Lifestyle: History Fun at Hampton Court

Jacket: Topshop
Jumper: Primark
Bag: LK Bennett
Jeans: Topshop
Boots: Missguided

Considering History was one half of my degree I think it is pretty safe to say I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to the subject. I think it gets a bad rap for being 'boring' but in my opinion it is just like the gossip magazines of the past, full of interesting stories plus there are so many different eras and perspectives to look at I think you just need to find the particular part that you enjoy the most. For me it is the Tudor period as it is full of love affairs, notorious personalities, blood and guts and embroiled in mystery. One of the best things about History is visiting land marks or museums as when you see the artifacts or walk down the same corridor as a late monarch or servant it is really humbling and interesting to imagine yourself in that period and bring it all to life. 

Therefore, when Matt surprised me around a month ago with tickets to visit Hampton Court palace I was very excited! Having visited once before many years ago (I think it was year 7) I could only remember a little, so it was great to refresh my memory especially on such a lovely sunny day. Matt is quite indifferent to History but even he really enjoyed immersing himself in the rich atmosphere that Hampton Court has to offer.

The building itself and the grounds are very impressive - there is so much to explore that we couldn't do it all in one day. We learnt a lot about Henry VIII's early life through to the end of his reign which was an education for both of us as I have concentrated more on Elizabeth I in the past. We got to see the rooms that decisions that shaped England where made, bedrooms where the Royals slept, the chapel which was beautiful (you couldn't take pictures in there though boo!), the exact place Henry married Katherine Parr, original documents and portraits, the Royal kitchens and servant quarters amongst many other things. There was even a very convincing Henry VIII look a like strolling about who embarked in role play with other actors every so often. There are lots of different gift shops dotted around at various stages which offered a great deal of paraphernalia - I thought the blog book was very funny and apt!

Where Henry sat in council meetings

Each part had convincing props and sounds, with staff members on hand who were fountains of knowledge if you needed answers. You could also get an audio guide which we used and there was costumes you could wear to really get in the spirit if you wanted to! Finally a thought on the food - we stopped off for lunch in the larger cafe set in the gardens which kept to the theme really well and served really delicious food. Sometimes at places like this it can be over priced and disappointing but we had a really tasty stew and lemon and chocolate cake washed down with a cup of tea and a cappuccino, all of which was fantastic.

If you are at a loose end one weekend or just want to try something different then I urge you to try a day out like this as you learn a lot and have fun too! 

Do you like history? xxx

P.S. Once I had uploaded these pictures to blogger the resolution has been ruined as they are so much clearer and sharp on my laptop - can anyone help me fix this?

Dining Out: Aubaine

For my second and last birthday meal out Matt took me to a French restaurant named Aubaine and we went to the branch in Wimbledon. Although there are a few locations, we liked that it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant, rather more boutique. We had been wanting to go there for a while so it was really nice surprise :) Inside it is modern with a rustic French twist and the service was very friendly and quick. 

When we first sat down I was surprised with a bottle of wine awaiting us with a little note from Matt, which is kind of a tradition as he normally does this when we go out to eat for a special occasion. It definitely set off the evening in a lovely way!

While choosing what to eat we were given a variety of tasty bread in a cute little bucket, as you can see above. There were lots of options to choose from, all quite simple, but for starter Matt had the caprese salad which was amazing. In his words, if the chefs can make something simple taste exquisite then you know you've gone to a good restaurant! I went for the squid which was flavoured with chilli and coriander and served with a lime aioli. It was a great combination of flavours and I also thought the way the lime was cut was pretty (I'm easily pleased as you can tell). It was good to have light starters so we had lots of room for main and pudding!

I opted for sea bass with tomato compote and roquette which was so good - I loved that they had got the skin nice and crispy. The quality of the ingredients as with all the dishes was great which is a necessity when providing more simple dishes. I also ordered some broccoli as a side to share (gotta get those vitamins in!) and it was cooked just right so it still had some crunch was nice and buttery. Matt went for the mussels with chips which is always a winner and one of our favourites.

Dessert was most definitely a highlight of the meal. We were presented with a slate platter that had a selection of delicious patisseries - I wish we could have had all of them! Matt had a salted caramel and pecan cake and I had a giant vanilla macaroon because they are one of my favourite things.

Overall we had such a lovely experience, with great quality food and service. We will most definitely be going back!

Have you tried Aubaine before? Do you like French food? xxx

One For The Chocolate Lovers: Hotel Chocolat's Restaurant | Rabot 1745 |

As you can tell from my last post, I like chocolate a lot. Matt is also partial to the sweet stuff, so when we received a booking at Hotel Chocolat's restaurant, Rabot 1745, from his mum as a joint birthday present (his birthday is in December) it seemed like a perfect choice! Apologies for the following pictures, I was really excited to use my new camera...but I forgot to put the SD card in and had to use my iPhone instead!

