When the zeros line up on the 24 hour clock

I realised a few days ago that there's something I've not been doing on my blog for absolutely ages- my old smiles of the week posts. I like looking back at the little things that have made the week special, and thought this would be the perfect sort of week for doing that as it started off as one of those weeks where I was pretty bloomin' grumpy for no real reason and needed to give myself a bit of a kick up the bum to bring myself back to my usual jolly self. And actually, I proved my Monday morning self wrong and I've had a pretty jam-packed week with lots of highlights. So, just in case grumpy Kaz makes another appearance when Monday rolls around again, I've put this together as a little reminder that the week always gets better once that first wake-up of the week is out of the way. 

Being invited to a weekend away organised for the kids I work with. Its a huge event that's organised by the Teenage Cancer Trust and I'm so excited to be part of it.

Going along to the University open day to ask a few questions about PGCE courses. I had a really reassuring chat with somebody in the department and came away feeling a lot happier that I'm making the right choices.

Having a catch up with one of my friends and getting overly involved in watching GBBO together. Plus its reassuring to discover that the unnecessary hatred my house is harbouring against Ruby is felt by other people too!

Peeking at all of the new season stock at Joy in Leeds with my friends (and getting a cheeky free goody bag and glass of champagne too!).

Watching The Perks Of Being A Wallflower at long last. I read the book ages and ages ago, missed seeing the film at the cinema and then bought the DVD about a month ago but didn't quite get around to watching it for ages. A few of us had a DVD night on Friday to watch it, and I was so impressed! I thought it could be quite difficult to translate the book into a decent film, but it was done so well (aside from Emma Watson's questionable accent). 

Taking a trip to Manchester last night for a barbecue and a night out. Sprinting onto the dancefloor when our signature song, Babies by Pulp, was played was a definite highlight. 

Managing to have a fairly productive and hangover free day today despite having accidentally drunk a whole bottle of wine before 8pm last night. 

Plotting next weekend's shenanigans with one of my besties tonight (even more reason to be excited and not grumpy about the week ahead!). 

The new Arctic Monkeys album. Need I say any more?!

Knee Socks- Arctic Monkeys

It's three in the morning and I'm trying to change your mind

I think I deserve an award for managing to tear myself away from eating samples of homemade pop-tarts (made by Cupcake Cafe in Leeds) long enough to give my blog a little attention. This weekend has been a bit of a crazy one. Aside from acquiring lots of cake, pop tarts and moustache biscuits after Iron Cupcake Leeds and also having a baking disaster when I tried to enter the competition myself (I'm trying to erase that part of the weekend from my memory- it caused me far too much distress!) I've just been hanging with my friends which has been looovely. We had a house night out on Friday with a few friends to a Rock and Roll night in Leeds which was great fun and one of those nights where I spent half of the time stood at the DJ booth requesting songs (all of which actually got played so top marks to him for that... usually DJs just roll their eyes at me when I start dictating what they should play!). 

Speaking of music... the new Arctic Monkeys song has been played about 6000 times in our household this weekend and I've spent the last few days wandering about singing "why'd you only call me when you're high?". I realised today that although that may be appropriate behaviour in the comfort of my own home, it doesn't quite have the same effect when I sing it at work. Whoops.

dress: c/o Clothing at Tesco, jacket: Republic, shoes: Topshop, socks: Primark

Anyway, this is one of my new favourite items in my wardrobe. I've been trying on so many dresses lately and all to often find myself wishing that smocks didn't make me look like an 8 man tent. I've decided that sticking to ever so slightly baggy skater dresses is more my way of doing things.

Why'd you only call me when you're high?: Arctic Monkeys

Smiles of the week: I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand

This week started off as a bit of a drag. No particular reason other than that I'd started off the week so exhausted that even being awake was taking considerable effort, so finding even the teensiest bit of energy for work and other things (especially my first Body Attack class...) was almost impossible. One pathetically early night later and I was magically cured and spent the remainder of the week jumping about like an over-excited puppy. That's more like it.

As usual, here are a few snippets for you of the things that have made me smile in my little world over the last week.

