Sandy toes and salty kisses!

Today's throwback Thursday is a only a stones throw away. I also want to tell you all what Sam and I  are up to whilst we're out here aswell as our past travels since we left England. Last weekend Sam and I had a long weekend off together. We decided to explore more of the city and visit the beach! 

On Sunday after a 15 minute bus journey we arrived at a beach called Coogee.  We had been told great things about this beach and thought it was about time to check it out. It was a busy Sunday morning and the coffee shops were already filled with chattering customers. Music was playing in the streets and Sam and I couldn't wait to explore more. We headed straight down to the beach to find the perfect sunbathing spot. The sun was burning so brightly the first thing we wanted to do was get into the sea. The waves were huge, they came toppling over us knocking us over. It was so much fun, brought me back to my childhood at the beach in Hemsby. 

After our swim we came across the beach library. We both loved the idea of being able to borrow a book whilst sunning yourself, as more often than not you forget to bring a book with you to the beach! It was approaching midday by now and we wanted to walk along the beach and up to a park we could seen in the distant. It was only a short walk from the shore and the views were beautiful. 

With our tummies rumbling we headed to find a place for some food. We ate lunch at the courtyard cafe, it had caught our eye on our way down from the bus so we wanted to check it out. I had a chicken ceaser wrap and Sam had a Greek salad. I would definitely recommend visiting if you get a chance as its a lovely relaxed environment with music playing in the background. After lunch we spent the rest of our afternoon in the park reading, just like an old married couple; we both snoozed too! The day was perfect, just what I wanted. A relaxed chilled out beach day! We spent the evening at our local bar called the The Village Crow. It's only recently opened so we wanted to go see what it was all about. The food was great and the drinks were yummy too. We will definitely be returning!

Monday was Australia Day, and judging by the weather you wouldn't have even known we were in Australia. The rain was teeming down and didn't look to improve for the rest of the day. We still wanted to make the most out of our day and decided to go into the city to explore what events had been put on to celebrate Straya Day! There were lots of old fashion cars that lined the streets in the heart of the city. It felt sureal to see such old classic English cars surrounded by sky scrapers, back home they are best suited on a field at a summers country fayre. We then went to explore the botanical gardens, even in all that rain it was such a beautiful peaceful place. We stopped for cup of tea and visited the gift shop, we are a sucker for a gift shop. Sam had been waiting to visit Mrs Macquarie's point ever since discovering it on the map when we arrived. He wanted to know who she was and why she was so important that she had chair named after her. As we approached the famous point we realised what all the fuss was about. The views of the opera house and harbour bridge were phenomenal, it clicked; this is the famous view that you think of when you picture Sydney. We were here, staring straight at it. Even with the dismal weather we managed to find the magic hidden beneath. 

The rest of our afternoon was spent exploring an area called The Rocks, one of Sydney's oldest parts and famous for its cobbled streets. The streets were filled with life and there was live music around every corner. We came across a food market and shared a German hotdog as we had skipped lunch. We also played around in a free photo booth and Sam dressed up as a koala. My dear friend Fleur had arrived in Sydney that morning so I popped by to say hello and check she was okay after that long flight. After that we headed home, our Sunday night was filled with back to back episodes of Friends and a Thai takeaway on the sofa. 

That was my weekend, absolutely perfect if you ask me! 

Speak to you next week,

Love Chailey xxxxx

My hen weekend!

Much to my saddeness I couldn't be with my best friend Gemma to celebrate her hen weekend this weekend! Being the other side of the world can sometimes prove difficult! I thought seeing as I couldn't make it to Gemma's hen night I'd take the opportunity to reminisce about my own hen; reliving the weekends antics and one of my favourite highlights of 2014.

My nan made me this veil, with her original headdress she wore at her own wedding!

I had two extremely organised bridesmaids, Gemma and Tasha, to hand who done a phenomenal job of planning the whole weekend down to a tee. They did me proud! 

The weekend started on Friday evening when close friends and family all came to one of my favourite restaurants in Bury St Edmunds called Zen Noodle. The bridesmaids did such a beautiful job of dressing the tables and I even had hen night cup cakes! The food was devine, as always. It was so nice and relaxed catching up with everyone and chatting about the big day. Which was only three weeks away by that point! 

