Bubble Boba Halloween 2019*

If there is a time of year I love, it’s definitely autumn and in autumn all the cool stuff happens, including Halloween and Bonfire Night.

Halloween is just over a week away now and I’ve already made my plans to chill out at home, playing Luigi’s Mansion 3 with my boyfriend and relax. Not exactly the spookiest evening in the world, but it’ll be amazing nonetheless!

A couple of weekends ago I was kindly invited by both Bubble Boba and Amy over at Writing into the Ether for an evening of Halloween antics and to try the two new limited edition Halloween drinks for 2019!

I’ve been to Bubble Boba for an event in May where we all got the chance to make our own bubble tea drinks, which was so much fun! I was so happy to be invited again for an event and couldn’t wait to try the Halloween drinks that Bubble Boba have brought out for Halloween this year!

I really do love Bubble Boba and whenever I’m in Fargo Village I always make sure to pop in to grab a drink… My two favourites are red velvet cheesecake and matcha milk tea with pudding.

Both myself and my boyfriend Dane were invited to the event, which was amazing! I do love going to food and drink related events with Dane as and when I can, as I love writing about it from a couples point of view. We both love bubble tea too and are always enjoying discovering new places wherever we go.

Alongside me and Dane, both Amy and Lizzie from over at Hello Lizzie Bee were at the event too! It was lovely to see Lizzie as I hadn’t seen her for a while. 🙂 If you love my content in regards to Japan, you’ll definitely love hers!

I was excited to give the Halloween drinks a go, but sadly I was unable to try the one drink due to allergies… However, Dane tried it for me and he loved it so much!

The food and drink gifted during the evening was for reviewing purposes, so all views on this post are my own.

As I mentioned, Bubble Boba have brought out two new drinks for Halloween:

Witches Brew Apple pie milkshake – A creamy Halloween treat with sweet apple pulp, shortbread ashes and cauldron slime.

Jack-O’-Lantern Milk Tea – A tricky tea that fuses pumpkin spice with all the things nice… Can you smell burning?

Witches Brew was a definite hit with everyone, especially Dane who loved it! This is the drink I wasn’t able to try due to allergies but I’m glad he was able to enjoy it. You need to give it a good shake before you drink so that all the sweet apple pulp and shortbread can mix together! Dane described it of being a drink-apble-pie* in a thick milkshake.

*See what we did there? 😛

I tried the Jack-O’-Lantern, which was such an autumnal drink for me! I’m not a massive fan of Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (or any coffee place for that matter!) so I worried I wasn’t going to enjoy this one. I did really like it though. I personally couldn’t taste the pumpkin… But I don’t know if this is due to the fact I don’t each much pumpkin anyway? This is just such a warming drink though and the smells and flavours from it reminded me of Bonfire Night, standing around the fire to keep warm and watching the fireworks. It really did flood memories back of the first Bonfire Night me and Dane went to in 2017. I loved it and I can’t wait to go out for Bonfire Night this year with him.

You can have your drinks hot or cold, I decided to have the Jack-O’-Lantern warm, after it was recommended to me and with some whip cream on top. It was delicious and a real treat! However, I did find I was struggling to drink it after getting halfway through. It’s a very filling drink and due to how warming it is with the flavours, for me it was a little too much. This being said though, I enjoyed it from start to finish! You could maybe go for a smaller size if you’re similar to me and now a massive spice and pumpkin fan.

Alongside drinks, we were also given some yummy bubble waffles and given the option of adding whatever we wanted to each of them! Dane opted for bubblegum and raspberry sauce and ice cream, whilst I opted for chocolate sauce and matcha powder.

Can never say no to yummy bubble waffles! I couldn’t finish mine so I took it home with me to nibble the next day. 😛

For our time there during the event we were in awe of all the amazing Halloween decorations that Bubble Boba had put up around the store! They really went for it, all whilst leaving the adorable alpaca plushies across the cupboard in the store. I loved that the store went from spooky to cute in seconds. 😛

We were also given some Halloween hats and headpieces to wear too! This was a little bit of fun and I really enjoyed it.

The night came to an end and me and Dane hung around Fargo Village for a little to chill out before we headed home.

I had such an amazing evening and although I’m not going to do much for Halloween this year, it has definitely got me into the Halloween spirit! I’m going to decorate my house on Saturday ready for the spooky week ahead!

If you’re local to Coventry, make sure to go and check out the two Halloween drinks that Bubble Boba have on offer! Which one takes your fancy?

I’ll also link down to their social media pages too, just in case you want to go and check them out and follow them! I know they recently opened up new store in Cardiff University’s student union! If you’re also local to the Coventry or Cardiff stores you can also use Deliveroo or Uber Eats to get your Bubble Boba bubble fixes direct to your door!

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What are you planning to do for Halloween? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far.

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Flight Club Brunch Social – Why It’s Perfect For Couples*

If there is one thing I love it’s planning a weekend with Dane, full of fun activities and things to do, whether that be at home or out and about. He’s my favourite person in the world and there is nothing better than just me and him together, doing things we love, as well as doing new things too.

