Swapsies and a new family member!

I took part in a DoA Christmas/Ides of January swap! It was so much fun to do - getting new stuff is always fun, but it was a lot of fun to go through the list of things that your swap partner likes and try and find the perfect things that would fit their wishlist.

Badly needed update!

Oh dear, look at this. Nearly a month has gone by without a blog post!

I really am useless!

However, I'm pretty good a Christmas shopping. I'm right on top of things this year. The only two presents left to buy are flowers for my Nain, which I'll buy closer to the day, and some Walnut Whips for my Dad, which are proving difficult to find. I found a pack of 8 miniature ones in Marks & Spencer for £1.49, but that feels like a very cheap present even though my Dad is adamant that he doesn't want anything.

As usual, I am also very good at taking care of myself too.

It's work's Christmas party this weekend, and I finished off my outfit with a cape from River Island and a clutch bag from New Look. Here's a handy collage;

 

Green dress from the ASOS sale a few months ago

Black and gold wedges from New Look (my birthday present from Nain)

Black tights I already have 

Black devore cape from River Island - expensive, but I'm going to wear it to EVERYTHING

Black/gold lattice clutch bag from New Look

I'm not one of these girls who can't bear to be seen out in the same thing time and again, so I'll be wearing this exact outfit a lot. I've already worn the dress and the wedges, although not together. After the work Christmas party, I'll wear this to my birthday dinner on the 23rd December, and no doubt it'll come out again for New Year's Eve!

The picture of the cape is actually the back to show off the designs. I feel like a dark and mysterious version of Professor Trelawney when I wear it. It's amazing. 

 

Winter

Hair is grey
And the fires are burning
So many dreams
On the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud of me
I always wanted that myself

He says
When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change
My dear 

-- Winter, by Tori Amos 

Today would have been my Taid's 88th birthday. I still can't believe he's no longer with us. 

Sad Post

My Taid (Welsh for grandfather) passed away yesterday. It's difficult to describe how important he was to me. He supported me in whatever I wanted to do - he was thrilled when I got my BA at Bangor University and without him I'd never have gone on to do my Masters at Liverpool.

I'm happy that I managed to make him so proud. There is more I could say, I will miss him on my wedding day and when I have children. I'll miss him whenever I have any exciting news or career moves. It'll never be the same without him, but he did get to see what made him happiest - he never dreamed one of his grandchildren would make it to the college on the hill he used to look at when he was a young man living in Bangor. He got to go to a graduation ceremony there and it was for both of us. I wish he had made it to Liverpool to see me graduate a second time, but he was ill in hospital then. He saw me in a cap and gown again though, through the pictures we took.

I'm so proud he was my Taid and I'll miss him every day.

ישוע אמר: "אני התחיה והחיים. כל מי שמאמין בי, למרות שהוא מת, אבל הוא יחיה, וכל מי שחי ומאמין בי לא ימות."

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break! I've been working all weekend, sadly, but I did get to have a lovely dinner with B and his family yesterday and I've not long got home with my huge Easter egg! Noms!

Merry Christmas!

I've had a wonderful December so far! On my birthday I spent the day with B, we opened presents in the early afternoon and then we went to The Raj for a curry in the evening!

I had to work Christmas Eve, but I met up with B after I finished and we went to Conwy for a Christmas Eve drink with B's friends and to watch the fireworks. As the buses finish early on Christmas Eve I had to go home before everyone else, but I got to give B a Christmas kiss before I left :)

Christmas morning I woke up before everyone else, which was a bit odd because I'm one of the least Christmassy people I know! I didn't wake up because I was excited, it was because I wasn't particularly sleepy :p I did my hair in an elegant looking bun ready for Downton Abbey later in the day - I even added lace and pearl hair ornaments :D

