Lifestyle Review: Birthday Adventures

Those of you who follow my social media would have noticed that, a few weeks ago, myself and Jack turned twenty six. As usual, this resulted in a few weeks of fun filled adventures round London. Naturally, I had my camera at the ready and thought I'd share our celebrations with you.

As you may have seen in my Star Wars Identities post, for my birthday Jack surprised me by inviting my best friends to stay for a long-weekend of nerdiness and all the food. I had an awesome time but the following week, it was my turn to surprise him. Now, I think he may have managed to guess where we were going given our train route but I think he enjoyed it all the same. Here's a look at what we got up to...

Last year, part of Jack's present was a trip on a speed boat which toured the Thames at 70mph. This year, I wanted to keep up the thrills and so I booked us a go on the ArcelorMittal Orbit slide at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Standing at 114m high, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is the UK’s tallest sculpture and offers 360 degree, 20-mile views of London at its peak. Luckily for us, it was an absolutely beautiful day (though a tad too hot for my liking) which meant, once up the top, we got a stunning view. Having donned our protective wear, we exited the structure via the slide - shooting us 50m down to the ground. It was SO much fun. Whilst I think it was very expensive for what it was (you only get one go at the slide), it makes for a great present and I was really glad we tried it out.

Once we were back on solid land, it was time to leave Stratford and make our way over to Hackney Wick for Jack's second surprise. He's been really in to beers lately and, as a graphic designer, is really in to branding. Having done a bit of research, I managed to find this little gem - the CRATE Brewery. Located on the canal and once used as a print factory, the unit is now a popular pizzeria and beer brewery offering tours and a wide selection of craft beers and ales. In other words, pretty much Jack's haven. But after a few hours of beer tasting and stone-baked pizza, it was time for a final surprise and some grub in Shoreditch.

We'd been to Red's True BBQ once before and it was somewhere we'd been meaning to come back to. And so, Jack's birthday seemed like the perfect excuse. For those of you who have yet to try out it's splendour, Red's specialises in prime cuts, smoked and slow roasted joints, burgers and ribs. And, yes, those are definitely halloumi fries. And they were amazing. Naturally, we were pretty knackered and stuffed by the end of the day and headed home for an early night.

Well, that's it for another lifestyle post. Have you been to any of the spots we visited in this post? Where are some of your favourite places to visit for birthday treats? As always, I love reading your comments so please do leave me lots of lovely ones below.

Until next time explorers,