Book Reviews Feb – May 2018

Again I am behind in posting my reviews, but I didn’t really have a very good few reading months if I’m being honest, I wasn’t really in the reading zone!  Over the last few weeks I have got back in to a reading pattern and I’m hoping to finish the book I’m on now and get onto another

Reading List for Feb was:The Silence Between Breaths, Perfect, Behind Closed Doors and Mum’s List.  Out of these 4 books I read The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe and Perfect by Natasha Friend.  Out of the two books I read in February I would say I preferred the Cath Staincliffe book The Silence Between Breaths, its about Eight people, one deadly secret.
Passengers boarding the 10:35 train from Manchester, Piccadilly to London, Euston are bound for work, assignations, reunions, holidays or new starts, with no idea that their journey is about to be brutally curtailed. I loved how its 8 peoples stories within the book and how they all joined in some way, I thought it was a really good read.

Perfect was ok, it’s about a 13 year old girl who has lost her father and is dealing with what being a teenager as well as imperfections and pressures of teenage years.  I think it would be a good read for a female aged between 10-14 year old and shows how one girl develops compassion for her own and others’ imperfections.

Reading List for Mar to May was:

Looking For Trouble, The Secret and Beneath The Skin.  I’ve read 2 of the 3 books and I’m currently reading Beneath The Skin by Caroline England, I found it hard to get into this book first of all but I stuck with it and its getting quite good.  There is 4 couples in the book and one person within each couple has a past which slowly come out as the story goes on. The main character in the book is Antonia who has a very dark secret which i still to come across.

The Secret by Katerina Diamond is a very good crime book, with a good twist in the story, I couldn’t put it down definitely a page turner!!  Looking for Trouble by Cath Staincliffe is another good crime book, its about a private investigator who gets a job looking for missing school boy who gets mixed up with the wrong crowd.

So that’s my reviews on the books that I have read over the last few months.. If any of my followers interested or want to read any of them, then drop me a comment and I’ll be happy to post them to you, all you’ll need to do is pay the postage which would be £3, sending as a 2nd class parcel.

Hope you guys have all had a fabulous fun filled busy weekend?

Lots of Love

Carina

XxX

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London • Birthday Day Out • September 17

I’m very behind with posting this!! This was back in September 2017!!

My friend and I went to London for the day on Sat 23rd Sept 17, which happened to be my birthday as well!!  We were heading to Borough Market, as neither of us had been before so we started the day off by having brunch at Vinoteca, which is a cute restaurant at London Kings Cross.

We then headed to Borough Market to experience the London Market Vibes, to try and taste difference foods and to have a few drinks while mooching around the market.  There was such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere around with a mixture of different cultures and ethnic groups, it certainly hadn’t lost it spark from the few months before terrorist attacks.  After we finished our mooch round the market we popped into The Market Porter for a couple of cheeky vinos, we then headed back over towards Central London as we were going to Chinatown for Tea.  OMG there was so many to choose from!!!

Below is my #OOTD for 23rd September 2017..

Everything I am wearing in these pictures are from New Look, I wanted a smart but casual look, and if I’m honest I wasn’t sure if I could pull off the look with the bodysuit and tied waist trousers.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this very delayed post!  I am trying to get back into my blogging as I have missed it as a little thing called life has got in the way…

Lots of Love

Carina

XxX

🚨 D E B T 🚨

HONEST POST

I’ve been in debt for as long as I can remember, I’d say from 1998?  Yes I was silly when I was younger, as soon as I was 18 I was ordering from my mums catalog, and then when she wouldn’t let me order I would take one out in my name which was dangerous.  As I would order items try them on at home like them but then never actually wear them so they would just sit in my wardrobe or cupboard.  And by the time I’d thought nah I won’t wear that it was to late to return it so I was stuck with the item.

The problem I have is that money burns a whole in my pocket and when I want something I want it like straight away or within a week or so.  My dad use to always say if you haven’t got the money now then you can’t have it or go out, which I now get but didn’t when I was younger and enjoying the party scene.  I’ll put my hands up and say I have never been good with money, I am a bit better now than I was but still not great and I want to get better, I’ve never had any savings and I can’t save for toffee but again I want this to change I want to start saving. I do have a Savings account with my bank and I have named it ‘What Savings?’ its something that I should start thinking about as I’m not getting any younger, 40 in just over 2 years!!!

But its like people say you can’t take it with you when your gone??

With all my debts, not including a joint loan with a knob of an ex partner I owe just over £7,000 some of you may not think that this is not a lot of debt but to me it is and I do really want rid of it.  I have tried to bury my head in the sand a good few times when it comes to owning up to myself and paying them off, there will be times where I would contact all of my debtors and make an arrangement to make a monthly payment to them and I have all intention of paying each month until the debt is cleared.  I make so many payments then I stop paying and ignore the letters and calls which come with the non payments, yes it’s silly thing to do, as it all goes on my credit file and goes against me.

