Car Boot Buys

Car boot (or trunk) sale is the British form of a garage sale or market. It is usually held ones a week in an open field such as the one shown on the picture. Although some of the sellers are professional traders, most are individuals just wanting to get rid of their unwanted stuff. It is very popular across the country, as they say ''One person's junk is another person's treasure."

The car boot sale close to our home is held every Sunday. It usually starts really early in the morning and sellers stay until around lunchtime. But of course, it is always best to get there early to make sure you don't miss out on the bargains. People sell absolutely everything at a car boot sale, from home made cakes, to old clothes, unwanted gifts, old sofa, techs, meat, veggies etc. We usually come here when we want to buy vegetables and root crops that are not usually available in the supermarket (such as green papaya or sayote, sitao, gabi, yam, cassava etc). 

This photo and the one above are from Pic Search iPhone app

But before buying our vegetables, we decided to go around and see what was out there. We didn't have any expectations since we got there pretty late (we went there after hearing mass at 10am). But we were lucky coz we still found these...

We love hosting Filipino themed parties and would use our palayok and wicker plates as well as cook famous Filipino dishes. But our group is getting bigger (yay!) so we needed to get some more. Luckily we found these last Sunday, now we don't have to wait until we go home to buy some more.  We weren't expecting to see these at the car boot sale, but like I said you can find absolutely anything and everything there =) We bought 10 at 10 pence each.

We also found this stainless steel toast rack. We wanted to replace our old one & now we have, for only 50 pence. We also bought fruits & some veg there too.

But our best buy of the day was the study table for Poj. After that night when he wrote numbers 1 2 5 and letters J C D & Z by himself, I was inspired to buy him an activity desk to encourage him to draw and write more. We've got no space anywhere in the house but £2 was such a bargain compared to £17 brand new. Poj was asleep in his buggy when we bought it so you can just imagine his surprise when he saw it when he woke up! He was so happy that it kept him busy the whole afternoon!

We are planning to sell some stuff there too in the summer. It should be a fun thing to try out as a family  
as well a great way to get rid of some of the stuff that we no longer use. =)

Lunch Date

One of the reasons why we decided to watch a movie in Gunwharf Quays was because we wanted to try out this new Italian restaurant.

  The Jamie's Italian is owned by one of the celebrity chefs here in the UK, Jamie Oliver. 

I received an email giving us a 50% off on lunch (excluding drinks) for this week. It was too great an offer to miss. 

We booked a table for 1pm and we timed it well coz our movie ended a few minutes before. 

We were happy to find that our table was ready when we got there. I love the interior of the restaurant. Some of the materials used such as the stunning mosaic floor were reclaimed. It was hard to imagine that the place was a sportswear shop just a few months ago.

There is no way that you'll miss these display of antipasti as you walk in the restaurant. They also have all their breads on display and you get to see them as they are prepared before serving. 

They also sell Jamie Oliver food products, cooking gadgets, recipe books etc and these are displayed throughout the restaurant.

We didn't have to wait long before they arrived to get our orders. Our waitress was lovely and was very attentive. She knew the menu and confidently answered our questions. 

The food was a lot better than the pics. Papa E had crispy squid that was served with garlicky mayo & lemon. I had baked chestnut mushroom with crispy bread and smoked buffalo mozzarella. 

For mains I had the Angus sirloin steak with grilled mushrooms and dressed peppery watercress, cooked medium. I also ordered chips with fresh garlic and parsley which we shared. 

Papa E had the prawn linguine. Pan fried garlicky prawn with shaved fennel, tomatoes, chili and rocket with fresh pasta. 

 And we were not going to leave without trying out at least one dessert. We settled on Warm chocolate, raspberry and amaretto brownie served with vanilla ice cream. 


Our verdict: Papa E loved the crispy squid. We also think that the pasta was excellent. Adding fresh garlic and parsley to the chips have added wonderful aroma & flavours =) The steak was fine, but I have to say that I've tasted better. 
Unfortunately there was a big group of noisy girls there that made it extremely hard to hold a proper conversation. Especially when there was already a loud-ish music playing in the the restaurant. Good thing that we have been warned by friends that the place could be a bit loud & busy (since it was really popular).
Because of the name, the food were quiet expensive for what they are. Nevertheless, Papa E and I still had a good lunch. Although I am not sure if we would go back even if we're lucky to be given another voucher. x

Movie Date

Isang himala! Yup, nagdate kami ni Papa E =) Di ko na maalala kung kelan ang huli naming date kaya excited kami. We used up our last 3 days of annual leave this week (kasi ang policy sa work ay "Use it or Lose it!" - di pwedeng i-carry over for the next financial year). 

So for the first day of our leave we went to see a movie. Papa E picked the last movie we saw kaya it was my turn to choose this time. I love action movies as well as romcom. But for it to feel like a proper date, I decided on The Vow. 

The Vow is based on true events. The story is about a newlywed couple recovering from an accident that puts the wife (Rachel McAdams as Paige) in a coma. She wakes up with severe memory loss and her husband (Channing Tatum as Leo) works to win her heart again. 

The movie is fun, emotional, sad and happy. It is a nice movie, bittersweet in a good way. Some parts are unpredictable which is always good. It would definitely appeal to all romantics =)

I like the actors in the film and even if the storyline is somewhat familiar, we both like it. Coz I am one of those crazy people who believes that if two people are meant for each other, nothing can keep them apart =)

Pic from iPhone App, PhotoFind 

We went to Vue cinema in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. We've never been inside this cinema before because we don't watch movies that often, not to mention the 31-minute drive from our home. But since we wanted to try one of the new restaurants here, we decided to come and give it a go. 

We were there early since we drove straight to Gunwharf after dropping Poj off to nursery, hence the empty lobby. I don't know what time they start selling tickets in the booths but were told that you could buy tickets from these automatic ticketing machines, or online or from the food counter. We had an Orange Wednesday 241 voucher (2 tickets for the price of 1 provided by our mobile provider, Orange every Wednesday) so we had to pay for our tickets at the food counter. 

We gave the popcorn a miss but was almost tempted to buy some sweets. It was only because I could not decide which ones I like the most that I opted to not have any - yes, sometimes I  find it hard to make the easiest decisions =) 

The staff were polite and very helpful. They also told us that they could validate our parking ticket, reducing our fee to only £1.70 for 4 hours instead of £5.50. 

The Vue has 16 cinemas. We were in Cinema 11, it was very clean inside and it smells nice too. All the chairs are spacious and offers wide legroom. The VIP seats such as the one shown in the picture are specially comfy with it's soft leather cover and offers the best view in the room. 

All in all we had a lovely and romantic movie date... more, more, more (Papa E, are you reading this? lol)