My visit to London!

This week my boyfriend went down to London for a design award event (D&AD), and seeing as I had no university and the majority of my friends were all busy I thought I would join him. In fact, I booked my megabits tickets down the night before, definitely an impromptu decision to go! 


Whilst I was in London I did spend some time at the design show with my boyfriend and some of his course mates, but I also had to go off and kill some time myself. On the Wednesday I got on the subway and went to the Natural History museum. The Natural History museum is definitely one of my favourite places in London and generally one of my all time favourite Museums! I've been to the New York one too, and I've got to say the London one is just as amazing! 

My favourite exhibition is definitely the dinosaurs, I just love anything related to dinosaurs and I could literally spend hours just walking round taking it all in. This time as well I also really enjoyed the Ecology exhibition! Being a Science teacher I just loved all the science and how much all the exhibits related to topics I have recently taught to my pupils. The water cycle display was amazing and explained the whole process extremely well, likewise so did the display for the carbon cycle, food webs etc. I would love to take my pupils on a day out to the Natural History museum one day! I may have to suggest it at my new job! 

Whilst in London I also met up with one of my university friends, who I hadn't seen since New Year. She is currently doing a PGCE herself in London so she came to meet me after teaching at her Primary School. We walked around some shops and then spotted a Nandos so we went for some food there (we used to go Nandos a lot in Leeds!). It was really great seeing her and catching up with her, as we're both so busy lately with our university courses and teaching, so it was great to spend some time together.

On the Thursday I managed to persuade Mark to come to a museum with me for a bit before I had to catch my bus home, and so again we went to the Natural History Museum haha, just because Mark wanted to go and he loves it just as much as I do. Last time we went together we didnt get chance to look round the Earth and Space section so we had a walk round those exhibitions. Afterwards we managed to find a lovely little Italian round the corner from the Natural History Museum and we stuffed our faces with gorgeous pizzas! Being in the restaurant was like actually being in Italy too, as all the staff were Italian, and the majority of the people sat around us were also Italian! Stepping out of the restaurant reminded us that we were in London not Italy. The restaurant was called Pierino and I would definitely recommend that people go! The food was amazing! 

After the food I had to then say goodbye and run to catch my super long bus journey D: 

The megabus journey down wasn't so bad, I mean it was a 6 hour journey but it didnt feel too long because I kept having little cat naps. However the journey back was atrocious! It felt so long and plus the bus/ the people sat near me were all weirdos! haha. I actually checked I still had my belongings after I got off the bus haha. Plus every time the bus stopped the smokers on the bus thought it was there time for a fag break so would get off an waste another ten minutes, the bus in the end was over 1 hour late. Definitely put me off megabits for a long time! 

I do love going to London, and I do wish it was cheaper to go visit our Capital. But I've got to say it isn't my favourite city in England... Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool are all fantastic cities and if you are ever visiting the UK make sure you check out those amazing cities too! 

Our amazing pizzas! 

Exhibition for the Water Cycle! It was like a giant disco room with videos displayed in each square. 

This part was all about how each species is adapted to their own habitat and environment, the images shown on the large flat stones changed every couple of seconds to show different habitats. 

Sadly I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, one because I forgot my camera so these were all taken on my phone, and then also because my phones battery dies so quickly! 

Pennie's first Pawsome Box!

Today Pennie, my Cocker Spaniel, received some great post! 

In fact as soon as the post was delivered Pennie and my dad couldn't wait to open it, and so by the time I had got home from work they had already opened the Pawsome box and taken the squeaky toy!  

This is our very first Pawsome box, which has been highly recommended by Kemples. A month or so ago Abi did a blog post on her Pawsome box and recommend the free trial so I signed up straight away. 

This month's box is definitely one of the best collection of toys and treats that I have seen from the Pawsome box collection. This month's collection included two lots of different treats, two different toys, an attachment for a lead and a towel. 

Pennies favourite is definitely the doughnut squeaky toy! As soon as my dad opened the box with her and she saw the doughnut toy she has not put it down, she will sit with this toy in her mouth for the next 24 hours easily! Pennie gets super obsessive with new toys, but she was still a perfect girl letting me take the toy to have a look at it and to take some photos for this blog post. This toy will definitely be one of her favourites from now on! 

