There's a common thing in my family where one member feels the need to take on a crazy physical challenge... I haven't reached this point in my life where I feel the urge to take something crazy on, but my dad assures me that I will in my late 20's... We'll see how that one turns out!

But where did this whole crazy urge come from?

The video above is of my late Granddad (Brian) and his friend Cyril training for their race from Lands End to John O'Groats.

The Lands End to John O'Groats traditional route is 847 miles - which sounds absurd to even complete in a car let alone on a Penny Farthing bicycle.

My Granddad  was a keen cyclist back in the day, he owned 2 Penny Farthing bicycles and one trike and they weren't exactly the same size as trikes and racing bikes are today! The Penny Farthings meant that you were lifted 52" off the ground on the most solid saddle and you also had to push yourself off before you could start pedaling!

So how did the journey of Lands End to John O'Groats come about? Thankfully, I was told the story by the man himself earlier this year.

My Granddad was travelling in London (presumably for work) and after a long day he got caught chatting to this man. At the time he didn't realise that the person he was chatting to was in fact, a journalist for Thames Television (now known as ITV to you and me!) 

They were talking about biking and routes he's done etc etc and then the conversation changed to completing the 800 mile bike ride on a Penny Farthing. Jokingly, my Granddad said that he would do said journey on the 52" bike. The conversation was over and they soon went their both ways.

It wasn't until the papers came out the following day that it was stated that "Brian Thompson would be taking on the journey in the next couple of months". This was some surprise to my Granddad that's for sure!

Brian & Cyril started the race in 1970, on both Penny Farthing's in which my Granddad owned. They were sponsored by Smirnoff Vodka (a common beverage which I like to have on a night out) throughout the course of the race. I only found out recently that Cyril didn't actually complete the whole distance. He joined my Granddad on parts of the route but didn't actually complete the whole course!

He completed the race in 13 days (123 1/2 hours cycling) at the age of 34. He even managed to get his name in the Guiness Book of Records for his achievement. To say that I'm proud is a complete understatement!

I am so glad that I got to hear the whole story of this crazy event that my Granddad took on back in the day. When I was younger I had no idea what the whole bike thing was about! Sometime soon I would like to sit upon the 52" bicycle and I'll be sure to get a picture and put it on this post.

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

A little while ago I created a post about my history with glasses and I thought I would share with you my experience with contact lenses. I've only been wearing lenses "everyday" for a whole year (well in April it was a year!) So what have I learnt with lenses?

Originally I got contact lenses because I was doing cheerleading once a week and summer was around the corner at the time so I wanted to ditch the specs and wear some sunglasses with clear vision! However, I only paid for 2 day wear per week and I had to dispose of each lense after every wear. It was a ridiculous amount as well and I didn't want to pay for that!

I changed to a high end optician and was able to wear lenses 6/7 days a week and they have up to two weeks wear in them!

I currently wear Acuvue lenses and have special solution to put them in overnight before the next day.

After your first contact lense appointment, you'll be told how to put the lenses in in THE most complex way possible. You have to hook one hand over your head, pull your top lid up, pull the bottom lashline down - basically it's confusing! And there's a certain way that the lenses have to go in your eye - avoid the wrong way at ALL costs because that is one thing I kept doing throughout the first few months of wearing lenses (granted, I still do now!) and nothing hurts worse than an inside out lense.

I struggled a lot with the steps that the optician gave me, a lot of flinching occurred and it took me a while to get the lenses in every morning. So I searched around on the internet and found this handy little video:

It's a complete lifesaver and I have been using this method ever since. So, if you're new to lenses and are struggling to get your lenses in, then definitely use this method as it makes it so much easier.

So with my type of lenses, I have to clean them after every use. This is a pain in itself as if you have THE slightest piece of towel fluff on your hands, then its everywhere! On the lense, in the solution - argh it can be a right pain. However, using kitchen roll or paper towels minimizes this annoyance by a whole load!

Do I prefer lenses over glasses? Honestly, yes! I feel like I have a lot more freedom and I can wear loads of different eyeshadows and eyeliners (so exciting!)

And the lenses don't feel like they're in my eye. I have fallen asleep in them, they haven't fallen to the back of my eye and my eyesight has got better! There's so many myths about contact lenses, and they're all so wrong. I definitely recommend researching into lenses before getting them! 

​See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

Oh I am so so rubbish - I have completely gone off of here for the whole month of June and I honestly have no reason to support my excuse...I think I've just become super lazy! However, I'm back and what better way to compile everything that happened in June together. 

A lot has happened over the previous month, seeing Beyoncé, #Brexit & receiving a new Prime Minister has all happened within the space of 30+ days - crazy! But I'll touch upon those things later... 

I never thought I would become a runner at the beginning of this year, but after the passing of my Grandfather back in March I started to comfort eat a lot. I was gaining weight, getting more stretchmarks in new places and generally feeling completely rubbish. Understandably, grief will bring a lot of change to our lives and gaining weight was something that I didn't want to happen!

