Hi guys 👋🏻
Let’s take a look at this months books.
Month Eight!
Total Reads:
9
Favourite read:
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
August Reads 📚
Category: Life
Holiblog: Europe Edition 🇪🇺
Hi guys 👋🏻
This year’s ‘Holiblog’ post (holiday blog post for those who are new here) is a bit of a different one as we booked an impromptu train trip around Europe (well, a small part of Europe)
We went for a 5 day trip getting to and from using the Eurostar, and then local trains in-between. So, with just a rucksack, each we set off (at 4.30 am in the morning 😭)
Here’s how it went…
Paris, France
A brilliant first day of our little European adventure!
Our first stop was Paris 🇫🇷
We found some delicious pizza 🤣🍕 and we walked to the Effiel tower (which really is quite massive) very cool.
A highlight was the River Seine boat sightseeing tour. 🏞⛴️
It’s been 33° so it was a welcome shelter/rest from the sun, and we were able to see lots of the sights of Paris that we wanted to. 🌞
Traditional pastries acquired ready for tomorrow mornings early train to our next destination 🥐
Pairi Daiza, Cambron Casteau
Today was amazing. 🇧🇪
If you ever in Brussels you’ve got to visit ‘Pairi Daiza, Kingdom of Animals’
It’s so much more amazing that I could ever have imagined – what a beautiful place with some amazing animals, I’ve never been anywhere like it.
The themeing of each continent area was spot on, and we saw animals we had never seen before absolutely thriving in the most amazing exhibits.
It’s been a full-on, hot day, and my feet ache a lot (10 hours there and 30,000 steps) but boy, did we enjoy ourselves – we didn’t want to leave!!
Ps – the bats were awesome 🦇
Europe Day Two- done ✔️ 🇧🇪
Ghent, Belgium
Today, we started off with breakfast in Brussels before we headed to today’s stop – Ghent. 🇧🇪
I’d never heard of it before we booked this trip, but I am so glad we came.
This place is so lovely to walk around. The architecture is beautiful, and it’s so quaint with a surprisingly contrasting but infectious bustling night life. 🚤
The canals are really pretty, and as well as wandering around ourselves during the day and at night, we also enjoyed a canal boat tour and a Medieval walking tour.
The local culinary delights, including Leige waffles 🧇 DELICIOUS frites, topped with traditional blemish stew, gravy & mayonnaise, and Belgium chocolate of course.
Another brilliant day! Stop no 3, done ✔️
#Ghent #Belgium #Europe2025
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Day Four was Rotterdam! 🇳🇱
We started off the day having breakfast in Ghent before heading to our next stop.
We chose this (instead of Amsterdam) as it was suggested to be quite a contrast to Ghent, and that it was.
We visited ‘Mini World’, which was really cool, and it was actually very helpful when spotting interesting landmarks around Rotterdam afterwards. The lighting at Mini World was very impressive i. Particular.
We also had a walk around the plaza.
The highlight was the food market hall – there was so much to see and try.
We had our first traditional Stroopwafel, which was delicious, as well as trying some other yummy cusines too.
We then headed to the harbour to have a look at the views, finished off the evening by chilling in our hotel room after a few very busy days!
Last stop today!
Brussels, Belgium
Our last day was Brussels 🇧🇪
We never got to look around Brussels when we stayed the other day as it was just the closest place to ‘Pairi Daiza’.
So, here we are! Doing it properly this time (plus, you can get the Eurostar from Brussels so win, win)
We started off by getting a train to the other Brussels station, Centrale, which funnily enough was much more in the centre of Brussels than Midi. It was also a 6 minute walk from our first stop – The Choco Story Chocolate Museum 🍫 it had to be done.
It was really interesting and I very much enjoyed the samples along the way, as well as a chocolatier demonstrating how they make traditional Belgium Pralines which were first made in Brussels (we got to eat those too! Yum)
After that, we grabbed a quick lunch of Frites & Mayo 🍟 in the sunshine 🌞
In order to see as much of Brussels as we could in our short time there, we got tickets for a hop on, hop off tour bus of the city. (Although we just stayed on it for 2 hours to see the full tour)
It was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day and we enjoyed our little tour of the city on the open top bus 🚌 we saw lots of cool sights, street art and the Headquarters of the EU 🇪🇺.
And just to round off the day before we headed to the Eurostar, we grabbed some final waffles 🧇
We tried a savoury ham and cheese one which was very nice and a triple chocolate drizzled one.
Belgium chocolate really is delightful
16 trains later (for the whole trip), and we’re back home! All in all, it was a success! And a very fun, jam-packed 5 days – we’ve done many steps, seen many things, visited many new places, and consumed many waffles! Europe 2025, you were a blast!
(& living out of a backpack really isn’t that bad!)
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
#Europe2025
Disneyland Paris 2025 ✨️🏰
Hi guys 👋🏻
This time last week, we were in Disneyland 😭
It was such a fun trip!
If you’ve been to Disney, you’ll know how magical and fun it is. It is like no other place you’ll ever visit.
We booked a Disney package, so we were staying at a Disney hotel and had a Disney meal plan.
