Luxury Cinema Experiences with Odeon Luxe

With advances in home technology, and the increasing amount of various streaming services available to us, relaxing with snacks and a movie has never been easier. We have the ability stay in our own comfortable surroundings (usually while wearing jammies) and are spoilt with a huge choice of viewing entertainment, especially when companies such as Sky have movies in their store, sometimes within a couple of months of their big screen debuts – what is there to encourage cinema trips anymore?

 

Picture courtesy of Mischief PR and Odeon Cinemas

Fun Lunch Friday – Topolabamba, Glasgow

Since starting a blog, I’ve had so many brilliant opportunities to discover new things and visit a whole host of exciting new places, but my favourite thing to come out of the blogging world is definitely the wonderful people I’ve been able to interact with! As such, I wanted to include the lovely Lis (from Last Year’s Girl) in mine and Sarahjane’s semi-regular ‘Fun Lunch Friday’ exploration of the Glasgow food scene!

 

This week has not been a particularly good one for general health – Sarahjane was off ill and I’d had a churning stomach all morning – but I was determined not to cancel when it was Lis’ first choice of lunch destination. The original location was Chaakoo Bombay Café on St Vincent Street, but we arrived to find it fully booked out for lunch! Luckily, their Mexican sister restaurant was only a few doors down on the same street, so we opted for a stop at Topolabamba instead, with a view to returning to Chaakoo at a later date.

My American Travel Wish List

This time last year, I was enjoying one of the major highlights of PhD life while exploring the fantastic city of Denver. Having the ability to jet off for international conferences is one of the opportunities I would encourage anyone in my position to grab if at all possible, I was able to spend a wonderful week in the ‘Mile High City’, experiencing all the things I love about America - which (of course) mostly involved food! You can read all about that trip here, but it also got me thinking about all the other American destinations that I would love to visit at some point. With everything that’s happened this year, I never got round to posting about our Seattle honeymoon, but I’ve put together a collection of other places which are high on our travel wish list:

 

Organising Your Life With BusyB

It’s been a crappy few months, and not the most fantastic year overall, so when I received a lovely email from the team at BusyB, inviting me to the launch of their new collection of diaries and calendars for 2018, it seemed like a wonderful excuse to start looking forward to the future again! When I was little, I would always get such a great sense of enjoyment from surrounding myself with beautiful stationery, so having the chance to relive those moments again has undoubtedly helped improve my rather gloomy mood lately.

Smashburger Arrives in Glasgow

These days, when I think of burgers, I automatically associate them with the streets of Glasgow and the ever-expanding list of gourmet burger restaurants which serve them. I’ve even started a semi-regular ‘Glasgow Burger Tour’ with a couple of friends, with the aim of trying to discover even more varieties of this glorious American dinner option! When an email arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago, inviting me to the upcoming VIP launch of Smashburger in Glasgow, I jumped at the chance to expand my inventory of burger experiences, and (since he’s just started a new job near me) I dragged Scott along for the ride!

Link It! – A Fun Game For All The Family

In our household, we love a good card game, but it’s often the adult themed favourites (Cards Against Humanity, Never Have I Ever…) which are first on the table, meaning my kids are always excluded from the fun. When an email arrived in my inbox, asking if I wanted to try the new, fast-paced, family card game ‘Link It’ from PikyKwiky, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to include my children in one of our favourite pastimes!

 

Recurrent Miscarriage – The Answers We Didn’t Want To Hear…

(I feel this post needs a specific disclaimer. Please note that I am not an expert in medicine or genetics, the following is only intended to provide a brief description of my current condition and should not replace any advice given to you by a doctor.)

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you will be aware of the difficulties we’ve experienced while trying to grow our brood. October marks not only a year since we made the decision to add a third child to our family, but also the due date of our second pregnancy of the year, which ended in March. As today also marks the start of national baby loss awareness week, I thought I would share the results of our recent medical investigations, which were carried out while looking into the cause of our recurrent miscarriages…

More Bonus Time With Clinique And Debenhams

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been running through all my tester sized Clinique products, waiting for the next ‘Bonus Time’ event before I stock up again. Thankfully, a chance wander through Debenhams yesterday brought to my attention the most recent offer of goodies, so I dipped in to the remainder of my birthday money for a wee splurge on some much needed skincare!

