BEDN - Day swap

I am loving the topic suggestions for this BEDN, however I am doing a bit of a swap around this week.  Today was supposed to be a day in my life, but today I have sat miserably in the office doing nothing by typing and drinking tea so it's not much fun, whereas tomorrow, I am going to visit my Cousin and heading off to Hong Kong so it's going to be much more fun!!  Therefore, today I am covering Blog chat, here are a few things you may not have known about my blog:

1.  I started this blog as a tool to get through a bout of depression and it has helped significantly in my recovery and on-going improvement.

2.  I want this to be a sort of diary so I can look back on it and see what I was doing or how I was feeling this time last, basically to gauge my improvements.

3.  I write about anything and everything, my blog is not specific to a topic or an area of life, its more of a ramble on about what I do with my life and my feelings.

4.  I am a lazy blogger, I fall off the wagon and forget to do it for weeks at a time, which is why I wanted to complete this challenge.

5.  This is my first challenge and so far it is going well, although I feel like some of my posts are a bit boring because I am doing it so much!  I will definitely be doing another challenge in the future though and hopefully will now blog more about my travels.

My cousin Amy was the one who got me into blogging, she is more of a pro than me and is self hosted, her blog is always entertaining and I love catching up with her daily activities as we live so far away from each other.  Have a look www.funbeingmum.co.uk

TTFN

10 things.....

.....that happen to me when I am tired in the office:

1.  I become hyper to an extreme level (before eventually hitting a gigantic brick wall face first!!) and cannot stop talking!!  My poor colleagues have to suffer various levels of rant on fairly redundant issues every 3 minutes or so!

2.  I go to the bank, get stressed and accidently head butt the microphone and take a chunk of skin off my forehead!

3.  Throw pens at my colleagues without any thought for where they may land, todays landing in my colleagues ponytail was by far my best!!

4.  Miss my chair!

5.  Answer the phone with the company name....that I used to work for..... 3 years ago!!!

6.  Spill my tea...down the front of my white shirt and also down my trousers..... and in my shoe!

7.  Eat.....a lot!!


8.  Cry when the e-mail I am trying to send it too big and not being able to find a way to make it smaller!

9.  Rub my eyes regardless of mascara and end the day looking like a panda!

10.  Walk into anything and everything, including the door frame, the bathroom door, the giant palette of boxes by the door, the printer and my car!!

National Stress Awareness Day - Stress is....

Stress is walking 2 miles through Metro and RER stations with a giant suitcase and a laptop bag.

Stress is coming home to find a hole in the hallway ceiling and water dripping through.

Stress is finding one of your DVD's out of alphabetical order and trying to figure out why.

Stress is being stuck behind the worlds slowest driver in rush hour and then changing lanes to find yourself stuck behind a bus!

Stress is cinema goers not following the cinema etiquette guide, kindly provided by me on my blog.  http://poppiesintheporch.blogspot.fr/2013/02/jennas-guide-to-cinema-etiquette.html?m=1 

Stress is work.

Stress is spending 90 minutes believing the hotel maid has stolen your pajamas!

Stress is having a headaches and no painkillers.

Stress is the worlds biggest exhibition with the worlds rubbish signage!

Stress is all of the above and more!! Stress is in everyone's everyday lives, no one can say they never get stressed ever, but it's how you mentally and emotionally manage that stress that makes the difference.  Since I have done 12 months of counselling I have learnt the tools as techniques required to deal with stressful situations!!  Stopping and talking a moment to reassess the situation and if possible walking away from the situation entirely to gain perspective and by thinking through the issue I tend to be able to move forward thought it much more successfully!

I know this isn't the most interesting of posts but I think it's important that people are aware that 'stress' doesn't necessarily mean you are ill or can't cope, sometimes it just means to need to rethink the way approach the issues you face.

TTFN

Childhood memories...

The BEDN topic for today is Bonfire Night, however being in Paris means I won't be celebrating it, so instead I will bore you with stories of my childhood bonfire nights!!

My mom used to organise a bonfire party every year for all out family and friends (any excuse for a party!!) and they are one of the things I truly miss from my childhood!! Mom would make jacket potatos and serve them in tin foil and cup-a-soups in big mugs that you could wrap your hands around with gloves on to keep warm!! My dad would hold his hot soup or hot potato with his gloves on and put his hands to my face to warm me up!!

We had sparklers, which my dad would try to light in bulk (but burnt his thumb and a hole in the kitchen floor in the process!!).  We would have a huge bonfire to keep warm in a metal dustbin and loads of fireworks!! The Catherine wheel would always be nailed to the fence and always get stuck and shoot brights lights in a straight like instead f a circle!! The one time it actual went round it burnt a huge black circle on the next door neighbours fence!!

Dad would bore us with British History and the Gunpowder plot when all we wanted was to see fireworks!!

We don't do these anymore, I don't know whether it's because Mom's not here to plan it or whether it's because all us kids grew up and stopped wanted to hang around with our parents!!  

Either way, bonfire night was by far one of my favourite childhood memories!!

Good glorious food!!

Well in theory this should be a very easy post for me, I love food but I have a very love/hate relationship with it! This is mainly because the food I REALLY love include McDonalds, Chinese, crisps, crisps and more crisps, all of which contribute to my ever expanding waist line and my constant feeling of guilt after a binge!! I have tried every diet, Atkins (bad breath and stomach ache), weight watchers (lots of options but eventually gets very repetitive and boring), Slimming World (great concept, way too much work, no quick dinners everything has to be cooked from scratch!!), cabbage soup (yak!), Slim fast (in no way does my food obsessed mind believe a milkshake is food let alone a meal!) - so now I'm trying a new tact, eating better but not missing the things I want I.e if I want a Maccy's dinner then only have a very light lunch etc and exercise, exercise and more exercise!! For example today I must have walked at least a mile through train stations and metro tunnels, therefore I am having a Bourbon for breakfast sans guilt!!

I like to believe I enjoy cooking, and if I didn't work late most nights I probably would make more effort but the older I get the less bothered I am by fancy meals at home and the more I want chicken and mash!! Maybe it's because I eat out more now, particularly with my travelling!!

Just having a look through my phone (as I like to take photos of my food!!) and it shows very clearly how much 'naughty' food I really love:

Chocolate soufflé

Gü zillionaire dessert

Nutella milkshake and yes in the background m&ms!!

Salted caramel and pecan square

The most amazing Mexican brunch from Giraffe!!!

RIBS!!

White chocolate magnum

Cooooooookies

Finally found Cheetos in the UK!

Hazelnut Milka... Only found overseas!

By far the most incredible Wagyu steak I have EVER eaten

Bright orange crisps from Indonesia

 

Chocolate cake

Honeycomb sundae

 

Cookie dough bites

 

Pecan pie

.... And these are just the foods I have taken photos of!!!! 😯

TTFN

Lights, Camera, Paris!!

Todays theme is lights and although I don't want to bring everything back to my trip this fits pretty well!! Last night I spent the evening getting very cold queuing for the Eiffel Tower... While queuing I made some fabulous friends who I proceeded to have dinner and drinks with afterwards!! However, rather than words, I'm going to do this post in pictures.

From the bottom:

 

From the top:

 

FYI, don't go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in gale force winds!!!

Au Revoir 

BEDN - Something I have made

I am starting this blog from my taxi on route to the airport, heading to Paris for 5 days!! I thought I would give myself a bit of a head start as once I arrive I will be sightseeing all day, then an early night ready for the build up of the show in the morning!!

The topic for today was something I have made, I am not going to take this quite as literal as I would normally and say the something I made is my plane... I was awake at 3am thanks to some well timed texts and phone calls from various friends and family and therefore have made it to my flight!!

You may think this is a)not very interesting  or b) not a great achievement but given my track record with trains (I have never got on to the train I have intended to in my life, I am always late for trains and end up waiting for the next one, sometimes overnight in the case of Cardiff!!) so when I started this job I was a little conscious about making sure I was awake and ready in time to leave for my flights - I set 5 alarms and ask my Facebook friends to ring or text me if they find themselves awake at the right time!! Hopefully this plan will continue to work!!

I will continue this blog from le Paris :)

Well I didn't quite make it to Paris before I started again, i am in the lounge waiting to board and I see this farty little propeller plane through the window....

Little concerned that this might actually be my plane :-/

So I made it to Paris and I have had a pretty hectic day, therefore I am now in my hotel room 'making' a cup of tea and I have also 'made' the tele speak in English instead of French :) success!!

Just a few of my photos so far:

The Eiffel Tower from underneath:

The Eiffel Tower from underneath when you try and take a photo of yourself when traveling alone:

The Trocadero and the fountains:

A few selfies on my wet and windy bus tour:

 

Finally, Notre Dame and a further selfie attempt:

Anyway, finally got to my hotel room and I think sheer exhaustion contributed I my madness but I found the hotel hair dryer freakin hilarious!!!

Well that was a pretty long one, I doubt tomorrow's will be nearly as fun as I will be working but we'll see!!

Muchos Love xx