I'm BACK!

Forgive me blog world for I have sinned, it has been FOUR MONTHS since my last update. Gosh I can't quite believe where that time has gone but something quite extraordinary has been happening to me... are you ready for this? I now have something called a life. It's pretty sweet!


Well I should start by saying HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY to my lovely sister who hit the quarter century mark on Saturday! Pretty mind blowing, sounds rather grown up!!


I don't quite know how to summarise the past four months in one post but shall do my best to remember key moments.


Let's go back to October shall we? Shortly after Joshua Radin I went to see Jack Whitehall (standup comedian) with the lovely Caroline and Chris in Reading which was wonderful! He was so funny and it was a lovely day out!


The end of October saw a trip to London to visit Siobhan for a Halloween party, which I attended as the one and only Amy Winehouse. Uncanny right? The tattoos were not quite as easy to get off as I had initially anticipated which led to a rather panicked Sunday night (not quite appropriate showing up for work with naked ladies on my arms) but finally managed to get them off with a rather disturbing cocktail of chemicals!

Thinking back November seems rather quiet but I did attend my first ever baby shower! It was held at work and was lots of fun, including such party games as 'pin the sperm on the egg' and 'guess the baby food flavour'! We also attended a charity event with work for Sue Ryder - 'Mr Sexy' which involved watching men strut their stuff down a runway in various stages of undress... lots of fun and IT WAS FOR CHARITY. Just trying to make the world a better place!

We move on to December and you know what that means, Christmas excitement!!! Gosh I love Christmas, I get overly excited about it but I can't help it! I love coming home to a Christmas tree, I love Christmas shopping and the piece de resistance, I got to go back to Oman! Oh it was so lovely. Christmas with the whole family (even if Lynsey was only in Oman for 52 hours!!) it was quite... magical. We had just immediate family and it was wonderful. Didn't do too badly on the presents either, shall we say there were a few Tiffany & Co bags under the tree, the way to my heart!!


This brings us to 2012! Coming back to England wasn't quite as smooth as I hoped for as I came down with a very nasty case of tonsillitis, lovely, which then decided to come back two weeks later! Oh it was not fun times! Glad that has long gone now!


Many more nights out in Bristol took place and then on Valentine's Day Cathleen and I went to London to visit Siobhan to go see Gavin DeGraw in concert, and more importantly, for Siobhan's birthday!!

Gavin DeGraw was excellent, and also the supporting act was a musician called Juan Zelada who I am currently obsessed with! He is playing in Bristol on April 20th and now that I have bought his album I intend to be there singing along, love it!

Siobhan's actual birthday was very chilled and lovely, we had some crepes and then went to a retro photo booth! Lots of fun and we haven't done photo booth photos since we were about 16 so these were long overdue!


So to summarise, life has been really good. I'm really enjoying my job - I work with some great people, I now have a very active social life and things are just great! I reread some of my earlier posts today and it was actually quite emotional thinking back to where I was in my life in June last year and just how much I have grown. I know this sounds really soppy but I'm 10x as confident now and I'm just having FUN, something that my life lacked for quite a long time.


I hope you enjoyed my rather long catch up. I will try to not leave it so long next time.


I will leave you with some funnies:


http://thechive.com/2012/02/23/girl-tattoos-boyfriend-of-1-week-on-her-arm-a-facebook-thread-ensues-12-photos/


http://www.buzzfeed.com/hgrant/this-is-what-crazy-looks-like-via-text-messaging


http://soundcloud.com/vaughan-1-1/this-is-what-crazy-looks-like [Audio re-enactment of Buzzfeed link]


Back soon (I hope!)


Liv xxx  

Joshua Raaadin

Guess who we saw at the weekend?! Not that it takes much guess work as it was mentioned in a previous post and in the title! But.... JOSHUA RAADIN!!! <3 It was SO amazing! 


The drive up to Birmingham was really easy and then we parked and made our way to the O2 Academy Birmingham, got the Priority queue as I am with O2 (score) but that took an hour and then we finally got let in and the cash machine was broken! Not good as this meant we had £13 between 3 of us!! And it was a CASH ONLY bar. Two Diet Cokes and a Red Bull - £9!! Mental, you know we made them last!


