The first one - ish

Having dabbled in blogging a couple of years ago, I just drifted off keeping it updated one thing and another gets in the way and creating and maintaining one that I can be proud of is hard to do. Now that my student days are behind me I have more time and energy to develop a blog that I would want to read myself.

I am hoping to have a post every week and if there is anything you would like to see them make sure to leave me a comment, tweet or however you choose.

Make sure to check out my twitter and Instagram links and give them a follow.

So, here we go….!

See you soon!

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

♥

Dubai in a day - Abu Dhabi 2014

First of all, I am sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks. I am in the process of finishing my second year of university, so have a mountain of work, as well as having to fit my my birthday celebrations (that post coming soon!), visiting family and getting a new job! But I will start my posting more regularly now that things are starting to slow down!

Anyway... Where did we leave it...  


The next day we got up nice and early, packed the care and headed to Dubai! I was so excited to see all the sights that you see on TV and I was the most excited to see the Atlantis hotel. You will probably have seen it, its in the middle of the sea!

(Not my own image)

It was beautiful to see from a distance as you drive towards it. 

Our purpose for going here, was the go to the water park that's on the site called 'Aquaventrue' It was so much fun. And even though non of us were under the age of 15, we all acted like big kids, splashing in the water and going on as many rides as we could! 

One of the best things was that you didn't even have to walk between rides, they had a lazy river with lots of sections coming off where you just float straight onto a ride. 

(I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to rides!)

(I was a little scared - as you can tell!)

We spent our time drifting around and not really needing to move anywhere it was great!

After getting showered we headed out and back into the center of Dubai. 

(This was our view on the way out!) 

We went to Dubai Mall, which is the largest in the world. I cannot find the words to describe it! It just never ended. Everywhere you looked there was Prada, Mac, Mulberry and every other designer you could ever think of! 

But the Mall doesn't just have shops, it goes a few steps further. One feature is a huge aquarium. It went as far as the eye could see and included sharks, sting rays and so many other wonderful fish. We even saw one visitor diving in there among them all 

(Amazing!)

We then headed just outside to see the world famous fountains. They happen every 15 mins and are set to a different musical number each time. Plus going off just in front of the worlds tallest building (The Burj Khalifa)  just made it even more special and I just watched in ore at how incredible they were and we managed to get a few good photos!

We then went for a bit of a drive so we could see some of the sights and view the breathtaking Dubai Skyline. Definitely a must to see if you ever visit! 

The worlds tallest building is located in Dubai, called the Burj Khalifa Although the picture doesn't actually do it justice, but we really had to strain to see the top of the building, making our necks ache - a lot!

After having a lovely drive around, viewing the sights and looking at what stars we could see through the lights. We headed for food, at somewhere that I was very excited about! Hard Rock cafe! I had never been to one before, but have always wanted to. 

The Dubai one is apparently one of the most famous and the memorabilia from various rock artists made for great decoration. There was a live band playing a variety of songs from rock, as well as pop that's remixed to fit in the style of the restaurant and when the band wasn't playing, screens showed some famous rock bands at their concerts in places around the world 
. I wasn't sure what to think about it at first, it was very loud! But once we sat down, had a few drinks and started eating, it was a lot of fun. Not a place to go if you wanted a romantic meal for 2 and wanted to have a good chat. But would be a lot of fun with a big group! Here is the website to find your nearest one (The two in England are London & Manchester!) 

(At the Hard Rock Cafe Dubai)

After stuffing our faces with lots of food and listening to great music, we went back to the car for the hour long drive back to Abu Dhabi. 

If you ever get the chance to go to Dubai - then go! It was amazing. I was lucky enough to see the skyline and some of the city in the day too on the way to and from the airport. I cannot recommend it enough!