Life: The Liverpool Bloggers Ball @ Roxy Ballroom, Liverpool

Life: The Liverpool Bloggers Ball @ Roxy Ballroom, Liverpool

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

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This Sunday just passed, I was lucky enough to have a ticket to the lovely Liverpool Blogger’s Ball and boy, did we have a ball! I’ve been looking forward to this event for absolutely ages and when it finally arrived it definitely didn’t disappoint! The event was hosted at the newly opened Roxy Ballroom on College Lane and I can’t think of a more fitting place, quite frankly! The room was swanky, modern and perfectly suited to an event such as this one.

I was greeted at the door by the ever lovely, ever beautiful Steph and taken over to the little area which was reserved just for us blogging gals! When I arrived there were a fair few fellow bloggers already there (which makes a change from me getting there ridiculously early and sitting on my tod for 10 minutes!) so it was pretty easy to get chatting and make new blogging connections. There were quite a few people that I’d never met before and then some who I’ve met quite a few times at various different events. It was nice to finally put faces to names for some bloggers who I’ve followed for a while now! Steph sorted us all out with drinks: I had a lovely little cocktail which I think was Prosecco and strawberry, but I could be wrong! Either way it tasted absolutely gorgeous and I was pleased as punch! Excuse the pun.

The entire event was set up basically as a networking kind of thing and Steph had invited along a few different businesses for us to have a chat with and pass our details onto! First up there was an amazing chat from David, one of the men behind the ever popular Independent Liverpool website and membership card. David told us how he set up the Independent Liverpool blog as a post-university venture with his childhood best friend, and how the website works to connect the everyday people with independent restaurants, cafés and shops. A great way of ensuring that the local economy keeps growing amidst the alarming number of chain restaurants and giving the public a way of discovering the best of what Liverpool has to offer. The company has since expanded to Sheffield and Birmingham, and I think he mentioned that they’re on the verge of launching in Cardiff and Manchester as well. I had heard of the company before (and used a few of their recommendations when trying to find places to go for brunch) so it was an absolute pleasure to have a chat with David and ask him questions about his future plans. He mentioned that they’d love to one day launch events abroad so that’s obviously a really interesting and riveting plan for the future and it’d be amazing to be a part of something like that!

 There was also a short talk from Gemma at the Button Boutique. The Button Boutique is a lovely little independent business which provides arts and crafts workshops to kids and adults alike, hosts hen parties and baby showers and she also works on upcycling furniture. She’s currently based at REX Concept Store on Bold Street if you want to check out some of her stuff. She also let us know that she’s going to be hosting a show on Channel 4 about upcycling in August, so be sure to check her out on there. We also had a chance to chat to Rachie from Rachie B Designs and the team from Teardrop Designs.

The Roxy Ballroom has pool tables and ping pong for everyone to get stuck into and Steph had organised little tournaments with a bottle of Prosecco and a little goodie bag as prizes for the winners! I’m not competitive in the slightest (promise!) but the thought of winning Prosecco was too much for me to handle and I definitely got a bit carried away with determination to win! In the end the tournaments went on for far too long so we settled things the democratic way: with rock, paper, scissors! Fortunately for me (and probably everyone else) I won!! YAY! As someone who never wins anything, I was mega chuffed and I’m really excited to drink the Prosecco! Some of the girls ordered food whilst we were there as well and it looked absolutely amazing so I definitely think I’ll be back to try that out ASAP!

Thanks so much to Steph for hosting the event and making it wonderful, as usual. I can’t wait for the next one!

Food: Crust, Liverpool Review*

Food: Crust, Liverpool Review*

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

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If there’s one amazing thing about Liverpool (aside from the football teams, the docks, the parks, and the city itself) it’s the cities amazing restaurant scene. New joints seem to be popping up all over the place, left, right and centre and each is as good, if not better, than the last. Crust is one of these places, and boy is it a mighty fine addition to an already impressive list of dining experiences. Bold Street, where the restaurant is homed, is pretty iconic in itself, with a whole streets worth of restaurants, cafés, cute little kitsch stores and bars to get lost in! I’m pretty lucky in the sense that I’ve already eaten at Crust a few times, with my friends, but when I was approached by them asking to come and try out their menu, I definitely jumped right at the opportunity!

It’s fair to say that I’ve never really seen a menu as interesting and original as the one at Crust, and I think that this definitely adds to their appeal and to their inevitable success. My accompanying pal and I were greeted at the door by one of the waiters, Andrea, and he saw to it that we had a nice little table slap bang in the middle of all the action. The restaurant was full to the brim, which I was surprised at because not only was it 6pm on a Thursday night, but Liverpool were playing at Anfield so I (wrongly) presumed that town would be quite quiet as far as the restaurant scene goes. Me being the clumsy old me that I am immediately knocked a knife off the table- Andrea immediately whisked it off the floor and brought me over a nice, clean new one and his excellent customer service spoke volumes from the offset. He made sure that we were comfortable in our drinks choices, explaining about the number of different beers on offer as well as answering all of my questions about the different choices of wine. I went for a classic Cosmopolitan cocktail whilst my friend had a glass of one of the Italian red wines, the Primitivo del Salento. I absolutely can’t stand red wine myself but even I agreed that this one was absolutely delicious, so if you’re a fan of the red stuff definitely give this one a go! We also ordered water for the table and everything arrived as we ordered, incredibly quickly. Staff were super attentive and made sure all our needs were catered to whilst we were waiting, which was absolutely fantastic.

