Canterbury, Valentines Day and Trying To Remain Healthy

Hello Blogger, Hello Readers of Blogger, Hello Readers of Me!

Yes, I know I have become a bad blogger in recent weeks and I do apologise but my feet have barely touched the ground this week - let alone having my bum sit at the pc to catch up with the world. School holidays are a busy time. Especially when my hubby has a couple of days off.

Matthew had a lovely long sleepover at my nans this week. He stopped over Monday evening and we picked him up yesterday morning. He loves staying at my nans! We went round Monday evening as it was the anniversary of my grandads death to keep her company for a little and she was coping really well. She admitted she found the day before harder as it was the Sunday morning everything happened but in all she is doing really well.

Valentines Day went well.  Hubby had a problem at work and warned me he may be late but he got home a little after his normal time so it didn't spoil my plans. We had a lovely home cooked 3 course meal. That was delicious!

Starter: 

Mackeral Pate on grilled Ciabatta

Served with Wild Rocket Salad

Low fat pepper and chilli Dressing

Main:

Beef Bourginon

Dauphinois Potatoes

Broccoli, Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas

Dessert: 

Chocolate Pots

Vanilla Ice Cream

 

That was served with a bottle of beer since I had a driving lesson early the next morning and didn't see it fit to open a luxury bottle of wine when it would play on my mind. It was a delicious meal and I enjoyed cooking it. I love foods that are easy to prepare and can just do it's magic in the oven. 

 

Hubby surprised me with a box of chocolates. They are now all gone except for the liqueurs. I'm not a big fan of them but I may give one a go - you never know, they may surprise me.

 

Matthew phoned me in the evening to ask if we had a good Valentines meal. He's a little sweetie! We had a nice little chat and he went back to watch tv with my nan as football was on tv. That boy has his priorities, haha.

 

I was going to buy myself a bunch of flowers but the local shop had identical flowers to the week before in a red cellophane packaging rather than the normal white/clear and selling them at £3 a bunch more than normal. Call me stubborn, but I know next week they will be back to normal price! I love the way V Day can become a premium for simple little pleasures in life. I wouldn't actually be surprised if said £3 more expensive flowers are actually reduced to normal price if there are any left when I visit said shop later.

 

Wednesdays driving lesson was a success. I feel I am really getting somewhere now.

 

We then went to Canterbury. 

 

 

Hubby, myself, the two little boys and my mother in law went to visit hubbys sister. It had been her birthday on Monday so took the oppertunity of being school holidays and Matthew being happy at my nans to make the 200 mile round journey. The kids travelled well and we had a lovely day out. We also got to meet my S-I-L's boyfriend for the first time and they seem very happy after almost a year togerher. 

Canterbury is a beautiful city in Kent. My S-I-L is at uni here and whilst I have been here a couple of times there is something magical about the place. It is a Cathedral city and James took much interest in trying to look at the Cathedral. Unfortunately it is a place you have to pay to go into and he was only able to look through the gates but he loved looking.  

He'd have loved it more if he could have got closer to see this view and have a look round inside it:

I must confess that in recent years I have become increasingly interested in older architecture and whilst I could never be described as a religious person, I find something so special and humbling in religious architecture. I love the churches, the cathedrals, the temples, even the ruins offer so much of a feeling of love, hope, faith, grandeur and beauty. There also lies an underlying feeling of grief and haunting. Years ago the churches and such were the centre of the community where marriage and birth were highly celebrated and others were laid to rest. A religious building is what covers all of life as we know it.

 

In the above picture is the gateway to the city,  A huge castle like building with 2 tunnels going through it have to be passed to get in or out of the centre of Canterbury.

Canterbury is a mix of both modern and historical buildings. I love the way Starbucks on the right looks so old amongst the traditional architecture. But as it is a highly historical place with so much in it's past, they have abandoned the normal look with the SB logo and gone for something a lot more traditional looking. I like it alot. :)

We got back fairly latish on that evening so M-I-L stayed over night. This gave hubby and I an oppertunity to go out for the evening. We went to our favourite local Indian restaurant and had a couple of drinks in the local pub afterwards. It was a lovely relaxing night after a long and busy day.

Yesterday we went into our local town of Sudbury. A small town just 2 miles away, not quite so historic but it's our local place to shop:

It's a nice little town with just about everything you need. I took the boys into town on Tuesday by bus and they loved it. I grew up with busses and take them for granted but for a  2 and a 3 year old used to travelling by car, they found it very exciting being on a bus. After town yesterday we took M-I-L home and collected Matthew from my nans before taking the kids out for a meal. Having not seen much of Matthew in the last few days we wanted to spoil him a little. 

Hubby is back at work today and I intend to take it nice and easy today with maybe a walk to the shops being the only plan of the day. I need to catch up on housework and get my fluids up. I normally drink a fair bit at home, coffee and water mainly but having 2 days out, I feel I have become dehydrated. I would normally drink between 6-10 drinks a day. Those busy days probably pushed at 4 drinks a day. 

 

My body was certainly telling me this last night when I felt like I was starting to get a water infection. I can only put it down to lack of fluids. There's nothing worse than feeling like you need to go to the toilet and you can't. Luckily, I know my body well enough to recognise the early onset of such a thing and upped my liquid intake immediately. Today I feel better in the bladder area than before and I hope that I have prevented an infection by just being sensible and takingcontrol of a minor issue before the issue took control of me.