Picnic

Today's lunch date with Holly to Picnic on Smithdown Road. It's been open for a while and just haven't got round to trying it. They call it Healthy Fast Food - salad bowls, buddha bowls, pasta, rice, smoothies and juices. It's only small and on the corner with 5 tables. They had a lot of take outs while we were there.

Holly got

Shredfast Bowl - Grilled chicken, no carb (extra kale and sugar snap peas) avocado, broccoli, grilled spinach, kale, pineapple, beetroot & ginger garlic chilli dressing - £11.95

I also got the Shredfast bowl 

Shredfast Bowl - Grilled chicken, special pasta (pasta in tomato sauce), avocado, broccoli, grilled spinach, kale, pineapple, beetroot & ginger garlic chilli dressing - £11.95

I got the sauce on the side which was a smart move as it was spicy and I didn't like it.

The bowl was way too small for all the food. Was struggling to cut the food without it all coming out and going everywhere! Good portion size but the bowl needed to be bigger. The chicken wasn't hot, dry, a bit rubbery and bland - had no seasoning was just grilled - I guess that's their version of healthy but could have done with some salt or pepper. My spinach wasn't grilled was definitely just raw. The food came out quick but think everything is already cooked and just reheated.

The idea is good but the food could definitely have been better - more seasoning and a bigger bowl if you're gonna give me this much food! They do have a good menu and a lot of choice of food.

After we went to Lark Lane. Went to Press Bros - Holly got a cappuccino and I got a matcha latte. We then walked down to Lunko the bakery which has been on the list for ages. They have pastries from The Butterholic and always has a queue because the place is only small. They never used to stock that much stuff and would be sold out before the afternoon but they have upped their stock now so they don't sell out as fast. They had a bit of a queue when we got there.

I got a pistachio croissant which cost me £4.20! Last time I got one from Duke Street Market which was also from The Butterholic cost me £3.50 which I thought was expensive. This was a proper rip off though and I was had off as there was about a teaspoon of pistachio in the middle of it! I was so disappointed by it. It was really dry as well - was not worth the £4.20 at all. The croissants in Lidl bakery are better for less than half the price (sadly they don't do pistachio croissants though!)

Was a nice catch up, shame the food wasn't that good but I've ticked Picnic and Lunko off the list now.

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Carlisi - Allerton

 

Went to Carlisi on Allerton Road for lunch today with Kelly and Danielle. It took us a while to decide where to go and finally settled here. I've only ever been here with Danielle and this happens to be the 3rd time! I've done lunch and then my birthday meal last year.

I got a Matcha Latte - not the best I've had was very milky and pale

Calabrese - Parma ham with smoked mozzarella cheese, sundried tomatoes, aubergines, pistachio pate & fresh basil on focaccia - £8

Arancini con Gamberetti & Pistachio - Deep fried rice ball stuffed with béchamel sauce, pistachio nuts & prawns - £4.50

Never had Arancini before and didn't taste what I thought it would. Considering it's rice didn't taste like rice. It was actually quite bland the béchamel sauce.

I got

Cavatelli alla Norma - Fresh Cavatelli pasta served with sauté Aubergine, garlic & tomato sauce. Topped with grated Sicilian pecorino cheese - £8

Pasta was very al dente but was nice enjoyed it. The small portion is well enough couldn't get the full size.

Danielle

Busiate Carlisi - Traditional Sicilian pasta with garlic, king prawns, white wine, homemade pistachio sauce, topped with burrata cheese & pistachio crumb - £9

Kelly

Pici alla Carbonara - Traditional hand rolled fat spaghetti pasta with traditional Carbonara sauce made with Guanciale, black cracked pepper, pecorino Romano, parmesan cheese & egg yolk - £7

The pasta Danielle got we got last time when we went for my birthday dinner and it was good but I wanted to try something different. I'm sold with anything that is pistachio

Nice lunch catch up!