Rabot 1745 is based in Borough, London and situated right next to the market. The basic concept of the restaurant is to present a 'cocoa-centric cuisine' where all dishes have an element of some form of the cocoa bean as a new spice. As soon as you walk in you are hit by a scent of chocolate, which isn't overpowering at all but warm and comforting. You first walk into the cafe which would be perfect in the day to pop in for a hot chocolate while perusing the markets. They have merchandise on offer too and even have the machine they use to grind the beans on display and tell you which beans are being ground at that time.

The small restaurant is situated upstairs and is a dimly lit and cosy affair influenced by their St Lucian estate, made complete with a well stocked bar. We chose two chocolate based cocktails to start although they have plenty of other cocktails and drinks to choose from - I had the chocolate soother and Matt and the hazlenut soother. Both were very alcoholic and we both preferred Matt's as mine had the consistency of a pudding it was so thick!

L-R: Chocolate Soother & Hazelnut Soother

Each person each gets 3 cocoa beans before you order, along with some information about how the restaurant uses the beans and the history behind them. This meant we got the opportunity to be hands on with them and try a pure cocoa bean which was surprisingly sweet and a little nutty. It was a really nice touch and something that made you more involved with the experience.

Before our starter arrived we got given a shot of butternut squash soup accompanied by bread with cacao nibs in which was a delicious indication of the quality of the food that would follow the rest of the night.

For starter I had the Pearl Barley Scotch Egg which was encrusted with cacao nibs and accompanied by a warm salad of  roasted root veg (although I wouldn't call it much of a salad), goat's cheese dressing and cacao oil emulsion. It was so tasty and the unusual combination of flavours were unlike anything else I've had before. I loved that the scotch eggs were warm and runny inside too. Matt had the Seared Plantation Pork Terrine which came with gribiche sauce, crisp sweetbread and cacao nib condiment and was equally as yummy.

Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb was my choice for the main course which was basted with cacao balsamic, roast garlic mash and studded with seasonal veg. It was so tender it literally fell of the bone and melted in  your mouth and the rich sticky sauce and creamy mash worked really well together. I also liked that it was a big enough dish that meant we didn't have to order more sides so value for money was quite good. Matt had the  35 day aged cacao marinated rib eye steak that came with roast winter vegetables, white chocolate horseradish mash and a red wine cacao jus (which I also got). I don't think he could detect the white chocolate in the mash and he preferred the steak without too much of the jus. 

Lastly, we picked Chocolate Genesis for dessert, which is every bit as decadent as it sounds (how could we not?!) In hindsight we should have probably just shared one as we were pretty full by this point and nearly at the point of total chocolate consumption. It includes lots of bite size pieces which signify the story of the bean - from roasted beans and drinking chocolate to truffles, pralines and pure bars of the stuff. It also included a small shot of coconut water to cleanse your palette but even this addition didn't let me finish the whole thing. We ended up getting a doggy bag of what we couldn't finish. A happy birthday was written on both our plates too which was a lovely touch.

I'm so pleased that the inclusion of chocolate in every dish didn't turn out to be a gimick as it could have easily slipped into that territory. If anything it added a subtle rich flavour to the dishes and worked really well with the other ingredients - whoever planned the menu did a fantastic job! It is pretty pricey (around £20 for a main) but for a completely different dining experience for top quality food and service, I think it is well worth the money. The only negative is that the emphasis is mainly on dark chocolate and combined with the dark chocolate drinks, cacao nibs and pudding we really were chocolated out as it was so rich! We also received some dark chocolate buttons with the bill and some chocolate goodie bags to take home as it was our birthday celebration.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you are a chocolate lover or just fancy something different to try, and the laid back vibe of the establishment and quality of the food makes for a perfect pairing.

Would you try a dining experience like this? Do you like Hotel Chocolat? xxx

Date Day: Bluebird Chelsea & The River Cafe

Hi guys, I haven't done a personal lifestyle post in a while now so I thought I'd share what I did last Saturday with you. As you already know I had to defer my exams and therefore finished them later than everyone else.  I found out my results a few weeks ago and passed (yay!) and so Matt planned a lovely 'Date Day' to celebrate. If you follow me on instagram then you will have seen a few of my pictures of the day but here are a few deets of what we did.

First we had breakfast at the Bluebird Cafe in Chelsea. I'd been wanting to go here for ages because I love MIC (I know that's really sad haha) but unfortunately we didn't spot anyone famous! I had eggs royale with a pot of tea, while Matt had eggs benedict with a latte. It was so delicious and the service was super fast. We also ordered a Bloody Mary to drink as we hadn't tried one yet - it was so disgusting but at least we tried it!

