Merry (belated) Christmas!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! It certainly looks that way from all the blog posts I've just trawled through, haha.

My Christmas was a bit of an unusual one. It was the first Christmas I've not been at home in Cardiff, and I was really upset about this. Although I wasn't working Christmas Day, I worked until 6pm on Christmas Eve, then had work at 8am on Boxing Day so really didn't have a chance to go home. Luckily my parents are wonderful and came to spend the day with me.

We managed to rustle up a quite delicious Christmas lunch despite my teeny kitchen, and our afternoon entertainment was provided by a music + film quiz book my father received, and a viewing of family favourite Airplane! You know those films that everyone in your family quotes? Airplane! is definitely one of ours ("I picked the wrong day to give up smoking!" and "No stopping the red zone" are particular favourites). That and Some Like It Hot.

I got a lovely - and strange in some instances (multivitamins and stain remover, just what I've always wanted!) - selection of presents. Definitely looking forward to starting on that bottle of Irish Cream Liqueur ;) In fact, I might have a glass now while watching the Big Fat Quiz of the Year. What a life!

Cheese.

I've really been slacking with the posting here lately, haven't I?! There's some things going on in my real life at the moment that's kind of taking away from my blogging time, but hopefully it'll calm down soon and I can return to my normal blogging schedule (not that I have an actual blogging schedule - I'm horrible at keeping to schedules so I don't even try!). Since I hate strongly dislike it when bloggers post cryptic things without explanation on their blog, I'm going to assure you that I will explain soon. I'll probably even do a whole post on it, ooh.

Anyway, moving on. On Saturday my mother and I ventured up to the Birmingham NEC to go to the Good Food Show Winter. We've been to the summer one for the past few years because it's been at the same time, and in the same show, as the Gardener's World Live show. Since we've realised that we only really go for the food and not the gardens, we decided to go along to the winter show as well this year!

We ate SO MUCH FREE FOOD. It was amazing. From Italian meats to ice cream, yoghurt to quiches, pork pies to cheese, you name it, we ate it. Speaking of cheese, they'd had the World Cheese Awards there a couple of days before, and had all of the cheeses out on display.

I had never seen so much cheese in one place before and, let's be honest, probably never will again. I was impressed. Because yes, I apparently get impressed by cheese.

It was lovely to spend a day out with my mother (even if I did have to get up at 6am on my day off to get there, yeesh!). I'm so looking forward to going home for my birthday (two weeks today, eek!) and getting to spend a proper couple of days there, rather than just seeing my parents for a few hours at a time as I've been doing since I moved down here.

Salisbury.

Yesterday my mother and I met up in Salisbury for the day. We had a lovely day, even if it did go much too quickly and the rain meant we spent more time in shops and Wetherspoons than we'd intended!

I was really quite sad when I said goodbye to my mother as she got her train and I wandered over to the platform to get mine. I miss my mother so much, and being with her just reinforced how much better it is to be with her in person. Talking on the phone just isn't the same. She gets me, in a way that nobody else does. A part of me would love to be able to move back to Cardiff so I could be so much nearer her, but I know that wouldn't make me fully happy.

University has meant that people I care about are all over the place and I know that no matter where I live, I'll always wish that I lived slightly closer to somebody else. If I moved back to Cardiff, I'd miss Dan, and I'd be further from my girl friends. If I moved back to Brighton I'd be closer to my girl friends, but further from my parents than I am now. There's absolutely no win/win situation, and that makes me really sad. Why can't I have all the people I love nearby?

Sniff.

How has it been 5 days since I've updated this blog of mine?! I'm not sure where the time has gone!

My parents came down to visit me on Wednesday, and we had a lovely day. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me! I assumed my mother would have hers and she assumed the same about me, so we ended up with no cameras. Disappointing stuff.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn't moved to Southampton with Dan and had moved back to Cardiff instead. Would I still be living at home, or would I have got my own place to myself by now? I really miss my parents - I always thought I would live just around the corner from them, the way my mother lives only a 15 minute walk from my grandparents, but clearly that hasn't happened. I'd like to think that one day I'll get to move back to Cardiff. I do miss it.

