5 things about 2015

Firstly, Happy New Year! Hope you had a good one welcoming it in whatever way you chose.

I meant to post this yesterday but got distracted by procrastinating doing…er…nothing…so although it’s now 2016 and technically I should be looking forward and not backwards, well, tough!

Goodbye 2015

So I woke up yesterday morning wondering how come I was in bed (I got very very drunk on New Years Eve Eve) and whether I was in trouble with the husband for being a pissed up handful (I wasn’t) and between the drunken confusion and not being able to sleep because my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, I spent a few minutes thinking back about the year and the things that defined it.

So, here they are!

  1. Family. I’m very lucky to be very close to both of my parents. They divorced when I was 21 and I’ve been through bad times with both of them, but we came through the other side. They’re always there for me and, because I’m an only child, they have no-one to compare me to so they think I’m great (kinda kidding here). And, you know, family is so important. My mother-in-law is an amazing woman and I know that when we’re in her company we’ll always have fun. My extended family are fun and close knit and there are times in the past when I haven’t made the most of them. Time is limited and precious and I don’t want to regret not making the most of my folks so in 2015 I consciously spent more time with them, and will continue to do so this year.
  2. My job. I’ll never be defined by my career because I’m strictly of the mindset “work to live” and always have been. But this year I got made redundant (which is cool because I was semi-looking around anyway) and I now work for a company that makes a difference to people’s lives. The ethos is very different to my previous role and I never want to go back to that corporate money making bullshit I was in before; where lies and bad morals are acceptable just to make a buck for the fat cat owners. Plus I get that warm fuzzy feeling hearing first hand from people who’s lives are literally changed. It’s good.
  3. This blog. I started this blog on the day I got made redundant; a knee jerk reaction to change and the thought that I might have a lot of time on my hands! And it’s been great! I wanted to start a blog for a really long time and never got round to it, and I wish I’d done it years ago. I love the writing process, I love the interaction with other people, I love having an outlet that’s mine. Long may it continue.
  4. My hair! Screw the deep and meaningful stuff, my hair has been a pain in the ass for the past year. Totes my own fault for cutting it off, but I needed to do it and scratch an itch and have now learnt my lesson. It’s long all the way from now on! (well, when it finally gets there).
  5. Not seeing friends. Back to the serious stuff. The husband and I totally overcommitted last year, in between holidays, and festivals and weekends away, and other plans. Great as it sounds, we didn’t nurture the core stuff. Friends we haven’t seen enough of. Birthdays missed. Presents not exchanged. Spending 3 weekends in a row in different hotels in different parts of the country because of gigs and weddings and trips. Something to change this year.

So, a retrospective, an introspective, and a goodbye to last year.

How was yours?

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

5 things you know if you have a December birthday

It’s my birthday on Sunday. It will be something of a double whammy, as I realised that I’ve told two different people I’m a year younger than I actually am in the past two weeks, so it will be like getting two years older, in a way. Gulp!

I’m not that big on celebrating my birthday, because there’s always so much other stuff going on.

Here are 5 things you’ll know if you have a December birthday (or 5 things to consider if you know someone else who was born this month).

1 – The offer of joint gifts is never acceptable. Would you ask me if I wanted a combined Christmas and birthday present if I was born in June? No. Stop it.December birthday

2 – Everyone is busy with Christmas parties and work events and often can’t make it to your birthday plans.

3 – People are generally in a festively excitable mood anyway, so you don’t get your moment in the sun where people are jolly just for you (what an attention seeker!)

4 – You’re not sure if your post contains birthday or Christmas cards, so often open stuff by mistake.

5 – All your gifts come too close together. Nothing all year and then an overwhelming amount of stuff pretty much in one go. If there’s something you want in summertime you either need to buy it yourself or wait (not good if it’s something seasonal!)

On the plus side at least everyone is in a great mood and ready to celebrate. Imagine a January birthday when everyone is skint and on a detox. That would be awful.

Do you have any gripes about your birthday timing?

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

5 not so great things about internet shopping

OK, I extolled the virtues of online shopping yesterday, and I stand by those things.

Online shopping

But as a prolific online shopper (which sounds better than over-orderer!) there are things that I hate too…

1) Getting your hopes up on the perfect dress/top/playsuit, and then it turns up and looks (and feels) like one of your Nan’s tea-towels. Who said the camera doesn’t lie?

2) Not being able to judge the sizing by holding an item up on the hanger and therefore having to order 3 sizes in everything just to be sure.

3) The look you get at the post office when you turn up regularly with 73 parcels to return – the customers hate you for slowing the queue and the postmaster judges you for shopping again

4) Keeping track of refunds – did New Look/Dorothy Perkins/H&M process all of the orders I’ve sent back in the last 2 weeks?

5) When you can only return items to store, so have to spend AGES at the till while the cashier refunds what seemed like a small order online, but in reality is half your monthly salary.

Of course it’s a small price to pay, so I’m not going to be quitting any time soon…

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

5 great things about internet shopping

I hardly ever go real life shopping anymore. I find it such a drag. Internet shopping is so much better; especially at Christmas. Who wants to brave the crowds of marauding stressed out shoppers buying things for the sake of it? And getting hot then cold then hot then cold as you wander in and out of shops? Urgh!

Online-Shopping

Here are my favourite things about shopping online.

1) You don’t have to squeeze into tiny changing rooms (H&M Bullring, I’m looking at you!), or changing rooms with the curtain hanging off and bits of old coathanger and chewing gum on the floor (Primark Birmingham, you’re guilty).

2) You don’t have to keep getting in and out of your jeans or shoes when trying things on (just do it all before bed time then get into your PJs, genius).

3) You can order loads of stuff because you don’t have to carry the bags, hurrah! And ordering more usually qualifies for free delivery, so technically it’s economising (but take pity on your courier when he’s delivering yet another haul to your front door).

4) You can do it any time of day (or night) whatever you look like.

Online shopping wine

5) You don’t have to mix with other people (I’m not anti-social but Saturday shopping crowds and queues for the escalator/fitting room/till? Er, no).

How did we ever cope without it?!

Are you an online or real life shopper?

Thanks, as always, for reading! x

5 things you only know if you dye your hair red

While red hair is incredibly cool, it’s also an incredible pain in the ass at times.

Red hair

Here are 5 things you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever gone scarlet.

1 – It fades. Really quickly and disappointingly. If you’re naturally blond you’ll start to look pink. You need to colour it at least every 3 weeks to keep it at it’s best, which is expensive and time consuming.

2 – You can’t use white towels. Staying in a hotel? Take your own (or face the wrath of the laundry people who have to bleach/throw away your towels after use). One year, on holiday in LA, I hid my hotel “hair towel” in the wardrobe every day before housekeeping came in so I didn’t have to wreck a new one whenever I washed my hair. You can imagine the state of it when I handed it back at the end of our trip.

3 – If your hair is longer, you can’t leave it to dry naturally – unless you want pink stains all over your t-shirt/jumper/pyjama top.

4 – Swimming pools are a source of worry. “No I didn’t get my period in the water! It’s just my head leaking!”

5 – It can be annoyingly wardrobe limiting. Rendering a chunk of your existing wardrobe redundant.

Have you got any hair colour tales or disasters? I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks, as always, for reading! x