I finally got my side of the office all sorted out, and its lovely! The downside of course is that I have the office chair that the dog likes to sleep on, which means I often end up with a spaniel in the way.
I’ve sorted out most of the house, so its just the bedrooms (apparently I have too many shoes, handbags and clothes…um, no, no I do not.) to go.
I hate moving.

ThreeMobileBuzz are having a competition where you can win a new phone and a new handbag. I like this idea, and I’m not sure I should be telling you all this, because the less peopel that enter, the more chance I have of winning. And I do need new handbags. Visit www.handbagcompetition.co.uk for more info.

On Wednesday, I met Michaela for some food at Nandos after work. I never had Nandos before last week and now I think I love it. A double chicken burger thing was just a bit too much chicken for me.

Tim has decided to make some questions up to ask people, and first up is Julez! She doesn’t like pineapple. I find that odd.

One of the reasons I love Bristol is that people aren’t afraid to wear what they like. I saw this bloke who (to me at least) looks like a cross between the army bloke (Mike, apparently) from Spaced, and the bloke from Mythbusters that has the huge tache and beret. I know, this is why you read my blog – my amazing descriptive skillz.

Becs has given LayTheTable a gorgeous redesign, and with it, has posted this awesome recipe for Pimms No 1 Cupcakes. Mmm. All that buttercream.

On Saturday, I went to Harvey Nicks to see if I could find a nice bottle of whisky for my dad. (I did, but it cost £2000. Um, no. I ended up getting him a portable hard drive and put a load of pictures on it for him.) I was so tempted by this tea set, it was so Alice in Wonderland-y!

For those who were asking last week, my dress that I wore to the Chap was an old wrap dress I wear for work that I bought from Primark. I love it! Apparently, there is a mini Olympiad at Vintage at Goodwood, although  I tried asking them via Twitter and had no response.

I love the window and store decorations they have at Harvey Nicks, and this (incredibly blurry, because I was trying to make out like I was looking at the Shu Uemura eyelashes (ooh they do some pretty ones)) one was one of my favourites. They’re giant rag dolls, wearing outfits from the store. As I came down the escalator, I thought they were Frank Sidebottom heads!

I love how grafitti in this city is used to pretty up any building.

I’ve reinstalled Skype, so for anyone who wants to contact me, or only had my old user name, I can be contacted on hayley.constantine. I know. Its so unusual.

To end with, here is a kittin riding around on a tortoise. AMAZING.

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Firstly, theres the giant screen being constructed in Queens Square just in time to show the World Cup games. As someone who doesn’t really care about football, this one just annoys me more than anything, mostly because it seems I’ll have to find a new way home!

Alternatively, a few minutes walk away, Cabot Circus have put up their own big screen in Quakers Friars, with Wii challenges in the day (sounds epic, bigger than lifesized Wii Sports?) and films in the evening.

So far, we’ve missed The Devil Wears Prada and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit but I’m hoping to see Coco Before Chanel (on the 10th), Confessions of a Shopaholic (11th) and The September Issue (16th)

Of course, what sort of event in Bristol would it be without more Aardman creations? Each weekend, the shorter episodes of Wallace and Gromit are being shown, and then Dr Who will be broadcast. Giant Matt Smith doesn’t hold as much appeal as giant David Tennant, I’ll admit, but it still sounds ace.

Towards the end of the month, Wimbledon will be shown, but if that’s not to your tastes, there’s a green area with giant Jenga to play!

For a full timetable of what’s on, check out the Cabot Circus website.

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Friday was Alex’s (sorry, aka The Boy) birthday, so as part of his celebrations, I took him to Goldbrick House for a meal.

We ate in the restaurant, which was pretty full at half 7. We ordered some wine, and nibbled at the bread while trying to choose from the yum menu. I’d had a head start (I’d been gazing at the menu at work while my colleagues disappeared downstairs to Cosmo for lunch. I may have been sulking slightly that I was missing out on deep fried mushrooms. Still, looking at the menu helped me forget about the MSG overload they were getting)

Eventually, Alex chose one of the starters from the specials menu, which was some sort of pasta parcel (Ha, pass the parcel. Oh shh.) and I did the traditional girl thing of forgoing the starter in preference of a desert. I’d been eyeing up the jelly and ice cream on the menu from their website all day – I was far too excited about having jelly and ice cream for pud pud (Ahem. Pudding.)

For mains, Alex had the rabbit (Rabbit leg stuffed with tapenade, with an olive and potato cake, rocket salad and a light dressing), and I had the chicken (Corn fed chicken breast served with garlic gratin potatoes, honey-roasted parsnips and buttered kale) which was so yum.

