Back again

So it's been a while since I last posted on here, but I have managed to gain free time now since finishing university.
Yep I have finally finished university, who knew those 3 years would fly by so quickly. I felt like I needed to update as I kind of left my blog talking about my adventure in America (which was almost a year ago) but fast forward to 2016 and I have had many adventures and experiences that I wouldn't have dreamed of happening.

So a lot of huge things have happened this year:

I went to Amsterdam

In April I took a short trip to Amsterdam with a few friends and I'm still smiling about that experience now. Although the weather was really crappy, we still had a lot of fun and many laughs. We went the Anne Frank house, The Heineken Experience, took a canal cruise, walked along the red light district, ate at a pancake house, celebrated King's day and visited the windmills at Zaanse Schans. Another bonus part of my trip was getting the chance to meet my half-brother who lives near Amsterdam for the first time!! I also found out I'm an aunty to three children :O I've never felt such a mixture of emotions in my whole life, I was nervous and excited but in the end we got on really well and it didn't really feel like I was talking to a stranger. Amsterdam definitely lived up to my expectations and sparked my journey of self-discovery. 

I finished university 

Towards the end of April I handed all my assignments in including my dreaded dissertation. Initially I wasn't really happy about my dissertation topic (as we didn't get much of a choice on topics) and towards the end I decided it was an interesting area but definitely not my kind of thing. Anyway I must have done something right because I got a first in my dissertation (God knows how). After convincing myself that I would probably graduate with a 2:2, I shocked myself by achieving a 2:1 for my degree in Psychology! (Still hasn't sunk in yet) I don't think I ever shed tears of joy during my course but that was definitely the first. In May I attended my university graduation ball with a few friends, which was a nice end to our time at uni. The only downside is that I won't be officially graduating until November :(

I went to Cornwall

Around May I went to Cornwall with my mum and nanan for a week. We've always wanted to visit but just never had the time. We stopped in Bath first and took a stroll around the centre and ate our dinner near the river. Then we had a long drive to Cornwall and we stayed in a beautiful apartment on a farm, it even had a hot tub and sauna, which was beaut. We also celebrated my nanan's birthday, which she wasn't expecting :) Cornwall is a beautiful place full of lovely people and I would love to go back one day but maybe in a different area.

I went to Valencia

To celebrate our graduation, me and Lynette booked a holiday to Valencia in Spain. We had to fly from Gatwick airport, so we spent the day before in my second home (London!). Lynette introduced me to the Japanese Centre, which I immediately fell in love with and was surprised that I had never been before. The following day we headed to the airport for our 6am flight (urgh!) but it was all worth it when we saw how beautiful Valencia really was. Our hotel was lovely and the weather was a nice change from British 'Summer' weather. We had a few shopping centres and a Japanese restaurant pretty close by so that was convenient for us :D We visited the beach and ate seafood, went to the city centre and on our last night we went for a spa treatment in our hotel (just what we needed). This trip was certainly an experience as we came across many language barriers and watched TV in Spanish whilst adding our own English commentary, which made the trip all the more fun.

I went to Singapore

Every year I like to try and take at least one long distance holiday and Singapore was that holiday. This was my first time travelling to Asia ever after wanting to go for so long. My reason for going was to finally visit Lynette's home and meet her family. So I booked my flights 4 weeks before my visit (really last minute I know), packed my stuff and off I went on another very long solo flight. I spent a week in Singapore with Lynette and her family doing lots of shopping, eating lots of food, meeting her friends, visiting universal studios, going to the cinema and somehow she even got me to do karaoke and I actually enjoyed it. I'm currently going through post-holiday depression after recently getting back, I miss everything. Although the humidity I don't miss so much. Hopefully I'll write a post about this trip and show some of the stuff I bought. 

