Busy Busy!

The past month has almost been non stop and it looks like next month won't be any different!

I am taking on this editors roll like...a fish to water..or whatever an appropriate phrase is. In other words - it's perfect for me. I'm really, really enjoying it and I absolutely love finding out about different places and things to do. Working from home can be a bit tough as I've always had problems with motivation but I'm slowly learning to close that Facebook tab and get my head down, refusing to go on any social networking websites until I've done at least an hour of two or work. The new All American Rejects Album - Kids in the Street - is helping a lot too. I love it and it has quickly become my background album to listen to whilst I work, helping me to concentrate.

I've also been helping one of my sisters friends who has her own business and had fallen behind so needed an extra hand. It started with popping down to hers one Friday and just generally helping out a little bit - sorting out her invoices and making lots of tea and coffee. But it's soon becoming more than that as yesterday I learnt all about renewable energy and how to draw a floor/house plan. She is an domestic energy assessor and as boring as that sounds, it's actually really fun! Next week I'm acting as her assistant, manning the phones and booking assessing times whilst she's out and about doing her job. Then another day next week I'll be out with her, doing floor plans and all the measurements and such. It's pretty fun and I guess that's another bit of experience I can add under my belt - plus she's going to give me a great reference.

Finally, I was offered a job at Next the day before last which I am chuffed about! It was kind of funny how it worked out because the interview was almost a month ago now and I'd heard nothing. I'd left the interview feeling extremely confident however, I'd built up a great rapport with the woman that was interviewing me and definitely got the vibe that I was being offered a position. However, four days after we went on holiday, she was going on holiday too (actually to Sharm, Egypt as well which was a bit spooky!) for two weeks. After three weeks I assumed I hadn't got it and gave the office a ring Thursday and she told me she had actually planned to ring me the next day. It was her and another woman dealing with the new employees and the interviews and such and this other woman had gone on holiday as she'd come back. So I was actually offered a position in their new store opening. I'm really pleased about this because I really wanted this job.

Even better is it's part time so I can still keep on with my editor duties and learning to be an domestic energy assessor!

I'm off to a Flea market in Soho tomorrow which should be fun and I have my induction for Next in the week so it's going to be a very busy week!

June is looking out to be just as busy too as I'll be in London quite a few times, plus I'm arranging a bloggers meet up in St Albans for the end of the month which is going to be really fun. It's also my Nan's birthday and my Dad's birthday and we're hoping to throw a nice BBQ for that. The website is also set to launch in July so I'll be working extra hard with editing duties. Luckily I got my good friend Becky in with a job as well as she studied Journalism with me at university and lives right in London. This means we'll be able to divide the work out between us and I'll get to see a lot more of her at all the different events we'll be going to! I'm glad about this as we were quite close at university and although we still talk all the time, she works full time and as she lives in London it's hard to find time for a catch up.

I'm also still working on setting up my own magazine. On the surface it looks like I've put it on hold but in actual fact behind the scenes I've been working hard to find different contributors and get all my ideas into motion. I've also started writing my own novel - random, I know - but I'm feeling pretty positive about this as it's sounding quite good even if I do say so myself!

I'm still blogging over at Inspire Magazine too and have actually been in contact with a few companies for reviews. After redoing the whole layout I've been trying to take a more professional approach with it rather then just updating as a hobby and with companies interested in a company-blogger relationship, it's finally taking that professional turn. The blog will soon be going onto bigger and better things soon as you all know so it's good to have companies interested!

So I've been learning lately that staying positive and getting your head down and getting on with it makes a huge difference. It's been really hard to find a spare moment to myself over the past few weeks and it's been especially annoying with this hot weather! A couple of times last week I decided to go out for a run and a bike ride but in all honestly I thought I hated running and loved bike riding..I'm not so sure now though! I went out on my mum's bike and my god is my bum sore! Her bike seat is really uncomfortable so yeah, I think I'll be sticking to the running until I can get a more comfy bike seat.

Well, that's what little old me has been up to lately so if you find me absent from blogging over the next few months - you know why. I'll leave you a photo of me being a bit of a poser in my favourite new dress after my parents took me out for food last night to celebrate the new job.

My holiday in Egypt

Last night I arrived home from a lovely week long relaxing holiday in Egypt. I've always wanted to visit Egypt, everything to do with Egyption history absolutely fascinates me and I'm obsessed with the idea of visiting the pyramids and such. We were nowhere near Cairo and there's trouble there at the moment anyway so we didn't go site seeing or visit them. Really it was just a last minute deal to Egypt for a relaxing holiday but it was amazing!

