Lets Have A Catch Up...

Hi. I hope you are well and having a good day.

Today I wanted to make a more chatty and relaxed post as we start heading into the summery months of the year, featuring mini life updates, how I am doing generally and what's happening next.

Firstly I want to make a special mention to my posts from the past, which I published throughout last month. At the beginning of May, I had 177 drafts to go through. A lot of these drafts were just titles for blogging inspiration. Some were half complete and a few were actually complete but somehow never made it to the publishing stage.. Until last month!

Initially, I wasn't looking forward to delving into my drafts but it was actually really interesting to go back through them. It made me feel reflective of life in general, how much things have changed and how much happier and comfortable I am now with who I am as a person. Reading back through these posts was a proper trip down memory lane! The beauty of keeping a blog or a diary for a long period of time is that you have written pieces from different times of your life and it becomes a record of who you are as a person. 

Sometimes I think we all forget how much we change as we get older. I always think "I still feel like I am 20 years old" and then I read back to blog posts from that time and I realise that I am definitely not that same person any more. I do cringe at some of the things I have wrote in past blog posts but that is all part of the experience of growing up. Having a proper record of things makes you realise how much you grow and change as a person and I would encourage anyone who is considering starting a blog, journal or a diary to give it a go!

Back to the present day Amy. How am I doing at this moment in time? Overall I am doing well. I feel good. After the craziness of how last year ended for me, I really wanted a few months to just slow down a bit and enjoy life, as well as get settled in my new job role. That is where I am at now. This year has been great so far and I have found a pretty good balance with different aspects in my life. 

Some months are naturally more busier than others. April was definitely a busier month for me. I had a great Easter weekend, where I spent some quality time with Jordan. We went to play some foot golf, watched the new Mario movie, went to my favourite garden centre. The next weekend, we had a board game night with friends where I won my first game of Catan.. It was a miracle! It was also Elli's birthday weekend so we went to Mulligans which has loads of different activities and we went for a round of mini golf, which was really fun. We then went to Spoons for some food and chats and I treated myself to a couple of new clothing pieces.

I also took a few days off in April before Jordan went to Brighton on a stag do, and we went to visit his Nan for a day, which was really sweet. We got some bakery treats and had a long overdue catch up. We had a day at the races, which was also a great day... We actually got given tickets for free from Jordan's work. We had no clue what to expect as neither of us had been to the races before but we picked up how things worked relatively quickly and we had an enjoyable day. Jordan lost £40 by the end of the day but I had great luck on the last race of the day, meaning I took away £80! 

I also went to Thorpe Park with Paige for a day trip. We arrived when the park opened and left half an hour before the park was going to close and went on all the rides we wanted to get on. The weather stayed dry and we had a great day... So much so that we actually have booked to go to Alton Towers for a couple of days in July! My favourite ride was either the Swarm or Saw.. I am leaning more towards Saw though! The next weekend was Paige's Birthday celebrations where we went to Spoons for food, an Aladdin themed escape room and managed to escape with around 15 minutes to spare! 

On the other hand, May was looking quieter. I like having quieter weeks at times.. Hence why I already knew this would be the perfect time to go through my drafts and publish my posts from the past! I crocheted my next pokemon (Pichu), I spent more time perfecting my moves on Just Dance. I spent time with the piggies, baked strawberry and blueberry cupcakes over the Coronation weekend and went for the most beautiful bluebell walk with Jordan. We were dogsitting for my parents one long weekend whilst they went on holiday and looked after their sprocker spaniel Elsa who is the most excitable and energetic puppy. She also watched her first Eurovision! I had a day trip out with a work friend which was a great day, we went to a funfair and had drinks afterwards. 

I saw Legally Blonde which was a local staged production featuring a couple of our friends, which was a great evening.. They did so well! I spent the afternoon / evening with friends one Saturday, we had a long walk in the sunshine and beautiful fields before getting in the car and picking up a couple of drinks at Mcdonalds, as well as stopping off at my friend's place of work to pick up a few things. We got KFC for takeaway and played The Isle Of Cats which we all really enjoyed! The end of May definitely picked up more, when I had a long day in London for client visits, a couple of evenings out and I also had a day trip to the Dinosaur Park with my friends, which was a fun filled day! 

We also used the quieter time at the beginning of May to resume wedding planning. As a quick recap, we started planning our wedding near the end of last year however when things started to get a bit crazy with my job and my mind was all over the place because of it, I put a pause on the wedding planning. After a few months in my new job role and feeling relatively settled, we have resumed wedding planning from where we left off at the end of last year. We have reserved our date, signed the contract and settled the deposit with the venue... which is scary but exciting at the same time! 

