Sweet As Pi

The past 4 days I’ve spent spring cleaning the flat. I’ve cleared out so much stuff and made a little money selling a few things. I’ve rearranged the bedroom furniture and switched around shelving in the kitchen cupboards. It’s kept me busy whilst Jon’s been working, and since we are planning to move soon I figured it’d be a good time to get it done.

I love the fresh feeling from decluttering. I bought a couple things to replace some old stuff too which is always fun to do! Jon sleeps better now that we have lovely new pillows which we picked out from TK Maxx. We spent 15 minutes in the shop opening bags and feeling each pillow before we decided which ones to buy.

I bought that aloe vera plant above from IKEA to replace my cactus that died over winter (I left it by the window and I think it froze to death). It’s so cool that you can break off a tip and use the gel on burns (it’s even edible apparently!) and it’s super easy to care for.

I also planted those seedlings above 4 days ago and they shot up after just a day. They are organic phacelia seeds that I ordered for free from Keep Britain Buzzing. I scattered over just a few of the seeds from the packet but I still overdid it! Bees go crazy for these plants, so I’m going to move it outdoors at some point. If our next place doesn’t have a garden I may just have to find somewhere to scatter the rest of the seeds…

Hope you are having a great Friday!

S. xo

Last week Jon and I went on a week long holiday to Poland with 6 of our friends.

Our friends Mike and Natalie are Polish, so lucky for us they showed us around and took us to some great places. We flew in to Wroclaw, stayed 2 nights at their family’s cabin by a lake, stayed 3 nights in an apartment in Krakow, and finally stayed 2 nights near Wroclaw at Natalie’s parents house. It was super fun!

I thought I’d share a few photos  from the trip, firstly of our time at the lovely cabin.

We went out on a boat in the lake, sunbathed, had barbecues and sat around the fire. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I found out from uni I had achieved a 1st on the second night and celebrated around the fire :) Before we came to the cabin we did a HUGE food shop, bought so much meat and crisps, and we pretty much didn’t stop eating the whole 2 days..

After our time at the cabin, we drove down to Krakow.

Jon and I visited Krakow 5 years ago for my 18th birthday, and this time it was Jon’s 23rd birthday! Woo! After the 3.5hr journey we arrived at the apartment and chose our rooms. After we all showered and changed out of our smoke filled clothes, we went for a lovely meal and drinks afterwards. We bought Jon a cake and they brought it out after our meal and everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’, it was so funny.

The next couple days we did some touristy stuff including Wawel Castle, Pharmacy Under the Eagle, Krakus Mound, etc. We visited Wedel in the main square twice for hot chocolates (they were so tasty). We also went for lunch to the same place twice since it was really good.

Recommended by Natalie’s Aunt the restaurant at Hotel Francuski does a special lunch deal which was a bargain. On Saturday it cost 20zl (around £4) for a 3 course meal and fruit drink. We had a vegetable soup to start, a quarter of a chicken each with boiled potatoes and salad for mains, and for dessert we had this peach with cream on sponge thing. All served off a trolley and the meat was carved in to quarters at the table too. Sunday cost 35zl as it had wine included. This time it was chicken soup, followed by pork with mashed potatoes and cabbage, and for dessert we had tiramisu. Couldn’t get over how good it all was!

Our final 2 nights were spent near Wroclaw.

We spent one day in Wroclaw where we visited the main square and islands. It was super cheap, 4zl for soup and roll and 2zl (20p) for a beer at a place right on the square!

The next day we spent at Natalie’s parents house. It rained a lot. We popped out for a bit to visit a castle where they had been to a wedding reception the week before which was lovely, but the rain didn’t stop. We went for a sauna back at their house (there was also one of those wooden tubs with a rope that you pull to tip cold water on yourself when you get out  - so cool) and chilled out. The morning of our last day the sun came back out (boo) so we made the most of it and sunbathed by the pool (!)

Had such a great time with everyone, and it was such a nice break to have before Jon started working on Monday. We also picked up a bit of Polish along the way!

S. xo

I am back from my holiday to Poland (more on that to follow) and am enjoying the weekend with these cookies and watching movies before Jon starts his grad job on Monday!

I brought some fresh home grown mint back from Poland, thanks to Natalie’s mum, and decided to use it to make these cookies. Mint choc chip is one of my favourite flavours, and is usually my first choice when choosing ice-cream.

I followed my go-to Chewy ‘Millie’s Cookie Style’ Cookies recipe, but replaced the 225g flourwith 185g self-raising flour and 40g cocoa powder. I added the chopped mint, which was around 2.5 tbsp, at the end along with 200g dark chocolate chips.

The dough made 14 regular cookies and I used the left overs (which would make 6 regular cookies) to make a giant cookie which I baked in a cake tin. I flattened it down in the pan with my knuckles to speed up the cooking time.

Then cook for around 8mins, adding a couple more minutes for the larger one, and they’re done. They are super chewy and so tasty. I love the fresh taste of the mint with the dark chocolate, half of them have already been eaten..

S. xo

On Thursday Jon and I drove down to the Lake District. We decided to break the journey from Edinburgh to Cardiff by staying overnight at Grasmere, and on Friday continuing on to Alton Towers and arriving in Cardiff in the evening. It was a 3hr drive to Grasmere and driving through the Lake District was gorgeous.

