With a Little Help

Friends of ours are thinking of buying a property abroad and have been looking about for a little while, and while TH and I have agreed there isn’t going to be a holiday for us this year, we haven’t exactly said we can’t ‘help’ friends out. When we were chatting about this purchase the other weekend I think I got them thinking about how easy it would be to get to another property. I go green when I think of some of the cheaper trips people near big airports can go on, and compare it to all of the surcharges our little airport gets! And seeing as I am now on a money saving plan I keep reminding them of all of these extra costs.

They are now thinking of buying in Turkey, and seeing as I have never been there I will be more than happy to encourage them. I think an important part of this decision is that you can get flights from Aberdeen where we are closest to, and I imagine you’d want to visit your property as much as possible if you had one.

They come round and I get right into helping them provisionally look at places. I have to say I swear by thiswebsite. I love how you can do quite advanced searches which means you’re not looking at properties you like the look of but once you’ve got to the bottom of the listing you find it never really was what you wanted. When I was even looking at holiday lets that would drive me mad! Its not like you can pop into any old property any old time as if it was in the same city as you, so when you have too make your trip abroad to find another home you had better make your time worth it!

Being a librarian makes you crazy for a good search engine, and any help in that department makes me very happy. I think the site is really easy to use too, but apart from that it actually covers loads of areas. It’s all very well having amazing search options, but if there is nothing to search it isn’t worth it. This is very different and also means that by showing loads of properties in different areas it gives you loads of options for what to spend and where. We found them talking about Istanbul properties and then jumping into chatting about seaside locations, just because they changed the search options a little. And hey, what are friends for? If they need help searching and im a good list maker I am more than happy to help….they had just better remember when we’re moaning for a trip away!

London Calling

The Husband and I are really quite different when it comes to organisation. There are list people, and there are those that like the uncertainty and sense of adventure. The first group of people are more than happy to plan every spare minute and create list after list detailing where exactly they will be on any given day at any given time. I am one of these people. The second group of people have within their midst’s my husband. I don’t understand him, and he doesn’t understand me-at least when it comes to this.


I am more than happy to take on the responsibility for big events and holidays, and with the everyday running of the home we just muddle along, I guess like every other couple out there.

We are planning a trip to London for our anniversary in October and have already booked the flights. The accommodation needs to be found and paid for-but we really are on a budget as we are going away in the Summer and have made preliminary plans to head off in Winter too. The months of these events are getting closer and I am counting down the pay days! With this in mind we decided to start searching for a London Bed and Breakfast. We thought that this would be a dependable way to find a cheaper option. I found the website good to use as I really like it when a site has lots of options to narrow down a search (…this is a godsend to list makers)

There are a few places that we like the look of and seeing as we are really just looking for a place to lay our head between visits and tours we are more than happy to forgo a free shower gel! The locations are great and that seems to be the thing that matters most to us anyway. Whenever we’ve went somewhere before we’ve always ended up eating our tea at an interesting looking place we have found while out and about-so we never really make full use of hotels. It’s just a matter of picking which area we like best… Right, just need to get The Husband to ‘sign off’ plans and we are go!

Ferris Bueller Has Nothing On Me

Days off mid week are utterly delicious. They are like stolen gems of time and are enormously more fun than a week-end. Those are simply days off for working all week. These are the days spent chasing those chores that slipped away when you came home too tired. Week days spent lounging are like a month of Sundays-rare, but even the thought of them make your toes wriggle with delight.


Tomorrow is one such day. Tomorrow is for hanging washing on the line outside, a big pot of tea and the papers. It is for a big breakfast and for a jaunt into town. It is for a look around the delis and charity shops. It is for tea and cake where ever we wish to visit. For garden centres and gardening. Tomorrow will be good.

Chance of a Get-Away

When the adverts for Summer holidays start being shown on TV all that I want to do is get organized. This year we are hopefully going away with another family, so I can’t be the only person in charge of this like I normally am and love being. This means that not everything is in my hands and I can’t start envisaging a nice break.

So when TH got offered the chance to have a couple of meetings in Exeter and one in Edinburgh I jumped at the chance to head off with him. It means I get to investigate a new place with Daisy Dog and have lunch and shop in a new area.

TH had to organise the venue and let me tell you it was not all a bed of roses. Once we got started it became a doddle, but I had started off by trying to ‘google’ them and I was going insane with it! He will have a meeting room, we will have a nice dog friendly hotel as central as can be-so that I don’t get lost!

Its not a mini-break but its my chance at a break from work. I find that as soon as I get a day off normally I manage to fill it with boring house-hold chores. This way I will be forced to get out and about.
I can’t wait to take some pics of Daisy and I roaming around a new location!

London...again

The Husband and I are looking at booking a little mini break for October. The plan is that, seeing as its our five year anniversary, we will actually DO something to celebrate. I went to London when I was 21 and loved every minute of it. The city is so beautiful and being a history lover there was plenty for me to do. I still look back at the pictures I took of lamp-posts and buses as the whole place was so exciting for me. (Now that I am…..erm….older, and most certainly wiser, I’m sure I won’t do such a silly thing this time round!)


I fell in love with London before I visited, I fell in love again for the Royal wedding, again for the Olympics, and for all the beautiful things I’ve read and looked at in between. Just because these particular events are over, there is hardly a shortage of events in London. The city encapsulates every buzzword you can think of. I would love to go at Christmas, Spring or Summer, however I will be going this year in October.

