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Sunday 31 January 2016

Lincoln

 Hello there! Tom and I have just returned from a mid-week getaway to Lincoln. I love being able to go away and explore different parts of the UK, and so for Tom's Christmas present I booked a trip away to Lincoln after our assessments/exams were over! Neither of us had ever been before, so we didn't really know what to expect. I love looking back over my trip posts, and I love reading travel posts and adding places to the list of  where I want to visit, so I thought I would share our trip with you!
 On arriving in Lincoln we made our way to the Premier Inn and it was so close to everything! After checking in and putting our stuff away in our room, we made our way into the centre and ended up having tea and cake at Stokes Cafe. This is in such a lovely old building! After having a walk around the centre and the river, we ended up in Prezzos down by the riverside for tea.














































On Friday we had the whole day in Lincoln. To start the day we went to 'Thomas 2' which was opposite the hotel for breakfast. I don't know what the 2 was for and I think they should give discounts to people who are named Thomas, but the breakfast we had was really lovely as it was freshly made for us. Tom went for the full english and I had fried eggs and sausages on potato waffles. I'm not used to eating so much for breakfast so I was well and truly stuffed on leaving!
 After we had finished breakfast we made our way up through the centre to the Cathedral and the Castle. I thought Lincoln was meant to be flat but there was such a big hill to climb! The area up to the Cathedral and the Castle was full of cobbled streets and cute little cafes. This reminded me of York and I preferred this area to the more modern area down by the river.
 We went to the Cathedral and I was surprised that Tom agreed to a roof tour as he's not a fan of heights! We paid to explore the inside of the Cathedral and included in this was a tour of the floor. Both of the tours were really interesting and I'm very proud of Tom for conquering his fear! You can have a tour of the tower in the summer months so we may have to return to do this. I don't mind going up high as long as there's a barrier, but I really don't like having to go down the steep steps and so I may have held up everyone in the tour! In between the tours we visited a cafe where Tom had his lunch but I was still stuffed from breakfast so stuck with a tea.





















 We were going to go to the Castle afterwards, but we didn't have time in the end. Instead we just walked inside the Castle walls before going to a different cafe for cake! After having so many trips with Tom I've finally got him into the routine of wanting to stop late afternoon for a slice of cake. There were so many cafes on the aptly named 'steep hill' so it was hard to choose between them all!








































Tom and I both really enjoyed our trip away as we got to explore somewhere new and have a proper break from work. Although I wouldn't say no to a trip away abroad to somewhere hot and sunny, I do enjoy exploring areas around the UK! I don't know whether we would return to Lincoln again now we've been there, but I would definitely recommend a trip if you haven't been before. Is there somewhere in the UK that you really like going to and would recommend a trip to?

Love Jess xxx

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Sunday 24 January 2016

Cuppa Catch Up January



 Hello there! Wow it feels like a long time since I've typed that. The fact that I'm writing a blog post can mean only one thing: I've finished all of my assessments and exams for this semester! (Ensue a rendition of 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang). I thought it was time we had a little catch up so go and make yourself a cuppa and come back and join me. The last few weeks have been a blur of reading, writing, reading some more, writing some more...you get it. It feels quite surreal that I don't need to write any more essays or revise Wuthering Heights and Alice in Wonderland anymore (I can now go back to enjoying them again!). I'll wake up and think 'oh I must go do some work', and then I have the joyful realisation that this isn't the case. I apologise to any of you who are currently in the middle of assessment and exams, but you'll soon understand my happiness.
 I am not going to lie to you, this weekend has been spent chilling out and drinking numerous cups of tea. Second semester-my last one ever-begins in a couple of weeks so I have a bit of time to recuperate before I'm hit by the next lot of work and stress of trying to find a house/a job etc. I'm hoping if I try to remain calm things like finding a house/job will just work itself out. One big thing that has been set in motion is the fact that I've had a couple of refresher driving lessons. I passed my driving test back in 2012 and drove for a year before coming to University, but I hadn't driven since and I had never driven in a massive city like Sheffield. As I will be staying up in Sheffield once I graduate I decided to have my refresher lessons here so that I knew how to drive around the area, especially how to tackle the massive University roundabout! I was a bit wobbly on my first refresher lesson, but the second one went really well and driving felt normal again. I'm going to have another lesson before I go home for Easter to tackle the motorway as I've never driven on one before as the nearest one at home was over an hour away. I'm very excited as when I go home for Easter I'll be picking up my car! I didn't want to leave getting a car until I graduate as I knew that trying to do it at that time would be stressful, and so by doing it now I'm prepared, plus it means when I return I can FINALLY go to a proper supermarket and put my shopping in a boot rather than struggle home with my bags. The whole refresher lessons/getting a car has gone smoothly so I hope that this is a sign that everything else will too! (Fingers crossed)
 Tom and I have recently been watching The Man in the High Castle in the evenings. There's 10 episodes to the first series (they've been given the go ahead for a second) and we quickly got through the series. I won't give too much away but it's focused on America with the view of what it could have been like if the Nazi's had won WWII. As you know my dissertation is going to be focused upon the Holocaust, and so I found this premise interesting. It is a really interesting series to watch and I would definitely recommend looking it up!
 Phew! that was a longer post than I was expecting. Rather than doing a fortnightly catch up post as I have been, I'm going to be doing a cuppa catch up every now and then when something interesting has happened/there's things I want to say. I'm looking forward to getting back into my blog again now I have some more time free, I might start doing a baking series because, well I want to make cake and you all seem to love my baking posts! This is just an idea at the moment but please let me know if this is something you would like to see. I hope you're all well and if you are still revising/writing essays, you've got this!

What have you been up to recently? 

Love Jess xxx
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Sunday 3 January 2016

Fortnightly Catch Up #15

 Hello there! And welcome to the first fortnightly catch up post of 2016. It's weird to think how two weeks are able to span into two years! These two weeks just seem to have flown by, two weeks ago yesterday I went back to Suffolk for Christmas, and now I'm back in Sheffield! 
 The majority of my time has been spent cuddling Tilly and catching up with family. I'm now having to get back into the mindset of doing work and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that. It's been so lovely to have a break and chill out, and I'm hoping I'll be able to have another bit of a break once my essays are in and I've completed my exam as I'll have a couple of weeks before second semester starts. 

 This fortnight was filled with A LOT of food. Kicking off the mass eating was a pub lunch at The Artichoke pub with my parents, grandad and Tom. My grandad always takes us out for a meal right before Christmas, and so it was lovely to keep up with this tradition and to get even more into the festive spirit.


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