Valentine's Day - Throwing It Back!!

Bringing back a 2012 post:
Love was in the air yesterday, as we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together in London. Laura has always loved Valentine's Day (heck, what holiday doesn't that girl love??), and though Sarah hasn't ever taken much notice of it (except since being with Laura, because it gives her a chance to show off her amazing present-giving/spoiling skills!), she (Laura hopes) has learned to love it too. This is why we thought we'd share with you our Valentines Days of old. 

Now, we've talked a lot about Valentine's Day on this blog over the last week or so, but we hope you'll bear with us and enjoy a look back at our three V-Days as a couple. And also a fourth, when we were just close friends. It'll give us a chance to see how our relationship has changed and grown over the years! Lets go in chronical order, because we like it that way. 

V-Day 2009 
Valentine's Day happened less than one month after we became inseparable 'friends' (if you haven't read it, you can check out our love story here - SPOILER: The girl gets the girl in the end). We had become close (while Laura was consoling Sarah's ex-boyfriend) and Laura blew off her then-boyfriend to spend the evening with Sarah at her flat. He should have seen it coming, right? Anyway, we spent the evening eating Chinese takeaway, watching the Top 50 Love Songs countdown on VH1, singing along dramatically to most of them, and...full on spooning. Even though we didn't actually get together for another month (our anniversary is March 16th). Seriously, looking back, we were never really 'just friends'! Laura couldn't have been happier with her choice of date for V-Day. 

V-Day 2010 
Almost one year into our relationship, and practically living together to the point where Laura's poor roommates almost called an intervention about their elusive 5th housemate, we said goodbye to the awful job we were working at together, and headed to Australia for a year. As ya do. We spent our first Valentine's Day officially together on an airplane to Singapore for a 14 hour layover before heading to Sydney. As we sat in the departure lounge together, we each sheepishly pulled out little gifts we had gotten each other, despite agreeing we weren't going to get presents!! *Insert collective awww here* The little monkey in underwear (Hot Pants Monkey, as we call him) has gone on all our trips since. We drank our first Singapore Sling on the plane (at Laura's Mum's suggestion), watched movies and enjoyed our plane ride. When we arrived in Singapore, we explored the city in the time we had - took a London Eye -like ferris wheel, saw some monuments, temples, and got incredibly hot and sweaty. We actually fell asleep on the bus back to the airport, and the driver had to wake us up when we arrived!! 

VDay on a plane and in Singapore!

V-Day 2011 
This is the only not-so-great Valentine's tale. Laura flew back from her home in Idaho for the first week of February to be with Sarah in time for Valentine's Day (to provide back story, after Sydney we went to Idaho, Sarah came back to the UK for Christmas and Laura stayed behind with her family), but Sarah, who had just gotten a new job, had to go on a business trip to Barcelona for Valentine's Day!!! So Laura spent V-Day job hunting, and Sarah spent it at a conference. Essence of romance, right? When Sarah returned, Laura lit candles and placed them around the house, made her a few gifts, and we had a little celebration. 

That brings us to today!! 

V-Day 2012 
All is right in the world again [read: we work together now]. Before work, Laura got a lovely homemade card. Laura wrote on 30 or so red paper hearts - each one with one thing she loves about her Sarah. She hid them around throughout the day. Sarah obliviously missed two in the morning, one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom, but she can't be blamed, as nobody is fully awake until about 11am in our house! 

Ahhhh nice to know there's more than 1 reason to love me S xo

Sarah gave Laura a beautiful little card and a clue to the activity we would be doing in the evening. The clue was a handwarmer!! Laura was as in-the-dark as ever. 

Laura got delivered to work (actually, she snuck out to pick it up, and got the receptionist to tell her it had been delivered. Shhhh!) a giant cookie with the words 'Nothing's as sweet as you!! L&S' on it in strawberry icing, Sarah's favourite!! Funny though, when she went to pick it up, they had written 'Nothing's as free as you!! L&S' on it - erm... I don't think that sends the right message!! But they fixed it and Sarah was none the wiser. 

'Nothing's as sweet as you' - ahhhh

After a full day's work, lots of little paper hearts and even more cookie-eating, we headed off to our surprise location. On the tube on the way there, Laura got a card that finally told her where we were going - ICE BAR LONDON!!!! SO EXCITING!!!

