New Years Resolutions

Pretty much every year I haven't even bothered with New Years resolutions but this year I have quite a few, whether I will stick to them however is an entirely different subject so here goes:

1) Try not to abandon my blog again. 
- I know most bloggers go through stages where they get writer's block or just don't have the time to blog every day but I want to write more because honestly, I've missed it, a lot!

2) Take more pictures.
- When I say take more pictures, I don't mean selfies because my camera roll is just full of them. I just mean documenting when I go to pretty places that I have visited and when memories are made.

Feeding the ducks at Ribby Hall Spa Village

3) Get into shape.
- This is probably the most common resolution ever but I want to give it 100% this time round. Whether that's eating healthier, going to the gym or just walking places instead of getting the bus, I am just determined to feel healthier and more confident in my body.

4) Try new foods.
- I am terrible when it comes to trying new foods, I just stick to chicken and pasta but I want to branch out and try at least two new foods a month. At least this will make it easier when trying to order food at a restaurant.

Tried sweet potato a few months ago and now I'm obsessed! 

5) Save money.
- Not only am I terrible at trying new foods, I am also terrible at saving money. As soon as I get paid I spend my money on clothes, food, make up, bags etc. So this year round I want to put money aside and lock it away in a bank account or piggy bank that I can't touch so when it comes to wanting to buy a car or a house I have money stashed away ready.

6) Visit new places.
- Whether these places are local or not is irrelevant. I just want to explore new places and see the world. I already have a holiday booked to Turkey in the summer which is a place I have never visited before and in 2017 my sister and I are planning to go backpacking around Eastern Europe which should be fun.

Manchester - Barcelona: August 2015

7) Go on more dates.
- My boyfriend Rob and I used to go on proper dates all the time when we first started seeing each other but now we've stopped going out as much and just stay at each other's houses instead. However, this year we want to change that and are doing the alphabet dating challenge which I will definitely be blogging about. There are 26 letters in the alphabet and 52 weeks in the year. The idea is that every two weeks you do something beginning with the corresponding letter of  the alphabet. E.g. in the first two weeks of the year you do something beginning with 'A' such as going for afternoon tea or visiting an aquarium or art gallery. This something I want to last all year and keep on top of.

So there is definitely a lot to keep me busy in 2016. Anyone got any other New Year Resolutions they want to share then feel free to comment below :D
Happy 2016

Moll xx

Malta

Oops... it appears I haven't done a blog in a very VERY long time. Apologies for that, I either haven't been in a writing mood or I have been pretty flipping busy this holiday. I thought that after my exams had finished I would have had an awful lot of free time for blogs, blogs and even more blogs. But it just hasn't worked out that way.

I'm going to start off this blog talking about my trip to Malta which I actually set off on over a month ago, i'm just terrible at doing things on time. It was one of the most amazing holidays I have ever been on. I went with the wonderful Rob who made the trip brilliant and nearly saved my life...

I had no idea what to expect with Malta and no idea how busy/quiet the place we were staying (St Paul's Bay) would be. It actually turned out to be slap bang in the middle.. in the day it was pretty quiet and relaxing yet in the evening everything came alive and the hustle and bustle of the pubs and restaurants became evident.

The first day I was stupid.. I stayed in the sun far too long and didn't drink enough water. This resulted in me losing my vision and fainting whilst half way up a flight of stairs. Luckily though I'd warned Rob my vision was going blurry and he actually managed to catch me mid-faint so I escaped with nothing more than a little bump on my shin. Could have ended up a lot worse and resulted in the rest of the holiday not being as good!

We spent most of the holiday just relaxing in St Paul's Bay but took two day trips. One was to Valetta which is the capital city of Malta and it was good to see lots of English shops and wander round exploring. The second day trip was on a boat trip (hadn't realised I was sea-sick until that day when my stomach was bouncing all over the place) where we visited two small islands Gozo and Comino. Comino is home to a Blue Lagoon where the waters are perfectly clear and it was breathtaking. We were given enough time to go swimming in the Lagoon which for me was the holiday highlight.

After initially having no idea what to expect it became one of the best holidays of my life and I know that Rob and I will go back there one day. It was absolutely beautiful and the views were just insane. I will just leave you with a couple more pictures from our trip...

Rob and I at Gozo 

Our first night in Malta

Overlooking St Paul's Bay

Relaxing by our rooftop pool

Getting back into running...

I guess having a boyfriend who is a pretty damn good runner and a dad as a runner should mean that I'd have taken up running a LOT earlier.. but nope, not me.

I used to run (a little bit) a couple of years ago and was part of a running club which is how I met the wonderful Rob, but then it started getting colder, my work load at sixth form built up and I had exams to cope with and I quite frankly couldn't be bothered at all so I stopped it.

