What to pack for Barcelona....part 1

Image taken from here

So next week Mr P and I are jetting off to Barcelona for a long weekend and I CAN'T WAIT! Not only will it mean (hopefully) some sunshine, (copious amounts of) sangria and (lots of) tapas but that doesn't even start to cover the amazing architecture and culture...sighs and looks wistfully out of the window!

Now we are flying with EasyJet (groan) which means cabin only luggage, no allocated seating so a bun fight to be able to sit with Mr P and then wrestle to fit my carry on luggage in the overhead racks plus extortionate prices for food and drink should I forget to stock up on water before hand! Of course this is all conjecture as I've never flown with EasyJet before...other budget airlines but not the orange one! But having read numerous articles/blogs/seen Watchdog I have a good idea what to expect!

Anyhoo as this means only one piece of luggage (as in one suitcase to be carried on board - no handbag as that counts as two items and therefore is chargeable I kid you not!) being me I've been making lots of holiday packing lists in my trusty Filofax. This week I'm using the Raspberry Chameleon in personal size which I'm loving and while my diary pages are all working the notes area is a MESS so that's my next task for today - sort out my sections (blog post on that I'm sure!!)

Currently the weather now in Barcelona is 27-29 degrees centigrade (bliss) however the long range (ish) forecast is showing RAIN for next week aaaah. So what to pack?? Originally I was all about the sun dresses and maxi dresses with flip flops - now I'm thinking I need a waterproof/poncho (thank you festival packing) and probably jeans and trainers....

So having Googled what to pack for a weekend in Barcelona I found several useful blog posts including this one by Liberty London Girl  which a) showed me how much I could cram in the case and b) gave some good tips! (Also I'd love her wardrobe the shoes are gorgeous!)

But as ever I needed a list to start from so here is my top 5 so far must remember to pack essentials:

1. A cross body handbag for during the day.

Barcelona is apparently notorious for pick pockets so a small cross body handbag to keep my valuables (camera/dosh) in is essential. Handily I love these type of bags anyway and this is my current fave that I was rocking during our weekend in Cardiff. Cute isn't she and just big enough to fit camera/phone/purse/lip balm & suncream...

2. Technology - of course I am going to have to take my camera (just a little Nikon compact) my Kindle for some plane reading and my iPhone for more picture taking this is just a given, nerdy photo taker that I am...and all the associated chargers...

3. iPanema flip flops - I am obsessed with flip flops just ask Mr P as apparently I have a few too many pairs. Until recently the obsession revolved around Havianas but the same bestie that introduced me to those introduced me to iPanemas - still rubber flip flops but they are just so so so comfy. I even ordered Mr P a pair to prove to him how good they are! I am particularly loving these that I have been wearing to death all summer (Mr P's are without flower though unfortunately...)

4. Dresses - having lost over 18lbs since the start of the summer (I use that phrase loosely in the UK of course) I feel so much more confident that I don't mind/enjoy wearing dresses now whereas before I felt far too self conscious to entertain dressing up in a frock too often. My plan (weather depending) is to take a selection of summer dresses to wear in Barcelona with my flip flops during the day and a pair of wedges at night just so I don't feel quite so midget like...a denim jacket cover up and a couple of cardigans should see me right in case of shoulder chills of an evening too! Plus dresses take up far less room than other bulkier items like jeans etc

5. Minimal toiletries - I'm going to try super hard to only take the bare minimum of the toiletries I need/use main things being suncream, moisturiser and a few make up items. I plan to hit a pharmacy while we are there to get some cheap shampoo if the hotel doesn't provide it just to try and save on weight/room....unless of course I can sneak some items into Mr P's luggage.....

So anyone been to Barcelona? Any recommendations on what to see/visit/take with me?

Lx

It's a life update!

So I've been very slack recently in updating my blog....ahem....nothing since May I mean seriously that means I went the WHOLE summer without blogging - oops oh yes I live in Britain we're still waiting for summer to start and it's September 2nd!

I guess I lost my mojo but hopefully I'm a getting that back y'all (nope I can't pull of an accent even when writing!)

So what have I been up to while I've been away?

We got a kitten
Boots (she has 4 white paws so looks like she's wearing booties) joined us on the 15th May and has dominated our lives since!! She's totally gorgeous, entertaining, affectionate, curious - I have turned into the cat woman obsessed with her "baby" but what's more amusing has so has Mr P!!

As a tiny kitten

Getting a wee bit bigger - check out those awesome whiskers

And she still squeezes in the peg basket (just)

And her current kitty collar come space helmet look...

