Our fourth wedding anniversary

It was our fourth wedding anniversary last week. I know I know, I can't believe it's been four years either. 

Our anniversary fell on a Thursday which meant we didn't do much to celebrate on the day itself. However, we still opened our cards and presents and indulged in a few cranberry and white chocolate welshcakes from Fabulous Welshcakes.

The themes for fourth wedding anniversary gifts are fruit, flowers or linen, depending on which version you read. Neil and I don't stick to the themes too rigidly, but sometimes they can provide a spark of inspiration.

I had some lovely gifts from Neil, as always!

Beautiful flowers and a Mickey and Minnie Disney Traditions figurine. We got engaged in Walt Disney World five years ago so I love the sentiment behind this figurine. 

Cute Winnie the Pooh pyjamas which I've been coveting from Asda for ages. I'm a little disappointed that it's still too hot to wear long pyjamas to bed. 

Neil also bought a little floral charm for me from Amazon which fits perfectly on my Pandora bracelets. It's very pretty but didn't photograph well, so it couldn't be featured in the blog post! 

I got home from work on the day of our anniversary to discover that Jessie had very thoughtfully bought us a card. She'd also written a lovely message in it, although her handwriting looks suspiciously similar to Neil's. I still find big events and anniversaries a little difficult after the events of two years ago, so this gesture meant the world to me. 

We wanted to make sure we celebrated our fourth anniversary in style, so we went to Llanerch Vineyard for our celebratory meal last Saturday evening. It was a beautiful day which made the tranquil surroundings even more spectacular. 

We went the whole hog and had three courses (obviously), and everything tasted just as good as it looks in the mouth-watering photos below...  

Asparagus, black garlic emulsion, and a beer and charcoal polenta coated poached egg.

Sirloin steak with confit'd banana shallot, mushroom ketchup, crispy capers, smoked pancetta and truffle salted chips. 

Strawberry and pistachio meringue with clotted cream and vanilla ice cream. 

After finishing our meal and walking back to the car via some lovely views, we went home to Jessie and shared a bottle of wine to finish off the evening. Well, Neil and I shared a bottle of wine. Jessie had a dental stick and some chicken. 

I can't quite believe that another wedding anniversary has been and gone! We're now wondering how we should celebrate our fifth anniversary next year... watch this space. 

Sunday lunch at the Vale Resort

My parents-in-law bought us a voucher for Sunday lunch at the Vale Resort for our third wedding anniversary, and we finally booked to go last Sunday. We decided it would be good to double it up as a belated anniversary celebration and a Valentine's lunch!

It was a very cold day so I got wrapped up in my coat, hat and scarf. I only had to walk for about 20 seconds to get from the car park to the hotel, but I love any excuse to put on all my winter layers. However, I must admit that I didn't realise just how black my outfit was until I looked at this photo after we got home.

We were given the menu to have a look at as soon as we were seated in the Vale Grill. As we had a specific Sunday Lunch voucher, the menu was nice and simple with five options for each course. Our voucher was for a 2 course dinner, but we could also add a third course for £3 each if we wanted to. We knew the portions would be very generous and nothing grabbed our attention on the starter menu, so we decided we'd go for mains and desserts rather than going for the full three courses. 

For our mains, we both ordered the Roasted Sirloin of Welsh Beef. I tend to choose chicken whenever we eat out and I'm not a big fan of pork loin, so the beef was the obvious option for me. The main was made up of a few slices of beef (obviously), roast potatoes, a big Yorkshire pudding, green beans, mangetout, broccoli, roasted carrots and parsnips, cauliflower cheese, and gravy. 

Just look at the size of this! The green vegetables, roasted vegetables and cauliflower cheese were served in separate dishes so that we could help ourselves, and it's fair to say that we had a very generous helping of everything. Neil doesn't like cauliflower cheese and I love it, so that was an excellent plus for me as it was one of my favourite parts of the meal! The beef was cooked just right, and the roasted root vegetables and the roast potatoes in particular were excellent. I'm not ashamed to admit that I completely cleared my plate... in fact, I'd have been very ashamed if I hadn't. 