We stayed at Disney Santa Fe hotel, themed like the Disney Pixar movie ‘Cars’. Like everything at Disney, it was themed to perfection. It was brilliant.
We all loved it, especially my two nephews.
The Mexican restaurant at this hotel is delicious, and they also have their own shop and a Starbucks too. It’s a little further out (15 min walk) but it is a lovely walk – and you can also make use of the shuttle bus if you wish, although we enjoyed the walk.
Let’s take a look at what we got up to!
Monday 21st July 2025 ✨️
Today was a travel day really, drove down to Dover to catch the ferry this time round. The ferry trip isn’t long and stops at Calais. From here, we drove to the same hotel we stayed in last time, in Paris.
By the time we go there, we mainly just enjoyed our dinner of fresh baguettes and cheese and played a few games before bed.
Tuesday 22nd July 2025 ✨️
Today was our first Disney day! Our Paris hotel was only a little drive away from Disney, so we set off after breakfast to start our magical holiday.
Once we had checked in, we actually managed to have our first magical experience… Goofy was doing a meet and greet in our hotel foyer!!! Goofy is my all-time favourite Disney character, so I was buzzing that he was there!!
We queued up for a picture, of course! (& a hug 😄)
After that, we walked to the park enjoying the scenery from our hotel, the other hotels (some of which were only a building site when we last came!!) And the bustling Disney village.
We went to the main Disneyland Park first and enjoyed looking around, going on some rides, and just soaking it all up! I will never get bored of seeing that castle at the end of Main Street.
There was even a parade going on as we entered, so we of course watched this, my nephews loved it.
In-between rides, we also caught the end of Goofy’s magical, musical conduction of the fountains outside the Disney castle. Amazing.
Our first dinner was at Billy Bob’s tex mex in the Disney village. We came here last time and all really enjoyed it. It was just as yummy as we all remembered.
Wednesday 23rd July 2025
✨️
This was our super busy Disney day!
We enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel before we headed out.
We got up nice and early to make the most of our ‘Magic Hours’, which are a perk of staying in a Disney hotel… and its where you get to go into the parks earlier than everyone else.
We went to the Disney Studios park this time. This one is super cool and has a very different vibe to the main park. It has some really cool rides too, and the relatively new ‘Avengers Campus’ that again was being built last time we came!
We went back to our hotel late afternoon to chill for a bit and me and my nephews and I started watching ‘Cars 2’
Our dinner reservation was at the Mexican restaurant at our hotel, ‘La Cantina’… The best Nachos 👌🏼
We returned to the main Disneyland park for more rides (the 5 min evening queues were very satisfying), and once we had done a few rides, we were ready to watch the evening fireworks show, a Disney tradition and a must see at least once during your trip.
I did 33,000 steps that day! Disney is not for the faint hearted 😂 achy feet is an understatement, thank goodness for the hotel bath.
Thursday 24th July 2025
✨️
The weather was meant to be a bit worse today than other days, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to catch a few of the Disney shows. There are a few going on throughout each day and are well worth a watch (and are all included)
We watched the Lion King show ‘Rhythms of the Pride Lands’ which was brilliant.
We managed to meet Goofy again today 🤣 He’s really working over time atm, he is the character we saw the most (not that I’m complaining at all!!)
The weather didn’t actually end up being worse at all so we managed to get a few more rides in, in each park before seeing our second show of the day, ‘TOGETHER: a pixar musical adventure’ which was also really impressive.
We had our dinner for this day booked in at ‘PYM kitchen’ in the ‘Avengers Campus’. This was a new place for us as it wasn’t here last time we came. This place served an American buffet, and I was really impressed. The desserts were especially delicious. I think I enjoyed this meal the most, so I’m glad we managed to book a meal there and I would highly recommend it.
We managed to get on another 4/5 rides back in the Disneyland park before calling it a day.
Friday 25th July 2025 ✨️
Today was our last Disney day 😭
We enjoyed another delicious breakfast (top tier pastries) before managing to grab a Starbucks and then get on the shuttle bus to the park for another session of ‘Magic hours’ fun!
We went on quite a mixture of rides today, going on things we wanted another turn on, which differed from person to person, as well as going on some of our favourites together.
My all-time favourite ride is ‘Big Thunder Mountain’ but I also really enjoy ‘Ratatouille’, ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘Star Tours’ and ‘It’s a Small World’
We finished off our last Disney Day with dinner at the Cheyenne hotel, which is Disneys Wild West themed hotel nearby. This was really cool as the themeing again was on point, and none of us had been before.
The food was yummy and they even offered an outdoor BBQ section to the buffet, which was different to the others. The barbecued chicken skewers were yummy, and I love how each restaurant did a few desserts to match their Disney theme
And finally some more rides at the park. Another 30,000 step day haha. Our last ride was another go on ‘It’s a small world’.
It truly is the happiest place on earth 💖
We had a brilliant trip, it is such a fun and joyful place for a holiday. I can’t wait to start planning the next time, but that’s probably not for a few years. So until Next Time, bye bye Disney 👋🏻 it was a blast!