For starters, we decided to order two different ones and share between us (by share, I mean as soon as my friend's food arrived, I instantly decided it looked much better than mine and wanted to try some of theirs. Luckily a good friend meant sharing!) I went for the Prosciutti di Parma, which was a platter of parma ham, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. The portion size was incredibly generous and I wasn’t disappointed by the taste either. The tomatoes were some of the freshest that I’ve ever tasted, the mozzarella was dressed with olive oil and the Parma ham tasted like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I lived in Italy for a four month period a few years ago and had Parma ham, mozzeralla and tomatoes (or often melon) for lunch pretty regularly. I thought I’d tasted the nicest ever Parma ham there, but I was definitely wrong. The stuff they serve at Crust might as well have been gold plated, it tasted that good. My friend went for calamari, which was cooked perfectly, chewy just as it should be, and lightly battered. He did underestimate the “spicy” salsa it was served with and was blown away with the spice but otherwise was pretty chuffed with his choice of dish as well.

Between courses, the guy who runs the joint, Paolo, came over and introduced himself to us which I was really impressed by. You could tell that he has a real, genuine passion for his business and prides himself on the traditional Italian menu with a twist that Crust provides. We asked him about a breakfast menu and he let us know that such a thing does actually exist, so I think we’ll be coming back at some point to try that one out for ourselves! We then ordered our main courses, and unsurprisingly, we both went for pizza. Andrea returned and explained all about the different types of dough that Crust offers, from plain pizza dough to five grain to an incredibly inventive black dough blended with natural vegetable charcoal. Apparently this dough helps with your digestion and detoxes the body! I’m a bit of a bore when it comes to pizza and tend to order the same thing everywhere I go, so I went for the Diavola pizza- spicy salami and mozzarella. Simple, tasty and satisfies me every time. My friend was much more exciting than I was and went for the Italiana: cheese, rocket, cherry tomatoes and Parma ham, on the black dough.

At this point, we were both feeling pretty stuffed. We got the little bit of pizza we had leftover packed up in takeaway boxes, which was fabulous (I enjoyed my lunch the next day!) We were going to order a dessert between the two of us but we spied tiramisu on the menu and decided to get one for the road.

Did I say tiramisu? I meant BIRRAmisu. As in, beer flavoured instead of coffee. Think that’s weird? I got ravioli chocolate. So wrong but my, oh my. It tasted so right. I think I’ll be returning just to taste that sweet dessert again! It tasted like everything that is good about the world and was well worth the stomach cramps I got for the rest of the evening. Dairy probs.

Overall, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the service and the food provided by Crust. Andrea was an absolute star and made sure that everything was perfect for us for the entire evening. I have to say, this was the case on the previous times I’ve been to the restaurant so they’re definitely consistent in their service and were in no way just playing for the review. Thank you to them for the invite, we will definitely be returning soon with our tummies empty and our expectations high!

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Review: David Bowie "Starman" - A Colouring Book*

Review: David Bowie "Starman" - A Colouring Book*

Sunday, 8 May 2016

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Anyone that knows me personally will know that I’m super into rock music. I was brought up listening to classic rock, heavy metal, indie rock, you name it, by my rock-n-roll obsessed dad, and David Bowie was one of the artists he listened to frequently. When I was contacted by Emily at Plexus books about reviewing a David Bowie colouring book, I thought this was the perfect way to share my memories of the man we’ll always know as the Starman.

I listen to Bowie on a regular basis. My football team plays his song “heroes” as a background track for a pre-match video, one of my favourite bands of the last few years has covered one of his songs to an amazing standard (The Struts cover of Rebel Rebel, if you’re intrigued) and I don’t think I’ve ever gone a week without singing along to Space Oddity. This colouring book is a culmination of everything that made up Bowie, with his eccentric outfits depicted in an almost pop art inspired stylised drawing and accompanied by the lyrics that he is famous for penning. It contains a number of beautiful eulogies memorialising the great man, many of them enormous names with person ties to Bowie. I think that this in particular is a beautiful touch and makes the colouring book all the more unique and treasurable.

Each drawing is accompanied with a page full of facts about the era, about the songs and about Bowie himself. It is definitely a perfect present for a fan of Bowie looking to remember him a different, more artistic way. The drawings are simplistic but I believe this is apt: Bowie was a simple man who made artistic decisions, both musically and in the fashionable sense, which made him vibrant. The paper is thick so you can go to town with paints, pastels or markers and recreate the outfits of an era.

RIP Bowie. May the world forever be blessed with the product of your time on Earth- your beautiful music.

What are your memories of Mr Bowie? Let me know in the comments! 

(*The product mentioned in this review was gifted to me, but my opinions remain my own. You can buy the colouring book from amazon here if you so wish.)