Another 6 week Catch-Up!

Wow time has run away with me once again and somehow it is over another 6 weeks since I last blogged, it's July, and we are now passed the longest day of the year! How did that happen!?

Once again the last 6 weeks have been pretty hectic as seems to have been the theme lately, so I do have quite a lot to fill you in on so please to bear with me once again! 

Firstly I want to take you back to where my last blog post left off which was in mid May! On the Mon of this week my hubby and I went up to London to see his favourite band the Manic Street Preachers at The Royal Albert Hall, being that he had the week off and I had the day off we decided to make a day of it by go sightseeing and taking a visit to Sealife London. Which despite the fact that we only live an hour or so out of the city we have never actually done before! So we were lucky that the day that went turned out to be a gloriously warm and sunny day, meaning that we really did get to see London at its best! Below you can see just some of the pics that I took that day!    

Firstly as soon as we came out of Westminster tube station we saw Big Ben and the Houses Of Parliament standing in all their impressive glory. We then took the short walk over to the Thames Embankment and crossed Westminster Bridge were we saw vendors selling London merchandise, a man playing Bag Pipes in traditional Scottish dress, a man playing an Accordion with a cute little dog wearing a hat! Plus a "Queen's Guard" in full traditional dress, handing out Fish and Chip leaflets.   

As you can see above the view off of the bridge was gorgeous with the Thames, London Eye, and City Cruise Ferries all in full view!

Once on the other side of the bridge we made our way as planned to Sealife London, which is quite literally at the other end of the of the bridge!

I didn't realise prior to trip just quite how close together a lot of the main tourist attractions are in London, with the Eye, London Dungeons, Sealife London, and the Shrek experience which is currently running all being in a row. The other thing that also struck me was just how clean this part of London was compared to other parts that I have visited it the past.

Below you can see some of the many photos I took at the Sealife Aquarium, all of which were taken on my phone as you are not allowed to use the flash there for the welfare of the animals.
  

As you first walk in they have a glass floor with a shark tank that lies beneath, as you can see above left!
 

The shark tank that you can see above is the biggest tank in Europe and can be viewed across all of the floors of the Aquarium! We also watched a shark talk whilst we were there and I was very impressed at both the knowledge of the speaker, who you could tell cared and spoke very passionately about the sharks, and with how hard the Aquarium works for and with conservationists. We also found out that all of their sharks were born in captivity and a lot have been acquired from people who originally had them as pets!

Above right you can see what is called a "Guitar Fish," which is a fish that has evolved to be part shark and part Ray! All of the sharks at the aquarium were also named, but I can't remember what this one was called!
  

Above you can see the Terrapins who liked to pose a lot!

There was also the big Alligator that you can see above left, who did not move an inch from this position the whole time we were watching!

All in all we had a lovely time there and I especially felt like a little kid in a sweet shop as I love places like this, plus it had probably been a good 18 years since I last visited a Sealife Aquarium!

It was also good to spend some quality time with the hubby as we don't do things like that often, so whilst we were there we bought some souvenir photos that they take against their green screens as you go around. We got two, one where we look like we are riding a shark through the ocean, and one where we look like we are being eaten by an Alligator! I also had fun in the gift shop where I spent a good half hour deciding which Sealife key ring's that I wanted to buy! So all in all I would highly recommend!

By the time that we left the Sealife Aquarium it was already almost time for us to start making our way to the gig! Had we a bit more time we would probably have gone to some of the other attractions along the embankment too, but we didn't end up getting to London as early as we originally intended too! This was partly because we got up a bit late and partly because we had issues parking at the station and ended up having to divert to park at the hubby's work instead. We did however have some time to chill out along the embankment and soak up the sun and the atmosphere as you can see below!

Whilst there I spotted the rather striking Double Decker Bus that you can see above left, which was selling frozen yogurt. Plus the very convincing street performer above right, who was such a convincing statue that for some time we struggled to tell if it was real or not!

After having some chillout time we began to make our way to the Royal Albert Hall by going back to Westminster station, getting the tube to Green Park, and then traipsing through the streets of London to Kensington Gore. In hindsight as we discovered on the way back it would have probably been quicker to have got off at South Kensington Station and to have walked from there, but we weren't in any rush and again it meant that we got see see yet another side of London that we hadn't seen before and this was the posh part! I mean there is a lot of money in London anyway but you could see just how much there was around here from the buildings, to the cars, to the parents picking their children up from private schools, to the Lamborghini garage that we passed.

