Thursday, 22 June 2017

Catch Up - 12 Things Happening In My Life

I haven't been very active on here for a while! My last post was in January, so quite a few things have been happening. Here they are condensed down to a little list of 12...

1: My Birthday
February 12th was my birthday, I had a really lovely day with my other half, best friend & her partner. We call ourselves the fantastic four... It was a really relaxed day with food, films and friends. I made viennese whirls for the first time, and they were delicious!

2: Anniversary
Also on February 12th. To be honest I can't remember what we did, but it probably involved going out somewhere, food, and spending time together

3: Valentines
We don't tend to make a big deal of Valentines Day, as it follows both our anniversary and my birthday. But we always give each other a small gift and a card.

4: AAT
My level 2 accounting course has finished, I got 96% overall. Very proud of myself for this, and hoping to achieve similar results in level 3 - which started in September.

5: Vegetarian
For Lent, Andrew and I challenged ourselves to be vegetarian. It was a really easy transition, and when Easter came we decided to stay vegetarian. I don't miss eating meat at all, and I'm being much more creative with my cooking.  

6: Redundant
At the end of February I was made redundant. It was a really stressful time, and there was a lot of uncertainty around what I would do next. I worked for an additional week to tie up my work and hand it over to colleagues, while applying to all the jobs. Thankfully, I had loads of responses and a whirlwind couple of weeks full of meetings with recruiters and interviews. In the end I received 5 job offers within accounts.

7: New Job
My new role - Management Accounts Assistant. It is exactly what I was looking for, and I'm using skills learnt in my AAT course. There's a lot to learn and I have been enjoying the challenge. It's a big company, which has taken a little adjusting to on my part, but I have plenty of opportunities to learn from the management accounts team and ask a ton of questions. Plus, it's a pay rise AND a study package is included...basically the company will fund my accounting qualifications, wooo!

8: Dawn Breakers
Dawn Breakers is a 6-week exercise course, 6 am, 45 minutes, every weekday. It is intense, hard, and great all at once. I enjoyed doing this course and even signed up for another one, however I've didn't go to the classes that time around as I was way too exhausted! (See point 11 for why...)

9: Slimming World
I'm still going to Slimming World. I haven't quit yet even though I have been close to doing so. I'm finding it really difficult to stay on plan, and subsequently am not losing much weight. I want to do better.

10: Roller Derby
Also known as, the best thing ever. Roller Derby is a sport played on roller-skates. It's akin to rugby on roller-skates, minus the ball. I joined my local team in April, and have been learning a multitude of skating skills. Derby is really hard on my lower back, so I can't do as much as I would like to. I have to keep stopping to stretch out and ease the excruciating pain. The more weight I lose and the more skating i do the easier it will get, so there's another reason to get back on plan with SW.

11: Second Job
I had a second job. After leaving my full-time day job, I would go and clean offices for 2.5 hours every weekday evening. It's exhausting, but the extra money from doing this went towards saving to eventually buy a house. Maybe we'll be able to buy in the next 5 years...Ideally in the next two, but I'm not convinced it will happen that soon.

12: EGX
EGX is a gaming convention, I've been to it before, but not for the past couple of years. This year, I went up to Birmingham in September to go to it and try out new games with a group of friends. It was a fun weekend!

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Hair Update

If you've been reading here for a while, you may be aware of my self-imposed anti hair-dye challenge. What you won't know, is that I broke it...

In November I made the decision to break almost 2 years of not dyeing my hair. I toyed with the idea of a slight change, maybe a chestnut brown or mahogany...but subtle was never my thing. I love dramatic hair changes, and it took me a while to decide between going light or dark. I decided to go light, and stocked up on bleach and toner.

Several packs of dye later, I had bleach blonde hair.


My roots have since come through, so I've redyed them, now it looks like it's growing through ginger! Time to re-bleach, then I have a grey dye to go over the top - after that, who knows!

Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Hello 2017...

I saw in 2017 while I was sleeping. I was too sick to stay up through midnight, I did get a midnight kiss from my other half, but I was too out of it to remember! 

2016's resolutions were not all completed, but that's okay. It's a new year, so I can sweep away the old, and come up with some new resolutions! 


Happy new year! 

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

My self-care list

No-one likes being ill, or feeling run down or unhappy - including me! I'm off work due to illness today, so I thought I would cheer myself up a bit and come up with my self-care list.


1: Stay Snuggly

I love to sleep. Especially when it's cold and horrible outside, and my bed is warm and comfortable! If I have to drag myself out of bed, I'll pull on a warm onesie and curl up somewhere comfortable.













2: Relax

Spend some time doing nothing. Chill out and read a book, journal, write, anything. as long as it's nothing too taxing.











3: Binge-watch a series

Switching my brain off and watching every episode of friends or another TV series feels soothing and indulgent. I have nothing else to do right now, I'll watch 10 episodes of fictional characters please!








4: Hot beverages

If I'm feeling up to it, going to a coffee shop for a hot chocolate with a book feels great. It stops me going stir crazy after being cooped up in the flat alone. If I don't want to go anywhere, I always have a plethora of different teas and hot chocolates to choose from at home, and a giant snuggle mug to go with it.



5: A long shower

I love a long, hot shower. It clears my head and feels divine - especially when coupled with some great smelling shower gel. I feel all fresh and new afterwards.








6: Fresh Pajamas

Clean and comfortable pajamas. Need I say more?














7: Comfort food

This is a bit of a controversial one. comfort food can mean a lot of different things, for me it's usually something warm and delicious. Something savory, or something sweet mood depending! I'm trying to move away from comforting myself with food, but here it is anyway.









8: Chat to someone

Be it my other half, a friend, or anyone. Having a chat makes me feel less alone, and moves my focus away from feeling sorry for myself,

Monday, 21 November 2016

NaNo Fail...

So early into NaNoWriMo, I was struggling to find time to write. It got harder and harder, and everything else needed to come first. So, I decided not to beat myself up about it, and not finish this year. There's always next year, or the year after...when I have a little more free time. Sooo 5895 was what I hit on my word count this year. Maybe I'll get there next year, maybe not. I'm okay with that. 

Friday, 11 November 2016

NaNo update


It's day 11 of NaNoWriMo. I am so behind, I've written just over 5000 words and I should be heading to 25,000! It is extremely difficult to find the time to write. I think I overestimated the amount of free time I would have to do this. I've also been slow, I didn't plan anything so I'm writing as I come up with the plot. It's slowing me down as I think about what happens next. At this point in time, I don't think I'll hit the target by the end of the month. I'm feeling disappointed and a little unmotivated, but I'm going to try and keep writing, and see how far I get.   

Monday, 24 October 2016

NaNoWriMo...


Happy Autumn all! It's almost November, which means people in their thousands will be participating in NaNoWriMo. As you can see above, this stands for National Novel Writing Month. Through November, you commit to writing 50,000 words of a novel. Your novel. From your own brain straight onto the computer/paper/parchment...If you want more information you can head over to the website: nanowrimo.org

This year I've decided to take part. So far I have no idea what I'm going to be writing, not even a vague plot idea. So I have a lot of planning to do before November 1st rolls around! I've pulled together a notebook dedicated to NaNoWriMo for my notes & plans, and intend to just write with abandon and see what comes out. I'm looking forward to the challenge, despite it being a slightly daunting one.

If there are any other NaNo's out there, my username is BeckyBoops :)