Weekend exploring new places!

I am always so confused when Monday arrives. I swear only a few hours ago we were excited for the arrival of Friday, yet here we are trudging to the train to start a whole week of work. Especially when I am so desperate for time off and a break, alas only 8 more weeks and I will get my week off darn it!

Anyway this weekend was exceptionally pleasant. Saturday I woke up had breakfast did a bit of washing and hula hooping (yeah I’m getting pretty good at that now!) and while eating lunch looking out the window at the beautiful sunny day I decided it was a waste to spend in doors. I was glad I decided this as it was GLORIOUS outside, I wasn’t aware it was as hot as it was. I picked out my new Sugarhill Boutique dress from a few weekends ago and my new denim jacket and headed to Guilford on the train.

I’ve only been there to go to the cathedral, so I was excited to see what the town was like and I wasn’t at all disappointed.  The train was only £12 for us both with my saver card and less than half an hour, once we got there it was a simple walk to the shops, over a beautiful bridge overlooking the canal, the shops were up a large hill and the streets were cobbled. Although a Saturday afternoon, it was peaceful and enjoyable. Most of the shopping was outside so we enjoyed the sunshine, although my jacket spent all afternoon wrapped round my waist as it was far too hot to wear.

Guildford is a stunning town, it really is! I thoroughly enjoyed it, the atmosphere is lovely and everything is more peaceful and old worldly! Traveling through the countryside on the train to get there and the little cobbled streets and traditional buildings. I was dying to have a good look around the canal and I thought I saw a garden at the end of the street which I wanted to explore.

We did lots of shopping, alas I fell in love with a Cath Kidston skirt and a lovely ring in a small shop but neither had my size. There were more unusual shops compared to any old shopping centre, including Cath Kidston and I just really enjoyed my time there. I wish I had taken some photos.

Matt however started to overheat a little bit and we stopped off at Creams for an Ice Cream. I had 2 scoops - Snickers and Ferrero Rocher. It was far too big but I loved it! Matt was still not feeling 100% so we didn’t look around the canal and gardens instead we headed home. I will defiantly be back though to explore more that is for sure and next time I will make sure to take my camera!

That evening we just went to the cinema and relaxed at home!

Sunday I had to catch up on house stuff and also start some freelance work I had been meaning to do for way too long! I also had to pop to town to run a few errands the main one was to buy bread. I did buy bread and some other important things, but I also accidentally came back with these beauties’! 

 New Look £10

I saw them in New Look reduced to £10 and I’ve been trying to find some new shoes that are more supportive and better for walking in than my Primark ballet pumps. I kind of pulled a face but thought well let me see and I tried them on. I was shocked when I thought how lovely they looked on and I started to walk home and had to turn around and go back to pick them up they were too much of a bargain to miss!

I thought they would be great in the summer if the weather is a little off, and a good way to start to introduce myself into wearing my Dr Martins in the autumn! 

So that is one thing that is cheering me up on this Monday, my shiny new shoes!

I hope your Monday is well, and I hope the next weekend comes around even quicker than the last!

Oh hey there summer!

So I have been in the flat for over two weeks now! I am very much enjoying it, even though I feel like I haven’t spent much time there with work! I did get to thoroughly enjoy it over the weekend though!

The summer is 110% here as well! The last few days have been soooo warm and today is meant to hit record temperatures. Luckily now I have a boost in confidence I am far more happy and comfortable about this! No more hiding and overheating in a hoody….. lovely flowy tops and skirts… however still it is exceptionally warm outside!

Last week it was hard to drag my ass back to work and then to the gym Monday too! It is a long drive now to the Gym but I’ve finished up there now and I’ve joined another gym much closer… a couple of minute drive rather than a 20 minute drive. Then Tuesday we went and saw The Terminator at the cinema. It was fab to see the old film the cinema I haven’t seen it in ages!

Wednesday I FINALLY got to relax and just watch back to back Orange is the New Black! (I have now finished this!) and Thursday back to the gym ugh! As you can see my week was busy, but this week I have no plans other the gym, just lots of relaxing and spending time in my flat. 

