Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip: Day 6 - THE FINAL DAY.

So they say all good things must come to an end and today was the day we had to begin our journey back to Exeter. We said our good byes & set off at 10:45 for the 5 hour journey back to Exeter.

Half an hour into our journey we thought we'd stop off for some brunch to keep us going until we got home. I enjoyed a yummy ham & cheese toastie with a caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks, while Kathryn tucked into a breakfast bap, banana & vanilla hot chocolate. I must admit the hot chocolate was delicious but the toastie was fairly average, but then again how good can you really make a cheese & ham toastie. 

Once we finished our brunch we hit the road again; unfortunately for us the roads were extremely busy, making our average speed around 30mph on the motorway! Plus when we weren't stuck in queues of traffic, we were limited to 50mph for average speed checks. To say the least we were having an extremely slow start to our journey. But what we didn't realise at this point, was our day wasn't about to get any better.

Due to the road works and heavy traffic, we were instructed to use the hard shoulder aswell as the original 3 lanes, so there we were travelling along at 20mph when Tina told us to take a left in 1.9 miles, so as you do on the motorway you expect the turning to be quite soon so we stuck to the left hand lane (hard shoulder), the next thing we know we were coming off the M6 heading towards Wednesbury. No panic, we'll just go around the roundabout and get back on to the M6. OH WAIT. The bloody exit to the M6 was closed and the diverted route was insanely busy so we thought we'd head to a car park to see if we could find a quicker route. 

We pull up and decide we'd take a quick pee break as well, and then we see it. An OUTFIT. Basically a store that is made up of other stores such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins etc. So us, being us we decided to pop in for a 'quick' shop. Emphasis on the quick. The next thing we know Kathryn's picked up 10 items and I've got 6 and we're heading into the changing rooms! I suppose this was one way to spend our break productively. I came out with a new outfit for my holiday to Greece and Kathryn came out with a cardigan, socks and of course two pairs of patterned trousers. I don't think I can take that girl anywhere without her buying patterned trousers. Maybe I just have trouser envy.

So we're back on the road again; after our detour to Wednesbury, another destination to add to our list. At least the people are nice there (or just the guy at the Outfit store). So now we are determined to get on the M5 South and get home! Kathryn's not playing games anymore, she is fed up and wants to get home, especially because she was due to go out for a meal with her work friends and we had planned the journey with plenty of time. But of course things had to go wrong. So we thought the day was improving, how wrong were we. Tina then decided to take us off the M6 into the wrong direction away from the M5 South, onto another roundabout that was closed heading towards the M5 South. At this point I thought we were going to end up staying in Bath for the night. But we eventually made our way onto the M5. *inserts hallelujah song by alexandra burke* 

We were so close, yet so far. We were now close enough to see Exeter posted on the signs! So we sang our way up until 25 miles away from Exeter. We thought nothing else could go wrong, until we saw lots of car lights in the distance, yep that's right, more congestion but this time it wasn't due to road works there had been an accident. Once we had passed the accident, traffic seemed to lighten up and we were on the home straight. Thank goodness for that. 9 and 1/2 hours later we had made it home! Kathryn then quickly got ready as I explained our eventful day to her parents and Khaled came to collect us! Off she went to her meal and I was off to catch up on some much needed cuddles and sleep!

So our week had come to an end. I hope you've enjoyed my road trip blogs, if so like my Facebook post and I'll be sure to keep them up! Bye bye for now! I've left you with my beautiful singing voice.

Muchos love,

Shannon

Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip: Day Five

Today was our last full day of adventure. And to start our day of we went to the nicest pancake place ever!! YOGYUMS. It literally breaks me that I can't go again, unless I take a casual trip up to Preston. Which somehow I don't think will be happening again any time soon. But I promise you if you're ever up in Lancashire to go to Preston just for Yogyums. You won't regret it. 

Love this picture! What a cutie.

Kathy before our pancakes!

Oreo party pancake with additional white chocolate sauce.

So I want for a Oreo party pancake which included crushed oreos, raspberrys, milk chocolate sauce, whipped cream and I added some white chocolate sauce, it was literally heaven. However it completely beat me and I couldn't finish it all, but regardless of that, it was orgasmic. However with my pancake I thought it would be a good idea to try an Appletiser, but not just any Appletiser, an apple and pomegranate one. The worst mistake I could have ever made. It tasted like salad. A drink should not taste like food; let alone a salad, and an awful one at that.

After our pancakes we made our way to Preston station to catch our train to Blackpool North. 

