The end of 2012 has come already and I know everyone says this every year but this year has been the quickest in my life.

We have done so much this year, I can’t believe we fitted in so much and looking back I’m surprised we had the time. So here is the run down of 2012, mainly for my own addled mind to look back and smile but also as a nice way to end the year and to see what there is to look forward to in 2013.

Let’s start at the beginning, January, with a holiday to Blackpool. That was certainly an interesting one with visits to its famous landmarks and sights as well as it unadvertised run down appearance. I would love to go again during the summer and visit the ballroom (as well as the punk festival) but a day would definitely do it.

Then there was our second and so far last visit to Eastbourne before heading on up to London for the double birthday weekend which ended up being so busy as we tried to fit in too many visits to see too many people in far too short a time, however we got to celebrate our 1st anniversary at the SG prom where we met which was all good with me.

Then we moved onto February. We kicked it off coming back from London to celebrate our anniversary in Edinburgh with a visit to The Plumed Horse, a small Michelin star resteraunt hidden in Leith which was absolutely beautiful. This was then followed up the next day with afternoon tea at Dalhousie Castle thanks to a leaving present from a friend. The theme of afternoon teas appears a lot in 2012.

Heading into March we started with the Anti-nowhere league which made me a very happy bunny indeed and ended with another trip to London and April was equally as quiet with gigs galore and heading to Prague on the 30th.

May kicked off in Prague which is a beautiful place however the people are so utterly rude… and I’m from the south of England, I know rude! We also got to see two of our lovely friends get married in Leeds which gave us the perfect excuse to catch up with everyone and have a fantastic weekend away.

In June we jetted off again, this time to Belgium. Starting off in Ghent before heading to Paris, back up to Brussels to meet our own personal tour guides for the last few days. It was also 1 whole year of living in Edinburgh… while we were away! Perfect timing!

After a long long wait friends fro the south finally made it up to visit in July which gave me the perfect excuse to treck them around Edinburgh to see how much of a beautiful city it is, we also buggered off to London… again.

August being a rather hectic month in Edinburgh we stayed put for once… well all bar an overnight trip to Durham and instead had lots of lovely people visit for the festival and yet another excuse to all catch up.
 
September was a bit of a disaster with a friend visiting before she flew back to America only to be sick her whole visit. Wish we could have showed her more of the city she came to visit however the taped Military Tattoo also worked for a bit of Scottish culture.

October we were off again, this time to Wales, we even visited Port Merion! and ended the month yet again down in London… we seem to go there a lot.

November started off with milkshake and nacho day, aka two years since my first visit to Edinburgh. A fine tradition which means we absolutely must go and have nachos and milkshake. Later in the month we went back to Leeds for Thought Bubble and to say farewell to our friends who were moving to America.

Last but not least December where we well and truly did stay put for once, we didn’t even leave Edinburgh! Well ok a brief trip to Musselburgh to the panto but that hardly counts.

All in all now I have sat here and looked through the calendar and seen exactly what we have done this year we have done a hell of a lot… and fingers crossed that continues. 2013 is going to begin with yet another jaunt to London followed by our big holiday in Japan that we have been going on about for a long time now and that’s just the first two months.

So here is hoping that 2013 will be an equally epic year, I’m sure it will be and as soppy as it sounds, as long as i get to spend it with Leo I’m gonna be a very happy bunny.

We have been to the museum of modern art a couple of times but never to the second one, let alone visiting their café so this was a lovely surprise.

Their afternoon tea was different and a bit more Scottish than others we have had. Starting at the bottom we had sandwiches as normal however with the addition of Scottish smoked salmon pate, and oat cakes topped with cream cheese and roasted peppers and tomatoes. The oat cakes were so delicious its now something that I make at home for packed lunches.

Layer two had your home made scones with cream and jam. You only got one each sadly but they were nice none the less.

Finally at the top you get your cakes. In this case however there was enough to take home too! You got a slice of carrot cake each, a slice of flapjack and a very heavy slice of truffle brownie (this was the part that was taken home as it alone was enough for a desert)

Its very nice indeed as a little treat when visiting the gallery and is even worth the walk out as it is a beautiful trip up the water of Leith to get there. Very much recommended.

Pics frm a recent shoot with Kayan

I never realised what a tiny little book and story this is until I picked up a copy on our jaunt to Durham.

