whoa, jealous...

        Desserts: eh? Damn, desserts took me a while to choose as well. It's just sooo difficult with these weird combinations. After a long time analysing menu I finally decided to order Balinese 'Pulut Hitam' Pudding. It took so long for the kitchen to prepare it that I forgot what I ordered and when it came I was a bit surprised...

When my bf asked for a bill we saw a 'pancake' on the bill which wasn't what we ordered (the price was also different). It looks like this was a Coconut Stuffed Green Thai Pancakes. The stuffing was really dry and too crunchy... I loved the ice cream though hahaha. Yeah so unfortunately I didn't get pudding I really wanted to try. But you know what? Jasmine tea is just heavenly. ✿♥‿♥✿

        Price: damn expensive. Compared to the price we pay for a proper meal we get in other restaurants we've been so far in UK this is damn expensive. Our bill have never been higher than £43 and that's for a normal meal. Meaning either starters or desserts and mains (drinks included of course). And this time the bill was £49 only for a main course (they took the dessert off the bill because of the mistake, plus I didn't eat much of it, meh). And the sides are £4-5. Well, we weren't aware of that before going there and I had quite a lot of expectations unfortunately. I think if the meal is really impressive and good, then the higher price is understandable. But this was definitely not the case.

        Conclusion: won't eat, might come back for the chill zone. Yeah so before leaving we stopped at the chill zone and played some table football (first time in my life omg!!). Scored 1 point after I was almost defeated. Achievement! Lol. I liked how the bar zone is so separated, there are bar seats and also some hammocks in the chill zone. So perfect during the happy cocktail hour Mon-Fri till 7pm. Want to come back for that only lol.

        2023 update: so I did go back to Banana Tree a few years later and it was actually so much better. My taste buds have definitely matured thanks to working in different restaurants and being able to try so many different foods in my early 20s. Since it's been 9 years I don't particularly remember this outing but it definitely was overpriced. Good to know that Banana Tree did some changes and the mains are definitely of a more decent size and decent price. I did manage to try that dessert I ordered the first time, which is actually a Black Glutinous Rice Pudding and it was so damn good. Guess who tried to make it at home and it was a great success?? Yum! 

By the way this pic is also in my #100happydays project I'm doing on my Twitter. How come you haven't seen it?? Follow me on Instagram! I'm so active there recently, you'll love it. ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ 

Happy experimenting (hopefully successful one lol) (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

I got rejected

Today I experienced the weirdest and most frustrating thing I've ever experienced during my job hunt.

Today I got rejected. Yesterday I had an interview for a waitress position in a French style cafe. I was accepted to the next stage and invited to come today to start training. I had a free evening so I decided to finally dye my hair. It's been a while and my roots were too frightening lol. I was aware that the copper dye I bought won't remove my burgundy colour, since it's too dark. My roots turned out really orange, causing a nice transition effect to dark red/burgundy. Kinda like inverted ombre lol!

This is how I looked yesterday after dyeing my hair:

Kinda dark, can't really see colours that well.

Aaaanyway, today I come for a training, joining the staff meeting and boom...
- You dyed your hair?
- Yes I did.
- It was darker yesterday.
- Yes it was.
- You can't work with hair this bright.

...okay. So it appears that the leisure centre this cafe is opening at, created some stupid rules about person's appearance. People can't have any face piercings, can't have any tattoos and can't have their hair dyed unnatural colours. They only allow shades of brown and blonde. I was told that if I dye my hair dark, they will hire me. I was in shock. I said I will think about it and went to do the induction course on the work laptop. After sitting for a while I went back to the manager and told her that I can't do this. I can't just dye my hair and it is sad that they judge a person because of the hair colour and doesn't consider person with colourful hair the same valuable staff member.

Seriously I was so shocked and angry and annoyed! Since when can you tell if a person is good or not just by looking at their hair colour??! You learn something new every day. What if the actual natural bright ginger would come to the interview? Would they ask to dye her/his hair dark too? Lol. Well, no thank you, I am not going to change myself to the way they want, so that I can work and hate how I look. This is just stupid.

All companies I have applied for talk about equal rights, asking so many questions about race, age, gender, etc all the time. I guess they should add *natural hair*(!!!) in their job description because this is the only discrimination since everyone's so equal lol...

I don't even consider my hair colour that crazy! My face isn't pierced, I only have 3 lobe piercings and had to grow my cartilage because it never fully healed for a few years and I don't have any tattoos. But this was my first time experiencing something like that... I'm speechless.

Yeah well, I'm not going to change my hair for sure... I look great.

Have you ever experienced anything like this? Tell me your story. ♥

P.S.: I don't hold any grudges towards that cafe. People are really friendly and great. The atmosphere is inviting. It's that stupid leisure centre's fault... Seriously what kind of stupidity just happened today...

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

First Impressions: Part II

Hey guess what? I finally decided I need to finish what I started lol. Here's my impressions blog Part II! If you want to read Part I click this link!

In this part I will continue posting random pictures (and by random I mean RANDOM) with stories from few months ago with impressions of UK since I came here. Enjoy!

I seriously love pound stores. So many goody goodies! Like this cereal for example. It has tiny marshmallows!! Could it be cuter?? The caption? Actually I dedicated this pic to my dear friend Lola, she hates marshmallows and I just can't help but think about her when I see them. xDD Sorry, I love you girl. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

I saw this poster in the VUE cinema, asdfghjkl; it was so cute! (I hate my old phone's camera) As many of you know this is the strawberry and piece of cake from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Why it's rating is so small??? I think I'll rewatch this movie today. It's just too brilliant. :'D

Talking about cinemas...did you know that you can watch some few months old animated movies in Cineworld Saturday/Sunday around 10am for £1.50??? Crazy!!! (＝⌒▽⌒＝)

Having fun with English language. Even though I know what they meant...IT'S JUST TOO FUNNY!!! I mean seriously, who of the people who created English language decided to call ghost, the one that haunts old houses the same as god's spirit lol. Oh by the way, it was closed. The ghost might ran away from it's zone... *coughs* sorry I'll stop now. (no offence towards anyone. this is purely my stupid joke, I am tolerant as long as your beliefs doesn't hurt other people)

Sunsets are beautiful wherever you are... ♥

I had a job in a press for a few months in New Duston, Northampton and it would usually end at this perfect sunset time. Sadly it wasn't a perfect time for bus catching so I would usually come late and had to wait half an hour for another one...

...but who cares when you've got pasta!!! Hahahaha.

Oh yeah, at the end of the summer I found out that I am a freak when it come to ice cream. Why there are so many different tastes??!! I NEED TO TASTE THEM ALL へ(゜∇、°)へ

Oh yeah we tried the famous Nando's restaurant. Wasn't bad at all! Especially the never ending glass of the drink of your choice lol. And I just had to take the infamous bathroom selfie. The window was just too big not to... *guilty* (〃▽〃)

No wonder there are so many overweight people. There are soooo many ready food only left to cook in an oven for like 20 minutes. It is tasty but it is full of bad fat.

After eating all those ready meals for few months we just started to prepare similar food almost from scratch. It's so much healthier! Yes, it takes more time but it is so much fun! More people should try that... Experimenting is awesome. ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

Pasta bake!!! Yummy~ OMG haven't baked this for so long... ♥

I finally bought new phone and started taking better quality pictures. （＾ｖ＾）

Lithuanians will understand this one looooool... (hint: it's a swear word) (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ

And here started the longing for home...

Found a whole shelf full of Lithuanian sweets for 1 pound. These are so good! ♥

Got a postcard from my sis. She knows how I love owls. Brought tears to my eyes.

And sent this music key friendship necklace to my best friend. Miss her so much... ♥

One of the most important impressions I wanted to mention from the start. It's so different from Lithuania. Whenever you look up to the sky you will always see a plane here or there or at least a trail. It really amazes me and makes me realise how small we are living in this big country.

