Walk time with my favourite.

I go back to work tomorrow after having two weeks off (perks of being a teacher in training), so I figured I needed to make the most of my last day off and go for a lovely walk with my favourite, Pennie. 

Today is the last chance I'll get to take Pennie out for a walk on a weekday for about 6 weeks so i made the most of it. I took her to a lovely park near my house, which is a really lovely park and fortunately never seems to be that busy with other dogs, at least when we go it isn't.   

The park has lots of different wooded areas full of rabbits and squirrels, which is Pennies favourite part of her walks so this park is ideal. I wish I lived within walking distance of this park so that I could take her there more often without having to drive there. I would definitely would recommend this park! 

 

 

 

 

 

2014: My year...

I am a firm believer that it is always a great idea to take the time to reflect upon your year, to see both the high and low points. I have got to say that generally my year has been full of happy and celebratory moments, but it has not been without its stressful and tearful moments either. Graduating from University has definitely been on of the most significant points of my year, and covers both the high and low aspects for sure.
  



Graduating from the University of Leeds with a 2:1 in Psychology. This year I graduated from university with a 2.1 which I am so proud of! At the time I was so stressed due to all the exams and deadlines, but now looking back I wouldn't change it for the world, in fact I wish I was still in Leeds living with my best friends and enjoying my freedom. Hopefully one day I will return to Leeds again as it really is a fantastic city and I miss it so very much. Also my friends and I have thankfully taken the time to stay in touch and visit one another, for example my friends are coming to stay with me for New Years and I can't wait! My advice for people currently living away from home or at university; enjoy it! It won't last forever! 

My year with my boyfriend. I am so happy in my relationship with my boyfriend, of course we sometimes can fall out and fight but I wouldn't change our relationship ever. He is  so perfect and always extremely good to me, and truly makes me so happy. Hopefully sometime next year or soon we will be able to move into our own little home together or go travelling. Heres to many more happy years! 






I started a PGCE. This September I started a PGCE, and so far this is proved to be a big challenge! Nobody realises just how much hard work a PGCE is or teaching either! Hopefully in the end it will be worth it and I will be glad I made this decision. In the end at least it will be another goal I will have accomplished and something else to be proud of. 



Many Happy memories. This year has been filled with many happy memories that I will always remember, I have met some wonderful people but have also lost contact with some not so wonderful people... I have developed closer relationships with some amazing people too. I have had many lovely moments and days, including several amazing holidays with the ones that I love. This year I am slowly getting better at forgetting the negatives and trying to focus on the positive aspects of my life. I am also learning to stress a little less, which is definitely a big issue for me. Hopefully I will continue to progress and develop into a more happy-go-lucky kind of person. 

A day out with the dogs!

Today I took my cocker spaniel Pennie to a Dog and Horse Show and country fair at a local farm and produce shop in Preston called Huntley's, the event was called the  Mellor Dog School Country Fair. I went with my parents and boyfriend, and then we met up my friends Abi and Rob who also took their Border Collie Bella. Bella was so excited and hyper to be there and was so happy to see Pennie. We sometimes take them walks together so it was great to see them. 

The country fair had a few different stalls on but I think due to the bad, or rather miserable weather, not many people turned up for the event on the day. There were various dog shows  on and also some horse shows going on throughout the day. They also had different dog competitions on but we turned up late so we missed half the events but we still entered our two dogs into a couple of the events. We entered Pennie into the Best Condition and the Dog the Judge wanted to take home categories, and Pennie came second in the Best Condition competition, so proud of her! She came second to a puppy cocker spaniel who had just had his coat cut and groomed so she did really well! Bella took part in the happiest dog competition and also the dog the judge wanted to take home event, Bella won third in the happiest dog competition, which I'm surprised she didn't come first as she always has a huge grin on her face. 

We also watched some of the other dog shows and saw a police dog being trained, along with a gun dog retrieving items. I also went into the Huntley's produce farm shop and purchased far too many cheeses! Afterwards we also had a bit of a wander through their maze too which would be a great place to go to at Halloween or Bonfire night! Will definitely have to keep my eye out for events at Halloween. 

As great as the fair was it would have been great with more stalls and shows going on, especially with more animals. Also I think if the weather had been better then more people may have come to the event. Will definitely be going again next year to the fair, as it is a really lovely day out and a great chance to show off my amazing pooch! 

 

 

3rd Happiest Dog in the competition! 

2nd in Best Condition competition! 

So proud of our pooches! 

Happy Holidays!

I thought I would do a quick post about my holiday to Menorca. As I got treated to a free holiday thanks to my boyfriend's lovely mother! We went away for a week, flying from Blackpool, which was a long enough time to go away for to Menorca. 

Ultimately the holiday was a beach/pool holiday to just relax and chill, especially relaxing seeing as I have recently finished my degree; so a week of relaxing and not doing much after many deadlines and exams was definitely needed. 

We stopped in S'Algar in Menorca, which was about a 20 minute bus journey from the capital Mahon, and where the airport was. The flight was only 2hr 30 minutes which is a bonus, and thankfully we had really good flight times. We got 7 nights and 7 days in total in Menorca, and it was just the right amount of time to go away for. 

