New Purse

I've had my old purse for years and years. I'm really sentimental when people buy things for me and I'll keep using them long after they're actually functional/nice looking because I feel guilty about throwing them away. The purse in question was a hoochie mamma one that Helen gave me as a birthday present when she was still living in Bedford.
The zipper had gotten all worn out and sometimes it wouldn't open properly- which was a bit awkward when you're trying to pay for things!

Traff and I have this game which started as a joke and is now a "thing". He thinks I have garish taste in objects- especially accessories or homewares (Most of my clothes are black so not all of my tastes can be garish...)
It started when I was sick and we'd first moved to Bedford. I asked Traff to buy me some new PJs from Primark. In an effort to cheer me up he asked the sales assistant to help him pick out "The ugliest" PJs in the shop- I only wanted the bottoms but I am now the proud owner of a set of pink flannel covered in a repeating print of owls. I genuinely loved them. I still do.

So now, whenever I ask Traff to pick me up something in town he tries to get the "ugliest" possible version.

That is what I am now the owner of a textured, plastic, leopard print purse.

Luton

This weeks sunday adventure was to Luton. I've actually only been to Luton once by accident when my train broke down.
So this was a slightly better experience.

We had a drive round and saw all the parks and the views from the top of the hill. That done, we parked up and had a look around the mall (The park would have been nicer but I'm not totally partial to unseasonal hail stones).
We did find some interesting home bargains.

Charity shop shopping

I've been at it again!  Charity shop bargains!
My hideous £2 2016 diary, my £2 roller derby leggings,  my £1.50 skull scarf,  my £2.50 purple lacy cardigan,  £2 black short sleeved cardigan and my £5 dress.
Pretty happy with that haul!

I have now put all my engagements into my diary! next time you ask me if I am free I should be able to tell you!

:D

I'm like a real grown up now! if you ignore the design on the diary..

New guitar hero!

It turns out that our utilities company gives out argos points each year- we've been with them for 5 years and didn't realise-so when we called up last time to check something the guy on the phone was like "You do realise you have £50 worth or argo points here, right?"

We thought it was high time we spent them so we bought the new guitar hero (As we were so addicted to the old version at uni and it's such a good social get together ice breaker, it seemed a shame not to have it any more just because we had a new console).

The new version is very different to the old one in 5 significant ways:

1) It's much much more complicated to play- as it has 6 buttons and you use them all even on easy mode. It's do-able but much easier if you've ever played a string instrument. There is a tutorial at the start. For the love of god, do the tutorial!

2) The music is ever scrolling- different channels and themes at different times of the day. far more song choice and new music added all the time, however, to "free play" and pick songs you have to earn "coins" to pay for them. You get coins for playing songs so it works out OK it's just a bit of a drag.

3) It has the real music videos on, so it is designed to leave running in the background- It's like it was made for house parties! (Although, the big downside is that you have far less control over the songs- with the old version, you put the "metallica" version on, you know what you're getting. With this I seem to have to play an awful lot of songs I don't like and I don't know- Hopefully it'll learn the preferences and adapt the play lists accordingly.

4) It has real festival footage- you can either play the 24/7 rolling music "live" or on a "TV channel" with the videos. Live is pretty weird. I'd like to know where it was filmed!

5) So far the music is pretty "up to date" and gets updated with new tracks added daily. I would like to see some NIN, smashing pumpkins and APC though as they were on the Xbox 360 versions but have been omitted from this one. Bring back the 90s! We miss them!

At £75 I think it's OK. It's more challenging, it's a level up, it's constantly updated so we won't have to have 10 different versions anymore but I think it's going to take some time to match the sheer volume of retro, trashy and nostalgic songs it had before. It feels a bit like they wanted to divorce the old concept and make this into something far removed from the south park ridicule. What they've actually done is made this so difficult that I might as well be playing rock smith and learning actual bar and arpeggiated chords rather than playing them on guitar hero.

There is no way I could play this game drunk!

Or whilst eating pizza!

I am enjoying it, I'm learning about the kinds of music those young people listen to. I will have to up my game to get back to snacking whilst playing. I preferred the level of control and choice the older version had, but maybe they'll get there with this one.

Fancy gel nails

New glasses

I'm very excited to be able to swap my glasses up now! Hurrah for spec savers!
I got a turquoise pair with orange sides by red or dead and some chunky brown plastic ones from roxy. 
I'll still wear my blue ones though!

Delights from the supermarket

Tesco have recently started stocking moroccan and thai foods- in addition to their awesome korean Japanese and American food selection.  I have bought myself a selection of new things to try.

Shopping!

I got myself some snazzy new pj bottoms and 2 candles.  One is mince pie scented and the other is a wax lyrical 'good fortune' scented candle. I am now going to relax watching Lewis in my pjs with my candles making the living room smell delicious.

I am Waterproof! well, When I have my coat on I am.

I pushed the boat out today and I bought myself a brand new light weight waterproof jacket. I am hopeful that I can motivate myself to cycle to work instead of drive, and then I can have a treat with the pennies I would have been spending on Gym membership.
I tend to wimp out of walking or cycling (Or leaving the house, if I'm perfectly honest) if it's raining, and I haven't had an actually waterproof waterproof coat for a few years (Which has always been the perfect excuse to drive in bad weather).

I'm saying this publicly so that I can't back out very easily. There isn't any good reason why I drive to work, except when I have all my brownie paraphernalia. I'd look like Mrs. Armitage on Wheels if I cycled on Mondays! Mast, bunting, packed lunch, dog, you name it I'd have it all!

I have decided that I'm going to use Autumn to get healthy and improve my cardio- Hopefully I'll get so into it I'll want to carry on into winter.
Ray wants to do some 5K races in the spring. As I've never even run for a bus (I'd rather just miss it and wait for the next one) I will need to start taking some serious exercise. There is a real risk I'll still be running the 5K race whilst the organisers are tidying up around me otherwise! Eeek. I need a personal trainer!

New art for the flat

Actually,  that isn't strictly true.  Newly framed art for the flat is truer.
This has been one of those jobs I've been lazy and put off but I am pleased it's done now as they look even cooler!
The ones on the right are from an exhibition in Berlin that hayley went to.
She sent me the postcard highlights.
The ones on the left in the grey frame were from the wildlife photographer of the year 2015 exhibition that Glen and I went to at the natural history museum in London.
Too cool not to be displayed!

So, I've made the most of a rainy day with some home improvement!

Street, Somerset

On Sunday, we went to Street. It was a pretty weird experience to be honest- We used to drive to Street from Oxfordshire every last week of the school holidays to buy school shoes ready for the next academic year.
We also went to the clarks factory outlet shop- soo much nostalgia!
And it was full of families doing the same thing.

Ray had her heart set on a part of shoes for Soph's wedding and my mum was after some new boots, so we had a shoe finding mission.
Ray had a power nap in the car to prepare to elbow all the small children out of the way to get her wedding shoes:

Day. Is. Made

Southall

Today I went fabric shopping in southall with Abida. The Aim was for me to buy loads of fabric cheaply and for her to get a new outfit for a wedding, and new shoes.

Abida has a brand new wedding outfit.
I have 28 meters of fabric and some new sandals for £50.
We win at shopping! I however do not win at reading the tube map as I took us a really round the houses way to get there! Urgh. Kings cross- Paddington- Southall. That is the easiest way for future reference!

 Some of the awesome traditional outfits- Abida wanted me to try things on and take photos but I was too scared we'd get told off! we went into all the bridal boutiques too and just looked at everything! I think she  secretly enjoyed my awe and wonder.

My fabric and sandal haul:

 This is where we went for lunch- they had an really yummy desi handi tagine style dish which we had with naan bread :) We ate soooo much food today I almost died.

After all the shopping, and eating the most amazing tagine type dish for lunch, we decided we needed pudding, I had red velvet cookie dough, Abida had waffles. Both were awesome!
I have a new pudding buddy!

Hayley asked me to get her something "orange and purple" to make a kaftan from. This is the fabric we got for her- I think we 100% met the shopping criteria.

Lazy Saturday. Mostly spent on Netflix and at Tesco

My first lie in of the summer! :D

Traff went to the gym and I lazed about in my dinosaur onesy watching more anime on Netflix- this time is "My little Monster". Ray's recommendation. 

I met him in town to buy some bits. I had planned to persuade him to go shopping in TK Max and to go to to the museum but it was so busy I gave up and we just went home- Thats the worst thing about the summer!

So, Today has been a day of "things that needed to be done" interspersed with anime.

We did manage to go food shopping- I got a knitting magazine which has a pattern for a raptor. Traff promised he'd ask his mum if she would make him for me!

I also found Korean dumplings:

And Cherry bakewell tea:

It doesn't really taste like cherry bakewells. It smells like them though. I guess it has cherry and vanilla flavour in with the green tea.

