November Monthly Round Up & Get Ready For Blogmas!
I’ve found with my weekly ‘things I’m loving posts’, that these monthly round ups are a bit null and void really. I started them as a way to keep myself on track, and throw in all the chatty stuff that doesn’t always come with certain blog posts, especially the travel guides. Obviously this year blogging has been very different and I’ve gone that way anyway, but my OCD won’t let me just stop sharing them. So come the end of 2020 once I’ve done the full year there won’t be monthly round ups any more just the weekly Sunday posts. Here’s my November and what’s coming in December – Blogmas!
I’m going to keep the monthly round up short as I’ve already shared so much of it already, but with the whole of the month being in lockdown it’s been a bit bland. Well the first half of it was, but things did get a bit more festive from the middle of the month.
Here I am again saying I’ve had some good walks. I’m quite frankly sick of saying it but when it’s all you can do you need to venture to different places for your own sanity. Raby Castle was a real highlight, and this weekend an early, frosty walk along the quayside was also very nice.
I’ve met up (with one other person) a couple of times in Tynemouth for catch ups with friends, and been to the Rising Sun, Jesmond Dene and Whitley Bay a good few times too. As much as I’m sick of only being able to go on walks, it is always good for the soul to get outside and in the fresh air.
I’ve had some good food this month, and a lot of it was part of brand collaborations. It’s not just the food that I enjoy when I work with brands like this but it’s always good to help out the local businesses and restaurants that have been hit so hard. I had a gorgeous afternoon tea from Jesmond Dene House, and it looks from their social pages that a lot of the North East are being really creative with them too for birthdays and occasions.
We did a cook along with the Mill House in Birtley which turned out to be such a fun Friday night. I think they’re keeping them going especially now we find ourselves in Tier 3 so if you want something a bit different I would really recommend it. And when Nudo sushi launched their new website with collection and delivery we had a delicious platter of takeaway sushi.
I tried to avoid as many takeaways this lockdown as I spent a fortune earlier this year, but we did treat ourselves to a Lobo Rojo. Such good Mexican food way tastier than chains like Las Iguanas and Chiquitos, so if you can get to the coast to try it I really would. Don’t forget a takeaway margatita from them too.
Other than that and staying in touch with friends, I’ve thrown myself into the festivities from last weekend. The tree was put up last week, I’ve bought quite a bit for in the house, and my Sky planner is full of downloaded Christmas films.
Which leads me on to Blogmas. I decided a couple of weeks ago to take part this year as it’s one of those blogging things I’ve never had the time to do. For those who don’t know I think it started with ‘Vlogmas’, where youtubers would share a vlog every day of December, and Blogmas followed suit with a blog a day during December too.
I don’t YouTube so I’m going in with Blogmas.
What I really didn’t want to do is just share posts for the sake of it, crappy ones with no quality to them, so I sat down a couple of weeks ago to see if I could think of enough posts to do it justice. I got about 17 topics and titles straight away so I thought yeah I’m going to do it and I’m sure a few more will come to me as we go.
It was a bit harder than I imagine it would be in normal years, as there is very little happening in my life during what is usually the busiest time of year. No Christmas markets, no travel anywhere (I’m so sad about this I love a UK market, a day out on the train, and a December trip to NYC). On the other hand I quite like it in some ways as the last two years I’ve just been exhausted by the time Christmas Day arrived so hopefully that won’t be the case.
So what can you expect in December from my Blogmas content?
There are a few gift or shopping guides for various things, but I’m not really a fan of a lot of them so there aren’t too many. I don’t like just throwing products in a list so at least you know any like that are truly genuine. I’m sharing this type of post towards the start of the month while things are still in stock and while there’s still time for people to do their shopping. Thank the fucking lord the shops are opening again by the way, I can’t wait to lurk around Fenwick’s.
Despite the lack of travel this year I can’t help but reminisce on past travels. Some of my December city breaks have been the most memorable trips I’ve ever had, and it’s depressing to me that I’m not doing that this year. But I have enjoyed a bit of escapism at times this year so I will be sharing the odd travel one, which will hopefully inspire future trips. I’m all for booking a Christmas market trip for next year right now.
Of course I have a local businesses post, and things going on in Newcastle too – although this has seriously decreased compared to posts like this in the past with the latest tier announcement. I’m hoping some of their events can go ahead if we move down a tier on the 16th but I think that’s wishful thinking.
Then the rest are one off topics of various things that hopefully you’ll find interesting. If there is anything specific you want to see then let me know.
I’ll be sharing them every day on my instagram stories here, and facebook page here. So follow along and hopefully it brings some festive cheer to this Christmas.
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