Post Ten: A little escape from reality...

We escaped our own version of the rat race for a week away. We didn’t need any time to think about where to go we knew that we had to go and visit our own country as every time we travel we only have negative things to say about the UK to our backpacking buddies. We needed to see what we were missing or not missing be it the case!

How wrong were we!? Well, of course excluding the economic and social problems the UK presents, the UK has beautiful landscapes and lots of offer the traveller. We headed through Bristol, picked up the lovely Katy and drove up through the mountain passes of Wales to Snowdonia National Park. We spent the evening getting ruined by mossies and midges, but had lovely camp-man-ship in the form of some lads from Newcastle setting up a fire for us so that they could eventually see our face from the coverage of midges!

We climbed Snowden the next morning, only 1085 metres and with all of my cycling and my current mindset that anything is easier than the Inca trail, it was a doddle. Lovely views over the mountains and an inspiring place to be walking around.

We then headed north to the Lake District to stay in beautiful campsites overlooking the lakes. Taking in the rays (yes we did manage sunshine), we walked romantically around the lakes and breathed in the fresh air. After 2 nights there, we drove all the way to Loch Long in Scotland. We set up our lovely blue tent, overlooking the loch long whilst watching the sun go down. Terry popped to the local chippy and I made our falafels for a good old veggie treat. Perfection. Terry, me, our tent, chips and the most beautiful landscape ahead, turning slightly black as the sun falls asleep behind it.

The next morning we trekked through the mountain passes and then drove to Glencoe. Once at Glencoe we were treated by a very fast harrier jet as it was practising some moves. I literally thought I was going to die as it zoomed past, it was so loud. We camped in ‘Red Squirrel’ and went to the local pub for a Guinness only to be greeted with a band and some lovely highland fling dancing. A fabulous, truly Scottish evening, we couldn’t have asked for a better night out in Scotland.

Edinburgh was next on the agenda, after driving up to Fort William and through the highlands. Vibrant, diverse and a fun place to be when the sun was beaming down. The fringe festival was on and the streets were full of comedy acts, musicians, dancers and anyone and everyone just trying to have a happy day. Fantastic city with so much to offer.

We drove back spending the night on a rugby field, due to the fact the campsites in Northumberland were all sold out, and visiting the angel of the north and felt thoroughly happy and satisfied with our UK expedition. Mission accomplished: Our minds have changed. The UK has a lot to offer!

Post Nine: My fab wedding invites - on a budget

So after a week of pulling together ideas for the invitations and a mishap in printing over 70 of them, only to find a mistake on the times of the ceremony, I have finally finished my wedding invitations.

To save money, I have finished my wonderful wedding website. A free and fabulous site with gettingmarried.co.uk.  I didn’t want to send huge wedding invitations that would cost a lot of money to post and a lot of money to get made, I opted for a free wedding planning website. Its great; everyone can RSVP, find accommodation and even work out their routes to the venues on there. As the wedding will be personal and DIY style, I wanted my invitations to be too.

So I used a great website called, ‘fromoldbooks.com’, and managed to find a great vintage, gothic inspired border for the 4x6 postcard shaped invite. Within the border, I wrote a short message depicting the details of the day and added my website for RSVP and gift list. This not only saves time, it’s totally eco friendly.

My cycle route home from work everyday takes me pass my favourite shop, ‘hobbycraft’. It’s a treasure trove of craft goodies for me, although a little expensive the shop always makes me want to buy something. I went in to see how I could get creative with my invitations and sat by the ribbons for about an hour. (I know totally sad). I had printed my draft invitations and matched them up with some floral cream ribbon and a lovely plum coloured ribbon too. Plum will be my wedding colour so I managed to tie that in. The black border against the cream and purple looks just prefect. A slight gothic, vintage and original design. I decided to fold bows with the ribbon and add a flash of colour.

My creative mess!

I also managed to use the invites I made a mistake on! Recycling goddess! I used the Laura Ashley paper I brought for the original invites and backed the new ones nicely.

So all in all…how much did I add to the bill? £1 for Laura Ashley Paper, £1.50 for the envelopes, £1.50 for the card and £5 for the ribbon. So £9 for my invitations, less then a penny each and am handing most of them out to save postage! Perfection!

Post Eight: A marriage from hell?

If I could hand you a thousand pounds, what would you spend it on? How about if I was feeling very generous and gave you a million? Maybe a mansion in the Caribbean, so you can sun yourself whenever you please, or maybe a private jet to fly you away whenever you fancied the ride. What about £3.200,000? Now that must be even more difficult to think about, 2 houses maybe, 2 planes and maybe if your feeling generous and you can’t possibly think of anything else to spend your money on, give some of the money to charity. You could even pay off 10% of Africa’s debt. Hilary Clinton's daughter spent this on her wedding day.

That’s a 99% percentage difference on the cost of my wedding, a £3,196,500 difference, a hell of a lot of money difference. I wonder if she was happier than I am going to be on my big day? I wonder if money makes a difference to how you feel on the day; whether it improves the romance or the words you say and feel as you say your vows. Or is spending that amount of money on your wedding day all for show, a way to tell people how rich you are and what a lavish party you are able to hold as you have money growing on your trees in your back garden? As I sit and ponder that thought, whilst at work (I should totally be working!!), I come across an article from the BBC News titled ‘A marriage made in hell?’.

The article describes the modern wedding. The scary women rushing into a Bridal Sale and pushing others excited brides out of the way to get the bargain dress. Or a over enthusiastic bridesmaid ordering a male stripper for the hen do. 

A clinical psychologist Dr James commented that, "Brides are more prone to wanting to signify their importance to others through grand material displays. Classic keeping up with the Joneses."  I guess this is true for most brides nowadays. Some brides are dictated to by their parents and traditional is followed so strictly that the extras cost extra. Lavish presents for the mother of the bride and groom, presents for the bridesmaids, presents for the groomsmen, high profile photographer..etc..etc. Some brides forget the reason they are getting married and concentrate too much on the look, the colours and how they are going to greet and feed their guests. I am not convinced this makes a marriage from hell but it creates a lot of pressure and anxiety for the bride to make things just perfect. I am not sure how I will focus my thoughts on the wedding yet, certainly not a wedding that thinks about it's guests more than Terry and I, but I do hope I remember the true meaning of a wedding. To show Terry my commitment to him and to tell him how much I adore him. Rather than getting stressed out over which expensive car I'd like to arrive in. 

Adventurer of the Year!

We entered our local newspaper, the Daily Echo's, competition to become the Adventurer of the year and guess who won!! We did!!

With this pic, we spent 4 hours in the Store Go Outdoors picking up £500 worth of camping gear! Woop Woop!