Experiencing discrimination in the UK

We have a lot to catch up on, so why not start with something that happened most recently?

One of the reasons for coming back to blogging is my craving for creative work. For the past few months I had to abandon everything because my husband and I started a new business together. As we have worked in hospitality for many years, and been in higher up, management positions in the past, as well as having a drive for business (we also ran a business together in the past), we decided to have a go at running a pub. To save ourselves from too much risk we decided to get into a special "partnership" agreement with a massive PLC brewery (although it's not really a brewery anymore, more like a corporation that manages real estate), let's call it M (I'm not trying to hide anything, we haven't signed any NDAs, I simply don't want to mention any specific names for the sake of my own peace). 

We decided to take on a pub that was in desperate need of new management. It's an amazing 600 years old Grade II listed building and was in the most beautiful village we've ever seen. The village the pub was in was rated as the poshest village in the country by The Telegraph, and they were spot on. We thought it was a great location, and surely being in a posh place means lots of polite, well mannered people, that will help us create a great atmosphere for everyone. Well, we couldn't have been more wrong...

Let's get one thing out of the way - we've done so well. In the matter of almost 3 months we've managed to build the reputation back up, pretty much double the profits and create a great atmosphere for the visitors, as well as staff. But we were absolutely destroyed. Both mentally and physically. For almost 3 months straight we worked nonstop. Can you imagine working 3 months straight, doing 14-16 hour days with not a single day off? I can not only imagine it, but I've lived through it. It was hell. We simply couldn't find staff. We had plenty of young students and casual staff who wanted to work, but we couldn't find anybody who treated hospitality as a serious job. Oh, how the times have changed from when I worked as a simple waitress many years ago in a restaurant. Plentiful of staff - full time, part time, casual. Whatever you want! Oh, you're leaving? That's ok cos we'll have somebody else replacing you tomorrow lol. I'm not saying it's good, as there was a lot of competition for jobs before Brexit but now you don't even have the workforce at all. What is better? Definitely not this what we have now...

But the thing that hurt me the most was the mistreatment I've received from people...

I know my beer and I understand it. I'm not some top class expert in every single thing and I'm open to learning new things (which I do), but the fact that men wouldn't accept my word or wouldn't trust my recommendations, constantly talking over me was ridiculous. Mate, you do realise I'm the one who orders this beer, tries it, does the research, cleans the lines, looks after the cellar? I was the only one in the pub that had knowledge to do all of that and more. Your beer belly does not define your knowledge, or even intelligence, and yet here we are, dealing with the audacity...

It wasn't just the ignorant men that made my life living hell. Ever since Brexit happened in this country something changed. People became much more hostile. I'm fluent in English. I barely speak my first language on a day to day basis, as I do not have any Lithuanian family or friends around and I find it easier to express myself in English. Yes, I have an accent because I came to this country as an adult. I'll always have an accent and I'm okay with it. I don't feel the need to go to accent classes or whatever to change it because my pronunciation is great and everybody understands me. 🤷‍♀️ Well, that's not what some Brits think. You have an accent? You must be an idiot unintelligent person! The amount of times I've had people slow down their speech as soon as they heard my accent is actually insane. If don't speak a lot people don't even notice my accent! But no, those pesky "r" rolls, and undefined "v"s and "w"s means I'm dumb clueless, of course! 

"What made you come to Europe?" - I've lived in Europe all my life. "Do you like it here?" - It's okay. "Only ok???!!!". These are only some of the legitimate questions I've gotten. The "what made you come to Europe" actually made me speechless for a second lol.

Look, I get it, this might not sound like a lot because I'm retelling things that happened months ago. As always, my trauma response is to slowly delete the events from my memories so all I have left is the very uncomfortable and hurtful feeling, which will happen eventually lol. I wish these things were discussed more widely, that's why I need to share this. The British are always put on such a high pedestal, as such a perfect country yet the members of the society are often racist and xenophobic. It's not a perfect country - far from it, just look at the news. We're allowed to criticise the government but we should also be looking at the people. What happened? I've been here 10 years - that's a whole damn decade. I felt more at home when I had a stronger accent and worked rubbish jobs to survive in my early 20s. I'm now in my 30s, with an extensive CV and experience, yet I feel more out of place than I've ever been.

