December: Reasons to be Merry and Bright

Is anybody still out there? I know that my blogging frequency has become progressively worse this year, all for good reasons, I hope.

I can't believe it's only 2 more days until Christmas, where has this year gone?! This time last year I was in Argentina with the lovely Rosario and Antonio in their beautiful house in Buenos Aires and we had the chance to experience Christmas the Argentinian way, but this year I only have the traditional things in mind!

Here are a few reasons why December has given me reasons to be merry:

I finally finished my post graduate course, which I did enjoy at the time, and you can read the reasons why I'd recommend anyone to do further study in this post, but it did start to become my life for a little while. There were wobblies and late night library sessions, but everything was handed in, with time to spare may I add (purely because the deadline date was the day I was going away!), so I am now just waiting for the results.

My whole reasoning for studying this module was to better prepare myself for a course I want to do next year, I'm a strong believer in tempting fate, and don't want to say too much, but it would seem that by working so hard on this course, it has more than made up for some gaps in my education/work life that may have worked as a hurdle. Phew!

I turned 28, and I think it's the first birthday where it didn't really feel like a birthday because I had so much to do from the three months of studying that I wasn't as prepared for Christmas as I usually am at that time, and it's the first time that I'm not really bothered about getting old, I feel happy about the things I've done over the past few years and content with the direction things are going at the moment.

Finally, my mum turned 60 on Friday, so we went on a mini holiday together to Belgium where I finally soaked up some Christmas spirit. Brussels and Bruges are so beautiful, I will share more pictures with you soon.

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a lovely day! Eat, drink and be merry!

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Weekend: Royal Ascot

Nick’s been working silly hours at the moment at a Summer school down at Ascot teaching foreign students, so I decided to go down and see him this weekend. When I arrived on Friday night I got to see all the amazing things that his students had said about him, and all the gifts that they had given him with, so he’s obviously making the hours count!

After finishing my first week at work in Norwich, I got on the train and made my way to London, then from London to Ascot. I eventually got there at 11 and we walked back to his school in the pitch black.

The school is in a very posh end of town, with lots of huge houses and leafy streets. I’d heard so many things about Ascot because of the races, but I’d never been before.



We had some catch up time before it was time for Nick to go to bed, as he has to work Saturday mornings too. His room really reminded me of being a student at Nottingham Trent with the tiny bed and desk.

He was up bright and early on Saturday, so I got up and did some bits and bobs that I had fallen behind with due to all the craziness of the last few weeks. Not before Nick brought me a very mismatched breakfast that he managed to sneak out from the canteen. Not quite sure if the ratio of jam to other products goes so well here!


When he had finished work at lunch time, we went for a walk around the small town and sat in the park and enjoyed the summer sun with a cider and some sweets. It seems like when the races aren't on at Ascot, there's really not much else happening!




Nick looked absolutely shattered, so we went for some Chinese food before going home and him falling to sleep by 9!

Sunday, wanting to escape Ascot all together, we took the train to Virginia Waters, bought some food for a picnic and took a walk around the lake. On the way to the lake we got a little lost amongst the private Wentworth Estate. Some of the houses we came across were amazing, very big and very grand. The people who live there must earn unimaginable amounts of money! It was a really nice afternoon, but made the time go so fast that before I knew it, it was time to rush home for me to get the train back to Norwich.







Only 3 more weeks before he joins me in the new house with his big sister, Kelly! Looking forward to it!

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Back in England Goals 3/5 and my new obsession

I finally tackled the mammoth task of clearing out my wardrobe this weekend. It was long over due! I've half heartedly been doing it for a while, throwing out a top here, donating a pair of shoes there, but soon I'm going to have to be sharing a wardrobe with Nick, so it only seemed fair that I reduced the amount of clothes I had. Despite him having only a few pieces of clothing, I still need to give him some wardrobe space!

It was helped by the fact that Katie and Becky have introduced me to a website I haven't tried before, Vinted. On the site you upload the clothes you don't want anymore, and can decide if you want to sell them or swap them for something else another user has. It's a really good place to encourage you to recycle clothes rather than buy brand new things all the time.

There's been a lot of bad press recently around the conditions of the people who make our clothes in other countries. It really has made me try and be a bit more conscious about the quantity of clothes I have and how much I really need. Does anyone else feel the same?

If you're interested in what I have to offer, check out my Vinted profile here!

So there's one more heart achieved on my list, two more to go. 4 days until I leave Sheffield...I wonder if I can achieve the others before I go? I have my doubts!


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Weekend: Sheffield

With my time in Sheffield coming to an end before I feel like it's even started, I've tried to fit lots in this weekend. I am working for the next 4 days, then have Friday off to prepare for the big move down to Norwich next Monday, then starting work at my new job on Tuesday!

It's all go at the moment as Nick has managed to get himself a job as a teacher at a summer school for foreign students. It sounds perfect for him as he is teaching older children, it lasts for 5 weeks, right up until we officially should have moved to Norwich, and hopefully will put a few pennies in his pockets.

