Travelling Alone: Barcelona

I’ve always wanted to travel but sometimes it’s hard to find people who can afford to go so, I decided I am a person and I can afford to go. So, I booked Barcelona for a few days for myself and it was pretty cool.

I figured I spend a lot of time by myself anyway so why not spend it in a different country having a fun time ✌🏻

If you’ve ever thought to yourself “I really wanna travel alone” – just book the ticket, just do it, once the ticket is booked, there is kinda no going back.

Be spontaneous and most importantly, have the best time ever instead of staying at home scrolling through Instagram being jealous of everyone else’s trips 😂

Here are some pics of my trip

you’re invited to my pity party

I have been writing some little poems over the past year sooooooo, here we go, here are some poor quality photographs of them ✌🏻

 

Bolton Abbey

Heeelllloooooo

This post is about Bolton Abbey and why YOU should go…

FIRST of all, you can take your own BBQ and have a lovely BBQ by the river at Bolton Abbey – the BBQ area is big so you are guaranteed to get a space to fulfill your BBQ needs

SECONDLY, the scenery is amazing as you can imagine! There is a valley called the Valley of Desolation which just sounds cool and you have to go just cause of the name. There is a wishing fountain so you can make all your wishes come true! There’s also a church that isn’t a church anymore but if you’re weird like me and like reading grave stones then that’s cool.

STEPPING STONES – the stepping stones are super fun but if you’re scared like me, you can just step on a few for a pic and make a return back to the land 🙂

When it’s really hot, it’s acceptable to get in your swimwear and go for a swim at Bolton Abbey, it looks super fun as well

If you’re arriving in a car, it is £10 to park but it is totally worth it as it is such a good day out and you can explore all day and have a sit down with a picnic or a BBQ or both ofc

So goooo to Bolton Abbey

go now

Creme Egg Brownie

EASTER EASTER EASTER

Naturally, I have been searching on Pinterest for some Easter baking ideas and found the creme egg brownie and I just couldn’t resist

It is soooo chocolatey and just amazing and yummy

What you will need –

• 1 hour of your time
• 20cm brownie tin
• Baking paper

Ingredients:

• 150g dark chocolate
• 150g unsalted butter
• 275g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 85g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 5 Cadbury creme eggs

Decoration:

• Smartie mini eggs
• Cadbury mini eggs
• Cute little chicks

Method:

1. Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease the 20cm square tin with butter and line with baking paper.
2. Put the butter and the chocolate into a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Put the mixture into the fridge so that it cools down quickly.
3. Break the eggs into a large bowl and tip in the caster sugar. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar for around 5-6 minutes with an electric mixer on maximum speed.
4. Then pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the egg and sugar mixture and gently fold together.
5. Sieve the flour and cocoa into the wet mixture and continue to fold the mixture gently until everything is combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the brownie tin and place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.
7. Whilst the cake is baking, cut the creme eggs in half (TIP: pour boiling hot water over the knife so that it cuts through the eggs easily). Crush a few of the mini eggs with a rolling pin but leave some whole.
8. After the brownie has been in the oven for 20 minutes, take it out and place the creme eggs into the brownie. Then put it back into the oven for a further 5 minutes.
9. Once baked and cooled down, scatter all the mini eggs over the brownie. Then place into the fridge for 1 hour to make sure that the brownie is firm.
10. When the brownie is firm, decorate with the little chicks to get those Eastery vibes!
11. ENJOY THAT BROWNIE
12. (take pictures of the brownie from different angles cause you love it) :))))

HEALTHY Easter Hamper

HELLOOOOO IT IS SPRING and Spring means EASTER

If you’re anything like me then you will love any occasion to decorate… I am obsessed with decorating so of course there are bunnies, chicks and sheep in my room to celebrate the new season

Easter is pretty soon so I thought I would make an Easter hamper. I figured that there are people out there (which is v sad) who cannot eat chocolate for health reasons. AND also people who just wanna be fit and healthy (not me).

This hamper idea is perfect for people who want a healthy alternative to chocolate eggs!

FIRSTLY, you have to make the box look Eastery. To do this, I just ordered a plain box, some yellow ribbon, Easter tissue paper and ofc some colourful feathers from Paperchase, it was fairly cheap and you can get most of this stuff from supermarkets anyway. I mean just throw everything onto the box in whatever style you want so it looks like you’ve nicely vommitted Easter up onto a plain old box :))))

SO the food I picked was from Holland & Barretts, I do love a good shop on Holland & Barretts’ website as I am a sucker for offers and deals which they always have. Mostly everything I got was buy one get one free or 3 for 2……. I just love love love it and I got 10% off and a £5 voucher, dying in deal making heaven

Here is a quick list of what I got:

Flapjacks x3 (strawberry, chocolate & coconut), protein bars x4, vegan Easter milk and dark chocolate, Bounce energy bites, energy gels x2, ginger bites x2, yoghurt coated raisins x2, dried fruit and chocolate shots x4 and vegan sour snakes.