Traff also bought us some new bed linen. I've never bought bedclothes from tesco before, and I have to admit I'm quite impressed with the quality. But doing so makes me feel like a bit of a snob (I wasn't expecting them to be good because they're so reasonably priced...).

We have a slightly manlier looking bedroom now:

Gelligaer Car boot sale

Everyone knows how much I love shopping for cheap and cheerful tat! hurrah for rubbish!
This was my first ever car boot sale experience, and it was amazing!
More car booty please!

Traff gave me £2.50 and I managed to get a top, a dress and a dinosaur!

London with Amanda

I met up with Amanda in London on Sunday- It was sooooo good to see her as it's been almost a year since we last met!
She only lives in London so theoretically we should see each other loads, but we seem to be taking it in turn to visiting Cardiff the weekends I am here she is not and vice versa.

We went to Choccywoccydodah and shared their 5 layer cake-  the servings of cake are so huge there is no way anyone could finish a whole one on their own, Trust me, I am truly an expert in the art of cake eating and even I couldn't.
After cake and tea we headed to Selfridges and had a mooch around Oxford street.
Then we headed over to the east end to the spitalfields market and rough trade.

After all our walking and spending too many pennies, we went for dinner in honest burger.
:D
I would like to live in honest burger please.

New boots!

Today Traff and I hit the shops- he was after a new wallet and whilst he was man shopping in TK Max I went to have a look at the boots.
There wasn't anything that took my fancy in the ladies section, so I went to find Traff who had given up on a wallet and was looking at converse trainers in the man shoes section.

That is when I realised that having massive feet is a bit of a blessing- I can buy mens or womens shoes- Why did I not think about this before?!

So, I am now the proud owner of these Kurt Geiger brown leather boots.
:D
Well, I'd never have been able to walk in any of his women's shoes.

Charity shop shopping & The airport

Today feels like it's lasted forever and it's only mid afternoon.
Traff went to visit his family in Spain today, And in order to make his 7am flight I have to give him a lift to the airport at 5am.
It's only an hour before I'd normally get up for work- and we went to bed at 9 so we'd had 8 hours- even so, It was a struggle.

On the way back from the airport it started snowing. I always feel like I'm in the opening credits for star wars when I'm driving in snow.
I was so engrossed in singing the theme tune I missed my exit and had to drive home via newport pagnal.

I got in just before 7, had a bath and went to get dressed- I swear I only sat on the bed for a second and than it was 10am.
Not so productive.

I went into town to get my holiday money (We're taking it in turns to go to europe, you see) and I had £20 in my bag from when one of my mates had paid me back- so I went charity shop shopping!
I've been after summery bits for when we go to America- we have 10 days at just over 20 degrees celsius-I'm not sure my wardrobe can accommodate that many sunny outfits!

I was lucky today- I got 2 topshops dresses:

I'm taking the checked one to sicily- the white one is for the beach in Florida :D
£11 for 2 brand new dresses is a bargain- and I have pennies left for more charity shop shopping later on.

I also saw this photo frame in Debenhams- it costs £19- I think this could be made better and cheaper, I'm trying to persuade Jen to help me to give it a go- because she has a glue gun! We can glue ANYTHING.

My new musical discovery for the week! this band are fab!

Camden

Today I met up with Tony in London for an afternoon of shopping in camden.
:D
And we got to have street market food which is possibly the most delicious food in the whole world! I had chinese for a change- usually I gat moroccan- it's all amazing.

After eating far too much food, we headed out around the market for a look-see.

My biggest regret of the day is not buying these:

However, they are £90 still even in the sale, and the soles on them are spongey so I doubt I'd get my moneys worth of of them (The rule = £1 per wear in 1 year = The cost of the item, the only exceptions are evening wear or items who's life expectancy is well over a year, e.g cars, bed linen or really good boots).

I only bought useful items- I got a hippy looking rug for the bedroom and some new cushion covers to replace some of the ones in the front room which have gotten broken/stained/worn.
I'm pretty proud of my house purchases lately!
Our place always had it's own "character"- you'd know we lived here as soon as you walked through the front door!

Tony got his mum's birthday present, and we did lots of mooching- Camden is really pretty, and it was nowhere near as busy as I'd expected!
All the train "Chaos" (It's not chaos, it's planned engineering work and it happens every year, people just need to learn to read! Especially up by us- there have been signs up since september warning people about festive travel restrictions) seems to have scared people away, or stopped them attempting to travel.
Bigger fools them!