2013

Since I haven't been blogging long enough to have lots posts to collate from 2013, I thought I would have a flick through my iPhone photographs and share some of my eating, shopping and flying snapshots from 2013.  Hopefully, I can share them in real time in 2014!

1.  A simple little Valentine's mani  //  2.  Walking through Stockholm in faux fur  //  3.  A little birthday feast to share at work.

4, 5 & 6.  Harry, the cat, stalking my breakfast in bed (bacon sandwich!) and then realising she'd been caught! 

7.  Pencil skirt and Lulu Guinness clutch for a friend's birthday meal  //  8.  A view across the water in Stockholm  //  9.  A summery dress for a 1st birthday party. 

10.  Taking advantage of the very rare warm weather for a shopping trip  //  11.  A nice big hot dog during aforementioned shopping trip!  //  12.  Enjoying the view after a beautiful lunch at Sharrow Bay.

13, 14 & 15.  Robbie Williams live at the Etihad Arena - such an entertainer! 

16.  YSL Belle du Jour clutch - a little gift to myself  //  17.  A cute painting by an artist called Jack Knight, we bought this after attending his first exhibition and it now has pride of place in our hallway //  18.  Celebrating a 30th wedding anniversary with a trip to Lingfield Races.

19.  Louboutin and Chloe for a family barbecue  //  20.  Celebrating a local Krispy Kreme finally opening!  //  21.  A little ray of sunshine from Vuitton for a day in London.

22.  Afternoon tea at Armathwaite Hall  //  23.  A little trek afterwards in Louboutins  //  24.  Another day at the races - Haydock this time with work people. 

25.  Another rare sunny day in a New Look favourite  //  26.  A little pistachio Mulberry sale purchase, which turned out to be a perfect match for a macaroon  //  27.  Nautical stripes to celebrate the launch of a new boat. 

28.  Having a Marilyn moment with my skirt at Montjuic Fountains in Barcelona!  //  29.  The amazing architecture at La Sagrada Familia  //  30.  Soaking up some sunshine in between races at the F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

31.  A beautiful pair of Pigalles gifted from Hubs to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary  //  32.  Reliving my childhood at the Beatrix Potter Museum in Windermere  //  33.  A poor attempt at an entry for a Halloween cupcake competition to raise money for the NSPCC.

34, 35 & 36.  Russell Brand at Newcastle City Hall - such a funny show! 

37.  Our City's Christmas light switch on with some Jersey Boys songs  //  38.  A multi-functional outfit for a football match and tea with a Father-in-Law  //  39.  A loose stitch on my just-received Prada bag (sad times). 

40, 41 & 42.  The stormy trip to Loch Lomond and Cameron House that you can read about here and here. 

43.  Celebrating Christmas with a snowman jumper, complete with 3D carrot  //  44.  A replacement, perfect Prada  //  45.  Taking my beautiful Christmas present on it's first outing for some sale shopping. 

So, there we have it - my year summed up in 45 pictures!  I'm so very, very thankful for how fabulous this year has been and I'm looking forward to, hopefully, more of the same in the coming year. 

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families all the best for 2014 and a very happy new year!  Whatever you're doing to celebrate, I hope it's perfect. 

Aimee x

Jamaica - Flashback Part 2

Oh dear!  I can't believe how long it's been since my last post... The past couple of weeks have flown by and I've been a little swept up with all the holiday festivities!  I hope you've all had a lovely time, filled with fun and happy times. 

I got a lovely pair of gifts from my mum and Hubs, which may have started a new addiction (you might already have seen if you've dropped by my Instagram feed - Eat. Shop. Fly.) but I'll tell you about that another day! 

For today's post, I'm taking us back to Jamaica for the second part of my travel flashback! If you've missed the first part, you can catch it here.

Our next excursion was up in the hills, to visit Bob Marley's house.

