Sam Smith Concert Live at the London O2 Arena - 9th April

There is nothing more magical in this entire universe than watching an artist you love and feel a connection with, perform live. I'm sure we'll change our minds when we have kids lol but for now MUSIC IS OUR LIFE.

We bought our tickets in October and patiently waited to see baby boy and it was finally time! We're not trying to sound hipster but we've loved Sam Smith since he first featured on Disclosure's single 'Latch' so after 6 years it just meant everything to watch him perform live at the O2 - shout out to Disclosure when you bringing out new music lads????

Once we arrived at the O2 Arena we decided to go to Ask Italian for a bite to eat and some wine. Service was amazing! The manager and the waitress that served us were so attentive and we were also provided with some yummy pink shots the minute we sat down. We're not sure if this is their usual practice but we LOVED IT

What we ordered:

Cheese Fonduta
Meatballs Picante
Olives
Mushrooms Al Forno

After we decided to pop to Las Iguanas - we go to the one in Basingstoke all the time so we know we should have broken out of habit and tried somewhere new... but we couldn't resist! 241 all day cocktails are our kryptonite okay

We stayed in Las Iguanas till the gates opened at 6.30pm and then made our way to our seats!

Queue moved quickly which we were so appreciative of but then again that could have been the cocktails clouding our judgement... 

Mother's Day 2018 - Cocktails and Asian Cuisine in Reading

Even though the lead up is stressful we actually love Mother's Day. Our mum is our complete world but we don't tell her nearly as often as we should how much we love her and appreciate her.

This day gives us a chance to 'attempt' to make up for it.

Last year we decided to treat our mum to a complete chill day and we prepared breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktails, cakes, desserts and Amy did her nails. THIS YEAR we decided to treat her to a day out in Reading!

By now you all know that we love a good cocktail or two (okay three minimum), what you didn't know is our mum is queen of cocktails and is definitely to blame for this obsession. We regularly make cocktails at home and mum is the ring leader haha

We decided to book a cocktail mini class at Revolution Bar and it was soo much fun. We each got to make a cocktail of our choice behind the bar with the barman.

We put down a deposit of £20 and then whatever we spent whilst there was taken from that tab. This led to us to trying copious amounts of flavoured shots (shocker) but seriously their selection of flavours was actually impressive. There must have been about 30 different options! Our favourites were tiramisu, bubblegum, birthday cake and popcorn.

We of course went over the budget and ordered a few more cocktails before lunch but its definitely affordable fun if you want to try something different.

Top 6 Places to Eat / Drink in Stockholm

1. Espresso House

Espresso House is a popular Swedish coffeehouse that can be found across all the Nordic countries. It's basically a better, cosier, cooler, yummier (we've run out of descriptive words) version of Starbucks.

Just like the locals we've encountered this cafe is so chilled and the minute you walk in you feel relaxed and can find a cute little spot and chill there for hours. We particularly liked this because we could chat without feeling pressured into leaving or buying copious cups of coffee.

As if the amazing vibes weren't enough; the food and beverages are lush. We ordered:

Salted Caramel Latte

Melted Hot Chocolate

Blueberry pie with vanilla sauce (custard yaaas)

Chocolate Mudcake

2. Phil's Burger

Right we know we exagerrate how much we love things a lot but honestly we promise we're not this time... Other than alcohol we cannot name another drink we love more than the Oreo Milkshake from this restaurant. Jesus Christ it was amazing and it's deeply upsetting it's a 2hr flight away

If anyone knows of any UK food chains that do amazing milkshakes pleeeeeeeeeeease help your gals out and let us know! P.S. Mcdonalds doesn't count x

Sorry just needed to give that chocolate cup of heaven a shoutout. Anyway the burgers are insane also. We ordered the truffle sauce burger topped with caramelized onions and cheese accompanied by sweet potato fries.

Lorraine doesn't change her mind easily and doesn't rate burgers but this place is so good she's actually been converted lol

Lorraine and her new and forever bae

3. STHLM TAPAS

We're going to be honest, after eating tapas in Barcelona we thought we'd reached a wall and would ever have top notch tapas dishes until we returned to the beautiful city again. HOWEVER this little Swedish restaurant proved us wrong.

STHLM Tapas is a busy yet intimate restaurant located in the Vasastan region of Stockholm. We visited on Friday night so booked in advance and totally recommend doing this as it was heaving.

The waiter we had totally made the experience for us, literally such a sweetheart. The menu is made out of paper which enables you to tick which tapas dishes you'd like as the waiter goes through each dish explaining what it is.

The tapas is divided into Meat, Vegetarian, Dairy, Seafood etc categories and is derived from various locations worldwide: Sweden, Spain and Brazil are the main ones.

EVERYTHING TASTED AMAZING

We ordered about 9 dishes but our favourites were:

Portobello Mushroom Carpaccio

Pulled Pork Taco

Grilled Halloumi

Seared Beef in Teriyaki sauce

There is also a lovely bar area as you enter which offers cocktails so we were sold the minute we walked in to be honest. PLUS they offered non-alcoholic strawberry daiquris (Amy's fave) which made her night because she's still t-total.

4. Greasy Spoon

Ahh we love this place so so much!! We normally don't rate super hipster places but the staff were soo lovely and the food was i n s a n e.