It came to pudding time, and I was upset to see that jelly and ice cream wasn’t on that night. Disaster! I chose the vanilla cheesecake with strawberry coulis (mmm, awesome) and Alex chose the chocolate torte, served with blood orange sorbet. The cheesecake was awesome, but Alex found the torte just a little bit too rich. (Hence the discussion about ordering the same desert. He thought it was smug. I thought it was sensible.)

After all that delicious food (and I suppose great company and good conversation ), it was time to pay. For a starter, two mains, two deserts and two glasses of wine (he was driving, I feel guilty if I drink lots when he is sober!), it came to just under £60. (In their latest newsletter, there is a promotion offering 50% off main meals, which is what reminded me to book (with that offer) but for some reason it wasn’t taken off.)

Still, if you’re looking for a different, but elegant meal out, why not give Goldbrick House a try? I’m already looking forward to my next visit!

Website: www.goldbrickhouse.co.uk
Address: 69 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5PB
Phone: 0117 945 1950
Opening Hours:
Cafe/bar Mon – Sat: 9am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Restaurant Mon – Fri:Noon – 11pm , Sat 11am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Champagne/cocktail bar Mon – Thur: Noon – Midnight, Fri & Sat: Noon – 1am, Sun: Closed

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On Monday, I was very lucky enough to be given a ticket to see the ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Hippodrome. The week before, Kate asked via Twitter if any one would be interested in going with her, as she has won two tickets.

We were sat in the grand circle, quite central but just off to the right of the stage, which gave us a great view of the stage. It was the first night, and so the place was pretty full but we didn’t have anyone in the row in front until 10 mins into the first act when a bloke with a head so large it blocked about 20% of my view sat in front. I affectionately nicknamed him “Fat Head” and luckily he moved after the interval.

I had never been to the ballet before so didn’t really know what to expect. For one thing, I didn’t actually know that there was no dialogue, just music and dancing.

The dancing was pretty awesome, but lets face it, if you’re going to watch a ballet by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia, you kinda expect that they’re not going to be completely crap! I have to admit, the costumes were a lot more interesting to me than things like the backdrops. The princess’ wedding outfit reminded me of She-Ra’s costume. And lines like that prove why I’m not a reviewer.

Crackerjack has a proper type review here, and the company touring the country at the moment, so have a look at this page to see if they’re performing near you soon!

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So its nice to have found possibly the greatest Bristol themed Tumblr ever, Fuck Yeah Bristol.

FYB celebrates the awesomeness of this city and its inhabitants both past and present.

Is there something you think should be here that we’re missing? Are you Bristol born-and-bred? Are you one of them art types studying at UWE/Uni of Bristol that would like to share your illustrations/paintings/graffiti/photography? IS YOUR HEARING PERMANENTLY ALTERED BECAUSE YOU’RE IN A LOCAL BAND? Do you have the misfortune to live in one of those “bad areas” Panorama screams about and want to show another side to it? Are you stuck in the snow with only a can of beans and a corkscrew to keep you alive over the next week because Asda Bedmister is really not the greater option?

If so, send us some of your own loveletters to the city via the Submit button at the top of the page. Because a FUCK YEAH! can’t come from 6 people alone.

Theres also Fuck No Bristol! to show the rubbish bits of the city. Unsurprisingly, its not as busy as FYB!

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Next step: becoming a Dame. But only if I get to swan about wearing a crown. Or wear a cape. I’m not too fussy.

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After many months of being put off, the flatmate (Max) and I are moving to a new little house, pretty much around the corner from where we are now. Yay!

Just in time really, as we have been without electric lights on the first floor (main room and bathroom) for about two weeks now. Whilst the novelty of doing things by candlelight was fun, after a few days it just got boring. Bathing by candlelight can be romantic. Showering by candlelight at half 6 in the morning is not. (Have since resorted to a camping stove light, much brighter, but not bright enough!)

As people may remember from last time I moved (was it really last May?!) I am the queen of packing procrastination, however I seem to have excelled myself this time by going to London and Bath over four days. Really? Was that such a good idea? (The sensible answer is no, the happy girl answer is oh hells yeah)

Max has been amazing, and has done most of the packing, taking time off work to move shiz, etc. Honestly don’t know what I would have done without him organising stuff!

I have so much to blog about, not forgetting of course the epic trip to London last week with Zoe. She’s blogged about our trip here, so go read that until I find five minutes to scribble something down!

Finally. Some people say I have too many shoes

Considering I found a pair of shoes (and the matching bag!) in this pile that I wore once in 2006, I’m starting to think they are right.

