Lunch out with Lolly

On Wednesday the 8th of May I headed to Sheffield to see Lolly for lunch. Chloe was supposed to join us but unfortunately she wasn't well, so it was just me and Laura. So I left my house about 11.15 and drove to Middlewood tram park and ride, and parked there, and then got a tram to the cathedral. The sun had finally come out and Sheffield in the sunshine is just absolutely beautiful. It was like being abroad! 

I headed into Orchard Square where Lolly already was, and had an iced coffee - the first of the summer I think! - and we sat chatting for a bit. Then we headed next door into Sheffield Kitchen. It's one of those places where there are a few different types of small counters so you can choose what you like to eat but all sit together. Lolly had chosen it but I was pleased to see how many vegetarian options there were - I think there was choices everywhere except for the American grill place. We both went for Korean. I had loaded wedges and a bao bun with sweet potato croquettes and barbecue sauce. They were nice, but I would probably go for something else if I went again. 

We went into Waterstones and then TK Maxx - Lolly picked up some crockery and I was looking for tealight candles but didn't find any. Then we went across to Le Ble, which is a lovely cafe by the cathedral. We both had a chocolate and raspberry cake, which was delicious, and I had a lovely coffee, too. We sat chatting there until about 3.30 and then I waited for a tram to go back to Middlewood. 

I got home about 4pm to a lovely clean bathroom. We've decided to pay for a cleaner for a bit - we can afford it which I appreciate is a true privilege, and we often lack the werewithal between us to do much cleaning, so we think this will help for a bit. She had done an excellent job on the bathroom and had left it looking cute! 

I was wearing my yellow Scarlett and Jo skirt. I hadn't worn it in ages and then it popped up on Timehop and I thought ooh yes I'll pull that out again. I also wore my Hamilton t shirt - I think they look cute together. 

Loaded wedges

And my delicious bao bun

Gorgeous chocolate and raspberry something - I love ganache like this

And me in my Scarlett and Jo skirt and Hamilton t shirt

Oh you can see that the cleaner hoovered the stairs too, which also looked so nice!

Food and Cinema in Huddersfield

On the 7th of May I first of all went to work and had a lot to sort out, but I got a lot done and still managed to come home at a reasonable time. I was wearing these new cornflower blue shoes from Vinted. They're from Cotton Traders originally, andI  actually saw some really similar in a charity shop in Skipton when we went, but they were £12 which was a bit steep for the condition they were in. So I checked Vinted and this pair were there, for just £5 plus postage! They were brand new, too, so I'm glad I looked. I absolutely love the colour and I think I'll wear these a lot this summer because they let the air in while still being covered shoes. 

I sat at home for a bit and then set off to Huddersfield to meet Sam and Jodie. We had booked tickets to see Nye at the cinema. It was one of those streaming shows of a theatre performance, and I had heard that it was really good, and I really wanted to see it. So we had booked it ages ago and decided to meet up for tea first.

We went to Indian House on King Street. Way back pre pandemic it was called Mandalay and it was a Burmese restaurant. I went one time, perhaps twice. Then it became a place called Bambukat which I went to a couple of times last year and really liked. Now it's rebranded but it's basically the same food as Bambukat and it's still nice. 

They have Indian street food and thalis and curries and rice. I decided to go for street food. I had onion bhajis, aloo tikki chat, and an egg dosa. I liked them all - the bhajis were spicy and delicious, the chat was absolutely amazing and I would like it again right now, and the dosa was alright - I wouldn't get it again but I am glad I tried it. Sam and Jodie had a starter and a thali each; I was quite jealous of the thalis but I'm glad I had something different as that's what I usually get. 

After food we headed down to the cinema and got our seats. Michael Sheen was playing Aneurin Bevan, who was instrumental in setting up the NHS in the late 1940s. In the play, he's had an operation and is dying, and hallucinates his way through his whole life, showing us the type of person his was, his politics, and all of that. It was really good. Michael Sheen is always great. I would recommend it if you can see it! 

Gorgeous cornflower shoes - are they blue or purple? A little bit of both!

Onion bhajis

My chat - I wish I could learn to make this at home!

And my dosa, with different sauces

A Gig and Drinks in Huddersfield

On the 4th of May I went to Huddersfield to meet up with Sam and to see Frank Turner. Sam and I used to love him so much, but we both just sort of stopped listening to him, and we worked out we had last seen him way back in 2011! Jeez that's a long time ago! But then he was doing this world record attempt to play 15 gigs in 24 hours or something, and it turned out he was playing Huddersfield. Sam lives there and it's not too far from me, so when she bought a ticket I thought I would too. I thought it would be interesting to be part of the history, too! It was only £12 so not too bad. 

