Japan Trip – Pompompurin Cafe Harajuku

With all this isolation that we are currently experiencing in the UK, I am remembering daily our amazing Japan trip from January. With this, I am always thinking too about the places we ventured to and how much I love and miss them. The Pompompurin Cafe in Harajuku is one of them.

This was one of my favourite places that me and Dane ventured to, especially for food. I knew for months that I wanted to visit the Pompompurin Cafe as I have been a huge fan of the cute pudding dog since I was 11, so almost 20 years now… WOW!

The cafe is located in Cute Cube Harakuju, which is on the famous Takeshita Street. It was pretty easily to find with signs telling you where to go. You walk up some stairs to get to the cafe and you’re greeted with yellow and brown colours, an adorable entrance to the cafe itself and of course, images and figures of Pompompurin and his little animal friends.

I have to be honest and say the day we spent in Harajuku was… Strange, which is nothing to do with Harajuku. We arrived in Harajuku and I was so damn excited! However, not long after we arrived I suddenly felt light headed and nautious. Shortly after we bought a crepe I was sick and it sucked. This went on around Takeshita street for about an hour. After plenty of walking, sipping on water and visited some cute animals around Harajuku, I was ready to go and get food from the Pompompurin Cafe.

Unlike some themed cafes in Japan, you didn’t need to book a place to get a seat in the Pompompurin Cafe. You just walked in. I would image that if the cafe was busy you may put your name down on a sheet and wait, but we didn’t have a problem as the cafe was quiet. Like any eating/drinking establishment, you go in, tell the staff how many people will be seated and you’re taken to a seat in the establishment. Simple!

Inside the cafe is everything I imaged and more! I had of course read/seen reviews online about the cafe, but being there in the flesh is just so much better to be honest with you. It’s cream yellow and brown, just like Pompompurin himself, with adorable Pompompurin sofas, artwork on the walls, statues and even cute as fuck music playing. The music that was played (all of 2 tracks on a loop may I add!) was so cute and I managed to find one of them on YouTube, which I have linked above. 😀 The music made me so happy and I think Dane rather enjoyed it too. It was really catchy and we for the remainder of the trip in Japan, we caught ourselves humming the tunes. Even 3 months later, I still find myself humming the songs. 😛

The cafe itself was quiet when we got in there and for the duration of our time. There were two women sitting eating when we arrived and when we left there was a couple sat near to us, so it was very quiet… I expected it to be super busy, but as we went to Harajuku on a Monday (which is said to be the quietest day of the week), this may be why. We didn’t mind either way, it meant we got a decent table, a chance to have a good look around the cafe during our time there and take photos.

One thing I regret is not asking the staff is we could sit on one of the adorable Pompompurin sofas that was in the cafe. The couple who came in not long before we left did this. It would have made for a kawaii photo opportunity!

At the time that we visited the cafe there was actually a collaboration event going on. Hello Mandy (a Sanrio character based off of Mandy Sekiguchi) was collaborating, so we got some special place mats, as well as coasters. There were also some special menu items too, but we weren’t too interested in those choices.

The menu choices were really varied and perfect, however, when you look on the website it states which drinks/dishes are exclusive to any of the three cafes – Harajuku, Umeda or Yokohama.

I had previously taken a look on the website before we flew to Japan so I had a vague idea of what I wanted, however when we sat down and were given the menus I was a bit stuck… I ummed for ages about what to choose and thankfully in the end Dane helped me pick what I went for in the end.

We both went for desserts, as the savoury mains just weren’t for us. Whilst I was in Japan I ate a lot of sweet foods, which isn’t like me at all! I have zero regrets of what I chose to eat and I would happily choose it again.

Alongside our desserts we also ordered some drinks. For about a year the Pompompurin Cafe has brought a separate menu in for bubble tea and as we both love drinking bubble tea, we couldn’t really resist not ordering it to drink.

I went for the matcha milk and Dane went for the strawberry milk. These tasted so damn yummy and on top they have cream, which had hundreds and thousands on (sprinkles to anyone outside the UK) as well a kawaii Pompompurin biscuit! The boba was lovely and soft, I enjoyed it so much.

Also a fun Japan fact, whilst bubble tea has been around for years and has been a hit in the UK for almost 10 years now, it’s something that Japan have only recently started to serve there. There were bubble tea stores everywhere, as well as restaurants and cafes serving it in stores too.

As I mentioned before, we ordered desserts for our food as we both had sweet teeth. Dane went for the Pancake Tower and I went for the Glittery Dream Parfait.

With the Pancake Tower Dane chose he could pay an extra 300 yen to get his own little Pompompurin mug, which he decided to do. We got to see what our mug would look like, as one came with his dessert. The Pancake Tower is a stack of pancakes with fruit on the side, some squirty cream and syrup on the Pompompurin mug. Dane said when it comes down to what the dessert was like he said it was really nice, but it was a tad overwhelming due to all of the pancakes having different fillings and flavours. There was also a “tanginess” that he remembers tasting, but he still doesn’t know where it came from. This was something he didn’t like. As I said however, he did really enjoy it but did comment saying he wouldn’t have it again if we ever ventured back to the cafe.

I still cannot believe I chose the Glittery Dream Parfait. Even back home this isn’t something I would gravitate towards… Parfaits aren’t really my thing and if they are, I would usually share it with Dane or a friend. Spoiler – I didn’t finish it! 😛 The parfait was crazy and I don’t think there wasn’t anything NOT sweet in there. I love the mason jar it came in and just wish this was something you could have had the option to buy. I would have totally used it to drink out of now. Inside the parfait there were different layers, I’ll start from the bottom and go up! At the bottom was a strawberry mousse, next a middle layer mixture of cornflakes, strawberries and blueberries, on top of that there was blue yogurt (from memory I think it was vanilla) which tasted amazing and on top of all that there was some amazing fresh cream, sweeties (marshallow, shorbread biscuits, jelly beans and strawberry Pocky. The final touch was the cream and rainbow coloured sugar which was around the rim of the glass. This was such a gorgeous dessert and I’m glad I chose it for that reason alone. This dessert is actually exclusive to the Harajuku cafe, which is why Dane was so encouraging of me to go for it. This parfait was really yummy and I enjoyed it, however, I did get really full halfway through the middle layer of cornflakes and fruit and had to pass onto Dane to try and finish… Which he didn’t as he was so full from his own dessert.

 

We really did take our time whilst at the cafe, not that we ever felt like we needed to rush anyway. At some cafes you only get a certain amount of time, however, that wasn’t the case here which I loved. We made sure to take everything in, relax after a busy day around Harajuku and spend the time we had planning our last week in Japan.

I have to be honest here and say, not just me but Dane too, we both took photos of the bathroom. It was gorgeous. It looked more like a bathroom in someone’s home, rather than in a themed cafe. Even the soap dispenser was Pompompurin, which I now want for my own bathroom haha. Also, I know the focus is bad on the second image, but I couldn’t not include it.

When we were done we made sure to take advantage of how quiet it was and took some photos around the cafe, as well as with the cute statue and HUGE plushie of Pompompurin.

I took so many photos with the plushie and the statue, considering it was quiet and I had the chance to!

Of course, we also took advantage of the gift shop and bought some goodies. I was a little disappointed how “little” the gift shop seemed to be. I didn’t expect it to be huge, don’t get me wrong, but the previous three themed cafes we visited seemed to have a lot more.

Even so, we picked up some cute goodies and even managed to grab some exclusive things too, which I’ll show towards the end of this post.

I paid for our food and goodies, as this was my treat and we ventured home.

So, onto the goodies I picked up for us from the gift shop!

Pompompurin Cafe Plush Keychain – I knew I had to have this little plush keychain… Purely because I wanted an exclusive plush for the cafe, but also because I had already bought two like this from the Pokemon Cafe (which you can read all about here). Pompompurin now sits with my Pikachu and Eevee plush keychains from the Pokemon Cafe, because, why not?

Pompompurin Coin Purse – I saw this cute little purse and knew I had to have it. I know for a fact if I hadn’t picked it up, I would have regretted it. I have this in my backpack and use it for wires/headphones but I do want to change that and use it for other things. I don’t think I want to use it as a coin purse, as I won’t want it to get dirty. We’ll see!

Pompompurin Keychains (Pancakes and Heart) – I picked these up so me and Dane had matching keychains. We don’t use them for that purpose as they’re too nice, but we know when we look at them in our cabinet that they resemble our day together in Harajuku and eating at the Pompompurin Cafe. Dane picked up the one of Pompompurin holding the pancake stack ad I picked the one of him holding a heart. Very cute and also very us.