A couple of weekend ago, Flight Club in Birmingham were kind enough to gift me 2 tickets for their Brunch Social, which happens every Saturday and Sunday between 12pm-2pm and then 2.30pm-4.30pm. As regular readers will know, I went to the Flight Club in July for the press evening for the new Birmingham venue. It was amazing! Although very busy and due to that me and my best friend (who I took as my plus one) didn’t get to try any of the food. If you want to read all about that evening, make sure to go and check out the post here!

The Brunch Social was a great time to try all the yummy food that Flight Club has on offer and I honestly couldn’t wait to take Dane. Although I knew he would love it and have a good time, deep down I worried it might not be his cup of tea. I can’t say I’ve ever heard (nor seen for that matter) him talk about darts…

Whereas for me growing up, darts was a fun activity me and my Dad used to do together, whether we were out at a pub, or even at home. We had an old dartboard that we hung up on the shed door that we would use and play on over the summer holidays and weekends in the garden. I loved it! This being said, you would never catch me watching Bullseye as a kid though. The only appealing part about that to me as a kid was the animated bull, haha!

This blogger girl won some serious boyfriend points though. We had an amazing weekend together and almost two weeks later, we’re still talking about it amongst ourselves, as well as with friends!

Make sure to continue reading to find out why we loved it so much! 😀

This was a gifted event for promotional and reviewing purposes, so all views on this post are entirely my own. I did however pay for some food and drink myself during the event, which I will disclose as and when.

The Flight Club is located right in the middle of town and just a short walk from Birmingham New Street/Grand Central, so if you’re planning on drinking and hop on the train, you won’t have far to stumble back to.

On our trip to the Flight Club it was pretty quiet, which I loved because it meant we could get around easier (pop to the bar, loo, etc), it was quieter so we didn’t have to shout but it meant if we needed help, it wasn’t hard to grab someone for assistance.

We were a little early for our 12pm slot so we were given a buzzer and headed to the bar to take a look at the drinks menu. I vaguely remembered what drinks were on offer, but as I wasn’t drinking (I drove us to the train station earlier that day) I wanted to take a nose at what non-alcoholic cocktails were available. Dane also wanted to take a look at the drinks that were on offer. It’s very rare that I drive us places, so not very often does Dane get the chance to have a drink. He definitely wanted to enjoy himself that afternoon. Just as we were about to order some drinks, our buzzer went off and we were shown to our booth.

When we arrived at our booth the girl who had escorted us (sadly I didn’t catch her name!) explained to us how the game(s) work, how you can order both food and drink to your booth (I did not know this the first time around!) and especially how the Brunch Social works.

When you go to a Flight Club Brunch Social you can expect 2 hours of fun darts games to play, but on top of that you will also get bottomless pizza (with vegan and vegetarian options available), a bottle of Prosecco EACH and some amazing music.

Yes you read that bit right, we were given a bottle of Prosecco EACH! I didn’t quite realise this, I thought it was one to share. Sadly as I wasn’t drinking I couldn’t enjoy mine, but I did take it home as staff told me I could. Of course when we were at the booth both bottle were in an ice bucket, alongside some glasses, a massive jug of iced water and some orange juice. Both the water and orange juice were bottomless too, so if we needed/wanted more all we had to do was ask.

Dane drank the orange juice with the Prosecco and made himself some bucks fizz. He didn’t realise that’s what bucks fizz was, until I told him! Also, Dane drank most of his bottle of Prosecco to himself! Fair play to Dane. 😛

Sadly if you don’t drink, you cannot choose an alternative to your free Prosecco, which is a shame but at the same time, is it? You can just give your Prosecco to someone else, or take it home like I did! There are of course non alcoholic drinks available, which I talk about soon!

I don’t quite remember the music being so good on the press night, as it was the afternoon we went. We both really enjoyed it and it’s the sort of music I want to hear when I’m out for an evening with friends (unless we head to a rock bar… Then I just want pure rock and metal tunes! :P).

We were told as there was only two of us that we would be able to order whatever pizzas we wanted, usually otherwise staff come around with pizza and you can pick off whichever slices you want.

In total we ordered two pizzas:

Chargrilled chicken breast pizza on a creamy pesto base with crispy bacon and smoked Mozzarella

Coppa salami pizza with rocket and Parmesan

We were also offered a third pizza, which shocked me! I thought we were only going to get one pizza, so when we were offered more, we couldn’t really turn it down! Especially with us being pizza lovers. The service in regards to bottomless pizza was amazing and I was honestly so shocked at how much pizza they were willing to give us.

That pizza was bloody delicious too and I can’t say I’ve had anything like it before, but boy am I craving it again! My favourite out of the two pizzas we ordered was definitely the first one – the Chargrilled chicken breast pizza on a creamy pesto base with crispy bacon and smoked Mozzarella. It was so yummy and right up my street. I can’t say I’ve ever tried a pizza with a pesto base before, but it definitely worked well with the chicken and bacon. I’d love to try and make this myself at home to be honest with you!

