family

July 2018

July has been a bit of a whirlwind month for me, as has August so far hence the delay in this post going up!

The month began with Max, his parents and their friends all having a cute garden party. It was all very sweet with some delicious nibbles and drinks being passed around alongside great company and conversation. The 28 degree heat and glorious sunshine definitely played a part too!

Getting to see Erin and Gina is a dream as of late. When I left school at 16 life took us all in very different directions, and the 7 years that have passed have been difficult in a sense of trying to see each other or even having time to send messages between ourselves. But this Summer has been amazing for being able to see them, and I am grateful for our patience over the past 7 years that we managed to persevere because being able to see them semi regularly has been super rewarding!
We take it in turns to host nights, and I was in charge this time! Vegan pizza & ice cream, wine, board games, gossip and catch ups, it’s like no time has passed at all.

The wonderful Angela dyed my hair but you can read all about that right here.

The journey to Huddersfield began and I decided to stop at Manchester for a little catch up with Amy and Sara which was lovely!

With the World Cup in full swing we went to watch the semi’s at Corner (a fave cute find Huddersfield) with so much hope for the England team but we were left feeling totally deflated when we lost. We did however have a great evening, throughout the whole world cup the general spirit of the nation was so surprising and uplifting!

The weekend was spent enjoying the sunshine, drinking cold coffee in Espresso corner and pottering around town. We got to see The Incredibles 2, which definitely lived up to expectations, I felt like a big kid all over again! Afterwards I wished that we had watched the first one directly beforehand, but regardless, it was a great watch and I really want to see it again.

I planned a surprise date night for Max on my last evening in Hudd. Whilst he was at work I tidied the house top to bottom, pre-ordered Dominos, got out some freshly washed pj’s, lit some candles and poured two gin and lemonades. Once he was home from work the pizza arrived and we put on his choice of film, ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (not a bad choice but not quite ‘Clueless’…) and snuggled up into bed and just had the most chill evening we have had in a long time. It was lovely just to see Max truly be able to relax after months of hard work!

Erin told G and me of a pub quiz in one of our fave local hangs, so we headed down and absolutely bottled it if I’m totally honest hahaha! But it was such good fun, we did come 3rd so at least we weren’t last and we had such a laugh and a much needed catch up.

My parents took me out for a meal at a local tapas restaurant. Now, this was a big deal for me, two things terrify me when it comes to eating, 1. Public eating, and 2. Tapas. This was a big, emotional hurdle for me but the world didn’t crumble around me and I didn’t implode so that’s a massive step forward! But moving onwards…

Erin, G and I went to ASK Italian for a catch up and I ate exclusively vegan, which is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. As I have previously mentioned, I am in eating disorder recovery and I am on a very strict eating schedule currently. I have been vegetarian for a while, but skip out on dairy to try and help control my endometriosis better. I’d love to go vegan but it’s not the right time for me in my recovery, but eating out I do challenge myself to eat vegan!

I had the most beautiful customised vegan pizza with peppers, mushrooms and olives and a delicious glass of wine!

It was the perfect time for a good long catch up and we spent hours upon hours chatting which was much needed for all three of us.

The next day was a long car journey up to Huddersfield, in an attempt to move Max from one house to another with his parents. We took a break and went to Halifax again for the day, it was an odd combination of blue skies, 30 degree heat and sunshine, mixed with random bursts of thunder and lightning rain storms!

I was worried John (the cat) wouldn’t be about especially with the weather being so bad, but he pulled through and came to say goodbye, which broke my tiny heart, I love him so so so much and I firmly believe that he always knew when I was feeling down, he would always pop up whenever I was having a bad day. I know it sounds crazy and kind of cheesy but that street cat was my absolute fave and always cheered me up!

Of course it would be torrential the weekend of moving house, but we managed to get it done over the two days and felt very accomplished whilst sat in the new house eating Chinese food and having a good catch up with Joe and Chris.

After a couple of days of settling into the new house, we jumped back on a train and I went straight into work, before packing for 110 Above Festival.

This festival is really special to me, Max and I have been going for the past 3 years, the first year we attended by chance, whilst we were looking for something to do over our anniversary weekend, we loved the line up so had a bit of a ‘yolo’ moment and we haven’t looked back since!

But that will have a whole separate other post, so you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for that one!

Some July faves…

Album / Playlist: The 110 Above Festival playlist on Spotify to prep me for the festival at the start of next month!

