Hello!

I hope you're all doing well, I know it's been a while since I last posted anything here. If you didn't know, I started a new blog over at A Gentle Gail. I'll be posting about sustainabiltity, conservation and environmentalism over there, but I thought I'd keep this blog to talk about the fun and dorkier things in my life!

As always, there's been a few new developments in my life. I won't go into detail about them all in this post, I feel like a lot of what I do ends up being a yearly summary. Instead, I thought I'd let you know about a new hobby I took up in January. Dancing! But not just any dancing. Ballet and Hip Hop/Commercial.

Life update And Isolation

Hello!

So, I have a couple of other posts in the works at the moment but I've been struggling with writing them. It's not because I don't want to or that I'm not excited about them, it's just that I'm not in the right headspace at the moment.

A few things happened since the last time we talked.

In my last post, about Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, I opened up by talking about having a catch up post in the 'near future'. Here I am, 8 months later to finally tell you what's been going on.

Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre

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Long time no see! I've had a lot going on and I haven't had the time to blog much recently, but I'm hoping to turn that back around! I will have a wee catch up post at some point in the near future, but first I wanted to tell you about a trip I went on a few months ago with my mum. (slightly picture heavy)

It Never Left.

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A few years ago, I wrote a blog post titled "Two Weeks Anxiety Free", and another, more recently called "A Talk About Anxiety", and both of those posts were basically me talking about how I managed to finally beat my anxiety, and praising myself and talking about how adopting a positive mental attitude helped me. How changing my mind from 'what ifs' to 'just do its' drastically improved my fears and stuff like that. Which is all true. I still think positively, if I think 'if i do this', I will immediately shake my head and correct myself with 'when I do this'. I'm doing everything right. I've fought against anxiety for most of my life.

Matched | Series Review

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So, while I'm not a book blogger, I did write a quick review about the Noughts and Crosses series a few years ago. I struggle to concentrate on reading books, and it's something that I've been really upset about, because I can't join in with people when they talk about the books that they've read and enjoyed. Until a month ago, when I downloaded Audible. (Not Sponsored). I listened to Eve of Man, first, which I really enjoyed and I'm now desperate for the sequel to come out! But after that... I wasn't sure. Until I saw somebody (I'm sorry, I can't remember who), tweet about the Matched series by Ally Condie.

Struggling To Land A Job In Your Chosen Field? Here's What To Do!*

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The following post is a guest post from Scotland Jobs, a part of the CV-Library group. CV-Library are the UK's leading independent job's board. The topic for this post has been chosen by myself because it's a topic that I'm, personally, really struggling with, and I thought it might be something that some of you might find beneficial as well. As I'm sure you read from my last post, I'm currently on a job search and I needed some guidance on how to get where I want to be, or to even just find where I want to be in the first place! So, I hope you enjoy this post, be sure to check CV-Library out, and have a look at their career advice and recruitment insight pages if you need any more expert, or workplace advice. I'll see you next time! Be excellent to each other.

My Worst 24 Hours

Hello.

To start with, I'm not going to name the company who are at fault, mostly because at the point of writing this blog post, I'm still dealing with them and due a full refund. But I will say that when I booked with them, it was through a website offering the best deal, and they begin and end with an A. It's also not a common website, because I hadn't heard of it before that time. But upon further research (which I should have done before booking) they have a lot of bad reviews for fucking people over. I took a risk, and it wasn't worth it.

Teide By Night

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I've always been fascinated by the sky, the stars and what might be out there. It's so endless, and when the stars are shining against the dark sky, I'm mesmerised. Something that I've always wanted to do for a date is to go stargazing. I've also been fascinated by volcanoes from a young age. So, when I found an excursion in Tenerife that included stargazing and a three course meal ON TOP OF A VOLCANO, you can bet that I was all about that! And yes, I went myself.

