A birthday weekend and the Lush Spa, Edinburgh

Last week my lovely boyfriend turned 27 and it ended up being a four day celebration full of food, tattoos and spa treatments. On the Wednesday, Pete ended up taking the day off work (before his planned days off on the Thursday and Friday) because he's having mega back problems at the moment. That's what happens when you get oooold (Just kidding, I'm 27 this summer too. HALP ME) I'd had plans of running a few last minute errands that day, and going to Wholefoods to buy stuff for a nice birthday dinner and his birthday cake too. But OF COURSE the wounded soldier ended up complaining that he wanted to come with me. So the game was a bogey in terms of foodie surprises. I even tried to hide the birthday cake but they gave me it in a box with a see through top. I'd done quite well in hiding his presents anyways (this sorta thing becomes a bit of a challenge when you live with someone) so wasn't gonna beat myself up too much that he'd seen his cake, despite me trying my hardest to be a birthday ninja!

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On the Thursday morning we went for some birthday brunch at Cafe Strange Brew, a little place which has recently opened up just around the corner from my flat. Their coffee is fantastic, and I'm totally addicted to these poached eggs on sourdough with bacon and smoked chilli hollandaise! This is the second time I've had it, and I'm going there again for a meeting tomorrow and already dreaming of dem eggs. My oh my.

After brunch, we drove over to visit my family and then went to Cineworld at Silverburn to see The Revenant. This is the first time we've been to the cinema in ages, and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. It was so quiet! I really enjoyed the film, it was beautifully shot but pretty damn long. So long that I actually fell asleep for the last 15 minutes and missed the bloody ending! So yeah, Leo could have been abducted by aliens for all I know. Pete sorta explained to me but I was half asleep as we were walking back to the car, I'll need to google the ending and see what actually happened haha. We were so stuffed after brunch and all the cinema munchies, that we just had cake and decided to leave cooking our steak dinner until Friday night.

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On Friday we met my Dad for lunch then headed over to Irezumi to get Pete's final birthday present (and a little something for me too) Thank you so much to Darryl for fixing us up with these matching beauties! Pete's is on his upper arm, and mine is on the side of my thigh. Really pleased with how they turned out. By the time we got home, we were too tired to cook... so ended up ordering Dominos. Promising each other we would have this birthday steak on Saturday night instead... (SPOILER - we didn't)

Dress - Spartoo // Cardi - Sheinside // Bag - Spartoo (old) // Bag Charm - Boden // Shoes - Gift from a friend

On Saturday we were up bright and early catching the train through to Edinburgh to visit the Lush Spa. I got Pete and myself (Wow, I'm good at making his presents work for the both of us eh!) a voucher while I was working at Lush over Christmas. Everyone was saying how amazing the Spa was, and ironically the first appointment we could get for a couples treatment was on his birthday weekend. The treatment we got was called The Good Hour, and it was absolutely amazing. It's a full body massage with a nautical theme, and sea shanties plus the noise of crashing waves and birds off in the distance being played throughout. I don't want to reveal too much about the experience and ruin the little quirks and surprises, but it was honestly brilliant and we can't wait to go back and try another treatment. Both of our therapists were very professional and made us feel welcome and comfortable. They explained the massage as if our bodies were ships and our muscles were the ropes, with everything being untangled, loosened up and prepared before we set sail. I look as if I'm on another planet in that photo above, and to be fair I was still on cloud nine after the massage (hence the rosy cheeks and unruly hair) Have you ever tried a Lush Spa treatment before? It was so different from any other traditional massage I've had. Struggling to choose what I'd like next when we go back!

After the Spa we went and grabbed a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe then went to the pub for a few beers so Pete could watch some of the football. Edinburgh is lovely but it ended up getting mighty wet and cold as soon as it got dark, so we didn't wander around for too long. By the time we got the train home and walked back to the flat... we were too stuffed and tired AGAIN to cook that bloomin' steak dinner! We ended up having toast and falling asleep on the couch haha.

The Lush Spa is in the basement of the Lush store in Edinburgh, so we couldn't resist having a wee nosy around before we left. I bought quite a lot over Christmas and in the sale, but having a bath a few times a week means that my supply is running seriously low. The Lush Spa gift box contains some products exclusive to the Spa and is a perfect way of giving yourself a pamper at home. Inside is Dream Time Temple Balm, Full Of Grace Facial Serum, Golden Slumbers Bath Bomb, Big Blue Bath Bomb and Peace Massage Bar (plus a selection of beautiful postcards in the envelope on the lid) We were given a fresh version of the massage bars used during our treatment to take home, which I thought was a rather nice touch (mines is Hottie, and Pete's is Wiccy Magic Muscles) I also got the Unicorn Horn bubble bar, Flowering Tea Bubble Bar, Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub, Herbalism Cleanser and T For Toes Foot Powder. We actually have around 8 massage bars now, so I've moved all the bath bombs and bubble bars into my Experimenter gift box which I got for Christmas, and I'm using the Lush Spa gift box to house all of our massage bars from now on. This should be more than enough to keep me going for the next wee while. If you'd like a more in depth review of any of the above be sure to let me know!

Alas, on Sunday we FINALLY cooked Pete's original birthday dinner. Man it looks hella ugly, but I promise you that steak was delicious (he managed to nail the medium/rare, good lad) and I could eat rosemary potatoes all day errr' day. This is the first meat we've cooked at home in a good while, we seem to be going down the vegetarian route without even really realising - and to be honest I think we both prefer it. Pete was off work again on the Monday, so with dinner he had a couple of 'craft beers' which he picked up at Wholefoods, because what else should one expect from such a place! I was on the Strawberry Woo Woo Funkin cocktails (sans alcohol) with some frozen berries used instead of ice cubes. Dangerously delicious if you're adding booze, they're so tasty and easy to drink. However I'm trying to get into a better routine this week as I start a 7 week telly job on Monday. No more mid week drinkies or late nights binge watching Luther for me!