Northumberland - Day 2

Mission Accomplished

The most important thing I wanted to do when in Northumberland was go on a boat trip and try and take more photographs of grey seals and Puffins. Despite all the boat trips being fully booked up yesterday, we booked tickets for early this morning and headed out on the sea at 10:00am. My boyfriends' Mother had once again given me a box of fruit, however today she had (thankfully) toned it down so it only consisted of some strawberries and two small apricots which I decided I'd eat them for lunch later.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't nearly as nice and as we paid for the tickets we were warned 'We might not be able to get to the island due to the swell of the sea'. I never knew that when it was a bit choppy it was called 'swell', so that was my new knowledge for the day! As we headed out on the boat, I was rather shocked at how rough the sea actually was and it wasn't long before we were going up...and down.. and up, quite vigorously. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a rollercoaster person - the most scary thing I'll go on is the teacups ride, so I can't say it was a fun experience. Thankfully seeing the grey seals stopped my mind focussing on the rough sea and despite being at the back of all the people, I think I still managed to get some really nice photographs.

I think the grey seals are so used to people, none of them batted an eyelid and a few even swam near the boat as if to say 'Oi, you lot.. what are you up to, then?' It was lovely seeing them in their natural habitat and even nicer knowing that they're not affected by people in a negative way. 

Before long, we were heading towards the Farne Islands and Staple Island and everyone on the boat was on the lookout for Puffins - Northumberlands favourite bird. We didn't have to wait too long until we started seeing the comical looking sea parrots, flapping their little wings as fast as possible to ensure their stumpy little bodies stayed in the air. I've seen Puffins at the Farne Islands before and I was amazed at how small they actually are. You think they'd be a fair size, but they're much smaller than you'd imagine and even this time - when I knew this, I was still amazed at how small they were.

Unfortunately the captain told us that the sea was still too rough for us to embark onto Staple island which was disappointing as I knew I'd be able to get far better photographs of the Puffins when on stable land and not on a very shaky boat - still, these things happen so I tried to make the most of the situation presented and took some shots of the little birds standing on top of the rocks. 

As we headed back to the mainland, the talk turned to 'What shall we eat for lunch?'. As we were at Seahouses the most obvious choice was traditional fish and chips, however I really didn't want to eat battered fish, let alone chips. My boyfriend, as supportive as ever, was happy to eat whatever I suggested, so I suggested we focus on the fish van near to the dock which sold amazing hot smoked salmon, prawns, lobster tables and crab.  Soon after we got back to land, we headed to the fish van and it wasn't long before I was eating a pot of smoked salmon and a tub of prawns. Despite there not being much volume to either pot, I was decidedly full before eating all of the salmon so gave a little to my boyfriend and hand-fed the last piece to a rather cheeky (and large) seagull that seemed to be edging closer and closer to us as we happily munched on our lunch.

Once finished, we started our drive to Mellerstain House in Scotland - where we'd arranged to meet my boyfriends' parents after lunch. I happily munched on my fruit in the car and was happy that the strawberries had warmed up as they were in the fridge all night long and were rather chilly!  It was just over an hours drive away from where we were so not too far at all. Half way up, I spied my favourite word on a small wooden sign on the edge of the road 'Antiques' :-) It would be rude not to go and see what was being sold, wouldn't it?

We actually visited two antiques shops on the way up and I managed to find something in both of them - I've been looking for antique mirrors so I was rather chuffed we managed to find 2 really nice ones for our house that we haven't bought yet (and probably won't for another 6-9 months) however it pays to be proactive!

After getting to Mellerstain House, we met my bofyriends' parents and spent a really enjoyable hour walking around the house, admiring both the antiques and the architecture before heading outside to look at the beautiful landscaped garden. The sun was finally shinning and the house and gardens looked really beautiful - I think the lack of people also added to the beauty, there were literally about 10 cars in the car park so it was almost as if we had exclusive access to this amazing place. 

Once we'd exhausted ourselves walking around, we grabbed a quick cup of tea in the cafe (I managed to steer clear of the cakes) and started the drive back to Northumberland, which is where I am now. Tonight the plan is to go out to a restaurant with my boyfriends' parents which should be nice and relaxing as I think it's a restaurant which is quite close to their house.

