Easter in Southwold

I have been nagging Rob to take me to Southwold for months now. I had heard great things about the unique, seaside town and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. This year I had some time off work that coincided with the Easter bank holidays. Rob booked a hotel just outside Southwold last minute and we headed up early Saturday morning. 

We drove straight to the sea front at Southwold and headed to the pier for a much needed cuppa after our journey. This was our view from the tea shop on the pier....

We were blown away! The tea was lovely and we also shared a posh sausage roll whilst waiting for the lunch menu to open up. The pier wasn't like the usual seaside pier. The cafe we had our tea on was very sweet and quaint. There was also a fish restaurant on pier, traditional fish and chips and some sweet homeware/clothes shops. After our lunch of tasty paninis, we headed down to the beach to check it out. 

The beach was huge! We spent some time watching lots of sweet doggies play on the sand. We noticed that the people of Southwold really liked their terriers and Labradors. It certainly made us miss our little Nell, although she was being taken good care of back home by my family. We also ran around in the long beach grass until we tired ourselves out.  

Whilst walking we stopped and oogled the amazing beach huts. If I lived near the beach I would just have to get a beach huts. The Southwold huts are certainly on the high end side of beach huts. 

After some time walking we reached a little fishing harbour. There were several restaurants and shacks selling the most fresh fish . 

Rob opted for the mussels (because he doesn't have any of his own hehe). We sat and ate them by the harbour. The mussels didn't tempt me. However, the whippy ice creams certainly did. 

After all that food, it was time to work it off. We went back to the pier to have some fun in the arcade. We also went back on the pier to a room with some frankly, weird amusements. Rob and I had a good laugh in a photo booth that moved around and shone bright lights in our eyes. 

We also stumbled across a mini show! Lots of traditional minis showed up and they were certainly our favourites. My favourite was a little green mini. The owners displayed a picture of a couple when they first got the mini - which must have been in the 60s or 70s. The car looked just as amazing that day. 

We also visited Southwold High Street and popped into the Adnams Brewery. We picked up a couple of bottles of ale for Dad. There was an amazing vintage shop and I wanted to buy everything. In the end I settled for a vintage measuring glass, which is now on display in our downstairs bathroom. It was a busy day and walked for miles.

We headed to our hotel to freshen up, before going back to Southwold High Street for dinner. After checking reviews, we chose an Italian place called Enzos. I had been craving fresh pizza for weeks and the reviews were amazing. The restaurant was a small, intimate restaurant, which is normally lovely. However, when a family of devil spawn and pissed, unhappy adults that never get out of the house (one of which has the most grating American accent) are seated in the middle of the restaurant it kind of kills the vibe. The service was also bordering on rude several times. The food however was lovely.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for pudding and drinks. After a few games of cards we were ready to retire for the night. All that fresh air tired us out!

We were up early for a nice breakfast the following day in the hotel. We wanted to make the most of the weekend so decided to head to Aldburgh. 

After browsing the second hand book shops we settled down for a cup of strong coffee. We also picked up some yummy sweets - apple and custards for me. There wasn't really much else in Aldeburgh. Lots of shops were closed due to the bank holiday and it was far to cold to sit on the beach. Instead, we hopped back into the car and onto our next destination - Felixstowe!

Felixstowe is the opposite of Southwold. Southwold is all about independent, quirky, but pricey shops. Felixstowe is cheap and cheerful and pretty chavy, but in the best way! The beach isn't as nice so we opted for a game of mini golf - Rob's favourite.

We both had a lot of fun playing mini golf. After we had a little play in the arcade and won a few tokens on the basketball game.

We decided on fish and chips for lunch (of course!), from a restaurant that was highly recommended. The fish and chips were amazing. But we did have to queue for 45 minutes to get them and by that time anything would have tasted good. 

After our chips we were ready to head back home to our girl. It was a lovely weekend and I am glad we fitted so much into it. I am really grateful for Rob for suggesting that we get away and booking the fabulous hotel. 

Train views, Burgers and Shakes

A few weekends ago Rob and I both took a couple of days off work so we ended up having a long weekend off together. The aim for the weekend was to tackle our disgraceful front garden. On Friday the weather was lovely and we spent a food few hours tending to the garden. We retired very early on Friday night, I fell asleep at 7.30pm! Gardening is tiring. We had the same plan for Saturday. I went off to the gym in the morning and then met Carys for a coffee afterwards. I called Rob on the way back and he suggested we go to London for the day I didn't need much persuading. Gardening is not my favourite thing to do, it was cold and also started raining. The idea of burgers and milkshakes was A LOT more appealing. 

As our trip to London was pretty spontaneous and we didn't really have any plans. However, most of our trips to London contain burgers for lunch. I had heard good things about Rox Burgers in Lewisham, South London, so thats where we headed. It was pretty far away but that meant we could have a little tour of London on the DLR!