We'd already decided what we wanted for dessert before taking another look at the menu - pistachio panna cotta! I love panna cotta, whatever the flavour, and it's always a nice light option after such a big main meal. 

This dessert was exquisite, and I'm not just talking about the pretty presentation. Every aspect of this dish was absolutely delicious, even the little accompanying wafer. The toasted marshmallows were a stroke of genius and perfectly complemented the pistachios. Chocolate would never make it into my top five choices when it comes to ice cream flavours so I thought that might let the dish down for me, but this particular chocolate ice cream was lovely. 

At the end of the meal, we had a bill of £4.30 for our two pints of diet Coke. I was expecting them to be at least £3 each, so that was a pleasant surprise! If we'd have paid for our meal, it would have been £17.95 each. I think this is pretty good value when you take the quality and quantity of the food, and the quality of the resort itself, into account. 

I can definitely confirm that we'd be happy to visit the Vale Resort for Sunday lunch again. Have you ever been to the Vale for a meal? What did you think? 

Celebrating our third wedding anniversary

My regular readers (hello to all three of you) will already know that Neil and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. I've already blogged separately about a few of our anniversary celebrations, but we managed to fit loads in this year so I thought I'd write a post to summarise what else we got up to.

 cf

We were determined to make the most of this anniversary as I was in the middle of my cancer diagnosis nightmare on our second wedding anniversary. I had an urgent MRI scan on the actual day of our anniversary last year so it wasn't going to be too difficult to improve on that! My parents kindly took us out for a meal in the evening as they'd accompanied me to the hospital in the afternoon, but that was definitely the only saving grace.

The weekend before our anniversary, we visited The Making of Harry Potter studio tour in Watford. I'd had a difficult couple of months and Neil had been insanely busy in work, so we both really needed this long-awaited weekend away. We had a great time and I blogged all about the studio tour here. After spending the whole afternoon at the studios, there was a conveniently placed TGI Fridays right next to our hotel so we had a lovely meal and cocktails there on the Saturday night. I think a good old Jack Daniel's burger might be on my 'favourite meal ever' shortlist!

We got back from Watford early Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day with Jessie as we'd missed her so much while we were away. We initially didn't have any plans for the bank holiday Monday, then Sophie and Bryan invited us over for a barbecue which fitted in perfectly with our plans for the long weekend. The sun was shining and we spent a relaxing few hours talking, laughing, eating, and drinking wine (and some fruit juice).

Bank holiday Monday came and went all too quickly, but luckily we both had a few more days off work. The day before our anniversary, we went for afternoon tea in one of my favourite places in the world - Pettigrew Tea Rooms. I can't believe it's been over three years since the first time I visited there on my hen weekend... I must have been about 25 times since then! As always, the food and service was amazing and it was the perfect way to continue our anniversary celebrations.

To make the day even better, we managed to get a family selfie after we got home from our afternoon tea! We'd been trying to get Jessie to pose for a photo with us for days and she wouldn't cooperate, so I've decided she must have wanted to give her humans a nice anniversary gift. Or perhaps she was just tired and couldn't be bothered to be stubborn on this occasion...

On the day of our anniversary itself, we exchanged cards and gifts when we woke up. As leather is the symbol for the third wedding anniversary, Neil bought me a pretty leather bracelet from Pandora. This grey bracelet has been on my wishlist for a while so he chose very well, as always.

After going out for an obligatory hot chocolate in the afternoon (well, hot chocolate for me and coffee for him), we took Jessie for her evening walk then got ready for our meal at Etc Penarth. We had a really special evening with exquisitely instagrammable food which I blogged about here. As it was a rare opportunity to get dressed up, I wore my new white dress (sale bargain from New Look!) and my perfectly matching New Look shoes and Kate Spade bag. Colour coordination makes me happy, just in case you didn't know that already.

When we got back home after our meal, we settled down with a drink and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We're slowly making our way through the films again after visiting the studios... the second one is arguably the weakest film but we couldn't possibly leave it out.

I think you'll agree that this year's anniversary beats last year's, hands down!

