Manchester Sportcity Travelodge

A couple of weeks ago (Maybe, I dont even know what day it is anymore) my brother was competing for Wales in the Sainsburys school games Wheelchair Basketball (They came 4th, GO WALES). As this was held over 4 days we had to find somewhere to stay. 

We booked the Sportcity travelodge as it was the cheapest option and close to where we needed to be. If you are booking the travelodge you need to be aware that it DOES NOT have a lift. If you need a ground floor room you have to phone up after you've made the booking and they will allocate you one. 

Some of the staff were super lovely and some were not so helpful. Shout out to the guy who did not judge me for going to ask for help with the wifi at 11pm in my pjs and a full face of makeup still and also no shoes. I looked fabulous. To pay for the wifi it takes you to a paypal page that looks a bit weird but he phoned the company and said if anything went wrong he would take responsibility and reassured me that he has used it and it was fine. No one stole my money so thats good. You do get 30 mins free wifi every 24hours but that just isn't enough for me. It cost me £12 for a week and I could use it on 2 devices. 

They also don't seem to have specific disabled rooms. We had 2 rooms with an interconnecting door so that my mum could come and jump on me in the morning to wake me up (true story) and my dad could bring me coffee to stop me being grumpy (he's a good egg). However, the bathroom was a tad on the small side and you could only just get a wheelchair in and shut the door. There was also no grab handles around the toilet and I had to use the sink. We also had a bath which was a bit tricky to get in and out of a required parental guidance (Thanks mum). On the plus side the bed was huge and super comfy and once my brother went to stay with all the athletes I got the whole thing to myself so I could starfish all night long.

Please excuse all my crap in the doorway 

Even though this travelodge was near a main road I wasn't kept awake and actually slept pretty good for me. This one also does food including buffet breakfast in the morning with unlimited fancy coffee (heart eyes). They also serve food till 10pm I think and then they do a snack menu with jacket potatoes, burgers & chips on it 24 hours. They also do the most amazing warm brownie sundae and I want one so bad like right now.

There is a car park which blue badge holders can use for free and all other cars have to pay £3 for 24 hours which is still pretty good. It is about a 10-15 minute drive into the city centre and turns out blue badge holders can park on any of the street parking for FREE ALL DAY. How amazing is that. We had to ask a traffic warden because we didn't believe the internet. 

I really enjoyed my stay in Manchester and would definitely love to visit again

Beth...x

Food// Red Lion in Llangadog

As you can see by my blog recently I have moved to the more lifestyle side of blogging, which seems to involve a lot of food. I also have some epic outfit posts featuring my mum that should be coming soon.

Anyway back to the Red Lion. The Red Lion is a Hotel that has opened up in a Village near mine, Llangadog. The new owners have gone with a Medieval Wales theme for the whole place including the bedrooms. There are fabulous chandeliers, coats of armour and the rooms have massive four poster beds. A lot of thought has been put into all the little details including slate coasters and wooden covers for the menus.

Now onto the food. The food is pretty damn gorgeous and the portion sizes are huge. The second time we went I had the meatballs and pasta as a main and I had to ask for a takeaway pot (which I filled). Wasn't gonna waste it though.

Everyone wanted in on the food picture action though so you get to see what everyone in my family ate. Picture heavy and it will make you hungry #SorryNotSorry (I'm a little bit sorry for that hashtag though)

Starters

Sweet Chilli Chicken Skewers - These are absolutely amazing. Im addicted to sweet chilli sauce anyway but mmmm.

Mussels - I hate fish (except tuna mayo and fish fingers but they don't really count) but the rest of my family love mussels. Apparently these were pretty good and they get served in a pot with a lid that you can use to put your shells in (I found that pretty cool)

Scallops - Another dish I did not try. My dad said it was good though so we'll go with that

Spaghetti & Meatballs - This was my starter. Yup this portion is a starter. And let me tell you, this is the best spaghetti & meatballs I have had. It was soo good. The meatballs are amazing and the sauce is delicious. I did not, however, enjoy trying to eat the spaghetti like a lady. It's not possible. I had to slurp and I got it all over my face. Worth it though

Mains

Steak - My family loves our meat and you cant beat a good steak so we all went for that. I opted for BBQ sauce because BBQ sauce is life. I also opted for spring onion mashed potato because I didn't fancy chips. It was the best mash potato in the world. I honestly would have been happy to just sit and eat a vat of it. Carbs are also life. The steak just melted in your mouth and was amazing. We also got onion rings because you cant have steak without them. Fighting over the last one ensued. I won.

