MAR: Ali Baba & the Final Few Days

*A note on the title: one member of our tour group was nicknamed Ali Baba countless times by people we had never met before. We think it was the beard. The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (and Arabian Nights in general) became a running joke through our trip due to this.*

 

The days after the Desert all feel a little anti-climatic. Certainly based off my notes I seemed less interested. Or perhaps we were, in fact, just doing fewer activities.

In the morning we headed to a fossil museum in a town called Erfoud (a detail I’m surprised I recorded). It was interesting to see, however the process was lost on me as our guide for the factory spoke in a very strong accent with broken English.

I took no pictures. Sorry.

After that, according to my notes we spent the rest of the day driving until arriving at our Guest House (Dar Ayour, if anyone is interested) in or near/around the Gorges de Todra.

No, I did not go for a swim.

Now, Gorges de Todra is a series of limestone river canyons, situated in the High Atlas Mountains. We went on a brief walk through one of the gorges, before having a quiet night in… from what I remember, at least.

 

The next day involved lots more driving and, given we were in the mountains, another series of gorges called Dades Valley.

Truth be told (I am aware, family, thank you) I have no idea if that viewpoint is even near Dades Valley. I just know it was on the way and was very pretty. So we’re going to say it is. Sue me.

Our destination for the afternoon/evening was Ait Ben Haddou, a small town known for its tourism. Apparently only four Moroccan families live in the town! Wasn’t told how big the families were, though…

By far the most popular tourist destination is the Ksar, or castle/fort when translated.

Apparently it’s a very famous filming location, having supplied films and TV shows like Gladiator, Game of Thrones Laurence of Arabia, with delightful views. Walking through, I can’t say I disagreed.

It’s a weird congestion of houses – some quite regal, others more forlorn – and narrow, winding streets that makes the exploration a unique experience. Lots of vendors, too, peddling the typical assortment of Moroccan tourist gifts (tajines, teapots, etc).

It has become a habit for us in the group (and I presume all previous Intrepid tours, too), to find a viewpoint for sunset. The Ksar was an adequate place for this, giving us wonderful panoramic views in full 360 degrees.

And some lovely groups photos. That I am not in, because I was the photo taker. Sorry.

 

 

Now, our last two days.

The first was not very exciting, as it was spent almost exclusively driving towards Marrakesh.

The final day was, unsurprisingly, all about Marrakesh.

I was not blown away by the city. Everyone you speak to about Morocco asks “so you went to Marrakesh?” and whilst it is an interesting taste of a large and tourist-y Moroccan city, it was probably one of the least enjoyable things we did on the tour. Sahara Desert trumps it by a mile.

Saying that, we did have a nice daytrip to a Secret Garden, which was very picturesque and, as an added benefit (particularly for me), very quiet.

I don’t feel I have much to say about Marrakesh if I’m honest. We went to the medina, and I was very underwhelmed. I think the cause is perhaps the fact that Fes felt very similar. So if I’d done the two places in reverse orders things they may been different? I don’t know.

Either way, despite my indifference towards the city, it was a nice place for the tour to end, and for us all to say goodbye to each other.

We had a meal in the evening, at the top rated place in all Marrakesh, called La Cantine Des Gazelles (The Gazelle’s Canteen). Now, Moroccan food is not spectacular. Tajines are great, until you have them for nearly every meal.

This place, though, went above and beyond what was expected. Excellent food, with some wonderful company.

 

Then it was time to say goodbye, and I left early the next morning to fly home.

 

Overall: Morocco was a fantastic trip. The locations chosen were amazing, and the group I had just amplified the enjoyment. Our tour guide was knowledgeable, engaging, and now a close friend of us all.

 

On to the next adventure! Whenever that might be…

 

 

SCT: Stirling & The Simply Scottish Scenery

Do not worry, friends: the Scottish bombardment shall be over soon.

Stirling, the final destination on this trip (unless you count a brief thirty minutes in Edinburgh on my way back, which most people wouldn’t). Once a gateway into Scotland, due to its strategic position on the River Forth. A site of many battles between the Scottish and the English.

Now, Stirling was also the surreal return of my life to hostel living, albeit only for three nights. Yet still, I have not stayed in a hostel by myself since… Well, since Canada, which was over a year ago now. As I said, surreal.

 

Three main points for Stirling. Firstly, the castle.

