Autumn Days (in words)

Today has been a beautiful autumn day...cool and crisp with lovely sunny skies. Whilst it isn't my favourite season (I don't really know if I have one to be honest), there are certainly many things that I appreciate about it, and I thought I'd share a few of them today:

• The beautiful colours of the autumn leaves...I adore the reds and oranges, yellows and browns and hearing their crunch when they're underfoot is music to my ears!!
• Halloween!! Whilst I'm no longer a child myself, and don't often celebrate the occasion in a big way, I still love lots of things about the date. Seeing little trick or treaters in cute costumes, and sometimes getting the chance to dress up myself, pumpkin lanterns which add an eerie glow to many a house, eating themed food...all fabulous in my book!!
• Chilly autumn mornings when you can see your breath and the crisp, bright days that follow. I do know that we get rainy autumn days too...but I'm choosing to ignore that fact (hell, it's my blog and I can do what I like!!)
• Buying new autumn clothes and rediscovering old favourites...I love wrapping up in cardigans and am looking forward to being able to wear my cosy boots again!!
• Conkers...As a child, the start of the conker season was one of the main heralds of autumn for me, alongside the start of a new school year of course, and I still love collecting a few of them when I'm out walking. However, even though these days I'm particularly discerning and only pick the shiniest and most beautiful looking ones, I've still got quite a few and I'm not quite sure where I should put them or what I should do with them!!
• The smoky scent of bonfires and fireworks...Even though I hate fireworks and so am not overly fond of Bonfire Night, I love the smells associated with it, and the smoky, slightly foggy atmosphere that lingers for a day or two afterwards. And being the food lover that I am, I also look forward to such treats as parkin (a dark and sticky ginger cake made with treacle and oats) and treacle and cinder toffees :-)
• Dark autumn evenings spent watching TV or reading and curling up near the warm fire (I would describe it as roaring but that would be an exaggeration considering our fire is gas powered lol!!)
• Autumn baking and cooking...This is the first autumn that I've really got into baking/cooking and I'm looking forward to making lots of seasonal treats including parkin, halloween biscuits, gingerbread, soup and lots of apple and pumpkin based cakes. I can't wait!!

And those are a few of my favourite autumn things!! What are yours?? I'd love to hear from you :-)

Till next time...

PS: I was intending to include some pretty pictures with this post, but we heart it is being slow and I'm getting impatient, so you're just going to have to wait till another day! I'll post an autumn days picture post soon, I promise!

Just a quickie...

because I think I'm going to go mad if I go any longer without blogging! I can't believe that after managing to blog every day in August, I've now gone nearly two weeks without posting. To put it simply, my absence can be put down to two main reasons: one, my laptop is away being repaired at the moment, and so my sisters and I have been sharing the family PC between us...not ideal at all, especially now K has gone back to school, and Amy has started college and they both need to use a computer for homework. And two, despite being off work myself, I've been really rather busy this week as I've spent the majority of my days jobhunting. I'll explain in more detail in another post, but basically I've come to a point where I really want a steady income. And that means getting a full time job, as opposed to relying on short term supply teaching work. As regular readers of my blog will know, I've been searching for a long term teaching post for over a year and a half now, and have so far been unsuccessful. So I've decided to broaden my horizons, and have recently been applying for jobs in a range of sectors, not just education. As I've said, more details will follow...I just wanted to give a little insight as to where I'm at right now. Fingers crossed that I'll be back to more regular posting quite soon...the girls have bought themselves a new laptop today, so I should have more use of the PC and I'm also determined to get my jobhunting routine a bit more organised, and maybe even draw up a schedule so I can allocate specific blocks of time to it, as I feel that it's all a bit messy at the mo. And I spend far too much time procrastinating, as always!!

Anyway, till next time...

Yay...I did it!!

Remember right at the beginning of August, when I posted my Operation August goals list? Well, now we're at the end, and I'm pleased to say that this post marks the fact that I've made one of my targets...I've blogged every single day during the month!! That's 31 consecutive posts!! Granted, some of them were very rushed, and not really worth reading, but I'm still pleased that I've managed to keep going and make blogging part of my everyday life. As for how I've done with the other goals...well I'm afraid time is short, so you're just going to have to wait and see!! Suffice it to say that some I've done really well with, and others...well you get the idea!!

Anyway, I'm off out now... so happy Wednesday everyone!! Till next time...

Love this!!