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Two tops, probably to be worn for work (I am on a real smart clothes kick at the moment, I had forgotten just how much I love dressing up!)

A sequined covered hat. They had these in so many bright colours, but black sequins are easier to wear every day!

Possibly the bargain of the day (and slightly tacky, but who cares) – sparkly fake Converses for the excellent price of £1. The set of three laces next to them were also a pound. I kinda wish I could still wear trainers for work.

This tiara was £3, and although I’ll probably never wear it out of the house, every girl needs to act like a princess now and then. Even if it is just to do the washing up in.

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I know, it’s been a bit quiet around here. That’s partly because I’ve been pretty unwell for a few weeks, but also because I’ve been going out a lot more (please note, I am not complaining about going out.)

Here’s a bit of a post where I almost mention what’s been going on.

Purple Confetti, originally uploaded by Caro’s Lines.

The Good

• Spending many evenings at the Banco Lounge drinking tea. I am tea’d out most nights we go. This makes me quite happy
• A full calendar. I put any event that happens into my Google Calendar, so I can see what I did on a certain date. (This has proven to be useful more than once, and is not just me being very anal)
• Knee high socks and thick thick tights. Keeping my legs all toasty warm, which is always a good thing.
• Being spoilt, just a little bit. Of course, being pampered in Birmingham was awesome, but there’s no way I could do that every week.
• BFF’s. Seeing Helen last weekend was awesome, but made me sad I don’t see her as much I see Louise (aka The Wife). She totally needs to move closer. I love that I can tell those two anything, and whilst they usually mock me, they do answer my trés stupid and/or embarressing questions.
• Mini hot water bottles from Paperchase. Small enough to fit in my work bag, big enough to make my back feel better. And it’s so cute!
• Hocus Pocus. It’s almost Halloween, which means you should curl up on the sofa (with a cup of tea, of course) and watch this film. Also, I’m pretty sure Helen, Zoe and I tried to do the walk after leaving Red last weekend. We weren’t drunk, just…erm…happy. Yeah.

The Bad

• Not keeping up to date. A full calendar means that on the days when I’m not going out after work, I tend to go to bed early. Which means I’m not keeping up to date with my money diary. I have a drawer full of reciepts to decipher
• Things breaking. As I waited for my train last week, I ended up buying a pair of Skullcandy Lowrider headphones. After a 10 minute battle with the packaging (seriously, people were watching me on the platform) I got into them and enjoyed listening to music on the way back to Bristol. Fast forward to Friday morning. I was waiting for the lift at work, and went to take my headphones off. All of a sudden – crack! They had snapped in half right on the band. After a struggle with 3 different employees at HMV, I managed to get a refund, but now I’m really put off Skullcandy and HMV.
• Work. I’m still temping at the same place as before, and whilst I am actually being spoken to now, I’m really not enjoying what I’m doing. My poor little brain is being underused, so I end up overthinking other stuff. Not good.
• Doctors. As mentioned, I’ve been ill. The main things are fatigue, joint aches and headaches. But since all my blood tests (they took 5 or 6 vials, all to test different things!) came back “normal“, the doctors say there’s nothing wrong. Right. Because it’s totally normal for a 26 year old to be so exhausted all the time.

And finally, happy first anniversary to one of my favourite couples, Alec and Suz. Can’t believe its been a year since their awesome wedding in London

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For my other birthday meal, a few of us headed up to Cosmo on the Clifton Triangle. Cosmo opened up at the beginning of the year, but we hadn’t really had the chance to go there before. I’d never been to an “all you can eat” place before, so it was all a little strange to me. You pay the price for the meals at the beginning before you get shown to a table, then pay for drinks when they are brought to your table. Its quite a large restaurant, able to seat over 250 people apparently.

I have never seen so much prepared food just waiting to be eaten! The restaurant has 6 “live cooking stations” (where a chef stands all day and makes a certain food – sounds a bit dull to me!) – a teppanyaki hotplate, yakatori barbecue grill, dim sum bar, wok station, fresh noodle bar and freshly prepared sushi counter.They also had a section for curries, a section of Chinese food and also a counter full of side dish type things (rice, chips and for some reason mini cocktail sausages?) I haven’t even mentioned the desert section yet – a table full of fresh fruit, a bar of lots of mini deserts and of course the chocolate fountain.

The food was quite good, pretty much as you would expect really! The waiting on staff were efficient – perhaps a little too efficient – at clearing the plates from us: some of our party had barely finished by the time they were trying to collect the plates from us! We did have a small problem with getting drinks brought to us where someone forgot to actually send the order to the bar, but it was sorted out in the end.

