Fresh Start September!

Image taken from weheartit.com

I don’t know why but with September I have always seen it as a fresh start, maybe because of the start of school, college and university. I also love it as it marks the start of autumn, my favourite month!

Overall September is one of my favourite months of the year and if it goes to plan each year then I’m super happy! However if it doesn’t I often end up feeling rather down about it and end up thinking and deciding that the rest of the month and sometimes even the rest of the year will follow the same.

This September I have decided to have a fresh start with loads of new things I will start doing. I always see September as a fresh start anyway but this time I’m facing it with a different approach.

I thought I would share these with you all, as I hope that it will encourage you all to join in with my Fresh Start September, or FSS for short. 😛

Mochi ice cream from Wagamama, my own image.

Start: Eating better!

Although I have slowly began this already I’m going to plod on and continue with it. Instead of bread I’m now eating rice crackers, they make a great alternative and don’t contain as many calories either! I’m also trying to eat more fish, eggs and veg as these are all good for you. As much as I love going out for meals with my boyfriend, friends and sometimes my family I need to stop doing this. At one point every weekend my boyfriend and I would go out for a meal on our own or with friends and it needs to stop. Once a week for a treat isn’t bad and even when I was smaller than I am right now, I used to do this but I want to save money. My boyfriend took me out for a treat to Wagamama on Thursday and it was lovely, we didn’t eat too much and shared a pudding instead of having one each. I’d like to limit eating out to once every 2 weeks and that includes takeaways too, but I hardly eat takeaway food. I want to try and start home cooking too, like good old pies, lasagne, etc. It won’t hurt! SO no more snacking on crisps or any rubbish like that! I’m going to aim to try and lose some weight by the New Year.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Start: Walking everyday!

I used to walk everywhere when I first started college and I used to walk everyday due to it too. Sadly the past two years it has stopped due to being at work all the time and I’m not going to lie, me being too lazy and too tired to move my butt! Times are changing! I miss walking everyday and with England’s beautiful autumn evenings on their way I thought now would be a good time to start walking again. I’ve decided that everyday after work I’ll get my iPod, my most comfortable clothing and a bottle of water and go out for a walk for about half an hour, as that’s the amount we’re meant to walk everyday and I know for a fact I don’t walk that much anymore. Even if I can’t get out to walk due to rain I’m going to try and start going somewhere just to walk around inside, even if that means window shopping in Asda, local shopping centre, hell even Ikea! You can get lost in there due to its size. I’m excited, I’ve been meaning to start going out walking again but due to my health I’ve just not got around to doing it.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Start: Saving money!

With  my holiday in less than five months I want to try and save as much money as possible for it! As well as that Christmas will soon be upon us again, so it’ll be good to save for that too, although hard to save up for my holiday at the same time. Saving money is always good to do anyway, as you never know really what may happen. I’ve always been one for saving money, which I get from my Dad. He always taught me from a young age to save money for as much as it may burn a hole in your pocket, it’ll be worth it in the long run, which is true. I always try and save a little bit every week, but sometimes I’m not able to due to bills etc. At the moment it’s due to paying for my holiday, but in the long run it’ll be worth it. I’m going to try my hardest not to spend money on things, but if I really want something I will indulge. Recently I’ve felt very down in the dumps so I have been treating myself to the odd thing, but that’s stopping now as I NEED to save.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Start: Reading more!

I really do love reading, but I don’t read half as much as I would like to, and used to. When I was at university I used to read loads and even in my old job I used to read quite a bit. I don’t do that anymore, as my current job I don’t get breaks so I never get a chance to read a book for half an hour like I used to. At home I do try and read as much as I can these days mind, I’ll take my current book of choice out and about with me if I know I’ll get a few minutes to read. Sometimes I try to read before work, whilst traveling on the train (which I hardly do anymore!) or if I pop out with my Dad somewhere, as I know he’ll be nattering away to someone at some point! I would love to be able to join a book club, or even borrow books from the library to read but due to how slow I tend to read, or the fact I never have any time I can’t and that really sucks! I’m hoping by the end of 2014 I’ll have read all of John Green’s books! I’ve read one, currently reading another and have three gathering dust on my shelf. I shall keep you updated…

Image taken from weheartit.com

Start: Writing again!

Something else I miss doing is writing, creative writing that is. It’s my number one hobbie and passion and something that my anxiety and depression has made me forget about, especially how much I enjoy doing it. With NaNoWriMo coming up in November I’m excited to let my creative juices flow again and I already have a story plot written up from start to finish. I’ll be talking more about NaNoWriMo throughout October. I would love to try and do more writing, even if it involves me being a proof reader for someone, I just miss doing it so much! I’m hoping to try and find a writing group that I can join soon as it would be nice to meet up with people who love writing just as much as I do.

So that’s my five start something’s, I can definitely work on all of these! I also have a sixth one but I’m not going to discuss that on here, but it’s definitely my number one start something that I want to do!

I want whoever reads this to go off and make a list of five start’s that you would like to start in September.

I’m going to keep everyone updated on how I’m keeping with my start’s, probably be at the end of every month!

Will you be taking part in Fresh Start September? Let me know in the comments if you will and what start’s you’ll be doing!

Until next time, take care and see you in September. 😉

No internet? No problem!

Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon my internet was turned off due to the bull not being paid (we totally forgot about it!) so I was without the internet for a day, which sucked as I spend the majority of my time on the internet… Which sounds really sad, I know.

