Packing fun :)

Good afternoon my good people :)

Look at this, a post that isn't coming out after midnight :O :P Since I had a pretty late night last night I didn't get up today until about 2pm :D However, I still feel really tired :/ I hope ye are all having a good day though, Friday at last! :D

So I am going home tomorrow after my week and a half away and I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends and family :) I packed my bag there a while ago and thankfully everything! However, I'm more concerned about the weight of my case as it was close to the allowed weight coming over and some of the stuff I bought while I was here is weighty stuff (eg. boxes if cards, my new camera etc.)

I also had to pack my Michael Kors handbag into my case as well since I got a gorgeous new Victoria's Secret bag (with I am beyond in love with) when I was on my way over from the Dublin Airport Terminal 2 VS shop. (I'll include that purchase in a post sometime :) ) However, my aunt came to the rescue and told me that I should put some of my clothes into the bag and then it wouldn't be taking up too much space in the suitcase, and it worked a treat! :D

After some strategic packing I got everything in their bar all my toiletries, my pjs and what I'm wearing today but they should just sit nicely on top tomorrow morning :) #crisisaverted For my hand luggage I'm allowed two pieces of small baggage as I'm flying with Aerlingus. I have my laptop with me so when that's in it's bag that'll be one piece and then my Victoria's Secret handbag will be my other one as it just has so much space in it so it's totes handy :D I don't plan on carrying much anyways in my hand luggage just my purse, my phone, earphones and my coat, oh and not forgetting my neck rest aswell :P

So now that all my packing is out of the way I can relax a bit now and enjoy my last evening :) My cousin and I are heading to the cinema later this evening to see Hot Pursuit (Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara) so I'm excited to see that because it looks quite funny :P Well it's just time for some dinner now and then it'll be time for us to head off :)

So I shall chat to you all later :*

Kate! Xx

Balmoral and Craigievar Castles :)

Hi guys,

I hope you all had a good Thursday :) Friday tomorrow so almost there! :D #weekendlove As Thursdays go I had a pretty good one, even if I was wrecked for a large majority of the day :P Remember how I said in my post last night that I needed to have an early night?..... Ya well that didn't really go to plan :P Needless to say was I regretting it when my alarm went off at 8 this morning D: But yano, I survived the day, even if I was doing my best in the car not to fall asleep going to and fro :P And well what do you know, looks like it's going to be another late night tonight. However, I don't feel too bad about it tonight as I have no reason what so ever to be up at any time tomorrow so I feel a good long sleep in coming on :D

 Ok, so you're never ever going to guess what I did today :P I went to not one, but TWO castles today :D Bet not one of you saw that coming at all, hehehe ;P  Yup, surprise surprise my castle visiting continued today :P As we had planned from earlier this week, today was our day for visiting Balmoral Castle, one of the Queens official residences :) We had been researching Balmoral at the weekend at the weekend and we saw on the TV and on their website that the English TV show 'The Antiques Roadshow' was being held at Balmoral today, however, that completely went out of our minds until yesterday evening when we saw an ad for it. We decided that since we had the plans made that we might as well just go ahead and just go for it and see how we got on and sure if worst cam to worst we would just do something else :)

We set off for Balmoral Castle at about half ten I would say and we had a satnav in the car to help us with directions. The journey took about just short of an hour and a half I would say. The satnav took us on a route that mostly consisted of backroads/rural roads for the majority of the journey. Even though that meant small and windy roads the scenery was nothing short of stunning!! The Scottish countryside is beautiful in general, there is just so much greenery and forestry it's amazing. The mountains are equally magnificent, most of them are coated in trees and it's just so cool :D

Anyway, we arrived at Balmoral some time shortly after midday I think. As the Antique Roadshow was on the normal car parks we not bring used. The grounds of the castle were used as massive car parks due to the masses of cars that had arrived. There was no cost today to go to the castle due to the Roadshow, just a parking cost of £5. That was pretty good as I think it's usually around £12 per person to go in. When we got our space we had our lunch/picnic in the car :P Before we left the house my aunt packed us lunch (rolls, buns, tea, etc....) and we ate that in the back of the car before setting off to have a look around :D Can I just mention how cold of a day it was today?! I was absolutely freezing for the whole day! D: I mean my hands and nose were just I don't know, numb? It was just just too cold for a summer day even though it was fine out :(

