Weekend Getaway

This weekend was a little different to most.

Whilst we don't sit in the house most weekends, this weekend was a fully planned affair.

On Saturday, I travelled to North London with my mother in law where we met up with hubbys sister and made our way to my sister in laws home as friends had arranged a surprise Baby Shower for her!


This is quite rare in England but since SIL and a few of her friends hail from the US, it seemed fitting for her.

We had a lovely time. Of course there were cupcakes, cookies, alcohol free punch and some lovely decorations! We played a couple of games and generally had a good laugh.

SIL was very pleased with all the gifts they received for their first baby.

I opted for the gifts of sleepsuits and a baby sleeping bag.

Since SIL wanted to wait until birth to find out the sex of Baby T, it was a bit of guesswork on what to buy. I am not a fan of neutrals so wanted to get something bright and fun. Apart from 3 white vests and 3 white sleepsuits, I didn't buy any baby clothes for my boys until they were born. Everyone loves giving newborns gifts too so Baby T will be getting alot more when he/she arrives. I'd especially love going out shopping for baby if they turn out to be a girl. I could have a pink shopping frenzy! I initially thought they may be having a girl...now I'm not so sure. Her shape is SO similar to how I was with 3 boys and they are settled on a girls name but unsure on a boys name. This happened to me every time too. Especially by the time Liam came along.

We only have another 2 months to find out and I can't wait to be an aunt!

Our Southampton visit wasn't what we expected. Whilst we very much enjoyed ourselves, we felt like the place had been mis-advertised. There wasn't the "city of the future" feel to it we were expecting. After breaks in London, Bristol, Cornwall, Bath and Milton Keynes  Southampton really felt like it was lacking something. Soul maybe? I don't know what was missing but it wasn't the place we expected. However, hubby and I both are similar in the way of thinking that we make the most of wherever we are and enjoy the experience. We had a lovely little escape, saw a different town (nowhere near a "future city" unless a lot of changes are made) and enjoyed a bit of free time. We had good food, good drinks and part of the clencher for us trying there was that they had this place!

At present there are only 2 of this establishments in existence with the promise of 5 more opening in the next 2 years.

Turtle Bay is a Carribbean restaurant and bar. Their cocktails are divine! I started the afternoon with a Margarita since it was 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Cocktails on Sundays were 2 for 1 in price which made a cheap night of drinking on my part. Later on I tried the lovely Passion Rum Punch. Fresh passionfruit with a trio of dark, golden and white  rums, lime and something else. Needless to say it was delicious. Despite thinking I hated sweet potato we shared a portion of sweet potato fries and now I want to find some more. They really were rather moreish!

I did drink a fair amount of alcohol over the course of the day but I know my limits and that Rose wine and rums normally have very little after effects on me so I stuck with those.  The start of our anniversary "date" was a quick lunch after travelling for 4 hours. We found a Burger King. Then feeling the need to celebrate we wandered off to the bar and restaurant area to get a glass of something nice. This zone was NOWHERE near as big as we were led to believe.  So we found an old traditional looking place for a drink. As soon as we got in, it was rather obvious we had stumbled across a gay pub. Hearing Will Young playing from outside should have been a big warning. Still, we bought our drinks and sat outside watching the world go by in the beautiful August  sunshine. It was the nicest wine I had on the trip!

We had a lovely meal in the evening at an independent restaurant where I had the biggest grilled tiger prawns I have ever seen for a starter with a chilli and corriander dressing and a good helping of salad. Lush.  I then had the ribs for main and had no idea how MASSIVE a portion it would be. Hubby had to help me finish off despite him having had the ribs for a starter himself. I think he really enjoyed them too.

The following morning we still awoke early since that's how the body clock works with 3 kids. We took a walk around the local Ikea, and had a yummy cooked breakfast before the train rides home.

I have spent 3 days in a row on trains and feeling a little more secure with the London Underground. I'm always paranoid of being lost. The train journies were great, it was just a couple of the connections that took the time. We had to wait 30 minutes twice for connecting trains on the main lines. Still it's better than missing a train by 3 minutes and having to wait almost an hour.

So yes, all in all it was a great weekend and although we will not be returning to Southampton in the near future, we enjoyed ourselves all the same.