Review: Jewel Bar, Picadilly.

Last Wednesday, I was invited to a fun networking event at the Piccadilly branch of Jewel. Having previously been to the Convent Garden venue I knew I was in for a treat.

Jewel bar is a hidden treasure situated in the heart of Central London. Just a stone’s throw away from Piccadilly Circus station it’s perfect for some impromptu drinks after work. An easy central location to get to, you can be on the tube and on your way back home in a blink of an eye.

Arriving at Jewel, I was struck by the sheer luxury of the bar’s décor. All chandeliers and decadent deep velvet drapes you feel you have been transported to the times of Moulin Rouge. Dim lighting and candles ensure that whether it is six o clock, or twelve thirty late at night you feel you are ready for a glam evening out.

Jewel Piccadilly spans over three floors, each with its own luxurious theme. The lower floors include the grand Jewel bar and the chic bar Blanca, whilst upstairs is the Moroccan inspired Ruby room, Sapphire bar and the luxurious Velvet rooms.

We spent our evening in the Blanca bar. All in white the décor has a chic and cool feel, reminiscent of a Spanish bar. White drapes swoop from above, while ornate mosaics sparkle in the light of dimly lit tea lights to create a relaxed, yet stylish atmosphere.

As we knew there would quite a few of us attending the evening we booked a seating area so we could ensure we would have some much needed space. An intimate bar booth suited us perfectly; plush white sofas and small stools for us to gather round and natter- plus being so conveniently near the bar was an added bonus!

While most of us drank white wine, I did see some luscious looking cocktails. My friend had the “bramble”, beautifully presented in a long tall glass with fresh fruit, it looked and tasted (I had a sneaky try) delicious.

The pricing is quite expensive (£8 for a cocktail) but if you go after work like we did there is a 5-8 club where there is a discount of 50% for wines and £4.50 for cocktails- perfect for a few (or in our case rather a lot) after work drinks.

The bar staff were friendly and helpful and were happy to advise what drinks would work out cheaper- a bottle shared is cheaper than a glass? Sounds good to us! The table service could have been better as they seemed confused when we asked for more glasses for our table, but overall the staff were efficient and helpful.

All this drinking left us feeling pretty famished and in need of some food. We opted for the rustic package of finger food consisting of tasty potato wedges, toasted pitta breads with houmous, tzatziki and taramasalta dips as well as herb-marinated olives. I personally loved the baby-back ribs; covered in a smokey glaze they were extremely tasty- if a little messy!

I would recommend Jewel Bar to any fellow Londoners in search of stylish drinks out on the town. With its glam interior and central location it’s perfect for after work drinks. Alternatively a party or large event would work well at Jewel, as you can easily book a table, food and pre-arrange table service for a fab evening out.

I would definitely like to return to Jewel, perhaps next time at the weekend to get my groove on at the club and to explore Jewel’s sparkle further.

My review for This Little Lady went to London, check out her site:

  http://www.thislittleladywenttolondon.com/london123/review-jewel-bar-piccadilly/ 

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Lucy in Disguise set to close?

An article I wrote whilst at Closer magazine, posted on closeronline on 18th July 2011.

We all watched Lily's foray into the world of retail with her sister, Sarah Owen last year, in the documentary "Rags to Riches".

On the documentary retail expert Mary Portas always thought their concept of renting out designer clothing is flawed.

Perhaps she has now been proved right, as now just ten months after the glamourous star- studded opening, the Covent Garden store is set to close.

They have apparently signed a lease for another permanent store, but no opening date has been fixed.

Instead the pair have opened a temporary pop up shop near Carnaby street, which has been described as a "last ditch attempt to save things".

Lily is adamantly denying the closure of the store, but with no set opening it all seems abit of a mystery. She later tweeted that stories of Lucy in Disguise clothing have been "deliberately misleading" and that the store has NOT closed, but just moved to a temporary store while they are waiting for their permanent premises.

Has Lily let things slip with the store? What with her recent wedding to Sam Cooper and her pregnancy she may want to concentrate on being healthy and chilled, unlike the tears and tantrums of last year. What will happen next? Guess we will have to wait and see....

