A Short Break Away | Arriving at Kenmore

Kenmore is a small village in Perthshire, in the Highlands of Scotland and is situated on the banks of Loch Tay. Kenmore is surrounded by the most gorgeous scenery that I never tire seeing. Tranquil and peaceful are the only accurate descriptions I can provide for Kenmore. My family and I have been here every single year (at least one time) for the past 8 years. It is like our second home and we are allowed to bring our dogs here too which is definitely a bonus.

From my house, Kenmore is roughly a 3 hour car journey away. Years ago, that journey made my brother and I dread coming here, we'd spend hours selecting the two DVD's to watch that would keep us distracted and occupied. Now that we are older, those 3 hours fly by. We arrived at Kenmore mid-afternoon and were soon all unpacked and organised. Each time we arrive at Kenmore it has become a little tradition to walk the dogs almost instantly, this time was no exception. The only difference was that a lot more photographs were taken this time. Kenmore is surrounded by the most beautiful, untouched and clean woodlands you could imagine. Even though there has been a number of trees knocked over by various storms and winds, it does not take away any of the scenic qualities. I absolutely love it here and would gladly spend weeks here if I could. When the weather is particularly nice, there is often a number of people out on the lake swimming or with boats; everybody is always lovely and friendly.

The nearest village to Kenmore is called Aberfeldy and is just under 20 minutes drive away. I did walk there once, through all the forests and woodland paths, it took nearly 4 hours. It was worth it though, having completed my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, I do like hiking through nature and woodland areas; plus is was a fantastic day. I am still trying to convince my mum to complete the walk with me but so far I am having no luck. She prefers the shorter walks with proper pathways that are closer. I do love them too but I like being out and about instead of stuck inside all day. There are a significant number of trees in the forests immediately on the banks of Loch Tay that have been affected by the storms and horrible weather but my mum see's this as the perfect opportunity for a photo and my dogs have now apparently gained some climbing skills. My mum loves to get as many photographs here as she can. She convinced me to climb up on a huge fallen tree to sit and get a nice photo surrounded by branches and shrubbery. I was convinced this was not a good idea because it was pretty high and the branches I would use to climb up did not look that strong but my mum bared her weight on them to prove that it would be safe for me. Reluctantly, I agreed and began to climb. This was when my mum thought it would be a fantastic idea to lean on the branch I was supporting myself on. The branch snapped and me, a sensible, 21 year old (nearly) fell out a tree. I hadn't done that since I was about twelve!

                                             
After the walk, we went back to our little cottage and had dinner. My brother and his girlfriend had joined us for this trip to Kenmore and we all decided to watch a film together to end the day nicely. We watched Sisters, a comedy starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. We all absolutely loved this film! It was hilarious and had us laughing pretty much through the entire film. I would definitely recommend watching it, especially if you are a fan of Celebrity Juice because the humour is very similar. 

Our first afternoon at Kenmore was perfect, minus me falling out a tree, which will no doubt give me a massive bruise. Tomorrow we plan to take the dogs a walk along a different nature trail, take more photographs, visit one of the nearby towns to pick up some sweets and gifts and watch another film together. I am hopeful for Sinister! The weather is to remain nice for the next five days so a lot of walks have been planned, my mum is even hoping to get a bit of a tan! I just want to make the most of the woods and the couple of tree swings that are still here after years. I am blogging every day that I am here so please come back for more pictures and chat about what I have been up to here.

xxx

Animals, Agriculture, Confectionery & Crafts

I have helped provide First Aid cover at many Agricultural Shows in my surrounding towns and villages; like Largs. If the weather is nice then it can be a fairly pleasant day but it can become quite boring at times, especially if there aren't many stalls present or competitions happening. Kilmacolm is one of the larger villages that surrounds me. It is a rather well off village so when I heard that I would be providing First Aid cover at the Kilmacolm Agricultural Show, my expectations were fruitful.

I arrived at the location where I would remain for the rest of the day at 8.30am and everything was being set up. Food and craft stalls, bouncy castles, rock climbing walls and competition arena's for the horses, dogs and cows were beginning to materialise. The event wasn't open to the general public for another couple of hours yet and the rest of my team with the equipment had not yet arrived. I took this opportunity for a wander around. The event was being held next to the Knapps Loch which is surrounded by acres of land. I had never been here before despite my aunt walking her dogs here frequently and always recommending us to do the same. I understand why she prefers to walk here rather than anywhere else despite the journey; it is peaceful and scenic, especially when the sun creeps out from behind the trees. I love places that are surrounded by lot's of nature and with nothing else to do just yet, I couldn't pass up any opportunities for some photographs.