Generally we spent our days sunbathing by the pool ; napping, reading, listening to music and going for a dip in the pool and to the swim up bar. We'd then have lunch and do it all over again! The absolute perfect way to enjoy the boiling hot weather :) 

On Tuesday we visited another sensatori hotel and went on a tour of it. My sister and the other ladies I went with all work for Thomson and this other hotel was also a Thomson hotel so where they'd spent the last few months designing the brochure for it, they were intrigued to see what the hotel was actually like in person. It was stunning ; it was five star so it was all very exclusive and high-end, most of the rooms had their own individual swim up pool and a jacuzzi too. The spa was beautiful, it was situated at the very top of the hotel so it had amazing views. The fitness aspects of the hotel were also pretty amazing too, you had so many options of ways to keep fit and healthy including things like yoga on the beach at sunrise and things like that. Amazing!

Beach tent things at the sensatori - what I'd do to live there!

On Wednesday was one of the best days where we went on a Sinai By Starlight excursion. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life and something that was totally up my street. We left the hotel pretty early and got a coach into the middle of the desert where we then had a camel ride further into the desert. Now I wasn't sure what to expect, I was excited but I'd never really had much um experience with camels in the past. It was scary. Very scary. They were all making loads of really scary noises and camels are a LOT bigger than you expect them to be. Once you climb on they get up by kind of leaning down and getting up with their back legs first followed by their front legs - it's hard to explain but you end up all over the place and it's really scary. In fact I almost backed out as I really didn't like the idea of it! There was a camera man filming the whole excursion and we bought the DVD and you can see me on the camel as it gets up. You can see the absolute fear in my face, haha! Once I was up and moving though I was okay...until half an hour later it came to getting off the camel in the same fashion and as it dropped to the floor I was so scared I screamed! Everyone looked at me and laughed!

After that weird experience we all went into a bedrin tent and drank some Egpytion tea and had/tried a shisha which was interesting! We also learned a bit about the history around where we were before watching the sunset in the mountains.

Sunset among the mountains in the Egyption desert - stunning!

Then we had some food, made some bread and some men did some traditional dance thing and got all us ladies up to dance too. After that we wandered into the desert with a professional astronomer who gave us a talk about stars and the solar system - stars, planets and constellations we could see and such. It was beautiful, of course in the middle of the desert the sky is 100% clear so it was a really beautiful site. We also looked through some telescopes and saw Saturn up close - so close that you could see the rings around it - and the actual surface of the moon! I was astounded! We managed to take some photos through the telescope though the Saturn photo just looks like a blob, ha!

Saturn

The surface of the moon

Anything to do with the solar system fascinates me so it was really a truly amazing experience for me. 

We got up to various stuff during the rest of our holiday - I ended up DJing at one of the club nights there which was funny! We pretty much hosted this night to be honest - we got everyone up dancing, making up all these new dance moves, putting on awesome music and getting everyone involved! We also very nearly won the quiz night (we came second by ONE point). One night I remember being particularly funny was when we were really tired and planned to get a cup of tea and head to bed - in the end we ended up still in the bar at 1am making our way through the cocktail list with the aim to try each one! 

I had mixed thoughts on the hotel. It was pretty beautiful - the reception had all marble floors and a stunning staircase that curled around a waterfall feature and a bridge at the bottom. We named it death bridge as it had loads of ridges in it and was impossible to walk over in heels. The grounds were stunning too - loads of flowers, water features and cute wooden bridges. The pools were SO nice as well. However, some of the rooms needed to be made a bit more modern - you could see where parts of the hotel could do with a makeover and the staff were actually a bit dodgy/rude. One of them even smashed a glass on the floor in a huff when they messed up our drinks order ha! The food was pretty bland too - it was all inclusive - but it was very repetitive and by the end of the holiday we couldn't face it and walked into town to have food elsewhere.

However it was just a really lovely way to relax and spend some time to myself before my new job. I've added some more random photos below.

Me DJing! The DJ added me on Facebook after this, ha!

Me and my sister on the dodgy camels

We did not, I repeat, we did NOT choose this pose ourselves! We asked some guy to take a photo of us and he started modeling us into all these different poses then insisted we had a photo with him too! So funny!

Posing

Janine, Claire and Sharon

I had an amazing time and really enjoyed myself. By yesterday I was ready to come home though! My shoulders, neck and hairline (?) were burnt and our flight was at a ridiculous time of the night. Ricky from TOWIE was at the airport though and everyone started fangirling over him - one of the girls sat near us even got his number! The flight was horrible too - three screaming babies in the aisle next to us and horrible girls sat behind us trying to cause trouble. We didn't get in till 4:30 am and I felt like a zombie by the time I got in!


Some of the funniest memories/quotes from the holiday -


Sharon sleep talking but mumbling then all of a sudden saying (not singing!) really loudly as clear as day 'I'm sexy and I know it'!
The dodgy crab dance in the pool
The chocolate song/dance
The night of 'We'll just pop up and get a cup of tea to take to bed with us...three hours later LETS DO EVERY COCKTAIL ON THIS LIST'
Talking about traveling and stonehenge and I talk about how I'd be worried about Jasper. Janine goes 'er what you'll only be gone to stonehenge a day' 'Um I meant when I take my gap year' cue tears of laughter
Always assuming that if anyone is going to fart or snore, it'll be Janine
The camels!!