Whenever I smell mixed herbs (the dried variety that come in little glass jars) I am taken straight back to the house my parents lived in when I was a young child and in particular to the bay window of the front bedroom where I used to play some sort of game where I created a den and imagined that I was on a boat sailing across the oceans to discover islands that no one else had yet discovered. I have vague recollections that I needed to take some food with me and when I asked my mum for some the only thing she gave me was some mixed herbs. Quite how I thought I was going to find new islands I ... read more
Holiday with toddler must-have items
It seems a while ago now that I wrote about our first foreign holiday with Little Miss C. We learnt so much in those few days about travelling with a little one and I therefore want to share wih you the three things that we took with us that I would encourage anyone travelling with a toddler to take. 1. Ergo Baby Carrier I'm afraid I don't have a photo of me using our carrier, but that's mainly because of the times it was useful. We flew with Easyjet from Stansted airport and I have to say that they were really good when it came to carrying baby equipment with us. We were ... read more
We survived!
This time last week I had no ideas quite how I'd be feeling today. The last four days have been full of adventure and firsts for the whole C family. We've just returned from a short trip overseas. Our first trip abroad with Little Miss C. Her first trip in an aeroplane and the first time all three of us have shared a hotel room. I'm delighted to say that we've not only survived the trip but I'd go as far as to say that we've enjoyed it and LMC most certainly has. I can't say that I've come back feeling relaxed or quite like I used to do after a holiday, but then ... read more
Travel with kids
Like many young professional couples Mr C and I loved to travel before Little Miss C came along. Together we've been to about twenty countries all around the world and even managed a round the world trip together for our Honeymoon. Since we became a family of three we've limited ourselves to staying in the UK, but now that LMC's a bit older we're ready to dust off those passports (and apply for one for LMC) and head off again. The practicalities aren't too difficult, but it's fair to say that "fear" is probably the thing that's holding us back the most (if ... read more
A weekend in Bath
A friend's wedding gave Mr C and I a fantastic opportunity for a weekend away before Baby C comes along. Somehow I've not been to Bath properly before. I've passed through on the train many times and even been for a job interview there, but the city's delights escaped me until now. An evening wedding meant that we had plenty of opportunity to explore on foot before we dressed up for our trip to the Assembly Rooms for the ceremony and reception. Even the weather was nice to us! The wedding itself was lovely. A beautiful bride, an opportunity to catch up ... read more
A Polish interlude…
I have a much more exciting reason behind the latest blogging interlude. Mr C and I have just returned from a fantastic long weekend in Poland where we saw our dear friends C & D marry.There are many tales to tell of a beautiful wedding, delightful Polish countryside and a journey on a red London bus. At the moment though there's a pile of washing to tackle and work to prepare for tomorrow morning. I promise I will return to fill in the gaps and hopefully share some pictures. ... read more
Tallinn
A post of few words today.Mr C and I spent a lovely weekend in Tallinn with his work colleagues. Most of our time was in or around the Old Town which is a fine example of a medieval town complete with fairy-tale towers and town walls. Strong Russian influences were also very prominent. This cathedral was built to remind Tallinn of the Tsarist rule from Russia in the early 1900s. As you can see though the weather didn't always oblige for my photographs. The journey up to the top of the Town Hall tower certainly made my legs burn, especially since the depth of some of the ... read more
Helsinki
As promised, a first instalment of our recent trip to Helsinki and Tallinn.The mysterious ways of airline costings meant that we actually flew from London to Helsinki first, before continuing to Tallinn 24 hours later by boat. So, a whole 24 hours in Helsinki in which to unwind from work, whilst also making sure that we got to see all the key sights. Helsinki is one of those cities that most people have heard of, but it isn't really a big tourist destination, and people don't instantly connect it with a specific site like they do the Eiffel Tower with Paris.A walk round on the ... read more
Did you miss me?
Sorry for the absence. This time it was somewhat more exciting that just life getting in the way of blogging. Mr C and I have been over to the Baltic and have visited Helsinki and Tallinn within the last week.As seems to be usual for us our return journey yesterday involved a cancelled connection, a six hour wait in Copenhagen, delays landing in London due to thunderstorms and a nearly lost bag! In total fifteen hours from leaving our hotel to arriving home. As you can imagine I'm a tad shattered (not helped by the fact that we both went back to work less than twelve hours after landing) ... read more
The train triangle
It's been a busy couple of days this week. Work has taken me up to Scotland for a series of meetings and I had some wonderful train adventures in the process.It didn't start off so well though yesterday morning. As usual, I left plenty of time to get into London to go to Kings Cross where I was due to catch my first long distance train north to Edinburgh. I started to get worried as my little train from St Albans suddenly slammed on the brakes less than half way to London. I got even more worried when the driver came on the tannoy and apologised for the sudden stop and said that he was ... read more