Pointless.

Confession: Dan and I are massive Pointless nerds. Dan usually watches it while I'm getting ready for work, which often results in my getting v. sidetracked from the getting ready. If we've nothing to watch, we'll iPlayer an episode we've not seen. We might have secret aspirations to be contestants on there. In lieu of that, though, I managed to get us tickets to see it being filmed!

So on Thursday we headed up to London (with stops at M&Ms World and the Tate Modern along the way) to BBC Television Centre.

We were in the second row from the front so we had a great view. It was really quite a small set, bless it. I did take some photos of the actual set, but since we weren't technically supposed to, I shan't post them on here just in case I get an angry email from the BBC ...

The most interesting thing - for me (and I think probably Dan!) - was seeing how tall Richard is. He's a giant! 6' 7", I think the warm up guy said he was. Actual giant. He looks so normal sized in his chair (though I now understand why the chair is so imposing with its tall back!), then he gets up and BAM, huge human being.

We got to do lots of 'ohhhhh'-ing as the numbers on the column go down, and lots of cheering and clapping. It was rather good fun. Although it's a lot less tense in real life than it seems on the TV. I think this only fueled mine and Dan's desire to be contestants! Maybe one day ...

One year!

Yesterday marked mine and Dan's one year anniversary!

We didn't do anything particularly wild to celebrate, because we were both shattered (I went out on Wednesday night with work colleagues, and Dan didn't have a very good night sleep because he couldn't get back to sleep after I came in, oops), so we just ordered in Pizza Hut pizza and caught up on some TV. Oh, and Dan bought me some lovely flowers:

(please excuse the games behind!)
(he also bought me some chocolates, but um, I've already eaten some of those!)

This past year has been amazing. We've seen a lot of changes in our lives - me graduating, Dan becoming a real teacher, us no longer being students, moving to Southampton together etc - and it's hard to believe we've been together for a year already, but at the same time it also feels as if we've been together a lot longer! Strange how time can do that.

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In other news, a couple of you guys commented on my last post not knowing what Bonfire Night is! I am shocked and appalled. So, I give you Wikipedia's description:

In Great Britain, Bonfire Night, also known as Fireworks Night, is associated with the tradition of Guy Fawkes' Night. The modern event is held annually on or near 5 November, although its sectarian significance has generally been lost: it is now simply a night of revelry and fireworks.

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

There, I hope that's cleared that up!

Date night.

It's half term this week, so to celebrate Dan completing half a term of being a real teacher, and because I had Friday evening and the whole of Saturday off, we went out for a meal and drinks in Frankie & Benny's, yay!

This is what I wore: (cue standard 'in-the-mirror' shot)

Not too dressy, but it was COLD out, and I've never been one for fashion over warmth. That's just crazy to me!

I love Frankie & Benny's. There's such a yummy selection of food, and the cocktails there are super strong and delicious too. I was planning on taking photos of all our courses, but after two glasses of the Long Beach Iced Tea (like Long Island Iced Tea, but with cranberry juice instead of Coke), um, I forgot!

On the bus I realised my lack of pictures, so I tried to take some, but the bus wouldn't stop moving. How inconsiderate.

Dan cooked me a full English breakfast in the morning, because he's super lovely like that :) We went for a walk in some fields afterwards, but I'll save that for another post (something for you guys to look forward to, haha).

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Last night I got to Skype with Sam, one of my best friends from my year in Colorado. We talked for over two hours, and it was so lovely to catch up. We hadn't spoken in far too long. I really miss that girl. Long distance friendships are tough.

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I'm guest posting over at Mary Rebecca's blog today, so you should check it out!

Not being orientated.

Today I got up at 6am and caught the train to Portsmouth, because I was told that my Holiday Inn orientation was today. But when I got there, I discovered that, as it turns out, it wasn't today. It had been rescheduled to last week but no one had told my manager or, you know, me. So I was in Portsmouth for no reason. Awesome.

I decided to make the trip worthwhile and grabbed myself a hot chocolate (since it was SUPER COLD) then did a bit of shopping in Gunwharf Quays. And then I came back to Eastleigh on the train and did a bit more shopping there. Which made me feel a lot better about getting up ridiculously early for nothing.

