Bliss in Bristol

Last week I was lucky enough to have a whole week off of work. Originally this was so that I could attend the Abertoir horror film festival in Aberystwyth. However for personal reasons I had to cancel those plans. However rather than just waste my time off, my boyfriend suggested that we spend the weekend somewhere else. I spent a week by myself in Bristol at the beginning of September for my training with work, and I suggested that we return there so that I could do some of the things that I didn't get around to last time! So I thought I'd share with you guys a couple of the things that we did/saw.

The Aquarium:

On our first full day in Bristol, we paid a visit to the Aquarium, which was actually not even five minutes away from our hotel! I love aquariums, especially when they are filled with brightly coloured, beautiful fishies!

The jellyfish were one of the first exhibits that we came across, they had two tanks of these jellyfish, some under blue light, and some under red. I managed to snap this beautiful picture just as it opened up!

This stingray was swimming right on the top of the water, and kept lifting it's mouth up into the air. It was really cute.

We managed to stumble across my favourite tropical fish! Although this one looks less than impressed that I managed to get a picture of him.

I couldn't resist snapping this picture of all the beautiful clown fish in this tank. There were bright orange, and black ones, which I had actually never seen before. We were even just in time to watch the tiger sharks being fed, but I didn't get any decent pictures of that.

Shopping:

I literally couldn't resist popping into Primark whilst we were in Bristol. Especially seeing as the Bristol Primark is a massive FOUR FLOORS! It's literally a bloggers dream...

I couldn't resist messing around with the novelty christmas glasses, although I simply couldn't bring myself to actually buy a pair! I did however manage to find my perfect Christmas jumper!!! I have wanted to buy myself one every Christmas for the last three years, but I have never been able to get one in time. This year however I am pleased to announce I have got one. I'll keep it as a surprise!

I also managed to convince my boyfriend to buy a Christmas jumper, so that on Christmas day we will both look as silly as each other. He didn't seem impressed at first, but warmed to the idea once we found the perfect jumper for him!

Of course a shopping trip wouldn't be complete without a little treat for myself, and I found that I just couldn't resist this amazing tiger top. Once we got onto the main highstreet, we were both surprised to find that there was a German Christmas market going on from now right up until Christmas. I didn't manage to snap any pics but I found this one online:

 There were German food stalls, sweet stalls, German beer bars. As well as other christmassy gifts! I became a little bit enchanted by one of the jewellery stalls and couldn't resist buying myself this necklace as a nice momento of our trip.

Food:

Me and my boyfriend both love food, and so of course we were both excited about eating out for three nights! Seeing as we arrived fairly late on the Thursday night, I just suggested that we grab something at a restaurant close to the hotel, so we opted for Prezzo's.

Neither of us were hungry enough for a starter, so just kicked it off with the mains. He had a classic pepperoni pizza with chicken, whereas I opted for a Calzone with chicken, pepperoni, and peppers. Mine was absolutely delicious, and I almost polished it off.

If you know me at all then you will know that I cannot resist having a dessert, even if I am fit to burst. I didn't want anything too heavy, so I settled on the three gelato's. Although I didn't realise that they came in cones, and were basically full sized ice creams. I didn't have to worry though, as my boyfriend kindly stepped in to save me! Pictured above are chocolate truffle, and two bubblegum cones.

On our second night we decided to visit Frankie and Benny's. I had actually been on my last trip to Bristol and assured Tim that he would love it. Although there was a slight hiccup with our table, and waiting time, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I decided to have a bit of a treat, and started off with a cosmopolitan. Although this was unlike any cosmo I had ever had, and was slightly sour, though still enjoyable.

For starters I went for the bacon and cheese potato skins, which are absolutely TO DIE for!

After my sour cosmopolitan I decided to go with a sweet Pineapple Mai Tai, we got a pitcher so that we could share, although I ended up drinking the majority of it!

For mains we both settled on the same thing, BBQ ribs. The plate was massive, and I was a little worried about how I would finish it, but I decided to leave the fries, and focus on the ribs! Our meal at Frankie and Benny's was so good, that we are going back this evening! Obviously not to Bristol...

