Mondaying

Right now, I am mostly…

 

Buying : I put myself on an unofficial book buying ban some time ago; I just decided that I had too many books and not enough space and not really enough month for any more. But then on Saturday, I went into a charity shop and had a root around in their 10p bin, and came away with three books. I’ve already finished one of them (thanks to a long babysitting stint on Saturday night), and I’ll be donating them all back to a charity shop when I’m done with them. Three books for 30p can’t really be sniffed at, can it? I also picked up two records from the same charity shop, both firm family favourites!

Downloading : Last week Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim launched a photo editing app, called Little Moments. I downloaded it straightaway, as I am a big fan of Chantelle’s FMS Photo a Day challenge, and she was so excited about the app I wanted to see what it was all about. It’s fairly similar to the A Beautiful Mess app, with filters for photos and text and doodle overlays. But it also has all the FMS Photo a Day prompts on it, and it gives you a handy reminder at the start of every day for that day’s prompt. It’s great, and I’m having fun playing with it (as you can see from the two photos above!).

Watching : I am still watching the World Cup, with a bit of Wimbledon thrown in for good measure. I’m already lamenting the fact that the World Cup is almost over – I loved having three games a day to watch if I wanted to! All this sport-watching is good build up for the Commonwealth Games; athletics is my sport of choice to watch, so I can’t wait.

Transferring : I am in the process of purchasing my own domain and transferring everything over. I use the word ‘I’ in the loosest possible sense here; I have a very clever friend who is pretty much doing everything for me. I’m trying not to appear too dim, but most of it goes over my head, so I am very, very grateful for his help. I’ll let you know when it’s all done!

Anticipating : I booked tickets to see The Shires a couple of weeks ago, and the tickets arrived last week. I can’t wait, but I have to, because the gig isn’t until 28th July!

Ignoring : I’m really not all that interested in Glastonbury. I’m sure that there are plenty of people there that I would love to see, but I can’t be bothered to find them. I caught a bit of John Grant last night, and I’d have loved to have seen the Dodge Brothers, but I’m not really interested in Metallica or Dolly Parton.

Mondaying

Right now, I am mostly…

Curling : My hair is just about long enough to curl again. It’s pretty much this, and this alone, that is making me reluctant to have it cut again. But then I look at photos of me with my bob, and I want it short again! Being me is so hard.

Watching : I am catching up with Scandal, because I watched the first series way back when (not to be a hipster about it, but I totally watched it before anyone else knew what it was!), and then for some reason I stopped! So I decided now was the time to catch up, and I’m doing just that. I love it, and think it’s so entertaining in a trashy kind of way, but it doesn’t half make me want to watch The West Wing again.

Subscribing : Empire had a special offer in last month’s issue where you could subscribe for just £18 for the year, so I was all over that. It works out to £1.50 an issue, instead of £3.99 if you buy it, so it was a no brainer really. I only did it at the weekend, so I had to buy this one in the shop, but I’ve had fun going through the (flawed) 301 list, and working out how many I’ve seen. It’s 99, in case you’re interested, but I have plans to watch many more.

Watching : On Saturday I went to the cinema to see X-Men: Days of Future Past, and not to pre-empt my blog post too much, I bloody loved it. Funnily enough, Timehop told me that two years ago to the day, I shared a link on Facebook and bemoaned how long the sequel to Days of Future Past was going to take. I’m not bemoaning how long X-Men: Apocalypse is going to take (another two years if you’re interested).

Hero-worshipping : There’s a blog post to come on it, but on Friday night, I went with my friends to see Derren Brown’s Infamous show. It was everything I expected it to be and so much more. Gosh, I just loved it so much! Blog post coming soon!

Tuesdaying

Let’s pretend that the reason that this post is a day late is because of the Bank Holiday, and nothing to do with the fact that I completely forgot to write anything yesterday!

Right now, I am mostly…

Watching : I went to see the Maldon Mud Race on Sunday afternoon. It’s been going for years (since the seventies, I believe), but I’ve only been over to see it twice. It used to take place at Christmas, but bad weather one year prompted a move to the spring, and it’s stayed there ever since. It’s good fun, and if the weather cooperates, it’s a nice afternoon out. I’m tempted to take part myself next year!