Pompompurin Cafe Mug – This of course is the mug we paid the extra 300 yen for with Dane’s pancake dessert. We don’t use it, but we keep it in our cabinet with our Pokemon Cafe goods so it’s safe. I don’t think I will ever have the heart to use it, but it makes me so happy to see in the cabinet. I honestly love Pompompurin and have done so for long.

Overall, I fell in love with the Pompompurin Cafe. It was by far one of my favourite things about Harajuku, as to be perfectly honest I was disappointed by what Takeshita Street had to offer. It’s known for it’s quirky fashion, but to me it just looked like stuff you could pick up from eBay or Wish… Hence my disappointment. This is just Takeshita Street though… When you venture away from here and to the rest of Harajuku, you discover some amazing places!

As and when me and Dane venture to Japan again, I already know we will revisit the Pompompurin Cafe, whether it be the Harajuku one, or the other two in Umeda or Yokohama.

What did you guys think of the Pompompurin Cafe in Harajuku? Would you venture there yourself for some yummy food and drinks, as well as kawaii custard puppy goodness? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, stay safe, take care and HAPPY EASTER! 🙂

Japan Trip – Pokemon Cafe

Pokemon Day was just over two weeks ago now (27th February) and as I’ve been back from Japan for a month now… Sad times…

As my first post about my trip to Japan was about the Pokemon Center’s in Tokyo and what I bought, I thought my second post should continue talking about Pokemon! Of course, I can’t not talk about the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo and my experience there, as well as a haul of what both me and Dane bought from there.

Just a warning this post is going to be a long one… Purely because I want to try and go through as much as I can, including how to book as this is something we had a mini struggle with, as well as anything else that comes to mind in regards to the Pokemon Cafe.

Let’s not chatter anymore, let’s get on with the post!

I knew that if I was going to Japan, I was going to the Pokemon Cafe! There are currently only two in Japan, the newest one in Osaka and the one in Tokyo, which we went to. The Pokemon Cafe’s have only been open a couple of years so it’s still quite a new thing and VERY popular!

First of all, if you want to go to the Pokemon Cafe be ready for a few things:

1. It can be expensive… But this can depend. If you want to try as much as you can on the menu AND buy merchandise as well, this can add up. For both of us it came to 14,600.00 yen (just over £100) but that was for food, drinks AND merchandise and we bought a lot to be honest (as you’ll see in this post).
2. You NEED to book in advance. If you don’t, you probably won’t get in. I’ll be talking about this in this post. Booking isn’t hard but it’s something you’ll have to think about first out of everything.
3. If you aren’t keen on mascots “bothering” you then I don’t know if the Pokemon Cafe will be for you. There’s a performance for quite some time with Chef Pikachu and if you have anxiety, or just don’t like this sort of thing… Then Pokemon Cafe might be one to miss… Or at least just go for a quick drink to experience it. 🙂

I didn’t have any issues and if anything, the Pokemon Cafe was one of my favourite things that me and Dane did during our trip to Japan! It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. I kind of wish we went again but at the same time, the one visit made it much more memorable.

The second thing I want to talk about is how you need to go about booking your place at the Pokemon Cafe.

Booking isn’t hard, but it can be tricky. First of all get onto the right website! You don’t need to go through any third parties in order to book the Pokemon Cafe, you can do this directly through them.

Okay… I decided whilst writing this post that I wasn’t going to type and explain to you all how to book the Pokemon Cafe… Instead I am going to link you all to the video that me and Dane watched when we were booking our reservation.

This video from AforAlyce may be from almost 2 years ago BUT IT IS STILL RELEVANT! We used this when booking ours and it was the best guide out there in all honesty.

Some issues we faced however (which wasn’t AforAlyce’s fault) are below:

• Although Google Translate is handy, it seemed to confuse the website… Especially on the calendar, so make sure to be wary because of this. It also caused some issues in regards to trying to click certain things.
• The maximum of people you can now book is 8! 😀
• At one point you will need to fill in your contact details, you put your name in English AND Hiragana. You can Google your name in Hiragana but we found this a little tricky… Just try your best though!
• Finally the reservations at the Pokemon Cafe GO QUICK as they are released a month in advance. So, make sure to book your reservation(s) when 9am hits in Japan (UK time 12am) or at least as soon as you can! We booked ours as soon as we could in the morning… Think it was about 6am!
• MAKE SURE TO ORDER THE EXCLUSIVE GOODIES IF YOU WANT THEM! YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY THESE IN THE CAFE!!!!!

Thanks to the help of a friend (Hi Connor!) he suggested the best seat for us, which is the shared counter table and we were sat right in front of Pikachu, YAY! I was so thankful for Connor’s help with this, honestly this was the best seat in the Pokemon Cafe. 🙂 Just a little plug for Connor, but he runs his own blog all about Japan! 😀 Make sure to go and check it out here!

You sit and wait to be taken to your table at the entrance of the Pokemon Cafe and once your time slot comes up, you are shown to the table/seats you booked! You walk through what feels like a heaven of a cafe… Well, at least if you’re a Pokemon fan! There are displays everywhere, including the plates, cups, bowls and cutlery you use and can buy from the cafe, plushies (some you can buy) and a MASSIVE Snorlax!

There are other displays too, which I knew of before going to the Pokemon Cafe myself, but I didn’t actually go and take a look at them until I was leaving the cafe. This was just due to how quiet the cafe was at this stage… PLUS I wanted to be sat down and start enjoying the cafe!

You’re sat down and you get an iPad to order your menu items from, including drinks. There was so much to choose from! You also have a themed place mat out in front of you, which you flip over to reveal which Pokemon you got!

If you ordered any merchandise whilst booking your place at the Pokemon Center this/these item will be in a brown Pokemon Cafe bag where you’re sitting. I loved this and inside you will find your goodies and even some brown bags for if these are gifts for people back home! I loved this so much and most of all, in the UK you would probably fret and worry if anything was missing due to theft… Not in Japan! I’ll show you what we picked up at the end of the post… 😛

So, when you are ready to order your drinks and food just tap on the iPad, select your desired language and you’re ready to go!

I’ll be honest, it was hard to choose what I wanted for a few reasons – First being price and second being that I didn’t want to not choose something and regret it later. I’m glad I splurged out and got everything that I wanted!

Drinks I went a bit crazy, but it was mostly because I really wanted to try them and I wanted the glass/mug they came in too. I went for the Pokemon Latte iced with glass and the Gengar’s Okay Hikari Smoothie with glass.

Dane just went for the Pokemon Latte Hot with mug. He wasn’t as greedy as me in regards to drinks. 😛

The drinks were one of my favourite things from the Pokemon Cafe menu, with my favourite being the Gengar grape smoothie and of course I needed to take the glass home with me. This drink was a really thick slushie (not smoothie) in the classic grape flavour that Japan loves! If you love Grape Fanta, you will adore this and if anything, it’s better! Dane regretted not getting himself one. For a small glass this lasted ages too, it was the last thing we finished before resting our bellies and paying.

The lattes (both hot and cold) were really good! You get to choose from Pokemon No.001 to No.251. I went for Eevee on my iced latte and Dane went for Growlithe on his hot latte. The mug you get your hot latte in is much different from what you get to take home with you if you decided to buy the mug. The mug you get in the Pokemon Cafe is in the shape of a Pokeball, which was really cool! I’ll be showing you guys at the end of the post the mug we got. The glass I got with my cold latte is the same as the one I got to take home. This is honestly one of my favourite things I purchased during our trip to Japan! I love using it for my favourite cold drinks, it just puts a smile on my face at how cute the glass is.

When you order drinks you also get the chance to win some coasters too, one for each drink you order. So, we got the chance to win three! We won two Grookey coasters and (name). The duplicate Grookey sits in my plushie shelf, whereas the other two we won will be stuck in our Japan trip 2020 scrapbook. FYI – You will always win a coaster. 😉

When it came down to the food choices, we had LOADS of choice, as well as some limited edition dishes. I was only going to go for one dish, but decided to go for two after discussing it with Dane. I don’t regret this at all… Even when I was so stuffed I couldn’t move!

Food wise I went for the Kabigon’s Manpuku nap lunch plate for my main and the Messon’s berry berry fruit sandwich for my dessert.

Dane went for the Eevee well plate with Eevee plate as his main and the Jigglypuff’s Musical Cheesecake for dessert.

I’m honestly so pleased with the main I ordered, which was the Snorlax nap lunch plate. Inside the Snorlax bowl (in his belly) you get rice with veg and prawns, I didn’t eat the prawns but the rice was AMAZING! It was flavoured really nicely and I enjoyed every bite. On the side you had a salad, some star shaped hash browns, pieces of pork (which were so soft and succulent!) and finally a sauce to dip your meat, hash browns, pour over your salad etc. The whole of the Snorlax nap lunch plate was perfect and honestly I couldn’t have been happier with my choice! I really struggled with what I wanted to pick for my main but I’m glad I chose this in the end.

