This is New York obviously. Hands down the most amazing place I’ve ever been, sure there are going to be so many other places I’ll visit, my list is ever growing, but my heart will always be with NYC I’m afraid.

There’s just something so big and busy and hectic that makes it so exciting. The next chance I get I will be over there like a shot, though that’s only because I’m lucky enough that my Dad has to go over there once a month to work.

On my most recent visit in October 2013, we went to the zoo (I LOVE zoos), saw the New York Marathon, visited the Natural History Museum and also visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island as well.

My favourite part would have had to be the zoo!

Another place we visited, which was truly incredible, was Ground Zero. I was old enough to remember 9/11 so when I went there I got a bit choked up at what an amazing place it was. It’s definitely somewhere that I want to visit again and I think there’s a museum there now which I can imagine would be absolutely fascinating (museum nerd right here).

Brooklyn Bridge is beautiful. I struggled quite a lot with walking about, we were constantly walking everywhere and Brooklyn Bridge isn’t exactly a short walk! The views from the bridge were amazing. Here are some of my favourite pictures:

I was talking to my brother a few weeks ago (he’s 12 and the most I can normally get out of him is a yeah every now and then), and he said that he loves New York and it was loads of fun. There were lots of good shops we went to – FAO Schwartz and the Apple store was incredible. He also told me that the walking around was fun, as well as the museums he visited, the statue of liberty boat ride and the year before they went up the empire state building (I’m unbelievably jealous).

I also spoke to my friend, Sarah, who visited in 2010 and she said she really enjoyed it as well. Some of her highlights were the Rockefeller centre, going to Planet Hollywood and the film props there and also Ground Zero. She also said that the New York tour bus was good and her family also took a horse and carriage through central park and they were told what movies were filmed where.

I love talking to people about what they do when they go places, so I can get ideas of what I want to do when I go to those places!

After talking to Sarah and a few others, there’s still so much that I haven’t seen and that I want to go and visit, I just need to get back there soon!

G… is for goals

Goals are important, no matter how big or small they are. It’s good to have something to work towards. I think everyone has goals, even if they don’t really realise it.

I have my long-term goals, like my weight loss and finding the right job for me. I also have short-term goals, like planning a few trips and completing the couch to 5k challenge.

Some people prefer to be spontaneous but I find that doesn’t always work for me, and I’ll just end up sat around doing nothing if I don’t make plans.

My goals are really important in my day-to-day life, keeping me motivated and focusing on what it actually important. They play a big part in deciding where my future takes me. Read my previous post on the future here.

A little bit of greatness

I won’t lie to you; it’s been a very stressful couple of weeks where nothing has gone to plan.

This week has picked up straight away though, I’ve got job interviews lined up, I feel more motivated to do everything and my Dad is finally home after being stuck in America for two weeks.

While I’m writing this I’m not even sure where this blog post is going…so it will probably be a random one where I’m getting my thoughts down on to paper.

Job interviews

This is one of the highlights of my week; I got up extra early on Monday morning (actually normal time for me but extra early for any normal person) and set off in to town to hand out CV’s. It felt like I was 16 again looking for a new job but with a bit more confidence! I normally just apply for jobs online but I need something ASAP so I went round the shopping centre in town handing them out to all the shops I could. I always find it positive when you get a call back within a few hours, and that’s what happened! So I’m getting my best dress on to look all professional in the next week.

Motivation

Leading on from my previous point, I got some bad news that I wouldn’t be going back to Uni to finish my degree. To say I was/am gutted would be an understatement, there was a lot I wanted to take part in to make my final year the best it could be. However, I don’t need to dwell on it and after a strong drink (I needed to calm down somehow), I picked myself back up straight away and headed off to the library to start applying for jobs.

Gym

I’ve also been going to the gym, like seriously. I signed up as soon as I could when I got back to Kingston and I’ve bee going every few days, a great improvement on not going at all. My fitness is absolutely terrible, the first time I went I got off the treadmill and thought I was going to faint, even though the workout I had just done felt great, it was maybe a little too much too quickly so I’m going to work it up a bit more slowly but I’ve seen an improvement on my fitness already. I’ve also started a gym and food diary to keep track of everything, but more of that another time.

Positivity

I think this is really important to try and stick at. If you have a positive attitude you get so much more done (yes, I am being slightly hypocritical, I don’t always have one). I find that if I go in somewhere feeling positive beforehand then it’s so much more effective than if I don’t. Even though it’s only been a couple of days, this week I’ve been much more positive and it’s gotten me so far already. Bring on the rest of the week.

Money

I’m really, really bad with money. There I said it. It’s the one thing I can’t seem to keep organised but I’m trying and I’ve even said that I’ll take on two jobs till next year just to sort it out. I’m 21, with no savings and there are people younger than me who are better with money than I am! I mean I’m actually an adult now; I should probably start acting like it with everything…

Travelling

I won’t give up on this dream at all. There are so many places I want to go and so many things I want to see and why shouldn’t I? I wanted to start my travelling this year, and maybe I still can, but right now I’m thinking about going interrailing round Europe next summer and that seems like the better option as by then I WILL have my money all sorted out, like seriously I will. Travelling is something I want to do so badly so I won’t be giving up on it so easily.

Madame Tussauds September 2014

As I mentioned previously I went on a tourist trip into Central London. On this day I went to Madame Tussauds. We hopped on the underground to go to Baker Street and Madame Tussauds was only a minute away from the station. Buying your tickets in advance means that you get to skip the queue, even though there wasn’t one anyway.

We headed in and an entire room of wax figures greeted us and we suddenly turned into overexcited kids! Literally…we didn’t know where to head first.

Now I’m going to warn you, it is no secret that I love One Direction (sorry not sorry). About a year ago, they made their wax figures that went all over the world to all the different Madame Tussauds locations. They are now back in London so I was a bit overexcited, but don’t worry I’m not like one of those completely crazy fans who basically lives for them. Anyway, I just had to buy the professional photos but luckily Sarah works for Merlin Entertainment and we got a discount!

After we both managed to calm down a little, we carried on seeing all the different wax figures. There are hundreds and I don’t want to bore you by describing them all! So I’ll show you some of my favourite ones here…

If you ever get the chance to go to London and you are looking for something to do then I would highly recommend going on the London Eye and to Madame Tussauds.

It was one of the best days out I’ve had and I haven’t laughed that much in a while.

Chilli con carne

I recently found a few new ingredients that I wanted to try out so I made this for my housemates on Sunday night and they can’t stop telling me how much they love it. If they keep telling me how much they love my food I might want to live with them forever!

Ingredients:

450g beef mince

1 tin of kidney beans

1 tin of Heinz vegetable chilli beans

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 chopped pepper

1 chopped onion

Chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Method:

Start by putting some olive oil in a saucepan then adding the onion. Cook for 3 minutes then add the pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the beef mince and brown off, cooking for roughly 10 minutes. Adding salt and pepper whilst it is cooking.

Add all of the beans and the chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of chilli flakes and cook for another 5 minutes.

Leave the chilli con carne to simmer for 15 minutes.

I served mine with rice and an Old el Paso Stand N’ Stuff Soft Taco Kit and some salsa. It was so much better than any chilli I had had before and maybe that’s why my housemates loved it so much. Next I’ll be trying burritos!