Sitting opposite this we came across a lone beggar that most people were just passing in their suits, who was so overwhelmingly grateful when we stopped to give him our loose change. It must have only been a few pound worth or so, but he couldn't believe his luck looking at me and uttering "this all for me, thank you senorita!"

So in that moment we very much saw the juxtaposition of two worlds that were so close together but that also couldn't have been further apart. I know that that is the world that we live in and that there will always be rich and poor, but there really is something so not right about it!

Anyway after this we continued on our way until we reached the Royal Albert Hall, and what a magnificent building it was too as you can see below left! Then below right is the memorial statue of Prince Albert which is situated opposite the Royal Albert Hall on Kensington Green.             

Once in the building we had some time to kill as we were not to bothered about seeing the supporting band that were playing, so we decided to go exploring the numerous levels of the gorgeous building and it really was stunning! 

The Main Auditorium sits up from the ground floor and is situated in the middle of the building but you can walk all the way around the edge of each of the levels, which are covered in images of the numerous different events that have taken place there over the years and celebrities that have performed there. There are also a number of flashy bars, a restaurant, grand looking dark wood staircases joining each level, and a number of very smartly dressed staff in red overcoats. To be honest it looked way to posh a place to be holding a rock gig! 

As you can see above the Main Auditorium was just as grand as the rest of the building! Once in there we also managed to locate my Auntie and her friend who were also there and are big Manics fans too!

We have seen the Manics a number of times before but it was amazing to see them in a place like that, and as you can see from the pics above we had a pretty good spot too! They then also finished the gig by covering everyone in confetti! It was a lovely effect but I did feel sorry for whoever was going to have to clear it up, especially as it was traipsed throughout the building as everyone left! But we all had a fab time and ended up getting the last train back, which was so slow that we didn't end up getting back until 2:00am and I still had to drive at the other end! Needless to say that work was a little painful the next day but it was worth it!

Fast forward a week and we sadly had the funeral of the friend that I mentioned in my last post, who had been tragically hit by a car back in April at the age of only 30. It was obviously a hard day for all of us and not least his family, but it went was well as could be expected.

There was a huge turnout at the Crematorium and then even more so after at the wake, where we shared happy memories whilst watching a slideshow of his life.

It may have been cut short, but it was clear just how loved he was and just how much he had packed into the time that he had. One of the most fitting parts of the ceremony I found was that some of his work colleges bought single rainbow coloured roses, which were given to his parents after the funeral. That for me was the perfect symbol of who he was a bright, colourful and beautiful character, with a wicked sense of humor and an unforgettable laugh! It all still seems pretty unreal that he is gone from all of our lives, and there may always be unanswered questions as to exactly what happened, but one thing is sure and that is that he won't every be forgotten by any of us!   

The day after the funeral was the start of the May Bank Holiday! I was working for most of it as usual, but I did have the Sunday off for my cousins 21st Birthday!

To celebrate he had an afternoon tea party at his home with garden games and plenty of cake as requested! He's Autistic so struggles with some elements of such social occasions, but he had a few friends around as well as family and thoroughly enjoyed playing on the Playstation with them, opening his presents, and carrying out his favorite past time of eating plenty of party food and birthday cake! We were however on strict instructions from him not to sing Happy Birthday!

It was a lovely afternoon which again was accompanied by some equally lovely weather. The day was then finished off back at my parents, where there was a street party being held throughout the day and into the evening to celebrate the Bank Holiday.

Fast forward another week and on the first Friday of June we had another big birthday to celebrate, this time for my Uncle's 50th!

To celebrate his wife had organized a family party in a function room at a local pub/restaurant near their home in Bognor, where there was a DJ lots of party dancing and lots of catch-ups with family that we don't get to see very often!

Below you can see the birthday cakes from both my Cousin and Uncles birthday's! The 50th one on the left was made by my very talented cousin, who decorated it with many of my Uncle's favourite things including; Star Trek, computers, and a Keyboard!

The next day I had a rare Sat off so I made the most of it by traveling down to Chichester with my mum to see my Nan, as I don't really get a chance to see her unless I have a weekend off!

We spent a lovely day out shopping in Chichester and whilst there we had a yummy fried breakfast, plus I had a huge hot chocolate complete with whipped cream and marshmallow in our favourite cafe!