Dane went for the Eevee plate and got to take a plate home, which we’ve now popped up on our fireplace! The plate was adorable in the sense of it was definitely kawaii and a little bit too good to eat… The first thing I noticed was the rice in the shape of Eevee’s head with edible rice paper for the ears and details of the face. I don’t think Dane minded eating Eevee’s face though… 😛 You also get a salad, some spaghetti/noodles, hash browns, chicken, some sauce and something else that he can’t quite remember.

Whilst we were eating out food Chef Pikachu came around to greet us, which was adorable! This little show must have lasted about an hour max, but that’s with Chef Pikachu moving around the whole of the Pokemon Cafe. Basically, you get a little show from Chef Pikachu where he thanks you for coming to the cafe and you thank him for the food! The show was adorable and I filmed loads of it on my phone, which I’m sadly not going to share on my blog (this is more for personal).

Eventually when Pikachu had thanked us he moved to the next area of the Pokemon Cafe, which meant we could continue to eat our food. I’m not going to lie, it would have been hard (and kind of rude!) to carry on eating our food during the show. The show was at a perfect time though and we definitely had the best place in the cafe for it!

After we finished our mains we waited for our desserts to arrive, which didn’t take long to be honest with you! We were sat near the kitchen so we got our food and drinks pretty quick, which was great.

Originally the only dish I was going to order from the Pokemon Cafe was the Sobble dessert and whilst I loved the dessert I ordered, I’m still glad I ordered more! This is a limited edition dish which is actually finishing after this weekend, however, originally it was meant to end towards the end of January when we were due to come back home. They extended it, which is cool! This was such a lovely, light dessert and I enjoyed it so much! It’s a sponge sandwich type thing that is meant to be the shape of Sobble’s head, with cream and blueberries in the middle. Alongside this you had some more blueberries, a pot of blueberry cream and a little bottle of lemon juice. When your poured the lemon juice into the blueberry cream it turned it from a blue colour to purple! Very cool and I loved it so much, it definitely worked perfectly alongside the type of Pokemon Sobble is.

I have to say I love blueberries but due to how full I was from the main I just couldn’t handle it all, so Dane had to help me finish. I really struggled and that is not a bad thing! For how much you pay to sit and eat these amazing dishes in the Pokemon Cafe, you really do get your moneys worth.

Dane’s dessert looked so cute and seemed perfect to have after a big meal, as it also looked light. The Jigglypuff shape of the cheesecake was kawaii and he couldn’t have chosen anything better! This is sadly now discontinued, so I’m glad Dane picked it up before it was gone forever! It’s a berry cheesecake so had a pink tint for Jigglypuff, some biscuits in the shape of musical notes and some cream and berries. As I said, perfect and light after a big meal!

After we had finished eating and had relaxed our full bellies a little, it was time to head to the till and pay. However, before doing that we made sure to take advantage of the photo opportunities around the Pokemon Cafe and have a nose at the merchandise on offer.

There’s a bench you can sit on in the Pokemon Cafe with huge plushies of both Chef and Waitress Pikachu. This is a great place for all the photo opportunities, which we made sure to take advantage of!

We also took some photos around the Pokemon Cafe at all the displays we viewed briefly as we walked through to our table and there were some pretty cool ones in there such as LEGO version of the Snorlax and Mew that is outside of the Pokemon Cafe AND Pokemon Center Tokyo DX (which you can read about here) and various prints from artists, which are also signed. It’s very cool!

 

 

Finally we decided to have a nosey at the merchandises we contemplated picking up. The only I ended up picking up for myself was the Pokemon Cafe red takeaway mug. I’ve wanted it for years, so I knew I wanted to pick it up from the cafe.

When we went to pay we were given the goods we had bought when we ordered our drinks and dishes from the menu, these includes the two glasses (Gengar and iced latte), a Pikachu mug (hot latte) and the Eevee plate from Dane’s main.

I had to add here I was a tad gutted about the mug I received… As Eevee is one of my favourite Pokemon, that’s the one I wanted. However, the staff wouldn’t give me one and said it wasn’t available, so I can only assume it was sold out, which is a shame! There will always be chances to get hold of it from sellers though. 🙂

The service was incredible at the Pokemon Cafe! The staff were all so bubbly and friendly to talk to and the majority of them spoke English too, even when you were trying to/were speaking Japanese, which was really nice.

Finally I want to show you guys all the goodies we came away with from the Pokemon Cafe, because I know you all love that sort of thing! 😛

First of all I’ll show the goodies we got when we made our reservations. Again, these are exclusive and can only be purchased when reserving your place at the Pokemon Cafe!

Pokémon Cafe Mascot Chef Pikachu – This little plush keychain plus is adorable and it really is a special item for me and Dane. Of course it is Chef Pikachu, the same one (well obvs not EXACTLY the same) that comes around in the cafe and greets you all. This is a mascot plush, so one you would typically keep on your bag and such, but instead we have popped this little guy in our plushie cabinet/case in our bedroom.

Pokémon Mascot Cafe Eevee – Honestly I love this Eevee so much! As many of you MUST know by now, I love Eevee, so when I first saw this little waitress/waiter Eevee I knew we had to order one! I wish this plush was in a bigger size in all honesty. It has the little red cap that the staff wear in the Pokemon Cafe. Like Chef Pikachu, this one is also in our plushie cabinet/case.

Pokémon Cafe Clear File 3 Piece Set (Reservation Bonus 2) – We knew we wanted to get some files for our trip in Japan, as a lot of places we ventured to (aka cafes) have the place mats that you fold/roll up and take home, so we wanted some files that we could do that with. We never actually used these, or any of the other files that we bought for this purpose. Even so these files will be handy for D&D BUT, I have started to wonder if you could frame these and hang them up like prints! These would especially look great around the house and in the kitchen. I have to add, the first file is by far my favourite! The mascots from the Pokemon Cafe are adorable. 🙂

Now onto the items we bought when ordering our food, as well as after when we were paying for our meal/goods. I also want to mention how aside from the Eevee plate, everything we bought below was packaged in sturdy Pokemon Cafe boxes, so we didn’t have to worry too much about bringing everything back… Although I did wrap the glasses and mug up in newspaper just to be sure. 🙂

Gengar Glass – I knew I needed this glass, it just looks really cool! BUT I didn’t quite know what to expect when I saw it out of the box and without the grape smoothie in! It’s a tinted purple glass, with the Gengar face we all know and lo… Are frightened of. 😛 It also has the Pokemon Center logo at the bottom of the glass too. I haven’t used this glass since we got home and if anything we have decided to keep it safe in our cabinet, alongside some of the other goodies we picked up in Japan, including the Pikachu mug we picked up in the Pokemon Cafe too.

Pokemon Cafe Glass – This is one of the few kitchen related items I grabbed from the Pokemon Cafe that I ACTUALLY use. 😛 I love my Pokemon Cafe glass and although I do get so anxious when I use it, I love it so much and it really does make me smile to use. It’s such a gorgeous design and I can’t really describe what the glass is like over than it shouts the Pokemon Cafe at you! On one side you have the Pokemon Cafe logo and a few various images of Chef Pikachu and Waitress Pikachu doing things in the cafe. 🙂 It’s perfect and just reminds me of the cafe whenever I look at it and use it.

Pikachu Mug – This was one of the things that Dane got and you could either choose between the Eevee or Pikachu mug. As I mentioned earlier, we wanted the Eevee mug but wasn’t available for us, so the Pikachu one came home with us and you know what? I actually really love the Pikachu mug! It’s so cute and well made to be honest with you. The handle is Pikachu’s tail, whilst the mug itself has a cute image of the happy Pikachu we have all grown up with over the years. It also has the Pokemon Center logo on the other side of the mug. It’s a lovely bright yellow colour which will really stand out in the cupboard where you keep your mugs!

Eevee Plate – This is the plate Dane got with his meal, of course he got a brand new plate, not the one he ate off of. 😛 This is a sturdy plastic plate in the shape of Eevee’s head and of course has an image of Eevee’s face on the plate too! It’s incredibly cute and I really love it! We weren’t 100% sure what we were going to do with it when we got home and we toyed with many ideas, eventually we decided to display it on our fireplace with one of my Eeveelutions prints and some figures. I love it so much and it really does brighten up our fireplace a litte.