So, this excursion was called Teide by Night, and as the name suggests, it was a trip up Mount Teide during the night time. As I'm sure you read in my review-y of TUI post, I booked my excursion through my TUI rep after I'd been walking about with my mum to get food and noticed an advert for it. The excursion itself cost me about 85 euros and I went on the tour on Tuesday 8th May this year.



Mid afternoon, I had to walk to a local hotel which was my pick up point in Playa de Las Americas, where I was the only one at that specific stop. My tour guide was Julien and the driver was Leoncio. There was one final stop in Adeje, then, once we were all picked up, we made our way up the mountain, taking a pit stop at a local restaurant to stretch our legs.

Along the way up the volcano, we stopped at a variety of view points, and were given information about Tenerife (80% of the economy is services) and information about the volcano (the Canarian pine tree, that grows on the mountain, can survive forest fires, such as the 2012 fire.) We were told about the variety of different plants on the island. Among that information, we were told about Carmine, as well as what it looked like. Carmine is most commonly known as a food colouring ingredient which is derived from crushed insects. It's used in a lot of red sweets, like red M&Ms as well as in strawberry ice cream, and a variety of makeup as well. It's very commonly used.



At all the view points, there was the chance to take photos, and Julien would also go around and offer to take photos for you. I, of course, took these as opportunities to take photos of my Bill and Ted figures, which is apparently a very common thing to do. (Not with Bill and Ted though.) As it got closer to the evening, we arrived at the restaurant (ON TOP OF THE VOLCANO) where we had our 3 course meal. Because I'm vegetarian, I had vegetable soup, vegetable lasagne and a desert. It was a closed menu and everyone else had chicken or pork instead of the lasagne.

I was sat alongside 3 other couples, who were all really lovely. There was also a really great atmosphere, and the walls were decorated purple with stars with the Teide by Night signage. When I finished my meal, I took a walk to the gift shop and bought myself a hoodie because I didn't think my fleece would keep me warm enough under the cloudless sky.



What I haven't yet mentioned is that you can go on this tour at any time, because you go above the clouds (in fact, you actually get to see the sea of clouds). There's an observatory there, and after the restaurant, during sunset, you get taken slightly higher, get given a blanket and a glass of cava, and get to watch the sunset. It's kind of a surreal experience, because how often can you say 'oh yeah, I watched the sunset ABOVE THE CLOUDS.'?! It was truly something else. After this, we went back to the restaurant, got a hot drink, waited for it to get darker, and then went stargazing.



There's not too much to talk about for this, except to say that Julien was really knowledgeable about the stars, and pointed out all the constellations and the planets you could view. He answered everyone's questions they had about when you could see certain constellations and repeated what he'd said to anybody that couldn't hear him the first time. When we got back on the bus, he gave us all a sweet and a little flyer that featured all the main constellations (where everybody immediately looked for their star sign. Me included.)

Overall, it was an incredible experience, even if it was long and tiring, and I really want to go back and experience it again. Hopefully next time I can get to go with a friend so that I can share the experience with somebody!

Have you ever been on this excursion, or have you ever gone star gazing? Let me know!

Until next time, be excellent to each other.

My Experiences With Other Bill And Ted Fans

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I am a really big Bill and Ted fan (duh), but many of the people I meet have no idea what the films are, what they're about and they've never watched them (enter: Gail). However, that isn't to say that they aren't a pop culture classic. There have been numerous times in my life where I've had a random encounter with a fellow Bill and Ted fan, and so I thought a little post talking about some of those encounters would make a really fun post!

Colon 2 | Hotel Review

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Last week I wrote a post about my experience with TUI, and I mentioned that I was going to write a post about the apartments we stayed at. The TUI post itself was quite a long on and I thought this would be a better way to shorten, or break up the posts for everyone. I didn't write anything about the apartment I stayed at in Lanzarote but I was really impressed by Colon 2, so thought I'd write a little something.

A Review-y Of TUI

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I recently took a family holiday to Tenerife with my mum, brother, grandad and uncle in order to celebrate both my grandad's 75th and my uncle's 50th birthdays. Last time I flew to the canary islands was to Lanzarote with Thomas Cook, but this time I flew with TUI.

