This Month of Mine #8

It's only apt I change the title of the series for this edition seeing as I haven't updated in nearly a month.

1. I finished my university job in the first week of May. I was an academic support worker for students and seeing as it is now exam time followed by holidays there isn't any more work.

2. I spent a couple of weeks job-hunting and spending ages writing fancy cover letters only to hear nothing back from most.

3. I've landed myself two new jobs. My first is cleaning show homes and helping in the office. I'm not entirely sure on this. The cleaning part is fine but the office is very male-dominated and i'm not very good on 'banter' that seems to make it tick.

4. My second is working at the weekends for a catering recruitment agency. I've only done one weekend here so far. I worked at a wedding last Saturday. It went well but I felt AWFUL when I finished. Every single part of my body hurt and I then had to drive over an hour to get home in the small hours of the morning! On the Sunday I worked in the one of the hospitality restaurants at Stoke City at the Stoke V Liverpool game. I did catch a few minutes of the game but managed to miss all seven goals lol!

5. I did start drinking loads of water each day and I liked the effects. Unfortunately diet and exercise have gone out of the window recently, especially this weekend. We bought lots of goodies to watch the game and i've just eaten everything in sight. I'll start again tomorrow because my new work trousers are tight enough as it is!

6. I've started a bullet journal inspired by reading this from Miss Pond It's a method that brings and keeps all your lists and notes together in one place. So far I really love it and it helps keep me accountable for my tasks.

7. Speaking of the game, we decorated the house for the Aston Villa V Arsenal FA Cup Final yesterday. So proud of my team for getting there but we just didn't perform well yesterday. Oh well onward and upwards for the new season.

8. I'm watching normal Big Brother for the first time in a long time. The housemates obviously got on a little too well so BB shook it up on Friday. It was very dramatic, especially that carousel, the evictees were very shocked!

9. Almost forgot three very important events.  The General Election. I did have a lot to say about this at the time but it's left my mind now. It was great to see so many young people online getting involved. Whether this applied to all young people I don't know. I do think politics should be taught in school. At 27 I am only just starting to understand it myself. Don't get me started on other elections though.  We were having council elections too, baffling!

10. #VEDay70 I thought the concert in London was beautiful and a wonderful mix of performances, readings, visuals and memories. One lady who was reading a letter home from a soldier that died, was struggling and was very emotional reading it, as was I. Take a moment and think of those involved and effected by the war and how lucky we are today.

11. A new princess was born. I was glued to the screen with my Mum and Nana awaiting a glimpse. Great name choice. Charlotte is my sisters name, Elizabeth is my middle name and it was very fitting to have Diana there. Welcome to the world HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. 

This week i'm looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. It's always a good race, in fact the best one i've ever seen was at Canada in 2010 when Jenson Button came from last place to win it! 

I also have to decided by Thursday which university to 'firm'. I know it's going to be a night before decision, I really can't make my mind up!

I've tried a different format this time, is it easier to read this way? I've not really been feeling blogs recently and most of my Bloglovin' feed just isn't appealing. If you've posted lifestyle recently link it below, it's the only type i'm into reading at the moment.

Hope you've all enjoyed your weekends (working or not working), have you been up to much?

I've linked my other weekly updates below if you fancy a peek.

This Week of Mine #7
This Week of Mine #6
This Week of Mine #5

This Week of Mine #4

This Week of Mine #3

This Week of Mine #2

This Week of Mine #1

This Week of Mine #7 TVD/Hula-Hooping/Bournemouth

I lie slightly. This covers the past three weeks not one. Please forgive me. ;)

Dogs
We've had the company of these two for the past 2 1/2 weeks whilst my brother was on honeymoon.

Once they had calmed down they were adorable with totally different personalities. The house is empty now without them!

Show
We had the biggest show of the year last week at the ExCel Centre in London. We stayed over the night before but it was still a very long Saturday, rising at 5.30am and arriving back home at 10pm.

Exercise
My choice of exercise this few weeks has been with a hula-hoop i've bought from Argos. I've always found hula-hooping really easy and I love doing it. I'd love to be able to learn tricks and even go to a class but it's not something that you see around a lot. I read an article on the Daily Mail about a lady who did it for 5 mins every morning and evening and lost inches off her waist. I'm doing it in bigger bursts between 15 and 45 minutes as I don't get to do it everyday due to circumstance and the bruises!

I'll let you know the results!

