Lockdown 2.0

How is it December? This year has gone by in a flash. It’s unreal. Definitely not the year we were all expecting! This time last year we were in Australia which is crazy. We were reminiscing about what we enjoyed the most from the trip and what we’d do when we go back next time whenever that is! Sydney would 100% be on the list along with the Great Ocean Road. I’d love to go the Gold Coast and see Brisbane and also check out West Australia. I mean this is literally what we do – reminisce about our travels and dream about all the places we want to go. I can’t wait for COVID to get under control so we can safely jump on a plane and go on hols somewhere nice and hot, explore and chill! 

Although the next time we go travelling we’ll have a little baby in tow! Wow – how things are changing!

This whole year just felt like a blur really. We’re still working from home 9 months later and the whole year has just felt strange full of hand sanitizer and social distancing. I’ve only seen my grandparents a handful of times this year and barely seen friends and family. Thank goodness for FaceTime, Zoom and social media! 

Tbh I really don’t feel like I have much to report! We’ve been spending our time working, eating, doing more work and trying to get out for a long walk once a week. That literally sums up lockdown 2.0 as well as the rest of the past few months. Birmingham has basically been in lockdown since mid-September and we’re still not allowed to see anyone unless its outside for a walk.

Looking back through my pics there’s not much to share really. I had a lovely surprise in the post from one of my good friends of a Mickey’s Waffle Candles. It’s from DoleWicks and they’re notoriously hard to get hold of – as soon as the owner opens the shop everything goes in a few minutes! 

We’ve had scones that we froze back in August as a nice treat – it’s a relief to be able to eat everything I went off in the summer – thank goodness pregnancy got easier in that sense!

We also grabbed some frozen croissants from the garden centre farm shop for some quick, easy and tasty weekend brekkies. I had to get apricot pastries – my absolute fav and every time I have them they remind me of my nanny.

We try to mix up brekkie at the weekend to have a change from the week. The week is usually either porridge or granola with yogurt and fruit. My fav weekend treat has to be pancakes with Nutella and berries mmm! We’ve started buying butter milk pancakes from the shop and popping them in the toaster to crisp up – they turn out so tasty and are much better than those we make and are so quick to do.

We brought ourselves an early Christmas pressie – the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser. It’s so good and no regrets in buying it. Neither of us are coffee people (minus me and the occasional caramel latte!) but we love our hot chocs. We’ve brought the hot chocolat chocolate shards which make a mean hot choc but we’ve also used our other hot choc – Cadburys, Aero, Galaxy, Whittards – and they all turn out lovely. It’s so quick and easy to use and easy to clean after. It’ll definitely be getting lots of use!

It’s still nice being able to pop out and grab a hot chocolate from Costa now – in the first lockdown this year coffee shops were shut so this is a bonus!

I’d been doing a good job on getting back into the exercise pre lockdown 2.0 before the gyms shut again. Since then I’ve just been trying to get out on walks around the block and using our National Trust memberships at the weekends to go for a longer walk. In the past couple months we’ve used them to go to Baddesley Clinton, Coughton Court, Hanbury Hall, Attingham Park and Calke Abbey. I’d say Hanbury Hall has been one of my favs so far but that’s mainly based of the hot choc! We try to get there early, grab a hot choc and then have a walk around. It’s usually a slow dawdle for me because bump sometimes gets a little heavy and uncomfortable. I’m trying to keep it up because I’m feeling so unfit compared to how I was pre-pregnancy.

I’ve also done a bit of painting and it reminded me how much I enjoy it! I’ve done a few little Christmassy scenes.

Oooo I nearly forgot! Tim made the most delish scallops with crispy parma ham, lardons and pureed peas. It was insane – it could have been a restaurant meal – I miss going out to restaurants so much! Especially this time of the year.

I’m going to brave the gym to go swimming this week. I can’t wait to get back in the pool – it’s such a relaxing workout and I love the feeling of being weightlessness especially as bump is just getting bigger week by week.

Time is flying by which means that baby will be here before we know it! It’s scary but exciting too!

I hope your lockdowns have been ok! I’m definitely jealous of those in lower tiers and that they can eat out in restaurants and meet up with others. But got to think our time will come and that first restaurant visit will be amazing and worth the wait!

Until next time,
Cathers xx
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5 Comments

  1. December 15, 2020 / 7:58 am

    Ugh the beginning of your post made me want to travel so bad, I had plans to go to Thailand 😔. I love your post though and those scallops look delicious !

    • Cathers
      Author
      December 16, 2020 / 7:19 am

      I’m missing travelling a lot too! We were meant to go to the South of France and Florida/ The Keys this year but that hasn’t happened – here’s hoping we can next year!

  2. December 16, 2020 / 4:35 pm

    That candle looks amazing!! Thanks for sharing a bit about your life right now x

    • Cathers
      Author
      December 16, 2020 / 8:24 pm

      Thanks! The candle smells amazing!

  3. genesissampson
    December 17, 2020 / 4:43 pm

    Thank you for sharing some positivity! We’ve heard a lot of negatives about 2020, but it certainly hasn’t been a wasted year! There are so many things we still have to be thankful for, and it was nice to read about some of those things in your post today 🙂