Entering A New Decade

Last week I entered the new decade in my life - I turned 20! I know i'm not that old but I have really thought  about what the '20's' will hold for me! It is the decade that everyone says is the best, simply because the most things happen for you. Typically you graduate, get a job, get married and have kids. I am very excited to see what they have in store for me. 

Anyway enough of wishing my life away, onto telling you what I got up to!

Earlier in the week me and some friends headed to this lovely little cafe/restaurant in Sheffield called Fancie. It does amazing food as well as their specialties - cupcakes! 

We opted for some home made fries and a cake each. I went for one that I hadn't had before - the salted caramel and it is THE best flavor I have tasted. It was delicious. 

Some other friends went for the daily special which was strawberry and white chocolate (I have to admit I was a little jealous when it came over!) and another had the peppermint and white chocolate gluten free cake. 

At midnight my friend walked in with this little buddle of cards and a present. It was really exciting to have something to open as soon as it was my birthday! Inside was this beautiful heart photo frame, with mini photos in. I'm going to hang it up  in our new house - which we move in to in just under a month! 

On my actualy bithday, my Mom and Nan made the trip up to Sheffield to spend the day with me, we headed for coffee and then some lunch. Spent the whole time talking and catching up and forgot to take any photos!

Then in the afternoon I got the train down to spend the weekend with my boyfriend. I spent the afternoon opening my presents from him and his parents. He bought me this beautiful ring (which I had wanted for so so long!) and he was very sneaky in bringing this present back from Abu Dhabi with him from his parents. In a previous post I told you about going to the hard rock cafe in Dubai and whilst I was there, I was this amazing cup, that has the Dubai hard rock cafe symbol on and is something that can really remind me of the time I spent there. I was very impressed that he managed to get it back the the UK in the suitcases without me knowing!

We then got ready and headed out to Pizza Express (I had never been so I decided this was a great place to go!) I opted for the Goats cheese with Mushroom topped with Rocket. It was delicious! But it was so so big, that I had to take it home for supper!

My boyfriend went for the Lasagne, which looked lovely, but it did take him a while to eat as it was so hot!

When we got home he has bought these little cupcakes for me, one red velvet and one sticky toffee - yummy! As he gave them to me, he was singing happy birthday, which was very nice :)

The next morning we headed out for a walk near the river and found this little cafe right next to it and even at half 10 in the morning, it was never to early or a milkshake

I have a bit of an obsession with pancakes, bacon and maple syrup at the moment, so Sunday morning we had a lie in and headed out to get a late breakfast and it did not disappoint! 

I had an amazing birthday weekend and am definitely looking forward to what the '20's' will hold for me!!

UAE Heritage and feeding time in the zoo - Abu Dhabi 2014

Starting off with some good news.... I have finished second year! Yay!!! This means I am now free for the summer to blog as much as I please without feeling guilty!

So here we come to the last in my Abu Dhabi Adventures! 

During the second week we were there things calmed down a little and simply enjoyed my surroundings more and my boyfriend just loved being able to be at home. 

We went to this really cute little museum that was on the beach called The Heritage Villiage. It told people where Abu Dhabi and the UAE came from - starting as small village in the middle of the desert , to the huge capital city that it is today.It was little a mini village set up, to show you how they once lived.

When the country was just starting out, everyone lived in small tents in the desert and some of these had been set up inside the village, They had small little huts showing what skills and trades the locals had when building up the city such as glass blowing, carpet weaving. 

What people once lived in in Abu Dhabi

Carpets made by locals 

Not only was there lots of information and history about the UAE, but it was also set in very pretty surroundings and got a great view of the skyline.

 We could walk onto a balcony to see the beach and watch the waves, which was really relaxing. Then we found a duck! On the beach!!!!

Something I was told I must do whilst in Abu Dhabi was ride a camel. But to be honest it wasn't something that i was very keen on doing and quite frankly camels scare me... a lot (I think it's the noises they make!). My boyfriend was ecstatic when he saw that they had camels at the village and immediately told me I had to get on one.

This was just about as close as I got - even if the local man was very insistent that it wasn't going to bite me I was not going any closer! It took a lot to get this close.

After I stroked it it started making noises, so I very quickly ran away!

The local Arab man kept edging the camel closer and closer towards me - which scared me even more! Although I look calm and colective in this photo - I was petrified inside!!

Very random horse, then kept doing tricks for us

We found the duck again!

Still on the theme of animals - we went to the zoo!! This brand new Zoo has just opened so we decided to go alone and see what animals we could see. 


We got to feed these really cute baby goats that wanted lots and lots of our attention 

One of my favorites was definitely the monkeys! We got some food to feed them and I was very happy to see little baby ones! They were so friendly and really wanted to interact with us 

Next was the Giraffes who were very hungry so really wanted to know what we had got to give them. 

I love this picture!

We also found a couple of Zebras 

These baby  kangaroos came to say hello

We then got to go and see a seal show (I think she was called Gloria - but don't quote me on that!) 

She showed us everything she could do, from waving hello to us and doing little tricks on the floor. She had the whole crowd saying 'Aww' throughout the whole thing. 

My boyfriends sister also got the chance to go and stoke her and have a picture - which was pretty cool!!

Open Wide!

Even though the other animals were pretty cool to see, there was one set of animals that I just couldn't wait to see.... Elephants! 

I just have a bit of an obsession with them, they are lovely!

I just loved these 2 photos of the Giraffe and Zebra! 

On one of our last nights me and the boyfriend decided to tick of something on my bucket list - watch the sunset in a different county. I have always enjoyed watching the sun set, there is something about it that I just find very relaxing!

So we headed to the beach ready to see the sun set on what seemed like the edge of the world. 

The sky became this beautiful red and yellow colour! It was really breathtaking. 

It is something I know I will never forget and there is a big tick next to this on my bucket list!

After sitting on the beach watching the sun, we headed down the road to this little park - that was really cute! - and set up to have a BBQ. 

The man hard at work trying to set the fire! 

So there we are... at the end of my adventures. This is just a small sample of what we did, if I told you everything, I think they would carry on forever! 

I also got a new travel scrapbook just before we left as a present, so am looking forward to filling those pages with everything we got up to. 

I literally had the best time ever. It could not have been any better. The things we did I will never forget and it was just a trip of a lifetime

I loved every minute

♥