This then led onto Sunday which was the beginning of my week off! Then from the Weds to the following Mon of that week I attended Download Festival, which you may have seen from my posts in the past is a festival that I attend on pretty much a yearly basis! It's always one of my most anticipated weeks of the year as it's like a holiday to me, I love it so much and it's one of my favorite places to be! It also feels like home away from home because I have been so many times, and I always have an amazing time with friends and this year was no different!

So on the Weds one of my friends drove us up as usual to its location at Donnington Park Race course in the East Midlands. We had a good journey up which took about 3 hours, and met up with some of our friends that were going at local restaurant near to the site. This included the girls that we met the previous year, who I mentioned in last year's post. It was lovely to see them again after a year apart and for others within the group to meet them for the first time!

We arrived on site to bright sunshine which was lucky as it had poured it down for most of the week before, which you don't want before you have even set up your camp! Luckily we didn't have to queue to get in for hours like we did last year, but the site was much busier much earlier that it had been at the same time on any of the previous years! This meant that the campsite that we intended to camp in was already full, as were quite a lot of others! So we ended up having to traipse around quite a lot with all of our stuff to find a place that would be big enough for all eight of us to camp, plus the other five that were due to arrive later! But we got there in the end and one gazebo, six tents, plus another trip to the car and back later we were all set up!

Below you can see the lovely sunshine that we arrived to, and the beautiful sunsets that we had appearing over our camp by the time that we had finally set up!

We had a couple more of the group join us later on Weds evening, which were the sister and boyfriend of another of our group. Before they arrived we had blown up balloons, put up a little kid's pirate tent as a joke, and put up banners to celebrate the sisters 30th birthday! We then proceed to stay up until the early hours celebrating in the onsite rock club tent, which was named the "Dog House."

The lovely weather continued through to Thursday, so we spent most of the day chilling on the campsite enjoying it as the actual festival didn't start until the Friday. Dare I say it but it was almost too warm and very muggy! We also had the last three of the group turn up that day, who consisted of two guys that we had met a few years previous and a friend of a couple of the others within the group, which took our completed camp to 13 people! Last year only three of us went and we met other people whilst we were there, and previous to that the most we had ever been with was 6, so we over doubled our camp this year! Below you can see that we didn't have a cloud in the sky on Thursday!



On Thursday night we threw a Pre-Hen Night for my best friend who is getting married in October, which is something that was also done for me before I got married back in 201. This time however we dressed up in black dresses as if we were going out on the town, complete with sashes and wellies! I also got her a veil to wear and we went out into the campsite village doing dare cards, and again partied in the rock club until the early hours!       

Friday bought the first day of the festival and by this point it was still very muggy, but the weather had gone hazy. Below you can see the first view that we had of main stage when we entered the arena!

A few hours later we could see that the rain was heading in as expected! Below you can see the impending clouds heading our way! The image on the left shows the clouds behind the Download Dog sculpture, which you could climb inside and have your photo in! It was a huge metal sculpture especially made for this year's event, and it took the organisers over two months to construct!
  

Then the rain came and when it came it chucked it! Just a shower they said, but it pelted it with tropical sized rain drops for a good 3 hours, so we got soaked through for the first time. It also delayed one of the first big bands coming onto the Main Stage due to the fact that as the rain was heading in the direction, so all of the cameras and equipment had to be covered. Luckily it was still warm but by the time that the rain had finally finished I was pouring water out of my wellies where it had run down my socks, and my fingers were so shriveled that the skin started to peel off of them! It didn't dampen our spirits though! After all we have never had a Download without rain! Below you can see that once the rain started that it didn't take long for the grass to start turning to mud!

Luckily we managed to dry off a little when one of the bands what we wanted to see so happened to be playing in one of the tents, and by the time that they had finished playing it had stopped raining ready for the headlining act of the evening!

That night we went back to our tents to change out of our wet clothes and then proceeded to dance ourselves dry in the rock club once again! We also bumped into a few people that we had met in pretty much the same place within the rock club the year before, which was lovely and we ended up going off to the campsite fairground and into the "Fun House" with them. 

Sat came and we managed to get through until late afternoon before the heavens opened! But at this point I had been getting messages throughout the day from worried family and friends making sure that we were OK. This was because they had seen a picture that was going around on Facebook of tents buried in water, which had been posted by someone art Download. It was however a fake and I reassured them that it wasn't even taken at Download! It was actually a stock image that had been taken from the internet at Glastonbury a few years previously!