Unfortunately I didn't get that much time to wander aimlessly because the rest of my team arrived with the equipment promptly. We had a First Aid tent to set up, trolley beds to position, kit to organise and then eventually an event to patrol. Despite providing a First Aid presence, we do get to have a look around all the different stalls and have a nosey at some of the competitions occurring throughout the day. Horse jumping I understand as a competition but cow grooming? There was cheese stalls, bread stalls, confectionery stalls, craft stalls, clothes stalls; absolutely everything you could possibly think of. The confectionery stalls had your typical homemade fudges, tablet and coconut ice but the craft stalls had a huge variety of things, from bookmarks and cards to knitted goods and jewellery. I did pick up two handcrafted items; a hand painted pug card and a wooden bookmark with a little fox motif on. I was expecting the items to be rather expensive as they normally are when they are hand crafted but the card was only £2 and the bookmark £1.50. I also could not resist picking up some flavoured fudges and coconut ice. I certainly underestimated the variety of choice I would have upon my initial glance at the stall but eventually settled on a square of Baileys fudge (for my mum), Vimto fudge (for me), some Vanilla fudge and of course a good couple chunks of Coconut Ice; my favourite. The pricing of the confectionery was rather reasonable as well!

The event was scheduled to finish in the early evening so we had a long day ahead of us. The dog shows and horse shows provided some much needed entertainment and helped the time fly by. The horse jumping was terrifying but extremely entertaining. I appreciate how beautiful horses are but I am also more than aware of how dangerous they can be! I have treated many people with horse related injuries to provide more than enough evidence for me to admire from a distance. People of all ages were competing, there was some really small children on huge horses competing and even beating their adult competitors! Even the dog competition was all ages; 6 year olds with their pets just wanting to have fun and get a ribbon competing against adults taking it all far too seriously. It looked like everybody was having fun though. One of the ice-cream vans even gave my colleagues and I a free ice cream because of how warm it was becoming. It's always lovely when somebody expresses appreciation like that. I watched the Cow grooming competition even though I couldn't understand why it was a thing; it did lead me to finding the cutest baby cow which was asking to be photographed. It was adorable and my brother has a strange obsession with cows so I knew he would love the photo as well.

The sun was definitely shining that whole day, I was convinced I had been sun burn despite having sun cream on but I was lucky this time! My mum even appeared and had a wander around all the stalls and animals and agriculture and animals are most definitely not an interest of hers in the slightest. Dogs are about the only animal she has a real fondness for. She even picked up little wooden ornament of a dog for herself! Compared to other Agricultural Events I have attended, this one was by far the best and most entertaining. There was lot's to do and lot's to see as well. We didn't even have to treat that many people which is always a bonus. I will definitely be helping out at this event again next year if I can.

xxx

Mum's Birthday | 2016

It's been a week since my last exam and it has been so great to not have to think about university. I now have more time to do more things I enjoy - including blogging - and I can get back to even more first aiding. I've been pretty busy this week; it was my mum's birthday, I attended two communions, my brother and I went to a Busted concert and I helped first aid at an Agricultural Show, which I actually quite enjoyed. I'll be uploading posts about all of it within the next week, starting with my mums birthday.

On the morning of my mum's birthday, her and my dad took the dogs a long walk and I made breakfast for everybody. I laid out an entire spread for when she got back. I had wrapped her presents the night before and laid them out on the table, chopped up oranges and melon, made toast and boiled eggs for mum, cereal for my brother and various fry up items for my dad. When my mum got back she was absolutely over the moon.


After the late breakfast, it was present time. My mum already knew she was getting the Complete Gossip Girl box set from my brother and I but she had no idea what else was wrapped up and waiting for her. From me, my mum received a Red Trench Coat from Marks & Spencer's, a Blue and Purple Floral Chiffon Top, Suede Boots with Fringed detailing and a DVD box set containing the original Pilot movie for Little House on the Prairie and the follow up movie to the TV show. The Little House on the Prairie DVD's were hard to track down but all the effort was most definitely worth it for the sheer happiness on my mum's face; it was and still is her favourite show of all time. My brother took her for lunch and to the cinema to see Jungle Book.