Why I Love... Georgia Jones

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Two years ago, I wrote a post about anxiety, and in particular, the story that Danny Jones told to London Real, and about how much it resonated with me. If you want to give that one a read, then click here! It's a long one, so make sure you're settled down with a cuppa.

Fast forward to now, and he and his wife, Georgia have had a little boy named Cooper, and ever since finding out about her pregnancy, I've been watching her Instastories religiously, and there are a few reasons why I love her so much. So, making a slight change into my "Why I Love..." series, here are 5 reasons Why I Love... Georgia Jones.

4Ocean

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Today I wanted to write a little post about the company 4Ocean. If you watch my instagram stories, you may have seen me talk a little about them a few weeks ago, but I wanted to write about it to be able to tell you a little bit more, and a bit more coherently.

A Reintroduction

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I feel like I've made a few of these posts in the past. Normally I write them when I've taken a break from blogging for a little while and this is no different.

So, hello there. My name is Gail. I'm 24 years old and I live in Scotland. I began this blog in 2014, and began using it more, and really began to get invested, in December 2015. The blog began as I watched my friend, hannah's, blog grow and grow. Her blog was, and remains a fashion blog, and so I tried my hardest to do the same. I'm not a fashion blogger.

An Excellent Cinematic Experience

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I love Bill and Ted. They're my favourite films, that's not a surprise to anyone. I use the phrase 'Be Excellent To Each Other' at the end of all my posts and I even have it tattood on my wrist. I have an instagram travel account where I post photos of my pop vinyl figures in a variety of places, including around where I live, other areas of the UK, France and Lanzarote. Hopefully there'll be more in the near future (I'm still dreaming of Hawaii). I quote the films all the time and everyone that I know now associates B&T with me. The films mean the world to me, and they were what helped me through my worst depression - during my high school years. I still struggle with depression, but being able to watch Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey definitely help to relax me.

My Interrail Experience

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I promised that I'd finally get my interrail post up! I'm really sad that this will be my last proper France post :( There's not a whole lot more that I can really talk about during my time in France but if you have any ideas or things you want me to talk about that I haven't mentioned then please let me know either in the comments or on one of my social medias!

My Experience With Life Coaching

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Okay, so I didn't get my interrail post live last Saturday like I thought I would, and in fact, I didn't get any post live on Saturday at all so I'm really sorry about that. That post will still be going live in the next week or so (for real this time) so still stay tuned for that!

For today's post, however, I thought I'd talk a little more about a situation I've mentioned in the past, especially in my mental health posts, and that's about my experience with life coaching.

My 24th Birthday

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Sooooo... No more France travel posts then. At least, no more until I go to France again. I'm actually quite sad about that, and worried because that means that I'll need to start thinking more about what kinds of posts to... Post. I will also admit that I took a teeny tiny lie in my last post as well when I said it was the final 'interrail' post because I do have to write about my experience of interail. Hopefully that will go up on Saturday, so keep an eye out! I digress...

Paris | Gail's Interrail Adventure

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This is the next, and final, instalment of the Gail’s Interrail Adventure series, and this one is all about Paris. To be kept up to date on what I’ve been up to, click here for my couchsurfing experience, here for Toulouse, here for Menton/Monaco, here for Grenoble, here for Lyon and here for my Versaillesphotopost.

Chateau de Versailles | Photopost | Gail's Interrail Adventure

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Bit of a late one this Tuesday, my laptop has been playing up a bit so it's not been easy getting this up on time. Also, I'm going to be 24 tomorrow. What. That's come way too fast, I don't feel 24 yet. Help.

Anyway, I'm sure by now you're all avid readers of my couchsurfing and interrail posts. If you've not caught up yet, I went to Toulouse, Menton/Monaco, Grenoble and got lost in Lyon for a few hours before I arrived in Paris (The next post!). On day one of Paris, I decided to take a trip to Versailles.