The pizzas alone are £15.95 each, which I think is a tad expensive if you aren’t going for the Brunch Social. At the same time however, if you wanted to go somewhere nice for a mini date night for drinks and food, without the darts then I think this would be a fair price between two people. 🙂

We had a look at the rest of the menu to see what else was on offer at the Flight Club. We opted for some curly fries, which we paid for ourselves. These are perfect for sharing between 2-3 people and cost £6.95. They were so good, perfect snacks to have in between playing your round of darts. They didn’t last very long though… They were just too yummy. 😛

When we ordered our curly fries, I also ordered myself a non-alcoholic cocktail too. Yes, I couldn’t have a drink but I wanted something fancy apart from fruity water. 😛

I went for the Strawberry and Cream Soda (Strawberry, pineapple juice, vanilla, lemon juice and soda) which again, I paid for myself. This was so damn yummy and due to that it didn’t last as long as I wanted it to! I’ve never been a massive fan of strawberry flavoured things, but this was so damn good. It was really refreshing and reminded me of summer holidays as a kid with my strawberry split ice cream and lemonade in the garden. Dane tried a little and loved it.

This wasn’t cheap at £5.00, considering for £4-£5 more you can have an alcoholic cocktail, but all the same – it wasn’t too bad considering! It was lovely and I regret not trying more of the non-alcoholic cocktails, especially the Peach Iced Tea (Peach, lemon juice, grapefruit juice and jasmine tea).

Enough of the food and drink anyway, let’s talk about the darts!

Earlier on in this post I mentioned how I’ve never heard Dane talk about darts and to be fair, I don’t know if I ever have to Dane either. It’s just not something we’ve discussed.

So when I invited him to be my plus one I thought he was going to say no… Purely because of it being a darts themed bar, but alas he was up for it! I was so excited to spend the afternoon together, playing the themed games on the dartboard and eating yummy food.

It was a definite hit with Dane and he loved the two hours we spent together in the Flight Club.

As I mentioned on my previous post about the Flight Club, there are 5 different games to choose from including my favourite which is Snakes and Ladders! All the games are different and you can either work in pairs or against one another. As there was only me and Dane playing, we of course played against one another.

When I visited Flight Club for their press night me and my plus one (one of my besties) were playing with a couple we didn’t know. It was fun, don’t get me wrong but I don’t feel like I got to enjoy myself as much due to playing against strangers. So, I was glad it was just me and Dane playing this time around.

We really let go and played both silly and seriously throughout the 2 hours. The thing I love the most is that you can create random videos and photos, that you will be sent afterwards on the email the booking was made under. These are called Flight Club Stories! Me and Dane created so many, but at the time of writing this post, I can’t actually get access to them online. As and when I get them, I’ll try and share them on this post! 😀

When our 2 hours were up, we grabbed out belongings, paid for the food and drink we purchased and headed home. We had an amazing afternoon together at the Flight Club and it’s definitely one we haven’t forgotten.

So far throughout 2019, I feel like me and Dane don’t get as many date days and evenings out together, so when we do, we really do appreciate it afterwards. This is one of those that we thoroughly enjoyed and have since spoken to everyone about and have even spoken about going at Christmas with friends and family.

Honestly I feel like the Brunch Social at Flight Club is perfect for couples to go and spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon together playing some games of darts and enjoying yummy food and drink! It would also be perfect for a first date, or even double dating. However, if you are put onto a sharing booth with a strangers who you don’t know, that privacy you may want as a couple isn’t really there. I guess it depends on the couple/you.

Of course I would also recommend this for friends to go and play games, as well as groups, whether it be for a special event (birthday, stag do, etc) and even for work places to take staff for some fun!

Every quarter the Flight Club also run a Brunch Social special! Which involves a twist on the classic Brunch Social but with drinks partnerships, themes, glitter painter and still that amazing music that you get usually at the Brunch Social!

So, down to what the prices are, how to book and all the information you want in regards to that.

Tickets start at £25 and can be purchased here!

In the UK you can find Flight Club venues in Birmingham, Manchester and London.

I know this doesn’t sound cheap at £25, but you have to think for 2 hours you’re getting your darts games, unlimited pizza AND a bottle of Prosecco ALL TO YOURSELF! I think this is well worth the money! The Flight Club is quite up there in terms of standards, so that £25 is great value for money.

There are a few things to think about before you book, including:

If there’s any information our team should know – dietary requirements, birthdays or a group that bought tickets separately. Make sure to pop a note in the comments section of your booking to let them know any of this information.

If you’re in a group of less than 6 people, you’ll be paired up with other brunchers for your Social Darts slot. Thankfully me and Dane were lucky and didn’t have to do this, but I have a feeling this is due to the Flight Club not being fully booked when we went.

Overall I LOVED that Saturday evening at the Flight Club on mine and Dane’s little date afternoon. It honestly was so much fun and it made me so happy. I felt a real buzz throughout the 2 hours we played and even on the way home.

What do you think about the Flight Club? If there is one in your area, do you think you’ll be paying them a visit soon? If so will you have a look into the Brunch Social? Make sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’ve had a great week so far. 🙂

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Starbucks Night at Broadgate Coventry – Review*

Ever since I’ve been a student back in 2008 I have LOVED Starbucks. I would spend days off in Birmingham town centre stores (that are sadly no longer there) with books reading, and on my phone talking to friends. I loved it and I wish I could go back to that time where I had time to waste!

If I had told my 18-21 year old self that in 10 years time I would be attending a blog event at Starbucks, she would tell me to piss off. 😛

I was recently invited along by Cov Bloggers to attend Starbucks night at the Broadgate store in Coventry – the one near the Godiva statue.