I picked up a notebook in Paperchase, Cath Kidston sticky notes (in case it wasn't a little bit obvious from my blog background, I love Cath Kidston designs) and a pack of 10 retractable Sharpie pens:

I also managed to get a pretty black and white star dress from the teen section (for age 13, if you can believe that. The age 14 was too big for me, wtf mate?) of New Look - for only £6 in a sale, bargain!

While I was in Eastleigh I noticed a sign in the McDonald's window advertising that the Big Tasty is back. Dan LOVES that burger and was super upset when they stopped doing it at the end of summer, so obviously that meant we had to have dinner at McDonald's this evening. I tried the Big Tasty as well, because for all Dan's rave reviews I'd never tried it. To be fair, it was a v. tasty burger. I just find McDonald's burgers a bit too sloppy and messy. Chicken McNuggets are a much safer option for a messy eater like me!

Summer in October.

Hasn't the weather been AMAZING the past couple of days? I love it! Today was literally my idea of 'perfect weather' - warm enough to have bare legs and arms, but without being so warm that you (well, I) start sweating. I loved it. I wish all of summer had been like this. I'm much more of a summer girl than autumn/winter. I'd almost accepted that autumn and winter were fast approaching, but with it being so glorious the past couple of days I think it's going to be so much more depressing when I have to start layering up!

Dan and I decided to go and have a pub lunch in the sunshine today, since we have the WHOLE DAY together. It was a good idea.

Afterwards we grabbed ourselves some ice lollies from a nearby shop and sat and watched people coming and going from the shops by our house. Not the height of sophistication, true, but it was such perfect ice lolly weather, how could we not?

I went to London yesterday for a friend's birthday meal (I'm sure there'll be a post about that soon!), so this weekend has been quite lovely. I wish I had every weekend off. Sigh. Hope you've all had a lovely weekend too!

P.S. Thank you for all your lovely comments about my new blog design! I'm glad you all like it as much as I do :)

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+ I had Sunday and Monday off, yay! On Sunday Dan and I did some shopping in Sainsbury's and M&S, caught up on Don't Tell the Bride (is anyone else as obsessed with that show as I am?!), and visited Dan's mum and sister who recently got back from a trip to Morocco.

+ Dan had the wonderful idea of going out for a carvery last night, because one near us is only £3.69 on a weekday. And because we were hungry and didn't want to wait for food to cook (haha, we're so lazy). £3.69 for all that meat and veg and potatoes and gravy! Happy days.

+ I was at work until 2.30am on Saturday night, cleaning up after a wedding reception and private party. The people having the private party would not leave until 1.30am. And yes, okay, I get that they paid to rent the room etc, but there were only 5 of them left and we clearly were all itching to get that room cleaned so we could get out of there (we weren't exactly being subtle by the end!). A little consideration might have been nice. It's not as if we get paid any more on top of our normal wages for working that late.

+ My manager is currently pretty high on my list of favourite people, because he gave me this coming Saturday and Sunday off, and didn't take away my day off on Thursday either! Which means that, money permitting, I can go to London on Saturday and see (some of) my lovely girlfriends!

+ I'm planning a pretty major blog redesign, involving the newly re-found blog I mentioned in my last post. At the moment I can't decide if I'm going to export all the posts from this blog to the other blog (and risk losing all my followers), or if I'm going to swap the blog URLs (which seems a leetle bit tricky for someone not gifted with much technical computery knowledge), and then change the branding of this blog afterwards. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter, despite its trickiness, because I don't want to lose and confuse my lovely followers!

A to Z.

Totally jumping on the blogging bandwagon with this one. You know you love it.

