Month by Numbers: skates, stars & shimmying

7 favourites...


1.) There’s been ice-skating, there’s been present opening and there’s been drinking. Oh my has there been drinking…I think at one point it was just pure prosecco and cocktails running though my veins. Festivities to the max y’all.

2.) This month has been filled with a lot of work-related fun outside of work time. This time last year I had lost one job, working a freelance job, and hunting for another job. It was lonely and soul detroying to be quite honest, but this year could not be more different. Colleagues have become more than just that and are now friends, and I danced with them along to cheesy festive songs, drank with them in cringey christmas jumpers and boozy brunch-ed with them on a Sunday afternoon. Once upon a time in Sheffield, me and my bestie said ‘imagine if one day we’re both journalists, living in London & in the same office!’ and lo and behold, here we are! From shorthand lectures together to dancing the night away at the office Christmas party together. And I could not be happier or how it’s all turned out and the new friends I’ve made in my life because of it.


3.) Every year some some of my closest friends and I get together and have a Christmas weekend together, or as we call it, Hunmas (long story). We stayed up until the early hours of the morning swapping secret santa presents, we drank wine, we ice-skated, we ate food and we talked the world to rights. That how weekend with these girls usually go and they never, ever get old and I’m always planning and feeling psyched for the next one.


4.) One of the perks of my job is I get to go to cool events, and one of the more recent and also coolest things I’ve been to is the Christmas party that Netflix held. Not only were there sets made up to look like some of their original shows, but the actors and actresses dressed up in those sets never went out of character and pulled up in to get involved.

Stranger Things have happened on a Thursday night ✨🔮 #strangerthings #netflixmas #netflix @netflixuk #london #lights #xmas #christmas #boomerang #instsvid #gif

A video posted by Amy Lo 🐚 (@amylo92) on Dec 1, 2016 at 1:13pm PST

 I essentially played charades with Queen Elizabeth on the set of The Crown. There was cocktails being passed around, I took full advantage of the gif-making photo booth, and there was a free chrome cast in my goodie bag to take home. Oh and I met Bake-Off winner and queen, Candice Brown, who I just banged on about how she slays the lipstick game and I love her piggy sausage rolls. So there was that too...good job Netflix.

5.) And one of the other perks of my job is that I get opportunities to go to stuff that I’ve loved for years, like Strictly Come Dancing. It’s the one show me and my whole family all love - it’s just pure joy! And after the hellish year my mum’s been through, it was an absolute privilege to be able to take her and every now and again, I was sneakily look over at her and she was laughing and enjoying herself with so much joy. It filled my heart up with so much love and not gonna lie, it filled my eyes up with tears.


6.) Christmas calories don’t count, and i may have taken that motto a bit too seriously. Just maybe. My body is made completely out of pigs in blankets, Quality Street sweets and red wine right now. i think when you you cook essentially a Christmas dinner in a pie and plait the crust of it and feeling like flipping Snow White, you’re in full on festive mode aren’t you? I’ve even been gifted sparkly jam that has prosecco and actual glitter in. I mean, I’m living my best damn life right now, but my waistline and health says otherwise.


7.) Living your best life during Christmas consists of mainly of drinking, dancing, partying and not much sleeping. And as much as i love a life of that, it starts to take it’s toll, and that’s when it’s time to hop of a train back to the shire and switch off for a bit. My fave thing about Christmas is how people bound together with joy and I’m lucky enough to have an amazing family full of love to share that with. And being an aunty in that family to 3 gorgeous nephew and nieces means i get to spoil them rotten and seeing their faces and reactions of pure, unadulterated excitement when they open presents that i’ve put so much thought into buying, makes me feel like there’s no better way for me to spend my hard-earned money.

5 tweets...
1.) My neck hurts from too many hair whips on the dancefloor & I'm still finding glitter on me - THAT'S how fun the xmas party was last night 🎄
2.) Have come to China Town for dim sum with family. Randomly developed a rash out of the blue - am I allergic to my own culture?! 🎎
3.) My friend just told me I look like I'm straight out of a 90s music video & I couldn't be happier with comparison ❄️
4.) Nephew's present consists of Star Wars, Pokémon & McFly's @TomFletcher. Couldn't be more excited, pysched & proud of that combo 🎁 #TopAunty
5.) What do you mean I have to go to work tomorrow and can't sleep in till 10am and have a cheese board as a snack?