Arguably the most popular and touristy destination in the town, I was obliged to attend. And, in fairness, why would I even try resist a castle?

Now, if you’ll cast your minds back to the Edinburgh post (if you don’t remember, do not worry. There is no importance), you will remember that I did not go into Edinburgh Castle, due to the expense and the ridiculous number of tourists about.

Stirling Castle is smaller, less busy, and less pricey. Hence, it just made sense to go in.

Unsurprisingly, I took very few photos of inside the castle… I did, however, have a guided tour of the most notable points. A lot of the information given was about the Scottish beating the English in battle which, as an Englishman, you can imagine was a little awkward. Our tour guide was very adept at skating over the battles that the English one, mind you…

Complete with authentic scaffolding…

Most of the castle is your expected, worn-looking stone. Old fashioned, dating back to the 1500s (and beyond) when it was remodelled to show the wealth of one of the King James’ (I forget which).

However, in the 1990s, the Great Hall underwent a restoration project, intended to restore it to its former glory. The idea was right. Historians established the original colour to match the surrounding buildings, passed it on to the masons, etc… The only issue, being that, over time, the colour of stone fades. So, instead, we are left with the yellow Great Hall that sticks out like a sore thumb.

I also quite like the fields below, which is where tourneys used to be hosted for the knights to compete in jousting, melees, and the like.

 

The further tourist spot, is the National Wallace Monument.

Anyone who has seen or even heard of Braveheart, will know the name William Wallace. This, rather large building/monument, is a homage to his dedication to Scottish history and culture, as well as further dedications to other important Scottish figures.

It is a standout location, with a great view from the castle towards the monument. I feel both the weather and time of season I went helped, what with the leaves in the process of turning brown/orange, and the further blue sky I had most of my time there! Truly a Scottish miracle.

The views from the top were, of course, stunning. Nothing can beat Scottish scenery (except for maybe Canadian scenery which, in truth, is quite similar).

Now, going back to the many many (many) battles between the Scottish and the English, one of the most notable was the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The Scottish, led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray, defeated a vastly larger combined English force by trapping them on one side of the River Forth, and blowing up the bridge on the other. This, is the battlefield, seven hundred years on.

 

As a final port of call, I did something rather fun.

About forty minutes out from Stirling is a town called Doune. Now, it is not a very exciting place, yet it is home to a notable castle called… Doune Castle.

What is so special about the castle, I hear you ask? Well, it is where a large portion of Outlander was filmed (a TV series I’ve never seen and never plan to). It is where some of the internal shots for the pilot episode of Game of Throne was shot.

BUT, most importantly, it was where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed.

What I like most about this, is that there are many scenes at castle throughout the whole film, and each and everyone was filmed here at Doune, a different room for each scene. Smart, eh?

 

Thus concludes the Scotland. There is much more of the country I want (and need) to explore, so you can expect that in the distant future.

There shall be radio silence for a while now, until I head off on my next adventure!

SCT: Edinburgh& The Endless Walking

It has taken me twenty-three years to cross the border north into Scotland. Twenty-three. Given that it only takes about three hours on a train, this astounds me.

And yet, I will happily jet off to New Zealand or Canada, basically as far away from  home as possible. There’s something wrong there.

At least now I can finally say I have explored more of my own country (kind of country. There this big word “BREXIT” looming over the time I’m writing this, but we shall ignore). One of the benefits to travelling to far-flung places: the meeting of new people.

For example, in Edinburgh (the first stop on my Scotland trip), I stayed with two friends I met in Canada.

The story of how we met? They were camping in the Rockies the same time I was, in the plot next to ours. We spoke only a few times and in the end I sold them our tent, as we no longer needed it.

A year and a half later, I am staying in their house for a few days, and having a fantastic guided tour of the city.

A note on the weather: somehow, by the grace of the Scottish Gods (?), I have travelled with sunshine. Naturally there has been rain, but for the most part during the days – when most of the tourism has occurred – it has stayed remarkably dry, even with a few spots of sunshine!

I was greeted by this view as soon as I stepped out of the train station in Edinburgh. It is now my favourite building in the world.

Scott’s Monument – built in 1844 to honour the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott – it stands out amongst even the historic old buildings of a place like Edinburgh. The Gothic style is just stunning. Not only that, the views from the top are spectacular.