Whilst they were out, my dad and I went into town to pick up some goodies for dinner. We also decided to buy mum flowers and a couple of extra things as a surprise for later; including new pyjamas, her favourite sweets, fluffy socks and new hair clips since she broke the others she had. For dinner we decided to cook a buffet type feast with lot's of different things to choose from. There was mini pizza's, spring rolls, mozzarella sticks, tuna pasta, chicken and sweetcorn pasta, grilled halloumi, salad, chicken and different types of bread. It was safe to say that none of us were going to be left hungry that evening!

When my mum got home later that evening, she was delighted to see dinner made and ready for her to dig in. Especially after having such a lovely afternoon with my brother. She loved it all! She loved everything even more so when she realised she had some presents left to open. She said the pyjamas and fluffy socks were perfect, the sweets were not going to last very long and described the clips as practical and needed since she stood on her other ones. Much to my dad's dismay, we all settled to watch a film of my mum's choice with some cocktails and cans of cider. Despite not holding much of an opinion on the chick flick chosen by my mum, my dad stayed and watched the whole film. I though this was very sweet; in fact, I think he actually enjoyed it to an extent too!

My mum described this birthday as one of her best ones to date. It makes me happy that she enjoyed it so much. She has no idea what is coming for when she turns 50 though! I am extremely glad that I could enjoy her birthday with her without having to worry about exams or anything else university related, there certainly wasn't any anxiety in the air that day. The day after my mum's birthday, my brother and I went to see Busted in concert, so keep an eye out for that blog post, it'll be up super soon!

xxx

April Favourites | 2016

Usually my monthly favourites consist of food, television and random things with barely any beauty products. This month, it's a little different because even though I do still have the usual television and random favourites, I have a grand total of six beauty products to share with you! I want to try and continue including more beauty products into my monthly favourites and also into my day to day life but for now, here is what I have been loving this month.

Beauty

The first product I have been loving is only £1 for a two pack at Primark and it's their Cucumber Facial Cleansing Wipes. Waking up in the morning and cleaning my face with these wipes wakes me up, makes me feel fresh and clean and they smell divine; perfect for the warmer weather we occasionally get a glimpse of here in Scotland.

I mentioned Vaseline's Spray & Go Aloe Vera Moisturiser a couple of favourites ago and since then I haven't been able to find it anywhere! I'm not sure whether it has been discontinued or if my local shops simply don't stock it anymore but I've had to find another moisturiser as a substitute all the same. Luckily for me there was a deal on the normal Vaseline Aloe Vera Moisturiser so I picked that up to see if it was just as good. To my surprise it was! I am very fussy when it comes to moisturiser but I really like this one. It did not leave my skin feeling sticky, the consistency wasn't too greasy or thick and best of all, it absorbed into my skin almost instantly meaning I didn't have to wait around for it to dry before I got ready. This product smells really fresh and it genuinely moisturises my skin well.

Fresh scents seem to be the theme of the products I've been loving so far this month. The next product is the Herbal Essences Clearly Naked Fresh & Light Dry Shampoo. I never usually use dry shampoo, especially with my type of hair and I'm lucky enough not to get greasy hair. However, this month has been so busy with a lot of first aid duties as the football season came to an end and my uni exams started this month too. Dry shampoo's that I'd tried in the past always left white marks in my hair even with massaging the product in but this one doesn't. It has a lovely, fresh scent, sprays on nice and easily and massages in to my hair with ease. Even though I haven't used many dry shampoo's, this one definitely has the thumbs up from me.

During the colder months, my room is constantly filled with candles. Now that the weather is getting warmer I prefer to have diffusers in my room instead of candles. I have tried a couple of the Primark diffusers because they are so cheap but I wasn't very fond of them. They are fantastic products for the price, I just found that the scent was far too strong for the size my bedroom is. They would be much better use in quite a large room because of the strength of scent. Since then I've found quite a few softer scented diffusers that work a lot better with the size of my bedroom. Air Scents Cherry Reed Diffuser has been a particular favourite of mine. I love cherry scents and this diffuser fills my bedroom with the scent for most of the day.

The last two beauty favourites of mine are nail polishes. One of which is from the Barry M collection and is in the colour Ballerina and honestly, the name definitely drew me to product. It's a gorgeous dusky pink colour and is perfect for Spring in my opinion. I have been wearing this colour most days, pairing it with quite pale or neutral outfits and I've actually had quite a few compliments on it too! The second nail polish is from the Rimmel 60 seconds collection which is one of my favourite collections in general because I am so impatient when waiting on my nails to dry. Coralicious is the colour I've also been wearing a lot this month. It's a more vibrant colour but is also perfect for Spring. I have quite a pale complexion so this colour really stands out on me when I wear it.

