Tea at Turtle Bay

At the beginning of March I had tickets to see Jesse Malin with Sam in Leeds. It was at Headrow House which I don't mind as a venue, but parking close to it is terrible and I was getting stressed about it, so Lee said he would take me and we should have something to eat first. I said Turtle Bay because it's one of my favourites and he hasn't been that often. We got seated quickly as it was early, and had a really enthusiastic and nice waitress.

The menu has changed since last time I was in Turtle Bay and they now have a set menu of two courses for £12 and three courses for £15, as well as their tapas dishes and some new ordinary dishes. Lee and I couldn't exactly work out which dishes were on the set menu, though, so didn't end up going for that.

The happy hour two for one cocktails were still happening, so I ordered two Electric Boogies which were blue and delicious, I was happy with them.

I went for sweetcorn fritters to start with, which I really like and get often. I got four on the plate which was a lot, and I'm sure they used to come with some kind of chutney and now they don't, so I found four of them a little bit dry. Lee had chicken curry flatbreads and said they were nice.

There's a new vegan burger on the menu called Vegan Motherclucker, it's a "chicken" patty with a spicy coating and came in a bun with smashed avocado, vegan mayo, tomato, pickled onion, and lettuce. I ordered that with dirty fries, which are fries with curry sauce and cheese on them. They're vegetarian not vegan. Lee went for jerk chicken with fries, he was happy with it and there did seem to be loads of chicken on the plate.

I really liked the burger. The "chicken" patty was really yummy and spicy and the smashed avocado tasted really good on top. The fries were okay; the curry sauce was a bit over the top for me. I wouldn't order them again, but I'm glad I tried them. It's nice that they keep refreshing the menu and I'll keep trying new dishes!

The gig was fine, I enjoyed it and generally had a nice night out.

Two for one cocktails, all for me

Sweetcorn fritters - like I said I would have liked some chutney or something with them

Really nice burger

And fries!

Films of the Month - February

February was a good month for films - I made sure to watch quite a few when I was hibernating in all the terrible weather we had! I've got into the habit of watching films on Netflix much more than I ever have before. I've been teaching my mum how to use it, too. I watched sixteen films in all.

I have a soft spot for Taylor Swift, and I'd heard this film was really good. It didn't disappoint. It's a really interesting look at Taylor's life and the pressure she must live with. I would recommend it. 

I've been meaning to watch the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society for absolutely ages, but kept forgetting. Then someone reminded me about it and I got round to it. I've never read the book, but I liked the film. It had a lot of amazing British actors in it. 

Lee and I watched Ocean's 13 because we had recently watched Ocean's 12 (in December I think?). It's not as good, but it's still good. 

I've been writing a zine about musicals, meaning I've been rewatching some of my favourites. Annie is a film I LOVED as a kid, and I still like it now.

I got reminded that I wanted to see this, where Renee Zellweger plays Judy Garland. I really liked it, Renee is excellent and it looks really good.

I watched To All the Boys I've Loved Before whenever it came out, so I was keen to see the sequel. It's not as good but it's really cute, and it has a great cast. It's very kitsch. 

Someone recommended Henry Gamble's Birthday Party to me so I watched it. I didn't love it, I thought it could have done much more with the material. 

One of Us is a film about three Hasidic Jews who have left the faith or are questioning it. Because it is such a cloistered denomination of Judaism, and is a bit cult like, it's very hard to leave fully. This is a really interesting film, I'd recommend it if it sounds interesting.

Lee and I are doing a year of dates, and the week in question's was to watch both of our favourite films back to back. This is one of mine, so we watched it. It's a queer love story with a happy ending and it's set in Yorkshire, and if you haven't seen it yet, rectify that right now.

Lee chose Full Metal Jacket as his favourite film to watch. I love it too, it's so dark and depressing. It's my favourite Vietnam War film (and I've seen quite a few). The bit where the action changes so they're in Vietnam and Nancy Sinatra is playing is pure cinematic genius.

Fun fact: Coyote Ugly is one of my favourite films. I watched it tons when I was at university, but hadn't seen it in about a decade. It's still great. 

(Sorry I saved a weird, cut off picture)

I hadn't seen Billy Elliot in absolutely forever either. I do love it, I would like to see the musical one time.

Miss Congeniality is a great film and I hadn't seen it in ages. I love Sandra Bullock - I ought to watch more of her films.

