Goodbye Ryanair!!!

So after 3 years and 11 months it will be goodbye Ryanair. When I started training in 2009 I never thought that I would still be here so long. I honestly thought that I would be there a year (or maybe two) before leaving for some glamourous airline like BA or Virgin Atlantic living my long haul dream.

Instead, almost 4 years later I am leaving to join bmi regional.

Based out of Bristol I'll be flying a single crew aircraft (meaning I'm the only cabin crew), to six destinations. Currently they fly to Aberdeen, Hamburg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Milan, and Munich. Occasionally I'll have to go up to Birmngham or Manchester and fly out of there for a few days.

I'm pretty excited for a new challenge, a different demographic of passengers, and not having to walk far in the rain to my aircraft. Training begins on May 13th and will be 3 1/2 weeks long.

Despite my excitement I think I'm going to miss Ryanair. There are a lot of people I'm you going to miss, and I'm going to miss the back galley gossip. Part of me still can't believe I have handed in my notice and will actually be leaving. Never to don the smurf looking uniform again.

Provided I don't get called off a home standby, have my roster changed, I have 8 more days of flying.

So 5 things I won't miss about Ryanair.
1) walking forever in the rain to the aircraft
2) hen parties (I'm actually going to miss stag parties a little)
3) families of 8 coming onto a full flight last and blaming me that they can't sit together
4) the uniform
5) polish flights

Well I did say I was ready for a change ...

Plodding along!!

I'm staying in Bristol. Yay!! I didn't get the transfer I requested due to no spaces in the bases I asked for, so I get to stay. It's going to be so weird at work now with half the people gone. A lot have gone to sunny places like Malta, Palma and Tenerife and I'm not going to lie, I have a little bit of jealousy that I'm not living somewhere hot and sunny. Then practical Kiri reminds me why I didn't request a transfer to Tenerife.

Sometimes I hate practical Kiri!!

Skiing was good. I only went for 2 days and what I really wanted was to get some confidence back. The weather was great and there was lots of fresh snow. Since French holidays weren't for another week it was quiet too. I got back out on the blues and was feeling a lot better about skiing by the end of the holiday. Give me another day and I might of let my brothers take me on a red. Something for next year maybe.

In other news I've turned 24 since I last blogged!! I'm not sure how I feel about that. However one thing it made me realise was that I needed to write down my list. The list is something I've had in my head since I turned 20 and is full of things I want to do before I'm 30. There are 30 things ... Some serious, some fun, and since some have been crossed off already I though now is a good time to physically have it written down instead of in my forgetful mind.

I love baking and since moving into this house I hadn't whipped up any cakes or brownies or anything. In the past few weeks that has changed. I've started to replace some of my equipment with nicer things and dusted off the recipe books. It's been all things creme eggs, much to my colleagues joy when I bring them to work. The creme egg cupcakes got met with comments that I should open a cupcake store. :) whilst I'm not thinking of anything like that I am thinking that I may start selling cupcakes and birthday cakes if people are requesting them. ... Just a thought!!!

Open university is a drag. I have zero motivation to study or do my assignment and feel like I'm drowning in everything that need to be done. I'm also a really good procrastinater. But what's new ... I've just summed up what I was like at BYU aswell. Sometimes I miss the days where I was a great student and required perfection from my school work.

So yes ... Life is plodding along as usual!!!

Christmas and Changes

 Christmas was once again, really good this year. Although we didn't do a lot of the Ainslie Christmas traditions, we had a lot of great time as a family. The Saturday before Christmas we went to see Santa, then spent the rest of the weekend with James and Cheryl. It was great to see them, see their new flat, and spend time relaxing with the family. It was just sad that Laura couldn't be there.
Christmas Eve involved veggie prepping, and the Christmas Eve trip to the cinema with the Clarkies. Lucas was so excited on Christmas Eve and was tracking Santa all night. When Santa got to Rome it was time for bed and Lucas was jumping up and down and checking off everything to make sure we had put out the mince pie, carrot, stockings etc. He then flopped on his bed, told me if I wake up first I must wake him up, then told us goodnight. He's so cute!!

Me and Lucas with our stockings

 The next morning I woke up and got confronted by Lucas for not waking him up, we then went to investigate to see if Santa had been .... We found PRESENTS!! It's so much fun having a 6 year old in the house for Christmas, Kids make it so much more magical.
Laura was on a night shift and so got back home around 10,  I'm not sure she liked the fact that we were all watching her open her stocking. Then it was time for the tree :D
I love spending time with my family at this time of year. The only bad thing was that I had to work the 3 days after Christmas while everyone else was slouching at home. I'm so grateful I live so close to home and that I can be there for the random days, weekends, and holidays. If I had transferred to Maastricht I would of been really lucky to make it home for Christmas day, let alone anything else over the Christmas period.

Mum, Dad and Lucas by the tree

2013 seems to be all change so far. We've been given the news that they are reducing aircraft in Bristol from 5 to 2 in the summer. While I suspected this was going to be the case, and then the ground staff told us that was the case, it was still a little bit of a shock to hear it officially. Basically, 48 cabin crew have to either transfer or leave, leaving 40 in Bristol. First the ask for volunteers to transfer, then if not enough get their transfer (if there are no spaces in that base), or not enough apply, then they will force people to transfer. They've just announced 7 new bases that are opening in April: Eindhoven, Netherlands. Krakow, Poland. Zadar, Croatia. Chania, Greece. Marrakesh and Fez, Morocco  And Marseilles  France. If you apply for one of these you're pretty much guaranteed to go there. Despite pretty much knowing what we were going to be told, I still had no idea what to do. To apply for a transfer, or to risk trying to stay??? I think in my head I was ok to transfer in the UK, but then we got told there were no vacancies in the UK unless someone from those bases transfer or leave. Needless to say I've been pretty stressed and work has occupied a lot of my mind space in the last few weeks. After hours of research and lots of excel charts tossing up between possible places to move to either new or existing bases, I made the decision that for practical reasons I needed to try and stay in the UK (However much I might want to live in Tenerife). I've applied for Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds. If I don't get any of those I'll be risking it in Bristol, hoping I don't get forced anywhere I'm really against (Poland and Morocco) and having to deal with it if I do get forced out.

Hopefully by next week I'll know where I'll be moving to at the end of March (I'm crossing my fingers for nowhere). 

In other news, I'm really looking forward to getting away to France for a week at the beginning of February and am so grateful that I don't have to do the drive down. Since the parentals didn't want to take 2 cars, I get to fly down (thanks Mum and Dad). This job has totally ruined my ability to spend a whole day in a car. 

Really must stop procrastinating now and go start my assignment. It's funny all the things you can find to do when you want to put something off. :)

5 Airports, 4 Christmas Markets, 3 Airplanes, 2 Hire Cars, and 1 FANTASTIC Holiday!!!

As I was boarding the plane in STN.

I feel like I've changed the lyrics to 'The 12 days of Christmas' ... Well for the first 5 days anyways!!

I absolutely LOVED my trip to Germany, however there were a few tiny things that certainly made the trip eventful. I'm not bad luck ... Honest!!

I was going out to Germany to see my friend Ronja, who I roomed with for a semester at BYU. Some great German Christmas Markets and snow was also a great Christmas activity so imagine my excitement when it started snowing at Stansted as we were boarding the plane. However, I forgot that the UK are rubbish when it comes to snow and 30 minutes later, with 1cm of snow on the ground, the airport closed ... We were grounded, and they cancelled all flights going out that morning. :(

The line for the ticket desk literally was as long as the airport and after standing there for half hour without moving I tried to reschedule my flight online .... To be told there was nothing available until Friday (I was coming home on Saturday). I hadn't seen Ronja in almost 2 years and I wasn't about to give up my holiday that easily and waste all the money I had already spent, so next stop ... Easyjet!! Luckily they had 1 seat left on the Bristol to Berlin flight and I had 6 hours to race across the country to go and catch it. Easy!! Until I got on the motorway and hit a car park. It took an hour to go 2 junctions to the M25, by which time I was praying that the M25 and M4 were clear. All I needed was to be able to go the speed limit and I knew I'd make my flight. First bit of good all day ... The other 2 motorways were clear and I even had time to spare.

12 hours later, 3 airports, and 2 planes and I was finally in Berlin Schonefeld.

Ronja lives about 2 hours from Berlin, and so the next day we decided to drive in and see the sights. Eventful incident number 2 .... The motor warning light came on!! Having had a car die not long after this same light came on, you can imagine my anxiety as we pulled over and called Hertz to try and find out what we should do. They said it was either nothing or the car was about to blow, but since there was no smoke, and the steering was fine, they told us to carry on to Berlin and stop at the Berlin Tegal Airport to switch out cars. To be fair Hertz were really good, I literally handed back the keys, they gave me a new set of keys and we were on our way again.

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin was amazing!! And really easy to drive in, and we managed to park for FREE!! As we were driving in we saw the angel statue that you see all the time in movies etc. We then went to look at the Brandenburg Gate, and then Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is where the US checkpoint was to get into West Berlin and is obviously right where the wall was. We also went to a museum where they went through the history of the wall and talked about the amazing escape attempts made my East Germans trying to get into West Germany. We were planning to the DDR museum which was about what life was like in Eastern Germany during that time, and was apparently really good, with lots of hand on stuff and really interactive. However, by the time we were ready to go there we found out that it was going to be closing shortly and instead went to look at some of the churches and the Christmas Market in Berlin before heading home where Ronja cooked me a supper yummy German meal.

Berlin has bears all over the city ... I found 2.

Checkpoint Charlie

Brandenburg Gate at night.

 On Friday we went into Halle to go to the Halloren Schokoladen Museum. Anyone who knows me will know that anything with the word chocolate in it is something that I would enjoy. It was amazing. It talked about the history of the company, and how they made the chocolate. Then you got to see the production room. Around the museum they had models of some of the famous buildings in the area .... All made out of chocolate, and a chocolate room. . . Yes, a chocolate room!! This would so not survive in my house. Everything apart from like the couch, table, and light was made out of real chocolate. The walls and everything. It was basically heaven!!

Me, Ronja, and the Chocolate Room. 

Leipzig Christmas Market.

 After that me and Ronja went into Leipzig to get lunch and stroll round the Christmas Markets. Ronja took me to this fabulous place called Vapianos. They do fresh pasta and you can choose what you have with it and they make it right in front of you. It was delicious and really good value for the portions you get. We then went round all the Christmas Markets and I got some really cute German Christmas Decorations, fudge, and gingerbread. It was FREEZING!! The temperatures were forever below freezing and our noses were proper cold. We popped into the art gallery in Leipzig. This building was humongous, with really tall ceilings. The art was really good and there was plenty to see. My favourite piece pretty much looked like he had sloshed a ton of paint onto a canvas and moved it around with his feet ... You could actually see feet prints on the canvas.
Ronja then took me to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Leipzig where you could have panoramic views of the city. It looked so magical at night with all the city lights. Unfortunately my camera decided to spas out and took blurry shots, but it was breathtaking.

Quedlinburg.

Saturday was my last day in Germany and I was flying out that afternoon. We trotted off to this quaint little town called Quedlinburg, which opened up all the little courtyards between the houses and churches etc and had Christmas market stalls. It was kinda like a advent and you had to find these 24 little alley ways which led to the courtyards. It was so pretty, how they've tried to keep the town to look like it did originally and having these passageways that led to these open spaces... It was a bit magical.

We didn't have very much time before I needed to be back to go to the airport, and it was pretty perfect timing really. I totally hadn't really left enough time thinking that Leipzig airport would be a bit like a shed ... How wrong was I. It was actually pretty big for a regional airport - bigger than Bristol - and they were just starting to board by the time I got to the Gate... And I didn't even go to any last minute shops.

Because I  had driven to Bristol on Wednesday, it meant I had to catch the train home on Saturday from Stansted. We had landed early and my train from Paddington wasn't due to leave for another 2 hours so I managed to change the time so I got back to Bristol in time to get at least a few hours sleep before I had to be up the next morning for work ... Needless to say that it was a very long day!!

Despite all the mishaps at the beginning of the holiday, I had such a fabulous time in Germany and it was so good to see Ronja again and have a proper catch up ... It felt just like old times when we were living together. Well worth the trip!!

