Sheffield – 21st August

There was some excitement on Friday 21st August as our friend, Clare, was coming to Sheffield for the weekend. I’d already been in touch with our other mutual friends, Kerrie and Louisa, who were also keen to meet up.
After cramming in lots of work and I also managed to do the hoovering and clean up a bit, I walked to the train station to meet Clare. I’d not seen her since we went for drinks and steak in London so it was great to catch up again. Clare had just a small backpack and it was a lovely day so we decided to walk it back to Kelham Island from the train station. According to Captain Caveman it should take 15 minutes but I’d say it was more like 20.
Back home, Clare was shown around the flat and she was allocated the spare room/office which I turfed Captain Caveman out of. He was able to finish work a little earlier on a Friday and was able to nip to the shops for provisions. He also bought me some Lactase enzyme supplements because he was convinced I was intolerant to lactose. I’d not realised that both Kerrie and Louisa had been ready to meet up earlier in the day than we could be ready for. We rushed to get ready and I messaged them to say we were heading to the pub. As it turned out, they were both running late now so we had time to show Clare the area, have a quick pint in the Alder, then another drink in the Neepsend Social Club, where I went on to wine. We waited in the Gardener’s Rest for our friends to join us with a third drink while sharing the last of the pork pies and food as none of us had eaten. I was very impressed with the pork to pastry ratio in the pork pie too.

At 5pm Louisa, Kerrie and her son, Jack, arrived at the Gardener’s Rest and more drinks were ordered – I was already quite merry by this point!
Kerrie and Jack made me laugh, especially Jack who was telling us all about his football and they couldn’t stay long as they had to get up early for football tomorrow.

After the Gardener’s Rest, Louisa, Clare, Captain Caveman and I walked to the next pub, The Workshop. Here the girls went on to cocktails, I stuck to wine and Captain Caveman beer but I had already overdone it and was hungry. We ended up having chips and gravy which I knew I was drunk by this time as I’m not fond of gravy but I ate it and enjoyed it!

We really should have gone home after that as I had definitely had too much wine but we went for a last drink at the Church, where, apparently, I had a margarita and Captain Caveman fell asleep. Louisa’s husband came to pick her up and I think we kept him waiting a bit too long while she drank up and said her farewells. We organised to see her again tomorrow for something new that Clare and I were really looking forward to.

Gratitude List
1. Clare coming to stay with us for the weekend in Sheffield
2. Drinks at Kelham Island with our friends
3. That pork pie in the Gardener’s Rest.

Scotland – 18th August

The alarm went off before 7am on Tuesday 18th August after a good sleep in The Tudor hotel in Airdrie, Scotland. The bed was so much comfier than the futon at Captain Caveman’s flat and I didn’t want to get out of bed.
We had breakfast at the hotel where I asked for mine without egg or tomato and Captain Caveman was disappointed as he would have had my extra things I don’t eat. It came with a potato cake type item which I loved and a lovely pot of tea. The Colpermin seemed to have eased my bloating a little but I still had a belly ache after eating.
Captain Caveman went off to the office and I ended up staying in the hotel room working all day. It was cold and wet out so I didn’t bother getting a bus/train to Edinburgh as planned. In my lunch hour I started working on the cover for my next publication which was a 2027 diary. I had decided I was going to do a travel themed one, with some hints/tips and typical JoLo style advice on each month and I wanted the front and back cover to compliment my handy travel planner. I decided the background should look like a swimming pool and I would use some of the elements used on the last book to carry on the theme. I am getting better at Canva but it still wasn’t easy and I got very frustrated with it.
When Captain Caveman got back from the office we decided to have dinner in the hotel as they did an early bird pre theatre menu which was 2 courses for £16.95 each. For starters Captain Caveman ordered the Haggis bon bons and I had the Mumbai mushrooms which were really tasty. For mains Captain Caveman had Hunters Chicken and I had a Butter Chicken pie. My dinner was delicious and it was very filling. We also had a pint of cider for me and Captain Caveman had 2 pints of Cobra. The total bill came to £49.35 and was definitely worth the price. We went back to the room stuffed and watched a film. It had been on less than half an hour when Captain Caveman fell fast asleep and his snoring was so loud that it didn’t look likely that I would get much sleep.

Gratitude List
1. Hotel breakfast
2. Starting to design my 2027 diary cover
3. Hotel dinner.

