As everyone will have every year, there's been high points and low points but let's look at the good...
This year I travelled more than I've ever done before. I'm very much hermit and never really leave my little town. In January I was a crazy person and went to Russia for a week. We visited Saint Petersburg and Moscow and the average temperatures were around -26C everyday. Slightly chilly...
It was a lot of fun and a great experience. I was so nervous beforehand as it was something totally different and I don't like not being in my normal routine so I'm really glad I did it and especially in Winter to get the proper experience!
I also finally visited London this year. I've always wanted to go and I absolutely fell in love with it. Hopefully I'll get the chance to go back again soon because it just felt like home and I belonged. (CHEESE FEST ALERT). We went to see The Book of Mormon which is just incredible and I've not stopped listening to the soundtrack since. We had the most lovely weather and we must have walked for absolute miles for the 4 days we were there. We went everywhere from Wimbledon to Camden Town.
I also went on my first abroad holiday for 4 years in September where we went to Rhodes for a week and boy, I miss it so much. It was about 26-30C every day (so slightly different from Russia...) We knew we wanted to go on holiday and literally do nothing. We got up in the morning, had breakfast, chilled by the pool til dinner, chilled by the pool for a few more hours, hotel, teatime then hit the hotel bar. It was bliss. We had no internet and couldn't be bothered buying any and it was the nicest thing not having any connection to "real world". It was weird but nice. Usually after a holiday I'm ready for home but I did not want to leave that place.
This year I also added two more tattoos to my body after 3 years of not having any. I had the phrase "Think of a wonderful thought" on my upper inner arm back in March. I'd had this design printed out and stuck on my wall for over a year and I'd told myself I could get it if I gave blood 3 times. Last year I did my blood donations so a year after my first donation, I got my ink and I love it so much. I'm not going to explain what it means to me but it's from Peter Pan and that is something that is just really special to me.
Then only a week or so ago my and my two sisters got matching tattoos! We got one of the "Hear No, See No, Speak No Evil" monkeys each on our shoulder blade. They are stupid and silly and hilarious and so bloody cute and I absolutely love them. And what better people than sisters to get matching tattoos?!
Last year I made a career change from retail to admin. It's sill so weird that I don't work in a shop and that I don't work over Christmas but I've been in my new job a year and a half now and this year I managed to get TWO pay rises, I've trained new people and I have a lot of responsibilities. My job is changing slightly in the new year so I'm looking forward to seeing what that brings and hopefully I can better myself more. I said last year I want to be in a position to have enough money saved to move out but yeah... that's not happening anytime soon. So in 2015 I need to carry on saving because I desperately want my own home. I feel like it's my time to move out but bloody money is just being a pain as always!
In terms of Laddered Tights, my total blog views for this year where almost the same as the previous TWO years combined so thank you so much! I tried at the start to be more regular and then I went weeks without doing anything. I think I just have to remind myself not to get stressed about this kind of stuff. This is a hobby and I like doing it and there's no point doing it just for the sake of it. I kind of set myself silly little blog goals that I kept to myself last year and none of which I achieved (heh) but blogging is huge these days so no more targets! I started this for fun, it was only ever for fun and it always will be. So I am going to try at least twice a week posting but no concrete rules. If I want to write something, I will and if I don't, I won't!
I do hope you'll continue to stick with me. All the beauty and skincare posts will be sticking around and I may even venture more into the lifestyle side of things.
My most viewed posts from the last 12 months are here too, if you're interested and/or missed any of them..:
Sali Hughes "Pretty Honest" book review
"Why do you wear makeup?" - a slight rant
Unsung Hero status for L'Oréal's True Match foundation
Pixi Glow Tonic love. One of this years favourite discoveries
A good ol' "what's in my bag?" post
And a Sunday Pamper Session (that is now slightly outdated. I will update next year)
I hope you all finish 2014 on a high and enter 2015 the same way. And if this year wasn't so kind to you, I hope next year will make up for it.
xxxx
Awesome! Russia! I've always wanted to go there but it's one place that kind of puts me off, safety wise? Would love to hear more about what you thought about that? My twitter is @amyTWLE if you wanna chat travel! :)
ReplyDeleteTheWanderlustEntries.com
Hi Amy!
DeleteRussia was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I went and did it but it's probably somewhere I would never go back. St Petersburg was very old fashioned and traditional looking whereas Moscow was definitely more modern. Safety wise, I was worried before going. The hardest part was the fact they use a different alphabet so we couldn't read things and not many people seemed to speak english (or didn't really want to, fair enough). I think as well as we went in January which I doubt is tourist season, it shocked them that english people were there.
We did have an incident in the taxi to the airport in St Petersburg were the driver seemed to like that we were english and wanted to take photos of us and stuff but he did take us to the airport and left. Was a litte scary then.
Did kind of get the impression that they didn't want us there when we were in shops or cafes etc but nobody ever said anything to us and we weren't misbehaving or anything.
If you get the chance to go then do it because it is beautiful. If you do, you will need a visa which is expensive (we didn't know when we booked) and Russian airports are TERRIFYING :')
But amazing experience and I'd recommend going in winter to get the full effect of it all! x
I see! Yeah, I worry when I visit a country that doesn't use our alphabet and I can't communicate. Why is the airport scary? :) How much approx is a visa?! Yeah would love to go still but would have same concerns you did. Closest I've been is Poland but that was years ago no bad feelings there, however I went to Estonia last year and as awesome, clean, modern and medieval it was (I've blogged about it if you care to see what I mean) it had a big Russian vibe cos obv they used to control it, and I didn't get in any trouble but we went in this cinema for some icecream and what seemed to happen was... an Estonian lad was mouthing off at people (this is in the day with kids around) so this Russian bloke punched him a few times. Don't know what was said (tried asking staff but they kept quiet) but I *think* the Russian guy was in the right (well, aside the violence) but it freaked me out. I know that can happen anywhere but it was very in your face. we met some brits that night who said they went into a pub for some breakfast (so it was morning) and some russian guys came in proper pissed up looking for a fight so the landlord locked the brits in (nice story!) but that freaked me out cos it was in the day. Again that could happen here easily but its different when you dont understand whats going on. I would go to Russia but would be very on guard..thanks for the info :)
DeleteWith the airport is was just the height of security. Airports are scary anyway but they took so long examing the passport and visa and whereas here you can go to the desk in your group, you had to do it solo there and wait until they were happy with the passport. And cos you can't understand what they're saying it's a little scary :')
DeleteBut the Russians themselves we had no issues. Everyone just left us be. Was just a little difficult if we were lost or were in restaurants etc.
That sounds a little scary! But I just think, all part of the experience. So longs you respect their culture then everything's usually all grand!
Just followed you on bloglovin. I'm not a massive traveller but I love seeing other people's travels :) x
It looks like you've had some great highs in 2014. The 'Hear No, See No, Speak No Evil' tattoos are absolutely adorable, which section did you get?
ReplyDeleteDanielle | theperksofprettythings
Thanks Danielle! I'm in the middle on the photo - Hear No Evil x
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