Stay impressed. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

First trip to London!!! Part I

Hey guys! Yes, I've been gone again but if you've been following me on Instagram or Twitter you know that I've been to London few weeks ago! I guess I was too lazy to spam my social sites with photos, so I'm just posting it all here. Gee, what's better than photos with a whole story under them?

First of all, SQUIRRELS!!! I love them, seriously. Even though my boyfriend's friend said that grey squirrels are bad, overpopulated, which lead to extinction (almost) of red squirrels on the main island. Yes, they are a lot bigger than red squirrels and can weight around 600g in winter (gaining around 120g) when red squirrels gain only around 25g during winter. Fatsoes!! Lmao. But still...squirrels!!! Why I'm saying this? Because I've never been this close to a squirrel before. I have heard stories that there are a lot of animals in UK who aren't afraid of humans at all but didn't imagine I would experience that!

Sorry for the narrow view, I keep forgetting that I need to record in horizontal position lol.

It was my first time seeing bikes standing just like that. A super easy (I think) way to rent a bike all over London. After looking at the price list for a couple of minutes I realised that it's too confusing lol and decided that it's cheaper to just get your own bike or use a public transport lol.

This was one of the most majestic buildings I saw that day. Seriously amazing. And sooooo many people in one place!!! A lot of them coming in and out but most of them just sitting around. I don't blame them, the atmosphere is amazing.

Oh yeah, FIY it's a British Musem. XD We just went straight in looking for a ticket sale booth. After seeing people just coming in and going straight to the show rooms and guard dgaf we were a bit confused but having a free pass around a huge museum is so awesome!

I think this was one of the first exhibits we saw. One of the most memorable for sure lol. Dat booty.

And this is how duck face was born... One of the funniest exhibits in the museum lmao.

After walking around and feeling kinda lost we walk into this beautiful place. The roof is so amazing!

We're so pretty. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

I just had to use my boyfriend for the size comparison. xD Someone's tomb. Okay, that seriously creeped me out knowing that someone's inside. D:

Here's my boyfriend looking freaking amaze. He wish he was this tall. (〜￣▽￣)〜

And now he's making funny faces this woman because he wish his head was this strong to hold a freaking roof lmao. 〜(￣▽￣〜)

Everything looks so majestic...

Fist bumping the history o (^‿^✿)

So sad this pic looks like crap. It looked so amazing. Deep dark colours and everything. ( T⌓T )

So this one is the last pic from the museum. And which just HAD to come out blurry... u___u It is one of the Macedonian times corona. Well, if it was not that blurry I would challenge you to find 3 cicadas and 1 bee because that's how it is called haha. So awesome.

I guess what amazed me the most was the room full of building parts from Greece. It was underground and the smell when you went down there was just...I dunno maybe I'm imagining or maybe it's just a smell of some preserving chemicals but the smell was so...old. You know, that smell when you visit some few hundred years old building. I kinda love that smell, makes me feel so weird and think about how would it be to live in the past...

We haven't even walked around whole museum! It was too big and we came too late haha, guard was already guiding everyone out (although there were still lots of people coming in! When do they actually close??). But we promised to come back next time we visit London. ｡◕‿◕｡

Since I don't want to flood you all with photos I am finishing my part I and hoping to show you part II very soon! ❣◕ ‿ ◕❣

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

Super Awesome Veggie Sandwich

I'm going to show you a really awesome vegetarian hot sandwich. It's so awesome and delicious words can't describe it. The recipe is SUPER DUPER simple so it is one of those things that I took from Lithuania and still doing here in UK. I used to make it together with mom at least once a week haha.

Here's how you do it:

1. A lot of onions on a bread of your choice.

2. Sweet pointed pepper or any paprika you like.

3. Tomatoes.

4. Cover everything with slices of cheese. I am using mild cheddar.

5. A bit of ketchup, dill, basil and mild chilli powder. You can also add cajun spice, it adds a really nice taste. I ran out of it now unfortunately lol.