Television

Without fail, I have another TV favourite this month. In all honesty, I watch far too much television for there not to be a favourite each month. This month it is Fear The Walking Dead. I am a huge fan of the original show so when they announced a spin off, I was very excited. I was even more eager about the show when I found out Alycia Debnam Carey (star of The 100 and a top notch actress in general) was going to be a member of the main cast. I deliberately waited for the first season to have completely aired and for the second season to be close to airing before I watched the show. I just knew I wouldn't be able to wait between seasons. This show is not as action packed or as gory (yet!) as The Walking Dead but that doesn't take anything from the show, I still love it. I would even go as far to say that I prefer it to The Walking Dead at the minute because the latest season of The Walking Dead has been a let down for me. If you like tension and drama, post-apocalyptic genres, violence and good but mysterious characters then watch Fear The Walking Dead for sure!

Event

At the beginning of the month my mum and I went to see Annie: The Musical at a local theatre, we even had front row seats! It was performed by local children and performers, with some of the children aged as young as three years old! Watching the performance brought back a lot of memories from when I was younger as I used to adore the film. I think the main reason I loved it was because I looked like Annie as I had a ginger afro as well. All the children were extremely talented and seemed to have no nerves whatsoever! I certainly wasn't that confident at that age. As you may have guessed, my mum and I share a common interest in theatre performances. Before the show, we went for lunch at a local restaurant and had a gorgeous meal of enchiladas with salad and fries. The whole day was really lovely and I cannot wait to do something similar again soon.

Next month brings a lot of excitement for me with a number of birthdays and events happening in May. I definitely have a lot to look forward to and unfortunately a lot of money to spend as well. Hopefully that means there will be more blog posts for you to read before my next monthly favourites, especially since my exams will be finished within the next two weeks. Something tells me next month will include a couple of hauls and maybe even a concert?! So keep an eye out for those.

xxx

Trying Weird American Candy!

I have three exams over the next couple of weeks so the majority of my time is being spent studying, at least it should be! There is only so much Psychology a person can handle at any one time, so what better way to take a break than to try a bunch of weird flavoured American Candy? My brother and I both decided to try all the weird flavoured candy we could find, even though we soon became quite limited in our options since I have an allergy to chocolate and the majority of American Candy contains or is coated in chocolate but we managed to find a good number of things all the same.

We had tried the original flavoured Fluff which is basically just a marshmallow spread. We liked the original and my brother liked the Strawberry flavour but we had never came across the caramel flavour before. Neither of us was too keen on it. In our opinion, it had a slight coffee flavour to it, which just doesn't appeal to us. Something we both enjoyed when we went to America a few years ago was Twizzlers so when we found the Strawberry and Vanilla flavoured ones, we could not resist. Stuart absolutely loved these and nearly ate them all to himself! I thought they were okay but didn't think they had a great deal of flavour to them. 

We did find another flavour of Twizzlers that I liked a lot better; Strawberry Lemonade flavour. These Twizzlers had the Strawberry Lemonade flavour as a gel in the middle of the normal Twizzler and tasted great, they were definitely one of my favourites. Mike and Ike's weren't something I'd heard of before but looked good and since they were one of the few American items that weren't coated in chocolate, I was definitely up for trying them. Berry Blast and Strawberry Melody were the first packets we bought and I much preferred the Berry Blast packet; it had Wild Berry, Strawberry, Blueberry, Blue Raspberry and Peach & Blueberry flavours. They are extremely flavourful and are quite similar if not identical to Jelly Beans, just with more flavour. The Strawberry Melody packet was my brother's preference because it had Strawberry, Strawberry & Raspberry, Strawberry & Banana, Strawberry & Peach and Strawberry & Watermelon flavours and he tends to favour those.

We then came across another packet of Mike and Ike's in the Tropical Typhoon flavour. Watermelon, Strawberry & Banana, Strawberry & Pineapple, Peach & Pineapple and Orange were the flavours in this packet and it's safe to say that I definitely ate all the Watermelon flavoured sweets and my brother ate the Strawberry ones! My brother picked out the Welch's Filled Liquorice Sticks next because we loved the juice when we were younger. Similarly to the Strawberry & Lemonade Twizzlers, these had the gel flavouring in the center of the sweet. We both liked these a lot and it's safe to say that they did not last very long at all! I would definitely eat these again. One of the stranger things we picked up was Cinnamon Bun Bites. These appealed to me because I absolutely love cinnamon buns! Unfortunately these were disgusting. They didn't have any sweetness to them whatsoever, they were extremely grainy and tasted completely artificial. I was a little disappointed with these but we still had plenty more things to try.

