Weekly Update!

Drinks, Eggs & Packing

I thought I'd do my weekly update today, as I'm off to Croatia early tomorrow morning! This week has been lovely knowing that I was only in work for two days before a couple of days off and then a holiday. On Monday I took Aum to Bap for some lunch and then to see How To Train Your Dragon 2 (see previous post). After work Mo and I went to The Little B in Sale for a few drinks with his friends; there was a good group of us out so it was nice to catch up with people and have a night socialising.

On Tuesday Aum and I went to Cafe Gourmand for lunch, where I had eggs Royale which was amazing as usual, and then in the evening Mo came round to chill out for a while. Yesterday was my first day off, so I did a Body Pump class, then had my holiday nails done and met Abi at the Country Club for a coffee. It was a gorgeous day so we were sat outside in the sunshine chatting for ages! I spent the rest of the evening packing my stuff up for Croatia and then Mo came round and we had dinner together.

Today has been a fairly relaxed one, I did a Grit class then packed the last few things into my suitcase and went round to Mum and Dad's for dinner. We had a gorgeous lasagne, and I am now just getting ready to go and see Anberlin with Jasmine. It is their farewell tour so I am sad but also hugely excited, as they are one of my favourite bands!

Summer Views...

How To Train Your Dragon 2 - 5 stars *****

I only recently watched the first of these films and loved it, so when the second came out, I jumped at the chance to take Aum to see it. The story begins five years after the initial instalment, and dragons now live peacefully in Berk amongst the villagers. 

Main man Hiccup is at the age where he has to make a decision about his future, and he is being pressurised into taking over from his father Stoick as chieftain of the village. He has his reservations, and instead enjoys flying around with his dragon, Toothless, and exploring unmapped areas. On one such trip, he encounters a dragon trapper named Eret, who is hostile towards him and attempts to capture Toothless in the name of his boss, a shady character building a dragon army named Drago Bludvist.

Upon returning to his father to warn of Drago, it turns out that Stoick has had a run in with him before, and he is a barbaric war lord who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Determined to believe that war isn't the answer, Hiccup runs away to try and reason with Drago, only to be captured by a dragon rider called Valka, who turns out to be Hiccup's long lost mother, believed dead. She takes him to a dragon paradise that she has founded from rescuing dragons, created by a humongous species called a Bewilderbeast, known as the Alpha, to whom all dragons answer.

Stoick follows Hiccup and is reunited with his wife, but Drago has also followed, backed with his own Bewilderbeast, who fights the Alpha and wins. Using its power of control over all the other dragons, it turns them against the humans, including Toothless, who ends up killing Stoick whilst hypnotised.

Distraught, Hiccup returns to Berk and sets a plan to ride baby dragons (who are not controllable by the Alpha) and defeat Drago. He manages to break the enchantment over Toothless, and when he battles against Drago's Bewilderbeast and wins, he becomes the new Alpha. Hiccup takes up the role of chieftain and despite losing a leg in battle, order is restored.

I actually preferred this film to the first, which doesn't happen very often with sequels! The visualisations are amazing, it actually feels like it could be possible for somewhere as beautiful and magical as Berk to exist. The relationships throughout are extremely believable, and I easily shed a tear at the demise of Stoick, who was a very likeable character. The twist of Hiccup's mother returning was a lovely plotline and helped to explain why he has such a talent with the dragons, and there were some create comedic moments which seemed to make everyone in the audience chuckle, regardless of age. A great one to watch with the kids -but I will also be watching it again with the boyfriend!

Weekly Update!

Catchups, Preparations & Buffets!

This week has been good and sociable! On Tuesday I met up with my friend Katie who I have known since I was about 4; we went for lunch and a catchup at Bap cafe in Altrincham, which was lovely - I had a bacon, brie and cranberry sauce baguette and a white chocolate cookie. Mo stayed that evening and then on Wednesday after work I went to my friend Luke's house for a barbecue which was really nice, even though the sun disappeared by the time we ate!

On Thursday I went round to Mum and Dad's for tea; Dad was working so it was just the three of us and we had fishcakes and a good natter - sometimes it's the best thing just to chill out at my parents house. On Friday I met up with Laura in Didsbury to sort out the final plans for our holiday. We went to Folk, a bar/eatery, and we both had the same - lamb burger with feta cheese and harissa sauce in a bun, it was delicious. I love going out in Didsbury, as it is close to my flat and quite trendy - there is always a good crowd out and it has a very relaxed vibe. I like that the majority of the bars there are privately owned too, as it gives it a community feel that is contemporary and slightly bohemian.

This weekend I have been at a hen party in Liverpool (see previous post) which was so much fun, and I felt surprisingly sprightly this morning! It's a good job as I have just had the family over for dinner (mum, and grandparents). I couldn't face doing a full roast, so did a bit of a buffet tea instead, with potato salad, quiche, olives, coleslaw, salad, cooked meats, cheese and pork pies. It went down well, and used up a lot of stuff I had in my fridge ready for going away on Friday!

Hen Do!

Liverpool

This weekend I headed to Liverpool for Becky, one of Mo's university friend's Hen party. I have only been to one Hen do previously, in Edinburgh, so was excited to hit Liverpool for the second!

I caught the train at 12.33pm, and landed at the station just before 2pm, ready to meet a couple of the other girls before getting a taxi to the hotel. We stayed at 33 James Street, the place where the Titanic was registered, and the rooms were amazing! They had padded quilted walls, big black sleigh beds, roll top jacuzzi baths - probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! There were 5 of us per room, and I was sharing with the bride's sister Siobhan, Paula her friend from school, the groom's work colleague Marion, and Mel, who is another uni friend of Mo's who I have been out with lots of times before.

We dumped our bags and went for a cocktail at All Bar One until we could check in. An hour later, we went to the rooms and everyone congregated in ours for some pre-drinks of prosecco, wine and jaegerbombs! We got ready at the same time as we were booked in for a meal at Bem Brasil at 8pm.

We got taxis to the restaurant and were sat on three tables which was a nice number to chat to everyone around us. I have never eaten at Bem Brasil before, but would definitely go back, I had two types of beef, lamb, chicken hearts, and a load of sides including sweet potato mash, olives, salad and condiments. I was good and stuck on water until the meal was over when I had an amazing cocktail before we headed to the next place, a bar called Slaters.

Slaters is a cheap and cheerful sort of place, downstairs and a bit of a dingy bar, but it plays good indie music and sells 'quad vods' for £5.40 so you can't complain! We had a couple of drinks in there before going to the club we were finishing the night in, PopWorld. As the name suggests, it plays pop and cheesy music, which isn't my cup of tea, but considering we were a large mixed age group it was lots of fun as we could all dance and knew the songs well. We got taxis back to the hotel at about 2.30am, and everyone had stayed out for the full duration which I thought was a pretty good turnout!

The next morning after grabbing continental breakfast at the hotel and packing all our stuff up, we went for a wander along the docks and popped into The Tate Modern for a wander. I think it was a little over our (hungover) heads, so after a while we went for some lunch in a place called What's Cooking, where I had a gorgeous plate of fish, chips and mushy peas. Mel and I walked back to the hotel and caught a cab to the station as we both had earlier trains than the rest, and the hour trip went surprisingly quickly!