Months passed and I was still eating rubbish and moving less and more weight was piling on. Luckily, I'm fairly tall so the results aren't obvious to others but to me I could see the changes!

Anyways, I've started RUNNING?! I hated it at first but on my 3rd week in (I know I'm not very far in yet) I'm slowly starting to enjoy it! I'm currently only running 2-3 times a week and inbetween days I'm doing a Zumba session on the Wii- probably not accurate as I could easily sit down and shake the remote, but I'm genuniely attempting to copy the woman on the screen (regardless of my lack of rhythm!)

So we'll see how this phase goes - my attempt is to get fit by Reading festival and have that "bikini body" when I go on holiday at the end of the year!

Yes, I'm STILL going on about the referendum - but I haven't shared my point of view on here yet, it's better late than never!

By unpopular opinion, I voted remain in this year's referendum at the result was something that I didn't quite expect!

My reasoning to vote remain? In all honesty, all I heard throughout the media was to "remain in the European Union" and I rarely saw anything to support the idea of leaving (the occasional camera shot of Boris Johnson would appear but that was about it!)

I felt that what we had with the EU didn't need fixing and that we were doing alright. I couldn't trust Farage as far as I could throw him (do I need to mention the NHS money that was promised?) and I thought that my future would be in complete danger if we were to leave. I was worried about trade in our country and more importantly, the effect on small independent companies was going to be huge.

However, a few weeks in and not a lot has changed...let's just hope that we really made the right decision! (I give props to David Cameron for stepping down - he didn't believe in Brexit so why should he go against his own word? I just hope our new Prime Minister Theresa May gets us through this, you know girl power and all...)

Now let's avoid some political rubbish from me and switch onto more exciting things! 

I got to see Beyoncé at Wembley at the beginning of the month....and in all honesty I was disappointed! Okay, she is a brilliant singer and looked absolutely beautiful with her traditional braids and gorgeous costumes but I wasn't very entertained... I'm not a fan of her new stuff, I feel like it's touching upon Kanye West genre (which I'm not a fan of) and I feel like you can't sing along to it very well unlike some of her classics? Anyways, everyone has different tastes in music and sadly it wasn't mine! 

I have recently started working regular hours with my part time job that I've had since October(ish) time and I am really enjoying it! I work for a local magazine and there is never a dull day as I get to do new projects each day, and it's really helping me with experience for when I start university next year!

Anyways, that's life in a nutshell - I'll attempt to get back into my usual routine of writing regularly again!

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

Now if you asked me what I was doing this Bank Holiday weekend, attending an airshow would not be a priority on my things to do. However, I've never attended an airshow before and getting given guest passes for the Sunday show was an opportunity I shouldn't let down.

I thought this post will be more photograph based as I feel that the images can do the talking! It was a really fun day and I'm so glad I went - even if the weather wasn't great for most of it. Anyways, enjoy some images below (captions included!)

For these images I used my Canon 550d with either my Canon 18-55mm lens or my Tamron 70-300mm lens - sadly, the GoPro wasn't put to use this time!

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

I've recently just turned 18 years old! I am officially an adult, which is crazy since I still class myself as being 13 years of age... I'm sure I'll mature soon enough! I absolutely dread my own birthday now, I'm a nostalgic human being so turning another year older really makes me feel strange and funny inside. However, 18 is a big year in the UK so doing as much as I could in the space of May was something I was going to do this year (besides from going out and having one or two alcoholic beverages!)

Does anyone remember me ranting on about wanting to see Nina Nesbitt around two years ago? 

I have always wanted to see Nina Nesbitt perform live, she has a beautiful distinct voice, a great style of music and she's an all around lovely human being! Finding out that she would be performing just 3 days before my actual birthday was the best thing to happen to me so I just had to buy tickets. 

After receiving them in the post, I then had to find someone to come with me all the way into London and see her. Luckily, my friend Robyn was keen to join so off we went!

She was absolutely AMAZING! It's very rare that I go to a gig and think "wow, this artist sounds exactly like their album" and Nina was one of those artists! The last time I was amazed by someone's live singing capabilities was when I went to Paloma Faith around 3 years ago! (I recommend seeing both these artists as soon as you can.) It was a great start off to the birthday celebrations and thanks to Robyn for joining me for the fun!)

So the day finally came around! The weather was beautiful (22 degrees!) which meant lots of drinks and lots of food to be consumed. It was a really lovely and relaxing day, thank you to everyone who came over and joined me and my family (thank you for the presents too!)

Since my mum turned 50 in March, I turned 18 this month and my parents have been married for 25 years this year, we felt that a little celebration was in order. We had a joint birthday bash to celebrate - and it was fabulous! My feet were killing afterwards and a big fry up the next morning was definitely needed!

Thanks to all of our lovely friends and family who turned up. You all mean to much to us as a family! And thanks for all the presents.

And prosecco...lots of prosecco!

And there was my birthday all summed up in one little post! It's not normally what I post however, its one of those posts for the memory box (also known as Timehop 5 years down the line!)

​See you in the next blog post,