Wales vs Australia

When I was 14, my family and I made our annual Christmas trip to Cardiff to see the family. However, this trip would be a little different.

It just so happened that the Australian U-19 rugby team were staying in our hotel, which I may or may not have been a little bit excited about. My brother was very excited too, but maybe for different reasons. He was 12 and had been playing rugby since he was 4 for Marbella Rugby Club. So meeting some hot shot Australian rugby players was a pretty big deal.

As a nosy little boy, he got chatting to one of the players who invited us to watch them play against Wales at Pontypridd RFC. Australia lost miserably but our new rugby friend didn't seem to mind, he even invited us to their post-game party in the club.

My brother stayed in touch with him. We congratulated him when he signed for the Queensland Reds. Then we got to watch him on TV when he started representing Australia internationally.

His name was Quade Cooper. Today I was going to see him play and I was pretty darn excited!

Before we got to that, our day started off taking a little detour to Swansea bay. The sun was shining and Lucy and I both are suckers for a good view.

It looks better today right?

 

The Meridian Tower stands at 107 m and is the tallest building in Wales. You can climb all the way to the top, so naturally, we did and got some pretty views. 

The trains into Cardiff were crazy. Silly Wales for scheduling a football match AND a rugby game on the same day! They refused to let us on the first train which made us late meeting John and Maureen to start our pre-match fun!

Eventually we made it to Jamie's Italian and were introduced to Jamie's beer.

I love catching up with John and Maureen, they always have such fun stories to tell all about their travels and experiences. They introduced us to their friends from Down Under, who were equally as lovely.

Our friend Tom finally arrived from London and we greeted him with a half-drunk Gin and Tonic (he didn't seem to mind or notice, he will drink anything!).  He insisted on going shopping for a jacket and I reluctantly let him drag us round the shops until he found one...

Hey, look! Doctor Who is in town to see the rugby too!

Shopping on a rugby day. Not impressed.

Next issue was food. Food! We hadn't really thought about this one. What does one do when constricted by time?

What you looking at?

After some street grub we rushed in to the Prince of Wales for a very quick pint to find my little cousin, Catrina. We had enough time for a quick 'Hi and Bye' before we really had to go!

After sprinting all round the Millennium Stadium we eventually made it to our seats.

We were ready now. Let the match begin!

George North scored a try in the first 3 minutes. We just so happened to be in the right corner! 

After a disallowed try by North (I think I was actually crying by now) Australia cemented their win. 

Quade Cooper very deservedly got man of the match on his 50th cap (even if he did get sin binned in the last few minutes). Well done boyo!

Wales played well but clearly we were no match for the Australians. 

After the match Tom and I felt deflated. One try. All we needed was one measly try to defeat them! As my friend Alex liked to point out: you've lost nine times in a row against the Wallabies, surely not a surprise defeat? Thanks for pointing that out dude!

Lucy guided our breaking hearts to the nearest pub and we proceeded to drown our sorrows.

Nice jacket bro

We protested against the result and our earlier train problems by taking advantage of the classy (and empty!) First Class seats, on our way back to Swansea. We might have lost the match, but we won the war against the trains (such rebels, I know).

I am going to need to get tickets for the Six Nations now please.

A Little Trip to Swansea

My Nanna would say I am a bit of a nightmare when it comes to presents. It's not that I don't love getting presents and surprises. I just never know what I want.

Of course my 22nd birthday was not going to be any different!

An email pinged into my inbox advertising the Autumn International games, and as a bit of a rugby fanatic I knew exactly what Nanna could get for me this year!

I rounded up some fellow rugby enthusiasts (not that I had to do much convincing) and was soon off on another little adventure. 

After some light reading on the flight over about a serial killer who choose young blonde, college girls as his victims, I landed in Bristol. 

First stop was Swansea!

Lucy, or Dr Knox as I like to call her, has just started her postgraduate degree in Medicine at Swansea and as I am half Welsh, I thought it was my duty to fully introduce her in to one of the best parts of Welsh life: Welsh rugby.

We took a stroll along the beach, trying not to sink in the sand, and had a big old catch up. Being practically glued at the hip during university (no, but seriously. In first year, we had only spent 1 night apart after 3rd term, travelling to Spain, Scotland, Cambodia and Thailand!), we were both mortified to figure out it had been 8 months since we'd last seen each other.

