Hiking in the Cinque Terre

A Hiking Adventure in the Cinque Terre

I awoke with a start on our first day in the Cinque Terre to what sounded like thunder and torrential rain. This could not be happening. We had only arrived the afternoon before to a glorious sunny day, people relaxing on the rocks and eating gelato by the harbour, and we were all prepared to go off on a hike on our first morning to explore the villages. I jumped out of bed, threw open the Italian shutters of our cute little bed and breakfast, and stuck my head out the window to find that, yes, it was indeed raining. The pastel coloured rooftops were being hammered with water and people on the street below were hurriedly rushing by attempting to cover their soaking heads. Perfect. Our day of hiking suddenly looked rather bleak.

But despite the hiking paths being closed thanks to the stormy weather, we didn’t want to spend the day sat inside hiding from the rain, so we hopped on the train to explore instead and discovered that this part of the Italian Riviera is still a little piece of heaven even in the rain.

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Bluebells at Emmetts Garden

Adventures in Kent’s Bluebell Woods

Springtime is just too damn pretty for words, and this year I wanted to visit some of the colourful bluebell woods that bloom in abundance around this time.  We live just on the outskirts of London, in Kent, so the “Garden of England” and its National Trust properties and gardens was the perfect place to go exploring.

With the promise of the little tea and cake shop that is always bound to be found at a National Trust property, I managed to persuade Mr Ayla to come along on this flowery outing of mine.  We headed to Emmett’s Garden where a cute little cottage (obviously Snow White’s home) greeted us.

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Skydiving in Namibia

Things I’d Never Do Again When Travelling

Free from the responsibilities of home life and wanting to experience as much as we can, we all lose our inhibitions a bit when we travel. We become more confident, more adventurous and a lot more courageous, doing things we would never usually do at home. I always try to avoid saying no to something new which makes the possibilities endless when travelling.  But it also means that in amongst all the fantastic experiences, there are bound to be a few not so fantastic experiences too.

Aside from the time we were almost mugged in Namibia , I have never really written about anything negative on the blog.  I’m generally a very positive and easily pleased girl and, to be honest, we’ve been amazingly lucky and haven’t really had many bad experiences on our travels.  But there are a few things that I can say I would never ever do again.

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Pink mini orchid

Post-Holiday Blues

Today, I am feeling rather sorry for myself.  I’m sat at home, having a sick day off work, thinking of all the things I should be doing but not having the energy to actually get up and do them all.

I don’t know whether it’s post-holidays blues after our amazing time in Cuba that’s making me feel so rubbish or just my body not wanting to cooperate with my head.  I can imagine it screaming at me now “STOP DOING STUFF!! I can’t keep up!! No, not listening?  Fine then, I’ll make you ill instead”.  Cue evil laugh from my weary body.

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Vintage cars Parque Central Havana Cuba

A Vintage Car Tour of Havana

I’m not a car person. At all. I can drive but I rarely do and I wouldn’t know what make a car was if my life depended on it. I don’t even know how to fill our car up with petrol. This is one of those times when I’m perfectly happy to put my feminist views to one side, relax in the passenger seat and leave all the car business to the man of the house.

But when it came to visiting Havana, the vintage cars that the city is so famous for were one of the things I was most eager to see. While I might not have been able to tell the Chevrolets apart from the Buicks, they were just so colourful and pretty that the make ceased to matter to me. Yes, the colour is always the thing that grabs my attention when it comes to cars, whereas Alex was a little more interested in the fact that they were original models from decades ago – like I imagine most people would be.

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Passport stamp heart print

New Year Adventures…

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog and social media front lately as, to put it simply, I was just having too much fun over the holidays. Relaxing, playing board games, eating way too many pigs in blankets and chocolate Roses, and enjoying some time just switching off. Seeing as we pretty much skipped Christmas last year as we were travelling around India, I wanted to make the most of this one with my family and friends, and the last couple of weeks couldn’t have been better if they’d tried!

Wherever you were in the world, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year too!

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Paddington Bear Trail London

On the Search for Bears on the Paddington Trail

With my overly excitable and big kiddish personality, I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I love a fun children’s film, so when I saw the trailer for the new Paddington movie, of course I was massively thrilled. Alex usually gets dragged along to the cinema, packed full of screaming and giggling children, to watch these sorts of movies with me, but even this was one he actually wanted to see.

So when I came across the Paddington Trail, a fun adventure in London by the NSPCC and Studiocanal to celebrate the release of the film, my excitement tripled!  Paddington Bear statues popped up all over the city waiting to be found by curious children and eager adults.

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Ice skating at Somerset House London

Getting Festive in London

I will admit that up until now I have been a bit of a Scrooge.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas, and not having a proper Christmas last year as we were travelling around India, means I’m looking forward to it a whole lot more than usual this year.  But seeing Christmas gifts starting to be sold in shops, hearing Christmas songs on the radio, walking past houses twinkling with lights, and being asked about my plans for Christmas in October and November, well that is just way too far in advance for my liking.

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Go Ape tree top adventure

Monkeying around at Go Ape!

As the name of this blog suggests, I love a fun adventure, so when we were invited to try out the Tree Top Adventure at Go Ape I jumped at the chance – quite literally when it came to the activity!

Our location was Wendover Woods, a lush green forest not far from Oxford where we were heading for a weekend getaway outside London.

We were hoping for one of those unexpectedly warm and sunny days we’re occasionally treated to in autumn but unfortunately for us we woke up to a foggy drizzly morning, the ground already wet from the rain that had clearly poured down through the night.

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The Cotswolds: A Photo Essay

After a lovely couple of days in Bath and Cheddar Gorge, the last stop on our mini road trip was the Cotswolds where we planned on seeing some of England’s greenest countryside and stopping off at several of its small villages before heading back home.  As is typical in England, it rained pretty much the whole time, but this didn’t make the area any less beautiful.  In fact, I took so many photos that I just had to share all the prettiness of the Cotswolds with you.

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