 I have A is for Acid ripped off a DVD boxset of dramas about British serial killers that I've had absolutely forever. I like this one - Martin Clunes is excellent as the affable but deadly John Haigh. 

Finally, I watched another adaptation of a YA novel. I haven't read the book but I liked the film, even though Elle Fanning is getting too old to play a high schooler! I recommend it, but trigger warning for mental ill heath, death, and suicide. 

What I Wore 27th February

I had plans with my friends Katie and Sheryl on one Thursday evening in February. We go out to eat in Wakefield every few months, and it felt like it had been ages since I'd seen them. Then Katie said that she needed to be at home with her kids on the Thursday evening so could we go round to hers. That was fine by me - she said she would cook a pizza and I took some snacks and wine with me. She had been a bit stressed about cooking and I said it didn't matter - I would be happy eating crisps and dip because it's about the company really isn't it! We ended up drinking gin until ten thirty, way past bedtime!

I pulled this dress off the hooks to wear. I haven't worn it in ages. I got it from Simply Be absolutely years ago. It's similar to other dresses I own, but the material is more scuba like. The sleeves are lace which I really like. It's really comfortable to wear and I'll have to not leave it so long until I wear it again next time!

Weekend in Sheffield

For Christmas I bought my friends Sam and Jac vouchers for afternoon tea at Jameson's in Sheffield, and a voucher for myself too. I've been before but neither of them had, and Jac hasn't been to Sheffield that much at all I don't think. We decided to make a weekend of it and thought we would book a hotel in the city, have nice food on the Saturday night, and then have afternoon tea for lunch on the Sunday. We booked into the Kenwood Hall hotel, and Jac and I arrived there at 2pm on Saturday as we wanted to go swimming.

Our room wasn't ready which was kind of annoying, but we finally got checked in and then got down to the swimming pool around 3pm. The pool was tiny and the surroundings were in need of refurbishment. The whole hotel was a bit like that, actually - it looked okay on the surface but needed a facelift when you looked beyond. We swam and went in the jacuzzi, but only stayed around an hour. However, by that time Sam had arrived so we chilled out in the hotel room for a while.

I got a shower and then we went out to Amigo's on London Road. I've never been but I've heard it's really good. It doesn't serve alcohol but you can take your own and they'll charge you £1 corkage which is pretty good. We each had a mocktail strawberry margherita which was nice, and the wine we took.

We shared nachos and jalapeno poppers and then I had mushroom and vegetables fajitas. I don't often go for fajitas but I fancied them. The mushrooms and vegetables were delicious - really well-seasoned and spicy. It was a good vegetarian meal!

We headed back to the hotel after that and had a drink in the bar. There was a 25th wedding anniversary party going on, so it was busy. We went back into the room to chill out in pyjamas, and the TV was broken, and then the disco started downstairs and it was SO LOUD. The soundproofing was terrible. We played Heads Up on Jac's phone which is always really funny. The disco thankfully finished at midnight so we could go to sleep.

I wore this Scarlett & Jo dress to go out in, I haven't worn it in ages and I'm not sure why as I really love it. I must wear it more! I'll share my photos from Saturday here:

My nail polish was Barry M Pacific, it is one of my favourite colours and a really nice polish

Sam brought these cans, it tastes really nice, it tastes of sherbet!

Here we are in Amigos

Strawberry mocktail

Jalapeno poppers (one of my favourites!)

Fajitas

And my dress. I don't often wear this shade of blue but I like it

On Sunday we got up and watched bad TV until check out at 11am. After that we drove around Sheffield a bit before going to an antiques emporium. It was absolutely huge, there were rooms after rooms and an upstairs. I bought my grandma a birthday present. We went to Jameson's for 12.45. The food was nice enough but I felt that the service was a bit lacking. It was busy but there were several members of staff. We had to ask a couple of times for more drinks. It was fine, we enjoyed ourselves, but I wouldn't go again.

After that I just dropped Sam and Jac off at the train station and came home. I was absolutely exhausted as I hadn't slept well, so I had a nap!

I love old signs like this on the end of buildings

Our afternoon tea - the hame sandwiches clearly weren't for me!

The fruit scones were delicious

As was my slab of Victoria sponge

Sam took this of us in the tea rooms, isn't it lovely?

Wax Addicts Wax Crumbles Review

You know me, I love candles. I find them an excellent form of self care and have a candle burning most of the time when I'm at home. They're cheap to buy but just the very lighting of a candle and having it burn next to me is something I find very calming.

