Project 365: #109 Rob's birthday, part 3

Rob's birthday celebrations reached their third and final stage (seriously - who does he think he is?! The Queen?!) with a family meal at The Red House.  I hadn't been there for years, but the place has been redone since then (granted, in November 2009 apparently!) with new menus.  They now serve proper pub food with a hint of gastropub elements - I had steak and kidney pudding (which I haven't had for years!) and it was absolutely delicious (and huge!)!  It has been a while since we'd all been out for dinner together so it was really nice to spend some time together as a family - a great way to end Rob's birthday weekend!

Project 365: #108 Hangover munchies

Nom nom nom :)  After Rob's birthday celebrations the night before, we all headed down to the pub to chill out on the sofas, watch football and eat away our hangovers.  Me and Danny weren't feeling too hungry so decided to order a combo platter to share, thinking that it would be less than a baguette and chips.  Oh how wrong we were - look at the size of it!!!!  Everyone picked at the leftovers a bit though, except Rob, who went for a super high carb meal of a tuna melt panini, chips and garlic bread!  It did get rid of his hangover though!

Project 365: #107 Rob's birthday

My little brother turned 24 this weekend so a big group of us went over to Reading for a night out to celebrate. We started off in a pub and then went to Sakura - a Japanese themed bar and club.  Danny decided to get Rob on the sake shots (you know how they do flavoured vodka shots?  Well Sakura does flavoured sake - yuk!) and they both got a bit addicted to the bakewell tart shooter (advocaat and chambord)  I decided to stay clear of the shots and stuck to cherry blossom martinis - raspberry vodka, cherry blossom sake, cherry liqueur and apple juice with lime, raspberries and maraschino cherries.  I thoroughly recommend it!  I'm definitely getting too old for all this though - we stayed out till 4am and I was almost asleep on my feet!

Project 365: #106 iPhone 4S

Yes, I'm one of those losers that queued up to get the new iPhone.  Not before the shops opened, I'd like to add, but I did go down there to queue on the day, only to be told that they'd stopped taking people at 4.30 rather than 5.30 as per their opening times!  I went back on the Saturday though and managed to get the one I'd been wanting - Danny's got a black iPhone 4 so I thought I'd get a white one to be a bit different!  I absolutely love it too!

Project 365: #105 Oozy chocolate pudding

Another day, another dessert made by Mum!  Waitrose, where she works, do recipe cards every week or so and one of the most recent ones was this dessert - oozy chocolate pudding!  Chocolate desserts always win me over and this was no exception - I could eat this again and again and again!  Definitely worth a try!

Project 365: #104 New laptop!

For ages now I've wanted to buy a laptop.  My computer is a desktop so I always borrow my brother's laptop for writing blog posts so that I can watch TV at the same time, or write them curled up on the sofa.  This month, I've finally got to the point where I have enough money to be able to buy myself one, so the first thing I did when I got back from Cornwall was order it online.  I'd already decided exactly what I wanted so the process was pretty quick, and it arrived within two days! (I was pretty impressed!)  The covers are interchangeable so I got this one in addition to the black one that came as standard - Danny's not impressed but I love it!

Project 365: #103 Fowey and fish 'n chips

Upon recommendation from one of the guys at work, we drove down to Fowey for our last day in Cornwall - a bit further along the coast than we had ventured before but a very picturesque little town all the same.  Narrow streets filled with lots of boutiques selling handmade home decorations.  I desperately wanted to go in and buy up most of the shop but unfortunately we couldn't really leave Max outside!  That was probably preferable for my bank balance though really!

In the evening, we decided to treat ourselves to a fish and chip supper.  Seriously, it's so long since I had fish and chips!  It was absolutely delicious!!!  Oh, and I had my first taste of mushy peas (what can I say - I'm a southerner!) - I'll definitely be having them again!

Weekly top 5

It was Rob’s birthday on Sunday (hence this post being quite so delayed!) so a group of his uni friends came down for the weekend. Saturday night involved lots of drunkenness in Reading and then Sunday involved slobbing at the pub watching the football – a pretty great weekend really! We had a family night last night and went out for dinner – yummy!

I received my new laptop last week and I’m absolutely loving it! It means that I can actually take it to Danny’s and blog if I’m there, so really there’ll be no excuse for me leaving big gaps between my blog posts! I also managed to get my hands on the new iPhone 4S this week! Sooooo excited about it still (even though I got it 3 days ago!) I’ll be doing a post on it when I catch up with my Project 365 posts, so look out for that!

