Review: Sperrin View Glamping Pods

To celebrate David's birthday this year we spent 2 nights at Sperrin View Glamping Pods in Cookstown! They are super cute glamping pods in the middle of the countryside, in a designated Dark Sky spot of Northern Ireland - perfect for stargazing! The pods are designed with this in mind, with a huge window tilted towards the sky so you can lie in your cosy bed and watch the stars to your hearts content. I wanted to review our stay here as we loved it so much & are already planning when we can go back again!

Recipe: Caramel Squares

Over Covid-19 lockdown and during furloughed life I've been doing a lot of baking - much like everybody else! I was put on the furlough scheme at the start of April, 2 weeks into UK lockdown, and since then I've made a variety of cookies, brownies & cakes...with varying degrees of success! I'll hopefully share the recipes that I used for them all at some point but today I want to share the recipe for Caramel Squares, or Millionaire's Shortbread, whatever you usually call them!

Buying A House As First-Time Buyers - Part 1

Photo by Ali & Laura Photography

Well, hello! It's been an age since I last looked at or posted on my blog, but I'm glad that I've kept it up & running because I want to share about our experience of buying a house as first-time buyers. It has been an experience, to put it lightly!

Starting The Journey // 24-7 Ibiza

I'm sat in Belfast International Airport,

and my flight has been delayed by like, 2 hours.

To the point where, I don't even know what Gate I'm supposed to be at,

and that isn't being announced for another 1hr45mins!

So I figured, what better time to start recording my journey with 24-7 Ibiza.

I have a solid wifi signal, a hot coffee, my laptop is all charged up and I'm settled at a table with a clear view of one of those Flight Update screens that everyone seems to flock around at the airport!

Looking Forward

I have a question for you...

Do you think it's important to have something to look forward to?

 To have something to fix your eyes on, to strive towards, 

to make working long, hard days worth it?

David & I talk about it pretty often, the need to have something there 

that we're looking forward to, to make everyday life worth it,

to make working opposite shifts to each other worth it.

Recipe: Sweet Banana Bread

I'm doing something a little different & random on my blog today...

I'm sharing a recipe!

It's nothing difficult, by any stretch of the imagination,

but it was an experiment for me & it turned out really well, so I thought I would share it with you!

 

Why I Quit My Job To Travel

At this moment in time, as I'm putting pen to paper, 

I'm sitting in a froyo cafe (my current place of work) on my break, 

looking out the window at the torrent of snow that's probably blanketing my poor wee car,

(side note - later on it took me a solid 15 mins to de-ice my car...)

and all I can think of is roughly this time last year when I officially "handed my notice in" 

and let my old job know that I was leaving to go travelling. 

That was quite the day.

There were so many different feelings, all these different kinds of emotions

all tied up in that one act of voluntarily leaving a stable place of employment, 

all for 3 months of the unknown.

December 2016 Reads

December is always a super busy month,

what with anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, catch-ups & carol services,

so I actually didn't get as much reading done last month as I had planned!

What I did read, however, was all absolutely amazing! 

I'm still very much on a fantasy/dystopian/YA kick 

and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

These genres have so many fantastic authors with so much to offer

and I plan to devour every amazing book I can find!

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

The first book below is the conclusion to a series, so if you haven't read the first 2 books yet,

the blurb might give some things away! 

One Little Word 2017

Happy New Year, friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fab New Year, however you chose to spend it!

I really hope it was more exciting than mine...

I was wrapped up in bed, struck down by a horrible chest/cough/cold thing...not the way

I had hoped to spend the last night of 2016 if I'm honest! 

Thankfully, it happened a day or two after Christmas day, 

so I was able to enjoy all the amazing food and drink that Christmas has to offer 

before I was confined to bed with only toast & water!

Anyway, now we're in 2017!

How weird is that? How long does it take you to get used to saying/writing the new year?

It usually takes me a good few weeks!

A brand new year, 365 days full of opportunities & experiences 

waiting to be grasped with both hands.

As this new year begins I want to carry over something that I did last year,

in place of creating New Years Resolutions or goals.

I'm sure you've heard of it before; the One Little Word project.

