Pears, Cheese and Spa Days.

I was hoping to get a lovely Yorkshire-type shot today, but when we woke up the mist had followed us down from Scotland and the light was very uninspiring all day. Luckily for us, I had booked M and I in to the Turkish Baths in Harrogate for a few hours' pampering after the journey yesterday. It was amazing! Sauna, plunge pool, steam room, plunge pool... Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Then the best bit: a Swedish back, neck and shoulder massage, followed by 20 minutes in a fiercely bubbling Jacuzzi. It was the best 4 hours I've had in aaages - soothing away any aches, stresses and knots in our muscles and leaving us pink and soft and ready to go to sleep in the car on the way home :o)

When we arrived back at the house, Mum had made some incredible Cullen Skink for lunch which we devoured before getting stuck into a Black Velvet (chocolate and Guinness) cake; a recipe I'd used when her and Dad were last up in Aberdeen. We felt completely spoiled! Since the weather was still horrible, M and I settled down with Mum to watch Hanna, which turned out to be a brilliant film, one of the best I've seen in a while. We had a snack of cheese and pear - one of my favourite combinations, and I decided it was probably one of the more inspiring things I could Blip today!

Suddenly, it was late afternoon and time for me to get myself looking presentable for a meal with the boys (A and W), two friends I met years ago through girls I was at school with. We met at Sukohthai, a new restaurant in Harrogate, and had a superb meal with some lovely pink lychee-flavoured cocktails (for me) and beer (for the boys). M gets on well with A and W, which is lovely, and we all went for a drink in Montey's afterwards. We got a taxi home late, and fell into bed, all chilled out and relaxed. This is what holidays are for.