Showing posts with label Days Out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Days Out. Show all posts

Quirky and 30: Late Night Excursions



Star Gazing
During my camping holiday this year, my boyfriend and I decided to do a bit of stargazing. 

We left our campsite when it started to get dark and drove to a nearby dark sky spot with some marshmallows and our camping chairs.  The sun took a while to set but once it did we began look up at all the stars in the sky.  I've obviously seen stars in my 30 years on the planet but never so clearly or so many at once so it was a really cool moment! 

Also marshmallows and strawberry laces by the side of the road taste amazing! 

Sunset Walk
Another evening, we left the campsite again to go for a walk and this time James picked a nice cliff top walk above a beach just as a the sun was setting. 

Looking back it was lovely, at the time I was a tiny bit freaked out by the overgrown walkway to the cliff top and the nosy cows (literal cows, I'm not being derogatory)in the field we passed by deciding to walk in our direction.

We got some lovely pictures of the sunset and then headed back to the campsite. 

Both of these were different experiences for me, normally at 10pm I'm thinking about pjs, netflix and sleep not sticking on my shoes and hoodie for an excursion! 


30 Things Total: 8

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Quirky and 30: Kayaking

It's no secret that I'm fairly inactive, I'm not very outdoorsy or sporty but when I went camping last week I decided to indulge my boyfriend in his request to do something active.  We opted for kayaking and despite being apprehensive I ended up loving it!

I struggled for the first 5 minutes or so, crashed into James' kayak quite a few times and couldn't quite get the hang of how I was supposed to hold the oar, after a quick lesson from James (despite the centre we went to already giving me instructions) I began to get the hang of it!

We probably did about an hour and a half and for someone who does very little voluntary exercise besides walking I coped pretty well, I could feel it in my arms and my butt but other than that I wasn't completely dying!

I may even explore the possibility of doing it again closer to home.

If you've never tried kayaking I'd thoroughly recommend it. 

Rachie's Tips for a Fellow Novice

Wear clothes and shoes you don't mind getting wet
Bring a change of clothes for after
If it's a sunny day - wear sunscreen.
I got a bit of sunburn because I'm an idiot and forgot!

Take your time, enjoy, and don't worry if it takes a bit of getting used to!


30 Things Total: 6
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Quirky and 30: Vintage Makeover






Although I'm into all things quirky, when it comes to my hair and I'm fairy low maintenance. 

I do get my hair dyed in quirky colours from time to time but for the most part I let it grow out until I can be bothered getting my roots done.  I'm not great at styling so I straighten it now and again for a treat. 

For my 30th birthday a few months ago, my friend Nicole decided to take me to a Vintage salon she'd visited as part of a Hen Day as she thought I'd love it. 

She was right, we arrived at the beautiful Pin Ups Salon in Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon and I was transformed into a different area as the stylist began taking me from Rachel to Marilyn. 

I'd chosen a 50s style as it aligns quite well with my shape and my taste in clothes. 

I'm not really into make up do I didn't bother with that but I was so happy with my hair and received loads of compliments. 

I'd thoroughly recommend the experience to anyone else. I'm so grateful my friend suggested it as it's not something I would have chosen to do for myself but something I really enjoyed. 

We made a day of it by going for unicorn lattes and then dinner post makeover! 





30 Things Total: 5
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Quirky and 30: Sparkle Sunday

If you've read my blog before you might remember that a few years ago I decided about 7 weeks before my 28th birthday I wanted to do a list of 28 things. It was fun and I got through everything on the list to varying degrees but it was a silly timescale! 

This year, I'm turning 30. I don't like this fact, but I accept it.
I'm 30 in 11 weeks time, so I'm not going to try and cram 30 things into a list to do before then.

I'm going to aim to do 30 things this year.
Not necessarily before my birthday, just throughout this year.
A mix of things I've never done, places I've never been and developing new I've never had.

Today I started small, but kept it quirky.
I went shopping with my sister in law for things that sparkle.
I came home with a very comfy and pretty throw blanket...because I'm eternally freezing. 

A day dedicated to shopping for sparkley things (at a bargain) was a great way to kick off my adventures. I've never really had a structured shopping trip, I tend to just soak things in and see what calls out to me.  It was interesting to go in with a goal and seeing where it took me. 

I saw this and I thought it summed up my approach to life quite nicely - sparkle in your own way and leave a little of that sparkle everywhere you go. 









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Quirkmas? Let's try it.







So, a few years ago on my old blog I decided to attempt blogmas and I totally sucked. If you can be bothered going back far enough in my archive I think I still have the posts live and you can see for yourself just how terrible they were. I was in a creative rut and trying to make myself do something creative every day by putting up a post. I was also trying too hard to do the same types of posts I was reading and the vlogmas videos I was watching.
  That was counterproductive as forcing creativity conditioned my brain to be unimaginative and my post were all crap! 

This year I'm going to attempt my own little Quirkmas. I doubt it will be every day and it certainly won't be groundbreaking but it will hopefully be fun or interesting to read. My December has some quirky elements to it, as does my Christmas Day so I should be able to come up with something to write about!

I quite often end up chasing my tail at this time of year, as do most people I guess, so it is quite nice to be starting off the month of December on a day where I've mostly been sat in my room listening to music and brainstorming ideas for blog posts/baking. 

I think I've mentioned in other posts that I play a brass instrument so I'll be doing that throughout the month. Normally I would tire of the repetition very quickly but when it comes to the festive season I actually find it therapeutic to play and read the same music. The sound that comes out of my instrument may not always be exact or consistent, but the process is and I find it comforting. 

I'm waffling now, which is what I tend to do when I'm  veering off plan and just typing thoughts.

Back on plan, I started the gift buying process yesterday, I'd temporarily forgotten it was St Andrews Day when I filled it with Christmas activity but I did spend the day in the city centre taking in all its beauty - admittedly when I wasn't hiding from the rain.

I got a few quirky things for myself, a primark Christmas Tree dress - I'll use that in another post and these little festive flamingo earrings which were from Boots.



Next post, if I remember to do another one before the end of the month 😂, will probably be baking related. 

Until then, Happy Quirkmas to all and to all a good....Saturday.





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Hector and Roland's London Adventure

Roland here, we've already been formally introduced....but for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Rachie's right foot - Roland. 


My buddy Hector (her left foot) and I are Rachie's feet, we're the guys who take her places and we usually let her do the talking, but we recently came back from London and thought about letting Rachie blog about it, but to be honest...this was our trip...we did all the walking! 

Here is just a snippet of our London Adventure with Rachie. 

Day One


                     
                         





Hector and I got up early to make sure Rachie got the 7.30am train from Glasgow to London , we broke our no peeing on a train rule because Rachie just had to have an Irn Bru and a water and finally around lunch time, we arrived in London, had lunch and made our way to the hotel.  Later on we took Rachie to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square before making our way over to Victoria to see Wicked.  We really enjoyed Wicked because it was such a comfortable theatre and we got a nice long rest from walking, Rachie loved the performance, so a worthwhile activity for all of us!

Day Two



                         

                             
                     






On day two, we were excited to start walking around London and see some local tourist spots, we weren't quite as giddy as Rachie about it but we were still pretty excitable.

We began our day at Big Ben, Rachie was fascinated, she stepped out of the tube station and there it was....right in front of her. We walked over to the bridge to look at London Eye (we didn't go on it, Rachie's Mum doesn't love heights, and if we're truly honest, we don't love them either.)
From there, we walked to the Parliament Buildings, then Westminster Abbey then on to Buckingham Palace where Rachie got to watch the changing of the guard! We then walked to Covent Garden and then went to visit Hamley's.  After a long day with lots of walking, Rachie was knackered and we were knackered, but what a day. 

Day Three








On day three, we took Rachie to St Paul's Cathedral so she could feed the birds, tuppence a bag. We went a wander over the millennium bridge, walked past Shakespeare's Globe, walked by London Bridge,  Walked over Tower Bridge, its gorgeous! We took a rest while Rachie went on a boat tour, finishing at Greenwich and we went to Piccadilly Circus to see A Comedy About A Bank Robbery, which was pretty funny. Rachie loved it, she was absolutely knackered though, so she'd love to see it again sometime. 


Day Four





Day four was our last day, Rachie started the day grumpy because there wasn't really anything in the hotel breakfast this morning that harmonised well with her dietary requirements so we went a bonus trip back to the room where Rachie ate mint oreos.

When we did eventually venture outdoors we visited Hyde Park Corner, forgetting it was the Queen's birthday, we were surprised when the artillery came walking by for the 21 gun salute. We the walked along Regent Street and Oxford Street where Rachel bought us more shoes to keep us stylish, we took a quick walk along to the Marble Arch for Rachie's Dad and then we jumped on the Tube to visit Harrods before it was time for Rachie to head home.  Our last stop of the adventure was to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 and 3/4. The queue was massive and Hector and I didn't have it in us to wait in it so Rachie just took a picture and we set off on our journey home.


Hector and I might let Rachie tell you about our next adventure or we might just do it ourselves.  We haven't decided yet. 

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Crafty Monday.


Crafty Monday 



 


I've been lucky with my new job that I joined a few weeks before Easter and got two mandatory holidays as a result....I've also been lucky that I get both of the May bank holidays as well.

Today was the first of those May bank holiday in Scotland today and I had the day off work.

I didn't want to waste the day being lazy but didn't fancy navigating my way around tons of other people spending their day off in busy places either.

Instead, James and I headed to a pottery and ceramics workshop a little bit out of the way and spent the afternoon painting.
As you can see from the pictures, James is far more artistically gifted than I - his wizard is amazing.

I have literally zero artistic flair or talent for anything remotely crafty - give me a post-it note and I can fold it into a swan, crane, bat or cat but anything beyond that and I'm hopeless so I'm really happy that my humpty dumpty turned out alright!

There was something really therapeutic about spending the afternoon painting and paying attention to all the little details in the ornaments and turning them into something with a little bit of character.

It was an activity that ended up being relaxing and fun. 




Today's Footwear



These are not shoes.....they are quite clearly socks.
But they are awesome....and glittery....and Powerpuff themed.
I felt the need to share! 
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