Hi friends! I've had this post in my drafts for a while, and I can't wait for you all to read it! I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease when I was 14, when it was a lot less well-known than it is now. I've experienced so many odd questions and remarks from people, as well as some interesting experiences in hospitality settings. I thought I'd write a little post on 14 things every coeliac can relate to! Please share with any coeliac friends or family, I'm sure they will have experienced some of these things too! I've also included some facts at the end of this post, which will hopefully help people to learn a little bit more about Coeliac disease. (PS don't be offended by how sarcastic I am, I'm just bitter about not being able to eat real doughnuts and pies x) 14 Things Every Coeliac Can Relate To 1. Burgers with no Bun A lot of restaurants have gluten free burger ingredients, but no buns. Which is totally fine (it's totally not) but I always get jealous watching the other people at the table eating their burgers in a normal burger-y way, while I'm cutting up my naked beef, cheese and tomato... 2. Getting excited in the Free From aisle when you spot a new product (!) The gluten free aisle is very exciting I'm not going to lie, especially the freezer section! (I'm still praying for more affordable sausage rolls though.) I vividly remember the first time I saw gluten free tiger bread, jammy dodgers, and gravy granules. Exciting times! 3. Paying extra in restaurants for dodgy cardboard bread. Paying an extra £1 for a slice of Schar bread is not what I want during my breakfast date thanks. But I'll do it anyway because I really want the poached eggs... 4. Especially when it's half the size! £6 for a toastie that's the size of a postage stamp, whyyyyy! 4. Being really REALLY sick of gluten free brownies. Coeliacs, if you know you know. This situation is made even worse when the non-coeliac person you're with excitedly tells you 'ohh they have gluten free brownies here!' and you have to pretend you're excited and really want a brownie... For the 53rd time in your life. 5. When people think being on a gluten free diet will help them lose weight... Um, everything is filled with sugar. They pile sugar into the bread, biscuits, everything so that it doesn't taste like cardboard! Unless you're eating a completely natural gluten free diet, it's definitely not going to help you lose weight. 6. The people who try to tell you about those 'gluten tablets' they 'saw on the web'... I don't have anything to say here, apart from the fact that 'medication' like this obviously doesn't cure coeliac disease. 7. When people make you feel like you're boring, difficult, or embarrassing! I've been in so many of these situations where people think you're choosing to do this to cause a scene, or because you're fussy. No matter how many times you explain your condition to these people, they'll probably never get it. Best to accept that people who make you feel like a burden are not your friends. The people I have in my life now will be the first ones to double check with waiters when I forget (I do this a lot...) 8. People giving you sympathy and saying things like "Oh that must be terrible, I couldn't do that!" I think people mean well when they say these things, but it just further reinforces the idea that we are choosing this life. We had no choice to 'do it' or not! 9. "Oh are you still doing that?" Yep, will be the rest of my life... Please don't ask me again! 10. "How come you can eat potatoes but not pasta?" Just because they are both carbs, doesn't mean they are made of the same thing... Potatoes are vegetables. There's no wheat in there. 11. "Is this gluten free?" "Yep, it's vegan!" That's definitely not the same thing. It's so worrying when people in hospitality answer the gluten free question so confidently wrong... 12. "Oh yeah I totally understand, bread makes me bloated too" This one just makes me want to pull my hair out. Bread hasn't even made me bloated before... Just violently sick and aggressively anaemic. But yeah, totally the same x 13. "Everyone is coeliac these days aren't they?" Yeah you just pay the membership fee, easy peasy! 14. When someone goes out of their way to make or buy you something gluten free Every coeliac knows that this feels like Christmas Day. Thanks friends x Some (not so) Fun Facts About Coeliac Disease
Thank you for reading! I hope this post has given you a little giggle, and maybe helped you understand this condition a little more. Let me know if you've experienced any other frustrating or funny reactions! Hope you're having a good day! Love Sophy x
