TMTW: March and April 2022

What happened:
In March we headed to the theatre to see Back to the Future (good fun, but doesn't make my top 10), continued to get the house sorted, I had a work trip to Leeds, we had our first guest stay over, plus we also saw Come From Away at the theatre (excellent; recommend seeing it). 

In April my nephew and his girlfriend came to stay so we did touristy things with them. Well, actually, we mostly hung around in restaurants, bars and pubs whilst they did touristy things! But we did have a look around St Dunstan in the East Church Garden for the first time (pictured below) - I didn't realise it was so close to the Sky Garden. Worth a mooch if you're in the area. 

Was very pleased to have the long Easter weekend - we hosted at ours on the Saturday, then went to Kent on Sunday - but then I was poorly. Booo! Not COVID - well, I didn't test positive, but who actually knows with the numbers right now - but at least it was pretty short-lived and I was well enough to host friends the following weekend at home. The house is coming along awesomely and I LOVE having a garden. Oh, and we also bought a pizza oven, which is AWESOME! (This one.)

At the end of April it was my birthday, so we headed to Bath for three nights. We stayed at the Bath Spa Hotel where we, of course, had treatments (I had the Elemis BIOTEC facial, which was good, but I think the Omorovicza Blue Diamond facial is the best facial out there), but didn't really rate the actual spa part of the hotel. Or the hotel. Felt a bit tired for a 5* hotel, in all honesty. 

But we had a good explore of Bath and went to the Thermae Bath Spa (highly recommend you do this, even though their booking system is a pain as you have to phone up and get stuck on hold for an age), the Roman Baths (fan of the Bill Bryson commentary), Prior Park Landscape Garden (Palladian Bridge FTW) and had a good mooch around the town. Bath is a very hilly place, but it's very pretty. Will write some blog posts... at some point. (Yep, I still also need to do the Ireland and Maldives posts from last year!)

What I ate:
Definitely a lot more eating out these past two months! First up in March was Din Fai Tung, which was excellent. Fave dish was the chilli crab Xiao long bao. In Leeds I had a decent enough burrito from The Mexican Pilgrim, an excellent dinner at Zaap Thai and a yum lunch at Mowgli Street Food (bunny chow FTW). As always, we went all-in at Blacklock, I had a rather excellent lunch at Manny Dartin back in the old 'hood, enjoyed tapas at Gordon Bennett in Surbiton, plus had yum pizza at Rudys in Soho (such good value as well).  

In April: A Dishoom brunch (always the wrestler's naan), dumplings at Baoziin in the Victoria Market Halls, which was a pre-dinner snack as we then headed to Cinnamon Bazaar for our actual dinner (great flavours). We also had lunch at Dumpling Shack (excellent pulled noodles and soup dumplings), a Sri Lankan feast at Hoppers, burgers at MEATliquor (an old favourite), and a yum brunch at The Carpenter's Arms in Tonbridge. Plus I had a Cutter & Squidge birthday cake. 

In Bath we ate at the Boston Tea Party (we overslept and missed breakfast at the hotel so this was an unexpected brunch, but a tasty one!), then we had dinners at Tagine Zhor (a yum Moroccan restaurant), The Hive (beautiful lamb and a dinner with a view), and rather enjoyed the nine-course tasting menu at Menu Gordon Jones with the matching wine flight. Menu Gordon Jones was definitely the highlight and I highly urge you to try and get a table there if you're ever in Bath. Such beautiful flavours.

What I watched:
Finished watching Dopesick. Watched Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (we all want him as our bestie, right?); Physical; Pam & Tommy, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (stopped watching it after two episodes); The Dropout; The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe; Being Bridget Jones; Inside Tiffany's and Severance (so, so good - probably my favourite show of the year!).

Films watched: West Side Story, Liar Liar, Fast and Furious 9, The Adam Project, tick, tick... BOOM!, King Richard, Death on the Nile and The Batman.

What I read: 
In March I read 9 books. Shout-outs go to Dopesick by Beth Macy, Buried in Secret by Viveca Sten and Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter (all 4* reads). 

In April I read 11 books. I also rated The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney, Dune by Frank Herbert, The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard and A Court of Honey and Ash by Shannon Mayer and Kelly St. Clare as 4* reads. 

How have you been? x