New Year's Eve 2025

New Year's Eve! As you know, we had Peter staying with us, but didn't have much planned. A quiet one! 

We all didn't get up until quite late but when we were finally ready we headed to the hospital so that I could pick up my tamoxifen. It didn't take too long actually so we then went to Elsecar Heritage Centre. Our plans were to wander around there, have a quick bite to eat, and then head to Meadowhall to do some shopping and eat a full meal there later before heading home for the evening. We started off by looking round the antiques centre and then went into the heritage centre. They've refurbished that recently, so that was good to see, and it now includes a bunch of stuff about the Miners Strike and so on. It's very cool! 

We went in a few of the shops and then into both cafes, but neither of them had something small to eat. We were beginning to get hangry by this point, so we decided to just head off to Meadowhall. We got there about 2pm I guess and went to Las Iguanas to eat. They had run out of a bunch of their stuff, but it was fine. We had food. I had a weird cheese curry that I wouldn't eat again, and Lee and I shared the nachos. 

We went into a few shops and I got a new winter coat. My old one was rubbish and I had been meaning to go to Meadowhall to Yours to buy another, but hadn't got round to it before Christmas. So I went in and found one. It was in the sale so was only £49 instead of £65. I don't love the khaki green colour, but I also don't really care that much about a coat. It's warm and cosy and that's the main thing. 

It then turned out that Meadowhall was closing at 4pm as it was New Year's Eve. We needed a new microwave so Lee went off to get that and Peter went off to get doughnuts, and the whole place just felt like chaos. They were ushering us to the door! I have no problem with people getting the evening off to celebrate, of course, we just hadn't realised before we got there that it was closing so early!

A bit later in the evening I had a bath with a bath bomb and we watched a film or two. Gillian had bought me a s'mores kit for Christmas so Peter and I had some fun with that (Lee doesn't like marshmallow). When the clock struck midnight we were watching the fireworks on the BBC, nothing else. We have a Juliet balcony in our first floor living room so we shut all the cats out so we could open the doors and see if we could see any fireworks. Not sure I could though! My mum called us from Somerset to say Happy New Year, and I took the final photo of all three of us just before bed!

This Women Against Pit Closures poster in the heritage centre and it's really cool!

And we all quite liked the festive duck 

Nachos, which were nice

And my weird curry - it was nice but the rice and bread weren't great

Tamoxifen. I didn't know they used it as a cancer preventative, and they have some side effects like hot flushes and so on, but I'm happy to be on them

Modelling my new coat on the landing

Having a bath with a lovely green bath bomb

Time for s'mores! 

They did melt and go really squidgy

And here we are, happy new year!

Trip to Haworth - Day 2 - New Year's Eve

Wednesday was New Year's Eve! We had decided to just stay in in the evening and not worry about people and crowds. During the day we wanted to walk round Haworth as Lee never has, and I hadn't been in a really long time. We didn't get up too early and we watched some TV then set off for the town centre at about 11 o'clock I'm guessing. We parked by the parsonage and walked down on to Main Street. The first shop we went into was The Cabinet of Curiosities, which sells bath salts and wax melts and other gorgeous goods, as well as books. I bought one packet of wax melts which was very restrained of me, I thought. We went in nearly every shop all the way down the street. We wanted to eat lunch in the Old Post Office but it was full, so we went into a cafe called Cobbles and Clay which turned out to be lovely. I had a chai latte and this delicious bhaji butty which came with Bombay mix on it and delicious chutneys. I decided I would make myself something like this at home, which we did in mid January! 

We bought cakes in the bakery and carried on down the hill. Lee left me in Haworth Old Hall and went back to get the car because I had walked a long way by then and was feeling a bit done in. The pub was really busy so we sat in one of the sheds in the garden which wasn't too cold for a bit. I had a glass of red wine.

Then we went on a drive up to Penistone Hill. I know that I couldn't walk all the way to Top Withens, which is somewhere that inspired Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, as it's about two and a half miles from the car park over rough ground. So we just went to the car park instead. It was blowing a gale and it was wild, but it was lovely to go up there. 

We went back to the flat and watched a film for a bit and then I had a bath. I had some Lush melts that you can use in the bath so I chucked that in and a lot of bubble bath too. It was lovely to just wallow for a while. Lee had a bath too and then we got dressed to go out for a drink. We went up to a pub near the parsonage and managed to get a table. They were closing at 8pm or something but it was before that. We sat in the room with the pool table so we had a game when some other people had finished. We had a couple of drinks and then went back to the flat. 

We watched a film - I think in total we watched four films on New Year's Eve, haha - and then put Jools Holland on at 11.30. There were some fireworks at midnight but we couldn't see any from the flat unfortunately. But it was a lovely, relaxed NYE and I'm glad we went away together. We didn't sleep great because of the upstairs neighbours and on New Year's Day we just came home and chilled out! 

This shop is so gorgeous, it looks so lovely and the Christmas display looked so pretty too 

Looking down Main Street from the top 

Here's Lee in Cobbles and Clay which was busy but not heaving

And here I am. I only took the two dresses with me so wore the rose print one again

Chai latte

And my lovely butty

With my hat on getting ready to go back out into the cold

Looking up Main Street from the bottom 

Look at this sign on a shop in the village! It is really cool how there is Bronte history everywhere

Here we are outside in one of the little sheds in the beer garden of Haworth Old Hall

Up on the moors - it is so beautiful up there

The sign pointing the way to Top Withens

Here I am on a little bit of the moors

Cornflake cake back in the flat while we relaxed and got warm again

Chucking some of the Lush melt into the bath. The tub was huge and I was so relaxed 

And finally here's one of the drinks I had in the pub!