My weekend started when I switched off my computer after what felt like forever on Friday evening at 5pm. I headed into town to start browsing for a dress to wear to my old housemate, Harjit's wedding. Sadly I didn't find anything so I decided to leave it for another day and went to meet Louise for a few drinks.

We met at Caffe Leopold on Leopold Street for some sparkly prosecco. I don't really know what's happened since I got home but the world seems prosecco mad at the moment. I'm not going to complain though as the one we had in the bar was incredibly delicious.

Following that we went to the Bamboo Door tiki bar that Fury, James and Sheena introduced me to last time I was out with them and we had a lovely mango cocktail. It was really refreshing and perfect to drink while sitting outside enjoying the evening sun.

We went to our old haunts back when we used to work together and went to Walkabout and the Common Room and finished off our night with a Desperadoes. Louise had to dash off but I had enough time before my last bus to meet the lovely Caroline and Irene for one.






I collapsed into bed at about 12:30 after a very busy first week working. 4 days left until I leave again!

On Saturday I spent the day sorting out my wardrobe. I gave a whole bundle to charity, some had to be thrown away and the rest I put on a website that I'm going to talk about later in the week!

That evening I went for a meal with my dad, my step-mum, my grandad and my sister to a restaurant just across the road. The food was delicious and I finished all of my lemon merangue pie! Poor Millie has had a bit of a traumatic week after her pug, Patrick, was hit by a car. Luckily he survived with just a few cuts and bruises and hopefully he will be back to his usual mischievous self soon.

Sunday morning I was up early again to meet my mum for a day trip out to the Derbyshire Dales. It was not too far from where we took Nick, but this time we went to Matlock and Cromford to have a wander around the shops and we spent hours in a little book shop that I'm sure I'll be visiting again as soon as I'm back in Sheffield!




Sunday evening was spent doing a little more of my British Sign Language Course, cooking a favourite recipe of mine and planning for the busy week ahead!

I hope your weekend was as fun packed as mine.

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My Weekend in Pictures

Hello! I hope that everyone had a great weekend and gave their dads lots of love. Here are a couple of photos from my weekend. Sadly, I don't have a camera at the moment so I'm using my old school IPhone 3 and my IPad to take pictures for now, so they're not the best quality. It's taking a lot of time for me to get back into the swing of being a proper grown up in England and sorting out a new phone contract!

The weekend started off with a bit of a bang as a house on my road caught fire thanks to some faulty solar panels on the roof. The firemen were hard at work trying to put the fire out and I wasn't allowed to get to my house, so I spent the sunny afternoon in the park. Luckily I'd just been shopping so had some cherries and wine to keep me company! Everyone in the house got out safely but there house is not in a good condition.

Friday I saw the Coppards and Sheena and we went for a few drinks in Sheffield town centre. We tried the new Bamboo Door Bar in Leopold Square. This is a cute tiki themed cocktail bar and I had the most amazing cocktail called Eats, Shoots and Leaves which was a piña colada-esque cocktail with a toasted marshmallow on top. Yum.

Saturday was lost to sensible things like getting my eyes tested and looking at phones. There are so many fancy ones nowadays it all felt a bit bewildering. When I got home I tried to find a new home for the lovely gifts Tasha bought me from her trips around Asia. I finished the day trying to watch the England vs. Italy World Cup game but had to go to bed after half time because of my eyes involuntarily drooping!

Sunday I celebrated Father's Day by mowing the lawn. It was a lot harder than it looked and not what I was expecting my dad to want so I wasn't really dressed appropriately. Under the lovely green fleece is my new charity shop find.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Back For Good

Well the sun is shining, and then it's raining, and then it's shining again, and then it's thundery, which can only mean I'm back in England in the summer time!

We had a safe flight back from Mexico and landed on Thursday morning. Still not quite got used to being able to throw toilet roll down the toilet and not in a bin, or bring able to communicate anything I want to anyone without tripping over another language.

It does mean however that our travels are over for now. I've packed away the plugs and the travel hairdryer and don't know when I'll be seeing them again! Eeeek!

So far, I've had a lovely time at home. I spent a few days in Nick's home town, Southend-On-Sea. We celebrated his sister's birthday by eating all the food we'd missed. We took a couple of walks along the sea front with the neighbour's dog, and we had a nice meal when my dad came to pick me up.






Home has been a busy mish mash of seeing people, I had a night out on Saturday in Sheffield. I've eaten roast dinners and even been lucky enough to have a tea party thrown for me by my mum.


Yesterday Tasha came to Sheffield and we spent the day looking around the shops, I'm not used to seeing so many clothes that would actually fit me! Then we went to meet Preeya, Liz, Laura and Sarah for some food at the lovely Thyme Cafe in Broomhill. <3



Phew! Now I intend to spend today sorting out all the clothes that I forgot I own, doing some blog planning and generally trying to get things in order.

I'll be back in a day or two!

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