Just as I was trying to convince myself that I really wasn't bad luck my first shift back at work on Sunday and we got diverted. Fantastic!! We were trying to get into Warsaw Modlin and got diverted to the proper Warsaw airport due to bad weather, low cloud, and mist. After waiting around for a while we then tried to go back to Modlin to pick up our passengers for our return flight but couldn't get in again. Really wasn't having much luck with flights last week that's for sure. We ended up flying back to Bristol empty which is bad because we don't get flight pay for empty flights, but was really good because it meant I managed to get a Sunday nap in. And waiting for me when I got home from work .... Dinner!! I really do have great housemates.

My Thankful List

It's that time of year again. Thanksgiving is just a week away and I have happily made and eaten pumpkin pie, so now it is time for my thankful list for 2012. There are a few things the same as last year, but I'm still thankful for them so they still count. :) In no particular order, here are 23 things I am thankful for (this is going to be so hard when I'm 92):

1) Chocolate and Vanilla magnum ice-cream (Soooo good!!)
2) Cheap holidays, and the family and friends that made them possible. Big thank-you to the Avril, the parentals, the Williams', and to Ronja.
3) Having a job that I still enjoy.
4) Kevin and Nick, for bringing me lucky charms back from America.
5) My Aunt and Uncle for letting me borrow their car when I moved.
6) Skype
7) My parents, for all the great things they do for me.
8) James: For being such a fantastic help with my OU assignment.
9) Laura: The great talks we had when we went skiing
10) Josh: For being such a great example.
11) Jake: For getting rid of the spiders in the bathroom
12) Lucas: For still giving me massive hugs when I need them.
13) The chance to go to the olympics and Paralympics (thanks Phil)
14) Seeing and spending time with the American side of the family.
15) The Range
16) Supermarkets being open for 24 hours
17) Passing my OU module.
18) Good European chocolate
19) Great friends all over the world.
20) Being offered the transfer to The Netherlands, even though I didn't take it.
21) Financial Aid and Grant
22) Being able to spend Christmas at home (For a little while i thought I would end up missing it this year).
23) Pumpkin in a can (and Harvey Nichols for selling them).

Lots and Lots of fabulous things!!

Life recently has been so chaotic!! It's crazy to think that there are only 40 days until Christmas, and only 47 until we are in 2013. It only seemed like yesterday that we saw in 2012. Where oh where does time go??

It's been forever since I last managed to blog, so here are my top however many things, that have happened since July.


Alicante was AMAZING. 30 odd degrees, sun, sea, sand and lots of relaxation. I was only away for 4 days and I totally could of done with a lot longer. It was so nice just to be able to get away from the rain, lay on the beach or by the pool with my kindle, read, sunbathe, and relax. On the first day we went up to these waterfalls and walked up the river to pretty much the source. Clambering over rocks and swimming upstream. It was so beautiful!! The next 2 days we hit the beach and soaked up the sunshine, and day 4 was a pool day before I had to pack up and get back on a plane.

Olympics. What an amazing opportunity I had to go to the Olympics. It's not every time they are held in your country. I had purchased Volleyball tickets for the men's semi-final. Me and Ali saw Russia v. Bulgaria. Since Bulgaria were winning half way through the first set by quite a margin, i decided to cheer on Russia, who not only won the set, but also won the game 3 sets to 1. The atmosphere and experience of being at the Olympics was fantastic, and I came away wishing I was able to go to more events.

Thorpe Park. At the end of August me and Ali decided that we would go to Thorpe Park for the day. It is one of the theme parks near London and I haven't been for probably 8 years or so. It was a fantastic hot day and we got there in perfect time. By the time we bought our tickets they were just opening the gates and we managed to get on a couple of big rides without having to queue. Because it was so hot it meant going on the water rides was really refreshing, which is good when you get drenched head to toe (Bringing my rain coat was the bet thing I did that day), but we dried off pretty quick. I love Alton Towers because it has so many great rides, but the good thing about Thorpe Park was that it's a lot smaller and everything is close together meaning that you can walk round the whole park pretty easy. I love theme parks and it was great to be able to go a few times this year.

London and the Paralympics. At the beginning of September my parents were planning a weekend trip to London as they had tickets to the paralympics for the Friday and Saturday. They were planning on spending all day in the Olympic park on the Friday, and then spending time in London on Saturday before going to the swimming. I decided to go and join them for the weekend and spend some time with them on Saturday. Because I didn't have tickets to the paralympics, I thought I'd treat myself to a show. I used to love going to the theatre but haven't been able to see a show in soo long. I booked tickets to see 39 steps, which was really good.

Criterion Theatre.

Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum which is HUGE. Lucas Loved all the dinosaur section and then we went round the Human body section. He is obsessed with how babies are made and was so fascinated by it all. He then went to start looking round the reptile section and was really disappointed when we had to go.

Messing around in the funky mirrors.

Me and Lucas by the Dinosaurs. 

Tower of London

Olympic Stadium. 

When I had planned this trip on the Wednesday, I thought it would be really fun to take myself shopping on the Saturday while the family were at the Paralympics, but since even I can't shop all night, I thought about seeing if my friend wanted to hang out in the evening since he lives in London. We always seem to miss eachother whenever I'm down there. Just as I was about to text him, he messaged me asking if I was working Saturday since he had a spare ticket to the Paralympics ... The last session of the Athletics no less. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and so Saturday night I spent in the Olympic park. It was so amazing to see how these athletes overcome physical impalements to still  compete to such a high standard. It's so inspiring to watch. It's really made me think about how grateful I am to be well and able.

By the Olympic torch.

One of the Vietnamese dishes. 

New food Friday on a Monday. Every Monday me, Grace, Rachel, and Kevin had a tradition that we called "New food Friday on a Monday" because it sounded better than "New food Monday". Every Monday we would find a recipe that we hadn't tried before (usually from a different culture), cook eat and eat it. We've tried food from Spain, America, Peru, Vietnam, Greek, a few others I think I've forgotten about, and then there was tripe. Which needless to say didn't make it onto the 'best of' night. Tripe is cow's stomach. It smells foul, it tastes nasty, and is certainly something I will never subject my tummy to again. It was a great tradition though, one I miss, and one that I think I want to carry on in the future. It's was good to experiment and try new things instead of eating the same old. Some we loved, some we had to tweak, and the tripe we will never eat again, and now I  have a few new recipes to add to my collection.


Moving not once. . . But twice. In October we moved out of our house and parted ways. It was quite sad leaving the girls after living with Grace for 2 years, and Rachel for 18 months. It was also really hard to separate all of our stuff. I'm sure I accumulated some stuff that wasn't mine, but that I seemed to get since no one knew who it belonged to. I have moved back home for a whole 7 weeks before I move back up to Bristol at the end of the month. Hopefully after that I won't have to move again for a while.

Fireworks and Carnival. Every year Burnham-on-Sea do a firework show. 20 minutes of fantastic big fireworks timed to music on the beach. I love this show every year. We also went to Burnham carnival this year. For all you Americans our Carnivals are slightly different to yours. Our carnivals consist of lots of floats parading down the street, each one with a theme, some with dancers, others just with people posed still for the whole time, and all with music. It's fantastic to watch every year. There's something about standing out in the cold, all wrapped up, watching carnival.

Jury Duty. I got summoned for Jury Duty!! Which meant that for the last 2 weeks I've had to appear at the court and sit on a trial. It was definitely an interesting experience. I didn't get picked for the first trial and had to wait until day 2 before I sat on a trail. The trail lasted 3 days, and was a) A bit boring (We do a lot of sitting around), b) Uncomfortable (Think old pews that are straight backed and not really any support - My poor neck and back) and c) Laughable. It's amazing the case went to court. The prosecutions witnesses stories didn't add up at all and it was fun to count all the lies that were told on the stand. I met some great people on the jury though and we had a great laugh for the week. It also made me realise how much the decision of 12 random people can affect people's lives. We passed a 'Not guilty' verdict (which took a whole 2 seconds for us to decide) and the relief on the defendants face made me really happy. Some of the other jurors spoke to the man after who said that he was just worried and stressed that we would believe the victim and that we wouldn't be able to see the truth. It was a pretty good experience. After a few days off we then had to go back in for another jury selection, this time the case was expected to go on for a whole week, and because that would run over into week 3, and I have to be back in work on Saturday, I didn't get picked for another trial, giving me a few days off before I am back in the skies.

