Life lately...

Well hello there internet, its been a while! I've still been living an internet free existence, and I've resorted to spending my time in various coffee shops around Leeds, eating cake and catching up on important internet based things (mostly New Girl and GBBO...).

Since I've been without wifi for so long, some of the posts I'd have otherwise written seem a bit redundant now so instead I thought I'd do a bit of a whistlestop tour of my summer to bring all you nosy people out there up to speed with what I've been up to over the last month or so.

Harewood House

Mama and Papa T managed to squeeze a day trip to see little Kaz in a few weeks ago (anyone else's parents have a busier social calendar than them?). Considering I've lived in Leeds for 6 years with such a huge stately home and park practically down the road, I'd never taken a visit except when I did a Color Me Rad run there a few months back (but we were too busy throwing paint around to pay too much attention to the surroundings!). The weather was bloomin' beautiful and we spent hours and hours wandering about the grounds. I love a good family day trip, especially when we end it in one of my favourite pubs for tea.

Big Reunion

Its been three whole years since graduation now (although I still have difficulty coming to terms with how old that makes me...), and somehow it had been two years since the five faces above were last in a room together. We finally managed to pin everybody down to a weekend in August to meet up and catch up on the gossip from the many, many months that had flown by. We spent ages running around Asda picking up plentiful supplies of hummus, popcorn and any other picnic food we could get our hands on before heading off on a trip to Temple Newsam to see the animals at the farm. After eating our body weights in cocktail sausages, making a few furry friends and playing running around after a frisbee we headed back home to get ready before an evening of bowling and ping pong at Roxy Lanes and Roxy Ballroom. Normal bars just aren't enough for me anymore, unless there's some sort of drunken sport I can participate in I'm just not interested! 

Corfu

The big activity of the month was a well deserved summer holiday to Sidari in Corfu. We mostly spent the week eating unimaginable quantities of saganaki, drinking crazily cheap cocktails and gazing longingly at a God-like Greek waiter at one of the restaurants. All the stereotypes of a Greek holiday right there. My personal highlight of the trip was the waterpark as I have the holiday requirements of a 10 year old, the 25m freefall slide was one of the best/scariest things I've done before... mostly scary because my bikini top came undone somewhere along the way down the slide. The people at the bottom of the slide don't know how lucky they are that I had a sunburnt back and had put a t-shirt on to cover it up...

 Back home

The week after my holiday I had a few more cheeky days off work and headed home to see my parents. I did myself proud and managed my first solo mission on the motorway to anywhere further than Ikea (which is about 5 mins down the motorway from where I live...) all the way down the M62, through the centre of Liverpool and back to my Mum and Dad's house. I mostly just enjoyed being able to sing along to my driving playlist without fear of people spotting me at traffic lights! Whilst home I had a yummy meal out at Bill's, caught up with my friend about her wedding preparations and had a look at Liverpool from the top of the Cathedral before driving back to Leeds (and missing my junction on the motorway because I was too busy singing along to Biffy Clyro).

Leeds West Indian Carnival

My Bank Holiday Monday was spent in the rain, feeling grateful for my nice warm coat and many layers of clothes whilst watching lots of people in very minimal costumes parading down the streets of Leeds. The Leeds West Indian Carnival is one of the biggest in the country, and since I wasn't at Leeds Festival this year (sob) I was around to go and have a nosy with friend. The costumes were incredible, and despite the rain there was a brilliant atmosphere (which may have been partly due to the crazy amount of people I spied swigging vodka and rum straight from the bottle as they danced down the parade route!).

Alton Towers

My buddy and I took a trip to Alton Towers last week. I hadn't been for a few years and was bouncing around like a child (see, I really am a 10 year old...) the whole way there. Considering it was still the summer holidays, we didn't have to queue all that much, except for The Smiler where we spent 90 minutes queuing under the ride watching endless carts of people whizzing past us. By the time we'd got to the front of the queue my knees were knocking together and I was starting to question why I'd ever wanted to go on a ride with 14 loops in it, but I wasn't planning on letting an hour and a half's worth of queuing go to waste. And OHEMGEE it was so worth the wait. Well done Alton Towers, you did good with that one. 

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this mammoth post! Normal service shall hopefully resume on here once my wifi has been fixed.

Go to the ends of the Earth for you

Life's a funny old thing isn't it? One minute you think everything is ticking along just hunky dory and then WHAM! you hit a dip on the rollercoaster and suddenly everything feels very different. My latest dip came about a week and a half ago when we found out that my Uncle Stuart had died very suddenly in his sleep. My Mum's little brother, something none of us could have ever anticipated in the slightest. You just can't prepare for a thing like that, something I sadly learnt last year when my Auntie Jackie passed away in much the same way. One day everything is fine, you think you know what the next days, weeks and months will bring, and then in the blink of an eye, your life and idea of 'normal' is turned on its head. 

In the last seven years I've lost 5 close family members and have watched my already small family shrink quite dramatically. Family photos become less crowded, fewer spaces at the dinner table are needed and things are never quite the same again. A friend of my Uncle's who I met at the funeral yesterday said to us "you always know death is going to happen in the end, but you never for a second think of it happening to the important people in your life" which I think sums up human nature perfectly. A consequence of living is always going to involve an ending but its something we, as caring human beings, don't ever want to imagine as it seems impossible to picture a world without our nearest and dearest. When the inevitable does happen, its heartbreaking as you know that things are never going to quite be the same again. With the case of my Uncle it has hit with a sudden realisation that our annual trips to Edinburgh with him as our unofficial tour guide are no more. Yes, we may still visit the city from time to time but we're never going to walk down the street with my Uncle taking photographs of anything and everything (and his confidence in striding up to a disguised, grumpy looking Eddie Izzard and charming him into posing for a photo...) taking us to ridiculously posh cocktail bars in the New Town when we were all dressed in walking gear and showing us thousands of little things we'd never in a million years have found on our own. 

Although really emotional, Stuart's funeral was inspirational. My Uncle didn't lead a particularly extraordinary life but his kindness, creativity and sense of fun clearly touched a lot of people, so much so that they had to upgrade us to the bigger chapel five minutes before the service was due to start as there'd have been about double the amount of people for the capacity of the original venue. Stuart clearly brought a smile to everyone he'd ever met and although his life was cut short long before it should have been, it was comforting to realise how happy he made people and how much they meant to him too. 

That's what I'm trying to take away from all of this, the idea of making the most of every second you do have on this Earth, making sure you make other people happy and make yourself happy too as really those are the things we have to live for. Life is there to be enjoyed and not wasted, we owe that to the ones who aren't there to share the party with us at least. 

Make You Feel My Love- Bob Dylan

(this one's for you Uncle Stuart)

I sit and pine for wasted time

Over Easter weekend I took a trip back to The Wirral to catch up with my friends and family. We had some looovely weather (some of the time at least!) which made a bit of a crazy contrast to Easter weekend last year where I had a day trip out in the snow with my Mum and Dad. English weather, you're full of surprises.

We spent a lot of Good Friday travelling around about a zillion car show rooms as I've decided that after passing my driving test six years ago its probably about time I actually invested in a pair of wheels. After a few hours, my Dad decided we needed a stop off for lunch which I'm fairly certain was really to stop him from having a minor heart attack every time a salesman uttered the words "fancy a test drive?" to me. Having not driven properly since passing my test all those years ago, my Dad was clearly having vivid nightmares about me being trusted behind the wheel of a shiny test car (can't say I blame him... I can barely remember which pedal is which!). 

Anyway, we ended up in New Brighton for our little pit stop. Back when my Mum and Dad were young, New Brighton was a thriving seaside resort complete with an outdoor pool, but for most of my life I've known it as being a bit of a depressing, run down place that had lost all of its appeal and visitors. Over the last few years, they've really put a lot of effort into redeveloping the Prom and there were just people EVERYWHERE. Normally, I get a bit fed up if somewhere is absolutely chock a block with people, but actually this was a pretty lovely sight and it was great to see that the town is regaining some of the glory and atmosphere it had lost over the years.

 (Oh look, that Primark playsuit I keep rambling on about is making another appearance on here already!)

Did you manage to make the most of the sunshine over Easter weekend?

Overdone- Bombay Bicycle Club

Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth

Mama and Papa T came to Leeds for a little visit this weekend in honour of my new found oldness. As per, we didn't actually spend much time in Leeds at all, instead using their trip as an excuse to get out and explore the beautiful places in Yorkshire that I don't normally get to visit due to my lack of a four wheeled vehicle to call my own.

This time, we took a trip over to the other side of West Yorkshire to Haworth. I've been to Haworth once before and thought it'd be the perfect parent friendly sort of place to visit. Lots of steam trains to keep my Dad amused, a lovely, quaint village feel to keep my Mum happy, and an abundance of cafes to keep us all happy (we do have a tendency to pick our days out based upon whether we'll be able to get a good slice of cake out of it...). 

Haworth gets a lot of visitors for two main reasons, firstly its where the Bronte sisters lived so there's lots of literary heritage to geek out on, and secondly the railway line has a lot of Railway Children links as the film was based around Haworth and Oakworth stations. My Dad tried to get me to recreate that scene from the film where the eldest daughter sees her father appear through the steam on the platform and shouts "MY DADDY" when a train arrived on the platform at Oakworth. Funnily enough I decided against it given that there were three carriages full of train enthusiasts sat poised with their cameras facing the platform we were stood on. 

Other than that little trip out of the city, I've mostly spent this weekend watching Breaking Bad. I signed up to Netflix the other day but must have missed the warning that I was signing my life away in the process. Its a good job my parents came over or else I probably wouldn't have moved away from my laptop screen all weekend!

Step- Vampire Weekend

There's something inside you, its hard to explain

Christmas in our family is usually a fairly quiet one. We spend Christmas morning running around catching up with all of our extended family before we all separate off to our own houses for Christmas dinner; when I'm left with just my Mum and Dad for the rest of the day. I love our little family Christmas day- we play a lot of scrabble, eat far too much food and see who's first to fall asleep in front of the telly, but as soon as Christmas Day is out of the way we need a bit of something to escape the house (and keep us away from the Quality Street for a few hours). 

And so, yesterday we ended up at Chester Zoo. Its somewhere I go quite often when I'm at home as its only a few miles away, and I could never ever get bored of it. This time, the tiger cubs were the main attraction- we watched the two of them fighting over a bone and tricking each other into letting go of it... its great to see that family arguments come as standard at Christmas across the whole of the animal kingdom!

Believe it or not, this was one of the cubs... slightly bigger than your average kitten!

We had a great little time, and it was nice to get out of the house and have a bit of a wander about to clear the cobwebs before returning to our scrabble board and tins of chocolate in the evening. Tis the season and all that!

Nightcall- London Grammar

So I'm sending you this Christmas card, to say its nice to have you here

Mama and Papa T took a little trip across the pennines this weekend for our annual family trip to York. York is pretty magical at any time of year, but at Christmas it just has such a lovely atmosphere (despite the horrendous crowds on a Saturday afternoon). We got lots of Christmas shopping done, and for once my Mum actually suggested something she'd like me to buy her for Christmas as opposed to every other year when she's wandered around shops with her eyes firmly blinkered to the floor just in case she happened to give any indication that she might like us to buy her anything. My Dad and I often find ourselves wondering what would actually happen if one year we actually listened to her when she insisted that she "doesn't want anything". 

 I love how we've carried on our tradition of visiting York every Christmas even though we end up there a few times during the year when my Mum and Dad come to see me in Leeds, it always does wonders for getting us in the Christmas spirit. I always love wandering around the town towards the end of the day when the sky is getting darker and the fairy lights start twinkling down the little higgledy piggledy streets, York has the loveliest decorations every year; they do things in a very classy fashion with lots of Christmas trees fixed onto the walls of shops down the little old streets. 

I do seem to waffle on about York a lot in my blog posts, but seriously, I challenge you to find a prettier city! I'd love to know what gets you guys into the Christmas spirit. Do you have any traditions that you do every year with your family?

coat: Topshop, dress: Asos, boots: Topshop, hat: H&M

I've fallen totally in love with my new hat. I bought it as part of my "This Charming Man" costume (yes, it involved a moustache...) for a Song Title fancy dress pub crawl the other week thinking it wouldn't matter if I didn't wear it again, but actually its doing a pretty good job of securing itself a place in my regular wardrobe. Plus it was only £7.99... loads cheaper than all the similar ones I've seen in Topshop/Urban Outfitters. Result.

Step into Christmas: Elton John

(my housemate and I started off December 1st by belting out lots of Christmas songs this morning... I try to resist cheesy music for the other 11 months of the year but in December I just can't get enough!)

Sometimes when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul

I escaped Leeds this weekend for a little trip to bonny Scotland, my second trip to Edinburgh this year (definite upside of having an Uncle who lives in such a beautiful city!). My Uncle likes using us visiting as an excuse for him to get out of town for a bit, so we ended up spending a lot of time skirting around the outermost fringes of the city. Although I missed having a chance to just wander up and down the Royal Mile and Princes Street, we saw plenty of the city centre from some great spots outside the hustle and bustle of the main tourist streets. 

I wanted to take a trip up Arthur's Seat on Saturday since we haven't done it in years and my Dad jumped at the rare chance to hear me willingly put a pair of walking boots on (I vowed never to touch them ever again after I did the National Three Peaks Challenge a few years ago). We ended up heading up there at the perfect time of day, my Mum and my Uncle thought we'd gone absolutely crackers as they were lagging behind and gave up when a huge cloud decided to engulf itself around them, promptly leading to them heading back to the car. We made it through the mist and had possibly the most beautiful view of the city anybody had ever seen before. We didn't get to spend much time up there as it was getting dark pretty quickly and my Mum had started sending frantic texts saying "COME DOWN NOW." but it was worth it to see my Mum and Uncle's jealous faces when we showed them how incredible it had been up there. Not that we were trying to rub it in or anything. Obviously.

Sometimes- James

And she's always gonna be there in the back of your mind

I always like to take a bit of time off right at the end of the school holidays- most of the team I work with get the whole six weeks off (lucky teachers...) but there's a select few of us who work all year round and we find it a bit torturous when everyone else comes back into work fresh from weeks of relaxation. A week off isn't quite the same but it does ease the jealousy slightly. I went home to see my parents for half of the week as my Uncle was down from Edinburgh for the Bank Holiday and so we decided to go somewhere a bit different to the usual wandering around Liverpool. And so, bright and early in the morning we got in my Dad's car and took a horrendously higgledy piggledy route (thanks for that one sat-nav) to Portmeirion in Wales. 

I'd only been to Portmeirion once before when I was a lot younger but I could still picture the beautiful brightly coloured buildings really clearly. It didn't disappoint a second time around as we escaped the grey sky and drizzle of Merseyside and ended up in what could easily have been somewhere in the Mediterranean (both in terms of the buildings and the weather!). If you're ever around North Wales I'd definitely recommend a visit; I came away from the trip feeling as though I'd had a mini summer holiday! Just what I needed to fool myself into feeling like I'd been somewhere exotic in my precious few days off work (plus it was a great way to stop my Leeds Festival envy- no mud anywhere to be seen over on this side of the country!).

shirt: Topshop, pinafore: Topshop, necklace: River Island, shoes: Vans

California Daze- Peace