It's Been Awhile: A Catch Up.

I realise that it has been quite some time since I last posted anything on here. Sorry about that! Things have just been a little more hectic and time consuming than before. To save having a mini-spam of posts about a number of different things since I last spoke to you I figured making a little 'life update' post might be better.

The beautiful snowflake charm necklace I got from one of my nans.

Biggest bit of news first: I'M TWENTY-ONE! As of the Monday just gone I reached another big age milestone. The actual day itself didn't feel too much like my birthday, but that's probably because I did most of my celebrating the two days previous -that, and I had uni. On the Saturday I got treated to an Oxford Street shopping spree. I was quite reserved about what I got though, because although my boyfriend kept saying I could go as crazy as I wanted, I know he is very money conscious, so I didn't want to wreck his bank account too much. Then on the Sunday I had most of my immediate family come around for red velvet cake; and on Monday, after coming home from uni with two vases in tow for my lovely flowers, I went to Frankie & Benny's for dinner and had the most delicious salmon!

Secondly, I'm back at uni now. That was a little crazy at first because there was a bit of an issue with online registering within the Psychology Department, and then there was an issue with timetabling as a result of the registration stuff. It doesn't sound like too much, but I'm a very neurotic person so I was in stress central for the first two-ish weeks. Things have settled down now thankfully, and so far I'm enjoying my second year. But that's probably because I've not had to do any assignments yet.

The beautiful pink lilies that my boyfriend got me for my 21st.

Also I am thoroughly enjoying Lush's Autumn/Winter products at the moment! When their store by my campus released their A/W stuff I went in there twice in the same day, and only felt the tiniest bit ashamed about my very apparent addiction. Then there was a student shopping event in the mall one evening and Lush were open, so naturally I went in and got even more stuff. And I've been in another couple of times since then (Oops... Sorry bank account!).

Another thing I'm also really enjoying at the moment is Strictly Come Dancing. I just love to watch people dance and admire the female dancer's beautiful dresses! The only bad thing is that I get really jealous of all the professionals for being such graceful and talented dancers, and of all of the celebrities for getting the chance to learn how to dance.

Finally, I met the most adorable and friendly, little kitten on my walk home from the town centre the other day! That's not exactly note-worthy to most of you I expect, but I am a massive cat lady and that cute, little thing really made my day. I met her a few roads down from my uni house and after a good fifteen or so minutes of petting and stroking I forced myself to carry on walking home (I honestly would've stayed there all day if I could have, and not looked weird) and the sweetheart followed my half the way home! It was honestly the sweetest thing!

What are some of the things you guys have been up to and/or enjoying since my last Blogger appearance?
-Hannah. :)

Introverted Favourites: August

August has been an incredibly busy month for me; more so even than the month of my exams at university. It has also been a very diverse month in terms of how my time has been spent. It is for these reasons that I thought I would end the month and begin the new one with a list of my favourite things from this month, ranging from things that I have done, purchased and encountered.

First up is a beauty product that I have been waiting somewhat-patiently for a month and a half to be released; and that is the new range of Revlon ColourStay Moisture Stains. As soon as I saw they were on the Boots website I went straight to one of my nearest Boots stores to see what they had to offer from the twelve colours in the range. They had a total of six, four of which I had the names of jotted down in my Notes app and wanted to try out. However after swatching them on my hand I only though two of the shades would suit me. They were '050 - London Posh' -a shimmery nude, so within my comfort zone- and '015 - Barcelona Nights' -a lovely fuchsia colour that is slightly out of my comfort zone. Later on in another Boots store, as I've mentioned in my previous post, I then found '025 - Cannes Crush' a gorgeous peachy coral colour that I was determined to get my hands on since hearing about the range and seeing the first swatches.

I have become somewhat of a lipstick fiend as of late -although looking at my collection I mainly seem to stick to Revlon products with the occasional Rimmel exception- so while I was at the Revlon stand I took the opportunity to see if they had any of the ColourStay Ultimate Suede range. They only had three colours though, which I was a bit disappointed about, but in terms of my bank account I guess it was for the best. The shade I had in mind to try out was called 'Couture' but that wasn't one of the shades they had in stock. So, not wanting to miss out on trying the range I went for quite a bright red shade called '093 - Boho Chic' which I have since fallen in love with. It has fantastic staying power, even when eating and drinking!

