Sometimes, I can really get fed up of living in the City I have always lived and grown up in. I find it boring and repetitive and I often find myself wishing I could just run away to a bigger more lively city and start a fresh new me. Then there are days like today, where I feel lucky for having lived and grown up in the City I call home.
Today I woke up not really knowing what to do with myself, I knew that I didn’t start work until later on in the evening so I basically had a free day all to myself. The thought of this worried me at first as I didn’t want to spend such a beautiful sunny day inside “relaxing”. What is it about the meaning “relaxing”? Sitting on a sofa all day flicking through T.V. channels is not “relaxing” to me at all, in fact I feel more like a stressed out, caged, chimpanzee!
Anyway, with a little thinking, I decided to get dressed and head out into town with little idea of what I was actually going to do. Best plan no plan I always say!
I forget how nice the old part of Lincoln is on a summers day, cobbled streets lined with independent coffee, sweet and gift shops. Its the perfect place for perusing around when you have a day to yourself.
This shop in particular caught my eye…
And suddenly, I became an eight year old girl again…look at all of those delicious flavours! All of the fudge sold here is made in store daily by a few lucky staff members (umpalumpa’s). I was at a loss when it came to choosing which one of the delicious flavours I was going to buy sooo I didn’t stop at one flavour…I chose whisky and ginger, chcolate and mint and sea salt, mmm yum yum. After choosing my fudge, the helpful attendant informed me that today he was making strawberry and champagne flavoured fudge! Don’t worry Mr fudge maker, I will be returning.
Hmm well, there seems to be theme going on here, but anyway, here is another lovely shop which just happened to catch my eye.
A colourful, chocolatey bliss! I spent quite a bit of time in here gazing at all of the delicious chocolates and chose a few which caught my eye in particular. After a brief conversation with the helpful lady behind the counter, along came my blonde question of the day…”So do you make these chocolates here on site?” to which the lady replied..”No, we’re a BELGIAN chocolate shop, so the chocolates are imported from Belgium” I guess it’s not that silly of a question but I felt pretty silly at the time as I knew from the sign outside that it was a Belgian chocolate shop, it just didn’t click when I opened my mouth…Oh well, embarrassment aside, I walked away feeling happy with a bag full of tasty chocolates.
Next, on my travels, I stumbled across this interesting looking tea and coffee shop. I can’t show you the inside of the shop because I asked the man whether photographs were allowed and unfortunately they are not. It is very clear why though, the unique layout and theme of the shop is just a joy to wander around. Jar’s of coffee beans from different countries around the world, every flavour of tea you could think of, Asian inspired tea sets and various hot drink related gadgets. This is a shop unlike any I have ever come across before, such an unusual and unique idea! I came away with I bag of freshly ground (literally-he ground the beans in front of me!) Costa Rican coffee- my favourite!
Last stop, wine shop. Since working in the hospitality industry, I have become very interested in wines, it’s crazy how much history is involved with them and how many different varieties there are out there. I spent a good fifteen minutes in here perusing until finally coming across the wine which I ended up buying- a New Zealand Savignon Blanc. Well, I thought it’s just such a lovely day so why not.
A successful shopping day indeed. Not a branded product in sight and a feeling of pride for using my hard earned cash in independent stores, doing my bit to help the local economy…and of course myself, I can’t wait to dive into that fudge!
Head in a Glass 