Jamaica me crazy!

No problem mon! haha. My Jamaican accent has improved considerably since my fabulous 2 weeks there, so I apologise if a few 'Ya mon's appear in my post.

Jamaica is amazing. If any of you ever have the opportunity to go, I urge you to, you will not regret it. I went on the 2nd of April 2012 and came home on the 16th April. I went with 30 friends for a wedding and it was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.

I stayed at the Club Riu Hotel Negril, which is about 1 1/2 hours transfer from Montego Bay airport, a 9 1/2 hour flight from Manchester, UK.

The hotel was lovely. It was smaller than I expected it to be, but in the end I preferred it that way. There were 4 restaurants to choose from in the evening. The buffet restaurant, steak restaurant, Brazilian and an A la carte. I was fortunate enough to be able to try all of them, three of them you had to make reservations for and not everyone was able to book into them.

The range of food was fantastic. Breakfast was everything you could imagine. Cooked breakfast, omelettes, pastries, fruit, cereals, pancakes. Lunch was a choice between the buffet restaurant and the Jerk chicken whihc was served on the beahc. Jerk chicken is delicious. Famous in Jamaica it is the best chicken i've ever had, but the Jerk sauce is a bit spicy! And the buffet restaurant at night did not dissapoint, offering lobster, which was gorgeous.


Whilst there, I went on a day trip to Rick's Cafe. A bar which is a bit of a tourist attraction in Jamaica, and known for cliff divers. We went on a catamaran to Ricks Cafe, where i then had to swim to shore, which was a bit challenging as I had to swim with one arm in the air to stop my camera and money from getting wet! The drinks were a little expensive, but as I had to swim back, I didn't want to get drunk anyway so one drink sufficed! I ordered their house cocktail, 'Sex with Rick' mainly because I thought the name was a bit cheeky haha. Ya mon!

This here is a picture of me about to do the 33ft jump off the cliff. I'm not gonna like. It was bloody terrifying. I did two false starts before the guy said if i did it again he wouldnt let me jump. So I just inched to the edge and jumped! The feeling of falling felt like it was never going to end!

I did however sustain a bit of a bruise as I hit the water on a funny angle. Not my finest moment! I had to sit on a bag of ice all the way back on the boat. I'm glad I did the jump but I wouldn't do it again!

The wedding itself was a fabulous day. It also felt like the hottest day in the time we were there! This is what I chose to wear. It is a dress I purchased off asos.com . I bought it a few months ago, I knew it was the dress the moment I saw it.

This is lovely area where the wedding was set up. In my mind it was perfect.

And this is my beautiful friend and her new husband.

Here is a few more pictures from the day.

I also visited Dunn's River Falls a few days after the wedding. Unfortunatley I do not have any photographs as it is impossible to climb the falls with a camera in hand. It was challenging to say the very least, but I LOVED it. It was fantastic. The water feels so strong as it rushes past you. It takes about 45 minutes to do the climb, which we were told was around 900ft.

What did I drink in Jamaica I hear you ask? A little guility I admit I indulged in cocktails pretty much everyday. They were so good! I drank a lot of Mai Tai's, Pina Colada's, Amaretto Sours and Brandy Alexander's. They were my tipples while I was there, plus wine with my meal. There were optics in our bedrooms in addition to the mini bar that offered Jamaican rum, brandy, gin and vodka. So it is safe to say that we were all quite merry while we were on holiday!!

To finish off, here is a couple of pictures of me and my friends on the pedalo's, which was a lot more fun than you would think!! haha. I also had a go on a Jet ski for the first time. I don't think my bum touched the seat once while I was on it! It was hilarious!

It really was a fantastic trip, one that I was sad to see the end of, so got a serious case of the holiday blues now!! Not to worry, as it is 10 weeks until I land in California, and I am so excited, I actually can't wait. I will be working very hard over the coming the weeks to save up money for this trip, but I have a couple of things coming up, such as Pub Golf this weekend, so I shall share some piccies from this weekend when I have them!

Until next time xxx

Hen Party in York

Hi everyone! It's been a couple of weeks but I've finally got a day off work and I can post about my fabulous weekend in York for my friend Jenna's hen party.

When: Saturday 25th February 2012

Where: Yates, Slug & Lettuce, Bobo Lobo & Revolution - York

Who With: 16 excited hens!

