Monday, May 31, 2021

Weekend in Saltburn: Day 3

We attempted to get breakfast on Sunday morning but failed. I know things are up and down with Covid, but a couple of places said they were open during the pandemic and then they just... weren't. So we gave up on that and set off to Whitby instead. We went down the coast road through Sandsend and Loftus, which was a nice drive, and parked near the Co op in Whitby. It was SO busy, I couldn't believe it and felt quite anxious even though we were out in the fresh air. 

We had lunch pretty quick as we hadn't had breakfast. My stepdad had fish and chips and the rest of us had sandwiches and chips. We ate them in the fresh air near the swing bridge, which is now closed to traffic on weekends and bank holidays, which made for a much less polluted lunch, so that was nice. We walked down the sea front, and then me, my mum and stepdad had a 20 minute ride on a boat. Lee gets motion sick so he walked over the bridge and went to the record shop in the marketplace, which he enjoyed, so everyone was fine. The boat ride was cute, I liked it. 

We were all quite tired so we didn't do much more, but we did go up on the top of West Cliff. I bought some donuts down in the town and ate them on the cliff top while everyone else had an ice cream. It is really lovely up top to look at the sea, across to the abbey, and down into the town. There's tons of B&Bs up there and we all said we would like to stay there one time. We stopped in Sandsend on the way back to Saltburn, which is again somewhere I'd like to go and stay. I love the waves there.

We went back to the apartments again and had pizzas that evening. We had made the decision to not cook all weekend which was great, but again there was lots of leftovers which we again brought home to eat later. 

Just before bed, we all walked down to the cliff top just down from our apartments. You could see the pier all lit up, and Redcar all lit up to the left. I took some pretty decent photos with my phone! 


Whitby quayside


The back of the boat we got on 


Looking at the Magpie cafe on our way out


The east cliff


The wake of the boat


A very terrible selfie, I swear I was having a good time




I liked this boat back on the quayside


My mum!


Donuts!


The small boat on the right is the one we had been on 


Sandsend



Saltburn pier at night


This photo I took with the flash on


And this one I didn't, I love it, don't you?!

Thursday, May 27, 2021

What I Wore 8th May

I wore a new top on Saturday 8th May. I don't know if you've seen the Channel 4 drama It's A Sin, which focuses on gay men in the 80s as the Aids crisis hits, but my friends and I watched it together and really enjoyed it (and found it very sad and tragic too). In it, the group of friends greets each other by saying 'La!' and my friends and I joked that that's how we will greet each other when we're finally allowed to see each other post lockdown.

Then I saw on Twitter that someone was making La t-shirts. The person is Philip Normal, who has a shop here. The La t-shirts cost £25, but £17 of that goes to the Terrence Higgins Trust which is committed to fighting Aids. I already support THT so was happy for that money to go to them. I ordered the XXL, hoping it would fit. It arrived super quickly and I wanted to wear it while we were away.

The XXL does fit me, but it's a little snug on my hips and would ride up I think. But as I was going to tuck the top into a skirt anyway, I don't think it mattered that it was a little snug on my hips. I wore it with my yellow Scarlett & Jo skirt, which I love and which I wear often. Please excuse my hair in this photo - I'd been out in the wind and hadn't yet brushed it! 

I love this outfit. La! 



Monday, May 24, 2021

Weekend in Saltburn: Day 2

On Saturday morning while we were in Saltburn my mum ventured out and found breakfast for us - full English for her and my stepdad, and veggie breakfasts for me and Lee (who doesn't eat red meat). It was yummy! We set off about half past twelve to go up the coast through Redcar. There wasn't much open there so we carried on to Middlesbrough, where my mum fulfilled a lifelong dream and saw the Transporter Bridge. Unfortunately it's not open at the moment or I think we would have gone on it! It was pretty cool to see, though. 

We went back through Redcar and stopped. There were a few shops open which we went into, and we got ice creams and drinks from an ice cream parlour right on the front. We sat in a shelter to eat as it was quite cold and a bit wet. I had a unicorn ice cream which was delicious and also matched my hoodie, haha. 

Lee and I dropped my mum and stepdad off at their apartment and then went to some shops in Saltburn. I had seen there was an independent bookshop so we went there, and in a couple of other places. Then we had seen a chocolate shop so we bought some fancy chocolates and some hot drinks to drink back at the apartment. Again, we needed a bit of a rest before the evening. 

In the evening we got Thai food from a place called Coco and Rum that in normal times I'd have loved to go in because it had delicious cocktails! I had tempura vegetables, then tofu and vegetable panang curry which was so spicy and delicious - it's one of my Thai favourites. Everyone enjoyed their food, and there was loads left over which we brought home to eat on Monday night. 

