February 2015

February 2015 was a little quieter compared to the craziness of February of 2014, marking one year since passing my driving test and getting two jobs, one voluntary. I've come a long way since then and one year on from beginning my voluntary role as a peer mentor I was lucky enough to be nominated and one of three shortlisted for volunteer of the year at the Northumberland's Finest awards. I may not have won but I certainly feel honoured to have been shortlisted and the evening itself was so inspiring, hearing stories from young people doing great things, being acknowledged by the duchess of Northumberland and other people who seemed rather important.

Lets talk about V day, because this year was pretty lovely. Bit of background knowledge, Lee isn't one for flowers or cards. So, this year was different as I woke up to the most gorgeous delivery of roses accompanied by a lil teddy, some chocolates and not one, but two cards! Safe to say I went to work smiling, cringe. I decided to get a little more creative this year and bake him some vanilla cupcakes using my trusty Mary Berry recipe book and I think they went down well, note to self though; don't use those hard edible balls for decoration in future, they hurt your teeth. After work, we made last minute plans with our two friends to double date it at a popular, inexpensive Italians (Sambuca's), surprisingly getting seated and served immediately - it was lovely.

Also in February, I enjoyed learning more about happiness in a new uni module, eating the most delicious chocolate croissant paired with a hot chocolate on return from a cold day at uni, upping my weights at the gym, eating my first Sunday roast in months, finally getting round to getting the last of my Project Life supplies, making enchiladas with Lee and actually eating at the table for once and seeing The Theory of Everything with him one night (I loved it, so thought provoking). I feel as if I did a lot of catching up with friends in February which is always a good thing, I met my mamma in town for lunch during a day of uni presentation prep, caught up with two of my girls on pancake day, which of course meant going for pancakes (Nutella obvs), followed by shopping and more food and even more pancakes on my return home. There was a night out with work, drinks with a group of our friends who hadn't gotten together in a while and last but not least, a major highlight of Feb involved standing metres away from The Script at their show in Newcastle with one of my best friends, it was such a great night, I just love the atmosphere at live shows.

Overall, a very good month. I do want to acknowledge the fact that obviously it's never all perfect, we found out that one of our old friends has passed away which was pretty awful and there was that one day where absolutely everything went tits up, but it's never nice to focus on the negatives so I'll leave it at that. I hope you had a wonderful February.

Rachael x