The first thing we noticed (obviously) were the crowds, and was there a lot of people. Most of them with bags and trolleys full with antiques. We strolled across the front of the castle just taking it in. We then made a bee line for the ladies and then we went into the gift shop (a danger place for me :P). As you well know by now my usual choice is a magnet, however, as Balmoral is a royal spot the gifts were a bit more pricey than the ones that would be available at castle that are run by the NTS (National Trust for Scotland), like all the other castle I have been to this week. Baring that in mind I just got a little plastic/rubber coaster for myself as a memento and then a small jar of hard sweets for my dad :) Those two things alone cost almost £6 :/

After our little shop we decided to take a look around the castle. As the castle is regularly used by the royal family, it is not open to the pubic to go in and around. However, on a normal day you can get audio guides to bring you around the castle grounds and that provides good insights to the castle, I would imagine. Since the Roadshow was on however, there were no audio guides been given out during our visit. One part of Balmoral Castle that is open to the public to take a wander into is a ballroom at the side/back of the castle. It's a hall/room with artifacts from the castle, like some of the Princes' and Princess' toys from when they were young, and we were allowed to go in there for a look around. When you are going to the Ballroom you pass a lovely sunken garden which is very nice and it is mostly a rose garden :) The grounds also have other gardens and the castle also grows their own fruit and veg but the only time we saw these gardens was when we were driving out (but I'm sure if you followed an audio guide it would bring you to them).

We then went for a little walk around the forest area. The trail we followed was right alongside the River Dee so we had a nice view :) Now, Balmoral Estate covers over 50,000 acres so we decided not to venture too far into the forest walk :P We returned to the castle main grounds and looked into some of the exhibitions that were open to the public and they were really nice. We then made our way back to the castle front and took a wander through all the stalls that were there for the Roadshow. After that it was almost three o' clock so we decided to head back the car and head for home. But before we could leave my aunt had to have a quick cup of tea in the car from her flask before we set off :P

When we were driving to Balmoral I spotted another castle from the Castle Trail on one of the hill/mountain sides. We were on the same road on the way home so we decided to stop in their for a quick look seeing as we were passing :P This castle was Craigievar Castle and omg is it beautiful! The castle is pink in colour just from whatever stone it is made from and its gorgeous <3 (you know me, anything pink and I'm practically in love :P) We parked up and went for a walk around the castle. Craigievar Castle has a real fairytale look to it, I suppose it's what you might call a 'romantic' castle. It is just so pretty I think any girl would want to be a princess there :D

The Castle is situated on what you would say is mountain side and the views from outside the castle are stunning looking out onto to vivid green and golden fields and the other tree covered mountains - just breath taking really :) Like I said we were just stopping in to look at the castle and take a few pics of it so we didn't go for a tour or a look inside or for a walk around the grounds, but from what we did see it looks to be a really lovely place to visit. Hopefully next time I'm over I can go for a proper visit there :D Being completely honest we did go into the gift shop for a little snoop around but this time I just got a bookmark magnet thing, nothing major! :P I think that cost around £0.99. After that we went outside and took a few pics and special one with my Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 camera which I also used at Balmoral aswell btw :)

Then it really was time to head for home and I think we were in the door at five o' clock and I headed straight for a heavy duty dressing gown :P Even though I was tired and EXTREMELY cold for the day I had a really good day, I enjoyed our road trip and I would definitely recommend both Balmoral and Craigievar Castles! :)

Anywhoo my eyes are almost falling out of my head at this stage so it's defo time to sign out for tonight :) I have no exciting plans for tomorrow as I mentioned at the beginning (which I know feels like a whole different post ago at this stage :P) but I am going to the cinema in the evening with my cousin, We are going to see Hot Pursuit with Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara and I am really looking forward to that, it looks like a good laugh - perfect for my last night :)

Oh, p.s. I will also being doing a blog/review post thing on my new Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 soon so keep an eye out for that :)

Night now and I'll chat to ye soon :*

Kate! Xx

Castle Fraser :)

