Now that I am turning 21
In some ways my life has just begun
Born on 9th November 1993
Who thought I would become the woman I've turned out to be
Fought a battle since I was six years old
Only just found the courage to tell a story I never thought would be told
I have a loving family forever supporting me
Encouraging me to be the best I can be
I have a beautiful fiancée
Who I will love eternally
I may not have had the easiest path to get here
I may have played most of it by ear
But I know I can look back on my past 21 years
Knowing I have worked hard to get here, blood, sweat and tears
Facing many of my fears
Shedding a few tears
Cherishing moments and memories with friends and family
Things I can look back on quite happily
Moved out of my family home
Grown up and created my own
Found a love I never thought I would experience
Finally found my real independence
Looking back there are so many things I am proud of
Looking around me there are so many people that I love
Looking into the future
It's looking like an adventure
Letting go of the past, but it's still travelling with me
Ready to write the next part of my life for everyone to see
Ready to see where this journey will take me
Ready to travel with my friends and family
I haven't written a post about my life in a while, I should probably get back into it. I have all the good intentions of doing it,its just life gets kind of busy sometimes and I forget and then I can't remember what has happened because it all just merges into one.
So I'm going to go all the way back to the beginning of this year at uni which means September 2013 and see how much I can remember. Also I am ill and can't go to work and Katie-Jo is at work and I am very bored. There were a lot of 'ands' in that sentence, oops.
September 2013
I moved back to Bournemouth and into a new house. It was rather exciting... although I think I was possibly more excited about living with Katie-Jo again.
I also enrolled back at uni for the second year of my foundation degree studying Business and Management.
October 2013
I got my first tattoo! It was quite spur of the moment. I got two different song lyrics from two songs which do mean something to me:
'Cause I am a champion & you're gonna hear me roar'
~ and ~
'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'
So it wasn't entirely random. They are on my right arm.
Me and Katie-Jo got together - apparently everyone else saw this happening last year, maybe we should have seen it coming too but neither of us really did. I'm glad that we had the chance last year to get to know each other and become as close as we are (a bit closer now than before) as this gave us both a chance to understand and really get a chance to know each other.
I have never been so in love with anyone and I have definitely never been in a relationship with my best friend.
November 2013
My birthday - I had a wicked birthday seeing in the next decade of my life (I was 20). It wasn't just a day it lasted a whole weekend and I was completely spoilt! - My girl took me out to dinner and down to the beach where we had champagne, some good friends came to stay (Rach, Annie and Aimee) and we all went and saw Jessie J which was incredible. Then we had drinks at our house where another Rach joined us. This is a very brief summary of the weekend but it was amazing and I enjoyed all of it. You can read more about it here and see come photos too [Entering 20 Years of Life]
December 2013
Early Christmas with Katie-Jo - We decided to have an early Christmas together as we weren't going to be together on the actual day. You can read more about it in this post [Early Christmas]
I went back to Cambridge for a very short flying visit to see my family over Christmas.
I then came back to Bournemouth for about 2 hours and then went to Cardiff with Katie-Jo to spend New Year with her and her family.
January 2014
Katie-Jo killed her car on the way back from Cardiff and we had to get rescued by the AA! It was a really sad time although she has now got a new car and I got to name it.... Sonic - it isn't blue... but it does have cup holders.
I started my new job. I had been looking for a job since moving back to Bournemouth in September, I new I had got the job before I went away for Christmas but was really happy to get stuck in and back to working again. I have always enjoyed having a job and earning my own money so it has been great being able to get back doing it!
I got my second tattoo which Katie-Jo paid for as part of my birthday present and she came up with the design for it. I call her my human teddy bear because even before we were together I would always go to her for a cuddle if I was feeling rubbishy and the Welsh word for cuddle is 'cwtch'. The tattoo is more than something because we are together as it is a symbol of our friendship and the support we give to each other too.
I really like it and really like showing it off and explaining the meaning of it to people.
February 2014
Mine and Katie-Jo's first Valentine's Day together. Katie-Jo got me a teddy bear which is a real life teddy version of my tattoo - I really love it!
I told Katie-Jo that I would organise what we would be doing on Valentine's day so this is what I did: I had got her several presents but I wanted to save them for later in the day so I gave her one present, which was a mug, in the morning as she likes to have a cup of tea which I made for her and then we both had to get ready to go out as she had uni and I had some shopping to get done quickly. It was chucking it down with rain so when I got back from shopping I looked like a drowned rat.
I started cooking out dinner which was a slow cooked beef roast dinner. Once I had the basics done for that I started decorating the spare bedroom (which was originally Katie-Jo's room before we were together). This is how it turned out:
I also got four heart balloons for her:
Enjoy these other pictures from our day together:
All in all I think I pulled off the surprise of the room pretty well and she seemed to like her presents as much as I love my teddy bear! We definitely had an amazing day together and I can't wait for Valentine's Day next year... already!
...And now we are nearly in March! These past few months have flown by! So we have been so busy. We're going to have a flying visit to Cambridge next week, Katie-Jo is going to meet my family for the first time, we're going to London to watch the Wales vs England six nations game and we're going to Cardiff for Mother's day weekend. All of that is just what we have planned for March.
It's all so exciting & now you are all caught up too! I'm currently off work ill today, and tomorrow as a virus seems to have decided its enjoying taking up residency in my body. Me and Katie-Jo are going to watch the two six nations matches when she gets home from work (hopefully I can stay awake this time).