However once the heavens did open we got soaked through again for the second time that weekend! But you can see below that it didn't dampen anyone's spirits!   

The photos below were taken on Sat night, the pic on the left shows the Download wheel and the one on the right shows one of the arena sculpture lit up.

At this point it was chucking it for Saturday's headlining, act which was Black Sabbath. A lot of people headed back to their tents at this point, but we persevered and sheltered by the "Download Dog" sculpture. There were also rivers of water trickling down the hill to the Main Stage at this time it was raining so much!

That night we headed back to camp and did what we usually did, got changed and partied in the "Dog House" again. Below you can see that they had confetti cannons in there that night!

By the time that we woke up on Sunday morning it was raining again! But being that we were all dry in our tents at this point we didn't really want to go out, but luckily none of the bands that we wanted to see were playing until the afternoon so we just chilled and stayed put, by which time it thankfully wasn't raining! Below you can see a couple of the bands that we saw on Sunday. The pic on the left is a band from America whose lead singer is so scared of flying that they got a boat all the way here just so they could play Download! 

We did end up getting soaked again at the arena later in the day, but luckily it wasn't as prolonged as previous days thankfully! Below you can see just how muddy the arena was come Sunday afternoon!

But by the time that Sunday's headlining and closing act Iron Maiden came on stage that evening, we almost managed to get a sunset as you can see below.

Below left you can see the crowd of 85,000 people gathered to see Iron Maiden, and to the right Iron Maiden doing their thing!

  

Below you can see that they had the most amazing stage set, complete with a huge moving robot which you can see below right!

All in all it was a fab way to end off yet another epic year at Download, which once again went by far too quickly!

Come the Monday it was sadly time for us all to head home! Luckily it wasn't raining for us to pack up, but we nearly ended up having trouble getting out of the car park due to the mud! So we had to push the cars a little to get them moving through the muddy tracks, but once they were going we were fine unlike some that had to be towed out by tractors!

It did however take us an hour and a half to queue getting out of the car park, due to the fact that people kept pushing in higher up! I'm sure it took those that left later took much longer to get out though as there was a massive queue of cars behind us by the time that we got out, plus it was raining!

We then faced further problems once off of the site due to the fact that the M1 (which is the motorway just by Download) had been shut, because of what turned out to be a nearly 24 hour standoff with a guy that had got onto the motorway! Due to this we had to be diverted up to Birmingham and back down again, but once we were past the diversions we had a pretty smooth journey which took about 4 or so hours once we were out of the car park.

Below you can see that during my time on site wellies got well and truly Download fied and were not quite as shiny as they were when I got there, or when I first posted them a few months back! It wasn't the wettest or muddiest year that we had ever had, but  there was still plenty of both!

Whilst I was unpacking my stuff when I got back, I found that one of the many bugs that that had been around our tents had made its way all the way home with me in my bag! I don't know what sort of bug it was or how he made it back without being squashed, but he was safely relocated outside to his new home in the South of England!

I think that my hubby also missed me whilst I was away, as he bought me some lovely bunny pj's as a welcome home present which is very unlike him! Below you can see pics of my little bug friend and my pj's!
  

Once I was unpacked and back to reality I also realised that as usual I was a little battered and bruised from where my five days camping had taken its toll, as you can see below!

Left to right: A friction burn on my shoulder from carrying all of our stuff, a blister which formed through my precautionary Compeed blister plasters! My bruised leg from falling up a couple of steps just after I got home! I have no idea how the bruises on my arm appeared, and on the far right you can see my bruised and my very swollen feet and ankles that I ended up with due to the fact that wellies are not designed to be worn for 5 days solid! The best part of getting back from Download though is having your first bath for 5 days! Make that two to get rid of all of the mud!

On the plus side I didn't burn this year and invested in some P20 50+, once use and extra waterproof sun cream that was recommended to me by a friend after my normal 50+ failed me last year! I am pleased to say that it worked and I too would recommend it if like me you burn easily! But on the downside it turned out that I came back with more than just the usual bruises and blisters from Download this year, and ended up being quite ill for the first time ever after Download! So maybe I am getting to old for this!

I was already loosing my voice the day I got back but by that night I realized that something was wrong with the roof of my mouth, as it was swollen and really painful to eat! Paired with this I also had my bottom wisdom tooth coming though, so I was in a lot of pain with that as well.

