Island in the sun

Every year my company sends us on a little trip somewhere nice with our husbands and wives as a treat for raking in bucket loads of money (they might not phrase it this way but I like the honest approach best).

 

Last year we went to Rio (hopefully you'll get a post about it one of these days...) and the year before it was Saint Martin. Tomorrow we're off to Martinique for a long weekend. My antibiotics have kicked in just in time, thankfully. I can't promise my neighbour on the aeroplane that I won't have the occasional coughing fit but I'm definitely on the mend at last! Now if only I didn't have this new and horrid rib pain (probably a side effect of the antibiotics, or the result of all this coughing, or from carrying that heavy bag of books the other day, we'll never know). 

It's going to rain apparently, and I'm secretly hoping we might get a big thunderstorm to watch from the safety of our hotel room. Because yes, I really am that adventurous. 

See ya bunnies!

I see the sea, the sea sees me

Well I've been off work again since yesterday with another round of antibiotics and two new inhalers that are supposed to work wonders on my little lungs. Fingers crossed!

Last weekend we had an early Mother's day celebration with my Mama, and on saturday morning she and Boyfriend quite spontaneously decided it would be good to take our lungs to the sea for some nice reviving air. A few hours later, after stopping to take photos here

And here 

We landed in Etretat at a nice old hotel with Toile de Jouy bedrooms and a view like this: 

We went for a walk on the pebbled beach where I took a traditionnal desktop wallpaper photo 

It started raining while we were in the restaurant and the next morning our view looked like this: 

Goodbye cozy hotel annex!

The beach at Fécamp with a beautiful ship!

On the way home we drove through a little village called Allouville where we found this extremely old tree next to the church that was saved and made into a chapel by a priest.

Crazy no?

Right, I'm off to dig out some Summer clothes because in 3 days we're flying to another type of beach altogether...

Pining for... luxuries

I'm feeling very much in need of nice things at the moment. Although I'm proud to say I have been sticking to my resolution not to accumulate any more stuff until the move (but surely when your sweet Mama comes for the weekend and insists on buying you a set of two gorgeous Hammam towels it would be rude to refuse, yes?).

Looking at alternatives to my dream sofa as it sounds like it's very very hard (and I plan to do a fair amount of couch-potatoe-ing in the upcoming months)

After 6 weeks of being taste-bud impaired I'm extremely frustrated and have lots of cravings that can't be satisfied... believe me, I've tried. 

In case you've been wondering...we still haven't got a house. This weekend we thought for a while that we had, but it turns out it's not available until August. What were the odds?! Every single house that's listed on Rightmove is available immediately, but the one we like is available in 2 months...(this isn't a photo of our non-house by the way. Wish it were)

Not that this ever happens in my office. EVER. Not that I'm looking forward to leaving the corporate world at all. NOPE. Not at all. 

Right, tomorrow I'm going back to see the doctor for the 4th time. I'm loving this bronchitis business.

 

A special message

Just wanted to send a message to my loyal bunnies as well as my new followers, because we all know how important this time of the week is... counting down the minutes/hours until it's finally here.

(and if you don't know what to do over the weekend, check out this lovely website full of amazing things including this print)

Tour de France - part 1

Well, not actually all of France. Just a couple of places that sell good wine and are home to good friends. 

We started off last Tuesday with a drive to Chinon, where our friend Charlotte is renting a gorgeous house with her son in a nice little town with lots of wine nearby.

So nice and quiet. And it felt great to be outside in the fresh air after a week cooped up in the flat with nothing to do but wheeze and watch the pollen float by through the window...

This is the view from her garden. When I said "with lots of wine nearby", I meant it.

This is the entrance to Ali-baba's cave, a.k.a. a local wine producer's troglodyte wine cellar, dug straight into the side of the hill. 

It was too dark for decent photos but this will give you an idea of the location. A nice "room" for wine tasting. Not that I could taste anything, but I played along and made polite comments about how yummy the wine was. Let's just hope everyone else was right because we've got 3 boxes of it now. 

At this point I don't care how ill nature has made me recently because it's beautiful and perfect.

We took a walk around the village, called Cravant les coteaux. Lots of old stone houses and wine producers. We even found an organic one!

Time for bed, birdies! 

After that we went to Tours where I had my first migraine (I think) and spent a lot of time in bed while other people had fun without me. No photos were taken.

Up next: the good ol' Berry, where wine tasting is also on the menu.

Little birdie guest post

Hi there. It's been a while. again. 

My little pink lungs are slowly starting to work normally again. I'm even able to sleep in a fully horizontal position. Life is good. It's made even better by Jen over at little birdie who posted my very first guest post on her blog today! Check it out here, and check out the rest of her site because she definitely knows pretty from ugly, and it shows.

I'll be back soon with pics of our weekend in Chinon, Tours, and the good ol' Berry. Kind of our goodbye tour. With lots of wine tasting thrown in. Yum.

Don't you think cheerleader crabs are the nicest kind of crabs?

Pining for...discovery

There's only so much planning you can do 2 months before a move. Some of our furniture is up for sale, 2 things have been sold, the movers are booked, the ferry is booked, the boxes are here and waiting to be packed, the mobile contract cancellation letter has been sent, the house insurance policy cancellation is sorted (we'll even get money back, yay!). Now I'm stuck. Until I find a house.

So in the meantime, here are some of the things I have planned for once we're all nice and settled in that elusive house of ours.

Visit Whitby and the coast in general

Try a few of these restaurant in Manchester

This one is for Boyfriend: Rievaulx Abbey

High tea at Betty's of Harrogate. Or anywhere else really, I just want to be able to eat off one of those 3 tier thingies.

What else? Oh yes, here is a list of things I'll be doing: 

cooking

(you're welcome)

Resting my still fragile lungs in our lovely house which won't look like this but we will love it anyway.

Decorating!!!!

Planning exciting getaways to Scotland and other places

Anywhere with a bathroom like this, really.

Spring has sprung

Why is it that now Spring is finally here I've been stuck inside for days with asthmatic bronchitis and a daily cocktail of cortisone and antihistamines to take? My doctor prescribed antibiotics too, but I'm not taking them. Not yet (I held out for 24 hours with the cortisone before gladly giving in). Anyway, I just got up to take my pills, now I'll probably go back to bed if I can sleep with the racket made by my wheezing chest and my fast-beating heart.

Hopefully Autumn will be here soon...

Oh and also, I've lost my mojo, because I found the perfect house, and somebody else snapped it up. I guess I should have been more insistent, but I didn't realise  the Haworth rental market was so competitive. We'll never ever find anything as nice as that house, so I'm very sad.

But I'll be back on my paws faster than you can say grated carrots. A million times.