Five Things I Love About This Time Of Year

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but as it's now October, and Halloween appeals so much to my sense of consumerism, I thought I’d share five things that I love about this time of year:

Birthday Treats at Smashburger, Glasgow!

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, you will know I’ve been absent for a wee while, trying to get my life together in the run up to the end of my PhD. In fact, I only re-joined the blogging scene about a week ago when I finally decided to get back in the saddle again after a six month break! No sooner had I returned to the blogosphere, an email popped up in my inbox announcing some new additions to the menu of my local Smashburger, and asking if I’d like to bring a guest along to sample the latest in gourmet burger goodies – with Friday being my birthday, I couldn’t resist!

Where Have I Been?

Gosh, it’s been such a long time since I wrote anything here, almost six months to be precise! The last time you heard from me, I was living the luxury cinema life at the new Odeon Luxe in Glasgow, but that now feels like an age away. I’ve had a lot of things on my plate in recently, mainly my PhD thesis, but I now feel like it’s time to come back – especially when I’ve always found my blog so helpful for dealing with stressful life situations.

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.

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!

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…

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!

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.

 

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!

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:

Hard Rock Café – Manchester Visit

I’d been meaning to write this post last week, before my house descended into Christmas madness, but work and other commitments piled up, so I’m only just getting around to it now. The weekend before Christmas was supposed to be the date of our wedding, but the original venue cancelled and we suddenly had a free weekend on our schedule. Rather than sitting around thinking about how we could already be married, we decided to book a weekend mini break away together, and Manchester seemed like the perfect escape. We didn’t get much opportunity to explore, given the Christmas craziness, but I did get the chance to visit another Hard Rock, so here is an account of my latest café visit!

Why is the Rum Gone?!

Ah, that age old question made famous by the Pirates of the Caribbean movies! Not something I thought I’d ever ask, but now at the forefront of my mind since my visit to the new Revolución de Cuba restaurant in Glasgow last Wednesday!

 

Fun Lunch Friday – Taste Buchanan

It’s that time of the month again – the first Friday after pay day, when you can push the boat out and live a little bit more luxuriously for one or two days! Forever on a budget, my idea of luxury is spending £10 on lunch, rather than £1, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fit in another ‘Fun Lunch Friday’! With this one being my choice, I dragged Sarahjane along to the recently opened Taste Buchanan.

 

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!

Fun Lunch Friday – Barburrito Queen Street

I’ve been raving about this for a while now, but today officially marks the start of my attempts to find alternative lunch venues to my work’s kitchen. Food is a big thing for me and, forever feeling like I’m on a diet, food can get pretty boring. It doesn’t help that I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t saving for a wedding, and I’m always reluctant to splash out on anything that doesn’t seem necessary. Saying that though, back when I was an undergraduate I would drag my good friend Elizabeth for food every Wednesday afternoon, and we had a great time - who knew yoghurt on a pizza would taste so good?! In an attempt to inject some fun back into the boring office lunch affair, I have now convinced Sarahjane to join me as I rekindle my love of the lunch friend date – albeit on Fridays and much less regularly than every week! Our first one on the list – Barburrito, Queen Street.

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.