Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

As part of my quest to establish order and regularity on my blog I will now be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Having said that I am aware that today is in fact Tuesday. I was fully intending to post yesterday but once again life got in the way and I ended up spending 5 hours on the phone trying to pay for my graduation tickets. It was a total nightmare! ERGH! Anyway enough about that, today I thought I would tell you about my weekend at the seaside. My aunty and her partner have recently moved to Lowestoft - the most easterly town in Britain according to the signs that were literally everywhere - where she's opened an art gallery and coffee shop (called The Coconut Loft if anyone's interested.) This weekend was the opening so me, my mum, step-dad, sister, niece and nephew piled in the car to go and help. After a relatively easy drive up (I assume, I wouldn't know not being able to drive) mum and Terry rolled up their sleeves and jumped into the fray that was my aunty's coffee shop. With 2 children under 6 in tow me and my sister decided to make ourselves scarce and went to explore the seafront with my niece and nephew, meaning fairground rides, ice cream and 2p machines galore.

My sister & the kids - aren't they gorgeous?! - on the waltzer (I took the picture)

    

   

                                                                                    

Look at that smile... so cheeky  & gorgeous! 

I am so proud of this picture, I think it's lovely.

After a long day of eating ice cream, walking in the sunshine and exploring the town of Lowestoft with my sister and the kids we went back to our hotel to relax for an hour before getting ready to go out and meet the family for dinner. We went to the Hatfield Hotel where my mum was staying, which was absolutely beautiful, and had dinner there. I ordered The Americano, which was a thick, juicy beef burger absolutely smothered in the yummiest barbecue pulled pork. To be completely honest I'm not a huge fan of red meat and I'm also a really fussy eater so I only ordered the burger because it was the one thing on the menu that I thought I would eat. OH MY GOSH am I glad I did because it was honestly the best burger I have ever had! I am so gutted I forgot to take a picture because it was absolutely gorgeous. So yummy. The only downside to the evening was the fact that me and my sister were staying in a different hotel to everyone else due to a last minute booking and we had to leave early to put the kids to bed.

Sunday was the opening day for The Coconut Loft. After a yummy cooked breakfast by the sea we headed to the coffee shop to meet and greet customers. At one o'clock my uncle, his fiancee and their brood (they have 5 kids) turned up and we decided to take the kids, all 7 of them, to the funfair by the seafront.

I absolutely love fairground rides. I love rollercoasters, sheer drops, loop-the-loops I'll go on anything, I just love them. However when I was 7 I went on a ride at the fair that I was too small for and I honestly thought I was going to fall out and die. I spent the whole time crying and screaming my head off, not from exhilaration but in the certain knowledge that death was coming. Obviously I was scarred by the experience, even though I love rollercoasters and scary rides I have never gone on that ride since.

This was that ride.

UNTIL Sunday when my uncle inadvertently taught me a valuable life lesson. My younger cousin was adamant that she had to go on this ride and that my uncle and aunty were going on it too. At first I flat out refused to go anywhere near the thing, despite my cousin's pleas, but then my uncle said something incredibly, and unexpectedly, wise. He said: 'Prove to yourself that you can. You might hate it but you'll have done it.' So with these wise words ringing in my ears I screwed up my courage, kicked off my shoes and went on the damn ride. I can't even tell you how happy I am that I did. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and the view was stunning.

I got off the ride with shaking hands and the most violent butterflies I'd ever had and went back to the coffee shop. After walking through the art gallery and looking at all the paintings, I fell completely in love with, and was bought, this painting by a local artist.

So that was my weekend, it was totally exhausting but so much fun and so nice to get to see all my family at the seaside. I'm really annoyed that I didn't take more pictures but I did have my hands full helping my sister with the kids. Hope you lot had a lovely weekend.

Until next time,

                         Love love love xxx

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