Tag Archives: weekly blog

A little update

First of all, I apologise profusely to anyone who was even a little bit interested in my holiday blog posts, as they are now, definitely, 100% over.

I got back in reality (AKA the UK) last Sunday, and post-holiday blues are definitely setting in now. I can’t even entertain the thought of posting about the last few days of my holiday in fear of bursting into tears. In fact I was listening to my iPod on shuffle earlier when a Tom Petty song came on. I felt my eyes well up and promptly skipped it (Tom Petty is my family’s ‘Florida’ soundtrack). I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet that I’m back in the UK and not in Florida, and this thought is well and truly depressing. Even more so, the fact that I have no idea when, or even if, I’ll go back.

Who am I kidding?! Of course I’ll go back, but definitely not in the near future. Although, walking past Thomas Cook earlier, I noticed that flights to Orlando are only £400 at the moment, and caught myself wondering how long it would take me to save up for flights. I could just figure out a plan when I got there. The plan most probably being to find a lovely Floridian man who is willing to marry me in order for me to obtain a green card and stay there happily ever after basking in the sun and working as a wizard at Universal Studios (US Immigrations, if you’re reading this, I am joking by the way. If I am to move to the US, I will do it the proper way, I promise).

Back to reality, of course, means back to university. My lovely mum drove me back up to Sunderland on Monday, both of us suffering immense jet lag. Needless to say, I didn’t expect her to stick around and help me unpack. So after a longer than expected trip to B&M and Tesco, she headed off, leaving me overwhelmed with a pile of unpacking to do.

And after several hours, and a few minutes spent unexpectedly falling asleep on my then unmade bed, I finally had everything unpacked and my room looking lovely and homely.

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The flat is really nice. It feels so homely compared to student halls, and just feels like a proper home! I also missed my flatmates SO much over summer and it is great to be around them again!

University has been going well too. I started shorthand this week and have a sort of “what the hell have I got myself into” outlook on it at the minute. It’s so complicated but I’m sure I’ll get it in no time! Second year is definitely proving to be more difficult than first year already, but I guess that’s the point!

I’m sort of glad I decided to update. Although I hadn’t planned it, I feel like my writing flows better when I’ve had a few vodkas whilst watching Friday night TV!

Until next time…

Home / University Room Haul!

I vowed when I made this blog that under NO circumstances I’d do a haul post. But as summer is coming to an end and I’ve been buying things for my room at university I got a little excited and I can’t resist. Plus I haven’t blogged in a while, and since this week has been pretty boring, apart from packing for my holiday (2 SLEEPS!), I’ve done virtually nothing worth writing home about, so I may as well fill in the gap somehow right?!

I’ve been buying things ever since I came back to Hull after my first year ended because I absolutely adore going round shops and picking up cute bits and pieces that I could visualise in my new room. Most of the stuff is from B&M and Home Bargains. I love being thrifty and these are my favourite shops!

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So this first lot is all from B&M. I wish I could be bothered to take everything out of packaging for the sake of a better photo, but I just can’t so you’ll have to make do with that!
I started by picking up a new plate set because I chucked my old set away, it was Asda Smart Price and I was a first year, but I think I’ve grown enough to be allowed to have a proper grown up crockery set now! This one was £12.99 I think and it’s SO cute. It’s all edged with flowers and spots and I love it! The plastic cups sort of match and they were 4 for £3.
The bedding is like a patchwork pink/red/turquoise colour and is all flowery. I just love anything floral so that will look super cute. The bedding set was £12.99 for a double. Next to that is the bottom sheet and pillow cases which have brown hearts on, and match the little cushion. The sheet set was £6.99 and the pillow was £2.99. The other brown heart pillow was £3.99 I think.

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Next up is my AMAZING new lamp. Any one of my friends will tell you that every time I went in Asda, I yearned for this lamp. But at £25 it was way too expensive for my student budget. Luckily, I have a brilliant Nanna who wanted to treat me before I went back to university, so she bought me it! Originally it came with a plain white lampshade, but I picked this floral one up for £7.99 at TK Maxx, which makes it look even better I think!

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I’ve also developed a bit of a thing for glass jars this summer too. These are all from B&M and to be honest, aside from the jar with pens in, I have no idea what I’m going to do with them! But they look nice so who cares?! Pretty sure they were all £1.99 from B&M.

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These things were definitely impulse buys! The Kellogg’s bowl was £1 from Discount UK and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I definitely don’t need another cereal bowl so I guess that will just sit in my room doing god knows what until I decide what to do with it.
I also have no idea what I’ll do with the cat tin either. But it’s adorable and only set me back £1.75 from Home Bargains anyway so it’s not that bad. I’ll definitely wish for that £1.75 back a few weeks into term when I’m skint!
I actually do have a purpose for the glass jar with lid! I’m gonna put bobbles in it (probably), failing that I’ll just use it for bits and bobs. It was £1.99 from Home Bargains.

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I bought these cute plastic containers from Home Bargains too. They were £1.75 for the four of them, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with these either but I’m sure I’ll find a purpose!

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I needed some new photo frames, and these were only £1 each from Poundland. They’re plastic and feel a bit cheap but they look nice and when I get photos in them they’ll look cute on my dresser or shelves!

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Lastly is some bunting. I was looking for red bunting for ages before I found this and thought it was all a bit pricey for a bit of material. I saw one in The Range which was £8 for 8 flags! I got this from eBay for around £4 I think. I just tried to log on to link the seller but it won’t let me sign in. But there’s loads of cheap bunting on there anyway!

So that’s it. I’ve got some other stuff such as pot, pans, and utensils but that’s all pretty boring. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this weeks post and I’ll be back as normal at the weekend because I’ll be in FLORIDA!

x

 

 

 

 

Sea lions, sunny Wales, and spending time with family.

Now we have the first post out of the way, I can carry on blogging like this is my fiftieth post, not my second.
As I write this, I’m sat my living room after a four hour drive from hell back from my grandparents in the “sunny” seaside town of Rhyl, North Wales. I put sunny between quotation marks because, well, it wasn’t. We had a little peek of sun earlier on today, but that’s exactly what it was – a peek.

I drove the 160 odd miles there on Thursday evening, and it was probably the longest drive I’ve ever done. In fact, it didn’t strike me that I hadn’t done a long motorway drive in a year or so until I was half way down the M62, rain hammering down, windscreen wipers on full, going about 30 miles an hour with people overtaking me left, right and centre. Not to mention the fact I’d forgotten to take my sunglasses off. So not only was my vision impaired by the rain, but I was that moron who was driving in the rain with sunglasses on.

To make matter worse, I almost missed my turning, and to make matters even worse than that, some senseless woman abused my personal driving space by cutting me up and almost ramming into the side of me. When we caught up to her later, my sister informed me that she was twirling her hair between her fingers and staring at herself in her rear view mirror, so I’ll let her off on the basis of being cursed with the dreaded contemptuousness.

Alas, after panicking at twisty roads and steep hills, I did manage to get me and my sister, Emma, to my grandparents bungalow in one piece.

Apart from eating some lovely chicken casserole, cooked by my lovely Nanna, I didn’t really do much because I was shattered so just fell into bed and fell asleep almost instantly. It was nice to stay with my Grandparents and sleep in an actual bed. Usually we come with my parents and are exiled to the floor of the study, so a bed was very welcome!

On Friday, I met up with Annie, a friend, and housemate from university. It was so nice to see her and catch up because I hadn’t seen her for a good two months since we left for summer. We went to a lovely pub in Rhuddlan called Morfa (which translates as marsh apparently). I had a chicken club sandwich with side salad which was pleasant, but as I don’t really eat bread much anymore, it made me feel horrid for a couple of hours.

After eating, Annie and I parted ways, and Emma and me went on the Great Supermarket Tour of Wales 2014. First stop, Sainsbury’s. (I’d just like to add in here how bad the signal and 3G is on 3 network in North Wales, but for a second in Sainsbury’s car park, I got 4G for the very first time ever – a monumental occasion). I’d seen a lot of stationary when we popped in earlier so wanted to have another look. Everyone who knows me, will know I’m an ample stationary enthusiast. After loading my trolley full of goodies, I decided that ASDA would be cheaper, so left empty handed.

No matter where I go, I ALWAYS seem to find an ASDA. It’s like I’m magnetically attracted to it. The ASDA in Rhyl however, isn’t to my taste. The freezer aisles are right at the front of the store, so it just looked odd. So after a quick once-over, I bought some cool sticky notes and book markers and left.

ASDA was right next to a beach, Kinmel Bay I believe it was called. So we had a wander down there, and swiftly vacated when I saw the Liverpudlian chavs drinking Strongbow while their clamorous offspring dripped ice cream all over their grubby fingers. Not exactly the atmosphere I want to be part of, really.

Back in the car and back towards my Grandparents house, we tried to find a parking space on Rhyl’s promenade, but with no avail. I really fancied a go in the arcades too, but never mind, it looked very full of the same types we saw at Kinmel Bay anyway, which made me realise that Rhyl is a mecca for Liverpudlian holiday makers.

Back to Sainsbury’s now for the fourth visit of the day. And then back to my Grandparents where we at chicken, salad, coleslaw and potatoes. My sister then decided she wanted some melted chocolate and marshmallows, so we were back in the car for Sainsbury’s round 5. I know, I know, totally extirpating my own diet (not sure if I’ve mentioned but I’m currently following the Slimming World diet plan and have lost three stone so far). But I did have some melted chocolate, and some marshmallows, albeit sugar free, they tasted like nothingness. And the night was just a downward spiral from then on, dipping anything I could get my hands on in the melted chocolate. The abundance of chocolate and self loathing, from eating a huge amount of said chocolate, made me tired so I went to bed.

Up nice and early for a day at the zoo on Saturday!
Much to the disgust of Emma, my alarm went off at 8am and we were up, ready and out of the house by 10. Only half an hour after I wanted to be. I’d not been to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in years and it was a lot different, and a lot bigger than I’d remembered.

After me becoming ludicrously hysterical while driving up the mountain – I am not used to hills, driving up hills, and certainly not stopping and starting on hills, so this was quite a problematic task for me – we finally made it to the very quiet zoo car park. I was expecting an assemblage of more Liverpudlian tourists, due to it being a Saturday, but much to my surprise, we were one of only a few cars.

*cue photos of cute animals that you probably won’t care about*

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We saw sea lions, flamingos, emus, snow leopards, lemurs, tigers, red pandas (literally the cutest little guys I’ve ever seen) and loads more. It was a lovely day and well worth the £10.95 (£9.95 + Gift Aid) admission fee.

The hoards of tourists turned up at about half past 1, just as we were going round the last part of the zoo. Which made me glad we woke up that bit earlier as I’m not very good at waiting half an hour for someone to move their pram (complete with child), which is blocking the exit door of the alligator enclosure. I’m also not very good at navigating myself around screaming children who are running after ducks, rabbits and turkeys in the “petting zoo”. Personally, I didn’t think that ducks and turkeys enjoyed being coddled by toddlers but who am I to judge?!

Despite this, it was a brilliant day and worth the entry just to see the view from the top of the mountain. Absolutely breathtaking:

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Here’s Emma, pretending to enjoy the view (and the wind) in a Snapchat I sent to my parents:

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After a delightful day at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, me and Emma headed back to Rhyl. Not without stopping at Sainsbury’s on the way home (of course), to get some chicken and a brown roll for lunch. Emma had McDonald’s, but I was trying to be good after the melted chocolate debacle from the previous night.

My efforts to be good were futile, Nanna and Granddad took us to a little pub called The Red Lion for dinner.

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The Red Lion’s slimming choices were few and far between. I opted for a Welsh steak burger with chips, a side salad and the most amazing salsa I’ve ever eaten in my life.

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It was okay, nothing to write home about, but it was lovely to have a meal out with the grandparents, and even lovelier that they treat us to the meal! The only downside was the fact we were seated right in the middle of 70th birthday so when the lady who’s birthday it is walked in to twenty odd people singing ‘happy birthday’, it was a little awkward, but funny nonetheless.

Spending time with my Welsh Nanna & Granddad was really great, and it was sad to leave not knowing when we’ll see them again.

I’m home now and ready to start another exciting (or not so exciting, depending on how you look at it) week. I have my first scheduled radio show tomorrow which I’m really thrilled about! You can listen to it here: http://hullrecoveryradio.disc-vol.org.uk if you so wish.

I hope that in time, my posts are a bit more orthodox. I feel like this one is all over the place, but I’m sure I’ll get into the swing of things soon!

Noson dda! (Welsh for good night, although it probably isn’t because it’s from Google Translate, and we all know how accurate that is…).