What a jolly surprise

At the start of this year, Ollie and I had grand plans. We were going to go on plenty of holidays, and any month where we weren't going on holiday (because I was planning other holidays with friends or family), we were planning on going somewhere in the UK together instead. WELL. 2020 certainly had other plans, and it must've been laughing at us as we lovingly talked about what an amazing year we were going to have. Well, it might not have been quite as extravagant as we planned but it's still been pretty great despite everything, and since we've been able to leave the house again, we've tried to somewhat stick to our original plan and get away every month. We've been to a hot tub lodge, a spa hotel in Warwickshire and a day at Skegness seaside, but thanks to a hectic schedule, we were cutting it fine for getting away in October! So my fingers were naturally itching to book somewhere but Ollie actually took the reins on the planning front this time and kept the plans a surprise from me. Tricky in terms of working out what the hell to take with me but very exciting!

Ollie even went so far as to make me look away while he set the sat nav to make sure I didn't see, but as we got close I found out that we were headed to Sheffield! Sheffield is a city I've loved for a long time when my friends Laura, Sophia and Chantelle all went to uni there and I visited them, and it was nice that he'd planned a city break, given that we've done hot tub, spa and seaside so far. He'd picked a nice central hotel and once we checked in, we enjoyed a bottle of prosecco (from coffee cups) before we headed back out for our first stop!

Ollie had chosen a very "me" place for lunch with The Botanist! I love their cocktails and got a pink gin punch followed by a classic 'the botanist' (both were 10/10). I also LOVE to share food and I think in all the time that me and Ollie have been together and all the times that we've eaten out, we've only actually not shared once (in Venice, and actually we did plan to share but then both preferred what we had). So naturally, we got a picky lunch that we could share and went with the deli board and a hanging chicken kebab. Everything was amazing but the sweet chilli fries were just incredible.

After some time chilling back at the hotel, I got ready for our evening booking! Obviously because of coronavirus restrictions, our plans had to revolve around food so I went with a nice dinner-and-drinks outfit. I wore rust coloured trousers (love the fabric and fit of this pair), with spotty mesh bodysuit that has cute little puffed sleeves. I added my new gold chain heels and finished with black and nude bag.

The destination of choice for dinner was another big fat tick in the boyfriend points column, as Ollie had booked us in at Bill's. Having only eaten out for lunch a few hours earlier, I think I would've burst if we were headed for something heavy like a curry or pie! Instead, I went with something nice and fresh with grilled seabass and chopped salsa. The food was lovely but the highlight for us was clearly the drinks, as we managed to spend double the food on those. I was working my way through the cocktail menu and have to say I approved of all of them!

Because of said drinks, we were feeling a bit worse for wear the next day but luckily nothing sorts you out quite like a hotel breakfast. And I have to say, this one was especially good! Then after a chilled morning, we had a nice drive back home, which was beautifully autumnal in the trees-changing-colour kind of way, instead of the chucking-it-down-with-rain kind of way like on our way up! If this weekend is anything to go by, I reckon I should leave the organising up to Ollie more often!