Have you been to Disneyland Paris?
What’s your fave ride?
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
July Reads 📚
Hi guys 👋🏻
Let’s take a look at this months books.
Month Seven!
Total Reads:
4
Favourite read:
Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
2025 memories – 6/12
Hi guys 👋🏻
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
Here is my second quarterly memories update to capture 2025, we are halfway through the year!!
These are the second three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
April
Easter fun! Me and my Nephews and Niece did some Easter craft, Easter baking and an Easter Egg hunt. On Easter Sunday, we swapped Easter eggs and had our traditional family Chinese takeaway at my sisters. We enjoyed lovely walks and bank holiday board game days, as well as meeting up with my friend Hannah for nrucu to meet her little one and a day in Felixstowe with my friend Charlotte.
I also handed in my notice to my job at the after-school club where I’ve worked since I was 19 😭
May
May was a fun one!
This month includes mine and my twin sisters birthday. We had a fun time meeting up for a late lunch, and going a bit of augmented darts before heading to mums to open some pressies. We also had a family chippy tea at mine the Saturday before.
I made our birthday cake and made one that I have always wanted to try… meet Agatha the Caterpillar Cake! I’m really happy with how she came out.
Me and my husband went away for the May Half Term to a lovely place in Norfolk. We’d visited before, and it’s great for a relaxing and chill long weekend. It was lovely.
We also went to a cool exhibit in our hometown for our fave football team, had a beach day and did some good workouts.
June
We had another beach day as we had my nephews for the day and the weathers been great.
We celebrated my Dad’s 71st Birthday together with a garden Chinese, we also celebrated Fathers day (double celebrations, greedy 🤣)
Other fun things this month include a ‘Hare trail’ coming to our hometown… these are always fun for the Summer. We did a parkrun (first time thos year!!) Me and my work friends celebrated our friends 40th birthday with a fun party and my nephew came round and cooked us breakfast 🥹
Me and my husband also celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary this month. I can’t believe it’s been 9 years.
We had a delicious meal at our favourite Italian in town to celebrate.
What’s been your favourite memory of 2025 so far?
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
June Reads 📚
Hi guys 👋🏻
Let’s take a look at this months books.
Month Six, we are halfway through the year!!!
(Audible) – would 100% recommend, the narrator was brilliant. It made the experience 100 times better.
Total Reads:
4
Favourite book:
Project Hail Mary & Traitors gate
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
Our 9th Wedding Anniversary 💗
Hi guys 👋🏻
Some of you may know, some of you may not, but I started this blog when we were planning our wedding! I started it to document the lead up and planning to the big day.
So, it seems only right each year to do a little post to honour the day that inspired this blog in the first place.
The blog has evolved over the years and has more of a book focus, but this is how it all began 😊
Let’s take a look back at our special day!
I loved our pink & green theme. These are still my two favourite colours.
My bouquet still has pride of place on our dining room table, and I loved all the personal touches like our ‘Honeydukes’ sweet shop!!
We had a brilliant day with our family and friends.
And the party was pretty good too 🥳
We spent our 9th wedding anniversary enjoying a cooked brekky together before work, and exchanged our cards and pressies. Tim got me some lovely flowers 💐 😍
We had a lovely dinner at one of our favourite Italian restaurants this evening.
Happy Anniversary to us X
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
May Reads 📚
Hi guys 👋🏻
Let’s take a look at this months books.
Month Five – let’s go!
Total reads:
7
Favourite book:
The Best Summer Ever by Heidi Swain
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
Birthday fun 3️⃣4️⃣🥳
Hi guys 👋🏻
This week me and my twin sister had our 34th birthday (errr where did that time go?!?!)
Here’s what we got up to!
Birthday morning
In the morning, I enjoyed some breakfast pastries and juice prepared by Tim. I then opened some lovely cards and presents with him before work.
Birthday afternoon
In the afternoon, once I had finished work, I got changed and met my sister in town for a late lunch. We went to our local Revolution and saw outside in the sunshine. We shared some of their delicious picky bits, a cocktail each, and we exchanged our presents.
And of course, we took our traditional photo booth photos…
We had a bit of extra time to kill, so we headed over to Boom Battle Bar and played an hour of augmented darts, which was fun!
Birthday evening
In the evening, we headed over to our mum and dad’s with my husband, and my sisters husband and my two nephews.
We hung out for a bit and opened our presents from our parents, which was nice 😊
Me & Tim went home when everyone else left and enjoyed a little bit of dinner (didn’t need much!) We watched some tv together and then I started one of my birthday books.
A lovely day 😃🎈
Happy Birthday to us.
👭🏼
(Special mention to Agatha, the Caterpillar cake I made for us this year. Really happy with how it came out.)
Have you started planning your birthday yet?
What sort of things do you like to do on your birthday? 🎂
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
April reads 📚
Hi guys 👋🏻
Let’s take a look at this months books.
Month Four – let’s go!
Total reads this month:
5
Favourite book this month:
The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini
Until Next Time,
Roseanne 🙂
Roseanne Byford 