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

The evening event was lovely and just what I needed after a busy day at work. On arrival we grabbed ourselves a drink and sat down to kick start our evening. I opted for an iced matcha latte, which I wasn’t keen on. I’m used to matcha latte from Starbucks being sweet, which this wasn’t. It was good, don’t get me wrong but I would have liked it a smidgen sweeter.

Clare the store manager of the up and coming Binley Woods drive thru store was there to talk to us about the different types of coffee that Starbucks brew to put in our drinks, as well as sell to customers. We got to try all three of these, which was really yummy! I love coffee so this part of the evening was definitely my favourite.

Blonde Espresso Roast – Incredibly smooth and subtly sweet, with a creamy mouthfeel.

Ethiopia – Soft and velvety with notes of dark chocolate, peppery spice and sweet…

The Story of Ethiopia Single-Origin:

On the ancient slopes flanking Africa’s Great Rift Valley, coffee trees first emerged from the rich, volcanic soil. From these ninth-century highlands, arabica coffee beans began their long journey from Ethiopia to the rest of the world. Today our master roasters have created an entirely new way to experience these treasured beans. An exquisite blend with a reverence for the ritual of coffee, honoring Ethiopia’s bountiful legacy. With a velvety soft texture and floral, peppery spice notes, this is our tribute to the birthplace of coffee.

Caffè Verona:

Caffè Verona is a seductive blend of beans from Latin America and Indonesia, with a gentle touch of Italian Roast lending depth, soul and sweetness.

Because this delectable combination pairs so very well with chocolate, it has become a Valentine’s Day favourite – and the coffee we most associate with romance. Bella, Bella!

P.S.: Literature lovers out there will recognise Verona as the city where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet. Although the play ends in tragedy, we’d like you to know that every cup of this coffee has a happy ending.

It was great to be able to taste all the different coffees that Starbucks have on offer, because to be honest with you I didn’t quite realise how many there were!

Alongside tasting the coffee, we were able to taste some food that compliment the flavours of the coffee too! For example with Blonde Espresso Roast the Starbucks caramel shortbread was recommended, whilst with the Ethiopia roast Starbucks recommend their lemon cake.

I’d have to say my favourite was definitely the Ethiopia coffee, as it was just a happy medium for me, but overall I loved them all!

After we tried the coffees our food came out. We were allowed to select something from the Starbucks lunch menu. I opted for the BBQ Chicken & Bacon Toastie (Starbucks® signature cheese topped sourdough filled with chicken breast, mature cheddar, mozzarella, cheese & Dijon Mustard sauce and hickory smoked bacon with a Texas BBQ sauce.).

It was so bloody yummy and I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed it! I will definitely be picking one up when I next visit Starbucks in the future. It shocked me that it had Dijon Mustard sauce on it, I didn’t notice but I wonder if I did… I’m not a HUGE mustard fan, but I do rather enjoy it with ham.

One of the items on the lunch menu that I know a fair few Cov Bloggers were talking about (and tasting) is the Vegan Mac (Macaroni with vegan butternut squash sauce, spinach and parsley crumb.). I LOVE macaroni cheese but I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this or not, so I left it. I don’t regret what I had but when I tried some of the vegan mac… A part of me wished I’d picked this instead.

When I tried it I couldn’t quite believe how this was made to make it vegan, considering it is made with butternut squash sauce and spinach, two foods I HATE. I’ll definitely pick it up to try in the future with Dane, who I can definitely see loving this.

After food we were given some latte art demonstrations by Matt, one of the supervisors at the Broadgate store. I’m going to be honest here, bless Matt he clearly had a bit of show nerves and I get that. I used to be a barista at Costa and I LOVED doing flat white art when I made people’s coffees. I wasn’t amazing but I could do the odd heart and fern. Matt was great, he made some lovely patterns, but the whole section of the evening was messy. It made me cringe every time he poured milk on the table. It was unnecessary to put it bluntly and it was a shame. Due to this, I just didn’t enjoy this part of the evening and sadly I deleted any photos or videos I took during the latte art being made and stopped taking photos. I did of course take some photos after of the gorgeous artwork he made! This being said the latte art that Matt did is so pretty, as you will see from the image above.

After this Hardy, another of the supervisors at the Broadgate store rounded up the evening by talking to us all about the Starbucks Rewards card and how it works. It’s basically a “rewards” card where you need to load money onto it to gain any reward… To be honest that sounds more like a “top up card” rather than  rewards card, to me.

I own a Starbucks Reward card… But I don’t like it and rarely use it because to me it’s “useless”. You have to put money onto it in order to reap any reward. So, you could load £10 onto it and then use say £3 of it and then never pick it up again. You don’t get that money back and if it expires (I don’t know if it does!) you lose that £7 on the card. Who wins? We certainly don’t as the customer.

Hardy was clearly really nervous to tell us about the card and in all fairness she did a good job to tell us all about it and engage with us. Sadly, the Rewards card just isn’t for me. 🙂

Then the evening was over! We were given our goody bags, another free drink for our journey home and of course a group photo!