On Saturday morning fourteen of us ladies headed to Cambridge. Firstly we all met in the hotel room and everyone was given goodie bags handcrafted by the bridesmaids. They were filled with such thoughtful gifts including a hangover kit and personalised hen weekend sashes! I was given a goodie bag and a tshirt, printed on the front was a photo of Sam and I.

At midday the girls had arranged for all of us to do something which Cambridge is most famous for, punting! We all had brought a picnic with us and some bubbles. It was such a relaxing enjoyable afternoon chatting amoungst the girls and snacking on our scrumptious picnic! A quiz had been organised for me in which I had to answer the questions correctly the same as Sam had done! I have to admit I was pretty poor at this one, when it comes to remembering things! Opps! It was all good fun though and I loved hearing Sams thoughtful answers! 

After punting we had an hours dance class booked for us all. The dance theme was after my all time favourite film Grease! We wiggled and giggled for an hour straight and finally locked down the dance routine just in time for the grand finale! The dance instructor asked if I had met Johnny Depp, as she though the picture on my top was of him! She didn't realise it was Sam! BIG compliment there Sam! On the walk back to the hotel we stopped for a drink at a lovely pub over looking the river. 

The bridesmaids bought me a lovely big bottle of bubbly to have whilst we all got ready, the music was playing and all was swell. After we all got ready we headed out to Lola Lo's; a Hawaiian themed nightclub for a cocktail master class. This was one of my favourite parts of the weekend, where we picked a cocktail from the menu and then got to go behind the bar and recreate it! I picked "good time girl" it was that good I can't remember what was in it! I'm guess you're getting the idea as to where this night leads? After a few more "good time girls" Miss Chailey B found herself unable to, shall we say, stand anymore?! Yep you got it, I was in bed by midnight. Just as the night began! Opps! 

Me and my good time girl, who I named Lola!

With some recollection of eating cold pizza in the middle of the night and a bunch of girls shouting at Tash, I woke up with a sore head the next morning. Hey what are hen nights for? Although I did vow this would never happen again! 

Sunday was all a complete surprise for me. Blindfolded and scooped up into a taxi we headed off to the last destination of the weekend! My favourite place of all time....Harriet's Tea Rooms! Yum!

All my beautiful hens were surrounding me, I felt a wave of emotion wash over me. All these ladies were here just for me? I was so touched. Furthermore my wonderful hens all had one more surprise instore for me! I was given a homemade scrap book made by the very talented chief bridesmaid Tasha. Inside reviled a letter from each hen oozing with happy memories and well wishes! There were photos on each page of me and the well wisher which instantly brought me to tears. I couldn't even read any of the letters I was so emotional. Finally the last letter that surprised me most of all was from Samuel. Wow oh wow! If I wasn't a mess before, I sure was then! I saved all the letters for an evening where I had millions of tissues surrounding me! I knew I was going to need them. After I dried my eyes, plates and plates of finger sandwiches, scones as big as your fists and the most prettiest cakes were laid out in front of us. We all happily demolished the lot and after many hugs and kisses I thanked every hen individually for taking the time to spend their weekend with me. 

I am so greatful to have such true friends, I wouldn't have picked to spend it with any other people in the world! The bridesmaids drove me home to my mums where we all had a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake reminiscing the weekends events! I was even lucky enough to have a cuddle with my darling Trixie Belle, what a perfect end to the weekend. 

All in all I had the best hen weekend ever! One weekend I'll never forget, thanks again everyone who came! You made my year I love you lots! 

Have a good week, love Chailey! xxx

Thailand Take 2

This weeks throwback Thursday is all about the second leg of our journey through Thailand! With all the alternative Thai traditions we loved getting into the thick of things and enjoying the Thai culture. There were so many traditions I think other parts of the world should take note of and use in their countries. For example, when saying thank you people put their hands together in a praying position and bow as they would say sawadee ka (thank you). The higher they held their hands the more respect they had for the person which usually means they are older. They also had a lot of respect for their royal family and it was deemed rude to scrunch up the Thai notes as it was like you were scrunching the Kings head up. God forbid you stepped on a coin to stop it from rolling away!

