Pier 64

Blog about what you know and love. I am beginning to realise that a large proportion of my posts over the past few months have been about my home, Cardiff.  Unrecognisable from the town I was born in, Cardiff has blossomed into one of Europe's fastest growing capital cities over the past decade.  The city's choice of fine dining is expanding in conjunction with it's growth, and one of the more recent jewels added to the culinary crown is Pier 64.  It gives itself the unassuming title of "Bar and Steakhouse" but it's so much more.  Elegant, bright, classic and with a killer location.  A bespoke engineering wonder, comfortably nestled on stilts overlooking Penarth Marina.

Both accessible by road and boat, we chose the latter and travelled the 200 metres on Bay-B ....

You don't need to take out a second mortgage to visit Pier 64.  A three course lunch for four, selected from both their set lunch menu and their A la Carte menu, including copious amounts of wine, gin and tonic and apple mojitos set us back just £38 per head including service charge.   I started with their crispy pork and black pudding terrine.  For my main I chose seared salmon and new potatoes and then, John and I had the chocolate trio for two dessert. BBC's "Masterchef" would lead us to believe that a perfect, ooozing middle chocolate fondant is one of the most difficult desserts to "get right". Obviously no problem for this Chef! Coupled with the warm welcome, the attentive service, great atmosphere and perfect waterside location, we could not have chosen a better place to celebrate Lynn's, my S-I-L's, fifty something birthday!

Recent surveys suggest that the one thing people have not cut back on during this difficult financial climate, is entertainment and eating out.  In terms of what else can be bought for £38 these days, Pier 64 comes high on the list of value for money entertainment.  They have a good website (HERE) with an amazing virtual tour set to music that makes you feel like you are in the Med. The afternoon was exquisite. It has become one of our firm favourites since opening last year and I am 100% certain this will not be out last visit.

Wonderful Wednesday - The House of My Dreams

It's becoming a habit for us, these Wednesday pub lunch outings, and one I am absolutely loving, especially when the weather plays nice.  Today it was a trip to Sully, just a couple of miles from home, to a pub called "The Captain's Wife".  A location not unlike that of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".

Via

The Captain's Wife was originally called Sully House and was owned by a local sea captain. Legend has it that when his wife died, her body was kept in a box that was mistaken for treasure and stolen. It is thought the pub was originally a row of  cottages, including Sully House, and located directly on the shoreline overlooking the Bristol Channel and Sully Island. The island is accessible by foot at low tide. During the 13th century, the island was the base for Alfredo De Marisco, a Norman pirate locally known as "The Night Hawk". In the middle ages the island was well known for it's involvement in the local smuggling trade.

Although we were graced by blue skies, there was a brisk, cool onshore wind which forced us to dine inside.  It has a lovely atmosphere and I can just imagine how cosy it must be with it's log fires burning in the winter.  Well worthy of a return trip.

A small detour takes us to the house of my dreams.  Swanbridge House, once part of the property of the Marquis of Bute, has come up for sale.  At a cool £750,000 ($1.2M) something exceptional would have to happen in our lives, like a lottery win, to make this home our reality, but one can dream ....

This is the view from the garden ....

Dream broken, back home to "the garden" to watch the rush hour traffic ....

Oooo Arrrr, swab the decks yer landlubbers, it's s sailor's life for me!

DON'T FORGET THE SCRAP BOOK SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY HERE

Giveaway - My Memories Suite v3 Software

A short while ago I was approached by the nice people at Story Rock Inc., who offered me a free download of their "My Memories Digital Scrapbook" programme for review.  They also gave me the opportunity to share one free GIVEAWAY copy of the download with one other reader, a $39.95 value.  I have now had a chance to use the programme which is, to say the least, both comprehensive and intuitive. I use both PC and Mac and they kindly allowed me to download the programme onto both to try the difference between both platforms.  The download time took nearly an hour on the PC, much faster on the Mac, but this is a large programme at 1.34 GB, also I'm in the UK, the server, I would guess is in the USA.

I produced the above page in about 5 minutes.  The template was easy to find, these were not the original colours, but they were easy to change and the entire spectrum is offered.  The font choice is large. The background choice is large, but the possibility to download additional templates, in what must be hundreds of choices, is easy and for a nominal fee.  I have probably not chosen to use as intended in this example, but I think I approached it with more a design eye than a scrapbook eye.  I normally use Adobe Photoshop and, in comparison, this is a lot easier to use in terms of linking images together which can be fairly time consuming in PS.  This is the perfect tool for collating your family memories, creating greeting cards, place settings, menus, you think of it and the programme will do it.

It's still early days for me, and time will tell what I can actually achieve with this, but, in the short time I have had it, I have found it a really useful and creative tool.  I would say I found it easier to use on the PC than the Mac, which is strange as the Mac is a good design tool.  Using the Mac I was unable to copy and paste images directly into the templates.  An action that was easy on the PC.  Unless there is a way to do this, which I haven't yet discovered, this is a minor negative for me as to download all the images I would need is both time consuming and takes up additional disc space.  I did like the fact that I was able to export to jpeg in order to attach an image to this blog.

