Month: September 2018

The seaside

Posted on by arappleby

What happened at the seaside?

Well I will start at the beginning.
We got to Brighton about 12ish, but our hotel reservation check in wasn’t until 3pm. Which was a small pain in the bum so we went to the hotel and ended up paying for an early check in. We went to our room which was nice and clean and tidy. Sorted out our bags so we only had to take a mini picnic blanket and sun cream with us to the beach. We went down and walked along the sea front going past the restaurants etc. We walked past an “organic” burger place. Which gave us a giggle, simply because we didn’t think we would actually eat there. We went and got some shellfish, discovered we hate whelks. We thought we would really splash out a bit on shellfish and enjoy our time there, so we got a small pot of lobster, some cockles, some crayfish, some pinks, I even tried my first ever oyster. Not sure how I felt about that, it was nice but so weird and slimy. Turns out the other half likes fresh cockles.
We played hook a duck and I won a tuck with sunglasses on it. We went and had a waffle on a stick- I think they used to be nicer when I was a kid. We had some fresh donuts which were awesome. We went into the arcade and had fun, we won some teddies on the claw machines, had fun on all the other games, we actually did ok at basket ball together. It was generally just silly fun. We went for a walk around the lanes and discovered a shop full of rubber ducks. We went to Chockywockydoodah and I think we were both a little disappointed by it, it was a bit underwhelming. We saw lots of jewelry.
We ended up going to the Sea life centre, we both thought it seemed bigger when we were kids but it was fun and we saw the fishes and sharks going under neath our little glass bottom boat thing. Weirded me out a bit. But the boat tour was really nice all the same.
We went to the pier after that and then went down to the beach for dinner and ended up at the organic place because everywhere else seemed to not do fish and chips and seemed to be shutting. Turns out it was a gorgeous fish and chips, we loved it and barely breathed we inhaled our dinner. We went for another little walk and when we got to our hotel rooms, showered off some sun cream and finally sat on the bed, we were fast asleep in seconds we were so tired!
We ended up getting a late check out too to give ourselves more freedom. We went to the Breakfast Club for breakkie, we both had the All American, he had scrambled eggs but I had poached. Pancakes, bacon, fried potatoes, sausage and eggs… My eggs seemed to look a bit testicular in shape which gave us a giggle. The food was great. We went to the rubber duck shop and got some duckies. Then we went for fish and chips on the pier followed by donuts by the sea. We saved dipping our feet in the water till last before we had to make our way back home.
But safe to say it was a wonderful trip and we made some memories and had lots of fun goofing around.
May luck and adventure be on your side.
ARA
xxx

Getting ready for the seaside

Posted on by arappleby

So, after quite a few years I am going to the seaside this summer.

It has been an incredibly long time since I last went to the beach. So I figured, hey why not follow this idea of mine and just go to the nearest seaside in a long time, Brighton. Sure it is a train ride away but still. I thought, well, I have a couple of days off of work in a row so I thought hey, lets go to Brighton for a night.
It seems to be that I am following more and more impulses, sometimes the impulses lead to spending some money. But I thought it was about time I start living. I want to be living more than I used to, I am feeling my freedom.
So even though I am feeling my freedom and choosing what I want I am still going to find ways to save money. So I have booked into the Travelodge because I know there is a consistent standard that can be expected, mainly cleanliness. I think I have probably seen way too many episodes of Hotel Hell. Travelodge just seems like a standard basic but hygenic option. But I couldn’t just go on the site and book a room, nope I decided to go through topcashback simply because hey why not… I got just under £4 back. No complaints there.
Next up comes the joy of calculating train fares and working out how to make it cheaper. Well… It is looking likely that just getting a return ticket will be my best route sadly. Either way its going to be at least £30 as long as I can time it as off-peak. Though that works out OK for me because I am not sure I will want to do early mornings to go enjoy some time at the beach.
So the plan so far is to get there about lunch time-ish, have some lunch somewhere probably on the beach. Then go check into the hotel, get changed and go out to dinner and the arcade. I don’t think it’s entirely worth booking an early check in. I’m not planning on taking a big old bag either so it won’t be too much hassle to carry it around. So obviously the dinner means time to sleep and bed. The next day, get ready and get checked out. Find some breakfast somewhere and probably go back to the arcade or something. Eventually I suppose I should hop on the train home.
But I am looking forward to my little trip to the seaside. I wanna get a stick of rock, it’s an old thing, but still, why not. It’s traditional.
So outfits? Well, travelling there, shorts and a vest top with trainers. The change of outfit for dinner? A nice new t-shirt that I got a few sizes too big to use as a dress, some nude flip-flops and a belt and necklace to make the outfit look super cute! I reckon the most make up will be some mascara and lip balm. I even got a silly hat to hopefully keep the sun off of the tattoos on the back of my neck.
I am taking factor 50 sun cream to prevent looking like a lobster.
So with any luck this little mini break night away will make a refreshing change and I will come back feeling ready to keep at it. But I know I am going to have tonnes of fun because I am not going alone. The other half is coming with me, so I don’t doubt that I will have someone to keep my thoughts distracted, especially when he gets into the arcade. So hopefully he will have just as much fun as I hope to have.
I can’t wait to just spend some quality romantic time away from “life” without thinking about work.
Anyway…
May luck and adventure be on your side.
ARA
xxx

The 2018 Project

Posted on by arappleby

So it seems to be that not many of these goals so far can be ticked off. However I have now created a writing schedule. And with that comes a regular day to day schedule. Which so far has been tricky to stick too but I am determined to try.

Oh oh and I finished writing The Diary of Elliot Parker (4)!!! I forgot to mention… so that gets to be ticked off!!!!!! YAY

I haven’t finished the cable knit jumper yet. But I have just finished two scarves so I am hoping that can count maybe as a half a goal done?

Hair is still growing, though I think I underestimated the care that growing your hair out takes. I am still working on those daily positives and have added a further two notebooks for sort of related things.

At the moment fitting in that blue dress isn’t looking likely. But safe to say, I am enjoying this year abundantly.

24/7 Goals:

  1. Do Nanowrimo
  2. Write The Diary of Elliot Parker (4)
  3. Draft up book 2 of The Big Project
  4. Re-edit book 1 of The Big Project
  5. Edit book 2 of The Big Project
  6. Learn to drive
  7. See a West End show
  8. Complete at least one of the tattoos
  9. Improve on last year’s site views
  10. Keep learning guitar
  11. Create and keep a manageable writing schedule
  12. Look for/find an agent for The Big Project
  13. Finish the cable knit jumper
  14. Start and finish a cross stitch project
  15. Win the lotto jackpot
  16. Keep growing hair out
  17. Keep doing daily positive aspects
  18. Complete at least one minor savings goal
  19. Have Christmas wrapped up before October 31st
  20. Read around 12 books at least over the year for fun…
  21. Be more time efficient, come up with a better schedule.
  22. Fit into the blue dress again and go somewhere to celebrate it
  23. Begin writing the next big project for the site
  24. Enjoy 2018 as much as possible, be happy at every chance!!!!

3/7 goals complete!