A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Bristol for our 2nd child-free night in over six years, since Cherry was born. We had such a good time, it was so good that it took me a few days to re-adjust to my life as a parent again. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love being a homeschooling mum and would miss the kids so much if they weren’t with me on a regular basis but it sure did feel good to have a taste of freedom. To be able to go out and eat in peace without worrying about keeping little people entertained, and how much cheaper is it too when you only have to buy food for two people?!
The reason for our visit was to go and see a band called The White Buffalo, a lot of their songs were featured in Sons of Anarchy and those of you who follow my blog will know that I am obsessed with the show. Since discovering The White Buffalo a few years ago I now own all their albums, I love Jake’s voice and never get bored of hearing it. It’s pretty much all I listen to in the car and Cherry knows the words to all the songs too. Jarrod Dickenson was the support act which we didn’t find out until the day before but I also love him so the whole night was amazing.
It was actually really fun to go and see a band together too, we never did things like this before having kids, apart from at festivals but that doesn’t really count. It was so civilised and there were some much older couples there, it’s something I want to do lots more of when the kids are older and we are a bit more free again.
As Bristol is a couple of hours drive from our home we stayed in a hotel, the Novotel in Bristol city centre. It was the perfect place for our date night, walking distance from both Cabot’s Circus where we went for vegan pizza and the Trinity Centre where The White Buffalo were playing.
Our room was really spacious, with a super big and comfortable bed, something which is very important to me. As you will find out in my video when I say the word comfortable about 10 times! There was a big fridge which was perfect for keeping our vegan butter and milk cold. We opted to have our breakfast delivered to our room, my only error was choosing for it to be delivered at 7.30am! I thought we would be awake like normal but I was actually in a deep sleep and would have loved to have enjoyed a lie-in. The breakfast was good though, we asked for no milk or butter as we had our own so just chose the toast and cereal we wanted. Also a big bowl of fruit salad.
We had a nice relaxing morning in our room laughing at trash telly, you don’t have to check out until 12 which is nice, there is nothing worse than an early check-out time. Our window overlooked lots of the offices surrounding the hotel, it was really enjoyable to see everyone working whilst we were doing nothing. Also interesting to see a reminder of what city life is like, we actually used to live in Bristol a few years before having kids and I used to be one of those people working in an office, it’s a life I can’t even imagine now though, although I can see the appeal of feeling like there is so much going on around you.
We didn’t get much chance to explore the hotel but there is a gym and spa on the top floor then downstairs a big bar and restaurant. The lobby is also really large with some computers to use and a kid’s play area, equipped with a games console. I think the nice thing about Novotel hotels is that they make a great place to stay for anyone, from business men to families.
We always used to stay in them when I was little and I would definitely stay in one again with our children.
Once we had checked out of the hotel we headed over to a vegan café called VX in Bedminster, they serve vegan junk food and boy is it good! I had the best cheeseburger ever!
And the cake was amazing too, this was a chai gateaux and raspberry and almond slice. I wish I lived nearer as I would go there all the time. They also sell lots of vegan products, basically my idea of heaven!
After stuffing our faces we headed home to relieve Nanny and see our little people, and recover from the one shot of Malibu that had given me a hangover. Honestly, I kid you not!
Thank you so much to the Novotel for inviting us to stay, you can find out more about the hotel and book rooms here.
And here is a little video I made of our child-free 24 hours…
