Hello and welcome to the life of Suze.
I had a fantastic week last week. Busy doing things I love to do. I have found the secret to contentment…and it’s usually found on a plate in a restaurant. :)
I had a few food dates last week. Two food dates and a walk date in fact. It’s nice to finally get back out to see my friends again.
I’m still careful, and generously anti bac-ing myself at all times. I try and get away with as little physical human contact as humanly possible…but in fairness this Pre dates covid. ;)
I hug very few people in this world. I’m not one of life’s huggers. :)
I had a really great walk with a friend on Tuesday evening. We got chatting and walked a fair way, which was good practice for the upcoming weekend.
Anyway, I had a a fabulous morning on Wednesday last week. I got up, washed and dressed up all fancy and headed to the local car boot sale.
Dress from Jigsaw, Shoes from Jimmy Choo, Bag from Goyard
The thing I love about boot sales is you never know what’s going to be there. I love the excitement of finding treasures.
…and treasures I found!…
Look at my beautiful bargain pumpkins!! :) They’re really lovely. I love making autumnal/Halloween displays. These are perfect for it.
After I finished my mooch around the boot sale I headed off to meet my friend for lunch, in one of the fanciest, expensivist restaurants in Essex. I love a day of diversity. :)
We had a fabulous meal. We had a fantastic catch up.
It was a lovely day apart from the wasps. I fear all the stinging creatures now.
Then on Thursday I got dolled up again to meet a friend for brunch, before I headed off to the vaccine centre.
Dress from French Connection, Shoes from Louis Vuitton
I really do enjoy a day that’s filled with extremes. With interesting things. And meeting new people, as well as seeing old friends for the first time in a long time.
I met my friend for brunch at The Barn garden centre in Turkey Cock Lane, Colchester. The food there is pretty darn good. I had one of the best fry ups I think I’ve ever had, definitely worth a visit if you’re local. Plus we had a fantastic catch up, there is so much to catch up on, with so many people.
With brunch done I headed to my volunteer shift at the vaccine hub. The weather was the worst I’ve had there, which isn’t too bad, bearing in mind I’ve been going at least once week for a couple of months. This is England after all.
I looked like a little drowned rat by the end of it. But nothing can put me off of enjoying it. It just feels good to be out doing something to help get us out of this mess.
And then it was time for our mini break to Yorkshire!
First off, I just want to start this part of my blog by stating right here right now, I definitely can’t move anywhere hilly, suffice to say the hills were alive with the sound of my bitching!!
Yorkshire is absolutely amazing and beautiful and incredible and I will never ever live there!
I’m from Essex, we really don’t have many or any hills. Or rather I don’t go out walking them. It’s noticeably more hilly than I think it is when I’m out on my bike. But still not terribly hilly as a county.
Chris, me, Ben and Kaitlyn headed for a holiday to the north. The journey was ridiculously long. What was expected to be about four and a half hours, turned out to be seven and a half hours drive. Thank god for Chris, because my maximum is 3 hours driving, so that world have been interesting with me pulling over for a sleep half way through hahahahaha.
Top from Betty Barclay (TK Maxx), Leggings from River Island, Shoes from Louis Vuitton
We arrived at an incredibly underwhelming Air B&B. I say this as someone who doesn’t particularly like cleaning, but if you are renting your property out, make sure you do clean it properly. Clean the dust off the skirting boards, hoover to the edges of the room and de-cobweb the place. It’s the little things in life that make all the difference.
It was to say the least one of the strangest places I’ve ever stayed.
Chris spoke to the chap on the phone the man said “I’ll do my best to stay out of your way”.
Which I found a very odd thing to say, but I found out what he meant later on in our stay.
When you hire a whole cottage you don’t really expect it to come with its very own lurker. Hahahahaha
Anyway, luckily we only needed to sleep and wash there. as we had gone to Yorkshire to visit a family friend who moved there a couple of years ago.
She’s from Essex but has convinced herself she’s ok with the hilliness up there. Hahahahaha
It was so wonderfully good to see her. Her and her partner have bought a pub. And I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that it’s absolutely fantastic, pop by if you’re in the Keighley area. The Turkey Inn in Gooseye is a a must!
The food was great, the company even better.
Fay moved up there a few years ago now, and the weird thing is if it wasn’t for corona we probably wouldn’t have had the time to go up. Our holiday time was only used for abroad get aways.
So thank you corona for that, it’s the only thing you’ve been good for, it’s nice to squeeze the tiniest bit of positivity out of such a dark time.
Fay said is there anything you want to see or do? I said no hills.
Fay then took us out for a look around but unfortunately for us soft southerners, the hills were unavoidable. Hahahahaha
Top from TK Maxx, Jeans from Topshop, Shoes from New Balance
Notice my natural hiking, outdoorsy nature. Hahahahaha. I doubt very much most hikey types take a brolly out with them. It’s incongruent with the hiking vibe I imagine.
(Also I noticed the “freedom fighters”, the anti everything protesters, that turned up to protest at the wrong place in London the other day were talking a good game - they were willing to “die to protect their freedoms” but brought along umbrellas. It did make me chuckle. Big Dave “I’m willing to die for my freedoms…(but I’m not prepared to get soaked through to the skin, I’ll catch my death of cold)” ;)
Almost exactly like the mottos of the SAS, SBS and the Navy SEALS).
Having a bit of trouble picturing Che Guevara with a brolly. Hahahahaha.
Anyway, back to Yorkshire. It is an incredibly beautiful county. We had a fantastic time. We walked 15 thousand steps that day.
