Life. Lately.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that it is already 2013! How crazy is that??

Life has been good lately. Hectic but incredible. Here is a quick summary of what has been happening in my life recently!

So I turned 28... I spent my birthday with my boyfriend and we had a London tourist day! Can you believe I've lived here for 4 1/2 years and yet still hadn't been on the London Eye or visited the London Dungeons?? Well, now I have! ;)

We were unable to take photos at the London Dungeon so I can't show you how good it is but wowza! It was good. In fact it was really good. Although it is a little pricey, the whole experience lasts for around 90 minutes, being led from creepy room to even creepier room and I was loving every minute of it! I'm not going to tell you anything as I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise but if you ever get the chance, I urge you to go! Like now, if you can!

My second treat was FINALLY going on the London Eye! We chose to go in the evening as I think the London lights look magical in the dark and I was not let down. The city looked beautiful :)

Last month we both finally got some time to concentrate on making our flat feel more homely as well as making it look pretty for Christmas! What a difference our efforts made! We unpacked most of the boxes (yes, we still hadn't unpacked...) and moved a few pieces of furniture around to make room for our lovely Christmas tree. Home sweet home!

And... I'm saving the best for last here... We have a new addition to our home. We got a kitten!!! Funnily enough, I'd been planning on buying guinea pigs for weeks. I'd even almost bought two the weekend before but there was no suitable cage at the time so I had to let them go. So take two of buying guinea pigs and we tried a different pet shop. This one had an adorable little kitten in a cage who shyly crept up to us and watched us with the most beautiful blue eyes. I think it was love at first sight. We both fell for her! We looked around the rest of the pet shop but we couldn't get interested in anything else. So we went back to her and started discussing whether we could actually look after a cat in our home properly. I couldn't even believe we were having this chat as my boyfriend has told me many times that he is not a cat person. But he was as in love with her as I was! We chatted to the store owner and asked everything we needed to ask (which was a lot as we knew nothing about caring for cats!). In the meantime, our little cat was sick and my rescuing instincts kicked in and I knew there was no going back. So we bought her. I still can't believe it!

So, I introduce you to our new little friend, Polly! Isn't she the cutest??

We called her Polly because she sits on your shoulder like a parrot. It's her favourite place :) She has settled in fast and already struts around like she owns the place. She stopped being sick after a couple of days and she's now eating like there's no tomorrow! She's already growing so quickly!!!

Here's a little video of her playing with her first toy :)

I expect you'll be hearing a lot more about Polly in the future ;)

Hannah xo

Phew!

Hello. Hi. How are you?

The last few weeks have been mighty busy over here! We've moved house, celebrated our second anniversary, my man started his new job and I spent a week with my family :) Phew indeed! I'm still waiting for our new internet connection to be set up and I hope to post some photos soon!

I'm sure things will calm down and return to normal soon enough!

But in the meantime, I thought I'd check in on my 28 before I'm 28 list and see how I'm doing. I suspect I'm failing miserably ;) I can't believe how quickly this year is passing by...

1) Get a new job. Hasn't happened yet... I have to admit I have applied for very few as of yet. I'm struggling to find a new direction as I feel like I need a completely new career!

2) Plan out the perfect second anniversary trip. Done! I had to scrap my original plan because of financial restrictions (moving house ain't cheap, people!) but we had a lovely weekend away together nonetheless :)

3) Discover a fitness activity I actually enjoy.  Done twice over! I found love in the trees :) I tried this thing called Go Ape and had so much fun! I am definitely planning to check out other courses and dragging my friends along too. I also tried out the swimming pool in the basement of our new apartment block and I can see myself spending a lot of time there :)

4) Make my outfit photo debut. Still haven't got around to doing this despite having bought a few cool pieces lately. Coming soon...

5) Customise an old bike. Still do not have said bike. But I know what I'm planning for the bike when I do eventually get it! :)

6) Perform a full digital clearout! Started it but I haven't dedicated nearly enough time to it. Maybe it will become more appealing now that the weather is turning colder...

7) Buy a polaroid camera. Nope! I'd feel too guilty spending that kind of money on myself at the moment...

8) Make something involving a vase, twigs and fairy lights. See No. 7.

9) Board the London Eye. See No. 7.

10) Finish Star Trek original series. I've almost finished the second series, hurray!

11) Find something I'm truly passionate about. I'm still far from it, though I have a few clues now :)

12) Sort out my vast collection of stuff. Having just moved house again, this has just jumped way up my priorities list! Hauling all my junk around made me realise that I NEED to clear out my stuff ASAP.

13) Study web design. I'm so keen to learn about this, I just need to find the time to explore it!

14) Read a Spanish language book. I recently started one but then it went missing during the move... I'm sure it will turn up soon!

15) Read 6 books. Two done, halfway through two more... This should be a blast with my new reading-friendly commute :)

16) Spend a week with my family.  I have just done this and had the best time! It had been far too long since I had spent a decent amount of time with the fam.

17) Organise a girls get-together. Done! We tried and failed to go to an Ice Cream festival but by the time we got there the ice cream had sold out, d'oh! Instead we went to a favourite bar of ours and had tea and cake. The ultimate girly hang out!

18) Create a piece of artwork for our flat. Almost! I've been working on a little something ;)

19) Learn how to play keyboard (again!). Failing miserably, I haven't even got my keyboard out of its case yet...

20) Start sending postcards all over the world! I'm spending so much time looking for the perfect postcard, maybe I should just send one already!!!

21) Dye my hair bright red. Still haven't been to the hairdressers... Hoping to book it this week though! :D

22) Go swim in the sea. Well it wasn't the sea, but I did go swimming in the pool :) It feels like it's getting too cold for this now...

23) Get a new pet. I've decided to hold off on finding my new little friend for now as we're waiting to see if we may be moving again due to some very exciting developments!

24) Add six new recipes to my limited repertoire. I've added another two... I've got another four to go so I'd best get cooking! ;)

25) Visit Madame Tussauds! I don't seem to be able to bribe anybody to come with me... A work in progress!

26) Bargain hunting at a thrift store. Done! I had so much fun I may have to do it again! :)

27) Go to the cinema every month. I'm just about on target with this. Unfortunately there never seems to be anything good on when we decide to go...

28) Go to a gig once a month.  Fail!!! I've barely been to any!

Hmmm... Not as bad as I thought it would be! Still got a lot to do though... GO!\

Hannah xo

Instagramed! Life Lately

I've been kept out of trouble lately by aggressively flat hunting and working ridiculous hours... BIG SAD FACE!

So in order to say hello and update my blog, here are a few Instagrams I prepared earlier... Sorry about the small size, I think Instagram recently had an update and now I can't seem to be able to make the size  larger when I email them to myself!

Sushi takeaway feast I treated myself to
while Tom was in Portugal ;)

Tasting mango for the first time!

My first ever French Manicure attempt
- I like!

A rare few hours to myself - a pot of tea
 and a slice of carrot cake in a village cafe. 

Enjoying the chance to watch retro cartoons
 on a new channel at work.
It's a tough job but someone has to do it!

Hannah xo