30 May 2019
Wedding Chat (#5) | Brb Off To Get Hitched
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| Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash |
The past few weeks have including a lot of final payments, final meetings, final random tasks (like testing speakers and buying a just-in-case photo-appropriate umbrella). We’ve booked our taxi to Heathrow, have got our dollars ready and the suitcases are down from the loft. Predictably, G has already half filled his whereas my packing will probably be somewhat chaotic and last minute. Why break a habit of a lifetime?
Oh and Saturday’s weather is predicted to be the hottest for the next couple of weeks so if you see a melting blob in a wedding dress around St Albans – hi it me.
I have got used to living with the permanent sensation of butterflies-in-the-stomach over the past couple of weeks as well as the monumental, can’t-really-process feeling of we-are-actually-getting-married.
Given it’s such a big moment, I find myself without very much to say. It’s all tumbling emotion that even I am struggling to put into words. This process has been a right emotional rollercoaster at times. Weddings are funny things, unique things, and I am someone who needs time to reflect at a later date. So no doubt all these thoughts and emotions will be detangled and shaped into words further down the line.
For now, all that’s really left to say is I am beyond excited for the moment our friends and family start to arrive in St Albans tomorrow and every single moment that will follow over the weekend and the three weeks after.
Over and out.
29 May 2019
Our Honeymoon Plans
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So this is a super fun post to write.
The moment G and I got engaged, I was adamant that our honeymoon was going to be pretty epic. Even before he proposed, we’d talked about doing some kind of big state-side trip and I am very excited. The whole reason we allowed ourselves 17 months to plan the wedding was so we could take this long a honeymoon. The wait is (nearly) over!
So two days after our wedding, we will take a little jolly on down to Heathrow airport for a night in the Premier Inn. Doesn’t sound like the most glamorous start to a honeymoon but we’re treating ourselves to a stress-free morning (hopefully), rather than getting up at the crack of dawn to make a 9:30am flight.
New York
If you know me at all, you’ll know NYC is one of my all-time favourite places. We have a whole blissful week there just to chill the heck out as I imagine we’re going to be knackered after the wedding is over. Last time we went, I can remember us saying on the plane home that we would love to come back one day and take a more chilled-out approach to the city. We’ve already ticked off all the tourist sites so we’re planning a living-like-the-locals type week where we take everything at a slower pace and just really enjoy the city. We’re thinking picnics in the park, lazy mornings, lots of slow wanders and ALL THE FOOD.
Things I want to do this time round (in between all the laziness): spend some more time in Brooklyn, see some of Manhattan’s street art, go up the new ‘Vessel’ and head up the Rock at sunset to hopefully see the city from above at golden hour.
California
Hopefully NYC will leave us feeling suitably refreshed because we shall then hop on another plane and fly across the country to, hello, San Francisco! Yes, I am SO EXCITED.
We ummed and ahhhed a lot about how we wanted to see California as it is – to state the obvious – freakin’ enormous and there is so much to see. But neither of us were particularly keen on a road trip and even if we were, we would have realistically needed more time. So we essentially prioritised what we really wanted to see – San Francisco, Yosemite, Wine Country, Redwoods – and went from there. We worked out we could base ourselves in San Fran and see everything whilst still maintaining the right balance of busy & relaxed.
We have treated ourselves to 5 nights in the most expensive hotel we have ever booked (with the most incredible waterfront views of Oakland Bay Bridge) which means we will also spend a few nights in a much cheaper Airbnb! But I quite like the idea of having two different accommodation experiences; we’ll stay in two different parts of the city giving us the chance to experience both. Our Airbnb is on a lovely suburban street full of colourful, San Francisco-style houses and looks super cute.