I got accepted onto my Masters course

So next year I will be adding another milestone to my life as I have been accepted to study MSc mental health nursing at the University of Nottingham! I'm excited and calm at the moment but when the time comes I know I will probably be an emotional wreck as I will be moving out to study in Derby, which is only a half an hour train ride from where I live now, but still. This was my main uni choice after being realistic and putting aside my dream of studying in London due to expenses, however this course seemed the best option as I not only receive a nursing qualification but a masters on top of that. Luckily I get a longer break from studying as my course starts in January 2017, so until then I will be working, saving money and fitting in a few trips away if I can :)

So there is my update! Sorry for the lack of photos but I just wanted to start writing again and hopefully I will continue to write now that I have time.

Hope you are all doing well :)

x

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Let's go for a ride

Last Wednesday my family and I took a trip to Hassop and hired out bikes to do the Monsal trail just near the Peak District. 

I also learnt about the history of Hassop train station and I managed to clear my mind for a few hours. I loved going through the tunnels too, and what better way to end the day than with ice cream :)

This is one thing I definitely want to do more often as it's great way of keeping fit too! 

Thanks for reading 

Leah 

x x x

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Mum's 50th Birthday

Yesterday was my Mum's birthday! The big 5 0 (Despite the fact that she constantly denies this.)

The morning started with presents, she received a lovely Champneys spa set from my Dad and I gave her a soppy card and made a photo book for her filled with photos of our travels and other family pictures. I ordered this from PhotoBox which I definitely recommend for their amazing service as I was worried it wouldn't turn up on time, however I received it 2 days after confirmation of it being shipped. It looked amazing and I would definitely use them again and more importantly my mum loved it too, she even cried.

Beautiful flowers from Nanan

After opening presents we looked through a lot of old family photos which could be used for her party on Saturday. It was so nice seeing these photos although she complained there were too many baby photos of me and not enough her haha! Following on from this I revealed to her the schedule for the day after joking that we were taking her to the old people's home, she was delighted when I told her me and Nanan were taking her for a Spa day at the Double Tree Hilton.

So my Dad dropped us off at the hotel and we headed straight to the spa. My mum started with her back massage which I had booked for her whilst I enjoyed relaxing in the sauna, steam room, jacuzzi & pool with nanan. My mum joined us glowing with a smile as she found the massage really relaxing. We then ordered afternoon tea in the bar which was delicious, this included smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches, slices of chocolate cake, scones with a pot of jam & cream and profiteroles. Me and Nanan shared a pot of tea and mum had a white wine. 

My dad joined us and then drove us back home but first we took a detour to Homebase, Matalan & Next. Me and Dad ended up going to Pets at Home where I just fell in love with the animals and I got to hold a rabbit (omg! She was so cute) Let me tell you I was very tempted to buy her but I didn't :(

We then went home and had a birthday dinner which Dad cooked! Salmon with a seafood selection and salad. We all chilled out for a bit and I brought in the birthday cake for mum in the form of a Cadbury's flake celebration cake. She blew out her candles and we all tucked in!

So that was the day summed up in a nutshell and she really loved it! She's still raving about it today. The next round is the Birthday BBQ on Saturday which should be fun, fingers crossed for no rain!

Thanks for reading!

x x x

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Valentines Day

I know I'm late to the party and valentines day was 2 days ago but I still wanted to post my experience!

So people think valentines day is a day for couples only but I view it as day to share love not just with your partner but with your friends and family too or in my case with people you haven't even met!

Yesterday I woke up to lovely text from my friend wishing me a happy valentines day which we send each other every year! I then donated blood for the second time and Lynette came with me. It felt really good to help someone who I hadn't met and to know that I was sharing something of mine to benefit someone else, made me happy.

Afterwards we had a 'romantic' meal in McDonalds with a chicken nugget sharebox and we exchanges gifts to each other. I received a lovely card with a pair of pink stripy winter socks, roses (the chocolates) and some cupcake designed nails. 

So it was a lovely day overall but after a while I stopped looking at Facebook as it was covered in photos of couples going out and I'm not going to lie, I felt a bit lonely, so for a few moments I felt like this.

But then I realised ah! so what! For people who are single pringle like me and feels like the only one who isn't with someone, just remember you ARE loved! It comes in all different forms such as chatting for 3 hours in starbucks with your friend or having the day with your mum at the bathroom store or checking your friend's bursary application (yes this was my week) so just keep sharing that love!

