Day Out near Derby

As I said, we were in a hotel between Derby and Nottingham for the night. We paid extra to have breakfast in the hotel which was nice, it's been ages since we did that. We checked out about eleven and went into Derby to go shopping. We had been in the shopping centre last November when we went to Derby to meet Elly Griffiths so we knew where it was and where to park. We went into a few shops, including Tiger, where I bought some stroopwaffel, and The Works, where I bought some paper and a copy of Brett Anderson's memoir (who even knew he had one?). However I was pretty tired and in pain from the day before so we decided to not stay in the shopping centre.

We set off towards a reservoir, thinking we could have a little look round and maybe a drink, but on the way we saw the sign for Mercia Marina and decided to stop off there instead. There's lots of narrowboats in the marina which I like looking at, and quite a few shops and restaurants which are all quite posh. We walked round some of the shops but then it started to rain so we went into the Boardwalk bar for a drink. I had a really yummy cocktail and we shared a vegetarian platter which was nice. It was a nice couple of hours just chilling out and chatting.

After that we set off home, it was getting quite late. It was a really lovely weekend and I'm so glad we took the time to do it. We have talked about doing it again soon!

These cute pieces of art were in the hotel. We stayed in this Holiday Inn and I would utterly recommend it because it was a bit fancy and very peaceful even though it was really busy

The marina. I love narrowboats, I really want to go on a holiday on one!

More boats

Me after I got caught in the rain

Pornstar martini which is one of my favourite cocktails ever

Lovely Lee. He had hot chocolate

I had a bubblegum cocktail which was only okay, I preferred the other one

Here's what I got in the shops!