Its a very short story which always appeals to me as I can get it read on the bus to work and back without getting half way though and forgetting how it started.

Its a very well known story and I was expecting it to be completely different. It is written from the point of view of a friend of Dr Jekyll rather than Dr Jekyll himself as I was expecting. Its a strange story but in a good way and really tells the story from an interesting angle. Given that it is such a well known story and you need not read the book to know how it ends this approach makes the story still quite new and interesting and quite clever.

Now to move onto some other classics, maybe Dracula?

Building site that is 1 princes street from the back (Taken with Instagram)

It may be me, it may be that we have been spoilt recently with really amazing afternoon teas and that made this one was easily one of the worst in comparison.

So you go into the place and it is one of these hotels that has tried to drag itself out of the 70’s style by slapping on some bright colours however it has made it look worse. So we arrive and get handed a menu for the afternoon tea. Its simple to say the least with a short list of what you get on your cake stand and some sandwiches to choose from. So you pick that, choose tea or coffee (no choice of tea, but a good old pot of builders tea… oh dear) and then you await your ‘afternoon tea’.

So it arrived and bore no resemblance to the menu at all, the promise of Victoria sponge, fruit cake and other lovelies came as a blatantly bought in caramel shortcake slice, iced cream slice and what looked like a plain vanilla cupcake cut in half with some cream and jam thrown in for good measure.

Now to the sandwiches, you can’t really get them wrong can you? Well when they are on bought in cheap pre sliced white bread… they were ok but again slightly disappointing as no real effort was put into it.

Finally the real test, scones! So simple to make and they can really make or break an afternoon tea if the rest isn’t anything special… well we are once again back to bought in rubbish (I am sure I recognise them as the cheap ones Sainsbury’s do) and you only got one each! Delicately placed next to them was a pile of dried out old tablet and a rather sorry looking strawberry.

It really was disappointing and a lot of it was left over as it wasn’t very nice. I think we will stick to the Caledonian and the Balmoral… they have really set a high bar for afternoon tea!

This is a little wine bar out near Fountain Bridge in a previously unvisited area (well for me anyway) and its turns out to be right on a canal which impressed me greatly.

The place itself is very modern looking and I have to mention their Scottish wall paper depicting famous landmarks with yobs, traffic cones etc… all in a rather fashionable retro print. That appealed to me anyway!

So the afternoon tea, it was nothing particularly amazing neither was it awful… its one of the in the middle, was enjoyable enough ones.

Lets start from the bottom, so you get your sandwiches, ham and rocket along side some slightly toasted plain bread with an olive oil/balsamic vinegar dip alongside more rocket (there was a LOT of rocket involved in the bottoms)

In the middle you have your bog standard bought in scones, a quarter of a shop bought Victoria sponge and some coconut macaroons. Nothing special but it was nice to have a bit of variety and was all very tasty.

Last but not least up top we had mini slices of flapjack, caramel shortcake, brownie and your jam and cream… once again all bought in (and with that light whipped cream not proper cream… that’s just not on!) but all very nice and with a good selection.

Like I say not the best not the worst but very pleasant and enjoyable none the less.

Prague

30th of April - 4th of May 2012

Day excursion from Prage to Kutna Hora to visit the Sedlec Ossuary aka The Bone Church

April 30th to May 4th 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

http://www.soane.org/

When we last visited London and were recommended The Huntarian Museum which was amazing, however we were also recommended this little house opposite which was the home of Sir John Soane. At the time I had no idea who he was but was sold on ‘it’s this guys house that’s full of amazing random stuff’.

So it turns out that Sir John Soane is a little known architect who worked on this small road you may of heard of… Regent Street and his house was left to the public when he died on the condition that it was turned into a museum.

Only two floors have been renovated and are currently open to the public with the further floors being worked on at present, and what an amazing house it is!

It is filled to the brim with artefacts, pictures, statues, marble carvings, bits of long gone buildings and a huge stone sarcophagus in the basement (I have no idea how you would even go about getting it in the building let alone in the basement!) There is a new section on architecture with modern information however one of the rom currently being renovated sounds even more interesting… a room filled with miniatures… its going to be a while before its open but we will be going back for that.

I really cant even begin to list the contents of this place let alone claim I saw everything there was to see, however would love to go back and would highly recommend it for a leisurely afternoon of museum wandering.