A birthday day out

A couple of weeks ago it was the hubby's birthday, and we both took a day off work to celebrate. I really wanted to make it special, because the last few years have been a little bit all over the place. We have been really enjoying Masterchef recently, so I made one of the recipes from the taste test rounds, and set the Birthday table to start the celebrations.

We are really trying to see more of the city that we live in, and the aquarium has been on our list of things that we wanted to visit for a long time. So we headed off to the beautiful waterfront in Bristol to see all of the tropical fish, and the famous Giant Pacific Octopus.

 

The colours were so vivid and beautiful.

 

This was my favourite fish, it was a really beautiful turquoise colour and randomly looked like a very small penguin.

We then headed to Pitcher and Piano for an afternoon drink and a bit of people watching.

The next part of the day, meant a questionable journey to a part of St Paul's I hope that I will never have to visit again. We made our way to The Cider House for cider tasting. We were each given a tray of 8 ciders served in 3rds of a pint. It's fair to say that the venue could use a little bit of sprucing up, but we had such a good time and definitely left a little tipsy!

Our final stop on our little tour of Bristol was Atomic Burger a restaurant that we have been desperate to try for an age. The place is so fun, with references to comic book heroes throughout the decor, including the toilets that are wallpapered with comic book pages. 

The menus are also set out like a comic book, with each burger being given a top trump score.

I went for the Daisy Duke burger and a peanut butter milkeshake. Both were to die for, but seriously calorific!

I also loved the cute quote on the bottom of the bill.

Instagram Memories #6

Jaimes 5 minute meals /// Much needed Friday night glass of Fizz  

 My new stippling brush from Real Techniques /// Gym Time

Such a lovely lunch at Cherry Duck in Bristol /// Beers at Brew Dog...

 

Instagram Memories #2

 

Finally got the Oyster & Caviar Palette from Bobbi Brown which I love love love /// My 'first Christmas' bauble now on my tree

 

A token Christmas tree in the Nicholls household /// Hoping we've been good and that he might make a surprise visit before heading abroad

 

Blog planning for the Christmas holidays /// Planning, iPad and home decor porn = perfect evening in

 

Lone trip to the cinema and I was convinced to buy the worlds biggest drink all to myself /// Amazing street food in Bristol, nom nom

 

Wrapping style 2012 /// Pre-holiday pamper treat

Ambitions & Goals for 2013

Picture credit from My Pretty Pennies

I don't really want to make resolutions for 2013, as like everyone else I will break them within a couple of weeks, if not days, so instead I have been thinking more about the ambitions that I have and the goals that I want to achieve over the next 12 months. 

I wanted to document them here on my little blip of the internet, so that I can keep you updated with how I do, and hopefully it might make some interesting posts for you all to read...

• Do more and see more - I'm really excited to get under the surface of Bristol and build up a greater appreciation of my new home town!
• Increase my followers on the blog.
• Organise, Organise, Organise!!!!  I want to get posts written up and scheduled every week, with tweets! Need to make some room for power hours during the week to do this.
• I would love to learn some basic HTML so that I can get to grips with a bit of editing and make my page look pretty.
• Learn how to use my sowing maching...and then make something on it (see goal below).
•  I will do one thing from my Pinterest Board "For When I Have Time..." every 3 months.
• Reading is one of my favourite ways of relaxing and for my birthday my friend brought me an amazing moleskin book journal, so I am going to start making notes on books that really inspire me or become a part of me. I sometimes feel like I have totally lost track of some of those stories that I found really special and I think this will make a great keepsake. 
• Become photo happy :-) The last few years I have been rubbish at taking photos, so I vow to take lots more, display more and organise them so that I can find them on my computer. Apologies to all of you that follow me on instagram, you might be bombarded.

I have loved reading everyone's resolutions, ambitions and goals for 2013 so please link your posts in the comments section below.  

Friday Night Curry from Maaza Namaskar Lounge

It would break all the rules if you didn't eat curry on a Friday night, so last week the hubby and I headed down to the Water Front in Bristol city centre to sample the Asian delights of Maaza Namaskar Lounge.

This is not the traditional curry house - no flocked wall paper, no psychedelic carpet or overly patterned crockery in this place. Just gorgeous sleek modern interior design with a nod towards 1920's styling which screams glamour, and makes it a necessity to have a Namaskar cocktail at the deep mahogany bar!

The menu is a modern and small version of a traditional curry house menu, along with some of the chefs specials. We were tempted by the Namaskar stuffed pepper, and onion bhajya but opted for the mixed BBQ to share; lamb and chicken tikka and lamb sheekh kebab all smothered in the chefs special BBQ sauce Followed by a very hot chicken dhansak, the chefs speial lamb adrakh, pilau rice, sagg aloo and nann all cooked in front of our eyes in the live kitchen.

Delicious - we left satisfied and with full bellies! I can confirm that it also tasted amazing re-heated up for Saturday lunchtime.

A perfect Friday night! Do you have any favourite spots in the South West to share?

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