My First Hen Do and Back to School

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted on here. How time flies! It's been really hectic as the last two weekends I've had to go back to Sheffield. Last week it was because I had to attend a study weekend for the course that I'm doing and this week it was for Harjit's hen do. Not long until her wedding day now!

Last Saturday was incredibly tiring. I got to Sheffield late on Friday night and went to my mum's house. She is having a bit of a revamp of the downstairs of the house, so it was in a bit of a state of disarray as there were walls being knocked down and kitchens being put in. Our poor old cat, Leila who must nearly be 18 now seems to have gone blind from all the stress. Poor Leila.

The next morning I was up early to go to the university, then Saturday night, I met with Tasha and we had a night in front of the TV, chatting and eating lots of delicious home made food. It was really nice to catch up after so long.


Sunday it was back to university, then my mum came to meet me at 3 and we ambled around Weston Park museum before saying goodbye in Fancie.



Afterwards, I went to see Caroline and Ari and Ari made a delicious 3 course meal for us, including lamb tagine. We had enough time for me to teach them the rules of Yanif before I had to set off home on the mammoth 3 hours journey back to Norwich.

This weekend was equally hectic, Nick and I went to watch a film called '71 at Cinema City in Norwich, which I would highly recommend. Saturday morning I took the train to Sheffield, Louise came to pick me up and we did some last minute errands ready for Harjit's hen do.

We were staying at the Hilton Hotel, so we went there to decorate the room before she arrived. She was so shocked when she arrived.

We started the night with some cocktails in Revolucion de Cuba, then had some Italian food at Antibo's before we went to dance the night away in Crystal.


The next morning, I left the girls to go to the spa and went to meet my Dad and Margaret. It'll be Margaret's birthday in a couple of weeks time, which I won't be able to make, so we went for a meal at a local restaurant.

Before i knew it, it was time to get back on the train and head back to Norwich. It takes just under 4 hours on the train, but luckily Anna Jones was on the same carriage so we passed the time by chatting about our weekend!

Hope you all had a great weekend and the week's got off to a good start.

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Weekend: Louise Does Norwich

This weekend I was super excited because Louise was coming to visit me from Sheffield. Unfortunately it took her 5 and a half hours to arrive, so she didn't get here until late, but it gave us a bit of extra time to prepare. Nick used his ingenuity to blow up the air bed. It also gave me a chance to try my hand at jam making, Nick had gone and picked some blackberries on his lunch break. Unfortunately I misread the recipe and there was no undoing it after that!


When she arrived we got some dinner and played a couple of card games into the early hours.

We were up bright and early for a bike ride on Saturday morning. We went down the river to the cathedral and home again. It was one of her first times riding a bike on a road, which was quite scary at times.

We spent the afternoon in the centre, first we ate at the Ten Bells, which was delicious, then we went shopping for a dress for Harjit's wedding in November. I'm finding it particularly hard to find a suitable dress, it has to be long and colourful, but I'm also trying to find something that I will wear again! After 9 dresses I gave up and we went home for a nap.



Saturday night I went to collect the Coppards who were in town because they had been playing roller derby here. Nick cooked us chicken and chorizo fajitas and we chatted until 3 in the morning, meaning that we missed the chance to go to a few bars in the town. Ooops.

Sunday morning we got up and went for breakfast at a cafe called The Muddy Cup. It was the perfect end to Lou's visit and the food was really tasty. I particularly enjoyed the raspberry smoothie. Yum!



Then i was like Cinderella, cleaning the house from top to bottom seeing as I have had absolutely no time this week. Phew!
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Weekend: Royal Ascot

Nick’s been working silly hours at the moment at a Summer school down at Ascot teaching foreign students, so I decided to go down and see him this weekend. When I arrived on Friday night I got to see all the amazing things that his students had said about him, and all the gifts that they had given him with, so he’s obviously making the hours count!

After finishing my first week at work in Norwich, I got on the train and made my way to London, then from London to Ascot. I eventually got there at 11 and we walked back to his school in the pitch black.

The school is in a very posh end of town, with lots of huge houses and leafy streets. I’d heard so many things about Ascot because of the races, but I’d never been before.



We had some catch up time before it was time for Nick to go to bed, as he has to work Saturday mornings too. His room really reminded me of being a student at Nottingham Trent with the tiny bed and desk.

He was up bright and early on Saturday, so I got up and did some bits and bobs that I had fallen behind with due to all the craziness of the last few weeks. Not before Nick brought me a very mismatched breakfast that he managed to sneak out from the canteen. Not quite sure if the ratio of jam to other products goes so well here!


When he had finished work at lunch time, we went for a walk around the small town and sat in the park and enjoyed the summer sun with a cider and some sweets. It seems like when the races aren't on at Ascot, there's really not much else happening!




Nick looked absolutely shattered, so we went for some Chinese food before going home and him falling to sleep by 9!

Sunday, wanting to escape Ascot all together, we took the train to Virginia Waters, bought some food for a picnic and took a walk around the lake. On the way to the lake we got a little lost amongst the private Wentworth Estate. Some of the houses we came across were amazing, very big and very grand. The people who live there must earn unimaginable amounts of money! It was a really nice afternoon, but made the time go so fast that before I knew it, it was time to rush home for me to get the train back to Norwich.







Only 3 more weeks before he joins me in the new house with his big sister, Kelly! Looking forward to it!

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Weekend: Norwich!

Hello everyone! I hope that you're all good. I've had my first day back at work after 9 months off today. I have to say it was unbelievably hard to get out of bed at 6am. And then it was followed by flurries of phone calls and paperwork and visits into the recruitment office. I'll be back working at my old job that I did before my travelling days had started. Writing that made me think about how this blog all started, when I'd quit that job to go to Korea. All the things ahead of me!

But I still have lots of things lined up, which is what we were busy doing this weekend. We got back from Italy on Wednesday, then headed up to Norwich on Thursday to finalise the house we're moving into. Even though we're swapping hiking boots and maps for houses and bills I'm still kind of excited about sinking my teeth into trying to get back on track career wise, and I think Nick and I are ready to try out the boring things in life together.

Nick bid me goodbye and left me in Norwich, as our lovely friend Katie had just returned from Korea. We had lots of catching up to do, so spent the next few days chatting, eating delicious cakes, seasiding on blustery Summer days, drinking prosecco and dancing. We had a little jaunt out to Cromer and Holt, and then made the most of the sunny Saturday afternoon by going to Wroxham, it made me excited to plan a mini boat trip when we're settled in Norwich.

The cherry on the top of a great weekend was when Tasha joined us for Saturday night. I can't help but notice I seem to have a default outfit at the moment, I still feel a bit overwhelmed everytime I open my wardrobe and have all my clothes to chose from again!

It all went too fast and I was very sad to leave on Sunday afternoon, especially knowing what was looming on Monday morning, but I know we'll be having more Norwich fun times soon!



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