I mostly have Yankee Candles because I find their scent throw is really strong and they come in a billion different fragrances. I used to buy them from concessions in outlet stores, but I haven't in a while, mostly because I just don't often go to that kind of store. I've also found that you can buy Yankee votives - the small candles about two inches tall - on Groupon in bulk. I did that back in November some time; I bought forty votives and it was like Christmas when they arrived! I had very few duplicates, but I left some of the duplicates downstairs in the living room and also gave a couple away. I've been making my way through the votives discovering new fragrances.

I also have quite a lot of the tealights. You can buy these in packets of twelve and each tealight burns for about six hours which I find good. I have some of my favourite scents in tealights, including Passionfruit Martini and Serenity. I tend to burn them for a couple of hours at a time.

For Christmas Lee bought me a wax warmer. I had one of these as a teenager but not since, and I've no idea where it ended up. Lee bought me quite a big one from Yankee Candle and some plain tealights to go with it, and some wax melts. They last longer than the candles and I've enjoyed using them over the past few weeks.

Then I saw some of Yankee's new spring fragrances, which include a scent called Sunny Daydream. I mentioned to Lee that I would like some, so he bought me a pack of the tealights for Valentine's Day. It's a lovely fragrance, really fresh and summery. While looking for a review of it, I came across the website Wax Addicts. I clicked around a bit and found that they sell something they call Wax Crumbles. They're for use in a wax warmer and they sell 9 or 18 pots. 18 pots is £16 including postage which I thought was reasonable. They have Yankee candles but other brands too, so I thought I would treat myself to a box.

They arrived packaged beautifully, which is nice. Each pot is filled with wax crumbles. Of the eighteen, sixteen were Yankee Candles but mostly in scents that I haven't had before. Of the ones I have had, they included ones I liked, like Crackling Wood Fire, which is a gorgeous winter scent. The other two pots are a brand called Goose Creek which I'm not familiar with at all, so it'll be nice to give them a go.

I put some of the crumbles into my wax burner, in a scent called Tropical Jungle. I used probably 1/3 of the pot, which wasn't a lot in my big burner but which burnt for hours. The scent throw was great; Lee could smell it on the landing and asked which one I'd gone for. I'm really impressed with the quality of the Wax Crumbles. I will definitely treat myself to some again once I've used all these!

I was impressed with the cute packaging

Inside are the eighteen pots stacked three high. I opened them all to smell them and made Lee smell them too. The two on the far right are the Goose Creek ones

Just to show you how deep the little pot is

And inside, the crumbles

This was 1/3 of one pot when melted, but like I say it lasted ages. I didn't put the whole pot in as I like to change fragrance often - I like to mix it up a lot!

I bought these Wax Crumbles with my own money and wasn't compensated for writing this post - I just wanted to share something new to me!

What I Wore 15th February

It feels like forever since I've done an outfit post and I think that's partly because I haven't been going out that often recently; I've been kind of hibernating. It's partly because I don't have many new clothes to wear; I'm trying to save money and I do already have lots of beautiful dresses. It's just a thing, and it's fine, but it does mean there haven't been as many outfit posts. But then this blog is a catch all of stuff for me and that's how I like it!

Anyway, Lee's dad phoned a couple of days before the 15th and said he and Lee's stepmam were going to come down to stay in Wakefield over night (all of Lee's family live in Durham still) and would we like to go out for tea with them. We didn't have any plans for the weekend except that my cousin and his girlfriend were going to arrive around 10.30pm to stay overnight, so we had mentioned going out on Saturday evening before that. Lee's dad told us to choose a pub so I booked a table at The Sovereign pub in Shepley, about 20 minutes from our house.

We had a nice meal with them. The Sovereign is part of the Vintage Inns range and although their vegetarian selection isn't amazing, they do have a dedicated vegan menu. I went for spiced cauliflower soup, which was nicely spicy but not amazing, and then their vegan burger, which was really good. It came with chips. Then I had banoffee pie to finish with. It was really lovely to see Lee's dad and stepmam, it's been ages since they've been down so we've only seen them at Christmas.

We got home and Peter and Beth arrived eventually, so we chatted for a bit before bed. The next day they wanted to be off around 11am. They'd come to Sheffield to do indoor climbing, something they both enjoy. We made breakfast before they went, which was nice.

