Favourite Fridays: Warm Scents

Sometimes there is nothing better than a good smelling moisturiser or perfume. I think that especially in the older months snuggling under a blanket with a nice hot drink and smelling a festive candle burning in the corner. Since in my new house we can't have candles in case we burn the place down (which in my case would be highly likely) I've had to think of other ways to keep the autumnal scents alive.

One of my favourite scents is coconut and to me it reminds me more of the colder months than it does of summer. I have the Coconut body butter from the Body Shop and I think it has to be one of my favourites of all time. Not just in creaminess and how soft it makes your legs, but the smell stays around for so long! I'll walk downstairs and my housemates will say "Oooh something smells nice" and it will be my legs. Classy.

One of my housemates went on holiday to Florida over the summer and very kindly brought us all back a Victoria Secret spray which was VERY nice! I got the Enchanted Apple scent and ass soon as I sprayed it it reminded me of a Mary-Kate and Ashley perfume I had once upon a time that I was absolutely in love with. Memories! I spray it all over my clothes during the day and on my pillows at night so when I'm sleeping at night it's all I can smell.

World's scariest things

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Now, I don't like that I'm scared of that much in the grand scheme of all of the scary things in the world, but when I am scared of something, I'm scared! The problem is, I get myself worked up about it and then it's all I can think about. So, because I know you all care, I'm going to tell you some of the things that terrify me to my core (dramatic!).

• Spiders- This is probably my biggest fear. Even the thought of them makes me feel like they're crawling all over me. I bought the Radio Times this week (like most weeks) and there was a double page spread just for a programme about spiders...with pictures. It was awful, they were looking at me like 'We're going to jump out of this page and crawl all over your face!'. No thank you.
• Dark spaces where I can't see- If you read my new house post then you will have seen that in my bedroom I have a rail, instead of a wardrobe, to hang my clothes. But in that space it's really dark. Picture the scene, it's night time, I come in to go to bed and in the corner there's this giant dark space that someone could hide in. To put myself at ease I have to crawl into it and make sure that there's nothing in there. I know, it's weird. 
• Murderers- This is a bit weird but what I mean is that when I'm walking down the street alone and it's a little dark and someone walks past me, there's this thing in my head that says 'That's a murderer. You're going to die. Try and make your final thoughts happy.'. What a weirdo. It doesn't matter how many times I say it's not true, when it comes down to it just gets to me!

Bill's!

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Last Friday I had a little family visit from my mum, auntie, grandma and grandad and because we are all little piggies we had the worlds biggest lunch, EVER! I've been to Bill's once before this when I visited my friend in Oxford this summer but we had afternoon tea and not an actual meal. The staff were really friendly and I love how it's decorated, really quirky and mismatched. 

To start, we all shared crispy lemon squid which had big shoes to fill after the ones I had last week at Bella Italia. i'm not kidding, there was enough food in one portion to feed four people. The rings were huge and there must have been about 10 of them! The batter was nice and crispy and the the garlic mayo dip was seriously good. The only problem I found with it was that the squid itself was quite chewy and it lacked a little bit of seasoning. I preferred the one I had last week at Bella Italia but you can't go wrong with the price and portion sizes, they are seriously insane!

As my main dish I had a chicken and chorizo burger which came with skinny fries. This was gorgeous! The chicken was moist and very flavoursome and the chorizo was beautiful and tasty. Everything went really well together and the sweet bun made it all sweet but not too sweet. Again the portion size was absolutely massive for the price and the chip tasted more than chips, they were nicely seasoned and a little sweet which I liked.

I just had to have a dessert after the first two courses as they were both so good and I needed to see if it matched up. i had the warm chocolate brownie with milk ice cream. the texture of the brownie was very nice, soft but with a slight crunch on the outside. The flavour wasn't really there in the brownie but the chocolate sauce had so much it was unbelievable! One drop had so much chocolate flavour. I think that the next time I go back I might try the mini doughnuts!

A girl's best friend

There's just something about stationary that gets me really excited, but there's one thing that is better than all the rest....highlighters! I definitely think that anyone who's at school, sixth form/college or university needs these in their life to survive. If your like me then you'll refuse to look at notes or revision material unless it look colourful and kind of 'look at me'. These are always a lifesaver during exams and at the minute I'm writing up all of my notes (because I'm such a good student!) so I underline the key points so it looks really pretty. I pair off the colours so one lecture will be orange and yellow and the next will be pink and blue as it looks nice and colour coordinated as well as easily showing what was in each lecture.

Just a random post today and an insight into my weird brain which seems to think that highlighters are a great topic of conversation!