I LOVE the goody bag! It was full of so many awesome things including a Starbucks takeaway cup (which I have been wanting for ages!), mini caramel waffles, VIA ready brew coffee, a gold coin, vouchers, tea and even a teddy bear gingerbread dressed as a Starbucks barista!

For my drink home I opted for a soya hot chocolate with peppermint. It was glorious and very much enjoyed on my train journey home.

Overall I really enjoyed this event! It was perfect for early in the week after work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was great learning about the coffee, as well as getting to try some of the food and drinks that I hadn’t tried before.

As always, it was lovely to see some old and new faces at the event too and everyone was lovely, as always who I spoke to. 🙂

A massive thank you to both Starbucks Broadgate, as well as Emily over at Cov Bloggers for inviting me to the event! I hope I can attend any future events at Starbucks Broadgate in the future too.

Make sure to check out the Starbucks Broadgate store over at their Instagram page here.

Do you like a cheeky Starbucks? If so what do you usually order? Both during the warmer summer and colder winter months? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far.

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Flight Club Social Darts Birmingham*

Back at the start of June this year I visited Manchester and I still can’t believe how many themed bars they have there. Fast forward a month later and one of the bars I looked into going to in Manchester is now here and I was so chuffed to have been invited to the press evening a few weeks ago the day before it officially opened!

I got to take a plus one with me to the press event so I decided to take my gorgeous friend Jacqui with me! The same beaut I took with me to the Cosy Club cocktail masterclass (which you can read about here).

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

We both met up after a long day at work and headed to the event. I was so damn excited as I didn’t quite know what to expect. I first noticed Flight Club in town funnily enough as I was on my way home from the Cosy Club event, so as we stood outside and waited to go in, I was taken back. I’d only ever been to one press event before and that was for MOD Pizza in Coventry back in March this year (which you can read about here).

When we got inside I was pretty blown about by the decor. Personally I wasn’t sure what to expect as I never ventured into the Manchester Flight Club, but this reminded me of a Victorian funfair or carnival and I really loved it! 😀 Everywhere I looked I was just reminded of the old fashioned funfair at the Black Country Museum.

I especially loved the porcelain dogs that were scattered around the venue! 😛

The bar is located on the left as you walk in and this was just as gorgeous as the rest of the decor. It definitely greets you as you walk in and it’s definitely a pleasant sight.

When we entered the venue we were greeted with lovely staff and a free glass of prosecco each. To be honest the amount of free alcohol at the event was crazy and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much.

We were advised to head to the desk to book a booth, which I’m glad we did straight away as it wasn’t long before we were booked in and taken over to our darts booth.

When we arrived to our booth the one table had a MASSIVE bucket full of ice and various bottles of alcohol, mainly beer and cider. There was also a glass of white wine on the other table.

At one point during the evening the staff also came around with some cocktails, which both looked and tasted amazing! This is called Sweet Success – Ciroc French Vanilla vodka, Koko Kanu rum, passion fruit, pineapple, lemon and grenadine. The cocktails aren’t cheap at £9.95 each, I’m not going to lie! From what I can see they don’t do 2 for 1 offers or anything like that either… So price wise this is a definite deal break for me… No matter how yummy or pretty the drink is.

We were also brought some nibbles to our booth too, which were really yummy, but I didn’t feel like I got a big enough taste for what they have on the menu. This isn’t a bad thing however, as after viewing the menu I really want to go again for a date night with my boyfriend for food and drinks.

In our booth we shared it with a couple who were playing games with us for the hour slot we were given. We weren’t actually told how long we would be in the booth for and personally whilst that hour didn’t fly by, it also didn’t last as long as I thought it would either. I’ll go more into this later though.

For the time being I want to talk about what you do when you go to Flight Club!

Flight Club is a social darts bar, where you and a group of friends can play loads of different games on the board, as well as through an interactive board. It reminded me of  bowling a little bit.

The booth itself was so well thought out and I really did feel comfortable there! There’s some hooks so you can hang up your jackets/coats and under the tables there are bag holders, which I LOVED! It made me feel a lot more secure.

You get a screen at the end of each table where you can pop in your name and even take a photo to add to your name, so everyone knows whose playing next.

There are 5 different games to choose from including my favourite which was Snakes and Ladders! All the games are different and you can either work in pairs or against one another. I’m not very good at darts and neither is my bestie, so we didn’t do amazingly well against our competitors. This didn’t matter though, we were having loads of fun the whole night! It’s just a shame it didn’t last as long as we had hoped.

The dartboards are all electronic, so they connect to the games to keep track of what points you’re getting on the board. There are also cameras on the dart board, so amazing shots film everyone in front of the board and reply reactions in slow motion! A very cool touch and one I didn’t notice at first as it was so subtle.

When our hour was over we were advised that we could hang around the bar and sign up for more darts, grab a drink and have some more nibbles. At this point me and my bestie were starving and we couldn’t live on nibbles alone, so we headed off into the sunny evening, went for a meal together and then headed home.

The one issue I have with Flight Club is the prices. I don’t feel you get what you pay for.

Flight Club don’t charge per person, they charge by the hour which can cost between £15 to £120! The prices are cheaper during OFF-PEAK times (Monday – Friday until 4pm and all day on Sunday) and can be as little as £15 for an hour for 2-5 people or £30 for two hours for 12-15 people.

