Heybridge Basin Walk in the summer sunshine

I now live in Cornwall and have done for over 10 years but my heart will always have a small place in Essex.
Essex isn't all Towie and white stilettos it has some gorgeous coastlines and although it might not be as rugged and have the same style of beaches that Cornwall has it is still lovely to spend time their with my family exploring the coast.

A recent visit was no different and after a day of rain the wet weather finally cleared up and by the evening it was actually feeling very nice.
We decided to take a drive from Chelmsford to the Blackwater estuary and walk along the river walk around Heybridge basin.

Heybridge Basin on the Chelmer and Blackwater Canal

Heybridge Basin on the Chelmer and Blackwater Canal

It really was beautiful and totally different to the beauty that I have begun to take for granted when in Cornwall. The boats bobbing gently on the water and the sun glistening a short walk with my mum, sister and nephew was the perfect way to spend a summers evening and when their are two pubs spitting distance from the water it would have been rude not to take advantage and stop for a drink.

Heybridge basin Estuary - Essex

Heybridge basin Estuary with the tide going out - Essex

 

Evening walk with my Mum, Sister and Nephew

Next time your in Essex take the time to step away from the shopping precincts and town centres and take time to explore the gorgeous coast.

Newquay Night Surf 2017

I've been going to watch the night surf since it was held at Lusty Glaze beach in Cornwall and this years event was not to be missed.
This year the night surf was held as it has been for the past few years at Fistral beach in Newquay. The idea of night surfing is soo cool but this event is strictly for the competitors entering the competition.

Waves rolling in at the Night Surf 2017 Fistral beach

Sun Setting at the Night Surf 2017 Fistral beach

The beach is full of spectators all waiting for the sun to go down and the floodlights to go up with an evening of watching some really good surfers showing us how it's done.

Watching the sun set at the Firstral Night Surf 2017

The beach was crowded and we met some friends and family and enjoyed a beer and let the evening unfold.

The best bit of the night surf as always is the Fireworks!
There really is nothing better than watching fireworks explode into bright colours over the sea watching the reflections in the water glow in different colours.

Fireworks off the headland at the Fistral Night Surf 2017

Watch the Fireworks off the headland at the Fistral Night Surf 2017

See you on the beach
Mandi x x x x

Caerhays Castle Coastal Walk In Cornwall

When was the last time you woke up on a Saturday morning with nothing to do?
We, like many couples live rather hectic lives with a whole host of activities that keep me and my fiance busy, renovating our house, planning a wedding, training for half marathons and both working full time. All this means we are very rarely able to spend time together, but sometimes you just have to take some time to be a couple and especially when living in Cornwall enjoy the county that we work so hard to live in.

With a few hours to spare we decided to explore some of the south coast of Cornwall and picked a place name that we had never heard of before and headed to Portholland.

What a beautiful place! Why had we never been here before??? It's so easy, when you don't get much time off to head straight to the classic tourist destinations when you get the opportunity to get out and enjoy the area. For us this usually means a trip to Falmouth, Padstow or St Ives.
But during the summer months most of these popular towns are swarming with people and they feel more like London's Piccadilly circus than quiet quaint Cornwall.

Portholland Beach Cornwall

 

 

 

Cool little lizardy newt chap on a bench on our walk

 

Picking place names off a map that we haven't heard of usually suggests that the location isn't that popular and well know and will hopefully not be too busy! When we arrived and parked the car on the front we were stunned with how beautiful the little beach was. There is barley anything in this little village, a small post office and cafe in one property and a few holiday lets but other than this the little cove was unspoilt.

We took a walk across the beach and decided as it was such a lovely day that we would head on up to the coast path and walked to Caerhays Beach and back. There was a gorgeous little cafe here overlooking the beach and stopped for a bite of lunch before walking back along the coast path back to the car.

 

 

 

It's only a short walk across coast path and fields, and although it is steep in some places it wasn't too far and made a really pleasant couple of hours out of the house.

Do what the Viennese do! Eat cake and drink coffee.

After the previous days surprise proposal at the Zoo in Vienna and the awesome evening ice skating under the stars in the city centre today our hangovers needed a slight sugar hit and so we decided to visit one of the many grand cafe's that offer equisite cakes to devour across Vienna.

