Our first fishing trip since returning :)

Me and luke have just finished our second week back at work and have the weekend off together so we have decided to go fishing at chiddingstone castle :) we fished here a few times before we left & really enjoyed it. Its very calm and peaceful and nobody ever fishes here which always seems odd to us as its a really beautiful place to fish :) 

We decided not to get up at the crack of dawn as we had been everyday this week so we got to the castle around 10 and found a spot in the corner near the bridge. Its was a warm day but the clouds and breeze made it a little chilly for me ! So luke set up the bivy and bed chair for me! I love it ! Fishing is so relaxing, i love sitting in the bivy with my magazines or the ipad just chilling and after a couple of hours i get up and have a fish :) i love it.

....perfect relaxation for me 

Lukes hobbie has always been fishing he loves it and is very good at it, and i love that he has taught me and we can do it together :) so as luke sets up we spot loads of carp, more then we have seen here before! Theres at least 10 swimming around together and we saw a few lunking out of the water ! Pretty much as soon as luke had set up the rod was going! And he had his first carp! There not a bad size in here either ! Luke was catching fish all day and i even caught a couple! It was great fun :)

We spent the whole day here and luke caught over 20 fish! I love watching him fish its very therapeutic! The fish he caught here were also very pretty and some looked like they hadnt been caught much! We had a lovely picnic and chatted about our trip......reminissing! It was just what we needed after a long week ....a day fishing! 

Celebrating my birthday :)

We decided to spend my birthday at mum & dads we loved it there, and there was a lot to do, we had planned to go on the thursday and come back on the sunday afternoon, my birthday was on the friday!  I was turning 27 and felt very old! So decided i would be 21 again!! When we got there mum was at work so me, luke and dad took a walk into town, there were a few bits we needed and it was a lovely day so decided to go for a walk through town and back along the quay.

Luke cooked everyone dinner this evening...chilli con carne! And it was delicious he makes it very well :) we then went for a walk around poole park which is just behind mum and dads apartment it was a lovely evening and we wanted to feed the ducks! There is also gym equipment at this park which we all had a go on! 

The next day i turned "21" again! Mum was working so me, luke and dad decided to go out for the day so we went to "the blue pool" it was a lovely lake that had a unique turquoise blue colour to it, it was really pretty we had a lovely walk around it, dad had let me use one of his good cameras today so i was taking some great pics, we had a hot drink and some jaffa cakes and then went and had a look at the wearham bears collection :) it was a great afternoon....

We went back and all got ready for going out for a birthday meal, dad had found a lovely restaurant down on the quay and it was also classic car night so we had a walk down the quay to look at all the cars and a wonder around all the lovely seaside shops, and then had some dinner it was a lovely evening and it was so nice walking back along the quay.....

We finished the night off with a cup of tea and mum had made me a lovely birthday "cake" it was her specialty lemon and lime ginger nut cheesecake it was bloody gorgeous.....

We couldnt decide what the weather was going to do on the saturday so we had a lazy morning, me and mum went into town and then in the afternoon we all went to corfe castle :) i hadnt been there for years and luke had never been there! The rain held off the whole afternoon :) we love looking around castles and looking at history and the village of corfe is so lovely and pretty it was a great afternoon :)

That evening we decided to go fishing down on sandbanks beach! We had bought our little telescopic rods with us and luke and dad were going to fish off the rocks :) we got there and found a great spot at the end of sandbanks beach on the rocks, luke set it all up, and then put both the rods out and when the rods went luke told dad to pick the rod up and reel it in! Dad was a bit rusty as he hadnt been fishing for a while, but they caught a few fish....plaice....

It was a really great evening, i had a go at spinner fishing but didnt catch anything, and mum went for a swim! It was a great couple of hours and something we will definately be doing again! 

We had such a great time at mum and dads we loved there apartment it was so lovely and very close to everything it was a great place to get away for a break :) we were off home now as we both started work this week and needed to prepare! But what a great end to our year off.

Back to reality !!!!