Song: Another The 1975 track this month (soz, not soz) “Love It If We Made It”, major heart eyes.

TV / Movie: Started watching Ackley Bridge, was so sceptical at first as it just seemed like a new era Waterloo Road but I am really enjoying it so far

Place: I feel like my feet haven’t really touched the ground this month, so my favourite place this month would have to be the train!

Memory: Getting to see my lovely Erin and G, it makes the world of difference when I’m stuck at home.

Accomplishment: This will have to be going for tapas and not having a total meltdown! A big F you to my eating disorder and a big step forward in my recovery!!

This month was lovely, intense, hard, and all the emotions in between, balancing the socialising, travelling, full time working, weekly hospital appointments and regular flare ups, it’s all getting a bit much!

So please in advance accept my apologies for the potential lack in posts over the next month or two. I’m about to hit a very crucial point in my eating disorder recovery process and I need to give it 110%, so I’m possibly going to have to put the blog on the back burner for the foreseeable as my recovery is my main priority right now.

I hope you all had a beautiful July and I will see you soon,

All of my love as always,

Journaling Maddie

xxxx

June 2018

June has just involved a whole lot of back and forth between Manchester, Huddersfield and Birmingham but I wouldn’t change it at all!

The month kicked off with Toby Burton’s EP launch at The Parish in Huddersfield. Toby is the first artist that Max and I worked with for In Session so we naturally wanted to go and show our support. The gig was great and we picked up one of his EP’s, although you can listen to it on Spotify and I’d really recommend it because he is such a talented songwriter and performer.

The following day Max and I got the train into Leeds to spend our Wagamama’s voucher and have a wander around the record stores. There was a cute dog on the train back so obviously that day was a 10/10.

I went home and started a new job, just a Summer job picking up a few hours here and there at my mom’s office doing odd jobs and filing, but it’s been keeping me busy whilst at home which is always a plus.

Jumping in the car with Max’s parents to spend a bit of time with them in Huddersfield was lovely, before getting on the train to Manchester to see Taylor Swift at the Etihad. Honestly I’d never been a big fan of hers but seeing her live has changed my opinion highly! I happened to go by chance, but if you ever get the opportunity to see her I would beyond recommend it and I’m looking forward already to when she next tours again!

Back to Huddersfield the following day, I spent the beautifully sunny afternoon with Max and Peter, having a drink in Greenhead park and a good chin wag. We also walked by Max’s new house that he’ll be moving into next month so it was good to get an idea of the area he’s living in.

Once again, back on a train to Manchester, this time with Max, to see Haim at the Apollo, and it was incredible! I saw them last in 2014 at Glastonbury and I was obsessed, so it was amazing to see how much they’ve changed (for the better) over the years. They played a good amount of their old songs too rather than just the whole of the new album so that was refreshing!

The following evening was spent in A&E due to my worst endometriosis flare up since my surgery last September. It was a bit disheartening that this has happened again, however the doctors were lovely and very understanding, I was prescribed a lot stronger pain relief and they gave me a clear plan of what to do if this pursues.

A few days of bed rest was made better by meeting up with Max, Chris, Henry and Matt after a training day for their new job (suddenly ruined by me being sick in the toilets *classy* and having to go home).

Back to Manchester again but this time to walk across the city with some amazing people for Crohn’s and Colitis UK. The weather just about held dry, and it was just lovely seeing everyone again and being able to raise some money and awareness for a really important cause.

You can find more information as to why we did this walk, and donate money too, here:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ibd-warriors-walk-it-manchester-2018

We had a chill few days in Huddersfield, Max took a couple days off work too which was really lovely as we got a proper chance to have some us time and relax a little!

Our 4th anniversary rolled around and we celebrated with a lie in, a walk into town fuelled by coffee, and an evening date night at Lala’s Indian (incredible, 10/10 would recommend).

The following day was spent pottering around The Piece Hall in Halifax, but I’m going to do a whole other blog post on that so keep your eyes peeled for that coming soon!

I went back to Birmingham but only two days at work before going to the caravan in Bournemouth with my parents and Lady. This was Lady’s first time at the caravan, but also her first ever trip to the beach and seaside!

(It should be noted that I’m currently writing this in 30 degree heat, on the veranda of the caravan with a beer in hand – cheers!)

She has been so good, I was worried at first because she’s so nervous around other dogs, but I think as it’s a whole new place to her she’s just focussed on taking it all in rather than crying at other dogs haha.

