My Brother Turned 18!!!

There is just over 2 and a half years between my younger brother and I. When I turned 18, my mum threw a big party at the house and invited all the friends and the family she could possibly think of, decorated the house from top to bottom and ordered a huge Costco cake. When my brother turned 18 on the 25th of January, she did exactly the same but had to scale it back slightly - if she didn't tone it down, I reckon my brother would've killed her.

Stuart's birthday fell on a Monday this year so we had the party on the Sunday and spent his actual birthday celebrating just him, my mum and dad, me and his girlfriend. My mum's side of the family have a reputation when it comes to family gatherings. Well, to be more specific, it's my uncle, cousins and myself that have the reputation. Everybody usually gathers in the living room to eat and chat away at family events, not us, we gather either in the kitchen or the conservatory and we really get the party going. This year my uncle brought speakers, disco lights, spinning light bulbs, everything you can think of; including alcohol. The conservatory was where the party was at that night.

The night was a great success, we all danced, drank (reasonably), sang awfully and took an abundance of photo's. Even my mum jumped in a few of the pictures! Stuart had a really good night and he entered his 18th birthday having drinks and a good laugh with people he cares about the most.

On his actual birthday, I was supposed to be going back to university... like that was going to happen, Stuart had presents to open, we had a meal to go to and a movie to see. I was only missing introductory lectures anyways. I decided to get Stuart a personalised hip flask as his 'memorable' gift and then his favourite Def Leppard album on Vinyl because I knew my parents had bought him a Vinyl player, he was over the moon that I'd managed to track one down in such good condition. The facial expression that appeared when he opened the gifts made all the effort and money worth it. He now has a very decent and ever growing Vinyl collection, ranging from ACDC to Justin Bieber. 

Of course I couldn't go through the day without posting a whole bunch of my favourite photo's of Stuart and I on his Facebook for all his friends and the family to see. It was difficult but I eventually managed to pick after a few hours of searching through boxes and boxes of photographs.

In the evening, we had originally planned to have a meal at TGI Fridays and go to the cinema to see Ride Along 2 but when does anything ever go right to plan? We didn't have a meal at TGI Fridays, instead we ended up at a Carvery for Stuart to have his favourite dinner; sirloin steak. We also did'nt go and see Ride Along 2, that was replaced by the film Dirty Grandpa starring Robert DeNiro and Zac Efron. I'll be honest, I did not have high expectations for this film in the slightest because the trailers I'd seen were awful, however, it was actually really good and really funny. I would definitely recommend this film to anybody, especially those who find shows like Celebrity Juice funny. Plus Stuart has promised to take me to see Ride Along 2 very soon since I really wanted to see it!

Overall, I thought the birthday celebrations we had for my brother turned out great and thankfully so did he despite how fussy and particular he can be. I still cannot believe that he is 18 years old and can legally go out to clubs and buy alcohol now; both of which he has already done. My family have A LOT of big birthday's and celebrations coming up this year, this was just the first of the many to come. 2016 is definitely going to hurt everyone's bank balance!

xxx

Cinderella: The Ballet

I have always loved ballet even though I never got to try it as a child. Seeing a ballet performance has been something I've longed to see for as long as I can remember and I finally got to see one! My mum has never really been interested in ballet as she finds it confusing and hard to interpret but she does like the music behind the dancing. When the Scottish Ballet decided to perform Cinderella in Glasgow, it was perfect! My mum knew the storyline and would be able to keep up and I would finally be able to see a Ballet performance! I'd seen the advert for Cinderella: The Ballet online just after Christmas and was absolutely thrilled when my mum agreed to go, especially since the seats we managed to get were perfect.

The whole performance was two hours long with two intervals. The act followed the basic fairytale storyline of Cinderella but did incorporate a few twists to the tale. One example of a twist was that Cinderella's father did not die in this performance, instead he developed depression and an alcohol addiction from the loss of his first wife and struggled to cope under the authoritarian personality of his new wife. Another twist to the tale was Cinderella's spell breaking whilst she was still in the ball with the prince. Of course she managed to conceal her identity and escape leaving a glass ballet slipper for her prince like in the fairytale. The rest of the performance followed the traditional fairytale and a slight comedic element was employed with the step sisters competition for the prince and to impress everyone with their 'looks' and 'dancing abilities', it was very lighthearted and funny.

Beautiful is a somewhat pathetic description when discussing the ballet costumes worn. Each dancer looked elegant and impeccable, especially when gliding across the stage. The main focus of the entire performance was the Royal Ball. The entire second act was dedicated to the flawless dancing, lifting and spins of the dancers. The act was inspiring and stunning to watch. Even my mum - who doesn't see the beauty in ballet dancing - found the entire Royal Ball scene mesmerising, she couldn't take her eyes off the stage. Everything about the show was picturesque, even the programme is a visual masterpiece, all of the pictures are angelic and admirable. I would absolutely love to be in the audience of another ballet performance, I have heard that the Scottish Ballet are taking on a version of Snow White next so I'll definitely have to look into that further.

