What I Wore 16th October

This is what I wore to go out with Sam. I was just browsing my dresses and spied this pink Lindy Bop dress that I've had forever, so I pulled it out. I was looking for my black cardigan to wear with it, but I couldn't find it (we had recently done SO much washing, it seemed to pile up from before and after our holiday) but I spied my Beth Ditto heart print cardigan so I pulled that out. I like the clash of prints and colours, I think it works. I put on my cropped leggings - just after this was when it dropped colder so this might be the last wearing of the cropped leggings this year - and my Dr Marten shoes. I've had them forever but only started wearing them properly a couple of years ago. They're broken in now and pretty comfortable, so perfect for the winter. I haven't worn them in forever through the summer, but took them on holiday.

I put a little bit of make up on, including a bright pink Clinique lipstick that a friend gave me - I love the pop of pink!

Eating Out in Barnsley with Sam

In the middle of October Sam came over to Barnsley. We had had plans to go to Sheffield with Jac too but she had an emergency and couldn't come. So we decided to go to the new Market Kitchen in Barnsley.

They've been building this whole new bit at the bottom of the precinct/over the market for over four years - I recently had a picture in TimeHop which showed when they had knocked down a lot of the old market. It was a shame but the town also desperately needed something like this. It is mostly finished - there's some shops in, and a Super Bowl and some other gaming stuff, and the Market Kitchen is open, and so is the Falco Lounge. I like those Lounges - they're a chain but each one is named differently, and they do good veggie food and all day breakfasts so I know I can get something good to eat if I'm near one. 

Lee dropped me off about 3pm and Sam arrived shortly after off the train. We considered going in the Falco Lounge - which opens on to the library, which is very cute and which I hope makes people use the library more - but decided on the Market Kitchen instead.

It's upstairs from the market, so you could easily visit both. There are a ton of seats in the middle and several restaurants around the edge, and a bar, and a balcony. You can order from any of the restaurants to any table, like a food court, meaning you and your companions could have totally different foods and drinks but still all sit together. I like this! It's good for groups.

Sam and I went to sit outside to begin with as it wasn't cold. It was really nice to look out to the new precinct. We ordered two cocktails each on the app - I had a Lively Lychee and a Sex on the Beach. We ordered some more a little time later - this time I had a spiced rum and mixer and a mojito. There was no glass allowed outside which is why I'm guessing my mojito came in a pint glass! By this time it was around 5pm and getting chillier, so we went inside to order food.

Lots of the restaurants sounded good but Sam and I both fancied Thai food so we ordered it. I got tofu Massaman curry (which is one of my favourites), jasmine rice, and tempura vegetables. Sam had pork jungle curry, rice, and tempura vegetables too. Mine was SO good, I could eat it again right now!

We got another cocktail each but then left just before 7pm. Sam popped into a shop for snacks and we got the bus home - we had gone to a taxi rank but none showed up so we got a bus as it comes really close to my house which is fine. Lee was out playing a gig so Sam and I watched some of the Stand Up to Cancer stuff on Channel 4 and had some wine. It was a really good night even though it was different to what we had planned! 

View from the balcony - the buildings on the left are Falco Lounge and the library, and on the right is Super Bowl

Me and Sam - one amigo down, we missed her!

Lively Lychee and Sex on the Beach

Looking along the balcony - there was tables behind us too so it's pretty big

Rum and mixer and a mojito

Food! It was pretty cheap too

Sam's last cocktail was a Zombie, which arrived on fire, but she was in the loo so I had to take a photo of it for her

This heart is in the library

And so is this! 

I really liked the new stuff, it's about time Barnsley had something like this, I will definitely go back!

Trip to Morecambe - Day 7

As you can imagine, we were tired the day after we went to Blackpool so we laid in and had some breakfast and then set off for Arnside. I read on someone's blog that Arnside and Silverdale are really pretty, so I had said we should go. We packed a lunch and drove up to Arnside, which is tiny but so pretty! We parked on the front and walked down the pier, which was quite busy but full of benches, and sat one right on the front to eat our lunch. There were people fishing and although it was cool it wasn't raining so it was nice to sit for a bit. 