Bridgemere

We took a trip to this huge garden centre with shops today. I'm been coming since I was a child, the park there was amazing, it was like a massive wooden fortress. Unfortunately they've ditched that now (probably some health and safety boring rule!) but the centre has expanded in other ways. I haven't been for a few years but they've now several shops including Lakeland and a really good farm shop (which wasn't too pretentious!)

Vampire Diaries
We've had a couple of cracking episodes recently. The first trying to save Bonnie from giving up. Evil turned sort of nice Kai I actually like and the drama trying to send them to the other side to stop Bonnie was proper edge of the seat stuff!

The next episode was incredibly sad. Sheriff Forbes was one of the only humans Damon respected, i'm glad both her and Caroline got a peaceful ending there. This overshadowed Jeremy's departure to what we thought was art school but to what was actually a life of vampire hunting. Tut tut naughty Alaric and Jeremy. We did have a new beginning in this episode though, that of the Steroline relationship. Their first kiss was visually and audibly stunning, set to the lovely Ella Henderson's - Yours.

Uni news
I had my final interview in Bournemouth just a few days after the wedding. It's a long way from the Midlands but I wished to visit and be interviewed nonetheless. After checking into the B&B we took a stroll into town and to the beach.

I really like this shot I got, I posted it on Facebook and someone thought it was LA! It certainly looks more exotic than the UK!

I live for the 2p slot machines in arcades!

The interview the next day went well and I was impressed by the course there. When it finished in the afternoon Charlotte and I went for a last walk along the beach before heading home. To get to the beach from the town you walk through the most beautiful landscaped gardens. They also have a rather unusual feature that you cannot fail to spot. 

What is this??

There is a hot air balloon situated in the park that you can take a ride in to take in the views. It doesn't fly off completely but does reach pretty high!

You can't tell from these pictures but the beach was packed as it was very warm!

Charlotte getting in my shot ;)

Time for home! I noticed on the way down that we drove past the New Forest, so found the easiest village to detour to from the main road and we ended up in Burley. The New Forest is famed for it's wild horses and ponies, we saw evidence of this ourself when this one meandered it's way through the centre!

Seeing as you have reached this far why not leave a comment below. What did you think about the Vampire Diaries? Have you ever been to Bournemouth?

I've linked my other weekly updates below if you fancy a peek.

This Week of Mine #6
This Week of Mine #5

This Week of Mine #4

This Week of Mine #3

This Week of Mine #2

This Week of Mine #1

The Wedding!

If you've read any of my This Week of Mine posts you will know it was my brother's wedding recently. I spent ages getting my outfit together, I don't know how it took so long to be honest.

A few things: 

- You will end up buying shoes from the first shop you went into, so if you like something then buy it, don't go and then spend 6 hours looking round further shops!

- Don't sweat it on the small stuff, no-one really looks that closely at you or cares that much what earrings or shoes you are wearing. 

- If you know certain sleeve styles don't suit you, then for goodness sake don't go and buy a dress for a wedding that will forever be on show on photos for years to come! I was going to edit my outfit photo to cut off my fat arms but that isn't actual real-life blogging now is it?

Anyway onto the day. My sister and I's desk in the hotel ended up crazy, look properly and it seems to read as if from a beauty bloggers essential buys handbook, oops!

The service was really lovely and they had VW campervans taking them to the reception, which was beach themed. You can see in the top photo and just look at the cake!

So different, really unique and totally scrumptious! 

I won't share any pics of other people (apart from my sister) because I wouldn't want to do that without asking but the bride's dress was lace, similar to Kate Middletons but short sleeved. It was totally amazing!

My dress was sleeveless, fitted on the top and flared out to just below the knee and even had a small net under meaning I could do the whole twirling and swishing thing! :D I wore a pair of cream open-toe slingbacks and the awesome fascinator you can see. My hair was curled and pinned to one side.

Something a bit different was the barn dance they had for the first half of the evening, it was very energetic! They also had a machine there that lets you take congratulatory photos and videos and a dressing up box by the side to go with it. That provided much entertainment. I'll wrap up by saying it was a lovely weekend and that I didn't get too many 'What about you?' questions (i'm the eldest you see). I'll leave you with a couple of silly photo's by of sister and I.

