6 Ideas For Trying New Things!

Okay, Valentine’s Day has been and gone and whether or not it is something you celebrate, there are 364 other days to be romantic, try something new or just show some appreciation to your better half letting them know you care. We don't go overboard with Valentines Day, a card might be exchanged and it might not even have Valentines theme (read, it never has a Valentine's theme), but it is the thought that counts right?

There are many things you can and possibly should do to show your partner you do care, appreciate all that they do for you and well...does there really need to be a reason? Pinterest is one of those apps that I am obsessed with, it gives me ideas for trying new food, buying new t-shirts and here are a few ideas I thought I would share:

Explore Another Culture -  Most people have a bit of wanderlust and curiosity about other cultures and places and this is one of the easiest things to do and share with each other. It can be as simple as ordering takeaway or delivery, tickets for a surprise weekend getaway, or a visit to a museum. 

Image Credit - Hungry House

You can even combine different elements, like having Indian takeaway delivered to the museum with a current Indian exhibit

Be a Tourist - It is almost universal that people who live in an area rarely visit their area’s tourist attractions. So you could throw yourselves wholeheartedly into the tourist role including taking several hundred “couples” pictures to share on Instagram or other sites.

Go to the Dog Park - A recent Reuter’s poll found that a majority of people preferred to be with their pets than with humans, including their romantic partners. You score double points because your partner has fun with their pet with the added bonus of interacting with other pets and the dog gets a fun day out as well. 

Volunteer - Let’s be honest. Being in a relationship with someone who accepts you even with your faults and shortcomings makes you more fortunate than a lot of people on earth. Finding a cause or a group you both support is a great way to share your good fortune. From homeless shelters, food kitchens, animal rescue groups, to environmental groups volunteer organisations not only need, but will welcome your help. 

Do Something you Really Dislike - In every relationship one partner inevitably likes something that the other really dislikes. 

Image Credit - Phantom of the Opera

Make this about your partner and give it a try. Your partner likes roller blading through the park – grab a pair of skates. Ballroom dancing? Get out your suit and tie. Opera? As long as you aren’t sitting through the entire Ring cycle, a night at the opera can actually be a pleasant experience. 

I would love to know what kind of activities you get up to with your better half, do you save your appreciation for 14th February or do you show your gratitude and thanks throughout the year?

*Collaborative Post

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Hawes & Curtis - Quintessentially British

Hawes & Curtis, well they are a luxury shirt maker founded in 1913 based on Jermyn Street, London. Since being founded they have expanded from everything tailored and exclusive to a range of clothing for the man (and women with their range) who wants to look stylish no matter what the occasion.

You can read more about the history of the company over at the Hawes & Curtis website, but this is what they say about themselves:

‘Hawes & Curtis was founded by two accomplished outfitters, Ralph Hawes and George Frederick Curtis, who opened the first store at 24 Piccadilly Arcade in February 1913. From the beginning the heritage brand has been acclaimed by aristocracy and Hollywood's elite. Notable customers have included the Duke of Windsor, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Lord Mountbatten, Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire.’

I was lucky enough to be approached by the company to see if there was anything in their new ranges that I would like to try and style. I opted for two shirts, the first casual and the second to go with a suit on the unlikely event that I would be thrust into a formal setting.

The first shirt can be found at the Hawes & Curtis site here:

It’s the men’s blue and white medium check classic fit linen shirt. I opted for large and it is rather large on me, in fact my frame must have shrunk quite considerably! This shirt normally sells for £49.50, £34.50 in the current sale or for £25 if you buy four men’s shirts (at the same time). 

This is how's I styled it (said in a bit of a country bumpkin voice).

The second shirt can be found on the Hawes & Curtis site here:

It’s the men’s lilac and white dogstooth check tailored fit shirt with a double cuff. This shirt has something of a silk feel to it despite being made out of cotton and sells for £49.50 normally, £34.50 in the current sale or for £25 if you buy four men’s shirts (at the same time). 

I think I managed to pull it off, despite not wearing a suit properly in over a year! 

