29/07/2014

Time for a catch up

While I have friends living on the same street, sometimes theres nothing better than a visit from those that live a little further away. Fran lives down in England and I haven't seen her in what seems like forever so when she said she was coming up to visit I got pretty excited. Naturally we had a lot of catching up to do and what better way to do that than over some food and a nice glass of wine.

Our restaurant of choice for the evening was Zizzi, I have to really be in the mood for Italian food, sometimes I find it a bit boring but on this occasion it was exactly what I wanted. I was so hungry so decided an entire portion of garlic bread was a good idea.


This was swiftly followed by my pollo piccanti pizza, which is definitely my favourite pizza on their menu. Between bites we managed to catch up on our new jobs, and how much we've been learning over the last wee while.


Next came dessert, which we decided to share cause we couldn't quite manage one each, so we went for a light lemon sorbet with meringue. I love a good coffee so had to have a cappuccino to accompany dessert.


Feeling rather stuffed and all caught up on each others daily lives we headed back to my place for a cup of tea and a movie before calling it a night.

Luckily we had a whole day left of catching up so we enjoyed a bit of a lie in and a lazy morning before heading to our favourite place for a bite of lunch. Cup in the centre of town, maybe you'll remember my macarons? Anyway this time it was moroccan mint tea and a bagel with beef, cheese and caramelised onion, and yes it was even better than it sounds.































I promise we didn't just eat for 24 hours but we love our food which is why thats what I'm sharing with you, after all thats the whole point of this blog. Just to prove it here is Fran in the park. It was a nice day which makes a change up here so we had to make the most of it even if it did get colder pretty quickly.



We had a lovely 24 hours, its a shame it wasn't longer but we made the most of the time we had which is all that matters.







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25/07/2014

A night at the circus

When Holly first mentioned a trip to the circus I immediately thought of that scene in Dumbo, yes you know the one I'm talking about! It used to creep me out as a kid. Anyway I decided to forget my fears and go last week, and I am so glad I did.

The three of us met and walked down to the beach where the Continental Circus Berlin had taken over a large green field, I really didn't know what to expect as we walked into the large ring. We ordered a popcorn to share and took our seats in the 3rd row. At least we would have a good view of what was to come.

The first half completely changed my mind about the circus, the artists have some incredible skill. They must practise for hours a day! The high wire was amazing, it must be pretty hard to walk across that rope as it is, but to walk across in stilts, blindfolded and even cycle over it, I can't even imagine what that would be like.
Although I think my favourite were the group of 'African warriors' who did some amazing back flips and limbo under fire!




There was clearly too much excitement to get through without a break, during which the girls discovered I had never tried candy floss, apparently thats a crime. They were nice enough to buy some to share, honestly I'm still not convinced, its really strange.

Anyway back to the fun. The second half had some hula hooping some more acrobatics and my favourite act of the night, I don't even know what to call it, some kind of an amazing balancing act! Two guys, with massive muscles doing some unimaginable balancing stunts on each other.


Well I think its safe to say, I had so much more fun than I was expecting. I don't think its something I would do on a regular basis, but it was something different and we enjoyed a drink in the pub on the way home. What more can you ask for?


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14/07/2014

Lazy Sunday

Since moving to Aberdeen 4 weeks ago I have filled every day with things to do. Yes, most of those days have been work but even my 2 days off a week I have managed to fill with trips to the movies, food and friends. So yesterday I decided to have a day to myself, while it was rather uneventful sometimes it is good to have only yourself for company, if nothing else it gives me some time to reflect.

I started my day rather lazily with a nice mug of coffee and a pain au chocolat, while having a little Pinterest session and catching up on the world of instagram. By the time I was fully awake it much have been around 9.30, I had things to do in town but nothing opened til 11, so it was the perfect opportunity to get in a little yoga session.

Feeling nice and relaxed I got ready to head into town just as the rain came on, typical! Stop number one was boots, to pick up my glasses.
I don't know about you but I think they make me look rather sophisticated! Moving on..... I had planned on heading to the beach but of course the typical Scottish weather had other plans. So I grabbed myself a quiet table in Starbucks and ordered the mandatory caramel macchiato and prepared to get lost in my own little world. I only stayed an hour or so but I was completely in the zone doing some writing. 


I decided it was time to give up my table as it was starting to get a little busier, and I headed for home.

The majority of the afternoon was spent relaxing and also tidying up my room, its amazing how quickly I can make somewhere so messy! It was quite therapeutic really. I found a few postcards lying around that I had to use for decoration so sorted them out and before I knew it, my stomach was telling me it was time to eat.

I also had a planned Skype date with my gran as I hadn't spoken to her in 3 weeks! We're pretty close so thats a really long time for us, but it was good to see her and catch up and we're hoping to plan a day together even though it might not be for a while. I love showing her the places I love to visit cause she always loves them too.

So all in all I had a pretty good day, just goes to show that sometimes there is nothing wrong with having a day by yourself. We do not have to be out and doing something 'sociable' all the time, there is a lot to be said for being happy with your own company.
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13/07/2014

Time with friends

I think the best thing about being back in Aberdeen is the fact that I have friends here that are always more than happy to have a good catch up. This past week was perhaps one of my favourite days. It was lovely and sunny so I met a friend for coffee at the cup which is an adorable little cafe just off Belmont street. Be prepared for a few posts about this place because I will be going there a lot! On this occasion I had a cappuccino and I fancied a little something sweet so wandered up to the counter to take a look. Thats when I spotted my favourite treat of all.....macarons piled up on a cake stand! So of course thats what I ordered, but I did not expect them coming to the table like this:
I think 4 may have been slightly excessive, but they were pretty good so of course I gobbled them all up. 

After a good long chat we headed out into the sunshine before I was tempted to order anything else. We had a little wander in a couple of shops before taking a trip to Rubislaw to look at all the big fancy houses and imagine we lived there.

It was such a lovely day and time seemed to fly by! I'm now looking forward to some more adventures and maybe i'll even try another coffee shop.

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02/07/2014

#SNAGS14

Having recently moved to Aberdeen, i've spent my time trying to organise and just get settled in. Trying to get back into some kind of routine is hard, especially when I have a lot of new things going on.

Anyway this meant I'd barely seen water until a little visit from my family for SNAGS (Scottish National Age Group Championships). This is quite possibly the biggest competition of the year for age group swimmers, the best young kids battle it out to become the National Age Group Champion and a lucky few even manage to break Scottish or British records! Scottish Swimming really are producing some amazingly talented young people right now, it makes me even more excited to see what will happen at the Commonwealth Games that start in just a few weeks

It was the first time I'd been to the new aquatics centre, with its 50m competition pool, 25m training pool and diving boards. I must say they've done a great job of it, I can't wait for the chance to actually swim in it!

Rather than make the kids look back with my amazing swimming (not!) I thought i'd sit this one out and watch from the spectators gallery. Every session had a different colour of wrist band and by the end of watching my brother swim I had quite the collection, thank goodness I wasn't there everyday.

























Even though I wasn't actually in the pool, it was good to be near one again, I just find them so relaxing. It has given me a little motivation to get organised and back into the pool before I end up back at square one.
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