In the evening we played games again. We had an earlier night because I was so tired!


The transporter bridge


And from closer to


South of Redcar somewhere


This beach would have been lovely on a sunny day


This was closer to Middlesbrough - look at the river of rain across the path!


My ice cream was ludicrous... 


But it did match my hoodie... 


Lee had a rapsberry tango ice blast and it dyed his tongue blue for ages


Back in Redcar


Like with a lot of seaside places, there's been a lot of regeneration of Redcar seafront and building is still going on. I hope this is something we continue to see!

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Weekend in Saltburn: Day 1

As I said, Lee and I were away with my mum and stepdad in Saltburn by the Sea, which is about half an hour north of Whitby. Lee and I have been before with our friends Leanne and Adi, but had never stayed there, so I was excited to do that. We had booked apartments opposite each other on Amber Street, which is just near the cliff top near the funicular (although that wasn't running due to Covid, which is a shame). Ours was the bigger apartment so we spent more time there, especially as it had a good size dining table which was best for eating at.

We set off on Friday morning and met up in Thirsk for lunch. There's a book shop there that has a cafe in it, and I remembered they had tables outside even pre Covid, so that was ideal for lunch. It chucked it down though and we weren't totally under the gazebo, so Lee and I got wet. But lunch was nice. We went in a couple of charity shops and then set off to Saltburn. We got settled, and then around 4pm went down to the front. It was raining on and off, but we didn't get too wet. We got an ice cream just near the pier, because you have to have ice cream by the seaside!

We weren't out very long. As I've been ill, I needed to rest quite a bit, so I had a lie down. We ordered food from a place in Redcar - my stepdad wanted fish and chips so he and Lee had that, my mum had fishcake, and I had a vegetarian cheeseburger which was really nice! We did quizzes in after tea and drank wine and it was really lovely. I've really missed seeing my mum over a year of lockdown - I would normally see her at least once a week and it was so hard to barely see her. So it was lovely to spend a whole weekend with her!

Here's my photos from Friday:


Saltburn pier


And from closer to 


Me with the pier behind me. You can tell I've not been well - I look really pale here! My lips are the same colour as my face!


Lee and I with ice creams


The sea! Gorgeous sea!


Lee and my mum


Beautiful rainbow beach huts


And the other side of the pier :)

Saturday, May 15, 2021

What I Wore 7th May

We went away for the weekend last weekend, to Saltburn by the Sea, which was totally lovely and much needed. We went with my mum and stepdad, although we stayed in different apartments which happened to be across the road from each other. It was so great and I'll share more photos, but first of all here's a new piece of clothing I wore. 

I ordered the black bardot dress from Yours at the same time as this multi coloured tie dye hoodie. I liked it in the picture, and although when it came it's a little more subdued than I was expecting, I still liked it enough to keep it. It's got nice length sleeves and it was very cosy and warm when I was in the sea air getting rained on, which makes it nice to wear! It's a bargain at £27 I think. I was wearing it with the black Bardot dress, leggings, and my slip on Converse, which I wore all weekend and found comfortable to do lots of walking in! 



Tuesday, May 11, 2021

What I Wore 5th May

I recently was browsing Yours Clothing because I wanted a new long skirt to wear around the house. I didn't find the kind of thing I needed, but I did pick up a new dress and a new tie dye hoodie (which I'll show you in a little bit). I loved the look of this acid wash black Bardot dress and it was around £25 which I thought was fine. I love Bardot tops like this - they suit me and I find them easy to wear, and I like how they show off my tattoos. 

This arrived and I put it on a few days later to pop to work. Now, I blogged last week about being in A&E and being ill. Well, to add insult to injury, I woke up on Tuesday 4th May with a dental abscess. My face was SO swollen. I managed to get in to see a dentist and got some antibiotics, but you can see in this photo that I couldn't smile with the right hand side of my face. Total fail! 

I love the dress though, I'll definitely be wearing it a lot this summer! I'm just hoping for some good weather!



Saturday, May 8, 2021

Films of the Month - April

I again didn't watch many films in April. I have to wonder at this point whether I will pick up films again or not. Last year and for the past few years I've watched around 150 films in a year. This year, so far, I've seen 35 in four months, so I might only make a hundred this year. I can't really explain WHY I haven't seen many films. I've been watching a lot of TV instead I guess!