It was really cool ;)

The Ice Bar was amazing. We were given warm hooded ponchos, and went into the bar - it was like stepping into a completely different world! The bar was made of ice, the walls were made of ice, the glasses were made of ice - so wonderful! We had 40 minutes in there, drank some yummy cocktails out of the ice glasses, and Laura took over 100 photos. In 40 minutes. That girl takes pictures at the speed of light. It was a lovely surprise, and Sarah kept her title of best present giver!!!

We then went home, like the poor old ladies we are, and ate Laura's homemade stew for dinner with Sarah's famous mashed potatoes (instead of going out to eat). It was delicious, and the added bonus of being able to snuggle right afterwards was so great!!

We ended the night Skyping Laura's little brother, Jason in Idaho - not the most romantic end to Valentine's Day, but as usual he was hilarious and we loved seeing him!

V-Day is over for another year, and we can't wait to see what next February brings!!

What was the best Valentine's Day you have ever had and why??

Lots of love,

Laura & Sarah xo 

6 Reasons You Should Visit Naked Dough - The Review

Let us start by sharing the fact that we LOVE cookie dough. Ever since Laura introduced the deliciousness I have never been the same - and neither have birthdays. In fact for the past 3 years I have asked to forgo a birthday cake and instead have cookie dough.

So imagine our joy when we heard Naked Dough was open on our last trip to London.

The concept is simple:

Now your probably thinking the same thing I did when I first tried cookie dough - is it safe to eat?! Surely there is raw egg in it! The answer is YES it is absolutely safe to eat as it doesn't contain raw eggs. Woohoo!!! Onward.....

Now the cookie dough Laura normally makes is a standard chocolate chip one, for a getaway with friends last year we actually turned up with a tub of this delicious cookie dough and scoffed the lot - quickly. That's a side note but still, a happy memory.

The Naked Dough store has gone one better though - they do flavoured cookie dough! So here are the 6 reasons you should visit Naked Dough:

Like ice cream parlous you can choose a cone (£3.60), tub (£3.60) or milkshake (£4.00). You can also get a cold glass of milk for £1.80 - I mean you know cookies and milk (yum). We opted for a tub of Unicorn food. It was SO good.

Although I would have happily had a scoop of most of the flavours. 

Yum, yum, yum

The dough managed to last us the entire train ride back to Brum so was well worth the £3.60. 

So where can you find this delightful place? Well it is right by Old Street station:

(Conveniently 5 mins to my work as Google Maps like to remind me) It is open 11am - 8pm every day except Sundays. And you can take it away without it becoming a complete mess.

So there you have it - dreams do come true - you really can buy cookie dough and stuff your face with all the deliciousness without having to turn your kitchen into a mess. I fear we may become regular visitors to Naked Dough. If you are heading to London we suggest you pay a visit too.

#LoveHappensHere

Have you heard it's London Pride on Saturday the 8th of July? If you are in London you may have started to see things turns a lovely shade of rainbow.....

The Metro paper:

The taxis, the tube signs, the buildings and the police lapels - the rainbow is everywhere and nothing makes me happier. 

We went to our first London Pride in 2009 and loved it. The parade, the music, the sheer joy that filled the streets  - it was amazing.

In fact we have now been 4 times and you can read all about them here. 2013 was a particular highlight, the theme was Love and Marriage and we attended dressed as Princesses. Every good fairy-tale ends in a happily ever after and this was our last Pride before getting married on Pride weekend 2014 so it seemed fitting.

This years theme is 'Love Happens Here', this is the what the theme is about:

In 2017 London will host its largest and most vibrant Pride ever.

Marking 50 years since Parliament first voted to legalise homosexuality in the UK, Pride in London will be marching with a message of hope, acceptance, activism and love.

We have come a long way in 50 years, yet we face daily reminders that the global battle for true equality is far from over, and rights hard won can be threatened, attacked and taken away.

As we continue to battle discrimination at home and abroad, London will send a defiant message to those who wish the LGBT+ community harm. We will take a defiant stand against hate, but also importantly, celebrate who we are.

When we stand together we are a powerful and positive symbol of acceptance, support and friendship.

This summer join us to celebrate love in all its forms, and to be part of a movement that symbolises everything rich, colourful, vibrant and courageous in our community.

We will reject hate and we will say, proudly, Love Happens Here.