We’re aiming to spend every other day (4-5 days in total) in San Francisco itself and want to see all the sites (am particularly excited for the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz). On our other days, we plan to get out of the city and see some more of California. We plan to hop on the ferry to Sausalito one day and definitely want to do some hiking in Muir Woods. Can’t wait to see those huge trees. We have a day booked to spend in Wine Country – we’ll be doing a wine tour with the cutest looking company and I am v excited to be drunk on a vineyard. And – omg so excited about this – we have two days booked in Yosemite National Park with a night spent in one of their pre-erected tents. G is half convinced we’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a bear outside and, oh, wouldn’t that be the most epic honeymoon tale ever...
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
28 May 2019
A Photo A Day | 1 - 15 May 2019
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| 1 May 2019 Location: Peddling Pizza, St Albans market Pizza = life. (Needless to say, I am not on a wedding diet 👍🏻) |
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| 2 May 2019 Location: St Albans Snapped this on my way home from voting which we put off for a while due to the torrential rain; I love the sheer amount of green going on, the colourful playground, the lil church in the background... basically this little scene makes my heart inexplicable happy 🤷🏻♀️ |
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| 3 May 2019 Location: Sheffield Spent a peaceful few days up north and mostly photographed the ginger furbaby 😻 |
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| 4 May 2019 Location: Sheffield Spent a peaceful few days up north and mostly photographed the ginger furbaby 😻 |
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| 5 May 2019 Location: Sheffield Spent a peaceful few days up north |
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| 6 May 2019 Location: Sheffield Spent a peaceful few days up north and mostly photographed the ginger furbaby 😻 |
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| 7 May 2019 Location: Regent's Park, London Spring time in Regent’s Park 😍 |
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| 8 May 2019 Location: Regent's Park, London More spring time in Regent’s Park 😍 |
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| 9 May 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Saying bye to the last of the blossom 🌸📸 |
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| 10 May 2019 Location: St Albans Gareth loves my constant photo-taking and the way it prevents him from eating his food whilst hot... #instagramhusband #whothehellisgareth |
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| 11 May 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Lazy weekend at home; gonna miss these views when we move ⛪️ 🍎 |
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| 12 May 2019 Location: St Albans Lazy weekend at home; gonna miss these views when we move ⛪️ 🍎 |
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| 13 May 2019 Location: St Albans Got an ice cream because it was Monday and the sky looked like this ☀️ |
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| 14 May 2019 Location: London This weather though 😍☀️ |
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| 15 May 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Wednesdays = pizza-from-the-market-days. Even better when the sun shines ☀️🍕 |
22 May 2019
The Highs And Lows Of Planning A Wedding
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| Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash |
9 days until we get married. How?
Like a true cliché, the past 17 months have felt like a really long time and yet like no time at all. I think I’m ready to not be planning a wedding now and yet also can’t quite believe it’s already over.
The biggest piece of advice I would give to anyone planning a wedding, now I’ve done it myself, is that it’s okay to have moments of stress. Getting married is supposed to be a happy occasion so I’ve often found myself making stressful situations even more stressful by questioning why I’m feeling stressed rather than enjoying myself (an insight into how my mind works).
There is no point pretending that organising an event for 100+ people isn’t without stresses. And that’s before you throw in the fact that you’re actually getting married which is sorta a once-in-a-lifetime thing and comes with so much emotion. And not just for you; all anyone does for months on end is ask you about it and get excited about it. By the end, it feels virtually impossible to still maintain the ‘just essentially organising a party’ vibe you started out with. BUT – and this is a big but – there has been so much joy. And oh my, the joys are worth the stresses a hundred times over. And I say that even before the actual day. Whilst I wouldn’t want to plan another wedding any time soon, I’m thrilled we are so close to the day and can’t tell you how excited I am for the month of June.
It has felt like a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times so here are just some of the highs and lows:
High: January 2018 – just after we got engaged – where we basically spent all our time in the pub fleshing out ideas, booking things and generally revelling in the excitement of the fact we’d found a human we wanted to stick with f o r e v e r. I mean, how can that not be exciting?