As Boots were offering a '2 for £10' deal on Revlon products I thought that four items for £20 was more justifiable spending than three items for £17.99. Because of that I went ahead and got myself another lipstick. It is the colour '415 - Pink in the Afternoon' in their Super Lustrous Lipstick range and it has become my new staple lipstick. The colour is gorgeous!

Moving on from beauty, another of my favourites this month is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Since getting the DVD the day after it was released I've watched it at least three times. Two of those viewings being consecutive. Honestly, it is just such a great film! It is without a doubt my favourite film -although lots of people are saying Guardians of the Galaxy might change that; but I highly doubt it will. I hope those aren't my famous last words.

A constant favourite of mine that is worth noting this month is LUSH. LUSH is a fantastic shop, with a whole host of amazing products, and brilliant staff. Every single LUSH store I have been in -in particular the one I went into while in Glasgow- has blown me away with the excellence of their customer service and their ever so friendly employees. I always leave LUSH stores with a smile on my face and my spirits lifted a little higher thanks to the members of staff.

LUSH's Twilight bathbomb, before and after being submerged in bearably hot water.

Keeping along the lines of LUSH another favourite of mine this month has been super relaxing baths. After getting back from my residential I was in serious need of some intense relaxation; so as soon as I got home I ran myself a bath with a tonne of bubble bath and some Vanilla Cupcake scented Yankee Candles lit on the side, and thus a habit has been born. Since then I've indulged myself with three more relaxation baths and mixed things up a bit each time. By mixing up I mean things like switching the bubble bath for a LUSH bathbomb; adding some more candles to the room; and having my iPod playing in the background. My bath at home has now become like my own little safe haven. I have a feeling I'll miss it sorely when I head off back to university in late September.

Lastly, something that I've enjoyed throughout August is my job and the people I've met through it. I will admit that there were a number of moments that really tested me. I definitely dealt with more than my fair share of shit, but I held myself together. Don't get me wrong, a few cracks started to form every once in a while, but I quickly sealed those little buggers up! Also, I'm not going to lie to you, I'm incredibly proud of myself for sticking with it all. And overall I had a good time for the most part; which is about 90% thanks to all the wonderful workers I met and worked with. I met such lovely people and got on so well with them. The majority I hadn't worked with before -although a handful I had- and they were all just so lovely, welcoming and supportive. I can't wait until Easter when hopefully I'll get to see some of them again.

So those have been the majority of my favourites this month. Let me know what some of your's were in the comments? I'd love to hear!
-Hannah. :)

The Introverted Traveller: My Week in Scotland.

As some of you may have noticed my blog as been pretty quiet as of late. That is for two main reasons. The first is that throughout August, and some of July as well, I have been working almost non-stop bar weekends. I would go into more detail, but I'm unsure as to how many of you would actually like to hear about that sort of thing.

The second reason is that I have been on holiday. If you didn't read the second half of the title you may be expecting pictures of the beach and cocktail glasses. That's just what usually springs to mind went you think of a holiday I guess. However my holiday wasn't along those lines. I spent a week in Scotland with a group of about 30 people. We stayed in a really remote area in a tucked away house, with two cottages on the grounds, as well as some other nice features (Games room, pool house, barbecue hut etc.).

The majority of the younger adults and teens.

The week was really good and I enjoyed myself all-in-all. Although I came home with less than I expected in terms of gifts for my family. I took around £70 with me in cash, but almost all of that was spent on taxis and trains. I can hardly complain though because I enjoyed going to all of the places we visited.

On the Monday we walked along the canal to see the Falkirk Wheel in action. I wasn't too bothered about going to see it, but felt it would be rude to separate myself from the group so early on. I still wasn't too bothered about it all when we discovered that Freddie Flintoff was also there. He was filming there as part of his new Sky 1 programme that has yet to be named. Although I wasn't particularly bothered by his presence a number of the male members of the group were practically swooning at the sight of him.