 

I will admit, quite a lot of the rest of my time in Edinburgh was spent day-drinking.

This isn’t to say that we didn’t do plenty of sightseeing, too. In fact, being a tourist is a great way of sobering up in between pubs.

Google has kindly calculated that I walked about twenty-five miles during my three days there. Interspersed with the pubs, of course.

It is very much my kind of city. Old and beautiful, small enough you can walk everywhere (if you’re willing and the weather is kind). Lots and lots to do, too, not just as a tourist.

 

The castle is, of course, worth mentioning.

It is as spectacular and as overrun with tourists as expected. I did not go inside, seeing as the swarms of tourists is often enough to dissuade me, not to mention the price seeming extortionate when I can happily admire it from the outside.

 

What I did do, though, seeing as I had to do at least one extremely touristy activity, was descend into Mary King’s Close.

Sadly pictures weren’t allowed but I can, at least, provide a small history lesson based off what I can remember being told (with a generous amount of help from Google).

The city of Edinburgh we now know (and love) is in fact built on top of another city, or at least more streets. Access to Mary King’s Close was closed off in 1645 when the Great Plague hit. Probably didn’t help that all the residents were living in disease and squalor already…

 

There is also a lovely viewpoint called Calton Hill, just outside the city centre.

Featured on this hill, is the “National Monument of Scotland”. It is also known as “Edinburgh’s Disgrace”. Modelled upon the Pathenon in Athens, It is Scotland’s attempt at a memorial to honour those who died during the Napoleonic Wars. Sadly, the Scots run out of funding and it was never finished… Hence the entertaining name.

 

I’m sure there’s plenty more I did in Edinburgh (I could, for instance, try to list all the pubs I went to. Not sure this would make for very interesting reading, though), but these are the things that have lingered as favourites on my mind.

Besides, the Scotland trip is not over yet…

CU: The One with La Habana

Family holidays are always a unique way of travelling, one I’m definitely not used to. There are drawbacks and benefits to both sides of the coin.

I think my traveller spirit prefers more open and free travels, where there is no exact plan and it’s almost made up as you go along. That’s not to say that Mexico, for example, was not enjoyable. I had a lot of fun, and found all the tours and locations interesting. But it’s not my sort of travelling.

That’s why it made perfect sense to, whilst in the general area of Mexico, to try travel some more in my own, unique way.

A while ago, a friend of mine from Toronto voiced the desire to go travelling together. I was all for it. It just meant then deciding upon a place to go. She, being a seasoned Torontonian, had travelled very little outside of Canada (in fact, she even had to apply for her first ever passport, at the age of twenty-three). This led to some complications on deciding upon a place.

After plenty of back and forth trying to decide where she would be comfortable travelling to, we decided on Havana, the capital of Cuba.

This meant that, when properly planned on my part, I could fly straight from Cancun to Havana, a flight totalling only about an hour and a half.

So that is what I did. Once there, my friend came to join me from Toronto and our adventure began.

 

Havana is a different sort of place to any I’ve travelled before. Being the typical British traveller that I am, I have made a habit of avoiding non-English speaking countries to the best of my ability. Mexico, as the majority of the world will be well aware, is Spanish speaking. As is Cuba. So I suppose this is the root of why Cuba/Havana felt so different to anywhere else I’ve been.

Due to the price of hotels (and the not-so-glamorous reviews of Havana hostels), we opted for an Air BnB. I don’t think either of us regretted this decision in the slightest.

It was a whole apartment, located right in the centre of Havana, yet far enough away from Old Habana (the tourist-crazy area) to not feel swamped by people. Havana is, of course, busy. But tourists tend to add their own sort of bustle to places.

We were in Cuba for a grand total of five days. The correct chronological order has already failed me, so you’re just going to get a snowball of activities. Sorry in advance.

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a thing for fantasy, or, more specifically, medieval fantasy.

Whilst, for obvious reasons, Cube does not include things such as dragons, magic and such ilk, it does have an abundance of castles scattered about. We visited two: Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro and Castillo De San Salvador De La Punta. Don’t worry, these names meant nothing to me, either, until I Googled it.

‘Los Tres Reyes Del Morro’ refers to the Three Kings from the Bible (you know, gold, frankincense, and myrrh for baby Jesus), whilst ‘San Salvador De La Punta’ … honestly, the only things I could find were that ‘San Salvador’ is the capital city of a small country called El Salvador; and that ‘La Punta’ means ‘The Point’. So I’m nowhere nearer to solving that mystery.

