A Fresh Start!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As many of my friends are trying their hardest to get over their epic hangovers today, I am thankful that I gave up alcohol over a year ago and stuck to it. I had the usual quiet night in with my parents with absolutely no desire to venture out. I must be getting old. I hope everyone enjoyed the celebrations and stayed safe.

The last few days I have been preparing for 2014 by having a huge clear out. I had binned a lot of things that I had managed to horde over the years and I sorted out lots of things to take to the charity shop. Now I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can start the new year with one less thing to worry about.

I’ve started as I mean to go on by reading, although I’m finding that ‘Zombie Apocolypse’ is becoming very boring now and I’ve already started considering my next read. Not until I have completed this one of course. I’m still determined.

Here’s a quote that we can all relate to which I find quite appropriate for the start of a new year:

‘A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step’

A Chinese Proverb.

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31 Day Gratitude Experiment – Week 1

I’ve completed the first week of my ’31 Day Gratitude Experiment’ successfully even if some days I have more to be grateful for than others. There’s probably lots of obvious things that I’ve forgotten to add but this is what I’ve got so far:

Day 1

I am grateful for:

• The ability to be creative.
• The technology I use on a daily basis.
• Social networking sites which keep me in contact with friends.
• Having a roof over my head and comforts such as a nice hot bath.
• Friends that are only a text away.
• My parents who are always there and do a lot for me.
• My niece who makes me laugh.
• The memories I made last year.

Day 2

I am grateful for:

• Having a secure job.
• Working with nice people.
• Being able to buy the things I want.
• Having hot meals cooked for me.
• Having heating that works and being able to put it on when needed.

Day 3

I am grateful for:

• Hearing the bird song early in the morning.
• Having holidays and events to look forward to.
• Being able to share common interests with people.
• Having an understanding and accommodating boss.
• Being in good health.

Day 4

I am grateful for:

• Not having to work weekends.
• Spending quality time with family.
• Living so close to central London.
• The amazing shows I get to see.
• Being able to afford to take my niece out.
• Seeing my niece laugh and enjoy herself.
• Being able to share experiences with the WordPress audience.
• The new memories that I’m starting to make this year.

Day 5

I am grateful for:

• Being able to enjoy a lay in.
• Being me and not having to pretend to be someone I’m not.
• Being able to enjoy a wide range of music.
• How lucky I am to be an able bodied person.
• Being able to eat anything without putting on weight.

 

 

 

Broomsticks and Cocktails

Now I’ve recovered from the weekend I might as well tell you a bit about it. Well I can start off by saying that it was a good one. Saturday began with food and wine in the Spice of Life, Soho with my friends Celia, Mandy and her lovely mum Ann. We then moved onto somewhere we hadn’t been before, a bar/restaurant called Ruby Blue in Leicester square. It was happy hour so we got the cocktails in and sat on the balcony which overlooked Leicester square. They played an array of 80’s/90’s songs on the top floor and we amused ourselves by chatting to some random people which is a regular occurence for us. We moved onto the Phoenix artist club, a members bar where we enjoyed boogying along to Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; songs that you don’t often hear on a standard night out. I love it in there and I love the people too. We must have been the last people to leave and after Ann had had a serious discussion with the cab driver putting the world to rights we finally rolled in at 4am… a sign of a good night out.

Sunday’s trip to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio tour was long-awaited. It was my chance to behave like a big kid and that I did. Myself and Mandy admired the sets and props, sampled butter beer and rode on a broomstick across London (virtually). It took us a good few hours to work ourselves around the different rooms. I could have spent a fortune in the gift shop but I limited my purchased items to a guide-book and Professor Snape’s wand 🙂

Later that evening we were fortunate enough to catch the Jersey Boys performance on stage in Covent Garden for the Olivier awards.

 

The past couple of days

After having had such a good weekend catching up with friends in the lovely town of Guildford I’m starting to feel those pre Monday blues. We enjoyed a bit of retail therapy before a pleasant meal at Jamie’s Italian which I must say didn’t really have a wide choice of vegetarian meals on the menu, neither did it state clearly which dishes were vegetarian. To be honest there wasn’t a wide range of food full stop which I suppose eliminates having to spend ages deciding what to have. I had the Honeycomb Cannelloni done 3 ways using aubergine and sun-dried tomato pumpkin, ricotta and spinach. I enjoyed the variety of taste but I wouldn’t have said it was amazing. For dessert I had the ultimate brownie; made with chocolate, raspberry and amaretto with a side dollop of vanilla ice cream. Apart from getting raspberry seeds stuck in my teeth and feeling a tad sick half way through the soft textured desert I quite enjoyed it although it could have done with just a bit more ice cream which accompanied the brownie really well. The service was to a high standard and the waiters were quite humorous and chatty.

Today I had one of my favourite kind of days…a lazy one to which I spent most of in bed watching heroes and Smallville. I have finally finished season 9 of Smallville, it took me a while but I got there in the end. I’m putting off buying season 10 at the moment because I don’t want it to end, its my favourite show! I’m not entirely sure about carrying on Smallville season 11 in a comic book but I might take a look if I see it. I’ve never really read a comic before but there’s always a first time for everything. I’m starting to get more and more into heroes now and its all starting to link together and make a little more sense. I’m only on episode 8 of season 1 but it seems pretty awesome. I bought the first season of ‘the Walking Dead’ and series 1 and 2 of ‘Being Human’ yesterday so I now have plenty to keep me occupied.

I’ve posted in my new creative blog again today… two posts actually! One is another new poem and the other is a couple of photographs of Guildford castle from yesterday’s trip. Please feel free to pop by there and check them out. Any feedback would be much appreciated.