Bank holiday, friends, Olly Murs and Robin Hood! A new princess!

Hello again!

I know, I know, I typically blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but I have had some friends staying here this weekend for the bank holiday weekend (which for one of my friends included yesterday). I've also decided to add Sunday blogs too (The beauty bit) starting this Sunday!

So.... Bank holiday, what did I get up to?

On Thurdsay (April 30th) my friend, Serena drove from Milton Keynes to my house because we had tickets to go and see Olly Murs "Never Been Better" tour on Friday and she wanted to be here so she could have a slow get up take time getting ready. We didn't stay up late on Thursday because we knew that Friday would be a late night.

On Friday I found it so difficult to wake up (11am!) my other friend was en route from Cambridge to come for the concert. She arrived at my house at lunch time and we all went into my spare room/dressing room to get ready. I planned to cook an early meal for us before the concert because of travel and timings. I figured that a pasta bake would be the best bet because I could shove it in the oven and leave it to cook while I continued to get ready. Everything went like clockwork and come 4pm we were ready to head to the tram station.

Without giving too much away about the concert (because you can read and see it all on my blog coming up on Friday) it was AMAZING!! Ella Eyre who was supporting sang as if she was singing for her life with how on point she was. I tweeted her telling her how amazing she sounded and she "favourited" it! Buzzing! As for Olly, he was freaking crazy good! Ok, ok! Here you go! A sneaky peak from the concert.




All of these pictures are my own. If you intend to use them elsewhere please contact me for permission, thanks.

I was blown away! I'm not a complete Olly Murs junkie or crazy ass fan like some of the girls that were there but to look at, YES he's pretty fine and he can SIIIIING! live, he's amazing. He's got the mooooves! Stage presence, voice, looks... he has the package and I am a fan, I am just not one of "those" fans that I think are a bit creepy... y'know, the type that would literally pull him off the stage given half a chance. Yes I'd love to chat with him and have a jam session on the piano but not jump all over him - let's face it I'm a married woman and I have a brain condition lol - gotta keep it real haha. Saying that, when he laid over the white grand piano I was a little speechless and probably had the biggest smile on my face hahaha. HOT HOT HOT!!!! lol. Seriously, read my post on Friday - It will ALL be there!

Ok, *SNAP* I'm awake again - We were all absolutely shattered on Saturday so by the time it got to lunch time, we were just starting breakfast! After brunch we headed into chesterfield to find one of my friends an outfit for a hen do that she's going to. We had already booked to go to the red hot buffet in the evening so we didn't have too long to shop before we had to come home and get ready for the evening meal. Saturday was quite chilled and rather short really. My family came with us for the meal out so it felt a bit like an unofficial celebration.. Well I guess we can call it a celebration of a new princess as The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. Charlotte Elizabeth Diana - what a beautiful, regal name for a Royal baby.

Laura left shortly after breakfast (which again, was more of a brunch) on Sunday. I love how relaxed my friends are when it comes to timings. It takes me a while to "get going" in a morning and quite often it's not until quite late in the morning until I'm functioning in a recognisable human like way. They just go with the flow and have helped so, so much this weekend with washing pots and going at my pace. Love those girls so much! Dan took me and Serena into town so we could have a little beauty trip to TK Maxx... That might seem strange that I say beauty at TK Maxx but recently I have found some lovely little bargains in there. On this trip I got a two faced lipstick which I love, love, LOVE and another Ciate nail polish... I will probably blog about my TK Maxx beauty finds soon! you can get some really good stuff if you know where to look! I also got the cutest little organiser that I'm going to use for my blog posts. It's a folder style weekly organiser with post-it type sticky notes to put on and completely satisfies my inner stationery geek.

We went to see the new Avengers movie (Our way to treat Dan for putting up with a full on girly fest all weekend). I really enjoyed it... much more than I thought I would! It has made me want to watch all of the other Marvel movies! I really wasn't that into the idea at first but I am completely converted! My favourite is Iron Man but that said, if I could create my very own I would combine Thor and Iron Man - ultimate eye candy/hero combination haha. Who is your favourite? Who would you combine to make your perfect superhero?

Yesterday, (Bank holiday Monday) was a glorious sunny day so we took Serena to one of our local attractions - The Major Oak. Anyone familiar with the story, the legend, the films surrounding Robin Hood will know about the Major Oak. Serena has been coming to Mansfield for 11 years and I have never taken her to the big tree!!! She absolutely loves fairy tales and legend stories so it just had to be done on such a glorious day. (Plus she put in a request if the weather was nice). The signs say it's about a 20minute walk from the visitor centre but I don't think it took us that long to get there. It was a lovely walk. Serena was fascinated by the carvings that had been done out of felled / fallen trees along the path. I haven't been to the centre for a while (I think it's one of those things when it's on your doorstep you overlook it so to speak). It hasn't changed too much but the tree is held up more than it used to be.