We have both returned to work now, our long break has come to an end we are now back to reality! I started work on monday the 21st july and luke started on the tuesday, the first thing i will say is that the commute was a shock to the system!! I work in north london and luke is also working back in london at moorgate near the ghurkin! So its quite a commute! We was both excited about returning to work one reason was because we both enjoyed our jobs and was looking forward to getting back to it and the routine and the second reason was because we wanted to start earning money to save for a mortgage the sooner we start saving the sooner we can have a place of our own a place to call our home. 

My first day back at work was all a bit of a blur i just floated around helping the others and catching up on all the new bits and pieces, i met the new deputy sisters and new patients. I didnt have any patients for the whole of the first week which was nice because i had so much to catch up on i needed that week just to get up to date! And the second week i had my own patients and did 4 long days so was pretty bloody tired! But although being very tired i was loving being back at work and soon realised how much i loved my job and had missed it! I of course missed all of my amazing colleagues and it was great seeing them all again :) all in all a good start.

Luke started back on the tuesday and he also found the commuting very tiring! He was working monday to friday and wasnt getting home until 18.45 and he was leaving around 06.30! He felt a bit like i did at first like he had forgotton things and was slower then he was before and thats exactly how i felt! But we had been out of the work place for almost a year and it would take a couple of weeks for us to get used to it again and actually after 2 weeks it was like we had never left! 

Because we both work long hours its so important that when we have days off together we really enjoy the day and relax and do something we want to do, it is so tiring commutng to london and unless you do it its hard to really appreciate how tiring it is, we choose to work there so its our choice but thats because its giving us the best of our careers at this point in our lives! I think we appreciate the concept of a early night now! So we dont feel to tired at work! God we are old!! 

Although its been tiring getting back to reality its also been a very happy and exciting time for us, as this means the saving can now begin again for our next chapter.

Visiting mum and dads new home in poole :)

So whilst we were away my parents moved from our lovely childhood home to an apartment in poole, and while i was very happy for them it was quite sad not to come home to that house that was my home for so many years and as odd as it seems i never said goodbye to it! I was so busy and stressed before we left that it didnt even enter my head! However my parents dream has always been to live by the sea and after a long long search they have found there dream home by the sea. And we were on our way to see it for the first time and we couldnt wait.

We had left tonbridge very late due to some unforscene stressful circumstances and so that ment we didnt get there until gone 11pm, and we were so bloody tired we had only been back 2 days and it had been Very full on 2 days and the latter part very stressful :( we just couldnt wait to get there and relax, and of course i was very excited as we hadnt seen my mum and dad since last year! When we arrived we were so relieved It was so great seeing them we had a big group hug, and walked into there lovely apartment building and there was a welcome home sign on the door! And as we walked in there was more banners and loads of chocolate and biscuits! Dad and mum had made us a huge hamper of all the things we missed while away it was so so nice and just what we needed! The apartment was lovely and although we had seen it very briefly once when mum and dad went to take some measurements before we left we had never seen it with them in it! And as soon as we walked in we loved it ! It was so homely, spacious and very very nice, we immediately thought we could live here!! We all had a cup of tea and had a brief conversation and then went to bed, the jet lag was so tiring and we couldnt wait to just lie down.

We tried to get up at a reasonable time the next day to try to get back to the time zone, we had a chilled out morning and then took a walk into town which was so close! It was such a great town lots of little shops, cafes and a lovely cafe type shop that made homemade pasties! And they were so delicious! And cheap! Everything was cheap down here! We wondered back through town taking and along the quay taking in the views it really was a lovely place to live :) that evening dad cooked us toad in the hole! This was one of lukes fave dishes that my dad makes ! He does make it pretty bloody well! It was so scrummy! 

We stayed with my mum and dad for just under a week and a lot of the time we were sorting things out that needed to be sorted out, catching up and putting our holidays video onto dvds! We did that every morning there was over 10 hours worth so it was going to take a long time! We visited many places....sandbanks (which was just down the road!), christchurch, old harrys rocks, the new forrest there were also a few local places we went to....poole park etc, we really wanted to see as much as we could but we were so tired! Coming back to so much stress really took it out of us and we felt well and truly knackared.

