Day 57: VIP Matchday Experience

In 31 years supporting the mighty Cambridge United, I’ve travelled to games on foot, by bike, car, train and coach. Never did I expect to be chauffeur-driven to the Abbey Stadium!

This summer, A2B Taxicabs – based in Ely – partnered with the club, sponsoring the largest hospitality suite and providing VIP matchdays with door-to-door travel. Wanting to offer some extra joy to fans who were returning to live matches, A2B are running competitions throughout the season. I entered the first and was fortunate enough to win.

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Day 56: Window Wanderland Ely

Ely has joined the Window Wanderland revolution! As the sun went down on 23rd October 2020, the lights in 140 Ely homes & businesses went on, illuminating their window artwork.

Window Wanderland began in 2015 when Lucy Reeves Khan used her experience of isolation as a force for good, inspiring communities to transform their streets into unique ‘galleries’ for neighbours to enjoy together. Such a fun idea and Lucy can’t have known how much this kind of togetherness would be so desperately needed in 2020.

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Day 53: Family Rave

Raves became big news when I was at school – legal and illegal raves swept up the nation’s youth  throughout the 90s. They were frowned upon by many grown-ups but to a youngster, they sounded pretty exciting! I loved the energy of the music and still do – The Prodigy will always be one of my favourite bands.

But, despite loving the music, I never made it to one of these dance nights. I was a bit too young and far too timid. Now as a grown-up myself, I had the chance to go to my first rave and this was one that no parent could complain about.

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Station Tavern Cambridge

Cambridge Station was built in 1845, when it was located about a mile away from the city centre. Over the next century and a half Cambridge grew massively, until the station and city became one. Over the last few years, the station and its immediate surroundings have been transformed: CB1 is home to new apartments, office blocks, shops, hotels and eateries.

Only in the last few months has the area that greets visitors when they leave the station begun to take real shape. There are some unfinished sections, in particular the taxi rank, but the new businesses are pretty much fully functioning.

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Day 29: Ely Christmas Cracker

For a festive hit in mid-November, there are few places better than Ely Cathedral. Their annual two-day Christmas Gift & Food Fair is an event attended by people from all around the country. In contrast, the #ElyChristmasCracker was all about local people.

Since the Cambridge blogger community – CambMeetUp – began in March 2015, there have been a number of local meetups around Cambridgeshire, and when Lauren decided it was time that Ely held one, I was more than happy to help organise. On Day 29 of #100DaysNoTV I co-hosted a blogger event for the first time!

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Day 28: Macmillan Coffee Morning

The last couple of months have been all about spinning plates – this post has been sitting on my To Do pile since September…my bad. I’ve been looking forward to writing it, because it’s about two important things in life: cake 😉 and charity. On Day 28 of #100DaysNoTV I hosted a Macmillan Coffee Morning at my place.

Macmillan Cancer Support held their first ever Coffee Morning way back in 1990 and since then they’ve raised a whopping £138 million. Little wonder it’s known as the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning! If you’ve never been to one, look out for one local to you next September; it’s easy to search using your postcode on their website. There are bound to be a few near you run by local groups, or you could host one yourself!

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Day 27: Talking Blogs

For Day 27 of #100DaysNoTV I did something I never believed I would (or could) do: I gave a talk about my blog to a group of people I’d never met before. To say I was out of my comfort zone is a massive understatement! But, I survived and, for many reasons, I’m so glad I went through with it.

I was invited to give a talk at a Mummas & More event, and Emily – the brains behind it all –was so lovely that I felt I couldn’t say no. When I told Rob about it, the fear set in: I would be speaking aloud, publicly, about myself. That’s something I tend to steer well clear of!
In a heartbeat Rob said, “Do it. It’ll be good for you.” It was the little nudge that I needed.

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Day 26: Cambridge Wineathlon

I’m not a serious runner but over the last year or so I’ve become more committed, taking part in the Cambridge Race for Life 10k and the Grand East Anglia Run 10k. My Strava app records every run I do, and last November I joined Run Mummy Run (RMR): an online community of mummies who like to run and support others. This group organised last December’s Advent Streak. 🙂 On Day 26 of #100DaysNoTV I ran in my first team event with some RMR girls.

The Cambridge Wineathlon was a not-at-all-serious 10k run through the pretty villages of Foxton, Fowlmere and Newton. I signed up with a couple of RMR girls and our group grew from there. Where’s Wally? is a staple uniform at some local parkruns, so it was the natural choice for the Wineathlon too! Don’t we look good?! 😉

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Fashion: Emily and Fin at Lilac Rose

It’s rare that you get a chance to browse in shops after hours so it was a real treat to spend an evening at Lilac Rose in Cambridge. It was a chance to reacquaint myself with their shop on Bridge Street: one of the prettiest areas of Cambridge city centre.

Lilac Rose have been in Cambridge since 2010 and describe themselves as “. . . an independent fashion boutique selling women’s clothes, jewellery and accessories.” After a quick browse it’s clear that their handpicked dresses have a real emphasis on colour and print (they definitely don’t do plain!) and what might not be obvious at first, is the importance they put on the way the dress fits and feels; I’d say they have their priorities right!

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