Category: Uncategorized

Last Monday, June 15th was one year without my Millie.

I honestly still can’t believe it marked a whole year without my Millie? the hardest time of my life, she was the best. She was and still is absolutely everything to me and I miss her so much everyday. Time goes so quick and seems like yesterday all at once. Love you forever Millie ❤️?✨

Earlier this week I shared the first official blog post I wrote back in 2016. It was titled ‘#WHERESTHELOVE’ and was all about the Black Eyed Peas re-releasing their classic single Where Is The Love due to events happening around the world.

I’m aware this is quite trivial but anyone who knows me knows how much I love eating out. I would normally eat out at least once a week and usually have a McDonalds a week too, I’m very thankful for good metabolism haha. So that was one major change for me during lockdown!

I was so glad when restaurants decided to start to open up again for click and collect/takeaways! We got Five Guys at the beginning of last month, then a few weeks later a Nando’s and went to our local McDonalds on the first day it opened back up … and again the next day haha!

We’ve had such great experiences with the restaurant services in terms of, ordering, pick up and social distancing/cleaning methods used to ensure you can get your food safely.

While taking the meal and eating at home isn’t quite the same it was just as good and something to look forward to!

It’s also been great to see how going forward dining experiences will work and gives some sense of normality with lockdown beginning to ease!

Next up on the list .. TGI Fridays haha. I’m so glad my restaurant dining habits are beginning to get back to normal because if you couldn’t tell I love food and am a bit obsessed with eating out haha. I can’t wait for more of my favourites to open!

I know I’ll never understand and I can’t even imagine how scary it must be to live in fear like this purely because of the colour of your skin. It’s also mind blowing to me that in the year 2020 when the world is so advanced in many ways the simple thing of treating people equally still isn’t done! It’s so important to educate ourselves and try and make a positive difference/change! Shocked and saddened that this is still happening, it’s not right!

I participated in #blackouttuesday of showing support by posting a black square on social media and using the time to learn and focus on the issues going on.

This is an issue people of colour face all the time and it’s unbelievable that the suffering happens so often and for so long! I saw a statistic saying right now is the biggest civil rights movement in history as all 50 American states and 18 countries worldwide have been protesting. This is hope that change is happening and that the world is becoming a better place!

As personal posts from everyday life resume it is important to express that these things do not distract from what is going on. Offline I will still be learning, reading, listening and doing what I can to help towards making a change I will also still show support online as well. To find out ways in which you can help go to: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

I’m posting this as it’s important to keep the issue relevant while posting other pieces. It’s not a trend of posting a black square and moving on, it’s an issue that needs addressed and change has to come! It’s everyone against racists!

Couch to 5K is a free app to download that helps you to get fit and gives a 9 week plan with the end goal of you being able to run 5K. I did it with my mam which was nice to have someone to do it with and has been a great way to get outside and exercise especially during this time!

This was actually our 3rd attempt to complete the programme, we originally started at the end of September last year and got up to week 6 but due to work commitments we couldn’t manage to complete it. We also tried at the beginning of the year but again due to both our work schedules we only got to week 2 this time haha. So we finally did it!

You choose a ‘personal trainer’ to tell you you’re time intervals when running and give you the information. We chose Sarah Millican.

The aim is you do 3 runs a week, you start by walking and running for selected intervals with the running increasing every week. The end is goal is to run for 30 minutes in week 9.

This may not sound a lot to people and I used to love running more when I was younger but I don’t really do any exercise at all anymore so it’s been great to get fitter again.

It’s been great physically and mentally to be outdoors running and with the weather being so nice and even though the programmes finished I am going to keep up running!

Last night was the last official Clap For Carers and showing appreciation for all key workers after doing it every Thursday at 8pm for the last 10 weeks. While it is still so important to show how thankful we are for people keeping the country going during these tough times, it is nice to celebrate what it has been and end while it is still positive and big rather than just fizzling out.

It’s been so great to see just how much people come together in hard times.

One way in which we have and can continue to show support is by purchasing charity rainbow T-shirt’s. They are available for many different places in many different styles, with majority of companies donating 100% of the profits to charities to support the NHS.

We got our rainbow ‘all in this together’ T-shirt’s from M&S for £9.50 with all profits being donated. And we absolutely love them!

As lockdown begins to ease in England, the world seems to slowly getting back to some sense of normality. It’s important to remember that while everything still isn’t 100% ok but there is light at the end of the tunnel and there will be a ‘new normal’.

It’s important going forward that guidelines are still observed so that we don’t end up back where we started with the pandemic.

We’re all in this together from the beginning to the end. Better times are coming and it’s good to remember what we’ve learnt during these times, such as not taking the simple things for granted and put that into practice going forward so that at the end of it all the world might be a better/more positive place!

So this weekend Deno’s Wonder Wheel at Coney Island in New York has been celebrating it’s 100th birthday! I follow a lot of pages on Facebook from my trips to NY, including the wonder wheel page. Seeing all the posts has made me reminisce of my most recent trip which included 2 trips to Coney Island, which now has a special place in my heart.

I’ve been a huge fan of Lokai bracelets since they first launched in 2013. They were very much the ‘it’ bracelet to have at the time, with lots of celebrities loving them.

The idea of a Lokai bracelet is that the soft beaded bracelet has a white bead containing water from Mount Everest and a black bead containing mud from the Dead Sea. It represents the highest and lowest points on Earth.

I really like it when something simple such as a bracelet you can wear everyday has a meaning to it and a story behind it. It’s also very relatable needing to recognise the importance of balance in everyday life.

2020 – the year of online reunions/fan fests and meet and greets!

On Friday the cast on Pretty Little Liars held an online reunion with Cast4Good and Looped. You could join to watch the reunion as General Admission and there was also an option to upgrade to a 1-1 call with one of the cast after. It was all done in aid of charity to raise money for Feeding America. So it was great to have something to take part in and also know your money is going to help those in need, especially during these difficult times.

The line up consisted of Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish, Tyler Blackburn, Ian Harding and creator Marlene King. It was stated Keegan Allen was unable to join in as he didn’t have a good WiFi connection.

I binge watched the show last year and it became one of my all time favourites! So because I wasn’t watching it when it was still on I was excited to take part in something happening for it now. I also chose to upgrade to a 1-1 call with Troian Bellisario.

Another silver lining to come from the current situation is that there have been positive impacts on the environment.

I always try and do my bit by making changes to everyday life that can help reduce the impact I am causing such as using reusable straws and taking reusable bags.

I’ve used reusable water bottles all my life however recently I’ve been struggling to find a style that I like especially with there being so much choice now.

I came across a Cool Gear water bottle on my weekly trip to the local supermarket and it was on offer so thought I’d give it a try! I’ve been using it everyday for a month and I love it.