On our travels.

Sunny summer - or at least, that's what it's supposed to be!

Seaming as the summer holidays are well and truly underway here in England, it's the time of year that most people pack their suitcases and head off to some place else for a week or two. Shabs are no different. The end of July and the beginning of August saw Shanice pack up and head to the Isle of Wight for a week, and Abby pack up and catch the ferry to Normandy. 

So, seaming as we have been out of the country and supposedly sunning ourselves, we decided to give you a little insight into just what we did for the week, and what we saw. So, whilst you reading this, we are dealing with the aftermath of AS Level results day!! ARG! 

Abby:

So, my holiday.

Destination: Normandy, France. 

In typical Sod's law fashion, we arrived on Saturday in a complete and utter downpour. I wish I was joking, but whilst it was sunny for most of the journey, half an hour before we arrived the heavens opened to the degree that you could barely even see the road in front of you. But, my family is from Yorkshire, and a little bit of rain never hurt anyone. 

Our Gîte was in the grounds of a stunning, Classic, French manor house just outside of Saint-Saëns. We even had a little turret! It was so cute! Thankfully - the weather even spared us a little and gave us the sun for a few afternoons and evenings. This meant I was free to read in the shade - I burn at a stupidly easy rate.

See! A turret!

Cheese. I ate so much damned cheese it was unbelievable; but it was very nice cheese! Neufchâtel, Brie and Goats Cheese. I'm fact, if I'm honest I spent the majority of my holiday eating; pain au chocolat, croissants, pain au raisin, chocolate twists, cakes, Madeleine's . . . It was so good! But the aftermath is that I need to diet!

We did, however, also did a bit of culture too! (We ate crepes in Rouen!) The cathedrals in the city were stunning, there must have been about 5 of them in a mile radius, each one had a different style, some were highly gothic whilst others were more simplistic. For me, however, the most incredible building was the 'Palais de Justice' which is essentially the court house. It houses all of the courts for that area, from the Magistrate's all the way up to the Court of Appeal. When you look at the architecture - intricate decoration and perfect arches - you would never believe it was almost destroyed in the Second World War! In fact it was almost completely destroyed because of the bombings.

One of the Cathedrals that we sat, this was
actually one of the smaller ones in the city
of  Rouen.

This is one side of the Palias de Justice,
unfortunately I couldn't get one of the front.

This is in Rouen, and it think it sums up
just how much of a beautiful city it is. 

Typical of my family, we also hit the cider and cheese shops! But we also took just over a 2 hour drive past Caen to go to Omaha Beach which was one the five beaches that the allied forces landed on, on D-Day.Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold and Sword. It was such a humbling experience, especially as my great grandfather landed on Gold beach as a medic on D-Day, and was later asked to help out the American troops on Omaha because of the number of casualties. Seeing the place where he fought, and going around the museum was such an emotional experience. It's hard to believe when you see the place that just 70 years ago it was a place nicknamed 'bloody Omaha', where so much death and destruction occurred. It's especially moving when you find out just how close D-Day came to being a complete failure. It made me even more proud of my great grandad. 

Omaha Beach

Docs on the beach

Me and my family also had the honour of eating a traditional Normandy meal with a lovely family we met over there. The conversation was a little out of the ordinary as everything was translated from English to French and vice versa so that everyone present could understand. It was an incredible experience in the fact that there were two women - sister in laws - present who had lived in Normandy when the Germans had invaded. They told us stories that were almost unbelievable. 

I told you it wasn't all food!

So there we are, we got the channel tunnel back (i hated it) and now i'm on home turf!

Shanice:

I was a lot less exotic than Abby and stayed much closer to home. I visited the beautiful island, the Isle of Wight.

The gorgeous view while walking down to ventnor beach!

 I visited the little town of Ventnor. I went to the island to visit family as I hadn't seen them in well over 6 years, it was so nice to see everyone and catch up!
The island is so cute, and everyone there is so friendly. For example there is an arcade on ventnor beach  that my cousins and sister were at all the time, the owner of this place gave them over 300 tickets (nope I have no idea either) for absolutely nothing! When I asked him about it he said the best part of his job was seeing the kids and their families happy. I melted from his pure kindness and wanted to refuse to ever come back home.

The view from outside the arcade.

 The photo was supposed to show the beach, but I didn't realise until I left the island that the beach huts obscured the entire thing! I still think it's beautiful though.
 This trip couldn't have come at a better time for me. It reminded me of what is important in my life and helped me get my priorities straight before I started the next educational year. Being on the island gave me tons of inspiration and I think it was the first time I'd felt truly relaxed in years.

I highly recommend a visit to the island, any of it, but for me I love ventnor most. it's great for a long weekend, or even a few weeks. With sea front restaurants, arcades, walking trails and even mini golf it's just idyllic. 

I can't end this post without some family business promotion can I?! So, If you are interested in staying in ventnor I know a great little family run B&B that is perfectly located. MANSER B&B!
You walk out of the back garden gate and down a hill and you are in steep cove, AND it has a hot tub! What more can you ask for? 

That was us, but what did you do this summer? Go anywhere exotic?

-Shabs

P.S. Bucket List Update - Abby achieved the first thing - she got a job!

Baking Powder, Buttercream and Brownies!

Hello to all of you reading this, wherever and whenever you are in the world. So, on this awfully warm day in England, when Thunder Bugs are literally everywhere and driving me insane, I have decided to snatch back the blog for a post. So-

Hey it's Abby! I am still alive!!