The apartments were really lovely, really nice and spacious and also clean. Our apartment was on the second floor (the apartments were either first or second floors), so we had a lovely view of the town and sea from our apartment. Most days the weather was lovely and hot, but not overbearingly hot thankfully. I think the warm weather we had been having in the UK had slightly prepared us for the heat. A couple of days were more overcast/cloudy but it was still very warm and we had not rain, woo! 

Most days we just walked around taking in our surroundings and the town, a couple of days we stayed by the pool and a couple of days we went into the Capital Mahon. Although we had a really lovely time, there was not really too much to do, hence why 7 days was long enough. We walked to the neighbouring towns a couple of times, but with the heat and also the fact that there was not much in those towns either, it was not worthwhile walking to them too much. 

The city of Mahon was truly lovely, and a definite must if you are going to Menorca. It was refreshing to have a change of scenery and also to have the options of different shops and bars. We mainly walked around all the shops and streets, and also round the harbour. We went on a glass bottom boat, but that day the weather was really windy, leaving us both feeling motion sickness! I suffer quite badly from motion sickness and don't advise anybody to get on a boat when the weather is windy! On the Saturday we sat in a cafe next to the main church in the city, there was a wedding on so it was lovely to watch all the dressed up people going into the church. The wedding party also hired a DJ who was fortunately playing all the kind of music my boyfriend and I love. Sitting by the church, drinking a small beer and listening to the music was definitely one of my highlights of the holiday. 

I didn't really spend much on our holiday as I always tend to go for the cheaper food options (habit of being a poor student!), and also recently bought lots of clothes that I didn't need to buy anything. The only thing I bought was a bookmark from a local art gallery! And my boyfriend treated me to a new cute make up bag from one of the shops in the capital. 

Overall I had a really lovely time and it was so nice to just get away with my boyfriend and experience our first real holiday together. We have been to London together, but this was our first holiday abroad. Ive come back slightly browner, and way more freckly, and unfortunately with a few bites from the mosquitos. I got bitten 3/4 times and my boyfriend didn't get bitten once! Typical. I think in future we will stick to more city breaks :) 

My trip to Hogwarts!

My mother treated me to an end of exams celebratory trip to Harry Potter Studios Tour in London. The trip was a great deal with National Holidays, which included the travel (although it was a horrific coach), the hotel, two meals and a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour and a few hours in London.

  

On the Saturday we left Preston at 7.15am and arrived in Watford at 12. The tour was amazing, and it was great to see so many different kinds of people enjoying the Harry Potter Tour, there were people from all over the world and from all age ranges. First off there was a short film then we entered through Hogwarts giant doors into the Great Hall. I wont go into too much detail about the tour as it will ruin the surprise for anyone who is going to go! But I will say that it has film props and sets from all of the 8 films ranging from clothing, wigs, the creatures, to Diagon alley!

One of my favourite parts of the tour were the area with the board with all the pictures of the “animal actors”, the board contained all the details of the animals they used within each of the films. Made me laugh that they said all the dogs were well trained and were great to have on the set, whereas the cats did what they want.

There was also a part of the tour that allowed people to use the Green screens that allow the actors to appear like they are flying on brooms, or in the Weasley’s car. I did not have my photo taken on the broomstick as the queue was simply too long, but my mother and I had our photo taken within the Weasleys car.

Another amazing part of the tour was the areas with all the details of how they created all the different creatures within the films, with all the different sketches and models for the creatures such as Aragog, Lupin as the Werewolf and all the banks Goblins. The make up was absolutely amazing! But I’ve got to admit that the goblins were actually really creepy and reminded me of something out of a horror film!

The whole tour took my mother and I about 4 hours to walk round, and that was with us rushing the end of tour worrying that we wouldn’t be back in time for the coach. The shop was slightly disappointing however, the shop could have done to be bigger and have more stock, I was disappointed to find that they didn’t have any Dobby soft toys! We only bought a fridge magnet with Fang on it (had to get something with Fang on), a key ring and a lolly for Mark. 

The hotel we stayed in was a 2 minute walk from Watford town centre, the trip included a buffet of various meals for tea, and also a buffet for the breakfast. The hotel was really nice and I would definitely recommend it. On the Sunday we got to London at 9.45am, which was slightly annoying as the shops only really opened at 12pm, and we needed to be back for the coach at 2pm. We were only really interested in going round the shops because I only went to London in December with my boyfriend and went round all the museums and galleries then. However, I did find the time for my one of my favourite shops; Forever 21. Actually only spent about £65, which is good for me! I will do a fashion post another day with all the goodies that my mother treated me to.

A downside to the trip was that there was a rally/protest march on around Hyde Park in the afternoon which meant that the coach only arrived at 3.45pm, when it was meant to pick us up at 2pm! So that was fun, this meant that we only arrived back in Preston just before 9pm. Thus reinstating my hatred for coaches! 

But to any Harry Potter fans out there, the tour in Watford really is a must! Walking round really made me want to watch all the films back to back again. Was so much fun working out where all the sets and the tiniest of props were from. Now I just need to go to Florida! 

I took over a hundred photos so here is just a few of my favourite ones from the weekend. Also, my phone died half way round the tour so I had to steal my mums phone to take some photos, which i have yet to steal to put up sadly.