Until yesterday I have to admit that I'd never ever tried a burrito and I'd never been to Zapatista, yes I'm sorry but I don't usually like food which touches other food, although I'm a long time fan of Mexican food and I openly admit to loving a good steak fajita so when Zapatista got in touch to see if I wanted to sample some of their Mexican delights and perhaps, just perhaps, a burrito I had to accept.

There are 2 branches of Zapatista in Newcastle upon Tyne, one on Grainger Street, and one on Ridley Place, yesterday I tried the Grainger Street branch, I'd not eaten all day so I was ready and with a big appetite.

I'm going to openly admit that burritos are not what you would call Instagram worthy food, there are just too many things all wrapped up in a tortilla and then all wrapped up in foil so I shan't be sharing a ton of food photos but believe me when I say I am now a convert to burritos and even eating things wrapped in foil (something which previously set my teeth on edge).

Zapatista is essentially Mexican fast food, you are served just as quickly as you are in other fast food outlets but the difference is that the food is delicious and it's all made fresh, right there in front of you.  There are a myriad of choices which quite frankly blew my mind but in the end I went for a butternut squash with halloumi filling, mild pinto beans, a special sweetcorn salsa, lime and coriander rice, cheese and sour cream, that's all then rolled up in a tortilla (although the healthy amongst you may want to have the filling in a salad bowl, that's a naked burrito or fajita) and finally wrapped in foil so that it's not too messy.

Zapatista do serve alcohol but I'm on a self imposed alcohol ban other than on holidays and special occasions so I just went with a large diet coke.  Zaps (as the locals call it) have also started doing Churros at the Grainger street branch, now they take 7-10 minutes and come with either a chocolate or caramel sauce, let me prepare you in advance and say "get the caramel" I love salted caramel and it goes perfectly with that crispy on the outside soft in the middle Churros, something I wouldn't usually have due to the calories involved in sweet fried dough but I made an exception for review purposes!

I think Zapatista is probably the perfect place to have a first date if you've just met someone through Tinder or Plenty of Fish, it's fast enough so that if it's a disaster you can get out quickly, they serve alcohol just in case you're nervous, it's cheap (so you don't have to spend a fortune on a potential date that may not go your way) and if you do have a fab time you're in town and can always continue the evening, plus it'll give you lots of opportunities to go and try all the various plentiful fillings and flavours.

I loved my first trip to Zapatista, I'm not sure if I'll be mixing all of my food together and I definitely won't be eating other things wrapped in foil and popped in a plastic basket (The Churros came on proper platters) but I really enjoyed my first burrito bar experience and will definitely be back in the future, maybe with my own internet dating story!

Best Camera For Bloggers, Fuji X70

I've had a long standing romance with Fuji, the first camera I bought myself when I was 29 and fell in love with photography was a Fuji, my second and only bridge camera was a Fuji and then I walked away and bought a Canon as my first DSLR, then a couple of years ago I bought a Fuji X-Pro1 and fell instantly head over heels with the yummy high definition colours and the gorgeous images which have helped me bring many a travel image to life.  I went back to a Canon for portraiture and I truly believe that Canon make the very best cameras for social photography but when it comes to travel, I am Fuji all the way.

Now I have an extra problem with a prolapsed disk and need to keep the weight off my neck as much as possible, I also want a camera which will take photographs as beautiful and professional as my agency and my own high standards require.  So I've just bought the perfect travel bloggers camera, the Fuji X70, it's a new camera and at £499 it's not cheap but it's also smaller than my iPhone 6S, has an integrated teleconverter for switching between 28, 35 and 50mm focal lengths, something I require as they're possibly my favourite focal lengths for travel photography and blogging based images.  

The beauty of this camera is undoubtably it's size and it's simplicity, if you aren't an expert photographer then you can simply throw the X70 into auto and it will literally do everything for you and a series of rings like old school cameras I find are easier to understand than complicated digital things, if you are a little more advanced then you are going to find Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and full manual, for anyone who's wondering how I choose to shoot these days, well it's no secret that after perfecting my craft in manual I rarely use anything other than aperture priority but that's because I also know that I know manual settings inside out and can switch between the modes quite comfortably should I need to.  I tend to shoot most travel images at f8, portraits at between f1.8 and f2.8 and the X70 offers f2.8 so perfect for my needs, if I'm shooting food in a dark restaurant I find f2.8 is absolutely fine and the Fuji X70 will quite comfortably go to iso 6,400 which is about as much as I'll need but it is expandable up to 51,200 which is insane, my Canon 6D goes to 25,800 and it's only occasionally at evening wedding discos that i've ever needed it so to think of a compact which must literally photograph in a cave is incredible.  Incidentally, the X70 is more expensive than my first and second DSLR's.

