Nostalgia in Nottingham

At the weekend we did a spontaneous (very) last minute trip to Drayton Manor, followed by a night in Nottingham. We had a stack of Tesco Club card vouchers to use up, so thought we'd try make a weekend out of it.

Friday we took to the road and headed towards Tamworth, near Birmingham. I had never been to that neck of the woods and desperately wanted to stay in Birmingham (and maybe take a sneaky trip to Cadbury World) but I also wanted the journey home the next day to be a little shorter, so I took the wise option and settled on a hotel at midpoint (well, kinda).

Beaut of a duck

After spending a few hours at Drayton Manor being kids, we took an hour drive to Nottingham, checked into our hotel and went for our first freebie meal in ASK Italian.

Park Plaza

ASK Italian

After leaving ASK, we spotted a statue figure in the street, and like magic, memories came flooding back to both of us at the same time, and we quickly recognised that we had been in this spot 8 years prior (we hadn't visited Nottingham since). We then had a chat about how 'times have changed' - 8 years ago we were spending Valentines day here, dancing the night away in Flares nightclub. Now we're spending our evening trying to hunt down Cineworld to watch a movie before resorting back to the hotel room for an early night. Old age, old age, it gets to the best of us...

After a remincising conversation and the need to stop someone to ask for directions, we settled down in the plush seats of the cinema (why can't our local cinema be that comfy?!) to watch 'Don't Breathe'. Great little film..

The next day was spoilt by the rain - Me, being the 'organised and well-prepared' woman I am, never bought a coat, jumper or even umbrella with me so I got wet pretty quickly. It didn't help that I stood in a 2 inch deep puddle in my ballerina pumps which left my feet squelching for the remainder of the day.

Nonetheless, we proceeded to our 4th and final freebie of the weekend; lunch in Zizzi's. How 2 restaurants can be so similar in menu choice I'll never know. Either way, I chose wisely, opting for a 'skinny' pizza in my attempt to stay on plan as much as possible.

We made the obligatory trip to Primark (what city break is complete without a trip to Primark?!). I bought the cutest Minnie mouse candy striped night shirt (which is definitely going in my 'holiday bag' ready for Disney!). Because the rain was playing games, we decided to call it quits and head back home.

Although we were gone for just over 24hrs, it really made me feel like I'd had a break and change of scenery. We spent very little money thanks to Tesco's and I'm definitely going to be planning another similar trip in the New Year! I think that a change of scenery is good for the mind and can really motivate you! (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...)