It became apparent quite quickly after this that solid foods were no longer an option, and so I ended up on a diet of soup and milkshakes. I also needed to constantly top myself up with paracetamol and Ibuprofen, and in the mornings and evenings it was so painful that I was driven to tears at times.

I thought that possibly my tonsils might have been swollen but knowing that it was probably my own fault I didn't want to waste the time of going to a doctor unless I really had too, and managed to get some mouth and throat numbing lozenges to get me through the four days of work that I had!

Luckily my voice came back after a few days as it is not particularly useful having a job where you need to talk if you can't, but over a week later I was still in a lot of pain and still not able to eat solid foods. I also had to phone in sick at work which I never do, so I gave in and went to the doctors.

On seeing the doctor it turned out that the two big bumps that I had across the top of my moth were blisters that then had multiple ulcers on them, but that my tonsils were fine. He said that it could have happened anyway regardless of Download but that it was probably a combination of being rundown, my wisdom tooth coming through, and partying a little too hard. He prescribed an antibiotic throat spray and advised that Corsadil mouthwash may also help and luckily it has gradually been clearing up since.

In the end ended I was unable to eat solids for 10 days and then it was just soft foods for another 4-5 days on top of that. Even now my pallet is still a little irritated, but I am pretty much back to normal!

I have never had anything like it before so it was very random, but below you can see the concoction of drugs I had to take, and what my fridge looked like once I was back!     

Despite all of this though I wouldn't have changed going to Download at all! I said it before in last year's post that the place that I feel most alive is at Download, it's just an amazing experience that I love and in my opinion can't be matched. Yes I may in hindsight have partied a little too hard celebrating Hen Nights and 30th birthdays, but I had the most amazing time with the most amazing people. After all life is for living and it only happens once, which I have had one too many reminders of this year! So I fully intend to live it to the full!

That nearly brings you up to date with everything that has been going on here now! That is all accept for last weekend when we celebrated my Great Uncle's 80th birthday, which was set in a lovely function room in a hotel towards Farnham.

Being that it was a little way from us my sister drove, but this place was literally in the middle of nowhere! At numerous points during the journey we ended up down single track roads and thought that we had taken a wrong turn, but we got there in the end!

The hotel was gorgeous and set by a huge pond. We enjoyed a lovely three course sit down meal, and there was also a gorgeous cake that had been made for him. Family and friends came from far and wide to celebrate and it was lovely to catch up with the wider family that we don't get to see that often, especially our many second cousins.

Luckily the weather just about held out too! We did have one heavy downpour whilst we were eating, but were able to spend lots of time outside besides that!

This seems to have been the trend with the weather here since I have got back from Download, it has been very mild and basically like April showers every day! One minute it's chucking it and the next there is bright sunshine again! We also had a rather impressive storm the other week with lighting that was insanely bright, so I'm not really sure what is going on with our summer at the moment!

Below you can see some of the pics that I took from our day at the hotel.

I hope that I find you all well and I do apologise for the fact that this was such another long and wordy diary style blog post!  Hopefully from here on in they should get much shorter than they have been of late as everything is calming down here socially, just as everything is about to go crazy at work with the schools breaking up very soon!

On the Bobby front I am also hoping to finally get back into producing more work now that the decorating is pretty much done. I am also still planning on the project launch of the framed prints that I mentioned a few or so posts back, which I was hoping to have been out by now but I have been having problems sourcing packaging for them. However I think that I have something on the horizon now!

Thanks again for showing your support and bearing with me, it really is appreciated as always. x  

Spring Catch-Up Part 2!

So apart from spraying bathroom tiles, the beginning of April also bought my attempt to cook sweet potato fries for the first time! It was quite a time consuming process as you have to chop them and then leave them to soak in water, before cooking them for a good hour so I won't be doing it every day! A few could have done with being a bit crispier here and there but they didn't turn out bad considering it was my first attempt were still very yummy as you can see below!

I also began to learn how to Hula-Hoop in April thanks to a friend who is currently undertaking a Hula Hooping course and learning how to do tricks etc. I however have decided to do it more from a fitness point of view in order to help strengthen my back and core muscles, as I have had a problem with a couple of my discs for years now which I have to have adjusted and kept in place on a monthly basis by a Chiropractor. I have to say that I was beyond useless when I started and couldn't keep that hoop up at all, but now with a bit of practice I have managed to do over 600 spins! I have been doing it on a daily basis and am trying to do at least 200 each way, with some days taking more practice than others! Below you can see my sparkly hoop!

