As I mentioned last week, we're firmly on the wind down for Christmas now, and with just one wedding left in the diary for the year, it's been nice to take some time off to spend some much-needed time with family.
That's not to say it's been a quiet relaxing week though, because we've been up and down the country, starting with us making the trip down to London on Wednesday to celebrate my Mum's 60th birthday.
Since it was such a milestone, between myself, Emma, my dad and Rachel, we'd managed to put together a whole day of activities to give Mum an unforgettable 60th birthday.
Sadly, I didn't take my camera with me to London as, to be honest, it weighs a bloody ton. Lugging it on and off the tube all-day would have been a massive pain, so, unfortunately, you're going to have to take my word for it, when I tell you what we got up to. No photographic evidence for this one!
We started off the day with a very brief visit to Borough market for some breakfast before heading over to the Walkie-Talkie (The Fenchurch Building) where we'd booked a visit to the Sky Garden. If you've not been before, I thoroughly recommend taking a visit to the sky garden the next time you're in London, as not only is it FREE, it also offers up some stunning views across the city. You can even just grab a drink from the bar and soak up the surroundings with some fantastic views of some of London's famous landmarks.
After sitting down to enjoy a celebratory drink in the Sky Garden (It'd be rude not to!) it was back onto the tube where Rachel had arranged a table for afternoon tea at The Grill Room est 1865 within her work at the Hotel Cafe Royal.
I'm always brimming with pride whenever I visit one of the hotels Rachel works at. She works relentlessly hard and has really made a name for herself by climbing the career ladder at such prestigious venues. The afternoon tea was fantastic, and really did put you in the mood for Christmas with its festive twist on a traditional English classic! Another one you should definitely visit!
Once we'd been suitably packed full of Sandwiches, cakes, tea and champagne, we'd scheduled a walk around Covent Garden to see the Christmas lights and various street performers. The atmosphere at Covent Garden is always fantastic, even more so at Christmas, so just having a meander around to take in the sights, smells and the scenery is an opportunity you really don't want to miss out on!
As the day drew to a close (my feet covered in blisters) we headed back to Euston to get the train home. Suffice it to say, we were all absolutely exhausted, and whilst it doesn't seem like we did much, it was still a very busy day, with lots of walking! For myself and Rachel, the week was far from over though as we were heading up to Manchester the following day to visit her family!
I always have a fantastic time visiting Rachel's family, and this week has been no different. Rachel's mum had booked for us to visit Dunham Massey for a Christmas light walk on Thursday evening, which was an absolutely fantastic experience. I've done a couple of similar things before, so the camera was absolutely getting an outing for this one!
They're always so magical, and there's so much effort put into the lights. You can even stop halfway around for Marshmallows (Which you can toast yourself!) hot chocolate and mulled wine, which just adds even more to the experience. The pictures speak for themselves on this one!
Friday was another action-packed day and we'd planned to make a visit to the Christmas Market in Manchester (which never disappoints). Mancunians are incredibly proud people, and it always amazes me how many worker bee statues and references to Oasis have been crammed into one city. It's such a stunning city and the Christmas market is definitely one of the best ones I've visited. I highly recommend the German Larger and half meter bratwurst
And then onto Saturday. This is where things start to go a bit pear-shaped, as we'd got even more planned!
Since Thursday, Rachel had been suffering from a bit of a cough. She'd done tests which had all come back negative, but as Saturday morning had rolled around, she was definitely struggling and her cough had gotten considerably worse. We both tested, and I was fortunately negative, but Rachel got the dreaded two red lines, shortly followed by a text from my mum saying the whole Coalville household had all tested positive too!
Despite the government guidance advising you to basically get on with it, we made the choice to cut our trip short (Meaning we would miss the artisan market we'd planned to visit in Urmston and a trip to see Rachel's Dad and Stepmum!) We were both gutted, as we weren't meant to be returning home till this evening!
Fortunately, I'm still negative. Touchwood, I've not actually had COVID yet, and as I'm sitting here in the office, having spent the night on the sofa so I could avoid contact with Rachel, feeling a little bittersweet about this last week.
We've had an amazing time, visited some fantastic places, and shared some brilliant memories but it would have been fantastic to finish off the week the way we had planned.
I'm going to leave it at that for this week. Have no doubt, I'll be back next week with another blog!
Peace, Love and Photos.
Jono x