"Don't like it here? Why don't you leave??" - a common expression from a regular Brit. You know what, mate? It's a good shout, I might do in a few years, who knows where my life will take me. Don't get me wrong, I've met hundreds of amazing people throughout this decade. But this experience was like a concentrated version of all the hatred people have to offer, which really left a bad mark on my soul. I'll rise above it, as always, I just didn't deserve this experience, that's all. Nobody does and nobody will. 

But for the time being I'll stay here, in the UK, mind my own business, as usual, and see what life has got to offer because the country is not completely 💩 yet and there's still some nice people around. Peace. ✌️

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

See you soon~

Lina (Rinatsu)

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

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

First impressions: Part I

Finally - blog post about my journey and first impressions of UK.

As you know I now live in UK. Trying to make a better life for myself and my family in Lithuania. Yes, I'm a good girl lol.

And now - prepare for a nice blog post with loads of photoooos!!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

My boyfriend and I came here by agency which is total sh!t if you ask me which told us that we're departing the next day! Now that's awesome lol not. So my mom and I packed all night till it was only few hours left...

I was so confused and scared that I couldn't sleep so I just lied in my bed full of thoughts and slept only like 2 hours... (￣□￣)

We travelled by bus which was one of the most horrific experiences I've recently had lol... The first impression when entering UK - a lot of green fields, sheeps and new shiny cars. Haha.

My first city. Northampton.

We've settled in a hotel for a week. And this is what we've realised about our stay in Ibis hotel:

Northampton is a really calm and peaceful city lol. Not many shops, not impressive city centre. Northampton looked kinda small to me. I'm used to bigger cities more haha.

Sightseeing!

I realised that there's soooo many pigeons here!!! So I took a photo of this fabulous pigeon in front of the nice church in the city centre:

Fabulous!

There was this fake owl sitting on top of this...thing... And I really had no idea why the hell would it sit there:

But the thing that really captured my eyes were these metal spikes on the sides:

Okay so this is just creepy. I noticed there are a lot of these spikes on top of important buildings, fancy fences and so on. So it should protect buildings from pigeons and their crap but sometimes I just watch how they just sh!t everywhere doesn't giving a damn about those spikes lol. ┐(￣ー￣)┌

I learnt something during my sightseeing...

Sometimes the easiest job is the hardest...

You had one job...

Sleeping in the church's graveyard is prohibited... (╥_╥) ...

Sunsets are beautiful everywhere... Doesn't matter where you are... ｡◕‿◕｡

And so while staying in a hotel I finally tasted the real British breakfast!

Taken with my old phone so excuse me lol.

I actually loved everything about this breakfast except beans. Omg that sauce and those beans were so disgusting!! I usually love beans but this was just eww... But you know what? I think you need to get used to it because now after some time I like them hahaha.

During the first weeks in UK I was almost sure that I will get hit by a car or something. It took me quite a lot of time to switch road sides. I always would look at the wrong side while crossing the road and I was feeling like a moving bowling pin lol...

Yeaaaah that's about it...

The journeys home like these were scariest haha. Sitting on top of the big tall bus. I was already scared that it might just lose control and fall on the side when it was driving so fast in roundabouts but it also freaked me out because of the side it was riding. Gosh it always scared the hell out of me thinking that it's driving the wrong side and this car coming in front is gonna crash into us. loooool (〜￣▽￣)〜

What I love about UK - sooo many beautiful parks! Small or big - you just choose which one!
So the day to the park - my boyfriend decided to do a photoshoot with the clothes he actually bought for me hahaha XD

Walking a long rooooad. Actually grass. A lot of grass.

I'm totally serious right now.

And guess what? First time in my life I saw a square hot air balloon!! So funny!

Aaaaaand my first every ice cream truck I saw in real life. 

Yes, I kept running to the window few more weeks whenever I heard that music lol へ(゜∇、°)へ

So I'm gonna finish this first part of my first impressions blog post with this deliciously looking pie topped with sh!tloads of whipping cream together with huge cup of yummy coffee. ♥（ﾉ´∀`）♥

Stay impressed, eat something yummy and wait for the part II!~

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P.S.:

I just opened my Etsy shop and I'm selling these two beautiful slouchy hats! DEFINITELY check them by clicking THIS LINK!~












Rinatsu*