Favourite Friday: Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette

Make up isn't something that I really talk about on this blog but it's something that I have a serious amount of, especially eye shadows. This week I seem to have been sticking to one eye shadow look which for me is not normal as I change it up on a day to day basis. Something about the colours just scream autumn and they're soft and easy to blend I'm just seriously in love! This has to be one of my favourite eye shadow palettes ever! I've been wearing the 'classic' row of shadows, putting silk teddy in the inner corner and halfway across the lid, then push-up on the rest of the lid and then into the crease and finally putting erotica on the outer corner. I just love how metallic it is and when it catches the light it looks stunning.

This entire palette has so many possibilities for beautiful looks and even though I've had in since May I don't think I've yet unlocked it's true potential! Honey pot is a gorgeous glittery gold and I love wearing it with a dark brown smokey eye.

My Netflix List

As a person who spends around 10 hours of my day sat watching a screen it was only a matter of time for me and Netflix to be brought together (or for my brother to get it and me to sponge off him...). To me there is nothing better than spending days of your life wrapped up in a little mini world, feeling someone else's pain and making their problems your problems, bliss. So I thought that I would share my list of TV series' that I would definitely recommend watching on Netflix.

1. House of Anubis-I'm not even joking, this is one of the best programmes I've ever watched. The episodes and story lines just draw you in and the fact that there are so many episodes per series means that you get really attached to the characters and I seriously cannot wait for the third series to go on so I can indulge myself in it again!
2. Gossip Girl-I have such a love/hate relationship with this programme but overall I do really like it. Sometimes I can't keep up with all of the love interests and family problems but the first series had me hooked from beginning to end so I definitely recommend starting it and then you can make up your mind from there. 
3. Silk-So good, so good. I like how it shows you the different sides of a court case but in a completely non boring way. Each episode had a different case each episode is different so it makes it way too easy to watch a lot of episodes back to back, not good but at the same TOO GOOD!
4. Last Tango in Halifax-YES YES YES! I love it, it's too good, too much dbfushbfaibahbv......you must watch.

Bella Italia!

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Ah, Bella, how I've missed you. I think that, especially when I'm back in the Nottingham, the Bella Italia in the Cornerhouse is one of my most frequently visited restaurants. This is because I know when I go I'm not going to be disappointed. I rarely ever stray from the same meals and every time it delivers. The atmosphere is always buzzing, friendly staff and because it's right in the city centre it's a good place to people watch!

For starter I had calamari, which as I mentioned earlier I always have. As you can see from the image above it comes with a lemon wedge, a tomato sauce and a garlic mayonnaise. Both of the dips are delicious and go beautifully with the crispy calamari. The flavour of the tomato dip always reminds me of Heinz tomato soup and is thin in texture which is a great contrast to the super creamy garlic mayo which I think it my favourite of the two. The calamari batter was lovely and crisp, not at all greasy. One of my favourite starters of all time.

For main, as per usual, I had lasagne. There is just something really special about this dish. There's the perfect amount of white sauce (which is super creamy and well seasoned) to cheese and meat. There's a little bit of heat that comes from the meat, giving the dish another dimension. I always judge a restaurant on how good their lasagne is, and this is a good lasagne!

I think I have a problem...

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I don't like people using my things.

I know it sounds strange but hear me out. I just like the way that I use things and I know how to clean them.....do I have a disease?
The weird thing about this problem though is that it's only 'things' but when it comes to areas I'm fine. For example if there are crumbs or something on the side it's not as if I'm first out with the disinfectant spray, so I don't really understand what's wrong with me.
Since moving to university I think I've got better with this little issue. Now if someone uses something like a pan I'm completely fine with it...until I find it in the dishwasher, then we have a problem. Now, my pans are non-stick so they can't go in the dishwasher (told you I have a problem).
I think I need some serious help, I'll take any suggestions for therapy sessions whatever, I just need to sort this out!!!

Welcome to favourite fridays!

To get into more of a 'blogging routine' I've decided to introduce Favourite Fridays! This will be where I tell you about something I'm liking that week. This week, I thought I'd share one of my favourite things to do, not just this week but all of the time. Night time snuggles on the sofa in front of the tele with my bears and blanket. Bliss. I'm seriously obsessed with TV so to me there's nothing better than cosying up on a night with my pals, real and furry, and my blanket and have a good snuggle. I know that this was a short little post but it was just a little taster before we get into the real deal next week. See you then!

Refreshers Week Fun Times!

