On Sunday I’ve been to the 2nd Blog On Conference this year, this one was in May, you can read about it here. The conference was held at Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, like last time, organized by Laura from tiredmummyoftwo.

This time I took a suitcase as I knew how heavy the goodie bags will be. I was actually early as there was no traffic and instead of 1 hour it took only 40 minutes to get to MSI. I wanted a Christmas T-shirt, but I didn’t find any on Saturday. That is only appropriate as I moaned about the Christmas-themed products in shops. Well, I had the jumper and it wasn’t that warm in one of the rooms, so it was great in the end.

One of the best things about BlogOn are the seminars. This time I’ve attended 4. The first one was about monetizing the blog and there were some very interesting points. I enjoyed it. Next seminar was about creative content and I got a few important tips. The bear you’ll see was made at this seminar. The 3rd one was about blogging goals and one of the ideas was to have a blogging buddy. So, Anna and I decided to pair up and now we are blogging buddies. I hope this will help me organize a little better and keep track of what I plan (my food blog, no changes here). The last seminar I’ve attended was about Instagram. It was interesting, I have a few ideas for Instagram too.

Continue reading Blog On Conference, September →

Events

Lush

September 25, 2016 Anca 5 Comments

This week I’ve been to an event at Lush in Liverpool, they were launching the Halloween range. We also could see the Lush SPA.

It was the first time I’ve been to Lush SPA. It’s quite different, the decor is made to resemble an English cottage, to give a homely feel. There are lots and lots of oils and massage bars.

Continue reading Lush →

Liverpool, Travel

Volair SPA

September 23, 2016 Anca 4 Comments

A few days ago I was invited to Volair SPA, along with other bloggers. It was exciting, as I knew I’m going to try the Thermal Spa.

After we arrived, I had the chance to catch up with Sarah, Codie and Jenny. We were split into 2 smaller groups for the SPA and treatments.

I was in group 2 with Jane, Liz and Angela.

Continue reading Volair SPA →

London, Travel

Kelsey Farm Shop, London

September 22, 2016 Anca Leave a comment

The Kelsey Farm Shop was only 20 minutes away from where we stayed in our trip to London. While my aim was to promote a local farm shop every month and at 240+ miles is not exactly local, my readers from London will surely like this post. I was curious if a farm shop from London is very different than the ones I’m used to in Liverpool. I was surprised to see that some of the prices are actually lower and the amount of produce on offer is fab.
I wasn’t able to take picture outside as there were people. It was quite busy. Near the farm there is a small camping site and the “Crayzee Barn”, indoor play area for 0 to 10 year olds. I would say, judging from how many kids were playing there that the barn is very popular. I wasn’t able to take pictures as there were so many children and I wanted to respect their privacy.

I love how the veggies look on display like this, it always makes me eager to cook something.

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Events

No one told me

September 21, 2016 Anca 4 Comments

I’m 33, healthy and with no children and before being involved in the No one told me campaign by lights by TENA, I had no idea how important and common is bladder weakness. It’s not a posh subject and people usually don’t want to talk about things that are embarrassing. Stick with me and you’ll might find out things you’ve never heard before.

I was invited at Champneys Springs for an amazing event organized by lights by TENA, last Sunday. It all started with a presentation that was really interesting. I assumed only mums have issues with weak bladder after giving birth, but this can’t be further from the reality. 1 in 3 women will suffer from bladder weakness at some point in their life, regardless if they gave birth or not. Men can suffer too. These were a couple of things I wasn’t aware.
I also had no idea women can suffer from this while they are in their 20s. I also had no idea 1 in 10 women will avoid doing something they love or something new because they are inconvenienced by a weak bladder. One of the things women will avoid is exercising.

A few things can be done to prevent this, like pelvic floor exercises, there are exercises specifically for men. Lights by TENA have an award winning app called MY PFF that helps reminding to do the exercises, the app is free. They don’t take long and it’s important to do them. I will start doing these exercises and hopefully get into a routine pretty soon.

We heard a lot of statistics, some of them I mentioned earlier. Basically it’s as common as a common cold. A few millions of people are affected in UK alone.

Unlike the products for period, lights by TENA are designed for this problem, they absorb the liquid faster. We saw the demonstration and the difference is visible. Each product is made with a purpose in mind and its design is suitable for its intended reason. In the lights by TENA range there are plenty of options to choose from.

Continue reading No one told me →

England, Reviews, Travel

Bygones Tea Room

September 20, 2016 Anca 5 Comments

My husband and I went to Stoke on Trent with work and on our way back we’ve stopped for lunch at Bygones Tea Room, a tea room in the center of Newcastle Under Lyme. The decor of the tea room is vintage, as the name suggests. I found these tea rooms by chance as I looked on the GPS for a tea room and picked one that seemed closer to where we were. I love discovering places like this.

I took lots of pictures of the tea room as it was so nicely decorated. Even though we are not old, we’ve remembered a few things we had as kids. It was very nice.

I liked the menu, it was very appropriate.

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London, Travel

Sky Garden

September 18, 2016 Anca 7 Comments

I booked tickets for the Sky Garden when I knew we had the time to visit it. It’s a very popular destination and it was crowded, we had to queue, even thought we had a booking with a time-slot. Visiting the Sky Garden is free, so definitely something to look to if you are going to London.

I hoped the day will be sunny and it was. As I booked a couple of weeks before getting to London, I had no idea how the weather will be like.

The Sky Garden is at the 35th floor of the Walkie-Talkie. After going through security, we went to the elevator and in no-time we were in the garden. The garden is on 3 floors, there is a cafe and a restaurant. The prices are ok, less than I was expecting.

The Shard.

I like this picture a lot, as I can see my reflection in the steel. I was looking at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge. I love the way it looks, by day and by night too.

On the right side is Wembley. It’s nice to recognize the buildings without any help/hints.

It’s called Sky Garden because there is a garden too, although most people are more inclined to look for the amazing views and take less interest in the greenery.

St. Paul’s

Sky Garden looks really nice, it’s so big. I saw pictures of the garden before booking, but it’s even better when you are there.

The roof of that building looks amazing. I have no idea what building it is.

Hubby thinks the Gherkin should be called something more appropriate for a Sky Scrapper, something powerful, like “The bullet”. I don’t agree, I think the name is funny. What do you think?