87.____Stella McCartney for Adidas

New term, new university, new start. So, with that in mind, I've got myself a gym membership for the first time, which I've already used... good start! Being the practical person that I am, and because The Boyfriend wanted to go, when we were in London we headed off to the Adidas shop. Apart from most of the women's range being in pink - yes, Adidas, I am a girl, but no, it doesn't mean I want to wear pink to the gym! They had a lovely range, in purples and silvers, this range is designed by Stella McCartney and is lovely, but unfortunately the price tag isn't so lovely.

£120.00

£50.00

£65.00

£50.00

£50.00

All images and prices from www.sweatybetty.com

Once I'd realised the price, I swiftly moved away from the rack, however, if I go often enough, I may be able to justify spending so much money on gym clothes!

86.___The Brasserie at Watergate Bay

The hotel's restaurant was wonderful, I'm sad and like to keep things that mean something, and managed to keep the menu from The Boyfriend's 21st. Here's what was on offer.

Starters

Chilled Gazpacho with white crab chilli and lemon

Fishcakes, picked cucumber ribbons with saffron aioli

Grilled Cornish sardines with sweet and sour pepper

Italian and heritage tomatoes with barrel aged feta, pine nuts, raisins, rocket and balsamic

Pork Rilettes with pickled apricots and toasted sunflower and honey loaf

Mains

Hake Saltimbocca on butterbean, lemon and herb ragout with crisp shallots

Fillets of south coast place with crushed earlies, brown shrimp and Buttervilla perpetual spinach

Grilled chicken breast with wild mushroom cream sauce, Russian kale and boulangere potatoes

Roast rump of lamb with broad beans, crushed mint peas and olive oil mash

Chick pea and Italian roast pepper tagine on pumpkin and saffron rice

Desserts

Orange cream with marinated figs and raspberries

Creme fraiche mousse, poached apricots and shortbread crumble

Chocolate torte with strawberry prosecco sorbet and pistachios

Apple strudel with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream

Yorkshire blue, Sue's Keltic gold and Hereford white cheese served with honey and sunflower bread and cucumber chutney

Roskilly's Farm Cornish ice cream

The choice is brilliant, and me being awkward, managed to eat (I'm allergic to dairy, lamb and beef). To start I had the fishcakes, which were the best ones I have truly ever tasted, I wasn't the only one who had them and we all wished that there was a choice to have them as a main. I also had the Chick pea tagine, which was lovely, although, not sure that I'd have it again, and, for dessert, I had a beautiful mango sorbet.

If you're staying in the hotel, there is a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast option, if not, the Brasserie is open to the public with three courses being £28.00 and two £22.00. Booking at www.watergatebay.co.uk

85.___The Lookout

For The Boyfriend's 21st I took him (well, he drove!) to Keswick in the Lakes for 3 nights, staying in a little B&B called The Lookout. Its a lovely B&B run by a really friendly couple with only 3 rooms, it's very homey and you're really looked after.

Here's pictures of our room - Room 3 - which is on the ground floor, with a double bed, 2 really comfy armchairs, a TV with freeview, a hairdryer and the most amazing shower!

I love these cushions!

And the Bathroom

Here's the breathtaking view from our room

Not bad!

If you want to stay here, it's on Chestnut Hill in Keswick - www.thelookoutkeswick.co.uk

Both myself and The Boyfriend would recommend this B&B we had a wonderful time.

84.___Cocktails at Fifteen

On The Boyfriends birthday we headed over to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen for cocktails which were lovely.

For the 6 of us we managed;
2 x Mojitos
3 x Damsonberry
1 x GT Turbo
1 x Cosmopolitan
1 x Fifteens amazing Dry Martini
2 x Fifteen Ice Tea

After being given a photocopy of the cocktail menu I can tell you that...

A Damsonberry (which is gorgeous by the way) is made of:
Fresh strawberries crushed with Tapatio Repasado Tequila (which we replaced with Vodka), Plymouth Damson Liqueur, lime juice and apple juice.

The Boyfriend and his brother braved the Ice Tea which consisted of...

Ketel One Vodka, Plymouth Gin, Havana Club Blanco, Tapatio Tequila and Cointreau shaken with their own home made cola and lime juice.

They only managed one each before returning to the old faithful beer!

The Cosmos looked great!

83.____Pictures of Cornwall

Here are some of the pictures I took when we were in Cornwall, the rest are on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/charliesmoothy

Kynance Cove

View from fifteen

Sunset at Watergate

82.____Happy Belated 21st Birthday to The Boyfriend

The Boyfriend was 21 last week, while we were in Cornwall, we had an amazing day, as you've seen the pictures from in the last post. In his own words he got, "a good haul" - such a man thing to say but he really did love his presents. I treated him to a weekend away in the Lake District, among other things, which we've just got back from. It was lovely, and I'm really pleased he had a good birthday.

81.___Cornwall, what we did in pictures.

