Hello Happy Bunny

Thomas Carr at the Olive Room was recently rewarded a Michelin Star for its use of fresh, local ingredients and superb flavours, and it is certainly very popular. I was wanting to try the food here, but the restaurant is currently closed at lunchtimes and closed on my only day off! So…I have been waiting a long time! On their Facebook page last year, they announced they had late cancellations for Christmas lunch, so why not try something different to your usual Christmas fare? When you arrive, it is not what you would expect a Michelin Star restaurant to be like. It is quite a small restaurant, we almost drove past it! Inside there were only two other tables and the owner’s family seated for Christmas lunch. I can’t imagine a lot of people can be seated on a weekend night. The other Michelin restaurant I have visited was Castle Terrace Restaurant in Edinburgh, where the restaurant was huge, grand and the staff professionally trained. The Olive Room resembles a more smaller and cosie

I have never been to a Pizza Express before, despite many people saying that the food is delicious. Last month, I tried it for the first time. We visited on a early Monday evening and sat next to the kitchen. You are able to see the chefs cooking the food. The food is a mix of pizza (obviously) and pasta. I was in the mood for a lasagne. My partner had a mozzarella and tomato pizza with added meat toppings. The desserts are quite big. This is a tiramisu we shared for afterwards. I love the napkins – they are so funny! I was fairly impressed with my first visit, much better than Pizza Hut and Prezzo, related competition in the area. The food is generously sized and tasty, and the service was very knowledgeable and helpful. The price is great value too. From time to time, they hold their own offers – they had a free dessert if you order starter and a main. Before leaving, they gave me a 2 for 1 mains voucher to use in January, so it is easy to save money when you eat here. I

We recently got one of these Gingerbread House DIY sets from Morrisons, which looks very Christmassy. The photo on the box looked very impressive, I doubted I could recreate this look! …And despite my efforts, I could not! I tried my best! Included in the box are the gingerbread, plastic tray, packet of white icing and assorted sweets for decoration. The icing is already pre-made but requires you to massage it for 1 minute to soften it. However, I needed longer than this because the icing was still too hard. The gingerbread house comes in six pieces which are assembled with help of the plastic tray and some icing. This was fairly easy to do! The gingerbread smells delicious that I have to impose some self-control and not eat it… The tricky bit (and messy) was decorating the house. I found icing was difficult to do – sometimes it was too hard to get out of the bag, and sometimes it would not stick to the gingerbread itself! Trying to ice the windows and doors was a nightmar

Lovely Christmas cards, plus some Christmas tea and hot chocolate from  teahouse in Bath keeping me warm and happy this winter!

I started playing Pokemon Sun last month and at first, I thought it wouldn’t be as good as Omega Ruby, which I throughly enjoyed. However, I am really enjoying it! As you progress, the story is so interesting and I like how the trials are so challenging. I found Kiawe and Mallow’s trial particularly tough! At the minute, I am about to take on the new Pokemon league (?). I also found a shiny Absol, which was so difficult to catch. A normal Absol was hard to catch in the first place and it took a great deal of Ultra Balls to catch her!

Recently I tried one of Costa’s Christmas Orange Hot Chocolates at Atlantic Village. I asked for cocoa powder and I got a frog on the top! How … Christmassy? 

May all your Christmas wishes come true! *This is an E-Card I published on my social media. I have updated my Christmas crochet cats so they look more like cats by changing the pattern. Post to come shortly!

You can't have Christmas without a mince pie! (Although I heard that technically it is illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day due to an old law from hundreds of years ago...) I have tried ones from Morrisons (6 for £1) and a box from Marks and Spencers (6 for £1.80). The pastry is lovely and buttery, and the filling has a delicous flavour, still a little sweet for me but perfect with a cup of tea!

Pikachu wishes you a Happy Christmas!

I saw this video ( https://youtu.be/MibvORlt6WQ ) on Youtube when i was looking for Christmas crochet projects and i thought it looked really good! I decided to give it a go, althought i changed the eyes to a different size because of availability. The video seems easy to follow, but my crochet project ending up being too tall! the area around the ears is where it is quite noticeable, as well as the body overall. If I squash it, it looks a little better…or it is resembles more of a bunny than a cat! I think if I was to repeat this again, I would adjust the number of rows. Has anyone else tried this video tutorial? I would be interested to see your results!

On Sunday December 4th, Bideford Quayside was closed for the Christmas Lights Switch On event. Due to work, I wasn’t able to see the lights switch on, but I visited the fair beforehand. It was very cold but that didn’t stop the many visitors from getting into the Christmas spirit! There was an opportunity to have a “steam train” ride around the town and free reindeer antlers and Santa hats were being given away for free! There were lots of rides, hot food stalls and games. We won a teddy! There was also live music playing from the stage. Well known characters, including Batman, Peppa Pig and one crazy looking Pikachu walked around greeting everyone. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a few reindeers! They attracted a big crowd and mostly did some eating. The event closed with some spectacular fireworks from the riverside.

In November, we made another visit to The Pier House. It was a quiet Monday evening so we managed to get a window table. Unfortunately for us, it is winter and dark outside, so we couldn’t enjoy the view! >.< For starters we shared the crab and crayfish fishcakes. This is slightly spicy and is similar to Thai flavours for me. The fishcakes are quite big so it is a good thing that we shared! For my main course, I had the Pork Belly, with an apple compote in the centre, on top of a duck and sausage cassoulet (like a bean stew). This is topped off with a stick of pork crackling. This was delicious – cooked perfectly and lots of flavour. The presentation is beautiful as well. I tried my best but I couldn’t finish it. The portion was too large for me! My partner chose the special Port Ho burger. It comes with onion rings and salad, and we swapped out regular fries for sweet potato fries. For dessert, I had a trio of desserts, which includes chocolate torte, creme brûlée