Tuesday was much more to my taste. We all headed into Stirling for the day, with plans of walking around the castle. However when we found out there was a £14 admission charge per person we decided to find something else to do. So instead we had a bit of a wander in the neighbouring graveyard. I know graveyards aren't to everyone's taste, but personally I love them. There is hardly anything as peaceful as going for a walk in a graveyard and reading the occasional gravestone, in my opinion. Then we went for lunch and had a look around the shopping centre. This was just as enjoyable as there was a MenKind, LUSH and HMV for me to explore. I treated myself to a couple of bathbombs in LUSH and finally got my hands on the Captain America: The Winter Soldier DVD -I say finally because it felt like an eternity to me, but the DVD had only been released the previous day.

A quick snapshot of the graveyard in Stirling.

On Wednesday the majority of the group planned to stay on the house's grounds. I had other plans for my day though. I'm a huge fan of comedy -who isn't?- and I've wanted to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival since I found out it existed. So being in Scotland I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to catch at least one show. So that's just what I did. I decided that I wanted to see either Daniel Sloss or Rhys James. I was leaning more towards Rhys James as I've already had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Sloss twice in London; and that is who I booked tickets for in the end. Rhys' set was a great and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If it weren't for him telling us that this was his first year at the Fringe I would never have guessed it. Then when we returned to the house we were just in time for the barbecue supper.

Thursday involved another day trip out; this time it was to Glasgow. I really, really enjoyed my time in Glasgow, even if it did rain a lot and I missed out on meeting/seeing the YouTuber Jim Chapman, who also happened to be in Glasgow that day. Again I separated from the group, along with Brandon. During our exploration of Glasgow I popped into another LUSH; got a new shirt from New Look; finally found the shade 'Cannes Crush' in the new Revlon lipstain after previously searching four different Boots for it, both in England and Scotland; and -probably my highlight of the day- had some cocktails in the Hard Rock Café before heading to the station to re-group and grab a Starbucks.

A monument to remember this year's Commonwealth Games.

I decided to skip the outing on Friday and remain on the grounds. I stayed in our cottage pretty much the whole day watching TV and beginning to do a bit of packing. I spent Saturday in almost the exact same way, just with a bit more packing and a group meal out in the evening. And on Sunday we headed home; en route I grabbed lunch at the Bagel Factory and felt in love with their 'The Classic' in a sesame bagel.

My lunch courtesy of the Bagel Factory in Edinburgh Waverley Station.

I had a great week and would definitely love to go back to Scotland again. In particular Edinburgh as I didn't get a chance to explore it as much as I would have liked. It would also be nice to see Edinburgh when the Fringe Festival isn't on, as then I could see Edinburgh for Edinburgh as opposed to Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival. I'd also like to visit Glasgow again as I really liked the city.

Are there any places in Scotland you would like to visit, or already have and would recommend going to?
-Hannah. :)

P.S. If you'd like to see a couple more of the I took during my time in Scotland then I suggest you check out my Instagram (Info in my bio).

The Introverted Traveller: My London Mini-Break at The Rembrandt.

On Monday afternoon my boyfriend and I headed into London. More specifically, we headed to South Kensington, where for two nights we would be staying in a fairly swanky four star hotel. The trip came about as a result of my boyfriend saying that he would like to treat me to such a trip for putting up with his body building lifestyle and accepting the fact that he works pretty much everyday. As I'm the organised one he gave me the task of researching hotels, but specified that there had to be a bath and the hotel had to be at least three stars.

Originally I was looking at hotels in and around Shepherds Bush, as he had suggested we go to Westfields one of the days we were there. But once he'd come home from work and gave them a quick look he decided that we should look into some other places as well. That's round about the time that he said I could decide where we stayed -so long as it was no more than £380- as it was my trip.

The Natural History Museum is my all time favourite museum and I was determined to visit it again this summer. The museum is in South Kensington, and -slightly obviously- the Kensington Gardens aren't too far from it. I was also meaning to visit the Kensington Gardens as it is not only the home of Peter Pan, but also his statue. Deciding to roll these destinations into one with my mini-break in London, I moved my search to hotels in South Kensington; and that is how I found out about The Rembrandt.

The location of The Rembrandt was absolutely perfect for my itinerary. It had a host of restaurants, that were a five minute walk away or less, on both sides; and it was a ten minute walk away from the Natural History Museum, which was always going to be my first port of call.

