3 Year Anniversary In Pictures

Day Time 

Sheffield Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre

 Evening Time

Wasabi Sabi

 Amazing day and night, I recommend both. Wasabi Sabi is Japanese food and as you can see they cook it right in front of you. Expensive but totally worth it :D
xxx

I'm 23!

As the title suggests, I'm 23.

This year, as everyone was doing different things it was a bit difficult to arrange a time to all get together. So instead of one birthday event. I had 3 :D Greedy, I know. This year I'm not really doing anything with my friends as I'm working at the weekend and everybody works in the week.

First Event! Whole Family :D

My parents, my brother, his fiancée, the dogs and I went to Temple Newsome a few weeks ago and it was lovely.

Just before we parted ways, we made a plan to go out to eat the next week and as everyone was busy over my birthday I suggested that we made it my birthday meal. So asked my oldest brother and his girlfriend to attend, as well as Mike who was coming to visit for the week.

We went to Eastern Court Chinese. I love Chinese and it was really nice. It was A la Carte but you got to choose as many dishes as you wanted off the menu. I ate so much! It was great! :D

The dishes are cooked to order which was nice, that's the only thing wrong with buffets. It could be sat there for a while and this way it so much better. I had so much duck and pancakes :D.

Here's their menu: Eastern Court

I was feeling a bit down because it was short notice I didn't get a cake so after we finished at the restaurant, my mum asked my brother to go get me a cake. I'm a brat but I don't care it was a nice cake :D

There's also pictures of the cake with Jacinta and Katie as it's theirs are around my birthday as well.

Second Event! Mike :D

As Mike started his new job on the 19th and my birthday is on the 22nd, I couldn't see him on my actual birthday :(. However, I got to see him the week before, from Monday evening to Friday morning, it was great! I normally only get to see him for a couple of days, if that. The longest I've spent with him lately was in February.

He turned up Monday evening and on Tuesday I was asking him what we were doing and he told me that we were going to go indoor surfing at Xscape on Wednesday morning. I had mentioned doing it a few months beforehand so I was looking forward to it. However, I was a bit apprehensive at being watched by other people. I loved it! Mike was better at the bodyboarding but I was better at surfing! Mike couldn't stay on the surfboard ha! I think I enjoyed it better than indoor skydiving as it was more involved and you got a few turns on the water. It's easy to pick up and I would definitely do it again :D. After that we had a quick lunch in Frankie and Bennies and then went to see Kick Ass 2, not as good as the first one but still OK.
He also bought me a charm for my Pandora bracelet. He's a good egg. :D

Here's the website: Flow House

Third Event! My Birthday!

On my actual birthday I had a day with my mum. My parents woke me up and gave me my cards and a few gifts to open. My mum bought me a pasta maker and left the price on, standard! And gave me a bar of galaxy chocolate that she got from the fridge. Lol! She's a weird one. Ha! I got a bit of money and a few gift cards.

We first went to get our nails done. It took ages! We were waiting for an hour before we were even seated. Oh well. Then caught the train into York and headed to Betty's Tea Room. It's a cute, old fashioned tea room in York which I pass all the time but have never been to. It was lovely with the staff dressed in long black shirts, blouses and pinnies. We didn't go for the Afternoon Tea because I don't like the sandwiches so we had a small breakfast, a citron torte with a pot of tea. It was quite pretentious but I enjoyed it. I wouldn't go there all the time as I think it's nice for special occasions.

Here's the website: Bettys

We went shopping and I got a new Pandora Bracelet and a safety chain and clip to go on it. Also spent all my birthday money. I decided not to save it this year. I wanted new stuff :D
Before my dad arrived to join us for some food, my mum and I went to Vodka Revolution for 2-4-1 cocktails. I even blagged a free one for my birthday :D.
We got something to eat at a little pub and went home.

Overall, I've loved my birthday this year :D Feel very spoilt and very grateful for the things I do with the people that love me :D

xx

Great Yorkshire Show and York Birds of Prey Centre

This week has been pretty good. The sun's shining and I don 't work very much so I could enjoy it, for once :D. Normally it's nice when I'm at work. I've been intentionally bad and failed to put suncream on resulting in burns. However, it's going brown and I have a bit of a tan. First time in about two years. :)

I've been quite busy as I went to the Great Yorkshire Show on Wednesday which was pretty good. I stroked sheep, cows and goats! It was fun and I bought quite a bit of stuff from there, which is bad seeing as I'm trying to get rid of stuff from my room. Oh well! :p

Rasta sheep!