                                      

However unfortunately there was a fatality so we had to catch a train to Blackpool South. But of course before we got on to the train we had to take some memorable selfies.

Just a tad windy.

As we were taking these gorgeous photos, a odd gentleman decided to ask us, "what do you actually do with those photos?". What are you meant to say to that? At first I thought, maybe he was just intrigued but I later changed my opinion. So I replied "put them on Facebook". He was still looking at us, half intriguingly, half with disgust. I then commented on how we didn't come from Preston, he then said "Where do you come from?", I replied "Devon". He then stated how he came from Australia and that's a lot further away than Devon. I didn't quite understand what he was trying to get at, and really what to think of it all. But there we go, I just let him get on with his day and we got on with ours making sure we took an extra amount of photos.  The train ride to Blackpool North was actually really pretty, plenty of fields which I definitely wasn't expecting.

We were quite fortunate actually because the weather was beautiful, however I'm not keen on the wind! I felt like I was going to be blown away. We also took a trip to a 'Haunted House', where I held Chloe's hand like a complete child expecting real people to be inside, however we got the whole way round without a single scary event, yet the whole time I was scared of being scared. It was great.

My poor attempt of taking a picture with the Cats poster. Epic fail.

We then made our way down the promenade (check me out, using fancy words) until we reached the central pier. It was probably the most walking me & Kathryn had done all week!!

Favourite photo of the day!

Happy Shannon!

Ma chicas! - Why do I always look so short?

Kathryn spreading her legs for Blackpool.

So eventually we made it to the pier where we played some serious games of air hockey.

                                             

Me highly concentrating

Kathryn told me to smile!

Chloe can't help but look cute, even when trying to be competitive. Her face is too kind.

So Kathryn & Chloe were the air hockey champions. So after that we made our way through the arcade trying not to be tempted by the 2p games, that trick you into thinking you're going to win a fiver when in all honesty, you're more likely to win the lottery that day. We then decided to go into a photo booth, that sketches your faces thinking it would be a fabulous piece of memorabilia. How wrong could we have been. It was £2 for a 1/3 of each of our faces, or maybe a 1/4 of Kathryn's who was actually keeping the masterpiece. The whole time spent in the photo booth was a disaster waiting to happen, nothing was going right, then suddenly it had taken all of our three pictures and that is what we ended up with. \/\/\/ But it did make us laugh an awful lot.

Massive fail.

We then made it through the arcade where Zoe was on a mission to win a huge Minion.

Unfortunately Zoe was unsuccessful, but she did walk away with a small price.. a baby meercat teddie. Not quite a giant minion. But on the upside it meant she didn't have to travel on the train home alone with a giant minion on her lap. 

Blackpool tower

Post card quality if I do say so myself

We then made our way to the train station to drop Zoe off as she had to go home to work, but we carried on our adventure. We then popped into Sainsbury's to get some snacks for the theatre, for Kathryn to then realise she had lost her purse. I don't think I've ever seen someone so calm when losing their purse. I would have probably had the worst mood swing ever, but nope not Kathy! So we retraced our steps in hope of finding her purse. Kathryn was adamant that the last time she saw/used her purse was in the photo booth which was nearly an hour previous. For some reason or another Kathryn decided to take a picture of the photo booth when we were leaving the arcade, I think purely because she felt like it robbed her of £2 but that's besides the point, in this very photo, there her purse was!! What were the chances.

Her purse was perfectly hidden, fortunately when we arrived back at the pier her purse was still in the same exact spot! Panic over. Now it was time to visit the Blackpool tower, after taking lots of pictures of the outside, we were now about to see the beautiful view from the inside.

Kathryn's highlight of the day.

We were lucky enough to be able to see inside the ballroom, which was incredible!

Bid me discourse I will enchant thine ear

 We then decided it was time for dinner, so we went for a cheeky Nandos (had to be said).

I had half a chicken; lemon & herb with mash & corn on the cob. Can't beat a good Nandos. And of course I added Garlic peri peri sauce as well. The food was great, but the service was appalling. I truly believe that the lady who served us looked like a back end of a bus. She was miserable. I just didn't understand how someone could be so moody. Ah well, we were about to go to the theatre so nothing was going to ruin our moods. I truly believe that the theatre is one of my favourite places, EVER.

The stage looked incredible. Every inch of the stage was designed perfectly. We also had the perfect view of the stage. And of course I had my poshcorn at the ready. I was set.

Sweet & Salty perfection.