We were in a pretty good spot and the warm up act was a good lady by the name of Rosi Golan who had a beautiful voice - here is a little snippet:

After she had finished we were in a prime position, could see perfectly and then we could hear a group of guys behind us plotting to get in front of us. Literally ONE person closer and they were like 8 inches taller than us. That's just rude! Well they DID it and COMPLETELY blocked my view, so obviously I was pissed, and then proceeded to talk about how they had never heard of Joshua Radin, couldn't remember his name the other day when someone asked who they were going to see etc and so I was like 'f**k this' and proceeded to stand with my elbow DIGGING into the guys back until he left. Score. Won that round. Then Joshua fiiiiinally came on stage and they kept talking!! So I simply said 'guuuys, shut up!' and this guy looked at me like I had just kicked his dog 'whaat?!' 'be quiet!' and they proceeded to whisper and give me daggers for the whole first song (whilst I was thinking, oh sh*t, perhaps a 'please be quiet' would have gone down better) but then they did shut up for most of the rest of it, despite the occasional glare in my direction, and Joshua was AMAZING.


Seriously I have SO many videos of this on my YouTube channel but I'll only post a few, including some new songs. It was just perfection. 


The Rock and the Tide:

Brand New Day:

New Song - I'm sorry I don't remember the name!

New song - Where We Belong:

It was just perfection, so worth all the hassle, long drive, getting home at 1am, it was wonderful! And a much better venue that when we saw him at Thekla in Bristol as this was a more open room and yet a more intimate feel. Ooooh how I love him! Hope you enjoy, and as I said, more videos can be found on my YouTube channel if you can't get enough!


Back soon, 

Liv xxx

What a difference a year makes....

I know it's been ages since my last post but LOTS has been going on!

Today marked one year that I have been single, and what a year it has been! I think I've grown up more in the last year than ever before! Lots of tough times but also lots of brilliant times over the past year, reconnected with family and friends and now have stronger relationships than ever before, and I'm so thankful for that. 

Well lots has been going on, so let's recap shall we??

Been at my 'new' job (guess I can't call it that any more) for 2 months now! No longer a Receptionist, got upgraded and now I am a Legal Secretary. Ooh err. Met loads of lovely people and it's just really nice to feel like I've done something with my day! Made a really close friend at work but unfortunately she left for another firm... on the bright side though, we have a new Receptionist who is lovely and I'm getting along really well with her so glad to have someone there I can just natter away to, it makes such a difference!

Well, what's been happening? LOTS of drinking! Seriously spending an absolute fortune on alcohol recently but having a grand old time out of it so can't complain! Lots of nights out, evenings in the pub and good chats! 

The BIG news is my bestie of 13 years has MOVED TO BRISTOL! This is supremely exciting!!! Cat and Ben have moved from Leeds to Bristol and are now within walking distance from me; this is the best news! The crazy thing is we've all been so busy we haven't even seen each other THAT much! Thrilled they are living down here now though!!

On Wednesday, Siobhan came to visit from London and we went to Bath to see Jared Christmas and Tommy Tiernan, LOTS of laughter and good times with my girlies, was scrummy =D

Tomorrow, Linz, her friend Damian and I are off to Birmingham to see the one and only Joshua Radin <3 Super psyched for this, he's my favooourite. We saw him in Bristol in April 2010 but a new album since then and so it will SO be worth the trek! Then next Friday off to Reading to see Jack Whitehall with Caz and Chris! Good times!! 

The week of sunshine was SO appreciated and lots of sitting in parks and drinking cider, what else?! Winter is setting in now; the coat is OUT but this means I can start getting excited for Christmas!!

Linz and her Ben are off to Oman in 2 weeks, I am so jealous of this fact!!!! WISH so badly I could be going back to see the family and go dancing with my Mammy! I'm sure the next 2 months will fly by though and then I'll find myself back there! Can't waaait =D 

Chuffed to bits my Ma has an iPhone now so we can talk on Viber for hours on end, most fabulous!!

Basically, life is good, I'm very lucky to be where I am surrounded by good people and I hope I'm appreciating it enough!

CHEERS TO THE FREAKIN' WEEKEND!

Back soon, 

Liv xxx

Balloon Fiesta

Yesterday we went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta! We were really undecided about whether to go up until a few hours before (we had broken into the Pimms and were easily distracted!) but decided we should as Lynsey has lived here for over 2 years now and there are still so many things she hasn't done and seen in Bristol! So off we went! Finding the bus was a bit of a nightmare and so by the time we found the right place we were a bit hot and bothered and worried we would be late! The bus pulled up and we got straight on... then it pulled forward to what we didn't realise was the actual stop and there was a HUGE queue that we had accidentally cut... oops! I don't feel that badly though as we got to Ashton Court Estate just as the first balloon took off (Linz and I had a bet for whoever saw the first balloon would have the other one buy them a drink... Linz won!). It was a really nice day but incredibly crowded which at times could be stressful and not so nice, but got some good pics and then we hung around for the Night Glow and Fireworks which were lovely!