Lee took me to Huddersfield and I went into The Parish where Sam already was, and had a drink with her. At 2pm they started letting people upstairs into the gig space so we went up. I've only been in there once before. I hadn't asked for accessibility because I knew it wouldn't be a long gig, but as it was, there was like a window seat where I snagged a seat. Sam then stood next to me, which was at the top of the steps, meaning that she could see the stage better.

Frank came on at 2.30 and played for half an hour. He played many new stuff, but two old ones that I really enjoyed listening to. I enjoyed the whole thing actually, it was good fun. He does have interesting stories to tell. 

When it finished at 3pm we walked to the Piazza to go into Thread Republic. It's like a thrift store and craft shop all in one. My friend Kim sells her stuff in there so I bought some earrings from her. Then we headed to Wetherspoons. I don't often go in there but we wanted cheap drinks so we went in. We shared a bunch of cocktails and a shot each, and had some food. I had a veggie burger which came with chips and onion rings and was perfectly serviceable. 

Sam left about 5.30 to get her bus, and my mum was coming for me at 6pm, so I sat reading my book in Wetherspoons for a bit longer until it was time to walk round. I went to sixth form college in Huddersfield so it was like the old days getting drunk and waiting for a lift from one of my parents! My mum came in when we got back here because she wanted to see our new sofa. It's a green bluey colour and it's a corner sofa. We've got rid of both of ours to have this one. We just have such a tiny living room! But it's lovely and I'm glad.

I got my mum to take the photo of my dress before she left. I got it second hand from Georgina and I really love it. The neckline is too low on me so I wear a black tank top underneath it. I paired it with my teal footless tights from Snag. 

Red wine before the gig

Sitting waiting for Frank

I love getting wristbands with the venue names on - I actually also got a paper ticket! I can't remember the last time I had a paper ticket!

Frank! His t shirt says "Whose stupid idea was this?"

It was sold out and the venue was packed

This boarding was up in the piazza in Huddersfield

And I really liked this old sign near Wetherspoons (there's two in Huddersfield, this is the 'bottom' one)

Ridiculously cheap and sweet cocktails

And some more - that one on the left was rank!

A shot each, mine was a Baby Guinness of course

And finally a Purple Rain while I was waiting for my mum

And here's my lovely dress

Lunch Out with Sarah

At the beginning of May I headed down to Sarah's house to see her. As a reminder, her husband died very suddenly just before Christmas, which was of course horrible. Their daughter started nursery recently and is settling in really well, which is excellent. So Sarah wanted to stay close to her house, in case something happened, so I said I would go down. 

She has obviously been through a lot and the couple of weeks before I saw her were bad too, so I had thought that I would probably encourage her to go out for lunch with me just to get her to be somewhere else. She suggested it too, though, so I didn't need to put any pressure on! I got to hers just after 11am and we went to a garden centre not too far away from Sarah's house. We got there just before brunch finished so were able to order off that menu. I went for poached eggs and avocado on toast, which had spring onions and chilli on it too. I also had a hot chocolate.

We had to be back for Sarah's shopping delivery coming at 1pm, so we decided to buy cake to eat at hers. We got back there and since the weather was so nice we sat outside in her garden. She's had it all done and it looks amazing - really pretty flags and then a lawned area. She's got new garden furniture too so we sat there in the sunshine eating coffee cake. It was lovely! 

Sarah's dad brought R home at about 3pm, so I stayed to chat to him for a bit and see R, and then set off back home. I was meeting Lee and my mum at the gym to go swimming, so we did that! 

I didn't get a photo of my outfit because I'm an idiot, but I can show you my new shoes. I got them off Vinted, where else. They're Dr Martens shoes with the iconic yellow stitching, and I really love the floral pattern. They seem basically brand new but only cost me about £25! I can see me wearing these a lot this summer. 

Gorgeous pretty Dr Marten Mary Jane shoes with this lovely floral pattern. With footless Snag Tights, of course!

Gorgeous hot chocolate

Eggs and avocado on tiny tiny toast

And finally my really delicious coffee cake!

Films of the Month - April

I didn't watch many films in April, but I did go to the cinema twice! That's a record for me! Lee and I also went to the new Cineworld in Barnsley, it's been open a couple of years but we haven't been before, so it was nice to finally see it. 