Laura and I fell in love in London and so I took the opportunity to create our own Love Happens Here pin;

We are also great advocates for companies who openly support LGBT+ staff and Pride is a great showcase for some of those companies. We were proud to see Barclays, our bank of choice, as a leading sponsor, I know some of the clients I work with will be joining the parade and to top things off Tesco will be there again. Tesco have been part of the Pride parade for years, not just in London but across the country. We have seen them in Manchester, Brighton and London but not only are they present but they have a support network (@OutAtTesco). They are clearly true supporters of teh LGBT+ community.

If you want details of the parade on the 8th check here and take our advice - get in early.

Sadly we won't be able to make the parade this year due to other commitments but Tesco kindly sent us our own Bursting With Pride kit. We will be wearing the T-shirt with Pride and toasting the day with the Smirnoff provided.

We will have to wait to Manchester Pride to see our first parade of the year, followed closely by Brighton.

While this post is full of joy, excitement and pride I thought I would take a moment to reflect on why Pride is important to me. It's fair to say that over the years the reasons have changed. When we first attended a Pride equal marriage was still being fought for, around the world equal marriage was still a rarity. We felt we needed to be visible to add our voice to the fight. To protest for our rights. Thankfully that is no longer the case.

But the fight for equal rights is still not over. While there has been a positive shift in mindset towards acceptance there are still places where being gay is not okay. In very recent politics the Conservative party negotiating with the DUP raised the very real issue that our rights are not completely safe. The DUP fundamentally disagrees with equal marriage, could our marriage rights have been lost to keep the Conservatives in power?!

Pride to us is about being visible, in being supportive and being supported. It's about being around people who are just like us. In showing people that's it okay to be just like us.

It's also a celebration. A celebration of love. A celebration on just how far we as a community have come but also how far society has come.

So if you are in London, or heading to London and want to join the party do, you won't regret it. You might even walk away with a new friend.

P.S. if you fancy celebrating Pride with a cocktail this is our recipe of choice (here) which we discovered thanks to Barefoot wines

Delish Pride Cocktail Recipe - Getting Merry with Barefoot Wine on a Wednesday!

We've made it to Friday!

Pride London is tomorrow, and in celebration, Barefoot wine sent us a bottle of their Bubbly Pink Moscato and a request to try it in the Stride of Pride cocktail they created. Coincedentally, their moscato is our go-to wine, so of course we jumped at the chance! So on Wednesday that's exactly what we did - gathered together the ingredients, made it and had a lovely cocktail while watching Love Island (guilty pleasure, sorry we can't help it!)

Of course, it made our day to find out that our favourite wine company has a long history of celebrating and supporting the LGBTQ community - we go out of our way to support companies who support people like us! Extending its appreciation to wine lovers everywhere no matter who they are or whom they love, Barefoot is raising a glass to toast the LGBTQ community across the globe. Celebrating diversity with splashes of passionfruit, juicy pear and sparkling Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato – no Pride party should be without it this summer!

If you're heading to London tomorrow, you can check out the Stride of Pride at The Cocktail Trading Co. (London EC1A 9EJ), or you can make your own like we did!

Follow these simple steps to add a touch of sparkle to your life!

Ingredients

70ml Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato

10ml Passion Fruit Syrup 

10ml Pear Liqueur  

10ml Lemon Juice

Method

1.    Combine well-chilled Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato with passion fruit, pear liqueur and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker

2.    Pour over crushed ice into a cup

3.    Top off garnished with some fun!

Serves 1

We replaced the passionfruit syrup with coulis, as per The Cocktail Trading Co.'s recommendation - we used Tesco's Finest Passionfruit Coulis, another LGBTQ-friendly company!

We'll be drinking this all summer, so cheers!

Happy Pride everyone!!

#4 Top LGBT Blog in the UK, Youtube's Pride month video, and Other Pre-Pride London Musings

As it's only 3 (!!!) days until Pride London, some awesomely 'gay' things are happening this week that we wanted to share with you.

We are gutted that we won't be attending Pride London this year - it is our 'first' Pride, as we have been attending every year (except 2010, when we were in Sydney, and 2014 when we were getting married!) since we got together, over 7 years ago! Last year, we were honoured to be there for our first year wedding anniversary, and were featured in this beautiful video from Youtube in the wake of gay marriage being legalised across the USA:

This year's video to celebrate Pride month is about Identity - and it is beautiful and moving as always:

We have differing opinions on Identity - I have always liked labels, since I was a high school student, labelling myself as a choir geek and part of the 'second smartest group in my class' - as an adult, labelling myself a lesbian has helped me become prouder of that part of myself, and has helped me be a part of an amazing lgbt community I personally might not have had the courage to seek without my identity. To clarify, I only like self-made labels and identities - I'm not pro- people putting others into boxes where they don't want to be.