We booked the Youth Hostel on Monday, and the only one which had private rooms still available was the one in Grasmere. Grasmere is known as the place William Wordsworth lived, and apparently he described it as “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found”. The youth hostel was in this lovely converted Victorian mansion:

It was a great, cheap place to stay. We spotted 3 deer just outside the hostel and lots of rabbits running about. We went for a walk, and having done some research before heading out we decided upon the walk to Easedale Tarn.

It was a nice and easy walk, although it rained the whole time. I took a few too many photos of lambs along the first quarter of the route (they were so cute!), but as my legs started to get rather wet we sped up the hill along the waterfalls. The views were fantastic.

We reached Easedale Tarn, and there were just a few people about so it was nice and quiet. Wish we had waterproof trousers though! On the way back towards Grasmere the ground was very wet and muddy. There were stepping stones almost the whole way which helped a lot (luckily I had wellies on so it wasn’t too bad), but some parts it seemed we were walking in a stream!

By the time we got back to the youth hostel we were soaked through and we turned the heating up to full to start drying out our shoes and all of our clothes. Jon had a nap for an hour whilst I read a book, and before we knew it it was dinner time! Which meant we had missed having a look around the village shops. I really wanted to go to the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, but a look from the outside had to do instead…

We ate at a pub in Grasmere called The Lamb Inn which was yummy, and finished it off with apple crumble and ice-cream.

The next day we woke up early and headed down to Alton Towers. We were there from 10-5 and luckily it stayed dry the whole time. It was super quiet too, with the longest queue being 15mins. So fun!!

I would love to do some more exploring of the Lake District, hopefully with a bit less rain next time though!

S. xo

It’s week 7 and still enjoying it!

Week 7 Run 1:

When / Where / Weather: Saturday / Union Canal / sun

Comments: We tried a new route today straight from our flat and onto the canal from there. It felt great to have a change of scenery and it made it seem like a shorter distance that way. It also felt easier than the last run. Although very red faced by the end of it!

Week 7 Run 2:

When / Where / Weather: Wednesday / Union Canal / wind and rain

Comments: Today we had to run a day later than we should have because Jon had exams Monday and Tuesday. I think that made this run harder, as we were both feeling it in our legs today! I’m really enjoying seeing our progress on the nike+ app, with graphs of our pace etc and how much we’ve improved since the beginning.

Week 7 Run 3:

When / Where / Weather: Saturday / Union Canal / sun

Comments: Again we’ve had to wait 3 days till this run, exams getting in the way! All finished now though so we can get back into a better routine. Think we are going to stick with running straight from our flat too, now that we are more confident. Still felt pretty tired at the end of the run. The nike+ app told us we’d completed 5k in 32’40″, which would’ve included some of the walking. I hope by the end of week 9 we’ll be able to do 5k running in 30 mins, but even to run 5k straight shall be an accomplishment! :)

S. xo

//I am following the Couch to 5k plan from the NHS, listening to the free C25K podcasts, and using the nike+ app to track each run. You can see all the C25K posts here//

On Friday I had my last ever exam at University. 4 years of studying are over and it’s on to the big wide world now! Since I’ve finished I’ve been tidying and clearing out the flat, it gets so messy during revision times and I’m so happy to get rid of all of my notes that filled 8 lever arched files. I can now do fun things again – woohoo!!

Hope you are having a great bank holiday weekend :)

S. xo

It’s week 6 and still enjoying it!

Week 6 Run 1:

When / Where / Weather: Saturday / Union Canal / sun

Comments: I’d heard some people say that this run is a struggle. After doing the 20 min run it seems like this one will be fine, but that confidence can mean running faster and lead to getting tired quicker. So I made sure to keep it steady and start off slowly, and it went really well. This run was the farthest and quickest of them all that we’ve recorded on the nike+ app, getting closer to that 5k!

Week 6 Run 2:

When / Where / Weather: Tuesday / Union Canal / windy

Comments: On Monday I had my first exam in the morning, so instead we went for a run the next day. It was really windy and it made it quite hard to run on the way out. At around the halfway mark I had a bad stitch which made it a struggle and I felt so tired at the end of it. It makes me nervous for the 25 min run that’s coming next!

Week 6 Run 3:

When / Where / Weather: Thursday / Union Canal / rain

Comments: It rained today so no nike+. It started off really well, but between 12.5 and 20 mins was the hardest. We kept at a steady pace throughout and pushed through it. Felt good afterwards, and it’s awesome to think that 6 weeks ago we were running a minute at a time. Only 3 weeks to go, and no more walking between runs from here on!

S. xo

//I am following the Couch to 5k plan from the NHS, listening to the free C25K podcasts, and using the nike+ app to track each run. You can see all the C25K posts here//

• Busy studying (1 exam down, 2 to go!)
• Jon has got himself a graduate job starting in June! (Woo!)
• Eating Domino’s and more than one tub of ice-cream to celebrate
• Looking to move flats since we’ll be in Edinburgh for a little while longer
• Making lists of what we would like from our new flat (heating please!)
• Getting excited for our holiday to Poland at the end of May
• Planning what to do with the 3 weeks we have free between exams ending, going to Poland and Jon starting work
• Looking forward to graduation and having family up in Edinburgh
• Enjoying the progress with the C25K plan
• Feeling excited and nervous about finishing University forever next Friday

S. xo