30 Before 30 – Another Update

Wow, how is it already 2019?! Now that the end of January is just around the corner, I thought I’d re-evaluate where I am on my list of 30 things to do before I’m 30 – especially as I’ve only got four months left to complete it!

Reading Again With Paper Cut Outs

It’s been such a long time since I last read a book - our ‘Readers’ book club has died a sad little death, and when it comes to relaxing once the kids are in bed, escaping with a book is usually the last thing on my mind! Saying all this though, I’ve found myself getting increasingly sucked into the black hole of social media comparison, and beating myself up about my imagined flaws etc, so it’s probably about time I switched off and enjoyed a treat from the literary world!

 

Five Things I Love About This Time Of Year

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but as it's now October, and Halloween appeals so much to my sense of consumerism, I thought I’d share five things that I love about this time of year:

30 Before 30 – A Quick Update

Back in June, I wrote a list of 30 things that I want to do/achieve before I’m 30, with the whole idea being that surely I could stick to something if I wrote it down where people could see! Given that I’m now four months into my 30th year, I thought I should re-evaluate how much I’ve managed to tick off the list…

 

Iris’ Birth Story

Gosh, how is it that my little squidge is one month old today?! As is the common theme with most of my blog posts these days, I’d been meaning to get this written for a while now, but the general chaos of newborn life has been holding things up slightly – I take my hat off to all those mothers I see on Instagram who totally seem to have their shit together, I don’t know how you guys do it! Anyway, without further ado, here’s how my latest wee cherub came in to the world…

Guess That Sound With Soundiculous!

Man, I’d forgotten what it was like to look after a newborn – the constant feeding, the lack of sleep and the specific cry all babies seem to have (which nature has programmed us to drop everything for) has really been challenging for us this past couple of weeks. Even this blog post, which would normally take me a couple of hours, has been dragging out for days! Despite these new commitments, we’ve still been trying to have fun as a family, even though activities are interrupted a little more often than usual. As such, when I was contacted by Gamely Ltd, creators of the hilarious card game Randomise, to review another of their recently launched products, I saw this as an excellent opportunity to have a laugh at a recent big family birthday.

What’s In My Hospital Bag?

Man, I feel like I’ve totally dropped out of the blogging bubble again! Once my thesis was finally out of the way, I had all these great ideas for posts and content, but this pregnancy has really taken it out of me, especially with the horrible heatwave we’ve been experiencing! I’ve also become a bit of a night owl, which is frustrating because I’m then left exhausted during the day, and requiring constant naps to maintain my energy levels. I’m fed up and sore, and I’m counting the days until I get to hold my wee bundle of joy… pregnancy definitely seems to get harder the more times you do it!

 

Sunday saw us reach the full term 37 week mark, so I thought it was finally time to think about packing the hospital bag. I’ve seen a few other bloggers do similar posts, and I found them very helpful, so I thought I’d share what I’m planning to take to the hospital for those who are interested:

30 Before I’m 30!

I’ve never really bothered with milestone birthdays before – turning 18 wasn’t really much of a thing for me given my new parenthood status, and 21 doesn’t seem to hold the same significance as it does elsewhere in the world. I wasn’t even aware that people make a big deal about their 25th until I met Paul, shortly before he reached his. In any case, I will be turning 30 next May, and the change in the first number of my age hasn’t happened for a while, so I guess I should mark it with something!

Why I’m Hating My Pregnancy…

I feel awful even typing that title, but despite all my best efforts, ignoring it doesn’t make it any less true…

Birthday Treats at Smashburger, Glasgow!

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, you will know I’ve been absent for a wee while, trying to get my life together in the run up to the end of my PhD. In fact, I only re-joined the blogging scene about a week ago when I finally decided to get back in the saddle again after a six month break! No sooner had I returned to the blogosphere, an email popped up in my inbox announcing some new additions to the menu of my local Smashburger, and asking if I’d like to bring a guest along to sample the latest in gourmet burger goodies – with Friday being my birthday, I couldn’t resist!

Where Have I Been?

Gosh, it’s been such a long time since I wrote anything here, almost six months to be precise! The last time you heard from me, I was living the luxury cinema life at the new Odeon Luxe in Glasgow, but that now feels like an age away. I’ve had a lot of things on my plate in recently, mainly my PhD thesis, but I now feel like it’s time to come back – especially when I’ve always found my blog so helpful for dealing with stressful life situations.

Luxury Cinema Experiences with Odeon Luxe

With advances in home technology, and the increasing amount of various streaming services available to us, relaxing with snacks and a movie has never been easier. We have the ability stay in our own comfortable surroundings (usually while wearing jammies) and are spoilt with a huge choice of viewing entertainment, especially when companies such as Sky have movies in their store, sometimes within a couple of months of their big screen debuts – what is there to encourage cinema trips anymore?

 

Picture courtesy of Mischief PR and Odeon Cinemas

Fun Lunch Friday – Topolabamba, Glasgow

Since starting a blog, I’ve had so many brilliant opportunities to discover new things and visit a whole host of exciting new places, but my favourite thing to come out of the blogging world is definitely the wonderful people I’ve been able to interact with! As such, I wanted to include the lovely Lis (from Last Year’s Girl) in mine and Sarahjane’s semi-regular ‘Fun Lunch Friday’ exploration of the Glasgow food scene!

 

This week has not been a particularly good one for general health – Sarahjane was off ill and I’d had a churning stomach all morning – but I was determined not to cancel when it was Lis’ first choice of lunch destination. The original location was Chaakoo Bombay Café on St Vincent Street, but we arrived to find it fully booked out for lunch! Luckily, their Mexican sister restaurant was only a few doors down on the same street, so we opted for a stop at Topolabamba instead, with a view to returning to Chaakoo at a later date.

My American Travel Wish List

This time last year, I was enjoying one of the major highlights of PhD life while exploring the fantastic city of Denver. Having the ability to jet off for international conferences is one of the opportunities I would encourage anyone in my position to grab if at all possible, I was able to spend a wonderful week in the ‘Mile High City’, experiencing all the things I love about America - which (of course) mostly involved food! You can read all about that trip here, but it also got me thinking about all the other American destinations that I would love to visit at some point. With everything that’s happened this year, I never got round to posting about our Seattle honeymoon, but I’ve put together a collection of other places which are high on our travel wish list:

 

Organising Your Life With BusyB

It’s been a crappy few months, and not the most fantastic year overall, so when I received a lovely email from the team at BusyB, inviting me to the launch of their new collection of diaries and calendars for 2018, it seemed like a wonderful excuse to start looking forward to the future again! When I was little, I would always get such a great sense of enjoyment from surrounding myself with beautiful stationery, so having the chance to relive those moments again has undoubtedly helped improve my rather gloomy mood lately.

Smashburger Arrives in Glasgow

These days, when I think of burgers, I automatically associate them with the streets of Glasgow and the ever-expanding list of gourmet burger restaurants which serve them. I’ve even started a semi-regular ‘Glasgow Burger Tour’ with a couple of friends, with the aim of trying to discover even more varieties of this glorious American dinner option! When an email arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago, inviting me to the upcoming VIP launch of Smashburger in Glasgow, I jumped at the chance to expand my inventory of burger experiences, and (since he’s just started a new job near me) I dragged Scott along for the ride!

Link It! – A Fun Game For All The Family

In our household, we love a good card game, but it’s often the adult themed favourites (Cards Against Humanity, Never Have I Ever…) which are first on the table, meaning my kids are always excluded from the fun. When an email arrived in my inbox, asking if I wanted to try the new, fast-paced, family card game ‘Link It’ from PikyKwiky, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to include my children in one of our favourite pastimes!

 

Recurrent Miscarriage – The Answers We Didn’t Want To Hear…

(I feel this post needs a specific disclaimer. Please note that I am not an expert in medicine or genetics, the following is only intended to provide a brief description of my current condition and should not replace any advice given to you by a doctor.)

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you will be aware of the difficulties we’ve experienced while trying to grow our brood. October marks not only a year since we made the decision to add a third child to our family, but also the due date of our second pregnancy of the year, which ended in March. As today also marks the start of national baby loss awareness week, I thought I would share the results of our recent medical investigations, which were carried out while looking into the cause of our recurrent miscarriages…

More Bonus Time With Clinique And Debenhams

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been running through all my tester sized Clinique products, waiting for the next ‘Bonus Time’ event before I stock up again. Thankfully, a chance wander through Debenhams yesterday brought to my attention the most recent offer of goodies, so I dipped in to the remainder of my birthday money for a wee splurge on some much needed skincare!

 

The Readers - #7 Magenta Opium

It really has been a struggle to keep up with The Readers recently. With all the stress of my miscarriages, and then moving house, I’ve had so much on my plate that I’ve not been able to concentrate on reading. Top that off with the imminent conclusion of my PhD and the general decline in our mutual love of Book Club (we lost a member in the shape of Nikki), and it’s now six months down the road again. I also feel particularly bad, as this one was my choice, but I was the one holding everything up! Anyway, now that I’m finally finished, I present to you our latest slice of fun fiction – ‘Magenta Opium’ by Sharon Baillie.