I've also had Mike here for a few days. We went to have a wander around York on Thursday and we were going to go to another restaurant, that I had seen had good reviews for, but when they got there there were no tables. :( Must be good to be fully booked from about 5. We'll go next time. Instead we came home and had takeaway, a lot of takeaway ha!

Then Friday I'd found a place in York for us to go to. I'd read that it had good reviews and to be honest it didn't disappoint. It's called the York Birds of Prey Centre and was £6.50 each to get in, a similar place in Sheffield that we were going to go to was £12 each! It was only small but had about 80 birds and so many members of staff who knew quite a lot about the birds. You could also ask to hold any of the birds there.

I loved it as I got to hold a few birds and I got involved in the shows as well. They were very informative in the shows and had a range of knowledge about the history of falconry, not just the birds. I loved one of the owls that they had called Bounty which flew from bench to bench and loved to be stroked. It was amazing how close you could get to the birds.

I'd highly recommend going there and I bet it will become a highly recognised place before long, which will probably mean that the price will go up but to be honest, it's worth it. They even let you feed and play with the baby birds that they had. They hand rear them from chicks so that they are used to human contact from an early age. We got to play with baby Barn owls and a Sparrowhawk chick. Mike had an affinity for the sparrowhawk. They were cute in an ugly way and as it was quite warm they kept walking under my legs to get to some shade. They were only a few weeks old but you could tell what they were going to be.

Another plus to the place is that even though it's very new (Open about 7 weeks) they have different experiences that you can do where you can really get to know the birds and they are quite affordable. I think if I hadn't have already been and held some of the birds I would have enjoyed the half day experience you can have. It's only £39.99 and looked like it would be very good.

Tripadvisor: York Birds of Prey Centre
Website: York Birds of Prey Centre

xx

Hong Kong Wok: Chinese

Apparently, I like to eat as it wasn't that long ago that I posted the review on Ottto's: Moroccan. This time, Mike and I went to Hong Kong Wok which is a Chinese down London road near Mike's house. I like restaurants that are easy to get to plus it was a warm night which is always a nice addition :D But I do enjoy going a bit further out so next time Mike is coming to mine and I'm going to find a nice place to go in York. I don't think it's as diverse as Sheffield is so it will probably be a traditional place.

Back to Hong Kong Wok, it's a quaint place with a red and black decor and a huge menu. 20 page menu plus a set menu list! I liked the fact it wasn't filled with Chinese lanterns and dragons, it had canvases of skylines and Chinese food, I thought it looked quite modern.
We had walked past earlier in the day and had spotted a set menu that was £13 per person which sounded nice so we only had a quick glance through the main menu. Good job as it would have taken us ages to find dishes we liked it had that many items.
They gave us chopsticks and as it's been awhile since I've used them. It took me a minute to get used to them again. Mike thought he was king as he got it straight away even though I taught him how to use them! No respect :p smug git when it took me a bit longer.
Also I always think it's a good sign when there are Chinese people in Chinese restaurants. If they think it's good then it's obviously good. It might not be but I go on that :p

We went for a set menu that included:
Crispy shredded duck and pancakes for the starter. It was lovely and there was more than enough duck for the amount of pancakes we got. It also came with hoisin sauce which goes well with duck.
Crispy Shredded Beef with Chilli. My favourite dish of them all. I loved the sauce on them.
King Prawn with Szechuan Sauce. Bit hot for my liking but Mike took all the chillies off my bits so it wasn't too bad :D
Chicken with Sugar Snap Peas. I liked the sugar snap peas but the sauce it came in wasn't to my taste and reminded me off bogies. Ha! I left most of this dish to Mike.
Egg Fried Rice / Soft Noodles.
Vanilla Ice Cream. We did ask for the Chinese dessert but they had sold out, maybe next time.

