My new car

So at the beginning of May I banged my car pretty badly on something that shouldn't have been there and it put a huge gash in the passenger side of the car under the door. I could have claimed on my insurance but the prices we got for the repair were almost as much as the car is worth. I didn't like the car very much, either. I had to get it very quickly in 2011 when I managed to write off a car that I LOVED by driving sideways through a drystone wall, and I never gelled with it. Soooo new car it was!

The first two cars I had, including the one I wrote off, were Corsas, and I loved them. The most recent one was a Fiesta, but like I say I didn't like it. So I've gone back to a Corsa, it's silver. I like cars with five doors and this one also has the fitting where you can plug your phone or an mp3 player into the sound system.

So far I'm loving it!

10th Wedding Anniversary

By the time you read this, I'll be in France sunning myself on a sun lounger in Saumur, near Tours. Lee and I are having a couple of days there by ourselves, and then we're going to Vayrac, near Limoges, for a week, with my mum, stepdad, Lee's dad, stepmum, mum and stepdad (yes, they get on well).

So why the trip away? Well, it's mine and Lee's 10th wedding anniversary.

I KNOW. Ten years! TEN years! That also means that we've been together FIFTEEN years! (We got married five years to the day after we started going out!) I feel so old. I also feel very lucky, because Lee is a great partner and I love him very, very much.

I only have a couple of wedding photos saved digitally, so here they are.

Don't we both look so young? Lee especially. So babyfaced.

Our wedding party. So many bridesmaids! The girl in brown is Roslyn, who was my witness, then there's Ailsa, Gemma, Katie and Kate, David our best man, Lee's sister Victoria and my cousin Eleanor. The little girl on the table is our niece Leah. So cute! 

Marriage is amazing - I love it and firmly believe everyone should have the right to it. Here's to another ten for me and Lee. 

What I Wore 26th May

I haven't been taking many outfit photos recently as I've been in a real low mood and also haven't been going out much, meaning that I haven't been wearing much to write about (my in-house clothing choices leave a LOT to be desired!)

However, at the end of May I had a really busy week seeing several friends and going to events meaning that I took photos of my outfits and what I was doing. All these posts are finally getting me caught up!

Anyway, on Tuesday 26th May I went to Leeds to see my friend Gillian. She is getting married very soon so we were talking about that. We went to Frankie and Benny's which was delicious as usual.

I wore this pink Lovedrobe dress that I bought from Evans in the New Year sales for just £12. I haven't worn it before. The lighting in the lift where I took the photo wasn't great, but it's a lovely bright pink in real life. I wore it with this black shrug from New Look.

It's a shift dress which I wouldn't usually go for, but I think it looked nice!

Photo An Hour 24th May

Since 23rd May was a very boring at home day for me, I decided to do the Sunday as photo an hour too, since I had Plans! I decided to treat myself to a night away in a hotel for completing my MA work, and I decided to go to the North East to visit my friend Kimmi, and I asked Sam to come too. We booked into the Hilton in Gateshead and set off early on the Sunday so that we'd have time to use the swimming pool at the hotel. I missed a couple of hours due to swimming, but here's a ton of photos anyway!

9am ish and I was packing my stuff as I hadn't done it the night before.

10 ish and I picked Sam up at my extremely local station. It has no ticket machine and only one platform

11 ish and I was driving, this is my old car. 

Noon and we were still driving.

1pm and here's the iconic Tyne Bridge! I'm standing in my hotel taking this so you can see how close we were. North East people can also tell that I'm over the river in Gateshead taking this, NOT in Newcastle! We walked up the street to have lunch with my friend Paul who lives in Gateshead and is one of Lee's friends from college (Lee's from Durham)

This swing bridge was just along from the Tyne Bridge and I liked it a lot. It was the main view from our room on the 2nd floor. 

3pm ish and we checked into our room. I love hotel beds! We then went down into the gym to swim

Post swimming hair!

6pm ish and Sam and I were ready to go down to meet Kim. We don't scrub up too badly do we?!

We had a drink in the bar first, so here's Sam and Kim looking lovely (I met both these girls through The Libertines fandom and I'm so glad I did!)

We had an excellent meal which ended with this salted caramel pudding with white chocolate ice cream - delicious! 

I'd definitely recommend the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead as it was very spacious, clean, had excellent facilities, nice staff, a lovely restaurant, and gorgeous views over the Tyne. We paid £91 for our twin room which didn't include breakfast but did include access to the gym and pool. 