Arnside has a few shops so we went in a few of those. We considered an ice cream but it really was a bit cold so we got hot drinks from one shop instead. Then we drove through Silverdale, which was a bit something and nothing - I'm not sure if we missed the main bit. We ended up back in Carnforth, where the Heritage Centre was open, so we went in. 

I have never seen Brief Encounter, but I have seen it parodied by Scripps and Posner in The History Boys, which is very funny, so I kind of wanted to see the stuff about it being filmed at Carnforth. There's a lot of information and pictures, and the film was playing in one area with old cinema seats. There is also a ton of info about the area and the station, which I also liked too. The centre is free and I would recommend it. The week after we came back off holiday I watched Brief Encounter and thoroughly enjoyed it!

After that we drove back through Morecambe and stopped on the front. Lee walked down to a record shop but it turned out they were Covid conspiracy theorists with all kinds of nonsense in the window, so he decided to not spend any money there even though they had things he wanted! Such a shame. 

We did have a whippy ice cream though, which was lovely and was the last thing I wanted on the holiday! The sun was shining and it was nice out! 

We went back to the caravan and went swimming for the last time. The park was starting to get busy again with people, so there were a couple of people in the pool but it was still good to swim in. 

Then we went out for something to eat and....... it did not go well. We went to Morecambe Tandoori and waited FIFTY MINUTES for our starters. We asked then how long our mains would be and the waiter snapped, "We're very busy!" Yes, we could see that, but a word of apology would have gone a long way. It really annoyed me, so we walked out. We paid for what we'd had but didn't stay for our main courses. I hate it when peopl don't say sorry! If he'd said "I'm really sorry, we'll get your mains out as soon as possible," I would have probably stayed and waited. But nope.

It did put a bit of a dampener on the end of the holiday, but we got back to the caravan and relaxed and watched something on the TV, so it didn't really matter. We packed most things up before bed, but left some for the following morning. We left at 10 and it's not really too far home to ours. Soon we'd retrieved the kittens and were all at home relaxing!

I wore a dress from Yours and a mint jumper during the day on Friday, you've seen this outfit before as I really like the dress and the combination of the two. In the evening I put on this new Simply Be dress that I got recently. I love the cream and spotty pattern, but the style of dress is a bit out of my comfort zone as I didn't have anything on underneath it except my knickers and bra! But I decided to style it out and wear it anyway, I like how it looks!

We had such a lovely week, full of fun things but relaxing too.

On the pier at Arnside

The bay is pretty murky here, it's where the river meets the sea I think

People fishing

Look at the sky

All the shops along the front

I liked the blue of this shop, too. This is where we bought the hot drinks from

Arriving at Carnforth station

I love old luggage like this, Lee laughed at me

The clock in Brief Encounter wasn't the actual clock, apparently... 

I love old signs like this

And like this

And here's poor Laura feeling terrible in Brief Encounter

Info about the film

Old packaging, which I also love

The station master's office, which apparently the cast and crew of the film used to sit in between takes

Me sitting on the prom at Morecambe, I had contact lenses in!

All the stuff we won in 2p machines over the week

The sea was pretty far in this time, but was turning

Looking the other way

Ice cream!

Me and my sunglasses and my ice cream

Yours dress and New Look jumper during the day

A bit of make up to go out

The new dress, I like it!

And finally, the setting sun just on the front in Morecambe before we went for food... 

Trip to Morecambe - Day 6

By the time you read this, it will nearly be Christmas! How weird! I hope you have a good Christmas if you're celebrating. I hope Christmas 2021 is better than Christmas 2020, but who knows where we'll be by then. I wish Covid would naff off, but it doesn't seem likely any time soon, especially as the government seem to have entirely washed their hands of it. 

