MY first month back home

MY first month back home

Thursday, 22 August 2019

I've been home a couple of times over the past few years of non-stop travel but this, is the first time in a while I've come home with no immediate plans to leave again. When I initially booked my flight, I was worried that I was going to miss the daily adventures, exploring, discovering and learning something new every single day and come back to the boring world I left in 2017 but that doesn't seem to have been the case.

Turns out, coming home wasn't the end of my adventure, it was the start of a whole new, different one! This week marks my first month back and I have jammed a whole lot into it! Here's what Ive been up to:

Brighton

My mum and I both missed our annual trips to Brighton whilst I was away so it was the first thing we wanted to do when I got back. As usual, we got up early and drove down there for breakfast, spent the day shopping and wandering around the lanes before pitching up at a seaside cafe, sharing a seafood platter and drinking frozen cocktails on the beach. We spent hours sitting in the sunshine discussing life and looking at Walt Disney world tickets hopefully that'll be one of my next destinations! 

Cambridge

I'd never been to Cambridge before so when we had another couple of free days and some awesome weather, mum and I decided to venture down there. I've always wanted to go punting in Cambridge so we did that and it was great! Very pleased that I'm still ticking things off the bucket list, even at home!

Birmingham

I've had two weddings this month and they couldn't have been more different from one another. The first was a sunny afternoon at a cute country manor with all of my high school friends..

and the second involved Georgia buying me a ticket to Birmingham and not giving me much more information on the matter! Turned out, we were going an Indian wedding and it was one of the craziest events I've ever been to.


#JetMe2TheGreek With Jet2

Jet2 invited me to join them for a Greek cooking class to celebrate the launch of their new summer 2020 destinations; Lefkas and Parga.

It was awesome to have a blogging event in London to go to after being away for so long because it meant I got to catch up with all my London travel blogger friends and have some fun together!

Colchester

 Another little day trip with mum, although we weren't very impressed with this one since there didn't seem to be much going on in the town center.

We did find the cutest little tearoom for lunch and I picked up a few bits in Primark so it wasn't a wasted trip, we still had a good time! Plus I got to wear my brand new Converse. My collection of coloured high tops seems to be growing pretty quick and I loved these! I picked them up via, lovethesales.com trainer section with a £10 discount.

London

I seem to have seen quite a lot of new parts of London since I got home too! We drove to Peckham one afternoon to find a specialist shop, got the train to Greenwich to see what all the fuss was about (didn't like it), had my first Groupon afternoon tea at a Hilton and a birthday meal on the river by Canary wharf!

On top of that, I've joined up to my local gym, been to the zoo and even started thinking about giving my room a little spruce up with some cute decor ideas from furniture.com. I realise that my blogging has taken a little bit of a hit as of lately and I've worked out that it's because I actually dont have a proper desk to work at! But fear not, the desk hunt has begun, I've found a couple that I really like on Lionshome so watch this space. Hopefully I'll be back to my weekly posting in no time.

Cute new mesh top from Femme Luxe

It's been a busy old month but I'm definitely not complaining, if every month at home looked like this, I won't be in a rush to go anywhere else, any time soon! 

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The best brunch in Birmingham

The best brunch in Birmingham

Thursday, 1 December 2016

 After booking up a hotel for our recent trip to Birmingham, we decided to leave London at 8am so that we would arrive in time for brunch! It's my favourite meal of the week so wherever I go, I am always on the lookout for somewhere nice and after a little research and came across Yorks Bakery.

Location: York’s is on the corner of Stephenson Street, Birmingham which is a great location just outside of New Street station. It was a ten minute walk from our Holiday Inn and is located at the end of a tram line so it’s very easy to get to from wherever you start. Beware of Google Maps - it took us to their old address so make sure you just search for Stephenson Street rather than Yorks.

Venue: The building is pretty cool; on the corner of the street and has quite a rustic feel with exposed brickwork and lots of wood. Although there is also a downstairs, this place quite small and when we arrived, I didn’t think we were going to get a table, especially for five of us, but within a few minutes, we had a choice of three different tables so don’t be discouraged. It’s full of people and very busy but I loved the laid back, casual atmosphere. Whilst the staff are helpful, remember, you have to order at the bar!

Menu: I was very impressed with Yorks brunch menu, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a varied one! As well as all your brunch favourites, it was nice to see some something a little bit different from the norm with dishes I’d never heard of before like Arabian Buttered Eggs or Greek Eggs. I also loved that rather than just avotoast, there were four different dishes that used my favourite ingredient! The big thing for me though was the Australia eggs benedict – it’s my favourite brunch dish but I struggle to find it anywhere so I was very excited when my dad pointed it out – he ordered it too!

Price: Brunch always costs us quite a bit because we look at it as going out for a meal and end up ordering four drinks each and a dessert afterwards. My eggs Australia cost £8.50 and which is pretty average for London prices, although I can imagine that’s quite expensive for Birmingham. Andrews full English costs £12 though which I thought was expensive, even for London.

Food: My parents have never been out for brunch with me and Andrew so I was hoping the food was going to be good since we always talk about how much we love it! Luckily, it was and everyone was very impressed with the food, myself included. All 8 of our eggs had perfectly runny yolks and my avocado was just ripe - the muffins it was served on were delicious too. The hollandaise was just a little runny for my liking but nothing too much of an issue. The boys were both very impressed with their full English although Andrew wasn’t fan of their homemade baked beans.


Next time I want to try the truffled mushrooms because another lady who was sitting by the entrance had ordered them and the smell alone was incredible. Until then, 

Would I recommend Yorks? Definitely!

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