I don’t think I’ve ever really watched surfers. (Unless you count watching Point Break about 27 times as a teenager.) I’ve seen them, but I’ve never really watched them, and appreciated the dedication and passion that’s at the heart of surfing. That is, until I visited the Esplanade Hotel in Newquay.

As I sat in the big windows of The Esplanade Hotel, looking out over Fistral Bay, the sea looked like it was covered in birds – little black blobs bobbing up and down on the surface of the water. They were surfers though, lying in wait for waves. As I watched, I realised just how much lying in wait is actually involved. For minutes on end they bobbed, watching the waves, waiting for the one that would be worth it – all of that time for just a few seconds of adrenaline.

Our bedroom was pretty much directly above the big front windows, so we had a similarly lovely view to wake up to:

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Before we arrived at Nozstock festival at the end of July, I don’t think I had done quite enough to prepare my fiancé for an authentic festival experience. Until last summer, the only festival experience he had had at all was The Proms, and I really don’t think that counts. As far as I know, Prom goers don’t tend to wear revealing mermaid costumes or walk around during the concert, kicking up hay with their bare feet.

Nozstock festival

Last summer, we eased him in gently with Wychwood Festival, but that’s so small and family friendly, and essentially in a car park, with tarmac floors, that it’s more like a large church fete.

“Is this what all festivals are like?” he asked, as we arrived at Nozstock, and passed a group of people with blue dreadlocks, holding cans of cider.

“Um, yes, pretty much,” I said. He has led rather a sheltered life, (until he met me), and sometimes funny coloured hair makes him nervous. I think he worries that he won’t know what to do, or how to behave properly, and that he will end up looking silly.

“Should I wear my hat?” he asked anxiously. “Will people laugh at me?”

I assured him that the beauty of a festival is that you can wear whatever you like, and no one will laugh. It’s just about having a good time, and escaping from real life.  View Post

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I have some fond memories of Crealy Park in Devon, which all came back when we camped at Crealy Adventure Park and Resort.

It was a favourite haunt when Belle was little, and we even went on a coach trip there from playgroup. I remember it clearly, as we took this very funny picture of Belle on the coach. It always makes me laugh because it looks a bit like she is being born – sort of popping out.

crealy meadows luxury camping View Post

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A few weekends ago I spent the night at the Mercure Bristol Holland House hotel and spa.  It wasn’t any kind of illicit rendezvous, I was just checking out their new Bristol inspired room. It was designed by Laura Withers, the hotel’s Assistant Spa and Leisure Manager, as part of the Accor Hotels My Room project.  Laura has lived in Bristol for nearly 30 years and loves the city, so created the room to reflect Bristol’s culture of street art, with particular reference to Banksy.

Arriving at the Mercure Bristol Holland House hotel and spa, I have to confess that I had my reservations. (See what I did there? Hotels? Reservations? Sorry…) Having lived in Bristol for a few years, I’ve driven past it plenty of times, and always thought that from the outside it looked a little bit dated. Because I’d only ever driven around that part of Bristol, I couldn’t really place it in my mind either in terms of how close it was to anything. I know it’s handy for Bristol Temple Meads station, but other than that, I was in the dark.

I’m pleased to report that stepping into the hotel lobby banished any concerns I might have had about the decor and design. The reception area was very smart and spacious, and I could see that the bar and restaurant area looked pretty smart too. I was soon checked in, and heading up to my room.

The Bristol theme struck me as soon as I put my little plastic key in the lock and opened the door. It was very well put together, with a bold pattern over the bed, and then little touches throughout the room. it could have easily been over the top, but it wasn’t – there was just enough of it to make a cohesive theme without the feeling like you were in Dismaland.

Mercure Bristol Holland House hotel and spa View Post

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Belle and I have been on a lot of mini-breaks on our own. They’re fun. We have our little rituals, which mainly involve planning our snacks and which village-based murder mystery we are going to watch in the evening, and we rub along perfectly fine. Here we are in fact, looking adorable as always, outside our Hoburne Naish cabin a couple of weekends ago:

Hoburne Naish review Hampshire View Post

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My lovely fiancé wrote this post about our trip to Woodland Tipi and Yurts in Herefordshire.

I won’t go into the details, but lately, as a family, we really needed to reconnect. Work has meant we’ve had far less time to spend together as a family and we were all feeling the need to go spend some quality time together. Cue a weekend away at Woodland Tipi and Yurts in Herefordshire.

When I was a child, a tipi was something you read about in a book about native Americans. Along with Eskimos in their igloos, they were things I never thought I’d experience first hand. Admittedly they seem to be everywhere nowadays, but a boutique campsite that offered the chance for us to be together seemed like too good an offer to miss.

Woodland Tipi and Yurts review View Post

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I arrived at the Cary Arms in Devon at about 5pm on a Sunday evening and was shown up to my room. We walked through a door, and I could see a few different rooms leading off the hallway. ‘That’s odd,’ I thought to myself, ‘that the doors to the other bedrooms are open. Perhaps there’s just no one staying in them, and they like to show them off.’

I dropped by bags down on the floor of my bedroom, and opened the window. The view out to the sea was amazing. They don’t call The Cary Arms ‘the inn on the beach’ for nothing. It literally is.

I also took a moment to admire the pillow treats. I like a treat at the best of times, but a stick of rock on your pillow when you’re by the sea? Such a clever idea! (Plus it meant I didn’t have to buy Belle a gift.) View Post

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Thinking about all the cars I’ve ever had (which must be in double figures by now), I don’t think I’ve ever owned a Volvo (and especially not a Volvo V40). I did have a rather natty 21-year-old Metro that I bought from eBay for £87, and named Little Mo, but never a Volvo.