Because October isn’t quite the time for a Christmas buzz there isn’t anything that instantly springs to mind to visit, however that’s where my crazy planning streak comes into its own!

I would love for us to head off to London to make it like our little ‘event’, it will be our ‘thing’ where we make a fuss of ourselves (seeing as we work pretty darn hard the rest of the year). I’m already looking at restaurants and bars which will be conveniently located around the city. I love the idea of just popping into cosy bar with a little nook or sashaying into a chic room with high ceilings that is light and airy.

So for now I am looking online, I am compiling my lists and after showing all of this to TH I will then head off and do my own things anyway! I can’t wait to start sharing my plans with you.

Can't take me anywhere

One of the things i love about getting away is seeing the history of a place...

I am genuinely happiest touching rocks and stones and imagining who did it before me (umm, that is....apart from the other tourists). 

So when i go anywhere of course i seek out mosaic's, tombs, pillars and amphitheaters. 

I find quiet places and small streets.

Places to sit and pour over independent guide books. 

Oh, and buy lace...oh yes! 

lots of lace...

But i am happiest sitting under a tree next to St Pauls pillar, next to The Husband, watching everyone come and go.

Can we go back?

Can we go back please?  Can we go back to not living in the real world?  Can we go back to spending time together and not talking about boring grown up things?

Can i sit in the sun again?  In the warmth....with a book....can i go back to peeking up over it and just smiling? 

Can we have the whole place to ourselves again?  Can we get up early and run to pool knowing that we will never be able to sit in it once its ten in the morning? 

Can we go up to the market and stare out at everything?  Can we go back please? 

Can we sit by the harbour and look out over the sea? 

Can we go exploring again? 

See what we find again? 

Sit by the flowers again? 

Have an ice cream again!? 

Jetting off

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The holiday is very close and i could not be more excited!!  I get to see some of my family and i get to do a big fat nothing for two whole weeks.  Can't wait to share all of the news and pics when we get home.

x

Hooray, hooray, today’s a happy day!

Hooray, hooray, today’s a happy day!

 We have got our confirmation and paid everything for our trip to the Lakes! Well…I will need to save much more, and should probably have started saving much earlier, as I want to take a fair amount of spends for all of the lovely things I know I will see.

 Unfortunately in my immediate area there aren’t too many independent shops, and so I find myself going crazy for them as soon as see one. I know I went much too crazy at the Country Living Christmas Fair last year…but its no good telling me as I know I will do the same this year too.

Anyway, for now, I am much too happy about the Lakes. As our only get-away of the year I fully intend to get very much into it. Last year we were happy campers in the only week that wasn’t a complete wash out. My amazing husband does work right next door to the MET office, but he can take no pride in his ‘networking’ skills on this occasion, only his great luck. He simply announced two weeks before we bundled everything in the car that we were heading away.

Although I do admit I would much prefer it if he announced these things followed by tales of the peaceful bays and sandy beaches of the Med rather than stories of Army days gone by in the Lakes. Well, until I am whisked away on a foreign adventure I will do much more than ‘make do’ with the Lakes, I shall positively revel in them!

 

I am grateful I feel like this, as it would be so disappointing to only take pleasure in things that cost lots of money as I'm sure I would be in a constant state of dejection and despair. Or as the lovely Sophie Dahl put it-melancholy, oh I do love it when I'm reintroduced to a word! I adore her ‘language’.

Well guys I think I'm off to search lovely AND tearooms OR cupcakes now on my favourite search engine! Bye for now.

Back to normal!!

hy oh why do we have to go back to normal again?
Back to work, back to chores!  Its not even like Christmas was only a month ago!!  How hard is it to think of that?  It is a tad depressing!

 The HH household has found itself in a bit of a muddle this morning.  It turns out my wonderful other half is a wee bit less organised than me and hasn't managed to get all his holidays in order.  We may not be getting our lovely Lakes get-away...however we are living in hope and praying that everything works out one way or another.

I have been trying to get into a cheery spring time mood...

I have filled the house with lots of flowers.
Tulips are my favourite flower-right up there with pink roses...hint, hint for Valentines day!!
Ive also been thinking of all things heart shaped and Valentines Day related!! I am so utterly excited about that much at least...get ready for lots of heart shaped things to come!!

x

Summer holidays

Although I am not suffering from any kind of bleak mid winter mood I am already looking forward to spring and summer. I do adore winter, and most definitely autumn, as it’s the season we got married in, I do, however feel utterly renewed and delight in spring.
I love the buds coming out to say hello to all of the baby animals, I love the prospect of visiting friends on the farm, and I love, love, love hill walking. And, seeing as I'm an amateur, a total novice, I really can only venture out in very predictable and sunny weather.

The DH and I have been excitedly scrolling the web for lovely Lake District cottages that accept teeny tiny mostly well behaved pups! We have found a few and as we visited the Lakes for our holidays last year we are quite quizzed up. DH spent a lot of time during army training in that part of the country, and I have a work colleague who has a cottage down there too, so I have a plethora of knowledge to call upon when searching alone. Although we are both extremely excited, it really is normally me who does most of the searching for these things. Albeit, it is me that tends to get excited about events a good six months before normal people would!

Last year we had the most fantastic time eating cake and visiting tea rooms in the Lakes. The only teeny tiny disappointment was that we didn’t quite have enough time to visit the magical Beatrix Potter museum! A very small disappointment in the grand scheme of things even if I do say so myself!