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Hi friends! I feel like I start every post with 'sorry I haven't posted in a while', so I'm just going to stop doing that and get started with what I'm supposed to be saying... It's been a minute and lots has happened in the world. Instead of talking about that, lets talk about crafts! During lockdown 1.0 (I don't actually know what number we're on now) I discovered a love for creating things. I started off colouring and painting and then when we moved last May, I began making little things for the flat! I'm going to talk you through 5 of my favourite craft projects that have kept my mind busy and given me lots of cute little items! Mrs Hinch Stick Heart Project Just after we moved into our flat, Mrs Hinch was posting about her wall art made from sticks. It looked really easy and like something we could do together so we decided to give it a shot! We went to our local little park to collect the perfect sticks, and used cardboard from a moving box. You're meant to use hot glue but we didn't have a gun at this point so just used PVA (It worked fine!) And we bought a little tester tub of Johnstone's 'Ballet Slipper' paint from B&M. A very cheap project! What We Used Sticks from the park - £0.00 Carboard - £0.00 A Pencil Scissors Tape (any kind of tape will do) PVA Glue (B&M) £1.00 Tester tub of paint (B&M) £1.59 Total = £2.59 What We Did We drew half a love heart onto a square of cardboard with a pencil and cut that out as best we could. We then put the cut out piece on top of another square of cardboard and traced around it. Then cut around the second piece of cardboard to try and make them even. We stuck our two halves of cardboard heart together with tape on both sides. After that, we stuck sticks around the outside with PVA glue to make the outline of the heart, and then put the sticks wherever looked right in the middle. We cut the edges off some, although we didn't have to do this with many. Once we decided on their positions we stuck them down. We did a little bit each day and collected more sticks as we went. Once we were happy that the heart was filled with sticks, we painted it with our tester tub of paint. I think we did about 3 coats leaving it to dry in-between. To hang it, we just carved a little hole out of the back with a knife then hung it on a nail! Seasonal Wreath Projects During Autumn last year, I decided I wanted to make an 'Autumn' wreath with leaves and flowers. I had a look online and decided to go into Hobbycraft as they seemed to have lots of different kinds of plain wreaths. I bought a big orange flower from The Range, along with some tiny pine cones. Then I ordered skeleton leaves and synthetic maple leaves from Ebay. I loved finding all the wee bits and bobs and while in Hobbycraft, I also got myself a pink hot glue gun (win!) What I Used Rattan Grapevine Wreath 30.5cm (HobbyCraft) - £4.00 Orange Flower (The Range) - £1.50 Mini Pine Cones (The Range) - £0.69 Skeleton Leaves (Ebay) - £2.00 Synthetic Maple Leaves (Ebay) - £3.00 Hot Glue Gun + Refills (HobbyCraft) - £5.00 Scissors Total = £16.19 (Expensive because I bought my glue gun, but if you already have one this will be a cheaper project! You could probably also use PVA but the wee bits are fiddly thats why I went for hot glue) What I Did I pulled the petals out of the orange flower and stuck these around the back of the wreath to give it more depth. I then stuck on the maple leaves around the front in alternating colours. Then I layered the skeleton leaves on top and dotted the pine cones around. I literally just stuck everything down, made it look nice, and waited for it to dry! Before I even took the autumn wreath down, I knew I had to make a Christmas one! I did the same thing - bought a wreath from Hobbycraft, some bits and bobs from the range and some snow spray from B&M! I loved making the Christmas wreath and it hung on our door from November-January! What I Used Artificial Fir Christmas Wreath 46cm (HobbyCraft) - £5.00 Artificial Holly (The Range) £1.00 Mini Pine Cones (The Range) - £0.69 Artificial Robin (The Range) - £0.69 Snow Spray (B&M) - £2.00 Hot Glue Gun Scissors Total = £7.38 What I Did First I twisted the artificial fir in a circle so it was all neat and facing the same way. Then I pulled apart the holly leaves/berries and stuck them around the wreath. I dotted the pine cones around and then chose a place for the robin! I then sprayed the whole thing with some snow spray for extra effect! Waited for it to dry then swapped it with the Autumn Wreath. (I'm definitely going to make a 'spring' wreath next! Suggestions welcome!) Coffee Vase Project I've discovered I find it hard to throw out glass jars... Renee absolutely hates this newfound trait and she hears the words 'No, we could definitely use that for something' on the daily... I decided the shape of this jar of coffee would make a great vase, so I went for it! What I Used Empty Alcafe Coffee jar (From Aldi but I obviously had it in the house already) - £0.00 Leftover Johnstone's 