Living in Cornwall we often watch good old Padstein, celebrity chef Rick Stein and when he was doing a show specifically about his foody weekend in Vienna we just had to visit the cafe that he had visited whilst doing the show.

My fella announced 'If it's good enough for Rick Stein, It's good enough for my fiance' I love it! With not even 24 hours of being a fiance and being engaged I still feel like I'm in a bubble of happiness.

Rick Stein enters the Cafe Landtmann Vienna

Rick Stein eating in the Cafe Landtmann Vienna

We went into the Cafe Landtmann as Rick Stein had done and giggled as we were served by the same waiter. We oggled at the cake menu and my fellas eyes lit up with excitement at the coffee menu.
We were celebrating our engagment and so I decided to have just a few more bubbles. I could get used to Vienna, wining and dining and being spoilt rotten.

Inside the cafe Landtmann Vienna

Patissere counter Inside the cafe Landtmann Vienna

 

 Sightseeing in Vienna City Centre and St. Stephen's Cathedral.

We both enjoyed some fabulous cake and relaxed in the cafe and let the reality sink in that we were in fact engaged and would be getting married!!! EEEEKKKKKK

The most magical evening of my life, But what was it???

If your a regular follower to my blog or even a real friend in the real world then it is hard to avoid knowing that, I GOT ENGAGED.

I'm still bursting with happiness, if you want to read all about the proposal skip back to my blog post here and read all about it.

After the proposal it was late afternoon and we had already planned the evening to go into the city and go to the open air ice skating but first we had to celebrate a toast to our new engagement and more importantly tell my mum!!!

We got Engaged

We went back to the hotel to utilise the Wifi and utilise the bar and with a glass of bubbly each, I text my mum asking if she was about for a quick skype call. She instantly replied yes and that she was on skype to my brother at the same time. Perfect!
I was quite surprised that she had replied saying yes as usually we skype for several hours and she knew we were away and that I wouldn't be around for a long call but anyway, we dialled in and told them the happy news.

After a few texts and calls to the immediate family and a few more glasses of bubbles we were heading out of the hotel slightly tipsy towards the train station to get the train to the city centre.

We arrived at the ice skating rink in a bubble of happiness. There were couples and families everywhere, smiling, enjoying there time on the ice. There was a small Ferris wheel decorated with lights next to the ice rinks and there were food stalls selling everything imaginable including hot mulled wine!

Ice Skating at Night in Vienna

Ice Skating in the city centre Vienna

 

 

We worked out how to hire skates, and use the lockers for our shoes and were soon on the ice soaking up the magical experience.
However, there was one slight problem. My newly titled Fiance can not ice skate!!!! Even with a bit of dutch courage there was no way this was going to work. We laughed hysterically as a small boy skated over and offered help. 'Sir, Sir' you do it like this'

After just a few laps, my other half decided that his time would be much better spent drinking mulled wine and spectating!
I on the other hand skated my socks off. Fuelled by excitement, adrenaline and prosseco and with several rinks to skate around enjoyed an evening soaking in everything that had happened that day.

Evening ice skating in Vienna

After working up an alcohol, ice skating fuelled appetite we decided to grab some of the authentic Austrian Street food and more hot wine before heading back to the hotel to celebrate more.

Thank You to my wonderful fiance for making me the happiest girl on the planet and I can't wait to be your wifey.

Vienna Zoo, the Tiergarten Schonbrunn, seeing twin baby pandas and THE BIGGEST SURPRISE EVER!

When I heard on the news last year that there were two baby twin panda bears born in a zoo in Austria, it was pretty safe to say we were planning a trip to Vienna!
Although even the best made plans sometimes don't go quite as straight forward as we would like and a month after the announcement of the birth of the baby pandas, sadly my father passed away.

One minute we were planning trips to Austria to visit the Christmas markets and see the pandas the next we were suddenly planning my dads funeral! Things could not have been more different!

As the new year started we decided that we should not miss out on the trip of a lifetime and that my dad knew how much I loved those damn black and white bears and he would have wanted me to go, so me and the boyfriend re-planned our trip to the Austrian capital.