Trip to Haworth - Day 1

On the 30th of December Lee and I went to Haworth for New Year! We had had a really crap couple of months with one thing and another so we decided to treat ourselves for a couple of nights away. We didn't book it until just before Christmas. We had seen another place that we liked but it didn't get confirmed so we ended up in this basement flat a little bit away from the main street. It was really cute. It had a lot of steps down to it but I was okay getting up and down. In the flat there was a really deep step (which we were warned about, so it was fine) and I managed it - Lee helped me sometimes and I made sure to bring my stick down with me from the car to help. 

We had plans to see our friends Leanne and Adi and their daughter April so we headed off to theirs first in north Leeds. I had told Leanne that we were going out for tea so she just made some snacks for lunch. I took my Christmas cake too so we could all have a piece. We just chatted for ages and it was really nice, to just chill. We had had a busy Christmas week and had had a chilled weekend after my cousin and aunt and uncle had left, which I was glad for, but it was nice to go out and see our friends too. 

We set off from Leanne's at maybe 2pm and drove in some crappy weather to get to Haworth. Lee has only been once before so he was excited to go. We checked into the flat and sat for a bit watching a film. The sofa was small but the flat was cosy and as you can see there was a bath in the bedroom which was lovely, and one of the reasons we chose to go there. 

During the day I was wearing an old dress from Evans which I've since got rid of because I don't think it fits properly anymore and it can go off to the charity shop. At about 6pm we got ready and went out to Haworth Old Hall. I had booked a table there for 7.30ish but we went a bit earlier to get a drink. I can't remember what I had to drink but it was nice. Then I had cauliflower wings and a vegan burger, which were both lovely and delicious. 

After we had eaten we drove up to the top of Haworth and parked by the Bronte parsonage. We had a bit of a wander around in the dark by the church and the parsonage and the Kings Arms. They all looked beautiful in the winter darkness. After that we just went back to the flat and watched another film I think, before bed. In the evening I was wearing my rose print dress from Simply Be which I really love and like wearing. 

Oh also, my tights! I bought this pair of star print tights from Snag years and years ago and I've worn them to death because I consider them a really neutral pair of tights. The toes were absolutely done in on them and they also had a hole in them. I was gutted because I love them! So I looked on Vinted and there happened to be a pair so I bought them! They were brand new in the packet and hadn't been worn, which was ideal. So I wore them while we were away. 

Looking across to the church from where our flat was

The bath in the bedroom, which was so lovely

This wall was between the bathroom and the bedroom to let some light into the bathroom (it didn't have a window) while still maintaining privacy

This was the huge shower in the bathroom which was also lovely to use

Here's my fake wrapover dress from Evans. I like it but I didn't love it so it went to the charity shop

New to me tights and my boots - I wear these a lot because they're really comfortable and easy to take on and off

Some kind of cocktail in the pub

My cauliflower bites and Lee's soup which was also vegan

Burger and chips

The church in Haworth, where Patrick Bronte was pastor, and where my friend Stacey got married in 2017

The parsonage all lit up at night. I've been round it a few times but Lee never has so we might go back and look round it at some point

The front vista of the church near the iconic steps

This pub is also in God's Own Country as a place where Johnny goes

Finally here I am in my rose print dress before I put my pyjamas on!

New Year's Day 2024

We were obviously still at my aunt's on New Year's Day. Lee had the 2nd of January off so I decided to go to work on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, so we could stay an extra day, and my mum and stepdad did too. (They're retired now so it made no difference to them). That meant we weren't travelling two days in a row and it meant more family time together!

We had a quiet morning and then my cousin Peter and Lee and I put together this chocolate house I had made. I bought chocolate drops from Slatterys when I went there in November and thought this would be a nice family activity, so I didn't make the house parts until the 30th of December. Lee helped me. We tempered the chocolate which was difficult to do and it didn't totally work but it did mostly work, and the chocolate had a lovely glossy shine. We poured the chocolate into the moulds, which my friend from craft club gave me. We left them to set and put them in the car flat to travel down. 

The house pieces came out of the moulds easily enough on Monday morning. I didn't have enough melted chocolate to make the door or the tree or the people that are available in the moulds, so we just had six pieces - four for the house and two for the roof. We tried using hot water and a knife to melt the edges of the pieces, but it wouldn't work well enough. So Peter broke out the blow torch. It took a while and some rescuing with a knife, but it did all stick together in the end! All I wanted was it to be freestanding for a little bit at least and we achieved that! Yes it did have a few gaps but it was so cute. 

Inside we put Minstrels, Maltesers, little Twirl bites and little Wispa bites. We left it to set. We were making curry for the evening and we played cards, which was fun. Lee and my mum and I sometimes play Nomination Whist, but it's better if there's four of you. Peter left and we kept on playing games and stuff, and I was embroidering too. I finished the little gingerbread house piece I had been working on for a few weeks. I got it free with Love Embroidery magazine and I really like it. I ran out of the pale brown though so had to use a different one. 

The curries were amazing! We had about six types. Two were veggie - one Lee made which was vegetable tikka masala, and one which Caroline made which was curried eggs and which was SO good, I'll have to get the recipe off her. I love curried eggs! 

I was wearing my galaxy print dress from Topsy Curvy all day with my rainbow cardigan from Simply Be. A cosy, comfy, and warm outfit! 

Peter breaking out the blow torch

Melting the edge of the chocolate

All four walls standing! Lee and I took a tin to bring it home in, thinking ahead!

Once we started putting stuff inside

The bread stick was load bearing until the roof set properly

Then we needed two...

But finally it was all standing! Yay! Ignore the huge gap in the roof - if I did it again I would try harder to get the chocolate flatter, haha. This is the front

This is the back

Here's my little embroidery piece, I will probably keep it in this frame and just sew the back closed 

Curry and rick and snacks, it was so nice

Here's me last thing in my galaxy dress