I really love going on the DLR. There are so many sights that the times just flies by. The DLR to Lewisham took us through the financial district and we also saw lots of the landmarks including the Shard, the Pickle Gherkin and the o2. Of course we had to take a DLR selfie.

We arrived in Lewisham in no time. The burger joint was only a five minute walk from the station. However, the town centre is not the nicest of places so we didn't hang around. Rox burger is an independent burger joint. As with most trendy burger places the menu isn't particularly varied but they do burgers well - so what else do you need! 

Rob had the blue burger (lots of cheese, but not that much blue cheese) and I had the cheeseburger with extra pickles. The extra pickles were a good choice! We also shared a side of fries. The house fries had parmesan cheese and oregano on them. They were skin on fries and were actually pretty amazing - totally surpassed my expectations. The burgers were good. However, they weren't anything on my ultimate favourite - Patty and Bun. On the way home I wrote a list of all the burger places I have visited (there has been a few) and nothing comes close. I have definitely enjoyed trying all the burger places but I am looking forward to going back to Patty and Bun. 

After our dinner we fancied something sweet. After a little googling we decided on Tinsel Town, purely for their milkshakes! Rob has a chocolate malt shake and I went for a chocolate peanut butter milkshake. They were so yummy.

After our milkshakes we got the train home. With fully bellies and our sweet tooth satisfied we headed home for a night relaxing on the sofa. 

Great Notley Country Park

This weekend was our first weekend together for a few weeks so we wanted to make the most of it. I asked Rob to arrange something nice for us to do and he did well. On Saturday morning we were up relatively early. After filling our tummies with peanut butter toast and cups of tea in bed, we piled into the car and were off to Great Notley Country Park. 

After driving for around an hour we arrived. The Country Park is in a weird position, just off the motorway. We parked up and set out exploring. The Park has a small lake and then a massive trail with lots of kids activities. We headed to the lake first and then found a spot to settle down and have some lunch. 

I cooked up some cheese and onion quiche and paired it with salad, sweet chilli beetroot and home made mustard potato salad. A nice filling lunch. Rob ensures me that he will arrange the picnic next time, which would be nice. 

After lunch we found a big field to explore. We could let Nelli off the lead, but the ground was too hard for her to really run hard. She was already pretty tired at this point and was mainly lagging behind us!

After exploring the field, we headed back to the park and towards the activity trail. We couldn't resist showing the kids our skills. We also had lots of fun on the swings. 

After about two hours we thought it was time for another rest. We headed to the cafe and it was time for a sugary pick me up - our first ice creams of the year! I had a feast and Rob had a mint chocolate cornetto! They were both yummy and it certainly made us realise that winter is finally going away and spring is here!

We headed back home in the afternoon. We were ready for another nap as soon as we got in!

Valentines Day at London Zoo

Rob and I have visited London Zoo once before. That was our very first Valentines Day together... way back in 2007. I remember getting ready and meeting Rob at the Station. I remember the cringy outfit I wore (jeans, a black blazer and black hat wahhhh?!). But I mostly remember how loved I felt the whole day. This year I felt just as loved. It was fantastic to go back and relive it all. 

This time we started the day a little differntly. We were both pretty darn hungover after spending the night partying for Carys' Birthday. After arriving in Camden we headed straight to a nice little cafe for breakfast. We stumbled across a cute traditional Italian cafe that also served breakfast. The cafe was really busy so we knew we were on to a winner. Both of our breakfast and hot drinks were really good. Bacon is the only thing that will put me right after a heavy night drinking. 

After breakfast we were ready for an afternoon of exploring. We arrived not long after the zoo opened but it was already busy. We walked around the zoo non-stop for about four hours. We saw some amazing animals. We both loved seeing the Otters feeding - although it was a little gross. Our favourite experience was the inside walk through with all of the small monkeys. We also liked seeing the ants transport parts of leaves in the creepy crawly section. It was fascinating. Oh and the other bugs made me feel so itchy!

As we explored the Zoo we came across a few hilarious photo opportunities and couldn't help but have a little pose. These pictures still make me laugh. 

The weather was cold, cloudly and it drizzled on and off all day but we had an amazing time. It's not that often that we do touristy things in London, but it was great. 

After all that walking we were ready for our next meal. We had popped to Wholefoods in Camden before entering the Zoo but the fruit and cereal bars were just not cutting it. We didn't bring any proper Lunch with us so we were starving. We did venture into a cafe and restaurant but they were so busy and expensive and the food didn't even look appetising. We decided to grab something on the way home. We headed home via the food market in Camden Lock. After browsing all the stalls we settled on this incredible mac and cheese! There were some amazing flavours of mac and cheese available but we went for the all cheese. I can't remember the name of the stall but it was fantastic. 

We headed back home to enjoy the rest of our Valentines night snuggled up together at home. Our 8th Valentines Day together. I know this is "cheesy" but we both feel so lucky to had enjoyed so many together and we have so much more to look forward to.