For Jenna's hen party we decided to go to York for the weekend. We stayed overnight in a Premier Inn and started the party at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Quite a lot of prep went into the weekend, as organised by one of my best friends, the Chief Bridesmaid, Amy. I helped out by providing sweet packs (naturally) with a strong willy theme (of course). They included marshmallow, jelly, chocolate and candy willys as well as a packet of love hearts.

The love hearts were personalised for Jenna's Hen Party, I got these made off an ebay retailer, I thought they would be a cute touch to the packs!

I also helped Amy make some vodka jelly shots (yes, the jelly shots have returned!). We used raspberry flavoured jelly and just made enough for one each per hen. The party started in the hotel at about 3:30 where we indulged the jelly shots and had a champagne toast to Jenna.

Lots of wine and champers!

We then made our way to Yate's in the centre of York where it was only £2 for a glass of wine! Cheapy cheap! Me and one of the other girls then got ourselves a pitcher of cocktail, (sex on the beach, it was only a £5!) We felt no need for glasses, the straws sufficed haha!

Cocks in a cocktail haha!

We then went to Slug and Lettuce where we had a table booked for something to eat. I didnt bother to take photos of my meal as I was a) a little bit too tipsy to remember and b) I was dissapointed with what I had ordered. There was nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't what I expected. I ordered a Chicken and Mozzarella Tostada, which I thought was going to be something hot with melted cheese and it would have been amazing. What arrived was basically an open wrap with what looked like a full shrub poured onto it with 2 pieces of chicken and a crumb of mozzarella. This did a not a happy drunk girl make! I ate it, but it wasn't the kind of food you normally have after a few! I made up for it by ordering a brownie dessert, which did not dissapoint!

Here are a few more pictures from the night.

This guy is the absolute spitting image of Karl Pilkington. I swear he is his double!

And this is a piccie of me, Amy and Jenna : )

There is only 4 weeks to go now until the big trip to Jamaica, 5 weeks until the actual wedding as we go on the 2nd but they get married on the 11th of April. I am so excited and cannot believe how quickly this trip has come round as we booked 12 months ago. I've bought a few things for the trip which I shall share in another post, but I am now going to go and enjoy the rest of my day off work. I'm off to the Trafford Centre to spend some money and have some lunch with a friend, and if I enjoy the meal you might just be hearing about it!

Apotheca

Well hello! I have been so busy with work over the past couple of weeks, all so that I have enough money to go to America with. I did say I would write when I had something interesting enough to say, and so here is something interesting I did recently.

When: Saturday 21st January 2012

Where: Apotheca, Thomas Street, Manchester

Who With: A group of my fabulous work friends.

This is Apotheca. It is has the tiniest sign on the front of the building. If you are familiar with Manchester and it's Northern Quarter, then it is opposite Blu on the corner of Thomas Street.

Me and my friends went to Apotheca to do one of their Cocktail masterclasses. It cost us £20 each and lasted 2 hours. We recieved 3 cocktails each for this price.

This is one of the barmen who did the class, and the Mojito's that he was about to prepare for us. That was the first drink we had and it was selected for us. I'm not really a fan of Mojito's to be honest. I prefer sweet things and this really was very minty indeed, but I'm sure if Mojito's are your thing, then this would have been a fantastic one indeed.



For my second drink I was allowed to select my own choice, and I chose a 'Nuts and Berries' cocktail.

This is a drink to-die-for. It was sooo good. It tasted like a blackforest gateau. You'll have to excuse the poor quality of photos as my camera seems have gone shit. I have now purchased a new one as I can't have a dodgy camera with me in Jamaica or America. He created this drink in the usual way by putting the various juices and liqueurs into a shaker and then into a chilled glass. He then (as you can see in the pic) poured a cream layer on top and then dusted chocolate powder from a height whilst setting the chocolate powder alight. It smelled a-mazing! This has now joined 'Pornstar Martini' as a joint favorite cocktail.

For my third drink, I was again allowed to make my own choice, except this time I went behind the bar, and under the guidance of the barman, created the drink myself which was such good fun! This time I chose a 'Dirty Pop'.

These are just a few piccies from me behind the bar creating my 'Dirty Pop'! As you can see I put a lot of effort into the shaking the mixture haha! I had the lovely task os smashing up maraschino cherries in the glass, measuring and pouring the liqueurs and then shaking the mixture and adding the finishing the touches, which included a packet of popping candy! I poured the candy into the drink and it made for an interesting experience of everytime I took a sip of the cocktail it started popping like mad in my mouth! Again, another fabulous cocktail which I thoroughly enjoyed, even more so because I had made it myself!

