Fabulously Festive End

30 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , , ,

I have come to the end of my posts about my Fabulous at 50 year 2017. I have not written about every single event as I didn’t want to bore my readers senseless and also I managed to do 67 instead of the intended 50.

To finish off my very busy year my last few fabulous things were blessed by the Christmas fairies…….

My nieces and I decided to take part in the Santa run in Bristol Harbourside to raise money for Children’s Hospice Southwest. If it wasn’t festive enough running through the streets with a load of other Santas, we even had snow!

team gardiner girls santa run

For the first time in quite a few years we had a hospital ball. The Women’s and Children’s directorate of our trust gathered at the Passenger Shed of Brunel’s Temple Meads Station for a “Fairy Tale in New York” themed extravaganza. It was a fabulous night filled with bubbles, entertainment, dancing and lots of snow.

Just before Christmas 5 crazy friends gathered for a house party full of festive food, fizz and laughter.

Unfortunately son number one, Scott, had to work Christmas Day so a visit to Winchester was needed to deliver pressies and have a mooch around the Christmas market.

scott christmas

The main event was spent with the rest of my fabulous familam.

I had the amazing year celebrating reaching my half century and I’m so happy I decided to do 50 fabulous things instead of having a big party. I’ve had so much fun enjoying spending time with all my family and friends, parties, cocktails, going on jollies, visiting new places and doing slightly daft stuff.

Thank you to all my fellow fabulous thing partners in crime, you have truly made my birthday year unforgettable. I love you all

heart

 

Many Fabulous Happy Returns

28 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , ,

My fabulous at 50 year couldn’t have been such a success without my wonderful friends and family, so every birthday event was a fabulous thing.

 

Scott's birthday

Son number one (Scott) and Natasha (niece)

tart bday

The bestie tart (Jane B)

Janey's birthday

Bestest bestie Janey

deb's birthday

Bestie Flossy (Deb)

mum and hannah bday

Mum and Hannah (niece)

sally's birthday

Bestie Sally

donna bday

Donna

caz road trip

road trip for Caron

Karen bday

Party for Karen

mark bday

Weekend away for Mark (bruv)

arr deb bday

Arr Deb

arr selena bday

Arr Selena

kate bday

Bestie Kate

bevvy bday

Bestie Bevvy

jake's birthday breakfast

Brunch for son number two (Jake)

dawn's birthday

At the Ivy for Dawny

george's birthday

Cocktails for bestie George

shaz bday

Sis in Law Shazzer

Keeping in the familam

16 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , , ,

I always enjoy spending time with my family and many of my adventures in 50th fabulousness has involved my immediate kin. Some of which might not look like much to some people but very fabulous to me….

beauty and the beast with boys

Watching the live action Beauty and the Beast with my lovely lads Scott and Jake

coffee with neices

Coffee and cake with my beautiful nieces and my mum

One of the problems with a busy life and geography is that I don’t always see much of my extended family. So when my cousin Amelia messaged me to say that she was in Bristol with her family, I jumped at the chance of meeting up. In town to watch something at the Hippodrome they had the best part of the day to kill before they headed off to Weston Super Mare. So we had a spot of lunch and a ferry boat ride around the Bristol Docks. It was a fabulous day because we hadn’t seen each other for quite a few years and I finally got to meet her lovely daughter Sophia, and plans were made for me to camp out at their house for my volunteering stint at the Athletics World Championships. For which I am eternally grateful.

bristol day out with the athendriou's

Once Sophia heard all about my nieces she was desperate to meet them so of course another fabulous event needed to be planned. So later on in the year the “Family Diners” group was born. Amelia and Sophia accompanied by my uncle Peter and aunty Robbie came down to Bristol for a round of crazy golf, coffee and lunch, with the rest of the Bristol clan.

We all decided that life was too short not to do it all again so the Family Diners club reconvened at Chez Amelia/Ged/Sophia in Reading for a weekend after Christmas, not technically in my birthday year but fabulous all the same. We had the most amazing and relaxing time catching up on lost time and resolving to keep making an effort to continue getting together, hoping to include the rest of the extended family.

 

All the world’s a stage

06 May 2018 1 Comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , , ,

We are so lucky in Bristol to have an amazing theatre, the Hippodrome right in the city centre is the place to go to see a fantastic performance. Since opening in 1912 it has played host to many big names and productions. With it’s seating capacity of nearly 2000 the atmosphere during the shows are nearly always electric.

As I’ve written before in this blog I’m a massive fan of ballet, so when I saw that Romeo and Juliet was coming to Bristol I knew that it would be a fabulous thing. It was also my favourite production choreographed by the late Rudolph Nureyev, I first saw it in Bristol about 20 years ago and loved it.

My fellow ballet lovers were my mum and Phoebe, (Jane B’s daughter). We had the most fabulous time and the ballet was wonderful.

romeo and juliet

Another fabulous event at the Hippodrome was the Lord of the Dance; Dangerous Games, with mum and Deb. I’ve always loved watching Irish dancing and I found the performance incredibly moving.

lord of the dance

I’ve always wanted to learn how to Irish dance but never found an adult class. But this year my dream came true when the local Irish school of dance started offering classes. The Quinn School of  Irish dance is a very successful school that has been teaching children in Bristol for many years. Stacey, it’s founder, is a fantastic teacher and I’m having the best time, even though it is so exhausting.

 

 

Just because days

05 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: ,

Since suffering from, then recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome I have learnt to see the beauty in the smallest of things and take advantage of every opportunity.  “Make each occasion fabulous” was my mantra for my 50th year, along with “what’s the worst that can happen”, (which is always my mantra).

So some of my fabulous things may not seem like much to some people but to me they were because they involved spending time with good friends and family. Here are a few spur of the moment occasions that fall into the category of just because.

 

afternoon tea with the wrinklies

Fabulous afternoon tea with my mum, Jane and her dad in Charlotte’s tea rooms

atomic burger

Post Beauty and the Beast lunch in the very cool Atomic Diner with Abby, Hannah, Natasha and mum

brunch with bonnie

Brunch with Lizzy and Sarah to meet the lovely Bonnie (the dog)

carriages

Breakfast with bestest bestie Jane at Carriages restaurant in Tickenham

 

 

 

celebration lunch

Lunch to celebrate both my sons finding jobs after a lot of determination and hard work

Playing dress up

04 May 2018 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in 50 Fabulous things Tags: , , , ,

I’ve always had a propensity for dressing up, any sniff of a fancy dress occasion and I’m first in the queue.

As my formative years were in the 1980’s, a tribute night to the decade fashion forgot is always going to be a fabulous dressing up event.

So along with bestie Tart aka Jane. B I headed to the Fleece and Firkin for a Club Tropicana 80’s extravaganza and as an added bonus we discovered our friend Alison. The night didn’t start until 11 and was going on till 4 am, as our combined age is well over 140 we didn’t think we would last that long. But we danced the night away to all the classics from Wham, David Bowie, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and much more.

 

Halloween gave me another opportunity to morph into a witch, the last fabulous time was the Harry Potter pub crawl as Bellatrix. It was the Motown tribute night up the local club, unfortunately not everyone in the group got the memo about dressing up. But that didn’t kerb mine and fellow witches, Bev and Deb’s, enthusiasm, we had a fabulous time bobbing away to some amazing tunes.