Here's their website: Hong Kong Wok website
Here's the trip Advisor page: Tripadvisor- Hong Kong Wok

I love Chinese food but most of the time I get it from a take away. It's nice to actually go to a Chinese restaurant. The staff were very accommodating and apologetic when they forgot our drinks and when one server got distracted talking to me and poured most of the sauce on the table when he was cleaning up. It almost got Mike but missed, pfft, oh well :p

As a quick note, bouldering didn't go too badly :D I have acrylic nails so it was sometimes difficult to grip properly and I found it difficult to hold on and think about the next place to put my feet and hands. I'd go again but I don't think I'd make it a hobby, but you never know the more I go the more I might start to really enjoy it. I need to get a bit stronger. xx

Otto's: Moroccan

Mike and I have decided to keep trying different cuisines other than the traditional Italian, Chinese, French etc. Also, we're trying to keep away from chain restaurants like La Tasca, Frankie and Bennies, TGI Fridays for a few examples. 

Last time we tried a quaint Spanish Tapas restaurant, this time we tried Moroccan. I think this cuisine idea came as a recommendation that Mike got from a regular at work. He thought that the name began with M but when I researched it, this was the restaurant that came up most often. 

It's called Otto's Moroccan Restaurant and when I saw pictures of it I remembered that I had walked past it before whilst I was studying in Sheffield. I only gave it a thought as one of my friends' nicknames is Otto ha! Took a picture and sent it to him, obviously.

Here's the website: Otto's Restaurant   

Here's some reviews: Otto's Restaurant Trip Advisor

As I read up on it, the more I wanted to go. The reviews say it's great. Obviously I didn't take everything at face value as different people would have had different experiences however, the majority of the reviews are very positive. 

In hindsight, we should have gone on a different night. We went on a Sunday and we were the only people in the place. It was very nice but would have been nice to have more people for a better atmosphere. Apparently, it's great on a Friday or Saturday with live piano playing. There were adverts for live belly dancing nights as well which I think would be great to experience. 

The food was lovely and the price of the set menus wasn't too bad either even with the £3 supplement for the lamb tagine we had. The lamb was so tender, it fell off the bone. To be honest, I thought that tagine was something totally different to what we had and if we went again we said that we'd got a side portion of cous cous. We both thought that it had rice but apparently it's kind of stew. Either way it was very nice and this is coming from someone who isn't a big lamb eater (from having a previous preoccupation of not wanting to eat animals with cute faces, obviously I've been missing out). The chocolate tart I had for the pudding was scrummy as well. 

One of the things I found was good was the fact that it is a licensed property but you can bring your own beer and wine, there's a corkage for using their glasses but this would make it cheaper overall. Some of the reviews say that the shop across the road does cheap wine and beer which is convenient. We didn't have any alcohol as I was driving home in the evening. The location of the restaurant is on Hunter's Bar which is a bit out of the way, well it's about 30 minute walk from the centre, but as Mike lives near there it's easier for us to get there than go into the centre. 

Overall, Otto's is worth the money but I'd suggest going on a busier night :D

Next time I go to Sheffield I think the cuisine is Turkish. Plus I'm going to try bouldering :s Wish me luck as Mike said it was difficult and he's in a lot better shape than I am.

xx

30 Day Shred- Level 3

So, I'm on the last leg of the DVD. I found that Level 3 went quicker than Level 2. I felt it was very stop and start on Level 2. Level 3 is very quick moving which I liked.


To be honest, the pictures aren't doing my body justice. I look the same in most of them ha! But I do see the more subtle changes that the camera doesn't pick up.

I've now also started doing the 30 Day squat and crunch challenge just for something to do in the evening when I'm sat around doing nothing. I might see a difference but I doubt it will be much. However, it's better than me just sat on my bum all evening. Anything is better than nothing.

I've bought the next DVDs as well. I've decided on Killer buns and thighs and 6 week 6 pack. I don't want a 6 pack but it will keep me on track. At the end of DVDs people sometimes think wow that's it and go back to their old habits. If I keep things on the go then I'll always be doing something.

I would like to to find something I like doing. I like swimming but the nearest pool is in the gym I used to go to, it's tiny and expensive. The nearest one to that is 20 mins away. The leisure centre that I could have gone to, burnt down and it being rebuilt so that will take a few years. Seems like the world doesn't want me to swim ha! 