I highly reccommend this experience to anyone. £20 per person is cheap for this session as it really is top quality. The cocktails are first class, the staff were fantastic and we were in our own private bar so we were free to be as ridiculous as we wanted to be. If you wanted to pop in for just a drink though, again I urge you to as most of these amazing cocktails cost only around £6.50 which is cheap compared to other places such as Room and Cloud 23 which are around £9-£10 a pop.

Check out Apotheca's website here for more information .

We were actually staying overnight in Manchester as a bit of a birthday weekend for my friend Hayley. Rather than staying in a hotel we decided to hire an apartment for the night so we could all go back to eat, drink and get ready to continue the festivities. Here is a picture of the apartment. If i'm honest I took the picture the day after when we had cleaned up because I had forgotten to the night before! The apartment was lovely though and worked out at about £28 each, which is cheaper than a Premier Inn and we were able to cook ourselves a fry-up in the morning!

After the cocktail class we went back to the apartment and had a feast of pizza, nachos, crisps and take-out chips (which are the best!). We then had a slice of this amazing birthday cake. It was an indulgent chocolate cake covered in icing, my perfect kind of cake! It really was fit.

This was my outfit for the evening. I ordered this dress off ASOS in the sale. It is a Motel dress and I chose to wear it with pearl stud earrings, a gold locket and my trusty rose-gold Topshop stillettos. I could walk miles in those shoes! I recieved a lot of compliments for the dress, but in all honesty it is a dress best worn when I haven't been stuffing my face on pizza, nachos and cake and spent most of the night feeling a bit uncomfortable as this was a second-skin kind of dress.

And that was my weekend in Manchester! The next 3 or 4 weeks are being spent working for me, most particularly at the weekend unfotunatley. My next event is my friend's hen do (the one who's wedding I am going to Jamaica for). I can't say where I am going as she does read this blog and it is a surprise but I will certainly fill you in on all the details and of the little surprises we have in store for Jenna and her Hen Night. I have also made several purchases recently, mostly in preparation for Jamaica (which is only 8 and a half weeks away!!!) and America so I shall do a seperate blog post about those when I find a spare minute.

Until then!

xxxx

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and done fabulous things. Have we all chosen some resolutions? I have selected mine which include:

1. Stop swearing (it isn't very lady like and at the moment by mouth fathoms that of a sailor, mainly when I am at work, hmmm)
2. Visit at least 3 new places. (Normally I say countries, but I am going to count the different states of America as a new place so hence the choice of word 'place') I already have Jamaica, Californa, Nevada and Arizona on the list, so that is 4, but I would like to fit another trip in somewhere. Lots of wonderful additions to my food adventure!
3. Concentrate more on writing. I am a top class procrastinator and need to sit my ass down and actually commit to it.

And those are my resolutions, or the main ones at least. I welcomed in the New Year at my friends house as she had a bit of a party. This is me with my friend who threw the party and our yummy glasses of champagne.

She put on a bit of a buffet but the highlight was the iced fairy-cakes, they made me feel like a little kiddy again! If your having a party, there has to be at least one piece of party cliche in there somewhere.

And the New Years Eve 'Wall of Shame!' Who made the cut for 2011? Not me! I was a good girl and I paced myself, except when we played a drinking game and I was picked several times for the forfeit : S

In between Christmas and New Year I did a couple of things. Normally on Boxing day, me and my friends get dressed up in fancy dress and go on a night out, but this year, as I am saving my pennies to pay off my U.S.A trip, we decided to stay in, watch a christmas film and order chinese. We also attempted to make Bailey's cocktails but we were not very successful! I think I put too much Vodka into the Mudslides.... I also enjoyed a bottle of Brothers Toffee Apple cider which has to be one of the nicest ciders I've ever tasted. If you see any in the supermarket, buy it and try it!!