Willpower will be required, however I'm hoping I can remain mindful about what I'm eating and not go crazy :-)

Northumberland - Day 1

Looks like we brought the sunshine with us

Today has been absolutely fantastic so far. We managed to drive to Northumberland in less than 5.5 hours yesterday, so arrived at my partners parents house at 11:30pm. I was actually quite pleased with myself as I managed to drive over 2 hours in his large Audi, which is really different to my little Corsa.  As usual, we were welcomed with opened arms and spent the next hour and a half chatting to his parents in the living room. I'm really lucky as his Mother is absolutely lovely and so friendly - She knows I'm usually trying to eat heathily, therefore rather than buy any kind of 'junk' food, she went out and bought all kinds of fruit which was so thoughtful of her.

After heading to bed at 1:00am, I awoke at 7:00 and wandered next door to cuddle up to my boyfriend for a bit (his parents don't mind us sleeping together, but I'm such a light sleeper, I actually prefer having my own bed!) before we headed downstairs for the days excitement - Breakfast was my usual Porridge and blueberries, if you look at the photos on my last blog post you should see the 4 pots of porridge in my suitcase :-) 

My boyfriends Mother really likes feeding people and as I had brought my breakfast with me for the next 4 days, I think she wanted to make sure we were both completely full, so she made us a massive tupperware box of fruit and handed it to us before we went out the door. It smelt and looked amazing, however in my head I was thinking 'God, that's more fruit than I eat in 3 days, let alone 1' However, politely accepted it, said thank-you and was grateful it was fruit she was giving us and not chocolate or sausage rolls.

Once happily fed and watered, we headed out to Sea Houses to find an available boat tour so we could go to the Farne Islands and take photos of both puffins and seals and enjoy the fact that the sea looked beautiful, blue and most importantly - very calm! 

As we approached Sea Houses, it was clear to see that it was far busier than we've seen it before - I guess that's because it's June and usually, we go to Sea Houses in December or April (Christmas or Easter time) Thankfully we managed to park and went to see if we could buy tickets to go on the boat. Unfortunately, whilst waiting in the queue, I heard the woman telling another person in the queue that all the landing trips had completely sold out for today - there were only 'stay on the boat' trips left. As I really want to take photos of Puffins, this wasn't going to work for us, so we decided to put our names down for the boat trip tomorrow and change our plans as to what to do today.

On our way back, we went past Bamburgh, the beautiful castle to our right hand side on the hill. We had a quick wander on the beach and I suggested my boyfriend take a 'selfie' of us. This is actually quite a monumental moment as I really dislike how I look - I don't think I'm attractive in any way, shape or form so tend to prefer to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. Oddly enough, I think it turned out really nicely, is this my brain changing how I feel about myself? maybe,.. I'd like to look at photos of us and think back to all the lovely things we've done in the past.

We also made a quick pit-stop for some kippers. I love kippers and the ones you can get from Craster are apparently rather famous, either way, they certainly taste delicious. Not only did I buy some in a packet, I decided to buy a 'kipper in a bun' for lunch. However, rather than just eating the bun, I just ate the kipper and gave my boyfriend the bun - He was only too happy to devour it, along with his 'crab in a bun' as well. I also bought some beef jerky to have for lunch - I appreciate it's hardly the most balanced of meals, however when you're out and about, it's hard to be completely prepared so I jumped at the chance of eating low fat protein, as opposed to opting for a scone, clotted cream and jam, which the cafe next door to the kipper shop was advertising.

As I was in the shop, I noticed a sign - 'Don't look down on others, unless you're trying to help them up', which I thought was really nice and also a good motto to live by. I dislike the fact people judge each other so much and I know I've been guilty of that in the past. 

Having devoured the kipper and jerky, we headed back to base camp to drop off the kippers (and the sausage rolls my boyfriend had bought for his parents) and headed out again to go to Vindolanda, which is a massive roman fort near Newcastle. The weather was still looking good and we made good use of the fact it was only 3:00pm when we arrived. 

The place was a lot bigger than we imagined - there was a really comprehensive museum, an absolutely huge site full of Roman ruins and also a really nice shop and cafe, all hidden in utterly beautiful surroundings. As we went round, I was really happy that I was spending my day with my boyfriend and not at the Hell hole, more commonly referred to as 'work'. 

We spent a good hour walking around and reading about what the different ruins were used for. I feel quite at home when it comes to the Romans as I went to a school that taught us Latin for 5 years, so I actually have a good idea what the Romans got up to and can pretend I'm super smart when translating the odd Latin word :-)

Despite not feeling it, we've done over 6,800 steps today, so the exercise isn't going too badly and I imagine there will be a few more tonight when we go out to an 'All you can eat' sushi restaurant. I know the words 'All you can eat' and 'Healthy eating' don't always go together, so I'm going to try and be very mindful of what, and indeed, how much, I'm eating.