"New Moon"... or once in a blue moon?

Excuse the rubbish title haha!

Bit of a trivial post this, but I've been trying to read "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer for ages now and I just can't seem to immerse myself in it. I'm still only at page 104. Very annoying, as I loved the first "Twilight" novel.

I keep putting it down in favour of reading a few chapters of Lauren Conrad's "LA Candy"... which, actually, I am really enjoying! Yeah... I know... but at least we've established that I'm not a book snob ;)

I've been lent the "New Moon" DVD but everyone tells me to read the book first...

Have you read "New Moon"? If you have, did you experience the same as me initially or did it grab you from the first page? I HATE giving up on books but this is a bit of a slog at the moment!

xx

5 years

Five years ago today you left us Grandad. It was a Tuesday. I can't believe it's been this long since I last saw you and held your hand.

I really, really, really miss you.

It still really hurts that you're not at the top of the road to wave me off on my way to work.

I still look for you there every morning.

I see you in the sunset. I see you just beyond the moon. I see you in my dreams.

I feel you in the rain that falls from heaven. I feel you in my heart.

But I still miss you.

And I love you more.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The things you find on Facebook...

It seems that the mighty Facebook has managed to lure in a wizard or three...

If you're a Harry Potter fan (like me) you'll love this:

(Pic from weheartit)

I couldn't resist - it made me giggle!

xx

Then and now... flashback fun

Just a quick post as it's swimming night... I promised you that I would try to blog more often :)

It was my sister Olivia's 14th birthday recently. I can't believe that my little baby sister is 14 already, especially as it seems like yesterday when she was born... and I remember being 14 so clearly!

I was feeling nostalgic and looking through some old family photos on Sunday evening when I found this sweet pic that always makes me smile. HOPEFULLY little sis won't mind me sharing it with you!

This was the result one morning after my then 6-year-old sister arrived downstairs for breakfast having chosen her own, mostly home-made, accessories for the day.... all of them at once I think, awww :)

And this is a recent pic (I stole it from her facebook *sorry Livs*) :

Little sis is now taller than me too, much to her amusement! She's an intelligent, beautiful, caring, considerate, polite and FUNNY young woman and I couldn't be more proud of her.

Livvy, I tell you all the time but now everybody knows - your big sis loves you millions xxxxxxxxx

Volcano sunset?

The world and his dog by now know of the air travel chaos caused by Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano (I am not even going to try pronouncing that one!). The UK has been on almost total lockdown since last Thursday and much of Europe and beyond has also been affected.

I live in a part of England that has several RAF and USAF air bases nearby and as a consequence planes are always to-ing and fro-ing overhead, so it's still really weird not hearing them or seeing their contrails across the sky... and as much as I find the aircraft noise strangely comforting and familiar to the point where I don't really notice it, I am enjoying the peace and quiet!

I am also lucky enough to live in a region that is well known for its open skies and spectacular sunsets, and as Mr Sunshine had his hat on all weekend we were once again treated to an amazing sunset on Saturday evening.

So, as breathtaking sunsets are common in my neck of the woods, I can't say for definite that the Volcano lent a helping hand... but there was a suspicious coating of dust on everyone's cars, so of course I am going to go with that idea :)

I snapped this at around 8:40pm from my back garden

I LOVE living in this little corner of England on evenings like this... makes you feel glad to be alive, doesn't it?

xx

Bingo! I won! A good excuse to buy some loot...

Last Saturday I spent the day with my Daddy and his partner who live about 45 minutes away. We went to their local bingo hall before going for lunch, and I have to say, having never been before I was a wee bit sceptical about spending a few hours playing bingo... not somewhere I imagined myself going but hey, that's just me!

I was impressed by the venue though - clearly a disused 30's cinema with most of the original features... and the fantastic obligatory sparkly gold backdrop! I could only take a couple of sneaky phone pics though because people were giving me strange looks...

Bingo was actually a lot harder than I thought (don't laugh!), because we had a zillion books to play from and the caller read the numbers so quickly that I kept getting left behind... I soon got used to it though and I ended up really enjoying it :)

Aaaand, I won!!! £50 for a full house!! I couldn't believe it. I was actually a bit scared to call it because the other players always groaned when someone won (it gets very tense!), and then I was worried that I'd got it wrong because woe betide you.... the regulars were quite mean I thought when a lady called house by mistake. I guess it's tiresome if that happens when you play regularly, but.....

.... I needn't have worried. Yes, I won :)

After lunch, Dad and I went to the local discount outlet mall and I had muchos fun spending most of my winnings! This was my loot:

Nude pink top, £15 reduced from £23, Pilot

(also purchased a pair of black leggings for £7 but you all know what they look like!)

I have had a bit of a spree lately buying long casual tops to wear with leggings - this one had to be mine as I loved the lace and the diamante sparkles :)

We were just leaving to go back to my Dad's when, tucked away down a lonely "alley" I found a little independent discount beauty shop. Typically it was literally 10 minutes until the shopping mall closed but I dashed in anyway.....