Since we got the Caramel Fluff it was only fair to get the original flavour as well. It was a different brand but it is essentially still a marshmallow spread. Stuart and I don't bother to use this as a spread, we simply grab some spoons and dig in. It is amazing. Basically pure sugar and the worst possible thing for your teeth but it is just so good. I am not keen on many of the Pop Tart flavours because they either have chocolate in them or tend to be flavours that don't appeal to me. When I found a Brown Sugar Cinnamon flavour, I couldn't wait to try them, especially when I hated Pop Tarts as a child. These are incredibly sweet and incredibly bad for you but again, taste so good. I could definitely see me eating these in the Winter months, nearer Christmas time for breakfast, the Cinnamon flavour just makes them seem festive to me. Onto one of my favourite sweets we found; Ice Breakers Sours. Both my brother and I favour sour sweets and both loved these. They have Orange, Apple and Watermelon favours, all of which I love. Especially the Watermelon so these became one of my favourites and one of my re-purchases. 

A couple of days after Stuart and I had bought the first packet of Ice Breakers Sours, my mum came home with a new kind. This packet had Cherry, Strawberry and Raspberry flavours in it and are just as good as the first packet we bought, some flavours are more sour than others but we don't mind. Onto the last two things that we picked up, a standard packet of Nerds in the flavours Cherry and Watermelon. These are my favourite packet of Nerds to buy because it combines my two all time favourite flavours; cherry and watermelon. My brother liked them too but he didn't manage to get many from the packet before I got my hands on them. The last thing we tried was incredible, I loved it so much that it made it's way into my favourites for last month! Flipz White Fudge Covered Pretzels. There are not enough words to describe how amazing these snacks are. If you are a fan of sweet and salty flavours together then you will absolutely love these. I went through so many packets of these after initially trying them, so much so that my brother thought I had a problem. He liked them but isn't a huge fan of sweet and salty things so didn't love them as much as I did. They also have Flipz Chocolate Coated Pretzels which my mum liked so if you prefer chocolate, definitely give those a try.

Out of all of the candy we tried, for me the Flipz White Fudge Coated Pretzels, Ice Breakers and Cinnamon Pop Tarts were definitely my favourite. The Mike and Ike's, Twizzlers and Welch's Liquorice became my brothers favourites. Even though we didn't like all of the things we bought, it certainly gave me the break away from studying that I needed! Let me know if you try any of the things I mentioned here of if you have tried other types of American Candy that you really liked!

xxx

What I Got For Easter | 2016

Since it's the beginning of the Easter holidays here in Scotland, I thought I would share with you what I got for Easter. My family are not religious, some family on my dad's side are but for the most part, we are not religious. Therefore, Easter is not that big of a celebration for us. My brother looks forward to some chocolate and goodies from my mum and dad and some money from grandparents. Me, I am allergic to chocolate so I don't really look forward to that. Instead, my mum and dad buy me a few little gifts and some sweets.

I did tell my mum I wasn't that fussed about Easter but as usual, she didn't listen. She picked up a selection of sweets for me that she thought I'd like, including Gummy Milk Bottles, Drumstick Squashies (which are amazing), Fruit Salad Softies, Haribo Bunnies and a Ginger Bread Egg. Safe to say they didn't last very long! She also picked up the cutest copper/rose gold bunny necklace. This necklace has a very long chain which I like a lot and the colour is gorgeous. It is perfect for Easter!

My mum has noticed my growing collection of Colouring Books for adults recently and decided to add some Easter and Spring themed ones to my collection. I am quite fussy with the types of patterns and pictures in the books, but these are perfect and I cannot wait to get started on them. Even my mum wants her own colouring book to give it a go now too!

I have always loved Cath Kidston. All the prints are gorgeous but depending on what type of thing you are looking for it can be quite pricey, unless you are lucky enough to grab a bargain during a sale. This is normally what I do. My mum has been paying attention to what styles and prints I tend to gravitate towards which is why she selected this bag and mug. Both items were on sale at more than 50% off and they are absolutely gorgeous. The bag is just a little cross body bag, perfect to carry a few necessities throughout the Spring months. The mug has such a stunning print, I have heard people say before that Cath Kidston Stanley Mugs are the perfect size and I have to agree, they most definitely are! 