We also enjoyed some gorgeous home cooked food while we were there, dad always cooks lovely food and we werent dissappointed he made us some lovely meals including some vegi stuff which was so tasty :) 

We also found time to see my uncle rodders and auntie chris on a trip to southampton apple store to get lukes phone fixed it was great to catch up and show them our photo books....

We absolutely loved seeing where mum and dad lived it is such a lovely place to live, so much to see and do so close by, the town is lovely and "hotel avenel" as we now call there home is perfect and i am so pleased that they are now where they want to be and they are so happy, they work so hard they deserve it, and we will be enjoying many weekends away there :) what a lovely relaxing week with mum and dad :) we were now on our way home with a car full of stuff! Including a doublebed mum and dad had given us! We was not looking forward to putting that together ! But was looking forward to getting in our own bed :)

Surprising a few of the most important people in our life :)

When we walked through arrivals at heathrow i saw my auntie alison and gary standing there holding a welcome home banner....waving at us with great big smiles :) i was immediately emotional and just cried! I think all the stress if the last few days, plus the fact our flight was delayed and i thought i might miss the chance to pick chester up from school! Was a bit emotional ! And i think we were both glad to be home :)

We had planned to come home a month early but had told only a few people as we wanted to surprise a few people :) we hadnt told my nanny o, chester, millie or luke best friend matt. The first port of call was going to be my sisters house where we would greet our little millie poppins....when we arrived there was a banner on the door saying welcome home :) we hadnt expected that so it was lovely :) we arrived at sams house and she had shut the curtain so millie wouldnt see us....i knocked on the door and got down on the floor so i was her level....sam opened the door and there millie was....i think she was a little shocked because she stood there for a good few seconds and just stared at me! And then she came in for a hug and I squeezed her.....

....i was so happy :) i finally got to give my millie poppins a hug, she was a bit shy at first but that only lasted about 5 mins and then she came in for another hug and patted me on the back! She also hugged luke and patted him, we was over the moon that she was so comfortable with us she had only been 18 months old when we left and although we had facetimed them at least once a week she was still very young and we wasnt sure how she would react but this just goes to show that we have a great relationship with our niece :)

Next stop was surprising chester. We were going to pick him up at school and he had no idea that me and luke would be greeting him! I could not bloody wait! His teacher came out and noticed my sister standing there so called chester and i bent down to be at his level and as he came out and got closer to us i called his name and he smiled and came in for a hug :) and as he hugged me he squeezed me so tight and i shed a little tear.....

It was a beautiful moment with my nephew i was so touched at his reaction he obviously missed his auntie sarah, after hugging me he ran over to luke and jumped on him! He really loved his uncle luke and was very pleased he was home after there hug chester punched luke! Which was standard protocol between chester and luke! 

When we got back to my sisters we all had a cuppa and luke was straight on the trampoline with the kids, we were both knackared but knew we had to stay up, my sister cooked us a lovely meal which we really appreciated we had missed our english food! She also made the most amazing chrunchie cheesecake ! God it was so tasty! She had put up banners for us and we had a balloon saying welcome home it was lovely we took a few pics for the album.

The next day sam was going to take us to nanny o's she had no idea we were coming home and we had decided sam would go in first with millie and then she would come out saying she had forgotten something and bring us back in! And when sam went into the living room she told nan she had bought some visiters! And in we walked! Nan was so surprised she shed a tear and that made me shed a little tear! I was so happy we managed to surprize her and she was very surprised and very happy to see us it was lovely we had a lovely cup of tea and a catch up before we had to leave, but I was over the moon that i had got to see my nan.....my world....the queen bee.

After a long day fixing lukes car and getting our room ready we didnt have time to do what we wanted next which was to surprise matt! Although we did surprise him it wasnt how we wanted it to be! But it was nice and he was surprised! 