Here's what I did see:


Everyone had been going on about Seaspiracy so I watched it. I thought it did make some good points, but the criticisms that have been levelled at it are completely valid. It's worth a watch with those criticisms in mind though I think


I rewatched the Hatton Garden TV drama with Timothy Spall in it recently, so I decided I'd watch the films that were made about the event, too. I haven't got round to King of Thieves yet, but I did watch Hatton Garden: The Heist. It's crap. Don't bother. The TV drama is way better!


I think I've said before that I'm really fascinated by Mt Everest and the people who climb it, so I was interested in this film about Sherpas, who are the native Tibetan people who help tourists climb the mountain by like carrying all their shit and making up camps. One of them, Tenzing Norgay, was one of the first on top of the mountain, along with Edmund Hilary (the two men refused to say which of them actually summitted first). Some of his descendents still work on the mountain. It's a better paying job than a lot of jobs in Nepal, but it's dangerous and thankless. This was an interesting documentary, and only solidified my opinion that white people need to just leave the mountain alone


My mum recommended Six Minutes to Midnight to me, and I'm glad I bothered to find it because I liked it. It's got Eddie Izzard as a teacher in a girls school in England that taught young German girls, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. It's based on a true story apparently. It's good


I recently rewatched Gentleman Jack, the recent TV series about Anne Lister starring Suranne Jones, but I had of course heard of this previous film, starring Maxine Peake. It's okay, I didn't love it though 


Finally I watched Crazy Rich Asians which I just really like, it's cute and Henry Golding is a dish

Monday, May 3, 2021

A Morning in A&E

This all may be too much information, or triggering, but here's my experience with endometriosis recently: 

I ended up in A&E last week. I've been suffering with endometriosis for years, but have only just got a diagnosis. Last autumn I had some investigations, and when the results came back in January it turned out I needed another procedure, under anaesthetic. However, because of the thickness of my womb lining (around 2cm for goodness sake!) I first of all needed some meds to thin that so they could do the procedure better. I was given three months' worth, and an appointment was made for mid-April for the procredure to happen. However, it turned out that the referring doctor in January didn't do the referral properly, so I hadn't had a pre op assessment, so the procedure couldn't go ahead. So, I was out of the medication, and I asked the clinician if I needed more. I was told no, so, fine, I moved on.

But I was already bleeding again, a bit. I had my pre op assessment and needed some different medication for something else, which put the surgery back by two weeks while I saw my GP and sorted that out. The pre op nurse was quite arsey with me, as if it was my fault that this needed to happen first, when in fact it was her department who wouldn't pass me as fit for surgery. After my assessment I started bleeding again more heavily. 

I have always had "bad periods" but honestly, I think people have no idea what that means. I can bleed through a super tampon in twenty minutes, and I regularly bleed clots that are the size of the palm of my hand. That started happening in the middle of April. I can usually cope, and it does often stop after a couple of weeks or so. But what made it different this time was the pain. On the 25th of April I was in so much pain that I couldn't speak or concentrate on anything. I went to bed early and concentrated very hard on lying still. 

On Monday I was still in pain but it faded a bit so I thought, okay, the worst is over, I can cope. But on Tuesday morning I was trying to work, and the pain crept up again. I spent most of the afternoon in bed. I rang the gynaecology clinic and beg for more medication, and was given some more of the original medication from January, that I ran out of (and which I personally I think I shouldn't have been allowed to be without...). Lee had to go to the hospital to pick that prescription up for me.

Tuesday evening I again felt a little bit better. But then at 3.40 on Wednesday morning I woke up in the worst pain yet. I could barely breathe. I was bleeding horribly. I got Lee to phone an ambulance but there was a delay of an hour, so instead around 5am he drive me to the hospital. He of course couldn't stay with me because of Covid, so I had to go in alone. I was triaged quickly and thankfully given some codeine, which helped. I was told there was about an eight hour wait to see a doctor. Those are Tory cuts for you! Don't vote Tory!

However, I was moved from the waiting room within a couple of hours, and moved to a triaged bed. This was way better as the pain was better when I was lying down. A&E is a weird place to be, though, isn't it? I was moved up to gynaecology at around 10.30, as I was obviously aready under their care. I was the only one there and I felt a lot calmer. I was seen by a doctor there and she examined me and basically just said I needed to wait for the surgery to happen. But she did give me a prescription for painkillers, which has helped.

The next couple of days I had to take it so easy, I had to lie down and rest a lot and nap when I needed to. The pain hasn't been so bad, and I've kept taking all the meds as needed. I will say that I have just literally never known pain like that, and Lee said he hadn't seen me in that much pain either. I'm now waiting for a date for surgery, which will hopefully be before the end of May. I'm not sure what will happen after that, but I hope not a repeat of April! 


Sitting in gynaecology...