The weather has been incredible, as previously mentioned, so each day has been spent trying to get out and do stuff as early as possible to avoid being out in the heat of the day, chilling during the middle of the day then going to the beach for a walk in the evenings.

Honestly I wasn’t sure about coming away, as much as I adore spending time with my parents, like every twenty-something, I need my space too, but this has been a perfect combination of the two which has been very pleasant and not at all suspected.

My month ended the best way possible, Max came home for the weekend and I got to see Erin and Gina too! It’s so difficult trying to find time to see the girls, as they live here and for the past two years I’ve not left Manchester for longer than a week (until now). But even now that I’m back we all still have so many commitments, Gina is smashing it at work and Erin is somehow balancing working full time and being in a really cool band, playing festivals all Summer! So it is really treasured when we do get to spend time together, especially because it is so few and far between.

It wouldn’t be a monthly without some faves so here goes:

Album / Playlist: My role at work means I basically lock myself in a room for hours on end sorting files, which can send you a lil stir crazy as I’m sure you could imagine, so I needed some motivational music to get me through, and the album I am constantly going back to is “Death of a Bachelor”, which is a massive revisit, however the more I think about it, it’s definitely in my top 5 albums.

Song: Although June has been the month of all months for new releases, The 1975’s new track “Give Yourself A Try” was top of my priorities and it did not disappoint!

TV / Movie: I binged hard on TV this month after all of my deadlines were out of the way, but my favourite has to be Hollyoaks, it has covered so many important topics these past few months and it’s amazing to see the hard work and dedication put into portraying them excellently and accurately.

Place: The caravan, it’s the home of a million of my childhood memories and I love being in my 20s and still enjoying it and making more memories!

Memory: Taking my gorgeous doggy for her first seaside holiday.

Accomplishment: Getting into the swing of having a job again!

Journaling Maddie x

August; please can you just slow down a little?!

Long time no post!

August has been on the hectic side, to say the least.

It honestly feels like I’ve not had time to just sit back and take it all in so I’m taking a rare non-busy day to reflect on the month so far.

Although it has been crazy busy and jam packed, I’ve been having so much fun with everything that’s been going on!

1st-2nd August:

These few days were spent catching up with the bloody lovely Amy and Travis! I’d not seen them for around a month whilst they were travelling around Thailand and it was so nice to have a good old nitter natter about their travels and a few glasses* of wine.

*maybe bottles

3rd August:

I went home today, back to Birmingham. It was only a flying visit, but it was really nice to spend part of the evening with my parents, Max, my sister and her boyfriend Tom. We went to Pesto which is an Italian tapas restaurant.

Later in the evening we went into town to meet with Curtis, Max’s best friend since pretty much forever! We had a nice surprise that some of the other guys came to meet us too, some, including Curtis, we haven’t seen since New Years.

It’s always a good time hanging out with this lot because it’s so effortless and we always have plenty to catch up on!

4th-7th August:

Max and I went to 110 Above Festival this weekend! It was super fun and got me in the proper “camping, drinking, getting no sleep” kinda festival mood, but unfortunately this is the only one we are attending this year. I’m gonna do a whole post all about this weekend because I have so much to ramble on about, and plenty of photos to share!

8th August:

Another flying visit home, we spent most of this day having a massive lie in to recover from the weekend at 110! When we finally surfaced we grabbed some lunch and packed for our upcoming trip to Manchester.

In the evening we went over to my Nan & Granddad’s house as it was my Uncle Paul’s birthday, so we did the classic Chinese takeout and birthday cake sort of evening with the family, which was really special to me because I got to spend time with my cousin Oli, his girlfriend who I’d not met before, my grandparents and my uncle, all who I very rarely see since moving to Manchester.

9th August:

This was potentially the most stressful morning of my life. Max accidentally ordered double the amount of train tickets than we actually needed so we were trying to clean up that mess, whilst also getting all our shit in the back of my dad’s car (we packed way too much – shock!) and getting to the train station on time to make sure we didn’t miss our connecting train from Birmingham to Manchester!

We managed to successfully pull it all off – no idea how mind you – and got into my flat just before the rain started chucking it down!

After this we had a lazy 24 hours: dyed my hair like a my little pony, sleeping, eating and catching up on Game of Thrones (finally!).

10th August:

Amy came home with an absolute hair disaster. For some reason the hairdresser she went to see did the complete opposite of what she wanted and thought that was an okay thing to do!

