some relaxation down time.

Friday night was my first Friday in literally months where I wasn't trekking off to go and visit anyone for a night out or a weekend anywhere or heading into London or even going out in Wycombe. I literally had my first weekend evening to myself for longer than I can remember since moving down here. And it was incredible.

I headed straight to the supermarket to buy a nice curry meal for one (little bit tragic) and a big bag of dolly mixtures as a special treat. Then I had a nice bath and got into pjs and lay about catching up on some tv from throughout the week and reading my Kindle.

It makes for a rubbish blog post but it was really nice to just chill out and I've been really behaving myself this year so far and not drinking on my own, so I didn't even have a glass of wine which meant I was feeling fresh for my gym induction the next morning.

Lots of friday night in love,
Becca xx

an absolute nightmare day.

 I'm writing this now a good few days later and even looking back on it now it still seems ridiculous how bad this Thursday was.

For starters, ridiculously unusually for me I over slept. I never normally over sleep and even since working full time, unless I'm drunk (!) I haven't been able to sleep longer than about 8 o clock. But somehow I managed to completely turn my alarm off whilst still sleeping and naturally woke up at 8.30am in an absolute state of panic and breakdown! It's a horrible feeling knowing theres nothing you can do so I had to text my boss and finally turned up with my head firmly hung in embarrassment at half past 10 to lots of hungover or stop out banter (which most frustratingly was completely not the case at all!)

Anyway then work seemed to be a bit all over the place. I spoke up about something I didn't think was working and was met with a wall of frustration. But then I guess the rest of the day went ok.

I went and got my new fringe at the hairdressers, which considering how badly my luck seemed to be going that day was risky, but it actually turned out really nicely and I'm now getting used to it and really like the change. It's changed my whole face really, hopefully in a good way. Here's some photos.

The hairdressers was really good actually, I got a good deal because of a recommend a friend discount, but I think i'll go there again regardless of the discount because everyone seemed quite friendly in a non patronising hairdresser way.

Anyway then what happened was a complete nightmare. When walking home from the hairdressers I was the first on the scene of a road accident. I was walking up the hill and luckily I didn't actually see the crash but I suddenly heard a big smash and then realised I was going to be the only pedistrian around to turn up at the scene.

The shock and adrenaline was ridiculous, it was more the not knowing what I was walking over to and what I was going to face that shook me up but then all your instincts just kick in and other people got out of cars to help the motorcyclist and I was the one who had to dial 999 for an ambulance. It turned out to be a biker knocked off his bike and into the middle of the road by a car, but luckily there was no blood, just a very obviously broken leg from the way it was lying. The police were there to help really quickly and whilst I was calling the ambulance and answering all of their suddenly really scary questions, others where helping to move the biker out of the room and making sure he was ok. It was seems really surreal looking back and it wasn't until I had left all my details with the police and started walking home that it hit me and I was in floods from just the shock.

But everyone was really supportive when I got home and I had some nice calming calls from my Mum and Matt. Although then Matt had his own bad news to share, which just topped off an absolutely ridiculous day.

I'm quite emotional just recapping on all of this, but it's good to put it all behind me now.
Lots of nightmare love,
Becca xx

man men

(I'm so bad at keeping to this project and posting these after the actual day. This is pretty relevant to the whole week night evenings last week.)

I've been getting fully back in to Mad Men. I'm currently on season 4 and have had the 2nd disc sitting on my desk courtesy of Love Film since before christmas. So as this week seems to have been the checking things off a to-do list type, I've finally been sitting catching up with my man, Don Draper.

Mad Men was practically made for me. A period drama with beautiful men in 50's and 60's suits in glamourous New York bar settings, smoking and drinking and above all being excellent advertisers and designers. You couldn't write it much more perfectly for my taste. I've blogged loads about this before. So to fill a post, here's some incredible shots of Mr Perfect.

Lots of weekday Mad Men viewing love,
Becca xx

tuesday resolutions

So on Tuesday night after work I finally got round to drumming up the energy and courage to go and find the local uni gym and sign up for a 3 month membership (not because thats how long this phase will last haha - it's to do with my likely relocation to Reading in the summer.)

Anyway, the gym was actually a lot easier to get to than I thought and everyone was really friendly and genuinely interested in me, not in a fake gym enthusiasm way. It's really cheap and the kit is all the latest gadgets with tvs on the actual treadmill/bikes and those mountain bike tracks and lots of different pieces of equipment. It seemed like quite a friendly environment too, so I signed up.

The fact that its a uni gym meant that there were also lots of young fit student hotties flexing up too, which may or may not have been the deal sealer.

So, finally... 2013, this is my year for getting fit. I've done really well last year with the weight loss so now i've got loads of motivation and energy for toning up and getting my fitness levels back.

Here it goes.
Lots of fit love,
Becca xx

cracking on

So since I have been back from Malvern I suddenly have a lot of energy for life.

I'm not sure whether thats because it was such a happy weekend or because I'm suddenly putting a lot of effort into keeping busy and distracted, but it's been amazing for my to do list.

Monday I got back in touch with my landlord and sent them an assertive (i.e aggressive) email and have arranged for a new mattress to be delivered and my heating to be fixed. They've both only needed to be done since I moved in at the end of September, so thats the time scale of this to-do list i'm working on!

Also last week my housemate Sandy gave me a recommend a friend voucher for a hairdressers in Wycombe so whilst at work in my lunch I booked online for a colour and cut on Thursday evening which is so overdue! My last one was before my big joint birthday with my mum last year for her 50th and my 21st... in April. Again, this to do list is a joke on how long these points have gone on for.

