I loved Ex Machina. I love robots (I'm also terrified of them, due to another childhood memory), the soundtrack was class (this tune from the film's climax especially) and I loved the story of the film. Another character besides the robot fascinated me however, and that was the house of the billionaire inventor. I especially was drawn to the rock face feature that made up one of the stark living areas. I was goggling at the house more than paying attention to plot.

I've always been fascinated with exteriors used as interior walls. Locally there's a great example in Bangor's heritage centre. Coffee Cure restaurant cafe is indoors, but one wall is the old exterior courtyard wall of Bangor Castle. For years any time I've visited the small museum I've remembered peeking through the door to see the wall, and feeling very happy at the sight of it. I think I know why.

Coffee Cure at Bangor Museum set up for an event

It's one of my earliest childhood memories again. When I was a toddler my parents would take me on holidays to Rose Cottage, a rental home on the Isle of Man. I have very little memory of it. Just the tail-less cats at the cottage, some of the beautiful seafront gardens of Dingle, the giant sunny face of Summerland (below), and the interior rock wall of its indoor pool.

Summerland was a giant leisure complex, which originally was much bigger. It would be a billion pound venture to build these days. The pool below is the original, I can't find a photo of the pool I would have been in. I'm almost sure it was parallel to the wall.

The reason I couldn't have remembered this pool is because Summerland #1 burnt to the ground in 1973.

You can see the complex was much bigger in the early 1970s.

They rebuilt Summerland on a smaller scale in the late 70s, and I was born in 1980 and visited in the early 80s.

They demolished 'my' version of Summerland in 2005, but you can still see the rock wall I remember from the smaller rebuild.

It amazes me that my early memories seem to certainly shape my tastes if not more.

As for the Ex Machina house, it's actually an exclusive hotel in Norway, so maybe someday I can visit and stare at their wall to my heart's content.

My discovery of the existence of the espresso con panna came about last week, the morning of the Premier Inn Purple Sauce launch media event . Despite being well versed in the blogging freebies philosophy from an early age, for some reason Michael was coy about taking a bacon sandwich, or drink, so while I had a bacon bap & big cup of tea, he requested to go get a cookie afterwards instead. We had to wait around until 11am for Yo Sushi! to open to get our takeaway to take home anyway, so we went to the Caffe Nero on Anne Street where he got a giant slice of chocolate fudge cake. I was full of bacon and tea, but wanted to get something to drink to occupy me while Michael attacked his cake, so I spied the espresso con panna, and thankfully for the coffee ignorant like me, a description of what it actually was underneath. Two shots of espresso topped with whipped cream. It sounded good, and it tasted good, and it was teeny enough to fit in after by giant cup of tea just half an hour before. Plus it was only £1.90, which seems cheap for a coffee chain where big, sugary coffees are over £3.

And so my experiment unwittingly began.

My next place to try their version of the espresso con panna was local coffee chain Bob & Bert's. Again the drink was printed on the giant wall menu, but the two staff members said literally no-one had ever asked for it before! This led me to Google the drink when I got home, finding out it's actually a very old fashioned coffee option, which was around before other lighter drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes.

At Bob & Bert's there was a small or medium size, which I'm guessing just meant one or two shots. It was served in a cute little glass this time, and was just as good as Caffe Neros.

On Saturday, I was rushing around doing messages before my son got back, and stopped into my local Independant chain Coffee Cure, which has several branches in Bangor, including the restaurant at the heritage centre. I live very close to the original flagship branch on the Rathmore Road, so I popped in to see how their espresso con panna held up.

This time it wasn't on the menu, so I just asked for two shots of espresso with whipped cream on top. They made the cream up fresh, and it was really thick. I forgot to get a photo, but it was good.

The final contender in part one of my search for the best espresso con panna is every coffee snob's nemesis, Starbucks. I love Starbucks, and Michael loves Starbucks, although we rarely go as it's just so bloody expensive. Luckily the espresso con panna was not only on the wall menu, but only £1.90 and apparently only 37 calories. I'm not sure I can really judge Starbucks fairly, as I got the drink to take away, and with all the other cafés I sat in. Why this effects the outcome is that by the time I drove round home with the drink, the cream had completely dissolved into the espresso, so it was just like a tiny strong coffee with a splash of milk in it. It definitely wasn't good, but I might give Starbucks another go sitting in with it next time.