A Breath of Fresh Air

I love a holiday as much as the next person. Nothing is better than switching on your out of office, leaving the work worries at work and just having some time to relax. This Summer I went on two holiday; Cornwall and the Lake District. So I thought I would tell you why sometime, there is nothing better than a UK holiday.

LESS STRESS
I find UK holidays so much less stressful, I think there is something about flying, having a limit on liquids and just making it to the airport on time that makes me a little anxious. For both our UK holidays this Summer we drove, giving us the flexibility to pack however we wanted to pack and leave when we were ready. Flying is exciting as it usually means getting away to somewhere hot, but a road trip with a great playlist and good car snacks can be just as fun!

NO LUGGAGE LIMIT
Travelling by train is a bit of a different story as it then comes down to how much you are able to carry. But if you are travelling by car and you have enough space, you can almost pack as much as you want. This is particularly useful for a UK holiday as unpredictable weather means you'll need a bikini one second and a coat and fleece the next.

THE WEATHER CAN BE A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
I know guaranteed sun is usually the reason most people go abroad, but let me try and put a positive spin on this! In Cornwall, we had a real mixed bag of weather. We had a few boiling days on the beach where we all ended up going a little pink. And a few rainy days going on long walks and wondering around harbour towns. Both were lovely and some of the best memories. UK weather can be frustrating, in The Lakes in rained most of the time, but it didn't stop us from having a great holiday.

HIDDEN GEMS
The UK is beautiful. And if you haven't been to Cornwall or The Lakes I can't recommend it enough. There are some of the most incredible landscapes. In Cornwall I posted a picture of a beach we went to on one of the hottest days, and had all to ourselves; it looked like somewhere in Spain or a Greek Island. But where in Spain or a Greek Island are you going to find a huge beach all to yourselves.

So I hope this inspired you to maybe think about booking your next holiday somewhere in the UK. Next on my bucket list is Edinburgh. In fact, I've never actually been to Scotland! So watch this space...

What I'm Listening To

I think that 2018 was the year I really got into podcasts and I haven't turned back since. I have a long commute to work each day, but I struggle to read on the train without feeling sick, so podcasts have been a game changer. Plus, it's nice to feel like you are learning something in the morning while being able to keep your eyes shut!

So I thought that I would share with you what I am listening to right now:

THE HIGH LOW
I couldn't not start with this one. I'm obsessed! It's just Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes having a chat about everything from what they are reading, popular culture, current affairs and everything in between. It's factual but also funny so that when I am listening on my commute I frequently have to pause the podcast and control my laughter so I don't appear crazy. I find it empowering and insightful and I could honestly listen to both of their voices forever.
Highlights: The in-jokes that they have and the book recommendations.

HAPPY PLACE
Happy place is a podcast where Fearne Cotton interviews all kinds of different people about their life and the things that bring happiness to it. It's raw and honest and truly inspirational. There are a lot of household names that appear but it is really lovely to be able to understand these people on a much more personal level.
Highlights: Gok Wan and Davina McCalls episodes are brilliant.

THE DOCTOR'S KITCHEN PODCASTS
I am very interested at the moment in all things health and wellness related, but with so much information out there it is such a minefield. This podcast is great as it is breaks down all the fads that we read about online and is so researched focus. Dr Rupy Aujla, also known as The Doctors Kitchen, interviews leading industry specialists about everything from stress to heart health to illnesses.
Highlights: simple steps to a healthier lifestyle and not completely out of reach.

TABLE MANNERS
Ultimate girl crush Jessie Ware and her brilliant mother invite celebrities over for dinner to talk about their life and all things food. It's funny, casual and most of the time you feel as though you are sitting in a room with these people! Such a lovely thing to listen to on the way home from work.
Highlights: Food inspiration and Jessie's mum!

WELLNESS WITH LIZ EARL
Going back to my obsession with wellness, Liz Earl offers an amazing podcast covering everything from cancer to food and skin and hair health. She talks to a wide variety of different industry specialists, breaking down assumptions and getting straight to the facts. It's insightful and interesting and perfect if you want to delve a little deeper into a particular area of knowledge.
Highlights: The level of depth they go into on each topic. She interviews people who really know their area of expertise and are still comfortable to say when they don't know.

SHEERLUXE
I could talk about Sheerluxe all day! Their website is the only thing that I want to catch up on during my lunch break and the podcast is just as good. It's a general guided catch between a group of the girls that work at Sheerluxe meaning it's natural and funny. There is a little bit of a cross over between the articles that they publish that week and the podcast, but it is still great to hear different view points.
Highlights: Like having a chat with your best girl friends!

