Belgium: Happy 60th Birthday Mum!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and you got to spend it with your loved ones!

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to hit the January sales, it's the first time I've ever made an effort to go, and will probably be the last too! It was far too manic for my liking.

Not only does today kind of mark the end of Christmas, but it's a whole week since my mum turned 60. This also means a whole week since we arrived in Brussels, Belgium.

That was another early start for us as the plane departed at 7:50, and we arrived in Charleroi by 10:00am. We wearily made our way to the guesthouse, Sleephere, which I had made reservations for, and we were pleasantly surprised when we came out of the metro and we were in the Christmas Market. Although the guesthouse is in a really good location, it took me a while to find it as I didn't have a map and the building didn't have a sign outside. We were so relieved when we did find it, as it was raining and we were absolutely soaked. It turned out we'd actually walked past it a few times.


When we got inside it was really nice, it is an old fashioned town house with high ceilings, it was very welcoming to walk in and be greeted by a burning fire, a huge Christmas tree and a dog. The owner, Karel was very friendly and spent a lot of time talking through recommendations. Once in our room it was time to do some all important hat drying.






We wandered around the Christmas markets, did a little shopping, admired the treats that were on offer and drank hot cider. Yum.





That night we ate at In't Spinnekopke, a traditional Belgian restaurant that was filled with strange puppets and served home brewed beer. Not being a big fan of beer, I tasted my mum's it wasn't too bad! The food however, was delicious. I tried Sausage and Stoemp and my mum had meatballs.



Walking off our dinner we decided to go to the Grand Place. It was amazing to see it at night, all lit up with the sparkly Christmas tree in the centre. There were lots of people in the square taking photos or drinking in the cafes and bars around the perimeter.


On Saturday we decided to take in the sights properly and joined the free Sandemans walking tour. I would really recommend this as it gave us a bit of insight into the history of the country, the struggle between the Flemish and French, and also the colonial history involving the Congo. Our tour guide was an English student who had lived in Brussels while he studied. We followed some of the comic murals around the city and got to see the Mannequin Pis.











After the tour finished we decided to try a Belgian delicacy, Frites with mayonnaise and went to Fritland, they were incredibly good chips! I decided to be brave and try and order in french, the chips were fine to order, but then I had to ask for water, not knowing the French word I decided 'Acqua' was a safe bet. The man got the water and handed it to me, then asked in English 'Are you Italian?' Feeling a little proud that he thought I was very continental I announced proudly, 'No! I'm English!' to which he responded, 'I know, it was a joke!'. Obviously French isn't as similar to Italian or Spanish as I thought, and he was far from fooled by me!

Belgium has many famous comic book and cartoon characters such as Tin Tin and the Smurfs, so we went to the Comic Strip Centre which is in an amazing old art deco style building.




The second night we ate at the Greenwich Taverne, a French style bistro. The building was amazing, the food was average, but I think we made the wrong choice by going for a roquefort and pear burger and finished our night off with a few drinks.


With only one full day left, we decided to go to Bruges on Sunday as so many people had told us how picturesque it was. Sadly it was a very cold, windy and wet day, so I don't think that we saw Bruges at its best. The tour guide did his best to engage people, although being the only native English speakers, I think a lot of the information was lost to others behind his strong Scouse accent! Try saying in your best Liverpudlian accent: 'If ya look down yonder, you'll see that building with a burrr on it, I think that's mad, that burrr innit?'.









We got back to the hostel, cold and hungry, so decided to stay in the hostel in front of the fire with some cheese and wine.

We finished our short break with a bit of shopping on Monday, lots of waffle eating and chocolate tasting before we caught the plane back to England.



Happy 60th mum! I hope that you had a lovely weekend!
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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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These Grey Days: Firmoo Glasses Review

Now that the nights are getting longer and the weather outside is drizzly, it's a lot easier to stay indoors and get my work done.

Saturday and Sunday were both spent with noses in books, comfy jumpers on and the radio crooning in the background. Nick had no excuses not to get on with his course, thanks to his new pair of glasses.

My friends at Firmoo sent him a lovely pair of new glasses. I've previously used their service, check out the review of it here. So this time I knew what to expect in regards to the quality of the product and the speediness of the delivery, even though they have a long way to come, all the way from across the pond. Never fear, they do have a UK site with lots of great glasses at prices so cheap that you'll want to check your eye sight again.

Having a new pair of specs has opened Nick's eyes to lots of new things, he's started taking driving classes (again) and can watch films with subtitles, we watched The Lives of Others the other day, which was really great.

The glasses themselves are very simple but stylish. Nick went for an understated brown frame with a small symbol on the side. They came in the antique map style glasses box that I love, and the additional benefit of the tiny screw driver.

Again, the service we received was really great. Firmoo make it really easy to browse, enter your prescription details and order.

Let's hope that he doesn't sit on, stand on, leave them behind or let some back street Korean Optician fiddle with them!

Thanks Firmoo!




I was asked by Firmoo to review their service and products in return for a pair of new glasses. As I was in the market for some, I jumped at the chance and put their business under the magnifying glass.



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Something Old and Something New

My lovely friend Harjit is getting married tomorrow, and I'm really excited. Not only is it the first time a close friend of mine has tied the knot, but also it will be my first Indian wedding. I'm looking forward to finding out how they do things!

Harjit and I first met at Aviva, where I started working when I was 21. At first I was pretty scared of her, she's pretty sassy and has lots of attitude. The whole department had just been relocated to my home town, and Harjit had moved from Birmingham to show us how it was done. She definitely knew her stuff and had to put up with us numpties who didn't know anything, while living in a hotel in the week, far away from all of her family.