After Koh Phangan we caught the ferry over with Trisha and Gracie to Koh Tao. The rest of the ThaIntro gang was heading over to the island in the next couple of days. This was like ThaIntro2- we would all meet up after our days relaxing by the beach or exploring more of the island. Koh Tao was easily my favourite Island in Thailand. This was where I scuba dived for the first time. It has always been something I was keen on doing and heard Koh Tao was renowned for diving. So along with some guys from ThaIntro we booked up a days course. There is so much more that goes into diving than I expected. After getting our scuba gear together and heading out on the boat we were taught breathing techniques and hand signals by the shore. As we was waiting little fish came to say hello by nibbling our legs. It was then time for our group to go down under water. Forgetting my lungs would act as balloons I struggled to stay close to the sea bed at first. After the help from the instructor and a few extra weights added to my jacket I was good to go. I must admit I wasn't as overwhelmed as I had expected to be once diving down to 6 metres. I had expected the corals to be full of colour with hundreds of pretty fish swimming by. It wasn't until we went out on our second dive down to 12 metres, thats when the sea bed came alive! It was such a freeing feeling being weightless under water exploring the sea beneath us. Koh Tao was packed with so many other fun exciting times such as, all you can eat pizza, Muay Thai boxing, big al's famous pancakes and a swimming pool over looking the island!

This was me scuba diving for the first time!

After Koh Tao we traveled for 12 hours, took two boats and one bus which landed us in Koh Phi Phi. I was hoping after a long days travelling we'd be able to get a taxi to our hotel and a good nights sleep. This was not the case. We had to walk 20 minutes in the stifling heat to the other side of the island as we did not realise there was no cars on the island. Then to arrive at our worse accommodation in Thailand. Folks if your heading to Phi Phi do not stay at the flower bungalows! We did visit the beautiful view point though which was breath taking, well worth the sweaty walk to the top. We took an afternoon boat trip to visit the famous Maya Bay where "The Beach" featuring Leanardo DiCaprio was filmed. The skies opened up and for the whole of our journey it poured with rain, but our spirits weren't dampened. We were visiting a famous beach where Leanardo Dicaprio stood, visited and acted! Ahhhh! We swam in the rain and wandered through the rainforest exploring more of the tiny bay. We also visited monkey beach where we witnessed a monkey drinking a can of coke, as well as juice! It was a lovely island, well worth a visit. We were even lucky enough to recieve our wedding photos while we were there. One morning we headed to a restaurant for breakfast and oooo'd and awwww'd reliving our beautiful day! 

This was us at the famous Phi Phi viewpoint!

Phuket was something else! The whole island was utter craziness. We thought Bangkok was insane, Phuket was like Bangkok on Steroids! People were partying left, right and centre. You had more lady boy's than you could shake a stick at. I loved the atmosphere and have promised the girls we'll go back for a girls holiday as there's so much more I could have explored. We visited Tiger Kingdom and got to play with the cutest baby tiger cubs. The big Tigers were a lot more intimidating; I still to this day cannot believe we got in the cage with these humongous creatures. They were so alert and wide eyed, my mind was telling me to pull out and not to go into the big cage but my body kept walking me towards the enclosure!

After Phuket we headed over to Malaysia, that's a story for another week though!

Love Chailey xxx

 

Bon Voyage!

So I guess I should really explain how Sam and I landed oursleves in Australia. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts Sam and I planned to go travelling. We jetted off on a trip of a life time at the beginning of November 2014. 

Saying goodbye to family for eighteent months was a very difficult time for both of us and something I personally had been dreading for a long time since planning our travels. I thought I would be an emotional embarrassment to everyone at the airport. I won't deny it was hard and we all shed a few tears but I coped a lot better than I thought I would. After our sad goodbyes Sam and I took eachothers hands, this was it. The start of our 18 month honeymoon together. I gave our beloved family one last wave, blew them a kiss and we walked through to the departure lounge. 