Time does keep doing that more recently. I swear ever since we have been in the 2020's, time has been fast forwarding! Somehow we are now in June of this year and I am not sure where the past few months have gone. I have also made quite a few plans for the near future.. A couple more gigs, a weekend away with friends, a couple of weddings, a week away with Jordan near the end of the year and we are also planning to travel to a few places in August as well. Life is all about doing the things you want to do and I am in a fortunate position where I can get a decent balance of being an adult, having my own working life, paying bills and balancing those responsibilities with going out, living my life with family and friends.

I have had a busier start to the month of June. On the first weekend of the month, I went to the city for brunch as a date day with Jordan, where we had the most lovely breakfast. We also had a look round in some shops as well, including Lush where they had a collaboration with New Super Mario Bros and I proceeded to purchase various products. I am going to be losing access to my free parking in the city after this month so I am trying to make the most of it whilst I can! We then had a board game night with friends in the evening, where we played Red Dragon Inn, ate homemade pasta and bread and I finally enjoyed a game of Space Base! We slept over our friends that night, got to bed at 2am and were up early the next morning as we were off to London for the day. Our main reason for going was that three out of the five of us were seeing Beyoncé perform live at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the evening! The other two (which included Jordan and the designated driver) decided to have a night out in London... and when I say night out, it was more so a mini golf extravaganza!

First things first, I drove back home early morning to check on the piggies to feed them, spot clean their cage and make sure they were ok. Good thing about the guinea pigs is that they like their own company and can easily look after themselves.. although they do still require me to feed them. They also get very spoilt afterwards whenever I leave them for longer periods of time! Our friend was driving us there, so we had over two hours of Beyoncé karaoke. Once we arrived and met up with our other friend who lives in London, we went over to Leicester Square. We looked around the most insane geek shop and went down Chinatown.. which was insane! We then separated to go to different places for food and I went for the chicken katsu curry with rice and an omelette. After food, we all reunited and got a couple of drinks before separating again and the gig group started heading over to Tottenham. 

We arrived on a train full of people chanting and singing Beyoncé and we headed over to the stadium, which was absolutely massive and so modern! I was wearing a silver sequin dress which I found in a charity shop for £8. It is one of the most beautiful silver dresses I have ever seen. I got this dress the weekend after we got back from Florida and we went on a night out (which I wasn't dressed for) so I got that dress! I was initially worried I had overdressed but luckily after seeing some of the people on the train, I realised I was all good! 

We got in the stadium, treated ourselves to some merchandise and got ourselves a few drinks, which definitely had more alcohol in than anticipated! The sun was shining and it felt like a summer's day. We then found our seats which had a better view than what we were expecting and were eagerly awaiting for Beyoncé to make her appearance. The actual concert was incredible. Beyoncé was incredible and she definitely lived up to her namesake of Queen Bey. I loved the fact she had a costume change to reflect her name sake, and the fact her voice sounded exactly like how she sings on her recorded tracks. It was definitely the most extravagant concert I have ever been to.. at one point there was a massive glittery horse's head on stage, another moment Beyoncé was dancing on a motorised kart and then she was lying down in a clam shell.. There were so many moments where I was like what on earth is happening next. Between costume changes, there were short films where the production was absolutely insane, some of them had a very sci-fi aspect and it was incredible. After three hours of Beyoncé, we managed to battle our way through the crowds and met up with Jordan and our friend who had drove up to the stadium where it was absolute carnage and we then had another over two hour car journey back home listening and singing along to Beyoncé! 

I was in the office that Monday, where I was exhausted and my stomach was constantly churning, meaning I couldn't actually eat a lot. I assumed it was just the alcohol consumption from the nights before but it was a proper stomach bug which lasted a couple of days. Jordan also had the exact same thing (we weren't drinking the same drinks or even had the same amounts) and it was a horrendous two days for us both before we started feeling better and could eat properly again. Thursday afternoon was a great one... I went to the Cosy Club for lunch, which lasted all afternoon and I didn't have to pay for anything! The guy who I used to work with from London travelled down, he basically took the day as a day off and insisted I went to this lunch. I still wasn't feeling the best from the stomach bug but I went, and I am glad I did. The food was great, would definitely recommend! 

On Saturday 10th, we went to a wedding reception for one of Jordan's bandmates and it was such a lovely warm day. We mainly kept with Paige and Josh throughout the night and we had a great night dancing, drinking, eating pizza and partying the night away! Finally on Sunday I went to my friend Elli's to celebrate Nora's 4th Birthday.. It was a great afternoon even though I was still very tired from the night before!

This week is definitely looking calmer for me... Hence why I have decided to finish and publish this blog post today... Before life gets naturally busier again!

So yeah, it's all good...

Amy