Tag Archives: Bournemouth

Things I’ll Miss About Bournemouth

I’m currently sat in our new house, on our new sofa that was delivered on Wednesday. I am content, but a little sad to know that we’ll be driving back tonight and that its still another 4 weeks until I can officially this place home.

Whenever I’m at home in Bournemouth, I miss our house so much, but I know that in a month’s time when I’m done with work and Matthew and I permanently move up north, besides the obvious things that I’ll miss like my family, I will miss the beautiful south coast that I grew up on.

The beach

Growing up in a town with one of the UK’s most beautiful beaches, I think I’ve taken living by the sea a little bit for granted. People always ask me if I spend all my time at the beach in the summer, and quite honestly I really don’t, and tend to actively avoid it in the summer because its so busy, but it is one of my favourite places to run in the evenings and I do think I’ll feel that little twinge from not being a 20 minute walk away from the water.

My gym

It seems like a really silly thing to miss, but I love my gym in Bournemouth. Its a 25 minute walk away, which I love doing, and I love knowing my way around the gym and seeing familiar faces every morning, and although I know that a gym is a gym, I’ll be really sad leaving.

Local shops

As a good little millennial, I do most of my shopping online to avoid too much human interaction, but there are some stores in Bournemouth that I won’t be able to visit anymore, like my two favourite fabric stores.

Bournemouth Air Festival

Every summer the world of aviation lands on on Bournemouth beach, and even though in the last couple of years I haven’t always made it down to the beach itself, the whole town gets to experience the festival as the planes fly over, so I’ll miss randomly spotting the Red Arrows, or feeling the ground shake from the engines of the Eurofighter Typhoon when it goes over.

Southern weather

Sure, the UK doesn’t always have the best weather, but its normally always just that little bit warmer down south at least, and now I’m heading further up the country I think I’ll miss those few degrees, especially in the winter!

I know that I’m going to have such an adventure living somewhere totally new, but Bournemouth will always be a very special place to me.

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Things to Do in Bournemouth in Autumn

Despite often classifying myself as a travel blogger, a person who writes about places, I’ve never actually written a post about my hometown.


Famous for its award-winning beach, Bournemouth is an obvious destination during the summer, but just because we’re waving goodbye to the days of dipping our toes in the sea and deciding its far too cold to go any deeper, it doesn’t mean we’ve gotta sit around twiddling our thumbs until the sun makes another warm appearance next year.

Molly’s Den

Molly’s Den is a cornucopia of hidden gems under one enormous roof. Its an antique shop, vintage fair, art gallery and furniture showroom all rolled into one, kinda like an awesome indoor flea market. With its cute little coffee shop and endless maze of stalls and stock, you can easily turn a trip here into at least a half-day’s entertainment.

The Big Smart Quiz at Sixty Million Postcards

Every Sunday evening, grab a bunch of know-it-all friends and head down to 60MPC for the Big Smart Quiz at 8pm. Get down there early to snag a good table, order amazing burgers and think of a witty team name, and you’re all set for an awesome chilled and sometimes super-tense night where you could walk away with a wad of cash if you win!

Visit the penguins

If you are still heading in the direction of the beach, stop off at Bournemouth Oceanarium to meet its newest residents, 10 Humboldt penguins who joined the oceanarium gang in 2015.

Take a trip to Moors Valley

Put on some wellies and wrap yourself up for a day of leaf crunching and tree-top-trailling! Pack a picnic or treat yourself to a hot meal from the cafe while you warm back up from your outdoor adventuring.

Go to the beach anyway!

Just cos its not 20C+, doesn’t mean the beach is any less beautiful, plus its a lot quieter! Ok, so you don’t have to strip down to a bikini and lay out on the sand, but its a pretty, peaceful walk and sea air is good for you!

Fancy a day out?

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The Skinny Kitchen

You know when a place is really hyped up and you worry that it won’t live up to the expectations?

Well that was me with The Skinny Kitchen. I’d made three attempts to eat there before I was actually successful due to it being so busy, so when we finally managed to squeeze ourselves in for lunch, I was praying that it was worth the amount time I’d spent hoping to eat there!

The Skinny Kitchen Bournemouth

The Skinny Kitchen originated in Ibiza, and as the name suggests, is all about providing clean, healthy and delicious food; eating and feeling great about it. The menu ranges from protein shakes and smoothies to pancakes to burgers, with all the nutritional information carefully calculated, and has its own key to highlight dishes that low carb, GF, veggie friendly and vegan friendly to help customers make an informed decision about their meal.

But you want to know what I thought about the place, right?

The Skinny Kitchen Bournemouth

The Bournemouth restaurant is actually pretty small – part of why its always packed! – but is fairly minimalist in design so it doesn’t feel crowded. I loved the lighting features, including the neon sign ‘Pancakes, Weights & Protein Shakes’ and the natural wood effect tables pleased the blogger in me so much!

So I ordered the Pumpin Iron protein bowl; just reading the contents from the menu made me happy so I couldn’t resist – so many of my favourite foods in one dish! To save myself for the food, I just asked for tap water, which came with a lemon slice, but Jess had the Super Skin smoothie which looked amazing; shame I’m not an avocado fan! The wait for the food was torture because I was so excited, and I worried that because it was busy that we’d have to wait some time, but it soon arrived and I can honestly say I squealed a little – such a pretty bowl of food!

The Skinny Kitchen Bournemouth Pumpin Iron

Photos taken, and it was time to dive in, and oh my gosh.. All that over-hype and anticipation disappeared, and instead I just got to enjoy possibly my favourite dish of food ever (once I’d ditched the tomatoes onto Jess’s plate). I feel like I’m gushing but it was all just perfect, from the chicken to the sweet potato cake and pesto dressing, and can you believe its only 260 calories, and under £10?!

The Skinny Kitchen Bournemouth

The staff were also so lovely and friendly, which always goes a long way for me, and the whole experience has had me totally overlooking the three failed attempts! I can’t wait to go back and try more of the incredible sounding food on the menu!

Bring on the protein pancakes!

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RunDisney 2016 – 21 Weeks to go!

 Time seems to be flying by at the moment, and we’ve completed another week of training!

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So once again, we’ve completed 3 runs this week: two 45 minute runs, and a 5k on Saturday. We’ve had great conditions this week; running really late on Tuesday (about 9-10pm), through cooling drizzle on Thursday, and early along the beach on Saturday.

Saturday’s run felt really good; we’d normally ParkRun on a Saturday morning, but my sister was doing her first triathlon at the beach, which started at 7am, so we decided to go down and support her, and run while she was on the cycle leg of her race. Dad and I do a lot of running at the beach, either running from home to the cliff and down to the beach and back, or just running up and down. Its a love/hate relationship: Bournemouth beach is beautiful, the sea breeze is cooling and its a nice stretch for longer distance runs, but at the same time it can be too windy, too crowded and there’s no real shade when its really sunny. Its also great because basically all of the races and fun runs that happen in Bournemouth take place at the beach, so its easy to gauge distances. For example, our local Race for Life is from Bournemouth to Boscombe pier, slightly further on and back, and knowing that, that’s what we did on Saturday. We didn’t set any PBs, but we did some good continuous running, and we weren’t slow!

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Another really exciting happening of the week was finally receiving our Rebel Challenge training tshirts. Training shirts for the races are released for pre-order for a limited time on the US Disney Store, and are for US delivery only, so I enlisted the help of a lovely friend from California who ordered them on our behalf, and shipped them over to us from there. She’s a star!

We’re coming for you, Rebel Challenge!

°o°

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