Dessert - The best course of all

Lemon Cheesecake  - As you may have noticed from my last food post, I am a huge huge huge cheesecake fan. This lemon cheesecake was amazzzzing. It was actually the one that made my mum actually like cheesecake. It was so lemony but not too sour but delicious and mmm. Also very artistically presented. And now I want cheesecake

Pavlova - This picture came out blurry in all the excitement *cries*. My mum is obsessed with meringue and I may have stolen some. It was pretty damn good. It was the chewy kind of meringue and it was heaven. Although she did have to ask for a knife and fork to eat it as the spoon just wasn't working for her. So much cream and fruit and deliciousness

Tiramasu - Im not a massive fan of tiramasu (Its a texture thing - soggy sponge weirds me out) but I did try it and it was okay. My dad loved it though and that's what counts.

All there food is home made and delicious. It also really reasonably priced and I've heard amazing things about their carvery which I'm hoping to get to soon.

The food area of this hotel is wheelchair accessible and the staff are very accommodating. There's a spacious disabled toilet and ramp access via the carpark. The bedrooms however are located upstairs.

You had any good food recently?

Beth...x

Books// Cop Town Karin Slaughter

I am a huge fan of Karin Slaughters books and own pretty much all of them so I was really excited when I saw one I didn't have yet on offer in Asda or Tesco or somewhere like that. Unfortunately I was really disappointed. I really struggled to get into Cop Town.

"Atlanta, 1974. As a brutal killing and furious manhunt rocks the city, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the police force will also be her last.

Kate isn't the only woman on the force who is finding things tough. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes.

When Maggie and Kate become partners, and are sidelined in the search for the city's cop killer, they decide to pursue their own line of investigation. But are they prepared to risk everything as they venture into the city's darkest heart?"

This book is set when it was super sexist in the police force (more than now). Two women are fighting to work in the male dominated police force with no one taking them seriously. There is a cop killer on the loose and no one will listen to what the women have to say.

I'm not really sure why I found this book so hard going but I probably wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't Karin Slaughter. It seemed to take forever for it to actually go anywhere and I really didn't gel with the characters. I did want to find out who the bad guy was but I got a bit bored until the last chapter where it all finally came together.

This book is no where near as good as the Sara Linton and Will Trent series

Have you read it? What did you think?

Beth...x

The Fforest Inn

I'm going to start this post by saying The Fforest Inn is honestly my favourite place ever to eat. Seriously, I am in love. I think this place may actually make the best burger I have ever tasted. Its so good that I have eaten here 3 times and I have ordered the burger every time. I don't even bother looking at anything else on the menu. I can't resist a good burger.

The staff at the Fforest Inn are the nicest people you will ever meet. I don't think I've ever had such good service, especially when the first time we went in they had just finished serving and we looked so rough they took pity  on us and let us eat. They are seriously so lovely.

Their food is so reasonably priced and it is all home made and oh so delicious. I've only ever had the home made beef burger with bacon & cheese but my mum loves the Hunters Chicken and my brother inhaled the steak in about 2 minutes.

The burger may be delicious but their puddings are out of this world. I am a huge huge cheesecake fan and this cheesecake is heaven on a plate. I have tried the Lemon and the Vanilla cheesecake so far. I think the lemon may be my favourite but as a scientist I may have to do some repeat tests to get a fair result. I mean its for science. My mum usually hates cheesecake but she cant get enough of this one.

Also sticky toffee pudding *heart eyes emoji* Seriously this is so delicious. The toffee sauce is like heaven in your mouth. I just can't describe how delicious this is. Honestly this is the best sticky toffee pudding I have ever tasted. I would also like to point out that these puddings are actually smaller than what you would normally get because I couldn't choose and they got fed up with waiting for me to make a decision so gave me half and half but shh don't tell anyone.

They also introduced us into the world of Panna Cotta as none of us had tried it before. It is amazing. My brother now nags me every day to drive 45mins to pick him one up.

So if you are ever in Llanfihangel Nant Melan stop by and tell them that the crazy panna cotta family sent you. They'll know who you mean

Beth...x

Colouring Books For Adults

You may have noticed that there has been a huge increase in colouring books aimed towards adults with more intricate designs with thinner spaces to colour. I am a massive fan of colouring in. In fact I have a few kids one including a Disney & Dora the Explorer one which I love colouring in and giving them different hair colours and mixing it up a bit. However I wanted something a little more challenging and super pretty. I am a huge fan of patterns

I was browsing Amazon one night (I do this more than I care to admit - So many DVDs I need) when I saw this Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom - A Colouring Book Adventure for only £4. I ordered it along with some felt pens and a couple of DVDs (I cant resist, its an illness). 