With our five day mini break in Vienna well underway we had squeezed in loads of tourist attractions including a river cruise on the Danube river, Eating strudel in the tallest building in Vienna, Taking a trip on one of the oldest wooden Ferris wheels and experiencing architecture Austrian style! But the best was yet to come. THE ZOO, The Tiergarten Schonbrunn and seeing the two baby pandas.

We arrived in Vienna late on the Monday and decided to use the Tuesday to find our way around the city and get used to the local area. On Wednesday we had decided I couldn't wait any longer and I couldn't bear the fact that there were two baby pandas less than a mile from our hotel and we still hadn't seen them.

We got up early.... Well I woke up early, too excited to sleep and dragged my other half down to breakfast and we were soon on our way out of the hotel and on the mile walk to the zoo. Except we were following my boyfriends satnav on his phone and unfortunately he isn't the best at navigating and when we left the hotel the phone said we were a 20 minute walk away. When I started getting in a hissy fit that we we're wasting valuable panda time, I checked the phone and we worked out that we were now 50 minutes away and had been walking in the wrong direction for half and hour!!!!!

After an hour and a half of walking we could see the entrance to the zoo and I was unable to contain my excitement. We arrived at the zoo and it was really quiet.
I'm quite good at savouring any moment but with this I couldn't wait any longer and we headed immediately to the panda enclosure. Luckily the panda's are really near to the zoo entrance!

Slight anti climax! Both baby pandas were asleep in their sleeping tree and the mummy bear was chilling at the back of the cage, back to us, just sitting there. After 20 minutes of sitting waiting and not a glimpse of the baby pandas we decided to leave the enclosure and visit the rest of the animals in the zoo.

After about an hour of blankly looking at other animals I insisted we headed back to check what the pandas were doing..... they were doing the same! No sight of the two twin babies and mum just sitting yet again!!

We went around some more of the zoo and saw more of the animals and took shelter in a monkey enclosure viewing area to try and get warm, as outside it really was bitterly cold being out all day. We saw some people eating some random garlic circle things and the smell was intoxicating and we had to get in on the action and get some for ourselves. Deep fried flat breads smothered in garlic butter, well no one is healthy on holiday are they!!!!

Deep fried garlic butter bread!!!

We visited indoor gardens and tropical zones including the freakiest area with bats flying freely in a dark tunnel that you have to walk through and we saw koala bears, polar bears, elephants the aquarium.

 

It really is a very good zoo but we just had to get back to see if those little pandas were going to make an appearance and finally, after popping back to the enclosure several times on that last visit about an hour before closing time the mummy bear was parading around the enclosure. Sitting right up at the glass and eating bamboo and one of the babies was sitting in a tree. We did get a brief glimpse of the other twin baby panda but this one was shy and hid in the sleeping tree most of our visit.

Giant Pandas at the Tiergarten Zoo in Vienna

As the baby panda entertained us nearly falling out of the tree all the visitors at the zoo were now in the enclosure cooing and whooping at the little bear.
It really was the most amazing experience to see such a cute little panda.

Baby panda in the tree in the Tierfarten zoo, Vienna, Austria.

With only about 30 minutes left until the zoo was to close I wanted to visit the zoo shop and get my fix of panda based souvenirs. We decided to wave a farewell to the gorgeous bears and make our way to the zoo shop and as we were about to leave my fella announced that 'We couldn't leave yet' I kinda turned and scowled at him! Er, why not, I don't want to miss the zoo shop!!! He replied 'Because there's something I haven't asked you yet'
And there it was!!! A WEDDING PROPOSAL IN THE PANDA ENCLOSURE!!!

I don't think I could quite believe it, we had been together nearly 9 years and I had pestered constantly that I wanted to be married by the time I was 30 and as this had been and gone I thought it would never happen.
In a state of shock I of course replied a teary and shocked 'yes' but then proceeded to insist that we visited the zoo shop!!! HA HA HA I think this was mainly due to shock of the proposal...... OK, I admit It I really did want that soft cuddly panda from the shop.

Even now several months on and well into wedding planning I still can't quite believe that my fella had purchased a ring without me knowing, had got it through the airport without me knowing and had planned a proposal with my favourite animal in the whole world.

I really am the happiest girl alive!