'Ballet Slipper' tester pot (B&M But also already had it in the house) - £0.00 Sunflower Napkin (Tesco, but again, already had some) - £0.00 Clear drying PVA Glue (Had that in my house too, shock.) - £0.00 Total = £0.00 What I Did First I soaked the jar in boiling water to remove the glue from the label, then scrubbed off what was left. I dried it then painted it with a couple of coats of the tester paint (Inside and out). While it was drying, I carefully cut out the sunflower and bee shapes from the top layer of the napkin. I then decided where to put them (this bit took the longest), then I put clear-drying PVA glue on both sides and sort of pasted it on. Left to dry and voila!! I was obsessed with the fact that I made this for a long time (still am...) Boob Pot Birthday Project For my birthday this month, we obviously couldn't do anything exciting, so Renee said she had something fun planned for us to do at home! On the morning of my birthday she presented me with a block of clay and some tools! We decided almost straight away that we wanted to make little boob pots we've been talking about for so long! It was actually a lot harder than expected and both pairs of boobs are dodgy in their own way... It makes them unique?.. What We Used Das Modelling Clay (Amazon) - £6.00 (We used maybe a quarter of this on our two pots so £2.00 ish) Luter Clay Tools - (Amazon) £10.99 Acrylic paints (already had these at home) - £0.00 Paintbrushes (Also already had these) - £0.00 Bowl of water Total = £12.99 (Only an expensive project because of the tools!) What We Did We used one of the tools (sorry I don't know what they're called) to cut our blocks of clay. Then we made it into a sausage shape and pinched the edges to make a dip in the middle. We both had multiple tries because it was really hard to get the right depth! We then used the tools and water to smooth out any cracks. We made our little boobs and scored the clay to make sure they were stuck on. We left them to dry for a few days turning them over a couple of times. Once dry, we painted with red/white acrylic paint to get a pastel pink colour. These pots are very rough and only vaguely look like boobs, but we haven't done this before and I love them anyway x Advent Calendar Project For as long as I can remember, my mum has been filling a homemade advent calendar for me with little treasures and sweets. She loved putting time and effort into it during my childhood and I thought this year that I could repay the favour. I decided to buy a plain advent calendar box, decorate it and fill it for her to open each day of December! What I Used DIY Advent Calendar (Roov.com) - £7.49 Poster Paint (B&M) £2.00 Stick on Wreaths (HobbyCraft) - £1.00 Stick on Candy Canes (HobbyCraft) - £1.00 Advent Numbers (The Works) - £1.00 Paintbrushes - £0.00 Hot Glue Gun - £0.00 Snow Spray (B&M) - £2.00 Total = £14.49 ( & I spent about £3.50 filling the boxes) What I Did This project was the hardest and most stressful so far because I used the wrong kind of paint for the base! I used poster paint because that's all I could find in the colour I wanted, but it literally did NOT dry and my hands were permanently blue! Anyway, I painted the whole thing blue and waited (unsuccessfully) for it to dry. After blow-drying it and eventually wiping half of the paint off... I hand painted some snowflakes across the calendar with white acrylic paint I already had in the house (this dried much better!) After this was dry, I stuck my advent numbers on random boxes. I then stuck the little wreaths along the top and candy canes down the sides. Once it was all dry, I sprayed the whole thing with snow spray. I filled it with a mix of sparkly tea lights, Christmas scented wax melts, chocolates and candy canes. The stress (and blue paint) was worth it when I gave it to my mum and she was so surprised and grateful! She then texted me every morning of December to tell me what was in her advent calendar each day :) I hope you enjoyed reading about my little craft projects. I've got lots more happening at the moment so a part 2 might be needed! This year I'm planning on doing: a spring wreath, some pebble art, making my own spa products, making some birthday gifts for friends, and a scrapbook of my year in Australia. `
