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

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!

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:

My Week In Denver

It’s not often you get handed an all-expenses paid trip to your favourite country in the world, so when I was offered a chance to present my work at a pharmaceutical conference in Denver last week, I jumped at the chance!

 

Hard Rock Café – Denver Visit

It’s been a while since I last visited a Hard Rock Café (if you exclude my recent veggie post), but with my work trip to Denver this week, I couldn’t pass up the chance to add a new one to the list! Given that I’ve made it very clear to my work colleagues how much I enjoy my quest to visit them all, Tariq knew he wasn’t getting out of the experience, even before I dragged him along - as soon as the opening session of our conference was done, we were there like a shot!

Family Lunch at The Riverside in Dunblane

A couple of weeks ago, we had another one of many visits to our beautiful wedding venue in Dunblane. On this occasion, we were fortunate enough to have Jackie with us, and she insisted on treating us to family lunch at a location of our choosing. I’d recently stayed in Dunblane with work, and had passed by a wee pub which I thought would be perfect – The Riverside Pub, Kitchen and Coffee House.

 

Tickling Your Taste Buds with Taste Buchanan

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a couple of days now, but writing about several delicious treats while powering on with a fast day is pretty much unbearable! After the success of our first lunch date back in May, I’d been trying to arrange another meeting with Lis, a fellow blogger. Given our busy schedules, free time is often greatly restricted, so a second opportunity didn’t present itself until last Friday. With the original plan of burritos, I was initially sceptical of the last minute change to Taste Buchanan, but my opinion of the usual shopping centre food court has now changed for the better!

 

My Super Fantastic Hen Weekend!

Every bride needs a hen do, and I suppose I’m no exception! With all the stresses of work and kids, I was glad when my bridesmaids agreed to organise a top secret weekend getaway to celebrate the occasion! I’m not one for strippers or Ann Summers parties, so the whole affair was rather low key, but we still managed to have an absolutely fantastic time without doing anything too crazy!

A Summer Day Trip With My Mummy

This summer has been like most other summers – stuck in the house with nothing really exciting happening and no actual holiday away. When you’re saving for a wedding, sacrifices must be made, but I do miss a cheeky wee trip to the sun! Realising my frustration, my Mum came to the rescue with the suggestion that we head off to Northumberland for the day while Logan was at nursery and Paul was at work.

Holiday Fun with Paradise Island Adventure Golf

Who doesn’t love a bit of mini golf? The crazy courses, the novelty designs, the intricate contraptions that spin the ball in all directions – what’s not to love?! When I heard that Paradise Island Adventure Golf were celebrating their tenth birthday at intu Braehead, I was delighted to be invited along to try it out.

Making Time For Your Other Half

How’s everyone’s week been? I’m currently recovering from sobbing my heart out at last night’s Coronation Street – Jack P Shepherd is a fantastic actor and could move anyone to tears with the recent storyline. Given the heart-breaking conclusion to the episode, it made me glad that I have such a special ‘other half’ in my life, and that we made the most of our child-free week together!

 

Shamless Train Selfie!

Lochside Camping at Sallochy Bay

We are camping novices, but after getting loads of camping gear from my Mum for Christmas, we were determined to try it out! Being on a tight budget often means that both ourselves and our kids never really get summer holidays, but having a tent gives us the flexibility to take them anywhere and enjoy what the UK has to offer! That being said, we didn’t take the kids on this occasion - as we wanted to get used to the tent - but we will hopefully be organising a family camping trip in the near future.

Hard Rock Café – Glasgow Visit

For those of you who didn’t catch my post on the Edinburgh Hard Rock Café last month, I have recently started a personal challenge to visit all the Hard Rock destinations around the world. I don’t imagine it will be easy, and it will probably take longer than my lifetime, but it gives us something to do on future holidays! Given that we are not currently planning any foreign trips, I thought my second destination should be close to home.

Family Fun In The Sun At New Lanark

Twitter is a wonderful thing, I don’t know how I’ve lived without it for so long! When a good friend mentioned that New Lanark World Heritage Site were looking for bloggers to promote all of their attractions, I wasted no time in sending a wee tweet their way!

 

Hard Rock Café – Edinburgh Visit

As if we didn’t have enough things going on in our lives, I’ve now decided to add Hard Rock Cafés to the list - what could be more fun than a worldwide challenge to visit them all?! With destinations across every continent (except Antarctica), this is clearly a mission that will last my lifetime, so I thought I would begin with a visit closest to home - Edinburgh.

Family Sundays With The Trading House

Sundays are usually a difficult day for us – it’s the end of the week, we’re exhausted and we’re both filled with the Monday dread. Quality family time is the last thing on our mind, as we rush around doing housework and wishing our kids would stop fighting with each other! While we try to have a family dinner every Sunday, the hassle of preparing a glorious home cooked feast is often too much for Paul, and we resort to our usual favourite recipes, eating after the kids are in bed. When The Trading House in Glasgow got in touch to offer us a taste of their Sunday Roast, we jumped at the chance for a relaxing family dinner with none of the annoying preparation!

 

Weekend Fun With Glasgow Museums

Spring finally seems to be making an appearance and, with the improved weather, we have been hoping to get out and about more with the kids. When I was little, my grandparents would take me to all the local museums and fill my head with fun facts about historical events, so I wanted to do the same for our children. Our wedding has taken up most of our money over the past few years, so ideally we were looking for something cheap or free that would also be entertaining for young children (our youngest is 3). With Glasgow just a short journey away and bursting with interesting museums and galleries, we couldn’t think of anywhere better for our fun family day out – check out the Glasgow Museums website for more information!