Southampton Solent Conference Centre Summer Party

In September 2010, I came to Southampton to spend the next three years studying at Southampton Solent University. Six years and a huge development later, I was invited to the grand opening of Southampton Solent new conference centre called The Spark. The new £30 million building located on campus has the availability to be used by businesses for exhibitions or conferences while also providing extra lecture space for students during term time. 

Accompanied by the girls from SotonBloggers, we arrived just after 7pm to a champagne reception. After canapes and champagne, we were shown to the Atrium and slowly made our way to our seats for the meal. We were seated at the Buttercup table, the theme for the evening was Summer Garden Party so the decorations were made up of florals and greens. Our table was set with place settings so after locating my seat and served wine, we all started on the first course. The first course was laid out on a  mini picnic bench covered with mini quiche, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and pork pies, all provided by The Artisan located in Guildhall Square. Our main was a chicken salad followed by a summer berry mousse. 

The food was great and perfectly in keeping with the theme of the evening. After we finished our meals, the raffle was held. We were each given a raffle ticket inside our place settings with Tanya being the only winner from our table. After the raffle we explored the conference centre. Lots of different rooms were set up differently to showcase what could be done. The Pod, which is the main focal point provided the perfect space as a photo booth for the evening. 

There was live music playing throughout the evening while we walked around to see what we could find. Face painting and balloon animals were being done in the room showing their Christmas table set up and packages while just outside was a pick'n'mix cart which resulted in a few bags being filled full of sweets to satisfy my sweet tooth. There was also a cake station displaying Love Bakery's incredible creations and a prohibition bar where you had to guess the password to gain entry!

I really enjoyed my first blog event and spent the evening with some great people. Really looking forward to my next event! 

SebaMed Skincare - My Routine

After being constantly told I need to implement a daily skin routine, I have been using Sebamed Skincare for the last 28 days. The products are formulated using high purity ingredients that aim to take care of your skin, leaving it feeling soft and smooth. With a PH value of 5.5, Sebamed aims to keep your skin at its healthiest.

As someone who suffers with dry skin and eczema, a skin routine is something that I should've introduced a long time ago. The problem that I find with using facial creams is that no matter how little I put on or how well I apply it, it tends to end up streaming into my eyes after about 20 minutes of walking. With Sebamed's facial skin care range I have found that I haven't had this problem once.

Sebamed Cleansing Soap - £2.49*

This is an alkali-free soap that gently cleanses deep into your pores, while moisturising your skin and providing essential amino acids. It creates a barrier against the potential environmental damage you face on a daily basis. The 5.5 PH value maintains the balance of the acid mantle's hydro-lipid system. Applied morning and night, the cleansing bar helps keep your skin clear and looking healthy over time. The cleansing bar has a neutral scent that doesn't over power you during use.

Anti-Dry Day Defence Cream - £10.29*

The Anti-Dry Day Defence Cream provides replenishment and moisture to dry skin by using an optimal combination of natural active ingredients. Defending the skin from detrimental environmental impacts, it protects dry skin from further dehydration and shields from influences that can damage the skin further such as UVB and pollutants to relieve skin from irritation and and premature ageing. Containing vitamins A and E plus avocado oil, the cream helps smooth the skin, relieve from irritation and calms sensitive skin. The day cream is the thinner of the two so you don't need much to cover your whole face. 

Anti-Dry Night Intensive Cream £10.29*

The Anti-Dry Night Intensive Cream is a thicker formula compared to the day cream. I was really impressed with the coverage despite how thick it was and it didn't leave skin feeling greasy or clogged up. Again this was really quick to absorb into the skin and there was no feeling of stickiness. All these products have now become part of my daily skincare routine and for the first time I've had compliments on how well my skin looks, which isn't the norm for a guy. I really would recommend this to anyone who suffers from dry, irritated or sensitive skin because I wouldn't not have this in my routine now. Turns out men do need a skincare routine after all! 

Thanks for reading! 

*Press samples. 

Why I Decided To Blog

Over the last few years I have seen blogging grow at a phenomenal rate, from people not wanting to share the fact they blog to now sharing their experiences whether this be from their latest haul, holiday or event. This has resulted in a community that supports each other over common interests. Today I wanted to share with you the reasons why I have chosen to blog. 

Sharing Experiences

A year and a half ago I helped with one of the Sotonblogger events and it gave a really good insight to what these events are like. I loved seeing people interact with each other even though they've never met before and really getting along just by sharing a common interest. Reading other peoples blogs and getting an insight into others lives has been a great way to try new places or products I may never had thought of before.

Improving Myself

I suffer from dyslexia on a mild level but also tend to be quiet when I'm around people I don't know as I've never felt comfortable in myself. I wanted to find a way to improve both of these and felt that blogging would be the perfect way to tackle this. 

Now if I am around people I have known for years or drunk, I tend to be loud and a bit of a goof whereas if I'm around people I have never met or hardly know I find that I don't have the confidence to really be myself. Having dyslexia, I feel that by constantly writing posts on the experiences that I am lucky to find myself in, I can learn when to use the correct spelling of words but also improve my writing structure. I know that by blogging I will eventually get to the level I want to be.