The prices of the buffet vary depending on when you go, but we went on a Thursday evening which cost £12 each. I probably would go again, but I think it would be somewhere best to go to as a group rather than as a couple.

Website: www.cosmo-restaurant.com
Address: The Pavilion, Triangle West, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1ET
Phone: 0117 934 0999
Opening Hours: Mon – Thur: 12pm – 3pm, 5.30pm – 10.30pm, Fri – Sat: 12pm – 3pm, 5.30pm – 11pm, Sun: 12pm – 10.30pm

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I hadn’t been to ZeroDegrees before, although had sampled their beers at various Bristol festivals and had passed the building many times. Despite this, I was still a little surprised to see that the building does contain the whole brewery! (Why was I surprised, I knew this!) The atmosphere of the restaurant was noisy, unsurprisingly as it seemed to be very popular with large groups. Despite this, the food was brought to us quickly.

The starters were large enough to be main courses, which might be a problem for some people, but since I hadn’t eaten properly since Thursday, it was fine! I had calamari with sweet chilli sauce, which I love but not many restaurants seem to serve!
The main course menu is quite heavily pizza based, with some quite unusual toppings. They say that they “shared a vision of redefining the traditional concept of pizza by translating UK’s favourite flavours and tastes on to a great pizza.” I had a Mango Tandoori Chicken pizza, which was so good, very fruity and not too spicy.
Desert was quite basic, a New York style baked cheesecake with strawberry coulis and ice cream. Yum!

The prices of the food isn’t too bad, about £9 for the pizzas – as with many places, you order the main and thats just what you get – in my case, a large pizza on a plate (that although was really nice, and not burnt or anything, was really difficult to cut with the cutlery provided!) We had debated on getting side orders, but when the mains came out, it was a good thing we didn’t!

The main reason people go to ZeroDegrees is because of the beers they serve. I had a pint of a random French blonde beer that they were currently brewing – when the waiter was telling us the different beers available, he turned his nose up slightly when he said about the French beer. It was a good blonde beer, not too heavy but still quite yummy. Nathan had the IPA, which was a good ale as well. I’ve previously tried the Mango beer that they are serving at the moment which reminded me of Hoegaarden more than the French blonde beer did. ZeroDegrees has certain beers that they serve all year, and then specialty beers that are done for a few months. They have a marvelous animation on the website which fascinated me about how the beer is made (you can see it here)

Overall, the food was good, but its not really the sort of place you would go if you’re looking for an intimate evening. They are able to deal with large parties quite well from what we saw, so book a place if you’re looking for somewhere to go as a large group!

Website: www.zerodegrees.co.uk
Address: 53 Colston Street, Bristol, BS1 5BA
Phone: 0117 925 2706
Opening Hours: Mon–Sat : 12–12, Sun: 12–11

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I thought I’d start off my Bristol reviews thing with the place where I have been the most, and where I take most of my friends. But thats because its SO DAMN GOOD.

Rocotillos is an American diner located at the top of Park Street. Its a tiny tiny place (seating about 30 people?) and serves breakfast until 12pm then burgers, etc till close.

Helen‘s thumb showing how ace the shakes are.
L-R, Banoffee and Chocolate&Hazlenut

However the real reason any of us go to ‘Tillos is because of the nomtastic (and yes, that is a word) milkshakes. The milkshakes are the best I’ve ever had – thick enough for the straw to stand up in the glass, but not too thick so its difficult to drink. The milkshakes can be considered a meal in themselves but that’s not a reason to ignore the menu!

My most recent visit was over the Bank Holiday, we had driven to Bristol to pick up our friends and they had already decided we should go to Rocotillos for lunch since they enjoyed it so much last time they were in Bristol.

I had the chicken quesadilla and my favourite milkshake, chocolate and hazelnut. Nathan had a bowl of chilli with a Crunchie Bar and honey shake and Adam had one of their burgers with fries and a chocolate and hazelnut milkshake as well (When you order a burger at Rocotillos, thats all you get on the plate – a giant, grease dribbling homemade burger in a bun with the typical collection of salad shiz).

The plates were soon cleared, because even if you are getting full, you can’t stop yourself from finishing the meal! These are not meals that have been made more fancy than they really are. These are basic meals which are just really really good.

The prices are quite reasonable – £3.25 sounds a lot of a milkshake, but once you’ve tried one of them, you’ll think its totally worth the price. Meals cost about £7, with sides being extra. Rocotillos probably isn’t a place to go for lunch every day, but its worth it as a special treat every once in a while.