Okay, it wasn't the prettiest of afternoons.

By now it was 4:30pm which could only mean one thing in December: mulled wine o'clock.

We bought ours from Marks & Spencers and picked up a bottle of Mulled Rum punch as well.

Lucy let me use her personalised pink stethoscope to make sure my heart was still beating and I imagined for a little while what it would be like to be Dr Burt.

In the blink of an eye our glasses were empty (whoops!) and maybe the bottle too... (double whoops!) We then had to rush to get ready as Alan, my family friend, was picking us up for dinner.

This greeted me as I walked in to Alan & Suzanne's house.

Yeah. I really wasn't impressed. (For those of you who don't know him, this is Leigh Halfpenny a.k.a: my imaginary future husband).

However, I soon got distracted by mojito juice and Bacardi rum.

Suzanne cooked a delicious roast chicken dinner for us both and we indulged in a very traditional Welsh dessert of tinned peaches and ice cream, Joe's ice cream of course! After much wine, lots of good conversation and laughs it was time for us to go.

Not before I got my very own photo with Alan and Suzanne "a la Leigh Halfpenny" style.

Sunday Stroll in Marbella

There are very few things that would make me miss my Sunday carvery at Bogart's Restaurant , but this week was a very special occasion. 

Eloise was over for a very short visit! 

Since we both moved to England for university and she now is kicking some butt in the marketing department at Northern Ballet, we don't see eachother half as much as we would like to. 

The sun was shining and we just simply had to take advantage of this glorious day with a girly catch-up. 

After a lovely stroll on the Paseo Marítimo de Marbella we worked up and appetite and stopped for some grub. 

I had a tapa of ensalada de bocas del mar, which had prawns, octopus and crab in it, and a prawns pil pil. Eloise had rosada a la plancha with lots of patatas fritas! 

 With bread of course to mop up all those delicious olive oil juices!

I was a very happy bunny. 

We chatted the afternoon away catching up on life and lots of boy gossip over coffees before it was time to head back.

Time always seems to fly by when catching up with old friends! I always want to try and squeeze out the last milliseconds as it is never long enough.

I was very sad to say good-bye.

Greenie Goodness

My ever obsession with healthy food continues, although my will power still needs some improvement. I have always been a victim of yo-yo dieting, but recently I have come to understand that I need to chuck the word 'dieting' out the window and instead replace it with 'life-style change.'

Weight loss takes place over time, in weeks more specifically. If you are 'good' 7 days in a row you will see a difference and then just repeat.

Seems simple huh?

Not so much for me! The past month I've been living on 'tomorrow I will be good', 'tomorrow I will go for a swim' and just one more ice cream can't do that much harm, right?

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

I have been cursed with the fat family genes, from my paternal side. No joke! My brother and I are both super sensitive to weight gain. It's like you eat one slice of bread and you can feel it skipping up to my muffin top with its sun chair, book and glasses in tow, in for the long-haul.

So when I looked at my calendar and realised my friend Rachel was flying over for a visit in only 3 days I started to panic. I need to get my health fix back!

Okay, so I know I won't be moving mountains in 3 days but Rachel coming for some Spanish sun was the jolt I needed to get back on track to my 'healthy lifestyle.'

So lets talk Green. Green smoothies for that fact.

It's time to get my body packed full of goody (technical term) nutrients and start to flush those nasty toxins out with home-made green smoothies.

There are lots of different recipes online, and after experimenting with lots of different fruit and vegetables this is what I came up with.

Well it's certainly green, isn't it?

It was even drinkable! I didn't even need to add any sugar or sweetener, as the mango and orange acted as natural (and healthy!) sweeteners. 

Okay Mummy went 'bleurgh' when she tried it, but she doesn't like celery, so there.

So enough about me, here's the recipe:

- 1/2 Mango

- A big ol' chunk of Melon

- Juice of 1 Orange (no pips)

- Juice of 1 Lemon or Lime (again, no pips)

- A handful of Spinach

- 2 Celery sticks

- Liquid H20

The instructions are easy peasy:

Chop up the melon and mango and chuck it all in to a blender. Squeeze in the orange and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. Chuck in the spinach and blend.
Last but not least, chop the sticks of celery into small chunks and whack them into the mix with a little bit of cold water and blend.

Serve over ice and drink up!

P.S: Green smoothies are NOT meal substitutes!