Pokémon Cafe Red Logo Mug – Ever since the Pokemon Cafe opened in 2018 I have been eyeing up this red travel mug… I’ve nearly bought it from sellers on a couple of occasions but left it because I kept saying to myself, “Nat, you’ll be going yourself soon enough to get one yourself.” Two years later and I went and got! I’m so glad I picked this up as the quality is amazing! The lid feels really secure when you pop it on the top and not only can you drink hot drinks from this, but there’s space for a straw in the top too for cold drinks! I use this all the time for work if I fancy a coffee on my way, as well as if I want to grab a coffee as I’m heading to my desk for the day. I always get lovely compliments on it too. The pattern on the mug is similar to the one on the Pokemon Cafe glass I bought, with the Pokemon Cafe logo and some words.

So, would I recommend going to the Pokemon Cafe? Excuse my language but FUCK YES! If you are going to Japan and happen to be in Tokyo or Osaka (or both places for that matter!) then I would highly recommend to book yourself a reservation to the Pokemon Cafe before you go! Of course if you aren’t a fan of Pokemon, this may not be for you but honestly if you are, or at least were as a kid this will definitely bring back some nostalgia for you.

It was up there as one of my favourite places to go, as well as eat at whilst we were in Japan and I already know as and when I venture to Japan again, I’ll definitely book a reservation for the Pokemon Cafe for a second time. It was worth every penny and I was so happy during my time there.

What do you guys think of the Pokemon Cafe? Would you love to go? Go over to the website and tell me what you would order from the menu! Have you been to the Pokemon Cafe before? Let me know in the comments with which one you visited and what you had to eat.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far! 🙂

Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Party*

If there is one thing I really love it’s food and if there is another thing I love it’s making food. So when I was invited by Coventry Bloggers to attend the Auntie Anne’s pretzel party last month, I definitely couldn’t turn it down!

In Birmingham we don’t actually had an Auntie Anne’s, although we used to many years ago before Grand Central was finished and this amazing little pretzel place was taken away with the rest of The Pallasades shopping centre. So for me it’s very nostalgic to go into Auntie Anne’s whenever I visit Coventry, as well as a MASSIVE treat.

There are a couple of Auntie Anne’s stores in Coventry, one in the Ricoh Arena Park Shopping Centre as well as West Orchards Shopping Centre too, with the Pretzel Party being in the latter!

We were told we would get the chance to make our own pretzels and although I’ve made my own at home in the past, I didn’t quite know what to expect when it came to making pretzels with Auntie Anne’s!

I was so excited for the event and made my way to Coventry nice and early to make sure I got there in good time, which I did. Me and the Cov Blogger girls got talking before the event and it was a lovely start to a Sunday afternoon.

This was a gifted experience for promotional and reviewing purposes, so all views on this post are entirely my own.

We were told we would each get the chance to make a sweet pretzel with either vanilla sugar or cinnamon sugar. As I’ve only tried the latter I was excited to give vanilla sugar a go!

We went up individually to the table and was shown how to roll out the pretzel dough and then do a special technique to get that pretzel shape we all know and love.

I was really nervous about this at first, but after watching Amy (Writing into the Ether) give it I go, I was confident enough to go next!

It was so much fun and I was so pleased that I got my pretzel shape first time around! Apparently I did the best out of everyone and due to this I featured on the live video that day over on the Coventry Bloggers Instagram page.

Once these were all done, they were put on a tray and ready to be put into the oven! Whilst the first group of us were waiting for our goods to bake we were give an amazing little goody bag each, as well as some new sweet goodies to try.

In our goody bags we either received Cinnamon Nuggets* or Vanilla Nuggets*, I received the latter and they were so yummy! So bite sized and perfect for on the go if you want something sweet to snack on. These were lovely and warm when we were given them too so I made sure to eat as many as I could whilst they were. I did end up taking half of the pot home to share with Dane. We also got a cup of their Fresh Lemonade* which was so damn refreshing and yummy! I’d never tried it from Auntie Anne’s before and I really did enjoy it. I could have easily had another cup.

We got to try one of their new sweet treats which is a pancake/crepe shaped pretzel dough mixture with loads of chocolate drops inside! It was okay, but a little too chocolatey for me…

I’m not a Twix fan but when I saw that they had wrapped pretzel dough around one, I knew I had to give this a go. That was good! I really enjoyed it to be honest with you and would definitely pick it up again if I fancied something really sweet.

After we got to try those sweet treats, it was time to coat our cooked pretzels in yummy sugar goodness! I opted for the cinnamon sugar as I intended on giving Dane my cooked pretzel. He loves them just as much as I do, especially the cinnamon sugar ones. Due to this I sadly never took a photo of the pretzel… 😦

Shortly after this and as the event was beginning to come to a close, I decided to grab some yummy food to eat around Coventry and then headed home.

I honestly love Auntie Anne’s so much and whilst I’m talking about it, I’m seriously craving everything, especially my favourite – the little hot dog rolls. I also love the dutch ice (Slush Puppies to you and me!) and was sad that I didn’t pick one up that day, as it was really warm!

Overall I had SO MUCH FUN at the pretzel party and was delighted to take part in the live stream too!

Do you like pretzels? Have you been to Auntie Anne’s before? Let me know your favourite flavour of pretzel. Mine is either sesame or pepperoni and cheese.

Until next time all, take care and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Esquires Coffee Coventry – New Menu Review*

I do apologise for how quiet I have been the past week on my blog! I just feel like I have been so busy throughout March and time for myself just didn’t happen. So I stopped and allowed myself to have that time. 😛

Last week I was invited through Coventry Bloggers to attend Esquires Coffee in Coventry to test their new menu, which launched on the 1st March.

Myself alongside some new and old faces were invited along to trial a dish of our choice from the menu. I’ve been to Esquires Coffee in Coventry a couple of times now and I really love it! The baristas really know their coffee and as someone who used to be a barista, I love when someone is passionate about what their do and has plenty of knowledge behind it.

When I heard there was food on offer, I was in there! What can I say, I love food and especially good food, which I already knew Esquires Coffee would offer.

Myself and the other Coventry Bloggers got the chance to have a look at what the new menu had to offer before the evening at Esquires Coffee. We also got the chance to pre-order food that we wanted to eat and review on the evening too, which I thought was great!

I was so torn with what I wanted to eat, as the menu has loads of yummy dishes on offer! There’s a massive range of breakfast and brunch dishes, as well as deli. I finally settled on something from the breakfast and brunch menu, which was the Eggs royale* [GIFTED].

All the food and drinks I received at Esquires Coffee Coventry were gifted to myself in exchange for a review on my blog, so as always I’ve popped a * in the title of this post, as well as * next to items I was gifted ANNNNND of course [GIFTED] is in here too. 🙂

I travelled straight from work to the event so was ready to fill myself with yummy breakfast foods and coffee! On arrival the staff asked us what we would like to drink. They’d recently released their cortado* [GIFTED] drinks into store, which I was rather excited by. For those of you who may not know a cortado is an espresso sized drink which I’ve always described as a flat white in espresso size. The coffee is strong and the milk is velvet and smooth. I loved drinking them every now and then when I worked at Costa Coffee but since leaving over 3 years ago I’ve not had one until last week at the event.

The cortado I was served at Esquires Coffee was delicious and perfect! I also loved the gorgeous little fern on the top of my drink. I was very happy with my choice of hot drink and after I finished it, I knew I’d be ordering another one before I headed home from the event. Random but I’m sure I ordered a cortado with vanilla syrup… But I cant remember if I did or not! 😛 Either way it was delicious!

Through this event I got to meet some of the new Coventry Bloggers, as well as see some familiar faces! I got to meet some lovely girls, who were all so chatty and bubbly. It’s been nice seeing them again since this event too, as well as talking to them on social media.

After loads of chatting, taking photographs and drinking our coffees our food started to come out one by one to each person. Most people seemed to have the same thing and a pattern of the Esquires full vegan breakfast were starting to emerge. That was one thing I loved the most about this new breakfast menu, the vegan full breakfast being offered!

I know, I’m not vegan but I LOVE when I see places offering these options to people. It’s always good if you’re with someone who IS vegan and even if I’m not vegan now, what if I decide to be in the future? It’s always good to know what my options could be in the future!

The range of breakfast items on this new menu were amazing, which is why I found it so hard to choose something to eat. As I mentioned earlier, I ended up going with the Eggs royale. This includes two eggs, cured smoked salmon, baby spinach and hollandaise sauce on toasted English muffin. Right up my street, I’m a sucker for salmon! This costs £7.45 which I feel is such a reasonable price for how much you get.

By the way, the sausage isn’t included! Emily (The Emily Chapters) asked me if I wanted anything else with my food and for some reason I said, “Erm… A sausage would be good!” and I got one! I don’t know why I wanted a sausage… Maybe I just fancied one? It was yummy. 😛

I couldn’t wait to dig into my eggs royale though! I made sure to film some egg yolk porn over on my Instagram stories the night of the event. It was definitely fun to watch back. 😛 The eggs were perfectly poached and the salmon was thicker than it looked. It was perfect all around and although this is a breakfast meal, I’d gladly eat it at any time of the day!

