MLB Summer

Excuses Excuses for being late! :(

I blame the underwhelming boxes for this... I am actually thinking of unsubscribing... Might wait a couple more boxes to see if they'll improve before making my final decision, but am leaning towards cancelling as I found another (more expensive) box to try out and if that's better (a big probability of yes then bye bye My Little Box).

First up June and the Los Angeles Box

This was actually quite decent with the bag, coconut oil and Burt's Bees cream. Not too shabby, also liking the pink theme :D and the LA map.

Stickers although they are cute are totally useless... so is the bracelet. Overall an ok box.

Next up July's Seashell box:

• An inflatable beach pillow/pouch. I could only inflate one side but might be quite handy if I ever find my way to a beach and am forced to lie down :D (I hate sunbathing)
• A sea salt scrub
• Two tealights in a paper holder? Is that not dangerous?
• Seashell sweet that you had to lick since it was inside a real seashell which you can't eat. Neverending licking :D
• Qiriness eye mask
• Hand cream to add to my horde of them, for some reason I do not like hand and body creams, the residue (even if only for a sec) they leave is not my fave feeling, hence I do not use them more than about twice a year in a moment of madness :D

In retrospective not too bad of a box either, actually better than June due to the beach pillow :D

And that brings us to August when I received the Wild Summer Box

• A statement necklace... Basically just a huge piece of rope around your neck...
• Triangular Jewellery holder, not too bad, kinda like it
• A card that folds every way and reveals hidden messages, quite cool to play around with for about a minute :D
• Bare minerals tester
• Blush
• Eau micellaire, this is a product I've received twice now and luckily for me I like it (Imagine if I'd had some stupid hand cream twice)

Although I've found something I like in every box there's still this meh feeling... Is it worth £15 every month, not so sure anymore. And I'm not the only one to think like this, if you look at their FB page every picture they post has lots of comments underneath saying how crap they have been lately and the fact that they do not answer any customer complaints means they have lost a lot of subscribers. Hopefully they will take this as a sign and improve the boxes!!

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Fambily

Finally after all these years my siblings came to visit me! I was so excited and what better way for them to fly over with than British Airways! Who was actually cheaper than Ryanair! And they flew to Heathrow, you know what is near Heathrow? Windsor and Legoland! What better way to start the first trip abroad for the bros than freaking Legoland???

As always when we plan to take a car for some bigger journey it breaks, or doesn't have the proper documents or or or something god knows what happens that means last minute ("##€# expensive) train tickets. This time 4 days before they were due to come the car started squealing while braking... Turns out one of the parts has worn out and the first guy (roadside help who tow the car to a garage if necessary) said in no way is it safe to drive this car for a long period of time... ok. The following day tried all the garages in town and all full!!! Or didn't have the spare part... Why does it always happen to me? Fast forward when we finally got a proper garage to look at turns out it wasn't that bad after all... and we COULD'VE driven it down to Windsor!!!!!

Back to the trip though

First day we went to Legoland. And yes it was ahmazing!!! My bros are a little afraid of attractions so another amusement park would've been a waste of money, but Legoland is literally built for small(ish) kids so perf. Plus what boy does not love legos? We got the Adults go free tickets on the day. In the end though only saved one ticket's worth of money because it is much more expensive on the day than to book in advance. Luckily they came over right before school holidays start here so the queues were manageable. Although the HOT weather did not help our stamina. I think we managed to enjoy only half of the park. And just drag ourselves through the other half. Mainly because it was boiling! But the kids loved it and they even said at home that they were very brave and not afraid of the rides :D The little one started off wanting me to take photos of ALL the Legos, so he could show our mum :D

When it was time to go home the bus was absolutely full, so we had to stand up the whole way + it wash rush hour so traffic was much slower than going there :( We finished the day off grabbing a pub dinner. First time fish and chips - success but the little one's kid burger was a disappointment :D It was plain and tiny, luckily I got a picture of his wtf face :D Later on we went for a walk around town and got some ice cream and went to check Eton college, so tired though. And the heat, omg UK was supposed to me renowned for its bad weather? The aircon was nonexistant in the hotel room so got 2 fans that didn't help at all :(

Second day we went to visit the castle. Went there about half an hour before opening and got in straight away (after the half an hour was up that is). Although the first sight of the queue scared the crap out of us. It had hundreds of people in it and was loooooong! But that was for groups luckily, there was only a hand full of people in the single visitor queue, I think a lot of people were confused by the queue system and I feel sorry for the people who did join the group queue as single visitors because it wasn't obvious. 

The castle itself and the grounds are huge! But unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the castle. It was really nice though!

We also saw the changing of the guards which took forever... and half of that time 2 of them just walked backwards and forwards shouting something while turning around. I'm sure it has a meaning but to an observer it just looked silly.

After spending a good couple of hours in the castle our epic journey (7 hours?!) back to my place in the middle of nowhere could begin. We had to change trains 4 or 5 times :D Luckily it was a smooth journey and we got seats in every train and nothing was delayed or late.

So that evening we could go for a walk on the promenade and castle ruins, and the playground that is there. They played until it was too dark to see anything.

Next day we opted to conquer the Constitution hill and go over to Clarach Bay to see the tiny caves. They were amazed by the rocky beach collecting pretty pebbles to take home with them. They even found a little "pirate" cave that had shiny pebbles in different colours. Going home was much harder due to the weight in their pockets :D

That's the evening we went to my fave place in town - the tapas place and they loved it as much as I do. What's not to love? You can pick lots of little plates to nibble at. For the first time I actually preordered a paella for us. It was good but I'll stick to the tapas plates we always have. One of the bros said his favourite was the bread that he could dip in aioli :D

The second day here we conquered the hill on the other side of the town. Pen Dinas. That has a big cannon monument on it. The weather forecast said it'll be quite chilly and cloudy so all of us took raincoats with us and obviously we didn't put any sun screen on... Guess who freaking burnt? ME! Everyone else were ok, a hint of little pinkiness maybe if you look hard enough but me!!!! Jesus lord help me! I had a t-shirt tanned on me and my upper back behind the neck was sore! Ouch! It all came peeling off a week later... So didn't even get a nice tan out of it!

Because it was so nice (despite BBC warning us of a chilly cloudy day) we decided to have a small bbq at the beach. And saw some waterguns in poundworld for a pound. Perfect. Although the water was quite cold they still had lots of fun splashing each other. And were underwhelmed of a what a bbq means in the UK. (Estonian bbq are a feast next to this lot).

We also managed to go to Devil's Bridge walkway to see all the waterfalls and up to uni where I showed them where I lived during my first year here, went to see the exhibition in the Arts Centre and obviously took photos at the steps where all graduates take graduate photos, later walking back  to town down cardiac hill. They went to the Ceredigion Museum, I still haven't been and didn't go with them that day because had to deal with the fallout from work.. Thanks :) And then it was time to go leave Aber already! 

At first when we were planning this trip in advance I looked at all the days in Aber and thought what the hell are we going to do here??? Was really worried that they'll be bored but in the end could've done with a couple more days to go to the surrounding area as well, there is a nice old manor house nearby, nant-yr-arian, where they feed the red kites, Dinefwr (which we discovered after they's gone home), ynyslas and I forgot to take my sister out for cocktails!!!! The weather was really nice and warm and sunny the entire time we were here, except literally the last day when we were travelling up to Chester.

I just needed to take them to Chester Zoo, as it's the best Zoo I've ever been to! And they enjoyed it as well. Especially the bat house, although this time the stench in it made me heave awfully, don't remember that from last time... and they though it was absolutely fine. what smell are you talking about??? So they could've stayed there longer watching as much as you can bats fly over our heads but I just couldn't. The best decision we did was buy the refillable cup for the kids, as they made full use of it. Refilling it nearly at every kiosk :D. I think we managed to see everything and all the animals there :) Even take the boat ride in the new Islands section, later on we got lost there as we couldn't figure out how to get out from there :D

"Look a dead bird that is still alive"

And then already it was time to hop on the train to London! Which took 2 hours longer than we expected since all trains from and to Euston were suspended just at the time we were approaching it. So we waited in the standstill train between Rugby and London, then backed back to Rugby, got off the train as there was talk of substitute buses. Waited at the platform for about 10-20 minutes and got back on the train to shortly leave for London, where we quickly found our hotel and rushed to do some shopping in Oxford street before all the shops were closing. At first the bros weren't happy about shopping at all, but when we got to Primark and they realized that they can actually choose WHATEVER they want from there and we can buy it they got so excited and wanted to go back the next day :D We didn't have time luckily or unfortunately.

Since we only had one full day in London it was bit of a rush to see the main sites, maybe a little too much walking for the little ones, but we made it up to them in the Natural History Museum, which they loved! Who doesn't love dinosaurs that actually move and make a sound! Next time we'll go to the Science Museum which is right next to it.

Next morning it was a quick trip up the Great Fire Monument to take in the rooftops of London, a quick visit to the Tower bridge and then already time to go to the airport and say bye-bye! Next time they'll have to stay longer :D

Food was the main talk point from this trip after they got home :D as it is sooo different :D I don't really see it anymore because I'm so familiar with both.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Blackmail

Started my new job and everything went well except for people... at first they were quite welcoming etc but as soon as I started making moves and calling them out on their shit all hell broke loose. 

Ended up having a grievance against me, how I bully people and force them out of the job they absolutely love (heard later that the same person has been wanting to quit for a long time so just an excuse). Hurt their little ego by making them work! Omg actually I can't sit around doing nothing while getting paid for it? What?!? Slavery!!! So as part of my defence I had to show that the person is not a godsend and boy did they make it easy for me. I found the perfect cctv footage to illustrate all the points I initially made about their work that led us to this situation in the first place. 

Then suddenly I had a gap in the rota, as I wasn't expecting that person to walk out (they were supposed to leave the country in October anyway). Oh look another person who can do pretty much all the hours. Great, I'll ask them which ones would they like to take over. Big mistake... that person ended up accusing me of blackmailing and forcing them to do hours they couldn't. I guess some people are not yet ready for making huge life decisions like what hours they can commit themselves to... By the way about 2 months later I noticed a cv that had been dropped in recently... They were now ready to commit to evening shifts... A bit too late? Plus you didn't just quit did you? You had to try and tear me down as well... What happened to your perfect job that was willing to only give you day shifts? Oh wait did they lie?

And this happened just before my holiday... 

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Warwick and Oxford

Back in April I had 3 days off in a row... Because it happens so rarely we immediately decided to go on a weekend getaway to.... Warwick and Oxford daytrip too :)

At first we kind of freaked out that we have to change train stations, not just trains, in Birmingham! Get off at new street and walk 5-10 mins to Snow Hill station... It was supposed to be easy but as Mr. Special was dreading it we changed trains earlier to get us on one that takes us straight to Snow Hill. When we did get there we realised it just on the other side of the Bullring :D easy peasy lemon squeezy, on our way back we even grabbed lunch in the Handmade Burger co. :) Probs my fave place in Birmingham, and Bills really... don't think I've been anywhere else :D

Anyway Warwick seems such a lovely little town. Charming :) I could definitely live there. 

Since we got there quite late during the day + were starving for food we only had a short walk through the town, in the cathedral, where there was a band practising. When we exited the cathedral we realised we could've gone up to the tower but it closed literally 10 min ago :( We also narrowly missed the chance to visit the site of an old hospital, at first I wasn't that disappointed as we knew we most probably won't make it. No planning beforehand you see, only mindless wandering around... But when we got there and saw the amazing old building with the gate still open I got excited... only to be turned down at the gate saying they close in like 15 minutes or so and there is just no point for us to pay the entrance fee as we would see virtually nothing... :( reason to go back though

Second day was dedicated to Oxford which is just an hour away - although getting there was a hassle aswell as the early morning train was replaced by a bus, but where does the bus go from? No signs or anything... Sheeep... Tried phoning the train company but they had no idea other than yes there is a replacement bus but where... who knows, ask at the station... umm... it's closed... Finally a taxi driver told us that indeed we have to walk back on the main road where there are bus stops and that's where the train bus will be as it would never be able to manouvre up to the actual station. Got there just at the nick of time, bus was just pulling up. 

In Oxford we just wandered around seeing everything we could see, the countless colleges and you could walk in to some of the courtyards, pretty fancy place to study indeed. Oxford also has the Original Alice in Wonderland Shop which we couldn't miss. I love quirky little shops like this.

The only downfall of Oxford is the sheer amount of homeless people :(

Radcliffe Camera closed for visitors :(

Botanical Gardens were open though :) Quite dear to get into but who can resist pretty flowers :) Lol I haven't actually put any photos of them here but you can take my word for it :D Guess I'm not a big fan of taking photos of flowers, much rather admire them in real life.

These lemons were HUGE the size of my hand

And this was a tiny pineapple

And to top off our day we had a fancy pancake

I believe this is THE Oxford University? Maybe not though :D there were so many :D

On the last day we found a nice cafe in Warwick to have breakfast and they gave me this cool tea timer.

Then we made our way into Warwick Castle, which is a huge castle managed by the Merlin Entertainment group. For about £10 extra you could go to the Dungeons as well. OMG for the first time I was actually called out to take part... The last 2? times I've managed to fit into the crowd and not stand out to be called to demonstrate or sit somewhere or say anything which I'm totally happy with. 

The castle itself

There was also demonstration of birds of prey flying over our head and WOW they are BIG!!!!! Unfortunately it started raining half way through :( British weather eh?

And lastly we went into the Terrible Histories labyrinth, which was surprisingly amusing given it was designed for kids mainly :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...