A Tale of Sorcery & Spooks

Hello One and All, 

So after smacking my head heavy off the corner of the ice-rink entrance last week, I was dazed a little to say the least. Whilst Mr Warehouse was pissing himself, literally nearly dying from lack of oxygen due to laughing so hard, I was starting to feel the effects of such a crash landing. I had stopped for a little, more so to give my leggies a rest more than anything, although sitting down Mr Warehouse stopped laughing and made a comment about how I didn't look well. The truth was that I didn't feel well. I felt sick. Like as if I was going to vomit. My skin felt weird, like that kind of flu-ey skin you get when you are ill. I couldn't concentrate, my eyes desperately trying to focus on anything. Something wasn't right. Reaching up to my head I felt searing hot pain spread across my skull accompanying a huge lump. At the size of an orange, I began getting irritable, shaking for no reason. 

I decided that after some painkillers, although truth be told I really could have done with going to Accident and Emergency but I didn't want to worry anyone or spoil my Nephew's birthday. Snoozing most of Sunday, I knew that things were not good when on day three you still have symptoms. Returning to work on Monday was like a whole other challenge as for the first time all weekend I had to really focus my attention on something important, like my job. Answering the phone, listening and concentrating on the screens all became harder and nausea didn't help. NHS guidelines state that it's totally normal to have symptoms such as a slight headache, feeling nauseous or dazed and these can last anywhere up to 2 weeks. Where I was normally on the ball I simply couldn't take it in, sometimes taking several attempts to read the simplest of sentences, not good for a busy and fast-paced environment. As the week progressed I felt better but realistically I should have gone to the hospital. The problem is I do not get paid for being off sick, apart from statutory sick pay from the Government (£70 a week - But when I earn more than £70 a day there isn't much point unless I am dying). 

I am glad for the feeling of "normal" to return because Friday was Bestie time! Miss Tweedle-Dee and I headed for a day out, checking into a hotel for a cheeky sleepover and hanging out in the City until nightfall! My dinner date was at The Alchemist on Bevis Mark. Describing itself as a new home for The Alchemist’s unique brand of cocktail bars & restaurants in Aldgate, Bevis Marks naturally attracted curiosity and with a unique location, it was a natural choice - Standing out as a glint of pure gold amidst the charcoal & black suits of the London’s business district. Suffice to say that The Alchemist does its business in a decidedly different way. Walking in the impressive golden bar gave way to a quieter restaurant area and a beautiful outdoor terrace, a perfect place for glorious sun and warm summer nights. However, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I had to settle with the fading winter sun to sample a selection of exquisite cocktails and stunning food, all accompanied by a theatrical experience. 

Starting our evening early I entered a world of theatre as my "Sailors Punch" Cocktail told its own story. Inspired by the spirits & flavours within, the molecular madness in an augmented reality started when Sailor Jerry Rum, Banana liquor, Pineapple & Coconut Bristol Syrup, and a dash of Citrus all turned up on a weird lined coaster. But using the App I downloaded it turned my drink into a far-flung Desert Islands where Pirates poached and Mermaids Merried. Miss Tweedle-Dee made a great decision - The Banoffee Manhattan! Espresso sloshed with a good helping of Monkey Shoulder Whisky, a few squirts of Monin Banana, tickled with Briottet Banana and brought alive by the dreamy Banoffee Foam! 

To. Die. For. 

Not feeling hungry I opted for a sharing starter platter consisting of BBQ Wings, Nachos, Pork Bon Bons, Mac ‘N’ Cheese Bites, Halloumi Sticks and Veg Sticks & Houmous. Finishing up before making a dash to our evening entertainment I chose my final cocktail of the night - The Colour Changing One! Grey Goose Vodka twisted with Briottet Apple, splashed with Soda, sparkled with Citrus and a little sprinkle of Magic. had this dry-ice drink changing colours from deep navies into vibrant pinks and mysterious purples. Watching the time we fast-walked to Aldgate Station to meet a man. Sounds creepy by we were actually about to encounter something much, much spookier as we dove into 1888. 

A Christmas present to my future Maid Of Honour, the Jack the Ripper walk offered a truly atmospheric route.  Miss Tweedle-Dee and I were guided (along with others, that would just be weird) into the old, narrow alleyways where we most certainly felt like we had been transported back to the mean streets of the Victorian East End. Along the tour, our guide, an ex-MI5 police investigator and anti-terror detective accompanied us to the murder sites and locations related to the Jack the Ripper murders. Learning more than just about the murders, I must say after doing so many different versions of the Jack The Ripper tours over my years of fascination, the guide - Who had served not only in the police force but undertaken military exercises including Afghanistan, Belfast and the Falklands - an almost exact background to my father, was incredible. Hosting several investigations into who the Ripper was and having detailed documentaries under his belt diving into the possibilities and struggles the forces had in catching him I was enthralled. By the end of the walk, not only was I exhausted and in need of my bed, but I also wanted to take this guy out for a pint and listen to all his fascinating stories and tales.

