pancake day and what shall I give up

It's pancake day today - officially it's Shrove Tuesday - 40 days before Easter.  Tradionally people would give up sugar, flour, eggs and fat so they mixed them together and have pancakes. 

Thanks to all these traditional reason, I have an excuse to eat lots and lots of pancakes once a year.  My husband doesn't like pancakes so we barely make them at home.  But tonight....... he's got no excuse of not having them!  And I'd definitely start mine with Nutella + banana.

Fast forward a few hundred years to present days, what do people give up for lent now?  I hear a lot of people giving up chocolate, buying new clothes, alcohol and even fast food.  For me I was thinking of not eating meat and turn vegetarian for 40 days - another word I'm planning to do a bit of detox during lent!  What will you give up?

my first blog

ummmm before today I thought I had a lot of stories I'd like to share but as soon as I signed up and start thinking of what to write nothing seems to spring into my mind.  I bet this has happened to you before.

Last weekend I visited Windsor - it's one of my favourite spots in England, if you've never been there before perhaps you should read on and find out why.  And if you've been there before you can let me know if you agree with me.  There's so much to see and to do in Windsor, rain or shine!  I adore the shops and restaurants and my husband loves the castle and pubs.

Do you know why I think this is a great town?  Well, here are my top 3 reasons.....

1) It's one of The Queen's official residences

You would have heard Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, blah blah blah.  I won't repeat all that I promise.

Let's start from my drive into Windsor, even before you reach the town you can see the Castle miles beforehand thanks to its situation on a hill with lots of greenery of Windsor Great Park around it.  You can't appreciate how big the Castle is at all until you're there.  It covers the area of 13 acres - so yes it is rather big.  We've visited the Castle many times and often see The Royal Standard flying - it feels very strange to know that The Queen is so near but yet so far.  I hear that she goes there most weekends to escape from her buzzing Buckingham Palace.

Well, if it's good enough for The Queen, it's good enough for me.

2) Windsor Great Park

The 2.65 miles Long Walk from Iron Horse to The Castle is one of the most famous walk in the UK.  It's a long stright line and I love walking through the trees, seeing deers along the way and even stopping for a picnic on aummer day.

Every now and then I sat there and watched the world goes by, all of a sudden a Horse Carraige just appears in the middle of nowhere and took my breath away - it's so elegant and just turns back 100 years!

3) Great High Street shops and restaurants

What more can I say?  I'm a girl - and I LOVE shoes, clothes, handbags, jewellery, arts, toy shops, old fashioned sweet shops, tourist gifts, shabby chic furnitures/ decorations...... well, more or less anything you can think of!  Once my legs couldn't take on the walking any longer then pop into some fancy hotels for afternoon tea.  Harte and Garter is my favourite!  Get my energy back for more shopping and dine at MacDonald Hotel Windsor in the evening and head back home.  Happy day!