Oh my gosh, I wished I had found the shop at least an hour earlier :( I was running around as if I was on a manic trolley dash with no time to decide on anything. All of my purchases were instant decisions and I just threw them into my basket.

St. Moritz self tanning mousse, £5.95; Revlon ColorStay in no. 150 (Buff), £8.95

I have NEVER tried wearing fake tan before, although I have always secretly wanted to try it. I've heard that St. Moritz is supposed to be as good as St. Tropez, and at that price I thought it was a good time to bite the bullet and buy! (ANY ADVICE WELCOME PLEASE!!)

I've wanted to try a new foundation for ages, but wouldn't buy one whilst I had lots of my existing one left. But now my Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse has almost run out, I made a beeline for this! Thank goodness I picked the correct colour...

I'm not all that impressed by the Dream Matte Mousse any more tbh, even though I've been using it for a few years. My skin has been very dry over the winter months and no matter how much I moisturise beforehand, this foundation looks cakey/flaky in places. It doesn't look too bad from a distance, but up close... *shudder*

Unlike Revlon's new PhotoReady foundation, ColorStay does not have a pump applicator, and being a bit of a make-up novice I was initially unsure how to apply it without wasting vast amounts. Good old youTube saved the day and the general consensus seems to be to pour a bit onto a piece of clingfilm and apply using a wedge. I haven't had a chance to try it yet so if you have any tips on how you use this foundation I would really appreciate it!

Benefit Cream Eyeshadow in Moon Doggie, £3.95

There was a whole Benefit stand AND I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO LOOK AT IT!!! :( I adore Benefit! With two minutes until the shop closed I saw this leap out among all of the other shadows and I just had to have it... plus it was the last one left in this shade and I felt sorry for it ;)

By this time the assistants were hovering by the doors ready to close up, so I went to pay. Then what do I see by the till? An overflowing NYX stand and a small Bourjois counter!! I could have cried.

I made a last-second grab for these whilst an assistant scanned the other bits and pieces:

Bourjois 3D cosmic shine lipgloss in no. 34 Rose Mythic, £1.95;

NYX Goddess of The Night mega shine lipgloss in no.127 Pink Frost, £3.95

They both smell A M A Z I N G.......

Excuse the Bourjois label - for some bizarre reason they annoy me

and I have to pick them off!

I thought they were both £1.95 but closer inspection of the receipt tells me otherwise.

However, I'm still smiling at these bargains!

I'm planning on another visit to this little shop soon - I cannot wait!

I also bought some bits and bobs in Claire's Accessories as extra presents for my little sister Olivia, who was 14 this week. Happy Birthday (again) Liv xxxxx

All in all it was a fantastic day.

Bingo + winnings,

yummy lunch,

walking around in the warm sunshine wearing a vest top for the first time this year,

shopping,

quality time with my Daddy

= a very happy Jo!

xx

MIA for so long! A little (rambling) update...

Hello my dears! I'm so sorry I've been MIA for a while, I've been busy, busy, busy with work and life in general and just haven't had the time to blog myself or catch up with everyone else's... I've really missed you all :(

The main reason for my absence is because I've started swimming again. I used to swim a LOT because it's fab for my CP (cerebral palsy), which can make my lower leg muscles really painful and tense, especially if I am stressed or tired - it basically feels like permanent cramp, which sucks! When I was struck down (!) with depression last year, I lost ALL of my confidence and stopped socialising, my physio, swimming... and even had problems looking in the mirror at myself. I won't bore you with all of the details now, however a few of my older posts address that time in my life if you're at all interested :)

I'm slowly making good progress (yay!!) with the help of counselling and fantastic support from family and friends, and started swimming again about 4 weeks ago. I'm so proud of myself as this was a huge thing for me to do - not the swimming itself - but to put myself in a situation where people can see my legs, and lets face it it's scary enough for all of us girls to put on a swimming cossie!! I'm also annoyed at myself for giving up on it in the first place when it's so important to keep active, so am trying to win myself some brownie points back ;)

I swim with my Aunty Sue, who is sooo funny, I love her. She keeps me motivated too which is what I need. She's nearly drowned me through laughing at least six times!! We both love swimming and managed 60 lengths on Thursday evening (when we started we could barely swim 20) ... I REALLY ache and feel pretty exhausted for a couple of days afterwards but already feel that my balance and general fitness has improved :)

I'm going to start my hydrotherapy programme again in the next couple of weeks too, which will help to build up my core stability etc again. The plan is to swim once a week and do my hydro on the other pool visit - Aunty Sue is keen to give it a go too... go Aunty Sue!!!

I've also started socialising again with my lovely friends... not as much as I used to because I still feel pretty anxious about it, but baby steps and all that... it's been great to get myself glammed up for a night out on the tiles and feel like the old me.

So although I only swim on two weeknights per week, the rest of the time has been swallowed up by domestic drudgery, seeing friends and family etc etc, but as I said I've missed the whole Blogger community so I'm going to try harder to blog/comment etc.

Thanks for sticking with me, I really, really appreciate you all following/reading my musings. Big hugs :) xxxx