Leaving was not so easy as obviously thousands of people were leaving at the same time and the bus queue looked about 400 people deep so we just started walking and just kept going as there was a massive crowd of us - ended up walking the 4 miles home! Felt a bit weird walking through town on a Saturday night not going OUT but was a good day and we were KNACKERED when we got in! Looking forward to going again next year when Cat and Ben move to Bristol! Maybe we can go on a Red Arrows day (heard them fly overhead just now) =)

Bit of Clifton Suspension Bridge here for you, the view on our walk home =)

And finally a little bit of the Night Glow for you!

Back soon,

Liv xxx

Week One Done

Week One at my new job is OVER! It's gone quite well but I'm a little disappointed at how quiet it has been... Hopefully next week will be busier though as lots of people have been off on holiday. Everyone seems really nice though and I have learnt who everyone is now (30 people) and just have to learn their departments and where they sit now. Hopefully I will feel settled in soon.

Well yesterday I bought two new pairs of pyjama trousers however being the genius that I am, I decided to buy them 2 sizes big in the thought process that they would be super comfy and I could just use the drawstring to keep them up! Well.. I get home, tear off the labels and then put them on... only to discover that the 'drawstring' is in fact a decorate bow sewed on the front and they are waaay too big! Whoops. What a knob haha. I think I'll still wear them, just have to be careful not to do anything at great speed!!

Well it's now the weekend, thank GOODNESS for that! Getting up for work has been incredibly exhausting and I was so excited for a chance to just chill out! Well this weekend in Bristol is the Balloon Fiesta where loooads of hot air balloons take to the skies, and you can go to the launch site and see them all! I went a few years ago and it was really cool so I think we're going to go today, although it is a rather crappy and cloudy today which is unfortunate! I have a much better camera this time around though so hopefully I can get some good shots. The lovely thing is that they fill the sky coming out of our flat so leaving for work on Friday there were quite a few and it looked awesome! Unfortunately I was running a bit late (by my standards... so not late at all but not super early) so I didn't have time to snap loads of pictures!

We'll be going with some of Lynsey's friends though so should be a good day out and we have some Pimms and also some VERY classy booze in a bag! Linz and I are suckers for a bit of Maliboom-boom so hopefully these will be delicious! Get our drink on =D

Righto my lovers, I suppose I should make myself look presentable for guests!

Back soon,

Liv xxx

Shopping and Training!

Over the weekend Lynsey and I decided to take advantage of my last few days of freedom and went a bit shopping mad! Spent rather a lot but got some lovely new things - here are just a few...


Who would have thought it eh, me in skinny jeans?! But somehow they were more flattering than the bootleg pair I tried on, don't know how that works! Got 2 plaid shirts and I am loooving them. Been wanting one for ages but could never get the right fit, so glad to have lost a bit of weight and now find ones that fit and I am comfortable with! 


New BLUE shoes, loving these! I don't have any 'sensible' closed toe heels since I had to throw away my old favourites in January so loving that and the colour is fab. From Republic.


Also got some new much needed cardis and a new scarf that has butterflies on it, loving the new gold accents, goes with my new handbag!


Moving on - today I was in Exeter for training for my new job. It was BEYOND exhausting as I had to get up at 5:20am in order to be on the right train and there for 9am, got a bit windswept on the way to the station and then had to have photos taken when I got there - brilliant! This is like my Passport fiasco all over again (horrendous picture you're stuck with for aaages). 


The training itself went quite well but the whole system is far more complicated that I expected. I'm sure it will make much more sense when I am using it practically but using the training version for files I had no idea about was rather confusing! Hopefully I can wrap my head around that pretty quickly!


Lady luck was not on my side though as I missed my train home by 3 minutes and had to wait an hour at Exeter St. David's on a rather chilly day! And then promptly fell asleep on the train home; I'm sure I looked spectacular! 


Gonna be having an early night tonight. I had hoped to go swimming with Caz but I had such a headache and so over tired that I didn't think it was a good idea; don't want to drown - even with my spiffy new Life Insurance cover ;) [Speaking of: MA - I have put Lynsey down as the sole beneficiary as you need an address but this is legal proof that you are each (You, Pa, Laurie and Linz) entitled to a 25% share - obviously hopefully we don't need this, but just so ya know =P Mooorbid]


Right I think I should love you and leave you for now!


Back soon, 


Liv xxx

10 Months of Solitude

You may recall in my first post that I put 'out there in the universe' that I was looking for a job and I was serious about it. Well that has worked out rather well for me as I start my new job tomorrow, and am off to Exeter in the morning for training (Up at 5:20am, ouch!). So I thought I would try my luck at putting something else 'out there' and see how it goes =)

Today marks 10 months that I have been SINGLE. So I would just like to state publicly that I would not be opposed to meeting someone sometime soon! Just so ya know!

Well, I have to get up disgustingly early and I still have things to do to prepare myself so I will update you soon on how the new job is going.

Back soon,

Liv xxx