Birthday week!

Currently loving Birthday Week (yes, that's a real thing)! It was my birthday last Tuesday, but I'd been doing super fun things for the whole week surrounding it. It's just been a really lovely way of seeing friends & family (& a whole lotta food). 

It started with a trip to the children's zoo with my mum, brother & Adam

A pile of meerkats! Too cute.

 Adam inside a giraffe...

The the next day was tea at the Grand Hotel, followed a couple of days later with this b.e.a.uuutiful cake (one of two! Spoiled)

And then the aquarium

Jellies

Standing on sharks (sorta)!

And thennnn a lovely dinner date with Lyzz at Jamie's - totally yum! All the sorts of food your parents would make for you, but you wouldn't bother to make yourself (well, I probably wouldn't!)

Then the next day, it was time for Chilli Con Carnival!

Tequila, 5 types of chilli, pinatas, coronas, sombreros, marachai music & laughs :)  

And then to finish the week, we went to watch the Olympics in Hyde park! It was so much fun to watch Murray win gold along with a crowd of hundreds. Totally feels like a festival, but free & super fun! 

Oh, we also went to Cadbury world...

And had ice creams. 

Perfect.

Date Night

On Tuesday, I was planning to go & see The Artist, as it's cheap as chips on a Tuesday. Because it's such a fancy film, Adam & I thought it'd be fun to dress up all fancy too...

(Old photo, but I was wearing this dress)

Unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had the same idea & both showings were sold out :( 

But all was not lost...after a cheeky beverage in a bar over the road from the ridiculously packed out cinema, we went for a wander & found an uh-mazing Mexican restaurant!  

It's called Taqueria - London's authentic Mexican Taco café.

It's not huge (but we did have decent elbow room), and it's not super fancy (I'm pretty sure our cutlery holder was Ikea's finest...), but the staff were lovely & Mexican & so was the amazing food! 

We got a couple of dishes each & proceeded to share - the only way to do Mexican in my opinion; 

Limes, guacamole & another dip on the left, Enchiladitas Suizas de Poblano (aka cheesy goodness) on the right.

Caldo tlalpeño

& the remains of our Quesadillas & Gringas! 

All washed down with this beauty

Michelada
Pacífico, lime juice, Worcester sauce with hot sauce and a salted rim. 

Yum.

Definitely worth a visit if you're hungry & in the Notting Hill Gate area!

La Cantina

Earlier today, The Boy & I went for for an impromptu lunch at a local Mexican restaurant called La Cantina.

It wasn't quite how we had planned to spend the day though...
At around midday, I received a message on facebook from Vodka Revs:

However, when we (Sj, Jd, Dan & myself) got there at ten past three, we were told that too many people had come & they weren't giving any more out!
At the time, I wasn't sure what to be more offended about - the fact we looked like we'd just come for the free lunch, or that they hadn't stated anything about availability on the email! Tsk.

So after that Sj & Jd went for a wander in the rain & me & Dan were planning on going to Asda (to stock up on essentials like doughnuts).

But then! We walked past La Cantina & it happened that the 'A-board' outside was advertising their weekday lunch offer, which is amazing!

I didn't happen to take a picture, but luckily they have one on their website;

I had the quesadilla with 'yucatan'(pork) & fajita spiced fries, Dan had quesadilla with fajita chicken & fries too. We also got some chilli popcorn to share as a starter.
It was Amazing! Really, really good food, service & atmosphere!
Or, as Dan puts it "the food was sooo good!".
Will definitely be going back soon!

(A small grab from the website)

Outside;

Inside;

I really like the little touches such as the real chillies hanging from the ceiling. & the music was pretty good too - I can't remember any specific songs that were played (useless), but it was a good mixture & pretty daytime appropriate.

(If you happen to be in Southampton & want the address, it's 

2a - 3a Bedford Place
Southampton
Hampshire
SO15 2B)

xo