Soon after I started, we got moved onto the same team, and I realised under the sassiness was a really kind hearted and funny girl. Sometimes she was funny because of the jokes she made, and the observations she had of the things us northerners did and other times it was because of the things she did. Always telling us how someone had once compared her to an Indian Cheryl Cole, which would lead her to swing her hair around trying to do a geordie impression, or being very demanding to the ladies in the canteen, "I want 5 beans, no butter, and no mayonnaise!"

At some point my housing contract didn't work and I was faced with moving out of my apartment with nowhere to go, so Harjit and I made plans to move in together. We moved into a lovely house in Norton in Sheffield. I remember the first day we were moving in, and she turned up with her dad who I'd heard often carried a sword. I was pretty impressed!

We had some good times in our little house, a chav themed house warming, a few issues with spiders and me trying to colour my hair blonde. My favourite memory in the house is when I walked in and sensed something was wrong. I walked upstairs and noticed the bathroom window was wide open, and Harjit's door was ajar. I walked into her room and was really shocked. Clothes were everywhere, her TV was face down on the floor, her drawers were out of the chest. We'd been robbed. I quickly called her and told her we'd been burgled. I described the scene in her room and she burst out laughing, reassuring me that's just how she'd left it!

A few lessons I learned from Harj:

1. Bread is really tasty, especially without anything on it, and particularly if you put something realllly dry in the middle of it. Infact, the dryer the better. Yum.

2. Tilting your head to one side while having your photo taken means guaranteed fabulousness.

3. Cats should be avoided at all costs, even if it means slamming the door and locking your housemate out of the house, even if she doesn't know what the flip is going on.

4. Pulling the gun fingers out while dancing earns guaranteed gangster points.

5. The best way to pass a boring commute to work is to point at the most bizarre looking person you can find and say to the passenger 'What's your boyfriend doing here?'.

6. Google It. Follow any big statement with those two words. People have died from the heat in India. In Birmingham, if you have a car crash, people will stab you. Just Google It.

7. Don't peek in other people's temples, especially when they wouldn't peek in yours.

I was really sad when I had to move out to start saving for my adventures the next year, but we still got to see each other at work. No matter how tedious the work was, or if we were having bad days, we always managed to have a good laugh together.

She deserves lots of happiness, she definitely is one of a kind, my favourite coconut! I couldn't let her start this new chapter of her life without sharing a little photo evidence of the times we spent together!

Have a lovely day Harj!
























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6 Reasons Why being a Mature Student is Amazing

I'm a month into my 3 month distance learning course at The University of Sheffield. I've REALLY had to change my way of life for a while, poor Nick comes home from work and cooks for me every night, the washing isn't done until there isn't a single clean sock left in the house, the cupboards are bare, date nights have been cancelled, the gym haven't seen me in over a month and I'm permanently excused from the washing up (hurrah!) while I sit looking at the computer screen, frantically scribbling notes. I think this explains why I've been missing from here. BUT, despite our lives decaying into chaos, here are 5 reasons why I'm really enjoying being a mature student.

1. I'm Flexing my intellectual muscles again!
It actually feels good to be learning things again, and things I always found interesting in the past, but due to my line of study before, never had the time to find out more. I find myself going to say 'Today I learned...' in conversations before I realise no one else is that interested!

2. It Gives me an Excuse to Let my Inner Geek Out
If you haven't already guessed, I am a big geek, I love learning, and before the course started I caught myself researching how I can get the most out of the time I spend making notes. For anyone else as studious as me, here are a couple of good links!

3. I Have An excuse to Buy Stationary
There's still that young girl inside of me who shows herself whenever I have an excuse to buy stationary. New term. New pencil case, right? I've never pedalled so fast as when I heard there was a 1/2 price stationary sale at Sainsburys. How I miss Korea in my stationary frenzies.

4. I'm Getting Where I Want to Be
After I graduated in 2008, I did fall into a job that wasn't really my cup of tea, I have a lot to be thankful for though because of that job. I've made so many great friends from it, the boredom of it inspired me to make my free time more interesting through roller derby and, eventually, it gave me the motivation to move to Korea! All clouds have a silver lining. But now it's nice to know that I am moving myself in the direction I want to go, and if i don't succeed then at least I've tried my very best to get there!

5.I'm More efficient with time
I have to say, a slight downside with the work load, and the fact I'm out of practise with studying is the fact that it takes up so much of my time. I really have to be efficient. Lunch breaks at work are no longer about idly checking Facebook, I have to run into town to carry out the errands I would normally have done in the evenings. I have to plan when I'm going to be alone in the house, so I have nothing else to do while I'm distraction free. Being like this does make me really appreciate the free time, ALOT more!

6. I Have The Gift of Experience
I think the biggest lesson I've learned since travelling, is that when you're young, you're made to make decisions about your future when you're just not ready. At 14 you decide on the GCSEs you'll take. At 16 it's the A Levels, which then stipulate the kind of course you can study at University. This can then affect the profession you can go into and even the further study you want to do. I think there are very few 16 year olds really know what they want to do the next weekend, let alone for the rest of their lives. I remember thinking I wanted to either be a journalist for a glossy magazine, or a film editor. It was only through life experience that I learned what I enjoyed and what really interested me. It's only through meeting people and talking to people and seeing amazing things that can really help you make good decisions in perspective. And as a mature student I really feel like I'm getting the chance to rectify some of the bad choices I made when I was too young to know better.


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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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