Restaurant Review: Etc

We visited Etc in Penarth for the first time last week to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. We wanted to try somewhere new, unique and highly recommended, and Etc ticked all those boxes!

The restaurant was very quiet when we arrived at 6:30pm and we were seated straight away in a secluded spot next to the window.

Etc is a very small restaurant with a decadent black and gold interior, from the light fittings and the wall hangings down to the menus and candle holders. I'd read in a couple of reviews beforehand that the decor was 'too much', but I thought it was really classy and nicely done. And, crucially, it's very instagrammable! There were a few black and gold balloons dotted around so I assumed they were in preparation for someone's birthday party, but it turns out that they're all part of the restaurant's general theme. 

I'd already studied the innovative menu in great detail beforehand so I knew exactly what I was having to eat. However, it took a little longer to decide on my cocktail as the drinks menu was very extensive! I eventually settled on the Spiced Ginger Mojito, and Neil had a glass of Pinot Grigio. 

Although my starter was listed as a Small Plate on the menu rather than as an actual starter, I knew I absolutely had to order it as soon as I read the description. I chose the Chicken Satay which was mouth-wateringly described as 'peanut butter chicken infused with honey, coriander and chilli served on a bed of egg noodles'. Seriously, who wouldn't choose it with a description like that? 

As you can see, the 'small plate' was a decent portion size for a starter and it was so delicious. I usually struggle with taking meat off skewers (there was an embarrassing incident a few years ago when I accidentally flicked a piece of chicken across a crowded restaurant), but the meat on these skewers was lovely and tender. The egg noodles had a slightly nutty tang too and were just the right texture - not too chewy! 

After consuming this amazing starter, I was very excited about the prospects of the main course. I chose the vegetarian version of the Pineapple Upside Down dish which was made up of pineapple basmati rice with mixed peppers, chilli and coriander served in a pineapple shell.

Imagine my delight (and the speed in which my phone camera appeared) when this beauty arrived on our table! This portion was huge, bearing in mind that the pineapple shell was hollowed out and entirely filled with the tasty rice concoction. There were big chunks of pineapple included throughout and the delicate flavouring of the rice was divine. I'm not usually drawn towards dishes made up entirely of rice, but this one definitely didn't disappoint. 

We were both pretty full after our starters and mains but we decided to force some dessert down too as it was a special occasion (and because, let's face it, we love food). I went for one of my favourite desserts in the world - Vanilla Panna Cotta. This particular panna cotta came served with fresh strawberries and raspberries, and drizzled with a raspberry coulis.

Just like the other two courses, the presentation of the dessert was exquisite and the taste wasn't bad either. Although I've been very spoilt with my previous experiences of panna cotta as I usually order them in Italy, this one measured up very well compared to my authentic Italian desserts! 

This was one of our more expensive meals together at £75. Just to recap, this included two alcoholic drinks, two starters, two main courses and two desserts. It's obviously not somewhere we'd visit every week, but I thought it was perfect for a special occasion and well worth the money for such a lovely experience and amazing and out-of-the-ordinary culinary delights. The staff were friendly and attentive and the atmosphere was perfectly relaxed, just what we needed for our anniversary meal.

Have you ever visited Etc? What did you think? 

2016... the good bits!

You know a year has been particularly bad when people start using it as an adjective... 'Oh it was terrible, so 2016!' 2016 has given itself a bit of a reputation for being a lousy year, mostly because of game-changing political events and the seemingly endless stream of celebrity deaths.

Sadly,  aside from all this, 2016 has also been a bit of a personal disaster for me. It started with my grandmother passing away in February, then the whole summer and autumn disappeared in a thundering wave of horrible emotions caused by lots of tests, nail-biting delays and my resulting cancer diagnosis and surgery. When you combine these personal issues with the wider political calamities of 2016, it's hard to look at the year in any kind of positive light. In fact, I'm pretty sure I cried more in 2016 than in all my other adult years put together!

