019. Be in the audience of a TV show

It wasn't the kind of TV show I had in mind, but we were in the audience for the Robbie Williams O2 concert broadcast live on Sky One back in November. It counts!

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097. Do something amazing for our 10 year anniversary

We went to the London 2012 Olympic Games for our 10 year anniversary celebrations back in July this year. It's taken me a long time to write about it, but I'll let the pictures tell the story - we had the best time!


001. Welcome to London; 002. View from our hotel room;
003. Chinese noodles for dinner at Leceister Square; 004. Les Mis showtime;


005. London Excel by our hotel; 006. Disney World style maps!;
007. Olympic face; 008. Empty seats?;


009. Arriving at Olympic Park; 010. Tickets for the Orbit viewing tower;
011. Views inside the Olympic Stadium; 012. Team USA in the Basketball Arena;

013. Eat at 10 new restaurants (7/10)

James and I were in London for a few days last week, and after picking up Shrek the Musical tickets from TKTS in Leicester Square we wanted to have something for (a late) lunch. Determined never to go to Garfunkel's again and we didn't want to rely on the faithful TGI Fridays for a trusted option, we wandered down a different street and found Steak & Co Steak House.

It was about 3pm, so not very busy at all. But James had an amazing steak served on a sizzling block - it actually finishes cooking to just how you like it before your very eyes! I wasn't so brave and just had fish and chips (yes, in a steak restaurant!).

Would definitely like to experience it when it was busier and in the evening. Also had the weirdest thing happen, sitting right next to the window in the busy Leicester Square region of London, some random guy walked up to the window and kissed it, kind of at me at the same time. Very odd!

011. Go to 10 gigs or tours (8/10)

I bought James tickets to see Ed Sheeran for his birthday, which was just before Christmas. On Saturday January 21 2012 we almost left our tickets at home and after the taxi driver took us home to pick them up we finally made our way to London on the train!
I was worried about it being a standing venue and not being able to see, but we were positioned quite well and on my tippy-toes I did manage to get a good look at Ed (it was definitely him, no mistaking the hair!). The floor is also sloped towards the stage, imaginably for when it becomes a completely seated venue, so this helped loads!
During the final song Ed brought out just a couple of friends/special guests in Devlin, Rizzle Kicks and Wretch 32. I thought the girl stood next to us was going to pass out from excitement! It was pretty cool and added something special to the night.
Note to self: Buy better gig footwear (I was in agony!)

011. Go to 10 gigs or tours (6/10)

The end of October and beginning of November has been full of gigs, concerts and live events! It's been very busy and very expensive, but we've been to see some amazing people so far this year.

Since Russell Howard in February and Take That in June, we'd had a quiet time so far this year. We started off a very busy 5 weeks with Lee Evans at the London O2 on September 30.

October started and that was going to be the craziest month of all. On October 19 we saw Noah and the Whale at Norwich UEA, then just a few days later we were heading to Liverpool to see Jessie J. One week later we were back in London at the O2 for the Britney Spears 'Femme Fatale' tour. I actually love her, I believe she's an Angel!

Another four-day working week and it was back to London for Tinie Tempah, again at the O2 arena. He puts on an amazing show, we'd seen him twice already at Norwich UEA. I can honestly say, and we see a lot of people play the O2, I have never seen that venue so hyped - the whole arena was up on it's feet and jumping. I was a hot, sweaty mess afterwards, but what an atmosphere! I will remember that forever.

The next tour we're going to see is Sarah Millican in Hull on February 9. I went to University in Hull and haven't been back since I graduated, James bought me the tickets for my birthday. I'm really looking forward to it.

013. Eat at 10 new restaurants (4/10)

James and I had tickets to see Lee Evans at the O2 in London on September 30, before the show started we wanted to get dinner in one of the restaurants at the arena. The doors were due to open at 6:30pm, and we didn't arrive at the arena until after 5 so we thought that we'd end up queuing for a decent place to eat. Tucked round the corner behind a horrible display (probably left over from the Millennium Dome days) was a restaurant called Armadillo. The food was mostly American/Mexican, so a steak and fries suited me fine. Being quite out of the way it wasn't busy at all. At first my steak came out way under cooked, we sent it back to the kitchen. I got a new steak cooked just how I like it and even got a free bottle of Dr Pepper (this saved us buying a drink in the arena). It was nice, expensive, but nice. We'd already had fries for lunch at a Little Frankie's by Trafalgar Square, so I didn't get to try desserts!

By the time we were finishing our dinner queues had started to form outside Pizza Express just opposite. I can't imagine queuing for a restaurant table.....

097. Do something amazing for our 10 year anniversary

James and I will have been together for 10 years on Tuesday July 31 2012.

Yesterday I had £96.00 taken from my bank account for, what I assume, are London 2012 Olympic tickets! I don't know which event they're for, but we only applied for two events. The £96.00 adds up to £90.00 for tickets to see the preliminary round two of the men's basketball and £6.00 for the processing/fulfillment fee. The other event we applied for was a Wimbledon ground pass, amounting to just £40.00 in total.

The basketball event we applied for is scheduled for the late session on Tuesday July 31 2012.

Happy Anniversary.

013. Eat at 10 new restaurants (1/10)

James and I were in London on Sunday evening, so headed down to one of our favourite places, Covent Garden, for dinner. We usually eat somewhere in Leicester Square, but decided to go for a change and tried out the Covent Garden Grill. We chose to go here partly because we had a voucher printed from Quidco for a deal on two burgers for £15.

The burgers were great, but I was saving room for desert - that was chocolate cake and ice cream, of course. It was nice to go somewhere different for a meal even though we ate something pretty standard with burger and fries. I'm well known for not being very adventurous with my food, let's see where we end up having a meal next!