Ellie's Adventures in Wonderland

  Part two of my birthday adventure consisted of two fun-packed days in Edinburgh . After a near four hour drive from Blackpool, we arrived in a sunny Edinburgh, which took us both by surprise as we assumed it always rained in Scotland. Here, we stayed at the  Marriott Courtyard Hotel .  Day One in Edinburgh consisted of dinner at the Hawksmoor , which was an astronomical delight, followed by a ghost tour - spooky! We were led around the Old Town by some git who called himself Dr Robert Knox . Your typical Am-Dram twat, we stupidly traipsed behind him whilst having to endure his boring tales (which was very reminiscent of spending time with Max). When the tour blessedly came to an end, we headed back to our hotel for some well earned sleep.  Day Two started off with a visit to Edinburgh Castle . There's not much to say about the castle, other than it's a castle, much like any other.  Following the castle we were booked into the Edinburgh Dungeons , where we were transported bac

  This week saw the arrival of my 42nd birthday (I know, I only look 30). And I was treated to a whole week's worth of adventures by my awesome fella, Mike.  My birthday kicked off with dinner with the family at the Rose & Crown , my current local until we move to Redditch (I assure you Alistair, it does exist). Here, I was given a series of riddles to answer to reveal the destinations for our adventure. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't solve any of the riddles.  The first leg of our journey was to Blackpool, somewhere I have been threatening to take the small child to for as long as I can remember. Our hotel, The Big Blue , was situated at the nicer end of Blackpool and next door to Blackpool Pleasure Beach , which Mike had booked us tickets for.  Upon arrival, we headed straight for the Big One , their iconic roller coaster and the highest in the UK. Luckily, the weather was on our side as we had to queue for 2hrs to ride the roller coaster of death. When it was finally our tur

This weekend’s adventure took me and Mike to Chepstow , where we stayed at the St Pierre Hotel & Country Club . The hotel is surrounded by a magnificent golf pitch, and the hotel itself is akin to a small castle or country estate. Our room was a suite in the Lakeside Village, which was a small collection of purpose-built houses each containing three rooms. As you would expect from a suite, we had our own separate lounge, as well as a balcony and a super-massive bed. The first thing we did upon arrival was crack open the fizzy pop we’d bought with us. Despite having a fridge in the room to chill our booze, due to covid we weren’t provided with any glasses so were forced to slurp our prosecco out of paper coffee cups. As anyone who knows me well will know, I’m not the most refined or sophisticated person, but even this was beneath my standards. We merrily drank our way through the first bottle regardless, then headed off in search of the pool. Whilst the pool didn’t quite live up to