UTG – 18th September 2010

 

Saturday 18th September 2010

 

Not much has changed in UTG this month. You can see that the weather in Aberdeen is already getting rubbisher by the dullness of the sky and the fact that the pic was taken mid-afternoon instead of early am like the last one.

I’m hoping to take October’s pic when Citymoves take part in the Thrill the World event. For those of you who know nothing about this I encourage you to go here and take part. Basically it’s a worldwide simultaneous dance to Thriller by Michael Jackson. The dance moves are online and it looks to be a hoot! Spread the word!

#95. Win a competition – Part the second

Further to last weeks post I also managed to obtain a pair of tickets for Despicable Me on Sunday which was totally awesome. I took my niece and they treated us great! We got there early and it was already super busy but rather than wait in the queue we enjoyed some of the activities they had laid on – my niece got a Gingy “tattoo” and entered a competition to design your own ice-cream flavour. When we got into the screen we were given free 3D glasses, vouchers for free ice-cream and raffle tickets (We won a Despicable Me sunshade for a car in case you were wondering!)

But none of this is the exciting part! (Which isn’t really about me but I wanted to blog about anyway!) Today my mum got a call from Cineworld to say that my niece had won the competition for her ice cream entry (strawberry ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate chunks!) and that we could collect her goody bag from the cinema when we were next there. I was so happy for her! She’s only 6 and already winning things – I only wish I had taken a picture of her entry so that I could show it off! Talk about a proud auntie of what?!

101 Days til Christmas

As I was reading the weekly e-mail from MoneySavingExpert.com this morning the launch of their DemoHoHotivator allowed me the sudden realisation that Christmas is only 101 days away!

This year is going to be the first year I am away from Aberdeen for the festive holiday as my Mum has booked a trip to CentreParcs for our Christmas. We’ve been twice before and loved it so the lure of going there at Christmas time was too huge! I’m really hoping for a white Christmas so we can mess about making snowmen and snow angels in the forrest. There should be reindeers and santa and loads of other Christmas themed things to do. I’m really looking forward to it!

However, this also means that I need to be better prepared this year and have everyone’s gifts ready for before I leave so that they can open them on Christmas day! The holiday isn’t cheap so I’m keeping the list short and sweet. Will probably make a few cross stitch Christmas cards to give to others who don’t make the cut. So I might as well make a start on this list now:

• Boyfriend
• Mum
• Dad
• Niece
• Nephew and Girlfriend (?)
• Boyfriend’s Mum & Partner (?)
• Boyfriend’s Dad & Partner (?)

Think that should be all. My sisters, aunts and uncles are all too old for presents now  and I stopped the Christmas gift giving thing with friends when I left school. Should be fairly easy this year.

#95. Win a competition

Haha! I have just rather unexpectedly completed another goal in my list. I’ve been meaning to set aside some time to start entering competitions (as if I didn’t enter anything how was I going to win anything!) but like  a lot of things I want to make time for it fell down the list of priorities. I occassionally enter blog competitions and Twitter RT competitions but more out of convenience that actually trying to win things.

However, today must have been my lucky day as I just received a DM from @Cineworld on Twitter advising me that I have just won 2 tickets for an exclusive preview screening of Ben Affleck’s new movie, The Town. This movie looks right up my street as I love action-y movies. Here’s a synopsis from IMDB:

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) was born and raised in Charlestown, a blue-collar neighborhood in Boston, where crime is a part of life. Charlestown is the world’s capital for carjacking, kidnappings, and armed robberies. The tricks of the criminal trade are passed down from father to son. Doug is the brains and ruthless leader of a gang of bank robbers who have been able to get out clean after each bank robbery. But Doug knows that his luck will not last forever, and he is looking for one last big heist that will give him the chance to leave the town in his rear-view mirror. But no one will let him, especially, his right-hand man Jeremy (James Coughlin); because he believes that it would be a personal betrayal to him, and he is not going to allow that. In a recent bank job, Doug forced the bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) to open the safe, and then took her hostage as leverage for the getaway, and eventually setting her free unharmed. Doug knows that he should leave Claire alone, but she only lives four blocks from him, and he can handle it, but he begins to fall for her. Their romantic involvement is about to take them down a perilous path. ©Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)

Really looking forward to it!

#10. Part One – Try yoga

Last night I completed another (half) goal and tried yoga for the first time. It was an hour long class of Power Yoga (not quite sure what this means!) but basically you follow a set regime of poses for the class.

I always thought of yoga to be a relaxing, gentle stretching of your body – I did not expect to be pouring of swear and struggling to hold the poses. I’m not the most flexible of people so thankfully the instructor had simpler versions for most of the exercises to try buut even these were quite tough. Yoga uses a lot of core strength which I seem to have lost since I stopped weightlifting (there’s just not enough time in the day!).

