And we're off!

Finally, the day has arrived. This evening Dai and I are off to London, and tomorrow we catch the Eurostar which will take us to Paris. I've been brushing up my French, and have a workbook to do on the train. I've also been researching vegan places to eat. The BBC book we bought effectively warns vegans off trying to eat in France, and yes, I'm expecting some difficulties. But I have done my homework, and I shall attempt to prove them all wrong by having a lovely holiday which hopefully doesn't involve too much stressing about food! My strategy has been to do research: the Happy Cow site is invaluable as ever (it helped a lot when I first went vegan and we went on holiday to Edinburgh and London, we had a lot of fun discovering new places).

I also plan to maintain my normal view that if it goes wrong, so long as it's not too wrong, then I won't freak out or beat myself up: at the end of the day, I do what I can to the best of my ability. I don't mind making a fuss, and making an effort to help everyone understand, but I don't want it to ruin a good evening out or someone's day. Or in this case, a holiday. I'm not a vegan to make my life difficult, it's to make the planet's life easier. That's part of the reason we're not flying (although I've never promised never to, as I still want to travel. I haven't flown for many years now though). So I will do my best, and will report back on the whole thing when I return! After a few panics this morning, now the packing is done, I'm looking forward to the trip immensely. I haven't been abroad for so long, or on a holiday for ages! Yay!

My first...Valentines

I've never really done Valentines before, but it seemed a good excuse to spend a whole day with Dai so after many conversations about if, what and where, we both took a day off, (as it was a Wednesday, which we both have no official committments for) and I did nothing!
We had a massive lay in, lazed about and watched DVDs and ate toast. We both made cards because we're silly and gave each other chocolate, (although we both said no presents, we both turned up with chocolate).
In the evening Dai disappeared and made me a yummy meal; organic soup with bread to start, a main course of grilled peppers stuffed with corguettes and mushrooms, served with field mushrooms with ginger, and followed by vegan chocolate mousse and strawberries. Very impressive, Dai had done extensive research to find vegan recipes online. It was all delicious. I'm a lucky girl. We shouted at the Brits for a bit but I did absolutely nothing all day and felt very lazy. Dai said that that was the point. In any case it was great and I was very spoiled. As usual!