Sheffield – 2nd August

While Captain Caveman was leading a group of people through the underground canals of Sheffield, on Sunday 2nd August, I was booking the return airport bus tickets for my September holiday. A saving of almost £70, plus the cost of petrol, was definitely worth it for me even if we did have to select the bus that got us to the airport 6 hours before the flight, and left at 3am! I would have taken the bus that got in 2 hours before the international flight but my travel buddy had a case to drop off and wanted to stick to being there 3 hours before, which was probably the right thing to do. I find that travelling with just hand luggage means you can arrive a bit later as you don’t need to stand in the check-in or bag drop queue. I was fine going early, though, even if it meant leaving the house at 2.15am for a 2.30pm flight, as it was saving me money and was just £27.30 each, including picking the row 2 seats. I had a bacon muffin for breakfast, sausages and beans for lunch and the Slimming World healthy eating had definitely gone on a back burner.
I did a bit of blogging and some admin before popping in to town to meet Ma & Pa. They were coming over to Kelham Island for the first time and it was a bit of a treat as they don’t normally venture this far, or in to town. I bought a weekly tram pass for £20 and met them off the bus in Pond Street at 1.45pm.
We walked to the train station to get the tram, calling at the toilets on the way. We got off the tram at Shalesmoor and Captain Caveman was cycling home from the Twisted Burger Company so he could drop his bicycle off and then meet us in the Wellington pub. I got the first drinks in for the 3 of us at £19.38 for 1 pale ale, 1 cider and 1 stout. We sat in the beer garden as the weather was quite nice, for a change.
When Captain Caveman arrived we had another round before heading off to the next bar. On the way, Mom’s shoe broke so the 3 of them managed to get to the Gardener’s Rest while I went home to get a pair of my Vietnamese porter sandals for her to wear. When I got back there was another pint waiting for me and we mentioned to Ma & Pa about the flat Captain Caveman was interested in buying. They agreed it looked a good deal so I went online and requested a viewing.
We were getting peckish so decided to go to Heist, a place I’d not been to before. I paid £26.95 for the round of drinks as Captain Caveman’s choice was a pricey IPA. This time Ma and I only had halves but Captain Caveman and Dad stuck to pints. We also ordered a Firepit meat tray which Mom paid for at £30 plus another round of drinks. We also added sweet potato fries as an extra for another £5. I decided to go on to wine with Dad as it was only £7 for a large Merlot.
The food was good and included chicken, brisket, pork, burnt ends, sausage, fried pickles, gravy, fries and slaw.
We finished off the Kelham Island pub crawl at the Alder where I introduced Mom to my new favourite beer, Schöfferhofer Grapefruit, which is also low alcohol and tastes so good. The round in our last pub was the cheapest yet at only £18 for 4 pints. I also really like the staff in the Alder as they are nice and friendly.
We had a great time and my parents left around 8.45pm so that they could get their bus back to Mosborough. They seemed to really enjoy Kelham Island and said they would visit again.

Gratitude List
1. Saving money on Flix buses to the airport
2. Ma & Pa joining Captain Caveman and I in Kelham Island
3. Good food and drink in our local boozers.

London to Sheffield – 24th July

I had been looking forward to Friday 24th July for a while, and not just because Captain Caveman and I would be going to Sheffield. I’d planned in the diary to spend the weekend with Captain Caveman and our friend, Claire. I’d not seen her since Spain in June, so we were excited. I left Barnes around 9.30am so that I could use my train ticket from St Pancras and I worked on the train. I managed to go from Barnes via Vauxhall and didn’t get lost. I arrived in to Sheffield at 1pm and made my way to Captain Caveman’s flat. It was quite cool compared to London and I hoped the Sheffield summer wasn’t over. Captain Caveman worked all day in London and was getting back very late so I planned a girls night in. I tidied the flat up and made up a bed with an airbed in the spare room. The flat doesn’t have much in the way of furniture on account of Captain Caveman wanting to buy a place so not really wanting to buy stuff he needs to move up to the 2nd floor, only to have to take it out again when he moves out.
Claire arrived around 5pm, after she had finished her working day near Manchester.
We had a wander round the Kelham Island area and then called in to one of my favourite local pubs. The beer garden at the Gardener’s Rest was very nice with a pint of cider, scampi fries and bacon fries. We had a good laugh with a lady on a 3 wheeler mobility scooter who was manoeuvreing between the tables and benches.
Back home, Claire and I were in our pyjamas while it was still daylight, drinking red wine and eating snacks with cheese. We shared a beanbag on account of not having a sofa and laughed a lot. We also put a plan together for a bit of a staycation early next week.
Captain Caveman got back late and we made plans for more fun tomorrow.

Gratitude List
1. Getting back to Sheffield after being away for over 8 weeks
2. Spending time with Claire
3. Having a night in with cheese and wine.