I really wanted to surprise my cousin becky we are close and i was gutted that we just completely run out of time :( so i sent her a message on route to mum and dads and then announced to the world we were home! Everything went as we wanted it to regarding the surprises which was lovely it was great seeing those special people after all this time :) 

We are now enroute to mum and dads for a week of relaxation....hopefully!!

Parting thoughts....

Our lives could have been so completely different if we hadnt become a couple, but eventually our paths met and we followed our hearts :) ....and its because we did this we have experienced this wonderful trip together and made some amazing memories to last a lifetime. We have overcome many obstacles together before and during our trip that have really tested us as a couple, and things that have tested us on our own and have come out stronger for getting through it together. Nothing stays perfect and we are not perfect but together we are a good strong team and thats very important. 

I have learnt a lot whilst travelling and i am sure luke has to. A lot of things that have happened in my past (with boyfriends, car accident, family feuds etc) used to bother me and stress me out and its not until we have come travelling that i have truly realised that all of that doesnt matter and it is not worth all the horrible feelings that go with the stress. You live once and once only dont spend it being angry with yourself or others if something bothers me i will confront it, my life will not be affected by what others say and do, I will be putting myself first as i always should have done and as luke always tells me to do. Sometimes it takes something massive to happen in your life to give you a kick up the arse that you should of had a long time ago. I am so lucky to have a wonderful family around me which alot of people dont have and i have a great group of friends who i am bless to have. 

Unfortunately me and my sister havnt always seen eye to eye but i am hoping this will change now that we have had some time apart. I missed her and her family whilst away, i am proud of what my sister has achieved so far.....a mortgage, marriage and two absolutely amazing kids she really has been blessed with the best kids ever i love them so much :) we are two different people with two different personalities and i am the best auntie i can be to my niece and nephew they are my world. We are two very lucky girls with the best parents anyone could wish for who support us in everything we want to do and we had a Great childhood and were very lucky. Its time to forget what bothers us as lifes to short. Lets enjoy our future as sisters. Your my only sister and i love you to bits.

We want to give a massive thanks to my mum and dad, without your support, guidance, love and encouragement we would have struggled to go on this trip it was always a dream of ours to go but havng you both there has really helped give us the extra confidence we needed to go on this trip, your constant advice and support througout our travels was also a huge help. I feel so bloody lucky to have the parents i have what a inspiration they are, they have always helped, encouraged and supported me and my sister in everything we have always wanted to do, never been negative and bought us up so well that we both will always enjoy a happy life. People say there is no perfect parent but our parents are perfect and i feel extremely lucky to have them. So thank you mum and dad for being the best of the best.

Travelling has really made me think and feel differently about life in a good way! and whilst travelling i sat with my thoughts and this is what i was thinking.....Everybody has bad things, bad experiences they have had to live through in their life which is why you should never judge someone by there cover everyone is fighting a battle that you dont know about just be kind to everyone. No body is perfect as everybody finds faults in everyone else but believe your life is as perfect as it can be as if you are happy you life will be perfect in your eyes, and isnt that all that matters? 

Things happen in life and they often present you with a choice you may make the wrong choice at the time and wish you hadnt but there will be a time that you can make another choice and make a right turn instead of a wrong one, these choices will appear regularly and its down to you to eventually choose the right path for you and follow your heart as when you do you will be rewarded with a fun, happy and relaxed life. Getting to the good times through the hard is a challlenge but when you get there....god its worth it. There was a time in my life where i just wasnt happy and didnt know what to do i thought i was going know where and i am sure my family and friends thought that to! But i am so glad i am now on this path which is by far the best path and right one for me! Follow your heart and your dreams will come true :) whilst travelling i really was thinking very deeply and it made me just reflect on certain things that have happened in my life already and the paths i took, but one things for sure i am so glad my path finially took me to luke and we have experienced travelling together.

