Anyway, I'd hoped to tell you all about my lovely holiday to Cornwall, but I think that telling you about my kittens is much more apt at this moment, given how bogged down things have been these last few weeks. 

You see, when you are really stressed, animals have a wonderful way of making you laugh and showing you that life should be enjoyed.  Tonight as I was sorting through a pile of paperwork and generally chasing my tail before it all starts again tomorrow, Flossy & Otter were doing this...

Chill out they said...relax they said..come sit a while and snuggle they said..life is too short to stress out, just come and lie on the sofa and stretch like you have never stretched before and life will be good!

Well, I intend to do that for the rest of the evening while working on not feeling guilty (something I'm not very good at).  In the meantime, I hope this finds you all well.  I'll be back with more bits really soon...just as soon as I've learnt to relax little my little Floss & Otts...

Big hugs to you all and don't forget to take time to relax!

Serena

x

So, I’ve loved Agatha Christie since I was a little girl.  I love reading her books even more now for the comfort they bring as I know some of the stories so well.  Like a lot of great writers she was a troubled soul, and as a result she had an interesting life.  Every year in Torquay, in her home town and around the time of her birthday, a festival is put on in her honour.  It’s an opportunity for people who loved her work to get together and well, be a bit sad really.  So, that’s exactly where I went with my friend Jenny!!  The festival started on a Sunday and ran for a week and Jenny and I managed to get down for 3 fantastic fun filled days.....a non-stop itinerary of events that I'd pre-booked for us to enjoy.

We stayed a cute, very quaint little b&b called The Lawnswood Guest house which was right in the middle or Torquay.  Highly reccomended, great value for money and the biggest breakfasts you have ever tried to consume (http://lawnswoodguesthousetorquay.co.uk/).

After the long drive down (we talked non-stop for 5 hours!) we arrived at the b&b and immediately had to don our gear, 40s flavour of course, for our first outing, a tea-dance to be held at The Oldway Mansion, apparently the place where Agatha and Archie Christie danced on many occasion.  The mansion itself was amazing having been built in 1873 for the singer family, as in the sewing machines!  I love my sewing machine, though unfortunately it’s not a Singer….I’ve always wanted one though and have coveted my grans for years.  Anyway, here are few shots from the house… 

It was a great afternoon and we met some lovely people.  We didn’t dance though.  People were, ummm, very good.  There were certainly no amateurs to speak of so Jenny and I quietly sat and drank our tea and chatted as usual.

We had a relaxing evening and great meal in Torquay followed by a great nights sleep, all ready for our adventure the next day which included a boat trip to Greenway, Agatha’s holiday home....

It was a beautiful sunny day and the boat trip out past Torbay, into Dartmouth and then down the River Dart, was just glorious.  It was also the most beautiful house, and I think we both fell in love with it.  Though Agatha didn’t do any real writing there as such, she did read and go over her works here.  Having read quite a bit about her life too, it is mentioned again and again as being her favourite house, which makes it even more special really.  A real privilege to be able to go inside the house and walk around the grounds.  Day dreams about winning the lottery followed as we sat and had our lunch in the cafe...we both bought a ticket together the next day…oh to live in a house like this…one day!

When we finally got back to the b&b we had less than a hour to get ready for our Murder Mystery Dinner.  No Agatha Christie Festival would be complete without one….

The dinner was fun and again we met some lovely people.  We, of course, guessed the murder correctly (2 Forensic minds..Jenny is a Forensic Psychologist) were bound to get it right of courseJ 

So, that was our trip...just brill.  The next day, after another HUGE fry-up, we started on our journey to Padstow in Devon for the second part of our trip and to meet up with more friends....more about that next time.

Until then,

Hugs to you!

Serena

x

With barely a few hours to sleep, I went to bed at about 2am after a cup of tea with my mum and a debrief about the night, we were up again to get ready for the next bit…the white wedding. 

I started the day by, again having a cup of tea with my mum and discussing the day ahead.  I then did my mum’s hair, not a hairdresser by any stretch, but I was quite pleased with the end result seen here…

My ‘girls’ were soon to follow.  Now if you don’t know about my girls then let me tell you a bit about them…’My’ girls are my nieces.  Their names are Jasmine who is 7, and Aaliyah who we call LiLi who is 5, and they are my darlings!  I love them.  I don’t have any children of my own, yet, so all of my maternal affection goes on these two little beauties (well them and quite sadly my kittens).   Anyway, they were flower girls for the day, they came to my parents’ house first in their pyjamas, as my other brother (who was Best Man), wanted to get ready there.  Here they are in their pj’s anyway…cute.