 

The Readers - #7 Magenta Opium

It really has been a struggle to keep up with The Readers recently. With all the stress of my miscarriages, and then moving house, I’ve had so much on my plate that I’ve not been able to concentrate on reading. Top that off with the imminent conclusion of my PhD and the general decline in our mutual love of Book Club (we lost a member in the shape of Nikki), and it’s now six months down the road again. I also feel particularly bad, as this one was my choice, but I was the one holding everything up! Anyway, now that I’m finally finished, I present to you our latest slice of fun fiction – ‘Magenta Opium’ by Sharon Baillie.

Fun Lunch Friday – Steak, Cattle and Roll, Merchant Square

As the PhD reaches its conclusion, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to set time aside for blog posts. I fully intended to write this post up last night but, by the time I’d got home from the office, I was just too exhausted to sit still and think. Nevertheless, I’m determined to keep up some sort of semi-regular blog schedule, so I’m typing this up from my Saturday morning position of comfort on the couch, in my jammies!

Beating the Blues with Halloween Treats

September marks the arrival of autumn and the slow build up to the end of the year. The clothes shops are filling up with all the wonderful winter styles, and pumpkin spiced everything is now available, in some form, wherever you go! I usually love this season, but it’s seems tinged with a level of sadness this time around because Thursday marks what would have been the due date of my first pregnancy this year…

Choosing the Perfect Wedding Photographer

It’s a huge decision… who are you going to be comfortable with while they snap you in your dressing gown, getting ready? Are the children going to like them, or run away from every photo op? Is the work going to be any good, or am I going to be stuck with a set of posed group shots, similar to the school photos of old? I’m sure every couple would have similar questions when looking for a wedding photographer, but I present you with the perfect solution… Jenni Browne Photography!

 

Fun Lunch Friday – Café Andaluz, Glasgow City Centre

It seems like such a long time since our last ‘Fun Lunch Friday’, but with all the crap going on in my life, I’ve not felt much like doing anything fun. Regardless of this, I didn’t want Sarahjane to go off on her work placement without catching up beforehand, especially as I’m going to miss her birthday! So yesterday, I brought in her birthday presents, and we resumed our lunchtime tours of Glasgow with ‘Fun Lunch Friday’… on a Thursday!

Am I Managing?

It’s been two weeks since we found out our little bean had died, and I still feel lost.

 

From Hoping to Coping…

Last week, we were in a position of not knowing if our baby was alive or dead – a scan had shown a heartbeat, but further bleeding had convinced medical professionals that a miscarriage was imminent. How do you continue with everyday life when such a dark cloud is hanging over your head?

Schrödinger’s Baby

We’ve not had a lot of luck on the baby front recently, as you may have read if you follow my posts. Our desire to grow our family has been met with obstacle after obstacle, which seems to serve only to intensify our need to add a third child to our brood. The situation has been made even more difficult by the wave of pregnancies that seem to be crashing through both our personal and work lives, and I really wish I could be jumping up and down with people, sharing their excitement. I have been longing to add our own special announcement to the mix, but nerves always prevent feeling any level of joy after the multiple losses we have faced.
 

I wish my next words could be the happy announcement we were hoping for, but it seems that, once again, we have picked the short straw… We are pregnant again, but it looks like it may end in another miscarriage.

Glasgow Burger Tour – Bread Meats Bread

It seems like I’ve been away from the blog for ages, and I’ve honestly struggled to find any sort of motivation or desire to share anything with anyone. You can read about the circumstances surrounding my absence here, but in the interests of moving on and putting the past behind me, I thought I’d jump straight back in with another delicious food post!

 

‘Fun Lunch Friday’ became a bit of a thing with me and Sarahjane, but this only works well because we spend so much time together at work. As I love trying out new restaurants whenever I have the chance, I was keen to arrange a recurring event that would allow both Paul and myself to visit places with other friends too - hence, the ‘Glasgow Burger Tour’ was born!

 

Now, Scott and Karen are close childhood friends of Paul’s, but various work and family commitments now prevent us from spending much time together as a group. I’ve also been keen to improve relations since my rather bat-shit crazy bridezilla behaviour in the run up to our wedding! The Glasgow Burger Tour seemed like a fantastic opportunity to get together semi-regularly, while also enjoying a huge range of different restaurants as we gradually work our way through the Glasgow burger scene – first on the cards, Bread Meats Bread.

