Kirkstall Abbey

As the weather was quite nice yesterday we decided you go for a wander around Kirkstall Abbey. We drive past the Abbey quite a bit when we go into Leeds city centre, however yesterday was the first time that I had actually been for a walk around it! It is a ruined Cistercian monastery and was founded in 1152! The ruins themselves are entrenched in history and gothic mysticism and are extremely beautiful.

We had a lovely afternoon exploring and I would definitely recommend visiting if you are in the Leeds area :) 

Life Lately

Life has been a bit hectic lately, especially this past month, me and Jamie finally took the next step and moved in together. This meant that I had to move out of my family home, move across to Leeds and start job hunting. We have moved into a beautiful apartment just on the outskirts of the city center and so far it has been wonderful living together. However, my job searching has not been so wonderful! I have had countless application rejections and after numerous unsuccessful assessment days and interviews it's been quite hard to keep going but hopefully I will find something soon. As I haven't had much time to blog I thought that I would just share some snippets of what I have been up to this past month :)

Hanging out with my lovely Grandma Edie the week before I moved, she is the funniest person I have ever met and always makes me laugh.

Testing out our oven and baking some gooey chocolate brownies for Jamie. Sadly due to his work commitments he was unable to attend his graduation so obviously the next best thing was indulging in yummy chocolate treats.

Catching up with these lovelies and enjoy a girly night out in Liverpool for Hannah's 23rd Birthday.

My brother's pumpkin creation for this years Halloween celebrations.

One Saturday we got up ridiculously early to go to the local skate park before all of the children and teenagers got there. We hadn't been skateboarding for a while so it was really fun and I even managed to go down the ramps a few times without falling off. I'm slowly learning!

Moving to a new city has been exciting but also quite daunting. I love exploring and finding new places to visit and new restaurants, I just need to make some friends now!

The Foo Fighters, London

After years of waiting I have finally seen The Foo Fighters live!! I never thought that it was going to happen so when tickets came on sale last month and me, Hannah and Emma managed to get some I was so excited. As it was on a Sunday and in London we decided to make a weekend of it and drove down on the Saturday. After checking into our hotel we had a lovely Saturday night exploring Covent Garden and Soho and meeting up with our friend Eryna for food and drinks. We had many a cocktail and had a delicious mexican meal at Wahaca before heading back to the hotel getting some rest for the big day! As the event only started mid afternoon we managed to grab some brunch in Camden and then head over the the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The foo fighters were headlining the Invictus Games closing ceremony and so we managed to grab a good spot and have a relaxing afternoon watching the other performances. We got to see the likes of Diversity, The Military Wives Choir, Rizzle Kicks, The Vamps, Bryan Adams, James Blunt, Ryan Adams, Frank Turner, Ellie Goulding and the Kaiser Chiefs before the main act! They were all really good and entertaining so I'm glad we saw them all as I wouldn't ordinarily buy tickets to see the majority of them so it was a nice change. 

One of the highlights of the day was getting to meet Greg James! We were just sat down relaxing and he was interviewing a group of people behind me so when he had finished and the opportunity came about to get a photo with him we jumped at the chance. He was so lovely and so incredibly tall!! 

The whole reason that there was an event on at all was down to Prince Harry for organising the event. The Invictus Games were sporting games for our 'wounded warriors' from the armed forces to compete against each other and still be able to participate in sporting events. Competitors from countries around the world competed and it was a great success. Prince Harry even made a speech so we got to see him too!

As expected The Foo Fighters were incredible and I definitely want to go and see them again! 

On the Monday we decided to head into London again for breakfast and meet up with Emma's cousin. We went to a diner for yummy pancakes and then had a wander about the sights such as Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. We then met up with her other cousin and we for fro-yo before making the long drive home. We all had a wonderful weekend and I think another one is most certainly on the cards!

Italy

I absolutely love Italy, it is my favourite country to visit and back in January when the winter blues kicked in I had a browse online and found super cheap flights so of course I immediately booked them! The past week has been spent doing a little tour, our little Italian adventure! We visited Bologna, Florence, Lucca and Pisa and I had such a wonderful time. 
We flew to Bologna and stayed in a lovely guesthouse called the Cristina Rossi B&B. The lady who owned it was so friendly and wonderful and gave us hugs and kisses goodbye when we left. I would definitely recommend staying there! Bologna was so much fun and it was nice to be in a place that was full of local people and not touristy at all. We spent the day wandering around the streets and explored the Piazza Maggiore, the town hall which had a community art display, the food market and the university district. After all the walking we had done we went to a tiny pasta restaurant and had fresh homemade pasta! We indulged in the most delicious gnocci and pumpkin tortellini, I could have eaten it all evening!