Spending an evening being completely sucked back into 90210. There's not many trashy shows that I actually watch but a few years ago I was bored and living alone for two weeks and somehow ended up watching the first two seasons of the show back to back so I'm very much enjoying having the ridiculous storylines back in my life again.

Zumba with my friend from work. I love it when she comes with me, we're like the naughty children at the back of the class who spend more time pulling stupid faces at each other than actually doing the dances.

Chilling out with Charlie and whiling away an evening gossiping and plotting how she can take over the world with cake.

Having a Saturday morning stroll to Hobbycraft and Asda Living and getting really over-excited about the pretty things I could buy once I've moved into my new house next month. I really don't need anything new but I just find it IMPOSSIBLE not to buy lots of pretty things every time I move house (this will be my sixth home in 5 years- I'm sure you can imagine how much stuff I've accumulated!). 

Eating my favourite burger at Almost Famous in Manchester's Northern Quarter. The last few trips to Mancland I've had we've not got near the place as the waiting list is always huge, but we put up with waiting for an hour this time and were so glad we did. 

Having a hilarious night out which began with the four of us owning the dancefloor and making full use of the fact that nobody else was dancing yet. Lots of hokey-cokeying to indie music (yes, we're that cool) and dancing metres away from each other just because we could. 

Buying the yummiest smoothie to attempt to relieve my horrendous hangover (and it actually working!) then managing to find the one remaining seat on the train back to Leeds. I'm not sure I'd have survived if I'd had to stand up for an hour- it was one of those days!

Round two of our weekly baking sessions with patients in the hospital. There was only one girl that could come along this week so we decided it'd be rude to let the ingredients go to waste and ended up making a huge batch to eat ourselves. That's my sort of lesson.

Hope you've all had a good one too, I'd love to know what's made you smile this week :)

Disorder- Joy Division

Smiles of the week: Sally Cinnamon, you're my world

Whoever came up with the idea of Bank Holidays really was a genius. When I was younger I never appreciated them particularly- it was just another day but with a lot more crowds and less frequent public transport. Now I'm a grown up working person, having a free day off and still getting paid for it is the BEST feeling in the world, especially because lots of other lovely people are off too so its the perfect excuse for lots of extra fun. Or lots of extra time to recover from a two day hangover as may be a more appropriate description of my extra day off! 

Since the weekend lasted an extra day, I decided this post could wait until Tuesday after realising in last week's post that daydreaming about the fun of the previous seven days was a great way to brighten up my first day back at work. That in itself makes me smile as this week's first day back at work is practically the middle of the week anyway. I LOVE FOUR DAY WEEKS (apologies to those of you that don't get Bank Holidays off... you're probably ready to hit me right now...). 

Anyway, here we go with a couple of my highlights from the last week. 

Spending a few hours with my Dad after work last Wednesday. We went to an out of town shopping centre to escape the rain and he even let me drag him around the shops without a single complaint whilst I tried on approximately 618 pairs of jeans. 

Realising that my Dad spent the entire trip humming Daft Punk's Get Lucky. What. A. Legend.

Nattering away for an entire evening to one of my oldest friends who I somehow hadn't spoken to properly since March. 

Wearing a proper summer dress, eating the BEST sorbet and accidentally falling asleep down by the canal in the sunshine. 

Having two of the women from work shouting lots of rude words across the office in response to a particularly nasty phone call I'd just had to endure. Nothing like a 50 something year old shouting "WHAT A BEEPING HORRIBLE BEEP BEEP" to bring your mood back up!

Spending an evening soaking up the remaining rays of sunshine at a beer festival. I'm not sure how we'd decided a beer festival was a good idea as we don't like beer, especially as they'd already run out of the nice ciders before we'd arrived so we had to endure some interesting flavours before moving onto pale ale. Despite hating all of the drinks, we spent the entire time laughing hysterically and it was a really good way to spend a summery evening.

Surviving two nights out in a row (just about). Exactly why extra days off are sometimes necessary!

Listening to a little old welsh lady on the train to Manchester giving the person on the other end of the phone instructions about the knobs and flaps on something in her house. I'm not sure how it was only my friend and I who were having trouble keeping our giggles quiet. Mature as always.

Making plans for the weeks ahead. Mostly looking forward to an upcoming trip to Birmingham for a visit to Cadbury World (I've never been before and am FAR TOO EXCITED) followed by a bit of dancing and merriment. I've heard good things about Birmingham's nightlife so I've got a feeling it could be a very, very good weekend.

Hope you've all enjoyed the last week and the sunshine (shame its disappeared already though...)

Sally Cinnamon- The Stone Roses

Smiles of the week: Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

When I first started these weekly smiles posts I fully intended them to be written on a Sunday evening as a little round up of the good things that had happened in my life that week. Apparently I'm incapable of sticking to this (despite the fact that I spent most of last night eating olives from the comfort of my bed... wild lifestyle right there), but actually my laziness has one advantage when I end up putting these posts together on a Monday. Like most of the working population, I am not a fan of Mondays, never have been, never will be. Thinking about the good bits of the previous week on a dreary Monday is the perfect remedy for the start of the week blues, giving a glimmer of hope that things always get better and more exciting as the week goes on.

Here's a few bits and bobs from the last week that I spent the day daydreaming about from my desk.

Experiencing the wonder that is The Great Gatsby. Hands down one of the best films I've seen in years. It was an absolute visual feast, had an incredible soundtrack (which despite being completely unrelated to the 1920's setting was absolutely perfect for the film, and it portrayed the story and the characters PERFECTLY. What. A. Film.

Experiencing the wonder that is The Great Gatsby with a jug of pimms from a squishy purple sofa. We ventured to the new Everyman cinema in Leeds Trinity to test it out and it turned out to be the absolute perfect setting to watch such a decadent film.

Experiencing the wonder that is The Great Gatsby after a bloody delicious pizza and slab of sticky toffee pudding in the cinema's pizzeria.

Taking a trip to York on Saturday for a little adventure with two of my favourites. We'd not made any real plans for the day as we'd crossed our fingers for sunny skies so we could sit in a pub by the river for the afternoon. Naturally the English weather didn't agree with us so we spent half of the day hiding from the rain.

Luckily for us, hiding in the rain turned into a trip to York's Chocolate Story. I've been before but was in no way going to turn down another trip there and was very giddy to discover that we could make a whopping great chocolate lollipop each.

Going out for food and a few quiet drinks on Saturday night and not getting in until 3.30am.

Realising that one of the bars we were in seemed to have a strict facial hair dress code for all men. Everywhere we turned we were surrounded by hipster beards, Charlie deemed the beardy folk as having a 'beardiform'. At the time this was the funniest/cleverest thing in the world. It may have just been the rum talking.

Being high fived repeatedly by a bunch of middle-aged, balding men. We think they'd just discovered what a high five was and thought that using it as a greeting made them really hip hop and happening to us young 'uns.

Spending most of my Sunday wrapped up in a duvet. I've not had a proper lie in for ages so it was very well deserved (and very much needed after the night before).

Will you still love me?- Lana Del Rey

(I'm really not a fan of Lana usually but this song was just 100% right for the film!)

Smiles of the week- What's my age again?

This has been one of those weeks that has just got better and better. I've giggled almost constantly, gossiped so much I've started losing my voice (also partly to do with excessive screaming along to Blink 182 and Taylor Swift last night...), and just generally been wandering round with a big smile on my face. I've not done anything particularly blog-worthy, mostly just spending too much money and eating too much catching up with friends but weeks like this are what life is all about and are always worth celebrating. 

Since we've reached Sunday, I thought I'd round up this week into a nice little list of things that have made me smile. Who knows, it might even become a regular feature on my blog (although an average week for me will largely consist of zumba, sitting in front of the telly and yawning a lot at work). One f my favourite bloggers, Lisette, has a really popular Thankful Thursday feature which I really love reading as its all about appreciating what we all have and being grateful for the good things in life. And so, on a similar ebb, remembering the little things that have made me happy this week seemed like the perfect way to spend my Sunday evening. 

Exploring new restaurants and trying out new places in Leeds. The city is just getting better and better at the moment.

Spending quality time catching up with my lovely friends, even those I see all of the time.

Being able to leave the house in just a denim jacket without having to try and sneak approximately 500 layers underneath.

Learning new things at work and having the highly unusual experience of putting our boss in a headlock (we had some training days to learn how to safely restrain children who are trying to fight each other or us... not sure how many of the kids I work with in the hospital will ever get into that sort of situation but I learnt a lot all the same!)

Having all four of us old English Language friends together for a weekend for the first time since November and causing lots of mayhem together.

 

Managing to dance about 10 seconds worth of Saturday Night on stage in the club last night (at a rock night of all places...) before the bouncer came and spoilt our fun.

Laughing until I cried at the silly things the englangang do right in the middle of putting my make up on and making a big mess of my face.

Giggling about millions of ridiculous in-jokes and memories and creating about a hundred more in just one evening.

Feeling incredibly organised for once and starting the ball rolling with my plans to apply for a PGCE next year.

Wandering through Leeds and just gazing up at the fluffy white clouds dotted around the bright blue skies whilst getting excited for real summer days.

What has made you smile this week?

What's my age again?- Blink 182

And this is how it starts

Earlier this week I took a trip to Cockpit in Leeds with my friend who had a spare ticket to see The 1975. It feels like absolutely ages since I last went to see a band live (think it might have actually been Leeds festival...  very unlike me not seeing anybody live in so long!) so it was nice to have the spark for live music ignited again inside me, especially as Cockpit is such an intimate little venue which usually has a great atmosphere. 

However, despite giving me loads of motivation to find more gigs to go to over the next few months, this particular experience also filled me with a weird feeling that I'm getting OLD. We walked in and were hit with a strange feeling that we'd accidentally wandered into some sort of underage club night, with the girls running around squealing and whispering at each other because the fitty from their school just looked at them.  I think this was largely due to the fact that both support acts had  come from local high schools  and had filled the venue with their school bus groupies. And so a strange thing happened. We became part of that sensible group of old people who stand between the middle and the back of the room, enjoying the music without the risk of some swishy haired 14 year old knocking over your pint as she clambers onto her friend's back. 

And actually, I think I'm ok with that. 

(definitely helped by the fact that with such a young crowd filling up the front half of the room, for once we  had a near perfect view of the stage because none of the kids in front were quite fully grown yet!).

Sex- The 1975

We visit a life we both left behind

Despite all that's happened in Great Britain this year to make it one that I'm sure won't be forgotten in a long time, personally 2012 has been one of those years that's just tootled along, there've been no major obstacles or momentous occasions to mark it out in my mind (I suppose the end of a big relationship technically does fall into this category but I'm not seeing that as a bad change now by any means).

2011 was a year with a lot of change in my life, finishing Uni, graduating, becoming a real life person with a real life job, moving away from Leeds, moving back to Leeds, moving into a new house. In comparison, 2012 has just been a bit stable. I make that sound like a bad thing, when in actual fact it really isn't. I took a little look back through my photos from the past year and I have to say, there have been a lot of highlights. Being my first full year of working life, the fun bits of the year have been even more savoured as time with friends has become more valuable, shifting from student life to real life means we no longer have the luxury of being able to wander into each other's rooms at all hours of the day or whiling away hours just sat at the kitchen table. Instead, it means that when we do all spend time together there's a definite air of excitement and a lot of effort goes into making it memorable. 

I've picked out a few snaps as a bit of a review of 2012 in the life of Kaz. It probably won't mean a lot to you guys reading but I had a whale of a time looking back at all my pictures of day trips, nights out and weekends away. 

1. Birthday celebrations- lots of my favourite people all in one room (and some spookily coordinated outfits) 2. A day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my Mum, Dad and new DSLR 3. Live at Leeds 2012 4. A sunburnt sunny day in Nottingham 5. Sailing round the Isle of Wight with the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust through work 6. City living 7&8 Olympic stuff- seeing Friendly Fires for free definitely made me warm to the occasion 9. 'rowing' in Stratford with one of my favourites 10. Monkeying around in Edinburgh 11. Leeds Festival- seeing Florence was a definite highlight of my year/life in general 12. We're a very distinguished little bunch. Especially when filled with wine.

Roll on 2013. Bring me some more good times like these please.

Reunion- The xx