Watch this space! Let me know if you have any other ideas or if you make anything I've talked about! Lots of love, Sophy x Hi Friends! Look at me posting twice in one week! Craziness. I wanted to write a little bit about our recent little getaway to The Borders! We packed so much in to the three days, and I've added some links to some of the places we visited! Back in August when life seemed like it might be alright, we booked (for the second time) to go to Dublin for a few days. We decided to book for the October holidays as I'm off work then, and it seemed like it was going to happen! A few weeks before, the world started going crazy again and our flights were cancelled. We were really gutted about it so decided to start looking for a self-catering wigwam or pod in Scotland. We found the most adorable place in Coldingham (In the Scottish Borders) for a reasonable price and not too far a drive. I'll talk about the pod a bit later on but first I want to talk about our road trip down! We left at 7am on a rainy Tuesday with coffees in hand, and a strict Sophy schedule in the notepad. After the second attempt of driving away (realised we'd forgotten something important before we'd even left the driveway on attempt number one) we drove to Crammond beach first to "watch the sunrise"... There was no sunrise as it was really cloudy, but this didn't dampen our spirits. It was so nice to be awake and out in the fresh sea air before 8am. We stopped for five minutes before carrying on through Leith to Portabello beach. The weather had started to clear up and it was becoming a crisp (and a bit dryer) Autumn morning. After our short stop in Portabello to eat some car snacks (obviously) - we carried on to a very important stop... M&S! ~ I received a really kind gift from one of my students a couple of months ago, as a little thank you for her private lessons her mum got me an M&S voucher! ~ We decided to use this voucher to buy lots of food for our few days away. We bought a cheese selection, crisps and dips, cake, wine, you name it! At this stop, we also went to Starbucks for a classic PSL (It is Autumn after all). We drove through Musselburgh, and on to one of my favourite stops: Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve! The sun was out by this point and it was actually really warm. We walked along a dodgy pier to get to the little grassy trail. We spent about half an hour here before trying to find Luftness Castle... Every castle we tried to visit on our trip was either inaccessible or very expensive to even get into the grounds. We agreed to come back and spend longer at these castles in order to make the visit and the expense worthwhile. We stopped briefly at Gullane beach which was beautiful, before going on to North Berwick. North Berwick LawWe decided to factor in some time to climb North Berwick Law, and I'm so glad we did! This was a definite highlight for both of us. It's not a massive hill - being only 187m - it was the smallest of the Marylins so far. It was quick, steep, and very slippery! Although, unusually I only fell on my bum once! There are wild ponies who live on the Law which was really amazing to see, and when you get further up, there are ruins of an old telegraph station and watchtower. There are boards all the way from the bottom to the top telling you some information about the history of the hill and what it was used for. The reason it exists is actually due to a blob of lava from Arthur's Seat! You can tell that it's been formed from lava, as the rock formation looks like charcoal and it's very uneven! Once you reach the top, there are lots of touristy signs that you've made it (like Arthur's Seat but even more!) I would definitely recommend going up The Law if you get a chance, it was pretty easy and only took us 55 minutes all round. DRIFT.We previously booked lunch in North Berwick to make sure we'd get a table as we knew everywhere would be really busy! A friend recommended this amazing little cafe just beyond North Berwick called DRIFT. The actual building is an old shipping container that has been converted into a modern little cafe. We ordered some coffees and brunch rolls! (They even had gluten free rolls that didn't taste like cardboard!) We absolutely loved it and the view from the window was amazing! The PodThe little pod we stayed in was called The Rambleshack and it was in the wee village of Coldingham. It was a lockbox/self checkin situation so very covid safe, and very easy! There was a little bench top, sink, fridge, toaster, kettle, and microwave! (Honestly they squeezed so much in there!) There were also a couple of plates, bowls, mugs, glasses, some cutlery, along with some other random items. There was a little table next to the amazing round window, and this table converted into the bed! The bathroom was a teeny wet room with a toilet and shower. The pod was really clean, cute, and had everything we needed! Once we'd settled in, we got straight into our M&S spread (Of course). Then... the disaster happened... So we were just peacefully drinking our wine and enjoying our holiday, when I bumped the table and threw everything on it up in the air... There was a massive vase with lavender and lots of water, half a bottle of prosecco, and a giant glass of red wine. I really can't explain how far the wine travelled.. Fully up the walls, on the blind, in our hair, on our clothes, all over our bedding, the floor, anywhere