My birthday celebrations

Another year, another birthday... I seriously can't believe it's June already. At the risk of sounding like a carbon copy of everyone else, where on earth has this year gone?

My birthday fell on a dreaded Monday this year so I decided to do most of my celebrating the weekend before. The week leading up to my birthday weekend was pretty dull weather-wise, but the sun came out just in time!

We took Jessie for a long walk on Saturday afternoon then went to Etc for an early dinner. Although I've only been to Etc a couple of times, it's quickly becoming one of my favourite restaurants for special occasions.

The sun was still blazing when I was getting ready so I decided to wear one of my brightest outfits to make the most of it.

When you take a look at what I ate and drank on Saturday evening, it's easy to see why Etc has become a firm favourite...

Lavender Fizz - a gin cocktail 

Sweet potato confit, crispy chorizo and sage 

Cauli-meflower (chargrilled cauliflower steak, spiced red lentil dhal, tempura purple sprouting broccoli, caramelised grapes and curry oil)

Etc Berry Mess 

Banana Daiquiri 

'That all looks amazing!' I hear you say (hopefully). And you'd be absolutely right. 

On the Sunday, we took Jessie for another long walk then drove to Joe's Ice Cream on Wellfield Road for the first time in years. I'd never dream of ordering a tub of plain vanilla anywhere else, but I can't resist Joe's vanilla ice cream. It tasted just as good as we remembered, if not better. 

As always, the weekend flew by and it was business as usual on Monday. I had 5 meetings so it was a long day in work, but I had lots of lovely birthday wishes and a couple of cards from my colleagues. I also brought doughnuts and cookies in to the office, and it would have been very rude of me not to sample a few for myself as the birthday girl.

I opened my presents from Neil (and Jessie!) when I got home from work, then we went to Romeo's by the Sea for a quiet meal. We were home by 8:30pm and finished off the evening by sitting down to watch an episode of Homeland, our new series of choice.

Thank you to everyone for your lovely gifts, cards and messages. I had lots of pink and Disney-themed presents and cards as always, and I'll continue to post lots of my gifts on Instagram over the next few weeks.

I'll leave you with one happy thought... 200 days to go until Christmas Day. You're welcome!

Restaurant review: The Claude

The Claude is a huge pub situated at the end of Albany Road at the very edge of Cardiff's Student Land. I'm aware that it doesn't actually qualify as a proper 'restaurant', but I had lunch there last weekend and the food rivalled a lot of restaurants I've eaten in recently. It therefore qualifies for a restaurant review!

The menu has lots of different options and deals, just like your typical pub menu, and all the choices are extremely reasonable. I decided to opt for the chicken fajitas for £5.99. Those of you who eat chicken fajitas in restaurants regularly will know that they're never this cheap! I wasn't expecting great wonders, but it was one of the healthier options on the menu.

When everyone's food started arriving at the table, we knew we were in for a treat. All the meals were huge! The fajitas came with countless strips of chicken, peppers, onions, sour cream, cheese, salsa and three large wraps. I've eaten a lot of fajitas in my time, and these were definitely better than the fajitas I've had in the Harvester and in T.G.I. Friday's. The spice they used on the chicken was amazing! I was also very happy with the large wraps provided as it's always a bit of a mission when you're trying to fit everything in to the tiny little wraps provided in T.G.I. Friday's. I finished every little bit of the fajita mix and genuinely didn't need to eat again for the whole day. 

The pub was pretty busy and rowdy while we were there as there was football on the big screens, but it was still a nice place to have a meal and a catch up. It's a very family friendly pub as well as being ideal for students and people eating out on a budget (me).

I don't visit the Albany Road area of Cardiff very often, but I'll definitely be tempted to go back to the Claude when we do visit in the future. These fantastic fajitas followed by a Joe's Ice Cream Sundae from the next street along... what more could you possibly ask for?

Happiness is... #1

I saw the idea for this post on the lovely A Life of Geekery blog, where Vicki has listed 100 things which make her happy in two separate posts. I'm going to write about 50 things rather than 100 things... I'm not sure if I could come up with 100 things within a realistic timeframe! It's good to reflect on what makes you happy whenever life seems a bit rubbish, however small those things may seem, so this list should come in useful.

I decided to link each item to a relevant blog post if there was one... it turns out that I write a lot of blog posts about the things that make me happy! Isn't that what blogging should be all about? That's probably a separate blog post in itself.

So here are the first 25 things that make me happy, in no particular order...

