The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Ages and ages ago, Michelle from Life Outside London tagged me in her Very Inspiring Blogger Award post.

Michelle is someone who quite rightly deserves that award - she's fabulously funny (both online and in real life), lovely to talk to and if I could write only half as well as she does, I'd be one happy duck.

So a big thank you to Michelle for the nomination (and I hope I lived up to your expectations when we finally met!).

The rules of the award are:
1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you (see above)
2. Share 7 facts about yourself.
3. Nominate some other inspirational bloggers and tell them.
4. Proudly display the Very Inspiring Blogger Award badge.



So, 7 facts about myself (which you may well have heard before, sorry)

1. I was born in Scotland (but you'd never guess from my Wiltshire/Somerset accent).
2. Apparently I used to be able to count to 10 in Welsh when I was very young.
3. I don't own a passport.
4. I've met (well, shaken hands with) Ewan McGregor.
5. I can put myself and the footballer Ian Rush on the same family tree (he's married to my Dad's second cousin).
6. I have an incredibly sad spreadsheet of all the theatre and comedy shows I've ever seen (323 to be precise).
7. I love Hershey's chocolate. My dad used to work in America every few months when I was young and would always bring back sweets and chocolate so I grew up liking it. We even had Hershey's Kisses on the tables at our wedding reception!


My inspirational bloggers...

1. Angela over at Little Apple Tree for being an all-round thoroughly lovely person with excellent cake decorating skills.

 

2. Katie over at Hook Line and Sink Her for being lovely (online and in real life), very crafty and leaving great comments which always make me smile.

 

3. Kat over at Kat Got The Cream for being the first blogger I met in real life, giving me lots of advice and guidance and making me feel completely at ease being a newbie blogger.

 

4. Chelsea over at Love in Modern Life for being a fab mum to Dylan, juggling motherhood alongside studying and running her own home.

 

5. Jane over at Is That You Darling for fabulous book reviews (meaning I'm always adding new things to my GoodReads list) and for organising the monthly photo an hour challenges.

 

6. Alice over at The Cup and Saucer for having the courage to pick up and start again in Cardiff and then again in London all on her own.

 

7. Ruth over at The Planned Adventure for surviving several ectopic pregnancies and still having the faith to smile and carry on.

 

8. Belle over at Part of Belle's World for surviving IVF and miscarriage and still believing in a happy ending.

 

9. Denise over at The Life of Dee for surviving IVF and keeping me company on my IVF journey over on our Money Saving Expert forum.

10. Saskia over at Braids and Books for jetting off to Nepal to do charity work, a huge adventure at the age of 21.



So there you go, hop on over and check out my lovely nominees!

 

Here Is The News #5

Blogland Brilliance

Jane has been off book bench hunting round London. I'd love to go and visit but it's only on til September, boo.

Go wish Michelle a huge congratulations, she's finally moved into her lovely shiny new house!

And someone else rightly deserving of a huge congratulations is Katie who's just won herself a fabulous new job and to celebrate she's having a giveaway of very nice things indeed.


Currently Coveting

Wicked is coming to the Bristol Hippodrome spring next year. I'm currently trying to convince Andrew that we need to go and see it!


Exciting Events

Carters Steam Fair are in Bath's Victoria Park all this week. I know I keep banging on about them (it's run by friends of ours, that's why) but they are really good fun.

There's a vintage bus rally on at Avon Valley Railway this Sunday. I've never been but it looks quite interesting.


Interesting Info

The Guardian newspaper compiled this quiz all about libraries in fiction. I ended up with a dismal 4 out of 10!

These pets are all eager to be taken up north for the Fringe Festival :-)

I'm sure you all can't have failed to notice that the Great British Bake Off is back on tonight. I'm probably going to commit some kind of serious blogging crime by admitting this but I haven't actually watched the last two series. I've read the book (and photocopied the recipes I liked) but I just seem far too busy in the summer to watch every last episode and besides, it all seems so advanced nowadays, not like the first series.

I'm actually more excited about three new BBC3 programmes which all start tomorrow night - Cuckoo returns for a second series and then there's new shows, Our World War and Siblings, both of which look really quite good.



Have you spotted anything interesting this week?
 

 

Grillstock Smokehouse in Bath

I don't consider myself a foodie-type person at all but back at the beginning of July we managed to visit a little place in Bath that had only been open a week or so.

 

 

It goes to show the power of the blogosphere as I first heard about Grillstock last summer. I can't quite remember who posted about it (if it was you, give me a shout) but then Lily went off to their music festival shortly followed by Angela treating her family to a slap up meal.  

Me and Andrew kept meaning to visit their Clifton branch when we were in Bristol Gromiting last year but needless to say, we never got round to it.

So we were quite excited when they announced they'd be opening a branch down in The Vaults, just next to Bath Spa train station. They opened at the end of June and it worked out quite well for us as we were planning to be in town on a couple of different nights to see shows at Komedia.

The first thing we noticed is that you could smell it before you even got to the door (which of course, had to be a good sign as it smelt delicious!)

