Month: December 2018

Blog, featured, Holiday, life, Norfolk, Out and about, Walks

Bungay – a unique little town

norfolkgal

This week I have a well earned week off and so far it seems I’ve picked a good week as it’s crisp out there but lovely and bright and blue skies have shone through and it certainly doesn’t look like December.

Yesterday was such a beautuful day I decided I should get my backside out of the house and head into Bungay for a walk. It’s only about a mile but it’s a really nice walk over Ditchingham Dam and then heading up Bridge Street which is renowned for it’s colourful houses. 

Bungay has loads of lovely little independent shops especially on Earsham Street where all my favourites are. My first port of call was Aurina who sell some gorgeous home interior and gift items and in addition to a bespoke service where they can make you curtains, cushions etc in any of their unique fabrics. They have 2 stores, Bungay and Burnham Market and it’s nigh on impossible to not buy something when you’re in there even if it’s the rather cool notebook I got myself yesterday!

  • I bought the yellow one!

Bungay is lucky enough to have a tradtional greengrocers called Giddens & Thompson plus a fresh fish shop where we sometimes treat ourselves to fresh crab. It’s lovely that we have these shops in town as so many of these more traditional stores have gone by the wayside so it’s important to be able to support local whenever you can. 

  • Giddens & Thompson
  • Earsham Street Fish Company
  • New Beginnings Florist
  • Mouse Interiors

Down the far end of Earsham Street is where you’ll find Earsham Street Delicatessen and Bells of Suffolk. The deli is my favorite shop in town, Michelle stocks some wonderful food items and pays such attention to detail in her visual merchandising. There is a made to order sandwich and coffee counter (without doubt the best coffee I’ve had) I could do with her delivering one to me each morning to set me up for the day.

It’s such a good place to go for gifts particularly at this time of year as you can make up your own hamper of goodies and will be utterly spoilt for choice as to what you put in. Plus there’s always something yummy by the counter tempting you such a the tiny mince pies shown below. Panettones,  mulled wine, cheese and biscuits – the deli won’t let you down.

Bells of Suffolk sell some great  home interior items and do some gorgeous Christmas decorations which is what I was looking for yesterday and treated myself and my Christmas tree to a few new decs. 

The Art Trading Company will fill all your budding artist needs for Christmas presents be it for the novice artist or those who are more accomplished than myself plus they provide a framing service for those pieces you wish to gift or put up on your walls at home.

The Little Green Wholefood Shop is your go to place if you are trying to live healthier and more environmentally friendly. If  you want to be Gluten, sugar, dairy free they will be able to help you buy some great ingredients. 

From fresh fruit and veg to beers and spirits to shampoo and washing powder, this little shop has the lot and is a gem of a store.

Crocks is a Bungay institution as it has been there forever, they always have the best window displays and sell some great gift items if you want some thing that little bit different.

  • The Little Green Wholefood Shop
  • The Art Trading Company
  • Crocks

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Blog, life, Norfolk, Norwich, Wordpress

Social Media Blues

norfolkgal


Well I’m back, it’s been quite a while again. I seem to go through phases of being really on the ball with blogs etc but lately I have felt a bit lost in what I’m trying to achieve.

There are so many bloggers out there and loads that are Norfolk and Norwich based and it’s really easy to get lured in to trying to be one of the ‘in’ crowd rather than just being me. I definitely went through a stage of following all the pretty people as I call them whose numbers sky rocket, who don’t seem to work for a living and whose entire social media structure is based around pictures of them posing in cool places.

I’m embarrassed to say I tried to be like them for a while, not so much with loads of selfies, but trying too hard to get the right shot in the right place with the right light blah blah blah and you know what – it takes the fun out of it. I don’t have this site to earn money or to make me popular, it was a way of me learning to create a website and develop this skill set. I’m not bothered about numbers, yes it’s nice when you get more followers, but only when they are genuine ones. The amount of people I get follow me on Instagram and they don’t like any of my photos and then when I don’t follow back – I’ll get dropped. It’s like being a school and I’m just too old for the bullshit quite frankly.

I unfollowed a few key people on Insta whose accounts I was getting obsessed with watching their stories intently like some new episode of Line of Duty like I have nothing better going on in my life. Once I freed myself from these Instalovies, I started to feel a lot better about myself and decided to go back to basics.

So my Instagram grid isn’t themed, it isn’t the same colour tones in every shot, it isn’t me trying to be something I’m not. It’s photos I like of things I’ve done or places I’ve been or just things that make me happy and that’s how I aim to continue. I can’t compete with the ‘in’  crowd and I don’t want to, it’s too much peer pressure which only results in never feeling good enough about yourself. I don’t have a Unique Selling Point I’m just me, and I’ve learned to be ok with that.

So I will try and blog more and just be proud of me and proud of what I do whether anyone ever reads it or not, well I can’t worry about that. I still have a wonderful husband, a home, a family, a job. This weird world of numbers and followers doesn’t dictate my life or anything in it, I’m happy being me and I’m pretty good at it.