It was lovely talking to everyone about what food they’d chosen and were eating! Some people also had sandwiches, which looked AMAZING! Alongside people having hot food, there were also some pastries too, one of them being a raspberry/strawberry croissant* [GIFTED]. I can’t remember which it was, but I feel like it was raspberry. It was so pretty to look at (and of course take photos of! :P) but it was so yummy too. It had slight jam in the middle, which I’m never usually a fan of but it was so good! I regret not ordering a pastry to try from the menu to be fair, but I know in future I’ll happily venture to Coventry Bloggers for coffee and pastries in the future!

After the meal I decided to order myself another cortado but this time I had a mocha cortado with coconut milk* [GIFTED].

It was AMAZING and I was so glad I ordered it! Ages ago I tried a mocha with coconut mil and loved it so much. I am a massive soya hot chocolates as I find the soya milk can give them a really nice nutty flavour to the drink. The coconut milk works really well in this drink and if anything compliments both the coffee and chocolate flavours.

This was lovely drink to wrap up the meal and I was so glad I ordered it. I’d definitely order it again in the future from Esquires Coffee!

We had more of a natter at the end of the meal and then headed off home. I had a lovely journey back home and I especially felt great that I’d made some new blogger friends and got to have a catch up with some old faces.

This was one of my first blog events of 2019 and I loved it so much!

So, do you think you’ll venture to Esquires Coffee in Coventry soon to check out and try their new menu? If so what would you order yummy?

I also want to know what drinks you order when you go to coffee shops? I usually order a flat white with vanilla if I want coffee or a soya hot chocolate with marshmallows if I want a treat!

I loved this event so much and now I’m craving eggs royale. 😛

Until next time all, I hope you’re having a lovely weekend!

Currently #10

It’s July and it has also been WAY TOO LONG since I last wrote a currently list! List number 9 was way back in March. It honestly feels like yesterday when I was writing that one which I’ll also link here if you want to go and check it out! 😀

Due to the minor issues that have come up on my blog with Photobucket (which I wrote about recently here) not allowing my images to show anymore (IN MY HEAD IT’S ACTUALLY A FUCKING CAR CRASH AND I’M BURNING…) I’m trying to quickly get a blog post out there for you awesome lot!

It’s my day off and I could easily say I have done sod all, but I’ve actually done LOADS of housework and had to pop out with Dane this afternoon to run some errands and get the McFlurry that I’ve been craving for God knows how long (FYI before anymore suggests, no I am not pregnant. I’m just a fat bitch and love ice cream. :P) so that was pretty awesome, especially considering how hot it is today.

So now after playing Persona 5 for a couple of hours and cooking me and Dane dinner I’m now sat at the computer with every window open, my headphones on and my random playlist of music on.

Let’s get on with currently number 10! 😀

Watching – I can’t honestly say I’ve watched anything major recently. Me and Dane finished RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9 and my girl Sasha Velour won, which I was so damn happy and proud of! She definitely did the best throughout the competition in my opinion so I’m just so chuffed. Me and my best friend Gabriella have already said we’ll be going to see her live when she comes to the UK. Oh man I cannot wait for that day! We also finished watching Attack on Titan season 2 and it was fucking amazing! I didn’t feel bored at all throughout and if anything was on the edge of my seat after every single episode. Dane is up to date on the manga series at the moment which is quite far ahead of the anime, so after every episode ended I would turn to him and ask him to explain what’s going on and what will happen next. I won’t talk too much about it as I know whilst a lot of UK fans have watched it, I also know some who read my blog and haven’t. I don’t want to spoil any of it for you lovely lot, just hurry up and watch it already! 😉

Image taken from Netflix

A show we did binge watch last month however was GLOW, which is a Netflix exclusive show created by the same people at Orange is The New Black, which we also binge watched last month and for your information, Piper still annoys the fuck out of me. ANYWAY! GLOW is about the Glamorous Women of Wresting and is set in the 80’s. From looking for a gif for this post I discovered that this was an ACTUAL thing in the 80’s, which I think is pretty cool! At first I wasn’t sure if I would like the show as the trailer didn’t really do it any justice after watching. I also worried I would dislike the main character Ruth. She’s an aspiring actress who can’t seem to get a break and a role that she so badly wants. That is until she joins GLOW. Some other stuff happens along the show and it just makes the show great! My favourite character by far is Sam, who is the director of GLOW. He’s got a sarcastic and dry sense of humour which I love so damn much. At times I just wanted to reach into the screen and pat him on the back… and maybe a cuddle. They’ve already announced a season 2 by the looks of it and judging by how season 1 ended it needs to have another season! I cannot wait to be honest as I already know it’ll be amazing. I already miss all the characters.

Reading – I’ve really not been reading as much as I used to and instead have replaced that with playing Persona 5 and focusing loads of my blog. This is also mainly due to manga series I’m reading being finished or having to wait for new volumes to come out. I did however recently buy Your Name (Kimi no Na wa in Japanese) manga, to coincide with the anime movie with the same name. I finished the first volume recently and it is amazing! I’m really excited to read the rest as they have added a little more to the manga than they did in the anime. I also recently bought volume 3 of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. I really love the manga as again, it is telling  more of a story than the anime did. Volume 3 also appears to introduce a new dragon that watchers of the anime won’t have seen yet! Other than that, that is all I have read recently. I still have K-ON! to read but I want to save those for my holiday. I can’t see this happening however. 😛

Listening – I haven’t really listened to any new albums lately, not even the new cKy album, which I have shocked myself with! Sadly I just haven’t felt like I’ve had time to sit down and properly listen to it. I might however get Dane to download it tomorrow if not over the weekend for us to listen to together after I finish work over the weekend.

I have found myself listening to loads of anime and game music however, which I’m loving! One of the opening songs from Gintama has stuck in my head and I love it so much! There is a full version of this song but I thought I’d just show the one from the actual opening. This is an anime Dane has been watching so when I heard this song I instantly fell in love with the chorus. It’s just so damn catchy and sounds so positive. Also as weeabo as this sounds, Gintama is a little itty bitty titty hot. xD

Otherwise any other music I’ve been listening to lately has been a mixture of Nirvana, Daft Punk and random bits and pieces on both my YouTube account and on my iPod.

Eating – Mmm food huh? I haven’t really been eating properly lately due to my mental health acting up. I find if anything I’ve not eaten anything special and just binging on carbs, but that’s the norm for me! 😛 Me and Dane have eaten less takeaways lately which is great of course! 😛

Me and Dane did recently visit an amazing milkshake and waffle place with our friends Lee and Sam and it was amazing. I went for a Ferraro Roche waffle and surprisingly I ate it all! Me and Dane also shared a Nutella milkshake actually out of a Nutella jar, which had a brownie on the top! It was really nice but a little too sugary for myself. Otherwise it was great and I can see us all going there again in the future.

Wearing – God it’s been so damn hot that I feel like I’ve hardly been wearing anything! Been living in dresses and my short pyjamas pretty much. I bought a couple of Pokemon pairs from Primark recently and I still wear them to death and wear them loads. I’ve also been wearing the cKy baseball tee I bought at their gig to death! I love it so much and a part of me can see me taking it on holiday to wear to chill out in in the day and evenings. I also bought myself a Pikachu dress recently and I’ve only worn it once so far but I intend to wear it again very soon. For how much I paid for it it’s so damn comfortable and makes me feel great when I wear it.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Wanting – Oh what don’t I want? To win loads of money on a scratch card, to have more holiday time from work so I can do stuff to the house and speaking of the house new windows! A holiday to Japan is also another thing I desperately want right now. There’s all sorts I want though to be honest. I’ve fallen in love with a few pieces from the VANS x Peanuts collection, as well as some Killstar dresses. OH and don’t even get me started on some of the latest Nendoroid releases that both me and Dane want. It’s all just money though at the moment. Right now though all I want is a break. A break from my anxiety as my head is on and off a mess right now and it pisses me off something awful. 😦

Wow so that was my currently number 10! I love that I’ve written that many over the past couple of years now and it makes me so happy. I’m not going to stop here though, I’ll continue writing these as I really love to be able to keep you guys up to date on things I’m currently loving.

Of course I would love to hear what things you’re currently loving. Make sure to let me know in the comments tomorrow if not over at my Twitter page @maybeecoffee

Until next time take care all, I hope you’re having a great week so far. Not long not and it’ll be the weekend!