I have found my prince after kissing far to many frogs ! and am so happy and am looking forward to our future together, finding someone to spend your life with isnt about finding someone you can live with its finding someone you cant live without and finding someone that you can have fun with, travelling as a Couple is a make or break thing and i am glad we have become stronger, we appreciate each other much more now and have had such a laugh finding each other and finding ourselves its been a great journey! And one we will never forget! Would we do it again.......no! Once was enough! Well.....maybe but very differently. The memories we have made together will last a life time and we have talked about the things we have done many times since being back, we really tested our limits whilst away and really pushed ourselves to do different things and having the support of each other really made a difference, what a epic 10 months and trip of a life times one we will never forget. Now to get excited for the next big chapter....saving for a mortgage & buying a place of our own. We cannot wait.

Our conclusion to our world adventure....

Wow.....what a amazing 10 months we have just had :) we have experienced so much in that relatively short time and seen a lot of different culture & countrys. Luke has always wanted to travel and its also been my dream since i was little to travel so it has been a dream come true 10 months and i feel so privileged and happy to have created these wonderful memories with my best friend.... my boyfriend luke. 

We have had a absolute blast together and seen many different countries and cultures. Lukes fave country was fiji followed by new zealand and then america. He absolutely loved fiji, it was calm, peaceful and the fijians were so friendly it was very him. My faves were new zealand, fiji & america were next on a par! Everyone knows that america is and always has been my fave country of all, but new zealand was just gorgeous. We both really loved asia but we didnt realise just quite how much until we left asia and moved on. When we look back now and when i eventually read through some of my earlier blogging i am sure we have moaned about asia but as we reflect on our time there we realised we loved it more then we first thought & we had a pretty good time there, sometimes it takes time to realise what you really did enjoy and what you hated!!

Unfortunately we didnt like australia and even when we reflect now we still hate it :( it doesnt make us as angry now but we do feel a bit bitter about it, however it was our choice to be there that long, we really thought we would enjoy it but it turned out to be everything we hated :( others parts of oz may be different and we certainly enjoyed sydney and new south wales but in general it is not somewhere we would really go back to.

We learnt some very valuable lessons travelling some useful lessons other lessons we learnt the hard way. It took a lot of planning for this trip, the best part of 18 months and a lot of saving and although we were very very organised there were still things we missed out, mistakes were made and there was also still a lot of things we had to sort out and book whilst we were travelling, a lot of the time this proved difficult as wifi was either very expensive or crap! We often wondered how other travellers coped with the amount of things you had to organise for travellng in advance! However it didnt take us long to realised most other travellers didnt organise bugger all and just drifted from place to place! It really mythed us ! We just couldnt do that! I suppose everyone is different we like to know where we are going next and where we are staying! 

Living out of a bag for 10 months was undoubtedly one of the more difficult things we had to cope with, and it was one thing we didnt even think about before we left!! Never underestimate how stressful it is living out of a bag for a long amount of time!!

When i read through my blog at some point i am probably going to think "god i moaned alot!!" But the fact is travelling for a long amount of time, making sure we always have somewhere to Stay, budgeting for different countrys and trying to do as much as you can on a small budget is bloody hard work and very tiring! Yes we were so lucky to do what we have done and i feel bloody proud we did it, but would we do it again.....no!!

Travelling has made us appreciate all the lovely things we have at home and all the lovely people we have supporting us and encouraging us, without all the constant love and support of our fam and friends this journey could have been very different so we couldnt thank them all enough :)

We want to explore more of the world but would never leave again for that amount of time, it was a bloody good experience and we loved it but i am a home girl at heart, luke couldnt really care and would leave again with no problems! But if we ever did do a smaller travelling trip we would save a lot more money and do things how we like.....in luxuary!! Travelling certainly is a experience you will never forget and pretty much a once in a lifetime oppourtunity and despite our moans and groans at certain points we really enjoyed it.

So are we sad its all over?....yes we are, but we also feel slightly relieved! We are excited to get back to normality and work actually!! We both really enjoy our work and cannot wait to get back and start saving for the next chapter in our lives :) 

Before and after our travels !!!!