Presenting possibly my favourite song at the mo:


I heard it for the first time yesterday, and whilst it took a little time for it to grow on me, now I think it's fab. So much so, that I've gone on YouTube to find it and have decided to blog about it!! There's just one problem though...for a song called Misery, it's just a little too upbeat lol!! :-) What do you think?? Hope you enjoyed as much as I did!! Till next time...

Apologies...

because this is going to be uber short!! With 6 people in the house, and only one computer free (my laptop is currently poorly and we can only use my brother's computer when he's not watching TV, as he uses that in place of a monitor), screen time is limited and best used for essentials!! I'm also off out now, so no more blogging today!!
Till next time...

Laziness...A quiz copied and pasted from Facebook

So basically, I had no idea what to blog about tonight and I also knew that I couldn't spend too long on the net, so I've trawled Facebook and come up with this quiz which I posted last year. Obviously the answers aren't from last year, unless they're still relevant of course!! Feel free to play along and post your answers too...it'd be great to hear from you :-)

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Cup of tea and a banana bun

2. Where was your profile picture taken? Holy Rood Church Hall, Swinton

3. Can you play Guitar Hero? Badly!

4. Name someone who made you laugh today? My Grandad

5. How late did you stay up last night and why? I went to bed about 12:30. It would have been earlier but I was doing my usual messing around before bed thing!

6. If you could move somewhere else,where would it be?I'd stay close by if possible.

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks? No...nobody would get me out under fireworks for any reason whatsoever!!

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you? N and M

9. Do you believe ex's can be friends? Sometimes

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper? I can think of lots of nicer drinks!

11. When was the last time you cried really hard? I can't remember - maybe a few weeks ago??

12. Who took your Facebook profile picture? Someone from my drama group

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of? Myself?! I can't really remember to be honest!!

14. Was today better than yesterday? No

15. Can you live a day without TV? Yes

16. Are you upset about anything? My work prospects...I'm not really sure where my future lies at this moment in time.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? The right ones are

18. Are you a bad influence? I suppose I could be...I'm very lazy and love food too much, and will incite others to slack off and eat crap!

19. Night out or night in? It depends on my mood and the company.

20. What items could you not go without during the day? Phone, purse, pen, tissues, food and drink (obviously!!)

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? My grandad

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say? Thanks for the invite jules but me and linds have already made plans. Enjoy the film and we'll see you soon x

23. How do you feel about your life right now? It's ok...

24. Do you hate anyone? Not that I can think of

25. If we were to look in your facebook inbox, what would we find? Messages

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Yeah

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? Don't think so...

28. What song is stuck in your head? I haven't really got one right now...you should have asked whilst X Factor was on!!

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m, who would you like it to be? A hot guy! Only joking, I think it would have to be a friend

30. Wanna have grandkids by the time you're 50? No...I want to enjoy other things in my life first

31. Name something you are doing tomorrow? Having a driving lesson

32. Do you think too much or too little? Too much!

33. Do you smile a lot? Apparently so! (I asked my sister!)

34. Is there anything you'd change about yourself? Yeah...my weight, my pessimism and my lack of self esteem.

35. Do you have a secret crush? There's someone who I'm not really sure of my feelings of...but the situation would be complicated anyway, so it's best left well alone!!

So they're my answers, and like I said, it would be great to read yours too!! Till next time...

Smile...it's Friday!!

Hope everyone's feeling happy today...after all, the weekend starts here!! I had a bit of an up and down start to this week, but things really settled down and I've had lots of things to smile about. Here are some of them:

• My sister Amy's fantastic exam results: she got an A, 7 Bs, 3 Cs and 2Ds, and I was so proud!! I was also smiling about my other sister K's test results: she achieved an A and 3 Bs and I'm sure she'll do really well in her exams next year.
• My Grandad feeling much better: On Monday, my grandad was admitted to hospital suffering from a bad chest infection. After visiting him on the Tuesday, my family and I were really worried as he looked so ill and didn't seem himself at all, but luckily, by Wednesday his condition had started to improve and now he's practically his old self again :-) He has got to stay in hospital a bit longer, just so the medical staff can keep an eye on him, but he'll hopefully be home early next week.
• Going to the Comedy Store with friends: I had a really good laugh and it was also a break from the norm. I think I'll definitely be going back more often in the future.
• A long conversation with a friend after they'd given me a lift home
• Finding amazing images on we heart it (yeah, that's where the one at the top is from too!!)...it's turning into my new obsession, along with Frontierville!!

And fingers crossed the smiles won't stop there, as I'm looking forward to a (3 day!!) weekend full of friends, family and fun. And I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend ahead too, whatever you're doing. Till next time...