What I Did For My 19th Birthday! - Milford Perk American Diner

(warning: this is going to be quite picture heavy)

Hey! So, you might know or you might not know - depending on whether this or my birthday haul will be published first - that my birthday was on the 8th August. I woke up around midday, received books from my mum and sister (as well as this laptop, which I got early in mid-late July) and a very adorable sugar skull cake. Then, late in the evening, me along with my mother, my mother's close friend and her 16-year-old daughter; my seventeen-year-old sister and her equally aged two best friends, and then my little half-brother who is five. all went to the Milford Park American Diner in Milford Haven (Pembrokeshire, Wales) for dinner. It was a wonderful experience, I can't not share it here. Also, for my mothers' birthday, we're going to go to Carmarthen (also in Pembrokeshire) sometime next week or the week afterwards. Expect to see birthday haul part two whenever that happens! 

(bought from Tesco!)

My mother hand-decorates cakes and unfortunately she just didn't have time to do one this year, but she has done for previous years (I'm going to have you show you them sometime!). This is a sugar skill taken from Mexican culture, it's one of my favourite cakes I've had over the years. The icing tastes great, too, and I usually don't like icing!

My sister, Catherine. Goofy. 

I took a picture of it as soon I saw it. If there wasn't so many of us and we hadn't reserved a table for us beforehand, I would have just gotten one of their oh-so-many milkshakes and drank it on one of the outside tables. However, I know a lot of people who don't like me in Milford Haven. It's awkward enough when you bump into someone you mutually like, never-mind someone you mutually don't! Because I took it so quickly, you get an exclusive photo of a finger!

It has only just occurred to me that I never actually took a picture of the table we were sat on, or the people I was with (apart from my sister Catherine...real weird calling her by her name, Catherine sounds so formal for someone like...uh...well), I was a lot more focused on taking pictures of everything else - even though I missed some things out. There was also a play area for my little brother to go and play in which he enjoyed quite a lot, it's only small but it works well enough. There was also a lot of posters and vintage clocks on the wall and bumper car ornament type of things that hung on the wall and these American statues and the waitresses wore cute little red dresses, it was adorable and really fun, I think it made being there that little bit more enjoyable.

Gosh, I saw a friend post about this all the time as he was always there with his girlfriend before they broke up and her best friend, who later became his best friend (again before they broke up...I know, drama!) and I was dreading seeing him there, but I guess he stopped going! Be a bit weird if he saw this, he probably thought it was just plain alright! But I just have a thing for American diners, I really love them.

The fact I have been binge watching Bob's Burgers lately back-to-back has got nothing to do with it. 

Ever seen that show "Man VS Food"? This is what i think that was based from. This is challenges that people who come in can go and do, and there's different walls like the "Wall of Excuses", the first wall I saw when I walked through the entrance but because it was at the very entrance, I would have felt awkward taking a picture there if I'm quite honest. Oops, maybe next time, but it was really cool. 

Let me tell you, it was really hard to decide what kind of meal I wanted. There was ribs and chicken, cheese and BBQ melts and a lot of burgers, although I'm not keen on hot dogs. I know, I know, typical fat-girl right here, but I swear I don't even eat meat this often or this much food in one day, but it's my birthday, I feel like we're all allowed to treat ourselves on our birthdays!

Also, isn't the design of this menu really cool?

We could choose between a lot of drinks, which was awesome, and I just had a Coke because even though a Coke float sounded interesting, I'm actually not a huge fan of vanilla because I don't have the biggest sweet tooth. I also (please don't kill me) don't really like ice cream unless it's Ben and Jerry's Phish Food/Chocolate Fudge Brownie. But, me and my sister and her friends really wanted to try this. Not entirely sure what it was called, but it was called after someone hilarious. It's basically vodka and really sweet slushie. It was a mix, I'm pretty sure. It tasted pretty good, I only had a little bit (and kept the umbrella), the rest was drank by my sister and her friends who were too young to drink the alcohol themselves!

Me and my sister shared a starer, BBQ chicken wings. This was the first time I have ever tried chicken wings - delicious, although not much meat on them, obviously because they're chicken wings. 

(mine - chicken in a bun)

(my sisters - I think she had a double burger of some kind? She's away at a her friends' house right now for a sleepover, but if she remembers I will edit this and say what she got)

It was delicious! I especially loved the fries. I have been strongly craving fries since I started to watch Bob's Burgers but even so. They were just delicious. The actual chicken burger was pretty good, too, but it was messy. I ended up having to eat it with a fork and knife, because my hands were covered in grease and mayonnaise. Interesting burger buns, too! They look just like the buns from American diner TV shows. 

And now, my favourite part. 

Sorry for the bad photo quality (of all these photos, really) but look how adorably this is portrayed. It's chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. The brownie was still hot, it was absolutely delicious, and I wanted seconds before I had even finished it. If we had the money for seconds, I would have probably got some, too! Amazing how I was still hungry after eating all this. My sister had been here before, it was only me and mum who were really amazed by everything. And, of course, my little brother with the play area!

