Sunday 31 December 2017

A Look Back at 2017

We're all seeing these Snapchat memories of our best bits of the year (although I can't find my own yet) over on our stories and it's made me think back over the past year. I started out thinking "I haven't actually done a whole pile", to know smiling to myself while I'm writing this in the corner of the room while my boyfriend and his brother begin celebrating and feeling very proud of myself and all I have accomplished throughout the year.
It started off last year pretty much how it is exactly on this New Years Eve, we were both dosed with the flu but from then on things got better and better.




One of my biggest things to get over this year was finishing my one year course in college in Monaghan. Being so far from home by myself was a challenge but I got through it to when I took this photo after coming out of my last exam.. which I passed with Distinctions.

And then drove home for four hours by myself, after passing my driving test in the same week.











From then on it was adventure after adventure...
From Sligo to Derry and Donegal, Cork, Cavan, and Monaghan in between.









One huge adventure for me was traveling to Aberdeen by myself for a college interview. This was incredibly huge for me as a nervous flyer and have never gone anywhere by myself, and what an experience it was.







There's been plenty of parties and celebrations including my boy graduating from college and celebrating Kurdish Newroz with my besties and making it to Sea Sessions Festival for a third year... 






In March we celebrated our one year together, in style <3 


We moved into our first apartment together in Letterkenny.



And to finish off the year my best friend gave me a new best friend... 


It really was one incredible year and I appreciate every step off it.
Heres to 2018 and making more dreams become reality. 








Thursday 28 December 2017

Christmas 2017

Christmas this year was a little unchristmassy as on Christmas Eve I came down ill, and I came down hard. So I spent the entire night up with my dad and brother looking after me and then sleeping all of Christmas day as the rest of my family enjoyed Christmas dinner (inserted sad violin) but hey I was well enough to get up for our usually tradition of exchanging gifts in my parents room first thing in the morning and then in the evening opening presents from other family and friends.
Plus I can't completely complain that I missed Christmas as my boyfriend and I had our own mini Christmas in our apartment before we came home to our families so I still had the whole Brussels sprouts, bucks fizz and mince pies shebang.
Christmas for me is all about spoiling my family and we had the best time beforehand going around lots of shops searching for the perfect thing to sit back and smirk at while they open (we all do it right?). So as well as giving gifts, I received some amazing ones and would love to share them because they are so cute and I mean who doesn't love a little nosey at birthday/Christmas hauls.



My boyfriend completely blew me away with his thoughtful gifts this year (soppy ew!). I mean this is the guy who got me a calendar for my 21st birthday (WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!) so when I saw how much thought he actually put into picking out these little bits made me cry, I kid you not the dog book made me snot cry. 



There aren't enough words for this beautiful Harry Potter charm bracelet, little insight it has spells written on the charms for that extra magic. This GORGEOUS diary is almost too beautiful to use, he knew I would love the old style bohemian cover (he also told me it took him a good 10 minutes to pick which one to get). This little dog book is the one thing I lost my head over, now it may sound crazy but I'm a total dog mom and  this is basically a baby book for your dog where you can write all about him and his favorite things, memories, stick photos and there are even recipes for dog treats and a vaccination and health record part, it is  just incredible to have a little book to keep all the deets of my boy in one place to treasure forever.  Lastly but never leastly is this adorable travel fund money box, it's so simple but SO cute. We've been talking about traveling for over a year and we will do it now with this. 


My brother is insane with presents like he always goes OTT and he really did again this year with EVERYTHING being Harry Potter I mean even down to the adorable tea towels. Also, a little hard to see, are two notebooks, a picture frame, bauble, light, socks and hanging decoration. His girlfriend who is practically my sister-in-law got me the amazing Hogwarts pajama set which even includes an eye mask which I badly need (Rich being a night owl has all the lights on when I'm trying to sleep). All of these are from Penny's/Primark's incredible HP range that is so so magical, just look at the detail on the pajama set box. 




A gift for both Rich and I are these super cool Boss Man and Boss Lady mugs from his mum,  perfect for our new home. 
From friends, I got this adorable rose room fragrance, an amazing necklace that actually looks like my dog and a lovely little bath set. 
Also from Santa, I got this brilliant toothbrush set, which anyone who travels will understand, your forever needing to buy new toothbrushes because you leave yours in the last place you stayed, this way I have one for each place. 


Lastly, is it really Christmas if you don't get lots of chocolates? 

All in all, I had a lovely Christmas with family, I hope you all had a brilliant one and an adventurous New Year <3 







Tuesday 19 December 2017

Discovering Derry

Travelling is what runs through my brain pretty much 23/7 (the other hour being about food). I am so ready to give up everything I own to travel the world but realistically I'm going to finish college first and try and have some form of traveling money to my name. So while we wait to explore other countries, we're exploring as much as we can of our own, Ireland.
Since I got my full license I don't think we have stayed at home more than two days in a row as the traveling bug just doesn't stop itching us to find new places. And this week Derry was that new place.
Neither of us has ever been there before and since moving up North we actually haven't been to a lot of places nearby so it's been exciting to take off for the day not knowing what we'll come across.
Turns out Derry is only 25 minutes drive from us so it was a must on our list to explore and that we did.
We arrived into the city completely lost and not knowing where to go so we pulled up at a car park by the river and from there explored on foot. It being a Sunday, we expected shops to be shut (and also neither of us really like browsing shops) so we aimed at discovering the streets and outdoor attractions. First, we came across the city wall which really amazed us both as surprisingly we don't hear about this in Irish history (at least I didn't) and couldn't believe the size of it stretching most of the city and in such good condition with cannons placed throughout the walk along it. Not only was the city wall amazing, the views from on top of it were even more breathtaking. We walked along the wall for ages, being blown away around every corner until we decided to come off it at a stairway and take some old cobbled streets.







There we did give in to the window shopping curse and browsed some huge shopping centers that were so Christmassy with the snow outside, Christmas songs playing inside and ques of children waiting to see Santa (who had an incredible Ice castle I must add). With a book for my brother and some games for himself (and me too) bought, we grabbed some food as it was starting to get dark and made our way back to the car.

Some distractions later and it was nightfall. We came across the most beautiful building called Guildhall and had to pop inside to check it out. Outside it was all of the Autumn/Winter feels with the deep red of the building and leaves with snow on the ground and inside it was golden and warm with the colorful windows and green Christmas decorations wrapped beautifully around the staircases.  After meeting a lovely man that told us we had to see what was upstairs we found the most breathtaking grand hall with a huge organ. What was really exciting about this was we were the only people there so it felt even bigger and special to us.
We also found a council chamber although we're still not sure if we were meant to be in there.









Outside we did what we said we would do from the moment we saw it, walk across the Peace Bridge. It is such a unique shape and absolutely ginormous we couldn't miss it and it was the first thing we saw as we arrived in Derry and Rich said "we're crossing that", so that we did. It was dark now and chilly but so peaceful crossing the calm water along with lots of people and their dogs. After strolling across halfway (well we did have to come back) we finally got to the car and headed home, this time taking a different route than we came which was one thing I loved as a kid, my dad would always take 'the long way home'.