Sheffield – 10th January

Ma cooked us a full English breakfast on the morning of Saturday 10th January and it was so good – I do miss a good sausage! It was pretty cold in Sheffield. The snow that had come down recently was just icy now and all the roads were fine in Mosborough. I caught up on some Resort Experts admin in the morning and saw a post from Claire Clarke, the business book publisher. She had posted on Facebook a photo of her with a pile of books which included mine – which was nice.
In the afternoon Captain Caveman and I decided to chance an icy walk to the Co-op for some essentials. Here’s what we bought, prices in pounds;

Co-op Supermarket
Garlic 0.80
Onions 1.10
Potatoes 1.35
Stilton 1.40
Peppers 1.95
Feta Cheese 2.45
1 bottle Pinto Grigio 5.80
1 bottle Rioja 7.75
Total spent £22.60

I got a dodgy stomach while we were in the shop, so I headed to the Alma pub for a loo stop and a pint of water, while Captain Caveman did the shopping. He then met up with me at the pub and we had a couple of pints. A friend came to join us and we had a really good catch up, drinking probably a little too much cider for me. This meant we were running a little late to get ready for tonight’s celebrations.

All 8 of us (Ma, Pa, Gayle, Neil, Morgan, April, Captain Caveman and me) were booked in for a joint birthday celebration at the Angel in Spinkhill. Because the weather was unpredictable, Neil drove in 2 trips and we would get taxis back. The place was very nice and had quite a cosy dining area, next to the bar – which was very handy. I overdosed on cheese for my meal choices; Captain Caveman and I shared baked camembert for starter, we both had the duck for main and we shared a cheese board for afters! The food was very good and I managed at least a couple of glasses of red wine too. My sister had the gluten free choices, as she’s coeliac, and it was excellent – all served on back plates so that they weren’t mixed up with the white plates, containing gluten. I was impressed with what I had and our share of the bill was paid by Captain Caveman with it being for my birthday. Our waitress happened to be the daughter of an old school friend of Gayle’s and a neighbour from when we lived in Frecheville – she was so like her mother and had a lot of patience with our group.

There was a bit of a rush to get the taxis back as the restaurant closed at 9.30pm but we took our wine with us and decided we would call for a last drink at the Craftworks in Mosborough. It was hilarious and the drinks were flowing – it was certainly not a good idea for me to drink a pint of stout as my final drink, or get a selfie with the barman who had lovely hair! It was great to spend time with the family and our combined birthday celebrations were a winner, without snow ruining it. Back at Ma & Pa’s we ended up drinking more wine! I had a feeling my actual birthday, tomorrow, was not going to be hangover free and we had to get the train back to Pontecarlo!!

Gratitude List
1. An English breakfast cooked by Mom
2. Cheeky afternoon drinks in the pub with a friend who needed a beer
3. A fantastic family meal to celebrate our birthdays in bad weather.

Barnes – 26th & 27th December

One good thing about not celebrating a traditional Christmas Day was that Boxing Day, Friday 26th December, was not spent recovering from it.
We didn’t have the hotel breakfast in Barking as Captain Caveman wasn’t bothered and we thought we would get back to Barnes.
Instead, he took me to the pub hoping for a pub lunch. The Brown Dog was closed so we ended up in the Red Lion. Captain Caveman spent £45 on our lunch which consisted of 2 pints of beer, a beef and horseradish sandwich for Captain Caveman and a pint of tap water, a glass of white wine and a prawn and crayfish sandwich for me. It was lovely despite the very annoying family of 5 sat round a 2 person table next to us. We ended up moving to an adult only table across from the bar, which was a good move.
Back home we watched TV; Undercover Boss, Gordon’s Kitchen Nightmares and Grand Designs – I’d missed UK TV.
For dinner Captain Caveman prepared some sourdough, bought from Gail’s earlier for a small fortune, with a baked camembert and we finished off the port. It was a very nice, relaxing day and a chance for Captain Caveman to rest after his 12 hour shift yesterday.

Gratitude List
1. Pub grub
2. A relaxing boxing day
3. More cheese.

Captain Caveman’s parents were due back from Spain on Saturday 27th December so Captain Caveman had offered my culinary services to make a welcome back dinner that evening. I was pleased as it had been 5 days since I’d eaten anything I’d cooked myself – most unusual! We popped to the shops and I decided to have a look in the Sue Ryder charity shop. Even though I had new clothes for Christmas I still didn’t have more than 1 top and had been wearing Captain Caveman’s t-shirt yesterday. I also didn’t have anything that wasn’t casual (not that I was due to be going anywhere fancy). The charity shop always has some amazing items in there, mainly good brands which I can never afford. Today, Captain Caveman was there to treat me again and I found a lovely tunic dress for £12 – it was only a size 12 and I didn’t try it on in the shop but it did fit when I got back home.
Next, we popped to one of my favourite shops to get the food for later, here’s what we got with the prices in pounds;

