The Best Trips of 2016 #MyFavouriteTrip

In Digha, West Bengal, India with Pip and my little nephew

As we're at the end of 2016 I thought I'd have one last #MyFavouriteTrip link up to celebrate our best trips of the last year. I started the year with the #take12trips challenge and so glad I did as it inspired me to take regular trips throughout the year. I've been on countless day trips, several weekends away and two trips abroad. By far, my best trip was our holiday to India and taking Pip there for the very first time to meet his Indian side of the family. It was such an amazing experience and I'd love to return as soon as I can.

An Indian Cookery Class in London

Last month I was invited to a Tefal cooking class at L'atelier des Chefs in London. The event included making an Indian meal from scratch with the guidance of a specialist chef and learning more about the Tefal Ingenio product range. I decided to go along having recently returned from India and sampled all the delicious food over there, I was interested in picking up some tips for making similar cuisine back in England. I used to make a lot of curries at home but have to admit after having Pip I tend to cook whatever is the quickest/easiest option. I am keen to get back into making home-made curries though and this was a perfect event for picking up some inspiration. I've been to quite a few blogging events over the last couple of years but this was my first food related one. I used to work in Central London right around the corner from L'atelier des Chefs. One of my first Saturday jobs was in H&M on Oxford Street, all those years ago, as a very young 16 year old! From the outside you would not know L'atelier des Chefs has a wonderful & spacious kitchen at the back ideal for cookery classes. It's actually the most popular cookery school in the UK, with 30,000 customers last year.

A Winter's Sunset

I recently included a post about a beautiful sunset in Brighton I saw a few weeks ago. I mentioned in that post that it was the best sunset I had ever seen since living here. But then I saw this one and it blew me away! On this particular day, the sea was so calm, probably the calmest I've ever seen it. There was even a swimmer in the sea in the month of December without a wet suit. Pip and I had been out and we were walking home via the seaside when we were lucky enough to witness this magical sunset. People were on the beach just watching it, a lot of people taking photographs and everyone soaking up the serene atmosphere. These winter sunsets are stunning and even though I complain about how early it gets dark, at least parents with little ones have the chance to view these gorgeous sunsets before bedtime. They are not always like this. Often the sea is rough, the wind is too chilly and the cloud hides the sun. But on this particular day the sky was clear and there were beautiful pink and orange tones that lit up along the horizon and spread across the sky after sunset! We watched the sun until it disappeared out of sight. 'Where has it gone, Mummy?' asked Pip. That was a difficult one to explain to a three year old...! I'm sharing a few photos from that afternoon. All were taken on my iPhone and none have been edited. 

Five Reasons To Visit Palma De Mallorca

© Life Unexpected

I'm very excited to have Chloe from Life Unexpected guest posting on the blog today. Life Unexpected is one of my favourite blogs, full of family life inspiration. Both Chloe and I work as freelancers and I recently wrote a piece on the five best things about being a freelancer over on her blog. Chloe spent a month travelling throughout Europe this summer and I loved following her adventures with her little daughter, Evie. One of the places she travelled to was Palma de Mallorca and here she writes about the best reasons to visit this beautiful city.