My week in pictures: 14th - 20th April

As I mentioned in last week's post, I spent the start of the week near Swindon visiting family. On Monday my dad and I went for a little drive and a wander, and before we went home we stopped off in Trowbridge, a lovely little town filled with shops, markets and cafés. After parking the car we walked around, popping into a cook shop full of vintage-inspired bottles, quirky utensils and retro tins for food storage, fruit and veg stalls selling beautiful fresh, local produce at incredible prices and a wonderful cards and gifts shop selling little knick-knacks and hand-designed cards. We also stopped at Coffee#1, a chain of coffee shops local to Wales and South West England serving fresh coffee, a variety of teas, sandwiches, paninis, cakes, smoothies and juices. The inside is done up in cool turquoise-grey and deep burgundy colours with wooden floors and chairs of all different sorts - slouchy leather sofas, little stools painted to match the walls and old wooden ones which look like they may have originally been in a church (each one had a little book box on the back). There's a very cosy and homely vibe in Coffee#1, and I would really recommend treating yourself to a coffee and some cake there if you get the chance (you can find your nearest one here). I ordered El Niño, a mango, raspberry and banana smoothie made with fresh orange and apple juice and it was absolutely delicious!

On Tuesday Dad and I went into Bath for the day to have a look around and go for lunch. Bath is an incredibly pretty city with pale-stone terraced houses, cobbled streets, old buildings, a river and quite a few street musicians. We didn't visit the Roman baths because it was quite busy, so I'm saving that one for the winter when it might be a bit quieter, but we did walk around the streets admiring the buildings and the way everything was in keeping with the city's original look -  any new buildings had been designed to blend it with the rest, none of the shops had signs protruding from them like they usually do, and even the outside of KFC had been toned down - no bright red or bright lights, only deep browns and minimal signage.

On Wednesday morning I took the train back home, starting with a one hour journey from Swindon to London and then a crossover on the London Underground. Although I'd only done this journey once before, everything had gone smoothly and I was feeling quite confident. That is until my train arrived at Paddington station a little late and I got caught out by the tube (darn you, Circle Line) and I ended up missing my second train. Thankfully I was able to catch the next train half an hour later, and I was grateful for the fact this gave me time to pick up some lunch and a coffee. After that everything went swimmingly and I arrived in Norwich just before two o'clock, which meant I had the rest of the day to settle and relax before jumping back into revision and coursework the next day.

The next fews days mostly consisted of revision, tea drinking and movie nights, and on Saturday morning I whipped up a cooked breakfast for the boy and I. I don't think I've had a fry-up since adopting a plant-based diet, so this was really exciting for me. We both had toast, beans, roasted cherry tomatoes and wilted spinach with garlic, salt and pepper, but while he had bacon and eggs, I had a couple of Linda McCartney sausages. I'm not usually one for heavy meals that are relatively low in veg but sometimes you just need something good and hearty, and this certainly ticked that box. We spent the rest of the day working before settling down for one last night in before heading back to college on Tuesday.


I'm definitely starting to feel the pressure of exam season now with a presentation and psychology mock coming up on Tuesday, and my first real exam being only two and a half weeks away (eek!), but I'm more determined than ever to keep a level head and study hard whilst maintaining at least some of my sanity.

In my last post I mentioned that I had a little something planned for the next few weeks, and I said that I'd mention it here, so here goes: whilst I was in Swindon, the items I won in the Instagram giveaway I entered in March arrived, so this week I'm hoping to find some time to take some pictures and write up a post about them. Both items are absolutely gorgeous and I'm over the moon and so grateful to have won them, so a huge thanks to BrielleBelle!

I hope you're all well and enjoying the spring weather.

Namaste,
Rowan