Pop in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Make some tea in the meantime. Yes the cup is empty because I was waiting for the water to boil lol. And this perfect cup is from my dear friend Maria from Greece ♥

6. Perfection~ 

Yeah my phone died and I just went upstairs from the kitchen and started eating while waiting for the phone to charge enough lol.

Don't like veggie stuff? You can always add meat! Actually I always add meat lol but I ran out of it too haha. What kind of meat? Any kind of meat!! Sausage, pepperoni, chicken slices, ham... Anything you can think of (as long as it's not raw lol)! I used to add pickles too in Lithuania but I rarely have pickles in the fridge now so that's an optional ingredient haha.

Enjoy this perfection and bon appetit!~

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

What To Watch? Her (2013)

*NO spoilers in this blog post.*

I've decided to start a series of blog posts from now on. I've seen a lot of movies and a lot of them deserves a blog post but my memory is not that good to remember all of them and what kind of emotions I got after that lol. As I've said above, there will be no spoilers nor reviews, only my opinion and emotions. Why? Because I've been having a lot of emotional problems recently and noticed that watching horror films isn't helping me so I've decided that I need to watch other type of movies and write everything I feel down. This might help others too!

So today's post is about last year's movie Her.

I've chose a poster from official Facebook page with those awards because it looks so fancy hahaha.

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/

Genre: Drama || Romance || Sci-Fi
I'm not a person who watches drama or romance but sci-fi kinda caught me. And I was right. The movie has a really weird and twisted love story. And if you're into technology/computer stuff you will love it.

Trailer: I haven't seen the trailer before watching a movie. Actually creators often show best parts of the movie and basically whole storyline. Why would you do that??? (」゜ロ゜)」 But I've watched the trailer AFTER seeing the movie and I can say that it doesn't really reveal anything and covers whole storyline pretty well.

Idea and realisation: As I said above, it has a really weird and twisted love story which will shock you or make your cry or laugh or I dunno...feel resemblance?

Emotions after: Actually I cried. Not because of the movie. Few minutes after it ended I just started crying. I felt bad because I am trying to cope with depression at the moment and this movie made me think how different I am when I'm like that, with emotions all messed up and how I treat people differently than I usually do, getting angry fast and so... That I should be more considerate and so. Well, to sum up it really made me emotional and it made me think a lot.

I recommend to watch this movie!

Sooo enjoy, and leave your comments/experiences/emotions in the comments! ^^

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

My home hair colour and dye review

This is NOT a sponsored blog post. This is my own experience and opinion. I am one of those people who like to read reviews before buying some serious product like hair dye and I believe I'm not the only one so I want to help anyone in confusion.

Since I lack inspiration to write a good blog post about my life with all the pics I have (and I have a lot) I decided to write a short blog post about my hair colour because I got few questions about what kind of dye I'm using and so on. :)

First off all, I've never dyed my own hair since summer of 2013. Ever since my first dyeing (honey blonde, winter of 2010) I would always go to my amazing hair dresser every three months who uses professional hair dyes which are as natural as possible so I have no idea what dye it was.

This is how I looked when I left Lithuania:

Veeeeery bright orange (oh yeah, my hairdresser had fun that time lol)

When I decided to stay in UK longer I started wanting something darker than my usual orange/red. So...

My first home dyeing. L'Oreal Preference Mousse Absolue 465 Dark Burgundy Red

Usage: So I chose the mousse dye because I thought it will be easiest for the first time user. And it was easy. Doesn't drip and applies very easily. Leaflet with all instructions helped a lot too.

Colour and package: But oh my glob how wrong I was about the colour! No no, the colour is good itself but I forgot what kind of colour 'burgundy' is and omg...I trusted the package colour too much... It wasn't the deep dark red I wanted. It was wine red. It was like a violet and red mixed together. And violet is totally  NOT what I wanted. I don't know what they're trying to show on the package with that shiny red colour. It is far from that. I mean, it's my fault for not looking up colour before buying but the package is just wrong, c'mon...

