"Living in a caravan... I could get use to this!"

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog. I’ve been off on my holidays and celebrating birthdays all over the place. But I’m back now and have so many posts that I want to write, so expect to hear from me more frequently over the next few weeks!

For now though, I’ll write about my holiday. Warning; this post is long and full of pictures!

It was a holiday obtained by collecting tokens from the local newspaper. It worked a bit like a lucky dip. We entered using the tokens (kindly given to us) and wrote down a few places and dates of our preference, they picked from what they had available and that was that. We were assigned to a caravan holiday park in Paignton, Devon between 2^nd and 6^th May. We didn’t expect much but were excited to have a few days by the seaside. We managed to get 2 extra days added on when we phoned up to confirm the booking. So when Sunday morning came, we packed up and set off on the 4 hour drive down to Devon. I was well equipped for the journey with the new issue of Elle, a huge Evian bottle and a bag of Werther's Original tucked inside my satchel.

Once we arrived at the caravan park, we got our key and headed up to our new home for the week. Now maybe my expectations were a little high, maybe my mum and dad spoiled me with our caravan holidays in my younger years but this caravan was NOT what I was expecting. It was rather small and the décor was very dated. Overall, it was a bit….disappointing. Its not even like it was a dodgy caravan park, they had some lovely caravans (some even had decking and picnic benches!) It appeared to be just ours that was not up to scratch. So we sent the boys down to cheekily ask for an upgrade, explaining that we wouldn’t mind paying a bit more. Luckily, they agreed and the new caravan was MUCH nicer.

So we unpacked and made it look more homely, with a few magazines and our own mugs. We then settled down in front of the TV with a Dominoes and some wine. As it turned out, the rest of the holiday followed a similar pattern! Some days we took it easy. We watched The Only Way Is Essex and Jeremy Kyle and listened to Karl Pilkington pod casts. Other days (when we were up, showered and out of the house before 12pm) we explored the local area. Our first day of real exploring entailed visiting Paignton Zoo, where we witnessed some rather randy baboons and a very lonely elephant.

Later on in the week (the one day that the sun was shining) we visited the beach, where the boys accidentally assaulted a couple with their Frisbee.

But one of the best days by far was when we went to Torquay, a much bigger town with much better shops. I bought some lovely things from H&M and Primark. We also came across a little shop selling goodies from across the pond! I picked up some Welch’s Grape Soda and some Milk Dud’s.

On our last night we decided to dress up and go out for dinner. We couldn’t decide where to go so drove around until we found somewhere. How glad I am that we did. As what we discovered on that night will stay with me for a long time, resurfacing each time I go out for a meal.

You could barely see the building, hidden behind the stone wall that surrounded the car park. The only thing visible was the name ‘Bistro 46’. It was raining and we didn’t want to walk far, so quickly headed towards the restaurant to see what food they offered. The menu seemed to please everyone so we went inside and took our seats. The walls were covered in African souvenirs and fairy lights. The tables had tiny cactus plants at the centre. It was only small but the atmosphere was cosy and we were hungry.

All 4 of us had a starter, main course and desert. In fact, everyone in the restaurant did (except the guy that was throwing up outside – nothing to do with the food). The food was the best I have ever tasted in my life. 2 of the other couples felt compelled to thank the chef and explain how amazing the food was upon leaving, as did we. I whole-heartedly recommend EVERY person who ever visits Brixham, Devon to go to Bistro 46. I promise, you will thank me for it.

In other news, it’s my Birthday tomorrow!! I am really excited as I love birthdays, especially mine!! My boyfriend is taking me to a little town outside Derby that has a reputation for amazing charity shops (my love for charity shops is on par with my love for him) and we’ve just bought a Rocky Road cake from Tesco to enjoy tomorrow evening. Sadly I don’t get to go home tomorrow BUT my sister is taking me out on Wednesday to a ‘treasure trove’ that she has discovered (so excited to see what it is) and I am heading home on Friday for a weekend of fun with my girls including a picnic (fingers crossed for good weather) and a vintage fair! I shall post whatever goodies I find over the next few days and my next post will have all the goodies that I have discovered over the last few weeks. So check back soon!