I love my internet though and as I got my iPhone on Friday and was all set up and being used on Saturday, I didn’t get much chance to play with it due to the internet being turned off, sad faces were made. As I mentioned, I use the internet quite a lot so in this day I had to find things to amuse myself with, which wasn’t all bad on Sunday as I was at a huge gig for the entire day so it didn’t bother me much, but when I got home the internet was off and as I was wide awake and couldn’t sleep I ended up reading for a while, which wasn’t bad.

But I woke up Monday after having a crap nights sleep and was found with trying to keep myself occupied and I began to think, “Hey would this work as a blog post??” and I decided it would, so here it is!

If you’re like me and use the internet as your means of entertainment then I think these ideas for keeping yourself busy when you’re not near internet will be ideal.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Have a movie/TV show marathon.

I love having these and as I have had the past two days off work and I’m pretty skint right now, I’ve had no choice but to stay in really. I’ve been watching Jackass the past couple of days from Jackass: The Movie to Jackass 3D, this includes 2.5 and 3.5 as well and it’s been nice to just sit in bed texting a few friends and watching the films without any disturbances from emails or Facebook messages. I love having movie and TV show marathons, it’s just great catching up on an old film or show you haven’t watched for ages.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Read a book(s).

I have loads of books to start reading and catch up with so I decided to do some reading, as I haven’t read any of my current book for a couple of weeks now. I’m currently reading I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella, which I picked up months ago in Sainsbury’s for just £3, total bargain! I love Sophie Kinsella’s books and so far I’ve read all the books from her Shopaholic series as well as Twenties Girl. I love to read and even though it sounds like an excuse, I really haven’t read as much lately due to being so busy with work and my social life. I try to read as much as I can now and as I have 4 books sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read as well as 3 manga books, I need to get a move on!

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Take up a forgotten hobby.

I love photography and I love baking, but I haven’t done either for quite a while now. Photography is easy to take back up as it just involves me leaving my house and going for a walk somewhere nature heavy, or even with someone so I can take pictures of them. However baking isn’t as easy to do due to living at home and certain circumstances that come with it. 3 days of the week I get the chance to bake until my heart is content! I did have the chance to do some baking yesterday but as I’m not 100% well right now, and also very drained and tired for some reason, I didn’t get a chance to do any baking, sad to say. I can’t wait to pick up baking again though, as I really have missed doing it. I really want to bake a red velvet cake and maybe a chocolate orange cake too now that it’s officially autumn. On the photography side, I’m hoping to start taking more nature related photography now autumn is here and try to take some more band photographs of my boyfriends band Four Floors Of Whores, who I wrote a post about a few months ago, you can find that here.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Write.

I love writing, it’s my passion and my main hobby, as well as being what I want to do as a career (creative writing tutor for higher education FYI). I’ve always loved writing since I was a kid but it was only since the age of 15/16 that I started to improve on my writing skills and since then I’ve just done lots of writing. With NaNoWriMo 2013 coming up in November, I’m trying to come up with novel ideas for it. If you aren’t sure what NaNoWriMo is, then don’t worry as I’ll be having a post up about it on Saturday.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Go for a long walk.

Walking may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a great form of exercise, is free, doesn’t cause pollution and of course gives you a clear head, as well as curing period pain (it does actually work ladies). I love walking and even if it’s just to pop down to the shops, I’ll take a quick walk there. I was going to take a brief walk down to the shops yesterday but I didn’t feel up to doing much after a sleepless night, which is a shame as I could have done with the fresh air, as well as the green apple Rockstar I was going down to buy a few cans of… Oh well, next time!

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Play some games!

I love games and I always have since my brother gave me his old Game Boy with a Tetris cartridge inside and not long after that my other older brother gave me his old SNES and I was in Nintendo heaven! Since then I’ve been hooked on playing games, as well as collecting old and up to date consoles, hand-held ones included. I don’t get much time to play games anymore and quite frankly I’m bored with all the ones I own but due to lack of funds I can’t afford to buy any new ones. However when the opportunity rises for me to play a game I’ll sit there pretty much all day playing it, only taking breaks to pee and get food. My console of choice is my PS3 and my hand-held of choice is my DS Lite, even though I don’t play that much anymore. I’m really excited for Beyond: Two Souls, which has been made by the same company as Heavy Rain (PS3 too) and Fahrenheit (PS2) and as I’ve played and loved both I am super excited for this game to come out in October. As well as that I really want a 3DS so that I can play one of the new Pokemon games, X & Y, I’ll be picking up Pokemon X as I love the stag Pokemon that  they’ve brought out. This is also coming out in October, but I probably won’t be able to play it until December/January.

Image taken from weheartit.com

• Spend time with family and friends.

I don’t get much chance to see my friends lately due to work and lack of funds so when I have time off I try to see them as much as possible. I’m going to hopefully be seeing my best friend one of the days this week and I really can’t wait to see her, I miss her so much and I haven’t seen her for probably a month now, it’s been way too long. My friend Poppy will be coming to visit me in October for some much-needed gossip together and some shopping. I still hope to be visiting my friend Gabriella soon, but due to time and funds it’s a bit hard to do at the moment, I miss her so damn much that sometimes it makes me want to cry. 😦 I love my friends a lot as they’re always there for me and when I’ve been at my low points they’ve been there to remind me of the good things in my life, including them.

So yes, that’s some of the things I have done when my internet has been down, as well as what I did whilst my internet was off Monday morning/afternoon. I’m really quite pleased with myself that I got loads of posts written up for my blog, including this one!

I hope people find this post useful for if your internet gets turned off, or even if you want to try and stop using the internet for a while and need a distraction.

What do you do when you haven’t for internet to use? Let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care!