Evening Walks & Midnight Monopoly

It is supposed to be summer in Scotland at the minute, between the thunder & lightning, torrential rain and then the rare days of the sun splitting the skies, you really wouldn't think. It's a typical Scottish summer! When the sun does decide to make an appearance, the sun cream, sunglasses, t-shirts and shorts are on and out a big, long walk with the dogs we go.

Despite living in the same house for 16 years and walking round the reservoir nearby at least five times a week since then, you never really tire of the scenery; especially when it's sunny. Since I've gotten more into photography, the reservoir has been a very useful place to take photographs. 

I find it so calming to go a walk; especially in the sunshine. My brother has been going out walking a lot more too. Well, I'll rephrase that, my brother has been going out Pokemon hunting a lot more. He is obsessed with the game! I have played a little but I haven't gotten as into Pokemon Go as everybody else has. There is a Pokestop located within the reservoir which I guess is good for if I do get more into the game instead of taking photographs. For now, taking photographs is more my thing, I think I'm improving a little too! 

Much later on in the night, my brother completely surprised me by asking me to play Disney Monopoly with him and his girlfriend. I absolutely LOVE board games, always have done, especially Monopoly. I have been begging him to play any sort of board game with me for years but he has always been too reluctant. I believe Christmas should be spent with family, eating delicious food, watching cheesy movies and playing board games. That is my ideal Christmas but nobody in my family is really fond of board games so I miss out on those. So when Stuart asked me to play Monopoly with him and Louise, I was over the moon! Even though it was midnight. Everybody knows it's a bad idea to start playing Monopoly late but I didn't care and it was Disney Monopoly and Disney makes everything 100x better. I am quite competitive at Monopoly so when my brother started buying up all the properties I usually buy, the challenge was on. I would not be defeated. Fast forward 3 hours and Louise was bankrupt, Stuart owned every single property on the board besides the oranges and the reds, yet I was still winning. Fast forward another 30 minutes and we called it a night, totalled up our money and went to bed. Naturally, I won (if I could insert an emoji here, it would be the sassy girl for sure).

Playing Monopoly with my brother accumulated all the feelings of nostalgia. We always used to play board games as small children, then he discovered X Box and PS4. I am determined that this was not a one off thing, I have Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Golden Balls, Cluedo, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Battle Ship and they are all longing to be played. Did you have a favourite board game you loved to play? What is it?

xxx

Book Haul | July 2016

So I bought some more books. Did I need them? Probably not. Do I have space for them? Not really. So why did I buy them? I had an Amazon voucher and they are very pretty. I feel like those are the only justifications needed. My mum constantly moans at me when I buy books or clothes which is when I try and remind her that she is lucky her daughter would rather buy books, clothes or pretty stationary rather than alcohol at pubs and clubs. She has yet to see this is a valid point but we'll get there, especially when there are A LOT of books on my wishlist. For now though I have six more books to add to my collection.

The first book added to my basket was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I technically already own this book on my Kindle but it is most definitely one of my favourite books so I just had to have a physical copy to display on my shelf too! The Book Thief is quite well known because of the film that was made but for those of you who haven't heard of it... go out and get yourself a copy asap. It is set in 1939 Germany, during the height of the Nazi hierarchy. The book is narrated by death and follows nine year old Liesel as her parents are sent to a concentration camp and she is sent to live with a foster family where Liesel uses books as her coping mechanism. This book is beautifully and cleverly written and I would recommend it to anyone.

The second book added to my basket was actually because of Zoe Sugg's video about her WH Smith Book Club Picks. She mentioned Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell in her video amongst numerous others. I already own one of the other books she mentioned in her video (All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven) and all the other books she spoke about weren't really for me; I don't tend to enjoy books about love and relationships. However, Fangirl caught my fancy. I am excited to read this book as it follows twin girls, Wren and Cath, as they head off to university. Wren is the more outgoing one who wants to embrace the student life and go to parties, meet boys and let her hair down whereas Cath likes to keep to herself and write but is slowly opening herself up to new experiences. I was initially drawn to this book because of Cath's character as I feel like I am very similar, hence the reason why I'm looking forward to reading it.

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson is about a transgender boy called David who is desperate to keep his secret and be a 'normal' kid at high school. I was immediately drawn to this book as I haven't really came across any books with a transgender story line before and as a psychology graduate and a person who views people as people regardless of gender, religion or sexuality, I thought it would be an interesting read. Hopefully it will provide people with more knowledge and understanding of the topic so that others do not have to live in fear. The book also has a hashtag that can be used on Twitter to go along with the story which I like a lot, #WhatIsNormal. I love this message because it is so incredibly true, no person is the same as another and that is an incredibly positive thing that isn't shown or embraced as much as it should be within society.