Social Engagement

I'm originally from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, I came to Southampton for university and ended up finding both a city I love and feel comfortable in but also the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The problem with this was most of my good friends have either moved back home or moved to other cities to path their own way in life. This has resulted in keeping myself to myself more than I would've liked.

Despite having a few good friends and my partner I share a lot with, I feel that it's never a bad idea to find more people who share the same interests as you, while at the same time discovering new interests. As the topics of blogging can be so diverse, you get a good range of posts to read and follow.

Female Bloggers Have All The Fun

The main thing I have noticed with blogging is that it's a practice that is mainly dominated by women, which is amazing however, it would be great to see more male bloggers.

This may be due to men feeling that being a man is all about being macho and not sharing their emotions or writing abilities. The idea of being a part of the blogging community has really intrigued me. I have always like the idea of doing something that is against the crowd and becoming a male blogger is right up that avenue. 

I hope that this post gave a small insight about myself and why I've decided this is right for. If you like what you read please do hit the follow button or leave a comment. 

My Gaming Set Up

Today I want to share my fairly humble gaming set up. Now it isn't the most flashy or technologically advanced set up you're ever going to see but it is something that I have slowly put together over a period of time and I am happy with it. Up until around March, I was predominantly a console gamer. I had dabbled in some PC gaming with League of Legends but I never decided that it would be my focus, until I managed to piece together the following:

HP Pavillion Laptop 15 - AB150SA 

This is an entry to mid range level laptop when it comes to gaming. Coming with an AMD A8-7410 APU, 8GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. This has the ability to play games on the medium specs required. I personally haven't had a problem running Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone or League of Legends with any GPU problems. Coming with Window 10 as standard (which I love) and Bang & Olufsen audio system which works beautifully both in game and out, I really can't fault this laptop for what I need it for.

Mad C.A.T.Z RAT3 Gaming Mouse

Looking like a Transformers foot, the RAT3 optical mouse from Mad C.A.T.Z is quite possibly my favourite mouse design that I've ever seen. Considering that most gaming mice in my opinion seem to have a focus on being as slim and streamline as possible, the RAT3 is the completely other way. Focusing on being comfortable for the user the RAT3 has 4 different DPI (Dots Per Inch) settings of 450, 900, 1800 and 3200 meaning that at one click of a button you're able to change the in game sensitivity to meet your requirements. It also has two additional buttons on the left hand side of the mouse to help with in game commands and finally a gold plated USB connector and woven wire protector to help with longevity. 

Roccat Kanga Mousemat

Before I started PC gaming I honestly thought that the least important part of any set up was a mouse mat, I can't tell you how wrong I was. It's something I've learnt very quickly when I switched from your bog standard plastic mouse mat to this. The Kanga is 320mm width by 270mm length by 2mm depth, so it is your standard size of gaming mouse mat. During its design it was tried and tested with 85 different gaming mice and you can really see this in the way it tracks the mouse during game play. Its cloth surface means there is nothing for your mouse to get caught on while playing and when you're finished it's easy to clean and roll up for storage. This is by far my best purchase.

Turtle Beach Ear Force X1's

Released October of 2006 the Turtle Beach Ear Force x1's were the original entry level gaming headset for both Xbox 360 and PC gaming. 10 years on, somehow my pair are still working. The x1's are a light headset and provide a nice clear sound which is vital for games where you need to know the direction that potential enemies are going to be coming from. The lead is extremely long as its initial audience was for Xbox 360 players, which can be annoying over time but the durability of this headset is truly impressive. The only downside I have found would be the material on the ear covers and the headband, as it has now started to peel everywhere. Apart from those small problems, the x1's really have been a stable part of my set up. 

So that's it, my humble set up is complete for now. Hope you enjoyed this post, as there will be more gaming ones to come as we go along. 

Burger Sliders & Mojitos

Where better to start my blog than being able to tell you all about the Burger Sliders and Mojitos that you're able to try at Mettricks Guildhall. For anyone who isn't aware of Mettricks, it is a Hampshire run coffee house that wants to bring a better coffee experience to Southampton and the surrounding area. Starting in 2013 Mettricks has slowly grown from one coffee house in the Old Town of Southampton to four located in Bargate and Guildhall in Southampton and Beaulieu in the surrounding area.

Mettricks is where Alice and I spend a lot of our time and for our four year anniversary and celebration of our engagement, we decided that we would try the Mettricks After Dark evening food and cocktail menu. We decided to have the above mentioned Burger Sliders alongside the Mojitos. 

The Sliders came with three different fillings of Beef, Paprika Chicken and Pulled Pork in a roasted bun with a side of fries. My first thought was that the Sliders weren't going to be filling but I was really surprised when they came out. All three tasted delicious and the flavours worked so well together. The Mojitos were served in glass jam jars and provided a nice refreshement alongside the burgers.

In all I was really impressed with the Burger Sliders and Mojitos and have since been back to have them both numerous times. 

If you have tried the Burger Sliders or any other food at Mettricks Guildhall, what did you think?