But within the past couple of weeks I've started to pick it up again and I'm going to be honest.. I love getting back into the swing of things. I always feel so much better after a run, I can be in a horrible mood before hand but once I've sweated it all out then I feel fab!

This past week I have gone for 4 runs, all just over 2 miles each. I'm gradually going to start building up the mileage and document my progress. I think one of the problems I had previously was trying to do too many miles straight away which made me hate pretty much every single run because I nearly died at the end of each one. So this time round I'm starting off slowly to make sure I stay in the habit and don't just give up after a month. I'm determined to do a 10K at some point; my ideal aim would be to have a run a marathon by the time I die but right now that is a tad ambitious.

Let's just hope the weather stays nice for now so I can be more motivated to go for my nice little runs :D

Also, shout out to this wonderful fella for getting a Personal Best in his Wilmslow Half Marathon today, words can't express how proud I am of you, even if you did throw up multiple times after you'd finish (...lovely)

My boy <3

Age is just a number...

Today in psychology we had a cover teacher and as with every time your normal teacher is away, you do anything but the work you're supposed to do. The discussion this lesson led to talking about age gaps in a relationship and I thought I had a bit of experience on this topic so well here goes :P

When you're a teenager age gaps in a relationship are seen as such a big deal but as you get older and older the gap seems much smaller. Age gaps are actually more common than people think. I know a lot of my friends have been or are currently with someone who is more than a couple of years older than them. 

Now I met Rob when I was 16 and he was 22. As soon we went public I was questioned about it by a lot of people I know. A 5 and a bit year gap when I was just  16 was seen as a big deal and wrong in many people's eyes. But I honestly never thought anything of it and I'm pretty sure that Rob didn't either. I don't see Rob as someone who is much older than me, I see us as equal and he's the guy I love regardless of his age. Age isn't even a factor anymore. The only time I have ever really seen the age gap is when I was under 18 and couldn't get alcohol, go clubbing and watch '18' rated films at the cinema and he could, but now I'm over 18 I forget about the age gap as it is totally irrelevant. Yet although it doesn't bother me or Rob, I used to constantly find myself justifying our relationship to others and reassuring people, my parents especially. 

Age gaps are totally fine in the media and celebrity couples, so why not in 'real life'? Just look at these couples with major age gaps:

• Beyonce and Jay Z = 12 years
• Bradley Cooper and Suki Waterhouse = 17 years
• Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo = 10 years gap
• Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas = 25 years
• Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds = 11 years

I was wondering whether it was just me with this idea as there are a fair few people who think age gaps shouldn't happen so I got a couple of other people's suggestions on the topic:

"I think that age gaps should never be an issue. Each individual falls in love with someone for a reason. Just like people shouldn't be judged on gender preferences, they shouldn't be judged on age gaps" - Jess

"When you really love someone, age, distance, height and weight are just god damn numbers. Who cares if one is older than the other? God was like 100,000 years older than Mary when he got her knocked up" - Harriet (always known for her highly sensible thoughts :P

And of course I asked Rob on his thoughts on our age gap - "Age isn't really something that has concerned me about our relationship at all throughout the entire time that we have been going out. Our gap is about 5.5 years(?) but I wouldn't say that the difference makes me any maturer (is that even a word!!?), in fact half the time you are still maturerer than me (ok that one definitely isn't a word). I have been around people older than myself all my life, from a young age, so I suppose for me it has alwasy been the norm to ignore it as an issue. And of course, I fell in love with you and for that reason nothing else matters" - aww he's cute

So it looks as if I am not alone with my thoughts on age gaps, would love to hear everyone else's views on this or if you yourself have a relatively big age gap and if it's even given you problems.

xx

Surviving Indoor Skydiving!

My mum got me and Rob some tickets to try indoor skydiving as a Christmas present and I have to be honest I have been terrified from the moment I opened the envelope with the tickets inside. But yesterday the day finally arrived and off we headed to Airkik in Manchester. Indoor skydiving is something I have never shown an interest in or even wanted to do in my life, but my darling mother decided it would be a perfect present... hmmmm

After being so scared and nervous for 2 months I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself. Being lifted off your feet by 90mph winds and having no control over what your body was doing was actually surprisingly fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone! (You're in completely safe hands I must add)

When actually flying you are given a 50 second flight time each, now this sounds like absolutely nothing but believe me time went so slowly and it felt like I was in the wind tunnel for ages. When I was in the wind tunnel all the nerves went and I had a lot of fun. An instructor is with you at all times to make sure that you are controlled and know what to do which put my mind at rest a lot. After me and Rob had each had our separate flights then we got to go in the wind tunnel together which was the best part. I had an amazing time even if I did look like an idiot in a jumpsuit, goggles and weird shaped helmet. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone, it's safe for anyone above 4 and is such a fantastic experience and I would definitely go again. Thank you to Airkik and our instructor Luca for the best time! And thank you to my mum for a present that I will never forget!