Me and Serena and a big ol' Oak Tree (it's only taken me 11 years to take her there)!

Whilst we were waiting for ice cream I noticed that Serena was wearing her arrow earrings - very apt for the occasion!

 After an ice cream stop (and lots of photos), we got in the car and headed to Matlock Bath for a chippy tea. I think everyone had the same idea yesterday. We managed to get parked (eventually) and our tea in one of the fish and chip restaurants followed by a walk along the river being entertained by a group of teenagers who had hired row boats out! They were having a girls 'v' boys race and the girls were either going in circles or crashing into the river bank. The boys, on the other hand were having a competition of there own of who has the bigger muscles! It was rather funny.

 

I wanted to show Serena Bakewell on the way home but there was no parking so we just headed home. The traffic was horrendous so pretty much as soon as we got back to our house Serena had to head back to Milton Keynes.

Dan and I curled up on the settee and watched Iron Man to end a crazy bank holiday weekend. I was absolutely shattered but it has been heaps of fun with some of my favourite people on this planet!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend wherever you are in the world. What have you been up to? Leave me a comment with the most fun thing you have done this weekend.

Please don't forget to add me on Twitter: @hangoldendaff and Instagram: littlegoldendaffodil
you can also find Serena on Instagram: serenacharlotte86

Love and Hugs.

An evening in Bakewell

Hello again!

I've had lots of positive vibes about my return to blogging with a little bit of help from Hannie and some of her lovely blogger friends.

Today's a little jumble of loveliness from a quiet little fish and chip tea by the river in Bakewell, Derbyshire. Bakewell is pretty much central of the Peak District I think and it's not too far for us to get to by car. There's lots of beautiful views of the hills en route and lots of twisty bendy roads when you go the way we went (I'm so glad I didn't drive)! The town is quite well known for its pudding which is nothing like the Bakewell tarts or cherry bakewell a that you can buy in most supermarkets in the UK. You can read more about them (or order one to try here).

Dan wasn't at work on Friday so we visited some of my relatives who have been staying in Derbyshire on a mini holiday for a few days. They went home yesterday so it was a lovely opportunity to get together with them while they were in the area last week. I genuinely felt so awfully ill before we left the house, probably not helped by the fact I had somehow forgotten to eat any lunch. I'm really trying hard to eat regularly as it's something I have found really difficult (partly due to medication and habits from when I was in hospital). Anyway, that aside, the fresh air did me the world of good. We sat on the benches along the river after having a lovely little wander and look in the oldie-worldy type shops. I found a gorgeous little shop that sells scarves in a whole variety of designs. My personal favourite is the one with the vw camper van print on.


A selection of the scarves outside the little shop in Bakewell.

Whilst we sat and ate our "chippie tea" we watched the different wildlife on the river. I have such an irrational fear of birds and although it was ok them being in the river and on the path near the river it was certainly not ok for them to be near me. I really quite like ducks but at one point there was a rather "confident" little so-and-so that came that bit too close and I literally froze. In my head I was having a full blown argument with myself with one side saying: "DO NOT MOVE A SINGLE MUSCLE - you do and that thing is gonna flap and squark and you'll end up having a 'flap attack'. You know you will!" The other voice was the voice of calm saying "get a grip you stupid woman, move your foot a bit and it will waddle off, what harm will a cute little duck do". What did I do? I froze! I was not taking the risk of entering the flap attack mode! NU-UH! The duck got bored and waddled off eventually - I won that one!



This cheeky duck would not leave me alone!

After I finished fish and chips I has a wander to the bridge where people take padlocks. Typically they're couples that mark a date and/or their names in someway or something meaningful to them then they lock their padlock onto wire on the bridge. There were some really lovely engraved ones! Just after I had taken my pictures on the bridge a wedding party arrived. They had a lot of photos taken on the bridge before the happy couple arrived. It was quite exciting to watch. The newlyweds had obviously got a padlock with them to lock on the bridge too. - what a great idea!



Do you have somewhere near to where you live that you like to visit? Have you written a blog post about it? Please feel free to write a comment telling me about somewhere you have been to recently or leave a link to your blog and I'll have a read :)

Love and hugs.
Hannah.xx