Getting Ready for the Festive Season

Now that Halloween and Bonfire Night are well and truly behind us, Sam and I decided to start getting into the festive spirit. 

We knew that lockdown 2.0 would be a bit more depressing than lockdown 1.0, with the cold and the dark nights and mornings. So we thought what the heck?! Might as well cheer up the one room we have to spend 15 hours a day in again.

We got a couple of new tree decorations this year, which I will save for a later post, as well as some new bedding not pictured here, new pyjamas courtesy of my parents, and a gorgeous gingerbread house cookie jar and cushion from Shop Disney.







I have also made a point of doing some festive menu sampling. We’ve had both the festive bake and pigs in blankets baguettes from Greggs, and I’ve had both the Terry’s Chocolate Orange and After Eight hot chocolates from Costa. Side note: the After Eight one was divine.

We’ve been trying our best to bring ourselves some festive cheer, and I think it’s worked for the most part. Now to keep it up through December.

Nic

xx

A Trip to Cornwall

At the start of September, Sam and I needed a holiday. So because we couldn’t go abroad, we decided to head to Cornwall for the week. 

It was actually a nice drive down, with us getting there at 10:30ish. We decided to do the Eden Project on the first day, but we were early, so we went to nearby Charlestown beforehand to spend a couple of hours on the beach. After lunch, we spent an afternoon at the Eden Project, which was lovely, and we tried a strawberry and lime gin, which was even lovelier. We then went to check in at our Air BnB, ate spag bol, and watched Paddington 2.













Day two saw us spending the day in St Ives, where we walked along the beach, ate ice cream, played in the sand, and I had an unfortunate incident with a seagull which left me halloumi burger-less. The weather was absolutely stunning though, and a relaxing day at the beach was just what we needed. After our beach day, we had a pub evening meal in Helston, before heading for a walk around Prussia Cove.







Day three was our busiest, with us heading to Land’s End (but we didn’t take a picture with the sign as the line was LONG) in the morning. After a couple of Cornish pasties we went and saw Porthcurno beach and the Minack Theatre, and then we headed to Falmouth for the afternoon, where we had cream tea, grilled cheese and drinks with my friend Megan and her boyfriend Simon.





Our final day saw us head to Newquay, where we had an afternoon eating fish and chips, walking along the beach, eating more ice creams and watching the surfers. We also spent a while watching the dramatic waves that they have there. After which, we drove out to Dartmoor to spend the evening with some of Sam’s friends, before driving home.











So there we have it, a short recap of our trip to Cornwall. It was a perfect way to end the Summer, and a great week in these ever more doom inducing times.

Nic

xx

A Weekend Down South

A couple of weekends ago, Sam and I decided we needed to get away from Stockport for a few days. We’ve been more than good during lockdown, and with both of us feeling the cabin fever, we decided we would go and spend a weekend down south visiting Sam’s family (who we hadn’t seen since February)

We drove down on Wednesday after work, and we made really good time, one perk of the roads being less busy, and I had an excellent nights sleep. We woke up early Thursday morning, and had a tasty breakfast of croissants, before driving to Kent so Sam could pick up his new car. Afterwards, we went for an afternoon in St Albans, where we saw a couple of friends in the park, and had waffles. It was lovely and warm, and when we got back to Sam’s parents, we had our evening meal in the garden and then had a relaxing evening. Friday was another warm day, and we went for lunch at Caffè Nero with Sam’s mum whilst we waited for the dog to have her hair cut. We had an afternoon in the garden, splashing in the pool and playing badminton (not me) before having a bbq in the evening.

On Saturday we headed into Brighton for a few hours, and despite the wind I was overjoyed to see the sea again. We had fish & chips and doughnuts, wandered around, and I spent too much money in Artbox Cafe. We then headed back to have homemade pizzas, before driving back up North to end the weekend. All in all, it was a lovely few days, and it was great to get away, and we were lucky we did, because we in Greater Manchester aren’t allowed to go and see anyone again now. Sigh.

Nic

xx

Cafe Rouge Afternoon Tea

Can you believe that this is only the second time I’ve ever had afternoon tea?! Wild!