Presents
Birthday:
Parents -  'J' Pandora charm
Brother - Mr Men dvd (?!)
B - 'Last Chance to See' by Douglas Adams and a yellow tooled leather satchel
Grandparents - money
Holly - Topshop kokeshi doll face teacup
Becky - Art nouveau brooch and cherries locket
Adventure Girl & Carawj – Raouken MSD corset
Pam - puppy plushie
Heather - dissolving rubber duck bathbombs
Row, Mike and MP - Boots No.7 eyeshadows

Christmas:
Parents - 3 tops, kokeshi doll lipgloss, Millie Pembleton kite necklace, Topshop squirrel charm, 2012 diary
Brother - leatherbound journal
B - Japanese tea set and artisan teas (I can pretend I'm DeWitt making people offers now :p), Ghost Deep Night perfume
B's dad – Harajuku Lovers G of the Sea perfume
Grandparents - make-up bag, hairband, Charlie bodyspray, make-up, money
Holly - Fearne Cotton eyeshadow shimmer dust
Becky - Impulse bodysprays and Body Shop shea butter scrub (smells delicious!)
Yvonne – Pearl charm bracelet
Adventure Girl & Carawj – Raoken MSD corset
Pam - notebooks
Heather - butter cookie mix and star cutter, make-up bag
Ruth - Accessorize hair ornaments; red ribbon clips and pearl hairpins
Row, Mike and MP - pampering set; body scrubs, sprays, shower gels and exfoliating mitts


I've had some lovely presents! Thank you to everyone for their pressies and I hope that you like the things I've got for you :)

Master of Arts

Surprisingly, my dissertation has been marked really quickly and I found out late last night that I passed! There's a Module Assessment Board meeting on the 30th, which will officialise the marks, but I passed and that's unlikely to change!

I'm so happy! Everything I've stressed over for the past few months, and all the hard work I've put in for a year has been worth it. Part of this also relates to the incredible moving forward and happy times I've had since 2009 - I had my heart cruelly broken (dumped over the phone after 6 years - very nice) but I picked myself up, moved on with my life, applied for my MA course, then I met B...2010-2011 has been the best two years of my life so far, I've done so much and met so many great people. Passing my MA has just been the latest achievement, but I know there will be more.


I'm feeling so confident and so happy today!

I'll make you an offer you can't refuse...and a holiday too!

I'm now a godmother XD It was such an honour to have been asked, and I'm so glad yesterday went really well at the church. There was a bit of drama in the morning when B and I were getting ready - my dress had to be pinned to my bra because it kept wanting to fall down *facepalm* I had a few clumsy moments, but thankfully I wasn't holding the baby, so I didn't drop him!

B looked very gentlemanly in his suit and he said I looked lovely in my dress - sadly I don't have any photographic evidence because my camera was in my handbag and the parents and godparents of all the children being christened were stood by the altar the whole time and my bag was still on our pew! Oh well! We will have to get dressed up again just for photographs!

I'm working hard on my dissertation today and tomorrow because Wednesday to Friday B is taking me away to Liverpool for a little break. It's going to be so nice to get away from stressness here and also actually have a holiday on my holiday from work. Before I know it I'll be back in the petrol station, so I might as well make the most of it.

We're staying in the legendary Adelphi Hotel! Wednesday we're going for tequila, sambuca and desperados beer at Bar CaVa (the decor inside is awesome, squishy leather sofas and vintage movie posters instead of wall paper), Thursday evening we're going to the Anglican cathedral for the Twilight Tower Tour they run between March and October. Friday is home day, but we'll find things to do before we go get the train! While we're there we also want to go to Tapas Tapas, Wagamama and Pizza Express - we don't have these things in north Wales! :( Please send some our way!

Liverpool is one of my favourite cities, a home away from home, so it will be lovely to be able to see the city from the tower of the Anglican cathedral rather than from street level. I can't wait to go!

Godson!

The Christening date for my Godson, Michael Patrick, has sort of been decided; it's provisionally on the 28th of August. This is awesome news because I'm already off on that day, so I don't have to worry about getting the time off!

I've decided to name a star for my Godson. I know that he'll be getting a Bible from his relatives and his other Godmother is getting him a silver rattle, so I wanted to get him something that he will think is cool when he's older and what's cooler than your very own star?! Exactly.

