Lifestyle Monthly Round Ups Newcastle Travel

March Round Up…

First of all – anyone been caught by April fools yet?! This year is going at one million miles an hour, but I’m quite glad because yay for Spring and light nights and fun stuff I have planned! Also yay for summer clothes being in the shops and it being acceptable to have a drink every night because that’s what beer gardens are for.

 

Covent Garden flowers

 

The first week of March I went to Marketing Week in London, and learned about all sorts of social media trends, influencer and blogger campaigns, the future of Instagram, type stuff. I actually really enjoyed it and it was a lot more relevant and interesting than last years.

As always when I’m down in London I use the early mornings and evenings to see parts of it, or explore locally wherever I’m staying. I had some very nice sushi on Earls Court Road, and also discovered that just off the high street are some of the cutest little houses and back streets. The houses were perfect for the start of spring, and a lot of them looked like Battenberg cakes or Easter eggs. Highly attractive.

 

Notting Hill

 

One morning I got the tube two stops to Notting Hill, like I did last year but I had the sole mission to find Portobello Road. It was too early for the market, which was a shame but I actually really enjoyed walking along before it got busy and touristy. You can read all about it in my Portobello Road post here.

 

Portobello Road

 

Early on in March I also went with a big group of my friends and partners up to Edinburgh to celebrate three birthdays. Vickie, Beth and Amanda have all joined the 30 club and we spent the weekend doing loads of different activities. We tried out an escape room, which was a lot of fun, watched England beat Scotland in a local pub which went from nerve wracking to a lot of fun pretty quickly (sorry Scots).

 

Edinburgh

 

On the Saturday night we went to a comedy qclub, which was a mix of very funny and also very disgusting, with a stag throwing up mid show! We had a cracking night out and found a club that had a floor for every type of music going. I enjoyed a very delicious Scottish breakfast at The Scottish Cafe the following day as well. It was a great weekend for all of us and there’s just one left to turn 30!

 

The Scottish cafe

 

From that point I was definitely been back on the drink this month! From birthday celebrations to Mother’s Day, the races…there’s been something every week. It prompted me to reminisce on my favourite cocktails ever, and so my post covering the best of the best and where to find them emerged. I still can’t get past the aqua pina colada at the Wynn in Vegas.

 

Favourite Cocktails

 

I’ve done a few Insta photo posts, covering Valencia, a fabulous Spring city break I enjoyed a while ago around this time of year, and after my jaunt down Portobello Road I also did one on famous streets.

I finished all my Mexico posts from our trip in September as well. I did a Dreams Tulum restaurants review, a packing guide for 15 essentials you need to pack, and a favourite Tulum Insta photos post too. I really loved writing all these, it was such an amazing holiday and I’m glad I waited to write all the posts properly and do them justice. It paid off as the series earned me a sponsorship, which was a very nice surprise. Who ever said bloggers can’t earn money?!

 

Seaside Grill Dreams Tulum

 

Speaking of rounding of past trips, I also wrote a couple more on Paris, mainly dinner at my favourite restaurant Flottes. I think I’ve ate at Flottes every single time I’ve been. That French onion soup keeps bringing me back. Writing about Paris at this time of year reminded me of a spring trip I did with the fam in 2014. It was so pretty, so I’ve also shared a post on why I love Paris in spring.

 

Paris in Spring

 

I had a few people ask me about LA recently, so I’ve finally got round to writing up a hefty 3 day itinerary of what we got up to. I loved some of the things we did there so expect some more detailed posts of the Ivy and the Beverly Hills hotel.

 

Rodeo Drive

 

At the start of March I was invited to the launch of Soul on Sundays at Revolution, so after a drink at Central Shaker (still need to go properly for food) where we met some friends we made our way along for revolutions take on Sunday dinner. I rediscovered my love of brunch cocktails and especially their Red Snapper.

 

Revolution, Newcastle

 

I was also invited to St Patrick’s raceday with Ladbrokes with some other local bloggers. It was a great day in one of the hospitality suites, with lots of characters out and enjoying the racing. Would highly recommend the hospitality tickets over the summers racing program at Newcastle.

 

Newcastle racecourse

 

Mothers Day was the other big event of the month, I shared some of my ideas for local things to do but a lot of the offers still go into April so worth checking some of them out. For Mother’s Day myself and Viv went to The Grand in Tynemouth for Sunday lunch. It was excellent and I was very pleasantly surprised at how it looks with all the refurbishments since the last time I was there. We have our eye on afternoon tea there too.

 

The Grand, Tynemouth

 

With Kierans mum we went to the Ahar restaurant in Whitley Bay which was delicious as always. Other seriously good food I had in March was at Flatiron in London (such good value for money for a amazing steak), and Gulshan in Tynemouth. Gulshan was beautifully done out and we had a lovely table right in the window overlooking Tynemouth. Great for people watching while enjoying some very good food.

 

Gulshan

 

With work we went to Chilli Padi near Haymarket for some Malaysian food last week, now that was seriously good! It’s quite cafe style and doesn’t look much from outside but it was so good. It’s bring your own alcohol too. I would 100% swerve the likes of Chaophraya and find this place instead it was spot on.

 

Chilli Padi

 

Of course I have to mention Beauty and the Beast, I absolutely loved it mainly cause it was a family favourite when me and Caroline were kids. I’m so pleased they kept the story the same.

Now we are in to April I’m hoping for a lot more nice weather, we sat outside of Arlo in Jesmond last week and long may that type of lunch continue.

 

 

Ive been invited to a few events/restaurants this month so I’m excited for those, and me and Kieran are at Walwick Hall this weekend for a relaxing spa break and stay. There’s also the lovely Rachael’s hen do mid April, and fingers crossed a trip to another European city in a few weeks. I love an Easter getaway and you can see all my favourites here, as well as a link to a guest post I wrote for another blogger on NYC.

Hope you all have a great month!