Lincoln Zine Fest 2023

It was Lincoln Zine Fest again on the 22nd of October and I of course got a table and was all ready for it. Lee couldn't come because he was playing a gig in York, so I asked my mum to come along with me. She arrived at mine just after 8am and we set off in Lee's car. The week before had been really rainy and a lot of the countryside was flooded, but fortunately we were able to get through. We got there about 9.45 and managed to park in the car park opposite the museum. We went in and got my table set up - I was on one end so had plenty of space and a big table. 

My mum had never been to a zine fest before so it was all new for her! She had a walk round as things got underway and she bought some bits. I was sat crocheting which was nice. I had a wander round too and bought quite a few zines! I didn't sell loads but still enough, and it was nice to see Lou and Si and Lou's mum! 

We left about 4.15pm and we weren't sure what to do next as Lee would be out until late and I wanted something to eat. We decided to go pick up my stepdad and go out for some food. My mum suggested that we try the Tandoori Hut which is in Barnsley on Wakefield Road and lots of people have recommended it. We got there about 6.30pm and they had a table which was great. Everything inside is all shiny and marble, giving the whole place a bit of a fancy air. It was really busy which gave it a nice atmosphere. I had onion bhajis and spinach paneer with rice. We all enjoyed the food and we will have to go again with Lee! 

I chilled out for a couple of hours when I got home before Lee got back not too late and it was time for bed! Zine fests absolutely exhaust me so I was glad I got to rest for a bit after I'd had a busy week. Fortunately, too, I didn't do anything on the Sunday so I had a very lazy day!

My stall all set up, doesn't it look cute?

I had some nice food in the museum - a vegan sausage roll, a brownie, and this Halloween themed hot chocolate. It had these cute sprinkles on top and was pumpkin spice flavoured! So nice

At tea time I stole this ring off my mum to try on. It fits me perfectly! She inherited it from my grandma earlier in the year

Onion bhajis - they were nice and quite spicy!

Spinach paneer. I didn't eat it all so I brought it home and ate it later in the week!

Lunch with Chloe and Lolly

On the 19th of October I went to Sheffield to have lunch with Lolly and Chloe, which we try to do every couple of months. We had decided to go to Pho in Sheffield which was all really like, so Chloe came to mine early on and then I drove us to Middlewood tram stop and we got the tram to the city centre and wandered through to meet Laura. We went to Costa for a coffee first because we were a bit early for Pho. Then we went to Pho and I had what I always have - summer rolls with peanut sauce and tofu curry. I love both of them so never deviate from it, haha. 

We said goodbye at about 2.30pm and Chloe and I got the tram back to Middlewood and then back to mine. Chloe went home and I got changed into my pyjamas because I was still really tired from our holiday and was generally under the weather all week, I think just because I had done so much! I'm fortunately feeling much better now which I'm glad about. 

I was wearing burgundy tights with bats on from Snag that I haven't worn before, I really like them and thought they were apt as it was coming up towards Halloween. Then I wore my galaxy print dress from Topsy Curvy. It's soft and easy to wear and I knew Chloe and Lolly would like it! 

New tights - I've got some other bat ones too

Summer rolls with peanut sauce. I wish they would sell the peanut sauce in bottles because it's so good!

All three of us in Pho

Tofu curry - so yum, I could eat it right now! 

And finally my galaxy print dress when I got home!

Trip to Mallorca - Day 8

The last day of our holiday was really just travelling home, but I thought I would blog it anyway. We had a bus transfer booked at just after 9am so we didn't need to be up until 8am or so because we had done lots of packing the night before and just needed to finish that up before leaving. We had decided we would eat in the airport so didn't need to get breakfast in the hotel.

However, our day started at 4.30am when the man in the room next to us started screaming at the woman with him for ages, carrying on and on and on. We were very concerned so Lee got security and it all kicked off and was horrible. We managed to sleep from about 6.30 to 7.30 when it kicked off again so we were up and ready much earlier than we needed to be. It was a horrible end to the week, I'm glad we weren't involved but it didn't sound nice at all. 

We checked out and waited on the street for the bus, it arrived a bit late but it was fine. It took us to the airport and we got through security quite quickly and into the airport. It was very busy so we decided to get Burger King - it was about 11am by this point I reckon. It was the same food as here so it was nice, I enjoyed it. We got on the plane about noon, after a kerfuffle with our little case, but again, it was fine. We were late taking off and then when we landed in Manchester we had an aborted landing as it was raining and the pilot couldn't see the runway! So he took off again and then we sort of hoevered over the moors for about ten minutes before we gave it another go and managed to land this time! It was funny, not terrifying, but still!