This doesn’t seem TOO bad but I feel like for the £30 offer people wouldn’t get a fair go. The £15 for 2-5 people seems a much better deal. This is the sort of deal I’d go for on a Sunday with Dane.

I don’t know though, if you could be bothered and had some paper and a pen handy, you could make up these sorts of games in your local pub, without needing to pay to hire the board and the alcohol would probably be cheaper too.

Flight Club is gimmicky, but something Birmingham needs right now! This place will be perfect for date nights an evenings out with the girls for cocktails, but this won’t be a place I visit regular due to the prices.

Overall I REALLY love Flight Club and it’s definitely a fun place to go with family, friends and even potentially with people at work for events and team building. Go and check it out one of the evenings after work with your friends or other half and have a go for yourself! 😀

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Flight Club London and Manchester

Will you be checking out the new Flight Club in Birmingham? Or maybe you’ve ventured to the ones nearer to you (London and Manchester)? Make sure to let me know what you think in the comments! 😀

Bubble Boba Mocktail Party and Masterclass*

If there is one thing I love it’s bubble tea, so the fact it’s now more readily and easily available to buy on the high street makes me so happy! I especially love that Coventry has more than one bubble tea place to venture to as well. They only have one chain and to be blunt, it’s shit. So after I discovered Bubbla Boba through Amy (Writing into the Ether) and my friend Sophie back at the start of the year, I haven’t really looked back and 9 times out of 10 when I visit Coventry I’ll go to Bubble Boba for a drink or two!

Me and Amy – Writing into the Ether

When Amy invited me to the Bubble Boba Mocktail Party and Masterclass I was so excited to go! I was meant to attend the first Bubba Boba event in March but I just wasn’t able to due to feeling too tired and run down, so the fact I was invited to the one after was lovely.

I was also able to take a plus one, so I ended up getting my boyfriend Dane to tag along too for a fun evening. This was definitely fun and I enjoyed every minute of it, which I think Dane did too.

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

Bubble Boba is located in FarGo Village in Coventry and as you enter FarGo from Far Gosford Street it’s pretty much one of the first places you will spot on you way into FarGo, which I love! It’s the perfect location if you want to grab a drink before doing some shopping in FarGo or even on the way out on your way home.

Bubble Boba isn’t exactly the biggest store in the world and can’t really house a lot of people – which is a bit of a shame if you wanted to plan a biggish group of you to go and visit. It’s more of a place to go and hang out with a friend and play some games (they have some Nintendo consoles in there and a TV!) or even just relax and have a gossip. I don’t mind walking around with my bubble tea however. Can I also add how kawaii the store is with all the Alpacasso plushies lining the shelves?! 😀

Image taken by Amy – Writing into the Ether

Image taken by Amy – Writing into the Ether

Image taken by Amy – Writing into the Ether

We were running a little late for the event due to personal reasons so when we arrived we had just missed out on tasting all the yummy bubble waffles that Bubble Boba have on offer. I LOVE bubble waffles so much so it was nice to get the chance to try some of the ones that Bubble Boba have to offer. They have loads of different ones including; Original, Oodles of Oreo, Red Velvet, Salted Caramel, Unicorn Dreams and my favourite Matcha Madness (which is made out of matcha but also contains mochi).

Not long after we arrived and managed to scoff some of the yummy waffles, we started to taste some of the newest flavours to join Bubble Boba for their Mocktails Collection.

There are six new flavours in this collection and we got to try every single one! The order I talk about them will be the order we tried them in and of course I’ll tell you guys names, as well as what flavours they are and such.

Lemon & Honey – Freshly squeezed lemon with honey from bees.

Tropical Paradise – Passionfruit, strawberry, orange with orange and lemon slices.

Polynesian Punch – Pineapple, strawberry, mango with real pineapple pieces.

Spanish Riviera – Green apple, lychee and honeydew.

Summer Nights – Strawberry, blueberry and cherry.

Hawaiian Sunset – Mango, raspberry and peach.

Summer Nights was definitely my favourite will all the berry flavours. These were all really refreshing in taste to be honest with you and really did remind me of a tropical drink you would have abroad on holiday, or at a friends summertime BBQ party!

After we tried the new Mocktail collection we were able to try all of the toppings they have on offer, including the pudding and tapioca. I LOVE pudding since I discovered it in London last year and always order it for my matcha bubble tea drinks since. I had to give this a go and it was so delicious. I definitely plan to try this with Bubble Boba’s matcha in the future.

I also gave the coconut topping a try, which I didn’t realise was a mixture of popping bubbles and jellies. I HATE the jellies you have with bubble tea! They taste amazing but the texture of them just makes me sick and it just makes me think of gone off food or something. To be honest though I gave it a go and it was much better on it’s on than with the drink itself. Dane loves the jellies however and more often than not actually orders it with his bubble tea whenever we go for it.

We also got to taste Bubble Boba’s tapioca, which was lovely! It’s made with honey to naturally sweeten it, which works really well. I haven’t actually had tapioca for ages as I just prefer popping bubbles more. This was good though and Dane really loved it.

