Recently, I had one of my busiest weeks of the year, doing a whole bunch of nice things, some of which I want to share with you. On Friday 26th, my mum, brother and I headed to a town near Skegness to stay with my auntie and uncle for the night. We arrived mid afternoon and almost immediately headed to the beach with the dogs, the gorgeous sunshine shining down on us. The beach was fairly quiet and for the most part we didn't see many people at all in the section we spent most of our time. I am not a big fan of the beach normally as I hate when sand sticks to you for weeks afterwards and the sea itself is kind of terrifying... not being able to see what's beneath you. However, I did venture in a little more than normal (still not far by anyone's standards) and enjoyed the feeling of the water lapping around my feet. My dog is not normally one for water... until this year she wouldn't put her paw anywhere near it, but she seemed to really enjoy leaping and splashing through the waves, even swimming when it got too deep for her. Sitting out and enjoying a BBQ in the lovely sunshine made a nice end to the day and all of this was topped off by the beautiful, clear sky full of stars that allowed you to see so much more than a lot of the built up areas permit. All of these things contributed to the happy, relaxing time I had there and it genuinely gave me a few hours of calm and joy that I hadn't properly felt for a while.
Monday morning (29th), I took off to Sheffield with my best friend for a day at the spa and a night in a hotel. After opting for bags in case we couldn't check in, we soon regretted not having a mini suitcase to wheel around when we walked through the city centre, arms weighed down by a big, heavy bag. Fortunately, the room was ready early so when we got there, we could dump our bags and pop across to Caffe Nero for lunch. Once returning, we went down to the spa for a relaxing afternoon. The pool itself was much bigger than I expected and although it wasn't really a 'swimming' pool, we did get a few lengths in and then just enjoyed floating around the water. The blue lights in the ceiling and calming music, made the whole atmosphere ideal for a relax. Between swimming sessions, we spent some time in the various rooms including, the rock sauna, the steam room, the aroma grotto (fragrance steam room), the ice igloo and the experience showers, all of which made the experience lovely, despite the fact that steam makes breathing a lot more challenging! We then spent a few hours getting ready in a relaxed manner before dinner. As we'd booked a package including dinner and a treatment, our meal was off the set menu, which included a couple of options for each course.

Galette

When both George and I saw the menu, we were both worried about what the food would be like as none of it was what we would typically order however, it was really tasty! I had Mixed Vegetable Soup, followed by a Tomato and Feta Galette and finished with a Baked Alaska. Prior to this, I had never even heard of a Galette but it was really delicious and something I would definitely consider ordering again or even making myself at home. The following morning, we had booked to have our nails done as our chosen treatment and both the treatment room and service were lovely. My nails lasted as long as they said they would, more or less chip free (3 days). However the thing that really stole the show was the breakfast buffet! You could help yourself to various items including a range of fruit and yoghurt options, cereal, pastries, toast and English Breakfast ingredients. Alternatively (or in addition), you could order the likes of porridge, eggs benedicts and omelettes. Sticking to the buffet, I loved the options and made several trips back for watermelon and other fruit, as well as for the mushrooms which were some of the nicest mushrooms I've had. All in all, the trip was lovely and relaxing and the Mercure St Paul's Hotel itself was an amazing place. It was located right near everything you could want in Sheffield, the hotel room and general building was of a high standard; very clean, spacious and well designed, staff were friendly, the spa had plenty to offer and the food was delicious. If you find yourself needing or wanting a hotel in Sheffield, I highly recommend this one!

I didn't expect myself to ramble quite as much as I have in this post so I've decided to split it into two parts. To read about my trip to London, you can pop back tomorrow! I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my week, let me know what you got up to. If you liked this post and want to see more from me, you can follow my social media links in the top right hand corner of the blog to see when I next upload.

Love Steph x