Happy Birthday Grandad!

Oh hello everybody. I kind of miss my A-Z challenge and it literally has only been a day... I think I just miss having a title and picture to put at the top of each blog... 
Well, today is 29th February and usually, we don't see this day every year because it is a leap year this year! How exciting. On this day, I always think about my Grandad because although he is no longer with us, it would've been his 76th birthday today. My Grandad has been gone for almost 3 years now and to say that the time has flown would be an understatement. It was such a sudden death that I didn't really believe it when it happened so to think back on it now, it doesn't seem possible that it was 3 years ago.

Because his birthday was always on a leap year, we celebrated his 18th birthday when he was 72 because he had only ever officially had 18 birthday on the actual day he was born, We got him an 18 balloon and badge, which made him laugh so much. It is such a lovely thing to look back on. Bless my Grandad, he would have only been 19 if he was still here today.

I miss him so much and I hope that wherever he is, the world is giving him an easier life than when he was here- he was such a strong man and had so many things given to him that just wasn't fair!

Happy birthday Grandad. Love you! xxx

Z is for Zonked

Z is for Zonked

Today I have been the ultimate bum. I have been zonked out today- mainly because on Friday night, I spent until midnight making and decorating a cake and then yesterday I made a train and went to my nephew's 2nd birthday. After having half term off and then going back to work, all of the excitement and craziness has taken it out of me.

I didn't get up until late this morning and without any guilt, I've already had a nap today! I'm exhausted but it is the end of the challenge and I can't believe that I survived this and managed to blog every day with a topic related to the alphabet!
The A-Z challenge has been annihilated.

Now, to try and blog consistently without a challenge... that is going to be the REAL challenge!
For next week, I've got a busy schedule as always so half the challenge will be making sure that I pre-write some blogs on Sunday. That is the way that I only ever survive blogging consistently because I really don't have time during the week!
Thank you for all of your support and reading during my blogging days. Seeing my page views and comments on my Twitter really makes it worth while.
Onwards and upwards, if you have any suggestions for other blog challenges or blog topics, do comment below and I will try my best to make them happen! :)

Y is for Yippee!

Y is for Yippee!

First and foremost, I can't believe that there is only one letter left for this challenge- granted it will probably be the worst letter to try and blog about but we will deal with that tomorrow when I have to write the blog.
Now onto the exciting part of this blog- I am pretty darn excited because today is my nephew's 2nd birthday. It doesn't seem possible that he has been here for 2 years because the time has just flown by. He has gone from a tiny premature baby to such a clever and bright little boy who talks about everything! He is pretty special in my life and I love him to pieces.

From this...

To this today!

He is having a dinosaur themed party today and my sister and I were lucky enough to be able to make his birthday cake. We started it yesterday and I have to say that I was kind of regretting the fact we were making his birthday cake during the baking and decorating process but now that I look at the pictures of it- it was well worth the time and effort.

We then had a mould for a chocolate train and not wanting to not give the best, we decided to make that as well. What a parlava! It was quite the fiddly little job especially considering that our hands were warm, the house was warm and the chocolate needed to be really cold- it meant that there was melted chocolate EVERYWHERE!

I haven't got a picture of the train that we made because it's not quite finished- we need to fill the carriage with sweets so instead I decided to just show you what it will look like! 
Happy Birthday Max!!! I love you xxxx

X is for Xcellence

X is for Xcellence

So I cheated on this a little because I couldn't think of an X word without it being an xylophone... I had a plan to write about the film How To Be Single and I thought I could use the hook as X Rated Review but the film wasn't hat great and I didn't think I could put that title when it was a bit pants! I mean the film was alright, the parts that were funny were funny but they were few and far between.
Instead, I decided that I would cheat a little and let you know about my week. I have been so prepared for this week- I had all my resources made but that wasn't the Xcellent part!