After a quick shower I did my own hair and make-up all in about 20 minutes!  As I was going to be a bridesmaid, Lisa had told me the night before how she wanted our hair to be.  Based on her quick explanation I had a bash, fully expecting to be told it was wrong when I got to the hotel room, but apparently it was fine so I was good to go. Inbetween I made my way to my brother’s house to get some shots of him with his mates, all being helped along with a bit of Dutch courage. ..

The day was beautiful.  Hot, sunny and the grounds were really spectacular.  Here are a few shots that sum up the day…

All in all a lovely day and so great to be a part of it.....

We all wish RD and Lisa every happiness together.  Much love to you both.

Tomorrow I'll be telling you all about my holiday and how I'm dealing with being back at work...aaaaghhh!

Til then

xx

Celebrations all done!  I am currently still recovering from the most hectic few weeks I’ve had in a long time.  My brother, RD, got married on Friday in a lovely ceremony in Dunchurch just outside of Rugby in the Midlands.  With all the rain that we have had lately, we were super lucky to get a great day of sunshine, I actually heard people say that they were too hot!

The festivities started on the Thursday night with the party that I’d organised, on behalf of my Dad, for 250 people.  Thankfully all the people that were supposed to turn up to do ‘things’, did.  The caterers were brilliant, so thank you Friends Corner in Coventry and the DJ and drummers were fantastic, so  thank you to 2L and Dhol Division.  Everyone was so professional, on time, prepared and all smiling J  Will try and add some footage in the coming weeks of the drumming which was just fabulous…

You can see here a wee shot I took from the stage...

 My brother and his new wife Lisa are sat at the front, backs towards the camera.  As my father is from Pakistan the festivities on this day were to celebrate their marriage in true Asian style.  This means colour, dancing, good food, drumming and general merriment, and all without alcohol!  What was really lovely was how many of my mum’s family and also Lisa’s, who are predominantly Irish on both sides (yes, my family is the real East is East Family), commented on what a fantastic time they had, ‘Ooooo, so different from a ‘white’ wedding’ they all said J

Anyway, it was a really great night with so few bums on seats as everyone is encouraged to get up and dance, even if they can’t!  Here are some of the highlights…… 

This was my gift to my brother and Lisa, it was an Olive tree...

 Each person had a small card on their plate which I’d punched a wee hole through.  They then were able to tie a message to the tree with a piece of ribbon before they left.  I hope that Lisa and RD take the messages and keep them  (I’ve also kept lots of little mementos from the hen-do and both weddings and will be purchasing a little memory box for them).  The tree can then be planted in their garden.

The White wedding photos to come!  Watch this space……

I spent a few days in Brighton after my trip to London.  I've only been to Brighton a few times in my life, all of which were 15 odd years ago...it's changed a bit since then. 

Anyway, I had a lovely time.  It was great to be 'beside the seaside' for a few days.  I've always wanted to live near the sea, so any trip I make to a coastal location, I start to inadvertantly look for houses to buy!  I have to say, as nice as Brighton was to visit for a day or two I wouldn't want to live there.  I'm more of a Cornwall girl myself and I'll be visiting there very soon!...anwyay, here I am sat on the beach, just taking a minute or two to settle before I headed off for a walk around the lanes.

The Lanes were, aside from the sea, the highlight of Brighton for me.  They were really quaint and had lots of lovely wee shops that seem to be all tucked away so it feels like you are finding them all by accident.  Anyway, I stopped to have a coffee at a really cute little coffee shop called Coffee Coho which was lovely, of which I took a couple of sneaky shots when I went back the next day...

I had a great latte and spent about an hour there chatting to my mum on the phone and then reading my magazine Handmade Living which you can see here.  It's not one of my regular magazines but I enjoyed it nonetheless...let me know what you think if you get it.

Brighton is also full of characters, lots of people dressed in weird and wonderful things.  I liked this about Brighton as it seemed that people were comfortale to express themselves which is a always a good thing.  I managed a sneaky picture of the chap sat next to me when I was having a coffee.  I think he looked great.

I visited a great little bar called The Mesmerist too.  I do reccomend it for its quirky atmosphere, great chips and cool old fashioned pianist.  Just be prepared to sell a kidney for a drink which unfortunately compared to London prices.  It had some great art too, seen here...

I manged to nip into Cath Kidston and pick up a small mirror and was hoping to get a cat collar or two for my wee kittens but Cath only does dog collars...get with the programme Cath.  We like cats as well!  I did manges to pick up some really cute little sticky notes in a shop called Englanda at Home which I do reccomend though.  It has some really pretty things in it and isn't too costly. 

So, that was Brighton.  Go if you haven't been.  It's great to be beside the sea, though I did have to turn a bit of a blind eye to the tacky beachy shops and greasy spoons that covered the sea-front.  It is however full of great coffee shops and quirky characters and well worth a visit!