It was also around this time that I found a curious critter on the kitchen wall that I thought I would share with you, as you can see below it is a Lady bird with no spots!

I can't say that I have ever seen one before, but after a bit of Googling I found out that they are apparently pretty common. I wonder if you have ever seen one?

By this point mid April had come around and with it bought a friend's 18th birthday and a Baby Shower which we had a fab time at! We played games including; "Where's My Dummy" which was similar to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" accept you had to try and aim to get the dummy in the baby's mouth, "Guess How Many Dummy's Are In the Bottle", "How Big Is the Bump", and we also had a quiz to do on nursery rhymes as well as making predictions as to when the baby would be born and how much it would weigh etc. We also watched her open her many presents, and there were so many! I am pretty sure that this baby now has more clothes than it could ever wear, including the gorgeous Joules baby grow and star musie that we got him as you can see below.

After this weekend came my birthday week, which I decided to take off from work in order to relax and get some jobs done. It did however not turn out this way and was instead extremely stressful, so I found myself needing a holiday from my holiday by the end of it! This was due to the fact that being that I had some time off  I thought that it would give me a good opportunity to move onto tiling the bathroom. Two words never again!

Having never tiled before I started on the Monday thinking that it may take me until maybe the Wends to complete, and being in the zone that I was on the first day I ended up working through from 10am in the morning until 4:30am on Tuesday morning. Yes I am mad and there was a lot of Red Bull  involved, but I figured that the more that I did the quicker I would get it done so that I could do the other jobs that I needed to catch-up with on my week off. However it did not end up this way I did it all day every day, day after day. On Weds I came to grouting the tiles and even though I had used the right grout I found that even though the glass tiles were fine, it reacted with some of the untreated stone tiles for some reason making them bleed into the grouting and making it look a rusty colour around them. The tiles weren't meant to be treated before they were grouted so I have no idea why it did it, but the only solution was to stop wiping the grout from the tiles whilst wet as this was making it worse and to wait to get it off when dry by sanding which made it an even bigger job. By the end of Thursday and after a day and a half of sanding I finally cracked and my hubby came home to find me in a sobbing mess!

At this point I was knackered, aching, had lost skin off of my fingers where I had been sanding so much, had no nails left and was generally frustrated that there was still no end in sight and that I hadn't got the chance to do anything else with my week off, or enjoy the lovely weather that we had had that week. So in a bid to console me my hubby presented me with an early birthday present which consisted of the gorgeous bunny necklace that you can see below. I loved it so much and was even more impressed that the hubby had gone to the effort to choose and get it for me, as he doesn't tend to do things like that very often.

My mood was also eased a little more by my early birthday present to myself turning up, which consisted of some lovely Joules wellies that you can see below. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them about a year ago but didn't really need them at the time so I left it, but when I came to buy them they typically didn't do the style anymore despite having done them or something similar for years! Que plenty of internet searching and the only place I could find them was in America! But luckily being that they had been reduced over there I managed to get them sent over and even with the fees and import tax paid no more that I would have done for then here. It only took a couple of week for them to arrive and I am over the moon with them! They are so very me and will be replacing my last Joules ones ready for Download Festival next month, as after four years my last ones have had it!

 

By the Friday of my week off I decided that I needed a day off from the tiling as it wasn't going to get finished that week anyway and was going to be busy over the weekend with my birthday, so I just spent the day chilling and trying to get my sanity back!

St. Georges Day was on the Sat and with it came my 28th birthday! I had a well needed chilled out one on the day with a lovely family lunch before heading out with the girls in the evening to let my hair down watching a rock band, having a few drinks and then dancing the night away! It was a lovely day and I was thoroughly spoilt! Below can see some of the lovely gifts and cards that I received many of which were naturally bunnified!

After having a chilled out one on Sunday where I was recovering from the night before came Monday and I was back to work again. I spent my days off that week resuming and finally finishing the tile sanding, then all that was left to be done at this point was for me to add the corner tiles. It was a bit of a slog getting back into it again but it was also good to know that I was so close to finishing.