Our next stop was Florence. I had always wanted to visit Florence but never got the chance to on my interrail trip two years ago so I was so happy we were able to go this time. Florence was a lot different to Bologna, lots more people and bustling streets packed with tourists. That being said we still thoroughly enjoyed it. We spent one day seeing all of the sights such as the Duomo, the food and leather market, the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza Signoria and the next day venturing to the Uffizi Gallery to see all of the famous Renaissance artwork and then to the Boboli gardens. We were pleasantly surprised because we got into both places for free as it was the first Sunday of the month! We ate a lot of gelato in Florence and managed to find two vegan restaurants! The first was called Panino Vegano and did wonderful burgers and paninis as well as desserts. The second was called Crepapelle which did sweet and savory vegan crepes. Both restaurants had gluten free options top!

After Florence we travelled to Lucca, the walled city! Lucca was so pretty and so different from the places that we had previously been to. The city is surrounded by massive walls which you can walk/run/cycle along. We opted to cycle along them and rented bikes for the afternoon cycling along the 4km long walls in the beautiful sunshine. As Lucca is easily accessible by train many people come to visit just for day trips so in the evening it was nice and quiet and quite romantic to wander around the streets.

Our final destination was Pisa. We didn't originally plan to go but due to flight times being changed we had to re think our route and decided on staying for an extra day and flying home from Pisa. We had a lovely day looking around the streets and stalls and of course went to see the leaning tower. It was so funny just to sit and watch people doing the obligatory photo of trying to push the tower back up! For our final evening we treated ourselves to a delicious three course meal and had a quiet night in the hostel.

The food, the people and the culture are fabulous and I loved every minute of our trip. I can't wait to plan the next one!

Surfing

I have recently got back from spending the past three weeks camping with my dad and cousin in Newquay. We had such a wonderful and relaxing holiday, I really didn't want to come home! Last year I tried surfing for the first time and I loved it so I decided to book another lesson this year. Once again I found myself enjoying every minute and managed to pick it up easily again. Obviously I fell off a few times but managed to catch a few waves to the shore which was really fun! If you have never been surfing before I would definitely recommend trying it, it's extremely fun and not as scary as it looks!

The Big Pink

Last week I dip dyed my hair using The Big Pink dye from Bleach London. I had heard a lot of good reviews about the products and decided to give it a go myself back in April and was pleased with the results. As I was going on holiday, I decided to use the rest of the bottle and was delighted that it worked better the second time around. My hair is light brown and so I was surprised that the colour was so bright when I washed the dye off. I have also bought the Bruised Violet and I Saw Red colours so I'm excited to try them out soon!

Busy weekend

This past weekend was a rather busy one! I booked some time off from work to enjoy a long weekend and to spend as much time as possible with Jamie before he headed off to America for a couple of weeks. As it was our two year anniversary weekend we decided to have a romantic evening on Friday and visited a lovely independent tapas restaurant in Leeds called Dos Amigos. The food was delicious and there was loads of choice for us vegetarians which got a huge thumbs up from me. We also tried the sangria which was equally delicious. Afterwards we headed home and watched the film 'Her'. We had wanted to see it when it was out in the cinemas back in February but never had the time but it was worth the wait! 
After a lazy Saturday morning we went strawberry picking. I had been patiently waiting for a couple of months for the strawberries to be ready to pick so when I saw the sign near the farm I was so excited! Picking them was so much fun and as they were fresh they were so tasty! When we had finished picking them we headed home and made lunch before travelling back to mine in Wigan. At night we went out with all of my work friends for a few drinks for my brother and another colleagues leaving party. It was a really good night and was great getting to see everyone outside of work.

On Sunday we got up early as I was taking part in my local race for life. I managed to run the majority of the 5km race, and only had to power walk for half a km whilst it was uphill and I was struggling. I'm really proud of myself for taking part as I had been saying for years that I was going too. I even managed to raise £100 which went straight to Cancer Research UK. Having lost my Mum and Grandad to cancer in the past 4 years I'm happy that I got to raise some money in their memory that could help others. 

On Monday we went for afternoon tea at a place called The Grapes in Croston. A few of my friends had been and it looked too good not to try ourselves! The presentation of the food is amazing, all placed on a miniature picnic bench! We got 5 savory and 6 sweet dishes, served with a milkshake and tea or coffee. It all tasted wonderful and I will most likely be visiting again!

I really didn't want the weekend to end as I had so much fun and it meant saying goodbye to Jamie for around 3 weeks!!