30th Birthday - What To Wear?

I've been scouring the interweb for some birthday outfit inspiration. My actual birthday night out is pretty low-key. It's being held in a local pub with my lovely friends and I'm not making a massive deal about it therefore I want to keep my outfit low-key too. The other thing is Jamie is treating me to dinner, now I know it's in one of three places: The Witchery, Howies or Chaophraya with drinks beforehand at The Devils Advocate, so for that I am looking for something a little more dressy.

So getting the easy ones out the way I thought something like these for my night out with friends, simple and low-key.
 

Boohoo skater dress, £25 / Kiss The Sky lace cami tank / Skinny jeans / ALDO black leather boots, £34 / ASOS strappy shoes / Jimmy Choo pink handbag, £765 / Maison Martin Margiela silver charm, £370 / Kate spade jewelry, £30 / KENNETH JAY LANE clip-on earrings, £24 / Glitzy Rocks sterling silver stud earrings, £9.00

 When it comes to the second part, my birthday meal. I'm at a complete standstill if I'm honest. I've been looking over my old favorites ASOS and AX Paris and so far have come up with the following: now don't even get me started on shoes and accessories.

John Zack floral pattern dress, £33 / ASOS blue v neck dress, £24 / AX Paris macrame dress / ASOS pink cape, £24 / Asos shorts / Pleat Front Chiffon Long Sleeve Playsuit - AX Paris

So what do you think? Can you suggest somewhere else I should check out?

Happy Birthday to me!

Back in early December I celebrated my, ahem, 29th birthday, the weekend after I was treated to a weekend in London from Jamie - firstly it was kept a secret until the day of my birthday and he told me in an amazing way.

We stayed in the Park Plaza Country Hall which was about 5 minutes from Waterloo train station - it was AMAZING. We had a little suite with a sofa, 2 TVs, a little kitchen, lovely comfy bed and a MASSIVE bathroom. Jamie had mentioned it was for a birthday so the hotel had left a bottle of red in our hotel room which was brilliant, and not to mention the view. 

On the Friday night we went to the Hammersmith Apollo to see Ed Byrne, who was as usual brilliant, the highlight of the Friday evening though - meeting Dara O'Briein who just happened to be sat in front of us. (Ignore the cheesy face)

On the Saturday we done some touristy things, a walk along the Thames, Hyde Parks Winter Wonderland, which kind of crapped all over Edinburgh's if I'm honest, we went to Ripleys Believe it or Not - which was fab and we had managed to get complimentary tickets, without being rude, I wouldn't pay £30 per adult for a visit. We visited a couple of the local rock bars The Crowbar and The Intrepid Fox, the standard Harrods visit, and also Liberty. And we did pass the infamous ChoccyWoccyDoDa, which being honest, I had no idea was in London as I thought there was only a Brighton one. Unfortunately I suffered a little injury in the Intrepid Fox, which was honestly the fault of a misplaced doormat and not the few pints I'd had, although Jamie did sit and kindly ice my ankle.

Sunday was our last day and the one in which we were visiting Harry Potter Warner Bros. studios. It was in one word, amazing, if you're down I would recommend it 100%. I wouldn't necessary go down just to visit as it is a fair bit outwith of the centre of London. It wasn't very busy when we visited, which was great, I can imagine it takes a lot longer to get around when it is. There was so much to see, including the night bus, Pivot Drive, the Weasleys car, inside Hogwarts, as well as Diagon Alley. And all the little things like outfits, chess pieces etc. I could stick up 100s of pics but here's a few to give you an idea. The best piece of advice I read on Trip Adviser was to take a picnic with you. There is an outdoor sitting area where there are some hot dogs on sale, and some Butterbeer - although I was really disappointed that the Butterbeer came in a plastic cup and not a tankard, we didn't even bother with it in the end as it was really just for the photo opportunity. 

The weekend before I had a lovely night out with my friends in The Black Bull, one of my favorite Edinburgh rock bars, it was a fab night out - now to think about this years - the big 3-0!! Yikes.

My Super Duper Autumn catch-up

So, here is my super photo heavy 'here's some of the stuff we done over the last few months' post. In September Jamie & I went on our first holiday and we booked up for a week in Akyarlar in Turkey. You may or may not know I was there last year (in Marmaris), and loved it. We had a standard 34c during the day and a 'modest' 24c in the evening, I have to say coming home to 6c wasn't much fun. 

During our time we took a couple of boat trips, Jamie went snorkling & scuba-diving, not for me, and we took a couple of trips into the local town of Turgutreis which was only 3lira on the bus (about £1) and a 10 minute. 

Our hotel was pretty decent, but after a week I was ready to come home. 

We spent a second week at home chilling out, pub lunching and also learnt how to make fresh pasta at the Bellini Cookery School which was a lot of fun and it's amazing how simple making fresh pastas and sauces is. I would highly recommend the place, Jamies mum treated us on a Groupon deal but even the normal prices for classes aren't bad.

  

In October, Jamie turned 27 so as a birthday treat I booked us a trip to Amsterdam. I had never been before, Jamie had when he was younger, I don't  need to add that this trip was a little different. 

We flew into Amsterdam around 4pm, I cannot praise KLM enough, both for their assistance before we flew and during. Free luggage if you sign up to their free 'Flying Blue' scheme, free to pre-book your seats, and some free snacks & drinks (mini cans of Heineken FTW) on the plane, and Schiphol airport....well, we could learn a thing or two from them also. 

Anyways, a few things we done whilst there were, visit the Red Light District - standard, I have to say I expect something a lot worse than what I saw. The 'Heineken Experience', pre-booking recommended, you also get two mini Heineken at the end. The 'Xtra Cold' bar, -10c, don't expect the type ice bar you see in London etc, it was fun but it was freezing, you got two comp drinks which you drank out of an ice-glass, it wasn't the easiest to hold and FYI - don't do what Jamie done and wear shorts! 

There were some amazing shops and little markets, as well as FEBO - now FEBO is like a hot food vending machine/shop thing. You pop some euros in, open a little door and take out the food. It was super yummy for what it is, and very conveinent. As well as pizza shops still open at 3am.

I booked our trip through LastMinute.com and took a risk on their 'secret hotel' which turned out to be NH Hotel - Amsterdam Centre - it was fantastic. It was central, very easy to get to by public transport once you knew your way about, we took a taxi to the hotel but walked to the train station on our return journey and took the train that takes you right into the airport.

Finally, my top rated thing about Amsterdam - how open everything is, sex shops next door to what I can only class as Tesco, the Red Light district, the cafés (not that we visited), everything is so open, and it seems to work well for them. I'm not sure it would work so well here though. I would love to go back and do more, I can't wait. 

PS: Be midful of people of bikes, they are EVERYWHERE!