On Sunday, Sam and I decided to have an early Valentine’s Day treat and go for afternoon tea. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was looking around at places we could go, and I remember my parents talking about having afternoon tea at Cafe Rouge, so I thought I’d look at the menu. I loved it, and booked a table. Then the day of the tea came around, and I decided I was going to wear a flouncy outfit. So, all dressed up and ready to go, we headed to Cafe Rouge. 

When we got there, they told us we could have any hot drink, so we both went for hot chocolate, because I’m never going to turn that offer down, and soon after the tea arrived. I was overjoyed to find croque monseiurs on the sandwich tier, so we munched away on those, had the great scone debate (jam first, always) and then shared the cakes and chocolate mousse.

It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and at £12.50 each, it was also a nice affordable way to enjoy a little luxury.

Nic

xx

What I Did in January

Well, considering January is literally the worst month ever, I actually don’t think it was too bad this year. It was long, don’t get me wrong, but I actually had a pretty good time. 

We started off the year with our usual New Years Day walk, and I pretty much read a whole book, first one off the reading challenge done, I was very happy indeed. The first weekend of the new year saw us head out on a rare night out; my dance teacher decided to throw a party, and we attended. It was a very fun night, although my feet were aching afterwards. I also returned to dancing after the longest time off from it. The second weekend was a chilled one; we went for another walk, and I tried a ruby hot chocolate from Costa, aka the best drink ever.

On the third weekend of January, we went on a day trip to our favourite northern place; Chester. We always have a really nice day whenever we go to Chester, and this day was no different. I also had another ruby hot chocolate. The fourth weekend was a fun one, as it was Chinese New Year! We went to Chinatown in Manchester, where we are noodles, watched some great performances, bought our own Year of the Rat souvenir, watched the dragon parade, and had a bubble waffle. We finished the month off with a trip to TGI Fridays with Sam’s dad, who was in Manchester at the end of the month for work.

Monthly Goals: Did I Reach Them?

I decided at the start of the month that at these new monthly round up posts, I would discuss whether I met my monthly goals or not, so, my goals for January were:

• Read 5 books. I just about managed this one
• Go back to dancing. I absolutely nailed this one
• Write every day. I didn’t manage this one, and I am so disappointed in myself.
• Do something fun every weekend. I think I did alright with this one.
• Re-launch my other blog. I was a bit shaky with this one, so it’s on my February list too.

So there we have it: my January. Hope you enjoyed reading this, I’ll be doing one every month now.

Nic

xx

2020 Reading Challenges

Hello all, just a short post today. I was going to write more about my mini goals that I’m doing for each month, but I decided to leave that for my end of the month round up posts, so today I’m talking reading.

Reading is probably my number one hobby, so naturally I like to set myself yearly reading challenges, so I thought I’d pop them on here so you can see them too. I have two challenges so far, though I’ll probably try booktubeathon again. At this present moment though, my two challenges are:

Read 50 books

Read a book each month where the author’s name begins with the same letter that the month begins with.

So there they are. I’ll update you all through the year to let you know how I’m getting on. On a side note, I’m also really enjoying posting on here again currently, let’s hope this blogging enthusiasm continues, I think it will, as it seems blogs are making a bit of a comeback this year, here’s hoping.

Nic

xx

The Roaring Twenties

Happy New Year everyone! I know I’ve not blogged in the longest time, but one of my new year’s resolutions is to write every day, and so I’m making my triumphant return to blogging. I was going to do a whole 2019 in review post, but considering I really fell off the blogging train last year, I thought I’d just show you a snippet of my highlights, which include; 

Getting my hair cut, going to Disneyland Paris three times, going to MCM Expo twice, seeing friends, starting a new job after being made redundant, and going to Walt Disney World did the first time.

So that, in a nutshell, was my 2019. But this is a post about 2020, or, the start of the roaring twenties, take two, so I’m here today to talk about that. I have a few big resolutions/goals for the year, and some mini ones, of which I’ll go in to more detail about in my next post, but here are my big resolutions/goals for 2020;

Write every day.

Take more care of myself/ indulge in more self-care.

Save up to move house.

Be more comfortable in my body.

Go somewhere new on holiday.

And, my goal for every year: live my best life.

I have mini goals for each month, and I’ll talk about why I’m doing that in my next post, so I will leave this post here, and say one final happy new year, and remind you all to enjoy the last little bits of the season before we all have to go back to work. Joking, most of us have already been back.

Nic

xx