Anniversary Week - We Can't Eat Anymore - We Are So Stuffed!

It was our leather anniversary last week (that's three years). We have had a full on week celebrating.

Starting on Friday 23rd August we headed to the Birmingham International Food Fair. Where we sampled  Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Japanese Noodles and Indian Kebabs washed down with some German beer and Cocktails at Ginger's Bar. One particular cocktail tasted of roast lamb & mint sauce - very weird but tasty.

We set off early Saturday and headed down the M5 to Shepton Mallet and The Mulberry Factory Outlet. Rupan was in search of a new handbag - it being our leather anniversary. She was most disappointed and did not find anything she liked. Still we were spending the weekend in nearby Bristol and she was bound to find something she liked. Before heading into Bristol we stopped for lunch at The George Inn  Croscombe.

After dumping our bags at the hotel in Bristol we decided to do a little more handbag shopping - yay! Rupan found a bag she liked but needed to see if it would fit her laptop - we would have to return tomorrow. Double yay! Now for a beer. We found a great bar near the hotel - The Beer Emporium. It had about a dozen real ales on tap. Tasty. After trying one or two we headed back to the hotel.

That night we had booked a meal at the Pump House. We both ordered the eight course tasting menu. Highlights were the Pigeon Pastrami, Blackberries & Beetroot and the Hand Dived Scallop, Smoked Potato and Chicken Wing. After, Steve had done some research and had booked us a table at The Milk Thistle for cocktails. This was very disappointing. The concept was good. You needed a reservation, you were buzzed in through a unobtrusive front door, the wood panelled rooms and large arm chairs were cool - modelled on an American speak-easy. However the service was terrible - very few cocktail menus and the service was bad - we only had one cocktail - and this took an hour.

Sunday morning we headed for a coffee at Full Court Press. The guy obviously loved his coffee and even tasted it before serving it. He would not serve it with sugar - this would ruin the flavour. It was very tasty though. Fortified with coffee we headed back the shops to try Rupan's laptop in the handbag she liked. Success and a purchase was made -yay!

Sunday afternoon we took the train to Bath. After a little look round we headed up to the The Royal Crescent Hotel where we had booked afternoon Tea. We ordered champagne before we had our afternoon tea. This was delicious - refreshing tea, yummy sandwiches and mouth watering cakes. Steve enjoyed a Gin & tonic in the garden before we headed back to Bristol.

Sunday evening we headed out to Clifton. We had drinks at Brace & Browns and Bar Humbug before munching on some tasty steaks at The Cowshed. To accompany our meal we settled on a cheeky little Lebanese Red.

We were up early on Bank Holiday Monday and headed over the Severn Bridge into Wales and onto Ross on Wye.  We sat the banks of the Wye and watched the annual Rowing Regatta.

Wednesday 28th August 2013 our Anniversary - has it really been three years. Seems like longer what with spending a year in Australia and and both starting new jobs. Anyhow. Shane Ling a friend from Perth was over for an interview at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and would be staying for a couple of days. We had mentioned that Birmingham had a number a Michelin stared restaurants. He was very keen to try them - well at least two of them. Our arms were twisted.

That evening we had booked Purnell's in town. We all decided to try Purnell's Tour - the nine course tasting menu. It was very good. The deserts we particularly yummy - Mint Choccy Chip & the Burnt English custard egg surprise, British strawberries, black pepper honeycomb and tarragon.

Thursday night we stayed local and went to Turner's. Again it was very good. Mr Turner himself was front of house.

So much food. But we had great weekend break and enjoyed meeting distant friends and eating great food. Back on the diet next week....

Lamb and Rosemary Cocktail

Gromit in Bristol

Bath Abbey

Bath

Afternoon tea at the Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent

Bristol Harbourside

River Severn Toll Road

Ross on Wye

Ross on Wye Regatta

Dinner at Turner's with Shane

Virgin Balloon Flight

Catching up with Friends in Singapore

We left Tulamben early on Wednesday morning and arrived in Singapore at around four o'clock. Our bags were some of the last to turn up on the carousel as Steve's dive bag had been flagged because it contained a knife which meant we were also stopped at security and questioned - he had to explain it was a dive knife. We then had to wait ages in the taxi queue before taking a taxi to the city to Philippa Fogerty's apartment in Tanjong Pagar, our base for the next three nights.

Phil was at work but would meet us later. After a bit of confusion with the concierge we made our way up to the Phil's apartment on 42nd floor. The views over the harbour were amazing.

After showers and a change of clothes we headed out to the "Mr Punch Bar" on the roof top of the Toy Museum. It was happy hour so we enjoyed a few Mojitos while we waited for Phil. When she arrived we had a few Lychee Martinis before we decided to head for something to eat. We took a taxi over to Jumbo at Clarke Quay were we ordered a huge black pepper crab. The waitress put bibs on each of us and armed us with the tools required to eat the large crustacean. The crab arrived and we got to work - smashing the claws and breaking the legs to get at the meat inside. Soon all that remained was a pile of broken crab shell, legs and claws. It was messy but very tasty.

We spent Thursday morning handbag shopping, spending at least an hour in one shop trying A4 pads and laptop sleeves in an array of different bags! Rupan did however manage to purchase two handbags! Steve found this very exhausting and was in need of some food so we had a late lunch at Sushi Tei - very tasty.