Low: The sheer amount of things that can cause anxiety. The money, the opinions, the weird concept of everyone you know being in one room, the ‘what if such-and-such goes wrong’ scenarios, the assumed expectations that some will insist on pressing upon you (people are far more traditional than I ever knew), the pressures thrown on women who are getting married to be thin/glowing…. Sigh. Whether you like it or not, this shit is going to come your way and it’s enough to make even the most level-headed person feel anxious. You have to be very good at letting it wash over you which is something of an art.
High: Finding my wedding dress. I was so ready for it to be hard, to not enjoy the experience, to think it would take forever. And it wasn’t any of those things. It was an absolute joy (I wrote a whole blog post about it here).
Low: Navigating opinions. My least favourite thing out of the whole process. Naively, I hugely underestimated the amount of investment – emotional, financial, logistical – that would go into planning a wedding. I didn’t consider how every single detail of the day would require conversations, fleshing out ideas, back-and-forths, planning, logistics…. Every single detail. The flowers in jars on the tables? A conversation has happened to start that train of thought, then discussed with a venue, then agreed, then discussed some more to decide on colours, then the jars have been saved and washed over a period of several months, then carried over to the venue… blah de blah. And I didn’t realise how protective this would make me feel. There is no aspect that you haven’t given thought and effort to. And then someone suggests you do it a different way or implies that’s not how it should be at a wedding… My biggest suggestion when talking to a couple planning a wedding – tell em it all sounds great. Think before offering up your opinion on something that doesn’t affect you. Do not try and explain to them why the football final scheduled for the same day as their wedding is a Big Deal unless you want to be castrated.
High: My lovely, lovely hen do. Genuinely one of the best weekends of my life. I had SUCH a ball. I’d plan a wedding again just to re-live the hen do. An absolute corker. Again, I wrote about it in detail here.
Low: That constant feeling of ‘I should be doing something’. That little bugger does plague you rather a lot. It likes to slide up to you when you’re watching TV like ‘er, have you seen the size of your to-do list? How can you possibly think you have time to watch Line of Duty?!’ FYI – there is always time to watch Line of Duty.
High: The opportunities to spend time with people you love and the love these people want to show you. By far one of my favourite parts about the whole process. Days out with my mum, a whole weekend with my best of friends, random occasions where you can use the whole thing as an excuse to celebrate… even if it’s just a Wednesday afternoon. And people do some of the cutest things for you – little gifts, little gestures – simply because you are getting married. It’s all bloody lovely.
Low: WHY IS IT SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE? Nuff said.
High: IT’S EXCITING. And fun. And, yes, sometimes a little weird. At the end of the day, I get to throw a massive party, go on an epic holiday and marry the person I love. And that's just grand.
20 May 2019
A Photo A Day | 16 - 30 April 2019
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| 16 April 2019 Location: St Albans One eye on my inbox, one eye on the 4 day weekend & 22c temperatures 👀😍 |
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| 17 April 2019 Location: Flower Box, St Albans Cutest shop in town 😍🌷 |
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| 18 April 2019 Location: The Pudding Stop, St Albans Kicking off the weekend of chocolate with chocolate chip bread and butter pudding 😍 |
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| 19 April 2019 Location Ikea, Milton Keynes / Ye Olde Fighting Cocks Pub, St Albans Ikea ✔️ Sunshine ✔️ Beer garden ✔️ A very Good Friday 👍🏻 |
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| 20 April 2019 Location: St Albans Just pottering around in the sunshine and it is a delight 😍 |
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| 21 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Accurate summary of my Easter weekend 🐣 |
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| 22 April 2019 Location: Bills, St Albans When your mate texts you a Bill’s brunch reservation, it’d be rude not to go 😋🥞 |
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| 23 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans The fact that a four day weekend means a four-day week 👍🏻 The fact that I can work from home and have this kitchen window view 👍🏻 |
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| 24 April 2019 Location: Oxford Street, London Has anyone ever gone to Oxford Street and not got lost in a department store? #whysobig |
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| 25 April 2019 Location: London Well you’re cute matey. |
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| 26 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans A new Taylor Swift song is a crackin’ start to the weekend in my books💃🏻 |
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| 27 April 2019 Location: London Crackin’ views, crackin’ pub, crackin’ people 😍 |
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| 28 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Highlights from our lazy Sunday: the glorious new Bear's Den album (I bloody love), hot dogs, meeting with our wedding band, Line of Duty (goes without saying really) |
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| 29 April 2019 Location: YMCA gym, St Albans Gym evenings 🙄😴 🏋🏻♀️ |
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| 30 April 2019 Location: Great Portland Street, London 🎨 Okay, will do. 💖 |
16 May 2019
What Happened When I Watched Game Of Thrones For The First Time
Eight years, eight series, 47 Emmy awards… dunno if you know but there’s this series called Game of Thrones that people are kinda in to? And I have never watched a single episode. Dun dun dun.
