I've been meaning to write this post all week, but as I've just gone back to Sixth Form I literally haven't had the time at all - I seriously underestimated how much work I was going to be set in my first week back, but I can safely say that I am swamped with lots of lovely vocabulary to learn and essays to write.
Anyway, moving away from the dismal topic of education, and onto the not so long ago Summer holidays which have sadly just ended. As far as I'm aware, there's been a tradition in Ellie's (one of my absolute best friends) family for quite a while now, that on the last day of the Summer holidays every year, the girls in her family take a trip to Filey for the day. And I was lucky enough to go with her, her Sister, Mum and Grandma two years ago, so was so excited when she asked me to come again this year! Her sister Maddy drove us (Me, Ellie, Maddy and Natalie) there, which was super fun as we listened to a tape (that's right - an actual tape - so retro) called 'Beach Party' which has the cheesiest but best, old summer songs on it; which include Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard. Oh yeah.
So we arrived there late morning and immediately headed for the beach, hooray. We were insanely lucky with the weather, the sun was shining, the sky was crystal clear and it was actually warm as well. Perfect beach weather. We set up picnic blankets and scattered our buckets and spades across the sand in preparation for the construction of the ultimate sand castle we proceeded to make. Building the sand castle (or should I say, a re-construction of Camelot from Merlin, as Natalie suggested), was the first thing we did, and it was complete with a huge moat, steps, all sorts of towers, and a wonderfully sculpted bridge, courtesy of Ellie. After the strenuous task of creating our masterpiece, we had a really cute picnic, and the other three girls got into their bathing suits (I tactfully 'forgot' mine) and decided to go for a quick dip in the freezing cold sea. I was delegated the job of photographer, and managed to get some lovely photos of the three of them looking in absolute agony from the freezing cold sea, which caused me great amusement. After a while their lips started to turn a light shade of blue, and the tide began to come in, which was an indication that we should probably pack up our things and re-locate onto the sea front higher up for ice cream - but not before Ellie and Natalie busted some moves to our cassette, had a sword and wand fight with the spades, and done some serious air guitar for all those on the beach to see.
We had a wander round the town of Filey, not really finding much, so decided ice creams were the best plan. Ellie's was very impressive; I think she ordered pretty much everything you could possibly have on top of an ice cream (there's a picture if you scroll down). By then we were all tired and hungry, so decided to drive back home.
To finish off the tradition, we met Ellie's Dad and Natalie's parents in our local fish and chips restaurant for tea, which was just what we needed. After checking out how burnt me and Natalie were (we both have red hair and deathly pale skin - so exposure to sun can cause extremely funny but painful sunburn). I later discovered that my burn was only getting worse and I went to bed looking slightly like a tomato/lobster.
It was a really lovely end to the Summer holidays, and I really hope we get as lucky as we did this year with the weather, next year when we go again (I say with anticipation).
I'm sorry if I have waffled on too much, has anyone else been to the beach this Summer? Or Filey even? I hope you all had a lovely Summer, and are not finding the return to school/university/work too taxing. Remember it's the weekend tomorrow so that's something to smile about!
Here are some of my favourite photos from our trip - I hope you enjoy them!
Thanks for reading as always
Love Harriet x
I've had a pretty fun past couple of days, and one of the reasons for this was that last Friday I spent the day at Leeds Festival with my boyfriend and a few of my friends. I went for the weekend last year, and regrettably only had a day ticket this year, but still had a brilliant time. Biffy Clyro were headlining the Friday and they were absolutely incredible, along with an old favourite of mine, Fall Out Boy. One of the other reasons why I love Leeds Festival so much is that it is always the weekend of my birthday! Which it was yesterday (Monday the 26th) - and I had such a lovely day I wanted to write about it on here.
As is tradition in my house, and always has been tradition, I got up in the morning and went into my parents room to open my cards and presents from my extremely generous family. Then over lunchtime my Grandparents all came over for cake and sandwiches - ooh how civilised. I received some lovely gifts from my family, some of my favourites were a lovely Nars blusher in the shade 'Orgasm', a gorgeous Yankee candle, some real techniques make up brushes and a gorgeous Pandora ring.
After my Grandparents had left in the afternoon, Gabriel (in case you haven't read my London blogpost, he is my boyfriend) came over with a beautiful bunch of roses and a vintage denim jacket that I had spotted a while ago, which was so so generous and lovely of him. His mum also came over and brought me a gift which was equally as lovely, and we sat round with my parents and had a glass of bucks fizz which was delicious.
