Tinker Treehouse

Last weekend I got a lovely belated Christmas treat from Nick, a weekend in a tree house! The Tinker Tree House is in West Lexham in Norfolk and is one of four treehouses there. They've been built on the land of a very grand house, hidden away down a path and in some woods.

Apparently the Tinker treehouse is the smallest and was really cute with bunting and fairy lights dotted around and a log burner and hot water bottles to keep warm at night. It's so secluded that the stars shone so brightly, and it was so cold that frost completely covered the floor...brrrr.

We arrived on the Friday night and found a cosy pub a few miles away called The Ostrich in Castle Acre where we had some really tasty food, then headed home to get the fire started.

Saturday was bright and breezy so we decided to check out the site's boat house where we found two rowing boats, so we decided to go for a paddle. I discovered rowing was a lot harder than predicted, ended up going backwards when I wanted to go forwards and did at least three 360 degree turns. Nick eventually took over the helm after my failure. I also felt very wary of the swan that was keeping a watchful eye on us and coming very close to the boat.
After our water adventure, we went into Castle Acre and explored the Castle and Priory there. To say it's such a small village there were lots of impressive sights to see. We spent some time browsing in a small charity bookshop where i bought an old map of the peak district, then spent the evening playing cards in The Ostrich while Nick watched the rugby.

That night we made the most of the campsite's garden kitchen, which is open air. It was an experience cooking under the stars, but it was so cold that i had to shove the hot water bottle under my coat.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast on our balcony looking out over the fields, and before I hit the road back to Sheffield we went for some lunch at The Station Bar in Swaffham. It was a carvery but the service was impeccable and their food was so good! I would definitely go back if I was in the area again.

I loved our time in the Tinker Treehouse and can't wait to go back when the weather is warmer, in the mean time I have a new appreciation for hot showers!

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Hello 2015

2014 was fun and exciting, challenging and rewarding, swelteringly hot and freezing cold. I climbed mountains, saw things I can't even dream of seeing again, went back to school, got a job, petted alpacas, visited the jungle, made shapes in salt that looked like snow and settled into living the life of the 9-5 grind again. We met amazing people I hope to see again sometime in the future, and got to spend some time with family and old friends we hadn't seen for such a long time. We saw in the year with the lovely Rosario and Antonio in Buenos Aires, sat in a park and watching the sun come up, and ended it back where I was three years ago, in the Coppards' front room.

This was the year I felt I got a few things out of my system, resolved that there were lots of other things I wanted to do and really got my head down to try and achieve a few things.

Here are a few highlights of 2015:













What a wonderful year it was! Let's hope 2015 is just as memorable!

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December: Reasons to be Merry and Bright

Is anybody still out there? I know that my blogging frequency has become progressively worse this year, all for good reasons, I hope.

I can't believe it's only 2 more days until Christmas, where has this year gone?! This time last year I was in Argentina with the lovely Rosario and Antonio in their beautiful house in Buenos Aires and we had the chance to experience Christmas the Argentinian way, but this year I only have the traditional things in mind!

Here are a few reasons why December has given me reasons to be merry:

I finally finished my post graduate course, which I did enjoy at the time, and you can read the reasons why I'd recommend anyone to do further study in this post, but it did start to become my life for a little while. There were wobblies and late night library sessions, but everything was handed in, with time to spare may I add (purely because the deadline date was the day I was going away!), so I am now just waiting for the results.

My whole reasoning for studying this module was to better prepare myself for a course I want to do next year, I'm a strong believer in tempting fate, and don't want to say too much, but it would seem that by working so hard on this course, it has more than made up for some gaps in my education/work life that may have worked as a hurdle. Phew!

I turned 28, and I think it's the first birthday where it didn't really feel like a birthday because I had so much to do from the three months of studying that I wasn't as prepared for Christmas as I usually am at that time, and it's the first time that I'm not really bothered about getting old, I feel happy about the things I've done over the past few years and content with the direction things are going at the moment.

Finally, my mum turned 60 on Friday, so we went on a mini holiday together to Belgium where I finally soaked up some Christmas spirit. Brussels and Bruges are so beautiful, I will share more pictures with you soon.

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a lovely day! Eat, drink and be merry!

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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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