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

Smiles of the week: Take me dancing in the wild

This week started off on a fairly unpleasant note. I shuffled sleepily into the bathroom this morning and in an attempt to grab all of my toiletries off the shelf in one go for my shower I just about managed to open my eyes enough to watch my razor tumble into the toilet. Cue a good five minutes spent trying to play hook a duck with the toilet brush whilst my razor taunted me from the bottom of the toilet bowl. Sometimes my life is too glamorous for words. This is why posts like this are necessary on a Monday (although the start of this post would make a pretty good attempt at a Mundane Midweek post a la Charlotte's Web), I love reminding myself of the little moments that have happened over the last seven days to make me remember that life isn't all as traumatic as this morning was. Hope you enjoy reading this week's little list of highlights from the last couple of days.

There's been a lot of chocolate cake involved in the last seven days. Firstly, Charlie's birthday cake, closely followed by cakes I made for work (we had a pack of eggs left over from our baking sessions at work so I was cajoled into using them up and feeding the office in the process). Then it was all topped off with a cake from Zuger's- literally the best chocolate cupcakes EVER. If you're ever on The Wirral or in Chester then visit one of their cafes or you'll regret it forever. 

Making said birthday cake and laughing LOADS at our ridiculous attempts to create a twin for the easiest pig character we'd spent about 10 seconds putting together. It suddenly became impossible to make another so after about 50 attempts we went for what was technically a far more complicated option and got it right first time.

Meeting up with two of my old best friends from school and hearing about all of the exciting grown up things that are happening in their lives. Meanwhile, I chose that day to strongly resemble that picture you can see of my five year old self with a pinafore and my big plastic Ray Bans. I may not be getting a mortgage and may look like an overgrown reception child but I'm very, very happy with my little lot. I'll happily watch my friends grow up around me but for now I'm perfectly content to stay just the way I am.

Finally reaching a point where I no longer felt absolutely stuffed from my meal out on Tuesday (three days later...) and enjoying a good gossip over a bowl of nachos and a bottle or two of wine with another of my besties from school. 

Playing scrabble with my Mum and Dad. I even helped my Dad by pointing out how he could make his three letter word add up to 42 points just by moving it one space to the left (and as a result lost the game...). 

Going to a charity Afternoon Tea party at my Mum's friend's house. Despite it being so windy we felt like we were battling a tornado to reach the scones it was really lovely to be sat out in the garden surrounded by people drinking tea (well, I had a lemonade) from vintage china under a canopy of pretty bunting. 

I'd love to hear what's happened in your world over the last week, here's to this one being a good 'un :)

Torso of the week- Everything Everything

Smiles of the week: Who's gonna catch you now?

Can't believe its Monday again already (and Monday's nearly over now too...), where oh where is this year going?! Time really does seem to whizz by so much quicker now I'm a sort-of adult. Its pretty bloomin' scary! Now its getting towards summer, I'd quite like time to slow itself down ever so slightly so that we can all enjoy it that little bit longer. 

Its been a busy old week for me, but one of the best I've had in a while. So I've had no trouble whatsoever putting together my little round up of the last seven days today! Here you go lovely people (be warned- its been quite a food filled week...)

Spending my evenings sat outside sipping teacup cocktails and cider whilst eating lots of lovely food.

Falling asleep in the sun (again). 

Making the most of the Leeds Love Food festival over the weekend, I had a list as long as my arm of stalls I wanted to try, three days just wasn't enough time to eat my way through it all!

Drinking gallons of old fashioned lemonade at the festival. Best stall by far.

Getting all excited about becoming the new 'proper' photographer for Iron Cupcake Leeds next month when my delightful friend Charlie takes over running it. I feel its a good excuse to make cake so I can 'practice' taking decent photos of it!

Signing for the most beautiful house to move into next month after a hilarious day of house hunting. I can't wait to make it all homely and pretty with the other girls. 

Celebratory cupcakes in the park when we realised we'd found THE ONE.

Finding the prettiest teacup whilst browsing the local vintage shops and getting far too excited that Headingley will soon be on my doorstep once again. 

Beach- San Cisco

Smiles of the week: I'm a human elevator

Today, all of the teachers I work with were gushing about how good their week off over half term was. All well and good for them but I'm not lucky enough to get school holidays off like they do. Last week it was just little old me and my partner in crime who works with the younger kids in the hospital spending a week in our eerily quiet office. To make up for the lack of human contact, we turned to youtube and spent the week dancing around the office (which actually did wonders for our motivation... not sure how our co-workers would feel if we made this a daily occurrence  but quite frankly a daily boogie on the way to the wards would do us all the world of good!). 

Unconventional working weeks aside, I've had a very lazy relaxing week. For all you nosy people out there, here's a bit of what I've been enjoying over the last seven days.

My Mum's astounding technological abilities via Facetime. She was all set to write her iPad off as broken and send it back to the shop because the camera on the back of it wasn't working. After about five minutes of my Mum getting concerned about how it had broken my Dad pointed out that she had the cover over the camera. Whoops.

Taking every possible moment to sit out in the sun. I fully believe in making the most of the sun whilst we can... you can never guarantee how long its going to last for! Plus its a great opportunity to actually spend some quality time with a good book (or three) and my iPod.

Finally downloading the A Beautiful Mess app (about a month after the rest of the world) and spending hours prettying up all my photos.

Having a barbecue with my bestie and eating my own body weight in grilled aubergine and halloumi after already having eaten two burgers. 

Smelling somebody's takeaway pizza in the lift on my way home from work and deciding that we NEEDED to order pizza the next day. This was an exciting decision in Kazland. I can probably count the amount of takeaways I eat in a year on one hand.

Rewarding myself with an afternoon off work (see, my week at work really wasn't that traumatic...) and ending up at the opening of the new Joy in Leeds (which I whittered on about a few days ago here).

Sampling the delights of the Leeds Farmers Market in town on Sunday. Stall owners cower in fear when they see me approaching to eat my body weight in their samples of cheese/brownies/chocolate/olives.

What's made you smile this week?

 Human Elevator- The Cast of Cheers

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: Ain't it strange how the other half live

One little downside of last week's bank holiday was that this morning I spent a good few seconds when my (second) alarm clock went off convinced that today couldn't possibly be a working day- weekends are three days long, right? Cue me jumping out of bed in a crazy panic when I realised I was sadly mistaken. 

Despite my confusion about how long normal weekends actually are, I certainly wasn't complaining about last week's shorter working week- work absolutely flew by and as I was still on a massive music high after Live at Leeds I was in a pretty good mood all week. Here's a few of the little things that have added to my post bank holiday good mood this week

- Going to work with bare legs on Tuesday. Granted it started raining about 10 minutes after I got to work and I spent the day dreading going back outside but still, the weather must be on the way up if I could survive walking to work without longing for my 60 denier tights back!

- A text from Mama T sent from their jollies in Portugal laughing at my Dad for forgetting to pack his underwear. The morning that they were due to leave for the airport, Papa T still hadn't packed but he'd refused help; he was adamant that he'd get it all done. I'd put serious money on him begging my Mum to do his packing for him next time they go anywhere.

- After work cocktails and burritos with work. We've all been under a lot of pressure lately for one reason or another so Happy Hour was just what the Doctor ordered.

- Having a catch-up with one of my bestests in Manchester. We tried every burger place in The Northern Quarter and struggled to get in anywhere (our plans to go to my favefavefave Almost Famous fell apart as soon as we were greeted by the bouncer outside with a HUGE waiting list). We ended up in a place called Simple and were pretty excited to see that the burgers were named after Superheroes. Mine was an Ironman, and my god it was flipping incredible (and I'm a girl who knows her burgers so that's high praise from me!).

- Spending our burger-filled night laughing about the idiotic and embarrassing moments in our lives... there were plenty of moments just in that one evening. I did a nice job of somehow dribbling half of my drink down my menu and dress just as the waiter was taking our burger orders. Smooooth.

- Spending most of the weekend putting my heart and soul into baking for the Iron Cupcake competition. I've been going along as an eater since the competition began about three years ago and finally plucked up the courage to actually enter myself! I didn't win or anything, the standards are so high and I'm pretty amateur, but I'm just proud of myself for actually putting the effort in and entering!

How the other half live- Tribes

Smiles of the week: We're up all night to get lucky

Well done Britain, you really did bank holiday weather perfectly. After months and months of wondering whether the sun would ever rear its head again, it timed its first real appearance absolutely perfectly. I spent most of my bank holiday Monday sitting in various parts of Leeds just staring at the sky, then most of the evening staring at the clock just across the river from my balcony in disbelief at the 20C temperature it was displaying. I was beginning to forget that temperatures like that actually existed.

The main highlight of my week (and possibly my year so far) was Live at Leeds which I talked about in my last post but even without that it was a pretty decent week. Here's a few highlights for you nosy people out there.

-Booking tickets to see Bastille in October. It may be months away but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be a little bit over-excited already

-Finding a new pair of sunglasses that don't make me look like I should be holding a white stick or a guide dog.

-Last week's episode of New Girl. Normally Halloween episodes of American shows can be a bit terrible but this one was brilliant. Although I'm starting to get a bit distressed by Jess and Nick still not getting together.

-Being a good person and getting one of those 'healthy' pizzas from Pizza Express. It made a nice change having the salad in the middle and still managed to fill me up- winner.

-Having a hysterical night out which involved my friend's boyfriend wearing a giant poster for a club night as a dress when we took a brief trip to the night's rival venue.

-Actually having a brilliant time in the queues for Live at Leeds and time between bands because of the hilarious company I had.

-Sitting in a beer garden before The Vaccines. Briefly. Then after being offended by the lack of ANY cider and the insane prices for all other summery drinks ending up sitting in a basement bar drinking cheap bottles of Kopparberg. We may have missed a few hours of sunshine but at least we gained some decent drinks. Plus we avoided bankrupting ourselves in the name of alfresco drinking.

-Getting into bed on Sunday night after two nights out, another attempted night out, hours of queuing, walking miles and miles between venues and jumping around to lots of bands. My legs had had enough and were incredibly appreciative that they had finally earned some time off.

Get Lucky- Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams

Smiles of the week: Let's get up off the floor and use our feet for hands

This week has been one of those that's just ticked over without much to sing and dance about (although I did make a point of jumping ecstatically off my train earlier this evening after having to endure two hours of being squished into a tiny corner of the train by a group of loud, irritating, lager drinking women on their way back from a birthday weekend...). Despite this week being quieter than the last, there've still been lots of little moments that have brought a smile to my face. 

Buying myself a new notebook completely unnecessarily just because it has moustaches all over the cover. 

After buying said notebook, discovering that this week is National Stationary Week and so my purchase was entirely justified as an act of celebration. 

Spending ages in the steam room at the gym relaxing and inadvertently listening to strangers' gossip. I'd quite like to know how that girl's relationship dramas pan out...

Enjoying some quality time with my iPod on the train back to Liverpool and getting a bit too excited for a music filled few days at Live at Leeds next weekend.

Watching my Dad ceilidh dancing at my cousin's 40th. Literally the only time I can recall ever seeing him dancing. Voluntarily (and sober) too... not sure what had got into him!

Having a few families from work saying thank you for all of the help I've given them. I don't do my job to get thanked for it but its nice to know you're appreciated and have made a difference to somebody every once in a while! 

Being greeted by blue skies when I arrived back on the Wirral. It promptly turned to wind and rain as the weekend went on but at least I had a nice sunny welcoming.

Messaging a friend to ask how she's been and ending up organising a long-overdue meet up instead (I didn't actually end up finding out how she's doing since we got so overexcited at the prospect of seeing each other but at least I'll find out soon enough!).

Feet for Hands- Everything Everything

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