possible. As predicted, I sobbed for the next five minutes while Renee tried to panic clean. I eventually got a grip and started to help, before declaring approximately 54 times that we should just leave and drive home (dramatic???) After a solid hour, we'd managed to get the wine out of most furnishings, apart from our clothing, bedding and hair. The owners were so kind and brought us down some spare bedding so at least we could sleep on dry sheets! We went to sleep with better expectations for the morning. However... We awoke to find there was no hot water, and after the owner checking it and telling us he'd have to call an electrician, we used our great teamwork skills to wash each other's hair with a big bucket we found in the microwave. This took a good hour longer than it was meant to but made for hilarious memories. After we finally made it out the door, we started our adventure for the day! EyemouthWe started our day in Eyemouth by walking up to Eyemouth Fort. It was really interesting and we learned lots about the history of it. It was a great walk up and the views were amazing! We did a little photoshoot at the top (classic) before doing the sunny walk down and across the beach. We walked along to Eyemouth Harbour and saw the 'Widows and Bairns' sculpture. A memorial to the women and children left behind when 189 Scottish fishermen were lost at sea. We were really excited to see a seal as we were walking along the harbour, and learn about some of the wildlife on the shores of Eyemouth. We also saw Gunsgreen House and Nisbett's Tower, which both played a big part in the smuggling trade of Eyemouth in the 18th and 19th centuries. After learning lots along this trail, we walked back to the High Street and bought a few souvenirs from some cute little shops. We loved Occasions Florists the most! St Abbs & ColdinghamAfter spending most of the day in Eyemouth, we drove to the little village of St Abbs for a coffee and some amazing views! I was honestly stunned and how beautiful this place was. We then drove back to Coldingham and visited the surf beach. We found some cute beach houses and then had a walk through the town where we found a tiny antique shop absolutely packed with treasures! We then had a walk through the old Coldingham Priory before heading to the local pub for a meal. We walked home through a little Heritage Trail and then had a much calmer second night, eating the leftover cheese, and thankfully not spilling any wine. Our Trip Home - DunbarWe checked out early the next morning and had decided to drive home via Dunbar, as there were lots of little things we wanted to see. We're very rarely in East Lothian, so decided to make the most of it! However, before we even left the grounds, of course there had to be a final disaster to top off the stay... As I was walking out of the pod and over the decking, I got excited because I saw a dog... I'm not exaggerating when I say I literally flew in the air before falling on my bum. The decking was slippery and I was doing a little half run, so along with all the bags, I had some significant airtime before landing with a loud thud. Renee came running back in from the car, and by that time I had somehow bounced up and was pretending nothing had happened. I got a massive bruise as a souvenir, and we both agreed this was a very relevant end to our slightly disastrous trip! On the way home, we stopped at Dunbar Castle, The Harbour, The Fortress, and The Bridge to Nowhere! It was raining really heavily so we didn't stay long at each stop and decided that we'd like to spend a whole day in Dunbar next summer. North BerwickWe knew we wouldn't have enough time to explore North Berwick properly on the way down there, so we factored in some time on the way home. We went to Tea At Tiffany's for a coffee and to dry off for a bit, then had a look round all the little shops. We loved the classic sweet shop The Sugar Mountain and we enjoyed looking through all the charity shops. We also had a quick stop at the beach for some photos before getting back in the car. We drove through Musselburgh and met one of our friends at Luca's for an ice cream, before getting a chippy once we were back in Fife. A great end to our trip!
We had the most amazing little holiday, and enjoyed having a break from real life, responsibilities, and our phones. I can highly recommend everything that we did (minus the wine disaster) and this was the perfect budget Scottish getaway. We probably spent £200-£250 on the whole thing (including booking the pod, a full tank of petrol, all our food, coffee stops, and souvenirs.) I've linked different things throughout if you're keen to learn more about anything I've written about, or if you're interested in going to any cafes or shops we went to. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!! Love Sophy x Hi Friends!