This Week of Mine #6

Goodness, i've not posted this for three weeks! Been a little busy, but things have calmed down now. As I mentioned last time, I was off work for the Easter holidays. I'm going to do this post covering two weeks. The first week that I was off before Easter I couldn't tell you what I did, i've not a clue! Time just seemed to fly by and before you know it is is 1pm and i'd just managed to get dressed for the day and then suddenly a whole week had gone!

I did have a lovely day Saturday on the Easter weekend, firstly at a family members 2nd birthday party. After that, we picked Charlotte up from uni and went to a meal for my sister-in-law to-be's hen night.

Easter Sunday and Monday were chilled out days in the sunshine.

On the Tuesday Charlotte and I managed to to spend 6 hours in Telford looking for shoes for the wedding. 6 hours!! I bought two more Harry Potter T-Shirts. The sleeves on one of them aren't really shaped well, but it's HARRY POTTER! I'll just wear it in bed.

Wednesday I was visiting Leicester with Dad and we saw Richard III's final resting place. The church is much smaller than it looked on the TV, i'm not sure where they sat everyone that we saw on TV!

In Leicester I found some awesome blue Ravenclaw joggers. I've now come to the realisation that there is a lot of HP clothing around, so I shall calm down in my purchases of it from now on! Hint though: Remember to look in the mens section too, I spied a couple T Shirts there, one of them being of the Marauders Map.

I love this shot of Richard III and the Cathedral behind

All that week was really just getting ready for the wedding. It's crazy, when it came down to it, I don't know how I spent so long trying to get everything. I guess one thing I learnt is that you can save so much time by keeping up-to-date with day-to-day stuff. I just seemed to have ran out of every product that week or not owned some essential item of clothing, that added to the shopping.

Vampire Diaries
I heard the news about Nina Dobrev leaving The Vampire Diaries.  I've not read why yet but please don't leave Damon with more heartache! It's also moving to a later slot on ITV2. I understand why many of you stream it online but this is not helping ratings. Please try and watch it on TV if you can as ITV2 might not pick up the next season if the falling ratings continue. :(

Exercise
Funnily enough the first week of the Easter Holidays when I was not at work I didn't do any workouts! The next week though I did Adriennes complete beginners yoga every day and one kettlebell workout. After the workout though, I could not walk or sit down properly for three days, anyone that has done kettlecise before knows this feeling!

The end of this second week was the wedding weekend. I shall cover that next time though.  :)

I hope you all had a lovely Easter (I know it was a while ago now!), thanks for reading! x

I've linked my other weekly updates below if you fancy a peek.

This Week of Mine #5

This Week of Mine #4

This Week of Mine #3

This Week of Mine #2

This Week of Mine #1

This Week of Mine #5

How are you all this week? I'm busy stressing about my outfit and hair for my brothers wedding next week. Why is it so complicated?! Here is my little round-up of last week:

Tuesday I traveled to Northampton for my interview taking place the next day and stayed with my sister who lives in halls. This has confirmed my decision to get my own place when I go back to uni in September. Even though it will mean getting a job, i've lived in 6 shared houses/flats up to now (not even including uni halls or with my family) and i've had enough of it!

Managed to find these bad boys cheap in Northampton

I only did two workouts this week which were the PopSugar Fitness Dance Party Workout and The CafeMom Studios Workout both about 30 minutes long. Do not be fooled by the word 'Mom' in the title, it was a really tough workout, stamina wise. I really liked this one and will definitely do it again as I could do all the moves and I want to be able to do it without nearly collapsing!

I can't actually remember too much about last weeks Vampire Diaries, however I do remember it being awesome and happy that they can go into Mystic Falls again now. Even if it was at the expense of evil Kai absorbing all the magic!

The F1 was a bit of a shocker this week what with Vettel and Ferrari ending the Mercedes dominance. You could see the relief in everyone's faces and words. Though I do wonder how they all coped with the four year RedBull dominance?! I do wish my condolences this week to the spectator that lost their life at the VLN Endurance Championship in Nurburgring, Germany and wish those injured a speedy recovery.

I wore this for the first time this week, it's really comfortable, awesome for obvious reasons and I just love it!

Maybe I will turn this into a regular spot on this post but I have another example like last week as to how you change with age. We had to get a new fridge/freezer on Saturday night so off we popped to Currys (Saturday night at Currys isn't even the sad part!). Walking through the huge store I saw a particular section and exclaimed 'OOO Hoovers!' in a genuinely excited voice. Dear oh dear!