As you may have figured out from the title, this post is going to be food orientated - or more specifically baking orientated. Both Shanice and I love food, and especially baking, but it plays a slightly bigger part in my life. Baking is something I enjoy immensely, and have ever since I was a little girl, stood on a chair in the kitchen, wearing a tiger apron and baking gingerbread men with my mum. Now I am a 17 year old girl, and although my lion apron has been replaced by a slightly larger teddy bear one, and I don't need the chair, I still will often be found in the kitchen.  

And if I'm not baking then my mum is. In fact it is well known amongst my friends that Wednesday, in my house, is baking day - so you come on that day and scavenge food!
 (As one of her friends, I can confirm that is we go to Abby's house it will always be on a wednesday or thursday! She's just so darn good.)

Anyway, I'm rambling. For today's post I decided to post a few of my favourite recipes that I have found online. Don't get me wrong, I love an old worn cookery book, but that is more my mums forte.
I prefer to experiment with new recipes as I have the time to do so. 

So, here goes nothing...

studentrecipes.com - This is a site that was recommended to me by one of my close friends who also loves baking. The URL gives it all away really, they're just cheap, easy and quick recipes. The ingredients are generally things you have in your cupboard, and the best thing about it is that the website is so easy to navigate. You can write reviews and tell people how they turned out, or you can post your own recipes. That - if I'm honest - is one of the most important things for me. I believe that recipes should be shared, adapted, twisted and personalised. They should be passed down through generations of children until the recipe is completely perfected. 

My favourite recipe: Brownies (the recipe by 'Tim'), gooey, chocolate-y, yummy perfection 

bakingmad.com - This is probably one of the most well known baking blogs. They are well run, always providing new recipes which are really reliable, and their blog is well designed and easy to use. That is really important to me as I have spent a lot of my life looking at design. This website is one I found whilst hiking through the mass of baking blogs on the internet. 

My favourite recipes (because I couldn't choose!): Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes, a peanut butter flavoured cake filled with 'Jelly' (or Jam to us Brits) and covered in butter cream!
Sticky Toffee Cupcakes, these taste like mini sticky toffee pudding, they are gorgeous. I didn't, however, put the of toffee sauce on the top as I didn't have any. So please try them and tell me what they are like with it!

bakerella.com - First may we all take a moment to just admire the beauty of this URL? I love it, and in actual fact it was the reason I clicked on the link to her blog in the first place. Now this blog doesn't quite have the substantial content that the other two I have mentioned do. She has a decent amount on there, and is slowly increasing the amount, but the variety of what she has by far makes up for it. 

My favourite recipe - Mom Approved Lemony Lemonies, or in other words lemon brownies topped with lemon icing; tangy, sweet and simply special. 

Finally, this is my favourite cookie recipe. I haven't yet tried any of her other recipes, so I can't vouch for them. 

laureneasmith.blogspot.com - Just a simple baking blog!

My favourite recipe - Millies Cookie Recipe, I find cookies can often be a little time consuming and faffy to make, but these are so quick and easy - plus the mixture actually tastes like the cookie dough in Ben and Jerry's!! 

There are tonnes of other recipes that I love, Chocolate Slab Cake, Dried Fruit Loaf, Triple Chocolate Cookies, Bakewell Cake, Bakewell Buns... But these are some of my online favourite - and I am sure that Shanice will vouch for any she has tried ('Shanice' I do). I am now, however, about to find her on my doorstep forcing me to bake them all so she can try them...

What are your favourite recipes? I'm always on the lookout for some new ones to bake and Shanice to try, so drop us a comment and let us know.

-Shabs 

 

Travelling Europe.

Beautiful Budapest. 

As you gorgeous people know shabs are no longer going stateside. We decided to stay closer to home and travel Europe instead! As we promised will keep you updated on any major advances in our plans. I'd say a completed travel plan in a pretty big advance? So here's as far as we've got!

Where:
Places we're visiting: Hook Of Holland (NL), Berlin (DK), Poznan (PL), Gdansk (PL), Warsaw (PL), Prague (CZ), Vienna (AT), Budapest (HU), Zagreb (HR), Munich (DK), Brussels (BE), Amsterdam (NL)and back to the Hook of Holland for our ferry home.
Sound like fun to you? It definitely does to us!

When:
We are hoping to go next July because by then all our exams will be over, and we will have enough time to travel before needing to be back for the dreaded results day. The weather then should hopefully be great too! Which means we can all get a great tan. Apart from Abby.. HA. Because Abby is an English Rose :)

With:
Well obviously Shabs are going, otherwise there wouldn't be a blog post about it! A friend of ours from school Zac is also definitely coming and possibly a few others. I (shanice) believe that friendships formed in school are very strong, because if you can stay friends with someone after spending 5 days a week with them for years and not hate each other you're on to something strong!

How:
We're going to be travelling for 22 days, and travelling Europe by train, we are doing this because its the cheapest form of transport and it allows us to cover the maximum area of Europe.

Price:
We currently have a rough idea of how much this will cost overall excluding food, £495! If that doesn't wow you then nothing ever will. A normal 2 week holiday in one place will cost that much, and we get to go to 12 different places! Lots of people put off travelling because of the price but at this price I don't think you can fault it!

Have any of you been travelling? If you have any tips will be great!