It doesn't have a viewfinder of course but I can live with that, I often use the screen on the X-Pro1 with my 42 year old eyes!  I also love that it has an adjustable screen you can flip out for the occasional selfie and being that it's quite a wide lens (although don't forget to figure in that crop factor as it's not a full sized sensor) you can quite comfortably take the odd selfie.

Video on the go is also another thing which I think i'll probably use in the future but haven't yet, I'm not the biggest fan of vlogging but you never know, I might still fully embrace it and 4k crisp video might just come in handy!

So, downsides, well having just spent a half hour editing through the same process as I do with all of my images it was easy to see that these images are not going to be quite as good as my huge clunky Canon but then I'd be expecting way too much if I'd have thought that.  I have to admit to using the wrong film simulation mode today, I usually use Velvia for enhanced colours, today I used the classic chrome and I'm not really a fan, it's a little on the washed out side for me  and so there was more post processing than usual.  I shoot in Jpeg these days, I have for about 2 years now, I'm just not sure there's a need for RAW as long as you know what you're doing, obviously your opinions may vary but from a bloggers point of view I'm not sure just how many shoot in RAW.

The things I've loved today were the lightness, the small size with such mighty power and it is occasionally just nice to point and shoot!

If think if you are an intermediate photographer who wants a great camera for blogging that you can pop in your handbag or messenger bag then really, the Fuji X70 is the best compact camera for blogging that's currently on the market.

Why I'm still photographing weddings

So you noticed the silence?  It's been one of those situations where I literally didn't have the time or energy to blog, 2 days of Chinese wedding madness and it really was bonkers, beautiful, noisy, vibrant, exhausting, suffice to say I just don't know what I was thinking when I'd booked train tickets to go away to York for the night but I'm taking the loss because currently the only friends I have with me are Mr Voltarol and Mr Ibuprofen! 

It's crazy that my Apple watch said I had burnt to few calories over the last couple of days when in fact I've been contorted and stretched, wedged between ironing boards and doors and piles of stools capturing a tea making ceremony, I've stood on chairs at tables quickly navigating from one chair to the other in a crowded restaurant to capture the toasts, I've wrestled with handbags and grouped a couple of hundred people into a lovely formation, I've learned to count to three in Cantonese, it's been the hardest but most enjoyable wedding I've ever shot and a reminder that shooting weddings should never be done on a whim, shooting weddings takes stamina, you have to be a psychologist, a people manager, you have to be assertive whilst not making people hate your authority, you have to get the job done and you have to know your cameras inside out, wedding photography is not for the foolish, the unqualified, and its' certainly not to be taken lightly, I cringe when I hear someone say "oh it's ok, my friend has a good camera, they're going to shoot my wedding."  

I've shot weddings now for 10 years, I used to shoot 35, now I shoot around 10 because I am 42 not 22 and because my business now is made up of so many different things, the writing, the kids and family portraiture, the travel photography...  I tried to give up weddings, I had got down to my last couple and then, something happened, after 8 years I suddenly fell in love with wedding photography all over again, maybe I finally felt qualified or maybe I just remembered how beautiful it is when one person declares their love for another in front of all of their friends and family, maybe I fell in love with other peoples love, the die hard romantic in me still dreams that i'm going to find this unending love again one day.

Weddings are beautiful, wonderful, emotional, busy, bright and bustling places to be, the cacophony of a crowd of happy people gathered celebrating noisily the love of their dearest friend or family members, there's something magical about that and every time I think of retiring from weddings I think just how much I would miss that but more than that.  There's a story I've told a million times but something which is so special in my heart that I'm going to tell it again, it's my favourite moment of a wedding, the groom standing at the alter, the bride, accompanied by her proud father enters the room, they start that slow walk down the aisle, and the groom turns to see his bride for the very first time, their eyes meet and everything else in the world ceases to exist, for that one moment they see only each other, their hearts and souls connect and just for 1 second nothing else matters.  I'm sitting here telling this again with salty tears running down my cheeks and every time I tell someone about that moment I get emotional but that right there in one sentence is why I'm still photographing weddings.

Healthy Fast Food - Mr Lee's Rice Noodles

I live a life where sometimes I'm constantly on the go, I don't stay still for long and I take short cuts where possible like healthy fast food so when Mr Lee's Rice Noodles with no nasties asked if they could send me a box to review I thought they would be worthy of investigation.

