Red Cup Day

I know many people think that the Coca Cola advert signals the start of the Christmas, for me it's when the Red Cups arrive in Starbucks!

On 3rd November I had two Starbucks dates, one in my lunch break when I had a gingerbread latte, see the picture. In the evening I had an eggnog latte! Ooooh they're scrummy, I can't say which one I prefer!

So every year when they arrive, I wish all my Starbucks loving friends a happy red cup day. And mine was a very happy one this year.

Me and my Sister

I find it awfully difficult to buy Christmas presents for my Nanny each year, but think I have found a winning formula. Each Christmas I select some pictures of me and my little sister from over the last year. We took this at the weekend and I love it (I'm the one on the left)!

Chanello!

Last week I made my first Chanel purchase. So it was only a nail varnish. Though at £17.50 I expected a blooming good one! And it is, I swim everyday and find the swimming pool chips away at my nail varnish, but this one took a lot longer to chip than my others!

Anglesey

One of my oldest friends lost her grandmother last year. Her parents inherited the house in Anglesey that had been in the family for over a hundred years. They have spent the last year moderning the house and it is beautiful.

They are now letting friends use it, so the boy and I fancied a little weekend away. I'd never been to Anglesey before, and realised that despite living 30 minutes from the border, I hadn't been to Wales for over 3 years!

I came down with a cold while there, which was miserable but I was in the right place for some rest and relaxation. We had a lovely walk in the rain and wind, stopping for hot chocolate.

Before dinner I had a lovely hour or so in the worlds best bath while the boy got the fire going downstairs.

On our way home we drove through Snowdonia and I hope to visit here again soon.

All in all, it was a pretty perfect weekend and I can't wait to spend another weekend there.

The Electric

I read 'We need to talk about Kevin' several years ago. I loved it, it was horrific. So I was excited that they made a film and with John C. Reilly and Tilda Swinton as the parents it was exactly how I imagined. But I was ever so disappointed my local Odeon was not showing it.

My clever friend Fi, however had heard of this place called the Electric in Birmingham that was showing it.

We went to Wagamama's for din dins which was fabulous and then onto The Electric.

The Electric is apparently the UK's oldest working cinema, it has regular looking cinema seats and at the back it has sofas, very comfy, snuggly leather sofas. And better than that, we could text the bar our drinks orders and they would bring it to us.

It was my most favourite cinema experience and I'm keeping my eye out for other films showing there.

John Lewis and the Shining

The boy recently decorated our living room. Its amazing and very grown up. But as we braved it with a darker colour on the wall we decided against putting the dark curtains back up so we trotted off to Solihull, where our nearest John Lewis is and selected some fabric. I now have the joys of making the things now! Though the fur baby seemed to like it as something to sleep on.

We then spent the next day having a lazy Sunday in front of the tv, I found the boy watching The Shining. He was ten minutes in and as it was afternoon, I thought I'd watch it. I went straight to sleep that night, but woke up at 2am and could not sleep. I listed all the jobs I need to do in my head and thought about anything else so my mind didn't drift to The Shining. I failed and kept thinking 'Red Rum, Red Rum'.

Lost Weekend

I struggled to remember what I did the following weekend but it's come to me now.

I had big plans with a bottle of wine on the Friday as I was at home on my own. I had pumpkin ravioli for din dins which is incredible. I watched Sex and the City boxset and drank half a bottle of rose before giving up and going to bed.

On the Saturday I went to Shrewsbury to make a start on my Christmas shopping. I met my friend for lunch and a good mooch around.

On the Sunday I then went to Birmingham to try on my bridesmaid dress. That's all I'm saying about that. Except, if you're doing it, take your heels and a pair of magic knickers in your bag!

Divorce Party

My friend has finally got divorced and it was cause to celebrate. I learnt more about my friend that weekend and I think she is amazing. She's one of the most courageous women I know and she's amazing.

Her parents arranged a marriage for her at 17, she became pregnant soon after. She was desperately unhappy and after about 5 years of marriage they separated. Her husband finally signed the divorce papers this year and what would have been their 13th wedding anniversary we bundled off to Derbyshire for a celebratory weekend.

When we started planning the weekend it started as a joke, but it became an anti-wedding. We had an playlist, a best woman's speech, a first dance, the throwing of a bouquet, a ceremonious removal of the ball and chain and a tiered cake made by yours truly.

It was a wonderful weekend, we had an ace curry on the friday night, the property we rented had a sauna and I had Malibo with snowflakes in it!

One of the girls there is a photographer so we bullied her into taking pics of us modelling.

Oh and it was a goth theme

Whoops

I've done what I thought I would do. I've neglected the blog after a week's dabble! So I'm going to do a number of blogs catching up with the highlights over the last month.