A Cornish Adventure

Living in the South West for over 3 years it was time for us to venture down to Cornwall. We needed a little break from crazy work schedules, master degrees, netball clubs and football clubs. So our bags were packed and we headed down to the beautiful South East coast of Cornwall staying in Polperro and visiting Polruan, Fowey and Looe. 

Driving down the road into the deep valley you get a sense of what a wonderfully remote village you are making your way into. The views are breathtaking especially with a clear blue sky above you. 

Down the narrow roads you make your way into the tiny village all the time looking for that first glimpse of the sea. 

Our lodgings for the trip was the beautiful Natal House B&B. 

 We were warmly welcomed by Jackie and Simon and in the 'Teal' bedroom we were greeted by a large comfy bed, crisp white bed sheets and a snugly duvet. The hospitality we were shown was fantastic with the cherry on top that fantastic cooked breakfast by Simon.

The River Pol outside of Natal House making its' way down to the sea.

Our first venture took us to The Blue Peter right on the edge of the harbour as our stomachs were calling for lunch. We had huge sandwiches and a portion of chips with a real Cornish ale on top. 

Spring was sprung so we enjoyed an ice cream from the famous Treleavens.

We headed to The Ship for our first drink(s) of the evening and we really loved this watering hole with its raging fire, selection of ales and a double G&T. It was finally time for dinner and it had to be steak and chips with all the trimmings at The Buccaneer washed down with a bottle of Pinot Noir...glorious!

We followed this up with a late night walk around the village...

...and another stop at The Blue Peter and my first real ale!

The next morning the sun was shining so we went for a little stroll around the harbour.

We loved seeing some of the tiny details around the village including the small blue doors on the cottages, the national heritage signs and the fishing equipment. 

The great seaside details on some of the cottages gave this little village even more personality and the little narrow streets meant you couldn't help but imagine the sights and sounds of a thriving fishing village many years ago. 

 

I couldn't leave without a photo of this gorgeous cottage. All higgledy piggledy style with its leaning walls it reminded us of something from Harry Potter.

We walked along the Coastal Path to get a better view and spring was definitely in the air.

In the afternoon we travelled along the windy lanes and found ourselves at another small village called  Polruan. A steep walk down to the harbour and we boarded the passenger 'ferry' over the river to Fowey. 

We loved this little town, with its quaint streets, sea views and food galore.

We couldn't help but imagine ourselves living in one of the ice cream pastel houses...well a girl can dream!

 For lunch it had to be a Cornish cream tea. 

We finished the day with a late evening visit to The Kitchen.  A small restaurant in Polperro run by Harry in front of house and his wife Jane the chef.

Our food was quite simply delicious in fact it was so delicious we didn't take the time to get photos. Fresh sea food, locally sourced meat cooked to perfection all washed down with a drink or two.

The great food, comfy bed and fresh sea air certainly meant we were rested and relaxed. The perfect little seaside break.

Monthly Review - March

Make Up

One of my favourite things this month has been my new mascara from Maybelline. Deep black, no flakes and great gravity defying length and volume all day long. At around £5 this is an absolute bargain.

 

Food

Has anyone else noticed that Oreo cookies have been on offer in Tesco this month...no just me then. I just have literally not stopped eating them.

Drink

We have booked our next trip to the States and the onslaught of sunshine has got me thinking of these great Corona-ritas!

 

Read

I finished Apple Tree Yard this month after a recommendation from the mothers book group.
 

Yvonne Carmichael is at the top of her, rather male dominated, profession respected by peers, friends and family. One day whilst giving evidence at a House of Commons Select Committee she meets a stranger. She dives into a passionate but rather anonymous affair. An affair that leads to a live changing catastrophic event. 

Reflecting on themes of adultery, love, trust and the values by which we choose to live our life this book is totally gripping. You know that a book is good when you can't quite face starting the next book because you are too engrossed in the one you have just finished.

 

Listened to

Hello Frozen soundtrack at the top of my lungs in the car!

Watched

About 40 billion years behind everyone else I have finally started watching Homeland and oh my god it is AMAZING!!! I have just started watching Season 2 so no spoilers please.

Blog Post

My favourite blog post of the month has to be this one from Paula at PinkBow. Her blog is grown up and I love it. The post in question inspired this one and has helped me get a little bit of my blogging mojo back.