Gabriel had booked a table for the both of us to go out for a meal at my favourite restaurant in the evening, so at 7 o'clock we went over there and upon entering the restaurant I saw a table of about 8 of my close friends sat with a pink banner and huge birthday cake grinning at me, shouting surprise! I looked over at Gabriel and he was grinning at me and I tried to hold back the tears (yes I am an emotional sap that cries at everything). One of the most surprising things was that my oldest friend Lauren who I have known for the whole of my life, was there, when I don't think she's ever met any of my friends from school, which obviously Gabriel and my friend Kirsten had organized, which honestly meant the world. We had a lovely meal and I got some really thoughtful gifts and cards from my friends, which just made my attempts at not crying even harder. Two of my friends had baked cakes which was so sweet, one of which was a huge musical note shaped cake with multicoloured cake in the middle which was amazing! After the meal I gave everyone massive hugs and went home with Gabriel to recover. I had a brilliant birthday and it meant so much to see my friends, especially when I had no idea whatsoever that they were planning that! Here are some photos of the meal.
As I mentioned before, my oldest friend - Lauren - was at the meal as well and she had made a scrapbook of photos of us and various other memories from the 17 years we've been friends, and it was honestly the sweetest thing ever and I have read it more than 10 times already because it makes me smile. She even found some old photos of the two of us and stuck our faces on the front of the book itself!
Thank you for reading yet another lifestyle post. I really enjoy writing these when I actually have something to talk about! Do you like these posts? Or would you prefer reading something different? I will happily write about anything, and just enjoy the time I get to myself to blog and chill out.
Harriet
♥
Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one!
Last night I got back from spending the weekend down in London with my boyfriend Gabriel, and we stayed with my uncle and his girlfriend for three days. I'd been looking forward to it for pretty much the entire Summer because I've not been away anywhere this year, this was my only escape from normality that I'm going to get - so I vowed I'd make the most of it, and I certainly did.
We got the train down to London on Friday, and by the time we arrived it was late afternoon so we spent an hour or so looking around Covent Garden, mainly because I wanted to find the Moomin shop in there (if you don't know what Moomin or Moomintrolls are then google them, they are super cute). And with that mission accomplished, Gabriel and I navigated our way through the tubes to meet my uncle and went back to his for pizza yum.
Saturday was a particularly notable day for me. As one of the biggest Harry Potter fans ever, I was beyond excited to visit the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour! We had a tour booked in for the afternoon, which gave us enough time to get ourselves to Watford, and get the shuttle bus to the studios - eek. The tour itself must have lasted about three hours and honestly it was incredible. I can't really describe everything that we did there or this blog post would be even longer than it already is turning out to be, so I will insert some of my favourite things to see there that we did and saw.
The tour came out into the gift shop, which was absolutely massive. And although the price was maybe a little bit over the top, Gabe and I both picked up a wand. I got Hermione's and he got Sirius's. Goodness knows what we'll do with them in the coming years, however Gabriel was casting various spells on me and other innocent passers-by in the station and on the train home.
After that very eventful few hours, we headed off back to my uncle's flat and went out for a meal which was delicious.
Sunday was sadly our last day in London *sobs* and we headed off pretty early in the morning (with our extremely heavy backpacks of the weekends clothes and various purchases - which made trekking round the city centre a bit of a task). We got on a us to Waterloo which went past all your typical sightseeing destinations e.g. Big Ben and the London Eye. We walked all the way up and down the River Thames - finding 'Gabriel's Wharf' on the way, which Gabe was thrilled about and obviously demanded millions of photos with any sign he could find. We walked all the way to Soho, and had a peruse down Carnaby Street which was really lovely. By this time we were eager to get going to where we had planned to spend the majority of our day - Camden. I had never been before so I was really looking forward to it. And I was not disappointed, it was as weird and wonderful as I had expected and more. The markets that were all crammed together held some absolute gems, and Gabe and I both made a substantial amount of purchases (Which I will show in more detail at the end of this post). So we spent the afternoon rummaging around the various stalls and getting lost. By the time we both came out (smelling very strongly of all different types of incense) it was basically time to get the train home. However Gabe wasn't leaving before he had got a photo with a group of about 6 guys, all decked out totally in punk gear. Piercings, tattoos, spiked up hair - the whole lot. It was scarily impressive, and the photo I got of the group of them is brilliant. Sadly we then boarded the train home, and now I'm back in the miserable North, I want nothing more than to run away there again for a few more days and escape my daily life.
Here's some photos of Camden - including Gabriel and his new friends.
As I mentioned before, I did buy a fair few things this weekend - especially in Camden. I am a sucker for candles and incense, so I got myself a really dinky little packet of various scented bits and bobs for my room which I love. I also treated myself to two gorgeous pairs of earrings from the markets. We found a photo booth just in a corner of one of the rooms of stalls, which gave us some really sweet photos that I have stuck on my wall as a reminder of the weekend. The weird little shorts at the bottom of these pictures, are pjs that I picked up from David and Goliath on Carnaby Street and I just thought they were super cute.
Thank you so much for reading (if you have read all the way down here, there you deserve a medal *gives medal*) - I really had a blast this weekend, and just writing this blog post is making me want to go back!
Harriet x
♥
P.S I couldn't help myself. I bought this is Kings Cross Station. There is no excuse.