Sarah, on the other hand, doesn't like labels - she finds them derisive and restrictive and is way too picky to be defined by just a few descriptors.

Anyway!

We were notified today that we have made it to number 4 (!!) on Vuelio's Top 10 LGBT UK Blogs! This is fantastic news, and we are in great company - you can check out the article and the write up on us and our fellow bloggers here - make sure you check them out!

Photo courtesy of Barefoot

Finally, Barefoot wine has sent us a bottle of their pink muscato (coincidentally our favourite ever wine, we love a bubbly pink!) to make a cocktail they dreamed up specifically for Pride London this weekend. We've bought pear liqueur, passionfruit coulis, and we can't WAIT to have our own little celebration this evening! Look out for that recipe so you can try your own!




Happy Pride to our friends in London, have an amazing, safe time, and don't do anything we wouldn't do :)

Love is love,

Cereal Killer Cafe - London

I don't know how or why we never got around to publishing this post when we visited the Cereal Killer Cafe in Brick Lane, London back in December 2014 - so here it is 18 months later!

The good thing is the Cereal Killer Cafe is still going strong, so this is as relevant today as it was back then!

The concept is simple. Stock a fairly small cafe space with walls of cereal and not just your regular supermarket cereal - your international brand cereals! 120 varieties in total! Including Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops - the cereals you always 'treat' yourself to when visiting somewhere in the States (well if you are Laura and I).

Here's what you can choose from:

Started by Irish twin brothers, the cafe opened amidst protest and massive queues. The queues were for the food, the protests were about the gentrification of the area and capitalism - it just happens that the cafe opened blocks away from some of London's poorest areas and they weren't impressed at the prices being charged for a bowl of cereal!

Thankfully the drama subsided, but when we visited the queue was just as long as expected. On the gloomy December day the warm glow of the cafe was welcoming and after the 20 minute wait we were ready with our order - having changed our mind a dozen times.

The fact that have 30 different types of milk and 20 'additional toppings' really meant you had too much choice. it's why we ended up with one of the cocktails. We opted for the double rainbow and miss american pie.....it was a hard choice though.

The cafe is themed with memorabilia from the 80's and 90's so as you take seat at the bar area, on one of the bench sets or in the brightly coloured seating area downstairs you are taken back to your childhood. I probably spent as much time checking out the old cereal box designs on the walls as I did eating.

Also if your serving finishes a box then you get to keep it! I don't know why but this made us happy.

Here's the owners' explanation of why they think you should try it.......

So if you are in London and fancy a breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack that you can't get anywhere else head over and find this place.

There are more details here: http://www.cerealkillercafe.co.uk/

Our First Year Wedding Anniversary Part 3 (The Final Part!) - Bob Bob Ricard

I'd seen photos from the glamorous Russian restaurant Bob Bob Ricard in London on Instagram over the last few years, and always had it on my list of 'one day, if we have the money/an occasion' items.

So when I suggested it to my 'realist' wife for our anniversary and showed her the photos, I definitely expected her to say no. It is the most expensive place we would have ever eaten! So I was shocked when she said she thought it was a great idea, and I booked it before she could change her mind.

My parents very generously offered to pay for most of the meal as our anniversary present, so Saturday we set off all dolled up to have our first anniversary dinner!

And let me tell you, it was incredible. I think I thought the experience would be amazing, but didn't expect the food to be stellar, because it would be more about the experience. Does that make sense? But I was wrong!

The dining room was beautiful, very ornate, with the wait staff in suits with tails, and we ordered a cocktail each to get things started. Sarah ordered a chicken, mushroom and champagne pie, and I ordered the filet mignon, with a few sides each.

It was just divine. The filet mignon cut like butter, was medium rare and to die for - the pie was flavourful and warm, and the top of it was beautiful! Weirdly, one of our favourite bits of the meal was seemingly simple - the honey glazed parsnips and carrots almost brought tears to our eyes. We have tried to recreate it since to no avail.

The sides are quite small, but I'd say the flavour of everything more than made up for it.

And then, we noticed the 'Push for champagne' button at each table - and thought, should we?

How could we not take advantage!

