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!

Back once again...

So, the six month break was entirely unintentional, I promise. Life got busy and I didn't have time to write. And then I lost the inclination to write. Blogging stopped being a part of my life. I stopped writing, I stopped reading. Then, a few weeks ago I opened up Feedly again and I started to read. And I realised that I missed writing, I missed posting photographs. So here we go. It feels rather strange to be posting a summer's worth of photographs but, if I don't post them now, I never will.

Grillstock in June. Beer, meat, sun. Wonderful.

I threw a little party for my girls back when it was sunny and before this one moved in...

Yep, I live with a boy now. And it's pretty much brilliant in every single way.

We went to London in July and wandered amongst the flowers near St Paul's.

We also took many many photographs in the reflective spherical sculptures nearby.

In September we went to Liverpool and stayed at Hope Street Hotel. In a room with the most magnificent view.

We went to Crosby beach and I took approximately 6 million photographs of the Another Place sculptures.

I made a new friend.

We gazed at the view, drank prosecco and life was marvellous.

We carved some pumpkins. I'll leave you to guess which was mine.

And then?

Well, this happened....

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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.

Whistle-stop

Wow. It's been a while! In my defence, I've been away rather a lot recently. In fact, I've only spent one weekend at home in the last five weeks. Bristol, London, Belfast and Edinburgh have all been visited and enjoyed but I'm so looking forward to spending some time in my glorious home city this weekend.

This post might get a bit long and, in all honestly, it's more for me and my own memories than anything else. I have plenty of other posts in the pipeline so fingers crossed I'll actually get a few minutes spare to write them up this weekend.

But, without further ado, the reasons why I've been so absent recently...

Bristol

In November I took a little sojourn to the West Country to visit the beautiful Abi and to see a few sights. Those sights included an epic wine tasting, the delicious dinner afterwards in a wine cellar, cocktails at Browns that tasted exactly like the strawberry cream Quality Street, AMAZING Eggs Royale at Boston Tea Party and far far too many hours spent on National Express coaches.

London

In late November I jumped on a train to London Euston and spent a wonderfully festive day with Sammy. We coveted the pretty things at Selfridges (that Ashish dress is my spirit animal), had the most incredible afternoon tea at The Chesterfield and then had a little wander through the Christmas markets on the South Bank. Oh, and there was the small (HUGE) matter of being asked to be her bridesmaid over dinner that night. Cue a lot of squealing, a few tears and a lot of grinning from ear to ear. There may also have been a cheeky trip to Meatmarket before I caught the train home on the Sunday. Oops.

Belfast

A couple of weeks ago The Soldier and I descended on Belfast for two amazing days in his lovely home city. We stayed at The Fitzwilliam again and loved it even more than last time, which I didn't think was possible. Highlights included lunch at Bubbacue (SO GOOD), delicious cocktails at The Merchant Hotel and lots of time spent at the Christmas market eating big sausages and drinking hot booze. Oh, and I finally got to take a trip to St George's Market and meet the lovely Claire. I can also confirm that her Lily Pink Bakery cupcakes are out of this world. Soldier boy and I may or may not have eaten two each for breakfast. Ahem.

Edinburgh

The last stop on my magical not-so-mystery tour of the UK was Edinburgh, for the lovely Kate's hen do. 17 of us stayed in a magnificent penthouse apartment, with some fairly special views. There was alcohol, a LOT of food, too many laughs to mention and surprisingly few penis-themed decorations. Marvellous. That beautiful tree in the photograph is in Jenners. Glorious.

Sunday looked like...

A bit late this week but, in my defence, I was just far too busy eating too much, drinking cider and having an incredible time. Bagels on the train to Leeds, walks around the gorgeous Victoria Quarter and the rest of Leeds city centre, an incredible fish finger sandwich at Art's Cafe, tasty cider at North Bar and our beautiful hotel, 42 The Calls. We went for the 'His 'n' Hers' break, which included a bottle of prosecco, beers, breakfast and some Harvey Nichols shopping vouchers. Perfect.

Not pictured: the absolute mountain of ribs and chicken wings that I devoured at Red's and the barbecue sauce that I managed to squirt ALL OVER myself and my lovely dress (which is from Jovonnista). Eejit.