I can Feel the Start of the Summer

After coming back from Texas, I knew I wanted to keep at travelling, but money, time and effort were of course issues. Next year, Alex and I have decided we want to a Californian road trip that includes spending a day at San Diego Comic Con dressed as Riker and Deanna Troi (if you know how we can do accurate outfits at a reasonable price, let me know please!). This is obviously going to be pretty expensive, so in saving for that, we decided not to do something too adventurous.

I suggested Barcelona as I've always wanted to go but haven't been yet, and Alex has been and loved it. Using travelsupermarket, expedia, lastminute.com and hotels.com, I came up with 3 days in Madrid, and 7 in Barcelona with flights in between. However, once we added on baggage, (I said I could handle just handluggage, but nopes, I highly doubt I could) and extras like sightseeing bus tours, it all got too expensive. Therefore, I gave up and left it to Alex to finalise.

Dun dun duunnn...he came up with...

7 nights staying at Hotel SB Plaza Europa! It looks fab! From the 2nd July til 9th July, we shall be living on sangria and tapas, I'm so excited!

I can't wait! This is definitely one of the holidays I've most looked forward to. Even the thought of getting bikini ready isn't daunting me too much. I've joined the gym, downloaded myfitnesspal which is the best app I've found to keep track of my progress and daily calorie intake, to try and trim down a bit, I'd love to lose another stone, but in all honesty I've never felt more secure in myself. There is still great room for improvement, but I am incredibly comfortable that I'm loved as I am, so any improvements I make are an added bonus really. The boy's a good 'un, my friends are definitely confirming themselves as people I'm very blessed to have around, and I've settled in my faith once more.

All Done With 21

My actual birthday is 13th April, but I am writing this post now because I have finally completed all of my celebrations. I was a bit all over the place about this birthday but it actually turned out brilliantly, I could not have asked for more.

Thankfully, my birthday fell on a Monday with the weekend before being a time off university for most of my friends, and Alex could come to stay. There were a few people that couldn't make it in the end, which was a shame, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself with everyone anyway.

On the Friday night, I went for a night out in Liverpool. It is my home town so I am a little biased, but especially with it being Grand National weekend, Liverpool truly lived up to being one of the best nights out in not only England, but also Europe. If you're in the area, try and plan for a night there, you won't regret it. We started off in Heebie Jeebies, a really chill place with room (and music) for dancing, as well as sitting and chatting, so it was the perfect meet up place to start off the night. The drinks are pretty reasonably priced, and there's a limited range of cocktails so I stuck with my trusty JD and lemo. Gradually everyone turned up, and once I started dancing I decided we should move on.

We queued for a little bit to get into Alma de Cuba which was ram packed. It's a more up market (read: expensive), cocktail bar where they have amazing Brazilian carnival dancers performing all night. It being a cocktail bar, I ordered the only one I'm really a fan of: sex on the beach, Alex had some whiskey based one that can in a brandy glass with orange people, both were super tasty. Then we got to dancing. The music in there isn't too dissimilar to Heebies, very much classic easy to dance to stuff. After there we finished at Mojo. Even though they've painted over the quote, and stopped you from dancing on the pool table, the atmosphere is still incredible. There music is a lovely cross between funk and indie, there is very rarely a song that comes on that I don't know or can't dance to.

The Saturday and Sunday were far more relaxed. My parents took Alex and I to the Miller and Carter restaurant/steakhouse on the Albert Dock on the Saturday for dinner, my mum still maintains it's the best steak she's ever had. Then on Sunday, Alex and I entertained ourselves in Bierkeller for the afternoon, sampling the steins available and playing a stupid amount of pool.

Then my birthday arrived! I was royally spoiled with presents that I am incredibly grateful for. My favourite one was also the most sentimental. When my Granny (dad's mum) passed away, I was about 3 and my Granddad had got the £5 coin that was minted that year for each of the grandchildren. He put it in a little pouch and gave it to me, but my dad decided to keep it until I was old enough to appreciate it. With my Granddad passing away a few years ago too, it was incredibly touching that my dad chose to give me the coin then. We then spent the day at Chester Zoo, replicating my first birthday. It was vey relaxing, exactly what I needed.

 

 

That day I also finally found out Alex's surprise present for me: we were going to LEGOLAND!!
We went on 26th-27th April, and stayed in the LEGOLAND hotel. We were definitely the only childless couple in the hotel, and were probably only one of about five childless couples out in the resort, but that didn't phase us at all. The food in the hotel was really decent for mass produced but the service was a little all over the place and slow. The rooms were the best part of the hotel. They all come in certain themes, we were in an adventure themed one, and as it was a premium room both the children's bedroom, the adult's one and the bathroom were decorated. We also got free lego because we completed the mini quest!

 

My favourite part of the whole park was mini land. Landmarks from countries from all around the world have been recreated ridiculously accurately in lego, it's beyond impressive.

The fact that it was during the school term, there not that many people there so we got around everywhere at least twice and barely queued for rides. Also, as it is aimed at children, scaredy-cat me could go on even the biggest ride!

We bought something called a digipass for £30. It meant that we could get a digital copy of all of the photos taken of us on rides, and one printed copy at the park. Considering one printed copy at the park cost £10 alone, it was a bargain! Definitely the second best spend of the day after the £50 I spent on Batman lego...

Sorry this post was so long, I had a very busy but lovely time! Now for the fun to end and the work to begin...