I only knew a little bit about Bob Marley before we went to Jamaica, and knew very little of his music, but I truly enjoyed learning about his world.  The whole place is treated like a shrine (there's actually a mausoleum for Bob and some family members on site)  and it's clear from the way the staff and locals speak about him that he really was an inspiration and his ideologies and way of life were worshipped. 

Part of the tour took us in to the house that Bob Marley actually grew up in.  Apart from the red, yellow and green stripes (which had been added in afterwards) the house was pretty much as he had left it. 

There's a line in 'Is This Love?' which goes '...we'll be together, with a roof up over our heads, we'll share the shelter of my single bed...' and it's this very house and this very bed that he's talking about.

Outside, there is a rock (again, paint added afterwards!) that was said to be where Bob laid when he needed to feel inspired.  The setting of the house is so beautiful, I can understand how this worked for him! 

If you're ever in Jamaica, this is definitely worth a visit - the atmosphere and environment were brilliant.  We even got the chance to sing along to 'Don't Worry' - a crowd of people and one man, sitting, playing a guitar.  That song always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside now! 

The last trip we went on during our Jamaican adventure was a two-in-one sort of thing.  The first half of our day was spent at YS Falls (much closer to our resort than the more famous Dunn's River Falls) and the second half was at the Appleton Rum Factory. 

The weather wasn't what we had come to expect for the first part if the day, with a little lot of rain but it was so warm and humid that it was actually quite refreshing and didn't spoil the experience. 

The view from our window that morning!

What did threaten to spoil things though, was the fact that our camera battery ran out and we'd forgotten to take any spare (they were sitting in the hotel room an hour away!!).  Thankfully, we made friends with some lovely people in our group who took some photos for us and, about a month or so later, a disc full of photos landed on our doorstep.  So, a huge thank you to Mark and Sarah for these pics! 

We took a river boat down to the Falls and the view was spectacular - we'd gone from tropical beaches to jungle in the blink of an eye! 

The Falls themselves were breathtaking.  There's the option to grab a rope and swing in, if you're the brave sort.  I'm not that sort, but Hubs is, so in he went! 

I'm pleased we had Sarah there to take the photos, as I had my eyes shut and would have missed capturing his Tarzan moment! 

Just before getting back to the dock we bumped into this guy...

We'd been looking out for crocodiles all the way through the tour and were starting to think we'd missed them, but luckily he was there waiting at the last minute! 

After the Falls we headed to Appletons Rum Factory.  The factory still produces rum but they've left a lot of the original equipment in place to show how it used to be done 'back in the day'! 

The donkey isn't put to work these days, but his ancestors used to spend their time walking round in circles to grind the molasses out of the sugar canes. One of the important steps in making good rum (apparently!). 

We had a tour of the distillery, processing and storage rooms and it was very interesting to learn the lengthy steps to making a perfect rum.  There was also a lot of opportunities for tasters on the way round the factory, including some 40% proof rum (just a thimble full!), so we were a little bit tipsy on the way home but it made for a brilliant day! 

On our last day in Jamaica, we caught some heavy winds from Hurricane Tomas and, unfortunately, the beach took a bit of a battering.

Luckily, the Riu staff were well prepared and we had some indoor fun waiting for us! The storm passed without too much damage, thankfully, 

Overall, our Jamaican holiday/honeymoon was amazing and it's somewhere I would not only recommend, but somewhere I hope to visit again some day.  Not only is the country beautiful, but the people are so friendly and welcoming that I actually felt at home there and there's the perfect mix of relaxation and excursions to make the 14 nights we stayed feel like no time at all. 

Big, long post again, so 'thank you' if you stuck it out 'til tthe end!  I'd love to know any holiday recommendations and 'must go's' that you have, so please feel free to leave a me a comment. 

Aimee x

Jamaica - Flashback Part 1

I just realised that I have left my Bob Marley CD in Hubs' car.  This wouldn't be an issue, if it wasn't for the fact that said car has just been traded in!  Fingers crossed, I'll be able to get it back. 