The fouth book I purchased was actually in the recommended section on Amazon and I am not going to deny the fact that I clicked for more information because of the pretty cover and strange name. The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock is set in Alaska in 1970 and follows four people experiencing difficulties in their lives. Ruth wants to be remembered, Dora wishes to be invisible, Alyce wants to leave but can't summon the courage and Hank is running away. I have read books before that are narrated by different protagonists and I quite enjoyed them so I'm looking forward to making my way through this one too.

The last two books I purchased were also in the recommended section on Amazon and are both by the same author, Ruta Sepetys. Between Shades of Gray explores the life of Lina, her mother and her brother as Soviet guards rip them from their home and everything they know and love and deport them to Siberia. Lina doesn't know if she will ever see her friends or the rest of her family again but she refuses to give up hope. Salt to the Sea is also set in Germany during the war and is narrated by four protagonists. Each of them come from different lands, each of them are effected by devastation and war and each of them are hoping to board a ship that promises safety, security and freedom; The Wilhelm Gustloff. Both of these books sound incredible and appear to have similar themes to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (which is one of my all time favourite books); destruction, survival and strength. Based on that alone, I think I am going to really like these books.

I am really looking forward to working my way through these books. They all sound so good! I am being kept fairly busy at the moment between my first aiding and work but hopefully I can find some time here and there to delve into them. No doubt at least one of these books will end up in a monthly favourites at some point or I might even write a Book Review on the ones I really like. Let me know if you have read any of these books or if there are others you would recommend that you loved and think I might like!

xxx 

Update | Where Have I Been?

20 days. I haven't blogged in 20 days; that's nearly an entire month! I know that way back when I first created my blog I took a substantial (7 month) break but that was at the beginning; I was still learning. That's the excuse I'm going with anyways! The end of June and first couple of weeks of July were extremely busy for me. I was planning and organising my 21st birthday party, I got a second job and I was a volunteer first aider at the Beyonce concert at Hampden Park and at T in the Park again this year.

I'll start with my 21st birthday party, which was organised for July 2nd (2 days before my actual birthday). A party is very stressful to organise and can be quite expensive. I knew exactly how I wanted the hall decorated and what type of food I wanted to provide for guests, it was just a case of sorting it all whilst sticking to a budget. Despite the initial stress and panic, everything came together nicely. There was a couple of little problems here and there but overall it was a success and everybody had a good time. There will be a post up about it all shortly.

Secondly, I got another job. As I have mentioned before, I am a volunteer first aider for the Scottish charity St Andrew's First Aid. There are hundreds of first aiders that dedicate as much time as they can to this amazing organisation and through one of them I was lead to an owner of a private ambulance company. Not only did he employ people for his company, he was looking for somebody with first aid experience and a caring nature to provide palliative care for a gentleman whom he was close friends with. I got the job and a position within his company. I was over the moon about this as I am a naturally caring person who is always keen to learn and expand and enhance my skills and experience. The gentleman was lovely and even though I only got to meet him about 6 or 7 times, I'd grown quite fond of him, we got on quite well. Unfortunately, medical complications resulted in his passing shortly after I began caring for him. 

Finally, T in the Park. Last year, I was a first aider at T in the Park and it was the best experience of my life. I had all my close first aid friends with me, I was kept constantly busy from early morning until very late at night and I treated A LOT of people with A LOT of different (and sometimes odd) injuries. Despite there barely being enough time to sleep and eat, I absolutely loved it and could not wait until T in the Park came around once again. This year I would be providing first aid cover at Hampden Park for the Beyonce concert first (which was INCREDIBLE) and then heading straight through to T in the Park. As a first aider this year, I wasn't actually that busy in comparison to last year (which is a good thing) but resulted in me being a little bored at times. Nevertheless I still ended up covered in mud and god knows what else. It was still a long weekend that's for sure. I left my house at 8am on Thursday 7th July and didn't get home until 10pm on Monday 11th July. I was filthy from head to toe and completely exhausted! Once I recovered from T in the Park, there was still the small matter of cleaning all the equipment we had taken to T in the Park in the first place. You'd think we'd left everything lying in the rivers of mud the entire weekend with the state that some the equipment was in. Nevertheless, it had to be cleaned. It took a couple of days to clean everything properly!

As you can see, I have been kept very busy over the last couple of weeks. I am not using that as an excuse but it has definitely been a learning process for me. In future I should have extra blog posts written and ready to upload for times when I do become busy. Incidentally, I am going to be kept fairly busy until the end of July as I have a funeral to attend and yet another festival to provide first aid cover for. I do have blog posts planned out so I'll have them written in advance all ready to be posted for you guys to read and (hopefully) enjoy.

xxx