Anyways I hope you had a lovely valentines day whoever you spent it with :) thanks for reading!

xxx

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Things I am thankful for

I honestly feel blessed for the friends that I have right now as every single one of them has made a huge impact on my life.

A few days ago I was in quite an emotional state and I felt alone but today I re-evaluated this and realised I am not alone at all, in fact I am truly blessed. I was thinking of all the ways I had interacted with the ones I care about today:

whether they got me out the house to go out and do something that night, 

couldn't wait to see me and be reunited once again after being abroad, 

helped me become aware that I wasn't stupid and shouldn't doubt myself and that sticking through uni would be worth it in the end and it can be something to fall back on if something else comes along, that I can actually be a change in someone else's life and also that they were proud of me and happy to have me as the way I am.

One tip if you suffer from anxiety: If there is someone who makes you particularly more anxious whether it be a 'friend', boyfriend/girlfriend, who ever when you around them, you don't need them in your life. Surround yourself with positive, energetic and understanding people who want to be there for you. Avoid negative influences because they WILL bring you down. Negative influences are contagious and you will catch that negativity from them, people who are optimistic will give you the support you need because they want to see you happy! This has happened to me in different points of my life and as soon as I woke up and noticed that person made me feel crap about myself, I ditched them! Making more room for good friends to enter my life! 

What people have taught me:

My Mum taught me if you don't like something, then change it. Don't sit and complain about it! Which I have definitely taken on board! 

She also taught me that you can say 'NO' when responsibilities and obligations become too much. I know my blog is called say 'yes' but you don't always have to be the yes man, you're health is much more important! So if you really don't fancy going on that night out, then don't go if you feel like you will be unhappy the whole night.

So in general I am thankful for a lot of people in my life, who I learn from everyday.

This post was a little sketchy as I wrote it a few weeks ago but I just wanted to get these points down. 

Thanks for reading! x

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Merr Chrussmuss!

Just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!  to everyone and I hope you all have a lovely day. I will write another post about the presents I received but I just wanted to say how thankful I was for all my family and friends! This is the first Christmas without my grandad and it just hasn't felt the same but we've still had a laugh! I'm also really thankful for all the friends who I have in my life right now, because they have certainly made my year a whole lot better! I've had a lovely past few days unwrapping presents with a friend in starbucks, speaking to another friend all the way in china today and opening a card from another friend which nearly made me cry (with happiness). I couldn't ask for a better group of people in my life, even the ones who I haven't mentioned here (yes you're part of this too!) Anyway I hope you're all enjoying today and get all the presents you want! 

Thanks for reading! xxx

P.S. Tell me what you're thankful for this year! 

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Baking and Clothes Show Live 2013 Haul!

Last Friday me and my friend Megan decided to have a night of baking and have a Christmassy sleepover at mine, although it turned out much differently than planned! We thought it would be a cool idea to make a Gingerbread house. Now I'd like to say the image down below was our creation...but nope! It went completely wrong and we were tired so we decided to make gingerbread people and other creatures. We mutually agreed that next time we would buy the kit instead. After cleaning up the mess we made in the kitchen, we decided to nom on all the chocolate and sweets we bought for decoration and watched Muse tour DVD's, which was nice!

My Ideal Image

The next day I went to the Clothes Show Live 2013 with my mum, which is held in the NEC in Birmingham! This is an annual fashion event which seemed like an apocalypse of girls :) This was my second time going to this event and I treated my Mum with tickets. We rode on the train in First Class which was awesome but we got off the wrong stop! Anyway our hotel was lovely (Hilton hotel!) and it was right next to the NEC!

While I was there I felt a bit overwhelmed as there was so many people there and I felt uncomfortable but I still managed to enjoy myself. We did A LOT of shopping and we went to the fashion show which presented 'A weekend in the Country'. I had a feeling my mum would love this theme and she certainly did. The whole performance was so exciting and it certainly had my mum dancing along haha!