In my mind, Volvos have always been the sort of car that your sensible middle-aged neighbour might have. That neighbour that cuts his grass religiously every Sunday afternoon and oils his hedge clippers regularly. You know, the sort of person who actually takes care of things, and is concerned about rust and safety and what not.

Not so.

NEWSFLASH – the Volvo V40 is cool!

Who knew?!

Volvo V40

(That’s me in there, driving! It was rather disconcerting, as the photographer was hanging out of what looked like the driver’s window of another car.)

The Volvo V40 is definitely not your stereotypical box-shaped Volvo, with a tartan rug and pair of sturdy binoculars in the boot. Nope. The Volvo V40 is a cool, funky, hi-tech, girl about town sort of a car, with technology to match, as I discovered when I spent 24 hours in Stockholm, Sweden, reviewing the V40 by driving it around and testing out all of its super cool functionality.

(Can I just say – I was very brave indeed driving in Stockholm. It’s not easy to suddenly drive a brand new car – even a car as safe and cool as the Volvo V40 – around a large city, on the wrong side of the road, especially when a photographer is crouched in the passenger foot well and you are trying to look casual yet engaging at all times.) View Post

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Did you read my alternative fashion shoot post a little while ago? It was the one where Bee was my photographer and director, and got me to do things like stand next to a wheelie bin, and pretend that I was a contestant on Countdown. It was very funny, so you should definitely read it. And so fun, that we had to do something similar when we holidayed at the National Trust’s Vineyard Farm Cottage in Dorset.

In fact, it proved so popular that I thought to myself, ‘What better way to showcase the National Trust Vineyard Farm Cottage than to have Belle and I pose in and around it in interesting ways?’ I can see you’re already excited about where this is going.

We went off for the weekend to stay in Vineyard Farm Cottage, a National Trust cottage that you can rent out for holidays, and that sits at the foot of Corfe Castle in Dorset. It has everything you would expect from a holiday cottage, including two spacious bedrooms, a wood-burning stove, well-equipped kitchen, great bathroom, National Trust cookies on arrival – the works.

National Trust Vineyard Farm Cottage Corfe Castle review

National Trust Vineyard Farm Cottage Corfe Castle review

National Trust Vineyard Farm Cottage Corfe Castle review View Post

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A couple of weeks ago Belle and I went to stay at Glamping West Midlands. As the very informative name suggests, it was glamping, in the West Midlands. Dur. It’s part of a smallholding, and has a very relaxed, homely feel.

We’ve done quite a few glamping style holidays, in yurts and vintage caravans and whatnot, so we’d consider ourselves seasoned glampers. Glamping West Midlands, as I’m sure owner Chris won’t mind us saying, is probably slightly further down the ‘glam’ end of the spectrum, but the lack of fancy vintage touches or local pork sausages for sale is balanced out by a very real, unforced connection with nature and the surroundings. If you love the idea of being woken every morning by a persistent cockerel, (sniggers), or have children who love the outdoors and getting hands on with animals, then Glamping West Midlands is definitely the place for you.

Glamping West Midlands

Glamping West Midlands View Post

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I’ve always had a bit of a thing for old-fashioned caravans. Not the modern ones that are basically like tiny houses, (although I do like those too), but the little ones, where you have to clear away the dinner things before you can turn the table into a bed, and a night time wee involves getting dressed and walking across a field.

I’ve always felt that a retro caravan held a promise of adventure, and an air of mystery. I can remember being quite small and going to play with a friend one weekend. I can’t remember who the friend was, or what the context of the visit might have been, but I do remember that said friend had an old caravan at the bottom of their garden. You could only get to it by what, at the time, felt like a trek through miles of undergrowth, but I suspect that in reality was just having to push a few branches out of the way and then, as if by magic, there it was.

The caravan wasn’t used anymore for holidays, and instead had become a sort of secret play room.* You could sit down around the wobbly formica table top to plan adventures, Secret Seven style, and all of a sudden I wanted, more than anything, to have an abandoned caravan of my very own. I would decorate it exactly how I wanted, and fill it with spy equipment. Nobody would be allowed in unless they knew the top secret password, and from my caravan of mystery I would solve crimes that had kept the police baffled for decades.

It’s no wonder then that I loved our weekend at Mad Dogs and Vintage Vans, in the beautiful Wye Valley. View Post

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Have you ever found yourself away for the weekend in a lovely self-catering cottage, snuggled up in front of a roaring fire, or maybe even at home, tucked under a blanket, and thought to yourself, ‘what would make this perfect right now would be if someone were to bring me a tray of tea; some sort of friendly, discreet butler would be lovely.’ Well, that’s what happened when we visited Weeke Barton for the weekend, anyway.

*Cue Sam, half of the couple who run Weeke Barton guesthouse in Devon, arriving with a tray of tea and offering to add another log to the fire in the huge living room, full of squishy leather sofas.*

Often when we go away for one of our weekend mini-breaks, we end up doing that thing of tiptoeing around our unfamiliar surroundings, unsure of where you’re allowed to go or what you’re allowed to touch. Come dinner time, you loiter in your room, nervous about how to strike the right balance of smart / casual, and concerned about the embarrassment of a child refusing everything on the menu.

Weeke Barton is exactly the opposite of this.

From the moment we arrived, we were made to feel as welcome as if we were old family friends. A converted long house, Weeke Barton has a wonderful mix of cosy fires and character features alongside spacious rooms and wide windows. Inside, you feel cocooned and yet free, both at the same time. It’s jolly clever.

Review Weeke Barton hotel B&B Dartmoor Devon View Post

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