Anyway, both of these castles are located along the ‘Malecon’ (meaning a stone-built embankment along a waterfront), built to defend Havana from potential corsairs in the fifteen hundreds.

But that’s enough of a history lesson. Both fortresses provided great views over Havana – one on the east side of canal’s mouth (a side which we didn’t explore any further than the castle).

And the other on the west side, within walking distance of where we were staying.

 

I feel it is necessary to talk about Old Havana. At least for a little bit. It is the ‘downtown’ of Havana, and therefore attracts the most pictures. It is also probably the prettiest part of Havana. Old fashioned buildings, with old-fashioned taxis/cars all around it – what’s not to love?

There were some very pretty sights. There was the ‘Catedral de San Cristobal’. It is (according to Google), ‘the most beautiful and sober churches of the American baroque’. We also had our last – and probably best – meal in Havana in the courtyard just in front of the cathedral. The more you know.

El Capitolio, too, was nice to see. Modelled after the Pantheon in Paris, it sadly had scaffolding surrounding the famous dome at the top.

And let us not forget the ‘Museo De La Revolucion’. I’m not going to go into a history lesson of the Cuban Revolution but, as is to be expected, Havana is full of memory. Memorials, museums (obviously), monuments, all the Ms to commemorate the Revolution and its effect on the country.

The museum itself was very fascinating. Three levels of information and relics from fifty years before, when the uprising began. Most of it, sadly, was in Spanish, but there was still a fair amount of English description scattered around.

It was also in a very pretty building. It’s located in the former Presidential Palace, where Fulgencio Batista governed, until he fled the country. In fact, you can even still see the bullet holes in the walls from a failed assassination attempt on the President.

 

Continuing the theme of the Revolution, a trip to Havana wouldn’t be complete without visiting the ‘Plaza De La Revolucion’.

The Plaza is most notable for being the location of many political rallies from where Castro, and even the Pope, addressed people crowded into its space. It’s also dominated by a huge memorial to Jose Marti, widely considered the forefather of the Revolution.

The fun part, and obviously what draws most of the tourists, are the giant matching steel memorials on the buildings opposite side, depicting two important Revolutionaries: Che Guevara, and who I thought was Fidel Castro, but is in actual fact Camilo Cienfuegos (apparently a common mistake, to my delight).

 

We did go on a bus tour, as you must if you’re a tourist in a city.

I think we were both slightly underwhelmed by the bus. It was a nice drive, and a good way of seeing more of the city than just the part we were staying in, but apart from the Plaza De La Revolucion, none of the stops were of any interest. Apart from the ones within walking distance of us.

 

A final note from our Cuban adventure, was a day trip to Varadero. Generally, from what I’ve gathered from speaking to people who have been to Cuba, Varadero is regarded as the tourist capital of the country. I agree with this statement.

We went for a beach day, and that is exactly what was there. Resorts, beaches, and tourists. Don’t get me wrong, it is what we went for, and we weren’t disappointed in the beach itself. I just know we made the right choice in going to Havana, rather than Varadero.

Havana has history, a chance to explore Cuba as it should be explored. I felt nothing of that in Varadero. So yes, that’s my verdict: if you want a cultural holiday, choose Havana; if you want to fully relax and do little except sleep on a beach, choose Varadero.

 

Would I go to Cuba again? I think so. Maybe spend less time in Havana and more time exploring elsewhere. A place called ‘Trinidad’ kept on popping up (not Trinidad & Tobago, to clarify) so I’d be interested to see how that is compared to the rest of the country.

 

I’m now back in the delights of Canada, once again safely in the realms of being a native speaker (if you can class the Mandarin-heavy city of Vancouver as English speaking).

 

Stay tuned for Vancouver Island!

 

CA: The One with the Island

I completely forgot to write this one, going to be honest! Can’t even claim it’s been a hectic week or so – it really hasn’t.

Let’s jump straight back into it, shall we?

 

One of the few things I was insistent that Bryony experience was Casa Loma. For those of you who don’t know me (which is a very select few who follow my blog) I have a deep fascination with Medieval Fantasy, and Casa Loma is one of the few places in Toronto that almost satisfy me in that regard. It just needs more knights walking about it, then the fairytale would be perfect.

