Jayne Gorman

We spent 2 days driving around some of the prettiest places in The Cotswolds and based on our experience I’ve whittled this post down to 3 places There’s also a gorgeous homewares shop, with a children’s section selling traditional wooden toys and knitted dolls, and they host cookery and flower arranging workshops throughout the week too. The main attraction in Lower Slaughter is The Old Mill, recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086, which houses a quirky antiques and craft shop and a riverside café hidden out the back of the Mill Shop & Museum (you have to walk through the shop to find it.) If you’d like to visit The Cotswolds on a day trip from London check out these tours – a lot of the places I’ve mentioned are included in this one.

From just £59* per night you can stay in a glamping pod in the heart of the Cotswolds, which has all the comforts you need in a compact and affordable package. There’s the Cotswolds Motoring Museum & Toy Collection (home of Brum), The Dragonfly Maze and Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water and the Cotswolds Farm Park in Cheltenham. Our first family staycation was a roaring success and a huge part of that is due to the Experience Freedom glamping pod having everything we needed in a charming location. Experience Freedom Glamping Pods start from £59 per night and can be found at 5 Experience Freedom Club Sites across the UK.

We’ve enjoyed 12 delicious weeks of life with our newborn baby Miles and what an emotional rollercoaster they’ve been. So, while I have a few minutes to myself as the baby snores next to me, I thought I’d share some of my observations about life with a newborn that I didn’t necessarily think I’d be saying. I think that one of the biggest misperceptions I had about the early days with the baby is that the adult fun (you know nights out, reading a book, having spa treatments.. ) stops but in our case I’ve found it’s still possible, just a lot less spontaneous. It’s so sweet the way everyone comes around with some sort of cute little package, most of which have made me realise how terrible I was at buying baby gifts before having one myself.

It’s been 6 months already since we left Australia and moved back to the UK and at first my answer to this question was not really because I was kind of preoccupied with relocating and having a baby. We’ve just booked a visit to Melbourne for this Easter though and when thinking of what we’ll do while we’re out there memories of everything I loved about living in Australia have come flooding back to me. I’ll also like to give a nod to The Project whose presenters – Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly – are 2 of Australia’s most likeable people. What I miss about Oz is that it’s rare to find a restaurant or café that doesn’t have outdoor seating.