Until this year I haven’t had one of those birthdays where you can look back and say ‘that was my best birthday yet.’ I was gutted on my 18th because I was ill, my other birthdays have been alright/good but nothing really happened that made them stand out… my birthday this year topped them all.
My birthday started on the 7th and didn’t finish until the 11th!
Katie-Jo surprised me on the Thursday with dinner at an Italian restaurant, then champagne on the beach and she also gave me my present. We had a really good evening and it was just really good to spend time together. – To be honest that would have been more than enough to celebrate my birthday!
On Friday me and Katie-Jo decorated the house with balloons and banners, ready for Rachael R, Annie and Amiee to arrive. Katie-Jo did more of the decorating and I did more directing. We went and picked Rachael up from the train station and went into ASDA then we tried to leave but the car park was jammed and so we ended up picking Annie & Aimee up at the same time. We all chilled out for a bit and had a few drinks.
Saturday was my actual birthday! It was a ridiculously wicked day. I started the day off by opening my card and presents from my family, then some balloons arrived from Katie-Jo and then she made me breakfast. Once the girls woke up they gave me cards and some chocolates. We all chilled out for a bit and then got ready to go and see Jessie J. We queued for Jessie J for an hour or so, which seemed like forever but was totally worth it because Jessie J was sick! We went and got McDonalds and then spent forever trying to find a taxi, when we finally found one we were basically half the way home, and the dude didn’t even take us all the way home! We met Rachael D at home and she gave me my present (a onesie and a cuddly Alien from Toy Story) we all had drinks and it ended up being a really wicked night.
On Sunday, Rachael left and we took Rachael to the train station. Me and Katie-Jo went to ASDA to get some stuff so that we could all have a roast dinner. We spent the rest of the day chilling out and I made a roast dinner for everyone… Which took a while to cook. We then finished the day off by playing Cardiff Monopoly.
Then on Monday, Annie and Aimee left and my new laptop arrived.
All in all it was a wicked weekend, and I really enjoyed it.
Well I haven't written anything on this blog since I actually moved in, what has happened since then.
EVERYTHING.
Quite literally, so much has happened. But at the same time it feels like not a lot has happened. Crazy really, just saying!
Well freshers has quite obviously ended and I have been chucked into the student world of being broke and having to amuse myself. I have learnt what my housemates are really like once you get to know them, first impressions aren't always right!
I have started writing this with no idea of where it is going, the main reason I have found myself back at this blog is because everyone in my house has gone to bed, at 11pm, on a Friday night!
So lets see what comes to mind from the first few months of uni and I'll see if I can find pictures & videos to illustrate the awesomeness of what has happened in my life as a student. (they probably won't be in order of when they happen)
So after we all moved in we had a roast dinner cooked by yours truly:
As you can see everyone looks really happy an not at all worried about the food they are about to consume!
We are obviously the most awesome students in the whole of Bournemouth and decided to 'bond' over a few games of Jenga as a result of the internet not working properly:
Again everyone looks extremely happy to be here (particularly Katie-Jo the one holding the Jenga block). The boys look slightly less enthusiastic about everything that is happening, the photo being taken, the fact the internet wasn't working, they had to speak to people, and the fact we were playing Jenga.
I tend to find myself having a lot of energy to burn (I guess I'm just one of those people who can entertain themselves with virtually anything):
This was known as 'the duvet of death' Katie-Jo has come to realise by now, I hope, that you tend to just go with my mood when I am this hyper. I have no idea where the whole idea for this came from but it sort of just happened.
On the same day I proceeded to go on holiday on the landing. Now the landing has come to be quite a special place not only have I 'gone on holiday' here but I have also made a dessert and became homeless here:
Me and Scott broke up. - That happened.
Katie-Jo fell through a chair, quite literally:
The concentration on her face as she tries to fix it is something else!
Sadly Katie-Jo seems to have become the person who is with me when I am trying to occupy myself:
Yes, I did tape her hands together. It's okay I let her go after...
It snowed:
Me, Ryan, Katie-Jo and Chris made a snowman and Ryan made the snow dog.
We went house hunting, Katie-Jo drove us to the viewings:
As you can see, I called shotgun, I'm not as stupid as I look.
The occasional sunny day:
I like this photo so I thought it illustrated that after it snowed we had a sunny day.
Me and Katie-Jo like to have adventures when we have had a drink, we dragged Dylan with us on this occasion.
We like to wear our onesies when we go out.
We kidnapped Claire, Dylan's girlfriend.
We met these two people (Lily and Liam - I think?!) and went to a houseparty for all of 5 minutes with them then went to the beach.
We paddled in the sea.
We made pancakes, twice...
This is Ryan. Ryan is eating a pancake.
I have travelled to and from Cambridge several times to visit my family.
Clearly I enjoyed this journey!
It was Rachael Day (NOT VALENTINE'S DAY)
I made her a cake. - Doesn't she look happy?!
Valentines Day (Rachael Day) meant more mischief:
Me and Katie-Jo gatecrashed Dylan's date.
This is proof that I do cook things from scratch:
In fact, that day we had just been for a walk to the beach (we may or may not have taken a detour as a result of my excellent navigational skills) and I cooked me and Katie-Jo a roast dinner.
This was taken once we had arrived at the beach! It was sunny when we left the house, it wasn't as sunny when we reached the beach.
There are loads more pictures but I shall add these another time, it is tiring looking through photos. I need to sleep. For a long time. I am student - I am allowed to.
- Esjae xo
Ps I fall off things a lot:
*Please note we were all sober when this happened.*