After breakfast we wandered down towards Sloane Square tube station and popped into a few shops along the way, including John Lewis where we had to purchase an umbrella as it began to rain! We wanted to go Boris biking along to the river to the next destination but the weather didn't really allow this so that was the only disappointing part.

After working up an appetite walking around the shops we arrived at the River Cafe for lunch. This is another place I've been dying to go to for ages, one of the reasons being they serve the Chocolate Nemesis which I love to make from this book. It was a lot more modern that I was expecting but it was still gorgeous and very popular and busy. Once seated at our table we got presented with a bottle of champagne which Matt had arranged beforehand as a surprise :) It was so cute and reminded of me when we first started dating as he used to pre order a bottle of wine with a little note attached to it.

Food wise, the River Cafe is delicious but really expensive so I would definitely save it for a special occasion like we did! We chose to share a starter of seafood risotto which included scallops, squid, prawns, langostines and muscles. Matt carried on the fish theme by ordering the Seabass for main, while I had lamb with roasted beetroot and a horseradish cream. The food was of an amazing quality like you would expect and the service was friendly and attentive but not at all over bearing. After our late lunch we made our way home feeling very full and slightly tipsy and settled down to watch a scary film for the rest of the evening.

I had such a lovely relaxing and romantic day, it was great to enjoy ourselves and think of nothing else but each other. Sorry for the crap quality of the photos but blogger seems to have messed up their resolution! What is your favourite place to visit in London? xxx

Event: Pearls Exhibition with Pond's Institute at the V&A Museum

A few nights ago, I was lucky enough to attend an event put on by Pond's Institute at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London thanks to my bloggy friend Nuala. I had such a wonderful evening that I thought I would share a little about the night here with you. 

First of all, this is the only museum I haven't visited before in London so it was really exciting to go somewhere new. It was so beautiful inside with lots of marble and soft lighting for the evening. We were greeted with a champagne reception and I was able to meet some new people too - Bettina and Stacy who were lovely while trying out some of the products dotted around.

We had a quick talk by the brand's new ambassador for the party season Laura Whitmore and Caroline Neville, then a private tour of the pearl's exhibition that is currently running at the museum, where we learnt about how pearls are made and the history of their meaning. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because some of the pieces were incredible, including amazing necklaces, tiaras and even a dress. My favourites were seeing Marylin Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor's pearls and the pearl earring that Charles I wore when he was beheaded. As you may already know, half of my degree is in History (I did a joint honours with Political Science) so it really was a perfect night for me consisting of a mixture of beauty and history, two of my favourite things! 

I can't wait to try the products we received at the end of the evening, which includes the cult classic Cold Cream Cleanser (tongue twister right there!) and will be sure to have some reviews up in the next few weeks once I've had sufficient time to test them. 

Have you tried anything from Pond's before? xxx

Event: Paul Mitchell | New Curl Range |

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend my first ever blogging event. I have previously been invited to some others but I was either busy or too nervous to go, so I finally bit the bullet and decided to pop along to Mayfair.

The event was by Paul Mitchell to promote and educate us on their new range for curls. The new products launching include a shampoo*, leave in conditioner*, a beachy texture cream* and a curl definer*, so there is definitely something for everyone to try. They have been formulated  to detangle, fight frizz, define, smooth and hydrate the hair of those with naturally curly hair but can also be used on styled hair. I will be doing proper in-depth reviews once I have tested them all out properly but so far I am loving the two styling products for beachy waves and defined curls.

While I was there I had my hair done by a Paul Mitchell stylist who was so friendly and gave me some great tips on how to style my hair and some more information about a variety of products. I also got some nail art done by Nails by Rosie who I got chatting to and found out that she is from my Uni town of Birmingham - if you are from around that area I recommend you pop to her shop in the Custard Factory as she did a wonderful job.

Finished hair 2 days on

Accent nail by Nails by Rosie with my own varnish Essie's 'Bikini So Teeny'

Everyone from Paul Mitchell was so lovely and friendly plus there were some tasty canapés and cocktails available to enjoy while I learnt about the history of the brand and the development of their different styling ranges (I have my eye on the blonde and sun collections!) I also really enjoyed meeting and chatting to other bloggers at the event, especially Nuala from Dolled Up London who was really lovely and I highly recommend you check out her blog!

I had such a great few hours at the event and can't wait to attend some more if I am lucky enough! Sorry that my pictures are a bit fuzzy, it was dark and they are all taken on the iPhone! xxx