I don't really like the big claims that workout DVDs make. The 30 Day Shred claims that people could lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days. I've lost a bit but nowhere near that. That claim is for people heavier than I am and I find that they should be claiming to get healthier not skinnier. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying skinny isn't healthy but people can weigh more and still be healthy. Muscle weighs more than fat so I'm trying to not focus on the number I see on the scales.

So, I had to give up on this workout. I got to the last couple of workouts and my shoulder and wrist really started to hurt. I powered through until the last workout and decided to stop as I didn't want to cause more damage and let it recover.
By the time I get to actually do the last workout there won't be much point in posting the picture as I've gone a bit awol with food as well.
I feel healthier overall, I just need to get my diet under control.

xx

La Mama: Latin Tapas Bar

So, for the last two days I've been bad with eating and my workouts however, I hadn't seen Mike in over a month so I wasn't too bothered about it.
We made banana bread, carrot cake and Mike made me his version of beef bourguignon, it was lovely :D.

On the night before I left we went to a lovely little Latin tapas bar called La Mama. We had a discussion about what cuisine we wanted to eat. We always have Italian, Chinese, Indian, English etc and I didn't want Moroccan (however, decided we'd have this next time) so we decided on Spanish. We've been to La Tasca and I think it's nice, Mike doesn't think much to it don't know why though, but we wanted somewhere nearby and not a chain restaurant. We found La Mama and looked on trip advisor for some reviews, most of them said it was excellent and I now see why. Here's their trip advisor page La Mama Tripadvisor.

There's always going to be some people who don't like places which could depend on anything how busy the restaurant is, the mood the staff/ customers are in etc. We went with the majority of reviews that said it was excellent.

Here's their blog :D: La Mama Blog

Mike and I are quite big eaters so we ordered 4 tapas dishes including hummus and homemade bread, meatballs, chorizo in a cider sauce, peri peri chicken and whitebait. The waitress made a mistake with our order and sent out spareribs instead of the meatballs and they rectified it no problem, plus gave us the spareribs for free. Bonus! :D Free food is always good in my books.
I love Spanish food so we also ordered their speciality mixed seafood and chicken paella, which they said would take 40 mins to cook. I liked that it was cook to order and the chef himself came out to explain that it would be another 15 mins after we'd had the tapas. He was so lovely and polite, as well as the waitress that was serving us. Once it was ready the chef brought the paella to the table and explained that we could either eat it on the plates that we were given or we could eat it the traditional way and just eat it from the dish. It was a nice touch to be told how we could eat it.

Everything was delicious, I couldn't actually decide which dish I liked the best. However, the paella was near the top of the list. When I went to Spain on holiday we had paella and to be honest I've loved it ever since. I got a craving for it so that's why we had it. I love rice so paella was a perfect choice. The only thing I would say is that the squid rings were a bit chewy but I've had a lot worse and they were only a small part of the dish, overall it was amazing :D. I would definitely go back and recommend it to anyone. The place is quite small but very quaint and as it was a warm night the doors at the front were open. It's location is a bit out of the way, about 20 min walk away from the city centre but only a 5 min from Mike's house so it was great for us :D

Next cuisine is Moroccan as I've never tried it before and I'd like to try tagine :)
It's amazing how much my food tastes have changed. Before I met Mike I'd never tried and wouldn't try curry, chilli, lamb, mussels, squid and a lot more other things. I was a picky eater but Mike made me try different things.

xxx

30 Day Shred- Level 2

Oh my gawd! I didn't realise how hard Level 2 would be. There's me coasting through Level 1 thinking ha! how hard can Level 2 be? Oh how wrong I was!
This Level is a lot more hands on and she loves her plank positions.

This is Day 5 of Level 2 but Day 15 overall.
I don't actually think I can see that much difference between Day 10 and Day 15 but I need to remember that I won't necessarily see a change in my body shape. I can feel that I've become stronger and fitter so it's not all about body shape change.

This DVD is only the beginning to getting the body I would like. I've been looking at other DVDs that Jillian does and have decided that my trouble spots are my thighs and bum so I'm going for her Killer Buns and Thighs DVD next and then maybe 6 week 6 pack.

This is the last day of Level 2. For this one I went straight through without any breaks. I think the only difference between Day 15 and Day 20 is that my legs look a little bit thinner.
I hope that I'll see more of a difference after Level 3.
I think Level 3 is going to be really hard as I was sweating up to Day 20 on Level 2.