I went to V Festival
There was no Glastonbury this year so our festival calendar looked a tad empty - until we saw the line up for V...The Killers, High Flying Birds, Snow Patrol, The Feeling were just a few of the fab acts so we went to Chelmsford and drank copious amounts of cider and vodka, danced around a field and generally got super hot as that was the hottest weekend of the year! Bliss

Yep it's a giant foam thumb ;0)

We saw Michael McIntyre in Cardiff

I'd never been to Cardiff before although I had seen Mr McIntyre's stand up before (in Bournemouth so super cute diddy venue) so Mr P and I spent the bank holiday weekend exploring the city. And loved it. Can't reccommend it enough - fab castle (inside the city at the end of the high street - amazing) fab bars, restaurants, Dr Who experience...it was all awesome and luckily enough we got a day of sunshine there too!

Cardiff Castle house so pretty

I tried on some wedding dresses!

So our wedding may still be over a year away but last month I just had to start the hunt for £the dress". I was worried that I'd feel old/fat/frumpy/too flouncy so thought I'd better start looking just in case. Complete opposite was true. The stores I went to were amazing, so friendly and lovely and had so many dresses I loved...deciding which one to pick I think will be the problem huzzah!!

No pic here obviously!!!

My hometown hosted the Sailing for the Olympics

After all the roadworks and misery that we had endured here while we "got ready for the Olympics" and all the scaremongering (you won't be able to get anywhere, it will be gridlock traffic etc etc) when the Olympics started it was amazing. I mean the whole of the London 2012 was AWESOME I watched so so much of it and really wish I had gone to some events BUT I did get to see some British medal action on the seas in my hometown and that is freaking awesome!

Winning silver!

And most excitingly we had a new garden done!!!!

You may remember my post last year about garden transformation part 1 (see here) but this year the full transformation was completed...bye bye lawn and weeds hello gorgeous patio and slate....it is stunning! We also have some gorgeous teak furniture that we picked up from the Royal Cornwall Show in June and now when the sun (rarely) shines it's a fab place to sit with a coffee, read a book or just relax (oh and Boots loves it too!)

Super lovely patio

So that's me and what I've been up to...I've missed blogging and while I've been reading lots of blogs still I need to get back into commenting/writing and updating as I miss it all. Hopefully this is the start of many I just hope there are still some people out there reading it?

I'm now on Instagram as ninny279 which co-incidentally is my Twitter name @ninny279 so come say hi!

Lx

 Oh and I finally organised the shelves.....

Desk shelves

Resolutions Update....how am I doing vs the charter?

Gorgeous Notepad see here

So on the 3rd of January I posted a blog about Resolutions and what mine were for the year. Some challenges and goals to keep me motivated for the year to acheive new and exciting things ahem (read here). In a regular feature here is how I'm getting on with these since I put them out there into cyberspace...

Overall report on January's progress is must try harder!! (ooh gosh how I remember that and "if she applied half as much effort to her school work as she does to talking she would be an A student" from my school reports)

So a quick refresh on what were the goals -

1. Visit Oxford Family
2. Go to Warmwell (dry skiing place)
3. Book ski holiday
4. Train to complete a half marathon
5. Go to Snowdonia
6. Enjoy IOW and Glastonbury festivals
7. Learn piano

So where are we at?

1. We will hopefully be going up in May to Oxford for a party (plenty of outfit planning time huzzah). So Mr P can meet the whole of the clan in one fell swoop yay
2. Clearly with Mr P being sub-par at the moment a trip to Warmwell is on hold for now, but I think a trip in maybe April/May time for a starter lesson for me on skis (seriously he would hate to miss the chance of seeing me tumbling down a slope at speed) will be on the cards!
3. We have started talking/planning/costing up a January 2012 trip woohooo - although ages away the looking forward part of a holiday is almost as good as the actual holiday so I'm glad we have ages to plan (LISTS and LISTS and LISTS oh the joy I love, love, love it!!) Plus this gives me ample time to track down all the things I will need and purchase them over time so I can hunt out the bargains and not do a last minute expensive emergency panic shop.
4. Hmmm - epic fail here. No training. None whatsoever. Not even stuck my nose inside the gym. Not even driven down the road with the gym on it. I could blame the crazy life at present but that would just be an excuse as I haven't been for ages before things all went mental so - MUST, MUST, MUST TRY HARDER.
5. Again no actual progress on this one, not even in the discussion phase, but possibly this is a latter part of the year, post summer type trip s I'm not too worried.
6. Clearly can't do until June - however am avidly following all twitter updates for any hint of a line up announcement on Glasto (U2, Coldplay and Prince to headline possibly? Who knows) and IOW's line up is looking awesome
7. The piano playing has actually made some progress for a change...I have worked my way through my first beginner's piano book - it is so adorable I think it is actually aimed at the under 10's but made learning the notes/finger placement/dual hand playing so much easier than I thought it would be! So I am now available for all social occasions requiring a piano player to play Happy Birthday, Good King Wenceslas and Help! by the Beatles. A strange repertoire maybe but one that is very satisfying for me.

As for my other current challenge - the downsizing from Personal to Pocket Filofax, after last week's wobble I'm doing better. I've bought some more notepaper and to do sheets for the Deco and am trialling a new set up...post on that to follow

So how are your New Year Resolutions going? Fallen off the wagon yet or are you steadfast in your missions? Tell me all....

Lx

The Vegas Round Up

So I've now been back home a week after the holiday of a lifetime to Las Vegas with Mr P, and frankly I'm not happy about it. Las Vegas was everything I had hoped it would be and more I LOVED it, didn't want to come home at all and could quite happily have stayed there for weeks more. But seeing as I'm back here is my pocket sized guide to all the awesomeness that we experienced in my Top 5 from Vegas

1. Freeeeeee stuff
There is so much to see and do that is totally free in Vegas it blew my mind, from seeing the lions at MGM, to the moving statues at Caesars to the Mirage's Volcano and the pirate ship show at Treasure Island it is so easy to spend days just wandering up the strip dumbstruck by everything. My favourites were the Bellagio fountains (well we were staying there and they were amazing) and just looking at the New York New York skyline

2. Cocktails
Now I love a good cocktail (favourite is the classic Woo Woo, with vodka, preach schnapps and cranberry juice lush) and in Vegas they were on form, mainly due to the fact that I only needed 2 to be flying - strong is not the word for the measures but tasty they are. The best ones I had were in Treasure islands Oriental Bar and at the Venetian in the Venice bar, both were amazing and knocked me off my feet hehe

3. Helicopters
The lovely Mr P has a slight obsession for helicopters, he does get very giddy when he sees one while we are driving so I'd been thinking for some time that for his birthday this year I'd get his a helicopter flying lesson. However our Vegas trip coincided with his birthday so instead I booked us on a Maverick Helicopters trip from Vegas, out over Hoover Dam (and bridge!!) to the Grand Canyon north rim and then a long flight down the strip. Originally planned for a sunrise flight the stormy weather meant our flight was cancelled and we flew out on one at 12 instead. Now I'm not the greatest flyer, I get very nervous on take off and landing and turbulence freaks me right out so I was pretty worried that I'd be a proper girl and freak out in the helicopter. I could not have been more wrong flying in a helicopter is the most awesome thing ever. Being able to see so much all around you as you fly over such amazing scenery was just fabulous and one of the best experiences of the holiday by far!! I highly recommend everyone tries it

4. Shopping
Now as much as Mr P finds it very hard to understand the shopping was fantastic too. Being able to walk through the hotel lobby at the Bellagio past Prada, Dior, Tiffany etc was just fantastic. Window shopping only I'm afraid but it was fantastic to feel like you belong in the high roller world where spending $1,000 on a pair of shoes is a common occurrence. Should I have won big (which sadly I didn't) that would have been my first port of call - especially as they stay open until Midnight!! I did however indulge in a new bag, which I saved for before the trip and saved $$$$ compared to purchasing in the UK and despite Mr P's shock at the price is only about 25% of the cost of his new bass that he had recently and I can use my bag everyday!! The most gorgeous memento of the trip however is my new Tiffany necklace which in Pretty Woman style Mr P asked while I was trying on "Shall I buy that for your birthday" and whipped out his credit card. I do love that man!!!

5. Casinos...
Now you can't go all the way to Vegas and not talk about the casinos. They are so vast with so many tables, machines and games it is mind blowing and no matter what time of day you are there it is always busy. The machines are full of ladies of a certain age who just keep hitting buttons, the poker machines have aged, haggard old men who look like they have been there since before the hotel installed the machines and the high stakes rooms are full of the glamorous people who know how to play (unlike me) and play big. The most confusing game has to be Craps though, extremely popular and the only gambling game where it seems acceptable to scream and holler when winning despite reading the gaming rules and instructions remains an elusive enigma to me - I get that you throw dice and need to roll certain numbers but as to where you place the bets or how exactly you win anything confused to hell. Fun to watch though!!

So there are my top 5 - which to be fair does include much more than that and there is so much I've missed out if you get the chance to go - take it! And stay at the Bellagio its fantastic!! x

Disappearing time....

I don't know how this has happened but it is only 1 more week until the lovely Mr P and I depart for our Autumn sojourn to the bright lights and glamour of Vegas. Understandable I am tres excited, I have only visited the USA once before an amazing and frantic 4 day trip to New York but never with a young man have I travelled so far.

So a quick travel guide to remind Mr P just what he has let himself in for on this trip away:

1. Packing Lists - I love lists, like proper LOVE them. I love writing them in my Filofax, on post it notes, in spreadsheets and a holiday means lists extraordinare - what to pack, what to take as hand luggage, what to wear, what not to forget, what to buy....the joy of creating all these micro organisational elements of the holiday become a huge part of the fun for me (tragic but true)
2. Passport Panic - I am a frantic passport/ticket checker, multiple checks an hour just in the rare chance that instead of putting the tickets back in my handbag I tossed them out of the window while we were driving up the motorway - how else to explain why I will check the tickets even while still in the car having checked them already upon getting in and securing the door. Truly bizarre and probably a tad annoying to any normal person but seems perfectly sensible to me
3. Airport Shopping - I love shopping at the best of times and airports have all the loveliest things all tucked away together ripe for the picking - at discounted prices. I could easily spend my holiday money in the departures hall so that I'm shopped out before even getting on the plane
4. Freaking Out On Planes - I'm a bit of a scardy cat when it comes to planes. I really can't understand how these big things stay in the air, or take off, or land? And when I start to think about it as invariably you do when strapped into one I start to freak out. It's the loss of control I think - no lists for me to create for the staff and pilots without fear of being thrown out the plane at high altitude
5. The Itinerary - Back to the lists I have a mehusive list of things that I really want to see and do - from watching a show (Cirque du Soleil??) to riding the Stratosphere to seeing the Venetian gondolas and walking the length of the strip - I want to see and experience as much as possible - I mean I bought new trainers for the occassion and everything!!

As you can see despite all of these things that Mr P witnessed on our first holiday to Egypt together it is surprising that he has signed up for a long haul mission to the states with the travelling companion from hell. Spontaneity and fun I don't think so. Tightly scheduled lists of activities oooh yes please. And there is still the iPad question...a perfect travel companion do we think, is this the time to bite the bullet and finally purchase my new toy?

So will Mr P survive the holiday travel planning in one piece? Will I? Watch this space....

Getting the wrong end of the stick and running with it

Well here it goes, it would appear that I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick in a conversation with Mr P last week that resulted in my recent blog about holidays....

Now I know many of you will understand the difficulties of a boy and girl living together with the differences in the communication that we have. Especially when you add some wine into the mix...

Here is my recollection of said recent discussion:

Me: So when can we book our holiday to Las Vegas?
Mr P: I don't want to go this year

(please note there may be missing stages due to chardonnay induced amnesia)

It would appear however after speaking to Mr P afterwards that this was not the full extent of the chat - or even the actual transcript of that moment in the conversation...

So it would seem he may have been the victim of a PFD moment..or Psycho Female Disorder for the uninitiated.

PFD is that classic moment when all sense goes out the window due to some inconsequential item and a rant becomes inevitable. Not my finest moment me thinks...

So it got me thinking, what is it that makes me occasionally slightly nuts and how in future can I avoid taking it out on Mr P?

Options:

1. Avoid drinking (hmmm unlikely what else)
2. Avoid talking to Mr P (also unlikely seeing as we do live together)
3. Try new age meditation to remain calm at all times (????)
4. Excessive valium intake (hmmm that is as bad an idea as no 3)

And here I become stuck....ideas please

Holiday Conundrums

So being as I live in one seaside resort and drive daily to another one for work when it comes to that time of year when one's mind starts daydreaming of relaxing on golden beaches with a cocktail in one hand and a good book in the other I have plenty of inspiration on my doorstep.

However as I live with a official fidget whose worst nightmare appears to be exactly this style of fly and flop the negotiations over holidays can prove interesting. Earlier this year we partook in a winter getaway to Egypt - Sharm El Sheik to be precise - needless to say this was not without its issues - namely in a region that NEVER has rain we were present for a monstrous thunderstorm that included so much rain our hotel was flooded, the swimming pools filled with mud and part of the airport roof fell in (I kid you not google it!!). However we had a fab time and on our return started talking about where we could potentially go next...

So with beach holidays not being top of Mr P's wish list, and skiing not being a favourite choice of mine (true I've never been but exercise, freezing cold and snow are not top of my list when it comes to picturing a holiday from the norm) we started to talk about the good ol USA and more specifically Las Vegas and Grand Canyon.

Please note there is no hidden meaning towards a) a quickie wedding b) a gambling addiction but more an urge to see the awesome wonder of the Canyon and spend a few hedonistic days together somewhere fun.

The date for this planned trip was to be October, Vegas weather cool enough to be bearable, good time for vacation time from work etc etc. However it would appear this is not to be...upon a brief discussion with Mr P it seems our jaunt to Vegas is in a permanent state of pause the true reason I am unsure but needless to say a disappointing state of affairs.

However ever the planner that I am with my trusty filofax by my side I have made a list (if you know me you know my love of lists) of places to visit for a weekend away as with my birthday looming in September this could be the perfect opportunity to explore some as yet unLucyified European city so in order of preference what are your thoughts? Where would be good for a potential mid September getaway?

1. Barcelona
2. Venice
3. Paris
4. Milan
5. Madrid

Decisions decisions x