BRUNCH IS LIFE and Greasy Spoon not only gets this but caters for it. The menu consists of pancake stacks, french toasts, Porridge, Brownies, Eggs Benedict, coffees, cocktails... the lot!

We ordered:

Eggs Benedict with bacon
Blueberry Scotch pancakes with blueberry/pistachio mascarpone AND bacon

Carrot & Orange Juice
Cappuccino
Matcha Latte

We'd also like to add that you cannot pre-book a table so just bear in mind you'll have a little wait before you sit down and order - 15 minutes tops!

5. Joe & The Juice

This is basically a cafe which offers an insane amount of juice variations: fruit and veg, spices, milk, the lot. Coffee and sandwiches are also available.

The staff look like hollister models, the decor is beaut but the thing we loved most of all (other than the drinks) was the music! There was SUCH a good house playlist on blast whilst we sat in the cafe trying to warm up and omg it was such a pleasant surprise. 

I kid you not we were dancing in our seats and singing along to those little gems that have lyrics. MADE OUR DAY

We do love a smoothie in Summer so it was nice to have our first one of the year and kid ourselves that we'd undone all the calories we'd consumed over the 4 days lol

We ordered: 

Pick Me Up (Strawberry, Banana and Apple)

Sex Me Up (Passion Fruit, Apple and Ginger)

P.S apparently there are a few branches in London! So definitely give it a visit when in ze capital folks

6.  Pizzeria Al Forno

Located quite close to our hotel so we ate here on the first night. Basic italian so the menu wasn't massive but oh ma gawd the pasta was insaaane. Totally recommend if in the area

We ordered:

Truffle Gnocchi
Quattro Formaggi Ravioli

Hope you enjoyed our review!! 

xxx

Christmas Shopping in Portsmouth!

Our family is super hard to buy Christmas presents for and they're also super picky on quality sooooo this led to us driving down to Portsmouth a couple of days ago to have a little mooch around and see if we could get our hands on the 'perfect' gift.

The location we visited is called Gunwharf Quays and is a designer outlet located in the heart of the city; right outside the main station if you would be taking the train!

We go about twice a year, mainly for the Nike Outlet AND the location is so so pretty when the weather is good ie. Summer. The restaurants are all on the harbour side and it is very picturesque - we tried our best to capture this on the below photos but the weather was not playing ball haha

I mean did you really go to Portsmouth if you didn't take lots of pointless photos of the Emirates Spinnaker Tower?

Our favourite shops:

• Nike  - we like to kid ourselves we'll actually go to the gym but in reality we just love love love gym wear for lazing round the house in 
• Timberland 
• Kurt Geiger
• Lindt
• Ralph Lauren
• The Cosmetics Company - this store features discounted products from the following brands; M.A.C, Bobby Brown, Smashbox, Clinique etc. 

Now would it be a shopping trip without cocktails? If you screamed 'hell no' in response you are a wise wise individual and can come shopping with us xxx

We decided to grab a bite to eat and some cocktails at Azzurro Italian Bar + Kitchen. Lorraine didn't love it because she got ID'd and Amy didn't buuut the food was actually lush. We also rated the Grey Goose Espresso Martini quite highly but the other cocktails were just weak and didn't taste like they ought to (Strawberry Daiquiri and Cosmo) - the staff were quite young on shift so maybe they weren't that used to making these cocktails. 

The view of the harbour from this restaurant will be amazing in summer though so we would consider going back.

Overall it was a successful trip - still had to top on our last gifts today in little old Basingstoke but WE ARE FINISHED! Every one has a gift to open on the 25th and anyone we've forgotten is just going to have to get a massive hug and kisses haha

This is actually a first for us, we're normally those nutters running about on Christmas Eve *smiles smugly*

We're going to try and be super organised when wrapping the presents and take photos so we can show you guys, what we bought and for who. After Christmas of course!!

xxx

Tonight Josephine

PINK DECOR. PINK COCKTAILS. PINK NEON LIGHTS. PINK BAR

If the thought of all this excites you, you must must must visit 'Tonight Josephine'. The bar is literally a two minute walk from London Waterloo Train Station - road opposite, next to Sainsbury's.

We initially spotted the bar on Instagram and were completed sold by the pink theme overload.

Like the majority of London bars Happy Hour is between 5-7pm on weekdays, as we went on a Friday we managed to take full advantage of this hehe

Our favourites were the Pornstar Martini and Love Potion No. 10

Of course most menus describe the drink ingredients, this cocktail menu stands apart as it describes the taste as well - which we had alllll the time for. Trust that if a cocktail is described with words such as Sweet, Sexy, Balanced, Exotic we're 100% going to give it a try. Admittedly this is also because we'd like to become all those things in the process...

The price for a drink ranges from £9 - £12

If you believe this is pricy don't forget about the happy hour offer we mentioned earlier PLUS if you go on the website and add your email to their subscription list you will be given a £10 off scannable code; basically a free drink huns!

We'd like to add that the minimum entry age is 21 years old. Yes Amy is 19 haha but a bit of persuasion will get you everywhere...

We definitely recommend you pay this beaut little gem a visit asap!!!

xxx