Wet weekend in Devon

This weekend I went down to Shaldon in Devon (near Torquay) to stay with Lucy who I lived with at university, along with Cath and Emilie who I also lived with at university. Needless to say we had a grand old time - the weekend kicked off with lasagne, wine and karaoke on the Friday night (and what more could anyone want from a Friday night?). Sadly though when we awoke on Saturday, a severe weather warning meant the normal sunshine, beach activities were somewhat curtailed, and yes unfortunately I was optimistic enough to take my bikini!.

However, Lucy's mum who lives down the road has recently purchased a camper van in the form of a Mazda Bongo (best car name ever?!). So we went on a wet and windy tour of the Devon coast taking in Teignmouth, Torquay (photo on the right is me, Lucy and Cath on the Torquay cliffs), Paignton, Dartmouth and the not-so-scenic Newton Abbot. The Bongo saved us really as we'd all packed flipflops and completely inappropriate clothing so we were able to be touristy without drowning. Saturday night was spent in the local pub which randomly has a Thai restaurant in it and we had a great meal on top of the picnic and cream tea we'd already had that day. Sunday dried out a bit and we had a lovely potter around Shaldon and I ended up being incredibly jealous that I, unlike Lucy, don't live a picturesque village by the sea. It's absolutely gorgeous there and I'd thoroughly recommend it for a meander if you're ever in the area.

I'm told there are compensations for living where I live though. When I said to Cath 'I want to live in Shaldon, there's nothing good about living in Swindon' she turned around and said 'Well, you have got a Matalan'.....hmmm.

Anyway, the other exciting thing about the weekend is that I got to see Cath who has lost 5 and a half stone in the last year! She looks absolutely brilliant and hasn't done any kind of faddy diet, just good old fashioned healthy eating and exercise. I felt a) very proud and pleased for her and b) very inspired to keep cracking on with my own weight loss mission. So I got up today and went out for a run to burn off the wine/lasagne/cream tea/thai meal/sunday lunch with which I stuffed myself this weekend :)

Love Kate xxxx