The Devil's Advocate, Edinburgh

Hidden away down an alley, at the bottom of many, many steps, hides a modern, cosy, yet exciting bar. On our trip to Edinburgh I wanted to visit The Devil's Advocate, truthfully because I liked the name but I'm very thankful that I was drawn in for this silly reason.
Dean and I spent a lovely afternoon here after a hefty walk around the castle. It was a perfect relaxing atmosphere to just chat away. However, the menu was incredibly exciting as housed over 300 Scottish whiskys and a cocktail menu inspired by the theatre. The bar also serves food which, though we didn't sample, looked and smelled incredible.
I'd highly recommend popping in for a chilled out afternoon or evening to sample the vast array of drinks on offer.

Borough Market, London

During mine, and my fiancé Dean's, recent trip to London, we went to Borough Market to explore. I love food, I love it's diversity, it's power to bring people together, and the ever changing nature of it. Borough Market is the epitome of this.

Borough Market is London's oldest food market, and it's a beautiful, history steeped, visual treat.

The sights, smells and tastes that fill the market leave you overwhelmed and very hungry.

The stalls range from meat, to herbs, to fruit and veg, to baked goods. Whatever you want to buy, you will find. There are also several street food stalls from many different nations: Germany to Ethiopia, so you can not only buy the ingredients to cook the food, but savour it being made for you too.

The market is a cultural and exciting experience that I feel has something for everyone.

As a day out it can also be relatively cheap, or even free. Many stalls offer free samples, but I promise, if you taste, you'll want to buy. Our visit was based around needing lunch and we both had meals from the street food stalls, drinks from the smoothie stand, and sweet treats from a lovely baker, and spent around £15 each. So whatever your budget a lovely trip to make, even if only for the experience. Personally I could have spent all day here looking at everything over and over again but I would imagine around an hour or two would give you sufficient time to fully browse and eat.

Cafe TwoCann, Swansea

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the lovely Cafe TwoCann and treated my mother to a Mother's Day Afternoon Tea. 'It wasn't Mother's Day?' you say, well, it was when you plan a weekend away over the real mother's day, oops.

I'd heard great things about this little cafe and was eager to visit. Ahead of time I booked our meal and added a little enquiry as to whether there was anything special that we could do for mothers day, I received no response and assumed it was too early for any of their mother's day plans.

When we arrived I found this cosy little cafe. I was surprised at how small and intimate it was, and in spite of it being as busy as you'd expect on a saturday afternoon it was incredibly quiet and relaxed.

The cafe itself is beautiful. Gorgeous stonework walls, fairy lights paired with soft lighting that reflected on the bottles of champagne lining the bar. Glass cabinets lined the walls with jewellery, and ornaments, on display from independent retailers, the treasures twinkling seductively in the light.

We were greeted warmly, given our teas and coffees, and we settled down to chat and catch up.

The lovely lady who served us proceeded to bring a slate board decorated with melted chocolate, scripted to read Happy Mother's Day, along with fresh fruit, and chocolate dipped strawberries in little suit jackets. There it was, my something special, at no charge, and presented beautifully. My mother was so happy and overwhelmed that she nearly cried. She is a cryer, is my mum. I was so grateful for the effort they put in for her, she really does deserve it.

After such a wonderful surprise, we were presented with our afternoon tea. Sandwiches with ham, egg, and salmon, along with sweet treats of macaroons, scones, jam, cream, tiny welsh cakes, lemon posset and mini carrot cakes, it was like a dream. The cake stand was presented beautifully and again in melted chocolate 'Happy Mothers Day' wrapped elegantly around the macaroons.

We had a wonderful afternoon, were looked after so well, and left with very full bellies. We will surely return. I was so thankful to be in a position where I can take my mum somewhere she can be spoilt as she does so much for others. She's the most selfless person I know.