Really sorry about how awful I've been at this blogging thing.. I really thought I'd be better at this! (lol) This is just a little update post for you all, and it's basically me planning what I'm going to be posting over the next few weeks. I'm currently sitting catching up from World Ballet Day last week. If you know me, then you know I am obsessed with World Ballet Day and I watch as much of the stream as I can religiously every year. (If you're unsure, World Ballet Day is in October every year and it's when some of the world's most famous ballet companies live stream their rehearsals all day - super exciting if you're a ballet freak like me.) Anyway, the fact that I haven't watched the stream this year might give you an idea of how busy I've been... Life has been a bit crazy with teaching, class planning, and written work for my qualification. Renee is also working full time, and so we're trying to still spend time together and do fun things whenever we can. We went on a little wigwam holiday last month and I can't wait to write all about it! We had several disasters (classic) but we also had the best time! We saw lots of amazing sights, learned a lot about Scottish history, and most importantly, spent some time together without our phones. It was an amazing little reset and I've actually really struggled to get back into normal life again. We also did some super cute Halloween activities last month. I think I'll do a wee post about some craft things we've done and are planning on doing, because I love sharing that stuff. So look out for that if you're interested in crafting! We went pumpkin picking at Cairnie Fruit Farm last week, which was very rainy but really cute. We then spent the day carving our pumpkins and making Halloween snacks! (Blog post coming soon on this) I also just need to confess that I only did one week of '5K a day'. I just couldn't be bothered, not sorry... I really can't believe it's November already! This year has totally disappeared, and I know we all feel like we haven't achieved much, but remember that whatever you've done this year is an achievement. This is the weirdest time of life, so let's make sure we're not too hard on ourselves! More posts coming soon, I promise! Love Sophy x Hi friends, I realise I have been MIA for the past week, so sorry about that! Dance studios were allowed to reopen (yay) on the 31st August, so I'm now back to teaching almost every day. It is SO GOOD to be back, but there is also so much to do! Anyway, I had nothing to write for Food and Fitness last week because Renee cooked me literally every meal (she's good) and the only fitness I did was running around being a fairy with my wee dance classes. I thought I'd do a wee post this week about our recent hillwalking adventures! Throughout August, Renee and I decided we'd like to start tackling the Marylins of Scotland! We've climbed 5 so far, and we're trying to bag another one each time we have a day off. If you're unsure, Marylins are hills that are at least 150m, but not classed as Monroes. (So basically the smaller hills). Arthur's Seat (251m) ~A classic touristy first hill walk, but PACKED with people~ The first hill we climbed was Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We just did this during a day out and with a picnic. I had done it before, but Renee was really keen as it's obviously a tourist point of Scotland! Overall, it took us just over an hour for the whole walk. It was a hot and sunny day, which made it harder than it was. The sun was right above our heads and there were also a LOT of people along the path. I liked the start of the ascent because there was lots to see and lots of little side paths to explore. Once we got further up though, I didn't enjoy that you could see how steep the hill was. I much prefer when you just keep walking and have no idea of how difficult your next section is. This bit felt like it went on forever and the people really started to annoy me (classic). When we got to the top, the views were amazing, but again it's just always so busy you never spend too much time up there. We started to walk down the other side, then had our picnic in a little nook of the hill. During the descent, I discovered I am not very good at walking down hills... I can't count how many times I slid on the stones and fell on my bum! Once we got further down, there was a really nice little valley section, which brought us back to the path we started on. We then sat in Holyrood gardens for a couple of hours before returning home. It was a nice day out, but I'd recommend not climbing this one on a hot day.
Lendrick Hill (456m) ~This was a really funny day and a story we now tell all the time!~ We parked the car in a little parking area at the bottom of the hill, and set off up a forest road. There wasn't a verified route for this one, so we were just following a map. After going the wrong way and almost getting stuck in a forest, we carried on. We started playing the alphabet game to give us something to focus on while we were walking up. We realised at this point that the map told us to veer to the right, going directly up a muddy track through the middle of the trees. This was the steepest track we have climbed so far, and it was really slippery from the mud. We continued to play the alphabet game to stop us from panicking about the sharp drop and mud below us. We stopped a couple of times to catch our breath on the way up, and the view through the trees was beautiful! Once we reached flat ground again, the walk to the top was easy! There was a little section of hilly ground and heather, and then a quick and steep climb to the summit! The views from the top were 360, and we hadn't seen any other people at all along the way! This was a really great moment, and we spent some time at the top taking pictures and admiring the view. We decided that we could not go down the same way