One Day We're Gonna Live in Paris...

So here I am, at my parents house on a rainy Saturday afternoon in April, wishing I was back in this beautiful city.  

We finally went to Paris last December, and today I'm writing about it, making me officially the worlds worst blogger... (What's that they say about better late than never?)

We landed in Paris after a short journey in the smallest commercial plane in history (it had propellers on the OUTSIDE) and it was FREEZING, I mean, four layers of clothing, hat, scarf and gloves and still freezing freezing.  But nevertheless, we had arrived!

On our first day we visited the Musee D'Orsay, where amongst other things we saw real life Van Gogh paintings, it was beautiful.  Next, we saw the Eiffel Tower, and, after much deliberation, decided to go to the very top!  If I thought it was cold on the ground, that was something else, but the view was breath-taking.  We also took a little guided boat trip up the Seine, which passed by many of Paris' numerous landmarks and bridges, a definite 'must-do' for anyone's visit.  Purely by chance we found a bridge with lots of little love locks, we didn't leave one, as we hadn't even realised it was going to be there!  But, there's always next time :)

On our second day we indulged our inner children and visited Disneyland, it was a busy, non-stop, tiring day, but so much fun.  Sleeping Beauty's castle is gorgeous, I was so excited to go inside and it didn't disappoint.  The only negative was that we didn't get to go on 'Space Mountain' as the queues were ridiculous, there was no 'fast pass' and it was actually closed for part of the day.  But again, there's always next time!

On our final day we took a trip up to Sacre Couer, which again, has beautiful views over Paris once you get to the top, and as it was just before Christmas, there was a quaint little Christmas market surrounding it, another pleasant surprise.  Next we went to Notre Dame, which was free to get in to, you could walk around the whole cathedral, which was something I wasn't expecting.  The architecture and stained glass windows there are fantastic, I'm always amazed when I think that people were able to make things like that so long ago and the amount of work that must have gone into it. 

Finally during our last evening we took a walk along the Christmas markets on the Champs Elysees, up the the Arc de Triumph at the end, and back again.

Although we packed a lot into a few days, there's still so much more to see and do, the perfect excuse for a return journey... Although, maybe in the summer time next time!

Paris is amazing, and you should go.

Snow Day!

We woke up this morning to a blanket of white.  Ian was determined to go back to Llanelli regardless, and so he set off early, just after 6 am, at which point it wasn't looking too bad outside.  Just over an hour later, a large part of the motorway on his route home had been shut meaning a diversion was in place.  To cut a long story short, his little Fiat 500 just couldn't make it in the snow and so he's had to abandon the car and make his way back here on the train!  

I however was not so enthusiastic in trying to get to work!  Instead, I went for a lovely early morning stroll in my wellies and took some photos of this rare snowy weather.

Is there snow where you are?

x

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Oh I do love the John Lewis Christmas adverts! :)

A Little Update

I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post already! I know I say this basically every time I blog, but this year really is whizzing by!

I've seemingly not had much time to do anything lately.  Work has been extremely busy and I can't really remember the last time I wasn't up by half past six on a Saturday for overtime.  In a way I'm grateful for it as it means more money at the end of the month, but lately it's been bringing me down.  I'm thinking a change may be in order.  I need more time for 'me'.

On a more positive note, we've been in our house for three whole months now, and everything's going smoothly so far.  There have been very few arguments and we've had our first lot of bills, which happily were a little less than I had anticipated!  I'll admit, it was difficult for me at first as I've never lived away from my parents, but it really is starting to feel like home. (Although I still won't stay here alone if Ian goes back to his parents for the night!)

Also, it's Christmas in what? 74 days!!  I absolutely LOVE Christmas, all the fairy lights and shopping and toasty evenings in in front of the TV.  Plus, I have my own house to decorate this year!  Safe to say I'm quite excited about the impending festive season.

I started the shopping about a month ago now with the intention of being well prepared.  I'll let you know how that goes!  What's on your Christmas list? 

These are a few things on mine:

1. Polaroid Z340
2. Alter The Ending on vinyl (I've just started collecting)
3. The cutest owl bag
4. This moustache cushion.
5.Girl's gotta love a Benefit set!

Everything Changes

This is one seriously long overdue post!  The past couple of months have been hectic to say the least!

The summer is always the busiest time of year at work for me, so it involves a LOT of overtime! And then there's been the flat hunting, planning, budgeting, moving out of my parents house and in to my own flat with moo, seemingly endless trips to Ikea, decorating, furniture building, cleaning; the list is never ending!  Buuut, dare I say it, things are finally calming down and all the loose ends are slowly being tied.  Work is still busy, but not quite so much, we have all the essentials and we're settling in :)

Here are a few snippets of the flat (which is technically a 'coach house' but I always feel a bit odd saying/typing that!)

