Summer 2024 UK travel - my experiences

Somehow, in 2024, we've managed to travel to various parts of the UK - it wasn't necessarily planned, but regardless we've seen a fair few places in England. I thought I'd do a little round up of where we've been, what we got up to, and what I'd recommend!

Guildford, Surrey

We spent a couple of days with my fiancée's brother in Guildford; we didn't actually do all that much, as it was more about spending time with family, but Guildford itself is a lovely town with some really nice bars and pubs. Expensive, but that's Surrey for you... I'm definitely keen to explore the medieval castle and Guildford House next time we go!

The One Hundred Acre Wood, Hartfield

Now I was always obsessed with Winnie the Pooh, more specifically Tigger, growing up - so when I saw that Ashdown Forest wasn't too far from Guildford, I decided we all had to go. We explored the areas of the forest that are specifically related to Winnie the Pooh, with the bridge to play Pooh Sticks and the Enchanted Forest area. It was genuinely amazing and made my soul sooooo happy. Highly recommend; we did also try to go to Pooh Corner for afternoon tea, but it was a one hour wait and apparently I'm an adult so nobody gave in to my pleas to join the queue, so instead we had a lovely lunch at The Bear Inn. 

I found Nikki's blog post really helpful in finding the best spots in Ashdown Forest.

Thetford, Norfolk

My fiancée's parents live near Thetford, and when our friends came to join us for the weekend we went into the town for the day. I did a whole blog post about our day trip to Thetford, if you're interested, but it involved lots of Dad's Army and the ruins of a priory! It's a lovely place to explore if you're nearby and have a spare afternoon.

Ely, Cambridgeshire

During the summer, we took a day trip to Ely while staying at my fiancée's parents' house. It was a short train ride away, and I'm so glad we did it. It was super hot that day but it meant blue skies and sunshine, and I just felt soooo happy. We had a wander round the cathedral area, saw Oliver Cromwell's house, visited Toppings & Company Booksellers, walked down some lovely little streets to reach the river and had a lovely ice cream at Urban Fresh while we watched the boats. It was a really chilled out day and just the perfect place for a nice day trip!

Knaresborough, Yorkshire

We all see places on TikTok and plan day trips there, right? My best friend Jess saw Mother Shipton's Cave on her fyp and we decided to go - it was a hefty drive there & back but definitely worth it. We were there for the last day of their Finding Neverland display which was soooo magical, and the cave itself was really interesting to see. It's said to be the birthplace of Mother Shipton, a prophet, and the well is said to petrify items that are left there. Definitely worth a visit; you pay per car, and there are guidebooks available. Highly recommend and I'm so glad we spent the day there! We also stopped for a drink at the World's End pub and had a wander down the river in Knaresborough, which was lovely.

I've loved exploring more of the UK this year and ticking some random, but very lovely, places off my list. As we plan and save for our wedding, we're definitely trying not to spend too much money on travel... but it's so hard! Let me know where you'd recommend in the UK as I'd love to see more of where we live.

August/September 2024 recent reads

We're only a week into September but I never did get round to sharing part 2 of my August recent reads, so I thought I'd combine that with some of the books I've read at the beginning of this month. I'm doing my first ever readathon this Autumn, and there was a 'stuff your kindle day' last week, so I've got loads of reading to get done over the next few weeks as we head towards the end of the year. Let's go!

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware is one of my favourite ever thriller writers, and I expected to love this book; I listened to this as an audiobook and honestly, I didn't get on with it all that well. This could definitely be because it was an audiobook, but I do enjoy listening to books so maybe not. The story was okay, just nowhere near as good as her others! Still well-written, just a bit meh for me.

Accidentally Married by Victorine E Lieske 

I was in Spotify jail and wanted a random audiobook to throw on while working, so I went for this on YouTube - not expecting to really enjoy it, but I actually loved it. It's a cheesy predictable fake dating/marriage of convenience romance where they end up actually falling in love, and it was just an easy listen! Plus it was completely free to listen to, which is always a bonus.

Acting Married by Victorine E Lieske

Of course, I went for another cheesy audiobook straight after - really in my listening to books era right now. Anyway, this basically follows the same plot as the above and again I thoroughly enjoyed it for a fun easy read. Cleaner meets hot actor, yadda yadda.

Mistakenly Married by Victorine E Lieske

Oh look, yet another free YouTube cheesy audiobook! This series is genuinely just so easy to listen to while you're working, cleaning, cooking etc. I loved the plot of this one - a woman has agreed to marry her online boyfriend, who she's never met, only a mix up at the airport means she marries the wrong guy... So much fun, honestly.