I have a bit of a wish list going on at the moment…

TopShop Sunglasses bag

Floozie Swimsuit - Debenhams

 Sandals - Asos

H! by Henry Holland top - Debenhams

I might have to treat myself to a few things... we shall see I guess!

I wanted to save for a holiday abroad so much! However I think I am just going to try and save and get some savings together and look at booking a holiday in January for early next year instead! I think it is better to have some savings and be comfortable than try and stretch my money to afford a holiday!

I think we may try and get away at some point this year. Perhaps to centre Parcs as we have always wanted to go there or maybe somewhere near the coast. But I guess we can see how money goes! My plan is to let things settle down for a couple of months and see where we are and how much extra money we will have each month! June was an exceptionally expensive month with moving and I spent more of my savings than I wanted to! But I have high hopes that we should be finically stable now and actually have extra money to enjoy which would make a change as we’ve spent the last few years struggling through. I still feel weird to think that I owe no money and its such a freeing feeling.

I also tried the train for the first time today. That was pretty good to be honest, the drive has varied between 40-60minutes and the last few days in the sun with broken air con has been quite uncomfortable. The walk took around 4 minutes to the station and there was no queue for the ticket machine so I got the earlier train. I arrived into Croydon at around 8:42 and it took about 13minutes to walk to work from there and may have been quicker had I not had to shuffle out the train station because of the crowds of people. It was considerably less stressful and more peaceful than driving. I just zoned out and enjoyed the train ride, and the air con was a bonus!

So I will try the train for the rest of the week! See how that goes and I will continue to enjoy my flat. Thursday we have an induction at the new gym but other than that I have no plans and I hope to enjoy the sunshine and my space!

Training in London!

So this week I was off up to London to do something HTML 5 training. My company sent me up on a 2 day course. I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to it, I think it is the traveling and all the kafuffle that goes along with going to London. However over the weekend I realised it was something I enjoy doing, 2 days out the office and the weather was meant to be lovely so I changed my mind a bit.

On the first day I made the earlier train and I got to the place 40minutes early. I managed to pick up a coffee at Victoria and spill half of it down my sleeve… not impressed. It was a pretty run down building when I got there… I was a little disappointed as I thought a training centre in Kings Cross would be quite fancy and modern…. I went in and up to the 4^th floor and was pleasantly surprised… it was a well light super modern floor…. Lots of glass classrooms it was lovely! I had a coffee and avoid the biscuits and then at 10am we were called inside the room. There were just 5 of us so it was lovely and small. The trainer was a really nice guy and reminded me of a smaller Peter Capaldi. The course was a lot more basic than I thought it was going to be especially on the first morning; however it was good to brush my skills and learn a few new things.

Lunch was at a buffet they had loads of food, curries, pizza, Chinese and salads. I was good on Monday and had a small stir fry and an ice cream.  The afternoon was also enjoyable and picked up a little, and I left at 4:30 in a really positive mood. The sun was shining and I had, had a really enjoyable day.

Now the plan was to be healthy and get an early night Sunday and Monday and do they gym on Tuesday. This did not go to plan. I was in such a good mood on Monday that I decided I wanted burgers for dinner and I took matt over to lakeside as we had a 50% off voucher and we had a HUGE dinner and drinks and it came to £13!! Bargain I say!

So not really an early night at all Monday… then Tuesday I ended up being  an hour early so enjoyed some time in the sunshine and called the bank and headed over to the place…. Again the morning flew by….. Started to do more in-depth things which was good. Got better at small talking with our people and this time at lunch I took full advantage of the buffet and had pizza, noodles and some over bits and pieces and finished it off with a ice cream again.

The afternoon however I started to struggle, my concentration just died and I started to make some silly mistakes and I just wanted to go home. Not sure if it was later than I would have liked evening or the fact that 2 full on days of learning was too much for my brain! Anyhow I passed and we ended up at 4:30 again and I headed off to the station again. The sunshine was beautiful and I was in a pretty good mood even if I was in need of a nap!

