Sunday catch up!

I judge a hotel on if it has a bed big enough for me to feel like I'm sleeping on my own, this passed with flying colours!

 Hey all!

What a mental week! I'm sorry I’ve not been great on the blogging front; I'm working so much at the moment. In fact I'm working a 15 hour shift today and am working the next 13 days without a day off so I can't promise anything is going to improve anytime soon! I've still been really enjoying my work, despite this week having my first death of an elderly person under our care which was very sad. Thanks for bearing with me though.

This week I did take Friday and Saturday off to celebrate the boy’s birthday (which was Friday). I woke him up with a cooked breakfast (I made some homemade sausage patties!) and then I gave him his first card. I had chosen postcards to represent each thing we were planning to do for his birthday so things were revealed gradually. His first postcard was a picture of London, where we were headed! We checked in at the amazing Hilton hotel Canary Wharf, the rooms were gorgeous. 

Really cute meringue lollies as part of our afternoon tea

His second postcard told him we were having afternoon tea at Podium, an afternoon tea we've had before and thoroughly enjoyed. As we had been before we knew that they box any leftovers up for you as you leave so we didn't have to force ourselves into eating until we felt sick! 

Our surprise cake!

 

Upon our return to the hotel we were surprised to find a birthday cake and hand written birthday card from the staff at the hotel! When we checked in we made small talk and we revealed it was the boy’s birthday and they arranged cake straight away, what amazing customer service! It was a good job we didn't have dinner planned for that night, instead I enjoyed wine in a nice long bath while the boy lay on the bed watching TV and eating cake. We then got ready and met our friends Alia (a bridesmaid) and her partner Aidan and we went to the canal cafe to see News Revue, a live comedy show on the week’s events, which was really funny. 

Healthy breakfast?

The next morning we went to Kahve Dunyasi for macarons and milkshakes (what healthy breakfast choices!) where the boy had the ultimate decision to make, three envelopes, three choices, he had to pick one which would tell us what we were doing that day, he chose London zoo! 

Fun at the zoo!

 

We had a great time at the zoo, the weather was stunning and as we went quite early it wasn't that busy. 

My lovely ice cream!

After we walked to Camden for ice cream from the Chin Chin laboratory, the nitrogen ice cream place! I had their flavour of the week, blueberry waffles! AMAZING! Before our train home we enjoyed the most gorgeous pizzas from Pizza East, a place I've seen recommended on a few blogs and now recommended on mine! We really had a lovely little break.

My first course of dessert at Tops! I followed it with chocolate fountain!

 Mid week I finished early (and by early I mean about 6pm) so I was able to go out and meet my bridesmaid Beth for dinner at Tops, a buffet restaurant in Manchester. The food was fantastic, really great. I compared it to Red Hot Buffet and their mains weren't as good in choice however their desserts blew Red Hot right out of the water (and I have a serious sweet tooth!). The only REALLY ANNOYING thing was their insistence that we pay for our drinks after every drink ordered and as we were using our card and they didn't have a card machine to bring to us we had to keep getting up, leaving our food and walking over to the bar to pay.

We had a big 'move' chat while sitting by the canal watching the boats float by!

 

We also had some big progression over the decision to move. I was being won around, the boy had been showing me some of the houses we could get and the dogs we could get and I spoke to my friends in Milton Keynes and they showed so much enthusiasm and excitement I allowed myself to actually consider the idea. Then we looked into mortgages and we knew it wasn’t going to be possible because I have a zero hour contract, it doesn’t matter how much money I actually make, zero hour contracts and mortgages do not mix. 

One of the things that had made me come around to the idea was that my work has a base down in Milton Keynes meaning I could get transferred and now that idea was blowing up in my face and the pressure on me to get a job was suddenly immense, the whole move depended on it! I cracked and there were arguments but compromises have been made on both sides. We've decided we are going to move and it will be soon, the boys start date at his new job is October 8th, but we will be renting until after the wedding. Now we've got a few viewings booked up to see houses to rent!

Have to love BBQ'S!

Graze boxes :D

 What else this week? Well I had a BBQ with my parents earlier in the week before we came to Manchester, the weather was really too beautiful to pass up the opportunity. I also got accidentally delivered two graze boxes and only charged for one, I had so many gorgeous goodies to snack on! I loved their union jack design as well.

Anyway hope you're all enjoying the gorgeous weather!

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