Overall, I had a wonderful time. Thank you to my mother for taking me out and organizing it, I had a great time, and to everyone who came and gave me gifts!

I do recommend this to certain people, but I understand it won't be everyone's thing.
Thank you for reading.
Loz x

Thoughts || "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell.

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and - in Eleanor's eyes - impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is funny, sad, shocking and true - an exquisite nostalgia trip for anyone who has never forgotten their first love.

(yes, I copied that from Goodreads. Don't judge me, it's a lot to type, okay!)

(oh, also, this talk is not spoiler free)

So I started this book on the 2nd August, and then finished it in the morning of the 3rd August. I was pretty close, actually, to finishing it in one sitting and it was only because I was getting tired that I didn't. Now, because of this, you might think this talk will be a mostly positive reflection on the book and, as much as I don't want to tell writers their work is crap, it won't be. I like to be as honest as possible on all my social media, my blog is no exception. 

I'm just going to start with Rainbow Rowell overall. I haven't done much (any) research on her, though, so it's just going to be on her writing style and that disclaimer-like chapter at the back. I find it incredibly gripping, even when what she was writing at times didn't interest me. For example, it began to get repetitive and predictable real fucking quickly. I went into this book hoping that it wouldn't be just like any other YA romance, and was thoroughly disappointed. But, more on that later. The fact that it was Rainbow Rowell writing it made me want to keep reading. Sure, the hype surrounding her as a writer probably has something to do with it - even though I've never caved into hype unless I am actually interested in reading the book - but I guess we'll find out if I really do like her writing in future books.

She was pretty sassy in that end chapter. And, you guessed it, that made me really like her too. Although the fact that she ended the book on something that makes me eager for more kiiinda makes me mad. I want to know those three words, dammit! Was it "I love you", or was it "I miss you?" Was it "Come to me?" or "I'm visiting you?". Because of the set-up in the entire book, where Park always said "I love you" and Eleanor wasn't into saying it back (I feel you on that, girl), I'm inclined to believe it was "I love you", however there was also a little tension surrounding "I miss you", too. I guess we just have to go with whatever our imaginations want us to go with. I'm getting off the point majorly here, yeah? Yeah. 

Let's just move on. 

Character development, to me, is pretty important in books. If you don't have characters that you can connect to,  is there really a point in making a plot around them? Is there really a point of telling their story if you don't know the person who's telling it, really know them? I felt this frequently when reading this book. Although, it wasn't bad development, I have read worse, much worse. Eleanor was fiery, just like her flaming red hair (yay, stereotype). She had sass, she remained with a somewhat upper-hand, she was eccentric, she was a "freak", and my favourite part was that she was never described upfront to be a pretty and curvy girl like every other female is in YA romances. They are meant to have a somewhat "flaw" by being bigger then other girls, but that flaw...isn't really a flaw, it's more like some sort of porn movie desire in the end. Some people found her to be pretty, some didn't, which to me is giving across an outdated message of "beauty is subjective", which I believe in but I've heard enough about it. Eleanor, maybe because I connected to her, wasn't where I was seeing development problems.

It was with Park. 

Firstly, and this is just personal preference, I don't know why you'd call your child Park. Secondly, he had vague differences to every other boy in the 80's - aside from the fact he was Asian and "womanly", that is (also another reason why I like Rowell, she kicked gender roles in the face). He sneakily looked into his dads' Playboy magazines, he dated girls because they were popular rather then actually liking them, etc. What Eleanor saw in him, I would never know. 

And, when it came to romance, they said the same sort of things to each other, as they do in every YA romance. Although, I do appreciate this book sounding more like teenagers. Teenagers are jerks to each other, and aren't always soppy and over the top and having sex whenever they get one free moment (although they were almost like that, lets be honest here). 

Which leads me onto my third point, their romance was not believable, they were really just meant to be close friends. I felt for them as friends, but their romance was almost forced, like they needed the affection but couldn't get it from anyone else. Despite this, I was cheering them on throughout the entire thing. I wanted them to work out. I was dying for them to work out. They warmed my heart, gave me butterflies in my tummy, and made my head dizzy - and I'm not even one for romantic shit, that usually just isn't my thing. 

And, lastly, the plot. It was okay. Overall, it was just a story of a blossoming romance. The domestic abuse was not really portrayed horribly enough for me to be mad about it or demand that she never do that again, but it did seem like a ploy to make their romance work out - or seem tragic. But, their was a lot of that in here. A lot of coincidences (like Park, after months, learning how to drive before Eleanor needed to escape out of the town due to her abusive stepdad who was probably going to rape her any day now if she hadn't have got out). It just wasn't an amazingly well developed plot, but I actually kind of liked that. It made a nice change to the very complicated, sometimes over-the-top plotlines I find myself reading now. 

After that hell of a discussion, what do you think about the book, did you like it or didn't like it? Who was your favourite character?

Loz x