We got through security and everything and finally back to our car, and then we made good time home. My mum has gone and picked up the cats so that they were at home when we got home, which was lovely. We had missed them! We unpacked and then had a nap because we were knackered.

We don't often go on package holidays but given that we wanted to do very little except sit in the sunshine, swim, and have some relaxation time, it was perfect for that. Everything went well and although the hotel needed some work on it, it was really nice and really we couldn't complain at all. We may do this again some time!

Despite the noise next door I still wanted to go out on to the balcony for the last time at like 7.30 so I did. It was about eighteen degrees and I was just in my nightie which was lovely. This was the same view as before, but earlier. I was so happy we were in this building and that we could see the sea

And this was the view from the corner of the balcony, we were lucky to be in a corner room with a good view. This pool was the best one and it was lovely to sit around

Looking back up towards the hotel entrance as we left

I liked the bottom middle sticker on this street sign where we were picked up

And this was looking down the very steep hill that we'd walked up and down a bunch of times

Zoomed further in so you can see the sea at the bottom

And finally I think the one good upside of Brexit, if there is one, a tiny one, is that you now get stamps in your passport. These are from Mallorca this time and Carcassonne last year

Trip to Mallorca - Day 7

On the last proper day of our holiday we got up quite early and had breakfast in the hotel which included churros which were nice. Then we played mini golf which was just in front of the building we were in. It was still in the shade which was nice at that time! It wasn't too difficult but it was fun. Lee beat me but only by one point!

Then we walked down the huge hill again and turned right at the bottom this time, where we found a shop that was a bit like Kenji or Flying Tiger - it has all kinds of nonsense in it! I ended up buying a rose quartz face massager for just four euros! We went in a few shops and got some souvenirs for my mum and stepdad to take home. Then we went back to the bar we had had lunch in on Wednesday for the crepes we had been promising ourselves! Lee had ice cream and I had banana and Nutella. They were absolutely amazing, we both really enjoyed them and were glad we had made the effort to go back down for them! 

We walked back up the hill via Spar because I wanted to get some bags of Haribo that you can't get here to take home. I'd had some earlier in the week and really enjoyed them so spent a few euros on a few different bags. We went back to the hotel and sat round the pool from about 1pm until gone 5pm. It was nice to just relax for the end bit of our holiday and I'm glad we got some final sunshine. The little cat also visited us at one point and Lee fed her some little bits of crisp! 

We got showered and packed a lot of our stuff up before going for tea for the last time. That time there was something for dessert that was like croissants cut open with Nutella inside - I really liked them and had two! I then had a cocktail in the bar afterwards too. 

During the day I wore my Sprinkle of Glitter dress which you saw earlier in the week. In the evening I wore this cloud print dress that I got from Yours last year. I've only worn it a couple of times so far but again it's one of those dresses that are really nice to wear on holiday. Especially as I could show off my tan on my shoulders! I didn't get sunburnt at all which I'm glad about, and I even managed to get some tanning on my legs which never usually happens. 

The mini golf course - it was fun even though it was only six holes

The Kenji type shop we found, it had so many cute things in it!

Looking up one street from the seafront, isn't it pretty?

Lee waiting for his crepe

And there's me!

My gorgeous crepe! They were really reasonably priced, too

Here I am in the shade on our last afternoon in my fave sunglasses and a different headscarf this time. I was really glad I managed to not burn my head!

In the shade looking out at the pool and the main building

A very very tiny bit of cloud

The cat! She was extremely cute!

Here I am in my cloud print dress

And my last cocktail!

Trip to Mallorca - Day 6

On the Thursday of our holiday we had talked about going down to the beach front to eat crepes, but we actually decided we were too knackered from the day before so decided we would just stay around the pool all day. We got up late and went to the snack bar for brunch as we had previously. We left our towels at the pool as we did that and noticed someone had a little kitten on one of the sun loungers. As we got back from lunch we saw that the kitten belonged to the cat that we had seen previously! Someone fed it some milk and then the cat came along, making sure her kitten was okay. Then she picked it up and washed it, and then it followed her back behind a building which is where they seemed to live! The kitten was SO little! It was so lovely to see!

Lee went down to the bar at one point and discovered that there was decaf coffee available so he brought us one of those each which was lovely. I was using my new headphones listening to some music and sunbathing and basically soaking up all the Vitamin D. 