Currently #9

I know it hasn’t been that long since my last currently list but I thought it would be nice to write another considering how much stuff I have been currently doing! I’m pretty damn excited to write about a lot of them… I would have waited for my day off tomorrow to write this but the ideas and thoughts of it just came to me, so I have to get it typed and published tonight! I’m sure it’ll make some good bedtime reading for some, as well as some equally as good morning reading for others. 😛

Watching – Lately me and Dane have been watching a lot of anime if not just anime. Why? Well because we can and we want to! Before Christmas Dane bought a membership to Funimation which enables anime lovers to watch loads of anime with English dub instead of English sub. We don’t mind either way how we watch anime but sometimes if we’re multi-tasking we much prefer dubbed. We also have a membership to Crunchyroll which we use to watch subbed anime. ANYWAY! So lately we’ve been watching Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Masamune-Kun’s Revenge on Funimation and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has fast become one of my favourite anime shows! I want to read the manga for it next, the same goes with Masamune-Kun’s Revenge too. They’re both completely different to one another which is what I like. Dane got me into both of them which is really cool.

Masamune-Kun’s Revenge is a slice of life style anime where you get to see Masamune try to get a girl to fall in love with him only to break her heart. Why does he want to do this? To gain revenge for years of being bullied by her! It’s very funny and one you should check out if you like comedy romance style anime.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is completely different and not slice of life or realistic at all and I think you can gather that from the title alone! As it states Kobayashi has a dragon maid. She befriends Tohru after a drunken night out and tells her she can come and stay with her and become her maid. From there we see them live their lives together with Tohru mostly in her human form and occasionally in her dragon form. We also see Tohru’s dragon friends becoming human too and joining her and Kobayashi’s friends. My favourite dragon so far is Kanna, the youngest of the dragons and therefore the cutest! 😀

Reading – I have been reading so much manga lately that I feel like I can’t keep on top of the addiction it has fast become! Since the start of the year I have either finished or started four series of different manga. WOW! I’ve not read this much since 2009 when I discovered the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I remember binge reading them late into the night. I have read and finished both Your Lie in April and Paradise Kiss, which I loved and will hopefully be reviewing in the future! Your Lie in April was an amazing manga to read and everyday during my break at work I found myself getting through a book a day and soon enough the series had finished and I had no more to read. It ended sadly but not as sad as I imagined to be honest, but I put this down to already knowing what was going to happen. Paradise Kiss was bought for me by Dane for my birthday this year and I bought the third and final volume myself. This is a manga by the same person as Nana and I didn’t know what to expect when reading it. I loved it and it was realistic and romantic at the same time but without too much romance. I did really love reading it and it was different to what I normally read. I especially love how Ai Yazawa breaks the fourth wall with her manga, it’s not something I’ve seen anyone else do… Yet. I started reading Nichijou, which I love but I’m in no hurry to continue with just yet.

Image take from weheartit.com

I’m currently reading A Silent Voice which alongside Elfen Lied, Nana and Your Lie in April has fast become one of my favourites… If not my number one favourite right now. The story is so realistic and amazing. It talks about bullying and how it can affect everyone so well and is definitely the sort of thing I love to write myself. It has inspired me even more to create my own manga series in the future. Me and Dane went to watch the anime movie of A Silent Voice yesterday and it was amazing. I’ll be reviewing it VERY soon.

Listening – In February me and Dane booked for us to go and see cKy in May! AHHH I’M SO EXCITED! I’ve been a fan of the band since I was fifteen and have always wanted to see them live, but just never got the chance… Until now! I’ve been listening to most of their albums since then as I just forgot how much I love listening to their stuff. My favourite album of theirs definitely has to be Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild. I don’t know why, just all of the tracks make me so happy and I can sing them loudly, one after the other. I love all of their other albums of course, but this one just stands out the most. My favourite song from it is Plastic Plan, which I’ve put the music video for above. Let me warn you, it’s really fucking old. 😛

Image taken from weheartit.com

Eating – There’s not really much I’ve been eating lately that’s any different to lately. If anything me and Dane haven’t been following out diet like we were at the start of the year. We have cut out a lot of junk mind and still have, but at the same time we’ve been binging on things. We recently discovered that at one of our local Asian supermarkets you can buy birthday cake Oreo’s, as well as matcha flavoured Oreo’s and they weren’t as expensive as you’d think either. Just over £1 a packet! I wish we had bought more but meh got to be good. 😛

Wearing – To be honest I haven’t really been wearing anything too special lately… If anything I’ve worn a dress I bought in the Christmas sales in 2016 for a day out with Dane and an evening out with my dad and brother. I also recently bought a dress for a family wedding I’m attending this weekend. That will be exciting to go to! I would show pictures but I’m not too keen on showing them on my blog. Not because they’re horrible or anything, but they’re just not the sort of pictures I feel will work on a post. I’m waffling. 😛

Wanting – I really want a holiday to be honest. Even if it isn’t abroad, just for me and Dane to get away for a week max and have a relaxing time would be lovely. We did look to go to a spa weekend for his birthday in April but sadly due to everywhere being pretty much booked for Easter we aren’t really able to do that. We’re going to try and see if we can do something in June instead for our anniversary, but we shall see!

So that was my currently list number nine! Wow before we know it it’ll be my tenth one which is kind of weird to be honest. They’ve all flown by so quickly. To be honest this whole year is already flying by quickly. 😛

What’s on your currently lists right now? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Currently #8

Wow it’s been a whole seven months since I last wrote a currently list! Well no time like the present and I have a long time to catch up with to be honest! I still can’t believe how long it’s been since I last wrote a currently, I guess it just goes to show how busy I’ve been.

Watching – I’ve been watching all sorts of stuff recently but for some reason throughout November and December me and Dane were watching LOADS of anime! I love anime so much and at times I go months without watching it, only to come back to it and realise how much I miss it. We’ve been watching various different anime’s at the moment but a couple in general that we’ve been watching are Penguindrum and Your Lie in April.

When I was first talking to Dane I was making my way through Penguindrum (known in Japan as Mawaru Penguindrum) and it’s a very strange anime, but one I will never forget as it does leave an impact on you due to the story line. I had told Dane about it before and for years he wanted to watch it but it was always expensive to buy. However when we were at Comic Con in November (you can read about what fun we had here) we found the anime for £20, which was a bargain! We haven’t actually finished watching it together yet BUT we’ve watched most of it and I forgot how weird and funny the show can be. To quickly explain what it’s about…

With their parents gone, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma live alone with their beloved little sister Himari, whose poor health cannot decline any further. On the day Himari is given permission to temporarily leave the hospital, her brothers take her out to the aquarium to celebrate, where the family’s supposed fate is brought forth with her sudden collapse. However, when Himari is inexplicably revived by a penguin hat from the aquarium’s souvenir shop, the hand of fate continues to tick faithfully forward. With her miraculous recovery, though, comes a cost: there is a new entity within her body, whose condition for keeping her fate at bay sends the boys on a wild goose chase for the mysterious “Penguin Drum.” In their search, the boys will have to follow the threads of fate leading from their own shocking past and into the lives of other wishmakers vying for the Penguin Drum, all hoping to land upon their chosen destiny. (Taken from My Anime List)

I decided to attach a funny video of the penguins in the show, as they’re probably the best part of the anime. 😀

Another anime I mentioned that we’ve been watching is Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso in Japanese) which I am yet to finish watching. It’s currently on Netflix but for my birthday Dane bought me the first Blu Ray (you can read about that here) which I loved so much! My favourite anime is Nana because of how romantic and beautifully realistic and powerful the story line is, BUT this is definitely one that could have overrode Nana as I love the story line so damn much! I recently guessed how it ends, which I’m gutted about. I’ll pop a little synopsis for this anime as well, even though I’m sure the trailer above will do it justice!

Music accompanies the path of the human metronome, the prodigious pianist Kousei Arima. But after the passing of his mother, Saki Arima, Kousei falls into a downward spiral, rendering him unable to hear the sound of his own piano. Two years later, Kousei still avoids the piano, leaving behind his admirers and rivals, and lives a colorless life alongside his friends Tsubaki Sawabe and Ryouta Watari. However, everything changes when he meets a beautiful violinist, Kaori Miyazono, who stirs up his world and sets him on a journey to face music again. Based on the manga series of the same name, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso approaches the story of Kousei’s recovery as he discovers that music is more than playing each note perfectly, and a single melody can bring in the fresh spring air of April. (Taken from My Anime List)

Reading – I’ve been reading quite a lot of manga lately! Reading books isn’t really something I do anymore… Which is a shocker considering I love writing. I actually blame my masters to be honest. I read so much shit during my course (is that too much to admit? :P) that I think I’ve read enough to last me a while.

