The Month That Was: April 2017

Last updated: 25 June 2023

From the Roaming Required Archives. Here’s a flashback from April 2017.

If I’m being honest, April came and went in the blink of an eye.  We’re quite behind on our blog this month and after you read this, you’ll appreciate why!

The Society of Bloggers

April kicked off with a few blogger events in London. I represented the Roaming Required duo at Travel Massive, a fairly regular blogger meet-up event, this time in a bar in Old Street.  We had the top floor of this old pub but by the time everyone turned up it became incredibly noisy and so squishy.

I joined some friends for cocktail happy hour at Mabel’s in Covent Garden. I’d been there before with the London Bloggers group so I knew it was going to be solid.   Totally recommend it if you’re looking for a great little venue with a decent happy hour and affordable sharing platters.  Get there early otherwise it’s standing room only on the pavement outside!

Abbi from UpraisedLiving invited me to join her at the Wonderland bar launch in Waterloo. As Abi puts it so aptly in her blog post on the event it was a great place to escape our 9 to 5 and feel the freedom of childish wonder.

The basement Wonderland Bar is a pop-up that is running alongside Alice Adventures Underground which is an immersive theatre experience. We didn’t see the theatre show but the bar featured some wild characters that we couldn’t help but love their vibrancy, if you go, I’m sure you will too.

The Sony World Photography Awards opened for two weeks at one of my favourite places in London, Somerset House.  I tagged along for a quick squiz one afternoon. I could talk all day about the high quality and inspirational images but instead I made a little 90 second video about it which you can watch here. ⬇️

Air New Zealand (Air NZ) had an experiential marketing pop-up in Soho.  On display were their new Business and Premium Economy seats. Also on display was the economy class Sky Couch. Air NZ has had this in their fleet for years but completely under marketed in my opinion.  Across 3 seats, the soft plush leg rests fold up, turning the entire seat into a lie flat bed.  Fellow blogger Emily Luxton tried out the Skycouch and showed me how it’s done, champagne in hand of course!

American tour operator Trek America held an event in London in April.  They’re very Influencer friendly and often run great campaigns like #iTrekHere which my blogger friend Ed Rex was selected for a few years ago.  With a simulated casino, we were given Trek America dollars to play on the blackjack table, live country music, and virtual reality headsets to transport us to some of the USA’s most famous destinations. It was a great night.

Easter rolled around to the middle of April so that meant we had a few days off to go exploring.  We had planned to spend the weekend in Russia but that all fell through and we needed to (yet again) stay confined to the island of the UK.  With that in mind, we jumped in the car very early on the morning of Good Friday.   While I snuggled my pillow in the passenger seat and snoozed on and off for many hours, Russ drove us to Perthshire in Scotland in relatively good time, about eight hours!

Our weekend in Scotland was very much made up as we went along. Yet to write about it here but intend to so I’ll keep this bit brief.  We visited Stirling, a medieval market town, featuring city walls (some still visible today) a citadel and Stirling Castle which is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland.  

In the mornings we whizzed around the farm shops eating locally grown produce. The whole experience reminded me I’m still a country girl at heart.  

As we ventured around the region, Russ tortured me with some historically significant places and monuments over the course of the weekend. Like everything, some better than others. Cambuskenneth Abbey is where James III of Scotland is buried, a tad dull but nevertheless it’s interesting to see a Monarch buried in the yard of a ruined Augustinian monastery in a small village in Scotland.   

Another item on Russ’ wish list was to see the National Wallace Monument.  To get to it we had to hike to the top of Abbey Craig.  The Craig overlooks the region and the views over Stirling are quite stunning however I can’t tell you how much I hate hiking.  

We made time to visit St Andrews, the home of golf.  Shockingly, the weather was perfect despite a stiff breeze we spent half a day exploring this famous university city.  

On our way back to London, we swung by Lincoln. Another medieval market town but has two dominating features. A Castle and a very impressive Cathedral.  It holds one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta – the others are held at the British Library and Salisbury Cathedral.  You could easily spend a weekend in Lincoln, wandering around the quaint streets and admiring the stylish quintessentially English tutor style architecture.  It’s certainly something I think we may do in the future.  More on Lincoln later…

Meanwhile back in London, April is the London Marathon season.  I’m not one to actually do the marathon but I still think it’s impressive for anyone that does undertake this mammoth challenge to run 42km/26mi around London’s best sights.  A few bloggers; Haydn, Andonis and Natalie.  You’re all winners in my book!

April is also a birthday month for Roaming Required.  This year Russ got a bit ripped off in the birthday stakes, with the annual ‘Choose Your Birthday Adventure’ trip being railroaded by the Traverse Conference in London. Between the new Xbox and our upcoming trip to Australia I think he’s OK about it.

I’m finally getting to it, Traverse.  Traverse was my first, and is my favourite, travel blogging conference.  This year it was held in London for the first time, and rather than running over just a weekend, it ran ALL week plus the weekend.  

So over the course of 7 days, while maintaining a full time job I managed to attend:

• Prosecco and nibbles at very swish Japanese restaurant Kouzo in Belgravia
• Cocktails at London Bridge Hotel with my blogging friend Steve from BiggsyTravels
• Fellow blogger Dylan tied the knot with his blushing Bride Sara
• A food tour around London’s trendy East London

• A tropical themed dinner at Trader Vic’s at the Hilton on Park Lane
• Tried my hand at Room Escape for the first time. – Hint: We escaped in record time!
• Traverse opening party was held at Skyloft in Westminster where we won a 5-star 7-night hotel stay in Mallorca, Spain! Woohoo!
• Traverse conference over two days at Ravensbourne in North Greenwich, under the shadow of the O2.
• City Cruises kindly hosted the Traverse conference for an evening cruising the Thames. We were incredibly lucky to have fabulous weather for the whole event.  

• Lastly the Traverse closing party. Traditionally a big evening, we were hosted at Iberico in Canary Wharf. Cava, modern Spanish-tapas cuisine to keep us going.  I did notice many of the attendees starting to flake.  After all it had been a long week!

Social media

The most popular shot on Instagram this month was this taken in Stirling Scotland over Easter weekend.  It turns out that while cherry blossoms are in full bloom around London, Scotland isn’t any different! 

What’s coming up in May?

Lucky for us, the UK has two bank/public holidays in May. One at the beginning and one at the end.  One will be spent resting quietly after a huge week of the Traverse conference.  I’m thinking getting up at noon and having a nanna-nap after lunch. You get my drift.

One of Russ favourite stand-up comedians, Bill Bailey, is trying out some new content in London, so we’ve got tickets for that which should be fun.  

Russ is back on the road heading around the country. Back to the familiar sights and sounds of Liverpool, Manchester and perhaps even Edinburgh. So if you’ve got a favourite hotel, cafe or restaurant please drop us a line or leave a comment. We’re always up for new places.  

In mid-May we’ll be packing our bags and heading off to Australia for a few weeks.  Long overdue trip to see family and friends.  I’m taking my mum to Canberra for a couple of days for a ‘girls trip’ so if you have tips, send them through.

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