It was fun and I’m glad I tried it but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again anytime soon. Now to find myself a trial Pilates class… hopefully it’s a bit easier for me!

Groupon.co.uk

Just a short post today to give a shout out to one of my favourite money saving sites at the moment: groupon.co.uk (AKA MyCityDeal). Groupon is a site that offers group buying deals for different things ranging from beauty treatments to meals and tickets for shows etc. Basically they offer the deal and if X number of people are up for it then the offer goes ahead and you get a voucher for your chosen treat. Since I first found Groupon I have had:

• A cinema ticket for £1
• A £40 body wrap for £16
• An express manicure and pedicure with nailvarnish to take home for £14
• A cut and blow dry for a tenner! and
• An Indian meal for 2 including wine (worth £64) for £25

All fabulous deals for things I wanted to do but probably wouldn’t have paid full price for so got great deals. Haven’t had the meal yet but I’m sure it will be fab. One thing to watch out for though is the expiry dates and the very popular deals. For example, there was a deal on very recently for a cut and colour for something ridiculous like £26 and they sold over 240 of them! The vouchers only lasted 2 months so I’m not sure exactly how they are planning on fitting in that many people!

The site lists most major towns and cities so it might be worth having a look at the deals for places you are soon to visit. (I saw a great deal for food and cocktails in London but decided against it as I’d much rather pick somewhere on the spur of the moment) May just save you a tonne of money on your holidays!

Feeling Fat Friday

Meh… last night I finally plucked up the courage to try on some dresses for the wedding reception I’m attending tonight. It did not go well. None of them fit me well at all, I had a total of 2 that I found acceptable and even they were a bit on the tight side. So much so that today after I went to get my nails done I went into town and bought a new one. It’s really put things in perspective for me, I don’t want opening my wardorbe to be a source of frustration for me anymore. I need to take my weight loss seriously and put my heart and soul into it.

Starting tomorrow (yeah I know I should start today but I need to get all of the crap out of the house first and get a plan together) I am back on the bandwagon and this time I am going in guns blazing.

• Track calories on my plate
• Stay under NET calorie goal
• Drink 1.5 litres of water per day
• Take my medication on time (a lot harder than it sounds!)
• Daily probiotic
• No fizzy juice (not even diet)
• No caffeine
• Try to avoid artificial sugar
• Eat as little processed foods as possible
• Minimise dairy

A lot of these things are also to (hopefully) help me control my IBS which is getting a bit ridiculous. It’s going to be hard but I might as well give it a try while I’m waiting for an appointment with a specialist and hopefully it will help me shed a few pounds just that little bit faster! I think I may need to start daily tracking posts again just to keep me accountable.

September NET Worth

This should really have been posted nearer the beginning of the month but as I write the numbers down in my filofax on the first of every month they are still accurate and better late than never.

NET Worth
Credit
Cash – £14.77
BoS C/A #1 – £580.99
BoS C/A #2 – £121.00
Barclays C/A – £1.52
EasyCash – £1.00
WebSaver – £32.00
Online Saver – £10400.00
Regular Saver – £1011.78
Flexible ISA – £5100.00
Golden ISA – £3656.72
Credit total – £20,919.78

Debts
A+L C/A – (£4998.91)
C/C #1 – (£362.75)
C/C #2 – (£667.42)
Debt total – (£6029.08)

Total: £20,919.78 – £6029.08 = £14890.70

Increase\Decrease on August = +£1302.81

These numbers are a bit inflated as I still had to pay C/C #2′s bill, most of this increase will probably be eaten into fairly soon anyway due to my jaunt to London. Totally worth it though. I made a boo boo with one of my credit cards last week as I used the wrong one to top up my mobile (they’re both black!) which put me over my (measly) £500 credit limit. Got hit with an overlimit charge but I paid the bill off in full there and then and was able to get them to waive the fee. Hopefully it won’t appear on my credit file as that’s really not what I need when I’m looking to apply for a mortgage!

I’m going to London

Hey guys, sorry I have been MIA (again) but at least I have been productive this time and working my way through my list. In the last week or so I have been finalising my plans for my solo weekend in London.

I love London, I have been there twice in the last year (both times very briefly) I love the heat, the culture, even the tube! It is so easy to find your way around. I fly down early on Saturday the 25th September direct from Aberdeen to London Gatwick then will get the train to the city centre. I’m hoping to join the queue for day tickets (front row seats for only £25!) to go and see Wicked but if all else fails I will just have to buy a ticket on the day. I have booked into The Grange St Paul’s for the night which is a fairly new 5* hotel for the bargain price of £117.50 via LastMinute.com’s Top Secret Hotels (also went through Quidco so should get £11.50 back bringing the price down to £106.00!). I don’t have any firm plans for the rest of Saturday as this all depends on whether I go to the matinée or evening performance of Wicked!