Side by side Day 1 and Day 20. 

xxx

30 Day Shred- Level 1

Ages ago I bought the 30 Day Shred DVD. As I was at university I got bored of it pretty quickly. However, I've been looking at other people's results pictures and reading blogs on it and decided to try it again. I'm hopefully going on holiday next month so it gave me the perfect opportunity to try and get in a bit better shape before I go. :D

I've tried gyms and I got into a better shape but the first gym got expensive after I stopped being a student and the second one was in a warehouse and I felt too clammy when working out as it was cold all the time. Since then I haven't really exercised and I've been on a bit of a binge. I'm not particularly overweight, just have some bulging bits I'd like to reduce :D

This is after my first workout.
I've done a front and back picture but my bum is a bit too flabby to go on the internet ha! So that's just for my personal viewing.
I have some definition but I'd like my stomach, love handles and thighs to be a bit more toned.

The DVD is good as Jillian explains each move and there are different variations of some of the moves so if it's too hard there's an easier option. If it's not hard enough I have some heavier weights that I can use so it can be as hard as you want it to be.

So this is Day 5 for me. I had to rest and recover for 3 days as I pulled all the muscles in my stomach. It killed! It's funny that after months at the gym I never hurt myself and 3 days of the workout and I'm working too hard. Typical.
Anyway I started back at it. I don't know if it's the way I'm standing but I think I look more toned. I need to make sure I stand the same each time I do this to get a better comparison.
I was still doing Level 1 at this point as I thought I would change it up every 10 days.

I can definitely see a difference between Day 1 and Day 10. I'm not so sure there's much between Day 5 and Day 10.
Day 10 was my last workout of Level 1. I never got as far as Level 2 so I was looking forward to changing the workout a bit.


Level 2 and 3 are going to be different posts. I will see my progress from Day 1 to Day 30 in the third post :)

A side by side comparison between Day 1 and Day 10 :D

xxx

Mini Cakes

So last night I went to a Wedding Reception of a couple who are family friends. The hotel was lovely and the couple looked gorgeous. You had to walk a good 4/5 steps behind the bride as her dress was that big and trailed quite far back. Her daughter, who's 3, also looked gorgeous.
Overall the night was good I put down some serious moves on the dance floor and had a good time with my family and their friends who I've known since before I can remember.

At the end of the night the Wedding favour were little mini cakes which were gorgeous.
I was told that there was a main top cake then they had mini cakes underneath it.

As I have a serious sweet tooth I wasn't going to pass up the chance to have one. The picture isn't great and this one is actually my brother's as I ate the flowers off the top of mine. :p I love the ribbon around the box.










This one is mine. I decided to take a picture as I thought it would show up better :D
Going to have to eat it a little bit at a time as I'm trying to eat better :p
May take me a while.

I think the idea of individual cakes is lovely and much more appeasing to the eye than a big slab of the main cake. Ideas for my own wedding. When I get that far :p

xx

That was blooming MARVELlous: Spoiler Alert

First off I will try to not give away too much whilst writing this. It is more a post on how much I love Marvel films but I did see Iron Man 3 the other day which spurred me to write this post.

I will admit that I have never read or even touched a Marvel comic, but I am a huge Marvel film fan.
The other day Iron Man 3 came out and I was very eager to see it as the Iron Man films are one of my favourite Marvel creations. It didn't disappoint either, it was brilliant. The graphics were amazing and I loved the bad guys. You can't not like Tony Shark and Robert Downey Jr is the perfect actor to play him.

One part of the film that made me sad was a part including his robot that he always demeans and when the bad guy blows out the side of Air Force 1. It's quite upsetting to watch 13 people first be dragged out the plane and then watch them freefalling through the sky. Must be an awful thing to happen in real life.
Overall, the storyline is amusing and heart wrenching. I would watch it again and I can't actually pick which of the 3 Iron Man films I like the best as they are all pretty brilliant films on their own and together.

