Rachel's Next Adventure

I had booked a weekend off work and we were originally planning a little trip to London for Christmas shopping and Hyper Japan but after booking Disneyland Paris for the Monday we thought we'd better stick to day trips over the weekend! We took the 8:30am train to York from Sunderland, thankfully we'd booked First Class, the entire train was rammed with people standing!  It's our first trip to York together, i'm not even sure i'd ever been before but my fiancé used to work here a couple of days a week while he had a remote development job for a company based here. We took a little walk for 30min or so after getting off the train to stretch our legs and ended up in McDonald's for lunch. We shared a chocolate orange McFlurry before heading out into the cold - and wow! this was so different to the one I got from the Roker branch on Wednesday, the Roker store didn't mix in the chocolate orange sauce! We saw Santa ! First hot choc...

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As always, movie review written by  my fiancé. We went to see Doctor Strange and I didn't know what to expect: Benedict Cumberbatch is a great actor who really likes to get into the role he's playing so my concerns were not about the acting, more the special effects required to really do justice to the title. Special effects have the amazing ability to look dated rather quickly and time will tell how this offering stands up. The basic story in the movie is that our protagonist is an arrogant, unlikable masterful surgeon who has a car accident when he's on his mobile at high speeds (subtle warning there kids!) which cripples his once skilled hands. He goes in a huff blaming everybody for it when it was actually his own fault, before hearing of a man who was healed, he seeks this guy out who tells him to go to Kamar-Taj and seek the Ancient One, who can help him. So he goes there and we get some comic relief for a bit before he begins his training and starts t...

After visiting Newcastle Film & Comic Con on Sunday, my fiancé and I headed out to see the International Christmas Market that had opened the day before around the Monument area. The market was ridiculously busy, being the first Christmas Market of the season, crowds flocked towards the rows of stalls and huts to see what goodies they could find on this cold, wintery afternoon. They had everything sweet from pick & mix sweet stalls, macaroons, Turkish delight, fudge and confectionary huts to churros, Dutch pancakes and crepe vendors. With plenty of hot food stalls with a wide range of international dishes from paella and barbecue sausages to kangaroo burgers, garlic potatoes and Great British Cheeses. And thats not all! You can find a nice little gift for your friends and family amongst the huts here, they have everything from handmade incense burners, jewellery and accessories to Russian dolls and personalisable Christmas tree decorations. I def...

Where : Metroradio Arena When : November 19-20th Price : Day - £15E, £8S / Weekend - £28E, £14S Guests : Alice Krige, Sarah Douglas, Daz Crawford, Nicola Bryant, Jacqueline Pearce, Neil Fingleton, Chloe Annett, Dominic Carter, Sam Coleman, Christopher Fairbank, Jeffery Kissoon, William Hoyland, Meena Rayann, Mark Everex Collett, Annette Hannah, Adrian Rawlins, Vincenzo Nizoli, Nathan & Laura Phillips, Anna Walton, Mel Pickup, Jonathon Oliver & Nigel Betts. Due to cold weather and having Christmas Market plans on the afternoon, I decided not to cosplay to NFCC. With the Metros being off all morning it was a bit of a pain to get there and we ended up arriving around 10:15am, leaving us 45min left of our early bird entry! We headed straight to the Animez stall to catch up with our friends before browsing the dealers room (a huge amount of fake merchandise this time round!) and heading into Newcastle around 12pm. Here's my video of the dealers room. ...

Chip 'n' Dale Christmas Decoration Being November, as soon as I end up on the Disney Store I head straight for the Christmas items, and although we already have a few Chip 'n' Dale Christmas decorations, we don't have this one! We bought the tree topper from the Disney Store this year to replace the one in bought in California (RIP!) so another Chip 'n' Dale decoration would go great with the rest of our tree! Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas Cookie Jar I'm a sucker for novelty cookie jars and Christmas as it is, so I instantly fell in love with this cookie jar! I just worry that it would break in storage. It has a rubber sealed lid though, which is great as a lot of novelty cookie jars skip on the practical parts! Stitch MXYZ Cookie Cutters I love Stitch, and I love baking cookies! I already have a Stitch pair of cutters and stamps but they're a bit fiddly so this set would be ideal for quick baking! The paw cutter...