LOVE STORIES
Podcast by Dolly Alderton (also from The High Low) based on her book Everything I Know About Love, which I am currently reading. She interviews a wide range of different people, but mostly from creative fields, asking them about the loves of their life, from people to passions. It's beautiful and such a well thought out podcast.
Highlights: Stanley Tucci's episode was both moving and utterly brilliant in the way that he articulated himself. And having just read This Is Going To Hurt I loved listening to Adam Kay's episode talking about his book and his love of the NHS.

DELICIOUSLY ELLA THE PODCAST
I've been following Ella for a while but it's great to see her branch out beyond food and health, to other topics life skincare, stress and building a brand. Sometimes it is just her and her husband chatting and other episodes are an interview.
Highlights: Building a Brand with Chrissy Rucker, founder of The White Company.

THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: JOHANN HARI
This is just one episode of this podcast but I had to mention it as it was absolutely brilliant. It was mentioned on The High Low so I downloaded it and had a listen. The episode is a three hour long interview with Johann Hari talking about drugs, depression and loneliness. It's so interesting and draws on so many different real life stories. It sounds long but after I was searching on the podcast app for any other interviews with Johann Hari.
Highlights: Something completely different to what I would usually listen to but I found it fascinating.

So this is everything I am currently listening to. But just like book recommendations I am always on the look out for a new Podcast to get stuck into. So please let me know if you have any other Podcasts that you are loving at the moment.

New Year, New Goals

I realise that we are already well into 2019 (already in February) but I thought it was about time that I returned to my little corner of the internet to update you on my life - it's been a while!

So around the same time that I stopped posting on here I started my job, returning to ASOS as a Buyer's Administrator and I moved out of my family home and in with my boyfriend. I love my job so much and the independence of not living at home, but it has been an adjustment. And I think it would be fair to say that other things in my life have taken a bit of a back seat, like this blog.

For a long time I felt so guilty about not posting, and then the more I thought about it the less I wanted to come back. It has been a good few months since I last posted, but I've chosen to move on and start again. It feels like the new year is the perfect time to do that. So I'm going to start with some things that I want to do more and less of in 2019.

MORE SAVING
I'm earning my first proper salary and I want to start putting money away every month into my savings account, rather than just whittling all my money away on food, clothes and after work drinks! I know my future self is going to thank me for this one.

LESS MEAT
I'm not doing Veganuary and I'm not even going vegetarian, but I am going to try and cut down my meat consumption to once or twice a week. I am going to start basing my meals around the vegetables and hopefully this is all going to make me feel much healthier.

MOVE MORE
Along side my blog, exercise is something that I have pushed to the back on my mind recently. My job role means that I spend a large amount of my day sitting and a desk meaning it is even more important that I do something a few times a week that gets my heart rate up. I've started running again and realised how much I love it. Even managed to drag my boyfriend Jack out of bed and on a Sunday morning run with me!

LESS FAKE PEOPLE
I can definitely hold my hands up and say that I don't have anywhere near as many friends as I did in school, and I'm really okay with that. What I have got is friends that I love who make me happy as soon as I see them and leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling when we say goodbye. It's genuine and real and that's more that enough for me.

MORE TIME FOR FRIENDS
Following on from what I said above, I need to make more time for my real friends. It's so easy to finish work and just get home, have dinner and watch some Netflix (especially in Winter!). I need to see more of the people that make me feel good, planning starts now...

LESS INSTAGRAM
I need to let go of social media and not spending hours scrolling through other people's seemingly perfect life. I know that it's not good for me, and for lack of a better world it makes me a jealous person. I want to look like someone else, to be where I'm not (half way around the world on a tropical beach) and I want to own materialistic items that I really don't need or can't afford. I am replacing scrolling through Instagram with...

MORE CULTURE
Podcasts on my commute, books in the evening, cinema with friends at the weekend, and maybe even reading the news in my lunch break. These things make me feel knowledgable and inspired, plus they are great dinner party topics of conversation!

I actually really like this new method of resolutions. Rather than to say "I am going to completely give up chocolate forever" because we all know that won't last more than about two days, it's a lot kinder to myself to say "let's do a bit more of this and a bit less of that". I guess to summarise my resolutions it is just to be kinder to myself. If a bit of chocolate in the evening is going to make me happy I'm going to eat some chocolate without any guilt.