On the Sat of that week both the hubby and I were bought down to earth with a bump after receiving the devastating news that a friend from my hubby's friendship group had sadly passed away after tragically being hit by a car on the afternoon before at the age of only 30. It didn't help that I found out at work on my lunch break so it was quite a shock, and a shock that we are still feeling now. Unfortunately as of yet there don't seem to be any answers as to how it happened but I hope that for his family's sake that we get some answers soon. He was such a lovely outgoing bubbly guy that had been through a lot in the last year but still had a wicked sense of humour regardless. I still can't quite get my head around the fact that we are never going to see him again, and will always remember his infectious laugh and smile. On that sat night we and others from his friendship group went out for drinks to reflect on the events and remember him, as we knew that that is how he would want us to do. Once again makes you realise how precious life, friends, and family are.

After the events of the day before it was then lovely to treasure a day around family on the following day as my Godmother and her family were over from Australia for the first time in three years, and some family friends also travelled down from Norfolk to see them. We all went out and had a lovely meal and catch-up and got to see just how much their boys had grown up. Luckily it was a lovely sunny day even though it was pretty chilly, but it was better than the weather that they arrived to a couple of weeks prior which consisted of more winter like temperatures mixed with April showers, hail and a brief snow shower at the end of April! It was sad to see them go again but hopefully it won't be as long until we see them again.

This almost brings you up to date with all the goings on around here now, with the exception of last weekend which was another very busy one! On the Sat I had a rare day off of work to go bridesmaid shopping for my best friends up and coming October wedding. It was a gorgeous day that finally felt more like the spring and even summer like temperatures that we should be having! We spent the day traipsing streets and shops of Guildford looking for suitable dresses in the style, four shades, and budget that we were after. However this proved to be much more difficult that we had thought, especially since she wanted one of the dresses to be burgundy as it is not really the time of year for finding that colour. Unfortunately despite out extensive search we didn't come away with anything on the day but we did have a lovely girly day out together. We have however sorted the dresses out since, as she has decided to go for a style of dress that we all loved on the day but that only came in a nude pink/mink colour. So we are all now going to be wearing the same style and colour.

After spending the day shopping I then had to rush to get back in time to go straight out to a family meal for my sisters birthday, which was then followed by some yummy summery cocktails in a local bar.

Sunday then saw my hubby and myself being up bright and early to go to Croydon for a meet up with his family that I haven't seen since before Christmas last year, and I also finally got to meet our now seven week old Niece for the first time! She is just gorgeous and is thriving despite her relatively low birth weight from being a few weeks early. She is in fact now turning into a lovely chubby little baby and has nearly doubled her birth weight already! It was such a gorgeous day that we spent most of the day out in the garden having a BBQ, on what turned out to be now the hottest day of the year so far! I also got to meet the other new additions to the family that day being a couple of puppies named Ralph and Rusty, one of which belonged to my hubby's brother and the other to his sister. They were just gorgeous and loved playing in the garden with each other and the kids. Needless to say that as lovely as it was both the hubby and I were knackered by the time that we got home after our action packed weekend.

This week has mainly been filled by work plus I finally managed to cut and file the corner tiles into their required shape before fitting them onto the wall, meaning that I have now finally officially finished the tiling! Yay! It was never going to be a professional job, and there are a few wonky bits here and there but it certainly looks much better than it did! But one thing is for certain I will not be tiling anything again probably ever! It was by far the most time consuming, draining and messiest DIY project I have ever undertaken. At more than one point my bathroom resembled that of an icing sugar explosion having taken place, and the dust from the sanding went everywhere! I have hoovered and hoovered and I am still finding it about! The amount of blood, sweat, tears that went into it was also ridiculous. I found numerous muscles that I never knew that I had, wore the skin off of my fingers, ended up with many bruises on my hands and broken nails

after all of the sanding, plus I managed to trip over a mechanical pencil and had its lead impale the base of my big toe! So all in all it was the DIY project that nearly broke me! I do still have the painting and glossing to do, but that can wait for now as I am on decorating strike and am just glad that the majority of this last big decorating project is over! Below you can see the results and injuries that I acquired!

Also this week the friend who's baby shower I mentioned at the beginning of this post gave birth to a beautiful 7Ib 12oz baby boy named Tobias on Friday, after a long 32 hour labour! Mum and baby are thankfully doing well even though they are still in hospital at the moment. He looks just like his Daddy and I can't wait to meet him! 

Thanks for bearing with me and my ramblings in another long post! I hope that you have all had a lovely week and weekend! The weather had been gorgeous here again today despite a cooler blip in the week, but the hubby and I have been taking it easy today as this is the first Sunday that we have had free in a long time! x

Spring Catch Up Part 1!