Admittedly, I’ve vaguely considered starting a couple of times and both of those times, I went and watched the series 1 trailer. And came away just like meh. It didn’t persuade me to go watch and I figure that’s kind of the job of a trailer.
But anyway, after being told I should watch it approx. 897329872 times and the fever around the final series reaching new heights; I finally thought I’d see what the all the fuss was about, pulled the DVD boxset off my dad’s shelf and sat down to watch episode 1.
And so we begin…
Episode 1
Right well, er…. Okay then. Quite frankly, I haven’t the foggiest. We start with snow and murderous dead-but-kinda-not-dead people killing some fellas dressed in black. Sean Bean chops a guy’s head off. There’s a very cold place and a less cold place. Emilia Clarke is naked within ten seconds of being on screen and her brother appears to be fondling her boobs. This is weird. He then sells her to a tall, silent type who subjects her to marital rape. This is very weird.Is that a younger version of the Bodyguard… Yes it is! Hey Richard Madden *waves*
A kid is climbing walls a lot and there are some cute wolf cubs. Ew, omg, are the twins shagging?! What’s with all the incest?! Oh shit, he just pushed the kid out the window!
Admittedly, the ‘winter is coming’ memes now make more sense. Which is about the only thing that does right now.
*returns to Line of Duty*
Episodes 2 – 6
Honestly, I’m still not sure I get it but I’ve watched five episodes back to back so clearly something is going on here.Fucking hell, there’s a lot to keep track of plot-wise. And that’s before you throw in the costumes, the scenery, the violence and like, literally everyone is naked? Why is everyone always naked?!
The boy survived being thrown out the window but can no longer walk and doesn’t remember why he was thrown out the window so the incestuous twins live to shag another day. Really liking the wolves. Really not liking Sean Bean killing one of them. Oh and the music is top notch.
Emilia Clarke seems to like her husband now she’s learned how to ‘please him’. EYE ROLL. She’s also pregnant and had to eat a horse’s heart to be welcomed into the gang. It’s still all a bit weird. But I’m enjoying her being all empowered and standing up to her pathetic-makes-your-skin-crawl brother. He’s clearly a tosser. Oh never mind, he’s had molten gold poured over his head so we no longer need to worry about him. Emilia can also hold coal-hot dragon eggs without burning herself; she’s clearly got some dragon vibes going on. If those eggs don’t hatch, I’m going to be disappointed.
Elsewhere, a knight chopped a horse’s head off because he lost a tournament, the king is stroppy because Sean Bean doesn’t want to kill Emilia Clarke and Sean Bean’s wife has kidnapped the ‘imp’. Big fan of Tyrion btw. Crackin’ comedy value. Sean Bean’s sons mostly seem to wander around looking moody and his daughter (the ginger one that isn’t Maisie Williams) still wants to marry the blond Lannister weirdo despite the fact he’s clearly a piece of shit. She’s v annoying. Maisie Williams is more my kinda girl; excited to see what she does with her ‘needle’. No, that’s not an innuendo. Although in this show, it easily could have been.
Episodes 7 – 8
Ello ello, it’s Charles Dances skinning a boar. Is it a boar? Maybe. The king has been killed by a boar though so shit’s going down.Sean Bean has fairly pointed out that smug-blond-face-kid is actually not the heir to the throne (thanks to his mum and uncle/dad being at it) but no one really seems to care and now he’s in a dungeon.