Looking back at ALL of the photos from ALL of the nights out I'm beginning to wonder how we managed it, but we did! Eight nights out with no breaks. Crazy. Now I know that the freshers reps had it hard because they were up early in the morning and went to bed...also early in the morning, but to be honest if you went through an entire interview process to be one, that is completely self inflicted.

My own personal refreshers experience this year was an amazing one! It was so much better than freshers week last year because it was just like going out with your friends like normal every night AND there were no lectures. Win win! The nights out were a great mixture of fancy dress, normal dress, cheesy pop, dance music. There were a few disappointing nights but it just means that we'll avoid those places for a while.

My advice to anyone else planning to do a week of heavy partying would be to pace yourself, don't stress about outfits (no one notices) and have fun! This is the only time in your life when you can go out seven nights in a row and you won't be judged.

Las Iguanas!

Last Monday my dad came down from sunny Halifax to take me out for tea (he had a meeting in Birmingham so he stopped by on the way past). I had no idea where we were going to go so I just found somewhere that I saw on my way into town. I saw Las Iguanas one day and thought that the building looked nice and we thought we'd give it a go!

For starter I had smoky turkey and cheese empanadas with a cranberry sauce. I'm not even joking, these were beyond delicious that words can't even describe how good these were. There was the perfect balance between turkey and cheese and the flavour was full of meaty, slightly creamy goodness. Paired with the cranberry sauce just made everything nice and sweet and I've never really had this flavour combination before but I'd definitely recommend it! The pastry/bread outside was nice and crispy and wasn't overly greasy so it brought everything together wonderfully.

For my main I had a torta, which is kind of like a glorified sandwich, filled with fried chicken with curly fries and creamy aioli. As with the starter this was just insanely good! If I was to give any criticism I would say that the chicken was slightly overcooked, but it still had an amazing flavour. The bread was brioche and was toasted but not so much so that it was hard to cut and the sauce and onions inside made the flavour really tasty. I can't even say how good the curly fries were. They were tasty, crispy and dipped in the aioli it was just a winning combination. The aioli was creamy and full of garlicy flavour.

The meal and the service were outstanding so I think that we will definitely will be making a return, maybe in the not so distant future!

What I'm watching atm

As we move into Autumn, TV gets seriously good. It might not be everyones cup of tea but I'm a big fan of the bbc/itv drama. Endeavour, Last tango in Halifax and Silk are just a few of my all time favourites but recently channels have been seriously upping their game when it comes to gripping programmes. Here are just a few of the ones I've been watching:

• Our Zoo- Although this has finished now it was a seriously good series! It was one of those ones I went into not knowing much about it and it was a nice surprise with an engaging plot and lots of cute animals!
• Cilla- I can't even explain how much I enjoyed this mini series! I watched it pretty much back to back and was hooked from the start. I've never been the biggest Cilla Black fan but the series made me love her  and no doubt it will be one I'll rematch again and again. 
• Scott and Bailey- Love this programme, go back to it again and again and I don't think it will ever get old. The new series is as good as ever and I can't wait for the future episodes. 
• Grantchester- Now this is a super new programme that has only had one episode but I'm already hooked! Who would even think that a 50's vicar would make a good murder investigated?!?! INSANE!!!

Afternoon T(ea)V Spotting

As a little treat before I went back off to the wonderful world of university, my mum planned a little surprise as a nice send off. I had no idea what it was, like no idea, so when we pulled up outside I had a little bit of a mini heart attack. I think that I might be the world's biggest 'TV spotting' geek because wherever I go that has been on the tele I can't help myself but be like "Remember in series 2 of [insert programme name here] when they went to that church?!?! That's the church!!". I think it may be a condition.

As soon as we walked through the door I was taking in my surroundings and everything was so cute! Everywhere was filled with old fashioned furniture with little ornaments it was really relaxing. Then I saw it, the Last Tango in Halifax collage, with pictures of everyone when they filmed there.....just...too many feels....

The afternoon tea itself was beautiful. Cute crockery and tasty food you can't really go wrong. The sandwiches were ham and mustard, beef and horseradish, cucumber and cream cheese and smoked salmon. My favourite was the smoked salmon one but the all of them were big on flavour. The scones (which were fruit) had just come out of the oven as they were still warm, mmmmm. Smothered in jam and cream you can't really go wrong. To top off a super yummy 'meal' there were three desserts, a little strawberry sponge, a chocolaty truffle thing and a lemon posset. I can't pick my favourite as they were all so delicious in their own little ways.  I'd definitely recommend going for afternoon tea here or anywhere as i think it's a nice treat to have every once in a while!

