Six Bikes to Win Thanks to Little Wing

As Smix & I's favourite local restaurant chain prepare to expand into mainland UK, they are revving the engines for summer & giving away six kids' bikes, one for each store. 

Entry is simple – enjoy a tasty Little Wing pizza in any of the six locations, fill out a ‘Get on Yer Bike’ Giveaway flyer and you’ll be entered into the draw to win. The competition will for one month, from 15th June - 15th July, with winners being drawn week commencing 18th July.

The competition launched on Wednesday 15th June to coincide with Bike to School Day. If you want more information, to find out where your nearest Little Wing is located, or to nosy through the whole menu, visit their website. They even have their own gaming app!

Father's Day 2016 is Sweet at M&S

Father's Day is this Sunday in the UK & Ireland. Smix & I popped along to our local Bloomfields branch in Bangor, to see what's in store to pick up for your Pops this weekend.

Firstly there's a great offer to pick up a smart polo shirt, shorts and greetings card for £19.50 perhaps best for the older Dad, my own Dad would love this set. It's all mix and match, so you can choose from dozens of colour combinations to make the outfit that's right for your Dad's day in the sun.

There are other offers you might be interested in, like 30% off men's fragrance, toiletries and toiletry gifts. 

Or there's the classic mug option! A Father's Day staple in our household for many a year as I was growing up. 

There are dozens of craft ales, which I'll come to later, but if your dad is teetotal then check out this fancy root beer. I picked up the matching cream soda,  priced at £2 each and would make for a very fancy bbq refreshment at any time this summer.

Now onto the main Food Hall offerings. I'm a sucker for an M&S cake, and there's a special Dad cake on the shelves for this weekend's celebrations. The £8 cake is a delicious combination of Belgian chocolate, coffee & salted caramel in layers.

The off license section of your local store is stocked with a wealth of apt Father's Day tipple ideas. I couldn't resist this pre-mixed espresso martini, for £12, which we will chill to ice cold & serve on the rocks. 

And here's the tempting praline cream soda I mentioned, which would make a neat little gift with some of M&S's yummy gingerbread men. The minis are £1.10 and the regular sized are £1.50

My dad has a sweet tooth and loves nougat, so I chose this huge slab of his favourite for £5, which I will give to him along with a nice bottle of red wine. Many of the Belgian chocolate boxes are half price right now, in celebration of Father's Day, so if your dad loves his sweeties too, check out what your local Food Hall has on offer. 

Now, onto that bottle of red wine I mentioned! I was lucky to notice there is a  dine in style offer on right now. You pick a main, from a selection of great bbq/summer style dishes, two sides, and a bottle of wine, or two bottles of ale/beer. So it's definitely a dad themed sort of meal deal! You get all that for a tenner, and with bottles of wine usually costing £7.99 at least these days, you can't be bad to that.

I chose these products, and snapped some of the other choices for you. 

They also have some great hot hot sauces in the Food Hall, the packaging of these caught my eye. 

These are the ales you can pick from and take two of for the meal deal, or a bottle of wine as usual. 

Some more of the alcohol gifts I thought would make good presents. These colourful gins were £14 each.

You could put together a great gift set of ales, beers or ciders for your dad to try out.  If you buy six you save a huge 25% so it's worth your while stocking up for you too! Have a great Father's Day 2016!

P.S. We cooked the Dine in Meal this evening, shared between 3 adults & Smix, with just an extra chicken kebab and small salad to fill out the meal as it was meant for two people.  We are full! For £10 with a bottle of wine or two ales, it's a steal.

The Mayo that comes along with the sweet potato fries is to DIE for. I highly recommend it!  

Football Themed Snacks Score a Goal at Lidl NI

Northern Ireland's first match kicks off in 20 mins. I ran over to  Lidl Bangor quickly to pick up some snacks for during the nail biter.

Good luck, NI! We can do this! 

79p

79p

99p

£1.99

£1.99

Snap Before You Sip With Ground Espresso & Win a Holiday to New York!

Your next cup of coffee could be your ticket to the holiday of a lifetime in the city that never sleeps. 

Northern Ireland's home grown, quickly expanding coffee chain Ground Espresso has launched an initiative that will invite their fans to submit themed stills for inclusion in a beautifully bound coffee table book, which will be sold and all proceeds given to The Ground Honduras Project.

Ground coffees are pretty as a picture

The aim of this campaign is to capture shots that range from favourite Ground drinks, to a precious memory shared at Ground, and even quirky snaps of Ground’s coffees and signature tray bakes out and about at NI’s famous landmarks. The initiative welcomes participants at all levels of photography from smartphone users to professional shutterbugs.

Snap quickly before the Nutella cake disappears!0

Ground also provide free tap water in every store- a great help for families

The initiative will shortlist 12 runners-ups who will be announced in August 2016.

Each runner up will receive a premium prize package of Ground treats including a £100 Ground gift card, brew-at-home coffeekits, and some bespoke branded products. In addition to this, the overall winner will receive a complimentary weekend break in New York City with flights and accommodation courtesy of Ground Espresso Bars.

All winners will also have their submissions included in Ground’s first coffee table book, which will be available for sale to the public at the end of year.

For further information and to join the campaign visit www.groundcoffee.net.

Spot Ground, top right

Smix & I finally visited the new Ground Espresso Bar that opened as part of the big, new Next store at Bloomfields in Bangor. It's the town's second branch, with the first cafe along the ring road always a hive of activity, and this concession set to thrive also. 

Previously the space was a department store, where you could get a light lunch, and Ground is the perfect replacement, with lots of good choices on offer from light bites to bagels, to toasties, to traybakes. 

The salted caramel brownie is the stuff of legends

Manager Chris was on hand on a hot Friday afternoon to show us the sparkly new store.  