YouTube

This video of my new home city got me all excited and I have loved watching and sharing it all this month. 

Although a special mention has to go to the musings of Anna and Lily on their 90's Kid Tag which threw me a little bit of nostalgia last weekend.

Instagram

Tweet

Excited to show you all my journey so far! x vb http://t.co/DOoXqE8b1t pic.twitter.com/jSOxsC1o5L
— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) March 3, 2014

This month I have not been good at..

Blogging! I haven't been hugely inspired to put fingers to keys over the last month to be honest but I have a few things that I would like to write about in April. So here's to a few extra posts.

This month I have been successful at...

Netball coaching. That's right this month I successfully qualified as a level 1 Coach. I'll now be looking to test lots of new things out on the girls at the club. I love that already in 2014 I have learnt a new skill.

Looking forward to

I am looking forward to our trip away to Cornwall at the beginning of April. This is the first time I will have been down there except for Newquay when I was a teenager. We are looking for something slightly different from the Cornish coast this time around specifically a little bit of R&R.

Hillmotts Boot Camp

At the end of October I packed my bags and headed into deepest rural Cotswolds to Hillmotts Residential Bootcamp for lots and lots of exercise and some bonding time with my mum and sister.

So what does 3 days at a residential bootcamp entail?

Accommodation

The Hillmotts cabin is about 10 minutes from the Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton. It is off a track even further down a track...seriously remote with no 3G and even worse no phone signal whatsoever. 

An initial check in included a brief chat with one of the trainers about your goals for the 3 days. Your food likes and more importantly dislikes and a quick check through you medical history before stepping on the scales for a weigh in if weight loss was something you were interested in.

As I was travelling with my mum and sister we had checked into a triple room with en-suite. The room was very warm and comfortable with country chic decor.

 Food

Straight up there is not a lot of it. You are told in the initial orientation that you will be given around 1,400 calories a day. Everyday before your early morning session (more on this later) you are given half a banana (and only half) with some green tea to get that metabolism kick started. After the first session you are treated to breakfast; porridge with fruit compote  / honey or weetabix. A mid-morning snack is 2 rice cakes with humus or peanut butter and then lunch which consisted of white fish and salad on the first day and butter nut squash soup on the second. 

By the end of the day dinner was much anticipated. On day one we were treated to lemon chicken and peppers, wholemeal spaghetti pesto, sweetcorn and roasted pine nuts. Day 2 was lamb moussaka, steamed broccoli and quinoa. I have to say that the food was restorative and filling as well as being damn delicious. 

This is not a military boot camp or jail and you can take food and snacks in with you, you are just reminded at orientation to think about and focus on your goals. I did take some snacks with me that consisted of satsumas, unsalted peanuts and some ginger nature valley bars. I ate them all!

Exercise

I'm afraid that I didn't manage to take any photos of us doing exercise, I was too busy preparing myself for the inevitable pain and hard work that the exercise would entail but it was a jam packed schedule.

There was a total mix of exercises but the idea was that you started the day with the most intense (aka fat busting) exercise and then got in to some more specific exercises. There was also a couple of choices; whilst I chose Speed, Agility and Quickness others were offered Kettle Bells and I chose Interval Training while others went for another round of boxing. 

No matter what the session there were different levels so you could work as hard as you wanted to. There was no shouting at you but you were encouraged to work at your maximum for your own benefit. 

It was hard work and oh I ached but I loved the mix of exercise that was offered and being given new challenges. There were some things that were really tough especially the hill run which made up the interval training on day 3 but completing that was also a personal highlight.

Downtime

There was also a little time for some R&R so we made the most of spending some time together away from the distractions of children, TV and Internet. 

At the end of the three days I left 4lbs lighter, feeling mightily refreshed and dare I say it happy. I returned to work full of energy and raring to take on the world again, motivated to keep going with this weight loss journey. 

I went home and did a little bit more of this...and cannot wait to go back at the beginning of next year.

I want to wake up in that city that doesn't sleep...

New York has been top of my places I most want to visit for as long as I can remember. So I was so excited when I knew that we were going to visit as one of the cities on our East Coast tour. This was part of the trip that was planned meticulously. We only had 2 full days in the city and I wanted to make sure that we hit all of the main tourist spots. For such a little island it certainly crams a lot in.