These aren't cheap, although you can pick up bargains as part of their multi-buy deals. That said, the quality of the shirts, the comfort and ease to wash and iron (yes, that is a consideration) they are well worth the outlay. If these last even half as long as my other tailored shirts then I would be happy to pay upwards of £50 for just one. I was surprised at how comfortable the casual shirt was, how the material let my skin breathe despite the exotic London temperatures and generally left me feeling at ease as everyone else around me melted. The formal shirt was equally as good and even with the suit jacket on I didn't feel overly hot or sweaty. Excellent chaps, excellent.

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Red’s True Barbecue - Shoreditch

Since our beloved neighbours (read crappy café downstairs) started having ‘jazz’ nights on a Saturday the other half and I have been wandering around central London discovering new places to eat. After being turned away from Dishoom in King’s Cross for the second time (a three hour wait for a curry - er, no, not on any night of the week, not ever) we ended up in Pizza Union (amazing selection of pizzas, taste great, arrive quickly and really cheap). Sensing that I was irate (not like me at all - cough) BeautyqueenUK decided to find something to cheer me up, and did so by booking a table at Red’s True Barbecue in Shoreditch for the following Saturday. 

Sat in Pizza Union I was shown a few pictures on social media, gave the menu a cursory glance and grunted some form of approval (I really wanted a curry that night). Step forward a week and torrential rain and we made our way through the streets of Shoreditch, dodged the hipsters and trendy folk and walked into the church of meat - and so it came to pass that I renounced my religion and dedicated myself to one true god, Red, and his barbecue.

As soon as we walked through the door the sweet smell of the BBQ hit me and my stomach immediately said “you are supposed to be avoiding red meat” as my brain shouted “eat everything, everything, you are so hungry you need to eat for twelve“. I nearly started drooling before we had even been seated - now that is a half decent first impression to give off. 

We were greeted and shown to our table really quickly but once seated the waiter took his time to explain how everything worked (not rocket science, but nice to be talked through when you first visit) and we were then handed a copy of the good book (the menu) each to have a look at. 

A quick glance over the good book before trying to order everything

I opted for a bespoke tray of meat, choosing from the range of brisket, ribs, burnt ends, pulled pork, chicken and sausage. Yes, I initially had decided that I would try everything but after attempting to order it, and getting a strange look from our waiter he crouched down and quietly asked me how hungry I really was. In his opinion I had ordered far too much and suggested maybe three types of meat rather than EVERYTHING. He did this without making me feel a bit special (sir, I applaud you, thank you) and so I opted for Red's Pulled Pork, Smoked Sticky Chicken and Burnt Ends (brisket). 

Rachel opted for the Juicy Lucifer burger (£13.50). In her own words “I’ve died and gone to heaven”…..(just look at the pictures of it, I start drooling when I remember how it looked and smelt).

As we waited for the food to arrive, which didn’t take that long at all (five to ten minutes) I couldn’t help but indulge in a bit of people spotting which quickly turned into people eating watching. I strangely resembled a poor kid staring through the window of a high end chocolate shop - every dish that came from the kitchen looked amazing and combined with the funky atmosphere, music and neon I believed I had found my church.

As soon as the tray of meat was placed in front of me I knew the waiter had been right - there is no way on Earth I would have been able to take on everything. The tray was packed with meat (see the picture), the fries were plentiful and the onion rings were crispy and to die for. 

This is my bespoke tray of meaty goodness

So the meat - is it all it’s cracked up to be? Hell yeah. The burnt ends (£9.50) were crispy and were packed with smoky flavour. A touch of one of the many sauces on offer and they were devoured quickly. At only one stage did I look up from eating to catch a glimpse of Rachel’s burger (it looked AMAZING).

Rachel had the Juicy Lucifer burger

Red’s pulled pork (£5.50 with the bespoke tray) wasn’t fatty in the slightest (one reservation I have when ordering - I hate fat on meat, in fact my parents used to say that I had a future career in surgery the way I dissected meat at the dinner table) and melted in my mouth. I could have sat and eaten this all night, every night for a year and not gotten bored of it. Again, with a touch of sauce, a few fries and onion rings this blended and had me pushing on for more. By the time it came to the half of chicken I was starting to wane (much to my shame - oh look I’m rhyming again).