Now I can't remember the last time I had a pot noodle but it was maybe around 30 years ago, I've had some healthy noodles since then but Mr Lees rice noodles are the freshest looking noodles once they've been rehydrated and that's thanks to the fact that the ingredients are freeze dried, what's particularly different about them is that the ingredients actually taste exactly like they're supposed to, yes the chicken really does taste like chicken!

Mr Lee's rice noodles are gluten free, low in calories, salt, hydrogenated fats and sugar and they come in 6 tasty flavours, 3 of which are spicier than the others and 2 of which are completely veggie.

At this point I've tried the Penang Chicken Curry Laska and the Hong Kong Street Beef and Looby had the Tai Chi Chicken which she said was like chicken ramen, it certainly smelled and looked good as that was the flavour I photographed as she waited impatiently to eat them.

To do them justice I suggest decanting them into a bowl after they've cooked and eating them with chopsticks, these are gourmet noodles after all!

Now I'm not by any means going to suggest that you give up eating whole foods but if you don't have time for anything but a snack then these really are a hearty bowl of fast food with real vegetables and meat in them, I never for one moment thought that they would look quite so lovely when photographed, they look like they've just been lovingly prepared and everything was fresh, honestly, you could quite easily present this to a hungry worker and they'd never know!

So as I go into the next week, I have a 2 day Chinese wedding and I have a feeling that after tomorrows 12 hour day and Tuesdays 7 hour day I might just be trying the flavours I have left, I've promised to keep the veggie ones for Abigail.

You won't see Mr Lee's noodles in the supermarkets but all around the country Mr Lee's kiosks are going to be popping up serving the noodles up fresh for you when you're on the go, you can even request a machine at your workplace though I think it might be slight overkill to install one in my kitchen.  Oh and if you're wondering if Mr Lee is just a clever name, well it's not, they're named after the creator Damien Lee who whilst he had cancer craved noodles and yet couldn't find any healthy ones so he swore when he got better that he was going to invent some and he has, what a brilliant inspiring story, I find all entrepreneurs inspiring but Damien's story is just incredible and that's why I was delighted to try them and talk about them and tell you if you see those kiosks, well go grab yourself some noodles!

Update - I've just heard from the lovely people at Mr Lee's Noodles that they're going to be available to purchase through Amazon from mid August and I'm thrilled about that because it means we'll be able to stock up and I think they're the perfect snack when I come from from a heavy day of shooting and all I want to do is crawl into bed whilst I'm backing up all of the images!!  These noodles definitely have photographer approval!

Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside, with Biscuiteers

Biscuits, yummy, crumbly iced to perfection biscuits, no one does biscuits as perfectly as Biscuiteers, I've long been a fan so when they offered to send me a tin in exchange for a little blog review, I couldn't really refuse, after all, you can't have a bad day when you start it with the postman delivering the prettiest biscuits you've ever seen.

The thing about Biscuiteers biscuits is they're definitely not an every day biscuit, they're an indulgent, delicious mini piece of art you can eat with a tin you can reuse and fill with treasures and memories. Biscuiteers biscuits are an experience, a gift, a pleasure for all of the senses, to receive them is to feel truly special.

I've previously bought cards from Biscuiteers for all kinds of occasions, I love the fact that you can send not just a card through the post but a card with a biscuit attached and not just any biscuit, the attention to detail is amazing, yes you might think I sound over enthused about these tasty treats but you have to see them and hold them and eat them to truly understand the beauty of them.

The Biscuiteers beside the seaside tin is full of pretty seaside themed biscuits, from tiny deckchairs to bite sized flip flops, a crumbly rich chocolate biscuit topped with crisp, smooth layers of shiny icing in bright coastal shades, every biscuit brings back memories of happy summers of childhood trips to seaside towns when life was easier, quieter and simpler.  The tin costs £39.50 but offers a present so memorable you'll be loved forever.  This year, for future gifting maybe I'll send a tin of Biscuiteers instead of sending a bunch of flowers, equivalent value but you can eat them and keep the pretty tin forever!

Why I refused to sell my story to a weekly womans magazine

Just after there had been an article published in the Evening Chronicle about my nomination for inspirational business mum of the year 2016 I was contacted by a national women's weekly magazine, lets for the sake of argument call them "Stop and Relax",  I spoke to a couple of their writers who were keen to publish my story and whilst I felt slightly reluctant, I was promised that the article would inspire other women who might be in similar situations to make changes and perhaps conquer some of the challenges they faced, that was after all the reason I've been nominated for the aforementioned award and subsequent newspaper article.  

