The word is a very exciting place

 September was the first whole month back at home, and aside from working as much overtime as possible, I continued to see, do and learn a much as possible. We had some great days out and visited some amazing places, but this just blog post just covers the everyday things we did in September. Lucky double yolker for breakfast! Who says you cant have all your little ducks in a row? Because they are big swans! This goose was very patient in waiting for us to throw some more bird seed down! Feeding the birds (and all kids of birds too!) was something that started for me and James a while before, when we first visited York together. There was lots of Geese and Goslings in the park, and we saw someone throwing some bird food down for them. So we went to pound/land, got ourselves a bag, and just never stopped! Its something we enjoy, watching the birds eat, a well as the humorous things they do too! We even keep a bag of wild bird food in the boot of the car for the possibility of runnin...

 It seemed at one point like I was running out of summer. I know that sounds strange, but its true! Since I'd returned, I was working as many hours and overtime as possible to get things moving again. All of a sudden, I was paying rent, bills and responsibilities. Isn't life funny like that? I kept up with my plan of doing/seeing/trying/learning something new each weeks, two of which are featured in this blog post. First up, was a visit to the Longdown activity farm, on the outskirts of Southampton. Entry is from £12.50 an adult, and we actually really enjoyed ourselves. We started off playing Mini gold (which obviously I lost) , before heading in to see some of the animals. There's a great selection of animals there, most of which are very friendly. Now, as you can imagine for a place like this, there is a lot of children even on a week day when the schools were open. We managed to avoid most of them, but beware the children more than the animals!  Perhaps the piggy's ...

Adjusting back to normality after travelling is hard. I think the first time after coming home, I went straight back to work 2 days later, so the post travelling blues didn't settle in. But this time, I had a week before returning to work. Suddenly, I'd gone from doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to having to be in places for set times and do things I didn't want to do, like working. To be fair, work had been really good to me and left my job open so I just slotted straight back in, almost like I'd never been away. And before long, it seems my carefree spirit had been washed away. But I made myself a promise, and that was to do, see, try or learn something new every week. It sort of gave me a nice focus to keep myself engaged, and helped with me planning my next trip! One of the first big events since I came home was a party, hosted at my parents in which all the family descended, some I had not seen in a long time. It was a nice but bizarre experience (as any ...

 Hi everyone and welcome back! This is the second part of the Final, where I will review the results, and share mine and James's votes!  And just like that, its time to vote!  This is where things start to get interesting. We will get some sort of interval acts, before we get to find out the results. We get our first recap of all the performances, just in case you needed any further help deciding who as best. Now we have one of our first interval acts, its a nice song, and in case you were concerned this was going to be another slow one, have no fear, after 20 seconds it gets going. Portuguese sounds like a tricky language to rap in. This group of performances have a really chilled out summer vibe, like when you're just siting having drinks in a nice bar watching the sun go down. Its good fun. We have another recap, albeit shorter. This is how you know time is running out! Love the use of the graphics for the fun skit about needing a mobile phone! Risque, but oh so good! ...

 Welcome back to part one of my review of Eurovision 2018. I am joined by my partner James, who is going to join me in reviewing the songs of the Grand Final. He's a bit of eurovision newcomer, so will provide a different take on the songs. Will our votes align? Or will they be utterly different. Only time will tell! In this first post, we will review the songs and performances, and it part two I will be watching the results, react to the winner, and provide our votes to see if the winner changes! Again, we start with a video that makes us want to visit Portugal on holiday. And we begin the contest with some performances of Portugal's national music Fado. Its not the most gripping of opening ceremonies, but interesting none the less. The second lady with the blonde hair has an incredible voice. We get a pair of DJ'S on stage to mix it up a bit, to prove that Portugal can produce modern music! I do love a good flag parade, but it seems to go on a much longer than they normal...

 Good evening, Im back with my review of the second semi final of eurovision 2018! As before, I'm watching on YouTube, so there will no doubt be adverts at every turn. What ever happened to You Tube? It seems to be a shadow of its former self. Anyway, we are starting with the same fun video as the first semi final, showing us all what a lovely place Portugal is to go to on holiday (as if we didn't know that already). Our four lovely ladies are back to host, and I'm hoping they gel a bit better tonight. Filomena is absolutely the host of the evening, With Daniela providing some much needed serious hosting to keep things in check. Silvia and Catarina are nice, but they seem to be a little bit surplus to requirement. We start the evening with the 1,500th song to be performed at the contest. And with such a milestone, it seems only fitting that the 2009 winner Alexander Rybak hack returned to represent Norway with the song "Thats how you write a song". And things seem...

 So the timing of this may seem bizarre, but I was going to post about it, as I had done on twitter, but with a bit more detail. I had even kept my notepad in which I had made notes on when I originally watched it! So I thought I would finally get round to posting my thoughts. And then I thought why not rewatch the show as well and see who is still good 6 years on. Plus this years Eurovision Song Contest is only two and a bit weeks away, so think of this as some sort of rewatch style post! Also, at the end of the post, I'll reveal my scores, and we shall see if it changes anything! So after Salvador Sobral's victory last year in Kyiv, we are heading to Lisbon. And in true Eurovision fashion, we are treated to a nice sightseeing video to start the show, to let us all know what a beautiful, cultural and most important, tourist friendly places the host city is. I jest, but its a great way to show everyone where their next holiday is. Bear with me, I'm watching on YouTube, and ...

 So it was that time again, the worst part of any trip away from home. The time to go home. After spending nearly 5 weeks in Spain and Andorra, having seen some magnificent sights, experienced some amazing food and events, and getting a dodgy tan, it was time to make my way back home. My original plan had included visiting Madrid too, but I'd run out of time (as I always seem to on these trips, its a recurring theme). My ferry was booked home from Santander, so in a sort of race across the world style, I had to race from Seville to Santander, on what felt like the longest coach ride of my life. I could have caught the train, which would have been faster, but having been travelling for the previous 7 months, (not to mention the 11 months the year before that) I was starting to run out of money, and needed to conserve what I had, especially with rent to pay and I wouldn't get paid until the following month in a worst case scenario. So Coach it was, and it took around 12 hours. I ...

 Ronda is a beautifully easy day trip from Seville, just jump on one of the frequent coaches that travel between the two, and you'll have yourself a really grand day out. Ronda is one of those charming little places where time seems to just stand still. And despite it being a busy little tourist trap, you seem to find yourself alone in many areas of the town Perhaps first stop is to find the bridge. People in the hostel who were going in the opposite direction to me (I think they had come from Madrid, and were on their way to Gibraltar) had said they'd been told in a previous hostel about Ronda, and said they really enjoyed it. Thats the great thing about hostels, you talk to so many different and interesting people, and it gives you ideas and plans as to what is good and not so good. Once I'd googled Ronda, I decided that my final proper day in Spain should be there, before I headed home.  The bridge instantly catches your attention. Whenever you think of a dramatic bridge...