A. Age: 22
B. Bed size: Double
C. Chore that you hate: Hanging clothes out to dry. Ugh.
D. Dogs: I've never had one. Kind of want one, kind of don't.
E. Essential start to your day: Brushing my teeth. I feel so unclean until I do that.
F. Favorite color: Red or purple.
G. Gold or Silver: Definitely silver.
H. Height: 5'7"
I. Instruments you play: None at all. I'm really quite unmusical.
J. Job title: Food & Beverage Assistant. Which is really just a fancy way of saying 'waitress'.
K. Kids: None. I am not a fan.
L. Live: Southampton
M. Mother’s name: Janice
N. Nicknames: Babez (this started out somewhat ironically between Dan and me, and has now stuck), Emmy-Lou LIZ (for shame), smidgy/smidger
O. Overnight hospital stays: Zero. Except, presumably, when I was born.
P. Pet peeves: SPAG errors, cupboards/drawers left open ... there's usually so many, how can I not think of many right now?!
Q. Quote from a movie: "I would be proud to partake of your pecan piiiie" [When Harry Met Sally. Dan and I watched it this afternoon because, shock horror, he'd never seen it!]
R. Right or left handed: Left.
S. Siblings: None. Only child, yay!
T. Time you wake up: 5.50am when I'm working at 7am, otherwise around 10am.
U. Underwear: The ones I'm wearing today are pink.
V. Vegetable you hate: Brussels sprouts. Gag.
W. What makes you run late: Getting sidetracked. By anything. The internet, TV, Dan, cleaning the bathroom, you name it.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Lots and lots of my teeth.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Sweet chilli salmon. So good, though I do say so myself.
Z. Zoo animal: I don't know, panda maybe? I've not been to a zoo in years.

Other things:

- Today was the first whole day that Dan and I have had together in what feels like ages. We had lunch in Wetherspoons, found Ben & Jerry's on offer in Tesco (2 for £6) then came back and watched films. It seems like so long ago already that we had every single day together over the summer.
- One of the films we watched was The Assassination of Jesse James [By the Coward Robert Ford]. SO BORING. It just dragged and dragged.
- On Friday night we went to see Dan's friend Simon's band play a gig at the pub he works at. It was a pretty fun evening, even if we couldn't stay all that late because I had to work at 7am on Saturday.
- I've applied to a couple of 9 to 5 jobs. Keep your fingers crossed for me?

Cardiff Castle.

Last week on our brief trip to Cardiff Dan and I visited Cardiff Castle. Since I'm a Cardiff resident (well, sort of. My driver's licence says that I am!) I was able to get a card that gets me in for free - and we managed to get one for Dan too, so score!

The interior of the castle is stunning. If I had an awesome DSLR camera I could have captured it better, but these couple of pictures should give you an idea of how over the top yet awesome it is:

I can't believe that it's been 5 days since I last posted! Work has zapped my days away so fast. I'm only contracted to work for 12 hours a week, but already I've worked for 34! When I said I wanted to do overtime, I didn't realise that I'd be scheduled to do overtime! It's great because it means come pay day I'm going to have lotsa moneys, but the hours I'm working just aren't conducive to a 'normal' life. Dan gets home from work (he's done 2 days as a real proper secondary school Science teacher! I can't believe my boyfriend's a teacher!), and then an hour later I have to leave for work, to not get home until 11.30pm-ish. Not to mention the sometimes 7am starts, straight after a late shift. I've had today and yesterday off, which I really needed because I needed time to rest my aching muscles! I hope my body can get used to that feeling.

No proposals, please.

Last night, after the double bill of Bridezillas had finished on Really (yes, I was home on a Friday night watching trashy reality TV. I don't mind admitting it), I left the TV on and went back to internetting. A program called Dawn Porter: Extreme Wife came on and it was actually pretty interesting. She went into a Mormon town, and stayed in two polygamist households. Anyway, I digress.

I liked Dawn Porter's style - she seemed quite 'normal' for an investigative reporter, so I looked her up online, and came across her personal website. There were links to some of articles she's written so I read a couple. And found this one:
Guys, think twice before you pop the question.
As I read it I realised THIS IS ME. This is exactly how I feel.

Now, don't get me wrong, Dan and I are nowhere near getting married and he knows that. But I watch quite a lot of reality TV shows involving weddings (the aforementioned Bridezillas, as well as Don't Tell the Bride, and I used to watch Four Weddings back when we had Sky Living), and I'm worried that he'll take that to mean I'm hinting at wanting a proposal. I'm not. I just really enjoy laughing at other people mess up (or not, you know, that sometimes works I suppose) their own weddings.

And yet, I know that if he did propose, I would feel obligated to say yes, for the reasons that Dawn outlines in her article:

"... there wouldn't be enough reason to hurt him by saying no".

"Trying to explain to a guy who's just proposed to you that you're not ready to marry him could cause him to feel so insecure that the relationship doesn't stand a chance after that."