Anyway. The sixth day of our holiday to Morecambe. This was the busiest day! When I was away with Jacqui and friends, she had mentioned she was going to go and see the Illuminations in Blackpool with her sister. Lee and I had talked about going to Blackpool from Morecambe, and I thought I would really like to see the illuminations again; I saw them when I was about twelve years old but that's a very long time ago. I looked it up online and you can get one of two heritage trams up and down the seafront to sea the lights, and a seat was a very resonable £8 each, so I said to Lee we should go. I booked the 8.30pm tram, which was lit up like a train. 

Then Lee said we should go to the water park near the Pleasure Beach. He's been before - for quite a few years he and his brother and their friend went to the Rebellion festival which is held in Blackpool every August, and at one point they went to the water park. So I looked into that and although it's quite expensive - £22 each - we decided it was worth it. As it was term time, the water park had limited opening hours so we had to book to go in between 11am and 2pm. It was on a sessional basis, but three hours seemed like enough time, so it was fine. 

We set off after breakfast and go to Blackpool around 10.30am. We went into the water park just before eleven and got changed. It's a big park - there's one pool on the right that has a wave machine, there's a pool on the left that has a lazy river in it, then there's slides and fountains and a totally wet area which had a huge bucket that filled up and spilt over periodically - we stood under it at one point which was totally loopy but fun. Lee went on a couple of slides but they're not for me. I enjoyed the wave machine and the lazy river though, and reckon I got my money's worth. 

We had some lunch about 1pm, just some chips and a drink, and then got out at 2pm and got showered. We went back to the car and decided to drive up the front. We had booked food for 5pm so we had some time to kill. We ended up driving all the way to Fleetwood. I was surprised how busy Blackpool still was. We parked at Fleetwood and went in an amusement arcade there. Then we went for food at 5pm.

It was a Chinese restaurant and it was already busy even at opening. Lee had something he really liked, so that was good. I had salt and pepper tofu and noodles, which was nice but a little bit dry. But it was fine. It came very quickly so we were done by just before 6. We drove back to the Pleasure Beach car park and went in some more amusement arcades, including one Lee used to go in a lot as a kid. We sat on the prom for a bit as it was really mild, and nice to people watch for a bit.

I had been telling Lee all day that the tram we were on was at 7.30, only then when I looked it was 8.30. Oops. That meant we still had some time to kill but we were both kind of knackered from the water park and didn't want to play in any more arcades. So we sat in the car. Lee went and bought donuts for me and an ice cream for himself and we sat in the car for a bit just chilling. It was nice actually, it was a bit of downtime before the tram!

We boarded the tram and as it's a heritage one it's pretty small and also has really high steps which I did struggled with a bit. We were squashed into one seat but then the tram wasn't full so we moved to two seats opposite each other. You get a good view of the lights and then there's some tableaux at Bispham which are really cool. The tram then travels up to Fleetwood before turning round, meaning you get to see both sides of the lights. I really enjoyed the trip and would do it again in a few years.

By the time we got off the tram it was 9.45pm, so we hopped in the car and drove straight back to the caravan! It was late, so we went straight to bed and read for a bit. We were knackered but it had been worth it! 

I have lots of photos!

The water park from outside - a couple of the slides come outside!

The Pleasure Beach while we were waiting to go in - there was a grand total of ONE person on the roller coaster!

The water park, the pool with the lazy river is to the left of that half pipe ride thing

And this is the pool with the waves

After we got showered and dressed we sat in the cafe and had a hot chocolate each

Driving up the front

This Georgian (or similar) terrace was at Fleetwood, the amusements we went into were just to the right of this

My salt and pepper tofu and noodles

The tower and the wheel!

One of the arcades we went into had this lovely circus tent roof

And this weird sound stage was playing some funky music

Looking up the tramway

And the tower and wheel all lit up

Our tram just arriving at 7.30, the trip before ours

Pleasure Beach all lit up

Waiting in the car

Donuts!

Going past the wheel on the tram

Cute light up ball

Some of the tableaux

Cute lights too

I liked these moon faces

And these animals

And a peacock!

Lee pointed out to me that this was the mouse running up the clock

Dancing lights

Daleks and the TARDIS!

Alice in Wonderland

And again

Coming back, this pink hotel was all lit up

And I manged to get the tower in

Isn't it lovely?