Australia Exploring #3!

Yesterday was one of those days where I just had to go to the beach. Priorities though: I went for a manicure first (a really awesome one) and then I met my friend for lunch before we walked to the beach. 

First of all, lunch was flipping amazing. I can't remember the name of the place we went but the sandwich I had was one of  the best. It was somewhere in Port Melbourne on Beach Street I think, so hunt down the good places on there and I'm sure you'll come across it. They also do these pretty awesome berry smoothies.

It was so frickin' hot though and I am as pasty as it gets so me and the sun don't always mix well, but I put my factor 50 on (if a higher one existed I would be putting that on instead) and off we went to the beach.

We stopped at Princes Pier on the way to the beach, seeing as it was only a couple of minutes away and it proved to be quite the photogenic spot on a beautiful day.

And as for the beach, well it was very sandy and I got sand in places I didn't even know sand could go but all in all it was a fab day!

Katie x

P.s. For those of you wondering, yes, my pasty, milk bottle skin did get burnt - it resembles a tomato instead now :(

The Blacksmith Arms

Hello!

I've been for a delicious meal with my grandparents, before I start work today - it was scrummy!

I'm not sure if there are any observant readers out there who read the boring location bit of my blog posts but, if there are any, you will notice that they alternate a lot between Cumbria and Lockerbie; one being my mums home, the other being my grandparents. I visit them a lot in the summer holidays, so my having a job now is slightly putting that off track!

Anyway, to make up for it we went for a lovely meal (and pudding, obviously) to the Blacksmith Arms, in Talkin Tarn. It's my grandad and I's first choice of place to go if we're on a rare occasion of eating out. 

The food there is amazing. There aren't enough words in the English language to describe just how good it is, and as for the chocolate fudge cake, it makes my mouth water just at the thought of it... Mmmmm.

I did mean to take a picture of how yummy the food looks but I started eating it before I remembered - oops!

Talkin Tarn is a beautiful place and the Blacksmiths is only a few minutes away from it. It's super scenic and there are oodles of different walking trails too, for the walkers out there!

It's such a stunning and charming little place that it definitely deserves a visit, especially if you don't live too far from it. Take advantage of these lovely, uncommon English summer days and go visit Talkin Tarn.

Katie x

The Sunny One

Hello!

Yesterday was an actual, fatual sunny day! Believe it or not, they are very rare where I live so, obviously, sun can mean only one thing a trip to the park with my Little One! 

As soon as I walked through the door, she looked at me, grinned and started shouting "shoes on! Shoes on! Out! Paaaark!" - she knows if I go to visit and it's sunny then we go out, so we did and what a lovely afternoon we had, too!

Ice-pops are just crazy-exciting!

Spot the birdies!

I have my own miniature Hermoine Granger - she even ran around the park waving the stick and saying "abbacababa" - in other words "abracadabra" - it's not hard to see where her big sisters are rubbing off on her!

Katie x

Holiday TBR List!

Hello!

One of the best things about going on holiday is that you can sit and read and not think about having to do anything else... Aside from the obvious things the body needs to survive... Books are definitely included in that survival.

In fact, chances are, by the time you read this I will already be on holiday, probably sitting by the pool right now, paddling my feet! Eeeek! I'm so excited!

I read a lot when I'm on holiday, so here are a list of books that I'm planning on reading in the lovely sunshine - my TBR list!

Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)

You're the One That I Want (Giovanna Fletcher)

Billy and Me (Giovanna Fletcher)

On Dublin Street (Samantha Young)

Flat-Out Love (Jessica Park)

On the Island (Tracey Garvis Graves)

Attachements (Rainbow Rowell)

The Edge of Never (J. A. Redmerski)

Breathe (Abbi Glines)

So you know what I'm going to be doing on my hols!

Luckily I have a Kindle  now, life was always so much more difficult before their invention - I could never manage to fit the abundance of books that I wanted to take in my case! The amount of telling-off's I got from my mum for taking something of hers out without her knowledge so that I could fit an extra book in!

Nearly all, if not all, of them will get read too - I read more when I'm on the plane than I do when I sit by a pool I think, because I can't sleep on planes, or even relax properly, I hate being stuck in such a confined space so to take my mind off it, I just read... In fact, forget the plane thing, I just read all the time!

Katie x

Holiday Tradition

Hello!

I go on my jolly hols on Monday! It's safe to say, I cannot wait! A lovely, relaxing week with my mama!

We have certain little traditions when we go on holiday, one of those is that we take DVD's (quite a lot, actually) and we watch one, either on a night or in our little afternoon chill!

About Time,
We're the Millers,
Now You See Me,
That Awkward Moment,
Red 2,
Identity Thief

This is our holiday DVD collection, plus a few that we both know we love. We've been collecting these since about Christmas, I think, and trying not to watch them so we can watch them whilst we're on our hols!

As you can tell, most of them are comedies or rom-coms because what's the point in watching something that's going to make you depressed and cry your eyes out when you're supposed to be enjoying your holidays!

Holiday traditions are awesome, especially for once the sun goes down and you have to occupy yourself some other way than relaxing in the blazing heat by the pool.

Katie x

5 Things That Make Me Happy

Hello!

There are a lot of things that make me happy but here are just five - my indecisiveness made it extremely difficult to narrow it down to just five, but I've done it, finally!

1.

Books!

How can books not make you happy?! You get to imagine this whole new place and get overly-attached to characters and ahhh! I just LOVE books.

2.

The Little Ones

The little babies in my family never fail to make me smile. I told you all about taking the Daisy out the other day in THIS post and it was the happiest day I've had in ages because I can't not be happy when I see that cheeky little smile on her face (super mushy, I know!).

3.

Sunshine
I know a lot of people say sunshine makes them happy but when you live somewhere where sun is practically non-existent you crave every minute of sun you can get and you always appreciate it! So sun makes me extremely happy!

4.

Pajama Days

I know a lot of people say you should get up, get dressed and ready for the day every day but that just doesn't float my boat! I love the days when I have nothing planned and I can stay in my pj's and sit in bed with some tasty snacks and a book. Lazy days are perfect.

5.

Writing

When I can write for pleasure. Not to meet a deadline or because somebody wants me to - because I want to. That's when it makes me the happiest little bee around!

As you can see, it doesn't take much to keep me happy!

Katie x

The Best Kind of Day!

Hello!

The weather has been soooo lovely in Nottingham today! What made it even better was that today was my first day of officially having nothing to do. At all. No revision, no exams, no work. Nothing.

So when I woke up this morning (it was probably closer to lunch time than morning, if I'm honest), I made an impulse decision to get ready and go into the city for the afternoon!

I had my bout of morning indecisiveness before I left, of course, not knowing what to wear. I'm not used to such nice weather! I thought about a dress but then decided on jeans and a loose camisole top, then nobody would be at risk of being blinded by extremely, ghostly pale legs... I don't tan well.

Anybody who knows the centre of Nottingham will know exactly where I was
sitting when I took this picture - any guesses? ;)

After getting the wrong bus into the city that didn't actually take me to the city - you would never think I'd been living here, and getting buses here, for seven months now - I had the loveliest of wanders around the city centre. It was nice to be able to just walk and not be caught among the rushing people and to see everybody enjoying the gorgeous weather too (although there were some people who made some... different... fashion choices but I love that, it added to the whole day!)

Starbucks have a happy hour from 3 - 5pm at the minute too, on all frappuccino's, so there's no guessing as to where I went for my refreshments ;) 

All in all, it made for a lovely day reading my book and sipping my chocolate cream frappuccino whilst enjoying the sun - best kind of day there is, if you ask me!

Katie x