The restaurant is built into one of the railway arches under the tracks and when we arrived about 5.30pm, it was pretty empty (although it was early). There were a few long tables and several smaller tables and chairs and the helpful waitress let us sit anywhere we liked.

The inside was decorated with posters and advertising from their legendary Grillstock festivals (see Lily's blog for a fab review of the Bristol one) with their tagline 'Music, Meat, Mayhem' all over the place. It does make the place look pretty darn cool.

 

The first time we went I had Two Step Pulled Pork and Andrew had the Smokestack Burger. Andrew's had fries and slaw and mine just had the fries but we shared the slaw anyway so we got to try it all. My Two Step Pulled Pork was the most delicious pulled pork in a bap topped with smoked sausage - such a great taste but not something you can eat gracefully! (Worth it though, so worth it)

On the second visit I had the Hog Dog which came with fries and Andrew had a Pulled Pork Bar-B-Q Plate complete with fries, slaw, pickle and smoked sausage.
The Hog Dog was a smoked pork hot dog topped with pulled pork, pickle and fry sauce. To be honest, I preferred what I'd had the week before, mainly because I wasn't too keen on the fry sauce (a bit too spicy for me, I'm a complete wuss when it comes to anything a bit more than just tangy) but Andrew assured me it was really tasty and if I were you, I'd trust his judgement more than mine!

There's still a few other things on the menu we want to try as well - the Beef Brisket and Pulled Pork Sandwiches are next on my list (although not at the same time and it's a good job they don't do dessert as the meals are really filling!)

The service was speedy too - we're quite often in town about 5.30pm and want somewhere that'll only take an hour before we head off to a show or talk so Grillstock fitted the bill perfectly.
And even more importantly, very reasonable prices. We've usually go next door to Gourmet Burger Kitchen but Grillstock ended up being cheaper.

 

If you haven't already been (which I'm sure you have as I seem to be the last person to the Grillstock party), I'd definitely recommend it, the meals are delicious, the price is good and the service was fast!


What do you think of Grillstock? 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

 

 

Collecting - a few reserved books from the library and dropping off some I'd finished with. One of the one I picked up was the Blogger Book Club book - Tampa by Alissa Nutting - which I'm planning to read on the train up to Edinburgh tomorrow.

 

 

 

Scheduling - several blog posts for this week when we're off at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

 

Making - a gate. Well, Andrew did anyway; it's not yet finished but he had a good go at making the frame yesterday.

Marvelling - at my stargazer lilies which have flowered. I planted two bulbs about 4 years ago and this year, they're sporting 12 buds!

 

Visiting - Carters Steam Fair in Bath's Victoria Park. We went along Sunday evening as the sun was setting.

 

 

What did you get up to at the weekend?

An A-Z of Me - E

 

Edinburgh - I reckon Edinburgh must be my favourite UK city, not just during festival season but it's a pretty cool city all year round. I'd love to live there and we have even browsed the jobs at Edinburgh University just for fun (strangely there seems to be a lot of staff who end up working at Bath after being at Edinburgh and vice versa). Andrew's not keen though, he reckons it'd be too cold!


Excel Spreadsheets - Whoever invented spreadsheets is a genius in my book. I loved making lists as a child and when we first got a computer at home back in the 90s, it was like a dream come true - all my scraps of paper and notepads could be condensed into Excel files. Nowadays some of my Excel lists have been changed into online apps (my 'books to read' list is now on GoodReads for example) but you still can't beat a spreadsheet for making a good list.


English Literature - Along with Drama, this was my other favourite subject at school (helped by the incredibly enthusiastic teacher we had) and I loved studying all the different books and prose. I went on and studied it at A Level as well although I wasn't too keen on doing a whole degree in it!


English Language - I think the English Language is amazing. It's also ridiculous, confusing and sometimes downright silly but it's still a magical language and I love the variety of stuff it contains. I think I've always liked words, books and reading though as one of my school reports from primary school contains the sentence, "Louisa has a very wide vocabulary for someone her age" - I'm very proud of that line!

What 'E' things sum you up?

For the rest of the alphabet click here!

52 Lists - Good Things You Have Done This Week

So, this week's prompt - does that mean good things I've done for myself?
Or good things I've done for other people?
 

 

I'm going to do a short list of both...

  

 

For other people...

 

Took slices of birthday cake into the office on Monday morning for everyone to share

Made my friend M a hog roast roll for lunch on Tuesday

 

Helped a couple of lost delivery drivers find their way around the campus at work

 

Paid for and sorted out Andrew's tax disc for his car

 

Popped into the in laws to check they were all okay and had recovered from the party last week

 

Put together a list of things to do locally (walks, pubs, etc) for my friend M whose father in law was visiting from up north this weekend

 

Sent out several postcards for Sunny Sweet Pea's 2014 postcard swap

 

 

 

For myself...