Lastly from this week I have to mention how much I have appreciated King Richard III's reburial and the events of the week. I found it hugely fascinating and very surreal at many times. I will definitely be paying a visit this year to Leicester Cathedral. Did you watch this?

I am off these two weeks as it is the Easter holidays at work and I will be mostly trying to sort everything out for the wedding. I've got the dress and fascinator, but I need to get a jacket, shoes and bag. I don't know what to match to what though or how to have my hair or make-up! I'm sure it will all come together soon.

 But i'd love to know what you got up to last week and your plans this week? Let me know in the comments. 

I've linked my other weekly updates below if i've not bored you by now and you fancy a peek.

This Week of Mine #4

This Week of Mine #3

This Week of Mine #2

This Week of Mine #1

This week of mine #4

Last weekend started with watching Legally Blonde on Friday night after work. It was an amateur production but I really enjoyed it, I shall have to pay a visit to the West-End version if it is still running? The weekend and Mothers Day was spent with the family. My brother, sister and Nana came up and we paid a visit to our favourite Trentham.

Sunday was also the start of the F1 season. Hasn't it come round quick? It was crazy how few cars started and finished the race, in the end everyone apart from JB got points. Who'da thought that?! It was rather funny how upbeat JB was and that his only aim at the start of the race was to finish it! There has been a lot of hoo-ha in F1, both before the start of the season and in the past few days. Poor Giedo van der Garde was the casualty of the Sauber debacle and now the Mercedes dominance has sparked talk of equalising the field. Are we really going to punish a team for doing well??

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button's garages at Silverstone 2012

Friday the eclipse happened.. It didn't go as dark as I thought it would and I could only tell it was happening when I borrowed some glasses. From just glancing at the sun you couldn't tell at all, but behind the glasses showed a completely different story!

Apart from the eclipse, the week itself has been rather quiet apart from work. I have been trying to introduce some exercise into my life though. Since changing jobs I have put on weight. I previously had to stand up all day and worked shifts - these were both great ways to lose weight or at least not put any on, without having to do anything. I'm looking to lose the few pounds (read stone) i've gained since I left,

There are so many workouts on YouTube and I checked out the PopSugar Fitness videos after a recommendation on Twitter. Yoga has always intrigued me due to its apparent calming properties so this I also looked at. This week I did:

• A 25 minute workout
• A 30 minutes workout  (these two were a mixture of PopSugar videos)
• A couple of very short introductory yoga videos
• A 30 minute swim.

My attic bedroom is not suited to the majority of exercises, as I found out in the first workout. So i've got to plan when the house is empty so I can use the lounge. Yoga was very difficult, I have no flexibility, no balance and no co-ordination. It will take a lot of practice!

I nearly forgot to mention I had HD Brows done on Friday. They were a little bit of shock to begin with but I like them now. I'm going to do a post on these as I know from experience when people are researching having them done, before and after pictures are great to see.

This weekend i've had a day-trip out on Saturday and a quiet day Sunday studying/mooching around/enjoying the start of spring.

The day-trip was a visit to a local animal centre for my friends 28th birthday. This is what you do when you get old folks! See my tweet:

10 years ago I'd be waiting for a friend to upload FB photos of a night out, now I'm waiting for photos from visiting a farm. #gettingold
— Amy (@amynmore) March 21, 2015

The highlights were the cute rabbits and the meercats!

We then got to feed the lambs. There were about 40 of us all sat on bales of hay wearing cloaks that made us look like we were about to go into theatre. We fed the lambs milk and gave them cuddles, some were only a few days old and some were a lot bigger!

Check out those roots! ;)

I will be watching the start of Richard III's reburial tonight. It's on Channel 4 until 8pm if you want to watch. I think it is amazing we are able to see a king from over 500 years years ago being reburied! The actual reburial is on Thursday and is live on TV.

Plans for this week

• I have another interview to attend, this time in Northampton
• Carrying on with the exercise and trying to 'get' yoga (she says whilst scoffing a big bag of minstrels)

How has your week been? Is anyone else trying to do some exercise, if so what are you doing and any tips to help me?

This week of mine #3 - Crufts, TVD and beautiful spring days

As i'm writing this i'm watching Dermot's Day of Dance for Comic Relief. Fair Play to the guy, 24 hours is a long time! Is anyone watching this?