Rather than pay for it to be registered by some website that will probably disappear in a few years, I've decided I will pick Pollux (Beta Geminorum) as Michael Patrick's star. I spoke about registering a star with B, who told me that registering a star isn't genuinely changing the star's name, it's just adding information to a star database and paying to do so...plus you don't always get to pick the star!

Michael Patrick was born on June 10th, he's a Gemini, so I thought a star in his constellation would be perfect and Pollux is the brightest star in the Gemini constellation. I'm going to buy a silver star paperweight and have the details engraved on it so that when he is older, we can go out stargazing and try to find his star in the sky. Hopefully as Pollux is the brightest, it won't be that difficult as long as we can find the Gemini constellation! We shall see!

I've never been asked to be a Godmother before, this is so exciting. Such a responsibility too, I really hope I live up to it and I'm a person that Michael Patrick can rely on in years to come.

Meeting the Grandparents: Part the First

I had a long day at work today; we're extremely busy because it's summertime but also because one of our local competitors has closed for 18 weeks for a refit, so all their customers are coming to us instead. I'm certainly not complaining about the rise in trade, it can only be a good thing, but phew it does tire me out at the end of the day!

The best thing about today was going round to my grandparents' residential home in Llanfairfechan for a barbeque! I persuaded my boyfriend, B, to come with me (until today he'd only met my parents and my brother) and meet my Nain and Taid (Welsh grandparents). I'm so glad he agreed to come, we had a lovely time.

We missed the actual barbeque because it started while I was still at work and I wanted to go home and change first, but we arrived in time for cake and some wine, so all was well.

Nain and Taid live in a lovely residential home called Llys y Coed in Llanfairfechan. It's organised into private flats, with their own kitchens & bathrooms etc..., but there's a communal sitting room that residents can use and a residents' restaurant. My Nain and Taid moved there after becoming a bit unsteady on their feet (they're in their 80s), and they have loved every second of living there. There is such a nice community spirit among all the residents and the staff are so friendly and don't intrude at all. Residents can choose how involved they want the staff to be - my Nain and Taid just have someone pop in to see if they're okay every now and again - and you can choose to have your meals in your flat and cook in your own kitchen or eat in the restaurant with the other residents - most people choose to have their dinner together because it's like dining out with your friends every day.

B and I had a really nice time. I haven't seen Nain and Taid in a while because I've been so busy with work and dissertation, but I'm going to have to make more of an effort to go and see them, I've really missed them. B and I caught up with them while they were sitting in the sunshine with some of their friends (98 year old Mr Jones, Mr 'The Headmaster' Evans, Mrs Evans and a lovely lady called Annie, who held my hand and admired my garnet and opal ring and said that B and I would be engaged soon! That was a surprise to both of us!) Taid insisted that B and I had to try some of the cakes that were for pudding after the barbeque and tried to get us to drink sherry (we both politely declined and had red wine instead!)

It was nice listening to them regale each other with stories; most of the men had stories from where they were during the war or mischief they got up to, Mrs Evans was telling me about her Canadian boyfriend who she met when she was in the WAAF.  Apparently he looked just like Clark Gable and he was extraordinarily handsome, but he was much older than her and 'unsuitable', but she said all this with a twinkle in her eye!


I always enjoy spending time with my grandparents and their friends. It's easy for younger people to forget that older people ever had a life before becoming parents and grandparents, but the more I spend time with my Nain and Taid and their friends, the more I appreciate the stories they tell and that they were my age once and having similar experiences to me. B was really impressed with Llys y Coed too; it's a really lovely place, it feels more like a halls of residence than a typical 'old people's home', and the residents and staff treat each other really well. In some residential homes the staff barely connect with the people they're looking after, which takes away dignity from everyone.


Time for bed now, I think. I have another early start for work tomorrow morning. Goodnight from me, B and the residents of Llys y Coed, growing old disgracefully :)