I booked a trip away with Gemma to Birmingham last week. She is a huge chocoholic so I decided to plan a surprise visit to Cadbury World. We stayed at the Eaton Hotel which has recently been refurbished to a very high standard and was excellent. The room was clean, quiet and in a great location to stop off, recharge our batteries and get ready for the next day. I would definitely recommend it.

To break up the journey north we drove through Warick to do some sight seeing. Originally we had planned to visit Warick Castle but in the end decided it was getting too late in the day so found a quaint, old fashioned tea room instead and had a late lunch that included homemade sandwiches, traditional lemonade and a huge slice of cake. Delicious!

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After what seemed like months of research to find a good place to go on holiday this year, Gemma and I settled on a self catering apartment on the outskirts of Albufeira in Portugal. I’ve been to Portugal many times in the past and it really is a beautiful country. Despite my reservations about using a cheap flight operator, EasyJet were an absolute pleasure to fly with, we even arrived earlier than expected so don’t be swayed by all of the negative comments you read on the Internet these days. On our arrival to Faro airport in the early afternoon it was above thirty degrees centigrade, ‘muito quente’!

On our first outing we were a little disappointed at the lack of ‘local’ restaurants, that was until we walked to the ‘old town’ which turned out to be the crown jewel of the area. Although heavily focused on tourism, Albufeira old town was teeming with life during the day and a hot spot of activity, street performers and a real feel good feeling at night.

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The day after my driving experience, Gemma and I decided to break up the journey home from Stafford with a visit to Whipsnade Zoo. The astute among you will realise that this post comes far later than it should, but, I took some excellent photos of the animals and wanted to share them with you!

The weather on the day couldn’t have been better, it was hot and sunny yet the zoo was relatively quiet which meant we could take our time to watch the fantastic array of different animals. It didn’t feel like a traditional zoo, the animals had acres of space and if zoos and conservation parks are a necessity then Whipsande should set the standard.

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I’ve always wanted to drive a supercar so last year for my birthday Gemma bought me a driving experience day. We took this opportunity to take a short break and head up to Stafford for a few days. When we arrived at the venue there was over a million pounds worth of cars sitting on the tarmac ready to be driven.

The day began with a short safety briefing and a few pointers on how best to drive around the track. The weather couldn’t have been better, it was bright and sunny for the entire day. The first car I drove was a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. It was excellent fun, you very rarely get a passenger sitting beside you urging you to accelerate harder and drive faster.

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Last weekend we bought a travel card each and made our way into London. The first port of call was Covent Garden and Navajo Joe, a funky Mexican restaurant we have been to before. They serve excellent food and even better cocktails, the mojitos went down exceptionally well! Quite a few drinks later we travelled to Waterloo and collected our tickets for the London Eye. Below are some of my favourite photos I took on the day.

We went on at half seven when the sun was beginning to set and as a result saw some spectacular views. You get an awesome 360 degree panoramic view of the entire capital and can see many of Londons famous landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, BT Tower and the Gherkin.

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