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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