Woo! The 11th of February meant my flight home for a few weeks! I was really excited to go home at this point as I was missing England quite a lot. Booking the flight had been a pain in the ass, but it was worth it in the end.
I packed a really heavy suitcase; full of books, cuddly toys I had collected from my UFO arcade machine wins, old clothes I wouldn’t wear in summer, old textbooks and so on. It was only just under the 30kg, and my hand luggage only just under the 10kg! I also had my handbag and stuffed pockets! The walk to the station through the snow was quite a mission I tell ya!
My weeks in England had a sandwich kind of feel to it; I spent a week at my Mum’s house seeing my family and organising my room (which was a huge tip from leaving for Japan in a hurry!). It was great to see everyone again, and I got to meet my youngest niece for the first time! I also made my very first rainbow cake with Sam, who was also in England!
I then spent 3 weeks with Mitch in his fancy studio flat in Middlesbrough! That was lovely; I did nothing but read a load of books, play Ilo Milo, cook LOADS and relax. It was a wonderful change! In the middle we went off to Coventry for my cousin’s 18th Birthday… When did she grow up???
I spent another few days back at Mum’s afterwards and spent it packing all my supplies of English food into a suitcase with a missing foot, going to the theatre with Dad and having picnics with my nieces!
I’m just going to stick up a bunch of photos that summarise the trip, so have a gander if you will 🙂
My snowy station; the beginning of the long 7am commute!
I had meaning to try this drink stand for yonks and as I hadn’t yet had breakfast I thought this would do the trick; and it was lovely!
These lovely glass paintings were in the airport while I waited.
They sprayed boiling water at the wings due to the cold; I’d never seen that before!
Snoooooow
I loved flying over these mountains, it really reminded me of the ski holiday I had with Mitch
This was England and I figured this would be one of the only times I saw the sun so I took a photo!
The cottage pie I made as soon as we got home from the airport; I might have been tired but I was dying for some oven time!
A polaroid of Tim and I on the first night back 🙂
Second day; rain. Of course.
Meeting Lily!
Best photo ever; Pouty McPouter!
Selfies!
Rainbow cake preparation and mandatory floor flour!
Sam folding our tins with his super clever foldy method (the tins were too big)
The gel food colouring was great fun; so little goes so far!
Mixed and ready
Sam with his tin design
Two layers per tin, very economical
I caught Nan licking the bowl!
Back to childhood cooking times 🙂
Out of the oven…
And onto a plate!
The frosted tower ready to be decorated; we loved that these were more obviously ‘cake angels’ than they were marshmallows; and thus they shall be forever called.
It might have been a bit lean-y
Yum
It looked amazing!
Huge thin slices! Proud of our work
Nan with her piece
Later that evening we all went to see Tim in concert. Sam and his boyfriend Hector also came and we got fish and chips afterwards! A very successful day indeed.
Sadly, the winter had not been kind to my car and the whole inside was mouldy 😦
I went to Jakes; a huge indoor play house; with Steph, Lily and Alice and had good fun running about
Steph did my hair in a way she’d found on the internet!
The finished product
When cleaning my mouldy car I found my cat ears! I thought I’d lost these in summer so I was very happy!
I took some presents to my old boss at the Fudge Kitchen and of course he was having more fun with the packaging. Love it!
The floods had made the rivers super high; this was when I went to Reading with Mum.
That night we henna’d our hair! Lots of green goop went everywhere and a good time was had by all.
The first picture I took at Mitch’s; I made colourful muffins 🙂
Separated ‘Toad in The Swamp’
Mini roast dinner! Cooking was so goooood; I have no oven in Japan so I really miss it.
One night we went to Frankie and Benny’s, my favourite restaurant. It was a lovely affair, the waitress was a super star, I won a free cocktail and the food was gorgeous.
My cheescake!
The waitress took a polaroid of us )
Mitch and I had to start designing a new engagement ring as the one from my Nan couldn’t be resized. I took some inspiration from this set on Etsy!
On the way down south to Milton Keynes! We made a stop in Leeds to change busses but had some time to wonder about. The nearby shopping centre was very pretty!
I had a crepe from a very nice little crepe cafe; it’s cool to compare English and Japanese crepes 🙂
Mitch’s Mum gave me all my Birthday presents early and this fantastic pencil case was one of them!
Our engagement card from Mitch’s Aunt and Uncle; it was really lovely to have one!
The night we went out for dinner and had a small celebration afterwards 🙂
Take one!
Take two!
Our friends’ Bengal kitten! She was adorable
Thanks to Kinder eggs, I now know what Snow White looks like naked.
Sammie’s Birthday cake! 18….. crazy.
Cutting…
Stuffing!
Sammie gave us all Lindt bunnies as a party bag 🙂
Little brother!
Rarrr!
My Birthday present from Grandmama 🙂
I present to myself! The glitteriest of all glittery things. I love glitter.
Naturally I covered Mitch in happy glitter too!
I found out that Middlesbrough had an American diner and we went on one of the last evenings
All the typical decor!
My lovely pancakes
Having played IloMilo on Xbox 360 so much, we decided to make them as necklaces for each other 🙂
Some pretty oil I found on the way to the park
After making the necklaces we went for a walk to the park for photos and a stroll
Selfies!
They’re so cute
We fed ourselves before feeding the ducks 🙂
fountain flower
Bless Mitch, he gave me a surprise Easter egg!
York station; my favourite; on the way back to Mum’s
WICKED!!! I went with my Dad, it was such a fantastic day out and show. Thanks Dad x
Inside picnic with Alice!
Cutie
Mini ice creams!
In Coventry I bought Alice this giant Easter egg; I did the very British thing of not realising it was £7(!) until getting to the till, but not being able to not buy it! Silly me. But Alice loved it so it didn’t matter in the end 🙂
Mum, Tim and I went for a Chinese before I left and not only was the food great, we had a really lovely evening 🙂 Yes lemon.
That’s all for now but straight after getting back to Japan I race into over 2 solid weeks of doing stuff so get ready to read!!!
Maisy In Japan 