Katie Price has had enough of quickies, apparently.

Jordan- known for her chaotic love life has shockingly vowed never to have a quickie marraige again.


Despite declaring her love for Argentine lover Leonardo Penna and stating her "perfect" she is determined not to repeat the mistakes of her previous relationships.


Katie Price has had many passionate and fiery relationships- from cage fighter and cross dresser Alex Reid, to loyal hunk Peter Andre and the seemingly innocent Gareth Gates- she sure has had her fair share of men.

Alex Reid.

Her last romance was on the rebound, when she drunkenly hooked up with Alex Reid just eight weeks after her relationship with Peter.

It was a whirlwind romance, within weeks of meeting Reid had moved into Katie's home and they were already declaring their love for each other.

Followed by a quickie Vegas wedding, she now admits that she rushed into marriage too quickly and is determined to make the same mistake again. "You can never predict the future, but I guarantee there will not be another Vegas wedding".  

Peter Andre.

Her perhaps most documented love affair was with the hunky, Peter Andre, whom she met on the reality show "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" We all watched as they fell in love in before our eyes and soon enough they soon moved in together and had two children, Junior and Princess Taamii.

Plus who could forget their big fat gypsy style wedding with Katie in a gigantic frothy dress and Pete wearing a white suit adorned with crystals- TOWIE eat your heart out.

However sadly it was not to be, when they called it quits after three and a  half years in 2009.



Gareth Gates.


Another "quickie" (so to speak) was the notorious Gareth Gates saga- when Jordan allegedly popped the innocent pop star's cherry. 


Jordan now looks back and regrets the fling, " it's terrible- I was still young, I was pregnant, I didn't have the dad around and just wanted to be loved. "



Dwight Yorke.


Dwight Yorke- the father of son Harvey was yet another turbulent relationship for the glamour girl. A rocky on/off relationship from the start, Jordan describes it as more like "drunken shags" than a "proper" relationship. 

When son Harvey was found to be blind, the couple got briefly back together again, only to spilt for good with Jordan raising Harvey as a single mum. 


Dane Bowers.

When Katie met Dane in a London nightclub back in 1998, she was sure she had found her soul mate in life. She claims, " within weeks of meeting him I was thinking at last I had found the man of my dreams, the man I wanted to marry". 

However, jealously  after two years eventually tore them apart. With Price suspecting her of cheating on him and Dane asking her to give up topless modelling- it was a romance not to last. Things turned nasty when Price fell pregnant with Bower's child and she had an abortion- resulting in her overdosing in painkillers. 


So can a leopard change its spots? How will the next chaper of Jordan's love life turn out? This time, at least, she is determined not to fall into the same trap, stating that there will be no quickie weddings for her. Even if her new boyfriend is perfect, she knows no- one can be that perfect, she says of Leandro-

" He's perfect at the moment but no-ones that perfect. There must be a vice, but I haven't found it".

So will Jordan resist her quickie habit- or will she succumb to her hot hunk's Leandro's charms? Only time can tell...

My article for Heatworld posted on 20th April, 2011. Enjoy :)

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Tips and Tricks on how to stand out on your work experience...

Having completed shall we say a few *cough a lot* work experience placements you could consider me quite the serial intern! So I thought I would pass on my magazine knowledge to my fellow blogging and aspiring journo friends. Hope this helps and enjoy :)

Be Confident.

Work experience placements, especially at magazines, can be short most only lasting a week. To ensure you stand out, try to be confident. A friendly yet professional manner can work wonders, perhaps involve yourself in small talk with your colleagues whilst completing the task in hand. Try to have confident telephone manner as you may be expected to talk to PR's to request samples, images and general info about a product, speak clearly, confidently and listen carefully as PR's can speak quite quickly or without emphasis. If you're not sure if you got the correct email, just ask politely again and they may spell with the phonetic alphabet to help you out!

Be Organised.

Always arrive on time, if not earlier, as several interns I worked with arrived early to make a good impression. Whatever you do, try not to be late when you can help it as although you may not be being paid, you are there to make an impression and you don't want them to remember you as the "late unorganised intern".  

