Visiting Mum at Home

After Lizzie and Jarett had left me and made their way to Vietnam, I had a lovely string of days off, so I decided to go home for a few days to visit Mum. Since all of my siblings were elsewhere and Dad was flying, it was just Mum and me!

I landed into LHR and hopped onto the bus to Stansted airport, which is not too far from home. Mum had also just landed from Austria, where her and Dad had spent the past week, so I didn’t have to wait long for her.

Once we got home, we put the kettle on and sat down with some tea! Mum had told me to bring a big suitcase for my birthday present and I had absolutely no idea what it could be… so when I unwrapped this incredible knitted blanket I couldn’t believe it!

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Every patch is different and all of the colours go beautifully with my living room. It took mum around 2 years to knit it, and I never had any idea that she was making it!

We made some dinner and spent the evening watching The Apprentice and catching up.

The next morning I woke up with the sunlight peeking through the curtains, and was greeted by a lovely sunrise across the fields.

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We made some delicious fluffy pancakes for breakfast, which I haven’t had the chance to make yet in Dubai but will definitely be doing soon! Mum went out to the garden and picked some raspberries to go with the pancakes – yum!

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We spent the day out picking fruit in the garden – Mum and Dad have hundreds of apples and pears this year which I think should last them a while!

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Not to mention all sorts of other fruits and veggies, such as parsnips, carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, aubergine, tomatoes, lettuces, raspberries, strawberries, plums, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some!

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There’s also a hedge just outside the house which has an abundance of blackberries, so we picked a few kilos and I made a delicious apple and blackberry crumble for dessert.

We decided to visit Anglesey Abbey the next day, which is a former abbey that has now been taken over by the National Trust and is open for the public to visit.

The grounds are over 98 acres, including beautifully manicured gardens as well as lush forests.

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There were also lots of pretty flowers growing all over the place, including these lovely pink, white and purple ones.

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We strolled around the gardens, stopping to look at the working mill where flour is ground, and wandering past the river.

Soon we came across a lovely flower exhibition which we couldn’t help but admire.

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Towards the end of our walk we found the beautiful main house, which you can visit if you wish. We decided not to go inside this time and just admire it from the outside!

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For dinner Mum whipped up a delicious roast lamb, after all, what’s a trip home without a roast dinner?!

All too soon my quick trip home was nearing it’s end, and the next morning I was up bright and early to catch my flight back to Dubai.

Thanks for having me mum and thanks for my amazing birthday blanket!

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6 Comments

  1. Asher
    November 3, 2016 / 1:10 am

    I am so glad you had a wonderful vacation with your mum! It looks like your parents live in a very beautiful and bucolic locale, you are very lucky to have been raised in such a pleasant and serene environment. The desert and dryness of Dubai must have been quite a shock to you at first!! I loved the dahlia picture, reminded me of the dahlia garden I used to visit as a child ever late summer!!

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      November 8, 2016 / 7:30 pm

      It was lovely to spend a few days at home! I grew up in the countryside and then lived in Austria for 6 years before moving to Dubai (as well as some exchanges and internships abroad over the years) so I’ve definitely seen a bit of everything! 🙂

  2. JiaMin
    November 1, 2016 / 7:15 pm

    Hi Rachel!

    I just found your blog a few days ago but I went through most of the posts already <3

    I really like the positive vibes you are giving out 🙂 I, myself, am a cabin crew in my own home country, Singapore. I managed to join because of my internship and still continue to fly with them part time as I have last semester of my diploma to complete. I'm only 19 but i hope to join Emirates in future if I can 🙂

    Just a few short questions for you..

    Firstly, I'm a vegetarian as I'm born one. I can take eggs but not onion and garlic. My airline mostly do only turnaround flights which at most 5 hour one way? so it will be around 10 hours of flight not including briefing time. Have you encountered vegetarian crew in EK? It really hard to not have food on board especially for those flights that are like 16hours etc. How do crew with special diet eat on a flight?
    I'm not fussy and happy with just any food that i can eat 🙂

    Secondly, for allowance, for example you are given a certain amount but you didn't spent all..Would you recommend to keep it ? in case you fly to the same destination again you have more cash or instead to bank it into your bank acc? I read thru and you said before it will be between 40 euros to 100 euros ( approx amount) so i wouldn't ask that question again haha

    Really hope you will answer them and have a safe flight always!
    Thank you so much ^^
    -jm-

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      November 1, 2016 / 9:51 pm

      Hi Jia Min! So glad you’ve been enjoying reading my blog 🙂 There are lots of vegetarian crew (and vegan) and we have crew meals loaded which make it easy for everyone to have something sufficient to eat. There are also always salads and some sort of vegetarian option loaded! So you wouldn’t have any problems 🙂
      Regarding the allowance, it really depends on whether or not I’m going back to that destination soon! For example British Pounds, Euros, Swiss Francs, US Dollars…these are a few of the currencies I usually keep as I fly to those places quite often. However if I’ve managed to save up a lot and have quite a bit of cash I usually exchange it into UAE Dirhams. Hope this helps! 🙂 xx

      • Jia Min
        November 2, 2016 / 10:16 am

        Thank you for the fast reply That certainly cleared my doubts hahaha if you do come again to Singapore I maybe can recommend you some places HAHAHA will continue to support you

        • thedubaidiaries
          Author
          November 8, 2016 / 7:27 pm

          I love Singapore but haven’t been in ages so will give you a shout if I need any recommendations! 🙂

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