So we spent this evening, all four of us (Amy, Trav, Max and myself), in Amy’s bedroom drinking and whilst the lads did boring admin laptop stuff, I bleached Amy’s hair twice before deciding to call it a night!

11th August:

The hair rescue mission continued today, with one more bleach and a colour attempt (which didn’t go as planned).

12th August:

Amy & I got up early and took a trip to Superdrug to find a different hair dye before today’s festivities begun. We picked up a box of Blue Mercury, and went back to the flat to speed dye the rest of Amy’s hair, just to get 3/4 of the way through to realise we didn’t have enough dye!

So I ran back out to Superdrug, my hands covered and stained by blue dye, wearing the most miss-matched lazy outfit – the looks I got were intense haha, to grab another box.

Somehow, and I’m really not sure how, we managed to pull it off and dye Amy’s hair and get ready for a day of festivals all in a matter of hours, with plenty of time to spare!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before, but Amy’s boyfriend Travis is the lead singer of an absolutely fabulous band called The Bright Black (and you should definitely click the link and give them a listen)! Anyway, the band were playing 2 festivals on this day, the first being in Rochdale and the second in Hebden Bridge.

Hande (the girlfriend of Sam from the band) met us at our flat then we all piled into Amy’s car and drove to Rochdale for the first festival. It was such a cute set up, I think free festivals are such a great idea for the community, especially being family friendly fun in the summer hols!

We had a few hours to kill so had a walk around the site and eventually settled on sitting in Yates’ for a few drinks and some food before the band took to the stage.

6pm rolled around and the guys got on stage and played an awesome set, the man who introduced them said that they in fact played last year too and so many people emailed the council asking them to come back and play the following year, and the only band to play two years in a row!

After the Rochdale Feelgood Festival, we all piled back into the cars and Amy drove us to Hebden Bridge. The drive was so pretty but didn’t half feel like we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere, the views were stunning though!

This venue was so stuffy, it was like the oxygen levels were just non-existent! This gig was great though, it was for Pride and it was so nice to be in a room full of people celebrating something so so important!

The guys played another great set, and then we stuck around to watch the last band, before once again piling into the car and finally getting back to Manchester around 1am!

Such a bloody long day but had the best time!!

13th August:

Today is my “I have a few hours to sit down and do nothing so I should probably blog”day. Amy is a total trooper and set off early this morning to start her new job, I had a bit of a lie in but started to feel a lil gross so got up showered and ate, Trav has just got back from shopping and Max has just surfaced from bed.

So a lazy afternoon from here on out I think, I have lots of photos to go through and edit from the past few weeks, but that’s all I really want to achieve today. Later on this evening I believe the four of us are heading to The Knott to have a Sunday roast!

(Edit: the roast was incredible)

I hope the rest of August is this jam packed, it has been exhausting but I’ve made some pretty bloody lovely memories so far! August, if you could slow down a tad then that would be fab, I’m starting to get Summer blues already and it’s not even over yet!

M x

August goals

August is gonna be hella busy so my main goal for this month is to get organised! I've already started so I don't need to fret too much. I purchased a new planner (as if I actually even needed another one) as a form of motivation and it has definitely worked!

I have so much planned in my personal life so I think August will be a great opportunity to just have so much fun before things start getting hectic in September.

August for me is festivals, fun with friends, travelling and getting my life together a bit!

I have blabbed on for long enough – here are my August goals!

July in photos

July has been a rather pleasant month! It has been really busy, and I decided to add to that factor by starting my online journal. I feel like I have accomplished many things in July, as well as tackling lows and highs, enjoying a well deserved break, having alone time and precious time spent with family and friends.

Pre-warning – this photo log is 90% holiday snaps!

Me & Lyds at her graduation

best graduation photo ever??

Brownsea Island

long doggo

noisy lobster breakfast date

Brownsea Island (I'm not the best at smiling haha)

Starbucks date

Brownsea Island

my love

beach walks

evening stroll

Durdle Door

we got up at 4am to watch the sunrise and it did not disappoint

my beautiful sister at her graduation

my pup

curry night with the guys

post curry night

ferry to Brownsea!

that view!

what even is my boyfriend?

chips and coffee stop at Sandbanks

boats

sunrise

sunrise ft. Max

so so pretty

is it really me if I don't have a trip to A&E?

watching the sun change from my favourite spot in the apartment

M x

graduation day

Not mine…even though all of my friends are graduating this year, I will not be joining them, as I took two years out before attending uni, but so did my sister, and as she is two years older than me that means that it was her year to graduate!

The day was a lil on the hectic side (see July 15 – a funeral, a graduation and a lot of wine) but the weather stayed sunny and dry for us, and we had a lovely celebration!

Here’s some pics of the day…

rare family photo where we are all smiling and looking at the camera!

dad, me, lydia, nanny & mom

lydia, emily & ellis

pretending to be the graduate 😉

lyd & nanny

the actual grad!

it was a windy afternoon haha

being proud & supportive etc etc

because being serious for a solid 8 hours isn’t really our style

July 15 – a funeral, a graduation and a lot of wine

Boy oh boy has it been a long week!

Starting with the journey from Manchester to Birmingham, leaving myself less than 24 hours to get ready for Essex, this has been one hectic week.

Max drove us down to Essex on Monday as it was his granddad’s funeral on the Tuesday morning. The funeral was sad, as you’d imagine, but it was also so beautifully done with a lovely group of important people to the family in attendance, a bugler performing The Last Post and a fitting tribute from Max’s dad.

The wake was incredible, Max had dug out some old slide film and standard 8 films full of beautiful family memories from when his father was a child, so we all sat around and watched the home movies, and looking through the slide films, whilst people ate, drank and shared happy memories of Max’s granddad.

So the week started off emotionally draining that’s for sure, with a jam packed 3 days in Essex sorting bits and bobs out at the bungalow.

We arrived back in Birmingham on Wednesday evening faced with the task of what to wear to my sister’s graduation. Whatever I put on that I liked my mom said “not quite right” or “no definitely not that one”, so we settled for a dress that she loved and I had lukewarm feelings towards – but never mind!

Bright and early on Thursday morning Max and I got up and started to get ready, having to eat our lunch at 10:30am as that was the last opportunity we’d have to eat before 6:30pm (something that wouldn’t phase me but I was worried how Max was going to go 8 hours without eating anything)! We got into our “smarts” and got on the train with my nan from Tamworth to Derby, where the ceremony would be taking place.

Max and I got our tickets very last minute so had received balcony tickets, but when we arrived they said for us to try and find spare seats in the main hall, because we were the only two sat up there!! The staff were so accommodating and they kept laughing and joking saying they’d been waiting for us and that we would get the best personal treatment with them as it was only us hahaha. But thankfully we found some seats in the main hall so that we could actually see my sister graduate!

The ceremony wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, however my hands got tired very fast after clapping for a few hundred graduates. When it was finally my sister’s turn, the tension was building, she was worried she was going to trip and fall etc., but no, she handled it incredibly well, a flawless walk across the stage, but the guy announcing the names pronounced her name wrong!! How?! I could maybe see getting confused with the first name “Lydia”, but “Parsons”?!?! Really?! How do you mispronounce Parsons??

Regardless of the name blunder, we had a fantastic day, took lots of photos (many of which will feature in my July photo series I’m sure) and had an amazing meal at Fat Cat, well worth waiting 8 hours for, and one too many cocktails (but they were just so good!!) with the family, and the families of Lydia’s two best friends from uni!

We went home and crashed out haha! We were absolutely ruined, so so tired, but allowed ourselves a little lie in on Friday morning, surfacing and going into town to grab some food and drink for the weekend.

I had not seen my two closest school friends for about 4 or 5 months, which is really rubbish and we find it so hard to catch up often with me being in Manchester, G being in Birmingham working hard for her families company, and Erin being a total rockstar at the moment absolutely smashing festival season! So we all managed to free an evening for a long awaited catch up!

Max and I hosted the evening and had the girls around and made food and brought lots of wine (which mainly got drunk by me and Erin haha). It was so nice just to sit and talk for hours, eating good food and drinking cheap wine, with some amazing company!

Last night again we totally crashed out, exhausted after the long day we’d had.

Waking up this morning, I have another list as long as my arm to complete:

Clean up from last nights festivities
Walk Lady (my dog)
Start packing to go to Bournemouth!!
Wake Max up (it’s alright for some, I’ve been up since 6am!)
Plan things we want to do when we get to Bournemouth
Fake tan (not essential, but kinda essential)
Plan and schedule blogs for the next week or so as I will be without internet
Meet up with more people before Monday
Find my camera charger (oops)

I hope you have had a lovely week, and I hope even more that it wasn’t as hectic as mine!

M x