We were delivered two glasses of rose champagne, and after a cheers to this wonderful last year of our lives, we got onto ordering dessert.

We ordered the eton mess ball and strawberry and cream soufflé - which paired very well with our lovely drinks, if I say so myself!

Then, the icing on the cake (quite literally) of this amazing night, they had overheard us talking about our wedding anniversary and surprised us with this pretty little celebration ice cream cake, which had sparklers on it and made us feel very special.

In short, we cannot recommend Bob Bob Ricard enough for a special celebration meal out. Delicious food, fantastic service, one of a kind experience. We will be back, whenever we can find a wonderful occasion to celebrate! Surely getting through this week counts - celebration that it's Friday!

Part 1 of our Year 1 Wedding Anniversary celebrations can be found here! We checked out Book of Mormon.

Part 2 can be found here! We were at Pride!

Lumiere London January 2016

If you follow us on Instagram you may have seen a few pictures from the Lumiere London event that took place on the 14th to 17th of January.

It was a free festival that took place across London, running 6.30 - 10.30 each evening. Light installations and displays had been set up in 6 key areas of the city: Kings Cross, Mayfair, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and Westminster.

We went along on the Saturday and as it was outside made it a family trip by bring Bisbee. We had prepped beforehand by checking out the website , printing off a map and deciding what was on our must see list. Knowing it was going to be busy we thought we would start at Kings Cross and make our way to Trafalgar Square hoping that the crowds would do the opposite.

At the start it seemed straight forward. At each installations there was a guide who could point you to the next piece and it was like following a trail. King's Cross is stunning without the event but seeing areas you normally walk past without a thought being lit up was something special.

At King's Cross we saw the bird cage lit up as a rainbow, eery dresses floating in windows and a join the dots thing on a wall but the highlight for me was the Circus of Light. A projection of dancing animals that brought Granary Square to life.

From King's Cross we caught the tube to Oxford Street. The tube was PACKED and they had issues getting people out so we were lucky to make it safely to our tube. We heard on our arrival at Oxford Circus that they had actually closed King's Crossed so we timed it perfectly!

Once out on Oxford Street we could see an enormous net that changed colour every couple of seconds. It was mesmerising and it was a good job they had stopped traffic as the area was full of people just staring up.

From there we headed to Mayfair. A 20 minute trek but a chance for Bisbee to really stretch her legs which she was glad of. On arrival we found out that they had closed the aquarium telephone box as people had been hitting the glass too hard - why are there always arseholes?! So we joined the queue to enter the park. While the brightness of brothers and sisters was inviting it was a board of light that caught our attention - mainly as it had benches by it. Mayfair certainly hadn't lit us up!

Heading back towards Piccadilly and it was clear where the installations were as groups of people were gathered with phones to the sky. The beautiful proverb 'for the beloved one longs most' was illuminated above the Piccadilly arcade. Next were the keyframes (men) hanging off a near by building with the lights making it look like they were running up and down the building - very effective!

We had been looking forward to the Travellers - expecting them to be large and flying through the sky - in reality they were small and stuck to buildings - beautiful though. The most impressive thing for us was the fish like things suspended over Regents Street. With hypnotic music playing and their gentle sway it was really relaxing to just stand and watch as the chaos of the crowd walked by.









The only thing that snapped us out of it was the noise of what sounded like an elephant - it was in fact an animation of an elephant swinging his truck and stomping his hoofs. The night was full of surprises! Stopping had been a faux pas on our side though as it gave us a change to realise that the 4 hours of walking had left us in a bit of pain.

We were determined to make it to Leicester Square and were happy to be greeted by the Garden of Light - so, so pretty and the detail made it feel alive. Bisbee even found a quiet spot to admire the beauty! Summoning strength we walked the short distance to Trafalgar Square to see the fountains lit up with plastic bottles full of colour and the Centre Points lights. It was our final stop that left us smiling though the Neon Dogs that were hanging out in shop front were stunning.

We didn't quite make it to Westminster but heard the Abbey was beautiful. On hearing our tube stop had been closed due to over crowding we just couldn't face the extra walk. Instead it was Chipotle and a quick (well as quick as could be) march to the next tube station where we managed to get a tube back to our friends house pick up the car and drive the 2 hours back to Birmingham!

Bisbee was asleep within seconds, as the driver I however was wide awake and ready to battle the snow that had started to fall.

London is exhausting! The night was well worth it though!