The one thing I really like about Bubble Boba is that they have 3 samples on the bar where you order, which means you can try before you buy specific drinks. They’d had 3 specific drinks on offer that day which were; Pineapple Fruit Tea, Hanoi Sunrise (which was the drink of the day!) and Orange Oolong Fruit Tea. I tried all three and whilst they were all nice I LOVED Hanoi Sunrise the most.

Just to add this in here, when you pop into the store you can order your drinks on the little tablets they have next to these three sample containers if you wish to pay by card, or you can go up to the till if you have cash. I love the system they have on the tablet as it gives you so many options.

After we got to have a try of all the new Mocktails Collection, it was finally time to start having a go at being little bubble tea baristas ourselves, which I was so excited for! I’ve been drinking bubble tea since I discovered it in 2012 and have to this day never given it a go myself, so I was intrigued to see the logic behind how it’s made. I didn’t quite know what to expect 100% but I wasn’t shocked, but I was somewhat surprised too.

We started off with being given our shakers and all told to pick three flavours from all the ones they gave us. These included; strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, green apple, rose, kiwi, pineapple, passionfruit, mango, honeydew, cherry, lemon, honey peach, orange and lychee.

We got to make two bubble teas of our own with two different recipes, or the same one if we really like our first! For my first drink I decided to go for the flavours – green apple, cherry and passionfruit.

Once we had added our desired flavours it was time to add some fructose, which he’s to sweeten the drink further. Then we added 50ml of hot water followed by mixing with a spoon to combine the flavoured syrups, fructose and water together.

Please excuse my face haha xD

When we were ready to move onto the next step we got to choose which tea we wanted to add to our bubble tea creations. We had the choice of three; floral jasmine, fruity assam or fruity oolong tea. For my first drink I decided to go for the floral jasmine tea, as this usually what I get from Bubble Boba when I order my usual, which is the green apple. You then go and add your ice up to a certain point in the shaker, pop on the lid and then get shaking!

Me and the gorgeous Emily – The Emily Chapters

Gemma – Just Gem, me, Emily – The Emily Chapters and Amy – Writing into the Ether

This was loads of fun in regards to all the photos, videos and especially Boomerangs you could take, but also bloody tiring! You know you had shook enough when your drink when a frothy texture. This section is VERY photo heavy by the way and I am SO NOT SORRY! 😛

This is when it was time to go ahead and pick which toppings we wanted for our bubble teas. As we had been giving the chance to taste these earlier on in the event it was good to have an idea of what we wanted. For my first drink I opted for blueberry, raspberry and lemon.

Dane’s first drink was raspberry, strawberry and lemon, with assam tea and strawberry bubbles.

We got to drink our first drinks at the event whilst everything was washed and tidied ready for round two!

Not going to lie, my first drink wasn’t very nice and although I somewhat enjoyed it, it wasn’t great. I was glad at the chance to have a go at making another drink in all honesty due to this. I think it was either the passion fruit flavour or the jasmine tea that ruined my flavours.

When we were ready it was time for round two! We definitely went through the second making of our bubbles teas quicker and sadly I didn’t really get many photos of this due to how straight forward it now was to go ahead and have a go again at making bubble tea.

My second bubble tea drink was a definitely better and I really enjoyed it the day after the event after work. I went for green apple, cherry and lemon with assam tea and blueberry, raspberry and cherry popping bubbles. Dane went for double lemon and green apple with assam tea and tapioca bubbles.

The event overall was amazing and it was great after 7 years of drinking bubble tea to finally be able to give it a go myself and even come up with a new and unique flavour. I especially love how the staff said, any flavours we made and enjoyed we could ask for in the future when visiting the store. YES!

Bubble Boba have recently decided to open their masterclasses to people and have loads of offers online for people to check out. I’m going to link them all down below, so please make sure to go and check them out if you’re interested in this!

AIRBNB

Groupon

Viator

LonelyPlanet

I’ll also link down to their social media pages too, just in case you want to go and check them out and follow them! I know they recently opened up new store in Cardiff University’s student union! If you’re also local to the Coventry or Cardiff stores you can also use Deliveroo or Uber Eats to get your Bubble Boba bubble fixes direct to your door!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Overall I LOVED attending the Bubble Boba Mocktail Party and Masterclass last week and after work it really was something to look forward to. The fact I got to bring Dane along with me and see some of my favourite blogging beauties, it was just perfect all around! I mean, what’s better than bubble tea and friends? 😛

Do you love bubble tea? If so what do you usually order when you go? I always usually opt for a milky drink of green tea matcha with pudding OR green apple with black tea and cherry popping bubbles.

Are you local to either of the Bubble Boba stores? If so (and you haven’t done so already!) will you be planning to head there anytime soon? Let me know in the comments guys!

Until next time, I hope you’ve all had a fabulous week and your weekends are relaxing.

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Palms Bar Coventry – Lunch Menu Review*

Good evening everyone! I do first of all apologise (again!) for being quiet for almost a week. Life is very hectic for me right now but I’ll be explaining that over the weekend so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. You know what though? Although life has been hectic, it’s been so worth it and especially with blogging! I’ve had so many blog opportunities this month and I’ve really loved it.