Now that my Christmas posts are in full swing I thought i'd share five of my favourite festive snacks that I look forward to all year! Christmas Crisps Ever since Walkers brought out Crispmas crisps back when I was in secondary school my Mam and I have looked forward to Turkey crisps all year long! Sadly, Walkers stopped selling theirs and we're still struggling to find another one that matches up to that flavour standard! Tesco's Finest were the ones we like at the moment, so heres hoping they sell them again this year! Gingerbread Men I don't know if I prefer eating these or baking them! I've got gingerbread mix at the ready already and I can't wait to make my first batch of the season! Cheesonal Mini Cheddars What? They're CHRISTMAS SHAPED. Matchmakers Ok, you can get these all year round, and they're great in ice cream! But these minty little treats are one of the tastes of Christmas, plus, they're ideal f...

Back when I was planning out our anniversary celebrations, I picked up a Bakedin Choc Mallow Melt Cookie Kit from Amazon. Because I became ill we never got a chance to make it back then, but now that the cold weather has set in we've finally made the delicious treats together! To make this kit you also need 115g of butter and an egg. Step 1: Preheat the oven to 170ºC, weigh your butter and line baking trays. Step 2: Melt the butter in a bowl, add the egg and cookie mix bag and mix well. Step 3: Divide into 24 balls and space them around 5cm apart on your baking trays. Step 4: Bake for 8-10min. Step 5: Spread the marshmallows across 12 of the cookies and put them back into the oven for 1 minute. Step 6: Top the 12 marshmallowed cookies off with the 12 plain cookies before melting your Belgian chocolate and decorating. Step 7 - Enjoy! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

I've not taken any photographs yet this year due to bad weather and long queues to see the window but here is my video of the Fenwick Christmas Window of 2016! This year the window celebrates 150 years since the birth of Beatrix Potter. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I was eagerly awaiting the release of the Great North Snowdog trail, which started around the time I got back from Tokyo. I spent one evening in Newcastle searching for them when we got back, and then spent a few hours on the Sunday searching through Sunderland for them (several were missing due to damage already), but this was the day I became ill and after a couple of hours outside I just had to go home. I spent four weeks recovering and sadly, my double vision ended up coming back, so I wasn't able to finish finding them all yet, but since they're around for a couple more weeks i'm going to keep trying! Here are some of the Snowdogs I managed to track down! Newcastle Sunderland Here is my video! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Following on from the Gamer Survival Pack gift idea I posted last year, I thought I would come back and revise it slightly this year. So here is a list of survival/gift pack stuffers ideal for gamers and computer loving kids/teens/adults. Box Stuffers Pyjamas/Lounge Wear Snacks & Treats Batteries Steam Credit Money Box For New Games Merchandise - Keyrings - Wallet - Tshirt - Phone Cover - Jewellery - Cosplay Props - Clothing/Underwear - Breakfast/Dining Sets - Cookie Cutters - Ice Cube Trays Warm Socks Energy Drink Sweets/Candy/Chocolate Video Games Hot Drink Sachets Money Gift Cards Personalised Door Sign Chocolate Game Controller USB Cup Warmer Phone Power Bank Funko POP! Figure Subscription Box Subscription Stress Ball I'm going down a different route this year as the gamer I buy for would prefer money this year - boring! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

With bonfire night and halloween over, it's now finally officially time to get excited and ready for Christmas! Of course, it's still a few weeks too early to put up any Christmas decorations, but that doesn't mean you can't start getting prepared and into the Christmas spirit yet. I've been in the Christmas spirit for a month if i'm honest, with being stuck at home for four weeks while I was ill and off work, I had nothing else to focus on as my eyes began recovering. I hadn't watched tv over a week and a half before I felt well enough to sit up so i'd completely lost interest there, but with having a reduced income for an entire month I thought i'd focus on planning to make sure Christmas was still a success.  I have an Amazon basket longer than this blog post to be honest! I know a good chunk of what i'm getting for who and what its going to cost. I even have a couple of things that have arrived already! And thats without the ...