No smoking, but lots of snow!

Hi blog! Sorry for all the neglect and whatnot... y'see I, erm, ah! I have no excuse but hey, I've got a bit of time now, lets catch up!



I've had to take the day off work today because of the snow. I don't know exactly how much snowfall we've had but when The Boy and I went walking this morning it was knee deep, and it's been falling thick and fast since then. Needless to say I couldn't get into work today, all public transport has been suspended until tomorrow. I'm getting pretty worried to be honest, I can't afford to have any more time off but at the moment it doesn't look like I'll be able to go anywhere tomorrow either. Money worries aside though, the snow is beautiful and we've had loads of fun playing in it. My poor doggie has to pee under the picnic table because it's the only place the snow isn't higher than her head! According to the forecast it's going to be snowing on and off for the rest of the week, but I hope it clears up soon.

In other news, I haven't had a smoke in five days and it has been haaaa-aaarrd to get this far. I'm coping better than I expected actually but I keep getting these intense cravings/urges for a cigarette and I need to just sit and shut everything out for a while until it passes. My cravings are worse at work, they're triggered by breaks and the end of my shift. When I'm at home I can just knit or read to occupy myself. It REALLY helps that The Boy is quitting with me this time, I was worried that quitting together would be less successful because we would both be weak but in fact it's been the opposite. We've had the strength to say no to each other. It's great, and I'm starting to feel more confident about my ability to achieve my other health goals once I've got quitting smoking under my belt!

Hi, my name is Adele...

...and I'm a Celebration-aholic.

I think my problem started when I reached my late-teens. Christmas was always my favourite time of year as a kid but as my sister and I got older our family celebrations got smaller. I guess my parents thought Christmas wouldn't hold the same magic it had when we were young. It wasn't just my Mum and Dad either, to me Christmas had just become about opening presents and having a big dinner. Don't get me wrong, dinners and pressies are awesome things, but I had no enthusiasm or spirit for the holiday season anymore. Then I got my first job and I went from £20 pocket money a month to £300 wages a month... just in time for Christmas. I was still living at home rent-free at this point so I spent every penny I had on gifts for my family and friends, decorations for my bedroom and Christmas themed accessories. From that moment I was hooked. The next year I cooked my first Christmas dinner at my then-boyfriend's house whilst his parents were away celebrating in Florida. I spent hours researching recipes and made food I'd never even tried before just because it was traditional Christmas food. Now that The Boy and I rent a house we decorate bigger each year and we get anxious for December 1st when we go out and buy our tree!

Ok, so I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a problem if my addiction began and finished with Christmas but unfortunately there's more. In the weeks after Christmas I started getting Post-Chrimbo Depression. I'd get emotional taking down the Christmas decorations and it'd feel like forever until I'd be seeing them again. I had to get my fix somewhere else. That's when I stumbled upon Chinese New Year. Chinese food, decorations and fortune cookies anyone? Ok, how about Shrove Tuesday? Everybody loves pancakes right? Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday? Lets roll chocolate eggs down the stairs and make a centrepiece out of tiny, yellow plastic chicks! Halloween, April Fool's Day, Bonfire Night, Valentine's Day! Too long to wait til Christmas? Well, I know we live in the UK but we can celebrate Thanksgiving can't we? And so on. I figured out that I can be constantly planning for some sort of Holiday all year round. I love it. I live for it! Just don't get me started on Birthdays and Anniversaries!

I've just realised I've been rambling on but I wanted to add quickly that although a lot of the holidays I've mentioned are heavily commercialised, to me they are far less superficial. Everything I celebrate has an underlying meaning, for instance at Christmas, I care far more about being with family, making a meal with love and surprising them with a well thought out gift than getting gifts myself. On Valentine's The Boy and I do something romantic to celebrate our love for each other. I just love creating my own traditions and I'm sentimental to the bone. I'm addicted to having something to look forward to!

30 Days of Truth Quickie: Part 3

Final part of my condensed 30 Days of Truth. I'm going to have to come up with my own ideas for blogging topics from now on... heavy...

Day 24 → Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)
No :D

Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
The reason I am still alive today is because I have never been murdered, fatally ill, fatally injured, accidentally decapitated or cut in half. I’ve never suffered a humongous amount of blood loss or brain damage. I was always properly fed as an infant, child and teenager and was sufficiently capable of feeding myself once I left home. I possess enough intelligence to know not to play in traffic and not to feed lions by holding out a scrap of meat. I know not to ingest poison because of the handy skull and crossbones on the bottle and sexual asphyxiation just ain’t my thing. I’ve never committed suicide (or a homicide in Texas) and I’ve never eaten Fugu from a backalley foodcart. I don’t skydive without a parachute, borrow money from Tony Soprano or do cartwheels in minefields.

Day 26: Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Yes, but I’ve never wanted to give up on living.

Day 27: What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Apart from my relationship and family I’d have to say my First Aid work. I’ve just been on my first duty, and even though we didn’t have any patients, I really feel like I’m getting somewhere and that good things will come from it. Its far more fulfilling than my regular job.

Day 28: What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
I’d be ecstatic. I’d tell The Boy, buy loads of pregnancy/baby books, start guessing what sex it was going to be and probably go into an organizational frenzy.

Day 29: Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
I hope that I can one day be more motivated. I have a lot of ambitions, that at the moment I have no hope of fulfilling. I want to get up in a morning and have a routine so that everyday chores are almost a reflex and I can focus on everything else I want to do. I want to be somebody.

Day 30: A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself.
Dear Adele,
You care, you love, you accept and you respect. You’re a little bit eccentric but that’s pretty cool. You know how to make yourself laugh. You’re an amazingly optimistic person. When it comes down to it, you really don’t care what you look like but you know its always fun to wear cute or pretty things. You’re creative and experimental. You know how to push yourself. You know when to give up but you don’t do it easily. You have awesome friends, and your boyfriend is pretty hot. You’re awesome.
Love, Adele

30 Days of Truth Quickie: Part 2

Day 18: Your views on gay marriage.
Live and let live. Love and let love. Nobody has the right to tell someone who they can and can’t marry and how they live their life.

Day 19: What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Faith is a beautiful thing. Organized religion can be dangerous and too many evil and hateful acts are done in its name. It scares me.
Politics also scare me. My country is broken and I don’t trust, agree with and didn’t vote for the man who claims he can fix it. I feel betrayed by some of the things he has done and this scares me too.

Day 20: Your views on drugs and alcohol.
With alcohol I’m on the fence. It can be fun when people drink responsibly but far too often people abuse alcohol and the fun stops. Personally, I like to indulge every now and then but I’ll never be somebody who goes out on the piss every weekend. I’d rather go out and dance.
I’ve never tried drugs, not even Marijuana, and I’m ok with this. The fact that they aren’t legal and are unregulated, (and no official guidelines on their use exist) means I’ll probably stick clear of them unless that changes. I hope that I never have a drug addiction.

Day 21: (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
I’d probably still be angry but I’d visit her to see how she was. I wouldn’t automatically forgive her but she’d still be my best friend and I’d still care.

Day 22: Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
I wish I’d never been so lax with money when I lived on my own. I must’ve spent something like £10,000 in the space of 18 months. All savings and wages thank goodness otherwise I would’ve been up shit creek in debt.

Day 23: Something you wish you had done in your life.
There’s no point answering this question because I’m not on my deathbed and anything that I answer this question with I could just turn around and do tomorrow.

30 Days of Truth Quickie: Part 1

For the past few days I've been putting off coming back to my blog and I've realised that it was because I'm not really enjoying the whole 30 Days of Truth thing anymore. I like the concept and want to answer some of the questions but I resent having to make it the focus of my blog entries. So I'm not going to. I've quickly written a few sentences for each of the remaining topics and I'll post it in 2 or three parts over the next few days. Once that's done I'll be free to blog about what I want to blog about. It feels so liberating!

Day 10: Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
I’m privileged to know everybody in my life whether they drive me up the wall or make my life easier. I’d never wish I didn’t know somebody because every time I meet someone new I learn a little something about myself.

Day 11: Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
I’m pretty adventurous with my hair and whenever I try out a new colour or style I get a lot of compliments. They’re mostly from other women though so I can never quite tell if they’re genuine! My family and friends compliment me on my cooking a lot.

Day 12: Something you never get compliments on.
I never get complimented on my nails because I bite them to death, always have done. That and my housekeeping skills, which are non-existent!

Day 13: A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)
Screw writing a letter but the song When you were young by The Killers helped me make a very important decision in my life. I won’t go into details because it’s pretty personal but there ya go.

Day 14: A hero that has let you down. (letter)
Again, no letter but the recent “Twitter Sex Scandal”(LOL) surrounding Jason Manford really got to me. I thought he was better than that.

Day 15: Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
The Boy. In the three years we’ve been together I’ve only spent a handful of nights away from him and jeez was it miserable! Oh, and, I know this question is metaphorical in spirit but I feel like I have to point out that physically, I could go on living without him but I just really, really, REALLY don’t want to. Ever.

Day 16: Someone or something you definitely could live without.
I could definitely live without smoking. I’m struggling to quit at the moment and I’ll admit I fell off the wagon after 2 days but I know that it isn’t a necessary part of my life and I’ll be better off without this disgusting habit.

Day 17: A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Ok, I’m changing “book” to “film” and I’m going to say Secretary with Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. I watched it when I was 18 and it really altered my view on what love is, and what a loving relationship can be.

30 Days of Truth: Day 10

Apologies but I quit smoking yesterday and my nicotine deprived state is denying me the attention span to write a blog entry. Normal service shall resume tomorrow!

30 Days of Truth: Day 9

Today will be a short entry because I'm having far too much fun dancing round the living room to Katy Perry to blog!

Day 9: Someone you didn't want to let go but just drifted.

I feel bad for drifting away from most of my high school friends. In particular there are a handful of beautiful and unique ladies I was really close to when I was 15/16 that I only have the most basic of Facebook friendships with now. Its sad. They rode the rollercoaster of my teenage years with me and you can't really forge those kinds of friendships when you're older. I guess its part of growing up though, and I don't know how our friendships would relate to my life now. But still, I wish we were closer.

I'm writing my 30 Days of Truth. If you are writing yours, let me know so I can follow along!