So Good They Named It Twice

Way back in February, A turned the grand old age of 30. Luckily for him, he got to avoid a minor meltdown (which I definitely experienced when I turned 30)  because I took him to New York for six days of glorious food, strong drinks and freezing temperatures. I actually booked the holiday in April last year and then kept it a secret until Christmas Day, when I surprised him with it. I think it's fairly safe to say that it's one of the only secrets I've ever kept successfully and I'm not entirely sure how I managed it. Stealthy.

Brace yourselves for a photo-heavy post!

We stayed at the Ace Hotel in midtown and it was incredible. That picture of the Empire State Building above? Yep, that was the view from our room. It doesn't get much better than that.

I mentioned freezing temperatures above. By "freezing" I mean -9 with a 'RealFeel' temperature of -13. Every single day. But New York sure is pretty in the snow and there were only a couple of occasions when I felt like my body was shutting down due to the cold. Win win.

And then, of course, there was the food and drink...

It was an amazing few days and I was so sad to say goodbye to NYC when the time came for us to head for home. It was my fourth visit and definitely my favourite. Until we meet again, magical city of dreams!

Life, lately

Oh dear dear dear. That was an entirely unintentional hiatus! I won't apologise, as there's really nothing worse than a blogger who constantly says sorry for not posting regularly. However, I will just say that I have absolutely no idea how it's March already. Fastest. Year. Ever.

So, without further ado, here are a few pictures from the past few weeks...

Pictures 1-3 are from the first weekend in February, when The Soldier and I attended the wedding of the lovely K&B in Edinburgh. It was a perfect day (I cried, obviously) and an amazing weekend. So amazing that I barely remembered to take any photos in fact. Soldier boy met me at the train station with the tulips, the little keeper. We stayed at Hotel Missoni and it was absolutely wonderful. Not least because of the complimentary San Pellegrino Limonta and Aranciata. Oh, and the fact that the letter 'H' was plastered everywhere. Made for me, clearly.

The rest of the photos are from a little weekend in Wales that we treated ourselves to just after Valentine's Day. We stayed in Ruthin but went for days out to Llandudno and Llangollen. The weather was perfect, the food and wine were (too plentiful) and it was lovely to be out in the countryside for a couple of days. We also had Sunday lunch at Tyddyn Llan on the way down and that too was amazing. Anywhere that serves me fresh scotch eggs and Glamorgan sausages as canapes gets my vote.

Basically, life's been pretty blissful. No complaints here.

Irish Adventures

I do sometimes think that this blog makes it look as though The Soldier and I are constantly off gallivanting but, I promise you, that really isn't the case. But, recently, I was incredibly lucky to be whisked off to Northern Ireland for a few days by my lovely Belfast boy. We started and finished in Belfast, and took in Giant's Causeway and Londonderry along the way.

We stayed at the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Belfast and it was AMAZING. Anywhere that gives you a candle and matches next to the bath is fine by me, given that I spend at least 40% of my time in the bath when staying in a nice hotel. Preferably with wine.

It was such a lovely few days and, as you can tell from the photos, we were rather lucky with the weather! There are, of course, seven bazillion more photos from this trip, including about 400 of Giant's Causeway, but I thought I'd keep it to a minimum, as I'm sure not everyone likes cliffs, rocks and sea quite as much as me.

As ever, here's the Instagram version of the holiday:

1) Our Olympics opening ceremony feast; 2) Amazing light fitting in a cafe in Portrush; 

3) The view from our room at the Causeway Hotel; 4) Calamari at Avoca in Belfast; 

5) Converse; 6) Graffiti in Belfast; 7) Hiya, England!; 8) Black Milk leggings in the Crown Liquor Saloon; 

9) The most INCREDIBLE burger ever at the Barking Dog; 10) Ice cold Sauvignon Blanc at the Fitzwilliam;
11) Cocktails at the amazing Custom House in Derry; 12) My planes had PROPELLERS :'(

ILU NORN IRON!!