I decided to do a haul of the things which I bought, this is my first haul so don't judge me :) 

I purchased some beautiful nail varnish from the Models Own stall, they had an offer of 3 nails vanishes for £10 (I mum chose one for herself) and a free goody bag. I nearly cried with happiness when I opened the goody bag, it included a glittery blue limited edition nail varnish, a lip balm stick, a brown eyeliner pencil, a black eyeliner pencil, a shimmery black eye pencil, a black khol eyeliner pencil with smudger and sharpener attached, 4 eyeshadow applicators, a nail file and buffer, a cute pocket mirror, and sheer sparkle lipstick.

 Next I decided to buy a teeth whitening kit from the Professional Teeth Whitening stall. I don't usually care abut this sort of stuff but I just wanted to experiment. This cost about £30, but around £60 online so I though why not? I haven't tried it yet but you're supposed to apply the gel over your teeth and then apply a strip over your teeth and leave it for 20-30 minutes. This is supposed to last for 3 years if you keep it in the fridge and the woman said she usually tops up her teeth every 6 months.

I bought a lot of products from the Bomb Cosmetics stall. They had beautiful candles which were 2 for £10 and 3 bath bombs for £5. If you spent over £20 you received a free candle but I spent £15 only. I loved this shop and I will definitely order more items from here, when I get the chance (and have the money). 

Last but not least I finally bought some clothes! I couldn't really see many clothes that I liked but I went to the Lily J London stall which kind of had a Japanese style with a lot of lace and pretty dresses, after a long time of deciding and bought a  long sleeve blue dress with a beautiful lace design (£32) and a creme lace dress which can be worn 2 ways (£28). I also gave in and bought a pearl necklace/choker (£12 I think). I went to another shop which I think was called Tenki and bought this beautiful blue Peter Pan collared lace dress for £25 and it was buy one get one free, so my mum got a stylish jumper for free :)

After a long day walking in uncomfortable shoes and carrying so may shopping bags we headed back the hotel, had a long sleep and had a lovely meal. 

The next day we went to the Bullring Shopping Centre which is HUGE! However we didn't stay too long and got the train back home. I had an amazing weekend and I really do miss it.

Thanks for reading 

xxx

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Emotional Week!

This week has been an emotional roller coaster for me and my family! I was absolutely dreading this week but I thought the only way to get through it was to take each day as it went along. I spent Monday at work and then I had to go to uni to do a presentation. I only had 5 minutes to do it and I think the person who assessed us knew that I was really nervous, but I managed to do it (I went over the time limit though!) 
Tuesday I worked again and I felt really emotional, that night the family went to my Nanan's house and we cooked all sorts of Jamaican food, it was so lovely!
Then Wednesday finally arrived which was the day of my Grandad's funeral. I won't go into too much detail but I cried so much that day. I went to sit beside my Nanan before we left and we both cried together, it just felt so unreal that he was gone. The service was perfect, the church was full of people who had even flown over to celebrate his life; I think he would of been proud. I had to stand outside for a moment as it was too much and started to feel panicky again :( but I went back in to see the end. Afterwards we went to bury him and it wasn't sad at all, we gathered round and sang church hymns to him while someone played the drum. We ended the night at the reception where we had a meal (more Jamaican food, yum!) and watched a slideshow with pictures of grandad, he really did live a fulfilling life and he was a huge inspiration to me. He always believed in me when I doubted myself and I'm so glad he was a part of my life. I will never forget him :'(

Today I had a full day at university and one of the lectures was on 'Anxiety Disorders'. It was really interesting to explore this topic & it kind of hit me, making me feel quite emotional about it all. I don't think some people in the room realised how difficult this disorder is, I don't like to label myself but it was nice to see a lecture on something which I was certainly interested in. It made me think about a lot things, but I won't bore you :) It reassured me why I wanted to study psychology and why I created this blog. I don't have many followers but if it helps people then that makes me happy!
To end this post I wanted to add a video from one of my favourite youtubers, Bubzbeauty. She's so sweet and she made a video about 'how to stop worrying and stressing' you should definitely check out her videos if you haven't already :)
I'm sorry if all of this didn't make much sense, I'm so tired! But thanks for reading xxx

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