This colouring book is one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. The designs are gorgeous and the paper is really nice quality. Some of the pages even have room for you to add your own doodles to. Perfect for all you creative types. 

My only issue with this colouring book is that because some of the lines are so intricate and I DO NOT want to go out of the lines (5 year old me would be so angry & disappointed with myself) that it can be a little bit stressful making it perfect. However, this means that it distracts me perfectly from my pain and anything else that is stressing me out. I'd rather stress out over a colouring book than something I have no control over. 

For my birthday I also got these 2 amazing colouring books 
- Mer-World Problems
- Unicorns are Jerks

These are the best colouring books ever. They are so funny plus you cant really go wrong with mermaids and unicorns. My friend also had a dinosaur ones. These are perfect for those of you who can't cope with the stress and concentration of the thin lined ones. They still offer perfect distraction.

My equally Disney obsessed friend also got me a frozen colouring book. I love how all my friends buy me colouring books. They're so awesome

Are you a fan of the colouring book trend?

Do you prefer the intricate or bigger designs?

Beth...x

Kiss Cosmetics Naked Pink Mini KISStick

I have to admit when I first opened this lipstick I wasn't sure about the colour. I'm normally a bright in your face kind of girl. Buuut as soon as I tried it on oh my god it was Love. This colour is gorgeous

Kiss Cosmetics is a new brand that are mainly focussed on amazing lip products to suit everyone. They are doing colours from nude to in your face wow. 

"Kiss Cosmetics offer an addictive range of affordable lip products using nourishing formulations ensuring your lips 'don' highly pigmented splashes of colour that guarantee to... WOW!" - Kiss Cosmetics

I was kindly sent the Naked Pink KISStick* which is a gorgeous natural cool toned pink shade that is perfect for those days where I want to be more natural.

Kiss have recently brought out a mini range so you can try out shades you wouldn't normally go for before committing to the full size. You can buy minis of all their lipsticks for the bargain price of £2 and they are just so adorable. Then if you love them as much as me you can purchase the full size for just £7 

There are 10 gorgeous shades in the KISStick range and I pretty much want all of them. I'm going to be honest and say I wasn't sure what to expect from a new and pretty affordable brand but this lipstick is amazing quality. It smells amazing, is so pigmented (one swipe and you have perfect colour) and lasts really well. I even washed my face after putting mine on (don't ask) and ate half a watermelon and it stayed put with minimal fading. This lipstick is also a gorgeous texture and is so creamy it glides on.

I will definitely be getting a lot of use out of this gorgeous colour and plan on buying the full size when I run out.

Will you be trying any of the Kiss Cosmetics range?

Beth...x

* I was sent this product free of charge for the purpose of reviewing however it does not affect my views and the opinions expressed in this review are independent and my own

Elegant Touch Pink Express Nails

Oh my god guys. Check me out. Thats four posts in four days. I might actually be pulling myself out of this hole and getting back to what I love. I also have loads more post ideas to write up. I'm excited.

Soo this post may or may not be extremely late going up as I wore these nails for my graduation. I have an OOTD to come as well if I can find any decent photos of me just in my dress and not my gown. Anyway I was wearing a black dress and fabulous pink shoes which paired with my pink hair I thought I should go all out pink. This meant pink nails as well. I was going to get them done professionally but I ran out of time and money, Also I really love Elegant touch express nails. I bought the Elegant Touch Express Nails in Polished Vibrant Pink the day before I actually graduated and applied them in about 3mins before I rushed out the door for food.

Ring - Antique shop

 Midi Ring - Black Tied

Silver Ring - Antique Shop

Thumb Ring - Shop Dixi

I was worried they would look too barbie but I actually loved how they looked. In fact they made me look more tanned than I am and they went amazingly with my gorgeous Gemporia ring. They are so easy to apply. You just have to select the right sizes, pull off the plastic and stick them on and Ta-da gorgeous nails. They lasted about 5 days on me but I'm really hard on my nails and wash my hands a lot (curse of a tiny bladder #TMI). They did however last a day of my wheelchair skills training with constantly manually pushing my chair.

I received so many compliments on my nails as well as my extreme colour co-ordinating as I was even rocking a bright pink lip.

If you fancy them they are currently a 1/3 off at Superdrug so go go go.

Have you tried Elegant Touch Nails?

Which are your favourites?

Beth...x