I guess you're probably sitting thinking 'why is she rambling about a lost CD?'  Well, this particular CD was given to me by Hubs shortly after we returned from our Honeymoon, in Jamaica, in 2010, when we had visited Bob Marley's house.  

And, even though it was 3 years ago, I figured I would dedicate a post to this beautiful Caribbean Island (does it make sense now?!).

We flew to Jamaica in late October (24th, to be exact) which is just at the end of hurricane season. 

We stayed at Hotel Riu Tropical Bay in Negril.  We chose Negril as it was a quieter part of the island, compared to Montego Bay or Kingston and we were looking for somewhere that would offer us complete relaxation. 

We landed at around 8pm local time, having flown for 10+ hours, so it's fair to say we didn't explore the hotel grounds too much on the first night! 

And then we were up at 5am the next day (yay for jet lag!), so headed for a walk along the beach to watch the sunrise. 

The beach was beautiful, well kept and peaceful.  If you carried on walking, about a mile or so away from the resort, there was a lovely beach market with locals selling all sorts of products (we picked up a picture and a few pieces of handmade jewellery to take back as gifts). 

The hotel itself was beautiful, although the decor was a little dated (this may have changed since we were there!).  The staff were very helpful, the food was great and the whole place seemed so chilled out.  We picked up a well-used Jamaican phrase while we were there - 'Irie'.  It means 'no worries' - just relax and everything will sort itself out.

There were four restaurants in the resort.  As they weren't at maximum capacity while we were there the restaurants opened on alternate evenings - two one night and two the next. This wasn't a problem as we still got to experience them all (more than once!) during our 14 nights there. 

We were looking for relaxation, but even I can't sit on my bum doing nothing for a full 2 weeks!  So we were pleased to find there was a whole range of excursions to keep us busy.   We opted for the trips provided by Riu, which pushed the price point up a bit, but at least this way we knew we would be well looked after and get what we were paying for. 

Our first trip was to Rick's Café, about 20 minutes by boat from the resort.  

A gorgeous little cove surrounded by rocks, it was absolutely buzzing with locals and tourists.  We grabbed a beer and sat beside the cliff side watching people throwing themselves from the tops of trees into the water below.  You can just about see a man in the tree up there, ready to jump. 

This picture gives a better perspective on exactly how far he was going to be jumping!  I thought I would include a helpful arrow too...

After a few hours soaking up the atmosphere, we sailed back to the resort.  Watching the sun set, over the sea, was breathtaking. 

Our next excursion was horse riding, on the beach.  My horse was called 'Playboy' and we trekked down the beach for about 20 minutes before stopping for some photos.  Playboy wasn't very cooperative and was more concerned about getting his best side than mine! 

We also got the opportunity to go swimming on the horses, which is one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.  We left our camera with the tour guide on the beach so he could get a snap for us. 

The horses were so relaxed and lovely that this day was my favourite of the whole holiday - it was truly a dream come true! 

This post is getting long!  I think I'd forgotten how fabulous Jamaica was and how much I had to talk about!  There's still Bob Marley's house, YS  Falls and The Appleton Rum tour to include...  I think we should call it a night for now!  

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings - check back again soon for part 2! 

X 

Cameron House, Loch Lomond

So, as I said in my last post the second half of my long weekend went a little bit better than the first half! 

We spent the night in Cameron House, a 5* hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond that is part of the De Vere Hotel chain. 

I have stopped in De Vere hotels and  De Vere lodges  a number of times and have never had a bad experience but this was my first time at Cameron House.  It didn't disappoint! 

I forgot to take a photograph of the outside of the building!
Credit for this photo goes to www.rciventures.com.

There's nothing better than walking into a hotel room and seeing a plate of sweets and a 'welcome' note to make you feel instantly at home. 