 

Stored a load of pork from Sunday's hog roast in the freezer to be used another day

 

Went on an afternoon date with the other half to Weston Super Mare Sand Sculpture Festival (pictures to come soon)

 

Ordered a floor lamp for our living room from BHS and paid for it all with Love to Shop vouchers

 

Saw several friends at a mini vehicle rally on Wednesday night at a local pub

 

Took seven books back to the library and collected some new ones

 

 

 

 

What good things have you done this week?

This post is part of Ema's (Made in Hunters) 52 Lists Project

For a full list of all the other lovely bloggy people taking part, visit Scarlett's site (WorkRestPlayLove) for a nosy!

My Edinburgh Fringe Festival Choices

In just a few days time we’ll be speeding towards my one of my highlights of the year – Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
 

Our accommodation is booked, our train tickets are booked and all the shows are booked.

In total there’s over 3000 potential shows to see so narrowing it down to just enough to fit 4 and half days is quite a challenge.
 

Last year we saw 20 shows; in 2012 we saw 18; 2011 was 15 and this year I've managed to cram 21 shows into our few days up north.

 

 

Here’s our 2014 Edinburgh Fringe choices…

 

Shappi Khorsandi: Because I'm Shappi
Booked because: she's on the other half's list of women he fancies. She's also very funny, we've seen her several times before and we know she'll make us laugh.


Andrew Maxwell: Hubble Bubble
 Booked because: we saw him for the first time last year and he was excellent, a really good storyteller with some great anecdotes.


Chaplin
 Booked because: it sounded quite interesting and was one of Andrew's choices.


Russell Kane: The Kaneing Podcast
 Booked because: we've seen Russell several times and he always has us in tears of laughter. This show features different guest comedians each time so it's a mystery who'll be there on the day we attend.


Cuckooed
 Booked because: we both like Mark Thomas' way of thinking about life and politics and this is his story of how he was betrayed by a friend and ended up being spied on by BAE Systems.


Frisky and Mannish: Just Too Much
 Booked because: they're just excellent! If you haven't seen Frisky and Mannish you really should; they manage to twist seemingly innocent pop songs into brilliant new versions. Plus you should see them just for Frisky's fabulous outfits.


Mark Watson: Flaws
 Booked because: we've seen him a couple of times before and we almost booked to see him in Bath in October before realising we could fit it in at Edinburgh.


National Loaf
 Booked because: it sounded funny and interesting; me and Andrew both like historical shows and there's a wealth of them set in both World Wars this year (for obvious reasons) and we thought we'd give this one a go.


Forgotten Voices
Booked because: it's taken from the Imperial War Museum's oral testimonies of World War I and has a guest performer at each show. I think it'll be one of the highlights of the Fringe this year for everyone.


Don't Tell Him Pike
 Booked because: Andrew loves Dad's Army and this show is an hour of Ian Lavender in conversation so should be really good!


NewsRevue 2014
 Booked because: this'll be the third time we've seen NewsRevue and it's always a fun hour-long whizz through the events of the past year.


Nathan Caton: Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton
 Booked because: he's someone we've wanted to see for a while. He seems very good on TV so hopefully he'll be just as good live!


Omer Hamdi: +1
 Booked because: we saw him supporting Russell Kane back in January and he was fab so we made sure to check if he had an Edinburgh show and he did!


Mark Watson's Comedywealth Games
 Booked because: it sounded loads of fun, Mark takes several different comedians each night and gets them to compete in comedy games such as fruit throwing.


Lucy Porter: Me Time
 Booked because: Lucy is another one of Andrew's 'women'. She's also really funny!


Eric and Little Ern
 Booked because: it's an Olivier nominated West End hit. So I imagine it's got to be pretty good and we like Eric and Ernie so it should be right up our street.


Nicholas Parsons' Happy Hour
 Booked because: we first saw Nicholas Parsons' show last year and it was fab; he interviewed several guests (one of them was Adam Hills' wife) and we were amazed at how much energy and enthusiasm he had - this year he'll be 90 and still doing a 70 minute show almost every day in August!


Andrew Lawrence: Reasons to Kill Yourself
 Booked because: we've seen Andrew a few times and he's someone who really should be more famous than he actually is.


The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth
 Booked because: we though we should probably add in a bit of high brow culture; this show is Shakespeare but set in the First World War.


Wil Hodgson's Records in the Roof
 Booked because: Wil is someone I first saw doing comedy over 10 years ago, he's from Chippenham and is mates with Russell Howard and in this show, he'll be interviewing a guest or two about the music that's shaped their life.


Hancock's Last Half Hour
 Booked because: it's a one man show by Pip Utton (who's one of the associate artists at Frome's Merlin Theatre); we've seen Pip do shows about Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler and whoever he portrays, it's such a good show and so believable.

 

I’m going to do what I did last year and tweet what I thought of each show throughout the week. Last year was great, I managed to get retweets from several performers and theatre companies and replies from Marcus Brigstocke and Lucy Porter. I've also put together a Pinterest board of all the shows if you fancy a look.

Lots of comedians and theatre companies go on tour after Edinburgh so you might be able to catch any of these (or anyone else) around the country later in the year.



Have you seen any theatre or comedy shows recently?
Is there anything you'd recommend?
I need some shows to see this autumn!