ISSA Sushi, Lewes - review

Last weekend, Nik and I had the chance to be spontaneous, the kids were with their grandparents for the weekend so we decided to head out for dinner on Friday evening, we thought it would be good for us both to get out together, alone.  I had just found out there was a new sushi restaurant in Lewes which is really exciting as so far we've had to travel to Brighton for sushi or make do with Waitrose's offerings.

The restaurant was pretty quiet for a Friday night but there were a couple of other tables occupied and it meant we got served quickly.  The menu was extensive with plenty of choice ranging from sushi to thai curries so if you're not keen on sushi, there are plenty of other options from the far east, we had trouble deciding what to order as it all sounded so good!

We ordered a range of starters instead of having a main as we wanted to have a selection of sushi and other things.  The sushi is quite expensive as it usually is when done properly.  It was worth it though.  Our food came out in the order it was ready and was all nicely presented.  We ordered prawn gyoza, vegetable tempura, salt & pepper squid, chicken yakitori, salmon temaki and tuna sashimi as well as some egg fried rice.  We also received a surprise dish on the house, a miso aubergine.

Post Natal Depression at 3 years.

I've written 3 posts about this now, I keep starting again.  It's hard to explain.  It's hard to admit, to myself and to the world.  I've been diagnosed with post-natal depression.  After 3 years.  I didn't even know it could present so late but apparently it can peak at age 4.  Three is a difficult age but I'm just not coping.

I hope that by writing about this I find it therapeutic as I did when I wrote honestly about our IVF.  I hope to feel less alone.  And maybe, help others feel less alone like with the IVF.  I used to receive messages about that at the time.  Perhaps it will be the same with this but I worry about coming across as ungrateful for the twins and our life.  I also worry about what they may think should they read this one day but I hope to teach them that mental health is important, can affect anyone and that this is nothing to do with them but is a medical problem affecting me and I do love them immensely, despite me finding motherhood extremely difficult right now.  I just feel like I need to be open and honest about this too.

My GP thinks my pnd has been bubbling away at a low level for a long time but with recent pressures at work, Nik's looming exam and more time alone dealing with two toddlers with challenging behaviour, I'm really struggling.

High Chai at Amira's Kitchen in Uckfield - afternoon tea review

I was invited along to Uckfield's newest Indian restaurant, Amira's Kitchen, to try their "High Chai" afternoon tea with a twist.  They're currently offering 2 for 1 throughout March too which makes it excellent value!

This Detailed Life - Instagram Hub

Nine months ago, before I upgraded my bexphoto website and moved [most of] my old photography blog over there, I wrote about Instagram hubs which I'd just discovered.  If you're not sure what I mean by a hub (I've had to explain it to Nik), it's an account which features work of other photographers.  If you use a specific hashtag, the hub can pick and choose from all the tagged images to feature on their profile, always tagging the original photographer so it's a good way to gain more exposure, particularly with the bigger hubs.

I was thrilled to have been featured by a few of them and I listed some of my favourite hubs to follow, the more general ones like Dear Photographer and Clickin Moms (both of which have huge followings and over a million tags) and those with a more specific theme like The Monochromatic Lens or Honestly Parents.

Not only can it gain you more exposure but you can find so much inspiration following these accounts.  As the images they share are hand picked from many different photographers, you see a wide variety of excellent work.  It's also great if you're looking for specific inspiration, you will probably find a hub which focuses on whatever it is.  I love some of the new faceless and freelensing hubs I've discovered recently like Faceless Friday, Project Faceless, The Freelensed and The Freelensed Project.

One of the best things about these hubs is the community they help to build.  Sharing each others' work, congratulating others on their features, commenting and finding work you love, new photographers to follow.

I always wanted to be a mod (one of the people who help run these accounts, choosing from the tags which photos to share) but the opportunity never arose but then I thought, why not create my own.  I am loving detail shots lately so it seemed a no brainer to choose details for my hub and This Detailed Life was born.  I've written more about my own hub on bexphoto and you can follow it here if you love images of beautiful details.

Snow Days in Sussex!

It's pretty rare for us to get decent snow down here so I was a bit gutted when our first flurry this winter came when I was half blind with conjunctivitis.  This week, apart from the obvious dangers, I was really quite excited about all the snow!  The twins were so excited to wake up to such a thick covering and it was on my day off with them anyway so we didn't need to try to get anywhere and just got ready for some snowy adventures.