Catching Up : As I type this, I’m catching up on a couple of weeks worth of Game of Thrones. I have a funny relationship with the series: at first, having read the books, I didn’t enjoy the series at all. Then I got really into it, and thought the last series was amazing (red wedding and all). With this new series, I’m just bored, most of the time. I’m happy to watch anything happening in King’s Landing, and with Arya, Sansa, or Brienne, but otherwise I get bored. Jon Snow is just excruciatingly boring. I’m persevering though.

 Voting : I voted. And then I despaired.

Borrowing : I borrowed nine books from the library last week, because I did the usual thing of reserving too many books at once, and having to collect them all at the same time when they all come in together. I love it though, it means I have a huge choice of new things to read. I’ve finished Rooftoppers, so there will be a review coming soon.

Watching (again) : I have been watching an awful lot of films on Netflix just lately. It has got to the point where I am six films behind with my film posts, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should just give up on my intention to write a My Thoughts On… post about each and every film. I’ve watched eleven films in May, and if things continue that way for the rest of the year, not only will I far exceed my target of 52 new films, I’ll be constantly writing posts! I might start doing what I do with books, and writing reviews as and when I want to, and rounding up the rest in a post at the end of each month. We’ll see, but I’ll keep you posted!

Reading : Talking of books, I was a bit concerned that my book total for May would be a bit shabby; until the 19th it was languishing at one! But I’ve finished three since then, and I’m more than halfway through another, so I’ll be back on track by the end of the month, I’m sure.

Visiting : I went to see my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew in Bedford at the weekend. It’s been a while since I saw them; I have only seen Harry once since he was born in February! It was lovely to spend the day with them; we ventured out to the Kite Festival over the road for a while, but the weather defeated us twice! The rain didn’t stop me from having a giant ice cream though, as you can see. I was jealous of Molly’s sprinkles, but I was too much of a wimp to ask for any!

Mondaying

Right now, I am mostly…

Baking : At the weekend I made a chocolate popcorn cake (officially called Maya Gold Chocolate Popcorn, recipe can be found here), and it’s quite yummy. The popcorn seems to have gone quite soft, and I don’t know if that’s normal, but I’d probably like it if it was a bit crunchier. It’s yummy though, and something I’ll definitely make again. Anna and I also made some Oreo cupcakes, which are old favourites!

Reading : My friend V lent me Fangirl yesterday, and at the time of writing, I’m almost halfway through already. I just love it, and I’ll be writing a full review later this week.

 

Straightening : I use ghd straighteners, because nothing else really works on my hair. I am not precious about my appearance, but I do like my hair to look nice most of the time (though honestly, a lot of the time I tie it up and forget about it), so my straighteners are a bit of a luxury. I managed to leave them at my friend Hannah’s house last week, and this wouldn’t be a huge problem for me, but my fringe really needs a quick runover with the ghds if I’m not going to look like an idiot. Luckily, my niece has a spare pair, so I borrowed them, and I thought I’d document the difference a pair of ghds make to my hair.

Reminiscing : Past me got it spot on.

Watching : I’ve been watching so many new films lately that I’ve got all behind with my film posts yet again! I had to write up Annie Hall, but when I sat down to do it, I realised that I didn’t have anything to say. I ended up breaking my own unwritten rule and skipping past it for now. I plan to watch it again and see if I have anything to say second time around. In the meantime, I still have to write up Son of Rambow, Wreck-It Ralph, The Blair Witch Project and Jaws. Lots to do!

Loving : I’ve enjoyed the lovely weather we have had over the last couple of days. It’s nice to see a blue sky making an appearance, and to have the temperatures to back it up!

Listening : I am discovering ELO at the moment. I have always liked Mr Blue Sky, but that’s just the tip of a very good iceberg!

Travelling : I was in Manchester last weekend for work, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see any of the city, even though I was there for four days! I snapped this photo of the Hilton that was near to where we were working, it’s a strange shape for a building!