I had several chats with the writers and finally they went away to write the story although there'd already been minor quibbles like them asking me to send in "less professional looking photographs." I didn't really understand why they would ask that of me until I read the draft of their story this week. 

Now I should state that I showed the draft to my 3 best friends to get their opinion in case it was my judgement clouded by the fact that I was aghast at the story they'd produced but no, they all admitted they were pretty speechless by the over dramatic, sensationalist dumbed down piece of "writing" I'd showed them, and I'm using the word writing in the loosest sense of the word!  I do realise that this was never going to be the sort of feature you'd read in the Sunday Times but I had expected at least one or two words to contain more than a couple of syllables!  The thing that got me most was that even though I'd told them my story in great detail over several conversations they still proceeded to make most of it up including some hilarious inner monologues which quite frankly made me sound like a moron, not just any moron but a moron in a soap opera!!

My first question was to go back to them and ask why it wasn't like the inspiring piece the newspaper journalist had written and I was told "newspapers deal in the facts, we're not like that" erm, hang on a minute, I was supposed to agree to an article full of stuff which never actually happened?  Like the time I refused to take medication when I was pregnant?  That's so far from the truth I can't even imagine how they thought I would agree to that.  They did however manage to make my then husband sound like a saintly figure which was nice.

There were so many factual inaccuracies that it was basically a work of fiction and not even a good work of fiction.  I'm not sure who's inner voice it was in those internal monologues they were planning on publishing but it certainly wasn't mine, I even suggested that they go and read excerpts of my blog and they could find my inner voice but they just weren't interested.  If that article had gone to print it would have been about someone completely different to me and not just me now but me, as I was then.  I don't believe it would have inspired anyone though I may have received letters of pity and sympathy and that's not what telling your story should be about and it will never be about that for me.

This was never about the £250 fee for me, it was about helping others who don't feel they can escape from mental health situations, people so trapped in the quagmires of their thoughts they feel there is no hope or chance they'll ever amount to anything when in fact although mental health may be a force you have to wrestle with (sometimes on a daily basis) I firmly believe as I always have that you can do anything you want to, achieve anything you want to, you just need to do it on your own terms.

So that's it, I walked away, I shan't be in the middle of a chatty weekly magazine with my photo's that are too professional and my vocabulary that is too extensive and you know what?  That's okay with me!

A Grand Day of Adventure at Walltown Country Park, Northumberland

Last week was National Park week all over the country and for us it was happening at the Walltown country park in Northumberland, I have to admit that until last week I'd never ever heard of Walltown but as you might guess it's right on the edge of part of Hadrian's Wall.

The girls and I were invited up to try out a range of activities arranged by various providers all celebrating just how amazing our national parks really are and Abigail and Looby being the sporty outdoorsy girls that they are, couldn't wait to try out some of the pursuits on offer.

Families from all over Northumberland seemed to be having a ball with everything from Pizza making to archery and story telling for the younger ones plus some genuinely fascinating displays like solar gazing, if I'm honest I didn't even know that was a thing but there was a definite geeky thrill in being able to look through a specially modified telescope at our nearest star, the sun, it's a jaw dropping moment when you see the surface of that bright orange orb which we don't see enough of in the UK, it's only when you observe such wonders that you become so completely aware of your own fragile mortality knowing you are merely a tiny being amidst an endless universe.

Looby and Abigail though were more about the physical pursuits of rock climbing, archery and zip wiring which was also available for adults but I'm way too much of a coward to try such things.

Even though there was a myriad of things to do we chose to walk into nearby Greenhead for lunch, vegetarian Abigail didn't much fancy her chances at the Northumbrian meats van, maybe something to consider if they plan to offer this special week of activities again next year.  We had a lovely walk though, all down hill on the way there, rather more a different matter on the way back!  We went to the local coffee house and greedily hogged their internet for a whole 5 minutes before they had to unplug it to plug the coffee machine back in (yes, really!).

Back at the country park and we managed to squeeze in another round of archery and meeting some birds of prey before grabbing a coffee and heading back to civilisation on the arranged transportation, we'd had a great day, a muddy day, a tiring day but we'd escaped our iDevices for just a wee while and we'd felt at one with nature and it may just be that we'd spent time just enjoying each others company in the most beautiful splendid countryside setting and as a family, that is never a bad thing.

We were invited guests of the Northumberland National Park and received vouchers to take part in the activities and a little towards the cost of lunch in return for a blog article, all thoughts, feelings, photographs and muddy shoes are that of my own!