Marks & Spencers
Chicken 7.15
Raspberries 3.90
Blueberries 3.63
Sage & onion stuffing 2.50
Orange Juice 2.50
Peppers 1.50
Carrots 1.25
Green beans 0.80
Parsnips 0.50
Total spent £23.71

We called at the Farmer’s Market on the way back but there were limited stalls out, with it being between Christmas and New Year. We did manage to pick up some sausages and black pudding for Captain Caveman to cook us a breakfast tomorrow. I made some Yorkshire pudding mixture but there was only self raising flour and it didn’t really work.
In the afternoon, we decided to take a walk to see if the Brown Dog was open today and it was. We sat by the Christmas tree with a pint each (mine was cider) for a total of £13.60.
Back home, Captain Caveman’s parents were back and it was lovely to see them. I cracked on with making the dinner and we had a drop of wine to go with the meal.
Afterwards we went upstairs to watch TV and chill out – I even got in to watching Traitors.

Gratitude List
1. A new dress
2. A pint in the Brown Dog
3. A lovely family meal.

Dalyan to London – 23rd December

Tuesday 23rd December was jam-packed as I was about to leave Dalyan for 26 days!!!! I was really looking forward to going back and we had so many different things planned! My flight was at 4.10pm to Gatwick so I had time to cram in just 4kg of my own stuff in to the 15kg hold luggage. This wasn’t an issue, though, as I had all my work stuff in my underseat bag and when I got to the UK, a bag of my stuff would be waiting for me. Captain Caveman had promised to bring my bag which had a few sets of clothes, pyjamas and a pair of boots!
With plenty of time before I left, I popped round to Jamie & Drew’s to say bye to Norman, with me being away for so long! He seemed in fine spirits and I promised him I’d be back to look after him in January.
Next, I went to Ela’s Kitchen for a breakfast with Karen and Andy who were on the same flight as me and were very kindly giving me a lift to the airport. We all had an English breakfast, which was a bit ironic, given where we were off to. It was delicious as always. Karen also ordered sandwiches to take with them but I decided I’d be ok without, after eating a breakfast. I spent 960 lira (£17.14) for my breakfast, a Yorkshire tea and my lift’s takeaway sandwich. Karen and I popped to the shop next door for some travel sweets and snacks – I got them as it was only 114.25 lira (£2.04) and they were giving me the lift which saved me the taxi fare.

At the airport it was a bit of a farce as I had to go back through security check twice when my boarding pass wouldn’t scan. This also meant I had to faff about with taking my laptop out on both occasions as well as shoes off! It was badly organised and no seating or repacking area. It would not have been ideal for anyone who struggled with this process.
Once at the gate, I bumped in to Dave, one of the regular boat trip blokes from Dalaman. We had a chat and a good laugh as he’s got a really good sense of humour. We took a photo to send to our mutual friends.
The plane left on time, I did a little blogging and watched some Netflix on my phone. When the drinks trolley came round I decided to have some water, a red wine and a cheese and crackers snack box for a total of 822.45 lira (£14.69). I was due to land at 5.40pm and had nodded off before that.

Once landed at Gatwick around 5.40pm, I retrieved my 15kg suitcase and said bye to Karen & Andy. I wrapped up in my hat, scarf and winter coat and headed to the train station. It wasn’t as cold as I expected but it was definitely chilly in England. I got the train to Barnes via Clapham Junction and Captain Caveman was there to meet me from the train. We then hurried to his parents’ house to drop off my luggage and then go back out.
I’d arranged to meet Stacey and Tracey, from Anex Tour Uk, in Hammersmith. Captain Caveman and I got the bus and arrived at The Swan pub first. Captain Caveman ordered himself a pint of ale and I had a pint of cider – he paid on card so no receipt but I don’t think there was much change from £20!
Stacey and Tracey arrived shortly after and we had a really good night, they are such a good laugh and Captain Caveman got on well with them too. After a few drinks we decided to order some food and I wolfed down the fantastic baked camembert with truffle fries like it was my death row meal – it was so good! I must’ve been quite tiddly when we said our farewells in Hammersmith train station as the group photo didn’t come out as I’d hoped at just before 11pm!!

Captain Caveman and I got back to Barnes by 11.35pm and I was knackered as my head thought it was Turkish time, 3 hours ahead. As I got in to bed, I saw a picture from a friend who had received her copy of The Handy Travel Planner and I was so pleased! She loves a holiday as much as I do so I knew it would be perfect for her to plan all of her adventures.

Gratitude List
1. A nice last morning in Dalyan
2. Seeing Captain Caveman again
3. Meeting up with 2 of the Anex ladies for pre Christmas celebrations.