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Fool Me Once

 

Last summer I got the joys of being PC Jac Kwon and filming on the Netflix crime series Fool Me Once. All the gear and no idea really but it was really fun minus the fact we were filming in the summer and had about 4 layers on! I got to film in Manchester and at Arley Hall in Northwich. It was super fun to film and I got to film with Michelle Keegan again (I filmed with her for the first series of Brassic) met Joanna Lumley who was super nice and shook my hand. Unfortunately the scene I did film with her didn't make the cut!

Ep 4

Same scene Ep 4 

Ep 6

Ep 7

Joanna Lumley

This actually came out on New Years Day but only watched it last week and binged it all in 2 days. Sadly 2 scenes I filmed didn't make the cut but I'm still in 3 episodes. Everyone else had watched it and didn't spot me just because they didn't know where to look but you do now! It was a really good series - the ending wasn't the best but still enjoyed it. I've not filmed for a while and do miss doing it especially when it comes out and watching it all come together.

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Villa

 

The morning after going to Macau mum's mate came to pick us up to go to my mum's cousin's villa. Uncle was meant to take us but then something happened and he couldn't so mum had to find someone who could drive us there.

She brought us breakfast for the journey. Not ideal to eat in the car...

Churn fan but it was good!

We left at 10:30am and it took 3 hours to get to the villa. The villa is huge! Sleeps 16 people - 6 bedrooms. When we got there it wasn't ready for us as my mum's cousin rents it out and the people that stayed previously were absolute tramps and left the place in a state so the house keeper was still there cleaning up. We went out for lunch as we we would have just been in the way.

The food was alright - wasn't great. Wasn't to our taste.

Then we went looking for dirt cars as you could do that but we found a go-karting track. There was a billboard that showed dirt cars. Mum's mate asked this random group of girls and they said they'd just been and gave us an address to go to so we went there. When we got there it was only quad bikes so I said yeah I'll do that but mum insisted that she wanted to get on the back of me and go as well. I knew it was going to be a bad idea and she would hate it. The guy gave me a briefing that was it didn't get to practice. He went out first and I went and followed

We went out and my front right tyre clipped a rock and we tipped over to the left side. Mum was down my ear saying slow down and that I was going too fast. I grazed my elbow and was fine. Mum bruised her side - she thought I squashed my leg but luckily the foot well is open so was fine. I was happy to carry on but mum said no and wanted to claim off their insurance but it was my fault really so they gave us a part refund when she wanted all her money back.

We went back to the villa as it was finally ready and just chilled for a bit

The selling point of these villas is they have water from hot springs - the water is naturally hot so you let it run and wait for it to cool down and it's good for you skin and help to destress. The house keeper cleaned the pool out for us and ran the water so it would have been ready for later on in the night to go in.

There was 3 floors and each room had an en suite and it's own tub in the bathroom or outside on the balcony

Mum and dad had a room and I shared a room with my mum's mate just to save on messing more rooms that we needed to. We went out for dinner at 6:45pm. We weren't even hungry

Food still not great. Then we went to a supermarket just to pick up some bits as I wanted fruit.

When we got back we got in the pool as the water is like 70° so had to let it cool down. The water is that hot it makes you sweat. It's meant to destress you but water really doesn't calm me. 

They have a well that's been dug where the hot spring water comes from and they have a normal cold water tap so the pool can be used as a normal swimming pool. The main pool is huge and so deep. Would take a hours to fill up. I wasn't phased over it so only stayed in it for a bit then got a shower and washed my hair. Went to bed after midnight.

The next morning I should have took my running trainers with me but instead I went for a walk. The estate is tiny so was just walking round in circles to get my steps in. Went out for lunch

Liked this Chinese pancetta with rice

After we went to have a look at the stalls that were along the main road

Actual live chickens.

We then drove back and got back to my grandma's at around 4pm and didn't really do anything else for the rest of the day.

Felt like I was in Spain when I went to this villa. Just didn't feel like I was in China at all as it was in the mountains and my idea of what China is like in my head is never what it's actually like. I think it is a surprise for most people and not what they expect but that's because it's so developed now so is like any other country and the cities are like being in any other city now.

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