Plymouth: Day 1

Just over a week ago Michael and I went to Plymouth to celebrate his twin sister's graduation from medical school. She's just moved to Dundee to start work soon so it was great to see her one last time before she moved hundreds of miles away. It was a lovely sunny few days, but thankfully not as humid as it was in Guildford so it was a great time to get away.

The lovely train man (conductor? guard?) offered to find us seats when he saw we were sitting on the floor half-way through the journey and when he couldn't find any in standard (we had looked!), he said we could just sit in first, so that was fun - I did feel a bit like an imposter though!

It was so sunny and pretty when we arrived I had to immediately get out my camera and start snapping pictures, even though I was also carrying a giant bag (note to self: take a wheeled suitcase on the next trip...). My boyfriend is so patient!

We stayed in the lovely Grosvenor Hotel, which was comfortable and very well-presented (just look at the décor above!). It even had breakfast included in the price of the room. There wasn't a huge selection of cereal and the toast wasn't great, but the cooked breakfast was lovely and made fresh to order.

After we checked in and sorted out our stuff we headed down to the Hoe to meet up with Michael's family. It's such a beautiful area! I went to Plymouth once before for an underwater hockey tournament but I don't think we saw any of the nice bits. Also it was February so I don't think that helped...

The island above is named Drake's Island because Francis Drake (whose lovely likeness you can see further up) sailed from there for his trip around the world in 1577; it was also used as a barracks in the 1500s when it was needed for defence against the French and Spanish. Y'know, when we were at war with everyone...

After lying around for a little bit we headed along the seashore for some quick dinner before going to see the NT production of Skylight at one of the local cinemas (which was a really good play, go see it if you can!).

This post on our first day in Plymouth was brought to you by me whilst watching season 2 of Orange Is The New Black. Cannot. Get. Enough.

More on Plymouth soon!

Weekly Wishes: Kitchen Essentials

Hey, look, third blog post in a week! I'm on a roll. Now let's see if we can keep this up...Good thing I took lots of lovely photos of Plymouth this weekend.

A week or so ago I wanted to make a recipe from delicious magazine, but then realised it required poached eggs; not being brave enough to try poaching them for the first time in just a pan of water, I soft boiled them instead (just as tasty), but it got me thinking about what bits of kitchen equipment I'd like to acquire to be able to cook/serve food more effectively (and prettily) - they may not all actually be 'essentials', but here are some of my favourites:

John Lewis 'The Pan' Egg Poacher, M&S Acacia Salad Servers, Jamie Oliver Apron @ Debenhams, M&S Olive Wood Paddle Board

Cole & Mason Pepper and Salt Mills @ Debenhams, House by John Lewis Utensils, Falcon 6-Piece Enamel Prep Set @ Liberty

I'm especially loving M&S's gorgeous wooden serveware right now. It would all be perfect for summer entertaining, which we'll hopefully do some of once we move and have our own little garden! They've got a bit of a sale on at the moment too, so very tempting...

After consistently dropping food on myself while baking/cooking over the last few months, I recently had the brainwave that I could actually buy an apron (apparently a degree doesn't actually equal common sense - who'd have thought it, right?). I'm torn between the Jamie Oliver apron and these two lovely little numbers from Anthropologie though...Someone help me decide!! 

A Day On The River

A couple of weeks ago my friend Beth invited us for a day out on her parents' canal boat - unfortunately it wasn't the most beautiful day ever to be boating, but thankfully it only rained once for about 15 minutes (and at a convenient time to stop for a spot of lunch, at that).

We travelled from Reading to Shiplake and back, went through Sonning lock and I even got to have a go at steering! It was easier than I thought it would be and pretty fun. It probably helped that the boat has a top speed of 4mph...

We ran into some cute ducklings when we moored up for lunch; even when there was no food around this little one above was squawking and trying to bite his poor siblings. Guess we know who's boss!

It was a lovely day indeed for my first canal boat experience - I'm only sad I didn't take more photos of people. Tomorrow me and the boy are heading to Plymouth for a mini-holiday and his sister's graduation, and I will certainly be taking lots of photos of everything!

Weekly Wishes: Sherbet Crush

In order to (try to...!) ensure more regular posting I've decided to do a weekly wishlist post on a Monday - shopping is one of the best ways to chase away the Monday blues, even if it is just dream shopping...

Tesco Basic Chevron Print Duvet, Prices Grapefruit and Peppermint Candle, Tesco Pink Vase, Tesco White Glass Lantern, Tesco Colour Dipped Wood Salad Bowl

Tesco Dip Dye Earthenware Mugs, Tesco Smoke Taper Vase, Tesco Wood Stripe Tray

Sadly credit for the title has to go to Tesco; everything above is part of their spring/summer pastel-themed homeware range, 'Sherbet Crush'. I totally adore pastels, so I want pretty much everything but above are some of my absolute favourites (I may have already bought the duvet cover...shhh ;) ). I used to be a bit dubious of the quality of supermarket fashion/homeware, but I think in the last few years they've really upped their game and this collection has solidly made me a fan. What should I buy next?! (Bearing in mind that I'm pretty sure the boy will kill me if I buy more mugs just because they're pretty...)