Germany. I am really excited to be able to go to Germany. I received some very unexpected money from a Uni grant and decided to use it to go visit my old roommate who lives in Germany. I am really excited to go. 4 days at the beginning of December, and right in time for St Nick to arrive. It's such a great way to kick off the Christmas Spirit and start celebrating. I can't wait to have a really good catch up with Ronja, and to not only see and visit a country I haven't been to before, but also go to some real German Christmas markets.

Summer so far . . .

 . . . Seems to be wet, cold, and miserable. Save for one glorious hot week in March, and another at the end of May, it seems to have rained, rained, and rained some more. Where is the drought that we were promised this year?? All I can say is 28 DAYS TO ALICANTE :D I am in desperate need of some vitamin D . . . Seasonal depression anyone??

Despite the less than desirable weather, this summer has also been a ton of fun so far.

Affordable Art Fair which actually wasn't very affordable. We didn't see a single thing under £100, and everything we liked seemed to be over £1000. Don't know about you but I certainly don't have that kinda money sitting in my piggy bank. Me and Rachel went to the affordable art fair a few weeks back near Temple Meads station. It was really interesting looking at all the art, and some by local artists too, the amount of art focused on the Clifton Bridge was astonishing but I guess it's Bristol's most famous landmark. Me and Rach had a favourite piece though which if I did have a spare £2200 I would of bought in a heartbeat. See. . .  It's sparkles :D Afterwards we went out to eat at Frankie an Bennies and then I introduced Rach to my new favourite place AngelBerry. It is AMAZING!! They sell frozen yoghurt, like the proper stuff that you buy in frozen yoghurt places in America. I am in love with the place. 




Alton Towers has to be one of my favourite places on earth, it is certainly my favourite theme park. For Josh's 18th he wanted to go and have a family day out there, and I was really glad that it was a day off for me. This was the week that was ROASTING HOT. Like 30 degrees which is crazy for England. I made the most of the weather that week and spent a lot of it in the sun . . . Which was fine until we went to Alton Towers, and spending all that time outside, I finished looked slightly pink. I had so much fun though. I love rollercoasters. I think my favourite one is Air. We did however work out that the new ride, nemisis: sub terra, was just a waste of time. We didn't get to ride on th13teen or rita. Th13teen because while we were in the queue the ride broke down and rita because the line was too long. I'm planning another trip out to Alton Towers in a couple of weeks with a few of my work colleagues . . . I can't wait!!

Baking Frenzy. For my Birthday I got given a cookbook which I love as it's filled with 

deserts. I love baking desert items. So one day I decided to go on a baking frenzy. I made 3 things all in the same afternoon. Chocolate Lava Cake, Strawberry cupcakes, and Ginger and Lime Cheesecake. Here are a few pictures (I was trying to get artistic) of my creations and a few 'work in progress' shots. (Sorry they're all scrambled)

Nadine is over in England right now for her sister's wedding and it was great fun to go and see her today. Nadine is English, but we only met when we both attended BYU. We both worked in the food court and after numerous people asking if we knew eachother we finally met. When I went over to America 2 years ago I stayed with Nadine for a few days before I went to California, and since then she has gotten married. It was super fun to meet up with her briefly and also meet her husband. Since they were visiting Cadbury World today, I went up there to meet up with them. Unfortunately due to the dentist :( and traffic on the M5 I didn't have time to meet them inside. Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before we manage to meet up again, at least I'm hoping to go back to America before then. Here is a picture of us (admittedly not the best one of me) at part of Cadbury World. (I really want to go back and actually visit it properly some day  . . . Even the air smelled of chocolate). 

Za Za a la Highworth!! Me and Ali have fallen in love with Za Za Bazaar in Bristol. It is one of our favourite places to eat when Ali is in town. It's all you can eat, and there is loads of food from all different cultures. There's Mexican, Chinese, English, American, Italian, Indian, Sushi, Salads, and of course Deserts. So one night I decided that we were going to have home made Za Zas. We had pizza, fajitas, chicken tikka, chinese, curly fries, deserts etc etc. We had far too much food and Ali was probably eating left overs for the rest of the week but it was sooo good. 

Family Reunion this year was on the Jubilee weekend and I was lucky enough to have it off. It was held at my Grandparents house and I was able to go down with one of my Aunt and Uncle. The American folk were over aswell and it was soo good to catch up with them and spend some time before they jetted back to Atlanta. The last time I saw then was when I spent Christmas and New Year with them my last year at BYU. It was all jubilee themed so we had a garden party, had to guess the baby names (I came 3rd), made jubilee hats (Joint 1st) and we had one of my Uncles crazy scavenger walks. My team consisted of most of my girl cousins that were there and we actually won that one. I then went into London on the Sunday and spent some time with James and Cheryl before meeting the American Aunt and Uncle and also Janet and Robin (the set that took me to/from family reunion/london) for dinner in Kensington. It was a really good weekend. 

Home is where the heart is!! I am so lucky to be able to call two places home while I've been living in Bristol. I absolutely love living here with Grace and Rach. We have been in this house for over 9 months now (our longest yet) and by the time we leave it would of been over a year. Yep that's right, we are moving again!! This time the house is separating. Rachel is handing her notice in at work and so we are all moving. Rachel is planning on doing something abroad, Grace will move closer to work, and I will move home for the winter. With Josh moving out, his room was going to become the spare room, but since I'm going back home it will become mine for a few months. It's going to be really sad leaving the house, and Bristol and I'm going to miss being close to my friends but moving back home will be good. It'll be great to spend some time with the family, and I was home a lot last winter anyway so it makes most sense. Lucas is going to love it. The last few times I was home he's come up to me or crawled into bed and has told me that he's "missed me soooo much" and "wants me to stay forever". He's so cute. Here is a picture that he told me to take when I was home a couple of months back so that I wouldn't forget him... Awww!!

So in other news I've been pulled up for Jury Duty. It just came completely out of the blue and is something I never expected I would ever have to do. It is a legal requirement to do Jury Duty when you are called up. I was meant to go this week but asked for it to be deferred so now I am reporting for duty on November 5th. I'm a little bit excited about it to be honest . . . I love Crime shows etc so it'll be really fascinating to see/be in a jury in real life. It could end up that I report and they don't need me . . . If that happens I might be tempted just to book a holiday instead. lol

With all the miserable weather I am so tempted to transfer somewhere hot and sunny. I'm craving sunshine right now. The winter transfer list came out a couple of days ago and they need someone in Gran Canaria, it is so tempting to put my name down for it and it would be for the 5 months over the winter if I were to get it. I'm still thinking about the decision to put my name forward, but even if I do the chances of getting it are slim, after all they only need 1 person and I bet there are hundreds of crew over the network that would want to spend the winter in the canaries. However, after this winter I am considering transferring out in the summer. It's still something I'm spending a lot of time thinking about, and it will probably boil down to how I feel after Christmas. I love working out of Bristol, I love the base, and the crew, and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere we have at work, but I have this feeling that life needs a change right now and I'm not sure what it is. I guess that's what's led me to the thoughts that maybe it's time for a change at work. I guess we'll see. I might decide that staying in Bristol is what I need to do. 

Open University  has come to an end for the year. I have finished my module and should get the result on the 3rd August. I have also registered for the Math module for next year and was even lucky enough to be granted a partial financial aid. It means that I only have to pay £116 for the whole module which is a huge relief. Now to spend the summer going over my A-level Math so that I can refresh my brain. It's been 5 years since I've taken them and I can't seem to remember anything. 

I was very lucky this year and was given 3 days of annual leave in August. I can't wait to jet out to Alicante for 5 days and enjoy sitting round by the pool or on the beach with a few good books and soaking up the sun. A few days after I come back I'll be going to the Olympics in London to see the Men's Semi-final Volleyball. I'm way excited. What a once in a lifetime opportunity. Apparently the tickets have arrived at Mum and Dads, and the train is booked :) Not long to go now. 

Sorry for such a long post. It's all a bit scrambled but I wanted it updated a bit before anything else happened. Next time I'll try and tell a few of the crazy stories I've had at work recently.