I haven't actually seen all of the top Marvel films and I would like to see the Hulk films as he is amazing in Avengers.
I don't think I can list them in order as I do enjoy watching any of them but I do have my favourites. Of the films I have seen, I think Daredevil and Captain America are towards the bottom of my list as well as Spider Man. The new Amazing Spider Man isn't too bad but it was a remake that was made too quickly after the original films.
I love the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Blade and Fantastic Four films and I loved the Avengers so I do think that film is near/ at the top of my list :D.

The next couple of years for Marvel films is going to amazing:
Thor 2,
The Wolverine,
X-Men,
Fantastic Four reboot,
Avengers 2.
I'll probably even see Captain America 2 and the Amazing Spider Man 2 just because I like watching Marvel films.

Going all tingy thinking about them all :)

xx

My Favourite Book Series at the Moment: James Patterson Alex Cross Series

I have moved onto another book series at the moment. I had got to the point where I'd have to start paying for the books on the Kindle in the Scarpetta series. I will go back to them at some point but I've gone onto something else. I did start reading Lord of the Rings as I love the films but they are quite hard to read, especially when you're only half concentrating. I've decided on James Patterson's Alex Cross series instead.

Source http://portableturk.com

Once again I have read a few of this series but out of order so I have started from the beginning. I'm not even half way through the first book but I know I'm going to like them, from past readings of other books of Patterson's and how this book is going. It's fast paced and a real 'page turner' as they say.

I don't read much of it at a time as I only really read at night before I fall asleep. 

The characters seem to be well thought out and work quite well with each other. I enjoy the change of perspective between the main character and the 'villain'. It's a book where the reader knows who it is and the 'heroes' are trying to catch them. 

I have seen that there are a few Alex Cross films so I might watch them after reading a few of the books and see if the character in the film is how I imagine him from reading the books.  I might wait until I'm quite far through the books as I don't like watching a film then seeing the actors face as I read the book.

I think I need to read a different genre after this

xx

Candle Holder

A couple of months ago I went into Boots and saw that they sold Yankee candles. I've read about them in a few blogs and in a few youtube videos and have wanted to try one for a while. I did check on ebay but as I didn't know what scent I'd like I didn't want to risk paying a lot to buy one I didn't like.

As I had never had one before and as I don't burn candles that often, I decided to go for the small, very cute jars. I'm not that into flowery smells so I decided to go for sweet smells and decided on black cherry and vanilla cupcake.

I've been burning my way through the black cherry for a while now as I always forget to light it. I like the smell but can't keep it alight for too long as it does get overpowering after a while.

A few weeks ago my mum went to a wedding and they had lovely candle holders on the tables with little tea lights in them. Although I like the jar to the yankee candles, it fits perfectly into the candle holder and matches the vase that I mentioned in Wine Bottle to Vase :D blog I did. At the moment I'm very into being girly with pink and hearts. However, I'm also starting to enjoy nautical items and keep buying jewellery with anchors on them. Ha! :D

xx

Few Changes

So, over the last couple of weeks I've had my hair dyed and had nails put on.

I'm always so scared about changing my hair but one day I decided I was going to do something different. I've had it cut quite short before but never had much colour put on it. I have some white hairs dyed the same colour but that's the extent of it.
I think it's my mum's fault really as she never used to let me do anything with it. I'm almost 23 so I think I can do what I want now. To a degree. :p A tattoo is still out the question ha!

It's not a big change, as I didn't want to do anything too drastic for the first time. I went with a subtle ombre change. You can only really see it properly in daylight but I like it :D
Next time I'm going to go a bit lighter but I doubt I'll ever go blonde as I don't think it would suit me.





As for my nails. I've had them done once before but I wasn't keen on them. A few of the girls at work have their nails done often and they always look really nice so I decided to go to where they go on their recommendation. My mum took us both for a treat.
It was quite funny as my mum is quite short and we were sat in huge desk chairs. The floor was wood so every time my mum moved, the chair went shooting off across the room ha! Was quite funny watching her try to scoot back to her place. The people kept laughing at us.



I decided to get mine squared and have a nice
design on my ring and thumb nails. Overall it cost £24 which I didn't think was too bad. It was quick even with them shuffling to different people. At the first place it took over 2 and half hours and they were a bit shoddy. Bit of a piss take really.
I will definitely go there again, might ask them to be a bit shorter next time, as I'm finding typing a challenge ha! Might get a bit harder when I move to Sheffield but I'm sure I'll find one just as good :)
xx