By the following morning, I was refreshed after a wonderful sleep in the hotel and after a light breakfast, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I departed, but not before commenting on how we should do something like that again. I mentioned a weekend in Edinburgh - Castles, Instgram-worthy photoshoots and Haunted tours galore. But the long journey and costly expense of it all wasn't something that was within reach at the moment, especially since Miss Tweedle-Dee is only a few months off being a fully-fledged adult like moi and having a mortgage. Maybe we will have to park that on the shelf that requires bigger bank balances along with sleepover's in deranged Liverpool mental asylums and hunting down a UK Horror Convention. 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx

Here We Go Again!

Ahoj (Pronounced Ah-hoy), 

For those of you that are fluent in Czechoslovakian you will know that this is how you say hello. Why am I starting off by saying hello in another language you might think. Well dear friends, after months of searching and scouring the web for cheap deals to go to Europe for a Christmas market getaway, I thought that I had tracked down the perfect place call Mr Warehouse and I to visit. However after a rather heated and intense discussion with Mr Warehouse, it was decided that I would go with Miss Tweedle-Dee instead. Where are we heading to you might ask ... Prague! With Miss Tweedle-Dumb in Florida with her Bae we will just have to sit tight and wait to see if this trip for two turns into a tour for three. 

Now don't get me wrong I feel bad that I kept going on at Mr Warehouse nearly every evening after work about a holiday to somewhere else in Europe more cold and Christmasy than England. With less than two paychecks until the big day now it was fairly unrealistic to expect that Mr Warehouse could find nearly £300 for the spending money we would need for a few days in a foreign country. Even when I offered to pay for him to go as a early Christmas present I was told that this would not be allowed and was too much of a gift. "Yeah, because the Christmas that I bought you a holiday to Ireland with flights and hotel all paid for or last year when I bought you an Xbox One Slim weren't too much" I thought to myself as I succumbed to the fact that I would be holidaying without him. Instead Mr. Warehouse and I have agreed that we will go away with the pooch for a long weekend somewhere in the UK for a little break and already I have seen the pressure lift from his shoulders at the thought of not having to shell out on lots of Christmas presents and a holiday to Eastern Europe. I suppose that in the long run though when it comes to next year Mr. Warehouse and I will be able to have one and maybe even two nice holidays away somewhere. He has even been looking forward to booking somewhere a little bit more exotic and luxurious than Tenerife and have seen Mexico, Caribbean and Florida have all been on the cards. 

With the money that I had got from friends and family for my birthday paying for the flight itself, all I now really need to think about is just spending money and the small amount Miss Tweedle-Dee and I would pay for a hotel. It appears that whilst we have spent nearly £100 on a flight from Stansted to Prague in late November / early December, the hotels seem very well priced and definitely within our small budget. Obviously though, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I have different wants from a hotel. I would prefer to have accommodation that touches the luxurious side of life. In true fashion, I want everything champagne on a lemonade budget so if the hotel could include a spa, sauna and hot-tub with a pool that would be just great. Throw in a massage or treatments for free and I will be more than happy, however I know for a fact that Miss Tweedle-Dee does not share the same outlook on relaxation as I do. One thing we can agree on is that we want an inexpensive but nice hotel with beautiful interiors we can Facebook and SnapChat about and in the perfect location for walking to all the sights and smells of the city. 

Miss Tweedle-Dee and I will be flying in just before the Christmas market starts, one of Europe's best and hopefully it will not disappoint as York did last year. Prague is meant to be one of the most historically filled cities in Europe and with its history sprinkled with tales of the old Soviet Union and its fight to become its own independent country. I am looking forward to learning parts of history that were missed from the pages of the text and reference books we were taught and finding out alternatively what life was like through the World Wars and the Communism of its latter years. I want to visit the infamous Charles Bridge, take refuge in the St Vitus Cathedral and stroll along the Old Town and past the Astronomical clock. Maybe Miss Tweedle-Dee and I will take a romantic-bestie dinner on-board the Vltava river by night and by day shop in strange boutiques and outlets. Maybe I will even find a spa out there with everything I ever dreamt of for chilling out in the warmth of a Solarium or solitude of a Salt Cave. 

Ahh, I suppose now I just have to wait and start the count down to take-off ... 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx 

BF4L

Heyy, 

So it would appear that yet again it is Easter and after weeks of planning and looking forward to visiting Miss Tweedle-Dumb and her other half, I picked Miss Tweedle-Dee up after finishing work of Thursday evening, ready for the tedious drive down. Truth be told I actually don't mind driving down to Hampshire to visit, in fact I quite enjoy the drive. Getting there late we all milled around Miss Tweedle-Dumb's flat until the earlier hours, gossipping about friends, family and strangely current affairs. It was not normal that the subjects of news articles were topic of conversation, but it seemed to happen a lot this weekend and I liked it. 

Friday morning Miss Tweedle-Dumb, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I awoke and planned out a nice day to a local working farm. Arriving on site with sun shining and Sunnies on I was really enjoying my time with the girls. Ever since Miss Tweedle-Dumb had moved down to Basingstoke last Summer I had been worried she would miss home too much or that Miss Tweedle-Dee and I wouldn't see her as much, and whilst the latter is true, I think we treasure our time together much, much more than we ever used to. For the weeks in between our monthly visits I imagine we all look forward to them as much as the next. 

I know myself just how destructive living with someone can be, well at least for me it was destructive with Mr. Workaholic. So I can understand why she was nervous about moving in with her boyfriend of more years than I can muster, especially seeing me go through the messy break-up and everything else that went with separating whilst still being responsible for a property. It can be so easy to look at someones situation close to you or that you know of sometimes and compare it to your own, even if there are very little commonalities. I worried when Miss Tweedle-Dumb moved away that she would feel isolated, cut off and abandoned in a fresh new area where she knew very little people, most of them her other-half's family. But I am glad that it seems to have all worked out and safe to say that despite the odd bicker here and there, she is flourishing in her new home. 

I suppose in a way though Miss Tweedle-Dumb and my situations were and are very different, even now. I lived with Mr. Workaholic when I was in my late teens and early-20's. I was still learning about myself and dealing with situations most twenty-somethings don't have to contend with. We were both very young and naive and whilst I tried to make it work, for one reason or another it was not meant to be, but I can see now why. Could I really have raised children with a man that thought it was OK to eat nothing but for Chicken flaming dinosaurs and pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner? And whilst we had some good times, Mr. Workaholic and I, it was a case of too much, too soon. It would have never lasted and I am thoroughly glad of all the experiences and people I have met since him and his god awful man-gina habit! 

Walking around the farm on Good Friday, enjoying the extra time off we had together, we saw the regular inhabitants including sheep, baby lambs, cows and pigs, not to mention a donkey with a massive dick and his two bitches in the fields next to him. I never understood why we have never done anything like this before, It seems almost like a right of passage in friendships - Day trips to Zoo's go hand in hand with shopping and cinema outings. But I was glad to be doing something else outside the box with the girls other than the usual shopping and spending money which usually happens when I visit Miss Tweedle-Dumb down South. Obviously after seeing all the sights and sounds of the farm (Including the super hot farmer who was so enthusiastic about the sheep he farmed I would totally let him "ram" me) we headed into town, where I spent waaay more that I should on stuff I probably could have done without including a six-pound lipstick that looks no different to my normal lip colour and an eye-shadow for over fifteen-quid that gives me a mediocre coverage to look like a glitter ball. Also included in my haul were flip flops I did not need for a further four months, cake I did not need to eat and more cheese for my expanding fridge collection of nibbles. 

Nevertheless after my weekend with my friends I was looking forward to going back home to my pooch and boyfriend. I always seem to miss them much more after being away, even if only for a few days. I do however miss my bezzies. but until next month, I will just have to count down the days ... 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx

Visits to The Bestie in Basingstoke!

Hiya!

As with last week, the party planning and driving are simultaneously going rather well and I am thoroughly looking forward to both, however I am anxiously worried for my Driving Test and impatiently excited for my party. But this weekend I was very excited to see my friends, Miss Tweedle-Dee and Miss Tweedle-Dumb as I had not seen them properly since we all came back from Lanzarote in June. 

Finishing work on Friday I flapped about needing to go home before meeting Miss Tweedle-Dee at Leagrave Station, and all because I was having a brain-fart that morning, forgetting the most important things on any sleepover agenda - A phone charger, toothbrush and Cigarettes (if you please). I blame the fact that I was up late the previous two evenings, one of them at Bedford Hospitals A&E Department due to having yet another vicious bout of Cystitus. Taking Thursday off work had really knocked me for six and whilst I was feeling a little better in myself, my brain was struggling with the simplest of functions. 