However, before I gladly condemn this year to the rubbish heap at midnight on New Year's Eve, I wanted to find a way to remind myself that 2016 hasn't been ALL bad. That's why I decided to blog about all the good times I've had this year - there have been plenty of them which means the year hasn't been a total write-off. I want to keep all those good times at the forefront of my mind rather than looking back in complete doom and gloom.

Without further ado, here are the greatest hits of 2016!

Fake Christmas

The annual much-anticipated 'Fake Christmas' event took place in January with my university friends. The year had already got off to a bad start by this point as I'd just found out that my grandmother was very ill, so this was a nice distraction with some of my favourite people.

Liz's hen weekend 

I had the opportunity to meet up with my university friends again in February for Liz's hen weekend. We spent the day in London with an underground challenge and afternoon tea, then had a sleepover in the evening with lots of crisps, wine, reminiscing and Cards Against Humanity!

Homes for Wales rally 

This was one work achievement I absolutely had to include in the best bits of 2016. Months of hard work preceded this huge event in March to raise awareness of the housing crisis ahead of the Welsh elections. It all paid off and this was one of my proudest days of the year!

Toronto

We spent a week in Toronto in March and had an amazing time full of sightseeing, spectacular views, Canadian culture and (of course) eating. I would definitely recommend Toronto if you're currently planning your next holiday!

Liz's wedding

I was very honoured when Liz asked me to be her bridesmaid for her and Pete's wedding in March. It was a lovely day (in spite of the torrential rain) and it was yet another chance to catch up with my university friends! Three times in three months... we really were spoilt this year.

Visits from friends

Nicola, Sarah, Liz and Fee all came to stay at various points throughout the year... I love having a spare room with a proper bed! These visits all consisted of lots of laughing, talking about old times, shopping, eating and drinking, and never failed to cheer me up whatever else was going on.

My 30th birthday 

I celebrated my 30th birthday in June and it seemed to go on for about a month. I was lucky enough to have lots of celebrations with different people and I received a huge amount of lovely gifts.

A visit to my nephews 

We visited my sister, brother-in-law and my two nephews in Southampton in July for my youngest nephew's second birthday. It was an unexpectedly sunny day and we had a lot of fun!

Second wedding anniversary

Although our second wedding anniversary was overshadowed by the news of my diagnosis a few days before (and my MRI scan on the day itself!), we still made sure we went out for a nice meal near Penarth Pier to celebrate.

Florida 

We went away to Walt Disney World in September, in between my diagnosis and my operation. In spite of the circumstances, we had an amazing time and were able to spend some quality time together in our favourite place.

Theatre trip to London

Three weeks after my operation, we went to London for a theatre coach trip which include a night away and tickets to see Aladdin on stage. We'd booked it months before everything happened but decided to go ahead anyway as there wouldn't be too much walking for me to do. It was so nice to be out and about again after being confined to the house for so long!

Harry Potter Studio Tour

I visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford with my university friends in November. It was even better than I'd ever imagined and I definitely want to repeat the experience!

Celtic Manor 

We went to the Celtic Manor for a night away, dinner and breakfast at the beginning of December because we thought we deserved a treat, quite frankly. It was a nice mini break and the Christmas decorations at the hotel were beautiful!

Christmas

I couldn't blog about my highlights of the year without including my favourite time of year... Christmas! We spent lots of time with family and friends, as well as relaxing with each other, and it was nice to finish 2016 on a high. 

So there you have it... obviously 2016 wasn't all bad. However, I'll still be glad to see the back of it and am desperately hoping for a calmer and happier year next year!

What were your best bits of 2016?

Restaurant Review: Cafe Citta

Cardiff's Cafe Citta has been on our 'restaurants we must visit' list for a long time and I'm pleased to announce that we finally got around to booking a table there last weekend.

I actually visited Cafe Citta for a business lunch a few months ago which prompted me to book a table for me and my husband to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our first date. Two main reasons for the haste in visiting again - the food was amazing and I was gutted that I didn't get to take a photo of it the first time around! Taking photos of your food isn't really appropriate when you're out on a business lunch (or so I'm told).