You can check out the My Memories website HERE for further information.

Now for the giveaway.  Just leave a comment below, it's that simple.  The competition closes on Monday 28th May 2012 when I will use the random number generator to pick the lucky winner.

You are all winners though, even if not picked, as My Memories has given me a special $10 value code to share with you all.  Just go to their download site HERE and enter the code STMMMS89369.  Your $10 will be deducted from the software cost AND they will give you a further $10 coupon to spend in the My Memories store.

Enjoy!

A Little Jubilee Fun ....

It seems to me that us Brits need an excuse to become patriotic.  The Queen's upcoming Jubilee has us waving the red, white and blue.  So, whatever excuse the UK has, I am loving the fact that the Union Jack is showing it's colours.  Whenever I travel to the USA, they don't need an excuse to fly their flag.  It's everywhere, on front lawns, atop every official building, on cars, clothing, motorbikes, you name it, it has a star spangled banner on it!  Come on Britain, get your freak on!

Image: TATLER

I rarely buy Tatler.  It displays a completely different lifestyle from my own and there's nothing in it I can afford, but this month I was suckered in by the front red white and blue cover, and the promise that if I pass it down through the generations, it will probably be worth at least double in 100 years.  Ever the antique dealer :-)

Image: TATLER

This edition has a few hidden extras.  The front cover and page 95 have interactive technology embedded into the images.  You need to download the Zappar app, then download the Tatler page, then point your iPhone at the images.  The front page magically opens up to reveal a moving image of a corgi, sitting on a throne, looking around - how do they do that?

Image: TATLER

Page 95 has a portrait of the bejewelled Queen.  If you point Zappar at the Queen, you can steal her crown, orb and sceptre and then take a photo of yourselves wearing the crown jewels,

just like Sookie ....

Image: YONKS

Amazing - Enjoy!

Explain Something to Me ....

My friend, Meg, over at Pigtown Design, regularly runs a post on the ridiculous prices sites like One Kings Lane charges.  So when I saw this during a bit of horizontal couch surfing last night, I couldn't help but feel a bit smug ....

Yonks - $68                                                                                    One Kings Lane $249

So, now I have highlighted the discrepancy in pricing and the fact that they are delusional and I am realistic, can someone tell me why anyone would hit the buy button?  I have never been one of those people who brag about how much I have paid for something, nay, I get excited about how little I've paid for something and not felt ripped off. It's not even that I want people to buy my stuff over their stuff.  I just don't understand the misconception by some that the more it costs, the better it must be. Trust me, that is not always the case, it's probably true some of the time, but not always.   Maybe it's in the name, One Kings Lane, which sounds like it could be in London and therefore has more brag appeal, sounds somewhat better than YONKS.  The fact that my item will actually ship from the UK and not some warehouse in Tightwad, Missouri (trust me, it exists) must give me some kudos!

"Hello, I'm Queen Victoria Biscuit Jar IV"

Maybe it's in the title, "Antique English Biscuit Jar III". Should I have called mine "Queen Victorian Oak Biscuit Jar IV"?  Maybe I should have left the lid on.  Maybe I should have polished it until I could see my face in it.  It's not even as if people have to travel to find it, just surf around a bit from the comfort of ones own home. I can, with utter confidence state, the person who paid $249 for that jar was suckered!

I'm not bitter, just confused!

The End of an Era ....

We spent last night at Meg's final university project launch, Platfform 12, an opportunity for graduates of The Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural industries to showcase their work. The last few months have been MAD, literally.  For Her final project, Meg chose to design a fashion industry specific magazine and with her cosmetics connections, what better than to combine the two elements of the industry to create M.A.D.....

Front cover, my niece Alice is the model!

The only word I can think of to describe the evening was spectacular.  All 60 plus final year students from fashion design and fashion promotion degree courses gathered to show the culmination of 3 years hard work.  The venue was the National Museum of Wales ....

Venue and display stand set-up

Preparations were frantic.  University course directors and a large team of techies were on hand to transform the magnificent setting ....

Spectacular marbled gallery of the National Museum of Wales

We took our places for the runway show to follow.  It was a stampede for seats.  We managed to get the last 3 seats together and there was standing room only.  I would say about 500 plus were in attendance.

The models would have to descend the large marble staircase!  Meg was buzzing!

Then the show began.  I was blown away.  The talent of these young adults was astounding.  No doubt, some stars of the future....

To say we were proud is an understatement. The world is her oyster now and a blank canvas awaits.
Watch this space! You can visit Meg's blog, PHAZE, to find out what happens next.  Click HERE.

Queen's Jubilee Celebrations

Preparations are well under-way in the UK for the the Queen's Jubilee Celebrations.  The Government web site proclaims "To mark 60 years of the Queen's reign the Diamond Jubilee will take place in 2012. The celebrations will centre around an extended weekend in 2012 on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June. An official website has also been launched HERE

Whilst shopping at Marks & Spencer yesterday, I couldn't help but giggle at their celebratory selection. Colourful, great packaging and quintessentially British ....

My particular favourite, I bought the one on the left!

What will you be doing to celebrate? Enjoy!