My best guy friend Sam is back from Iceland again for the next few weeks so we’re going out for dinner and drinks one night this week. We didn’t get around to meeting up last time, so he still hasn’t met Danny yet – looking forward to my two favourite boys finally meeting!

I booked my appraisal with my boss for later on this week. I’ve been putting it off ever since I qualified, mainly because I hate having to do the “what do you think you’re good at?” and “where do you think you could improve?” bits, but I decided I really actually needed to speak to him about progression and things that have been playing on my mind a bit recently. I’m not particularly looking forward to it, but I’m hoping that I feel a bit happier at work afterwards, so fingers crossed!

All images from weheartit.com

Danny’s dad is a rigging supervisor and works on sports events and music festivals, amongst other things. He’s just been working on the Christmas specials for Live At The Apollo (those of you from outside the UK probably won’t have heard of this – it’s a comedy show on TV here) He came home the other day and said that he’s going to be working on Michael Bublé Christmas show. It’s being recorded on Thursday and he’s managed to get two tickets – Danny’s sister is having one but the other one is going to be fought out between me and his mum I think! I’m just hoping that she doesn’t want to go!

Five to follow:

Happytinsoldier ♥

Shelley Hearts...

vivatramp

Sophia's Journal

Boldnbella

Hope you're all having a good week!

Project 365: #102 The Plough, Duloe

Since we took Max on holiday, it was a bit difficult to go out for dinner in the evening but we gave the village pub a call on the off chance that they allowed dogs and they do!  Good times!  The meal was amazing - I had scallops to start and Danny had mussels, then we both had steak with a green peppercorn sauce, mixed salad and chips.  Mmmm........!  If you're ever in the area, definitely check it out - www.ploughduloe.co.uk

Project 365: #101 Golitha Falls

We took a trip inland today, stopping at Golitha Falls on the River Fowey before driving to Bodmin.  We parked the car and strolled along through the woods by the river.  Another picturesque day for us, as you can see!  After a short drive through Bodmin Moor, past Jamaica Inn, we reached Bodmin.  After at least three days of longing for one, I finally got my cream tea!  I only managed half though - two scones was a bit much!

Project 365: #100 Polperro

We took a trip down to Polperro today to have a bit of a wander around the village - it's a really picturesque little place.  Narrow cobbled streets and a small harbour make it really cute.  After a bit of an explore of the streets, we popped into a small confectionery shop and picked up some clotted cream fudge to take home with us - absolutely delicious :)

Project 365: #099 My idea of heaven....

Yep, that is an individual portion of lasagne, Danny style!  He cooked these massive lasagnes while we were away and I've gotta say, it was definitely as good as it looks!  Lasagne is my absolute favourite but I could barely manage half of this!  It was just about as good cold the next day though (I'd never had cold lasagne, but Danny assured me it was good - he was right!)

Project 365: #098 Max's first beach trip and Cornish pasties

On Monday, we decided to take Max for his first visit to the beach - I think he enjoyed it by the looks of the photo above :)  I think this is probably my favourite photo of him ever!  He couldn't quite decide whether or not to venture in deep enough for his feet to leave the ground but still managed to get plenty wet enough!

After a while of messing around on the beach, we had a bit of a wander around Looe and decided to get traditional Cornish pasties for lunch.  Danny wanted a large one, but the shop we went to had run out - a good job as it turned out, because the medium ones we got were absolutely huge!  Easily the best pasty I've ever had though - worth the trip down to Cornwall for that alone!

Project 365: #097 Mucky pup

Since our first full day in Cornwall was a Sunday and it was unusually hot for October, we decided to avoid the beach and leave it till during the week when it'd be a bit quieter.  Our apartment had a list of walks from the village so we picked a 5 mile one which went through the woods.  The only problem with this plan (and we didn't find this out until we were on the walk, with no signal on our phones for Google Maps!) was that the turning that we were meant to take into the woods was closed due to deforestation.  We carried on walking and took the next turning we could, thinking that maybe we'd just judged the distance wrong and kept looking at the directions I'd written down - they seemed to fit to where we were anyway....