Not really sure how much to write about Casa Loma, as I’ve already been and wrote a pretty in-depth description of all the different rooms etc.

When I was there (with Gemma – you can tell I like showing people this out-of-place-miracle-of-a-house) last it was in the run-up to Christmas, and obviously there were Christmas decorations scattered among the grounds, even different Christmas trees in each big room to symbolise something!

This time, unsurprisingly, there were no Christmas trees. A minor relief, I believe. I’d be worried for the Canadians if they were still celebrating Christmas, four months on. I’m not really sure what was there instead, apart from some pretty rad (that means ‘radical’, for you old folk) wood carvings of animals.

Apart from that, I didn’t really see anything else new. There was a pretty museum across from Casa Loma, however. We didn’t go in (due to an extortionate entrance fee), but the grounds were very pretty to walk round. And sit in. We did a lot of sitting. Being a tourist is seriously tiring.

Now comes my second escape from the busy, hectic, world of Toronto city. Something I’ve been wanting to do, but due to weather concerns I’ve never done, is to venture across to Toronto Island. When I say venture, I mean a twenty minute ferry ride from the city to the island but still, it makes a big difference.

The weather was bearable, I suppose. The occasional bout of sunshine breaking through the grey-cast clouds. It was at least warmer than freezing, and the wind kindly kept at bay most of the time.

It was very pretty. And peaceful. Due to going during the week, and before the summer period, the Island was pretty quiet, which was both good and bad. Nothing was open, so our options were fairly limited, but it did mean there were less people to annoy me!

Toronto  Island all gives you an exceptional view of the city if you look north (hence the cover photo). I’m going to include another one just because I thought it was seriously impressive.

We spent a lot of our time just wandering round, exploring the connected islands. Some of the islands are residential, and feature some truly wonderful buildings. I’m thinking that you guys, mum and Charles, would enjoy a retirement there.

 

We also, as is to be expected from any person visiting Toronto as a tourist, went up the CN Tower. I have very little to say about this, so there you go.

 

Thus concluded Bryony’s trip out to Canada to see me.  I hope she had a good time.

Another thing worthy of mention in this post is my delightful job. Thanks to them, I got to go to a music concert for free!

A French singer/songwriter called Jain designed a watch for Swatch and the company needed two people from the Toronto area to go to the gig in order to promote the new watch. So, guess what? I decided to go.

I can’t quite say the music was to my taste (a strange mixture of French Pop and African beats) but the atmosphere was terrific. Plus, it was free? So who can complain?

 

Now we look towards the future. I am delighted to say that my time in Toronto is drawing to a close.  I have a found a job for the summer out in Nova Scotia, on the beautiful island of Cape Breton. I have to say, I’m mostly excited for the change of scenery. Urban landscapes, bustling hordes of people and pandemonium have grown rather thin on me after five months in Toronto. To venture out to the far east, where trees are plentiful, along with tranquillity and peace, sounds like a dream right about now.

We’ll see how I feel after I get there!

CA: The One with the Visit

So, I lied about when I’d post this. I do, however, have a perfectly plausible reason.

My second illness since arriving in Canada has stricken me with a chesty, burning cough, a throbbing headache, and a constant shiver. Who knows how I survived work the past two days. I was freezing, despite wearing a thermal top underneath my work top.

Today, I do feel better, but my cough still lingers, and I get a painful headache if I turn my head too quickly.

But enough about my personal wellbeing. You want to hear what I’ve been doing since my last post. I am pleased to say that I’ve done plenty, so there is also plenty to talk about.

Thursday dawned with Gemma arriving. For those of you who don’t know who Gemma is, she is a friend from back in England, who’s been studying in Quebec the past couple of months. So it seemed silly if she didn’t come and visit me, as we are in the same country.

Our Thursday started with a trip to Bacon Nation, which, I’m sure, you guys have guessed revolves around bacon. It was a great start to the day. I’m struggling to remember what I exactly had, but I do know it was smothered in bacon and maple syrup. That, and we had a bacon cheesecake for dessert. I can’t say it really tasted like bacon, but it still tasted good!

The afternoon involved a trip to Casa Loma. Definitely a highlight of Gemma’s visit.

Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House, I have just found out) is essentially a castle. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914, which is about the only bit of information I retained from our trip there (I also had to check this on Wikipedia before posting, just in case). There’s a lot of history behind the house/castle/thing.

But the most exciting thing about Casa Loma is the amount of films that have been filmed there (you can tell history isn’t my thing). The halls feature in the X-Men films as Xavier’s School, Scott Pilgrim also has a scene filmed outside Casa Loma. It was Hogwarts briefly, for the 7^th and last film. Hemlock Grove was filmed there for a bit, and the Mortal Instruments as well. Finally, the TV film re-imagining of the Rocky Horror Picture Show was filmed there.

As you can see, it has a vibrant and diverse amount of films to boast. We must’ve spent several hours wandering around the mansion. I mean, it’s big. Very big. Funnily enough, the owner went bankrupt and was forced to move to his country estate. Because everyone has a country estate to move to when they run out of money. There were even false wall panels that led to secret passageways! Though, they’re not very secret anymore as it is a museum and there are signs pointing to the secret passageways… Still, I found it very exciting.

I don’t really remember what else we did on Thursday. We walked (a lot), something I seem to do a lot of in Toronto. It still has not started snowing, so, for now, the walking is quite nice. It is meant to snow tomorrow so we’ll have to see how much snow there is. Might be time for me to start using public transport!

And then we have Friday. Where we did the most touristy thing possible to do around Toronto. Niagara Falls. Which still confuses me, as it’s pronounced Niagra. Like Viagra (is that inappropriate to say?).

Anyway, yes Niagara Falls. We booked a tour that picked us up at 8:30 (I didn’t have a choice, okay?) and ended up getting back to the hostel at about seven in the evening. So a long day.

I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t convinced by the tour, particularly the price we paid. For one thing, the trip on the boat wasn’t included, so we had to pay an extra $20 on top of what we already paid for the tour. It would’ve definitely been cheaper and probably not much different just to catch a bus to Niagara by ourselves and do the boat tour there.

I mean, the tour included a lot of information about Niagara and surrounding area. But I was asleep for most of that. Some old man had checked into my room and took the bed right above mine. And is snoring was the most majestic thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I don’t even know how to describe it. All I know is that I had two nights of next to no sleep and have now changed rooms. Where I’m sleeping like a baby. Usually at about eight because I’m ill and need my beauty sleep.

Back to Niagara. The tour also included a stop-off in Niagara by the Lake, a small, touristy village, where we were told Prince William and Kate Middleton had their honeymoon and tried some ice-cream that instantly became famous. I forget the name. Never rely on me for information. My memory is like a sieve.

There was also a wine tasting, but a very quick, un-sophisticated one. It involved trying three wines (a chardonnay, a rose (imagine the accent is there), and an iced wine) in very quick succession, in the space of about five minutes. They didn’t even clean out the wine glasses for us between wines! The iced wine was quite nice, though. Again, I’ve forgotten the name (sorry, Uncle Mark).

Going back to Niagara once more, let’s talk about the actual Falls and the boat trip. It was quite fun. I mean, we got soaked in our very fetching ponchos (I’m afraid I do not have any pictures of the poncho), but the Falls are impressive. Apparently, in the winter, they turn the Falls down. They were still pretty strong, so I’d be amazed to see them in summer. A benefit about going in the winter, however, is the lack of people around Niagara. In the summer, it’s heaving. As in you have to physically jostle people out of your way. When we went, there were people, but moving around was so easy. It made taking pictures so much easier.

There’s also a really tacky resort town in Niagara that I can only compare to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It’s very tacky. There’s a ferris wheel, haunted houses, wax museums (where they look nothing like the people), novelty toy stores. Think of anything tacky you can find at a resort town and Niagara probably has it.

 

I sadly had to work on Saturday, so I can’t say there’s very much to tell you about that day. And then Gemma left on Sunday. We went for brunch at Auntie’s and Uncle’s – an amazing all-day brunch place where the queues can be up to an hour wait (we got there before the rush) – then she left and I have no idea what I did for the rest of the day. My brain is very hazy at the moment. I blame being ill.

But yes, I can’t see anything exciting happening over the next few weeks. We should be moving into a flat on Saturday for over Christmas, but there’s a small chance that’s about fall through. Hopefully not, as having my own space is very appealing right now (particularly when ill).

I will keep you posted!