uk roadtrip part 2: ilkley moor

On our second day in Leeds, Rafi and Liam and I went for a walk on Ilkley Moor. Here's where we parked, on the road outside the Cow & Calf.


It was such a great day for walking. Sunny and beautiful but not too warm, and fabulous views in every direction. (And the fact that even Liam came out walking says a lot about the vacation-y mood he was in!) Here's the photo dump:







Look, I'm in a photo!




And there were sheepses, big and small.






We brought lunch wraps from home and had them by a little brook.


This was a border of some sort - maybe a parish border?






We missed a turn (we think?) towards the end or our walk, so it got a tiny bit longer then we thought, but not longer than we could handle. We were out walking for four and a half hours which felt like such a treat - you know how much I love walking and beautiful scenery and good company, and I got all three this daytrip.


Afterwards we had definitely deserved a drink in the garden at the Cow & Calf.





These gorgeous boys though!


In the evening after dinner (Rafi cooked for us with headphones on while Liam napped and I wrote in my journal - we were all pretty peopled out and tired from being out in the sun, so we agreed on some alone time) we played Taluva, which is a fun board game I'd only played online before. And then we all crashed into bed after a delightful day.

Johann Sebastian Bach | Cello Suite no. 4 in E-flat major: Bourrée II

uk roadtrip part 1: leeds

UK roadtrip, part 01!


Liam and I picked up our hire car in Manchester and drove straight to Leeds. Raphael cooked us a fabulous dinner, of course ...


... and thenhe made equally fabulous vegan pancakes the morning after.


I went with passionfruit curd and blueberries for mine, very pleased with that choice.


After breakfast we went into Leeds for a stroll (and a taxi boat ride!). It was such a delight to be in Rafi's company again, he truly is the babest of babes. Some of the things we saw:












We had lunch at Kirkgate Market.


<3


And then we did an escape room! Loved it. It was a Willy Wonka themed mystery, and so so fun. It's great to see how differently we take on the different puzzles, and the whole experience of it - Liam running ahead and touching and fiddling with things, Rafi just behind him putting all the clues together, and me at the back very slowly, intently looking at everything, things the others might have missed. We make a very good team ... whatever our signs in this photo might suggest. :)


After we went to a cosy board game café, Chance & Counters (how great is that name for a board game café?) for an afternoon fika.



There were so many board games! I wish we could have stayed longer.


I had an Aero Chocolate milkshake, might not have been the smartest choice just before dinner, but I have no regrets.


Speaking of dinner, time to meet up with our friends Vincent & Hannah, and Rafi's lovely girlfriend Hannah, at House of Fu. Here are some beautiful faces belonging to awesome people:







Oh and my beautiful ramen, of course. Gosh I love ramen.



I love how it's possible to have friends that you don't really get to see very often (like once a year, in this case), but with whom it's still always a treat to spend time.


After dinner we strolled together through Leeds and as soon as we came back to Rafi's, fell asleep almost immediately. It was a full and rich day, and the perfect way to start off this vacation!

the 1975 | Looking For Somebody (to Love)

we went to the uk

We've been to the UK!

Two and a half weeks. It's been so incredibly rich, so colourful, so bright.


We went to Manchester, Leeds, Brownhills, Huddersfield and Liverpool to see friends and family, and to Cornwall and Somerset for touristing (I had never been to the South before!). There are always people we would have loved to see, and places we would have loved to go, that we couldn't fit in this time (Scotland, for example, was just too far away now that we had decided to go to the South, and London was ruled out due to Liam's burnout - London can be so much, you know). But other than that, this was the perfect trip for us right now. I'm very grateful.




We got quality time with some of our closest friends and with Liam's family. It's so valuable; we've felt so welcome. I went on some truly astonishing walks (Liam comfortably installed at a café somewhere, in the shade, with wifi and a cappuccino - although Rafi and I actually managed to drag him out to Ilkley Moor with us) and to my first ever beer festival. We had long, luxurious breakfasts, went to a fabulous concert at Bridgewater Hall, stayed at a couple of wonderful bed & breakfasts (and one that was pretty grotty), watched the Great Pottery Throwdown, taught a balboa class, drove around Liverpool to see every house Liam has ever lived in, had a delightful stroll around Bath, played board games, visited two national parks and spent many hours in the car, listening to the news or to music, chatting, being quiet together.





It took a few days, almost a week, for Liam to sink into the vacation and become ... well, himself, again. I've seen it happen before; every time we go on a long vacation like this, he sheds layers of anxiety and slowly unwraps calm, energy and joy underneath. A weekend or a long weekend is not enough for that magic to happen, it has to be longer, and has to be away from home. Just before we went, my therapist explained how common burnout is among undiagnosed neurodivergent people. I reacted with OHHHH OKAY this makes a lot of sense, as did Liam as soon as I told him. We just hadn't thought about burnout as a factor in the joyous cocktail that was already ADHD, depression and anxiety. But, we've learned a lot about Liam's mental health in this past year, and there's so much hope on the horizon, now. More on that and on the long term plan later; for now I'll just bask in the joy of having him here with me, present, with a light in his eyes again, the way he was when we met.



Every single day of this trip, I thought about how I must genuinely be the luckiest person in the world. Can you imagine the privilege? Having the time and money, the health and the relationships, to do a trip like this? Feet to hike with, eyes to see with, a nose to smell the sea. The sun on my face, the fog around the cliffs at Land's End. Incredible. The heart and mind to take it all in and keep it. I'm so grateful.

Coldplay | feelslikeimfallinginlove