What I'm Loving Right Now

It's been a while since I've done one of these roundups.

I might try and make them a monthly thing next year so it seems a bit more consistent round here.

But, we'll see how that goes!

Also, in my last post I said I'd go over my week at home before realising there's not that much to go over, just a few photos to share which are in this post.

Anyways, here's what I'm loving right now:

1) Re-reading the Harry Potter series - mateeeeeeee, I love these books. I've been meaning to re-read them for some time of late but have just had so many other books piling up in my room that I felt it was stupid to re-read something that's, obviously, already been read. I stopped caring though. Fantastic Beasts has just come out, it's almost Christmas and there's just something about these magical books that are all Christmassy for me. LOVE IT.

2) Selection of movies on at the moment at the cinema - Apart from the annoying fact they moved Underworld: Blood War to FEBRUARY, God damn it, I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing Bad Santa 2, Fantastic Beasts, Allied and Sully.

3) Nearly finished all my Christmas shopping - I am usually pretty organised but last year (I don't know why) was awful. I mean I didn't buy my step-dad's presents until August, August ffs. Granted I wasn't seeing him til late August, but still. I just have three or four more people left to buy for and then I just need to wrap everything and write my cards and hey ho I'm done.

4) Have passed four years with Adeel and starting to plan more things for the future - I'm hesitant to say anything really because every time I do it doesn't happen, but we might have actually mentioned about three holidays next year and I AM SO EXCITED. I have been dying to go away and nothing has fallen into place so I've been awfully grumpy. These past four years have also been the best and I can't wait to spend many more years to come with the love of my life.

5) Even though I feel like I've had a bit of a shit couple of months, I'm really appreciating my friends and family right now, Adeel as well  - I don't know what's going on at the moment with everything, with me, my bladdy hormones flying everywhere. But I am so angry all of the damn time, I've cried a lot, and I'm just plain aggravated at the slightest thing. I've felt awfully alone and considering I'm in a houseshare in London, I really shouldn't feel that way. But I've met up and chatted deeply with my close friends and family so am feeling a bit happier now.

6) Eating healthier and running consistently still (ish) - Okay, so as I write this I may have just demolished a dominoes pizza and cookies and I may have also had a chinese a few days ago and not eaten much fruit this week or ran so far this week, but hellooo it's my week off. I've started alternating having sandwiches for lunch with salads (made by me, not those pre-made ones doused in dressing) at work and I'm trying to eat three or four fruits also a day, as well as having pretty healthy dinners and not eating as much sugar as normal. AND even though it's winter, we're still running about twice a week around other things that crop up. So, sort of doing well, aha.

7) Writing is really coming along - As in I literally only have a few more chapters to write up from my first draft and then I can just get cracking on editing and adding extra scenes in that I may have missed in my haste the first time. And then it's just trying to get published. Oh God...

8) I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - I missed last years show due to being in Dubai for two weeks at the end of November and I was gutted. This is the one show out of X-Factor, Strictly, Britain's Got Talent that I genuinely love. The others I can do without (in fact I do without most of them), but there's just something about watching celebs suffer out of their usual environment that's so entertaining!

Canterbury, Kent

I can't wait for the day when I won't be nervous before driving for more than ten minutes.

I drove to my dad's at the weekend.

I even took a half day off so that I could leave plenty of time before it got too dark and to beat the rush hour traffic.

But alas, that didn't work. Well, I didn't avoid the traffic that is.

For some reason, I saw that my petrol was at a half tank and I panicked, thinking an hour drive to Faversham would consume the other half.

What an idiot.

So instead of going straight onto the motorway, I looped around intending to go fill up before backing out literally last minute and having to join the motorway via the Beckton roundabout.

Now, most people have probably never had to use this roundabout but I listen to Heart every morning and there are always incidents on this damn roundabout.

And that day was no different.

Traffic lights were at green but no one could move.

We were all jammed into spaces in-between the traffic lights which coincidentally prevented anybody else from using other exits.

And then there was a lorry pulled over on the slipway with a police car diverting traffic around it.

I then proceeded to stall twice in a queue of traffic on the motorway (thank God we weren't really moving).

I got beeped at countless times for jumping lane last minute because that's one thing a sat nav on your phone does not tell you.

I stalled a further two times at one of the final junctions as I was pulling into Faversham.

BUT

I made it in one piece.

And the journey back on the Sunday was actually bliss (even though I was bricking it right before I left).

ANYWAY, this post was actually meant to be about the Saturday of my weekend with my dad when we popped over to Canterbury.

Two train stops from Faversham and you pull into a beautiful, medieval walled town.

The sun was shining. The park below the wall dotted with autumnal coloured leaves.

It was beautiful, and that was just entering Canterbury.

We wandered around the shops in the centre for a bit. 

Maybe I'm just used to a tacky town centre but this one was beautiful with a great variety of shops.

Cobbled streets. Christmas lights hanging ready to be lit. Timber-framed houses.

After a while - I may have picked up my first Christmas present of the year (you can never start too early) - we made a pitstop at Byron.

This was only the second time I've been in there, but, again, it was pretty darn good.

I went for the chicken burger with courgette fries this time. They were surprisingly good and not as filling as regular chips!

I really wanted an Oreo milkshake but I was too full. Sad times.

We did pop into a fudge shop on the way back though which made up for our lack of dessert.

I already can't wait to visit Canterbury again. You can take a river tour on the idyllic river, visit the cathedral, shop, eat or walk the Roman-built medieval walls.

A perfect autumnal day.