Next month we're going to buy one of these beautiful record players for Ian's ever expanding vinyl collection (I'm even collecting now too!) and I am excited!

As if moving in together wasn't enough, July held plenty of other fun times too.  I finally saw Blink 182, after waiting about 10 years, and fortunately, I wasn't disappointed.

Moo & I took a well deserved day off work on the 20th & had a full on 'geek day'.

We went to the opening of the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay, eat at Eddie's Diner, where they have filmed parts of the aforementioned series, and topped it all off by seeing The Dark Knight Rises at the imax.  Such a good day :)

 We've actually had a little bit of summer weather too, which we took advantage of by going  for a stroll around Llandaff Cathedral (they've filmed Doctor Who there too.  And yes, we are 2 big old geeks!)

August came, and Kids In Glass Houses played a Save 'Le Pub'/Smart Casual 4th anniversary  gig in Newport and Dai & I had a lot of fun, I even managed to come home wit a set list and drum stick! I felt like I was 19 again!

Over all, this past few months has been one heck of a lot of fun!  I've even enjoyed the Olympics, which I never thought I would hear myself say!  We've been moved in properly for a whole month already, and can't quite believe that the summer is basically over for another year!  I'll be turning my brain into Christmas present buying mode soon!  And I'll have my very own home to decorate this year!  Tres exciting!

xx

London Baby!

At the beginning of last month, my bestie & I hopped on a National Express from Cardiff to London.

The trip had been booked for about 6 months in advance so we were both pretty excited.

The night we arrived we went to see Simple Plan (something Amy had wanted to do since her mid teens, we're 23/24 now) at HMV forum in Kentish Town.  I'm personally not a big fan, but they put on a really good, upbeat show.  An added bonus was that We The Kings were supporting, although we missed a little of their set stuck in the queue outside.  All in all, it was a very fun evening!

HMV Forum by night

We The Kings were awesome :)

Simple Plan!

Chuck & David

Pierre (aka future husband of one Miss Amy Rees)

Jeff/The Bald One

She couldn't resist buying a (very over-priced) T shirt...

and I couldn't resist trying it on! (over my clothes & bag!)

 The next day was the main event, we got a train from Euston to Watford Junction and embarked upon THE HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR!

We were early, so we were stuck waiting anxiously in the lobby for quite a while until our time slot.  Thankfully, there were plenty of photo opportunities there, and we managed to resist actually going into the gift shop before the tour itself!

The bus that takes you from the train station to the tour

Outside

Inside

Weasleys :)

A large part of the gift shop is dedicated to Honeydukes sweets

The Cupboard Under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey

When it was finally time to go in to the tour, we were led into a room where we were given a little intro/background to the Harry Potter series and were then taken into the 'cinema'.  Here, we were shown a film of Daniel, Rupert & Emma, talking about the time they'd spent making the films and so on.  During the film, they were stood in front of the Great Hall doors, and once the film had ended, the projector screen dropped, and we, the audience, were left in front of those very doors!  A very clever way to begin the tour, if you ask me.

You only get a certain amount of time in the Great Hall itself, but it is truly breath-taking.  From then on, the rest of the tour is self guided and you're allowed to be in there for as long as you'd like.  We were there around 3 hours in total, I think, and I took around 300 or so photos before my camera died on me :(  If you're going and like taking photos as much as I do, then I'd definitely recommend taking a spare battery pack for your camera!

Anyway, here are some of the many photos I took:

Great Hall Doors

Great Hall

Doors inside

Fireplace with all the house emblems

Gryffindor!

Professors

Ice sculpture from the yule ball (amaaazing)

The Sword of Gryffindor

Hagrid's Hut

Weasley's kitchen

Bad Guys

Ministry of Magic

A selection of the smaller props that were used in the films

Hogwarts Bridge

Tom Riddle's grave

Half way through the tour, there was Butterbeer! It was pretty strange if I'm honest! But not horrible, well worth a try!

They really do save the best 'til last on this tour.  The final room you visit contains the Hogwarts scale model, which is nothing short of breath-taking.

I took so many more photos than this and have had a job trying to chose which to include here.  It was an AMAZING day, and I would say to anyone that's a fan, you need to go! The tour itself is really good value for money at under £30 for an adult ticket.  However, if you're planning on buying gifts and so on, you will need to save and take lots of money as the gift shop is extremely expensive.  It doesn't detract in the slightest from the experience though and I can't stress enough how excellent it truly is.  Just go, and see for yourselves!

xxx