Salford Quays, Manchester.

Primark fedora: £7. Marks and Spencer roll neck: £12. Warehouse faux leather skirt: sold out, similar. Urban Outfitters suede bag: £15 (also in tan). Adidas Spezial trainers: £27.

Photos by Clare and Laura

Hallelujah! 

We're not going into some weird niche (even if that's what every bloody #hashtagged chat on twitter tells me to do in order to have a functioning blog, I just like taking nice photos and having a reason to indulge in poached eggs for reasons other than they're dead nice), we're going into the realms of "mini miracles". Not quite sight-giving levels as I'm still shoving little bits of plastic into my eyes on the daily, but more like reassessing what we've got in an overly positive way. I know, this new leaf me is making even myself feel a little bit sick.

GET APPY

As someone who's been religiously pulling down on zoopla and rightmove for the last three weeks ("last 24h" filter a-go-go), these little bad boys have gone a long way to making sure I have a roof over my head right now. And the asos one's got a lot of my wardrobe to answer for too.

NETWORK RAIL

Anyone who's had the misfortune to follow me on twitter during a four hour delay might find this one a little hard to believe, but now I'm not in the South trains are the BEST. Less than £6 for a return to Liverpool? Sure. I've got an hour, let's go to Leeds. You can even get on a train without buying a ticket. This is probably the past rather than the future, but I like it. A lot.

FOOD SHOPPING AFTER WORK

There is no joy greater than seeing a yellow sticker on both some crusty bread rolls and a tub of peri peri hummus. 

CAPSULE WARDROBE

In the last four weeks I have mix and matched six tops, three dresses, two skirts, two pairs of jeans, a playsuit, a jumper and a coat, and haven't got (100%) bored of them yet. I'm not about to get all Marie Kondo on your ass, but maybe it's time to reassess the entire overflowing wardrobe situation.

LESS STRESS

You know that London life was a bit wrong when you move halfway across the country, don't technically have anywhere to live and start a new job in a higher position with loads more accountability and it's less stressful than what you'd got accustomed to. I know I won't be able to resist London's allure forever, but right now this was the best bloody move I could ever have made.

MOMENTS OF CALM

No, not in a "self help" way, in a "we're at Salford Quays, it's exposed, you're not in a coat and wearing a hat that takes off at any opportune moment" way. I headed out for brunch with Clare and Laura last weekend and we somehow managed to take the above photos without contracting pneumonia or get scolded by passers by for swearing about "freezing your fucking tits off" in February. Would you say my first Manchester photos have been a success?

If you've got any daily marvels to share, please leave them in a comment below and I'll read them and nod along attentively. But, right now, brb eating bread.

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Cressing Temple Barns.

J.Crew jumper: £3.50, charity shop. Jack Wills blouse: £4.50, charity shop. Oasis jeans: £27. Oasis chelsea boots: £41 (similar). Savannah Miller for Debenhams fedora. M&S bag: £43.

Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, said a dreamer that one time, and you're never really going to have much of a life if all you do is stick to small-town familiarity and keep on keeping on. In an effort to make the most of being near to most of my friends, I spent a lot of January working on making sure I managed to see everyone, meaning the impending Move Date creeped up on me. Among all the good stuff (read: pizza), I had the arduous task of heading to the doctor's in Braintree. Obviously no one enjoys a trip to the hospital (or if you do, enjoy getting that checked out), so I tend to bribe myself with a post-appointment trip to Freeport and buy everything in Hobbs. Unfortunately their tills weren't having any of it on this particular day, so without the adrenaline rush of bankruptcy we decided to get our thrills elsewhere and head to Cressing Temple for the first time.

In that awkward "oh god, country lanes" style of avoiding things, we'd never made the journey East of Braintree. Turns out, it's not as bad as we feared, and made it to Cressing (home to Jamie Oliver's dad, apparently #namedrop) in less than 10 minutes. And boy, weren't we glad we made it. I didn't expect much, but Cressing Temple Barns are beautiful. Two absolutely massive barns built in the 13th century seemingly plonked in the Essex countryside, and a walled garden to die for - who would've thought this was just a half hour drive from where we lived? Of course, a diversion isn't a day out without a trip to a Tiptree tea room, so we headed to The Barns for a couple of slices of toasted heaven.

It just goes without saying: take a little trip to somewhere new, 'cause you might just find a new favourite.

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You showed me there was something more to us.

The Kooples leather jacket. Topshop dress: £15. Hobbs boots: £40. Brit Stitch satchel. Catarzi fedora: £25 (now £12 in sale).

There are many, many shades of stubborn.

Generally considered to be a "bad" trait due to quite a lot of spoilt brat connotations, stubborn's got a bit of a bad rep. A good 75% of the time, it's well deserved, but that other 25% needs an apology. Several times over. Seeing as I'm doing this on my phone (why did I book an airbnb without wifi? Or why does an airbnb without wifi exist?) and need something wordy to fill my Sunday morning, let's try to create a magical scale of stubborn, which we may all refer back to in times or need/probably an argument.

0-25% - You're wrong, you know you're wrong, but like f you're going to admit it
Also called "when the penny drops". We've all be there, even Steven Hawking. Most commonly happens when in a state of severe stress/sleep deprivation/skim reading, or all three. It's tough, but maybe just admit at the time you know you're wrong, and take it out on them some other time ("oh, you've finished your drink? Sorry, I didn't notice when I bought this round").

26-50% - You're pretty sure this is the best idea of all time
Shout out to anyone who's ever found themselves trekking to town in the pouring rain as their friend's found the most amazing place for brunch, only for it to have stopped serving at 11.30. No, we don't care that it does the best compote this side of Brittany, or whether the place down the road's fry up is nearly as good, where is my stack of beautifully fluffy pancakes? I feel this may also apply to parents, god help you.

51-75% - You're doing this for their own good, you know
More often than not, this can be applied to some sadistic early alarm (no, I do NOT want to leave my bed today, hard as it is to believe), but is also relevant when people aim to help you face your fears in some ilk, or buy you running shoes cos they heard your new years resolution was to get fit. Very nice of you and all, but that was so January.

76%+ - You're right, you've got the facts to back you up, but nah
This is the adult equivalent of being patted on the head, and told to play with your toys. Bring it up to mid twenties, and it's when you're sat in a strategy meeting and you're pushing for something, but your line manager is being a mouthpiece for the execs; they know you're sense but "I'm big, you're small" and we WILL be doing this.

And then there's the one where there's the dress from topshop you've been after for months, reduced to £15, but definitely a size too small. You get it after Cheese-mas and you actually look like a roll of camembert, but wear it anyway. I'd gauge this around the 47% mark.

Brb, off to wander the cheese section of Booths (look but don't touch).

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