I also added some LUSH items as what is Easter without LUSH’s seasonal stuff? I got the chocolate lip scrub which tastes identical to Terry’s Chocolate Orange, it tastes so good. I also got a bunny mask shower jelly which was in the shape of a bunny, I just don’t know how anything can get better than that?? And of course an Easter egg bath bomb!

I HOOOOPE you are as OTT as me with every occasion and go all out this Easter 🙂

Zaandam – Amsterdam

I know A LOT of people have to been to Amsterdam many times but I just thought I would share the part of Holland in which I stayed as it was amazing!

When I was booking the holiday, I immediately fell in love with one hotel in Zaandam, it was something that I’d never really seen before, very quirky and unique so I had to go!

Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam

The hotel has many rooms and every single one has a unique picture on the wall to give you a real feel of Holland.

There is a gym, sauna, steam room and swimming pool for everyone to enjoy. I think the best part of the holiday was definitely the swimming pool and sauna… if you want more of a relaxing holiday I suggest this hotel and definitely Zaandam as it is a much quieter area away from tourists but only 10 minutes away from Amsterdam city centre via train. It is also only 20 minutes away from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

I was kind of nervous to get the train in a different country as I hate not being familiar with the trains and times. However, it was so easy to get tickets, you could get them from the ticket machines and just scan your ticket on the way to the train. Basically their train system is MILES better than it is in the UK.

A return train ticket from Zaandam to Amsterdam was around €5 and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Zaandam was around €4.

Zaandam is a beautiful place as it looks like a little toy village. The hotel is also a 1 minute walk away from a big Primark so if you forget anything you can get anything you need from there.

It is also near a supermarket and many local cafes which serve the best coffee and pastries. There is also a subway and a cute cake shop across from the hotel which just look so CUUUTE

I would 100% recommend this hotel to anyone on a budget as it was £200 per person for flights, luggage and a 3 night stay at a 4 star hotel!

I feel like most people know what there is to do in Amsterdam so I’m not gonna talk about all of the amazing things you can do as I don’t think anyone really needs a well thought out plan as you can just walk around all over the city and decide what you want to do as you go.

Although I would recommend maybe booking some museum tickets online to avoid queues but if you really want to avoid peak times, maybe book in the week because when I went back to some museums on a Monday it was completely clear and you could walk straight in.

I do have one tip for Amsterdam though, if you want a really clear picture of the ‘Iamsterdam’ sign, stand at the back of the sign, take a picture and then flip the picture so it looks like you have taken it from the front but magically made all of the tourists disappear – good trick for a cool picture 🙂

American Pancake Skewers

IT’S PANCAKE DAY!!!

So, me and Liv obviously had to make pancakes. I’m not the best at making circular pancakes so we decided to make pancake scewers as they look cute and you can also make them circular with cookie cutters

Here is the super quick recipe

Ingredients:

• 135g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 130ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp of olive olive (plus extra for cooking)

To serve: 

• Nutella
• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Skewers

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a bowl or jug. In a separate jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the olive oil.

2. Pour the mixed milk and egg into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until the batter is smooth.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, add the olive oil into the pan. Add as much batter as you like to the pan, when the top of the pancake starts to bubble that’s when you should flip the pancake. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

4. Once your pancakes have cooled down, get a circular cookie cutter and cut out small circles to make smaller pancakes. Spread Nutella over your tiny pancakes, then stab them onto the skewers. Also do this with the blueberries, bananas and strawberries.

5. Finally, for a finishing touch sift some icing sugar on top!

ENJOY 🙂

Day Out In Chester

So, last year in October I went to Chester… I’d never been before apart from to Chester Zoo which I love! But this time I decided it would be cool to look around the city and see the shops, the city is a nice size, not too big but not too small. And there are plenty of shops to look around!

Without using a map or having a plan what to do that day, I just walked around until I got to Grovsenor Park. The park is lovely but the best thing is definitely the squirrels, they aren’t like most timid squirrels, they actually come over to you (well, if you have food that is). So, if you get some peanuts they will come straight over to you and take them out of your hands, it’s so cute. It’s also great for pictures!

The park leads to a beautiful lake/river with LOTS of benches around so you can sit there and take pictures.

I just think it’s a really cute day out and it’s so cool to feed the squirrels so I thought I’d write about it and show some pictures 🙂