Newsflash.

The prompt for today's blog post is to write about something that's been in the news today and the thing that's caught my eye is the fact that it looks like gay marriage maybe getting legalised in the UK. (About time!)

Personally I only think this is a good thing as it seems unfair to limit who can get married to heterosexual couples.  Part of me thinks this is because I've always wanted life to be fair for everyone and in all my favourite books, films and TV show the biggest battle has always been the one to get everyone the right to co-exist in harmony.

Then again I'm a big hippy at heart!  (Also it appears to be ripping the Conservative party to pieces and revealing them as the nasty party which is a good consequence in my eyes!)

What have you been reading about in the news today and what are your opinions on it?

Favourite Tradition. Blog Everyday in May.

I'm not really much of a traditionalist to be honest and I find this topic quite challenging.  When I was younger tradition was a big part of my life every Sunday we went to church and had a roast dinner afterwards, most Saturdays in the summer were spend watching my Dad playing cricket and every Christmas we sang along to a Disney sing-a-long carols video.  Now I'm older I don't do any of that.  For a few years me and Paul watched or attempted to watch The Hogfather on Christmas Eve although we often fell asleep near the end as it's quite long.  Last year we gave it up as a bad job and watched Avengers instead... I have stumbled upon another tradition though and one that is quite easy to follow, this is having a cupcake at the roller derby.

This is quite a nice tradition as it blends two things I enjoy roller derby and cake! It's also quite an easy tradition to uphold too, all you need to do is go to a roller derby bout, buy a cupcake (or two) sit down and consume said cupcake whilst cheering your team. Something that will not be repeated again is having chips at a bout... this is quite messy. So that is my accidental but current favourite tradition.

Best Friends. Blog Everyday in May.

I think that this one is a very difficult post to write!  It's very difficult to decide who are your best friends and who are just alright friends.  Maybe that's just me though... I do think I'm quite lucky to have surrounded myself with lots of nice friends, family and acquaintances, which makes singling anyone out very difficult.  I realise that this is very corny but a lot of the time I do feel like Paul is my best friend.  This is because he knows what I'm about to say before I've even said anything, understands my silly little quirks like singing the Chiquita banana song when we have bananas in the house and knows how to cheer me up when I'm ill.

 

 

That said for the same reasons he can also wind me up better than anyone else and he doesn't like Doctor Who... thankfully I can always talk to one of my oldest friends about this. (Well he's two weeks younger than me but I've known him for ages!  I've also had the good luck to remain friends with some of the people I went to school with and people I met at University.  I am not brilliant at keeping in touch with people but a few of my friends are great in not letting that stop our friendship and we meet up whenever we get chance.  I'm looking forward to catching up with some of them when I head to London next month, you know who you are!

There are other friends I have who I've become friends with through a shared love of music and other hobbies and they help me stay sane by going places with me and putting up with my eccentricities.  I could also say the same about some of my work colleagues who've had to put up with my recent hormonal out bursts! Lastly but not least I can't forget my family, especially my big sister who doesn't live in the same city as me any more but still knows me as well as I know myself.

I don't think I could ever be one of those people who could only have one best friend, that would be like having one favourite band or one favourite film when there's a world of variation out there!  I just think that it's brilliant that there are so many people out there who don't mind me rabbiting on at them about all sorts of random nonsense!

Journey to work. Blog Everyday in May.

So this one is a bit of a funny one as I documented my journey to work when I did a day in the life in one of my previous posts... most days by journey is the same I get up, get ready leave the house, walk down the road past a few shops and the fishpond to the bus stop.

 Then get on a 25 bus into town. Sadly the bus isn't as exciting as getting a mini train in Cleethorpes or an open top bus in New York...

Then I tend to wave Paul by as he gets off the bus three stops earlier than me and then get off the bus at another part of town down behind the Moor and just down from Debenhams, then I walk up a slight incline to Division street and my work.  Occasionally I get off the bus with Paul and walk up past the theatres and leave him at the town hall.

Not that bit but that's quite a nice picture of it... then I dodge a big issue seller walk up past Barkers Pool and along Division Street to work.  On very rare occasions I decide it's a good idea to drive to work; however, I soon change my mind when I'm crawling along in traffic! So that's a brief glimpse of my journey's to work.  One day I might even be fool hardy enough to try walking there, today is not that day and I don't think Monday is that day either!

Pampering. Blog Everyday in May.

I must admit I do like a bit of pampering but I am getting looked after quite a lot at the moment! my lovely boyfriend has taken to getting up, bringing me a cup of tea in bed, running me a bubble bath and bringing me my cereal every morning for the past four or five months.  So when I think about relaxing I don't tend to think about baths as they're part of my routine.  I quite enjoy a nice shower now! I was also treated to a nice goodie bag by my friend Claire when she came to visit in the bank holiday.

Kitties checking out my goodie stash.

The goodie bag contained a mixture of things for me (Mum&me bump body lotion and bath soak) and things for helping with the baby. It was very thoughtful and I think I'm going to try out the body lotion soon as my bump is getting a bit itchy.

Another way I like to pamper myself is to curl up on the sofa with some chocolate or a milk pop and watch Doctor Who or Revenge.  I also decided to treat myself the other week to some felt tip pens for doodling...

...it may have reminded me why I didn't do art after my GCSEs but then again it was very therapeutic!

Basically I think pampering is whatever you can do to help you unwind and feel good.  It doesn't have to be a back massage or a spa day, (both are good if anyone's wondering what to get me for my birthday) but it can be relaxing in front of the tv or filling a blank piece of paper with travel dreams.  That or a word document with stories of time travel and tea drinking...

Life's a lesson. Blog Everyday in May.

This blog topic reminded me about something Jeffery Lewis said in his song Life "life's just a story don't you doubt bad times give us something to talk about".

 Life is one of those funny things, it's be portrayed as a stage or a rat race but a lesson might not be a bad analogy. We do spend many of our formative years unknowingly drinking in knowledge about how to survive and how to be the people that our experiences have made us.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we've learnt so much to get to the stage where we can enjoy a blog or make a snack. Back when I was at university I had a few microwave related accidents where I burnt things as I had no idea how long they should cook. Well I say burnt... I Exploded an egg in the microwave and nuked a baked potato! Since then I've come on leaps and bounds. It's rare I burn anything these days...

Meringue fail!

Other lessons I've learnt are things like the fact that nothing that is worth doing is easy but with support from friends and family you can do anything even write 50,000 words of fiction in a month!

Yes, I am going to use this as much as I can! Muwahahaha!

Another thing I've learnt is that you can only be as happy as you allow yourself to be. Being optimistic won't reduce your work load but it can make you feel better about it and help make everyone around you more cheerful too.

If you tell someone you just work in customer service or admin or what ever role you do then you're telling them that you don't think your job is any good... That's a tip I was told at an assertiveness course I got sent on.  That and saying people's first name when you see them rather than just "hi"...So, those are a few things I've found out through the years that and don't put a drink next to your elbow!  Or cut your own hair... especially not when drunk!What lessons have you learnt?

Food Glorious Food! - Blog Every Day in May!

One of the reasons I started this blog was to write about food.  Food is one of the things I find that I can get most pleasure from as well as most displeasure from if it doesn't suit my palette or it is prepared incorrectly. I haven't written much about food recently as my appetite is a fraction of what it used to be! Here's a few pictures of the highlights of some of the recipes I've tried over the years and other lovely food I've sampled whilst out and about though...

 

 

These are a few of the things I have made, bought or had made for me in the last couple of years and I'm hoping to pop a few more posts up in the not too distant future regarding my future adventures with food.  Watch this space!