Smell and feel: It was horrible... So much ammonia I couldn't breath even though I was dyeing near the open window... I was so scared I thought my hair would fall off from so much ammonia omg lol. And I felt a bit of skin burning. Oooooh and that annoying feeling that you just want to sink your fingers into that dye and scratch scratch scratch hahaha.

Result: Obviously not what I wanted. At first it was okay, and I was convincing myself that it's okay but little by little I started hating it more and more. Plus it wasn't even but maybe it was my fault lol.
I got one picture made with my webcam. It's really bad quality and it doesn't show how dark it actually was. Sorry, I still had my old Nokia phone with horribly picture quality and my camera was dead.

So believe me or not I dyed my hair next day...

Garnier Olia 6.60 Intense Red

Usage: It is a cream consistency which I was a bit afraid of but it has a really comfortable jar so you just squeeze the jar directly onto your hair. I chose this because damn, I just dyed my hair yesterday!! I needed something natural and less scary. Plus it's no ammonia! I'm afraid of ammonia smell from now on...

Colour and package: As I said package is really comfortable if you're not use to cream dye and/or bowls and brushes. Colour on the package is quite accurate too. When you mix the dye with developer cream it looks super orange but it isn't lol.

Smell and feel: Smells nice, no ammonia, calm breathing haha. No itchiness or burning. Loving it!!

Result: I see a lot of pictures and videos where girls get deep red with a slight orange shine after dyeing hair with this dye. But since mine was done burgundy I got this weird colour of...something. But it was red so..I guess I was okay. The orange shade I always had was completely killed because of burgundy colour that was previously used.

Different light (and different camera lol) gave a more reddish feel...

Later on it started fading and I started liking it more. After another time of dyeing with Garnier Olia again (same colour) it started looking better.

Imma kill you in your sleep lol

And omg few months in a row after colour fading enough there would always appear this ginger strand of hair right in front.. Annoyed me at first but later started liking it too haha.

Okay so after a lot of Olia usage I decided that I want to go back to being more orange haha. So yesterday after watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of reviews I decided to try another Garnier brand.

Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Colour 7.64 Intense Copper

The dye is called Intense Copper but here it says Nectarine... Oh well lol, but it's the same dye.

Usage: Cream consistency. After watching YT home hair dyeing tutorials I bought a mixing bowl and few brushes for a pound because I finally wanted to try doing it this way hehe. And it was really easy!

Colour and package: Colour on the package matches (more or less) the true colour. This is a great advantage for Garnier Nutrisse. Thumbs up!

Smell and feel: I was a bit scared after watching few YT vids because some of the girls were saying that it has a really strong ammonia smell. But I just wanted to do that because Nutrisse is slightly stronger dye which stays a little longer too. BUT the developer cream had a really nice fruity smell. I did feel the ammonia when I was mixing dye and developer cream in the bowl but it was fading little by little in that fruity sea lol. After I was done mixing the ammonia smell was almost gone. AWESOME!!! And of course, no itchiness or burning. ^^

Result: I wasn't expecting to transform into ginger overnight lol. It didn't change the colour much but it finally gave that orange shine. And my roots look like a carrot hahahaha. I kinda like that. Totally gonna use it next time. Transition to ginger started!

It still looks quite dark in direct natural light:

But you can see my orange roots lol:

Sorry for the puffy eyes. I barely slept tonight...

Ends:

But it looked really awesome in a dimmed natural light. You could totally feel the ginger in me!! Hahahahaha

To sum up: I was choosing between L'Oreal Feria and Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Colour to start my copper transition. But since I have had not very good experience with L'Oreal and this brand is known for obsessive usage of a chemicals I decided to choose Garnier. It always has a really nice fruity feel and smell. Starting to fall in love with Garnier more and more hahaha. Not to forget Garnier Olia. It was amazing and would recommend it to everyone as much as Nutrisse Ultra Colour. ♥

I hope my review helped you decide. ♥ Have a beautiful hair day.

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram