Nottingham Christmas Light Switch On 2014!

Hello!

It was the Christmas Light Switch On here in Nottingham last Friday (21st November) and, although we got well and truly soaked, it was awesome sauce!

They have a little Winter Wonderland spread throughout the streets of the city centre and it all looks so pretty! It was unbelievably busy on Friday night so I didn't get the best look around at it but I've been since then to have a little nosy and there is so much delicious-smelling food everywhere, my mouth was watering the whole time I was walking around the market stalls. They have some lovely little unique stalls too with quirky things that would make great gifts, in my opinion. 

They had a fireworks display when the lights got turned on, leaving the sky a sparkly (and smoky) scene; it was beautiful.

My friend and I even went as far as going on the carousel... Yes, we are nearly twenty and it's perfectly okay to still want to go on the carousel! I got hot mini doughnuts too because who doesn't want hot mini doughnuts? They remind me of being by the seaside with my brother in Blackpool - we love our hot mini doughnuts, hence why I took pictures to taunt him with via Snapchat.

The tree in the centre is massive - something like 60 feet I think they said! Whatever the case, it's huge. And it's in the middle of an outdoor ice rink, in case I didn't mention that, not that I'll be going on the ice considering I can barely walk without falling over every five seconds, god knows what I'd be like on ice!

We had a great time anyway, even if we did get soaked - a message from my friend (who was more soaked than me by the end of the night, definitely an achievement): don't go out on a rainy night in a dress and tights and boots with holes in; it's never going to end well.

Katie x

I'm Back!

Hello!

Remember me? No? Didn't think so. Oops.

Long time no talk. This feels so weird to be writing on here again. I've missed it soooo much.

I've been gone for a very, very long time and I don't even have any excuses for that... I don't think "the dog ate my homework" excuse is going to quite cut it!

There has been so much happening since I was last on here, so I thought I'd update you on everything 'life'!

First of all, the last time I blogged was four days before Megan, Sophie and Daisy's little brother, named Oscar, was born and he is just adorable, I'm so proud to say I was there for the whole thing and was one of the first people to get to steal lots of cuddles from him - he's made me a very proud godmother, it'll also be a great story to tell all of his future girlfriends; you've been warned Little O!

I then realised I only had a few weeks until I was going back to uni and I wanted to dedicate as much of my time to my family as possible, which meant this little space taking a bit of a backseat, even more so when I got to uni and was landed with a lot of work to do. However, I did a blog post HERE, quite a while ago, about the realities of university and although I very much stand by what I wrote, things have definitely gotten a lot better for me this year in terms of my flatmates and friends but I might do a different, slightly-updated, blog post on another version of university I've found this year.

Now I'm trying to write it all down, I'm seriously forgetting half of the things I've done over the past few months - brain failure!

I moved into my new uni flat on the 19th September and pretty much all of my time since then has been consumed by some new and amazing friends that I've made, as well as the massive workload I've managed to accumulate lately, but seen as I'm going to do a different blog post on university happenings we'll skip to the latest events which is...

The welcoming of my new, beautiful little nephew to the world. Yep, that's right. Another little nephew to run me ragged and spoil tons! Harry Robert Murphy was born on the 28th October and I got a lovely text from my brother announcing he'd finally arrived, what made it even better was I was going home that coming weekend so I wouldn't have to wait the weeks to see him I originally thought I was going to have to - which reminds me, I also went to see Ben Montague and Shane Filan when they visited Carlisle, whilst I was home that weekend; they were both awesome!

I think that's pretty much everything... All of the main goings-on in my life anyway! I'll try not to leave it so long before my next blog post!

Katie x

Curious Dreams

Hello!

Whilst I was at work today I was pondering on last nights dream, trying to figure out what the hell it means and I thought "you know what, this is something I need to blog about it", so here I am, blogging about my weird dreams. As you do.

Last nights was one of the strangest dreams I've had in a long time, where, basically, my brother was half giraffe.

Yep. Your eyes aren't deceiving you; that does say "half giraffe".

Just so you don't think I'm a complete nutter, I'll take this moment to point out that my brother is actually very tall - 6ft 6inches... maybe even 6ft 7, I can't remember. He's closer to the height of a giraffe than most people, anyway, but still, he's not quite at the 18 feet he'd need to be to compete with a giraffe, and he definitely doesn't have the neck or spindly legs that giraffes have. In my dream though, he had the extra long neck and it's an image that has scarred me for life! 

I have no idea where this dream came from, apart from the fact I have an epic love affair with giraffes... It's not the weirdest dream I've ever had (yup, there have been some a lot stranger) but it did freak me out when I woke up. Obviously there was a lot more to it than just my brother being a giraffe but I'm worried that some of you might already think I should be in a hospital for the mentally insane, I don't want you to think I'm in any more need of it than you already do!

I once dreamed my mama and I were trapped in this massive Hogwarts-style castle and we couldn't figure out how to escape - in the end, my mum was literally able to breathe fire in the dream and I could fly like Peter Pan (I wish), and that was how we escaped; like some kind of flying, fire-breathing dragon! I mean my mama sure can be a scary lady if you get on her bad side (I've learnt to stay well away from it!) but I wouldn't go as far as saying she's fire breathing - I know better ;).

I used to study psychology but I only did AS level (I don't know what that's equal to in any other country but I was 16/17 years old in that school year) and then I decided I'd rather continue with both English's and History for my second year of A-levels. As much as I loved my choice of subjects in my final year, part of me wishes I'd carried on with Psychology, just so I could psychoanalyse my dreams and find out what the hell is wrong with my brain - I bet I would find out some weird and wonderful things about myself. 

Anyway, before I make myself sound any weirder than I already have, I'm going to shut up and stop there!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has freaky, weird dreams - I need your reassurance!

Katie x

(P.s. there is currently a spider crawling across my ceiling and I'm really trying not to freak out but it's not going so well!)

(P.p.s. As I was writing this I googled giraffes; did you know that hundreds of years ago they used to have antlers?! Also, their hearts weigh nearly 25 pounds - that's taking the saying "heavy heart" a bit too literally!)

Music Crush #4

Hello!

As some of you may know, I went on a rather adventurous (if that's what you want to call it... possibly more disastrous, actually) road trip with my brother the other day - don't worry though, I documented the whole thing HERE, just for you!

Anyway, a road trip with my brother means some of the best, old-school music of our lives, that we both stupidly sing along too, and it's that road trip CD that has inspired this weeks music crush...

This deserves an epic drum roll, with a guitar riff and maybe even a bit of bass...

Fall Out Boy

~~~

Sugar, We're Goin Down

I remember when this song came out and I loved it straight away - I think it's one of those timeless rock songs that never gets old... In fact, I think most of Fall Out Boy's songs are timeless!

This song just gives me so many good memories, mainly of my brother and I rocking out to it on our many road trips; it's a classic!

What do you think?

Katie x

Have you read the previous music crushes?

Music Crush #1

Music Crush #2

Music Crush #3

A Lovely Few Weeks!

Hello!

I'm back!

Sorry for my notably long absence but, as I'm sure any frequent readers know, I've been on my holidays and to say the wi-fi there was awful would be an understatement - they may as well have not had any, it was that bad. My brother also got married this week so when we came back off holiday a lot of my time was thrown into helping them get organised for the big day.

I'm back now though, so you can expect a lot more blog posts to be coming your way!

I figured since it's been a while since I've blogged I'd ease myself back into it with a general little chat and life update for y'all.

Despite the lack of decent wi-fi, our holiday was still incredible. In fact, maybe the lack of wi-fi made it better, it meant you weren't stressing so much about what was happening at home. It definitely made it more relaxing.

We went to this quaint little hotel in Ovacik, Turkey, called Hotel Leytur and it was positively adorable.

This is the second time we've been to this particular hotel and I just love how quiet and relaxed it is. It's not right in the middle of an enormous, lively city but it's not far away from a little bustling one known as Hisaronu (there's supposed to be some accent-y things over certain letters in 'Hisaronu' too but that's just too complicated to try and add). If you wanted to go out for a night or have a change of scenery it's easy to just jump on a doormush (minibus) and it's only five minutes away. We went there a couple of times and I can definitely see why people describe it as the 'Turkish Blackpool' because that's exactly what it reminds me of. It has all of the lights and activity that Blackpool has - it even has a miniature fun fair!

There was a Turkish Night whilst we were staying there too, where they had a BBQ Grill type-thing outside - there was sooooo much yummy food, I was completely and utterly stuffed! They had a belly dancer too after all of the food, who was not only an amazing dancer but she was hilarious too! She got loads of the people staying at the hotel up to dance with her and it's safe to say that a lot of them had the dancing abilities of an awkward giraffe!

It was a fantastic little get away for my mama and I and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you like to just sunbathe by the cleanest pool you've ever seen and relax for the duration. It's perfect.

We only arrived back two days before the wedding so there wasn't much time to do anything else, although I did manage to squeeze in an afternoon with Daisy, which was just super cute, as always!

Then it was the wedding my whole family had been waiting for! 

My big brother finally tied the knot! It was something that, although him and his partner had been together for over ten years, we never actually thought would happen. I always remember when I was little and I'd play with my dress up dolls and read books about Cinderella getting married to her Prince Charming, my brother would tell me he didn't see the point in marriage, it was just a posh piece of paper after all. None of us ever thought someone would manage to change his stubborn mind but they did and I couldn't be happier for them! 

It was a truly wonderful and stunning day and the weather managed to stay amazing for the whole day, too! I would say welcome to the family to his new wife but she's always really been part of the family to me, so there's not much point!

And that's everything. That has been my life up to now... Aside from the part where I left my kindle in Starbucks on Friday - that wasn't fun. I'm pretty sure my heart still hasn't returned to the correct rhythm after that wee heart attack. Don't worry, my kindle and I have been reunited and we've been spending a lot of time together in our attempt to put the mistake behind us and continue with our relationship...

Katie x