The Clocks by Agatha Christie

Despite my aunty being the biggest Agatha Christie fan to ever exist, and Death on the Nile being my favourite story of all time, I've not read many of her books at all. But I've joined my first ever readathon, through Ellen Catherine's patreon discord channel, and one of the prompts for the autumn readathon was murder mystery. Who better than miss Christie? I chose The Clocks and I really enjoyed it - it's a Poirot about a man who is found dead in the house of a blind woman, and the story of how he came to be there. A great read!

The Dream Home by T M Logan

T M Logan is another of my favourite thriller writers, and one of the readathon prompts was 'spooky read - horror or thriller'. While this is a psychological thriller rather than something scary, so it may be cheating slightly, it was one I wanted to read anyway. I flew through this; it follows a family who have just moved into their dream home, and the protagonist finds a hidden room at the top of the house which sets off a whole chain of events that he is desperate to get to the bottom of...

The Museum Murder by Katie Gayle

Another of the prompts is a cosy mystery, and I remembered reading another Katie Gayle book last year which fell into that genre - so I was chuffed to see this one on Kindle Unlimited. It's the second instalment of the Epiphany Bloom series and I read this in an evening because it's sooooo much fun. If you do like a cosy mystery, I'd highly recommend. We follow Pip as she starts a new job at a museum where a high-ticket item has mysteriously gone missing, and she goes on a journey to figure out what's happened!

Quarterbacks Don't Date Nerdy Girls by Clara Nielsen

I took advantage on stuff your kindle day and grabbed plenty of romance ebooks. This was one of them, and it only took me a couple of hours to read - it's a cute Canadian high school romance about, you guessed it, a quarterback who has a biiiig crush on the bookish nerdy girl. It has some really touching moments and also focuses on grief a lot as both have lost their parents, and I absolutely enjoyed this one as my little YA fix of the past few weeks.

Let me know if you've read any of these and what you thought of them!

My August 2024 recent reads

I've not read as much as I hoped during August so far, as it's been a fairly busy month! But that's not to say I haven't read anything, so I thought I'd share some quickfire reviews of the books I've read recently...

Girls Who Burn by M K Pagano

This was a NetGalley ARC, and I gave it 4 stars; it's a YA thriller set in small town America, which is something I really enjoy, and it touches a lot on privilege and grief and family issues. It follows Addie, who is reeling from the death of her sister last summer, still hung up on trying to prove that it wasn't an accident or a suicide. Tensions run high as Addie works with her childhood rival to get to the bottom of things - it's a really fast paced read with plenty of drama and twists. I would definitely recommend for an easy summer read! Pick it up here.

Unbearably Yours by Elodie Colliard

Another ARC, this one a five star!!! I absolutely adored this book, which features two penpals (Charlee and Oliver) who had fallen in love through their letters, but then fallen apart too. Thrown together in the Canadian wilderness for work, they have to navigate their way through some disasters while trying to ignore the heartache they're both feeling. The lovers-enemies-lovers and forced proximity tropes in this book were done so well, and it's beautifully written. I truly loved and would absolutely recommend. Get it on pre-order here!

Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar

A sapphic dual POV stem romance? Sign me up; this was my first Adiba Jaigirdar read, but I'm already keen to read more. Another rivals to lovers romance, Meghna and Rani are ex best friends who are both into science, both Muslim, and both... dating the same boy?! They end up teaming together to bring him down, and rekindle their friendship along the way. Absolutely 5 stars and absolutely another recommendation from me! Pre-order it here...

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

I'd never read any Liane Moriarty books until I picked up Big Little Lies in a charity shop a few months ago, which I flew through in a day. When I got an ARC of Here One Moment I was chuffed; it starts out on a delayed plane journey, where we meet a variety of passengers and one who stands out - 'the death lady'. She tells each passenger their age and cause of death, and then this goes on to cause quite the stir as her 'predictions' begin to come true and people try to track her down. Beautifully, almost poetically written, this is a sad but fascinating tale of grief, trauma, magic and more. Five bloody stars again! Highly recommend. Pre-order it here!