The production was incredible, the movement and expression of each actress and actor was outstanding. Although I wouldn't recommend the production for a theatre virgin. Because I felt the story line was lacking. Although there was a story, I didn't feel it was very clear or as interesting as it could have been. Nevertheless I adore the theatre, so it didn't bother me as much as I feel it would bother someone who wasn't a theatre enthusiast. Other than that the make-up and costumes were stunning and overall I felt it was an amazing production.

So our night had come to an end and it was time to head back to Preston to catch some much needed sleep before our long journey back to Exeter tomorrow.

Thanks for sticking around if you've made it this far, I hope you've all enjoyed my road trip blogs and are looking forward to Day 6, our last day!!

Muchos love,

Shannon

Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip: Day Four

Part two had came to an end, but part three was just about to begin. The trip to Preston to see our girl! We woke up early making sure we said our good-byes to the girls before they set off for another day of fun packed work. The last couple of days just seemed to disappear, nevertheless we enjoyed every moment and finally getting to see Alex's new home with Sharn. Until next time Nottingham. So we cleaned ourselves up and set off to.. IKEA. Yep that's right, we decided to take a minor detour.

Am I the only human being that walks into Ikea and instantly wants to buy everything and have my own house. Me and Kathryn decided there, and then that we were going to buy everything and have beautiful homes. You can see below how much satisfaction I was getting from pressing the little doors. 

Below is my dream wardrobe, I was literally in heaven. Take note Khaled. I have one ambition in life and that is to have a walk in wardrobe. And then also have enough money to fund my walk in wardrobe. 

                                        

Apologies for the quality /\

However me & Kathryn left Ikea with a mere candle, pyrex dish and some candle holders. Probably some of the most generic things a person can purchase from Ikea. However I didn't care as the candle looks adorable in my room! Love love love it. And makes my room smell of vanilla!

So our little trip to Ikea was over and it was time to hit the road again & head to Preston after nomming down some Subway. I think by the end of the week me and Kathryn were expecting to have gained at least half a stone due to our excessive eating and lack of exercise.

Our journey up consisted of me & Kathryn singing our hearts out to Shane Ward & having a little dance to Cascada - every time we touch. Sadly enough to mine & Kathryn's surprise we actually knew most of the words to every Cascada song. Oh how I miss my teenage years. Enjoy a little clip of me sounding like a dickhead.

 Before we knew it, we had arrived to Preston and we were with our favourite police officer. PC Sewell. We unpacked our stuff and found the perfect little place for Bella to stay as we were determined to not gain any parking tickets over our trip. Once we had caught up with our girl and met her lovely friend Zoooooeee (must be pronounced with a northern accent) we headed of to one of my favourite Italian restaurants, Pizza Express!

Model potential. 

You can tell I was excited for my food, even though me & Kathryn claimed to only want vegetables after day three of our trip as we felt we were going to explode from our excessive fatty food intake. However when the dough balls and garlic bread hit the table they didn't last long.

The nicest doughballs ever invented. A pizza express staple.

Cheesy garlic bread. Absolutely lush.

I then followed the dough balls and garlic bread with one of my favourite Pizza Express pizza's, Pollo ad Astra. If you haven't tried this pizza before then you must. Although it was slightly over cooked at this occasion, it's still such a nice pizza, made up of chicken, sweet pepperdew peppers, red onions, mozzarella, tomato, cajun spices and garlic oil. Garlic oil is now a must. Thank you Kathryn & Alex for introducing me to this pizza and garlic oil! Mouth orgasms. 

Kathryn thought she'd have a nice salad or light pasta dish but who was she trying to kid, not me. Bitch please, I knew she'd order the Pollo ad Astra. Maybe next time Kathy. 

So once we finished our pizza we strolled back to Chloe's to fill our faces with popcorn and watch one of the worst films I've ever experienced watching. I blame Kathryn solely for this. I do not enjoy watching someone stab someone else in the eye or whip a man to death. And there wasn't even a happy ending. Like come on. I can't even remember the name, if it comes to me I shall add it somewhere around here....  Would you rather. So that was it for the night as we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We had tickets for Cats in Blackpool. Another destination to add to mine & Kathryn's list. The excitement was unreal, but that's a story for tomorrow.

Thanks for sticking around for day four. Hope you're enjoying the journey!

Muchos love,

Shannon

Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip: Day Three

Today was the day me & Kathy explored Nottingham & Kathy got to see the Queen of Boots, a dream for any Boots employee. We had a bright an early start, making sure we were up to say good-bye to Alex & Sharn before they headed off to work for a fun packed day. But fear not, their days were made brighter as they were coming home to us for the second day in a row. What lucky girls.