Now, we’ve managed that in London loads of times. But this was almost all up hills. I know I sound obsessed, and I agree I am a bit. I just like walking on flat ground. I’m not really one that feels the need to challenge myself.
I am a permanently sleep deprived insomniac…and inherently lazy. It’s not a great combination.
Bolton Abbey is well worth a visit.
We got to the bit where you could either cross by bridge or stepping stones. I thought the stepping stones looked marvellous fun!!
But what I forgot was - I don’t do marvellous fun!!
By the time I decided it wasn’t for me, someone had joined on behind us. I could probably ask a family member to turn back, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking a complete stranger to retreat.
So I carried on across. It was a perilous five and a half minutes I can tell you!
The stones were further apart than I had expected, I’m only stumpy. We were held up by the family in front of us letting a small child attempt to cross it, and two stones were actually under water. I had a mini meltdown when I got to them because I felt that they would be slippery. I had visions of me falling off and being swept away.
Ben assured me they were ok, plus realising there was now a man following behind made me take a leap of faith.
Well, I had a very wet foot. But I did not fall. I came back stronger. I aced that tourist attraction! Gooooo me!! Hahahahaha
I’m almost a local now! :)
Fay then took us to the next stop on our tour. I have always wanted to visit a Bettys Tearoom. They are a Yorkshire institution.
We couldn’t get into the Harrogate one, but Fay remembered you can queue up to get into the Ilkley one. And after a ‘mere’ forty five minute wait, we were in!
Bettys is famous for its afternoon tea and it’s signature cake, The Fat Rascal.
I’m very happy I’ve been. I was so happy to be in there. It was good, the food was ok, the staff were lovely, but I can’t say I’d rush back. It didn’t blow me away. Although I did enjoy it in the moment and I would definitely recommend it if you similarly have always wanted to go.
There was a brass band playing in the bandstand across the road and it was pouring down with rain, it was wonderful. We had the full Yorkshire experience. :)
I will just point out here, that it was also raining in Essex. So it’s more of the full England experience than anything else.
FYI - Fat Rascals are nice enough, we brought plenty home to partake in here. They’re a bit like a scone. Or my mum’s splat cakes, but if you’ve never had one of those that won’t really help you much. ;)
We had the best day, hills and all.
We headed back to the holiday house. We were going over to Fay and Steve’s pub in the evening so I thought it best if I change my stoma bag.
For reasons unclear. Perhaps I’m just out of practice being near other people. This was the first time we’ve holidayed with anyone else for over two years.
I changed my bag, and just walked away and left the dreadful smell in my wake.
Usually I’d never dream of doing this. I’d neutralise the smell with Ostomy room spray, and then cover the smell with really nice perfume. I had thankfully, opened a window at least.
But I was surprised by my lackadaisical attitude.
It really really did smell bad. I was mortified when I realised what I had done.
I’ve been home alone too long hahahahaha.
Anyway, no harm done. No one died, no one really cared but me. It’s just a very un-me thing to do. I’m usually so paranoid about bag change smell.
We headed back over to Gooseye.
We were all pretty full from Bettys but the food at The Turkey Inn is really good so we squeezed a bit more in. :)
Outfit as before, Shoes from Christian Dior
Fay asked what we would like to do the following day. She had mentioned a steam train ride earlier in the day and that sounded right up our ally!!
You have to, have to, have to do it if you’re in the area. It was bloody brilliant!! The service is more regular than the actual trains from our town to London. And this is a steam train ride! Who wouldn’t love that!
So that was our next day planned out.
We headed back to the rental. The rental was weird for a few reasons, but one that really sticks in my head was it had frosted glass windows in rooms that you’d never think would have them. Frosted glass being mainly used for front doors and bathrooms. But this had a lot - in the bedrooms, in the kitchen.
It’s very very disconcerting to not be able to see out of a window.
Anyway, in the morning I decided to pay extra attention to my bag change. Once I finished changing it I decided to pop the triple wrapped bag out of the bathroom window, so I didn’t even waft any bag smell through the house at all.
I felt it was best if I dropped it out there, then quickly get dressed and then run down and put it straight in the bin. I sprayed and spritzed the bathroom all fresh and lovely for my house mates.
Anyway, I executed my plan to perfection!!!…well I did until I got downstairs, opened the front door to pick the bag up, to pop it in the bin…to find my waste bag missing!! I was literally four minutes. I changed the bag and dressed in four minutes!!
But now it was missing!!
It turns out the owner of the house, who lived in a house along from the rental, couldn’t quite keep himself out of our way after all. I mean he did say he’d only try, I guess he just couldn’t achieve it.
If I was mortified about stinking the house out the day before, I can’t tell you how shell shocked I was at the thought of a stranger picking my waste bag up for me! Hahahahaha.
Jumper from Whistles, Jeans from Topshop, Shoes from Christian Dior
The train is fantastic fun. It runs from the normal station. So one side of the tracks it’s the train to Leeds, and on the other, a wonderful steam train ride to some wonderful villages.
We got off at Haworth, and walked up a massive hill, yeah, I know, here she goes with the hills again. But this hill is a monster. Chris has skied down less gradients than that!
Haworth is a beautiful village if you survive the walk up to it.
It’s so picturesque, and it’s Bronté country if that’s your thing.
(Some believe this is the road from the famous Hovis advert from the 70s, but that hill happens to be Gold Hill, in Dorset. The reason I know this? Well I Googled it for things to do on our adventure to the north. I was confused as to why it didn’t come up on the list, so I googled it further).
After a fantastic but exhausting weekend it was back down south for us. Back to reality and flat lands. :)
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