Later on that evening Rupan had arranged to meet up with two of her friends that used to be ENT registrars on the Birmingham rotation. They have now both settled as consultants in Singapore and Rupan was interested to see how they were getting on. She met them at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital and had a quick look around the ENT department. We then all met up at Lau Pau Sat Festival Market for Tiger beer happy hour and then on to 'Satay Street' for 100 sticks of chicken, beef and prawns!

On the way home we stopped in at the Lantern Bar at One Fullerton to enjoy fabulous rooftop views of the Marina Bay whilst sipping the obligatory Lychee Martini...

Phil had Friday off and Rupan wanted her advice on a further handbag purchase - more handbag shopping. Yay! The bag met with Phil's approval so a purchase was made. It was now lunch time. On our previous trip to Singapore we ate at Maxwells food court, Phil had said it had been done up so we decided to check it out. Not sure much had changed - it had a new lick of orange paint though. Thankfully the food was still delicious.

That evening we met some of Phil's BBC work colleagues at Morton's Bar at the Mandarin Oriental. It was happy hour - half price Martinis and free steak sandwiches.

Later that evening we left Mortons and headed down to Gluttons Bay to meet Phil's new fella Rory. You would think that we wouldn't be hungry but we still managed a black pepper crab, skate wing, pork, rice and murtabak, washed down with a couple of pitchers of Tiger Beer.

Next morning we waved good bye to Phil and promised ourselves that we would go back on our diets when we got back to the UK.

Look at those lovely nails!

Nice bag and flip-flop combo!

Diving in Tulamben

This was our second trip to Scuba Seraya in Tulamben which is in the North East part of Bali, we were here last year but flew from Perth. This time we left Birmingham early on Tuesday 18th June and took the bus down to Heathrow. We spent the couple of hours before the flight in the business lounge stuffing our faces with sausage baps and Danish pastries – yum yum. During the thirteen hour flight to Singapore a screaming kid assaulted our ears and someone with bad wind (not Steve for a change) violated our noses and taste buds.

We transferred in Singapore and boarded the flight to Bali and upon arrival our driver took us the three hours to the resort. He used the horn to warn other drivers that we will be passing on a blind bend, overtaking whilst there is oncoming traffic and to scare the sh*t out of motorcyclists! It made for an eventful transfer.

We arrived at the resort late afternoon on the Wednesday 19th June; it was a lot easier getting here from Perth.

We were very tired but managed to have something to eat and a few Bintangs before retiring to bed.

The diving was great - the guides remembered us from our last trip, and it soon felt that we had not been away. Check out Rupan’s photos.

Bubble Shrimp

Leaf Scorpion Fish

Leaf Scorpion Fish

Frog Fish

Nudi

Whip Coral Shrimp

Hermit Crab

Nudi

Blenny

Temple

Nudi

Pygmy Seahorse

Soft Coral Crab

Enjoying post dive Bintang

Enjoying a post dive Bintang

Nudi

The Dive Guides

Boxer Crab

We have both been given pointy sticks so now we look like proper dive guides apart from Steve’s close-up eyesight is failing – due to age, so he is useless at spotting small stuff and Rupan has a habit of loosing stuff – she has even managed to loose the pointy stick. Luckily Steve’s distance vision is still intact and he was able to retrieve the pointy stick and now they come in handy for stabbing each other in the bottom.

Rupan also managed to pick up a few hitchhikers on several of the dives. You’d hear a little yelp, turn and find Rupan prising a feather star off her leg with the pointy stick. Very funny!

In a moment of in-between dive boredom Rupan drew a flower on Steve’s arm. Alit our dive guide noticed the artwork and has now decided to tag Steve with the nickname “Lady Boy”.

Steve has decided he is getting too much like Rupan, he needs to pee before a dive, forgets he’s equipment, can’t see anything while on the dive, needs help getting out of the water and needs a pee after the dive. All things that Rupan sees as the norm – welcome to Rupan’s World!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Things have been rather hectic since moving back to the UK - we have now been back for a couple of months and are getting used to the cold. It has been fabulous to have some snow and to catch up with family over the festive period and of course Rupan's birthday on Boxing day

In the Short while that we have been back we have managed a brief trip 'Up North' to see the Banga folk in Doncaster. We also made it down to Colchester to catch up with the Bettis side of the family and to have a curry with Roy Lowther and Ralph and Maureen Charles. Some of the twitchers even popped into the pub for a quick hello. We didn't manage to see every one as we had to cut our weekend short. Rupan had been shortlisted for an interview at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital so had to get back to prep - but it was worth it as she was appointed and is due to start as a Consultant in the summer.

We were invited to Samuel Montgomery Leighton Wood's Naming Ceremony which was held at Ettington Park Hotel, in the same room that Mel and Bil were married. Rupan was asked to do a reading and this was followed by afternoon tea - how civilised!

Christmas was a traditional affair with all the trimmings - as usual, too much food and wine but Steve did call the tree wearing the 'Tinsel Merkin'.

Although we did not have a white Christmas - this weekend there has been a great dump of snow and the garden is looking really pretty again!!

Dinner with the Banga Folk in Doncaster

Christmas shopping at the Bull Ring

Samuel's naming day

Steve calling the tree with the tinsel merkin

The Banga Folks

Rupan stuffing the turkey

Christmas dinner

Snowy Birmingham