The chicken and carrot treats are definitely a close second though. I had her doing tricks and running around the room chasing after the treats, definitely a good choice! The carrot and chicken treats are very healthy for the dogs too as they say that they are low fat and contain no sugar! Very good for watching what dogs are eating as well as good for those pearly whites! The other treats within this months box was the Nom Herbal Tea dog treats for fresh breath. Pennie wasn't as fussed about these treats, perhaps she knew it was because they were for bad breath... 

The box also contained a towel and an attachment for leads. Both of these will come in handy during the summer months! Pennie is always jumping in water on her walks, whether it is the sea and river or a lake she just loves water so we always have to take a towel with us on our walks! Even during the winter months she loves a good paddle! Therefore having this new towel is definitely a great idea! The lead attachment is a great idea for example I think we will be using the attachment for when we go walks and sit at benches and eat our picnics, or when we stop at country pubs on our walks :) 


Pawsomebox is £19.90* a month and is a great treat for any pooches! They also do boxes for kitties called the Purrfectbox which is again £19.90* a month. 

Chocolate and Aero Bundt Cake!

As a surprise for my brother's birthday I thought I would make him a Chocolate cake, he loves chocolate cake and could probably eat a whole cake to himself! When he was little he used to eat the chocolate fudge cakes basically to himself so I'm sure this cake will be no problem for him! 

I followed a recipe I found online at all recipes. I amended the recipe a little bit and it seemed to work, all I changed really was the amount of milk I added, as the mixture seemed to be very runny anyways before I added the milk so I added 200ml instead of 250ml. 

Ingredients: 

• 375g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 60g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 225g butter, softened
• 110g margarine

• 600g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 medium sized eggs
• 200ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas 3. 
2. Grease and flour a Bundt cake tin. 
3. Sift plain flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together. Set aside for the time being.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter, margarine, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. 
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. 
6. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk. Mix well.
7. Pour into the prepared Bundt tin. 
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 70 minutes or until a skewer inserted into cake comes out clean. My cake took almost 90 minutes to fully cook as mine was in a giant bundt tin. I just turned the oven down slighty and moved it down in the oven. 
9. Let cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

The cake took a looooooong time to cool! I left it on the side for about 1 hour and it was still warm in the centre. So I had to wait a long time before I could ice it and put the aero balls on top. 

The icing on top is chocolate butter icing, and is made up of cocoa, icing sugar and butter. To make just cream the butter till it is light and fluffy and slowly add the icing sugar and cocoa to the butter. Keep creaming the butter so it is still light and fluffy. Then just decorate as you like, I just added mint aero balls because my brother loves mint too. 

Also to note that the cake is absolutely massive! It serves about 15 people with generous servings! So this cake would be excellent for birthdays or parties! :)

Hope you enjoy the recipe and it is definitely easier to make if you have a magi mixer or kitchen aid. 

Here is the mixture in the bundt cake tin before cooking, it was so delicious and rich! 

The cake is yummy before putting icing on it too, the cake is definitely sweet enough without the icing sugar on too. 

If I was going to make the cake again I think I would decorate the cake with even more chocolate! :) 

A wonderful day at the zoo!

Today my boyfriend and I, and our two friends went to Blackpool Zoo. Seeing as it is half term and also my friends birthday this week it seemed a great idea to go to go out for the day. The weather wasn't amazing but it stayed dry for us all day.

My favourite animal at the zoo was definitely the red pandas! I just love them so much, I love raccoons and the red pandas are a close relative to the raccoons so that explains why they are my favourite. The red pandas were hiding away in the trees but I waited and eventually one of them made an appearance for some food after their nap, so it was definitely worth waiting around for. 

My second favourite animal at the zoo was the tigers, they are just big kitty cats! One was just sat on top of a stand watching every one go by, another was fast asleep and another was playing with a big tyre. 

The meerkats were also super cute and they had a couple of baby meerkats too! 


I had such a lovely day and definitely enjoyed making the most of half term! I'm shattered now though! Also, my amazing boyfriend also bought me my own red panda (teddy) :)