Another week as a free woman, although this one saw me taking on a lot of responsibility as I attended the induction day for my new career!
MONDAY
I kicked the week off with a trip to Jysk with Mum and Dad to purchase some new garden furniture for the decking, and we returned home with a little bistro dining set!
I'm such an outside kind of person, notice that I didn't say outdoorsy because that would infer that I like hiking and kayaking, or other wild things that I'm certainly not about. However, when the sun's shining, I love to go about my day in the safe confine of my garden fence. I like to sit out as much as I can, and my family are all the same, so this little bistro area is perfect for us! If you need garden furniture then I'd recommend having a look in Jysk, it's cheap but it's produce isn't shabby, which is pretty important. It also does some nice Christmas decor, so it's worth popping in all year round really!
TUESDAY
On Tuesday I headed back to Lincoln to meet up with some friends and enjoy yet another night out, I swear that this is like my fourth night out this year... it just so happens that three out of the four have occurred within the last three weeks! I wouldn't have chosen to go back to Lincoln to be honest, I have exhausted it slightly by now, but my friend Chloe wanted to visit the city after her month away in Cornwall, and it is where a lot of our university friends remain, so it made sense. I made my way down there at about half past one on Tuesday afternoon, I hopped on a train, ready to be reunited with my favourite gal pal.
Chloe and I met up in Doncaster on the way and stopped off at Zest Bar & Grill for a late lunch/early tea. I had made the most amazing smashed avo on toast for breakfast (complete with smoked bacon and OJ) but had that at around quarter past nine, so I was ready for some more food when we sat down to eat! I decided to get the party started and ordered a cocktail to wet my appetite, and went for a Strawberry daquiri AND a bramble to follow! They were delicious, as was the food, so I would definitely recommend Zest - the service was super efficient too and the price wasn't as high as I'd been expecting, which is always a nice surprise. If you're in Doncaster (you poor, unfortunate soul) you should try it out - it's in the centre of town, about a five minute walk from Frenchgate.
EVENING TIME
We kicked the evening off with pre-drinks at Brad's and then headed over to Spoons just for a change of scenery before hitting Bierkeller. Unforutantely, Keller was absolutely dead and there were a few small dramas to attend to, so we literally wandered in and then straight back out. The night ended with Maisie in a slightly fragile state, boiling pasta at one in the morning to sober her up before volunteering in a school the next day... and that's all I have to say about that!
I do want to add though that as disappointing as the night was, pre-drinks were pretty good. I haven't pre-drank in so long, it felt very nostaglic to be sat in a student house, allowing numbers on playing cards to determine how many sips I had to drink! One year on and I do miss living in the Lincoln bubble, and as much as I could never go back and relive those three years, it's nice to visit and play at being a student every now and then! It was just a shame that town was so dead.
WEDNESDAY
The next morning, Chloe and I went out for some brunch at Carluccio's before coming home on a late morning train. Please mind the salt and pepper on the table, this was before the waitress had wiped it down for us!
Chloe had avocado on toast and I went for my usual, Eggs Benedict! Oddly, they opted to serve it on toasted sourdough, rather then the usual English muffin (I really am an eggs benny expert) and this made it a little difficult to cut into, but the taste was as delicious as usual!
I'm definitely thinking about hosting a brunch over summer for friends, and if I do, I will most definitely write a post about it! Some of you may have already seen my post from Friday, detailing mine and Mum's antipasto night! I think it would be so nice to do that sort of thing with my friends, so hopefully I can get something arranged in the coming weeks to bring everyone together!
THURSDAY
Thursday was a relaxed day, I had my antipasto evening, and in the daytime did a little bit of gardening. Please excuse my pyjama bottoms and pale feet!
These are our sunflowers, which we planted a couple of weeks ago. Originally we had planted a lot more but an army of slugs arrived and killed most of them off before they had even had chance to grow! We're a little concerned that our surviving flowers look a little on the short side, so we're not really sure if they're going to bloom or not... I'll keep you posted on that one. We planted them just outside our garden in my grandparents field, and it's my responsibility to keep them as healthy as possible! I'm not taking the blame if they don't make it though, just to make that clear, because it was Mum who decided to start them off indoors - which I think has totally hindered them, by the way. They currently stand at about ten inches tall, so they've got a long way to go... but, we have some of summer left, so I won't give up all hope just yet!