So me & Kathy got ready & headed into town, using our trusty Tina the tomtom & Parkopedia. Which I suggest you check out, such a great app for finding parking in places you’re unfamiliar with! So we found Bella a little spot in probably one of the tightest car parks ever invented. It was obvious that many cars got damaged when coming face to face with this car park, driving into the car park in one turn was near enough impossible, but trusty Bella did it. So we headed into town where we found ourselves in Victoria Shopping centre. And Kathy finally got to meet THE Boots. Analysing every corner of the store, we eventually made our way around and then I was faced with the make-up counters. Oh how they sway me into buying something every time. Is it just me that get’s sucked into the offers or the beautiful shades of lipsticks? So of course I picked up a Rimmel 107 lipstick (Kathryn wouldn’t let me leave without it, so I thought it was safer to purchase it), which is the perfect shade of dark red! It was also rather amusing as Kathryn decided to rummage through the drawers to find a lipstick I liked that wasn’t on display to then we heard a voice saying “Are you okay girls?” Which Kathryn responded “Yes thank you” and carried on her rummage. The voice then said “I’m sorry but it’s a security hazard letting you go through the drawers, incase they land on your foot”. Somehow I think the lady got her words mixed up & it was actually a health & safety hazard, or just an excuse to stop us from going through her lovely drawers. Ah, well, the lipstick we wanted wasn’t there, so we left the poor lady alone. Although once we were on the aisle behind her according to Kathryn I mocked her a little loudly. Oops.

We were then reunited with the lovely Ruby! By this time, my jumper spoke for me. I was getting rather hangry (and yes I did mean to write hangry \/\/\/) So in search of food we came across TGI’s. Are you ready for it? Writing this blog just makes me hungry.

Me before dinner. One of my many gorgeous angles.

So for starters I ordered BBQ pulled pork potato skins, which are a definite winner in my book. Potato skins + sour cream = Mouth orgasms. 

I then followed it with BBQ ribs with chips & onion rings. However Kathryn destroyed them. The whole meal was probably an average 6.5/10 but the chips being the highlight with the BBQ dip. Nom nom.

My bae.

Rubzzz.

After attempting to demolish our food, we headed into town to find the perfect gift for Shlex. As displayed down below.

Looking hawt.

After searching all around Nottingham we finally found the perfect present & Kathryn found the perfect bag. She got sucked in by a beautiful Doc Marten satchel. Although I feel I played a part in that purchase. But I believe I was doing one for the team, sooner or later she would have bought the bag, even if on that day I told her not to, it was inevitable. We then mooched around the shops taking selfies with cardboard cut outs & signs that stated we were in Nottingham and we weren't lying about our whereabouts. I personally really enjoy the pictures below.

Me, PC Chloe & Kathy

Tourist selfie.

After we explored the town & found the perfect present, we took a little visit to Ruby's house to meet her adorable parents. Who were absolutely lovely. Kathryn wanted a picture of the Kimberly crest. But sadly this photograph wasn't achieved. Maybe next time Kathy. We then headed back to Shlex's humble abode, where we stuffed our faces with Domino's. I think me & Kathryn were lying to ourselves when we said after lunch that we wouldn't be able to handle Domino's for dinner, I think the picture below proved that we were lying. 

What a beauty.

Kathryn was destroying her picture, meanwhile I looked like I was going to kill someone if they came anywhere near my pizza. Safe to say, the pizza didn't last long. However I think the high light of my night was finding out that Michael Jackson actually produced a song with the lines.. "You're vegetable, you're vegetable, they hate you, you're vegetable, you're buffet, you're buffet, they eat off of you, you're buffet". I bet you didn't realise those lines existed and now I've completely ruined Michael Jackson for you. And if you did know that they were the lines, then fuck me, I'm completely alone on this one. 

So sadly day three had come to an end, the end of the second part of our journey. But we enjoyed every moment! From catching up with Alex & Sharn, to exploring Nottingham, to seeing Ruby & meeting her family, to trying amazing food & meeting Alex & Sharn's flat mate Matty. But until next time Nottingham. 

Once again thank you for reading and I'll see you tomorrow for Day 4 of Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip!

Muchos love,

Shannon

Kathryn & Shannon's Road Trip: Day Two

If you haven't already read day one then check it out!

So day two began. I know you're all dying to find out about 'the lost key saga', but no worries I rang the letting agency for Kathy & saved the day. But not literally as I had no damn shoes. Which only became apparent to me as I woke up, ready to face Fat Laura. Now you're all probably wondering who the heck Fat Laura is, let's just say she's an unpleasant lady with a very misleading phone voice. She answers the phone & you think she's a babe, until you turn up to the letting agency & find out she wants to charge you £36 for making her walk 4 minutes. And this is how she gained the name Fat Laura.