Wonderstruck by Seraphina Chen

Another ARC, but sadly not one I enjoyed - the premise is sweet, following homeschooled Serena as she joins an actual school and gets close to the kind, cool Tyler. It's a fun storyline and I liked the characters, but the writing was baffling; there seemed to be a lot of grammar mistakes and odd repetitions, and plot holes. For me this was so jarring! If that sort of thing doesn't bother you then this is definitely a nice little romance, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it - I'd probably give it a 3 star at a push. Get it here if you fancy the sound of it...

Bad Apple by Alice Hunter

This was my first Alice Hunter read, though I know she has a few. I didn't love it, and it's sitting at 3.5 stars for me. It's a thriller that follows an ex-policewoman who has found evidence that her husband, also a police officer, is a rapist - she's reported him, been kicked off the force, and is now try to rebuild her life from rock bottom while simultaneously not giving up on getting justice for his victims. I can't really pin down what I didn't like about it, but overall it was just a bit 'meh'. Check it out here.

Love Game by Emma Rae

I read this in about 3 hours non-stop, and I'm rating at a 4 star - SO good! It's another tennis romance, strangers to lovers, with a fair bit of spice and drama. It's also set mostly in Miami, and follows personal chef Elle as she gets a job cooking for hot tennis star Nicky. There's definitely some questionable elements to the storyline but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend. Pick it up here.

That's everything I've read up to now in August, but I'll hopefully do a part 2 at the end of the month as I'm currently reading another Liane Moriarty, and listening to a Ruth Ware audiobook. Let me know if you've read any of these and what you thought!

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If you're in the market for some budget-friendly prescription sunglasses, or glasses in general, check out Firmoo.

Things to do in Thetford, Norfolk

We recently spent a week at my fiancée's parents' house near Thetford, Norfolk - and as we were there, we took the opportunity to explore the nearby town itself. I'm trying to explore more of the UK, especially while we try to save money for our wedding meaning we're travelling abroad slightly less, so this was the perfect opportunity for a day out!

Our friends had also come to visit for the weekend, so they kindly drove us into Thetford; we parked at Pike Lane Car Park, which was free, and then walked round into the town itself. Thetford, if you didn't know, is where they filmed iconic comedy series Dad's Army - so I was keen to tick off a few filming spots while we were there. First of all was the Guildhall,  located in the marketplace area, which served as the Walmington-on-Sea town hall in the TV show. Sadly it was covered in scaffolding, but you could still get the idea, and there were a few foodie vans in this part of town if you want to grab a quick bite to eat. This is also where the Dad's Army mural and museum are! We didn't visit the museum ourselves but you can find out more here.

I used the Brit Movie Tours Dad's Army Self Guided Walking Tour to find all the locations, which was super helpful.

This is when it started to rain, so we decided to head straight to the pub for a couple of drinks; there's a few pubs in Thetford, but we opted for the Bell Inn which was another building featured in Dad's Army. St Peter's Church, which can be seen in the background of many scenes from the TV show, is directly opposite. Drinks at the Bell Inn came to around £17 for 3 alcoholic drinks and 1 non-alcoholic, which I didn't think was too bad either! They do food and afternoon tea, too, and there are plenty of hotel rooms if you're looking for somewhere to stay in Thetford.

After the rain stopped, we walked left out of the beer garden towards the river where you can find a statue of Captain Mainwaring from the show; they had a free outdoor cinema on the riverbank for the kids, too, which I thought was lovely! We had a lovely wander around this area before popping into Instinctively Mystical LTD, as our friend is very into crystals and everything witchy/chakra/etc - it's a really nice little shop and I even picked up a birthday gift for another friend.

From here, we walked round to the free Charles Burrell Museum Thetford; it looks like a garage, and inside you'll find old and perfectly-preserved steam engines, as well as plenty of information about the use of steam engine vehicles in the Thetford and Norfolk area. It's not huge, so you can get around it in probably 20 minutes or so, but there is a super cute cafe inside too if you wanted to stay longer. The staff were fantastic, really knowledgable and friendly, and I'd definitely recommend popping in.

Our next stop was Thetford Priory, a ruined monastery that's around a 5 minute walk out of town. It was super easy to get to, and WOW! So picturesque, especially with those blue skies,  and if you have a furry friend it's a great place for dog walks too. There was information about the ruins and drawings of what it would have looked like, and it was just a great place to see if you're a fan of that kind of thing, which obviously I am.

Thetford is a lovely place for an afternoon out, especially when the weather is good and definitely if you're a Dad's Army fan! If you're in Norfolk and find yourself with a few hours to spare, I hope this short explanation of things to do in Thetford is useful for you.

Have you been to Thetford or anywhere nearby?