Gym didn’t happen… and a KFC and a bag of chocolate appeared instead woops. I do now feel a little guilty. I have 5 weeks now to loose 7lbs! I can do it I just need to focus…

But I wanted to write about it as it was really nice experience and I had a lovely time. One big thing I did learn was I am NOT CUT OUT for the London rush hour commute. It is almost fascinating watching all these people who probably share the same train on a daily basis, all standing alone on their phones or reading and then everyone shuffles off and shuffles off to another queue to shuffle along. I didn’t enjoy the travel to London luckily I finished early enough to miss most the rush hour on the return… and I got on the train home early enough to enjoy a seat all the way :)

Anyhow I am back at work today and missing the idea of walking down a London street and going for lunch (even though I am in Croydon )

I now cannot wait for the weekend. I don’t really have any plans, but we are seeing The Avengers on Saturday so I am looking forward to that. I believe Matt is doing air soft Sunday so might be a quiet lonely day but hey ho…

The weekend just passed I got my Game of Thrones signed calendar back from the framer and it looks AWESOME. 

Me and Matt also took quite a big step and went to our first house viewing on Saturday. We got out the car and I was full of excitement, only to be let down by the fact they changed the times and no one was there and no one told us. I was NOT IMPRESSED at all. What should have been a really exciting experience was actually pretty depressing and a massive let down. BUT HEY HO! There will be more and hopefully they will go well.

I am hoping the rest of this week flies by and goes quickly because I am exhausted!

We're all going on a summer holiday!!

So it has been a very long time since I updated. I have started a new post now and then but just gave up!

 But now I have lots of awesome photos and I just had an awesome week :D

So as i said before I sold some clothes on eBay a while ago, hoping to make at least £45 to afford the flamingo dress I wanted ( I got it for £36 instead of £45 in the end wahey!). However I made £150ish and I booked me and Matt a little holiday at the seaside.

I have been counting down over 8 weeks EIGHT WHOLE WEEKS, and now it has come and gone.

On the plus side I lost 52lbs before I went away :)
I do feel like a different person at the moment. New me and new clothes and a much happier me!

I reached my goal weight and a little bit more. Although I imagine I may of put a little on this week from all the ice creams ehehe!

So the weekend came and whizzed by really quick and then it was Monday. I had a few things to do Monday morning (dentist and doctors) and we had lunch at Pop Inn Cafe. Then we headed to Morrisons and picked up one of their personal pizza's and headed to the caravan park! I also took my leggings off and put on some clear tights (very big deal for me! I haven’t shown my legs off, well ever as an adult I don’t think and I just thought sod it!)

We got there around 5ish and it seemed like a lovely park and the caravan was just lovely and clean and just really nice. I was really impressed when we got inside and we unpacked and settled in quickly.

I made our pizza which was quite funny as it didn’t fit in the oven and I ended up cutting it into two and after we ate we went to explore and wondered down to the sea front and along the beach.

The beach was actually so lovely, we had to walk a little further to get to the nicer bit but it was lovely, clean and sandy. The weather had been so warm on Monday that it was very pleasant by the sea and in the evening. We headed to Tesco to stock up on some food and milk for my coffee!! And when we got back I was just exhausted. I had woken up at about 8:30 with excitement and then a busy day and a 2 hour drive pooped me out!

Tuesday we woke up and the weather was glorious. Matt said he didn’t fancy swimming nor staying in so we decided to head to the pier. We did however stop off at the caravan park sales office where they had an event on and we got a free burger and reviewed some caravans!

The pier was very close to the park and very surprisingly it was free to park there for 3 hours. There was a lovely garden area running along the top which we walked along. We played some games on the pier and got some good price bowling with a voucher I had! We then headed off to the beach where we sat and enjoyed the sunshine for a while! And of course we also indulged in an ice cream.

We headed back after a while. I managed to get myself covered in sand which was very uncomfortable and we bought Doritos and stuffed our faces while watching TV. I then made stir fry for dinner and we just chilled out and watched the film ‘World War Z’

I would also like to point out I went COMPLETELY bare legged (well I had little cycle shorts under my skirt for modesty ehe!) My tights ended up getting ripped and at £2.50 a go they aren’t cheap for only 1 – 2 wears. Matt said there was literally no difference between tights and no tights so I went bare legged and it was good actually I really enjoyed it! Its just lovely having the sun and air on your skin when it is so warm!

