London. A home away from home?

I recently got back from the annual trip to London, my mother, sister and I regularly visit my aunt in East London and grandparents in Kent and we have done since I was old enough to walk. 

What would a trip be without a selfie? 

Though I always used to see it as a wonderful, adventurous city this trip I realised how expensive it would be to live there. We went through £150 just on travelling in 4 days, let alone the hotel and food (& shopping.) 

My sister is expecting a baby this summer and I found myself on edge making sure her and the bump were safe, it's totally different where I live in Cornwall, it's quiet. Sometimes that's made me feel like a big fish in a small pond, not in an arrogant way but in a 'what's out there for me' kind of way. 

Despite that, London holds so many more career and blogging opportunities! There are hundreds of boutique cafes waiting for me to write and sip coffee in. But it isn't home. 

It's a luxury to live 10 minutes from a beach but live in a city and have a great job. I don't think I could let that go. I get to hop in my car every morning and drive to an office 5 minutes away where I work with lovely people. I prefer that to an hour long tube commute. 

Maybe one day, adventure will find me and I will be the smallest fish in a huge sea, like we all are really.

Don't get me wrong though, I love the City. This trip was in occasion of my sister's 21st and boy did we shop. We made the essential visit to Oxford Street and only managed to go in our 3 favorites, H&M, Primark and Forever 21. As well as a necessary Pret stop. We also hit Harrods to oogle over the gorgeous designer numbers we can't afford.

Harrods Bakery is Heaven on Earth

I picked up some more gym gear in Primark, some gorgeous pieces in Forever 21 and fell in love with some home items in H&M but as we were flying home the bigger items had to stay on the shelves.

It was lovely to take a 50 minute flight rather than the 6 hour train ride. I filmed the take off and landing to distract myself  from getting anxious and it worked really well. Check out my instagram to see the videos and my London snaps!

Bon Voyage.

Little Lottie 

XO

A Long Weekend Away

The Severn bridge at sunset

Driving to the wedding

Recently I had a long weekend away and some time off work to recuperate, we went to Wales which is 5 hours from where I live. I drove the entire way, singing along to Ariana Grande and Radio 1, I think Nick (my fiancé) got quite fed up. It was a rainy weekend but that didn't ruin the gorgeous country views on the way. On Friday night after the drive we stayed at Premier Inn (living it up, as usual) near Cardiff. I would have loved to explore the big cities but in the morning we had another 3 hour drive to complete to get to my lovely friend's wedding.

Premier Inn = Sleep time

I think we hit about every obstacle possible on the way to the wedding. After 3 tractors, 1 road closure, 1 motorbike race event and a tourist road train ...(yes, a train full of tourists driving on the road) I was getting rather stressed but we made it 10 minutes early to the wedding and sprinted to the gorgeous marquee to grab a seat on the decorated hay bales. The wedding was pretty and quirky like my good friend, the bride.

Our gorgeous wedding favors and decorated bales (lala is my nickname)

The beautiful marquee

Quirky cake

The wedding venue seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere but had scenic views across Wales and was high up a hill in Llanidloes, (the Sat Nav was key here.) After dancing the night away and drinking champagne by the campfire until midnight we slept in our tents and woke up to a bacon sandwich made by the bridesmaids. As I'm engaged myself I couldn't help but think about how lovely this small wedding was and what dress I would choose for my big day.

The views on the way to Newtown

The severn bridge - Homebound

I was eager to stop off at Bristol for some shopping on the way home so after dragging a hungover Nick into the car we set off to find the Cabot Circus Mall. When we arrived at the car park we immediately made our way to H&M and Primark, these are very big high street stores that I'm a fan of. We decided to stay in Bristol for tea before the remaining 3 hour journey home and after trawling round the food court trying to decide on dinner we ended up in Frankie and Benny's (an American themed Italian restaurant.) I went for the Pulled Pork 10" pizza and ate every slice whilst Nick had a pulled pork burger, afterwards we well and truly felt like pigs.

Yummmmyyy

Nick fell asleep the rest of the way home, we arrived just before 9pm and had a much needed sleep.

I rarely venture out on long trips in the car but it was very fun and felt like an adventure to just aimlessly drive with a Sat Nav into the abyss of the countryside.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it's slightly different to my usual but expect more as I've booked a holiday to Makadi Bay!