We went down to the bottom pool at one point but it was too cold to swim in. We dithered on the steps for a bit but then I did a length and back but it was really too cold for it. It didn't have much of the sun in October and I think that was the problem. We had a drink in the bar instead for some time out of the sun, and then got ice creams on the way back up. The shop had a good choice of ice cream which was good! 

We stayed in the pool area until about 5.30, but the last time I got in I started to shiver. I think I had too much sun as that often happens to me if I've had too much sun, so we decided to call it a day a bit earlier. I think I had a nap before I got a shower and we went down for food. It was a nice, relaxing day!

Pool cat and her kitten! I can't explain just how little it was!

This was my view for most of the day, blissful. One type of sun lounger was absolutely no good for me - I was worried I was going to break it - but these ones were good

Decaf coffee and my ear bud holder - it charges them! It's living in the modern age!

This was the building we were in, I took this to show my mum

And although my finger is in this photo, I'm posting because it shows that the shade was on us part of the day!

This was the bottom pool that was absolutely freezing. As you can see there wasn't much sun on it

Cocktail time!

We must have moved to the other side of the pool by this point

Lee had had one of these XXL Cornettos earlier in the week so I had one too. They're huge! Really gorgeous though, I will look out for them again

The sun was setting by this point 

Wearing this Yours dress for the evening. Again it's perfect for my holidays and I liked it with these yellow sandals. You can also see the little bag I took so I didn't have to carry my entire handbag with me

This was in the bar area; the restaurant was in the basement of this building. I'm glad we weren't staying in there though because it was loud

I took this from our balcony. I think this was the evening we rang Lee's mam to show her too which was nice

And the same view just zoomed out!

Trip to Mallorca - Day 5

On the Wednesday of our holiday we went to the beach! If you know me at all you'll know that I love swimming in the sea and being on the beach in general, so I was really happy when we booked a hotel really close to the sea. It was down that huge hill but it was basically fine for me as we took it slowly. So we got up and had breakfast in the hotel before heading down to the beach in our swim stuff. It was about 11am when we got there and already warm. We put our towels kind of in the shade but it was obviously moving fast so we ended up in the sun anyway. 

I went in the sea! Lee doesn't like the beach or the sea very much so he just paddled in the shallow water while holding all the valuables, which was really helpful. Clay had told me on Monday that the bay is very shallow and she wasn't wrong - I walked out really quite far and was still only up to my boobs and could stand up. I did swim, but I could stand up too. The water was also really warm and just lovely, so I really liked it. I am so glad I got to do this and 

About 1pm we went to get some lunch from one of the restaurants on the beach front that we had seen the night before. It had crepes which we both like so we thought we would get those. We were in the shade which was much needed. I had a massive beer which was the size of my head. Lee had a tuna and onion pizza and I had a salmon, avocado, and cream cheese crepe. It was absolutely gorgeous! We considered having crepes for pudding but honestly we were both really full so we decided we would come down for crepes the day after instead. 

I swam again in the afternoon, twice. Then we decided to head back to the pool before it closed, and we bought ice creams on the way back up the big hill. We went swimming and were talking to a woman from Northern Ireland and her cute little girl. We had a lie down and a shower as usual before going to the restaurant for something to eat. The last photo is us in the bar last thing at night when we went for a drink! 

This was first thing in the morning when I was standing on our balcony. We could see the sea from our room which was really lovely 

This is what I wore to go on the beach. My swimming costume is underneath. On top of my costume are shorts from Yours which I love and wear a lot on holiday because they're good for round the pool etc. The top is from Evans absolutely forever ago; I used to have a few in this colour and wore them to death when I was at uni. I got this secondhand with its tags still on and it's really nice and floaty for wearing on holiday. It was good round the pool because it's long sleeved so it protected me from the sunshine. It got a bit stained on holiday but most of it washed out which is good so I can wear it in the future! 

I liked this cute Vespa on the street on the way down to the beach

This is looking towards Palma airport - there were loads of planes taking off all the time that we were watching

Paddling at first

And Lee, too. His flip flops came from Primark for a pound, haha

Looking further out

There were quite a lot of this little fish in the shallows

This was looking down towards where we had eaten the previous night. As you can see there were some clouds, but they kept moving across anyway

I think this is Lee's photo

And this

And this definitely is because there's me, swimming!

And walking out 

You can see how far out I was and the water still wasn't that high on me

Lee took this too 

And I posed for this, definitely!

Me and my beer, it was SO nice

Lee and I waiting for lunch

Lee's pizza

And my crepe

I apparently didn't take any photos for the entire rest of the afternoon or most of the evening, but here's Lee and I having a drink in the bar last thing on!