I did also receive some money from grandparents this Easter which was spent on even more Cath Kidston items which I will write a post about soon. I am very thankful for the gifts I received this Easter, they are 100% me and my style. I can't wait for the weather to get a bit better so I can sit in my garden with a cup of tea in my Cath Kidston Mug and colour in some Spring images. It'll be just what I need after the stress of all my exams! I hope you had a lovely Easter Weekend and enjoy the Easter Holidays, especially if you get time off school, college, university or even work!

xxx

March Favourites | 2016

I still cannot comprehend how we are already at the end of March. This year is going by so incredibly fast! My favourites this month are actually quite varied for once. Naturally, there is still a television programme because let's be honest it wouldn't be a true monthly favourites for me without a TV show mentioned at some point.  However, there is some food, beauty, books and music to be mentioned as well!

Beauty

I have three beauty favourites this month; a nail polish, bubble bar and a cream eye shadow (which might actually be a lipstick). The nail polish I have been absolutely loving is Marks & Spencer Top Shine Top Coat. This product is amazing, I put two coats of nail polish on and then this and my nail polish lasts on average 4 days without chipping! Not one single chip and I do a lot of work with my hands whether that be at actual work in a cafe or first aiding. I definitely recommend this product because nothing has made my nail polish stay as good for that long in the past. Another product I have been in love with this month is the Mr Brightside bubble bar from Lush. I always reach for the fresher scents in the Spring and Summer months and this bubble bar is as fresh as you can get. It gives off a huge citrus smell of oranges and lemons and when I use this in the bath, not only does the bath turn orange but it smells so clean and fresh, I just love this bubble bar, it is most definitely one of my favourite Lush products of all time.

My last beauty favourite is actually a slightly strange one because technically it is supposed to be a nude lipstick but I don't use it as a lipstick, I use it as a cream eye shadow. It's the NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Colour in the colour Nolita Neutral. It is definitely more of a gold than a neutral because it has a bit of shimmer to it. I wouldn't use this product on my lips because for one it would not suit my skin colour as I am very pale and secondly, it looks amazing as a cream eye shadow. I have been pairing this product with either a dusky pink colour eye shadow to create a rose gold effect or with a warm brown to create a gold smokey eye and they both look very pretty and very Spring/Summer appropriate. 

Television

I actually started a new show this month; Thirteen. It is a BBC series and only has five episodes total. It follows the storyline of Ivy who disappeared when she was thirteen years old and resurfaces again thirteen years later having been held captive and escaped. This series is extremely gripping and will have you on the edge of your seat at least once in each episode. If you like crime, intense thrillers or drama programmes then this is definitely one for you to check out. As I mentioned, there are only five episodes to the entire programme series and they are all available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. This show was incredible, well written and for once I feel that the ending was just right, my mum certainly wouldn't agree but if all of her questions were answered then the series would be about 23 episodes long. 

Food

So I've had a lot of university assignments to do this month and naturally I have reached for the comfort food and (surprisingly) coffee. I never ever drank coffee because it just simply never appealed to me and I am sensitive to caffeine but this month I had been craving it so I bought a packet of decaf instant latte's and I love them. I liked them so much I buy a packet a week and have even tried the vanilla and coconut flavours too! To go with coffee, you need a sweet treat, it's just the perfect combination. Flipz is an American brand and my local Tesco happens to stock some overpriced American products. Normally everything is coated or dipped in chocolate but Flipz not only had chocolate covered pretzels but white fudge coated pretzels. These things are INCREDIBLE. Yes the capitals are needed. The pretzels are probably going to give be diabetes at the rate I am eating them but they are worth it, they are just so tasty. I have told everybody I know about these and my brother, mum and friends now all love them too. They are reasonably cheap as well, only £1.50 which is really good compared to the next American product I recently discovered. Payday is the only bar type treat I've found that has absolutely no chocolate in it. It is literally a caramel centre coated in peanuts, simple as that and it's delicious. A bit pricey at £1.20 a bar but for now I am willing to part with that money.

Music

I have always liked any music that Sia released into the charts, whether that be with another artist or on her own so I decided to buy her album. There are no words to describe how touching and beautiful the album is or how talented Sia is. She draws on personal experiences to write her songs and I love artists who do that. They are honest and people can often relate a lot to their music because of it. Her album, This is Acting is one of the albums I could listen to all day, every day and not get fed up with any song at all. I love every song on the album and have now bought some of Sia's older albums too. If you liked any Sia songs in the past then without a doubt invest in this album, you will 100% not regret it. My brother is already sick of the amount of times I have played it and unfortunately for him I won't be stopping any time soon!