Address: Rocotillos, 1 Queens Row, Triangle South, Bristol. BS8 1EY
Phone: 0117 929 7207
Opening Hours: Mon – Wed: 8am – 5pm, Thur – Sat: 8am – 11pm, Sun: 10am – 5pm (times may vary)

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New Colston Hall foyer

To celebrate the opening of the new and (literally) shiny foyer at Colston Hall, the council have sponsored (erm, I think? Not sure of the right term!) the artist Luke Jerram to place some pianos (the website says 20 will be placed, but only lists 14 at the moment) around this lovely city to be played by anyone! The pianos can also be decorated by passers by, and at the end of the project the pianos will be donated to local schools and community groups.

I really like the idea, its taken place in a few cities around the world (as you can see from the Street Pianos website) but apparently originated when the artist was in a Bedminster laundrette. Apparently he did it as a way to get people together. That is not really something I would think of when doing my laundry. Or indeed, when in Bedminster. (Seriously, Bedminster scares me sometimes. Have you been to Asda on a weekday afternoon?)

Pianos can be found around Bristol until September 28th.

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September has traditionally been my favourite month. Not just because its my birthday month (did I mention its nearly my birthday and I like shiny things?) but because it was always the start of the new school year, and a time to hope that the next 9 months in school wouldn’t be a hellish time. (They usually were until year 11, but thats another story)
It also seems to be the time when we start planning for the new year, and start to relax after a crazy summer. What do you have planned this month?

I’m still recovering myself from this Bank Holiday weekend – I had an awesome weekend with my friends, and haven’t laughed so much in ages! Will post some pictures soon

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Everyone was so excited once we made it into the acutal museum, but we stepped into the main hall and stopped. People infront of us were shuffling along, and it felt like we were back to queueing again! We decided to go into the Natural History exhibit, which is on the left as you walk in through the doors. Someone said that there was a hidden exhibit in there, so we had to look, didn’t we? We found this little guy hiding out with the swans.

On a day trip I think?

This turned into a bit of a treasure hunt, we were trying to find all the of “hidden” exhibits. I think my favourite was the beaver who won a fishing award!

Yay! He won!

While we were queueing for the museum, I was surprised at the amount of people who had brought their SLR’s, and was sure they would be asked not to use them inside. I’m not sure if this is a standard museum thing now, but as long as you didn’t use the flash, the museum was happy for photos to be taken.

This had been turned into a bit of a shrine with church candles in front!

This then brought about another puzzle for me. Whenever I’ve been to museums before, I’ve been used to people getting very up close and personal to the paintings, taking an age to pore over every brush stroke, then moving on to the next painting. Not so at the Banksy exhibit. It seemed that people were just walking up to a painting, taking a quick photo with their camera phone or whatever, and then moving on. It seemed very odd to me! People were more interested in taking their own little piece of Banksy stuff home with them than actually looking at the item in front of them. Whilst he is known for his stencil work, he is actually very talented, with the ability it seems to be able to emulate another style of painting.

Of course this was a favourite of mine!

Eman was very annoyed at one point – there was a large painting of the Houses of Parliament, but instead of human MP’s, it was filled with chimps and the occasional gorilla.Its a massive painting, so we stood in front of it for a little while, noticing little things that most people probably missed. As we moved away from the painting, we heard two girls who were about our age ask “Why are all those monkeys in court?” We had assumed most people knew what the Houses of Parliament looked like!

One of these things is not like the others

I really enjoyed the exhibit – it was also my first time visiting the City Museum (which my friends found surprising until I pointed out that I didn’t grow up in Bristol!) and would recommend it to anyone really! There was a huge variety of people there – from young children to grandparents!

“The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal”

This was next to the Darwin exhibit, the caption was “Here are examples of potential new animals that may evolve on earth”

I loved this, the image was printed onto some mesh metal, so you could see the Union flag behind it.

The animatronics were possibly the biggest attraction – I liked this little bunny who was so busy doing her nails!

Zoe wrote her own account of the weekend which can be found here. It was so nice to finally meet her! (Also to see her husband, who I haven’t seen since we finished uni in 2006!)
My Flickr set can be found here, and Zoe’s can be found here.

The exhibit is on until 31st August, if you can visit it, do! It took us about 2 hours to look around everything, which would leave plenty of time for some Bristol sightseeing – head to Stokes Croft to see some more street art, include some by Banksy (I love the Mild Mild West, it makes me smile every time I see it)

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Post tags: banksy, Bristol, bristol museum, graffiti, street art

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