Two hours later, we were in the middle of the woods with no idea where we were.  We eventually managed to find our way to a farm and then followed a lane in the direction we thought must be the main road.  Thankfully after another 20 minutes or so, a car passed us and told us that the main road was only another 10 minutes away.  When we reached the main road, Danny got internet signal on his phone and we managed to use Google Maps to find the way home!  Rather than 5 miles, we ended up doing 8 miles!  Max was absolutely shattered by the time we got home (as were Danny and I!) - so much so that he promptly got into his bed and fell asleep for the rest of the evening!  By the looks of it though, he enjoyed splashing around in muddy puddles - we enjoyed trying to clean him off a whole lot less!

Rahua shampoo and conditioner review

Image source

According to Rahua's website "100% natural, organic shampoo cleanses to create healthy, lustrous, bouncy hair and is ideal for color-treated hair. Rahua oil fortifies weak, damaged strands while nourishing and regenerating the scalp and hair follicles." and "100% natural, organic conditioner protects to create manageable, soft hair without any build-up — and is ideal for color-treated hair. Rahua oil fortifies and nourishes weak, damaged strands."  So do they really do what they say?

Product

At first, I really wasn't too keen on the smell of either the shampoo or conditioner.  It smells kind of old and musty - not the most attractive smell for a beauty product.  Thankfully, the smell doesn't linger on the hair - once dry, you can't smell it at all.  The shampoo takes a bit of effort to lather up but the conditioner glides on really easily.  A little goes a long way with both products, especially the conditioner.

Price

At £26 for 275ml shampoo and £27.50 for 275ml conditioner, this is definitely a rather pricey product.  As I mentioned above though, a little goes a long way so you needn't worry that you'd get through a whole bottle in a week.  That said, is £26 a little too expensive for a bottle of shampoo?

Effects

After using both the shampoo and conditioner, my hair instantly felt much softer and smoother.  The products really do hydrate your hair and this is evidenced from the first use, making it much easier to style.

Would I buy them at full price?

Since I regularly have highlights put through my hair, my hair tends to be quite dry and I'd definitely buy these products to remedy the dryness.  At this price though, I'd make sure that I only used them as a treat for my hair, rather than for everyday use, especially since even one use has such an effect.

I received a free sample of both the Rahua shampoo and conditioner in my September GlossyBox but the views here are entirely honest and I have not been paid to write this review.

Project 365: #096 Chapel Views

Wouldn't it be lovely to wake up to this view every morning?  I have for the last week!  Danny and I (plus Max the dog!) have just returned from a nice relaxing holiday near Looe, Cornwall.  The weather was absolutely perfect for the first three days, unfortunately getting a bit wetter towards the end of the week but it is October!  The apartment that we stayed at was absolutely gorgeous - immaculately furnished and both of us said that we'd like our house to be decorated similarly when we finally get one!  If you're thinking of visiting Cornwall, I'd definitely recommend staying at Chapel Views!

I have not been paid nor asked to write this review - I was just genuinely impressed with the apartment and would recommend it to anyone!

Project 365: #095 Pandora silver hearts ring

If you've seen any Pandora adverts over recent months, then you will have seen this simple but very cute hearts ring - I absolutely adored it as soon as I saw it and made it my mission to track it down!  I was a little worried about how much it was going to cost, but a visit to the Pandora store in Basingstoke informed me that it was only £35!  It also turned out that it had actually sold out everywhere and I therefore had to order one from the next batch they were expecting in.  A month later (I'll let them off - it did have to come from Thailand apparently!) and it arrived in the post - I've been wearing it ever since!

Project 365: #094 Mum's been baking again!

Dorset Apple Cake was the order of the day this time and how welcome it was after a long day at work.  One of my friends gave me a load of cooking apples and then strangely, the next day, Mum's friend did the same.  We're now completely overwhelmed with apples so Mum has been trying to bake lots of different recipes using them.  If you've never tried Dorset Apple Cake, you really should - it's the lightest cake I've ever tasted!

Project 365: #093 ASOS had a sale on....

An email from ASOS saying that they have a sale on always spells disaster for me and this occasion was no exception!  Thankfully, due to the fact that I placed the order before payday, I managed to restrain myself to just one top, and pretty darn pleased I am with said top as well!  Perfect for the return of summer that we seem to be experiencing at the moment and an amazing colour - I think this will be becoming one of my wardrobe staples!