We had a great time in the few days we were in Cornwall, none of us wanted to come home and back to work! I had the short straw of working the day after we got back, I wasn't impressed with the early starts! When my alarm went off at 7.20 all I wanted to do was open the balcony door and see the sea, what I was actually faced with was a rainy morning. Not happy.

The first day we were there, after the drive from Weston we had a lovely lunch in the hotel's bar on the terrace and headed down to the beach for a bit of paddling.

On our first full day at Watergate we spent the day in wetsuits body boarding, which was so much fun! I was the youngest one of us and we all found it brilliant, D & T even went back later in the week! Yes I do have photographic evidence of this, and no, I'm not going to show you!

The Wednesday was The Boyfriend's 21st, which I'll get to later. We had a brilliant day at the beautiful Kynance Cove, which is down near the Lizard and about an hour and a bits drive from the hotel.

The Boyfriend 

The View

On our last day we headed off to Padstow, which is lovely, it's a small town with lots of gorgeous independent shops, selling some really beautiful gifts and cards. 

Cornwall is lovely, definitely go if you haven't already, we're already planning our next trip!

80.___The Hotel at Watergate Bay, Cornwall

After the wedding we headed off to Cornwall for 4 nights, which was lovely. We stayed at The Hotel at Watergate Bay, the hotel is beautiful over looking Watergate Bay, and conveniently enough has Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant just across the car park!

We had a bedroom in the main hotel with a sea view, our room, which we think was a disabled room, as it had a different bathroom door to the other's rooms, was spacious with a double bed and balcony with amazing views!

(Sorry about how dark the photo is - you can still make out the furniture...just!)

The bathroom was wonderful, bath with a shower in it, and the toiletries were fabulous! A little set from L'Occitane, I was very impressed. 

The views were breathtaking, here's one of the sunsets taken from the balcony.

If you fancy heading over, here's their website The Hotel at Watergate Bay or if you're on twitter, follow them @WatergateBay.

79.____The Wedding

The wedding was brilliant, the bride looked stunning, it was a real family affair, with lots of The Boyfriends family making the journey to Weston. N had chosen a large meringue style dress with layers of voile for the skirt, with the bodice being a corset with beautiful embroidery.

The theme was fuchsia, which looked amazing, the picture below is of the flowers from the top table which were magnificent. 

Part of the decorations was a giant balloon arch, a specific choice of the bride, The Boyfriend and his brother were asked to pick it up which was hilarious, at first glance we thought it was a small single row tied onto a string arch. It wasn't, it was huge! Seeing the boys carry it through Weston's high street was wonderful, we got up extra early to go and see them instead of getting ready! Here it is, with the beautiful wedding cake, all in all it looked gorgeous.

The bride and groom's daughter M, who is 18months old was a bridesmade, she was lovely, here is a picture of her. The dress was amazing, it had fuchsia flowers sown into it. She was adorable, wandering around, winning everybody over.

 

We had a fabulous time, and the best part was that we stayed in the hotel so only had to walk upstairs afterwards. The morning after, slightly hung over, waking up to this view, we had an amazing carvery, brilliant to soak up the alcohol!

78.___The Royal Hotel, Weston-Super-Mare

I've been a busy girl this week - sorry for not being around. Last weekend was The Boyfriend's cousin, Naomi's wedding, in Weston-Super-Mare - which I'll tell you more about later, we went down for 3 nights, here is the hotel which we stayed in.

Image from www.rooms4u.org.uk

The hotel is great, right on the sea front, with rooms which can only be described as quaint. We ate in both the bar, the wedding party, breakfast and the carvery, all of which were lovely, although I do have to say that the carvery is the best one that I've tasted in a while. There was a choice of Beef, Gammon and Turkey with all the trimmings, needless to say that all of the men in the party, including The Boyfriend had a brilliant time piling their plates high, and there wasn't a single thing left.

There is wi-fi throughout the hotel, including all of the public areas with Sky TV (which the boys appreciated! The cricket was on!)

The pictures below are of our bedroom, it was lovely, the decoration was not my cup of tea but it was extremely comfortable and very clean. The only thing that was slightly bizarre was that as soon as you walked in the door there was 3 steps which lead to what you can see in the picture below.

This is the bathroom, which as a complete contrast to the bedroom was very modern, white and clean. The shower was great, very powerful and hot.

The toiletries in the room were lovely, and very well displayed, I have a thing about hotel toiletries and I also have an unfortunate habit of bringing them home with me!

The best thing about the room was the artwork on the wall, it was all of local scenes - some of them historic but local nonetheless. 

Now for the details;

The room above is a double room the prices of which per night are;
Room only £85.00
B&B £99.00
Dinner, B&B £139.00

The address of the hotel is;

The Royal Hotel
1 South Parade
Weston-Super-Mare
Somerset
BS23 1JP

Tel; 01934 423100

Email; reservations@royalhotelweston.com