Sunday morning I plan to take full advantage of the hotels leisure and spa facilities before check out and thenI think I’ll take a wander down Southbank as well as check out some of the markets I’ve been hearing great things about. Also thinking about checking out some of the beautiful gardens so if anyone has suggestions as to their favourites let me know! I was a bit gutted to find out that the quirky elephants that were there on my last visit have now all left the streets of London I would have loved to make it a challenge to hunt them all down in one day!

I’m deliberately trying to avoid the ‘toursity’ things like the zoo, aquarium and museums as I want to come back with my boyfriend to see them and I’ve already been on the London Eye and Madam Tussaud’s. However, I am very open to suggestions for things to do particularly on a Sunday.

My trip home won’t be as glamorous as it’s an EasyJourney all the way… I’m getting the EasyBus to Luton where I will be staying in the EasyHotel before my early morning flight home with EasyJet! Oh well, it’s an adventure and I am super-excited about it! If all goes to plan I shall have three more items ticked off the list.

Giraffe, Union Square – Aberdeen

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited along to one of Giraffe Aberdeen’s preview nights before their grand opening today thanks to my boyfriend and his Twitter contacts

Giraffe, Union Square

Our reservation was for 7pm and we were greeted by the lovely Vikki (who runs the GiraffeTweet twitter account) and shown to our table (a booth near the front of the restaurant with VERY comfortable seats) where everything was explained to us. Basically, this was a trial run for the waitresses and chefs so it was requested that we order different meals and ask lots of questions to test their knowledge. Included for the evening was two courses each (either starter and main or main and dessert) and two drinks (including their amazing selection of cocktails!!!)

The front of the restaurant is open but despite this there was very little noise that could be heard from the shopping centre which was great. The music was at a perfect volume for chatting and eating and the atmosphere was very relaxed. I love the decor in this restaurant especially this wall:

Photo via @GiraffeTweet

Our waitress for the evening was Catherine who despite appearing quite nervous and unsure gave us stellar service all evening. To drink, I ordered the ’Wannabellini’ (sparkling wine, peach schnapps and peach puree) and he went for the Orchard Martini (vodka, apple schnapps, elderflower and apple juice) which was so delicious and light I had one as my second drink! Both drinks came in appropriate cocktail glasses (so many places just stick it in a high-ball glass no matter what kind of cocktail and this just annoys me!) and decorations (slice of apple for the martini and a sugar coated rim for the bellini.

I have (or at least used to have) a ridiculously sweet tooth so opted for dessert while the boyfriend chose the Crunchy Japanese Tiger Prawns as a starter. When it arrives the first thing that amazed me was the size of these prawns! They were huge and looked deliciously juicy! Managed to steal one of them to taste (for the purpose of this blog post of course!) and it was very nice. The dipping sauce that came with it (sweet chilli and lime) was devine but I think the only downfall was that the crispy coating was a bit thick for my liking. However, thumbs up from the both of us there.

For main I ordered the Chargrilled Teriyaki Salmon which came with wasabi & green onion rice and steamed bok choy. Excuse the crap photography I was getting funny looks photographing my meal so I stopped after this one!

Chargrilled Teriyaki Salmon

As you can see, it was beautifully presented and tasted even better! The salmon was grilled to perfection the teriyaki sauce wasn’t too sticky and the rice had the lovely flavour of wasabi without overpowering the rest of the dish… at the end there was a very clean plate!

The same can’t be said of my boyfriends BBQ Chicken & Smoked Cheese Quesadilla’s… the portion was soo huge (6 pieces) that he struggled to finish it even with my help. I was so full from my own main that I could barely eat half of one. They were filled with a good amount of chicken and lots of gooey melted cheese which was great but I personally thought that the cheese overpowered the chicken quite a bit.

Last course was dessert and because my boyfriend hates all things sweet and would much prefer a piece of fruit for dessert I had the Milky Bubble Double Cheesecake all to myself! Pretty much everything you need to know about this dessert is in the name and although I managed to finish the whole portion I think I would have to share it if I had it again! To say this was sweet is an understatement!

The service as a whole was pretty good, as a new restaurant some of the staff need the time to get into the swing of working in a busy restaurant and one or two things could be improved: our drink menu kept being taken away from us which I found annoying – how am I supposed to decide what kind of cocktail I would like to try next if I can’t read the list and I was asked what I wanted for dessert before being given the menu to look at! However, these things will come in time as I’m sure everyone was nervous about the grand launch.

All in all, the evening was fantastic and huge thanks go to all at Giraffe, Aberdeen for the delicious (free!) food and service with a smile. I will definately be back, perhaps to order the Duck Fajita – Burrito that came recommended!