Seeing a ballet performance live has only excelled my love for it's beauty. I would love to have the courage to attend a ballet class myself as I genuinely believe I would be okay at ballet. Maybe I will start teaching myself, but for now I just want to see more.

xxx

Reminiscing and Looking Forward to 2016

I recently re-read the post I uploaded in January of 2015 about the goals I wanted to achieve throughout the year. I have been successful in some of them but others, not so much. There have been points throughout the year when I achieved them for a short period of time but I haven't always stuck with it.

One of the first things I wanted to achieve throughout 2015 was to give more and I believe that I have achieved this. I have been first aiding more (if that's possible) and I signed up to be part of the resilience team and internal support within St Andrew's First Aid but there is always more that can be done when it comes to first aid. However, this year I want to do more for myself, it'll be hard but I think it has to be done. I'd like to learn some new things, start scrapbooking and maybe even redecorate my room.

The second thing I aimed for was to exercise more, be healthy and take better care of my skin. I am very lucky in that I have quite good skin naturally, the only thing is that it has the tendency to be quite dry. I haven't stuck to any specific skin routine like I hoped I would but I have been taking better care of my skin, which is definitely an improvement. Being healthy and exercising more has had it's ups and downs throughout the year, some months I've been super healthy and gone to the gym two or three times a week and ate clean and then others it's been the complete opposite. I do enjoy exercise and generally eat healthily anyways but I have the tendency to set my goals to high and aim to do too much within a short period of time. This is why I think I had those 'less healthy' months. Do little but often is the strategy I'm going to have a go at in 2016, I think it will be easier to stick to because I won't be planning massive three hours gym sessions two and three times a week which can be extremely off-putting. By doing a little each day, I want to increase my fitness and my general health, maybe even get to the stage where it's a part of my daily routine.

Sleep is my main problem area. I definitely do not have a good sleeping pattern and I certainly don't get enough sleep. It will be hard but I really do need to try getting a proper sleeping pattern, that in itself will improve my general health a lot. Doing more during the day and less at night will hopefully help in getting more sleep. I am sick of wasting half of my days because I don't fall asleep until the early morning and because I procrastinate too much. It needs to change, I don't need to watch all the episodes of a television show in one night, I don't need to watch hours and hours worth of YouTube videos all at once and I certainly shouldn't be doing important work in the early hours. Managing my time better and procrastinating less is going to be the key to getting more sleep at the right times, I just need to find things that keep me motivated.

Read, write and blog more is one of the goals that has been achieved some months but not others. I started off the year quite well by reading quite a bit and blogging once a week but then my motivation dropped dramatically, not just for blogging but for pretty much everything. I didn't blog for nearly half of the year and I've barely read five books since May. Once I started Blogmas in December, my motivation returned and I am really pleased that I managed to blog every single day in December and I loved it. It was a challenge to begin with but after a week it became part of my day. I doubt I will blog every single day next year because 2016 has some challenges lined up for me but posting at least three times a week and reading a little each day sounds good.

The most difficult of my goals for 2015 was to be happier and more confident within myself. I can very proudly say that my confidence has improved a great deal which surprised me greatly because for the best part of twenty years, I had no confidence. I believe my confidence has is because of first aiding and the people I work with on a weekly basis. Everyone is always full of support and encouragement, believing in myself and my own skills was a huge step for me but it has increased my general confidence as well. I wouldn't give up my position as a first aider or the friendship I have within the company for anything.

Being confident and happy is an ongoing process, it doesn't just increase all at once but I truly believe that by this time next year, I will be even more confident and happier than I am currently, especially if I surround myself with the right people. I never thought I would have the confidence to work at T in the Park, take control of serious medical situations, not feel nervous when presenting in front of crowds or even something as little as promoting my blog on social networking sites and letting people I know personally read it. I did all of those things this year and there can only be more to accomplish next year.

xxx

Happy New Year!

Normally, my family and I bring in the New Year together at home and we would always watch the countdown live from Edinburgh on the television. This year I decided to do something different. I was actually in Edinburgh for Hogmany but not as member of the public, as a First Aider. I brought 2016 in doing what I love, with some of the best people I know and it was amazing (and extremely cold).

I left my house at 2pm on the 31st and didn't get home until 7am on the 1st. It was a very, very long and cold night. It was actually reasonably quiet first aid wise despite the volume of people there, I was expecting to treat a lot more people if I'm honest. Despite this, I still managed to miss the countdown and most of the fireworks because I was treating at the time, typical. I did catch a glimpse of the end and I watched the whole performance online earlier today, they looked incredible! The timing was perfect, the fireworks were awesome, it was all just amazing.

There's quite a few memorable points from my night, including somebody approaching me to thank and congratulate me on how fantastic I was in the Disney film Brave because I look like Merida. I've had people tell me I look like her before but I've never had a person actually approach me with a comment like that. Everyone, including me found it hilarious. Another, really good moment was discovering my T in the Park partner from the British Red Cross was there! It was great to see him and have a catch up since we got on really well back in July. However, by far, the best moment of the entire night was the genuine appreciation I received from an individual I treated, it really does make it all worthwhile when you are appreciated on that kind of level.

This post was short and sweet but I just wanted to say Happy New Year to you all, I hope your 2015 was good and that your 2016 will be great, be safe with all your celebrations and enjoy yourself.

xxx