I've been to Kenya AGAIN

I know, I KNOW there are plenty of other places to visit in the world, so why did I head back to Kenya for a fifth time???

The answer is that I really wasn't expecting to go back again after I left in April. I'd had three amazing months there and had the time of my life, but I didn't think I'd be going back again.

One day I was bored and decided to check out flights to ANYWHERE in December (a hobby of mine) and I happened to notice that flights to Mombasa were cheap.

Super cheap. £250 return cheap.

So........ I booked it.

And you know what? It was easily the best trip I've had to Kenya so far...

I did so much in the space of two weeks, I was on such a high just being back there and soaking up every second of my trip. I drank far too much for one human being and I got a million mosquito bites but I didn't CARE.

This time I know I'll be going back there again. I love it too much to say I probably won't be going back there.

Getting drunker in a bunker

I had an odd experience on Friday night.

I got drunk in a bunker.

I'll take a step back. We'd been out for dinner in Stanningley to the aforementioned Vietnamese place when someone suggested crossing postcodes and walking to Farsley for a few beers. WALKING TO FARSLEY??! It's miles! Ok it's less than a mile I think but in this weather I'm not into walking very far.

But the lure of more red wine was to strong so off we trotted. I actually like walking with a group of my friends because it reminds me of being a teenager and pacing the streets finding things to do. It's fun to realise I am a Grown Up and no longer need to pester anyone to buy me booze or go to a pub and drink a coca cola...

We headed to The Village wine bar in Farsley and ordered some drinks at the bar. My bezzie (also known as Lucy) suggested we head to the back of the bar where there's a little room. Sometimes when you head to a private quieter area of a bar, it can ruin the night if you like the ambiance of the bar noise... but look where we sat!

http://www.thevillagewinebar.co.uk/photos/ 

It was a little bunker with a curved ceiling so it trapped our noise and if anything, amplified it so it made us even louder. And I am LOUD anyway.

We spent a very fun few hours drinking wine, doing shots of tequila and limoncello and talking absolute drivel before it was time to find a taxi. That taxi was SPINNING on the way home, someone must have been topping up my wine glass or something.

It's always fun to find new spaces to get drunk and this was definitely my first time getting drunk in a bunker. 

Having a rice THAIme

Get it? Thai? The best titles are ones you have to explain... sheesh.

Can I just say first of all, that the diet is going extremely well... no worries about that... the fact that I dined two nights in a row at Bring Your Own Booze Asian restaurants is of no concern... Ooops.

I'm trying to visit new places in the West Yorkshire area and have new experiences. It's hard sometimes when you've lived in a place for years to not get stuck in a rut. Time is so precious that it's tempting to stick with something you like because it's safe and you know you will enjoy it.

But that's not what life is for is it? The safe, the familiar? No no no no no no

So I felt like a traitor when I suggested trying a new place instead of our faithful Thai restaurant, Jino's in Headingley, where I've enjoyed many a good meal over the years.

A few friends had been raving about a place in the city centre that was BYOB. Now I am ALL ABOUT a BYOB place. Booze can be so expensive (for good reason I suppose) and can really drive the cost of a meal right up. I REALLY begrudge paying £5 for a glass of wine when I know I can get a decent bottle of Shiraz for the same price.

I don't have a drinking problem by the way...

So I arranged to meet a friend I've not seen in aaaaages and we met in The Pit for a catch up drink before heading to Thai Aroy Dee Leeds to check the place out. We had prawn crackers and sweet chilli sauce to start, then a mixed starter of prawns and mushrooms to really start, then I chose a pork Pad Thai for my main, all washed down with Sainsbury's finest red wine for under a fiver. Classic.

Dinner for two cost just £23, my bus fare home was almost as much as my main course...

When I arranged to go to Thai Aroy Dee on the Thursday, I completely forgot that I'd also arranged to go out for a Vietnamese meal the very next night. Gulp.

So we headed to Viet Thai in Stanningley, a teeny weeny restaurant that only seats 20 people, so it's pretty cosy with the waitress squeezing past to get to the kitchen. The toilet was outside of the building and round the back, interesting and very freezing but not off-putting at all.

I had a Vietnamese beef curry for my main and it was soooooooooooooo good! I ate every single bit of it which is not normal for me, I'm a talker so I usually eat half and take the cold half home for the next day's lunch.

Two amazing meals in two nights, both at BYO restaurants. I'd highly recommend them both for low cost, high taste options!

Wednesday musings

I seem to be relying on Pinterest a lot at the moment to give me inspiration and positivity - sigh.

Pinned from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/82964818108962421/

I just saw this and now I feel ready to go to bed and take on tomorrow with such a great vengeance...


Sweet dreams!

Autumn...

Oh November, you do make it hard for me to like you.

I much preferred October. October had it going onnnnnnn. Crisp Autumn afternoons, bright sunshine but frosty temperatures, scarves, hats, falling leaves and plenty of rainbows. No pots of gold though, sadly.

November in comparison can kick my ass. A rainy fireworks night, dark evenings from 5pm onwards and my best friend moving to New York. Boo.

I found some Autumnal photos on Pinterest to cheer me up...











All photos are from this page on Pinterest...

Have a good day now!

All images here came from this page on Pinterest - stay smiling now!

Sunday Photo Album - Isla Mujeres, Mexico

aHAAAAA it's Sunday and I remembered to put a photo album up AND I'm hungover. Win.