I also went to Manchester on the Bank Holiday Tuesday for a bit of sales shopping and for a few drinks. Me and my mate went to Tiger Tiger in The Printworks where I enjoyed a 'Vanilla Kiss' cocktail made with vanilla vodka, Drambuie and cranberry juice. It was a nice cocktail but I could barely taste the vanilla because of the Drambuie, which is a shame because I really enjoy vanilla flavoured vodka. My next cocktail was a 'Ga-Ga Colada' which was delicious, made with Havana Club rum, Malibu and pineapple juice, my kind of drink!
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While I've been off I've had a little trawl of the internet and found a fantastic website called 'Fine Food Specialist' You know me, I love my internet shopping and there's nothing I like better than to find a gem of a website, be it fashion or food! They specialise in, well, fine foods and they offer the most amazing range of ingrediants and foods. If you are into your food and enjoy cooking, you need to check it out. My particular favorites that I have spotted and think sounds a-mazing, is their 'Mini Wagyu Burgers', perfect little bite-size burgers, ideal for canapes which you can find here in their Beef selection.

If you have a bit of time, make sure you check out the Seafood section as well as they sell fresh Lobster and Crab Ravioli, which, in my opinion, sounds absolutly divine. They sell so much different stuff and is a really nice alternative to the supermarket counter. You'll even find cheese and pate's on there which is a little weakness of mine. Check it out!

You may not hear from me for a couple of weeks as this is my last day off work for 15 days (getting in the overtime as I need the money!) and so I may not have very much that's interesting to say! But it is all in preparation for this year's plans. I'm always keeping my eye out for a good Groupon (I know, I know, such a bargain hunter) so let's hope for some good reviews this year. Here's to 2012!

San Rocco Review

When: Saturday 8th October 2011

Where: San Rocco, South King Street, Manchester

Who with: My fabulous friend Amy.

Me and my friend Amy had a gal-date at San Rocco last weekend. Food, wine, cocktails and a massive chin-wag was the order of the evening. We reserved a table for 19:30 and although we turned up a little early, we were seated in a nice little couch area where there was olives to nibble on and they brought us a bottle of wine which we had ordered upon arrival (Pinot Grigio Veneto - which was fit to say the very least).

My friend who has an unashamedley fussy palette chose spaghetti bolognese, I, more adventurous (of course, do you expect anything else?) selected the 'Coda di Rospo', medallion of monkfish with cherry tomatoes in a garlic and white wine sauce. I also ordered a rocket & parmesan side salad.

This meal truly was amazing. I ate every last morsel on the plate. The portion size was generous, although you can't really see it in the picture, it was 4 pieces of monkfish, one on top of the other in two piles, with cherry tomatoes and onions layered on top. If i'm honest, I'm not a big fan of onions, so I just pushed them to the side so if I have any complaint at all (and it really is nit-picking) is that it didnt say on the menu that it came with a great big dollop of onions on. The rocket & parmesan salad, simple though it was, was lovely and a nice accompaniment to the monkfish. The restaurant also brought a nice balsamic vinegar to dress the salad with.

I could have eaten that meal twice, not through hunger, but because it was so good.

A bottle of wine, one garlic bread with cheese, two main courses, side salad and two desserts came to around £55, which is very reasonable considering my dish alone was £15 for the fish. I would absolutly go back again.

After San Rocco, me and Amy walked up to the top of King Street and went to cocktail bar and restaurant, Room. This is a stylish place, and not really one to be seen after being drowned the rain, which was our case unfortunatley! But we laughed it off and tried to make a dignified entrance. The doorman asked us how old we were (oh the shame!) but didnt really press us the way they do when you go to a nightclub.

My first cocktail choice was a Pornstar Martini.

If I hadn't wanted to try other cocktails for reviewing sake, I would have ordered this drink repeatedly all night. It was so delish. This Pornstar Martini consisted of Vanilla vodka, passion fruit, butterscotch, pineapple and a champagne shot on the side. It was a little on the pricey side, £9.50 a pop, but oh so worth it.

I also tried Room's signature cocktail, a Roomberry.

This was also lovely, Strawberry, Chambord and Champagne. As you can see it came with a strawberry and cute twirly stirrer. This one was £8.50.

I would also revisit Room again, and would love to go back very soon. For the rest of the evening I also sampled their Bellini (peach) and then continued to re-order the Pornstar Martini, but be under no illusion, the cocktail menu is impressive, offering a variety of types, unlike All Bar One which offers a paltry 4 or 5 cocktails.

                                                                                                                          

All in all it was a great night! I highly recommend San Rocco and Room for anyone to try, whether you are a Manchester native or visitor, and if you do happen to go, let me know what you think!