A Welsh Walk

I had a rather lovely (if sort of frantic) three day weekend dashing around doing nice things - on Friday I went to the Globe with my friend Miriam to see The Last Days of Troy, which was an excellent take on the myth (and funnier than I expected!). We also had a delicious lunch at Theo's Cafe, which belongs to the Globe, including the best vegetable tart I have ever had and at a super reasonable price - perfect for a quick lunch before a performance. Then me and Michael spent the weekend looking after his parents' dog, visiting my parents' cat and having a BBQ with friends on Sunday before heading back to Guildford. Here are some photos I managed to grab of our lovely (and tiring!) Saturday afternoon walk through the woods.

This is Rufus the crazy friendly  Welsh springer spaniel - he's only 18 months old so still loves running/jumping/exploring/licking/play-biting. Lovely but exhausting!

Lovely countryside just outside the suburbs of Reading.

"Surprise carrying!" Rufus was way too interested in some old bonfire of random rubbish and wasn't listening to reason (read: us firmly shouting "no" a lot and looking stern), so drastic action had to be taken...

Over The Weekend

Look at me, I'm on a blogging roll! (*touches wood*) I'm hoping to make it more of a regular thing...I have said this before, but the lovely weather/longer days help with taking photographs worth posting, and I'm definitely feeling a lot more of those positive/creative vibes right now. Anyway, here are a few pictures of my weekend...

My impromptu tulip purchase enjoying the sunlight...they're certainly looking a bit more faded now but hopefully we'll get a few more days out of them!

Shopping! Having done some experimentation in the last year with a few different brands of face washes/scrubs/moisturisers to combat my spot-prone skin and dark circles, I think for now I'm going back to these beauties. Currently I'm using No 7 Beautiful Skin foaming cleanser and their day and night creams for normal/oily skin, as I think my skin was the most spot-free when I used these products before, combined with the St Ives Blemish Fighting Facial Scrub a few times a week for a really good exfoliate to combat blackheads. Also I've just taken the plunge and re-purchased the Benefit It's Potent! eye cream, as while it didn't really make much of a dent in my huge dark circles when I sued it before, it leaves my under-eye area feeling super hydrated and is a good base for their wonderful Erase Paste; if I can't get rid of the circles at least I can hide them well!!

Ahem....I promise I'm not actually turning into a beauty blogger... ;)

Finally, I spent a relaxing Sunday afternoon browsing the M&S home catalogue and their May/June magazine; I often forget they have such lovely trend-led pieces, as clothing-wise my local store seems to cater more for the discerning middle-aged lady rather than younger people.

Hope everyone out there reading is having a great week in the sun - or as much as possible when not at work!

Sweating In Style

In the last couple of months I've gotten really into going to exercise classes at my local gym (Virgin Active Guildford) - for ages I was too scared to take the plunge, but one day I just thought, "Well, I have to start some time!" I really wanted to get into exercising regularly and not taking a week or two (or more!) off because I don't feel like it. I do love a good session on the crosstrainer but doing that three times a week can get reeeeally boring. I've been to lots of classes now, including body combat, body attack, zumba toning and normal zumba (love them all, though body attack is a killer!). It's so much fun being led through different energising exercises to music and I already feel fitter AND happier.

Anyway, after that much-longer-than-anticipated endorsement for organisedly (don't think that's an actual word...) jumping around to music, down to the actual subject of the post: showing off my lovely new workout gear!

I've been meaning to get new things to exercise in for ages, but kept putting it off, asking myself whether I could really justify spending more than £100 on workout gear. Then during one class the instructor advised me to get new trainers so I had more support and voilà, I was provided with the perfect excuse - if a professional is telling me to go shopping, who am I to say no, right?

At the top of the pile of stylish workout brands I felt sure I could trust my feet to was Nike - I've admired their gear for a long time and it's obvious a lot of research and care is put into building the right shoes for the right activity. I went with the Nike Free 5.0 TR Fit 4 Breathe (yep, that's a mouthful) because it seemed to tick all my boxes: breathable, supportive and designed with gym training in mind. I also got these capris, this top and these socks.

I've been using them for a few weeks now and I'm really pleased with what great pieces of kit they are; the trainers are comfortable and cushion my feet when I'm doing all that jumping around, and the clothes feel like a second skin so I avoid the distracting t-shirt -riding-up moments I used to have while doing push-ups etc. I'm already eyeing up my next purchases!