So I had planned to go to Colchester Zoo on the Wednesday. It was quite pricey to get in so I used my club card vouchers and I had exchanged £10 worth and got £40 of zoo vouchers which got us both in. The zoo was beautiful! Again I went bare legged and after an hour or so of thinking ohh no people will look I eventually went BAH WHO CARES my legs look quite good. The weather wasn’t quite as nice as the days before but that was nice as it meant it stayed fairly cool and we didn’t over heat walking round the zoo.

We were very lucky and each area we got to it was feeding time or show time or however you want to put it!

First were the penguins and they were so funny, I noticed the sun was shining off my necklace onto the wall and the penguins went mad for it chasing it up and down.

We didn’t get too far after that and Matt was feeling a little over hot and tired so we stopped for lunch. We ended up with fried chicken as most the food places were out of season. However it was an ok price and tasted pretty good!

We then went on and I got to feed an elephant and a giraffe which was pretty freaking epic :D

I have to say though if I went again I would defiantly take a back pack or a tiny bag. My bag isn’t overly heavy at all but after having it on my shoulders for hours on end my back was in agony by the end of the day. I got some lovely photos to remember such a lovely day by.

After the Zoo we headed for the town center for pizza express (yet more Tesco vouchers haha) we also whizzed into Burtons and grabbed Matt some new jeans as his had ripped and after a very stressful drive (trying to find parking) we made it to pizza express and I had a lovely meal there. We then headed back afterwards as I was pretty tired and again spent the evening just chilling out (stopped for ice cream) and watching TV.

Thursday was meant to be a bit raining and what not but yet again it was beautiful. We couldn’t really think of what to do so headed down to Walton-on-the-Naze. We had a light lunch and walked down the pier. I indulged in a 99 with a flake as I felt it was a must do on a seaside holiday :p

We weren’t that impressed with Walton-on-the-Naze so we headed back to Clacton pier…. Popped back to the caravan and picked up some beer and cider, towels and something to read. On our way we also looked into a tower near the caravan. It was only £1 to get in and then after we went back to the beach and I just laid in the sun. Unfortunately the bad weather that was predicted did start to show its face and the temperature dropped as the sun went behind clouds. I did however manage to finish my cider and had a flick through my magazine.

Originally we were going to sit on the beach till 6ish and go for dinner in prezzo but instead we headed back to the caravan as it got quite chilly with the wind.

We did however head back later and went for our last evening meal and we tried Prezzo for the first time. We got an awesome price for our food with Matt’s taste card. The starter was GLORIOUS but I found the main too salty. However the desert made up for that!

We then took one final walk along the beach and I had a final paddle in the sea and then we went back to the caravan started to re pack and tidy up and then put on the film ‘Welcome to the punch’

Although I didn’t want any rain during the day we were both sooo hoping for rain in the evening. Rain on the caravan is just the nicest pitter patter sound! And as the film finished up and we were cuddled up the rain thundered down onto the roof!

We woke about 1am and headed to bed…. I then got up at about 8am (the bed was very uncomfortable to sleep in alas) and we packed everything up and left about 9:45am (we had to be gone by 10am).

We made one more trip down the coast to Toby Carvery and enjoyed an all you can eat Breakfast Buffet! The sky was grey and it was pretty nippy which made it a tiny weeny bit easier to leave.

I won’t lie, I’m feeling pretty down. I ended up being let down at the weekend and that added to the fact that my week away came and went in the blink of an eye I’ve been pretty BLAGH all weekend.

I am feeling differently though, especially as I have realised I do have the confidence to wear whatever I want! I’ve wanted for years and years to have my legs and arms out in the summer and not to feel like I need to cover up! It was just such a relaxing time. Its now pretty crappy feeling being back at work (and back to the gym tonight) and knowing the holiday is gone (I spent the last 3 weeks KNOWING HOW CLOSE THIS HOLIDAY WAS!)

However I will end on a positive even though I am on a massive come down. I saw How to Train Your Dragon at the cinema at the weekend and it was just well, AWESOME…. My new favourite film.

I even wore my Turtle Tee T-shirt with Toothless on it for the event.

Its only 13 weeks till France now and my Birthday and in-between we have London Film and Comic Con, Hyper Japan and EGX Gamer Expo.

Happy Summer Holidays one and all :)