Our room was one of the most basic 'standard' rooms, but felt ridiculously sumptuous (even more so following the sleepless night I'd had the night before!) and the bed was so comfortable I found myself having a nap about 10 minutes after I'd got in to the room. 

We were supposed to have a garden view, but got a Loch view instead - this was definitely a happy mistake!  Even on a rainy, grey day the view was stunning. 

There's a strange feeling in Cameron House - it's a huge building, but the traditional decor and subdued lighting make it feel homely and cosy.  You could almost think you were staying in a boutique city hotel, rather than a country house!  I really liked this feel to it. 

A quick outfit shot in one of the long corridors - this is what was
hiding under the big fur coat in my boat picture! 

On this visit, we didn't eat in the hotel restaurant and popped to Balloch instead, a little town that is only a 10 minute drive up the road. 

We found a gorgeous restaurant called The Kilted Skirlie in the Loch Lomond Shores shopping centre and had a 'private dining' experience due to the fact that there was only our party in there!  Apparently, this is not a common occurrence and the weather was putting other patrons (who aren't as used to the wind and rain as we are!) off.

The food was gorgeous.  I opted for a goats cheese tart for starters and sea bass and seasonal roast vegetables for my main. 

Bonus points for the fact we were given
Christmas Crackers! 

The fish was cooked to perfection - the portion was huge, but it was so good I couldn't bring myself to leave any.  This meant I didn't have any room for a pudding, but Hubs had a Knickerbockerglory that I managed to steal a few spoonfuls of and I can confirm that it was absolutely delicious! 

The next day Hubs was playing golf at the Carrick Golf Course (part of the Cameron House set up, but about 15 minutes away from the main hotel) so after a gorgeous breakfast in the hotel I spent some time mooching around the shops in Balloch, wandering around the hotel grounds and drinking hot chocolate in The Claret Jug clubhouse.

There's a Spa based at the Carrick too, which is perfect for killing an hour or so while you're waiting for the golf to finish.  Timings weren't in my favour this time round (my fault - I forgot to book anything!) but it is well worth a visit and they often have brilliant special offers on, so you can have a complete pamper for a fraction of the price. 

I left Cameron House feeling completely relaxed, even though it was a flying visit and it's left me completely looking forward to spending Christmas Week at another De Vere Hotel - Slaley Hall in Hexham.  We'll be in a lodge this time round, so it's a completely different experience. 

What did you get up to last weekend?  Are you getting as fed up of the rainy and windy weather as I am?

I can't believe it's Hump Day already - this week is going way too fast!  

x

PS.  I just wanted to say that all views in this post are my own and I've not been asked by either of the companies mentioned to provide any reviews, I just genuinely think they are lovely places and thought they deserved some good words!

Boats and Christmas Parties

Okay, so usually you don't hear 'boats' and 'Christmas parties' in the same sentence, never mind in the title of a blog post, but that's what's on my mind this weekend.

Boats, because last night I spent the night sleeping on a boat.  Well, a yacht.  This one in fact...

This is a terrible photograph of me, but I felt I had to include it as it really sums up the general experience of last night.  The white boat shoes because I would fall overboard in my heels.  The big (faux) fur coat because it was the only thing warm enough that I had in my car and I'd forgotten to pack anything sensible!  (I would never usually pair my white pumps with a big fluffy coat, honest!) Not to forget the soaking wet, fluffy, bedraggled hair because it was too windy for an umbrella to stop up. Oh, and the look on my face pretty much says what I was thinking: 'Please can we go home
now?'.

The boat belongs to my in-laws and is moored in Troon, Scotland (Where is Troon?).  This is a beautiful little seaside town and would, I imagine, be perfectly idyllic in the summer months.  However, last night it was blowing a 60mph wind, raining cats and dogs and the amount the boat was rocking back and forth has left me still feeling like I'm moving, even though I've been back on dry land for 5 hours!

Although I'm not refusing to set foot on the boat ever again, I think I will be waiting for some calmer weather before I make the next visit!