Here's what I watched in April:

I absolutely love Saturday Night Fever but I hadn't seen it in ages so decided to watch it

Everyone was agog at this film about the disastrous interview with Prince Andrew, so I bought into the hype and watched it. It is worth a watch. Utterly bonkers. Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson are both great

Lee and I watched Dogma together. It's one of my favourite films and we hadn't seen it in forever, so we did. Still love it

Sam had said the new biopic about Bob Marley was good, so I gave it a watch. I did really like it, the guy playing Bob did an excellent job

Someone was on about The Runaways and I realised I hadn't seen it in about a decade, so I thought I would watch it again. It's good, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart are both excellent

Sam and Jodie and I went to the cinema to see Back to Black, as I detailed in a previous post. I did like it, but with caveats

I watched this film on BBC, which is about a football obsessed lad. It's alright if you like that kind of thing

As also previously detailed, Lee and I went to see Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. We both liked it! 

The day after that we watched the original Ghostbusters film together. We'll probably watch the others before long, too

Finally I watched Where'd You Go Bernadette because it was on Netflix. I've seen it before and I really like it, it's cute

Snooker Tuesday

At the end of April my mother and I had tickets to see the World Championship Snooker again in Sheffield. We have been for the last couple of years and even though I don't watch the snooker, when you're watching it live it's fun to watch and I've enjoyed myself each time. My mum bought the tickets last May so we've had it booked for ages! 

Lee took us to Sheffield for about 9am and we went into Marmaduke's right next to the Crucible and had some breakfast. I had a latte and a pain au chocolat, which were both lovely. Then we met Steve Davis! He was in there having a coffee so we spoke to him briefly and he was nice to us. He's a hero of my mum's - she's been obsessed with snooker since before I was born - so she was happy.

Then we headed over to the Crucible and got our seats. For the morning session we watched Dave Gilbert and Stephen Maguire - Dave Gilbert did excellently so it was no surprise he won the session. It finished just before 1pm so we went out to get some lunch. We went into the Millennium Gardens where the BBC commentary happens, so we saw John Parrott, Neil Robertson, and Hazel Irvine, but only from the back. There's a cafe in there so we got a panini each and then got back into the queue for the afternoon session which started at 2.30.

It was Ronnie O'Sullivan versus Stuart Bingham; Ronnie is brilliant of course but was not playing his best and made some silly mistake. I had a radio earpiece so I could hear the commentary, it was Stephen Hendry and John Virgo so pretty interesting to listen to. In the morning it was Steve Davis and Ken Doherty so that was good too. 

The session finished at about 5.45 and the train back to my village wasn't until 6.35 so we walked down to the station and went into the pub next door for a glass of wine each. I got home about 7.15 and I was absolutely knackered but I had had such a good day! Watching the nsooker live is good fun, so we're looking to buy tickets for next year, too. 

My pain au chocolat in Marmaduke's which is an excellent cafe, I recommend it

In the queue! 

Inside, I love all the signage

In the first session before it started

In the Millennium Gardens at lunchtime

Steve Davis! I promise he was more happy to talk to us than he looks

The BBC commentary

Ronnie O'Sullivan coming out

These last ones are my mum's photos, I just stole them

Trip to Lincolnshire - Day 3

On the Sunday of our trip we just had to come home! We only had a couple of nights away but it was so lovely. I've been really struggling with my mental health so it felt really nice to be away with my friends. I really felt like I reset myself a little bit and it was really good for me. We had decided to have brunch together before we had to say goodbye, so I had booked a table at the Leagate Inn which wasn't far away from where we were staying. 

We left the caravan clean and tidy by about 9.45 and got to Leagate Inn about 10am. We were slightly early for our table but it wasn't busy so we were able to sit down anyway. The brunch menu was amazing, it had so many delicious things on it and lots of vegetarian options. I went for the poached eggs and avocado on focaccia with feta and pumpkin seeds, and I added some halloumi bites. It was all really yummy and I would eat it again right now! I also had two cups of coffee which were delicious too. 

When we finished we drove to Lincoln where we dropped Jac off at the train station. Then Sam and I drove back to my village; the sat nav said we would get there about 1.10 and the train goes just after that, so it was tight! But we managed to make it so she hopped out of the car and on to the train. I got home just a few minutes later. I laid in bed for a bit because I was really tired! And glad to be home, but it was a really funy weekend. 

On Sunday I was wearing this leopard print dress from Topsy Curvy, I bought it off Chloe and I love it, it's just so colourful. I just had leggings on underneath. 

My delicious brunch - I often have avocado on sourdough but I should try it with focaccia at home for sure

Halloumi bites which added delicious saltiness

Here all three of us are - although I'm barely in it but it was hard to get us all in the photo!

My delightful neon leopard print dress