Whereas some couples seem to see engagement as the next stage in a relationship, a symbol that they will get around to getting married one day, I don't see engagement that way. I see it to mean that wedding planning must commence almost straight away, and that the wedding will take place in not much more than a year from the proposal. The only way I could justify waiting for more than, say, 14 months would be if I found the perfect location and it was fully booked until x amount of time away. So if I'm not mentally prepared for getting married when I was proposed to, my 'yes' would be a way of not ending the relationship, not a 'yes' because OMGILOVEYOULETSGETMARRIED (to put it eloquently).

Not to say that I don't love Dan, and that I don't see myself with him for the rest of our lives. But with so many people I know - both off and online - getting engaged recently, it's made me realise that I'm definitely NOT ready to get married, or even engaged. I love living with Dan, and I think we should be content as we are for a while longer.

Royal Victoria Country Park.

You'll all be glad to know that I have the job at the Holiday Inn! I rang on Tuesday, and managed to speak to the man who'd interviewed me. He'd been off for a couple of days (and to be fair to him, he didn't sound great on the phone!), but he'd got my email and has contacted my references, so hopefully I'll get my start date soon and can start making me some MONEYS. Seriously, I'm having serious eBay spending withdrawals. It's an issue. I want to buy pretty dresses for 99p!

As we're getting towards the end of our Summer of Joblessness© together, Dan and I have been making the most of our days by getting out and doing fun things. Since we enjoyed our walk around Manor Farm country park the other day, we decided to continue the trend and went to Royal Victoria country park.



It was really nice because there were three areas to it - a beach, a field and a forest.





We went for a walk in the forest that led us to a war cemetery. Dan had been to the country park quite a few times before and never knew that the place existed - because he'd never been into the visitor's centre and picked up a map! What? Crazy stuff! I ALWAYS go into visitor centres as one of the first things I do when I get somewhere! If you don't know what's there, how can you be sure that you won't miss something super fun/inspirational/silly/beautiful/[insert other appropriate adjective]?



Since the Royal Victoria was a hospital during the World Wars (the building above is part of what was the hospital - the rest of it was knocked down during the 1960s), most of the graves were of soldiers or prisoners of war, so it was really interesting to walk around.

I love that there's so many country parks around here! They're such a cheap (they'd be free if it weren't for those pay + display machines in the car parks, damnit!) yet fun day out in the fresh air.

Manor Farm Country Park.

Yesterday Dan and I went for a walk in a nearby country park. With neither of us working at the moment (I'm still horribly unemployed, and Dan's a teacher so it's the summer holidays for him), we often don't have anything specific to get up for, and I feel as if we've wasted some of our days just sitting around the flat, so I made the executive decision that we were going to get out and make the most of our free time together.





It started off a cool day, but by the time we were trekking down a long path in the open, it was quite warm and we were both regretting wearing jeans! Luckily we had ice lollies to cool us down, happy days.




I had a job interview for the role of a Food and Beverage Assistant at a Holiday Inn today, and I've got a 'trial day' for a receptionist job tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

New car!

Yesterday Dan, his two sisters and I went to pick up Dan's new car. He's a 2004 silver Ford Fiesta, and his name is Oscar. He even has a face on the dashboard.

We decided to drive to an ice cream place called Carlo's. Dan had mentioned it to me before, so it seemed a good first place to go to with the car.

It was a strange little place, sort of in the middle of a housing estate off a country road. There was a little field area with picnic benches to sit on while you ate the ice cream, with hutches full of rabbits and guinea pigs at the edge. There were even chickens wandering around!


It was clearly one of those places families go to for a mini day out, because it was surprisingly busy.

Today Dan and I took a trip to Basingstoke, which is about a 20-30 minute drive away (I didn't notice the time at all, so that's a guess!). Not for any particular reason, just because we could. We just wandered around the shops, bought a couple of things (I got myself a mini 2011-2012 diary, so I can write plans down rather than having that 'what are we doing on [insert day here]? I feel like we're doing something that day' moment I seem to have quite a lot), and ate some Burger King and Millie's Cookies (healthy? No. Delicious? Yes).

We stopped in at Asda on the way back to look for a tablecloth (we've only had our table a month and it's already got two stains on it ... oops) and some extra plates. We got a really awesome set of red plates and bowls, only to find one of the plates was completely snapped in half when we got home. LAME.

Here's a bonus picture of Dan filling the car up for the first time:

He's enjoying that a bit too much if you ask me!