                                     

Our first destination was the land of smiles, Thailand! It had been some where both Sam and I had on our list to visit for a while. We were intrigued by the culture and couldn't wait to learn more. We had been recommended a tour for the first week which was called ThaIntro. In a nutshell it gave you an introduction to the country with some amazing trips packed into it. For one fee of £400, it included accommodation for a week, trips, transportation and also some very delicious meals. Not to mention meeting some fabulous people along the way! 

The first couple of days were spent in the crazy busy city of Bangkok. Weaving our way through the tuk tuks and market stalls we visited some exquisite temples and went on a river boat cruise where we met the most similiest little Thai lady we ever came across. She had a boat full of goodies to buy, so I treated myself to a fan, which I still use now. We also went to a Thai cooking class where we were taught to make some great tasting Thai dishes. Masaman and Pad Thai were my favourite to cook, and eat!!

       

After Bangkok we headed down south where we spent a night in Khao Sok national park. We were privileged enough to stay in floating bungalows for the evening, I felt like a celebrity! The views were phenomenal it was untouched paradise. Something I will remember for a very long time. It's not often you get to walk out of your bedroom and be welcomed by a view like that.

                       

Our next stop on our journey with ThaIntro was the island most famous for its full moon parties, Koh Phangan. Home to the beautiful Sarana Bungalows, this is where the lucky ThaIntro leaders get to call home! Again, the accommodation was terrific somewhere I'd recommend to anyone wanting to stay in Koh Phangan. This was the last leg of our journey and personally my favourite. I got to eat my own weight in Pad Thai, experience a traditional Thai massage for the first time AND ride an elephant! This is still my most treasured memory since travelling.

       

                                      

I can honestly say this was one of the best week of our lives, how cliche and cheesy I hear you say. Get yourself booked up and then tell me differently? Everyone I have spoken to all have such remarkable views, I have not stopped recommending it since we left! That's all for today, I'll tell you about the rest of our travels in Thailand another day!

Love Chailey xxx

A Novel Idea for a Gift!

Since only writting six entries last year I am sure you can tell 2014 was a very busy year for Sam and I. There are lots to catch up on from our jammed pack crazy year. Instead of spending ages catching up with the years shenanigans I have decided to make it more interesting for you guys. Every week I will do a Throwback Thursday post about all our favourite highlights of 2014. That way you will still get to know what we are both up to whilst living in Sydney (I'll get to that bit soon enough) and also you will have an insight to our lives in 2014. 

Since being away I have found myself reading so often. It's a way of escaping from the world into your own little bubble. Whilst in Asia sadly my Kindle died. A long and slow death, every day I turned it on the screen would die a little more until it was no longer readable. I had to revert to using my kindle app on my iPad which I didn't enjoy. The glare of the iPad screen was such a strain on my eyes compared to the Kindles paper like screen. It was surprising how quickly I fell out of reading so much because of my changed reading conditions. I was sad, I missed reading all the time but the iPad just wasn't the same.

Luckily for me I had been a good girl this year! Sam bought me a shiny new Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas as he knew how much I missed reading. The Kindle Paperwhite was a lovely new upgrade from my last Kindle 5 with new features such as a touch screen and longer battery life. My mum also sent me over book called Shadows of the Workhouse, the sequel to Call the Midwife and a hand made bookmark for Christmas. My Mum didn't realise it was the second book in a sequel but it didn't matter as I could buy the first on my Kindle. I'm looking forward to reading a real book again after finishing Call the midwife. It's been so long since I read a paperback book as the Kindle is so handy whilst travelling. All in all I had a very literary Christmas. 

Continuing reading into the new year, I found online I could set myself a reading challenge through www.goodreads.com. You can set yourself a number of books to read, so the challenge can be as big or small as you'd like. Very handy if your New Years resolution was to read more! I choose to read 20 books in the year averaging on one and a half books a month. I didn't follow the "new year, new me" cliché this year as I'm extremely happy with where I am in life right now. I didn't just want to ignore the New Year rolling in so thought this was best suited to me as it was already something I loved doing.

I hope you all have a wonderful happy and healthy new year! I'll be back Thursdsy for my first throwback!

Love Chailey xxx