3 songs…
1.) Gallant -  Weight In Gold

The coolest, most chilled vibes you could want to balance all the cheese and excitement of December. I started hearing this and was thinking ‘oh this is cool, I feel like i’ve come across this sound before?’ And that would be because they supported Jack Garratt when I went to see him and I can say they are fucking brilliant live so go and do that guys and girls.

2.) Barbara Streisand - Rain on my Parade

I found myself listening to this many a morning on my commute, and i think it was solely to psych myself up to get myself to work and make my commute that bit less shit and that bit more chipper.

3. ) JC Cooper - September song

December is an odd time to feel all summery, but this is what this song did. And as much as I am essentially Mrs.Christmas, this made me look forward to sunny summers to come and feel nostalgic about sunny summers past.

Until next time,

A.x

Month by Numbers: N64, night moves & namaste

7 favourites...

1.) October has basically been intervals os being jam-packed busy with plans, and then being a lazy coach potato. One day i might get the perfect balance instead of going from one extreme to another, but for now, this is what my life looks like.

2.) What better way to spend get over the hump in the middle of the week than go bake the biggest cake you ever did see, and being taught to do so by a past Bake-Off winner. It felt my ateries clogging up with diabetes as I was making the chocolate and sweets covered doubled up monster, but my-god was it worth it. Drinking bubbly and icing chocolate fingers on a cake with your buddy. What a great British evening eh!

3.) For my birthday, my flatmates got this yoga-loving bear a trip to do yoga while overlooking the city of London at the top of the Shard. So at the crack of dawn, I headed out into a crisp and quiet central London and my god, the early morning was more than worth it. I spent an hour just contemplating the big ol' city while stretching every limb. I left feeling refreshed and relaxed - just the R&R this bear needed in the midst of the London hubbub.

4.) Growing up with 2 older brothers meant I was a bit of a game freak. You might not of guessed what with the fluffy lilac bag and sparkly skirts, but throw a Nintendo controller my way and i'm a happy bunny. So a bar where you can play arcade and videos games - old and new - until your heart's content? I'm running there quicker than a a blue shell flying through Mario Kart. And with such a fab place, it was hardly surprising that it was busy and filled to the brim with people having a ball. So when it came to time for me and my friend Thea wanting to play some old school N64, we made some gaming buddies. They scoffed with pity as they offered me the character of Princess Peach and picked 50cc for our benefit. Cue me whopping their asses on Mario Kart and Thea thrashing them on SNES Street Fighter. If that isn't girl power, well, then I don't know what is.

5.) And now onto night out of a completely different calibre. For my gorgeous friend Chez's birthday. I went for the nicest pre-drinks of sushi and Prosecco (come a long way since the days of Apple Sourz and Dominoes!) before heading to Piano Works which was THE most fun! With a live piano band taking centre stage, there's no set list, the crowd hopped up on tequila shots and beer request all the songs and they just kill it each and every single time. Form Outkast and Gangsta's Paradise to All About That Bass and Spice Girls and everyone is just having a ball.

6.) Having a couple of days of holiday left to use up at work, I used up some for a long weekend to go back home for some peace and quiet from the city life. Life and work and all that's in between is so damn tiring - being an adult is tough y'all! So sometimes you just need to go back to your hometown, to your parents and just sleep, be fed and spend afternoons chasing your nephew from a field of pumpkins. Feel like a new woman after that long weekend! That is, until I got back to London and hopped on the tube...

7.) I love a theme so it's unsurprising that I love Halloween. Our house was covered in cobwebs, we were splattering blood (fake, of course) all over my flatmate's wedding dress ("Zombie bride? An ex-wife" - name that film!) After going my fave babe Ariel fora friend's birthday before, i've been desperate to go as Ursula for Halloween and finally did it. There was purple in my face, white in my hair and gin in my tummy. Which I'm pretty sure is why I felt like a poor unfortunate soul the next morning...

5 tweets...