Back again soon!

Serena

x

So, as you know I’m enjoying some time off, yay!  I seem to be cramming quite a lot of stuff into this little bit of time that I’ve had away from work.  It’s not all been fun though.  I’ve had to go back into work to supervise one of my students who has been doing some research for me over the summer.  With all the riots that have occurred I’ve also been dragged back into the work ‘fold’ again by having to radio interviews.  I ended up doing another one for BBC radio Lincolnshire.  That didn’t go as well as the BBC Nottingham interview.  They put even more words in my mouth, so to speak, and didn’t allow me to ‘get in’ what I wanted.  Well, I’ve learnt my lesson with that one.  Next time I do an interview, I’m going to go in with an agenda.  Know what I want to say, and say it!  Anyway, I’ll try and post the links to you if I can and you can see for yourself how little I got to actually qualify J  hey ho.

Well, I should say that as I write this I am sat in a very cute little pub in Brighton.  I have just been to the wedding of Pip and Giles which was on Saturday and stayed with an old school friend last night which was just lovely.  Right now I’m sat having a wee drink and writing this blog so that I can upload it when I get a mo (and have access to the internet).  I’m going to stagger what I’ve been up to over the next few days and give you an insight into what I’ve been doing, which is basically having fun, relaxing, eating and drinking too much and getting loads of ideas for my writing and painting as well as the business.  But before I let you into that world, let me show you a few pics from the wedding…

So, first of all this is Pip, well the back of Pip.  She looked gorgeous in her dress which was just divine.  The only issue with it I think, was that the train seemed to get in the way on the dance floor...lovely nonetheless.

I had to share this next one with you.  I was sitting directly behind 'bird lady'.  Take a good look at the picture, this was not a dare as far as I could tell, she really was wearing a bird on her head!  It was quite the talk of the wedding.  I met several people thoughout the night who asked if I had seen the 'lady with a bird on her head?'.  Well, I managed, along with the very funny guy next to me, to get a shot...in between giggles (how silly we were!).  To be fair to her she was wearing a gorgeous Ted Baker dress in the Birdcage design (yes, hence the birdie fascinator), which I've coveted for a while.  Still, a bird?

See you tomorrow for more on my trip to London and Brighton.

Hugs till then,

Serena

x

My annual leave is slipping away before my very eyes!  I ‘m now nearing the end of the second week of my holiday and it’s just all going far too quickly.  I’ve had a big list of things that I’ve been working through and I’m a little bit behind, not least of which because I keep on being ‘disturbed’.  Like I mentioned the other day, I’ve had a stream of tradesmen coming through the flat.  As I speak there is a man painting my back door and it’s really difficult to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing!  I also have two ‘house guests’ who were unexpected, and are now currently sleeping on my lounge floor, seen here.  It means I don’t have access to my wee little office area to work in at the mo, boo-hoo L

I’ve also been up from 5.45am this-morning as yesterday I was asked to go in to BBC Radio Nottingham, where I’ve been asked to give my opinion regarding the recent awful events in London and across the country.  To be fair I was put a bit on the spot after I was asked specific questions regarding the law and wearing face-masks…not my area of expertise!  Anyway, I said a few things, had a little stumble in one place and wasn’t able to finish what I was saying at one point, which will probably be taken out of context, but what’s new?  That’s what the media does.  As I was leaving the building one of the producers showed me out and said, ‘thank you for being so eminently cut-table’, meaning, yes, they will cut what I’ve said and quote me out of context, yay!  Anyway, the Press Office at work apparently will be recording the show so I’ll try and post this tomorrow once I’ve received the file and you can hear for yourself J

Anyway, today is all about writing. I must also sort out what I’m wearing to a wedding I’m going to on Saturday.  The wedding is in London and is set to be, well, a ‘posh wedding’ if you know what I mean.  Definitely like something out of Four Weddings and a Funeral.  All I will say is that the people getting married are called ‘Pip’ and ‘Giles’....say no more.  Really, jokes aside, they are a lovely couple and I’m looking forward to the day though I’ll feel a whole lot better when I have sorted my outfit.  Will keep you posted on that one!

Till tomorrow, hugs to you.

Serena

x

So to blow off some steam this weekend, a few of us went to ‘Go Ape’ in Sherwood Pines just outside of Nottingham (http://goape.co.uk/sites/sherwood).  I went with Claire and Sophia, and we went to ‘team-build’ as the three of us, as well as a Dave (who unfortunately couldn’t be there as he's in Korea), will be doing a Commando Challenge down in Devon in October.   I thought this would be a great teambuilding activity for us before we run through 10kms of mud!