Now onto my evening tea. I have already shared photos of this on my previous post, but I'll add this one in just because it's so mouth-watering!!
Mmmm, Italian goodness.
FRIDAY
On Friday I went for my induction at my new school. It was a long day that I found pretty overwhelming to be honest, there was so much information and no time to even attempt to put anything into practice! I'm definitely going to have to continue to learn on the job, and that's a scary thought because teaching is like acting, you're always playing a part and there is always an audience! I am excited to get going, though I did feel such relief as I boarded the ten to four train from Hull Station!
The hazlenut latte was both a good and a bad idea, good because I was in desperate need of caffeine, but bad because it was scorching hot! Next time I'm going to go for a frappucino or some other sort of fancy chilled drink.
I'm quite excited that there are so many coffee shops in and around the station, there's a Starbucks and a Costa in the station, then a Cafe Nero right across the road. I'm going to get to try each of their speciality drinks for Autumn, Christmas, Valentines! It's definitely the simple, stereotypically "white girl" aspects of life that bring me joy. I've missed out on all of that this year though with living in a village, it's exciting to be returning to big city living - although this time around it will be more "big city working" ... so it won't be quite the same. After just one induction day I was well and truly pooped, as you can see below, so who knows what sort of state I'll be in come September!? I guess I just have to embrace the challenge and hold onto the small things, like a tall PSL!
SATURDAY
A quiet and casual day, complete with a Chinese takeaway and a visit from Grandma Beryl in the evening (Grandad was watching the Women's World Cup and she wanted to watch Wimbledon!)
SUNDAY
On Sunday I was pretty productive. I got up, ate my Curiously Cinnamon out on the decking in our little Bistro area, and then did some gardening! I picked all the dead heads off the flowers in the hanging baskets, watered up, and picked up all of the apples that had fallen from the tree! Please look at the difference and be as proud of me as i was of myself.
How much tidier does that look!? I then went and trimmed the border to make it look a little neater, which you can hopefully see in the image below.
After gardening I spent my afternoon with my dad... in the cemetary! Fear not, he hasn't died, instead we were tending to some of the graves - morbid I know, but it's one of his favourite hobbies... don't ask. I then got myself ready for a well overdue catch up with Em, who I hadn't seen for about a month!
We went to La Anchor, an Italian restaurant and bar in Hensall - a village that's about a fifteen minute drive from where we both live. It was so nice to see Em, we don't talk often enough but have met up a few times this year and I hope that will continue now she is back home from her masters degree!
The food at the restaurant was fantastic by the way, I had the Hawaiian pizza (no judgement from those of you that don't like pineapple on your pizza please) and Em had a salmon pasta in a lobster sauce - very fancy pants. The portion sizes were HUGE so I was very pleased with the value for money, and everything tasted so authentic and delicious - I would highly recommend if you haven't been before, though I'm sure that if you live in the area, you probably have checked it out. It's super popular and now I've been, I can see why.
We had some deep chats over tea, then returned home and I basically went straight to bed!
This week was a good one, I feel a lot more settled at home and really enjoyed doing a bit of gardening - as much as that makes me sound like a little old lady, it's such a good way to spend your time! I could see immediate outcomes from tidying the border in the garden so it felt worthwhile, and it passed the morning along and kept me busy - just what I need!
This coming week I have a few things to look forward to, one being Rawcliffe Parish Festival - our annual village fair, which I am very much looking forward to.
I just want to end this post with a thank you, a few people have reached out to me and said that they've really enjoyed reading my weekly 'post placement' entries, and I'm so glad! I wasn't sure if they would be of any actual interest to anyone but me, so it's a bit of a relief to find that they are! Thank you to those of you that click the links and read through all of my trivial little life events, I am beginning to re-build my readership after a months away and I'm SO grateful for that! So thank YOU.