The Xcellent part is that I am completely ready for NEXT week! Usually I have plans to write, resources to be made and guided reading to plan and resource but for some strange reason, the year 1 team and I have been ON IT! 
We had already resourced the entire week by Wednesday which means that I can enjoy my weekend and the exciting thing that is happening tomorrow!
For today, I am Xcellent!

We have a special cake to make tonight so I'm keeping my blog short and sweet tonight because the dinosaurs are calling me.

W is for Winter Weather

W is for Winter Weather

I am so ready for the weather to become Spring. It is actually getting a lot lighter at nighttime (when it isn't pouring down with rain) which is so nice at the end of a working day but I am over the cold and the wind and especially the rain. It's hard to be motivated to do anything when it is miserable outside. The thing that I find the hardest is waking up in the dark, travelling to work in the dark and then coming home in the dark.

This is what people probably say about me because I ALWAYS complain about the weather. Hardy HA because this is practically a long rant...

What's worse is that I am learning to drive and it is the home stretch where I am almost ready for my test but I constantly have lessons in the dark when I will be taking my test in the light. Driving in the dark is 10x harder and I hate it. I am looking forward to lighter evenings so that even if I do my lessons at 5:30, it might actually be light enough for me to see the kerbs when I am practising my maneouvres.
It might also be nice to not have to wear a gigantic jumper, a coat and a plethora of winter accessories. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather. I guess it doesn't even have to be sunny- just warmer and lighter please! :)

P.S. This topic was really hard- I hated having to come up with something for W. I thought V was going to be hard yesterday but that was easy compared to today. As always, I had to really think about today's topic- I had lots but I didn't know what to write for them so being British, I fell back on the weather...

V is for Villain

V is for Villain

I think no week of blogging is right without another Disney mention- quite frankly, we've had 5 blogs before this without a single mention and that in itself is quite a crime! For P, we had my favourite princess so it's only right that I give the opposite a little bit of blogging time.

I have to admit that I didn't give this much of a thought and at first because my favourite princess is Ariel, I thought my favourite villain would ultimately be the villain from The Little Mermaid. But as I started writing this blog, I realised that another villain popped into my head and I knew that was my absolutely favourite. 
To keep you in suspense a little longer, I thought I would give you some of the other villains that I do enjoy:
1. Ursula- of course she always scared the living day lights out of me when I was younger and I HATED when she turned into a woman and tricked poor Eric. What a cow!

2. Scar- if he is not automatically thought of when you say villain, you are not a true Disney fan because everyone knows that the killing of Mufasa is such a sore subject even this many years on. Ultimate villain.

3. Maleficent- Now I do not like Maleficent in the original Disney film 'Sleeping Beauty' because she was scary looking and very mean BUT the 2014 film Maleficent made me appreciate this villain and I actually decided that I liked her in that film with Angelina Jolie.

And now, onto my ultimate villain. There is one Disney film that I adored as a child and still love now. If you get this film right, you are the ultimate Nicole trivia player: 101 Dalmatians. I fell in love and that means that because I loved the film so much, I HATED the villain even more.
My ultimate Disney villain is....

Cruella De Vil- the devil herself! She is disgusting looking and an evil woman and I hated her sooooo much!
Also, one final thought from me- why do all the Disney villains have a grey complexion? Is it something that they are drinking or something that they need to have to qualify as a villain? I do not know nor do I want to know!

U is for Unicorns

U is for Unicorns

Wait one second and just hear me out, don't automatically think that I've been doing dodgy stuff with this line of thought. I'm one of those people that absolutely loves the idea of magic and supernatural things (except ghosts because they scare the crap out of me) and as a child, I loved the idea of unicorns. I think it's because they were always portrayed as girly with lots of glitter and magic that makes any girl's dream come true...

I wish that there were unicorns today because quite frankly, I would sign up to house one in my garden. Can you imagine how fantastic it would be to have a pet unicorn? Amazeballs.
Random person: "You taking the bus today?" Me: "No, I'm riding my unicorn home!"
Like seriously? How cool.
Then I got thinking about the ramifications of having a unicorn because obviously, it would be freaking awesome to have a unicorn as a pet whose horn was made out of magic that you could use for making wishes- uh-may-zing! But if I had a unicorn and not everyone did, there would definitely be people out there that wants to steal the magic from the horn- it would be inevitable. So, would they actually just be hunted to extinction like the white rhino is at the moment for its horns? 

We would just be making a magical thing suffer for our own good. I guess with such an amazing creature, it wouldn't be kept safe so actually it would be counterproductive. Once you've had the ability of magic, having that taken away from you would be devastating. At least we've learned to live as mere mortals but if we were bestowed the power of unicorns, it would destroy us all!
In the grand scheme of things, I know it's a good thing unicorns do not exist but let's just imagine a world with them for just a second.

Utopia! FOR SURE!
That's all from my brain today- I have to say it did take a turn for the weird with this letter... I feel it will only get worse as the next couple of letters are some of the hardest. I'm looking at you X and Y and Z... *starts to look worried*

T is for To Work

T is for To Work

I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I am a little sad about today. I had a wonderful relaxing week off of work but the reality is that today I am back at work. Back to the daily grind!
I leave you with these memes:

S is for Sisters

S is for Sisters

Today is the topic to begin with S, I had some ideas about doing a blog about Sunday but I really don't have an exciting Sunday and I had already done a speech like blog this week so I wanted to write about something different.
Yesterday I went to get my nails done and I went with my sister. The nail technician asked if we were twins and I thought that was really funny because there's a 2 year age gap but then when I really thought about it, there have been many times over the years that people have asked if we are twins.

The great part about my family is that I am one of 6. I have 4 other sisters and a brother, which makes me very lucky. We are all one year apart, which makes us incredibly close in age and as we have gotten older, we have become quite close and I regularly regard my sisters as my friends.

I am very lucky to have 4 great sisters (and a brother)

R is for Recluse

R is for Recluse

I have to admit that this week, I have definitely had quite a few R words that could fit this day... Revision for my theory test, Result for me passing my theory test and today Recluse because I have to tell you about a new obsession that I have that has resulted in my wanting to stay in all day doing nothing..

On Wednesday, I went out with my besties for my dinner and an epic game of pool and air hockey (unfortunately, the extreme air hockey game was out of order so we didn't get to play that! *sad face) and on the way home, Rach and I got talking about shows that we are enjoying at the moment. It seems that we are both epic binge watchers of TV shows.

Anyway, if you've been here for a while and know anything about my TV habits, you will know that I adore The Vampire Diaries, Grey's Anatomy and recently found Once Upon a Time as a brilliant show. These American shows do the most annoying thing and go on regular breaks so that there are no new episodes for ages... It meant that I was on the lookout for a new show. This is where Rach came into the picture because she told me about the show 'iZombie.'

When she told me about it, I was thinking 'oh no, not another zombie show' but I gave it a chance and I actually am really enjoying it. I became a bit of a recluse and watched the entire season in the space of 2 days... Oops.
So iZombie is about Liv who went to a boat party one night and got scratched by someone who had taken a bad batch of a new drug- and that turned her into a zombie. She quit her job in the hospital and starting working in the morgue to eat the brains of the people who have died. The part of the show that I think makes it so enjoyable is that when she eats the brains of the dead people, she takes on their personality and has visions from when they were alive. Liv uses these to solve their murders and catch bad people, which is great!

I have to admit that seeing her being an alcoholic one minute, a preppy cheerleader the next and an advice radio show woman the next is what makes it even better. Throw into the mix the story line of her ex-fiance and her best friend not knowing she is a zombie and you get a pretty good show, if you ask me.
I am loving it and I'll let you into a little confession- I almost forgot to blog today because I was watching iZombie... I'm going to end this blog and then get back to it- season 2, episode 3, here I come!
Cheeriooooo brains 

YUMMY!!!

xxx