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well last night but thankfully, the second part of our Scottish holiday weekend has a little more luxury in store, with a stay at Cameron House, Loch Lomond (full review coming soon!).  A quick shower and a nice fluffy robe and I feel human again!

Alongside the constant thought of 'I'm off the boat now, why am I still swaying?' my brain is also focussing on my work's Christmas Party. Or, more specifically, the fact that I still don't have an outfit for said party, which is taking place in 2 weeks time!

I always reach for a nice simple body con dress, a pair of killer heels and a cute handbag, but this year I want to do something different and jumpsuits/playsuits keep coming in to the equation.

1) Asos - £40, 2) Warehouse - £50, 3) Asos - £50

My main worry about taking the leap into the world of all-in-ones is that my legs are a little bit short and my torso is a little bit short, so I'm worried that, with nothing to separate the two things, I might just end up looking... Well, short!

So, what do you think??  Are you in the 'yay' or 'nay' camp when it comes to play/jumpsuits?? Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

Aimee x

Copenhagen

Is it possible to be jet lagged after an hour and a half flight??  I certainly feel it!  After 4 days in Copenhagen I have walked more than I've walked for the past month.  I'm taking a pedometer with me for my next City Break to see exactly how many steps my poor, little, unfit legs take!

So, why Copenhagen?  Well, it's all down to The Eurovision Song Contest.  Yep, you read that right.  I love Eurovision.  The music, the costumes, the staging...  We even have a little party.  Pathetic, I know!  Such is my love for Eurovision, that the winning country dictates one of my holidays for that year and, luckily for me, Copenhagen won the contest in 2013!

Along with my love for Eurovision, I also have a huge love of Christmas.  So, there was really no better time to visit this beautiful city.

Tivoli Garden was breathtaking.  It was bit more 'theme park-y' than I was expecting, which is never good news for someone who had an absolute breakdown in Blackpool Pleasure Beach at the thought of getting on the Pepsi Max Big One (there were tears and everything!).  Needless to say, I skipped the rides but that didn't stop me soaking in the festive atmosphere.  There were plenty of little Christmas shops, food stalls and mulled wine to keep me entertained for a couple of hours!

The obligatory Christmas reindeer!

Our next stop was one of Copenhagen's most famous landmarks - The Little Mermaid statue, at the Harbour.

I think Hubs was a bit upset when I pointed out that the true version of this story, written by Hans Christian Andersen, didn't include an all-singing, all-dancing lobster and definitely didn't end happily ever after.   Thankfully, Disney put their spin on it and cheered it all up a little bit but, if you're curious, you can read the original here.  

As Amalienborg Palace is just 15 minutes up the road, I decided to pay a little visit and was lucky enough to catch the Changing of the Guard, which is a quaint little procession in the Palace square.  It happens daily at 12pm. 

The Royal Museum is also in one of the four buildings that make up the Palace square, so I popped in for a little look around.  There's noo photographs allowed though, unless you have a press pass.  There are no signs to tell you this...  I found out because one of the Security Guards shouted at me when I took my camera out.  Oops!

The next couple of days were spent wandering around the City, taking in the sights.  I could tell you about all of them but you would fall asleep before getting to the end of this post!  So, here's some photos... 

View of the Marble Church from Amalienborg

Christiansborg Palace

An underwater statue of a Merman and his 7 sons, waiting for
his wife to come back to him (another sad underwater story!)

The gorgeous Christmas display at Hotel D'Angleterre

And, given that I have called this blog 'Eat. Shop. Fly', I can't finish this without including my favourite meal in Copenhagen - brunch in a gorgeous little cafe.

Scrambled egg, bacon, cheese, ham, salami, pancake with syrup and a yoghurt with berries.  Deliciously random! 

If you'd like to know anymore about Copenhagen please leave a comment - I will reply to every one. 

Thank you for reading!  x