Random

I have one random favourite this month and it is a book. A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of hours to spare between classes at uni so I wandered about the shops in Glasgow. One of the shops I tend to always go in is The Works which is basically a cheap book, art and random gadget shop. As I was having a nosey around, I noticed they had some deals on kids books so I thought I'd have a look. I ended up walking away with four books, two of which being boy and girl versions of Disney 365 Stories: A Story a Day. I just thought the concept was extremely cute and it made me think of my mum reading Disney books to my brother and I. Plus they were buy one get one free and reduced to only £5 and two massive books for £5 is a bargain to me. The next one I picked up was also reduced to £4 and on a buy one get one free deal; A Treasury of Five Classic Tales and contains shortened versions of Oliver Twist, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden and Treasure Island, all of which I loved reading as a child. A Treasury of Five Minute Stories was the final purchase and is for sure my favourite. It contains absolutely every single story I adored as a child within it's gorgeous covers, even my three favourites; The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Emperor's New Clothes and Rumpelstiltskin which I was surprised to learn not many people actually knew the stories of. Reading through all these short stories with simplistic but nice illustrations brings back good memories of listening to audio cassette tapes on my cassette player and falling asleep to one of the stories. I cannot wait to share these stories and memories with my children in the future.

I hope you enjoyed reading my March Favourites and that maybe I have persuaded to you to watch Thirteen or try the white fudge coated pretzels or even use a lip product as an eye product! April is hopefully going to be a bit more relaxed for me since I have all the coursework for uni finished and submitted because I would love to put up more blog posts. However, my exams begin during the last week of April so I'll see what the month holds. Maybe I'll be organised for once and study a little each day, who knows?! April certainly begins well for me as my mum and I are going to yet another show and my little black labrador Millie turns 3 on April Fools Day! It only feels like we have had her for three minutes never mind three years! What did you love throughout March and do you have anything exciting coming up in April?

xxx

Goodnight Mr Tom: The Theatrical Performance

I mentioned in my Mothers Day blog post that the main gift I'd gotten for my mum was tickets to the theatrical performance of Goodnight Mr Tom in Glasgow's Theatre Royal. It has always been one of her favourite films so I knew she would be excited to go. The show time I had booked wasn't until the early evening so that way we could spend the afternoon together and that is exactly what we did.

My university lectures finished at 3pm that day so that is when our afternoon began. The first thing we did was have a wander around the shops on Sauchiehall Street; mainly Primark and Superdrug because mum was cold and wanted a cardigan and I needed new concealer. Naturally, we ended up getting quite a bit more than a cardigan in Primark but you can't really help in when it is Primark, plus, now that means I have another idea for a blog post and maybe even a video.

We went to Walkabout for dinner since it was close, convenient and is good value for money. My mum insisted on convenience especially because she decided to wear heeled boots that day. Walkabout is very close to my university and is often a popular option for lunches out. The food there is great and there is a good variety to pick from. We opted for a starter of onion rings and chicken strips since neither of us had any lunch prior, my mum decided on the Cheese Burger with regular chips and a side salad, I went for the Piri Piri Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries and a side salad and we both shared a dessert of Berry Pavlova. We barely finished all the food but everything was absolutely delicious, especially the Berry Pavlova. The only thing that disappointed us was that there was no sticky part in the meringue and that's the best bit!

A quick trip to Thornton's for some goodies before the show and we were ready to sit back and enjoy. The performance was as lighthearted as the cast and crew could make it considering the storyline. For those of you who are not aware of the plot line of Goodnight Mr Tom, it is set during WW2 and follows young William Beech, an abused boy as he is evacuated out of London to the countryside and placed with a grumpy, old man; Thomas Oakley. The pair soon form a close bond despite the never ending obstacles thrown in their way. 

Throughout the show, I learned that the boy playing William Beech and the boy playing his best friend Zach were only ten years old and both from London. I would never have even had the courage to ask a question in school never mind travelling around the country performing night after night in front of hundreds and hundreds of people! The boys were absolutely fantastic. Another performer that 100% stood out for me was the woman playing Sammy the dog. The cast did have a prototype of a sheepdog made but there was a woman making all the movements and sounds of the dog. She was absolutely incredible! If you closed your eyes, you would genuinely believe there was a real dog on stage as Sammy. The scenery was also done to a standard of perfection; all the wartime posters and furniture, the back drops of London during the war and of the peaceful countryside the evacuees retreated to and the costumes for all the children and adults. The portrayal of young William Beech's mother and her period of post-partum psychosis and his night terrors following the abuse at her hand was delicately done but at a high standard and was well portrayed and very accurate. 