I'd advise to take a notepad and pen to make a list of tasks colleagues ask you to complete. Sometimes, a magazine office can get hectic and you may have many tasks on the go so it's always good to make a to do list so you don't end up forgetting something. Also try to listen carefully when your colleagues are giving you instructions as they won't want to repeat it and sometimes do speak quite quickly as they are can be pretty busy!

Be Polite

Always offer to make tea or refreshments. Also, if you are going out for lunch ask if any of the staff would like anything bought back.

Make contacts

I've happened to experience a few networking events and again it helps to be confident and friendly. What I wished I had in the beginnging was businness cards, great for when you meet someone and quickly want to exchange contact deets. I got mine relatively cheaply at www.moo.com, but there are plently of others on the net available for a small charge. So much easier than various scraps of paper that can easily get lost, they diffuse the awkard scramble for paper and pens. Also they look super professional making you look like you really mean businness!

Use your intitative

If you find yourself with nothing to do, use your own intitative to complete some tasks. Perhaps the editorial assistant has given you a list of possible tasks and you could help tidy the magazine files, for instance. Showing you're keen and want to work will look better than sitting there bored, so try to think of possible tasks that need doing. If not, always ask the ed assist or other members of staff as chances are they need help with something or other, just didn't know you were free! If you are interested in doing some writing and are free from other duties, try asking the online team if you could write any stories- great for your portfolio plus fab writing practice! I think this saying particuarly rings true for internships, "if you don't ask- you won't get!" So if you want to write, push yourself and perhaps show whilst you are prepared to knuckle down and do the nitty gritty, you have the potential to write/compile amazing stories too!

Don't expect too much

Whilst magazines are known to be glamourous the work sometimes is not. Be prepared to muck in and show you are keen to help out whatever the task. Do NOT think anything is beneath you as whilst one task may be boring, you may be given more interesting tasks later on in the week. From my experience once colleagues see you are capable and confident you will be given more responsbility- just don't expect to be writing a news story in a national mag on day one as you will be bitterly disappointed!

Look great!

This may sound superficial, but wherever you do your work experience make sure you at least look smart & presentable, as after all you do want a job and are not going to achieve that by looking like a scruffbag in the morning! (With the exceptions of rock mags, Kerrang, Q etc where the scruffy look is the norm!) Each magazine tends to have their own dress code, some are relatively casual whilst others like to dress up; wearing heels, dresses etc. If you're unsure  I'd advise to  meet them halfway and go relatively smart on your first day. Go for smart staples that you have in your wardrobe that you feel comfortable and confident in, like a blazer for instance and you can always dress down accordingly the following days.

The Perks!  After all it's not all hard work... 

Freebies!

You usually find you will be given a goodie bag at the end of your stint for all your hard work. My room is, unsuprisingly considering the amount of work experience i've done, full of goodies consisting of make up, fake tan, moisturizer and various creams so you'll be in for a treat! I now have an obsession with red lipsticks- much to my boyfriend's dislike, my current fave being red mac lipstick!

Passing celebs

You may see the odd celeb, I happened to bump into Stuart Baggs at Heat- took me a while to realise why I recongised him whilst muching away at  my tuna sandwich!

Working for your favourite magazine/publication

The main reason why you're doing this: working alongside those who produce your favourite magazine and are doing the job you would love to do.  I loved compiling fashion pages for Heat and I think that's the most important part, you must enjoy it. Work experience is a great way to realise, hang on I don't actually think this is for me, as whilst you may have always thought you wanted to be a high-flying magazine journalist- actually working there may give you a different picture than what you imagined.

Seeing your name in print is an added bonus, so remember to keep hold of your work so you can build a portfolio of your cuttings. That's currently where I'm up to, waiting for a cash injection so I can invest in a smart black folder to create a super smart portfolio.

 I'm still on the road to success, but as many people have said to me- don't give up, its a long and hard road but if you want it enough you'll get there.

Said as much to myself as to my fellow blogging friends, hope this little guide helps!  Would love to hear your comments on your internships/experiences. Any other tips for fellow aspiring journo's? Hit me back, please.

Emily X

 *Realised the "hit me back" sounded quite gangstaa so added the please to be polite!*