 

A Sneak Peek of Domina

When we first started our ‘Readers’ book club, I was delighted with the opening choice of novel – Maestra, by L. S. Hilton, was a fantastically sexy thriller, which played with the idea of the traditional heroine figure and lead the reader on a fast-paced tour of Europe, filled with intrigue, blackmail and murder. This April (today in fact), we are once again treated to a further instalment of this world in the form of Maestra’s sequel – Domina.

 

The Readers - #6 I Let You Go

It seems like ages since my last ‘Readers’ post, but with my wedding and Lesley’s work commitments, it has proved difficult for us all to get together and discuss our latest choice. Given recent upheavals in my own life, I’m also glad I finished this one a couple of weeks ago, as I’d have hated to hold up the proceedings any further. So, without further ado, I present you with Lesley’s latest choice - ‘I Let You Go’ by Clare Mackintosh.

 

When One Helping of Loss Wasn’t Enough…

How did you spend your Mother’s Day? Did you shower your Mum in gifts and make her feel like the most special woman in the world? Perhaps you were woken by noisy kids, jumping on your bed and smearing buttery fingers over a hand-made card, which accompanied your freshly prepared breakfast? I had every intention of joining my Mum for a quiet afternoon tea at a secret location of her choosing, but instead spent the whole day in my jammies, feeling sorry for myself – one week ago today, I suffered another miscarriage.

An Evening of Tasty Treats from Browns, Glasgow

I’ve never thought of myself as a food blogger specifically, but it seems my last couple of posts have taken me further in that direction – who doesn’t love sampling delicious dishes whenever the opportunity arises? When I was contacted to try out the new menu being launched at Browns, on George Square, I jumped at the chance to see what tasty goodies they had to offer!

 

Fun Lunch Friday – Mercado, Merchant Square

‘Fun Lunch Friday’ seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside since Christmas and my wedding, but today, Sarahjane and I resurrected our semi-regular lunch date with a trip to Mercado in the beautiful Merchant Square, Glasgow.

Hard Rock Café – Seattle Visit

Most of you now know, I recently got married and spent a fantastic honeymoon in rainy Seattle! An odd choice for a romantic getaway, but a place both of us wanted to visit and neither of us had been before. With my current ‘Hard Rock’ obsession, it was also obvious I would pick somewhere that was home to one of their cafes, so luckily Seattle fit the bill nicely!

Loss...

What is the right way to deal with a loss? How long do you need to feel an attachment in order to justify grieving for that which is no longer there? Since starting a blog, I’ve addressed personal issues for others to read, but I’ve been struggling with the notion of discussing this particular event, as I know it will likely invite inevitable questions and sympathy from those who will read it. I also don’t want to offend those whose first knowledge of the event will come from this post. Throughout my life, I’ve felt like I’ve constantly been judged, so I suppose I’m embarrassed and frightened that my life choices will, once again, be judged by others. Despite all this, I feel it’s an important topic to raise awareness of, and I’m glad I knew someone who had shared this experience with me before I found myself in exactly the same situation…

 

Bonus Time With Clinique And Debenhams

It feels like ages since I’ve written a post, especially with most of my time going into organising my wedding! Now that I’m finally married, I’m looking to get back into the swing of things over here on the blog. Given that I’m just easing back to normality at the moment, I’m only going to leave you with a quick post this time, but I’m sure I will be telling you all about my wedding and honeymoon in the not-too-distant future!

 

Saturday in the City with Social and Cocktail

Who doesn’t love a good cocktail?! When I opened my inbox, just before New Year, to find an invite to an evening of ‘cocktails and cabaret’ in Glasgow’s city centre, I just couldn’t resist! Social and Cocktail, a mobile drinks company who specialise in cocktail making master classes, teamed up with The Riding Room, in Glasgow, and invited a bunch of lovely bloggers along to sample their cocktails and enjoy a snippet of the regular entertainment on offer – how could I turn this down?!

A Look Back On 2016

I’d originally planned to have this post ready to go by December the 31st, but I managed to come down with some sort of sickness bug and welcomed the New Year with my head in the toilet! Nevertheless, I always enjoy looking back on good times, so I wanted to collect my most popular posts from each month as a sort of 2016 highlights reel! With this being my first full year of blogging, I also feel like I’ve finally gotten into my stride with writing, although my planning and organisation skills still need a bit of work! I’ve had some great opportunities over the past year and met some fantastic people along the way, so here’s a snapshot of what I’ve been up to: