23 Dec 2024
Taking A Break: A Christmassy Weekend In Norwich
Going to Norwich seems to be turning into an annual tradition of ours. We love the city, it’s only an hour’s drive away and we’re really learning to appreciate the charm of going back to somewhere we have been before when the intention of the weekend is to have time off.
We drove over on Friday afternoon, listening to the Parenting Hell podcast on our way which is our usual car journey listen of choice. Our Airbnb was lovely, a converted dance studio, tucked away behind some beautiful houses that would fit right into a Richard Curtis Christmas film and very close to the centre.
Norwich had really gone to town on the Christmas decorations; it felt like every street was lit up and there were Christmas trees everywhere. We stumbled across a pub called The Belgian Monk and it felt like old times (aside from the fact I wasn’t drinking alcohol) being sat there sharing crisps and having a proper chat without the interruption of a toddler. We then had dinner at St Andrew’s Brewhouse. We went for drinks there last year and loved the atmosphere and how festive it felt, and we weren’t disappointed this year. We had a very leisurely meal and rather enjoyed people watching the various Christmas parties and trying to figure out other people’s office dynamics.
Pastries at Bread Source was a must on Saturday morning; we love Bread Source. We discovered a different location just three minutes from our Airbnb and it was a lot quieter than our usual – more central – spot and it was lovely and peaceful eating cardamon buns surrounded by piles of baked goods, beautiful handmade garlands and twinkling Christmas trees.
We did a little shopping, finishing off our Christmas presents, browsed Norwich’s abundance of cute, independent shops (can’t possibly comment on whether I bought the bauble-shaped candle…) and had a little look around the cathedral, partly because it’s free and was a good escape from the howling winds, and partly because I knew it would be lovely and Christmassy and I wasn’t disappointed. We had lunch at the cathedral café which turned out to be run by Bread Source as well, so it was our second visit of the day and, quite frankly, we weren’t mad about it.
We then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Airbnb and I think this was the biggest treat of the weekend. We did venture out briefly to get a hot chocolate from Hotel Chocolat but otherwise lying on the sofa with my book without any interruptions was glorious.
Dinner was at Benoli and I would highly recommend this place. The décor was all deep colours with fairy lights and candles and the food was delicious pasta and Italian-themed starters and puddings. Everything was so tasty.
Rounded off the day by watching Shetland in bed and again, I think this was a bigger treat then going out for dinner just the two of us. Peace and quiet is extremely limited in our lives these days!
We had pastries at Bread Source, of course, the next morning before heading home to our boy who had been treating Granny and Grandad to his loud renditions of Jingle Bells for most of the weekend…
22 Dec 2024
Christmas Lights @ Cambridge Botanical Gardens
11 Dec 2024
November Journal | I'm tired, gimme festive joy
And this is how I managed to persuade my not-before-December-1st husband to put up the Christmas tree in November. You gotta take advantage of these situations you know?!
It feels like most couples have one Christmas Person and one It’s Too Early person; no prizes for guessing which roles Gary and I fall into. Christmas is currently my focus amongst what feels like a lot of chaos; collapsing on the sofa after yet another completely irrational toddler meltdown – I have a Christmas tree twinkling next to me. Looking around at the chaos of boxes and half-constructed furniture and feeling overwhelmed by how much we have to do before baby arrives – focus on plans to go see the Christmas lights at the weekend. Starting the day feeling exhausted – CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST.
‘Fuck it, it’s Christmas’ is pretty much my motto for the next few weeks, please do come join me.
Twenty Things I’ve Loved Lately
Visiting friends in London and having all the kids playing together; so lovely to watch.
Watching fireworks from the window with Alfie.
Doing sparklers for the first time with Alfie and him loving it.
Visiting family in Sheffield and taking Alfie to the museum of emergency vehicles.
The John Lewis Christmas section.
It being the time of year that the Velvetiser gets a lot of use.
A gorgeous weekend in Edinburgh with my sister.
Alfie in his red bobble hat.
A roast dinner at The Old Hall, always such a treat.
Alfie thinking that ‘decorating’ the Christmas tree meant hiding his tractor toys in it.
Putting the Christmas tree up together as a family and Alfie really getting into. I love this time of year for making memories and it’s so lovely to watch Alfie really starting to grasp Christmas.
A cheeky weekday lunch date with an old friend over a delicious bowl of pasta.
Seeing Wicked at a cute independent cinema; it was SO good.
Having the chance to see the Christmas trees in Kings Cross and St Pancras stations.
Gary feeling baby kick for the first time.
The liberating realisation that going into survival mode with parenting and letting some (cough a lot cough) things slide does not make you a bad parent. The kid isn’t any less loved because he’s not had a bath or eaten pasta for the third day in a row. Gotta do what you gotta do.
Going to see the Christmas light display at Cambridge Botanical Gardens, which were lovely.
Holly bushes with red berries.
The whole town being lit up with Christmas lights.
Alfie falling asleep with his head on my bump, seemingly oblivious that his sibling was trying to kick him in the face.
6 Dec 2024
A Cosy Weekend In Edinburgh
It didn’t take long before my sister and I were plotting a cosy autumnal weekend away where we went to a lot of bookshops, sat in a lot of cafes and wandered about somewhere that had a lot of cobbled streets.
“Edinburgh?” we both asked each other simultaneously.
Cue the cutest weekend in a city we both love. We’ve both been more than once and tiredness is really kicking my arse this pregnancy so I think this may be the most chill I have ever been when planning a weekend away. We booked nothing, aside from an early table at Dishoom on Saturday night and mostly spent the weekend wandering and soaking up the atmosphere. We walked up The Royal Mile and saw the castle, visited the steps from One Day where we had a lovely moment revisiting our trauma from watching the Netflix series, and went to Victoria Street where we spent a solid amount of time browsing the cute little shops – including an obligatory visit to the Harry Potter shop – and buying mostly for ourselves, despite claiming we were Christmas shopping. It’s not hard to stumble across a charming independent café in Edinburgh so plenty of time was spent in them as well, cradling hot drinks and putting the world to rights.
Edinburgh had fully embraced Christmas and my sister kept laughing at me because every time I saw a tree or some lights, I would let out a high-pitched squeal. I loved it and came home with the yearly Christmas decoration for Gary, Alfie and myself. It was also the first weekend of the Christmas market and whilst I was less fussed about actually looking at the stalls (although we did complete our mission of finding a red car Christmas decoration for Alfie), I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the night-time views of the lights, the trees and the rides against the backdrop of the Scott Monument and the National Gallery all lit-up.
We both went on a book-buying ban in the weeks building up to the weekend so we wouldn’t feel too limited when doing out joint-favourite activity; getting lost in a bookshop. The Edinburgh Toppings is so higgledy-piggledy and the Waterstones so big that we literally did get lost in a bookshop more than once. Side note – the Waterstones café has a huge, curved window with the most perfect view of the castle. If you can go on a quiet weekday, I would highly recommend trying to get seats there should you be visiting. I was hoping to find the special anniversary edition of One Day because my original copy seems to have gone missing, and it felt like buying it in Edinburgh was fitting. But the only copy I could find was damaged and given the price, I wasn’t willing to spend the money unless it was pristine. And then two days after we got back, my sister sent me a gift-wrapped copy in the post as a surprise (cos she’s ADORABLE) and that makes it far more special.
It's a long way to Edinburgh even on a fast train (although those views through Northumberland are unbeatable) but I just find it such a magical city that it was worth the travel time. It was also such a rare treat to spend a whole weekend with my sister just us, discussing books, films, politics and the future. I know it is potluck as to whether you get along well with your siblings, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I drew the lucky straw with mine because she’s the best.
30 Nov 2024
Three Summer Highlights
My summer was mostly spent shuffling along wondering when I would stop feeling sick or like I’d not slept in a month (still waiting for that second one to be honest). I can’t say it was my favourite way to spend the summer months but right at the start (pre-sickness) and at the end (mostly post-sickness) there were some special days that I would have captured at the time if I’d had the energy to:
My sister got married!
We had the best weekend in June celebrating my sister and her now-husband. They were the most beautiful bride and groom. From getting ready with the other bridesmaids at my sister’s flat, the white London taxi delivering us in style, the ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall, the red bus ride across London to cracking food, giant glow sticks, an excellent play list and lots of questionable dance moves at the pub; every part of the day was a joy. We also had pizza and brunch with the immediate families the night before/morning after and isn’t it so bloody lovely when everyone really gets along in these situations? Probably my favourite day of the year tbh and I love looking through the photos (captured by the same photographer we had at our wedding which makes it even nicer).
A family holiday to Devon, including a hitchhiker
Not long after the wedding, we headed off on a family holiday to Dartmouth, Devon. My parents used to spend a lot of time in Dartmouth and they used to have days that they would call ‘A Dartmouth Day’; where you would essentially while away a whole day just pottering around Dartmouth, not really doing very much. It’s that kind of place. We had quite a stressful first half of the year and, so, when thinking of booking a summer holiday, we just wanted something easy. We’re very familiar with Dartmouth and didn’t want to do very much so it was the perfect place. As predicted, everyday was just spent pottering about, mainly between the park (cos 2 year old), the beach and cafes. We were really lucky with the weather with every day but one being sunny, and it was also when we realised that we had a little hitchhiker with us, just starting to grow in my belly. I think my favourite moments were early evenings sat down by the river in the for a drink and bowl of olives, and just enjoying the view (in between chasing Alfie around of course), paddling in the sea, and sitting on a bench and eating fish & chips (where Alfie took it very personally that seagulls were hanging around trying to steal his chips and kept telling them to go away). We also stopped off in Bath on the way there and back and it was lovely to soak in the city in the sunshine.
London day: Lincoln’s Inn, sunset views and all the food
In September, just as summer was petering out, I wangled myself a weekend off parenting and spent two nights in London with two of my oldest friends. We had a little bit of culture looking around Lincoln’s Inn as part of the Open House Festival which I really liked for the Hogwarts vibes, took in the glorious golden hour views down by the river just by London Bridge and otherwise ate a lot of food and did a lot of chatting. Shout out to Comptoir Bakery which did unbelievably tasty pastries, Flour & Grape, a deliciously good pasta restaurant, Humble Crumble at Borough Market which did, you guessed it, really good crumble and Lechevalier, a cosy cheese and wine bar with amazing cheeses (I’m told the wine was very good as well, I just couldn’t sample it myself). A lovely weekend.
26 Nov 2024
An End-Of-Summer Glamping Trip In Suffolk
I booked this relatively last minute in August when I was feeling a bit down about feeling unwell a lot whilst summer whizzed on by. I thought a trip in early September would be a nice way to celebrate the end of the summer and make the most of the weather before the leaves started to fall. I imagined the weather to be warm but with that freshness and golden light that emerges as the two seasons intermingle. I imagined Alfie absolutely loving running around in the woods, rosy cheeks and mucky hands. I imagined campfires and stargazing and so much fresh air that it knocked us out at night. And we got it all.
Gary and I have been glamping a couple of times before this and are fans. In my opinion, it’s like getting all the best bits of camping but still having a comfy bed to sleep in. This really was GLAMping; our safari-style tent in Suffolk had a gas-powered hot shower and basic electricity, but it was a good gateway to seeing how we would feel about more basic glamping or proper camping with Alfie. He had the time of his life so I suppose I better start shopping for tents and camping stoves and take a few deep breaths over what my holidays might look like in the future.
Within a few minutes of arriving, once he’d gotten over his post-nap grumpiness, Alfie was having a whale of a time sitting amongst the luggage in the trolley that we pulled from the car to the tent. He ran around outside, getting excited over the field full of cows opposite and the goats/chickens/rabbits/pig next door whilst we vaguely unpacked and then sat down on the decking with crisps and drinks, before heating up the sausage casserole I’d made earlier and packed up in Tupperware.
It was deliciously quiet and dusky, and I watched a bat circling around for ages. We let Alfie keep playing until it was dark before tucking him up in the four-poster bed. It was extremely cosy in there, the three of us lying in bed together reading bedtime stories. Gary slept in the bed next door (if you count the other side of a piece of fabric as ‘next door’) and I joined Alfie in the four-poster. Slipping into bed with him was like getting into bed with a gently-snoring hot water bottle; with all the fabric hanging above our heads, it was like sleeping in a very cosy den. Obviously, we were woken up in the middle of the night by the foxes screeching but what do you expect when sleeping in a tent?
The next day started with early-morning bacon sandwiches and then my parents stopped by for the day on the way back from their holiday nearby. We whiled away the time not doing very much; sitting on the terrace, popping to the farm shop café a mile down the road for lunch, having an afternoon nap in the hammock (me) or on the sofa on the decking (my mum) or the buggy (Alfie) before driving over to The Maybush Inn. I’ll be honest, the food wasn’t great but the location on the side of the river was excellent, and Alfie had a great time getting absolutely filthy playing on the muddy beach with his Grandad.
The rain came hammering down at about 4am on Sunday morning which was cosy but not great for sleeping or for a pregnant woman’s easily-triggered bladder. Amazingly, Alfie slept through it, but Gary and I got up a little bleary-eyed. I gotta say though, this was a lot easier to deal with when stepping out to that countryside air. We went into Woodbridge in the morning and had an early lunch at The Woodyard – their pizzas are so good – before retreating back to the countryside where an afternoon nap for everyone was once again on the agenda. Once we were all up and about again, Gary introduced Alfie to the concept of collecting sticks from the forest floor for the fire. I’m not sure he realised what he would be unleashing because Alfie took this very seriously and – as it transpired – had to collect all the sticks from the forest floor. There were a lot.
When I could finally tempt him away from this activity, I took him back round to say hi to all the farmyard animals (this occurred several times a day) and to climb on the hay bales. He was in his element in his wellies, surrounded by tractors and farm life – pretty sure this kid is going to be a farmer. Meanwhile, Gary was getting the campfire going. Ooof the smell of campfire! Obviously toasting marshmallows was on the agenda and whilst Alfie wouldn’t contemplate trying s’mores, he happily sat there eating the chocolate biscuits and telling us that the fire was ‘HOT!’, as if we were the ones who kept threatening to charge towards it.
Finally, we had a clear night and the stars were unbelievable. Away from any light pollution, the whole sky was lit up and twinkling, and I actually managed to get some half-decent photos on my phone.
On our final morning, we packed up, stopped by Woodbridge for brunch at Honey & Harvey – where Alfie ate nothing but hash browns – had a little nose around the local bookshop, and then it was time to head back to brick walls and central heating.
Hey there!