1.) Life as the youngest person in the office: my editor just asked me if I new what a jukebox was

2.) Sat here with my carrots and hummus before sacking that in and cutting myself a fuck-off massive slice of cake
3.) People need to go on more 'mate-dates' cus @delphinechui & I went from social media buddies to IRL friends  #LevelUp 
4.) Just had Diet Coke moment: Hot moving guy came into our female filled office. Tried to be cool, strut by. Fell into a door intstead..
5.) Haven't seen my aunt for a while and she just said 'have you said thank you to your mum & dad for making you so beautiful?...WHAT?!? 

3 songs...

1.) I am a fully-fledged feminist through and through so when H&M released this bomb-dope ad showing what it REALLY means to be a lady, i was all on board. Being a lady doesn’t just mean swanning around mansions and swishing their dresses in fields. They also get on the tube and love to chow down on meals.  Oh, and that babe that is Lion Babe’s cover of a Tom Jones classic encompasses this perfectly. 

2.) Little Mix are one of the only and best girl bands around at the moment. Watching them perform and sing sassy lil’ songs as a something makes me feel the same kind of girl power that  I felt when I was throwing peace signs to Spice Girls in my bedroom. And when it comes to break-up songs, there’s the ones that you just want to sob to as you drown in your bottle of wine, but after that, you need something feisty and this is that. When you need to say to your ex, ‘yeah it’s nice what we had and yeah i was sad for a bit, but i’m so much better than ok now so cheers for that.’

3.) This is just one of those songs that make you want to ditch just plain ol’ walking all together and stut like you own the place. I find a new one of these songs ever so often, but sadly my grounds for strutting around is just the the northern line on the London underground, which usually is accompanied with mice , At lease this song makes it feel more glam than that eh? 

New Year, New Slate...

Happy 2013 everyone!

I hope you had a brilliant NYE, whether it was out boogieing with friends or chilled out at home with family.

I've always thought NYE is one of the most over-hyped nights in the calender and much i enjoy putting my gladrags on and a night out, i had a slightly more relaxed evening and had a night in with some friends and drinks, dancing along to 80s classics.

My 2012 has been one of the best and worst years of my short time on this earth.

I lost some people in my life, physically and emotionally. I lost a member of my family who was a massive part of my upbringing, and what haunts me the most is that i didn't get a chance to say goodbye. A relationship i had been in since i was 17 and that i put my whole heart and being into, ended. It was a massive change, so it's taken some getting used to, and to be honest, at times I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with. I had some big birthdays in my family and also a new member, making me Aunty Amy for the 3rd time!

And I've realised even more than ever how amazing my friends and family are and how much they are there for me, i've never appreciated them more and became a lot closer to some.

And there was the amazing Olympics! I was on full team GB fever! I've always been proud to be British, but this summer, it was extra special and the whole country just felt like it was united.

 

 Life will always have ups and downs, but the downs don't make the last year of my life any less special, and there is so much that I'm looking forward to in the next year! And I'm so grateful for those in my life who have overshadowed the lows in my life.

I'm not usually one for new year resolutions, and since the only resolution I've ever made in the past few years is the cliche of losing weight, which i have finally accomplished since moving out from home to uni (but I'm sure I've erased all that work over the Christmas eating period!)

However, there are some things i want to start doing in this year, and hopefully continue in my life..

Starting off easy, i need to go to bed earlier! Over this past year, I've slipped back into my nocturnal ways which i don't want to be, so here's to earlier night and earlier morning back in my life! Bye bye night owl!

Take more chances. So many times, i over-think things, which is one of my many bad habits. I need to just go for things more, go with my instincts. You only have one life, you might as well fill it the most amazing things and they're not going to happen without taking up all the chances that come your way. 

If the past year has taught me anything, its to never take your family and friends for granted, so i will always remember to make time for them, to go visit and see them and spend priceless time with them.
 

 Shop less. Not much else that needs to be said about that...

Start a video diary. Being a big Youtube geek, I've wanted to make videos for so long now, and so much is going to change during this year and i want to in a way document it. I don't know if they're going to turn into vlogs on Youtube, or just stay on my laptop, but I'm doing it, let's see where it goes :)

And finally, just for funsies, i want to learn the ukulele!  Why not?!

I hope you have an amazing 2013, filled with loved ones, adventures, good health, love, happiness, and lots of laughter.

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Hope you'll stick by me on my journey throughout 2013!

Speak soon,

A.x