Image taken from weheartit.com

ANYWAY… I finally finished reading Nana and I felt so numb and deflated at the end of it because of writer and artist of the manga hasn’t finished it yet. I want to know how it ends so I won’t be able to find out until she returns from her hiatus. I thought I was going to cry as I came close to finishing the manga due to what happens and what I’ve already said, but I was okay. I’ll just have some hope that someday soon I’ll be able to know what has happened to certain characters.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Dane and his parents bought me quite a lot of manga for Christmas and my birthday so I have loads to keep me occupied for a while. Before Christmas however Dane gave me the first volume of Your Lie in April which I loved reading! Since then I’ve been gifted some more and bought all of them, so now I have the whole collection! I intend to spend the next couple of weeks reading the series as I want to know what happens.

As well as that I was gifted some other manga books too which I intend to get through after Your Lie in April.

Listening – I don’t think I’ve actually mentioned it on my blog recently but I went to see The Pretty Reckless live nearly two weeks ago and I can safely say I had an amazing time and definitely had some post gig blues a few days later. Dane went with me and it was our first gig together, which was also really lovely. I’d seen The Pretty Reckless support Evanescence back in 2011 and I loved the show so much. I had heard The Pretty Reckless’ stuff before but had never thought much about it until that gig. From then on I fell in love and they’re one of my favourite bands now. Their new album came out in October so since then I’ve been listening to the album loads, especially recently after seeing them play. One of my favourite songs from the new album is “Take Me Down” which was the first single they released from the album. As well as that I also love the first song on the album “The Walls Are Closing In / Hangman”.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Eating – Since the start of the New Year I’ve changed my diet so much! Both me and Dane realised that since moving into the house we’ve not exactly been eating as well as we could or should so we said we would change the way we eat and what we eat. I’ve been making a lot of stuff myself, including chips and let me tell you, my own chips are the best! I’d prefer to make my own than go to the chippy for example. I’ll be popping my recipe up on my blog in February as they’re too nice not to share. As well as that I’ve baked a couple of times since my birthday including gingerbread men (and foxes!) as well as a red velvet cake loaf.

Wearing – I’m not going to lie when I admit I’ve been living in my lounge wear the majority of the year so far. I bought myself a new pair of Victoria Secret PINK boyfriend pants, which I picked up in the sale. They were meant to be £29.00 but the sticker on them said £21.00 so I got them cheaper than I should have! WOOP! As well as that I have been wearing my Ohayou Clothing Eevee varsity jacket loads since Dane gave it me for Christmas. At The Pretty Reckless gig I bought one of their t-shirts before the show and picked up a raglan tee. I love these and would love to get more! This new addition to my wardrobe is one I’ve worn quite a lot already as it’s just so comfortable and I often team it up with my PINK pants, which are a dusky rose pink by the way. 😛

Wanting – I’m trying to be all spending ban at the moment and as hard as I try I do keep seeing things I want. ARGH! But right now the one thing I REALLY REALLY WANT is tickets to go and see Evanescence in June. They’ve released another date which isn’t yet sold out and sadly due to lack of funds I can’t afford to go, BUT I’m going to see what I can do. I want me and Dane to go to London for a few days for the show, to have a look around London and just enjoy ourselves. We’ve had a very busy seven months since we got the  keys to our house and I think we deserve a break and something to look forward to. Sadly we can’t afford to go aboard on holiday right now, so why not just go somewhere for a couple of days? I’ll see what I can do. Maybe make it a surprise. 🙂

SO I finally have a currently list since when me and Dane first got the keys for the house. Those seven months have flown by and I can’t believe we’ve been in the house that long already.

What’s on your currently list right now? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Currently #7

Woohoo we are well into June now and I can only put the month going by so quickly down to the house! Me and Dane have been really hard at work with the house, which sadly means my blog has been rather neglected lately… I do apologise for that, but I hope my regular readers will understand my reasons why.

However I have just started back at work, so whilst a part of me doesn’t have ANY time now (because of still working on the house) I do have a more time on my hands to get a couple of posts written and scheduled a couple of days a week.

So I thought I would do a not home related post, and instead do a currently one instead, as I haven’t done one for a while.

Watching – I haven’t really had much time to watch a whole lot due to the house, but at times I have managed to catch up on my Netflix and 4OD in the mornings and evenings.

I’ve found myself watching a lot of Only Fools and Horses, which has surprised me to say the least. I do really enjoy the show, but sadly Netflix only has two series on, and a series with all the specials. I want all the series damn you! I was contemplating buying all the series on DVD to just binge watch when we move into the house… But we shall see.

I’ve also been watching a lot of 24 Hours in Police Custody, as I hadn’t realised there was a new series out until my friend Gabriella told me about one episode she had watched. I love TV shows like this, and seeing bad people go daaaawn (down).

A new TV series I’ve been watched recently is The Preacher, which I think is exclusive to Amazon Prime. It’s based off a comic book, and let me tell you it is amazing! Dane told me about it due to Joseph Gilgun playing a main role and thought I might want to watch it. I love Joseph Gilgun, he’s such a talented actor, and definitely one of my favourites. If you aren’t sure who he is, he plays Woody in This Is England, and Rudy in Misfits. He’s really funny in The Preacher as he plays a vampire. I would recommend it to everyone to check out. It’s basically about a preacher… What more can I say?

Reading – I’m naughty… I haven’t really been reading because I’ve not had any time TO read anything. The only thing I’ve really been reading lately are home magazines (can you tell I’ve just bought my first home? It’s so bloody obvious!) just to gain some ideas for the house, both decorating and interior design related. I’m currently flicking through the latest edition of Style at Home which is my favourite one to pick up. It’s cheap at £1.99 and there are loads of great ideas in there from both the writers of the magazine, to average people like you and me, which is what I like about it the most. I think it’s a great magazine to pick up for new home owners like myself, or even if you’re renting and want to get some ideas of how to spruce your place up a bit.

Listening – At this moment in time I’m listening to Nirvana’s first album Nevermind, and it is pretty much all I have listened to the past fortnight. Oh dear… I am obsessed with it to say the least and have especially been playing it whilst decorating the house. Don’t know if Dane or my dad approved, but it is tough! I have always liked Nirvana since a young age when my brother first showed me some of their songs, but I never really listened to their albums until recently. Why? I honestly don’t know! I’m terrible when it comes to music, I listen to bands who no longer exist, or don’t make any more music. I never listen to newer bands. I think it’s because all the newer music is so shockingly shit these days. I don’t know…

As well as Nirvana, I’ve also been listening to a lot of Nightcore. I really wish I wasn’t, because it’s not like I can pay to buy an album. All of their music is on YouTube, which is a pain to download! I’ll admit when I’m moved into the house and settled, I’ll be downloading enough Nightcore songs to make at last two albums, if not three! I find it the most relaxing music to listen to whilst traveling to work, as well as when I’m in work on my break.

Eating – I’ve had chip shop so much whilst me and Dane have been decorating the house. I also forgot how gross Pot Noodle are, I only ate one and decided that one was enough! I’ve also discovered that Tesco sandwiches are amazing, and having a Tesco Express down the road from my house is lethal. So yeah, that’s mostly what food me and Dane have been living off of the past couple of works whilst we’ve been working on the house. I am craving some proper home cooked food.

Wearing – I have legit lived in my old skinny jeans, Fuerteventura hippy pants, old baggy tops, and my Evanescence hoodie for the past two weeks. I mean, what is the point in dressing up when all I’ve going to be doing is painting the house, and probably getting more on me than on the walls? Okay that last part was a joke. But anyway!

I actually forgot how much I loved my Evanescence hoodie until I got it out of the back of my wardrobe recently. I bought it at the first gig of theirs I went to back in 2011 and I remember only paying £5.00 for it because the guy selling them wanted to get rid of them before the end of the night. I ended up buying an XL, which I quickly regretted as at the time I was into wearing all my skinny fit clothing. However I’m not back to wearing baggy clothing and this suits me down to the ground. I’ll probably wear it loads for work now, alongside my new raincoat, which I will be talking about very soon!.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Wanting – The one thing I REALLY want right now is for my house to be done, so that me and Dane can move in. At this moment in time we’re probably halfway to finishing it. Currently the living room is done, and the kitchen will be in just a few days. Me and my dad plan to get the bedrooms done in the next couple of days as well. I guess it just sucks with me being back at work in just a few days too. We’re saying end of June, start of July we’ll be moved in!

I also want to win the lottery so I can pay off the mortgage, and go on a massive IKEA shop and not cry at the bill afterwards. Other than that I actually don’t want much, if anything just stuff to do with my house.

So that was my currently list for May/June, although mostly June to be honest due to the whole house palaver. Again I apologise for being quiet on my blog lately, the house has taken up a lot of my time, and sadly my house is more important. It’ll all be worth it though in the end!

I guess I just want to say thank you to my readers for sticking around with me, and even hello to some new ones! I’ll be back to my usual schedule very soon.

What is on your currently list? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and have a lovely weekend!

