The word is a very exciting place

 After a slightly disappointing visit to Trerice, we decided to find ourselves some Cornish Industrial Heritage, and wow, did we manage to find it! We started at Wheal Busy, one of Cornwall's many mines & industrial centres.  They are scattered across the landscape, and you're normally closer to one than you realise! 

 The day started well with a visit to Hawksfield Artisan Village. There's a deli there, couple of clothes & artisan shops, but the highlight was visiting Strong Adolfo's. I had an iced tea and a Mexican Brioche burger, and it was phenomenal. It was so tasty, not at all greasy, and was thoroughly enjoyable, particularly with the great views and friendly service we received there. It was very busy, but well worth the short wait we had. You can check out their menus & associated merch (James treated himself to a tote bag)  @strongadolfos.com . I promise you, there is no regrets eating here!

 We started off our first full day with a visit to the very pleasant town of Boscastle. If you're a similar age to me, and went to school in the UK, you'll remember the name of Boscastle and memories of the terrifying flood, that we learnt about in geography lessons, will come flooding back (excuse the pun). Heavy rains in August 2004 flooded the village, which sits in a steep sided valley. The amount of rain was extraordinary, and made worse by the so called brown willy effect (I assure you, that's no joke). The river became a raging torrent, washing cars out to sea, demolishing buildings & houses, and over 150 people were airlifted to safety. How no one died in the event is perhaps the most incredible thing, the emergency services were mobilised quickly and evacuated everyone. 

Spring was rolling in, and that meant a week off at the start of March. Me & James always try to take our holidays roughly the same time each year, with two weeks in October, ten days in late February/early March and a week in June. It makes it easier to plan, and means we've always got something to look forward to!  We decided to this time head down to Devon & Cornwall, places we've always enjoyed going in the summer, but this time in the spring to see what else we could find. Now, I'll just get my mandatory complaining about how long it takes to get anywhere out the way and then I won't mention it again.  It took forever to drive there. And I mean that, it felt like weeks had passed before we arrived. Perhaps I'm just not a very patient traveller. That's probably more to do with it. The four and a half hours (complete with snack & stretch break) were an eternity, but then we arrived in Bude. That meant the holiday had really begun! 

Hi everyone! I was blown away that a few days ago I hit 70,000 views, and today I've seen that we've surpassed that and hit 75,000! All I can say is wow, I never thought this many people would ever visit and read my blog, so many thanks to you all!  The final week of February was altogether a less stressful time, thankfully! James had a couple of further check ups & was busy making appointments for further assessments. He was also being proactive and set about trying to make changes to his lifestyle to lose some weight and get himself into a better position health wise. Other news was that Russian Journalist & activist Alexei Navalny had been mysteriously poisoned. He was one of the loudest voices of criticism of Putin and his political empire, and for that face Alexei paid with the ultimate price. He'd already been poisoned once and managed to recover, but this time he was re-arrested, and put in another high security camp hidden away from the world, I think we all...

Hi everyone! Just a quick note from me to say thank you. I saw yesterday that the blog has now surpassed 70,000 views, and I am amazed by that figure! Thankyou all so much for continuing to visit the blog and read about my life!  February continued to be a busy month, and I made sure to try and have a quiet day off, where I spent most of the day at home with Husky, relaxing in bed, in front of the TV and snacking. Sometimes a day like that is good for the soul, you've just got to take it easy for a bit.

February is a strange month, in the fact it is both the shortest month, and it feels like the shortest month. Once you're a week into february you're almost at the end, whereas when you're a week into January you know there's still another nine weeks to go. Work was busy, and I had grown in confidence up to this points, and I was really starting to enjoy my job. However, it seemed it was not a sentiment that was shared. Our training group started with twelve people, and already we had lost four of them, that was a little startling! 

Byland Abbey is one of those places where time feels like it stands still when you are visiting. It's a feeling made stronger by the fact we were the only ones there aside from an older couple with a dog. Me and James stood at the entrance just gazing at this dramatic ruin. I don't even think dramatic is the right word. Whitby Abbey is dramatic, Netley Abbey is homely, Fountains Abbey is impressive, Reveaux Abbey is glorious. But Byland Abbey? There's no one word that can describe it. The ruins are not the largest, nor most glorious of any ruined abbey, but there is something about Byland, that sets it apart from most other abbies I've visited.

 We were up early and headed up to Spofforth Castle, which is located just outside of Harrogate. Harrogate always strikes me as somewhere incredibly posh, even just saying Harrogate makes me feel posh! But enough about that, we were here to see Spofforth Castle, which I had read about in a book several years ago, and thought we should pay it a visit as it's on the way to Byland Abbey.