Everyone keeps saying Emilia Clarke is pregnant but she really doesn’t look it and she was going to drink wine tut tut. Although she didn’t because it’s poisonous which pissed off her husband who does some kind of campfire dance and promises to rape women so that’s really swell. Seriously Emilia, I think your husband might be a bit of a prick.
Elsewhere the moody Stark sons are either going to war or fighting off zombies (kinda) and Maisie Williams finally got to ‘stick em with the pointy end’ and did a runner. Not sure where she’s at but am keeping an eye out for her. Between her and Emilia Clarke, I’m hopeful for some kick ass women emerging any time soon.
Otherwise, there’s some pointless lesbian porn and men appearing naked on screen for literally no reason other than for a ten-year-old Stark to say ‘put your clothes on mate’. It’s getting a bit tiresome.
Have a lot of time for Tyrion which you might be able to tell because his is the only name I’ve bothered to learn. Well, that and Jon Snow’s but that’s because it just makes me think of the Channel 4 news presenter.
Seems rude not to finish the series so we shall plod on…
Episodes 9 – 10
Everybody shut up! It. Just. Got. Interesting.They killed Sean Bean! The dragons have hatched! Evil blond Lannister twat is king! Emilia Clarke’s husband is dead (but not before he was showered with the blood of his horse)! It is aaaalll going down.
Tyrion had me pissing myself with attempts to go into battle (‘stay low’… stop it now) and I really hope he sticks around. Clearly no one is safe. I can’t believe Sean Bean’s head is on a spike; did not see that one coming!
Richard Madden aka Robb Stark (look I’ve learned his name), still pissed off and still marching to war, has become King of the North but also has to marry Argos Filch’s daughter in exchange for walking over a bridge. It’s a mixed bag.
Jon Snow tries to desert the Knight’s Watch to avenge Sean Bean’s death but his mate Sam (who is too nice for this horrible world) gets him to stick to the whole honour shenanigans. I’m really rather taken by Ghost, the wolf. I’m assured the wolves are going to continue to get bigger so that’s excellent.
Emilia Clarke’s hubby has an infected cut and Emilia tries to get a witchy woman to save him, only witchy woman is pissed off with the whole situation so he is left in a vegetative state and Emilia’s unborn baby dies. So Emilia suffocates hubby and burns witchy woman on his pyre. Not too bothered about hubby’s loss tbh. And then she rises magnificently from the ashes with dun dun dun, THE DRAGONS.
Finally, we’re getting somewhere.
Verdict
The final episodes have convinced me to keep watching. It felt like this series was about setting the scene which I found equally annoying but also intriguing because, well, what’s to come? Please tell me the dragons are gonna become enormous epic dragons. But enough with the porn. It brings the whole show down. Less porn, more dragons. That’s a weird sentence...15 May 2019
A Photo A Day | 1 - 15 April 2019
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| 1 April 2019 Location: St Albans Very nearly uploaded a picture of me doing my best unkempt-impression because there are many, many days where I don’t do much apart from throw on a pair of trackies, shove my hair in some kind of extremely messy bun/ponytail and flop down in front of the laptop for 8 hours. 6 of which are spent using my favourite swear words at the slowness of the system. The highlight of my Monday was a big bowl of pasta and a travel reality show. The rest was pretty irksome. But nature was doing its thing so you have been spared my greasy hair & yep, it’s that cathedral again 🤷🏻♀️ |
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| 2 April 2019 Location: YMCA gym, St Albans Today’s #aphotoaday2019 comes to you from the gym car park. Delightfully exciting, I know... |
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| 3 April 2019 Location: St Albans Evening traipse across the country to go view a house. We turned on taps and asked the estate agent questions he didn’t know the answer to so totally nailed our first viewing 😂💪🏻 |
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| 4 April 2019 Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk Have taken the fella to stay in a windmill for his surprise birthday weekend. Currently chilling on the sofa with wine, chips & dip. Just need him to arrive now... |