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I came down with a cold on Wednesday evening so spent most of yesterday curled up in bed finishing reading One Day. Yes, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and read it, since everybody and his brother seems to have read it. I really enjoyed it. I liked that the ending wasn't the traditional happy ending that it so easily could have been.
It was the first time in AGES that I've literally not wanted to put a book down (that probably accounts for the lack of blogging!), and I was left feeling really inspired to write. I love books that give me that feeling.

I called in sick to work this morning, but I'm going to drag myself there this evening (I'm working a split) because I hate feeling like I'm letting people down.

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Oh, and I'm featured over on For the Love of Blogs today, so you should go and check that out! (it's not all the exciting, mind you).

If you've come over from there, HI! Welcome!

Recently ... [2]

+ There was a day of great rejoicing in our household (okay, it was just me) when I discovered that Asda have their iced mince pies back!

Now, I know it's only October and I completely don't agree with Christmas things being out until at least after Bonfire Night, but these mince pies are SO FREAKING GOOD that I don't care. The longer they're on the shelves, the more I can eat. This can only be a good thing.
Anyone else LOVE iced mince pies? I don't think they get as much love as they deserve.

+ Rainbow!

I know it's not obvious, but it's there, I promise! It was the first one I'd seen in ages.

+ I was supposed to work five 7am shifts in a row, which I was dreading (I really really hate getting up early. Getting up early to smile and serve tea + coffee to people who've stayed in bed longer than you is even worse), but I wasn't needed for one of the mornings and a colleague wanted to swap today's shift with me, so I'm only having to do 3, thank goodness!

+ My parents have been in Majorca for the past week or so, the lucky things, and my mother sent me a lovely bracelet when they got back.

They're coming down to see me on Wednesday, yay. I'd been planning to go home a lot more now that I'm closer to home and not overwhelmed with university work, but without the funds to do so, it hasn't happened as yet. I should get a proper paycheque this month (ie. actually get paid for the overtime I've worked, rather than just for the 12 hours a week I'm contracted for), so fingers crossed I can resist blowing all of my spare money on clothes, and spend it on visiting home instead.

+ I have an idea for a Halloween costume. It's not particularly 'Halloween-y' (by British standards), but I'm hoping I can pull it off anyway. It's slightly frustrating that in Britain you have to dress up as something creepy and/or stereotypically Halloween-y. I wish we could just dress up as whatever we want. There's only so many times you can dress up as a witch before it just gets boring. What are your Halloween costume plans? I like hearing ideas!

Facebook nostalgia.

I'm sure you've all noticed the way that Facebook is bringing up old statuses on the right hand side of some pages, right? It doesn't seem to be for any reason other than to provoke a feeling of bittersweet nostalgia. The other day I had

On This Day In 2009
Emma is going to her first ever American football game today.

Man, that seems like a long time ago. Well, I guess it was two years ago. Still. It's odd to see the passage of time just there, at the side of my Facebook page, reminding me of how different my life was then to how it is now. Luckily (is it luckily? I'm not sure) I don't post all that many Facebook statuses so it probably won't be a problem I have all that often. Just enough to give me a quick stab at the heart every now and then. And I suppose, in a way, it's a little bit nice. I wouldn't remember these exact dates, these exact occasions without them.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments on yesterday's post, by the way. They made me realise that I'm far from the only one thinking these things, and that if I want to travel and not be stuck in this job for more than a year it's entirely up to me to make it happen.

Things.

1. Dan and I went to Cardiff (my hometown) for a couple of days on Tuesday. We were planning on staying until today (Friday), but on Tuesday I got an email from the Holiday Inn asking if I could start on Wednesday. Typical! Luckily I managed to get hold of James (my new manager!), who said it was okay for me to start on Thursday instead. So I didn't get quite as long in Cardiff as I'd have liked, but at least my mother had the day off on our one full day so I could spend some time with her.