7 Things I Love About December

Last year on the 1st of December I wrote this post all about the things I was looking forward to in December, like my birthday, a trip to Edinburgh with my bestie and my 3 year anniversary with David, among other more Christmassy things. 

So this year, when I sat down to write this post for the 1st of December, I figured I would do something along the same lines because it's fun, but try & change it up a wee bit from last year, while still covering all of the things that I love about December and the run up to Christmas!

So, here we go!

November 2016 Reads

It's been a literal age since I shared what I've been reading recently, which is a shame

because over the past lot of months I've read some truly incredible books! 

I might put together a post of my favourite books from 2016 closer to the end of the year, but right now I want to share what I've managed to read this past month. Sadly, I only have the physical copy of one of these books, the others have been read on the Kindle App on my phone, with the intention of buying a physical copy in the near future...it just so happens that I haven't done that yet, oops! 

Rediscovering Beauty with Itty Bitty Book Co.

I find that looking for inspiration can be difficult, even in this world that is saturated with timelines and Pinterest boards filled to the brim with quotes and slogans all designed 

 to keep us inspired & motivated & encouraged.

But, a lot of the time I find that those inspirational quotes fall a little bit flat.

There are too many contradictory quotes on the same boards, 

too many that actually manage to make me feel a little inferior,

a little bit less, if I don't want to #hustle or #girlboss it all the time.

And I'm pretty sure that is the opposite of their purpose!

But I do know how powerful true inspirational quotes can be, how much motivation, positivity, confidence & encouragement they can bring out in each of us, and that is why I want to introduce to you today the Itty Bitty Book Co.  

The Secret Garden & Stormont Estate

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that we are now a whole week into November.

It's practically Winter, but tell me this: what happened to October?!
I barely remember the last month, to the point where I'm not even really sure it happened.

It feels like only yesterday it was Summer and we were enjoying whatever meagre weather

Northern Ireland has to offer and now it's pretty much Christmas!

Sorry. Is it too soon for Christmas talk?

5 Tips For A Productive Job Search

Looking for a job can be one of the most soul-destroying, mood-shattering 

things on this planet, and it's made even worse if you're unemployed and looking for a job. 

Sometimes it feels hopeless,

it feels pointless, you feel like you're not good enough, or like you're never going to get any job, nevermind one that you actually like!

I know I'm not the only person who feels like this.

Hello Again...

Hi there! I'm back!

Travelling SE Asia // A Little Life Update!

Hey, how's it going?!

As it's taking way longer than it should for me to keep you guys updated on our travels, I thought I'd interrupt standard proceedings with a little rambling life update, as the title suggests, of where we are, how we're feeling and so on!

Travelling SE Asia // Sleeper Train To Chiang Mai

The next leg of our journey to the north of Thailand was made via sleeper train. Most people seem to get the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, but luckily for us it also makes some stops along the way, so we were able to catch the 12 hour train from Lopburi!

Travelling SE Asia // Lopburi and The Monkey Temple!

After spending 2 amazing days exploring Ayutthaya, we decided to get the train to our next destination, Lopburi. I'm pretty sure this is another town that people usually visit on a day trip, but again David and I decided to stay for a couple of nights! We didn't want to feel like we were rushing through these towns on our way to the north of Thailand, and even though there isn't much to Lopburi, we really enjoyed our stay here!

The train lasted about an hour and a half, and the tickets cost 680 Baht, which is roughly about £14. We were so confused when the train attendant starting handing us free juice and a packet of cookies each, but as it turned out we had somehow managed to buy 1st Class tickets without even realising! The cookies were so good though, and massively appreciated after an early morning with no breakfast!

Travelling SE Asia // The Ruins of Ayutthaya

So it turns out that keeping a blog updated while traveling, isn't the easiest thing in the world to do! David and I are almost halfway through Month 2, so I have plenty of stories to fill you in on!

Travelling SE Asia // 4 Days In Bangkok!

Sawadee-ka from Thailand!

We started our travelling journey a week ago today, which is so hard to believe! It's Monday evening here right now, the sun is going down so the sky is a lovely pastel colour and the heat is still intense, but not as melt-inducing as this afternoon.