Finally arriving at the Bedford Station I took a look at the departures board and hurried along to get my ticket, all in good time to make my train. But after a very long queue, people taking hours or even days to make their ticket purchase I was finally rushing up the stairs in order to make it to the right Platform. Suffice to say that the train left earlier than planned and as a result I was left behind. I worried not much however since there was another train going in the same direction in less than ten minutes, so I waited. Only to be told, ten minutes later, that it had been cancelled due to a 'technicality'. Hmm. Great! Loosing the will to live I stormed over to the ticketing office and asked them to explain themselves. Shrugging me off some excuse they said that there would be another train ready for boarding in another ten minutes so to be ready for that one. After ten-minutes or so I waited as patently but now pissed off, my Starbucks Frappucino had gone and my suitcase was now fucked since I had pretty much booted it around the platform annoyed at my situation. Train coming in I went to board the train with my sophisticated suitcase only to overhear a paunch gentleman tell a young women that the train I had been waiting patiently for was not even going to fucking Leagrave and would go right bloody past it. No longer able to deal with my anger inside I exploded angrily at the members of staff and stormed back over the bridge to the original platform I had been waiting at. 

Soon enough though I was on the move, only an hour later after arriving to Bedford station itself and therefore over an hour late for Miss Tweedle-Dee collecting me from Leagrave station. I was in the know about the traffic issues that the M25 faced and I also knew that there was another hour-and-a-half journey to Basingstoke where Miss. Tweedle-Dumb now lived with her partner so was anticipating traffic. However we made it in very good timing, laughing, joking and chatting all the way down there. Once arriving at said abode, Miss Tweedle-Dee and I were welcomed in by Miss Tweedle-Dumb and shown around the magnolia-wash, 1-bedroomed, ground-floor flat. Just ten minutes from all the shops, pubs and supermarkets of Basingstoke you couldn't want for more. The area was quiet and whilst it was obvious it was a council estate but not the roughest one I have seen. Lots of storage space and a sociable corridor made the Little flat feel cosy yet spacious. I was pleased for my bestie and was looking forward to spending some time with her, and hopefully her partner who never normally spoke or interacted much. I was as it goes able to get a conversation out of him come Saturday morning as we spoke and discussed about upcoming games, games consoles and what I had brought my other-half, Mr. Warehouse, for his birthday. I suppose some could say that he was rude or sharp with his views or opinions on things but I see him as a fairly nice bloke I would like to know more of and about, especially since he is living with one of my little princesses! 

Saturday seemed to breeze by in a whirl of shopping, coffee stops, smoke stops and chatting in nearby Reading. However I think there was, or maybe is, severely wrong with me. I am not what you would call 'make-up obsessed' but Miss Tweedle-Dee and Miss Tweedle-Dumb are and this bring me much sadness when we go shopping together for I am forever saying no more to MAC, Boots, Debenhams and Superdrug. But I actually enjoyed it this weekend. I revelled in the fact that KIKO Milano had a sale on in which I bought a new calligraphy-style eyeliner felt-tip for just two-quid. In fact I am almost certain I would have spent more if it wasn't for everything being out of stock. I then followed in the footsteps of my besties and carried on into the afore mentioned MAC, Boots and Superdrug. I enjoyed testing all the different flavours of lipstick's, lip-creams, fragrances and eyeshadows each one being added to my birthday wish list, hoping someone would purchase. And heck if they didn't I would! Just as soon as I get paid!

Sunday was a solemn morning for I knew as well as my Tweedles we would be leaving each other once more. We bid our farewells to the little flat and to Miss Tweedle-Dumb's partner, choosing to head into Basingstoke for a quick mooch and shop before Miss Tweedle-Dee and I headed home. It was a long journey, one we were both already tired and achey from after sleeping on what would seem a self-deflating airbed. Nevertheless we promised to see each other soon, and we shall - At Miss Tweedle-Dumb's Parent's wedding annavirsary celebrations in a couple of weekends time. Emotional to leave I felt horrible that I lived so far away and made a promise to myself that my future children would see their Auntie Tweedles more often than not.Getting dropped to Leagrave station I thanked Miss Tweedle-Dee for the journey and promised that we would catch-up soon.

Driving lesson over and done with I was home within a few hours and ready to commence a new week. Although I have a funny feeling that this one is going to be slooooow ...

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx