adventures | the stand comedy club - edinburgh

Last month, I booked a train ticket down to Edinburgh (again!) with my friend to attend the Edinburgh Zoo Late Night event but unfortunately, we were too late in getting tickets to the event but the train was already booked. My friend used her epic event planning skills to arrange some alternative evening entertainment.

She didn't tell us ANYTHING until we arrived in Edinburgh but she had arranged to go to a comedy club called The Stand on York Place. It's an intimate setting where 4 comedians play during the evening and they aren't necessarily well known. It was such a good laugh even though there was one comedian who was just not getting any of my laughs by using the f-word in every second word he spoke. In my opinion, comedians don't have to swear to be funny. 

Afterwards, we headed to the Grassmarket for a few drinks to end the night We ended up in a cocktail bar called Dragonfly which I was led to believe did cocktails in goblets and fishbowls but apparently they stopped doing them. Devastated. 

The next morning, our train was at 1.30pm so we went to re-fuel in the form of breakfast. I think breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day despite the fact that I rarely get time to eat it! My friend recommended Cafe Lucano on George IV Bridge which is a little cute cafe. I ordered 'The Breakfast' and I didn't realise how much food there was. Under the toast lay another meal in itself in the form of black pudding, mushrooms, tomato, sausages and bacon. Oh my. Are you salivating yet?

We had a little wander down to the train station stopping at some of the small boutiques which I ended up buying a print from. It's currently waiting patiently for a pretty frame to be housed in. 

I had such a great weekend with my old uni friends and so many laughs! Edinburgh is fast becoming one of my favourite Scottish cities ever. I would love to live there one day and explore even more!

Vanessa

x

family tree

It's not often that I get to go out with the family and do nice things. Because I work shifts, I have to work the odd weekends and really unsocial hours but today (Sunday), we decided to make a day of it. Here are some highlights of the day.

We fired up my brother's Mini and started the day off at Harvester for my YOLO meal of the week. Love me a free salad bar as well! Last minute, we headed into the city where an International Market was being held. It comes every so often and it's been going on for years but recently it's all been food and not much of the traditional market stalls that I used to love. Came so close to buying a new pashmina and some delicious hot chocolate but I held back!

We then went to a garden centre called Dobbies. Long story short, my friend took me here a few days ago and I fell in love with it. It has so many things to buy and see and the restaurant is amazing! I toyed with the idea of buying an orchid (seeing as my blog is Parisian Orchid) or a wee cactus but I wasn't sure how I was going to take care of either so I thought I'd do a bit more research before committing. Orchid or cactus?

I treated the family to a little afternoon tea. My brother had a Croque Norwegian (toastie with ham, cheese and dijon mustard topped with white wine sauce, cheese and smoked salmon), it was definitely another meal in itself! A carrot cake was also ordered but I just sipped on a little mint chocolate milkshake, which I couldn't finish :(

We then went to the beach. I love Aberdeen beach. I live by the coast as well so I have a stunning view of the sea front when I go for my run. We walked along the prom and then played a little bit inside the arcades. We won about 520 tickets so we exchanged them for some of those tacky prizes. I really wanted some 1D push up pencils but I got some crayons for my 'Art April' and my brother got a Family Guy glass. We used the rest of the tickets to get sweeties and we got FIZZ WIZ! Old school popping candy...oh yeh!

Had such an amazing but tiring day. It's times like these I appreciate the days I get to spend with my family.

Cheesy but true.

Vanessa

x

day out: glasgow edition

Another one of my favourite Scottish cities is Glasgow. I would describe it more as the modern day Scotland. I love the architecture of Glasgow and the colour of the city (that doesn't even make any sense to you does it?)

I have a lot of days off work at the moment so last week I booked a last minute bus ticket to Glasgow just to spend a little time away from dreary Aberdeen. I hit up the Gallery of Modern Art because there was a few exhibits I wanted to see. Who knew you could draw on some paper with biro and write on a post-it and have it framed for an exhibit? Fascinating!

I wanted to go to The Lighthouse which is a visitor centre that has a lot of design and architectural exhibits. *Side note* my brother did an exhibit there during his uni days and I got to go and see it. If you go up to the 6th floor, there is a viewing platform that it supposed to be really amazing but alas it was closed for a private event. Boo!

I ended up doing a little shopping, being payday and all. The new Forever 21 has opened so I had a little look inside. Oh em gee. It is so amazing! Three floors of amazing clothing and it's so much better laid out than the Oxford Street one in London. It has a mens and a plus sized section as well which was good to see. 

The weather was so nice and although I ended up losing a nail polish on the way home (where did it go?), I had an amazing yet tiring day. I'm sure it won't be the last time I'll hit up Glasgow!

Vanessa

x

day out: edinburgh edition

I never used to spend a lot of my time in Edinburgh but now because one of my oldest uni friend lives in Fife, we end up spending a lot of our time either in Aberdeen or Edinburgh. This time, it was my turn to make my way to Edinburgh. I booked a train ticket and on Monday, I rode the rail South!

The morning started off with a cheeky Starbucks and making myself comfortable on the train. A book and my iPod are my travel essentials!

I'm under the impression that most shops and tourist attractions like to close on a Monday! I came across Cuckoo's Bakery whilst surfing Instagram one day and lo and behold, it's in Edinburgh! Me and my friend walked all the way there and saw that it was closed. Fail. Then it started raining. Double fail!

My friend wanted to take me to the National Museum of Scotland because she knows I love museums. How beautiful is the interior? Can't believe it was free to go in as well! It was interactive and had lots of fun things to do inside. I was most in love with the astronomy and earth section. And I found out I weighed the same as a platypus. Time to go on that diet!

Jamie's Italian for lunch. This was the first half of our Jamie's Italian Feast. It was really good!

More eats came in the form of the Hard Rock Cafe. Best place for nachos but I'm pretty sure they changed the cheese because I had the most terrible nightmares when I was sleeping! I was one of those customers that bought the (non alcoholic) cocktail and took the glass home with me. No regrets. 

Don't take life too seriously. Make a face out of the salad. 

We shall meet again soon Edinburgh for I shall be back on the 12th February for a fleeting visit!

Vanessa

x