Sunday 7 September 2014

Seeing Glasgow: Glasgow Green and People's Palace

My boyfriend Alex is from Perth, so I always forget that Glasgow isn't second nature to him.  I love taking him to lots of different places around town and showing him more of this fabulous city!  It also gives an excuse to do the more touristy things as Alex is technically a tourist.  We've been on an open top bus, round Kelvingrove and a rather ill fated trip to the Transport Museum (I accidentally took us to the wrong side of the river) and earlier on in the week we walked through Merchant City and through Glasgow Green which was a lovely day!

Glasgow Green is basically just a massive park, so we went a stroll through the greens until we got to the People's Palace.  The massive Greenhouse is lovely inside and then we went on to the little museum part.  It has lots of interesting titbits and history of the city and everything it's been through, from the wars to the state of housing through the years.  Apparently just outside the building was where they would hang criminals back in the day, charming!  After wandering around and soaking up some new knowledge (Alex found out what "doon the watter" meant!) we headed back over to Trongate area to get some lunch.  I'd spied a little cafe on the way in that looked nice and most importantly was cheap so we went there.  For the life of me I can't remember the name of the place but it was great!  We both just had a sandwich but mine was delicious; chicken with garlic mayo, sundried tomatoes and rocket.  It also came with a salad and coleslaw.  Usually I absolutely despise coleslaw in restaurants and cafes as they rarely make their own but this one was home made and really tasty!  Thumbs up all round.








We headed back to Alex's after that, we were both very tired and very full!  It was the first time I'd seen him since I got back from Spain so it was a really simple, but lovely day :)

Friday 5 September 2014

A very long winded welcome back

It's been a bloody long time hasn't it?  Every year I seem to go through a phase where I decide I will BLOG and I will BLOG WELL and I will KEEP IT UP and that inevitably falls by the wayside after a bit.  But this year I want to try and keep it up in one way or another.  I think last time I focused too much on fashion and clothes and stuff.  But after reading other blogs I think I'd like to focus still on some fashion and style but also bring in lifestyle and just my day to day happenings.  Will that work?  I have no clue but hey ho!

To start things off I thought I would do a round up of what I've been up to in the last month as it was a big one!  For the month of August I lived with a family in the region of Galicia in Spain and was an Au Pair.  Overall it was a brilliant experience.  The most I've ever been away from home before has been two weeks, and even then that has been holidays with my parents so a whole month away on my own was quite daunting but I'm so glad I did it!  I think everyone should do something like this at least once in their life.  I really want to do something else abroad now, I think I have serious Wanderlust!

I was worried I was going to be very busy, as I would be looking after and teaching English to four kids between the ages of five and 12.  As an only child and the youngest in my immediate family, I knew I was probably taking on a lot but it went slightly better than I feared.  I taught English for two hours each weekday, and then would "supervise" them all while they played on the beach.  I use supervise in the loosest terms as the beach was literally their back garden and so they knew it like the back of their hand!  I just had to sit on the beach, keep a vague eye on them and all the while soak up the sun!

I will be the first to admit that it wasn't as fab as that may sound.  There were very, very trying times with the children (one particularly vivid memory of having to clean up orange sick springs to mind), but I just had to keep telling myself that they were only kids at the end of the day.  The fact that I had weekends off and could explore nearby towns or even just lie on the beach and not have a care in the world was also a good thought to keep me going!

The month actually flew in, and though I got homesick near the end and felt pretty lonely at times, pretty soon I was off to spend my last day in Santiago before my flight.  The city was beautiful, I love old stone cities with narrow streets and cobbled lanes.  It was swelteringly hot though, so I maybe didn't get to see everything I could have, but what I did see I loved.  I spent most of Tuesday travelling home, have now been back two days and it feels like I haven't been away!  I feel like I've probably ranted on for long enough now so will finish this first post back with a few photos from my month away :)