Photo An Hour 23rd May

23rd May was this month's Photo An Hour hosted by Jane (Is That You Darling) and Louisa (Duck in a Dress). It was a very boring day for me - Lee's band was playing at a festival in Manchester and staying over, so he left early and I was alone to do work. So some of these photos are a bit creative but here we are anyway!

9am and this is my "why am I awake at this time" face

10am, Lee left and I laid in bed reading this.

11am, still reading. 

Noon and I suppose I had better get in the shower.

1pm and I was still getting dry/ready

2pm and I was doing work.

3pm while listening to my digital radio. I've had this years, Lee bought it for me.

4pm and this is my new cup, I love it. Just filled with water.

5pm. This photo sits next to my desk and it's several of my good friends from my wedding

I forgot 6pm as I was still working. This is 7pm, watching Peter Kay's Car Share on iPlayer. I liked it a lot

8pm and I ordered food - so good.

9pm and I'm watching Grace and Frankie which I also really enjoyed.

10pm and I'm watching Mary Berry - I LOVE her.

11pm found me back in bed reading this!

Books books books

So as you may remember, I'm currently studying for my MA in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam. My particular interest is Young Adult literature and as part of the work that I've just handed in, I was suppoosed to reflect upon literature like my own. I know lots of YA books set in the US but fewer set in the UK, and I felt like I needed to know my contemporaries. But who ARE they? So I did what any sensible person would do and asked some librarians. I have three that I will turn to, and they all came up trumps.

£100 later and here we are:

Some of these are US based and are about music, like my novel, so I got them anyway. I've started Ostrich Boys, but I got distracted by Anne of Green Gables. 

Have you read any of these? What should I read next? 

Visit from Florida

My grandad had a loooot of siblings, and he was born in India and lived there until after WWII when he came to England. His siblings ended up all over the world and so my family is incredibly spread out. So in May my cousin Daphne and her husband Charlie came to visit from Florida. Daphne is my mum's first cousin, and there's about 25 years in age between them. They've lived all over but they now live in Florida. They last visited us in 2010 and I think it's fab that they keep coming!

We had lunch at a farm shop near where my mum lives; it has an excellent cafe and if you're in Wakefield do visit it: Blacker Hall Farm Shop.

Charlie and Daphne

Daphne and my grandma

Picnic in the park in York

In mid-May I went to visit my friend Jacqui in York and Sam came too. We had a good evening on the Friday drinking and watching films (see previous posts!) and then on the Saturday we went and had a picnic in the park near Jacqui's house. It wasn't boiling hot, but it was warm enough to sit for a long while. We were near this tree that they both climbed, and we'd been to the supermarket to buy delicious picnic food, and we had wine. It was just what I needed.

Our delicious picnic. With pink wine! 

Selfie

Jacqui in a tree

Sam in a tree

This is like their album cover or something

I love making daisy chains, such a hippy

Sam modelling the daisy chain

And Jacqui, reluctantly! 

Silly evening with my friends

I kind of just want to document this evening so that I can remind myself that I have some amazing friends who I love to spend time with. While Von was here, Sam came over and we had a barbecue, well we tried to but it rained, and we drank a LOT and then had scones with clotted cream and jam, and I was so drunk and happy and filled with delicious food.

I've never had these spirits and mixers in a can before, but  I liked them! Cheap and yummy!

This was some kind of frozen mojito I think

Von and her Caribbean Twist. We're in the middle of doing the kitchen so the walls looks awful.

A frozen strawberry daiquiri I think

And the aforementioned scones! Too lovely. 

Trip to Mugen Tea House

When Von came to stay I picked her up in Sheffield as I had to hand in some MA work too, and she wanted to go to Mugen Tea House as it's owned by a friend of hers, Sarah. It's really easy to find, not far from Sheffield University, and has plenty of street parking nearby. (It is, like everything else in Sheffield, on a hill).

Sarah greeted us warmly and then proudly showed us all her tea choices. I'm not mad keen on tea but I do like raspberry tea, so Sarah recommended this mixed fruit one. I think Von had peppermint? They were served in these glass steeping pots with vintage china to drink from.

It was delicious tea!

Von and I both chose the Ploughman's lunch - Sarah has a choice of fresh sandwiches etc. This was yummy, really simple but excellent.

I then had this delicious cup of hot chocolate - very bitter so it needed sugar, but excellent

Mugen is a fairly big space and Sarah is keen for community groups to use it - get in touch with her if you're interested!