Cafe Citta is rated the 5th best restaurant in Cardiff on Trip Advisor and it's got an excellent reputation across the city and beyond. It's a tiny little restaurant on Church Street which could quite easily be overlooked, although the deliciously authentic Italian smell seeping out of there does give it away somewhat. It's a very popular restaurant so I would definitely recommend booking a table beforehand, particularly if you're visiting over the weekend.

We got the bus into town last weekend so that we could enjoy a few drinks throughout the day. I ordered a glass of Prosecco as soon as we got to Cafe Citta as it was the same price as a glass of wine... I love it when that happens! Each table is adorned with a candle and fresh flowers so I obviously had to include those in my first picture. An aesthetically pleasing table is always a good place to start!

We decided to go for starters as well as our mains just to make sure we sampled a wide range of dishes, so I chose the salami starter with spinach, garlic and chilli. It was ridiculously tasty and smelt divine... I could have eaten about three bowls of it! It's worth noting that we were sitting very close to the kitchen area so had a good view of the various starters being served to all the other customers. I can confirm that they all looked/smelt just as spectacular as this one. 

I decided to go for a pizza for my main meal this time around as I had pasta the first time I visited. Cafe Citta's pizzas are legendary so I was almost bouncing up and down on my seat in anticipation. I chose the Pizza Padana which came with salami, red onion and parmesan. In all seriousness, it's the best pizza I've ever had outside of Italy. The quantities of each ingredient were just right and of a very high quality, and the pizza dough itself was really thin and flavoursome. I can certainly see why these pizzas have earned their legend status! 

Our meal came to £39 which included a glass of Prosecco, a bottle of beer, two starters and two mains. I thought this was very reasonable considering the quality of the food and the overall enjoyable experience. We dealt with three different members of staff at various points throughout the meal and they were all friendly and attentive. I love the authenticity of this restaurant and the decor is unique and captivating... unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the interior itself due to the low lighting and fairly close proximity to other tables. 

So, to conclude, would I recommend Cafe Citta? A thousand times, yes! 

A very belated post... our first wedding anniversary!

It's been nearly six months since our first wedding anniversary, so what better time to blog about it? I'll pretend I meticulously planned it that way rather than quite simply forgetting to blog about it until today. 

Our wedding anniversary was on Sunday 30th August, but we decided to start our celebrations on the Saturday evening as that was exactly 52 weeks from the wedding day itself. This also meant we could celebrate for longer (and eat more celebratory food) which is always a bonus. As we held our wedding reception at Cardiff's Copthorne Hotel with amazing food, we decided to go back there for dinner on the Saturday night. Everything I wore was from New Look, of course!

I chose the goat's cheese and balsamic red onion tart to start and it was really really good. I was a bit worried about the goat's cheese as I hadn't tried it before, but it just made me realise that I've been missing out on a tasty flavour all these years! I had steak for my main meal which was also delicious (although not photogenic enough to appear here). 

It was great to be back at the Copthorne a year on, eating in the exact same room where we ate our wedding breakfast with our family and friends. The restaurant was nice and quiet, and I enjoyed a glass of wine while we were there. I also took the opportunity to pose in one of our favourite wedding photo spots! 

On the day of our anniversary itself, Neil gave me a beautiful 'cariad' locket from Clogau to mark the day. This photo definitely doesn't do it justice! He also printed a tiny wedding photo which fits perfectly inside the locket to make it extra special and significant. It has quite a long chain so it looks great with high-necked tops and dresses, and I absolutely love it. 

In the afternoon, we went to one of my favourite places in Cardiff... Pettigrew Tea Rooms! As usual, the afternoon tea was spectacular and I even got to try a new cake flavour - blueberry and orange. Absolutely divine. 

We went to the cinema after our afternoon tea, but I'm afraid I've completely forgotten what we went to see. This is what happens when I don't blog about an occasion until six months later! I'm sure the film was good, whatever it was. 

I obviously used our first anniversary as an excuse to post a few collages from our special day on Instagram. I love a good collage, and I had hundreds of wedding photos to choose from! 

We went to Florida a few days after our anniversary and enjoyed a few special celebratory meals there too, so it was a really lovely first wedding anniversary all round. 199 days to go until the second one!