On our final night we went to Za Za Bazaar. A world food all you can eat buffet that has a little bit of everything. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to get any decent pictures with my iphone, and I forgot to take my camera. But here are a few pics I found online:

If you ever go to Bristol you absolutely MUST go to Za Za Bazaar, it's about £18pp not including drinks, and you get to eat as much as you can stomach. You are limited to how much time you have in the restaurant, but I think this is fair, otherwise you could just sit in there all day and eat... That's how much food they have!

Everything Else:

On top of everything I already mentioned we managed to fit in a round of jungle themed crazy golf, go ice skating, visit a museum, and complete another Treasure Trail. All in the space of three days. 

To top it all off, right before we were leaving I spotted something in Build-a-bear that I really wanted, and not only did my boyfriend not complain, but he actually offered to buy it for me! So say hello to Rainbow Dash!

I had a really amazing time in Bristol, and it was the perfect treat for me and my boyfriend to share together. Although we've only been together properly a month today, it feels like I've known him much longer. He really knows how to treat me, and lets me be 100% myself. I hope that we'll continue to grow together, and that he'll continue to put up with me! Hope you enjoyed my post, and I'll leave you with the first actual photo of us together:

I am alive!

Yes dear readers! No need to worry, I am actually alive, I have just been horrendously busy this past month, and unfortunately my blog has suffered. However I have returned! I can almost feel the judgement coming from those who will read this, I know that when I myself see a blogger post an 'I'm Back' post I get annoyed. Normally I would just go ahead and pretend that I have never been away, however a LOT has happened that I feel we need to discuss! I'm going to do this in as short and sweet a manner as possible, brace yourselves.

1. My Job!

I've lost count of the amount of times that I have written 'my job' or 'full-time job' on this blog so far, but here we go again. This is probably the most major reason that I have been absent in the blogiverse. I underestimated just how tired work would make me. I get up at 6:45am, I'm at work by 8:30am, and I don't get home until gone 6pm. It's a LONG day for me. I get home, I eat, I shower, and I go to bed. I barely have time to watch Eastenders, and lord knows how I love that show! I do however, have options. One options is to deal with it, and another is to get a job with less hours. At the moment I am entertaining both options. I don't know what the next few months hold, but I'm hoping more free time is one of my options!

2. Youtube Plans!

Yes, once again I am making plans to make Youtube videos. Something I have wanted to do for a long time is Gameplay Commentaries, but I lacked the equipment and money to begin making them. After receiving my first paycheck I decided to take the plunge, and I've invested in everything I need to record! In fact as I write this I have just finished recording my first test video! It turned out pretty good. I'm having issues syncing up the commentary with the footage, but with practice I'll get better! I'm hoping to have my first videos up in the next few weeks. I'm going to be playing Dead Space 2 and Dead Island first off. So lots of death, and scary things.

3. Meeting the little man!

I finally got to go up to Wakefield and meet my cousin Jade's little baby boy! It was his first birthday in May and I was totally gutted that I couldn't go up and see him then. The last weekend in June I made the journey up to Wakefield on Friday night after work. Getting there was a massive kerfuffle. I missed my connection at Birmingham New Street due to A) my train from Reading getting in late and B) The train driver giving me the wrong platform. I ran round to platform 11, which was the one I was told by the train driver, only to discover it left from platform 9... I literally missed it by seconds. Cue an hour wait for a train to Derby, then a two hour wait at Derby for a train to Sheffield, AND a taxi from Sheffield to Wakefield (which thankfully cross country paid for). Needless to say after all that messing around I was knackered. It was all worth it to see little mush face in the end. A photo of him can be seen in the slideshow below! After all that, needless to say I will not be doing another weekend trip anytime soon.

4. Graduation Week!

Literally the week after my nightmare train journey, I had graduation week! A full week of getting wasted in a caravan with my best friends/adopted family. All leading up to the main event, my graduation. I wasn't going to add any photos, but I knew you'd want to see some, so here are a select few from that week!

It was honestly totally awesome! I had a lovely week with my friends, and truth be told it made me sad that I don't get to see them as often as I did back at uni.

So there you are! My four main reasons for being to busy to post on this blog! To make it up to you (kind of) I've made a slideshow of most of my Instagram photos from my time off! So enjoy that, and you'll hopefully be hearing from me very soon!