Just as with the other Bangor branch, the Bloomfield cafe offers the whole  Brew Bar experience, which I covered in this blog post which is a must for coffee connoisseurs.

There's also a fabulous selection of Suki Teas, another local hero product, made in Belfast.

Because it was so hot I didn't fancy a big mug of steaming hot coffee, so Chris made me a double espresso with a little foamed milk.  

Michael's favourite and what he has religiously every time we go to Ground, is the Nutella cake. It's as heavenly as you'd imagine. 

Coupled with a babycino

I tried their bacon & cream cheese bagel. I'd had their bacon bap before in their Sprucefield cafe, but the bagel is a total belly buster! So much delicious bacon. I needed a lie down after eating that! But it was worth it! 

As with the other stores, this Ground also has a range of expert coffee paraphernalia to use at home. 

Dont forget to sign up for the Ground reward scheme if you are a frequent visitor, and there are also gift vouchers available if you know someone who loves their coffee & would be interested in the brew bar experience they can't get elsewhere. 

So thanks to Chris & the team, we had a fun first visit to our second local Ground. They sent us off with one of their special fruit & veg smoothies, as I was curious to taste the Kale Kick. It's an authentic superfood drink, icy cold in this hot weather, but a bit too healthy for me. The Oreo flavoured icecream milkshake is more my thing! 

You can connect with Ground on social networks with the username @GroundEspresso

Stendhal Music & Art Festival- Bring the Whole Family & Camp Under the Stars

Set in the picturesque surrounds of Ballymully Cottage Farm on the outskirts of Limavady, Stendhal Festival of Art brings an all encompassing artistic experience to the Roe Valley, home of Danny Boy. Celebrating the creativity of artists from all over Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and further afield, Stendhal Festival of Art is much more than just a music festival.

90% of all shows are completely family-friendly, anything not is clearly labelled as such. You can visit by the day, or camp on site for that authentic festival experience. 

Stendhal Festival website.

Stendhal Festival Facebook Page.

A Cat Cafe for Belfast? YOU Can Help Make Kittywinkles Cat Lounge Happen!

Caitlin- the woman with the plan

Caitlin McClelland emailed me this week with quite possibly the most exciting news of 2016 so far- the prospect of a cat cafe for Belfast. What's that? What does it entail? How can we make Caitlin's dream a furry reality? We had a chat about the best animal in the world, the cat. 

What's a cat lounge?

Alizul blog

Well, it's a comfortable space where friendly, pampered cats live. The cats roam around and do as they please while visitors relax and socialise. There are already 9 cat cafés in the UK but I want Kittywinkles to be something different. It will be a calm, open space.

Your visit is booked so you don't queue or wait, your seats are ready for your arrival and you can spend your time there doing whatever you like. Bring a friend for a chat, bring your laptop and study, bring a cat-lover along for an amazing surprise - it's up to you.

Why Belfast? 

I feel like we should try to bring new ideas and opportunities to Northern Ireland. Cat cafés already exist in London, Edinburgh, Newcastle, etc. and I think Belfast deserves one too. Belfast is changing and lots of new small businesses are popping up regularly, I think we're ready for Kittywinkles Cat Lounge.

What can we expect to see when Kittywinkles opens?

I want Kittywinkles to be something new and different for Belfast. I love the quirky style of interior decorating that is becoming more popular around Belfast these days. Reclaimed furniture, funny and eye-catching artwork, up-cycled oddities… Originally this was my vision for the cat lounge, but during the planning stage I started to feel that maybe that wasn’t new anymore, I could give Kittywinkles a style that doesn’t exist in Belfast.

thinkGeek.com

The cat lounge will be based on Japanese cat cafés - over-sized floor cushions, little tea-tables, squashy beanbag seats and soft throws and pillows. The cat lounge will be tailored to helping our visitors to relax and feel at home, so I want it to be like their second living-room.

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The cats will live in this space and their experience will be quite different. I plan on installing walk-ways along the walls and windows and hidey-holes for cats to peek out from. I’ve seen some fantastic furniture for cats such as mini bunk beds, cat-sized rope ladders and little fabric hammocks for cats to laze on. The style I’m aiming for is quirky, comfy and welcoming.

The café area will be separate, of course, to maintain high levels of hygiene when we’re serving drinks and snacks. On the Kittywinkles menu you’ll see lots of varieties of locally-sourced tea and coffee, as well as a few fun additions like bubble-tea and milkshakes. I’d like to serve mainly dessert-style snacks like flapjacks, macarons and cupcakes. Cats can’t taste sugar so you won’t have to share your treats with a kitty!

Kittywinkles will bring a new style to Belfast then?

Yes, starting with the branding that you can see in the Kittywinkles logo, it is a style called ‘Kawaii’ which means ‘cute’ in the context of Japanese culture. For instance, brands like Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma and Molang are considered kawaii; they’re adorable, chubby and based on cute animals. Our mascot is an attention-seeking brown cat called Kwinkle.

Who do you expect to see visiting the Kittywinkles cats? 

I think that Kittywinkles is a place for all (unless you are allergic to cats!). It might look like a place for kids because of the cute brand but the cat lounge is for anyone who wants to spend time with cats.

Our visitors might not be allowed pets in their home or have never owned a pet before and want to try it out by visiting. I imagine that most people who like animals will want to come and see Kittywinkles Cat Lounge because it’s a new kind of space they haven’t used before. It’s not like a bustling café or a noisy pub and I’d say Kittywinkles won’t be the only cat café in Northern Ireland for long once people experience it for themselves.

Kittywinkles Cat Lounge is currently raising start up funds on Kickstarter. Backers can choose their reward from the project and pledge an amount to bring Kittywinkles to life. The project will run until 24th June.