1. Cwtches (or hugs, for those of who you aren't aware of this lovely Welsh word)
2. Listening to my Now That's What I Call Disney CD
3. Fresh bedding
4. Haribo Jelly Babies
5. Buying outfits for Duffy the Disney Bear
6. A good session in the gym
7. Proofreading
8. Joe's Ice Cream
9. Going on holiday to Florida
10. McFly
11. Sun
12. Buying a new diary
13. Painting my nails
14. Going for long walks
15. Friendly people
16. Pyjamas
17. Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean
18. Saving money
19. My Kindle
20. Watching a Disney film
21. Friday evenings
22. Barbecues
23. Watching Outnumbered
24. Ticking items off my to-do list
25. Welsh rugby Grand Slams

What makes you happy?

Joe's Ice Cream

I briefly mentioned the beauty of Joe's Ice Cream in my Date Day post a few months ago, but thought it definitely warranted its own post as it's one of my favourite guilty pleasures. A Joe's Ice Cream Parlour has recently opened on Wellfield Road in Cardiff, much to my delight. Myself and my boyfriend would quite happily drive to Swansea just to sample some Joe's Ice Cream, so we're pretty pleased that there's now a parlour a bit closer to home. We've so far managed to avoid the temptation to visit every weekend, but I can't promise that our willpower will last throughout the summer.

The exterior of Cardiff Joe's Ice Cream parlour... not very glamorous

I'm a massive ice cream fan, so I've eaten a lot of it in my time. However, nothing beats Joe's vanilla ice cream. I've never even felt the need to taste their other flavours as the vanilla is so amazing. It's wonderfully creamy and leaves you wanting to eat a whole litre tub of it. Thankfully I've never succumbed to this particular temptation. 

I usually have a small tub with one or two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a wafer. However, I would strongly recommend their huge variety of sundaes and 'North Poles'. If I ever splash out and have one of these varieties, I go for the caramel sauce every time as it's rather exquisite. You can also have your choice of nuts or chocolate sprinkles. I suggest you go for the nuts if you choose the caramel sauce as they complement each other perfectly. 

A caramel North Pole!

Considering the high quality of the ice cream, the prices are very reasonable at Joe's. For example, the North Pole pictured above was less than £3 for a lot of ice cream, caramel sauce, three wafers and nuts. And there really is a LOT of ice cream in it, believe me. My only complaint about the parlour on Wellfield Road is that the seating is very limited so you usually have to eat your ice cream out on the street or in the car if you visit during a busy period. This is fine on a sunny day, but not so much fun when it's raining.

If you haven't been to a Joe's Ice Cream parlour yet, what are you waiting for? I can promise you won't regret it!

Everything else is just ice cream!

Date day :)

I love date days. I've been with my boyfriend for nearly two years and I'm a firm believer in going on frequent dates, however long you've been together for. We hadn't spent much quality time together recently due to our busy lives, so we scheduled in a date day for Easter Sunday.

All ready and smiley!

Date days always seem so much more appealing when the weather is nice. It was a bit cold which meant it was the perfect weather to wear my Ugg boots, but sunny enough for my new sunglasses from New York!

Scarf and sunglasses... that works, right?

First of all, we took a trip to Wellfield Road to the brand new Joe's Ice Cream parlour. We're big fans of Joe's and usually drive all the way to Swansea for it, so it's pretty exciting that the real thing is now being sold in Cardiff. For those of you who have never tasted Joe's Ice Cream, you really need to. As their slogan rightly states, everything else is just ice cream!

It might sound dull, but you can't beat their vanilla ice cream!

After enjoying our ice cream in the flashy new parlour, we drove into town and parked by the museum. I wish every Sunday was like Easter Sunday... it was blissfully quiet. Not many of the shops were open, but it was still nice to have a wander without being accosted by various people and/or random novelty acts every five minutes.

After buying some Haribo Jelly Babies (a cinema essential), we went to see the 3:15pm showing of The Croods in Cineworld. We're big fans of childish films, and this one was no exception. I won't write a review of it here, but it was a lovely film with some very funny moments.

We then went for a sneaky hot chocolate in Caffe Nero, then went back to the cinema to watch Trance at 6:30pm. We have Cineworld Unlimited cards, so it makes sense to see as many films as we can when we have the opportunity. It was a pretty traumatising film, but very clever. However, I did think of numerous plot holes after having some time to piece it all together. I won't mention them on here in case any of you decide to see it. I would definitely recommend it, despite the apparent plot holes, and I'd be very interested in hearing other people's views on it. Thankfully I was able to anticipate the overly gory bits and closed my eyes in time... I suggest that you do the same if you're a bit squeamish.

Our double cinema date had worked up an appetite, so we went to Pizza Express in St Davids 2 for our Easter meal. Pizza Express never disappoints! I had the Pollo ad Astra romana pizza, which was deliciously scrumptious. Garlic oil is just amazing.

Feeling very full, we drove back to my flat to watch some Outnumbered. This has to be one of my favourite sitcoms, ever.

Perfect date day :)