The ¼ smoked sticky chicken (£5.95) was by far the best I have tasted from a BBQ ever (sorry Red Dog Saloon, yours was great, but this is unworldly good). Quarter of a chicken by the time I came to eating it was too much but oh boy does it have flavour. Not only is the coating a lovely sweet and rich explosion of flavour, the meat itself was juicy and succulent. Even though stuffed to the gills I forced it all down while ordering a hard shake (in a fit of madness). 

I simply couldn’t finish the fries I had ordered and when the waiter came back to clear the table I could see the look (not in a smug way) in his eye that said “I told you so” and I was so, so grateful he had intervened at the ordering stage. 

Beaten but stuffed

Apart from the woman sat on the table next to us (think Vicky Pollard on speed) who was sooooooo loud and rather thick (she was asking what kind of animals the meat came from) the entire experience was immense. The hard shake (chocolate & salted caramel) came in a milk bottle and it was again full of flavour - rather than being just ice cream with a shot of booze you could taste the malt with the Wild Turkey Honey shot as more of an undertone which made drinking it far, far too easy. 

The bill came in at just under £65 for what was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in London. When I go again I’m going to make sure I’m prepped for a mammoth eating session, take my time (we were in, served, fed and out the door again within an hour - at no point did we feel rushed by the staff) and really savour the atmosphere, the smells and most of all the meats. 

If I had to summarise my visit - epic.

As Jesus said to John the Baptist, "pass the salt mate and don’t be so tight with the ribs….”

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As I have said, we visited the Shoreditch branch of Red’s but they are all over the place so there is no excuse not to visit and possible convert to the one true religion - meat. I would also point out that we visited Red’s to see what it was like, they didn’t know we were coming and we received no payment or gratis food for this review. So, 100% no bias here folks.

To find your local Red’s place of worship just click here:

If you want to drool, just look at the #lettherebemeat hash tag on Instagram.

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Ted's Grooming Room - #TedonTheStrand

If you read this blog on a regular basis you will possibly have seen back in October of last year that I had a grooming changing experience thanks to those lovely people at Ted's Grooming Room after visiting their Holborn Branch. Fast forward to a wet evening in March and after being invited to the launch of their tenth store just off The Strand in central London I had the chance to once again be pampered and groomed.

The new store is located at 19 Lancaster Place, Charing Cross, London, WC2E 7EN and opened for business on 10 March. 

Offering a walk in service like the other Ted's Grooming Rooms this one has a television theme (it being located close to former BBC offices). For those not familiar with the offer from Ted, this is what they say about themselves here:

‘Ted might be a colourful character, but he has always been struck by the stars of the silver screen. Ted's Lancaster Place Grooming Room is a stone's throw away from the original home of the BBC, and is inspired by the dapper dandies of television's golden era. The slick suits and razor sharp side partings of those bygone years may seem remote but one thing's for sure; a visit to Lancaster Place will have you ready to step out onto any red carpet.’

So, after being invited to attend for a complimentary treatment my trusty sidekick (sorry Ben) and I ventured through the pavement hordes of tourists and made it to be greeted by the lovely Clodagh. 

Knowing that I would be attending I decided to offer up something of a challenge and left my beard for five weeks (the brow had been left for months). This left me looking frankly awful in the old face department and in need of some serious grooming treatments. Originally I opted for the Full Ted, but with a busy press day and with time quite limited I instead took the advice of my barber and had my hair tidied up around the back followed by a beard trim. After that had been done I then sat back, gritted my teeth and had the bushy brow (there was only one brow as it had joined again) threaded.

The pictures speak louder than words. I basically hated the way I looked before I entered and within 45 minutes I had been transformed and looked (in my opinion) highly respectable and dare I say it, much sharper. Hey, maybe even a little dapper!

Considering that my hair had only been tidied, after styling (without what looked like minimal effort) it actually looked like I had new hair. It was awesome, I just wish I could style it like this as easily as my barber did it!