2. I started my job yesterday! I went in at 4pm to sign paperwork and be given 'the tour', and then started work at 6pm. It was so busy and chaotic, but the time went by so quickly and I really enjoyed it! Everyone seems really nice, too, which definitely helps. I didn't get home until midnight (although that was partially because a road on my way home was closed, so I had to take a massive detour) and was completely shattered!

3. Unfortunately I've been scheduled to work on Sunday. And because I'm brand sparkling new at my job, I don't think it's acceptable to ask to change dates so soon, which means I don't get to go to London to meet up with my girl friends. I'm really gutted, because it's been months since I've seen any of them, and could be months before I get another opportunity to get us all together in one place.
This is the problem with growing up; everyone has their own schedule, and it's tricky to get everyone's lined up. Le sigh.

4. I don't like the new Blogger.

Adventures with the Aged Parents. Part 2.

Continuing from Part 1, in which we went to Mudeford Quay, my mother, grandparents, great aunt and I made our way to Christchurch.

My mother and grandparents had been on holiday to Pontins there when my mother was little, so some reminiscing was going on here, of course. Apparently it was the first place my mother rode a pony (though she seemed unconvinced of this!).


There's also a priory there. I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what a priory is in comparison to a church or, you know, another religious building (can you tell I'm not religious?!), but it was a beautiful structure.


My grandparents and aunt went in, but my mother and I ran off to look in a couple of charity shops instead - things tend to get a bit embarrassing when my grandparents look around places like that so we thought it was safer to escape!

Afterwards we headed to Bournemouth. Unfortunately the Bournemouth Air Show was on (you may have read about the Red Arrows pilot who was killed today, which is so sad), which meant that we couldn't drive along the front as we had planned, and it was reeeeally crowded everywhere. We did eventually manage to find a place to park (albeit on double yellow lines, but everyone was doing it!) up on a cliff.



As you can see, it was very popular!
We didn't manage to get any (good) photos of the planes in flight, but the second one we saw was pretty impressive with its roaring jets and plummeting acrobatics.

After that we made our way back to my flat, and my family headed back to Cardiff.
It was lovely seeing my great aunt, since we only see her every couple of years. And my grandparents, of course, but especially my mother. I miss my mother a lot. I wish I could see her more often. Talking on the phone just isn't quite the same, you know?

Adventures with the Aged Parents. Part 1.

My great aunt (my grandma's sister) lives in Canada, and she's come over for a 2 week visit. So my mother drove her and my grandparents (the Aged Parents of the title's post - my mother's name for them, not mine!) down to visit me, and to visit a couple of lovely places along the south coast.

The weather on Thursday was AWFUL (it rained almost the whole day), so we only ended up going to Portsmouth and for a meal in Harvester.


My grandfather and I totally pimping out the Harvester.
The B+B we stayed in was surprisingly lovely. Usually my mother and I are a little wary of B+Bs because they can be a bit too 'intimate' for our liking, and we find it a bit awkward being in, basically, someone's house! But this one appealed to me straight away, because it was called The White House and all of the rooms were named after American presidents. Which, for an American history junkie like yours truly, was pretty much made of win. Except that my mother and I were in Carter (there was even a photo of him on the wall!), because, really, Carter's up there on the Not That Interesting Presidents list.


The English breakfast the next morning was delicious. There's nothing quite like a full English breakfast (and juice and cereal and toast and fruit!) to set you up for the day.
If you ever happen to be in the Christchurch/Bournemouth area for a couple of nights, I'd thoroughly recommend The White House.


As you can see, the weather the next day was a LOT better! There was no rain in sight, and it was almost warm!
So, off to Mudeford Quay we went!





I'll post the rest of the day's adventures, in Christchurch and Bournemouth, in Part 2. Bet you're excited already!



P.S. Thanks for all your helpful comments on my jobs post. I'll have an update on that in a few days, hopefully!