Hello once again guys,

Hey hey I'm on quite a role these days with my new posts, huh? :P I must say, I'm proud of myself, even though it has meant I've had A LOT of late nights (I'm talking not sleeping till nearly 3am :O). However, tonight I'm determined to get to bed early/(ier) as we are going to Balmoral Castle tomorrow, which is an official residence of the Queen and it's about an hour and a quarter from where we are so it'll mean an early start. Actually, an even earlier start as I have to wash my hair, which as most girls know, is a long process when you have to dry it straight away and all :P

Well today was a little less exiting/busy as my shopping day yesterday. I had a late night last (see above :P) so I had a good sleep in today, until my aunt woke me at quarter to two. So last night we said we might go to see another castle today if we had time and the weather wasn't too bad. As it happened the weather was alright for a little day out so we decided that we would take a drive to Castle Fraser, which is about a twenty minute drive from us.

When we got to Castle Fraser it was about four o' clock so the tearooms had just closed so we weren't going to have any tea on this trip. So Castle Fraser like most castles has lovely foresty walk ways and a walled garden. As were late arrivals we decided we would just stroll around the castle and not do any tours or walks as we could always just come back and do the full visit next time round. So the weather held up grand as we were going around the castle so I was able to take loads of pics, and a special one with my Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 :D

We also stopped into the gift shop while we were there and lets just say, I went a bit overboard :P I got myself two postcards, a fridge magnet, two cool animal keyrings, two mini wooden highland cow ornaments and another cute little keyring for my cousin :) All  in all I think I spent around £15, which I am not proud of :P

We then decided we would take a stroll up to the walled garden for a little walk and look around. It was a lovely garden but just as we got there it started to rain so we had to hurry up a bit but luckily we had an umbrella. At this point we decided it was time to head back to the car and head for home.

 

Overall, we had another lovely trip to the see the local sites :D After visiting Fyvie Castle earlier this week, Castle Fraser today and with our plans to visit Balmoral Castle tomorrow and possibly Crathes Castle on Friday, I have come to the conclusion that I think I want to complete the Aberdeenshire Castle Trail which consists of 18 castles. I love going to castles so I think I'd really enjoy going round to see all the castles, even though many of them are in ruins, but I just think castles in general are so amazing :)

Well, that's enough chat for tonight as you know, I'm trying to have an early night :P I hope you all enjoy yet another post about my castle hopping :) You'll be sick of hearing about castles by the end of this week I'm sure if I get to Balmoral and Crathes :P Anyways, I'm sure I'll have more for you all tomorrow night.

Night,
Kate! Xx

Shopping day :)

Hi guys,

I hope you all had a good Tuesday :) I had a pretty good day myself and in the holiday mind set, it felt like a Friday to me :P The weather here today was wet and cold so we were glad that we hadn't made plans to go somewhere touristy because it wouldn't have been as good in the rain :/

Today was our day to go into the city for a spot of shopping. The traffic going in was heavy enough as there had been a crash so it was about half two by the time we got parking. We went around some of the shops in the Union Square shopping centre. I went to Paperchase to get boxes of cards for my mom, which I usually pick up for her as having blank cards are totes handy. I also took a look around in Hollister but there wasn't much there that took my fancy (or that I could afford :P). The main place I wanted to go to in the Union Square shopping centre was the Pandora shop. My cousin got me a beautiful Pandora bracelet, which is from their Essence range, last summer when he was in New York and I've been growing my charms, slowly but surely :) I wanted to go to their store to get a new charm for my bracelet as a little treat. After looking at several different charms I settle on the Faith charm to add to my collection :) The Faith charm represents faith (obviously) which I really liked as I have a very good faith. The charm is a deep purple colour and it cost £35. After that purchase it was time to move on :)

My main mission for this trip was to go to the Disney store and to go to Penneys/Primark. In order to get to these shops we had to go through a couple of different shopping centres to get there so we were kinda going in and out of shops, browsing on the go. Going through the one of the shopping centres I spotted a Miss Selfridge. I usually only go into Miss Selfridge to look around as I tend to find them a bit expensive, even though I know they make good clothes, but most of the time I can't justify paying the price of some of the clothes as you get similar look in shops like Penneys for way cheaper. Despite this I decided to go in and look around. I didn't look around at much of their normal stuff, instead I stuck to the sale rails :P As I was going through them and losing hope I spotted this cute little playsuit in my size. I liked the colours/pattern and simplicity of the playsuit and that it didn't have any cut-outs or plunging fronts or backs so I said to myself ah sure why not try it on.

I've never been one for playsuits or very short skirts/shorts as I'm not very comfortable showing that much leg. However, this playsuit is one that will look just as good with black tights so I was happy that I would get wear out of it. As I was going through the sale rail I also saw a cute little purple skirt and I took it to try on aswell. When I went to try on my picks the purple skirt ended up not being a great fit so I decided against it. I then tried on the playsuit and I really liked it :D I showed it to my aunt and expressed my feelings that wasn't overly sure about buying it as I couldn't justify the price but then she offered to get it for me as a gift so after some consideration I accepted her lovely offer :) In the end I was delighted as when we got to the till the playsuit ended up only being £15 so we were thrilled! :D All and all it ended up being a rather successful unexpected trip into Miss Selfridge :P (I don't think they have any available online anymore but here's the link non-the-less :P http://www.missselfridge.com/en/msuk/product/petites-nude-floral-playsuit-4040600#BVRRWidgetID )

We made our way around and got to the Disney store where I picked up a little airplane for my nephew as a little gift. On the way to Penneys we spotted a shop that sold pretzels and so at this point I was starving I decided to get a nutella one. The pretzel was way bigger than what I expected it to be and it was quite messy with all the chocolate but it was delicious :P We had to sit down in the shopping centre while I ate it as there were loads of pigeons and seagulls outside and I din't want to be attacked by one :P In the end we made it to Penneys :) I wasn't really up for browsing as it was getting late and really only wanted to go in there for one reason. When I was in Penneys in Sligo last week I saw this gorgeous pair of high waisted denim shorts that I fell in love with but they didn't have them in my size. I thought that they might have then over here but after looking through the vast amount of denim clothing they were no where to be seen D: However, I shall not give up, maybe I'll see them again when I get home :)

After all our shopping it was food time! :D We decided to go to Frankie and Bennies for out dinner. I love the fish and chips that they do there so I was excited to go there. Dinner was really good and then I had a chocolate pancake for dessert which was equally as good #yum After dinner we went for a game of crazy golf. I love a good game of crazy golf :D We had to play the indoor course as it was still wet and cold outside plus it was getting a bit dark. We had a good time during our game, even though I must admit it wasn't my finest :P After the game we wasted some coins on the claw machines trying to win a minion :D We were so close :P So after our busy day it was finally time to head for home, and was I wrecked!

Overall, I had a really good and enjoyable day in town and I was happy enough with my purchases, especially my playsuit <3 I've just been relaxing now for the night and I' extra comfy as I got into my pjs as soon as we got home :P Well I ready to hit the hay now so it's time to begin my long bedtime routine and catch some z's :)

Night :*
Kate! Xx

Fyvie Castle and Gardens

Hi guys,

Hope ye are having a good Monday :) As far as Mondays usually go for me, they may be depressing if you have to get up early but I think overall they tend to be no worse than any other day #mondayblues However, being honest I didn't even realise it was Monday today until about dinner time, all day I was sure that it was Wednesday :P That's the holiday spirit for you though, never keeping track of the days :D

Well yesterday I very excitedly told you all about my plans to visit Fyvie Castle, and I did so today and I had such a great time! :D The weather was quite chilly today and a bit overcast and gloomy but still some brightness broke through the clouds and it was perfectly good for a day trip.
The castle is situated in the village of Fyvie which is just a half an hour for where I am staying so it was nice and handy to get to :) Once you go through the gates there is a fairly lengthy drive that has beautiful views of the castle's lock and its wildlife and the surrounding fields, with glimpses of the gorgeous castle in the distance as you drive up to the car park.

The car park is a good size and is pay and display (I believe it is just £2 for the day, which isn't too bad). Once we parked up we decided to take the walk around the loch as the car park is right beside it. The walk ways are clearly marked and are mostly clear so walking doesn't consist of tripping over branches and going cross country. There is no lack of nature at Fyvie Castle and Gardens. The loch walk was lined on either side with trees and bushes of all kinds and the canopy cover is lovely, especially good for blocking the breeze and I imagine some rain too :P The views of the loch are lovely as you walk around it and you are right at the loch edge for most of the walk. There are loads of ducks on the loch and they seems to be well used to people as when I went to take pics of them they started coming towards me (perhaps they were looking for some bread :P ), there was also a pair of swans and their babies and a few birds and also lots of lily-pads :)

The loch walk if you follow it right around brings you up to the side of the castle. We decided to go for the full Fyvie experience and take a tour of the castle interiors. It cost i think around £18 pounds for our tickets in as I had my student card with me so I could get a cheaper ticket at £9. I also got a guide book as a little memento for myself. The book had an info filled guide for going around the castle and some lovely pictures of the castle and it cost £3.50. There were no guided tours on today so we were in charge of bringing ourselves around, which is where the guide book came in handy :P

The interiors of the castle are stunning and it is clear to how the castle changed throughout the centuries with each new owner adding and changing to their tastes and how the castle progressed, improved and modernised. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any photos of the inside so I can not show you the historical rooms. In most of the rooms there are assistance who have plenty of knowledge on the castle and who are all so friendly. I think my favourite thing of the inside was the amazing great wheel stairs case which is one of the original features form when the castle was first built. It is a huge spiral staircase made of stone and it is just so cool :D Another thing I forgot to mention about the castle is that it is supposedly haunted by two lady ghosts which I tried to keep out of my mind for the duration of the visit :O Thankfully, there was no spookiness while we were there. Being honest I have no idea how long it took us to go around the castle but I guess it was maybe around an hour.

At the end of the tour you end up at the tearoom and so of course we stopped for a quick refuel :P We had tea for two, a plain scone and a shortbread biscuit and it was all quite nice. Altogether it cost £7.50 which I suppose isn't too bad for a touristy place. We then moved on to the gift shop :D It's only a small enough shop with a couple of shelves with the usual suspect gifts; postcards, magnets, bookmarks, tea towels, foody bits, candles and a few little things for children. I got a magnet for my fridge at home which cost £2.85 and five postcards (all of the same :P ) which we on offer for £2, so altogether my spend was £4.85 which I thought was alright.

We then had to detour back to the tearoom as I had left my guide book at our table (I can't be trusted to remember to bring things with me :P ). We then walked around to the front of the castle, which is what I had been waiting to see all day and I was not let down! :D The front of the castle is nothing short of stunning! What ever stone the castle is made of and whatever way it has weathered over the hundreds of years the castle now has a pinkish tint to it, and as we all know I am an avid pink lover so I was delighted :D The views of the front of the front of the castle were so picturesque and so lots of pics from different angles were obviously necessary :P

Over the weekend I bought myself a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 after wanting one for so long and after much consideration. I figured that my trip to Fyvie Castle would be the perfect opportunity to put it to use and I was not disappointed :D I won't go into depth here about my latest love as hopefully I'll do a post about it, but instant cameras are the coolest things ever!! Anyways after the photo shoot at the front of the castle it was time for us to head back to the car and head to for home once again. On our drive out, we had a close up encounter with the loch's geese - another photo opportunity :P

Overall, I had such a fantastic time at Fyvie Castle and I couldn't speak highly enough of it! It is now certainly top of my list of my favourite castles, well almost at the top (I'll tell you again about my favourite castle!) :P I will definitely be returning to Fyvie Castle in the future without a doubt and I can't believe I've gone all these years every summer only being a half an hour away from it and not knowing it was there :O The castle is so well maintained by the NTS (National Trust Scotland) and it just adds to the whole experience as the castle and grounds are flawless. I will certainly be doing some further investigation of the loads of other local castles for sure for my next trip :)

So that's it (at last :P ), I hope ye enjoyed the rather long post about Fyvie Castle and Gardens and that it didn't bore ye out of yer minds (the pics do add to the length though :P ) ;) Well I think it's time to sign off now and move onto a new post :)

Thanks for reading,
Kate! Xx

Sunderland - Part 1

Hi guys,

Ok, so I began writing up this post on the 7th of July and as I am writing now it is the 27th of July. I honestly couldn't face coming back to this post to finish it off but since I got writing a new post this evening (More holidaying) I figured since I had put a lot of time and effort into this post I might as well try and do something more with it instead of leaving it to sit in drafts. So, I have decided to now do this blog post in two parts. What you can read below is going to be the first part and hopefully I'll be able to get the motivation to do part two :P :) So without further ado, here is part 1 to my trip to Sunderland at the end of June :)

So, as I mentioned I was in Sunderland for a few days two weeks ago. I went over to visit my cousin who is from Scotland and who I usually only see once a year. So this trip was in planning since early January (we were just too excited :P ) and so I had my flights booked at the end of May for June 18th to 22nd. I flew with Ryanair as they had better prices and flying times than others.
As I was only going for a few days I decided I would use my small pink Nike gearbag and just bring it as my hand luggage because I didn't fancy paying and extra €50 to bring a normal check-in bag for the sake of 4 days. So I through a few bits into the bag the night before I was heading off, trying to keep it as light as possible as I was sure I'd have loads of new bits coming home :P I was up early (4am) on the Thursday morning to get the bus to Dublin Airport at 5.15am to be there at 8am. Once I got there I just went straight through security and got myself a cup of tea and went to the toilet and sure by the time I got back from that the queue for boarding had already lined up and we were on the plane and in the air in no time.

I arrived at Newcastle International Airport around 11am and I was greeted by my cousin. We got to her car, took a selfie for Facebook (#cousinsontour), set the satnav and we headed off for the massive shopping centre the Metro Centre which is about 20 minutes from Newcastle I believe. Firstly we sorted our priorities and got ourselves some food (McDonalds of course :P ) and after that we just started to stroll around the different colour zones of the shopping centre browsing all the shops. I couldn't believe it though, we had been going around the shops from about 12 until 4 or 5 and I hadn't bought a thing  :O I was pretty shocked as I had packed so little as I was sure that I'd buy loads at the Metro Centre, but no! Not a single piece of fabric. Now it wasn't all failure as I did buy a lovely ring at one of the jewellers in their (we both actually got the same rings #twinsies :D ). By about 5 we had most definitely shopped until we were ready to drop so we decided to head for home in Sunderland and get ourselves some Dominoes for dinner. The drive back to the house about about a half an hour or forty minutes. We plonked ourselves down on the couch and ordered our food. We got dinner and dessert and wrapped ourselves up in some blankets (it was absolutely freezing for those 4 days D: ) and we watched Love Island (nothing beats crappy TV shows during the summer) and then we watched one of my all time favourite movies, Sweet Home Alabama <3 By midnight after all my travelling and shopping it was bedtime.

On the second day we knew we couldn't do any thing too time consuming as we were going out to dinner with some of my cousin's work colleagues. I had been looking at things to do in Sunderland online and I had seen this cool looking monument but it was just pictures of it I saw so after some investigation I figured out it was the Penshaw Monument. We decided that it would be cool to go and see it even though we knew that there would be nothing to do there just look at it and that it could have ended up being a waste of time. However, we checked the Satnav on the phone and realised that it was only ten minutes away from us so we just went for it. It was on a hill so I knew I'd need better footware then my little pumps. We stopped into Asda on the way and I got a pair of runners that are the image of the new Skechers. I was delighted with them as they were the last pair they had and luckily they were in my size. It was even better when I got to the till as they had been marked £12 but then they ended up £6 so happy days :D I also had to stock up on bottles of water as the tap water in Sunderland is disgusting!!! I am a big water drinker, I often drink between 2 to 3 litres a day so having (drinkable) water at hand was essential. So everyday of my visit we went to Asda to buy bottles of water to get me through the day :P  Anyway runners and water at hand we headed off to the monument. We parked the car and put our runners on and after taking a few selfies and pictures we began to tackle the hilly walk. It was a quick walk (well it would have been much quicker had we not been stopping every minute for a another pic of the same view and a selfie :P ), it took us about ten maybe fifteen minutes at most to the top to the monument. The monument itself was so cool and it really looked like an ancient Greece temple. The views from the top were so great! You get a full 360 degree view all around you of Sunderland so the trip up is well worth it :) After a couple of minutes at the top we headed back down to the car and headed back home as we were heading out to dinner that evening.

So that's part 1 over, I hope you enjoyed :) Hopefully part two will follow where I'll talk about Alnwick Castle and Durham. For now I have another post about my exciting trip tomorrow that is love and I'm sure I'll have plenty of posts/pics on my Facebook and Instagram so keep an eye out :D

Chat soon,
Kate! Xx

More holidaying!

Hi guys,

Sorry for the long time no post :/ To be honest I have a blog in my drafts that I started to write about a month ago about my trip to Sunderland but I was unable to finish it and I just couldn't bring myself to go back to it. Maybe over the next while I'll get back to it and finish it off or maybe I'll just do a quick finish on the draft and post it as a two part blog post with the second post to come in the future. However, we'll see how things go :P

Anyways........
I'm ssooo looking forward to tomorrow! I'm on my annual holiday in Scotland at the moment and I'm heading to Fyvie Castle tomorrow afternoon :D
I must admit in all the years I've been here I've never been to see much of the local sites, so I did some research this evening as to what's worth visiting around the place. I am a real castle lover so when I saw that there are actually loads of castles around the place I became very excited :D
I cut the list down to three castles; Balmoral Castle, which is a residence of the Queen, Castle Fraser and Fyvie Castle. I was a bit iffy about Balmoral and Castle Fraser and after much consideration I thought Fyvie seemed like the best and nicest one worth going to see :) By the looks of it, it seems to be such a beautiful castle and the reviews appear to be really good too so I'm very excited :) I also treated myself to some new photography equipment this week which has also contributed to my excitement! :D (further post of latest purchase to come :P )

Well it's getting late now and I'm also watching one of my favourite movies ever, Pitch Perfect so I think it's time to sign off. I will do my best to keep you updated on my endeavours and purchases :)

Night,
Kate! Xx

 

Random Explanation Post

Hey guys,

Sorry about the long time no chat, I am actually so bad at this blogging stuff. As I tweeted earlier this week having the lack of motivation and inspiration is absolutely the worst thing to have as a blogger. I'm not going to lie, I'm finding it so difficult to bring myself to do new posts. Tweeting and posting on Facebook is easy, but then again you are quite limited there *cough Twitter and its only 140 characters cough* but when it comes to a full on blog post the struggle is real :P Plus English was never my strongest/best subject at school so writing at length is quite daunting :/ Yano, you just want to put it off for as long as possible, and that's basically what has led to my lack of posting. Being completely honest I'm actually just doing this post because I have nothing better to do with my time and because I also feel guilty #ohtheshame

Anywhooo, enough of my self wallowing. I've had a busy past two or three weeks with being in Sunderland (post on that is coming.....if ever :P ), starting work and having sick friends and more travelling. This summer I'm doing some work experience at a local primary school summer camp with children who are just getting ready to start school. It's such good fun I must admit, playing with toys, making Rice Krispy buns, it's all fun and games really and the little ones are just hilarious XD
Late last week my two best friends had to go to hospital for different reasons and I must say it was a stressful enough time. I don't think I've ever been in a hospital for so long so often (six and a half hours between two different wards in one day). But what can I say, I'm just an amazing friend :D
Since Tuesday I've been away in Sligo with some family. I love coming up here as often as possible as some my favourite family/people live here and I hate leaving every time </3 Ugh and the weather here has been just glorious! :D Well I mean obviously nothing like the rest of Europe, but sunny and warm days where you can leave the door open in the house are amazing when they come around even if it isn't 30 degrees out :)

Well as I type it's currently twenty five minutes past midnight so I think it's time (for me anyways) to finish up and sign off for the night. I have Family Guy on the TV and I also have Ed Sheeran's Photograph playing in the background as I go, so a good night all round I think (there may also have been a bowl of popcorn, a glass of Coke, some Maltesers, a Kinder Beuno and a Loop the Loop involved :P ). So until I make another burst of blogging, I hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully I'll have something for you all again soon :D :* Xx