In an effort to inject some positivity into my daily mindset and the online world I have created a Daily Gratitude Challenge and I am inviting everyone to participate. If you have missed my introductory post that explains the challenge and maps out the daily post schedule, visit here.
Day 25 of the Daily Gratitude Challenge is about showing gratitude to others. Continue reading
I’m serving some ‘food barrel realness’ after consuming more than my entire bodyweight in Toblerone, cheese, crisps, dip, honey roasted peanuts and potatoes over the last few days. I always find it incredulous how quickly the Christmas Eve / Christmas Day period actually goes, especially with the hype and the level of preparation that goes into the weeks (and sometimes, months) leading up to it, and yet it is already over for another year, seemingly in the blink of an eye.
Our Christmas was spent at home with the cat. I had planned our eating and viewing schedule and got most of the food ready in advance, and for the most part, it all went very well. Continue reading
Photo by Duncan Walker
Last weekend was the fourth Annual Bloggers Bash, which was held in London. It had been nearly a year in the planning and on Saturday morning a whole bunch of bloggers descended on the George IV pub in Chiswick. Continue reading
There’s an awesome quote that appeared on Pinterest a little while ago by Colette Werden:
‘It’s ok if you fall down and lose your spark. Just make sure that when you get back up, you rise as the whole damn fire…’
This. This is what I needed to remember last week, and that’s exactly what I did. I’ve got into the habits of doing smaller jobs every day, but this week I was feeling particularly fired so up decided to throw myself at much larger tasks and goals. As a result, my mind feels clearer, my space is tidier, my blog stats are up, I’ve lost 5lbs and I have a whole list of positive things that will be happening in the future (no, I’m not pregnant before everyone starts freaking out). Continue reading
It’s been a busy few weeks. With a mixture of supply, invigilating GCSE examinations, freelance music, social media management and time spent with family and friends, every day has been different. I went to visit Squidge a little while ago, who is now nearly five months old and stayed with each family member so I had a chance to catch up with everyone, continued with my wedding planning, I have met up with friends for lunch and at the weekend I crashed an 18 year old’s birthday party, which at 35 years old felt a little silly, but it turned out to be a fantastic night. Continue reading
Today marks the four year anniversary of Suzie Speaks.
Four years, 838 posts (if you don’t count the hundreds that I’ve deleted), a collective following of nearly 19,000 people, nearly 780,000 views, the biggest blogging hashtag of the weekend, an amazing Facebook group and three awards.
Since starting the blog I have quit my job, got engaged, gained a brother-in-law and gorgeous squidgy niece, travelled, attended events, reviewed everything from restaurants and cocktail bars to theatre shows, hotels and products, made a whole bunch of new friends and experienced things that I could only have dreamed of in what I consider to be my previous life. What an unbelievable journey.
The blog began as a simple online journal – an outlet to try and calm the stress and anxieties I was experiencing at the time. There were no expectations or dreams, just a desire to write. However, as my blogging knowledge grew, I found a community, started to develop promotional strategies, learned a great deal about social media and, as a result, now have a whole list of things that, if I could go back and start again (not that I would want to, mind you), I would do differently. Continue reading
Image: Chris Barker (@christhebarker)
I sit here on New Year’s Eve, waiting for evening to start and the chimes of Big Ben to invite 2017 in. We have done the exact same thing as we did twelve months ago – we’ve had our own little buffet of snack foods, during which we have eaten far more than either of us should have done, I’m sitting in the exact same spot, watching The Bloke quietly snoozing on the other side of the couch, and judging by the photographs I took, I’m even wearing the same jammies as I did last year.
And yet, the world seems a very different place than it did a year ago. We’re no longer part of Europe. We have a new Prime Minister. The middle-eastern crisis is worse than ever. The daily news seems to have been filled with hatred, war, poverty and hardship. President Elect Donald Trump is getting ready to move into the White House. We have lost some of the greatest actors, musicians, sportspeople, comedians, writers and talented human beings that ever walked the earth. I did make a ridiculous attempt to document exactly who had passed away this year, but nothing that I could produce is more effective by the Sgt. Pepper inspired image, created by British artist Chris Barker (@christhebarker). And sadly, he’s had to add even more over the last few days with the loss of George Michael, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Continue reading
I always find this a strange time of year – between the two main celebrations. Christmas is over but the decorations are still up, the turkey has been eaten but the party plans are being made, the sales have hit but everyone is broke…
I’ve taken a few days to try and catch up a bit and yet seem to have made little progress. Christmas was nice – we sat around the table and ate the food that my VERY heavily pregnant sis and my brother-in-law cooked, accompanied by a crying Dougal (my other sister’s pug), who looked very fetching in his Christmas jumper. We had races with the wind-up penguins that were in our crackers, then sat and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon while the dog fell asleep on my mum’s lap.
It’s 7.30am and I’m on a train up north to spend Christmas with my family. I feel like I’ve written that sentence so many times…
I discovered that tickets to Manchester – my usual destination – were really expensive and there were no connecting trains to Bolton, so I managed to bag one to Wigan instead for £8.50. The only trouble is, it was at 6.15am. It’s worked out well so far – there’s a storm set to hit the north later on this morning, by which time I should be happily relaxing in my jammies at my Mum’s house. The carriage is pretty much empty, so I’ve taken advantage of that and sat at a table with a power socket to charge my phone. There’s the usual whinging toddler (“But whyyyyy? Nooooooo, I don’t want that! Muuuuuum I waaaaant thaaaaat”) so I’ve put my headphones in and am listening to The Backstreet Boys. They’re not normally my travel music of choice, preferring 80’s rock anthems usually, but it feels like a Backstreet Boy kind of day. Continue reading
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that it is an absolutely glorious day here. The sun is shining, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and it’s beautifully hot – the start of what is predicted to be another heatwave. Good. I love the sun – we seem to spend months on end in the cold, rain and dark in the UK, so any change in the weather is always welcome (although I know that after a few days there will be a number of miserable people who have had enough – us Brits always like to complain about something!). I’ve taken the opportunity to appreciate it already this morning by going for a walk, the cats are indulging in a lazy snooze in the sun and The Bloke has taken himself off to one of the main parks in the city with his camera to go and bother some squirrels. I have given him the nickname of ‘Walker the Squirrel Stalker’ – he has some amazing pictures of them… in their hundreds…
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve had a fabulous week – one that I can look back on with a genuine smile. Continue reading
Suzie Speaks 
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