One of the events I attended last weekend was tasting the new lunch menu that Palms Bar in Coventry are bringing out! Emily over at The Emily Chapters and the owner of Coventry Bloggers invited myself a couple of Coventry Bloggers to try some of the yummy Nigerian and East African Cuisine the restaurant has to offer!

I’ve never really tried this type of food before so I was a mixture of excited and nervous for what was on offer. We’d had the chance to have a sneak peak of what was on offer for us to try and although I wasn’t 100% sure what some of the menu was, I wanted to go to Palms with an open mind and hear from them what everything was instead of Googling. 😛

 

Palms Bar is located on Far Gosford Street, which is just a stone throw away from FarGo Village. Their new lunch menu that Palms have released is a new project called LoveatPalms with their slogan being, “Cooked with love” which it definitely felt like it was when we tasted all the yummy food that was brought out to us.

The menu itself isn’t huge, which I really like. There’s nothing worse than going somewhere for lunch and having a huge menu to browse, decide, order and eat all in the space of between 30-45 minutes. We were gifted some of the items on the menu to taste test, of course due to the fact this was a [GIFTED] event I’ll mention and * which items we were gifted for review purposes. 🙂

The first dish that was brought out for us to try was suya* [GIFTED] which is a spicy grilled beef marinated in a bend of African spices.

This was AMAZING and definitely the best way to start off the lunchtime meal. A few of us worried it might be a bit too spicy for some of us, but personally I didn’t have a problem with this and I don’t think anyone else did either! The meat was so soft and juicy, was so perfect! I’ve craved this since last weekend and I plan to try and cook it myself in the future. 😛

After this starter dish we were inundated with various dishes from the lunch menu as well as a couple of dishes from their main menu too!

My favourite dishes were definitely the jollof rice* [GIFTED} and fried rice* [GIFTED] which were so moreish to eat and enjoyable! When they described to us what the jollof rice was, it reminded me so much of Mexican spicy rice.

Jollof rice is seasoned rice cooked in a blend of tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. I’m not a healthy eater at all but if there’s three things I turn my nose up to eating it’s all of the above! So when I tried the jollof rice, I was surprised by what was actually in it. It’s so damn yummy and I’ve been craving it since the blog event! 😛

As I mentioned we also had the fried rice which is stir-fried rice with mixed veg. This was lovely too but not as good as the jollof rice was. Around the rice there was some fried plantain which is like a banana but more savoury and eaten after it’s been cooked. Due to me having an allergy to bananas, I couldn’t eat these, which was a shame. They sound yummy though! 😀

This is the spicy turkey* [GIFTED], which I liked but at the same time I didn’t for reasons. It was somewhat spicy, but the level of spice I love! The thing I didn’t like about this dish was that every piece of turkey I picked up had a piece or two of bone in, which put me off having anymore of it. 😦

There were a couple of these pasta salad pots* [GIFTED] on the table, one without mayonnaise and meat and one vice versa. The one photographed was pasta with sweetcorn, sweet potato and crab. I did try a little of this and rather liked it. The fact it’s a cold pasta salad really complimented the rest of the meal and it’ll especially be great in the summer when the hot months are here.

Another one of my favourite things at the lunch was both the BBQ wings* [GIFTED] and the fried wings* [GIFTED] which came with some sauces and dips! These were so good, especially the fried ones! I couldn’t get enough of them and I felt like I ate too many… 😛

This was what I helped myself to the most, which I’ve already mentioned were my favourite dishes! You can never go wrong with chicken and rice! I swear if I could eat this sort of lunch nearly everyday for my lunches at work, I would ADORE it! As I said previously, I LOVE the jollof rice, which worked really well with the fried chicken wings.

Palms told us before and after we tasted the food how the new lunch menu is aimed at everyone and anyone, but mostly office workers and students as they intend to have the menu at affordable prices, which of course is perfect when university students want to meet up for a yummy lunch, but not break the bank doing so! The menu will only be available between 12pm and 3pm, Monday to Friday.

The one thing I loved the most is that with office workers Palms said how if say offices have their lunch breaks for staff at 1pm, you would be able to pre-order the lunches for everyone in the office to be delivered at that time, which I thought was amazing! I wish I could do this in my office at work! 😛

If there is one thing I kept thinking whilst trying the new lunch menu is just how well I think it will do throughout the year, but especially during the summer! If there is one thing that stands out to me with this menu is how it makes me excited for the nicer weather, BBQ’s and a cheeky pint in a beer garden. We were having a chat after we’d eaten about how that would work wonders at Palms and they agreed! So in the future there is definitely some potential for a BBQ summer menu to come out!

As well as having this amazing lunch menu during the week in the bar and restaurant, they also have a normal menu throughout the rest of the week and even cater for people!

Personally I feel like Palms Bar in Coventry is definitely a hidden gem that everyone needs to know about! The one thing I’ve noticed with FarGo Village is how everyone notices that and probably nothing around it, but why?! The shops, eateries and more have just as much to offer as the places in FarGo Village do!

I just want to say a massive thank you not only to Emily for inviting me along to this event, but also to Palms Bar in Coventry for having us there to try out their amazing food! 😀

Will you be given Palms Bar Coventry a go in the future for your lunch menu? Would you office love to be able to get this sort of food delivered at lunchtimes? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re ready for the weekend. 🙂

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