This is my second visit to a Ted’s Grooming Room and on the night it was nice to see so many faces that were familiar, including T who was the first person to ever rip my eyebrows from my face. Far from being a pretentious barber that costs the Earth and treat you like a cash cow you can have a laugh and joke with the barbers and best of all, leave looking and feeling like a million dollars. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As an aside, nobody told me that threading hurts a lot more the second time you have it done! 

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Hanz de Fuko Gel Triq Extreme Hold

So many jokes with this product, particularly if you take it’s full name into account – "you can turn some ‘triqs’ with Hanz de Fuko" – boom boom! No, seriously, today and forever more (the Internet never forgets a wise man once told me) every time I apply this I pull my tee over my head and pretend that I‘m either Beavis or Butthead (of early 1990s MTV fame) crying out that they are the great buttholio!

Anyhow, I’m going off on one before I’ve even said what I’m going to be reviewing today – which is Hanz de Fuko Triq Extreme Hold Gel, which came as part of the beauty bag I lightly reviewed back in July here. Now, when I first wrote my review of the bag in July I hadn’t tried this so when I did finally get around to it I was shocked – especially when I saw that it was £14 for just 118ml of the stuff!

Dexter keeping guard over the gel.....

This is what they say about the gel over on the Selfridges website here:

‘Hanz de Fuko's Gel Triq extreme hold gel is perfect for short dramatic styles or for total control over longer hair for the entire day. It dries quickly, won't flake and leaves hair with a high-shine finish. A little goes a long way.’

Having never used (or heard of) this before I was expecting the usual 99p crap that you can find as a filler for any blokes beauty bag, but boy have I been shocked, and this is why……

While it does have the consistency of the 99p gel that you could find in a corner shop that is where the similarity ends – it is thick when it leaves the tube, reassuringly so in fact, so that when applied to dry hair it means you can instantly style. Apply it to damp hair and while it takes a few minutes, run your palm through three or four times and it starts to set, and set it does, like glue, no, like cement.

To the touch it isn't the greatest – personally I hate my hair feeling crispy to the touch, but if you read on you’ll understand why I tolerate it. After a weekend in Manchester with no rain (I know, that never happened in the 24 years I lived here) on the Tuesday (this Tuesday) the heavens opened and the rain came in sideways it was so hard. Now, my hair was spiked, and after a good twenty minute walk in the rain, a quick dog like shake outside my hotel door and lo and behold, the style has not altered one jot. Even better (and something that happens a lot with hair styling products) it hadn’t run down my face leaving it all sticky – happy days.

Pretty impressed that despite the monsoon rains the spikes remain....

When using in non-monsoon conditions (read London, rather than Manchester) this keeps short and spiky styles erect and looking good (with a wet look) for a good ten hours. In fact, I applied this at seven thirty on Monday morning and after waking on Tuesday morning my hair looked exactly the same – yes it had lost the wet look and had a matte finish but the spikes where still rock hard and stood up straight like a guardsman outside Buckingham Palace – excellent.

This isn’t cheap stuff, but for the fact that has the longevity of Tom Jones (if you don’t know who Tom Jones is, then please stop reading my blog) I can’t help but recommend it. Personally I find it has excellent hold, but for the price I prefer Osmo Clay – it does the same thing, in the same conditions for half the price. If you really don’t care about cost then go ahead.

I recommend this stuff, but purely down to the fact that it does what it says on the tube (not tin, sorry Cuprinol) and for that it cannot be faulted. Want a hair gel that will give you an extreme style? This’ll do the triq!

RECOMMENDED

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The Fable Bar - Holborn Viaduct

Let me tell you a story…..

I’m a big fan of bars opened by Drake & Morgan. I instantly fell in love with the décor and cocktails on offer at The Refinery, and was dazzled by the food and cocktails at The Drift Bar, so when I was asked if I would like to try the brunch menu at The Fable Bar I immediately thought “this could look like a romantic gesture” and arranged to pop along to the bar with the other half on a lovely sunny Sunday (she cottoned on that it wasn’t a hopelessly romantic gesture very quickly!). 