My mum adored the show so much that she wanted to re-watch the film and re-read the book as soon as we got home that night! We did end up watching the film the following night. Out of all the performances we have seen so far (Legally Blonde: The Musical, Cinderella: The Ballet and Sister Act) this has been her favourite. It was a close debate between Goodnight Mister Tom and Legally Blonde: The Musical but her love for Goodnight Mister Tom swayed her. Neither her nor I can wait for the next show that we see, I wonder when that will be and I wonder which show we can add to our evergrowing list next.

xxx

Mothers Day | 2016

This year mothers day was on the 6th March, which also happened to be the same day as my Moving & Handling of Casualties update course. I was having to leave my house at 8.30am and wouldn't get back until around 5.30pm. So, unfortunately, I was missing out on most of mothers day this year. Nevertheless, I was determined to make it special for the short time that I was actually home.

My mum woke up to breakfast in bed, this is a standard thing each year but doesn't normally happen until much later in the morning. This year I got up at 7.00am to make her favourite; boiled egg on wholegrain toast with a cup of baby tea. I even chopped some Cantelope melon for her to have afterwards; another of her favourites. Even though she wakes up to breakfast in bed each year, it never fails to surprise her. She was all smiles whilst digging in. I only had about an hour to spend with her in the morning before I had to leave so I decided breakfast in bed, a small gift and her card was enough for the morning and I'd save her main present for when I got home later in the day.

My mum and I are very sentimental, we love photographs from over the years, home movies and souvenirs from various holidays. Recently, my mum has become rather fussy with being in photographs and which ones she actually likes. Luckily, there is a family picture taken early last year in one of our favourite places to go on holiday as a family; Kenmore. It's situated on the banks of Loch Tay and is about 45 minutes drive outside Perth. We absolutely love it there because the scenery is gorgeous, it's so relaxing and we can bring our dogs along too! We have gone each year for the last 8 years and don't intend to break tradition any time soon. I printed out the photograph of us all on nice photo paper and bought a 4"x 6" frame with a bit of a twist from New Look. The twist was that inside the frame was glitter and water so the frame was almost like a snow globe. My mum loves snow globes and has a little collection of them in her room so I thought this was the perfect sentimental gift and it was only £7.99!

With planning such a nice morning to Mothers Day, there had to be some kind of joke too! This is when the card came in. I was browsing Paper Chase a few days earlier and found the perfect card. It was a little bit offensive but I knew my mum would see the funny side of it, especially if I made the inside of the card all cute and pretty for her. So I couldn't resist.

The one thing my mum hates more than anything is catching her children swear, even though we are 18 and 21. Any minor swear words are fine, it's just the bigger ones she can't handle. Usually it's my brother she catches since he has a very short temper when it comes to playing his Xbox games so I thought the card was quite appropriate. My dad and brother definitely found the funny side. My mum was shocked at first, until she looked inside the card and realised I had made it all cute and pretty for her. She was very fond of the card after that.

My brother was in the process of cooking dinner for everybody when I arrived home that evening. His meal of choice was steak, vegetables and boiled potatoes; his specialty apparently. This meal was a compromise since mince and potatoes is my mums favourite meal but nobody else likes it. At dinner, we caught up about each others day and finding out what my brother had given to my mum; a book and DVD she wanted and flowers. Half way through dinner is when I thought I'd surprise her with my final gift. I told her that I'd bought tickets for us to go and see Goodnight Mister Tom in the Theatre on Thursday 10th March. Goodnight Mister Tom is her absolute favourite film so I knew she would absolutely love to see it in the theatres. The day she and I go to the theatre and out for dinner is when we will really celebrate mothers day.

Even though my mum moans at me, shouts at me, annoys me and never ever listens to me, I love seeing the look of feeling appreciated on her face. She doesn't always feel appreciated so I love to spoil her when I can and the theatre is something we only recently discovered we have a common interest in. This way we can spend more time with each other. She had a great day and I am so glad she loved all her presents. She hasn't stopped playing with the snow globe photograph since I gave it to her and she cannot wait to go to the theatre again! How did you all spend Mothers Day?

xxx