as we had come up, because we'd definitely just slide down the mud track... So we found a route that some other walkers had done previously. It suggested following the tiny track alongside the fence until you reached the bottom, easy!! (Not...) It was alright at the start, we were walking and eating our lunch at the same time, so that distracted us from the uneven, boggy ground below us. We were in great spirits and we chatted and laughed for the next little section. As we were descending, I noticed that there was a massive patch of ferns ahead of us. I knew there would be no way around the ferns, but kept quiet for the moment. Once we reached the patch, we discovered the ferns were round 6 ft tall, and we had no option but to go through them! We pushed through all the bushes and did our best not to get hit in the face by branches. Renee stopped suddenly in front of me, as she noticed there was a large section of 6ft nettles ahead... She then said the words 'Sophy, we're going to have to climb the fence...' Now, this fence was higher than the ferns so must've been at least 7ft, it was made of thin wire, and did not look very stable. I thought about what Renee had said and responded with 'No, we can't because there's ferns and nettles on the other side too!.' But then she said 'No, I mean we will have to climb along the fence sideways... Like crabs...' So thats what we did! Climbed to the top section of the fence, and sidestepped along. It was unstable, and we almost fell backwards lots of times. If anyone could've seen this ordeal, it definitely would've been comical. I was singing the alphabet under my breath to keep myself calm, and Renee was hysterically giggling. At some point, we realised the fence wasn't strong enough to hold us anymore and we'd have to jump down. I jumped/fell down first, scraping the back of my knee on a big nettle, then Renee jumped down and got her foot stuck in the fence. Once we had dealt with that, we started laughing and realised this would be a funny story. We survived the rest of the dodgy descent, and emerged from the forest soggy and scratched but still smiling! This walk took us an hour and 25 minutes, and I would recommend doing this on a dry day, and finding a different route for descent... We are loving exploring random areas of Scotland, and climbing the Marylins along the way! So far we have learned: Higher hills don't necessary mean more difficult. Sometimes the lowest hills have the hardest routes!; I have to be really up for the walk, otherwise it will end in tears...; and games along the way definitely help!
Get in touch if you have any funny hill stories, or if you'd like anymore info about the walks we've done! Hope you're all having a great September so far! Love Sophy x Hello! Welcome to my blog!
That is a sentence I never thought I'd say, but here we are. Who are you? My name is Sophy, I'm 21, and I'm a dance teacher. I'm from Fife in Scotland, and I just moved into a little flat with my partner, Renee. I've danced my whole life, and left school a year early to attend an Edinburgh dance college. I trained for 3 years, and taught at my local dance school at the same time. After I graduated in 2018, I moved to Melbourne to complete a further year of training and teaching. While I was over there, I fell in love with the most amazing Aussie/Scot who was born in Scotland and always wanted to move back (coincidence?!) So at the start of 2020 (pre-covid situation) we flew back home together and started our life over here. I'm teaching at a few dance schools, and finishing some qualifications, and I love my job! Renee is about to start her new job in the care industry with a disability charity (She is very lovely). In my free time, I love finding cute little buys for our flat, or making some crafty stuff that I can show off to guests. I love reading, audiobooks, and those adult colouring in books, but I also love exploring new places, woodland trails, and picnics. I have an obsession with mugs, and anything with sausage dogs or bees on (no idea why those two creatures stood out to me, but we won't question it...) As with a lot of people, I've found myself unemployed during the Covid outbreak, and have become very unmotivated. I would really like to fit into my jeans again, so I am trying to eat better and work out more, but it's not really working for me at the moment. This is where Okay Sophy comes in. What are you writing about? My plan is to document what I've done health & fitness wise week to week. So I'll type up my weekly exercise routine (hopefully this will include running, home workouts, and online dance classes) and we'll cross our fingers that this will motivate me to actually stick to it. I'll also be posting my meal plans and any cool (gluten free) recipes I find or create. As I came up with this idea, I decided I actually have a lot to write about! So as well as health and fitness, there will probably be: Discussions about my Dunelm bargains; Book reviews; Crafty things; Anything I've learned about LGBT history; And anything that relates to sausage dogs. Why Okay Sophy? Well, last night I turned to Renee as she was peacefully watching Netflix, and said 'I'm going to start a blog.' She responded as she usually does when I make these random statements - 'Okay Sophy' and continued to watch the Crown. (Honestly, it's understandable. I do this a lot, and The Crown is a good show.) I then spent at least an hour brainstorming a name for said blog (just incase it became popular, you never know.) After a wee lightbulb moment, I decided 'Okay Sophy' is easy and simple (and might be catchy if I did accidentally become famous.) So here we are, blog post number 1! Thanks for joining me on my little endeavour, let's see where this goes! Love Sophy x |
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February 2021
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