Today's album comes from our honeymoon in Mexico. We were so lazy and pretty much hung out on the beach for most of our trip drinking cocktails with breakfast because we could. We were in a wedding haze and completely thrilled with how amazing our wedding day was.

By the second week of our trip though we wanted a bit of adventure and to stretch our legs a little so we took a ferry over to Isla Mujeres (loosely translated to Island of Women).

The island itself is so small that you can drive around the whole thing in around an hour and the best thing is that you can rent a golf buggy for the day to drive around in. So much fun. Here's their version of a sat nav:

Enjoy the album!

I miss...

Feeling the love on Padlock Bridge, Cologne

Here's some photos from Padlock Bridge in Cologne in case you're in need of a little love tonight:

I wonder how many of the couples who chose to add their padlock to this bridge are still together? I like to think that a large percentage are still happily in love, but then I am a romantic, deep down under my hard icy exterior. HA.

And out of the couples who didn't make it, did they try hard enough to make it work? It's not easy staying in love for ever, things change, real life gets in the way and most romance fades dramatically when you live together and walk into your fella on the toilet.

But you have to TRY. You have to remember why you loved each other in the first place and work at that. It's not all dates and dinners and anything else romantic beginning with the letter D. Sometimes it's arguing about doing the washing up, going food shopping then getting angry because you forgot the bloody Bags For Life again, paying the bills and just having a shitty day at work and sitting on the sofa in your pyjamas.

But it's also knowing he is there for you. He'll hold your hand while you do the food shop, giggle over Billy Bear ham and buy a spontaneous bottle of red wine on a Tuesday.

It's kisses on the lips, it's walks in the rain, it's playing music loudly in the kitchen, it's hugging, it's laughing at a crap joke. It's love. It's finding a groove and enjoying it. It's having independence and not relying solely on each other.

I write this as The Boy is in the pub and I've enjoyed a dinner of super noodles having been at another pub and then coming home to keep up with the Kardashians (guilty pleasure).

Goodnight and lots of LOVE. 

4 Annoying types of people I meet on my commute everyday...

I think I've written about how much I hate my commute before... I really do try to laugh at it as much as possible and luckily I only have an eight minute train journey twice a day, I don't know what I'd do if it was longer...

It's like sometimes I'm surrounded by MORONS. Seriously. Here's a few types I meet everyday...

The jerk who thinks it's ok to put their bag on the seat
Yes YOU I'm looking at you. It's 8.15am, the busiest part of the day and this guy thinks it's fine to take up two seats with his bag. Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise your bag was a person and therefore entitled to a seat! I do apologise!
I change my mind daily about whether to embarrass them and call them out or just to walk on by and find an empty seat, depends on my mood. What rattles me the most is when the guilty part look up at you in surprise when you ask them to move their bag, like they thought they had the train to themselves. JERKS.

The keen bean
You know the type, they have the seat by the window, you've just got comfortable and they ask if you can move so they can get out. There's a good six minutes until we arrive into the station but they need to get up NOW so that they can get down to the serious business of STANDING BY THE DOOR and getting ready to get off the train. Never mind the fact that the train has just left the previous station. Jerks.

The door blockers
Oh hey! I'm on the train and I'd like to get off the train and get on to the platform please but I can't because YOU'RE IN THE WAY WAITING TO GET ON THE TRAIN. I don't know if this is the first time you've ever got on a train in your life, but they way it usually works is that the peeps on the train get off so that your lovely self can get on the train. Want me to run you through that again? Jerks.

The 'oh no where's my ticket, I had it a minute ago' w@nkers' 
Let me ask you something, dear commuter... why is it that you go through the ticket barriers every day, but it seems that every day they come as such a surprise to you? Why do you wait until you're right at the barrier before rummaging in your bag/pocket/wallet for your precious ticket? Jerks.

Phew! That felt therapeutic, have I missed any other types?

3 things to do in one weekend in Cologne

Cologne is an amazing city, perfect to explore in one weekend and lots to see and do without spending a lot of money.

So what should you do if you only have one weekend in Cologne?

1. Visit the Cologne Cathedral

I fell in love with the Cathedral as soon as I saw it. It's a pretty special building and quite overwhelming from the outside. Cologne was bombed during the Second World War, but the bombs somehow managed to miss the Cathedral, I'm not sure how because it's massive and the centre of Cologne, but we won't dwell on that...

What I liked most about the Cathedral is that it's free to enter and wander around inside, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was hugely expensive, so the free entry here was a great surprise. If you want to climb the spire shown here, you have to pay the princely sum of 3Euro, but you should be able to stretch to that, and you'll definitely stretch your legs with the 500 step spiral staircase to the top!

View from the top of the Cathedral

2. Eat and drink as much as you can

The food in Cologne is amazing, so whatever your budget, whatever your taste and whether you're looking to eat on the move or have a sit down meal, you'll find plenty to keep you full up.

My personal favourite was the hot roast pork rolls with friend onions that are sold through windows on the street. I had three in the space of one weekend. Oops.

We also had great breakfasts, weiners, sandwiches, schnitzels... you name a traditional food and we tried it. In one weekend. Gulp. Hic. Burp.

3. Visit the padlock bridge

Love makes the world go round (apparently, I think it might be something else) and you can feel the love around you on padlock bridge. Once upon a time someone must have been wandering over the bridge with their significant other and happened to be holding a padlock. Something must have compelled them to clamp the padlock onto the bridge railing, thus securing their love forever. 

Where this couple lead, others followed and now the bridge looks a little like this: