Christmas!

Evening everyone!

Sorry about my lack of blog posts recently; with starting work and having a social life (if you can call it that!) I've had little time to myself! Sleeping is one of the most important things to me right now!

So I started work 6 weeks ago and I'm enjoying it! I come home everyday smelling delightful! Working in a perfume shop has its perks!

Now it's the Christmas countdown I think everyone is going into overdrive and thinking themselves into a mad frenzy...we still have a month everyone, you'll be fine!

What I tend to do around Christmas is make a list. Who you're buying for, what your budget is and any initial ideas you have for them. That way you stay on top of your spending and know what you're looking for when you go shopping, instead of traipsing your way around the shops not knowing what you're looking for.

Working in retail has its ups and downs, especially at this time of year!
I recommend that you figure out what perfume you're looking for before you come into the shop and tell me what colour bottle it's in. There's lots of pink/blue bottles and that is not remotely helpful.

I personally love Christmas, I love the music, the lights, the cosiness of the house when all the decorations are up. I love singing carols at church, as that is the whole reason of CHRISTmas.

I'm seeing on Facebook that loads of people have finished their Christmas shopping already! You still have a month - you guys are massively prepared and I salute you!

One of the thing I love about Christmas is the cards and the wrapping paper. In my house we have a big bag full of Christmas cards, we have so many from last year that I don't think we'll be buying anymore for this year! And we still have some wrapping paper somewhere upstairs too - though I may have to see what we have and buy some new rolls after work one day, there's so much to choose from in the shops that I don't know how people do it!

Fenwick's has their Christmas window all done and lit up. Singing all day long - joyful! There's usually a theme or a well known story behind it - it's been Alice in Wonderland and Oliver Twist in the last few years, but this year it's Christmas themed! Santa getting stuck down the chimney - just like the song! I love it, it's a typical Christmas display, as it should be!

The other thing about Christmas is it's social aspect. Trying to plan Secret Santa exchanges and nights' out with work people is chaos! Fitting work in with this doesn't help, especially since I'll be working till 9pm some nights - all I'll want is my bed!

If you're struggling with the social side and don't think you and your friends don't have time for each other, you should do what we do most years. We make a spreadsheet and fill in the dates when we're free in one colour, and when we're not free in  another...and just hope that there's at least one day that all of us can do, otherwise we're well and truly snookered!

If you have any Christmas shopping/wrapping tips, let me know in a comment below! If you do and Christmas traditions with your family or friend, I'd love to know!

I won't leave it so long next time! :) xx

Friends

Afternoon readers!

I know I've been horrendously quiet for a few weeks and for this I apologise profusely! A lot has gone on and I shall explain in time.

So as you can see, my blog is titled 'Friends'. We all have them. Old ones, new ones, ones we don't see often but know they're there when we need them.

Having friends is one of the great joys of life. Growing up, I had a set group of friends if you like. We were always together and did things together all the time, and that's carried on throughout school, college and uni, and we're all still friends now and see each other on a regular basis.

Some friends, I don't see very often, due to living in totally different parts of the country and with the cost of train travel being astronomical! I met these amazing people whilst doing my Boy's Brigade leadership course, KGVI. Two of the best weeks of my life I have to say. The friends I made there are friends for life, we all know it, we're stuck with each other now anyway!

Some of my friends live in totally different countries! America to be exact! We see them as often as they come home, at Summer or Christmas, and try and catch up as much as possible for that year before they fly back to sunny Arizona again! Scary to think how long they've been gone. Shows how much we've grown up over the years really!

I make friends on the basis of if you're nice to me I'm nice to you, if you make me laugh, you're in...and if you like cups of tea, we're friends forever! All of my friends fit this criteria!

Like all friends do, we fight. Sometimes! About small issues, petty things that in the grand scheme of things, doesn't make a different to anyone anyway! All of my friends have strong personalities, and we're all quite similar...which is probably why we all get on so well, and why we can sometimes have arguments about the slightest thing!

I've done lots of things with my friends...most of which I'm sure we all want to remember, some things, probably not!

We've gone on holidays together; Turkey, Magaluf and Palma and Zante. Not to mention all the weekend away and countless nights out we've enjoyed together. Thankfully we have many photographs to use as memories...the marvellous invention of Facebook!

Wherever we are and whatever we do with our lives, we're always there for each other. Like true friends are! This final picture is my group of girls from a few weeks ago. I love these girls, we're a close group and always make time for each other. We've always been friends and we always will be. We'll visit more exotic places, go for more nights out - even if they involve a night in someone's sitting room with slippers and a cuppa! - we'll be our own version of the Sex and the City women, forever drinking cocktails in our favourite watering hole!

Until the next time :) xx