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| 5 April 2019 Location: Suffolk Taking in the Suffolk sights before going out for a fancy meal; happy birthday future Mr Ashmore 😉🎉💓🎂 |
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| 6 April 2019 Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk On a very windy day, we have hung out in our windmill (am disappointed to not find a windmill emoji...) |
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| 7 April 2019 Location: Cambridgeshire Saying bye to Suffolk and heading to another cute Airbnb for more house viewing. If someone could find me a house with a window seat like this, that’d be grand 👍🏻 |
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| 8 April 2019 Location: Cambridgeshire Monday vibes 😴 |
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9 April 2019
Location: Cambridgeshire
Tuesday’s thought for the day: Have a sneaking suspicion that I could become a house plant lady (when I actually live in a house that is...) 🌿 |
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| 10 April 2019 Location: St Albans Back on home turf and naturally, because thinking about leaving, with a new found appreciation for good ol’ St A. |
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| 11 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Ya know that time of year where you’re constantly jumping between being under dressed & over dressed, too hot/too cold, should I put the winter coat away or will I still...? Yeah, that. |
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| 12 April 2019 Location: St Albans Found out our offer on a house had been accepted whilst half way through lunch in a cafe. Ran through town with a flapjack poorly wrapped in a napkin in hand. Think I left a trail of oats behind me. Sadly no one to take photos of the flapjack run so you’ve got aesthetically pleasing flowers instead 🤷🏻♀️🌷 |
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| 13 April 2019 Location: Cambridgeshire Past 24 hours: registry office planning meeting, offer accepted on a house, freak out, ceremony venue planning meeting, dress fitting, house viewing. Nap, please let me nap. 💤 |
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| 14 April 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Trying to find moments of calm in the day and I already know this gorgeous cookbook is going to help. Wouldn’t normally read a cookbook from start to finish but this one is something unique, something special, and I can already tell I will devour every word. |
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| 15 April 2019 Location: St Albans Took this photo just moments before I saw the terrible scenes at Notre-Dame cathedral. Devastating to see such a beautiful and historic building ablaze 😭 |
10 May 2019
The Sweetest Of Weekends In Suffolk
For G’s birthday, we agreed that I would book him a surprise weekend away. He knew we were going away but had no idea where until the morning of, when I emailed him a postcode. Originally, I had big plans for a weekend in Berlin because he’s always said he wants to go but then it dawned on me that his birthday was the same week as SODDING BREXIT and so I angrily came to the conclusion that travelling to Europe just days after Brexit was too risky for my liking.
(Of course, 29th March came and went with nada so that was all v pointless.)
So we stayed on home turf and headed to Suffolk; and staying within the UK was actually what we needed in order to properly relax. I’d heard crackin’ things about Suffollk and was not let down; it was a delight.
Where we stayed
We stayed in Woodbridge; a sleepy town full of pastel houses and a whole array of foodie hotspots. Oh and in a windmill. Did I mention that bit?! There are a lot of converted windmills in Suffolk but I found ours via – you guessed it – Airbnb. The ground floor had been converted into an open plan kitchen/dining/sitting area and the second floor a big bedroom & bathroom – all rooms circular of course! The bedroom – with a super king size bed – had huge beams and old parts of machinery still in it and then a big staircase which lead to the floors above, all of which were the remainder of the unconverted mill. We had a lot of fun clambering up the precarious stairs/ladders and seeing the old mill that lay just above our heads as well as gazing at the views across Suffolk from the top.