We arrived into a very wet Penn Street Station, early on a Sunday evening and scuppered the 100 or so metres to our very well placed, given the down pour, hotel - The Affinia Manhatten on 31st and 7th in mid-town.

I want to say that we lived the dream from that moment onwards but every day was packed and so after settling into the hotel we took a little stroll, although in New York that was about 30 square blocks, and settled on a small pizzeria off Time Square for some sustenance before hitting the sack, ready for a day of exploring the following day.

Day 1 was planned as uptown, the park and some of mid-town. Shopping was planned at every stage of the trip.  Without knowing it, 7th Avenue was a good place to actually start out. We headed North towards Up Town looking for the park and after our small foray the evening before knew that at some point we would stumble across Times Square. This was not before small diversions into American Eagle, Macy's and MAC.

Nothing can prepare you for the noise and busyness of this city and Times Square just epitomises it.

As you walk up you walk some more and then some more and then finally there is a hint of green and then a wall of luscious leafs and you know the park is in sight. I wanted to hire a bike and cycle around but the hubby totally disagreed so instead after another stop in Starbucks (it is air conditioned) we made our way into the park via Columbus Circle.

This photo was taken from the 'Sheep Meadow' and I just love how you see the city popping up over the tree line. Manhatten doesn't look that big on a map and Central Park is only a small part of that but let me tell you this is one massive park. We were in there for 2 hours and didn't even make it the whole way around.

There is a section of the park along The Mall and near The Terrace (recognised this from Gossip Girl) where the street performers converge and we spent a little while just wandering around and taking it all in. There were lots of people making huge bubbles which were so pretty.

We finally made it to the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir with slightly sore feet (I think my husband was regretting the choice not to get a bike by this point) and I thought of all the movie and television scenes that use this as a back drop.

We exited the park at the east side on to 5th Avenue next to the Metropolitan Museum and slowly made our way back down towards the city. The east side was just magical, not a neon sign or Starbucks in sight just row after row of gorgeous park side apartments full of the worlds wealthiest people!

On 5th Avenue we had a little shopping break and browsed around Bloomingdales, Sephora, Apple and Dylans Candy Bar where we literally acted like kids in a sweet shop wanting to buy everything. It is a total playground full to the brim of every sweet treat imaginable!

After another pit stop at the hotel to rest those weary feet we freshened up and headed to the Empire State building wanting to watch the sun set over the city from this famous landmark.

Followed by a walk to Times Square to take in all the lights at night - and it is still as crazy at night as it is in the day!

Day 2 was our chance to see some of down town and we started with a helicopter tour from the pier close to the South Ferry terminal port. This was a birthday present for my hubby and we couldn't of been happier with it!

The flight takes you around Ellis Island so that you get a great view of Lady Liberty, before heading up the Hudson to see the island of Manhatten from this unique perspective. From this aerial view you really can see the distinct up town, mid town and down town areas. The flight took us all the way up to The Bronx and over the Yankee Stadium before heading back down The Hudson with views of New Jersey. 

We've never been in a helicopter before and I would recommend a couple of travel sickness tablets before hand if you have a sensitive travel stomach like I do. 

Our flight was with HeliNY.com and I couldn't recommend it enough.

 Whilst down town we really wanted to visit the 9/11 memorial garden and new freedom towers. These are very impressive and I thought the garden was a really apt and tasteful memorial to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the city. 

As a tourist be warned that the queues to get in this are massive and on a hot day there is absolutely no shade until you make it into the garden so do make sure you have water with you and visit the bathroom before getting in the queue!

 

We were so lucky that the ice hockey league play off's were under way during our visit and as our hotel was right outside of Madison Square Gardens we were lucky enough to get up in the build up to that nights game. There was a total buzz as the fans arrived and the drummers tried to get the atmosphere up.

I love the fact that walking around this city is like walking around a movie set. Everywhere you go from Central Park, to 5th Avenue to Down Town there is a location you remember seeing in a film and we were lucky enough to see them filming part of the next Spider Man movie.

I have to say that the countless blogs, tourist guides and guide books I had read while planning couldn't prepare me for this city there is just too much to see. I can't wait for the next opportunity to go back and spend some time seeing a little bit more of the hidden city rather than the tourist hot spots that we packed in to this trip.