Currently #6

Soon it will be May… I no like this. 2016 is going really quickly! I can’t complain too much though I guess. I want June to hurry up so I can spoil Dane with anniversary presents, have my two weeks off holiday, AND I’m going to London again (but I’ll save that for another post…)!

It’s my day off work (I wrote this post on Thursday 28th) so I thought I would do another currently post, as I actually really love to write them. I always seem to write these on my days off, which is nice. I like to sit on my bed, with the window open, maybe a candle burning, and just chill out to some music. Oh bliss. 😛

Watching:  I’ve been watching all sorts lately, but since the new season starting at the beginning of March I’ve been watching season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race religiously! KIM CHI TO WIN! I’m really loving this season, and it’s even better that I can gossip about it with one of the girls I work with. I’m going to be so sad when it’s finished, and we have to wait until season 9 next year. 😦

As well as that I’ve also been watching a TV show that I loved growing up, Harry Enfield and Chums. It was so hilarious at the time and going through the two series again just reminded me of how I would laugh so loudly at some of the sketches. My parents called me Kevin growing up, as I was pretty much just like him as a teenager. They still joke about it to this day. I don’t know who my favourite but my favourite five are, Kevin Patterson, The Lovely Wobbly Randy Old Ladies, The Old Gits, Harry and Lulu, and Wayne and Waynetta Slob.

I also recently continued watching Sword Art Online by starting series 2. I’m half way through it and I LOVE IT! It’s definitely up there as one of my favourite anime series. I’ll be finishing the rest off when Dane is here next. I love Sinon and her back story, she’s turning into my favourite character. FYI don’t watch the above video if you don’t want spoilers!

Reading: Speaking of Sword Art Online, I’ve been reading loads of my Sword Art Online Progressive manga lately. I’m currently about to start volume 4, and then I’ll have to wait God knows how long until I can read the next one. Then I’ll move onto my Nana manga and finish that off, considering I now have all of the volumes. I’m really enjoying this series, and it’s one I’m going to keep up with! The only problem I have with reading manga at work, is how sometimes there will be sexual images in there, which are somewhat innocent… I try to hide it, but I often worry if anyone sees what I’m reading, they’ll think I’m reading porn. Which of course I’m not! But we know what Japan is like when it comes to perving. 😛

Listening: I have been listening to various things lately. The past three mornings/afternoons I’ve been listening to cKy albums on my way to and from work. Can’t get much better than that!

Other than that though, I’ve discovered some songs I liked and downloaded to have on my phone. One I’ve only recently discovered is “Faded” by Alan Walker. I knew of the original track “Fade” which came out in 2014, but I didn’t realise that he had produced something new from it. I would hear “Faded” playing whilst out and say to Dane, “Pfft someone has ripped off Alan Walker’s track and used it to make a song. What arseholes!” Alas I was actually talking about Alan Walker really, who alas did not rip off his own song, but actually made it better. I am no obsessed with this song and listen to it daily. I don’t care if that sounds obsessive. I haven’t fallen in love a with song so hard for a very long time. Oh and the music video is beautiful too. I love videos like this, and have always wanted to direct/produce something like it myself.

As well as that I’ve been listening to loads of songs by Nightcore on YouTube. This is one of my favourites at the moment. I wish they had an album I could just buy and have in my car for journeys.

Eating: Mmm food… ME LOVE FOOD! I baked a lot the past month, which I really enjoyed doing. I made Dane a Deadpool birthday cake (which you can read in full detail here) as well as some ciabatta bread rolls. They were fun to make for sure, and I hope to make some more soon. I was meant to bake a cottage load for my dad, but I never got around to doing it. I might today, I guess it depends on what I’m doing with myself.

I tried an amazing Mexican dish yesterday too, and I wish I had bought some to eat tonight but I thought I would wait until I see Dane tomorrow after work and buy us one each to have before we go watch Civil War. Woop! It’s a potato, rice, and pulled steak pie. Was absolutely delicious! I’d love to try and make it myself.

Wearing: I’ve been dressing rather geeky lately, and I LOVE IT. I’ve rocked my Jake Dr Martens more than ever before (you can read about those here) and I can’t believe it’s been over a year now since Dane bought them me! Although I was only allowed them in September when I finished my masters. I’ve been teaming these up with my new Black Milk Clothing leggings, as well as my new Deadpool tee which Dane bought for me from Red Bubble. That is fast turning into one of my favourite places to shop for geeky clothing.

Wanting: I don’t actually feel like there is a whole lot I’m lusting after right now… I still really want ALL the Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks, and one day that will happen. I’m going to slowly grow my collection until I have the all, yays! Other than that I’m not quite sure what I want… My wish list post will be up in a couple of days anyway so you can check that out!

Woo to the hoo so those are my currently’s at the moment! I love doing these posts so that I’m able to share all the things I am into and loving lately. I hope to start doing one every month, as that’s how they seem to be falling into place lately. Let me know what you think of this idea!

What are you currently loving lately? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and have a great weekend!

Currently #5

Since the end of February my life seems to be really busy… I mean REALLY busy! Mixture of work, and personal life. I can’t really go into detail as to why it’s so busy at the moment, but soon I’ll hopefully be able to!

It’s currently my day off work, and I’m going to spend most of it in bed, catching up with my blog, and watching stuff on Netflix… Oh and not forgetting pole fitness later too!

Watching: I’ve watched loads of TV shows lately, but I recently discovered a new one called We Bare Bears. It’s a newish children’s TV show on Cartoon Network, but I only discovered it last Saturday. I watched the whole season one, and so far of season two and I really do love it! I prefer it to Adventure Time at the moment… The humour is great for both kids and adults, which I love. My favourite character is Ice Bear, but I can relate more to Pan Pan.

I’ve also been watching some old favourites I loved during, and after university, such as Mongrels and Him & Her. Currently watching the latter. I used to relate to Him & Her for agggges when I was younger, and I somewhat still do to this day. It’s just an amazing show, and the way it’s filmed in a fly on the wall style makes it feel more personal, which I like about it the most. Sadly this series ended a few years ago, and I am still yet to pick up the DVD’s!

Image taken from We Heart It

Reading: I haven’t been playing many games lately… Well not really anyway. Not because I haven’t wanted to, but purely because I really haven’t had the time! But I have recently picked up my Nana manga again, and I forgot how much I loved it! I’m currently on book 14 out of 21 so I have a while to go yet! I’ve also been reading my Bee & PuppyCat comic book. I’ll probably try and finish my Nana manga series off soon so I can start the Sword Art Online manga fairly soonish.

Image taken from We Heart It

Listening: I haven’t listened to Evanescence for quite a long time, and recently listened to them driving to and from work. I don’t know how I neglected my favourite band for so long, but I’m glad to have listened to their work again! Fallen is still my favourite album ever, and I can’t wait to have it blasting from my car windows in the summer!

Eating: I haven’t really eaten anything special at the moment… I made me and Dane a macaroni cheese last night, with some of the fresh pasta that me and one of my co workers made that morning. It was delicious, and I added turkey ham to it as well! Nommy nom! I also made us some creme brulee… I say made, but I bought them from Sainsbury’s and then shoved them in the oven with some sugar on top. They didn’t have that nice crack on the top, but they were hella delicious! I have done nothing lately but drink tea, and I don’t know why! xD

Wearing: I have been living in Dane’s tartan pajama bottoms lately… They’re just so damn comfortable and baggy and actually, they really compliment my body. Clothes outside of my house wise, I’ve been living in Dane’s Funeral For A Friend hoodie. It’s just so damn comfortable, and I’m glad he hasn’t asked for it back yet… Nearly three years later! I seem to be living in Dane’s clothes instead of my own.

Image taken Jeffree Star Cosmetics Instagram

Wanting: Seeing as I’m on a semi spending ban, I am trying so hard not to buy things. My wanting/wish list is pretty huge at the moment. The one thing I am excited and REALLY want however is the new Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick shade he’s just revealed, Scorpio! It’s a grey purple shade, and exactly what I’ve been after for quite some time! So as soon as that comes out I’ll be ordering myself one. Other than that at the moment I have been lusting after a couple of rain macs from Marks & Spencer. They’re gorgeous bright red ones… But I can’t bring myself to buy one. I need to watch my money. 😦

So those are my currently at the moments! I was going to do a life lately post to have a bit of a catch up, but with not being able to reveal much of what actually HAS been going on at the moment, there wasn’t much point.

I do apologise for being so quiet on my blog lately, as I said at the start of this post I’ve been incredibly busy lately so as soon as I get a day off, or a chance to breathe I use that time to do things I need to do… That sounds mean to my blog but I don’t mean it that way. I don’t make money from my blog. I do from my job!

On that note, what are you currently loving? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and see you soon.