Where we explored
Our agenda for the weekend was simple: relax, wander and eat copiously. We ate a lot of crisps and dip. Drank a lot of wine (for me) and beer (for G). We stopped at pubs spontaneously during the day, to drink gin, sit by open fires and delight at the enormous dog. I took a long middle-of-the-day bath. We binge watched Race Across The World. And we headed out and about to get a taste of lovely Suffolk.Post-arrival in Woodbridge, to kill time before G arrived, I took a slow and long mosey around the town, drinking in the sunshine and feeling joyful at the sheer number of pastel coloured houses. Woodbridge was pure loveliness and I would recommend to anyone. Everything was quaint; from the houses to the boats bobbing on the water to the little church in the centre and whilst it seemed very quiet, you only had to step into a pub or café to find the place teeming with life. In terms of things to do, eating should be high on your agenda. Woodbridge turned out to be some kind of foodie hot zone and we ate spectacularly throughout the weekend; more on that below. There’s the Tide Mill Living Museum, a rare example of a mill where the wheel still turns, and windmills to be viewed. We did do a small portion of the well rated 4 mile walk around the River Deben on the Saturday but the fog was dense and the wind brutal, so we abandoned in favour of stocking up on goods from the local deli and getting cosy on the sofa. But it would be an absolutely gorgeous walk in the sunshine.
We were graced with beautiful sunshine on G’s birthday so we hopped in the car and headed out to the coast. Our first stop was Orford, a delightfully quaint village and home to the famous Pump Street Bakery where we stopped for breakfast. Orford has a pretty castle, a lighthouse in the distance (across the water) and a stupid amount of pretty cottages. Add in spring blossom and you could really see why Orford is called one of the prettiest places in Suffolk.
We then drove over to Aldeburgh, a coastal town also full of pastel houses. Seriously, Suffolk is pastel house goals. Aldeburgh is also home to a huge beach so, of course, a meander across the pebbles was a necessity, stopping for tea and cake along the way. We also checked out the Scallop sculpture which was eerie and lonely and beautiful all at once. Also a great photo opportunity which we all know I am constantly on the hunt for.
Where we ate
I have long had my eye on visiting the famous Pump Street Bakery, only 20 minutes from Woodbridge. The highly photogenic pink building stands out bold against the quaint cottages and there’s a lovely little bench for summer days where you can gobble up your bakery purchase straight away. They specialise in chocolate and sourdough bread but also do breakfast/lunch/brunch. We went for breakfast on a Friday morning and it was dreamy. There’s just one small communal table to sit at as well as a couple of window seats and I really like the stripped-back vibe of the place. G had a bacon brioche bun and I had poached eggs on sourdough bread and we both came away happy bunnies. We also stocked up on some of their chocolate but I was a bit gutted they didn’t have any cinnamon buns in the bakery which I’d heard good things about; always a good excuse to go back right?Honey & Harvey is another dreamy spot for breakfast/brunch/lunch. It is busy but not in an overwhelming way and heaps of people wanting to eat somewhere means it’s worth a minor queue. Don’t be deceived by the cute little shop front; it continues way back inside. You order at the bar which is heaped with big bowls of salad, quiches and cakes and everything we ate was really, really tasty. Also the milkshakes come in lil milk bottles which always makes me happy.
For the evening – I booked The Table in advance for G’s birthday meal and then felt super smug at such a good find. One of those restaurants where everything is just lovely from start to finish. It’s the perfect spot for a special occasion without being overly pretentious or pricey. Woodbridge Deli is a must if you’re fancying a picnic or night in. Think cheese, pies, chutneys; all the makings of a good deli. I love a deli, can ya tell?
There were a whole host of pubs hanging around but special shout out to The Angel which we fell into half because it was near our windmill and half because it was a rustic pink building. The Angel advertise themselves as having ‘the widest selection of gins served in East Anglia’ and – although I didn’t know this before heading in – did not disappoint. A lot of gins. Almost an overwhelming amount. But the bar man was really friendly and suggested one for me after gauging my tastes; and he got it spot on. There was a big open fire, a dog the size of a small bear and just a cosy let's-spend-all-afternoon-here vibe about the place.
And finally, a Sunday roast at The Unruly Pig is an absolute must. It was the fanciest and best roast I have ever had; honestly just divine. We started with sourdough bread and oils, absolutely demolished our gravy-laden roasts and I can’t even tell you how happy I was when I saw the fancy rice pudding on the menu. Salivating just thinking about this place.
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