Based in Farringdon just on the outskirts of the city, The Fable bar sits over three floors and is situation right next to the stunning Holborn Viaduct. Every Drake & Morgan establishment has a theme, and at The Fable Bar it is literary - there are famous quotations everywhere you look, a cool booth made out of stacked books and on the second floor an enormous bookcase. 

This is what Drake & Morgan say about the bar…..

"Once upon a time in a land far, far away The Fable Bar was created for the Drake & Morgan collection. 

Inspired by the fantasy world of fairy tales, the fabulous fables of Aesop & influences from around the globe, it is a bar & restaurant out of the ordinary, where every detail tells a story. A veritable jewel box brimming with unexpected surprises, The Fable offers seasonal food & sensational cocktails alongside bespoke events, fascinating masterclasses & unique customised experiences.

From a writing desk complete with vintage typewriter to the wine shop & florist, ‘Bottles & Blooms’ & the library lined with leather bound story books sourced from vintage markets across the country, expect to be entranced & enthralled".

When we arrived the bar was quite quiet (something I like, so I can hear what people are saying) and the music was at just the right level - after being seated I opted to start with green tea before moving onto a cheeky cocktail, opting for an original Mojito while Rachel went with a passion fruit Mojito. Both were stunning (as I have come to expect from D&M), mine was packed with mint and it packed a punch, they certainly hadn’t been shy with the rum! Now that’s a way to start the day!

The food menu is awesome and there really is something for everyone, but after taking a peek at the menu online before setting off I knew what I was going to be having, and I plumped for the salt and pepper calamari/squid for a starter and the roast beef for my main.

The squid was crispy and well cooked - with a touch of lemon to season the rich batter this had me worried that I would be able to finish my main. The plate was rammed, and as a nice touch there were tentacles so like a child I could wave them in Rachel’s face while making strange noises. It’s the little things that amuse me!

Rachel’s starter looked amazing - she went for a scotch egg with piccalilli. She said that the egg was perfectly cooked and perfectly runny and the piccalilli was spicy enough not to overpower and dominate the taste, but give enough kick that there was a gentle heat. There you go (ripped off directly from her thoughts on brunch).   

For her main she went with a Wagyu Burger served with a blue cheese dressing with a rich tomato chutney. The burger also came with a portion of Cowboy fries which are drizzled in honey, chilli and garlic. I didn‘t like the sound of these but only managed to get to try one before she demolished them. 

As my dish was served my first thoughts were “where’s the beef”, it looked like a bit of a tight fisted portion at first, but then all of the other components of the dish arrived and I immediately thought “oh, sh*t, how am I going to eat all of this”.

The beef was actually just the right amount and cooked to perfection - mine was slightly rare and tender. It was easy to cut, not a hint of sinew and it just melted in the mouth. The vegetables were crunchy, the gravy lovely and rich. Everything had a full flavour and these blended with the honey coating on the carrots to create an absolute taste sensation. I have to confess, I couldn’t eat it all and even worse, I was so stuffed I couldn’t fit in one of the awesome sounding puddings. Instead I went for a pudding cocktail! 

Rachel went with a Tipsy Affogato with vanilla ice-cream, Amaretto and Kahula with a side helping of espresso while I had a Raspberry ripple which is a mixture of Johnny Walker Black, Drambuie and Honey Liquor was topped off with Raspberries and Cream. Holy Jesus! This starts off as a nice creamy number before boom - the Johnny Walker is almost hidden until the end, and as you work your way through you hit a bed of raspberries - it’s sweet, then strong, then sweet again, all topped off with rich cream. It is like a course in itself! 

The food and cocktails at The Fable Bar are out of this world - I have been back since and can’t get enough of those pudding cocktails. This is the perfect place to drop in and read a book over a pint, come for dinner in the evening or just for a bite to eat during the day. It’s clean, the staff are incredibly friendly and the dishes are reasonably priced while the meat is sourced from local butchers. 

The Fable Bar has everything.

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