However fortunately for me & Kathryn that day, Fat Laura wasn't the only individual present in the office. After Kathryn took a wrong turn and mistook a building to be her letting agent she was soon directed into the hands of Lianne, her actual letting agent, who saved the day and gave Kathryn her rightful key. With no charge may I add, now that's a definition of a babe. So Kathryn returned to her humble abode & our day began. We cleaned ourselves up & began our travels up North, or should I say to the Midlands, just for you Ruby.

So the journey began with me & Kathryn looking our finest, as you can see below. I like to think this is my best angle. 

Enjoy my many chins.

And below is how two people should look in a photo together.

                           

So we began our journey up north to Nottingham to be reunited with our favourite couple, literally the cutest, most soppiest, loveliest two human beings ever. Me & Kathy couldn't hide our excitement, especially K-dizzle, to be reunited with her A-dawg. However we arrived at their house a little while before they were due home, which was expected. Although when Alex sent me this message, we were both a little confused as to how we were going to enter the house.

But once we got there the penny dropped. The key was under a tin of *tuna. However Alex now everyone knows you're secret, maybe you should try something a little more mainstream next time, maybe under a plant pot. Just kidding. Love ya. Once me & Kathryn discovered the key we let ourselves in & made ourselves at home. It was so weird to be so far from home, yet in our friend's home. But nevertheless we were so happy to be there. Half an hour passed, and Sharn returned home to us sitting on her bed reading her & Alex's scrap book, which may I add, makes my heart melt! Especially the page full of Alex's face. What a beauty. P.S Khaled if you're reading this, I really really like cute, soppy scrapbooks. 

The beauty herself. 

So once Al had returned home as well, we then had the first world problem of where the heck do we decide to eat. So after deciding the fate of our stomachs would be given to a computer wheel, the decision was made. CHIQUITOS was the place to be. And oh my it was. This is where my incredible food blog starts and mouth watering pictures begin.. other then the one above of Alex.

The cutest couple.

Ma gal.

Although I look slightly manly here, I'm with ma gal so I can cut off my body & ignore that.

Waiting for this day was hard. But I did it. And it was well worth the wait. And I'm so so so so glad that Chiquito's has made it's way to Exeter. Because my love for Mexican food is forever growing, thank you Peta for introducing me to Quesadillas. Literally the nicest food ever. So of course I ordered a starter of spicy chicken quesadillas.

This picture isn't doing these quesadillas justice, but damn they were good.

Meanwhile the girls were enjoying a lovely mocktail cocktail known as the Appleberry, I kinda regretted not ordering one when I saw the waitress bringing them to the table, but it was okay, my Fanta quenched my first.

A mix of cold pressed cloudy apple juice, raspberry puree and fresh lime juice; shake together and served long over crushed ice. That was almost as if I copied and pasted it from the menu. YOLO.

And for my main I decided to try something new; spicy chicken tacos with corn on the cob and a cute little side salad to finish it off. But we all know that side salad is all for aesthetic purposes and in reality I hardly touched the salad but destroyed the tacos like a boss. So after a good catch up & some great food, Sharn & Alex decided to introduce us to something I like to call ice-cream heaven. A regular occurrence for Sharn & Alex or should I say Shlex. Or Alarn. As in the Scottish name Alan. Can't take all the credit for that one though can I Kathryn? ANYWAY.. back to more important things, like food. Below is my image of heaven.

Cookie dough ice-cream + phish food + caramel sauce + milk chocolate peace pieces + white chocolate polar bears = HEAVEN 

After destroying my Ben & Jerry's sundae we made our way back to Shlex's gav. Where we all got super cosy & watched "The L Word", an interesting series to say the least but not something that's quite hooked me as yet. So me & Kathy got cushty on the sofa bed & Shlex got cosy on the sofa. And once the clock hit 11, being the old ladies that we are, we decided to call it a night. So day two had come to an end. Although before me & Kathy finally got our shut eye, we then had to pretend to be asleep so the awkward moment of Shlex's flat mate Matty wouldn't occur as he came home that night. However the hilarious thing was, he actually got stuck between the sofa bed & the other sofa as he tried to quietly creep through the frontroom. At this point, I thought he had stopped & was watching me sleep. Good old paranoia. Although this never actually was the case, the poor boy just couldn't get through.

So if you've made it this far, thank you & I hope I haven't bored you, but I truly am enjoying reliving my week, so I hope you're enjoying reliving it with me. 

Muchos love,

Shannon