Beautiful Belgium - The Arrival Edition

During the February half term break, myself and two other fun humans, who we shall call Rach and Cara, set out on an adventure to Belgium..

First stop was Ghent!

After getting on the ridiculously early 7am Eurostar from London, we arrived in Brussels a couple of hours later to then enjoy another short train ride to Ghent.

Somehow, mainly thanks to Rachyroo our travel guide goddess, we got on the tram to the town centre where our glorious hotel was. For someone like myself who doesn't stay in hotels very often, there was quite a novelty about it all. I'm not sure what was more fun - putting our most prized possessions - read: passports - into the safe and opening and closing it a few times for fun, OR the fun of getting to sleep in a luxuriously huge bed!

We stayed at The Novotel hotel and I really couldn't complain one bit about it. We were lucky enough to have a pretty sweet view from our window overlooking a little square, getting cheeky views of the locals demolishing beers in the early afternoon and my favourite part - hearing the bloody church bells ring for a bajillion hours straight on a Sunday morning... I swear, it didn't stop for at least two hours and when our heads were slightly sore and we were all craving frites, it wasn't the best start! However - the windows of the hotel were very soundproof!

A slightly worrying long way down.

We did loads of exploring and walking around the quaint, little, cobble stone streets dodging bikes, ate lots of delicious things and took lots of photos of each other... and the beautiful city we were in for three days.

Ghent canal by day

Ghent canals by night - photo cred to rachy

It was fun walking down the street holding hands, merging into a line when the crowds got a bit squishy, taking in the stares and the feeling of being on a school trip...

It was almost, only just though, as fun walking down the streets holding a cone of frites in our warm hungover embrace, scouting out the best spot to sit down before we collapsed in heaps. 

There was so much more fun to be had... Stay tuned!!

You should check out Cara's blog - Britventures for part one and part two of our trip away!

A year ago...

A year ago, I was about to board my flight back to London.

I had had an amazing 6 weeks in wonderful Wellington, with a quick trip up to Auckland.

I hung out with some of my favourite people, met some fellow bloggers IRL, and soaked up the beauty that New Zealand has!

I still can't believe it's been a whole entire year. Since I've got back, there has been many ups and downs, health issues, work stresses, you name it. But I love being able to look back on previous blog posts and photos, reminding myself of how lucky I was to go back to my little windy city and enjoy my time there. 

I do actually really kinda want to go back right this second, but just for a holiday. London's where my life is for now, but I'd really like to sit down, chat, hug and be close to those special humans! 

Things I'm Loving!

My latest lovings are....

Celebrating my birthday

This year, I had a lovely 3 nights of celebrations! I went wining and dining with some of my nearest and dearest to Cottons Rhum Shack in Shoreditch, which was some seriously delicious Caribbean grub - and pretty strong Mojitios (which I accidentally mistook for a Margarita..)

My lovely cousins Martin and Dugald bought me 12 dozen ciders for my birthday...

My lovely friend Julia organised for a few of us to go and see Arc Iris. They're a freaking awesome band and were even awesomer in real life! 

And then of course I celebrated at a pub, The Hawley Arms which so happened to be the pub where Amy Winehouse used to hangout at!

Friends from NZ!

I've loved having Andre and Nic stay with my for a week before they went travelling for a few months! I grew up with Andre, he's more than a brother than a friend! 

Andre and I in 1993 and 2014!

Pretending to be a local showing these two around London!

Sun!

London had what they might call 'a heatwave' the other week, so it was super lush to be able to sit in the park catching some sweet sweet rays!

Cherries that look like bums

There's no explanation needed!!!

Egg moments... there's always one

I've just come back from 5 days in Paris for my lovely Sara's hens weekend (more on that soon!). We had secretly organised to all get Disney t-shirts for when we go to Disneyland as a surprise for Sara. Mine I ordered online didn't arrive in time, so a rush to Primark the night before we left was needed! Low and behold - we couldn't find them anywhere! Then when we did, the 10 looked massive, so did the 8 (they were baggy style t-shirts) so I thought, well yeah I can squeeze into a 6, especially if they're meant to be really baggy! As the man was folding it to put into the bag, the top just looked a little bit strange. As Cara and I were waiting for our train back home, it dawned on me that it was the neckhole - it was sooo tiny and there was nooo way my massive head was going to fit through it! Luckily I was able to cut it bigger at home, as well as cut a big hole in the back... and then I could get it on!

The photo doesn't do the original size any justice, but you can get the jist from the size of the label to the size of the actual hole!

Note to self : just get your normal size and deal with having a baggy t-shirt.

Linking up with my gorgeous Meg!