I've decided i'm going to get a full fringe. I've been talking about it now for probably a year and I'm so ready for a change to my hair, I think it looks really dull and un-styled at the moment. Although at the end of the day it'll be just amazing to have finished ends again!

Here's some photos of fit fringes. So you can get an idea how amazing I am going to look. (jokes.)

And finally when I got home on Monday evening there was a little print treat from HOAV studio. They followed me last week on Twitter (@RebBuchanan) and whilst I work for a different design studio and so shouldn't really socialize with the enemy ;) I couldn't help getting a bit excited about this piece of clever self promotional work. When you hold the really neat piece of folded card up to the light a secret greeting message appears, which is just a lovely piece of design to get the recipient to take some time looking at it when essentially I guess some people may perceive it as direct or junk mail.

 

Thank you for sending this HOAV team - I have now put it on my wall as a nice piece of inspiration above my desk. Please excuse my terrible iphone photography - to view the project better visit their website: here

Lots of to-do list and inspiration love,
Becca xx

sunday roast

Then to round up my weekend posts... Sunday was a very typical chilled out Sunday.

We got up very late morning again after watching some Sunday Kitchen and had some more yummy bacon sandwiches before getting to work on Matthew's amazing Sunday Roast lunch. The whole day was very lounging around and eating based in activity!

He was a bit nervous in parts haha but he pulled off the whole thing brilliantly and I was so proud to sit back and watch him happily work away in his new gadgety kitchen. I even attempted to contribute with some chopping of onions and a very slow and ridiculous technique of feeling about ten potatoes over the course of about half an hour.

This is the glorious outcome, pre home-made red wine, onion and garlic gravy. Later polished off with sticky toffee pudding.

The perfect end to one of my happiest weekends.

Since I headed back over to High Wycombe I realised that a lot of my close friends would be asking me how it went and wanting to know more about my weekend. But this time I'm not saying or sharing any of my feelings or what goes on between us. It's possibly mostly because I don't know or I'm scared of the truth of what it was perhaps. But for now, I'm happy in myself and I'll hopefully get to go back and visit Malvern again soon.

Lots of roast dinner love,
Becca xx

"Would you save me if I fell in?"

So after accidentally getting a little bit too drunk on Friday night in Malvern, we woke up very late on Saturday. For the first time ever Matthew made me breakfast (someone was definitely overly excited about using his new kitchen, the novelty obviously still hadn't quite worn off!). We had yummy bacon sandwiches, fresh fruit and posh tea. This is the view that I woke up to which was just incredible. I don't know how he tears himself away from looking at that constantly. The photos not brilliant but it looks out for miles and miles and the sky was so clear and sunny.

Anyway, we had a wander around the town and a stroll through the theatre and around a little park and accidentally into someones garden. Then we stopped off at a really quaint tea-rooms place which was a bit like being in someones house before heading back to spend the afternoon chilling out in front of the television watching the six nations, followed by a pizza and beers.

I had planned to go home/London on Saturday evening (still very sorry Hains!) but Matthew twisted my arm and because we had got up so late and and he had a yummy beef joint in that he was desperate to cook a big roast dinner with on Sunday, I ended up staying an extra night and making a weekend of it... so we headed out to the pub for a few more rounds of slightly hungover and ropey gins before calling it a night again. The pub there is really cute and old too with lots of wooden beams and mismatched furniture falling apart and jumbled together, but I love pubs like that, they have so much more character.

Lots of accidentally a whole weekend away love,

Becca xx

"this is the station they used to send all the slaves to."

So on Friday I took an early finish from work and headed off on my adventure to see Matthew and his new house in the Malvern hills. I got to leave at about 3ish so it was nice to not be rushing to make sure I caught the right trains, although I forgot that this was what most people did on a Friday so the train ended up being quite busy, especially to Birmingham.

The journey wasn't too long and I was so excited to see Malvern and Matt that it didn't really feel like long at all and from a bit of a historical de-briefing afterwards I realised I had met him at Malvern Link, which used to be the station where all the servants would get off before the main station in Malvern where all the posh people would pick up their carriages from. Nice! From there on we called it Slave Link, obviously.

Then I got to see his beautiful flat/apartment on the second floor of a very grand and fancy Victorian town house with lots of high ceilings, paned windows and quirky walls. The interior and fittings were all very new and modern and he's kitted it out with lots of lovely furniture and gadgets so it made me so happy to see him so lovely and settled in his new home.

After a celebratory bottle of cava and an exchange of house-warming present and card, we headed down into the town centre for a curry and some drinks. The meal was so nice and it took us ages to order just because of non stop chatting, which I think is the true sign of a meal out with friends because if you're having such a good time together, then it's not about the menu first.

Then the rest is a bit blurred really. I have some very hazy memories of some of our conversations but before long we were very drunk on gin in a variety of bars and headed home very late. I really wish I could remember more, specifically what was said amongst us that night. But I guess it doesn't really matter. We both enjoyed spending time together again.

Lots of Friday night love,
Becca xx

Whoops...

 Whoops I'm very naughty and haven't kept this updated the past few days! Just posting up this very quick post at work (also very naughty!) to say that again I have had a very busy few days and these days that I have missed will all be back-dated after the weekend.

Tonight I am off to the Malvern hills to see a certain Mr Pilot. Then on Saturday I will be back late afternoon into London where I will be seeing my other Matthew for a film night educating myself on Abraham Lincoln, whoever he is.

So I will update this bloggo project very soon. Apologies for the very loose keeping of a Post A Day.

Life is too good to sit at the computer at the moment :)
Lots of speak soon love,
Becca xx