I wore this blue spotty Lindy Bop dress to go out in. I love it because it's easy to wear and comfortable but looks really good on. I pulled out my Beth Ditto heart cardigan to wear over it as I knew I'd be warm in the pub.

I had painted my nails just the day before with Barry M Caspian, which is a gorgeous gold polish with a rose gold flash. I'm really trying to paint my nails every week as I didn't manage it at all this year until the 6th of February!

Barry M Caspian

Lindy Bop dress and Beth Ditto cardigan. Thanks it has pockets!

Louis Tomlinson in Leeds

On the 12th of February I went to see Louis Tomlinson at an album launch events in Leeds. You may not know that I have this soft spot for One Direction, and I love Harry Styles. I've liked both his albums. I've been keeping an eye on what Louis has been doing, and when I saw this really small event I thought it would be good to go. I'm also seeing him in March in Doncaster with my friend Helen who I met through other 1D fans on Twitter! But the Wardrobe in Leeds is a venue I'm familiar with and it's sooooo small. So I ordered a ticket and album bundle from Crash Records. I've had the album on in my car and I think it's really good - really accomplished. It's got some echoes of the British indie music that Louis likes and which I like, so I'm happy. Plus he's been through a lot personally with the death of his mum and sister, and I think the album shows that too.

The event doors opened at 6pm and I was there for then as I had disabled access/a seat on the raised bit, which is much better for me. I wasn't the absolute oldest there, but the crowd definitely skewed much younger! Louis came on around 7pm with a host who asked him some questions. The questions were mostly about the album, but were really interesting. Louis thanked his fans a bunch of times, and was generally happy and smily about everything.

He went off for a few minutes then came back on with his band to sing four songs. The band sounds really good and Louis did too. I'm really excited for Doncaster now! His stuff is really catchy and I had fun and for me that's all that matters.

The queue was all round the building! Apparently the first person in the queue had been queueing for over 24 hours!

I loved these just inside

I was sitting down at this point and pretty amused to see there was a crash barrier. I've NEVER seen that at the Wardrobe before. This is how close I was to the front

And this is looking behind me - as you can see it really is a small venue

Louis during the Q&A

And again

And then here with the band!

Films of the Month - January

I had a slow start to the year film-wise. I didn't watch any films until the tenth of the month because I was really busy catching up with TV from Christmas. After that though I made quite a concerted effort to watch a film every day. I had quite a few days at home and found some new films to watch. I'm kind of sick of scrolling through what I already have - I think I need to go through my files and delete what I definitely don't want. Anyway, I watched some stuff I really wanted to see, which was good.

I had wanted to see Mrs Lowry & Son for ages, so finally got round to it. Vanessa and Timothy are both great, but I felt it fell a little flat

Lee and I watched Toy Story 4 again, it's really good

I have been working on a zine about musicals, so I watched Oliver! which was one of my favourites as a kid. I didn't love it on my rewatch, though

Someone on Twitter reminded me of Booksmart, which I hadn't seen. I loved it, I thought it was really good and if I was a teenager I would love it even more

I was reminded about Downsizing too, which I had liked from the trailer. It's a really bizarre film, I felt like it could have gone further in some areas than it did, and I didn't really like the ending. Still, I'm glad I've seen it

I have never seen Dreamgirls so I watched it. Beyonce is good, Jamie Foxx I can take or leave. It looks and sounds good, though.

Lee and I went out to see The Personal History of David Copperfield on one of our dates. We both really enjoyed it. It's funny and a bit surreal. Dev Patel is great, and Peter Capaldi and the supporting cast was good too. Plus it has colour blind casting which I really liked

I used to watch Downton Abbey but gave up about three seasons in. I decided to watch the film anyway, I think it's a bit crap actually. It's not as well done as the series. I did like seeing some of the amazing characters again, but I won't bother watching it again

Again, I wanted to see Grease as I was writing about it for my zine. I do love it in a kitschy way. Kenickie is my favourite

Lee and I have been watching Mark Kermode talking about different genres of film, like "the heist movie" and "the rom com". It's a really good series, I would recommend it. Anyway he mentioned this as a rom com and I love Brittany Murphy but haven't ever seen this film. It's cute. Baby Dakota Fanning is very cute

Finally Lee wanted to watch X Men First Class so we did. I don't really like it compared to Days of Future Past or even Apocalypse. Kevin Bacon is good, though!