Your view when you walk through the main entrance
-including Dippy, my favourite thing at the museum-
[Source]

When we reached our room after checking in I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the bathroom. The actual room was very true to the images I had seen -I was expecting it to be smaller as rooms often appear larger in well-angled photos for websites. The bathroom surpassed all my expectations though. There were two different sets of lighting, a large mirror, a heated towel rack, and a lovely, large shower/bath combo -the bath even had jets, which I thought was really cool.

We decided just to spend the rest of the day settling in and freshening up before heading out to dinner. We weren't really sure where we were going to eat, as we'd not seen any restaurants with familiar names as we made our way to the hotel. Eventually we decided just to head back to the little strip of restaurants on the way to the station. After my boyfriend perused a menu fixed by the side of a restaurants entrance for a carb-free dish, we decided to head in. The result was a lovely, but pricey dinner in a really nice Lebanese restaurant. If I wasn't so tired and drained the following day I'm sure we would have ended up having dinner there again Tuesday evening.

The LUSH Honeybee bath-bomb I treated myself to Monday evening.

Tuesday was our only full day and it was definitely the most hectic. We were rudely awoken at 5:48am by the hotel's fire alarm. So I had to throw on a dressing gown and made my way down the hotel's external stairs, round the block to the front of the hotel, and then almost immediately back into the hotel as I heard a member of staff at the door tell another guest that it was a false alarm. Needless to say I wasn't to cheerful.

Thankfully though after another hour and a half's worth of sleep I was feeling more human and began to get ready to go down for the breakfast buffet. I can't really say enough about both the buffet and the staff working within that area of the lounge -and that applies to my experience on Wednesday morning as well.

Once we'd finished breakfast, we headed back up to our room so I could attempt to do 'beachy waves' for the first time. Aside from accidentally turning the straighteners off half way through I'd say it was a success. Then we grabbed our room cards and headed out into the heat. As I said before the Natural History Museum was to be our first port of call, so that's where we headed.

There were tonnes of people inside the museum. I had never seen it so packed before. In the first exhibit I could barely move, and the whole place was baking. The sheer amount of people and the resulting heat within the museum got too much for me very quickly. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the dinosaur section -my favourite part of the museum, joint with the the room with the blue whale; which incidentally I didn't get to see, as I will explain below- I was fed up and I just wanted to get the hell out of there. The fact I was sweating, dehydrated and engulfed by tourists and school kids put me in such a bad mood. It completely ruined that visit for me, which I found really upsetting as I love that museum so much.

After I had forced my way through a non-moving crowd I stormed out of the dinosaur section, not looking at a single display or bone, and not even caring if I lost my boyfriend along the way; brought a bottle of water; drank half of it and then stormed out into the sun.

We then made our way to the Science Museum as that's the one my boyfriend wanted to go to. It was exactly like the Natural History museum in the sense that it was packed and filled to the rafters with school kids, which did absolutely nothing to help alleviate the foul mood I was in. By the time we got to the end of the first room my boyfriend had had enough too; so after being in there for about ten minutes we walked right back out again. Then we began to make our way to the Kensington Gardens so I could get a picture next to the Peter Pan statue -I know that might sound like a random thing to visit, so I might write a follow-up post explaining my love for Peter Pan.

Then we headed over into Hyde Park in order to get to Oxford Street. By this time our feet were killing us and we were boiling -jeans and chinos were not good legwear decisions that day. After grabbing a bite to eat we headed to H&M so I could get a top I saw on Instagram, followed by Primark so my boyfriend could by shorts to change into, and then finally before heading back to the hotel we had a sit down and cool drink in Starbucks. Once we got back to South Kensington we made a final stop at a little Japanese restaurant called Tombo to get some food to take back to our hotel room for dinner -I had a noodle bowl with chicken that was absolutely amazing! I would definitely eat from there again.

Then on Wednesday we got up, had breakfast, packed and then checked-out. So nothing too exciting. Although, on our way we did discover that Chipotle has opened up a few restaurants in London, which we got pretty excited about. So I will definitely be heading back into Central London for a meal in one of them this summer.

Sorry if super long posts aren't your cup of tea. I just wanted to share the main bits and pieces of my trip with you.
I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!
-Hannah. :)