Hello everyone! So much has happened in the last month that I barely know where to start! So much in fact that I think that I am going to have to put it across two blog posts, otherwise you may get bored to death with how long one would be! Especially since my last blog post was at the end of March, so I have a fair bit of catching up to do with you all!

Back to the end of March came an early Easter and the Bank Holiday weekend, for which I managed to get two of the four days off of work. The first of which was Good Friday and what a glorious day that was!

Every year over the Easter weekend we have an annual Italian Festival within our town which consists of an Italian Market, a Mini rally, a Ferrari parade and display of Superbikes. It's always quite a spectacle and seems to draw more and more people in from the local area as each year passes. Unfortunately I don't usually get to see much of it as I am generally working, and I never get to see the Ferrari parade unless I get the chance to stick my head out of the back door at work to have a quick look, as it generally falls on a Saturday! This year however it fell on the Friday that I had off, so my hubby and I made our way into town on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far at that point. We had a few ciders, got to watch all of the parade, and had a good look around the market. It really was the most perfect of days and you can see just some of the amazing cars and bikes that we saw below.

             The blue Ferrari above was apparently the one used in the latest Bond movie

One of the older Ferraris and one of the street performers

The Ferrari above was the only one that was sectioned off and for good reason as it's worth 7 million pounds!

 

Good Friday was then followed by my next day off which was Easter Sunday! This was a lovely family day that was spent with my parents consisting of my mum cooking us a yummy roast before we then spent the afternoon playing Jenga, Ping-Pong, and a game of the Cornish edition of Monopoly! Which after over three hours of playing we all lost the will to live and never finished! Once again it was a lovely rare family day despite the fact that the weather was pretty awful.

I also got plenty of Easter treats too!

I was then working on Bank holiday Monday but this didn't exactly go to plan, as both I and my fellow colleagues ended up spending half of the day in Costa. This was due to the fact that we had quite a storm and very high winds on the night of Easter Sunday that caused the scaffolding of the shop next to us to become unstable, which meant that we couldn't open for a fare amount of the day as half of the high street was shut off. It was a bit unfortunate as the Italian Festival that had had so much planning go into it was still taking place on the day so it did put a bit of a dampener on it, but hey we got to have the morning off so it wasn't all bad!

On the way home from work that evening I also came across a rather large tree that had fallen in the storm just around the corner from us. You can see below just how big it was and how lucky it was that it fell away from the flats just by it! We haven't had a storm or winds like that for a long time and hopefully won't have any again anytime soon!

In the week that followed I started to move onto faze two of our bathroom makeover, which consisted of me conducting an experiment as to how to cover the delightful flowery tiles that we had dotted about in the bathroom.

At this point we had already decided to tile over the delightful avocado tiles below them, but I didn't really want to have to re-tile the whole bathroom as the nude tiles that surrounded the flowery ones were quite unoffensive and in pretty good nick. However I also wasn't keen on the idea of tile paint as I didn't want it to end up looking tacky or streaky, so I set about looking for an alternative and that alternative turned out to be spray paint! I did some research and thought about the look that we wanted to go for and found a product that sprays with a stone effect. It had mixed reviews and I had no idea if it would actually work for the purpose that I wanted to use it for, but I figured that I couldn't make the bathroom look much worse! I set about doing a few test tiles first and was pleasantly surprised with the result as you can see below!

            The left pic shows the practice tile before I sprayed it and right after                            

So the process that I used was to spray the tile with one coat of the spray, leave it to dry for about 6 hours and then paint it with three coats of clear outdoor waterproof varnish with about two hours or so drying time between each coat and voila!

So after the success of the test tile I set about masking off the tiles that I wanted to spray and got to work! I have to say that it was very time consuming process and took quite a few of my days off and evenings to complete, but I got there in the end and after sorting out the grouting to I am pretty pleased with the result as you can see below! Only time will tell how well it will wear but it seems to be pretty good so far!

                                    Before                                              After A Lot of Masking

                          After Spraying                                      After the Masking Came Off

At this point all that remained of project bathroom was to attempt the tiling, plus to paint and gloss the place. This however turned out to be a much bigger nightmare that I ever thought that it would be, which I will cover this in my next post! But for now I will leave you with a new framed Bobby Bunny commission for a 1st Birthday that I got a few weeks back!

I hope that I catch you all well and that you have a fab weekend! Also thank you for bearing with me and my rather long posts, as always it really does mean the world to me to have your support. x