Let's Talk: House To Flat

It's finally come...SECOND YEAR! It seems like forever since I packed up my little room in central Nottingham and headed back home to 'return to normal life'. Now I'm back and ready to paaaaaaaaarty, which has already happened as I've been back two weeks now. It feels really good to be back, I mean I do miss home sometimes (mainly the food and sky box facilities) but I like being able to cook for myself and spend time with my friends who I haven't seen in aaaaaaaaageeeeeees!!! I thought I'd just share some pictures of my NEW ROOM in my NEW HOUSE (exciting isn't it!). I tried to be all artsy and cool with the close ups but I don't think it worked, enjoy!

The Food Awards!

As with the cruise ports it's time to reflect on the best meals of the holiday! I'll choose a best starter, best main and best dessert, then the best overall meal, Let's go!

Best Starter:

Without a doubt the Beer Battered Cod Fingers. They were so good that, to not sound too weird, sometimes I can still taste the curried tartare sauce, it was just that good!

Best Main:

Although the Seafood Spaghetti scored higher, the Salmon En Croute was a lot more memorable and had some really delicious aspects. Anything with pastry is a winner with me and everything else was just a cherry on top.

Best Dessert:

Three words, White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was so insanely good that I just want to relive the experience everyday for the rest of my life. 

Best Overall Meal:

This was a hard one to choose as there good points and bad points about all of them but I finally settled on the meal I had on Day Eleven. It was the Beer Battered Cod Fingers, Beef Wellington and the Coffee Mousse. There was a mixture of fish and meat and the dessert drew everything together , it was very nice indeed.

I'm going to miss looking back on all of the food I ate on my holiday because it reminds me what I ate and maybe what I liked enough to have again in the future. Bring on the next holiday so I can do this again!

Food Day Fourteen

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Starter-Pan Seared Scallops and Chorizo

Super delicious, but don't expect anything less from this combo. The portion size was small but it was very big on flavour. It came with a creamy cauliflower puree which was really nice and the scallops were perfectly cooked. The chorizo was nice although it did just taste like crispy bacon and everything was in proportion.
9/10
Main-Seafood and Mash
I'd never come across this combination before but it was surprisingly good. The scallops were tough, which was odd as they were fine in the starter, but they still had a good flavour. The remoulade sauce was very hie and went well with everything. The mashed potato was extremely tasty, the fish was very nice and the prawns were the best thing on the plate.
8/10
Dessert-Lemon Tart
This was delicious. The custard was really creamy and had a lovely lemony flavour. It came with a biscuit base which I'd never had on this dessert before but it was really buttery and it was gorgeous. the portion size was good and it was just beautiful.
10/10

This was an extremely good overall meal and is definitely up there in terms of the best so this gets a 9/10.

Food Day Thirteen

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Starter-Creamy Mushrooms

This starter was full of flavour. The texture of the mushrooms were nice as they were not too hard or too soft. The pastry was nice, it was puff pastry which isn't my favourite but it was a mixture of crispy and soggy so I thought it was really nice. the sauce lived up to its name as it was nice and creamy.

8/10

Main-Roasted Duck

The duck was dry again, as I had it at the beginning of the holiday and it was the same. Some parts were moist but on the whole it wasn't, however the crispy skin made up for it. There wasn't much colour on the plate other than the pod peas which made it look not that appealing to eat. The sauce was really nice but there wasn't enough of it and the mushroom risotto was tasteless. 

6/10

Dessert-Ivory Chocolate Mousse

It was a white chocolate mousse and was really tasty. There were a variety of berries on top which went really nicely with the mousse. The portion size was just the right amount.

9/10

This meal was good but the duck let it down quite a bit so I'd give this meal a 7/10. 

Food Day Twelve

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Starter-Spinach Dip 

I didn't really know what to expect with this dish but it was very nice. The spinach sauce type stuff was topped with melted cheese and it was full of flavour and was nice and creamy. It came with warm tortilla chips which were tasty and there were a good amount of them. I liked this as it was different from any other starter that I've had before.
8/10
Main-Pork Scaloppine Oscar
This was very strange and interesting. It was a thin piece of pork covered in a cheesy creamy sauce  with white crab meat on top. It was a very strange but a nice combination. The crab was really delicious, the mash was creamy and the asparagus. The pork was a little tough to cut but wasn't chewy.
7/10
Dessert-Warm Chocolate Cake
This was delicious. It wasn't really a chocolate cake, it was more like a fondant without a melting middle. It was very chocolatly, had a nice texture and a nice portion size. Yummy!
9/10

Another good meal but I could have thought when I ordered not to order too many creamy things as it all got a bit creamy so I'd give it an 8/10 because it was still very tasty.