A day out to Runswick Bay

For a walkout, myself and my boyfriend decided we would take in some sea air and head to Runswick Bay. I didn't know much about the bay before I went down but I discovered that it is a beautiful place to visit. Although not much to do, the views are beautiful which means it is definitely worth a visit. There is a cafe so make sure to bring some pennies as we didn't, so missed out!

Excuse the fact that this is a picture heavy post but I just wanted to show you how pretty it was! Bear in mind we only visited a few weeks ago...there were children IN THE SEA! I have no idea how they were having fun, I was freezing just sitting about in my coat.

Have you visited Runswick Bay before? Do you fancy visiting now?!

Tea at 12 Harland Place, Norton

A few weeks back myself and my friend Danni (yes she has the same name as me!) went out for tea to a place called 12 Harland Place in Norton, Stockon on Tees.

For those of you who don't live up North you won't have heard of Stockton, let alone Norton but let me tell you it is a small town that to be honest, I don't visit often. I've heard good things from it and might get back there in the daytime.

Danni found this place online after googling somewhere we could meet up for food nearby. After reading through the menu we decided this would be the place. I didn't manage to take any pictures of the interior, only the food but I suppose that is what you really want to see! Inside it was modern and quirky, somewhere that I would definitely choose to go.

I ordered a grilled prime 8oz  steak burger, toasted brioche bun, homemade slaw, skinny fries which came on a wooden board as you can see on the picture. To be honest I wasn't all that impressed with the burger as it turned out to be an average burger with icky grizzly bits. The slaw, fries and salad were nice though!

Then came dessert. I chose some sort of hazelnut chocolate cheesecake and it was very yummy! If I hadn't filled myself on fries I could have finished the whole lot. Plus it came cutely decorated as you can see below.

I've been informed that they do a 'pudding club' every first Monday of the month. You get 10 desserts and then vote on which one should be on the menu for that month in the restaurant. I will definitely be going to this.

It is unfortunate that I didn't enjoy my burger but this wouldn't put me off from trying something else here as I really enjoyed the atmosphere and dessert.

Have you ever been? Do you think you'd like this place?

Tees Dock 50th Anniversary Celebrations. What was all the fuss?!

Last week marked 50 years since the official opening of Tees Dock in 1963. The company I work for are owners and operators of this Port and thought it would be a great idea to celebrate this milestone. To do this we had a week jam-packed with events for current employees, ex-employees, stakeholders and local schools. This took months of planning but finally came together. Although this is another boring work post I wanted to show you a few pictures of what this all looked like as I am pretty proud of what we achieved.

When the schools came in we talked about the journey of a tea bag from the source, through the port into your cups.

Then on to the dinners! We held three of these over the week inviting ex-employees and current employees that had over 20 years service at Tees Dock. Can you imagine working somewhere for over 20 years?!

For our stakeholder event, we wanted to cut a cake to celebrate the anniversary so we commissioned Middlesbrough college to bake us one. It was HUGE! They also baked us 800 cakes for our family fun day! So yummy.

This cake was baked by Betty's in Harrogate to be given away in the raffle. The person who won this let us share it between our colleagues and I can tell you it was so lush.

This was such a stressful event but I think in the end it paid off. Everyone enjoyed themselves and only has good things to say about the event.

What do you think of the event? Did we do a good job? Would you have loved to have gone?