Anyway, it was loads of fun!  It was a glorious sunny day and there weren’t too many people in the forest which meant that we could take our time have a giggle and take a few pictures.   Here is my friend Sophia who is actually standing upright after coming down on one of the fantastic zip-wires!  Also, you can just about make me out hanging off a cargo net....I think I have to work on my upper body strength!

If you haven’t had a go it’s well worth the trip.  The staff at the forest were really friendly and helped us through the process with ease.  What I really loved about it, was that in a world gone ‘PC’ and 'health and safety' mad (in my opinion), this feels like you actually have some freedom.  You are literally shown the ropes and then off you go, as you can see here from Claire J 

The staff just mill around keeping a beady eye, but without interfering in any way.  You just know that they are there should you need them, brill!

On the way home we went to a great pub called the Sir John Borlase Warren in Canning Circus (www.sirjohnborlasewarren.co.uk)  and had some lovely fish and chips and a big fat drink J  When we walked out of the pub, sometime later, we also saw a lovely rainbow....a great end to a great day, and much needed after the week that has been had.

Until tomorrow!

Serena

x

So, I’ve been off the radar this week…woops!  It’s been my first week of annual leave and although I should be feeling rested and rejuvenated I’m feeling anything but actually.  It’s been a crazy week full of tradesmen doing jobs around the flat, not to mention the trauma of having to take my two kittens to be ‘snipped’ this week.

Here they are just before their little op on Tuesday.  To be honest they were not happy in just being in the basket let alone being anywhere near things that snip!

They have been relaxing a bit at home this evening.  Otter, my little boy cat isn't too bad, even though he is minus a pair of balls.  It's Flossy, who we have been calling 'Cone-on the Barbarian'...how cruel, who is suffering.  It's really difficult to eat and climb into a litter tray with a massive plastic cone on your head.  Poor little thing : (

In the meantime I’ve been anything but idle.  I’m actually trying to use my month off to write.  As I don’t have an office in my current abode, I‘ve set up a corner of the lounge as a little office which I’ve taken a shot of for you.   It's super comfy and I get a good view out of the window, which although it only looks on to a street, is a good distraction at times.

What am I writing?  Well I’ve had my own ideas for some time about how we might be able to get the most out of life.   Like I've said before I'm really interested in people and what motivates them.  It brings together things I know about psychology but also includes some physics theory, mostly quantum, as well as some aspects of spirituality.  It’s stuff I can’t really teach as it would probably be considered a little ‘out there’.  I have attempted in the past to look at the potential benefits of ‘self-help’ psychology with my students, though they weren’t really up for engaging with it…what a shame.

Anyway, I’m trying to get this written as it means an awful lot to me. In amongst all this I’m just trying to get some painting done (which is the way I relax), get to the gym daily (which has proven tricky), run the business (which needs some TLC) and oh, did I mention that I have been tasked with organising a ‘pre-wedding’ party for my brother which is exactly 5 weeks from today!!!!  Aagghhhhh! Today I have managed to cram in a few phone calls to people about crockery, cutlery, linens, oh, and some belly-dancers.  This is quite a big party with about 300 people attending so of course as I have so much spare time I was the obvious person to help with this : )

Right, well, will keep you posted on that one.  Any tips on juggling gratefully received J

Till we meet again...

Serena

x

So, I have a ‘thing’ about notebooks.  Most people that know me, know this, which means it’s not unusual to receive them for birthdays and Christmas.  To be fair, you can’t go too wrong and I’m always super excited to get one so everyone’s a winner.

I’ve had this, well I’ll call it a hobby, from childhood, when I would pester my mum for a notebook whenever we entered a ‘paper-shop’, as they were called back in the day.  Anyway, I had stacks of them.  The best time of year, and I still get excited (??)  is coming up to September when shops are filled with stationery in time for the new school year.  I love browsing stationery and get great pleasure in taking my time pouring over all the new pens and sticky notes...I know, therapy needed but some people spot trains!  Anyway, notebooks are the best and I usually end up taking at least a little one home. No, in answer to your question, I don’t always have a use in mind, but I’ve found peace in that J  Notebooks are now my guilt free buy. Good job really, as they are a little more expensive than they were at the paper-shop 25 years ago, in fact the little beauty I’m going to show you now cost £15.95.

Anyway, here it is photographed next to my beautiful old Imperial typewriter...

So, I bought this from Le Chien Et Moi (www.lechienetmoi.com) a fab boutique shop with  French twist on the Derby Road in Nottingham.  It's a cute terracotta number made by o-check design graphics (http://www.o-check.net/ ).  I don’t think I’ve seen any of their stationery before, but this wee notebook really stood out to me the other day.  

The pages are really well set out, not to mention the fact that it’s super pretty, with little pictures and scribbles throughout. 

 You also get a handy little set of sticky notes to go with it. 

Hugs

Serena

x