Last weekend I was busy both days. Saturday we went to Crufts. It's been many years since I last went and I mustn't have gone on the Saturday last time because I couldn't believe how busy it was. I do not like crowds! I had to visit the Cavalier stand on Discover Dogs as I am going to get one one day. We've had a few in the past along with our two Rhodesian Ridgebacks who we used to show. It's been over a year that we've been dog less and I think I would like one again.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures, my camera phone only produces good shots in natural light.




Heel work to music with Golden Retrievers.

How many dogs can you find here?

     

Sunday I was at a trade show with my Dad's shop.

Nothing spectacular went on during the working week, just one fine day of weather which was beautiful and my weekly indulgence of #TVD

I took these in my town park on my way home from work, I just wanted to capture that lovely day. Strange how the weather can be completely different the next day!

Time for my little #TVD talk from Wednesday night. It was so good to see these three beauts back together and road-tripping. It's been a few series since they have all been alive/in the same universe!

The episode introduced a new but integrated plot line, as I guess 'how can we save Bonnie' and 'When will Elena remember Damon?' can't be the only things going on all series. I definitely did not see the link between Kai, Jo, Liv and Luke coming!

What also made this episode though, was the coming together of characters. The episodes thus far have had such a different feel to them than previous seasons. Do you agree? I put this down to every episode being set outside of Mystic Falls and also to each character doing their own thing.

This episode brought most of the characters together again, hanging around together and on missions in their little groups. It started to feel like old times :)

So plans for the weekend?

Well Friday night I am seeing a production of Legally Blonde at the theatre in Wolverhampton with my friend. We live in the same town but haven't met up since Christmas - crazy!

Then Saturday we're going to Trentham (again, I know!) with my Nana and Sunday is the 

Melbourne Grand Prix! 

Yipee yay, 'i'm so excited and I just can't hide it!'

What did you think of this week's #TVD? Anyone excited for the F1 season beginning again?

This week of mine #1
This week of mine #2

This week of mine #2 - work, interviews and vampires

Interviews, work and the return of The Vampire Diaries this week.

Saturday I worked in my Dad's shop. Lesson learnt from that day was always ask for your fish in your fish and chips to be wrapped separately. The vinegar turns both it and the chips soggy!

On Sunday afternoon I traveled up to Huddersfield for my interview the next day. The journey took an hour longer because of signal failure, when we got to Piccadilly it was crazy, every single train was either delayed or cancelled! Eventually getting there, I stayed at the enemy hotel, Premier Inn. I have to admit, it was really nice. The ceiling was slanted, it had blinds and a really big bed!

Monday was the big day. My uni interview lasted all morning and some of the afternoon and it was a big relief when I finished. Uni's have changed loads since I last went. This one had an Amazon parcel locker inside the main building!

Before getting the train home I spent a short while exploring the town. I bought a Collection eye palette from Boots, but too be honest it's not that good. I wish I had waited until the next shop which sold purely cosmetics. It had LOADS of eye palettes including some W7 and Astor ones that I liked the colours of, but i'd only just bought one so :(

Wednesday saw the return of:

Image from Deviantart

Hurrah!

Caroline reminded me of her old self, before she became a vampire, I think it was the way her hair was styled and that she was being rather whiny. But then her Mum had just been kidnapped so I guess that's ok!

Two parts that made me LOL were:

'My finger's were covered in blood and the touchscreen wouldn't work' by Enzo. Seems a vampire doesn't have every superpower going.

'She's got a thing for you mate.' Also from Enzo and SUPER awkward moment!

Two other points from that episode.

1. Liam can go do one, I don't like him.

2. When/if Bon-Bon does come back, everyone is going to be super weirded out by her and Damon's closeness.

Who else watches this? No spoilers please! ;)

Okay so I can stop talking like Caroline now.

The rest of this week has gone by in a blur. I can never remember what subject i've been working in each day but I do remember on Tuesday I was in a film lecture that I enjoyed. We viewed a home documentary on the barrier going up between Palestine and Israel followed by an explanation in using a big video filming camera. My bad short-term memory has made me forget the exact details but he talked about aperture, light and shutter speed, so as a camera dummy I listened intently.

Apparently it was world book day yesterday. Kids seem to dress up nowadays, but all I remember about it in my childhood was being given a voucher to use in a bookshop for money off a book. I did chuckle at how Myleene Klass dressed her children on the day. Have a peek here. She likes causing controversy at her kids school doesn't she?!

This weekend
I shall be visiting Crufts on Saturday and working at a trade show on Sunday.

How was your week been, were you excited for the return of TVD as well?