Little Catch-Up

Well hello me hearties, I seem to have deviated somewhat from usual weekly routine of sharing a little life-related update with you, and a quick scan back through recent posts tells me I haven't done so since the 2nd June! Shocking. I thought it had been a week, but a month!?

There have been one or two reasons for my neglecting to fill you in on recent goings on, number one of them being that until the end of last week, June was just too uneventful to photograph. I didn't go anywhere, and I haven't been buying anything as I'm attempting to conserve some pennies, so that didn't make for a very exciting set of snaps. Secondly, I've been extremely busy with the mundane - namely paperwork, appointments and sorting through junk. The joy.

However, last Wednesday the hubby and I did jump in the car for a bit of a road trip, which while still loosely related to paperwork, was a barrel of laughs. We went to the state capital for a couple of days and stayed in our favourite little hotel in front of the sea, so naturally I was happy from the off.

On that first evening, the football was on, and unsurprisingly, the other half was eager to watch it. Since it was Brazil vs Uruguay in the Confederation Cup, it was of no interest to me whatsoever. Shopping, on the other hand, was. So the plan was that he could sit and watch the game, beer in hand, while I whiled away the time visiting Mac and Zara at the nearby shopping mall. All was going well, until I set foot in the mall only to be told it was about to close due to yet more protests. These have been a bi-weekly occurrence over the past fortnight, and are mainly against the corruption within the Brazilian government. 

For anyone who is interested, some 13 billion reais (local currency, 3=£1) of public money miraculously 'disappeared' last year alone, and people want to know why. The health service and education are so poorly neglected over here, and yet the people who are responsible for running and improving the country are simply pocketing what they can and coasting along. It's pretty sickening really. I think what has really kicked things off is the fast approaching World Cup, which will be held in Brazil next year. The amount that has been spent on stadiums and the like has simply disgusted people, especially when you think about all the areas in which investment is desperately needed.

Anyway, enough about that. So I couldn't go shopping. Cue me stomping back to the hotel and sulking over some cheese and wine until the game was over. By the time it had finished, we were both pretty shattered, but we decided to get our gladrags on and head out for a bit of dinner. We settled on Mexican, and devoured a huge plate of nachos so quickly that I didn't even have the chance to take a photo. Washed down with a Bloody Mary for me (I was feeling a little bit fragile that day) and Mexican style beers which were mixed with freshly squeezed limes and rimmed with salt and pepper for the Mr, we turned in fairly early as we had to be up at 6am for an appointment.

On Thursday, we hauled ourselves out of bed and took full advantage of the breakfast buffet before heading to our appointment, and with that out of the way we were finally able to hit the shopping mall! Despite having promised myself I'd leave both Zara and Mac well alone (one out of two isn't bad...), I did end up popping into the former and bagging myself a couple of bargains in the sale. I say bargains, but they were still pretty expensive really. If you'd like to see what I got then keep an eye out, as I may well be doing a haul video very soon.

Once we were all shopped out, we headed for an iced coffee and then back to the hotel for a nap. I can't usually sleep during the day, but over the past week or so I have been out like a light the second my head hit the pillow. At least on this day, I did have the excuse of having been up really early.

When we woke up, the hubby kindly informed me that there was yet another football game to be watched. I'm making him sound really bad here, but he's quite good about his sports really. He doesn't obsess about his favourite team, or even bother to watch half of their games, but when Brazil are playing he does tend to get quite into it, and I'm happy to concede that....most of the time.

It was decided that we would head down to the beach, where there was a nice little bar showing the football. Fine by me - I took my new book (The Secret Sister by Elizabeth Lowell), ordered myself a Mojito and put my feet up to watch the sunset, trying my best to ignore the over-excited gaggle of men to my left. Little did I know that not a single goal would be scored, and that then it would go to extra time and then penalties (yawn), by which time the wind had got up and I was freezing.

Once the most boring football game ever was over, we went back to the hotel, showered, went out for a delicious Thai meal and rounded things off with a few tangerine and basil sake cocktails at a local Samba bar. Can't complain about that, it was a treat.

By the morning, we were running a bit low on cash so decided to hit the road and head home, and that's where the fun ended, making way for a rather dull weekend at home.

Since then it's been back to the paperwork mountain, but I do plan to have climbed out from underneath it by the end of tomorrow evening. It's also going to be my last ever day in my current job, which is both exciting and daunting, but mainly the first as it means I am all the closer to goinggg hommme!! Yay.

Speaking of which, a group of friends from back home have organised a big camping trip for us all down in Cornwall at the end of August, which I'm very excited about - I really can't wait to get everyone back together again. It doesn't happen very often, because we all live in different places now, but whenever we do manage it it's always amazing - I don't stop laughing when I'm with those ladies! This is going to be the first time we've done more of a 'couples' type trip, which does make me feel a little bit old, but it should be a good chance for everyone's other halves to get to know each other as there are still some of us who haven't met. 

Anyway, that's you all up to date on what I've been up to lately, and hopefully it won't be too long until I feel I have something else worth sharing on that front.

What have you been doing lately?

xx

Sunday Catch-Up

Hello everyone, hope you're all out enjoying the lovely sunshine this weekend and making the most of it. Judging by the various Facebook, Instagram and Twitter snaps I've seen that does seem to be the case, and it'd be rude not to really considering there is no telling when the next spell of sunshine might be!

It's still pretty boiling over here in Brazil, in spite of the fact that it's meant to be winter. It's kind of like the UK weather, but in reverse, as when it's ridiculously hot all the time, all you want is a nice cloudy or rainy day so that you can cool off a bit, but much like the illusive UK sunshine, it rarely happens!

I would really love to be back home at the moment, as I just adore the atmosphere of s good sunny day in England. It seems to put everyone in such a good mood, and there is nothing better than sitting in the garden, sipping a Pimms and lemonade, with the smell of barbecues wafting overhead and the faint sound of a lawn mower in the background, haha.

But anyway, speaking of home, this brings me onto my good news! It's been a pretty epic week this week for me, as as well as having a lovely little trip away which inevitably involved some shopping, eating and beaching, we also got some really good news! Basically, we have got the go-ahead to move home at the end of July, and I couldn't be happier! I know I've already mentioned on here that I was going to be moving home in the summer, but since then a spanner had been thrown into the works, which was going to make it a lot more expensive as well prolonging our time here by a few months. Well, thankfully that is no longer an issue, and with the end of July being just eight weeks away it feels like the end is finally in sight! I will be finishing my job for good in four weeks, at the end of June, so after that it will be all about getting ourselves sorted and ready to go! I'm thrilled that we're going to back in time to (hopefully) enjoy a bit of summer - or, at least that we won't be arriving in the dead of winter, which would probably be a bit of a shock to the system seeing as we are pretty acclimatised with the weather over here. Hey, we might even be able to squeeze in a late summer festival, which would frankly be awesome, as I've really missed going to them over the past couple of years.

Anyway, onto the rest of this week's goings-on. We travelled to Vitoria, which is the state capital, to spend a couple of days there, and it would have been rude not to pop into the shopping mall while there and pick up a couple of bits. I didn't get much, but I did pick up a few things, so watch this space for a mini-haul video, which I'll probably be posting on Tuesday or Wednesday. I did pick up a couple of new books, too, which I've just realised I forgot to include in the video (I've already filmed it) - Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, and Eighty Days Blue, by Vina Jackson. I've actually just noticed that the latter is the sequel to another book, which I haven't read - bit of a fail, but hopefully it'll be worth a read anyway!

On the Tuesday night, we were out celebrating our good news, and we went to a new Asian restaurant/bar called Taj. The food was absolutely phenomenal - I had grilled duck in a tamarind sauce, which was served with jasmine rice, oriental veggies and a yummy apple chutney, and the hubby went for a seafood Pad Thai, which was also amazing. Of course, it was only fair that we washed those down with a couple of cocktails, and I went for a sake cocktail with apple and ginger, followed by a couple of pineapple mojitos - sooo good. I wore my new Zara dress, which you can just about see in the top right-hand image - the top part is sheer, with monochrome stripes, and the skirt is faux (I assume) leather body con. I'm sure you'll get to see it in all it's glory before too long, anyway!

This weekend, the hubby is hard at work, so it's a bit of an uneventful one. I'm planning on spending the rest of the day taking some photos for upcoming blog posts, sorting out some paperwork for work tomorrow (fun) and relaxing in my hammock with one of my new books.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

xx

Sunday Catch-Up

1. Coffee and magazines on Saturday afternoon, after exhausting myself interval training.

2. Yummy lunch on our little trip away.

3. Detox juice the morning after a few drinks for the hubby's birthday - pineapple, spinach, lemon and ginger.

4. A cheeky bit of shopping at Mac.

5. My outfit for the hubby's birthday dinner and drinks,

6. Cocktails.

7. Homemade chocolate Easter truffles from a friend.

8. A failed attempt at baking birthday cupcakes for the other half (the oven broke halfway through!)

Afternoon lovelies, hope everyone is having a very Happy Easter! Judging by my Instagram feed this morning, most of you have been indulging in some serious chocolate eating! In my neck of the woods, things are slightly different, as I've decided to really cut back on sugar and milk to see if it helps my skin. You've probably heard me bemoaning the fact that, out of nowhere, I've recently started to suffer from breakouts, and having always been lucky with my skin in the past, I haven't quite known what to do. I started by going back to basics on my skincare routine, but having cut out most things 'm now starting to think it might have something to do with the fact that I've been eating quiiite a lot of sweet things of late. I do have a healthy diet and always make sure I eat pretty clean, but lately I just haven't been able to keep my paws of the chocolate in the evenings. So I'm taking a step back - Easter or not - and will let you know if there is any joy.

This week has been a pretty good one, although stressful in parts. On Tuesday, the hubby and I were due to go away for his birthday, but typically, that morning we had some car troubles and couldn't leave. Cue us waiting around all day and finally getting to go in the late afternoon. All was not lost though, as we did a quick bit of shopping (I feel slightly bad saying that I picked up a couple of Mac goodies when t was his birthday, but in my defence he did get some nice pressies of his own!). We then popped for dinner in the Outback Steakhouse, where we shared the Spicey Shrimp Dip and Ribs on the Barbie (how people manage a starter and a main EACH in that place is beyond me), and followed up with a couple of cocktails out in the open air while listening to some live samba music.

The next day, I snuck back to Mac again to pick up a new concealer (review coming soon) and we treated ourselves to falafel, humous, baba ganoush, pitta and tabbouleh for lunch, followed by a huge iced hazelnut latte each and half an Eclair (we shared - but see where I was going with the sugar thing!?).

We had a walk along the beach and sat in the sunshine for  bit before driving home, and had a lazy evening in front of the TV.

Since Friday we've been very much doing a bit of chilling, and with the long weekend it's meant that I've had a pretty relaxed week overall, which is just what I needed after some of the stresses earlier in the week (which I won't bore you with).

Today is all about doing some reading and getting my blog organised - for the last few weeks I've been posting a bit sporadically, for one reason or another, and haven't been able to get back into the swing of things with posting every day. So I'm dedicating my evening to prepping some posts and getting back on track, as I genuinely miss getting content up on a daily basis and feel so much prouder of my blog when I do.

If any of you have been trying to head over to my Youtube channel via the button in my sidebar then you ma have found that the link wasn't working, but that's all fixed now, and you can also find me on Bloglovin' and Instagram via the buttons next to it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

xx

Week in Pictures

I didn't intentionally abandon my blog all week. On Monday, my laptop cable finally decided to throw the towel in, closely following the battery, which had already packed in a few weeks before. So, after three days in the computer hospital, I went to pick up my fixed wire, only to be told that they hadn't had the right parts. Needless to say, this annoyed the hell out of me, as if they'd only said so earlier instead of holding onto it for half the week then I could have taken it elsewhere. I promptly did exactly that, and luckily got it back, all sorted, withing a couple of hours. However, upon bringing it home and trying to log on, I was confronted by a very uncooperative internet connection (ie, it was completely dead). So, again I was forced to stay away from my blog until someone came to sort things out today.

I didn't do a 'Week in Pictures' last week, as it made way for Mother's Day gift ideas, so that means you get a double-whammy of my recent Instagram shots today instead. Don't get too excited.

It's been a week of hard work, new products and cat-related tales. If you read my lifestyle blog, Organised Chaos, then you will probably have seen that my cat, fondly known as Mr Whiskers, has been bringing his girlfriend around for tea a fair bit lately. He's actually still a Tom cat, which I know is a bit naughty of us, but he really is the gentlest cat you will ever meet, and if anything, the new lady in his life wears the trousers in that pairing. He's a complete gentleman with her, and lets her eat all his food. Anyway, since that post, 'Mrs Whiskers' seems to have decided to move in permanently, and has now taken up residence on the bean-bag in the living room, where she sleeps all evening. In the mornings, her little head pops around the door the second we open it. We're pretty certain she's got a few buns on the oven, so we keep obliging when she asks for food - will let you know if there are any developments on that score, as and when!

In other news, I read 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Greene in one sitting last night, what with having no internet to play with, and I must admit, it was very sad. I wasn't expecting much, having frankly found 'Looking for Alaska' (a best-seller by the same author) a bit rubbish, but as a friend from work offered to lend it to me, I thought I'd give it a go. I do find all of his books a bit teenagery, but then I do think that's the age group they are aimed at, but this particularly story was very moving, and a real eye-opener, too. I'll probably be reviewing it properly on my other blog before long, so watch this space.

That's about all of interest I've got to tell you this week, hope everyone is having a lovely weekend as usual!

xx

Week in Pictures

1. Japanese lunch   2. Vanilla Latte and Pain au Chocolat   3. Chilling in a book shop with iced coffee and magazines   4. Mini VW Vans   5. Patisserie cakes   6. Looking at vintage bits for the house   7. Duck Tagliatelle - out for an Italian meal to celebrate five years together   8. My outfit of the night (Studded-collar Zara blouse and River Island leather-look shorts)   9. Giveaway goodies!   10. Outfit of the day - lace and denim   11. More giveaway goodies (Oops!! Just realised I accidentally used the same photo twice! Fail.)   12. Treats in the post from my mum   13. Zara mini-spree   14. More cute VW vans...I was so tempted to buy these for the house but they cost a fortune!   15. Weekend nails   16. Pitta and dips for lunch

I've had such a lovely weekend!  Up until Friday, my week had been pretty uneventful, as I had been at work as usual. But when Friday arrived, the hubby and I decided a mini-roadtrip was in order and so we headed off for a couple of days in honour of our having been together for five years. Five years!! I actually cannot believe it has been so long. 

Anyway, we spent the majority of Friday doing a bit of shopping and had a bit of a splurge in Zara. I got a sleeveless version of the iconic cream chiffon shirt with the studded collar, which I was absolutely ecstatic to find, as I hadn't seen it before. It's got a dipped hem at the back and I am so in love with it! I also got a cute pair of mint shorts with tiny pink polkadots, and then just a plain, thin cardigan, because who doesn't always need more of those? The hubby also picked up a few bits, and then we went and refuelled with some hummous, Baba Ganoush and pitta, followed by vanilla lattes and Pain Au Chocolat.....nom.

That evening, we decided to head out for dinner, so I wore my new Zara shirt with a pair of black leather-look shorts, my spiked necklace and black suede peep-toe heels from Primark. We went to an Italian restaurant which does the most amazing food. We have really similar tastes, and are equally indecisive when faced with too many delicious-sounding options, so we ordered two dishes and then sneakily shared them. One was a goats cheese ravioli in a pear sauce with pine nuts, and the other was a wholegrain tagliatelle with duck. Both were amazing and we finished off every last bite - washed down with a cocktail, of course.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel and then went back to the shopping centre, as the hubby had to change one of the t-shirts he'd bought for a different size. While we were there, we had a browse in the book shop and then sat in the cafe drinking iced coffees and reading magazines. I had a little browse in Mac too, but shockingly managed to leave without buying anything (!), and then we had Japanese for lunch before heading down to the beach to enjoy the afternoon sun. We had to come back that night, so when we got home we just chilled out with some films and munch. The diet went totally out the window for those couple of days!

Today has just been a really chilled one back at home. We had a lie-in and then went for a lazy lunch, before coming back and drinking cups of tea and reading our books . My poor little cat is not feeling himself and has been really quiet and withdrawn all day, so I think a trip to the vet might be in order tomorrow, plus it's back to work....wah.

How was your weekend?

xx

Week in Pictures

I feel like I pretty much told you all about my week in yesterday's post, as I was feeling a bit chatty, and to be honest, there wasn't really much to tell! I have more or less been somewhere beneath a pile of paperwork in what little free time I did have, and the rest of it was, of course, spent at work. I did manage to pop out for a nice lunch on Saturday, and the hubby and I shared a delicious miniature lemon meringue pie for dessert, before spending a while relaxing in our favourite coffee shop drinking hazelnut lattes. He wasn't best pleased that Brazil lost out in the Olympic football to Mexico, although they still won a silver medal, and a gold in the women's volleyball, so it wasn't all bad. Speaking of medals, I must admit that I'm quite disappointed that the Olympics are coming to an end. Tom Daley did us proud today, although it's a shame he missed out on the gold after coming so close, though to be honest, I think I would have enjoyed watching him however he had done, if you know what I mean! Ha. I'm especially proud, with him being from my neck of the woods, although Luke Campbell did a fantastic job bagging us another gold in the boxing, too. I actually can't believe how many medals we've won this year! Amazing.

I have been absolutely loving my Topshop Baroque jeans this week, and if you are a regular then you'll know that I snapped these beauts up off Ebay, having missed out on them in my size when they were in the shops. I wore them on a little afternoon out we had on Friday, which is when the rest of the snaps were taken - how cute are those colourful buildings? We just visited a small village nearby, which I had never been to before, and had a little wander around and a spot of lunch.

That's me for today, hope to catch up with many of you later on this evening during the #bbloggers chat!

Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend!

xx