6 Things That Made Me Smile This Week!

First I'll start off by saying sorry to poor lil' October because I genuinely did not realise it was October until I switch on my laptop this afternoon to write this. My calendar has been stuck on September for four days longer than it should have been. Ooops!

I'll admit that it is probably because October doesn't get quite as excited as June or July. I mean why would I celebrate the weather getting colder? I'm still trying to hang on to that last little bit of sunshine. But who am I kidding- best just sucking it up and accepting that soon we are going to face the frosty mornings where it's so cold you can't expose your hands the outside world for more than a minute without the threat of frostbite. At least we have the Pumpkin Spiced Lattes from good ol' Starbucks to warm our blood!

But enough of the that, come and take a look at my week:

1. Cheeky pub lunch: 

As I'm spending a lot less time sitting around in a classroom, I have more free time on my hands. I'll admit that most of that time is taken up with going over topics that are so confusing they made my brain feel as though it's going to explode out my ears...which was most topics. However when I don't have anything to do (which is a flippin' miracle!) I just can't resist popping over to The Rose to sample some of their food.

In my life long quest to find the best local pub in my area, could you really blame me for wanting to visit this place when it looks so beautiful from the outside? I mean if this building was a human I'm sure, as I'm sure that Nutella tastes flippin' fantastic on toast, it would currently be walking down the catwalk in Milan!

2. First time behind a wheel:

Yep, on Monday I drove a car for the first time!

It was a real car, before you say anything, not those cars you 'drive' in Legoland or anything. Okay, I only drove for like five minutes because it was free taster lesson but still I didn't crash (hence how your reading this now!) And it was FREE but I think I might have mentioned that already. So, yeah, it's looking positive for when I finally do get behind the wheel next year. Please tell me you don't have some nightmare driving experience to tell me about?

3. Cat magnet:

I'm not even going to apologies that this is one of my Smiley Things because it probably makes me smile more than anything else I have ever featured here before.

So the thing is I'm a cat magnet. I attract cats everywhere I go and I love it! It means going out for a walk with me can take twice as we thought because I have to keep stopping to stroking cats and run after them shouting "PLEASE LOVE ME! I WON'T HURT YOU!" when the timid ones cower in the bushes. FIY they always let me stroke them in the end!

I like to think that I have some supernatural power that calls them to me and not that I am just in the right place, at the right time...

4. Mentoring: 

Starting 'big' school five years ago was one of the worse and most daunting experiences in my whole entire life. Even if you offered me a million pounds, my answer to redoing those first few weeks would always be no. Never. Absolutely not. No way Jose!

If somebody then had offered me a mentor to sit down and talk my fears through with, I would have jumped at the chance. So when I was approach earlier this week and asked to be trained up as a Mentor I accepted because why the hell not! *

5. A classic recipe:

The thing about baking is that everybody is always trying to out do everybody else. Nobody wants a bog standard cake anymore, its got to contain a weird and wonderful ingredient that they don't sell in Tesco. Just look at some of the recipes from Bake Off and you'll know what I mean.

Sometimes it's nice to not feel pressured into having to make something unusual because hello why would I make my life difficult for myself? So behold my classic creation...ROCK CAKES! Life just doesn't get much better than those lil' beauties.

6. My Grandparents:

I have a relatively small family as families go. But we are extremely tight knit and I love that I am able to ring any one of them and know they will instantly drop everything to be with me.  My grandparents continue to be my biggest source of inspiration, with my Nan having brought up her two young children single handedly when her husband deserted her and my other grandparents having been married for fifty years.

They are all absolutely amazing human beings and I think sometimes we forget how interesting elderly people can be. Lets not write them off just yet, eh?

* Just so you know I ended up loving school, so the moral of that little story is that bad things never last and everything always work itself out in the end!

Love Beth xx