In Sept 2016 I kept seeing an advert for Clearscore, where you can get your credit report and score for free, so I signed up and thought to myself I need to get my finances and life in some sort of better order than it currently is.  I’m glad I started to get my finances in order as I couldn’t carry on how I was, I wished I had this thought a few years earlier or not not stopped paying after a few months but its just the way it is!

I am currently making payments every month which is taking my debts down slowly, I have a spreadsheet which has what I owe and the monthly amount that is paid, every month I take the current months payment off what I owe so on a month by month basis I see what I owe and also see the total figure coming down slowly.  Once a debt is paid off I would half that payment I made paid and I would then allocate it to another two debts, I would add them to the next two lowest debts so I can get these paid of quicker.  We got a Bonus in this months wage as we hit our target of sales, so I knew what I wanted to do with it, half is going towards a little break away, I have paid off 4 small debts after asking for offer prices if I made a one off payments and the rest I will treat myself to a little something which I’m not quite sure.

So in the last year I have paid off 7 debts, which I am pretty chuffed with, but I still have a way to go but they are being paid of slowly!!  I’m also signed up to a few survey sites to earn some extra cash to help towards paying off my debt and also to help save for my travels!

Do you have any other tips on helping to pay off debts?  Or ways to make extra Pennies?  I’m welcome to any hints and tips from my readers…

Hope you have enjoyed this post, its very open and honest post from me!

Hope you are all having a great weekend 😁

Lots of Love

Carina

XxX

Chapter 5

Seriously thou? How the hell are we into the 5th month.. Please slow down a little

Chapter 4

How can it be April? Three months of 2018 have gone, where have they gone?

Was hoping to see The Boy over the Easter weekend but plans changed, so I’m counting down the days till I do, will be 2 months of not seeing him on the 17th 😢😢.

So what else do I have on this month!? A few days in Berlin with Chezza, so if anyone has any tips on where to go for food & drink or sightseeing fire them at me 📋🌃🙌🏼

Happy Easter 🐰 & Happy April Fools Day 😂

Hope you all have had a great Easter Break.

Lots of Love

Carina

💋

Chapter 3

How is it the 3rd month of 2018 already??  Febuary always tends to go quick with it having less than 30 days, and its the season of Spring from 20th March till 21st June. Yipee!!  Hopefully the sight of better weather, Sunshine☀️, Daffodils, Baby Lambs, Easter 🐰, St Patrick’s Day 🍀, Six Nations 🏉 as well as all the other stuff Spring brings.

Update: Weather has been awful the last few days with The Beast from the East, snow🌨 and bitter cold weather🧣🧤. And I don’t think it’s due to get better over the weekend ☹️

So I wonder what March has install for me?

On the 1st March, TODAY it will be 1 whole year I have been with the Boy, it’s a long distance relationship and it is hard but I’m not sure what we are doing but he has that weekend off so I am hoping he is going to come down or we will go somewhere for a night?  I have about 10 birthdays to get cards and little gifts for, also meeting up with Chezza for an overdue catch up and no doubt there will be food and wine involved, and I’m hoping to go up to Liverpool at the end of the month for a few days to spend some more time with the Boy.

At the moment that is all I have planned but always I’m sure I will be adding to that if monies are friendly to me?

Anyway thats enough waffling from me, hope you have a fantastic March and lots of Fun!  Don’t eat to much chocolate with Easter at the end of March.

Lots of Love

Carina

💋💋

S N O W

Snowy Tuesday Night, 27th February 2018. Secretly hoping it snows more during the night, falls heavier & thicker so no buses run tomorrow so no way of getting to work… A girl can dream right?? 🌨❄️🙏🏼

#TheBeastFromTheEast #SnowDay2018

February 14th ❤️

Happy ❤️ Valentines to all my Followers.

History of Valentine’s: From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. … Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.13 Feb 2011

I’m not really sure how I feel about Valentine’s Day, I mean I don’t hate it and yes it is another money making scheme for companies. 

I do like to get a few silly and sweet gifts for my partner but I don’t go over board.  I would cook a nice meal at home and have a romantic night in, as restaurants do hack the prices up just for one day which I feel is a rip off and wrong?  Don’t get me wrong if the other half was to say babe, get dressed up as I’m taking you out, I wouldn’t say no as it is nice to get wined and dined but surely this can be done anytime of the year why just on February 14th??

Would you say you are more the romantic in your relationship?  Do you pull out all the stops or is it your other half? 😘😘

What are your plans for The Day of Love??  

Hope you all have a L O V I N G L Y ❤️ F A B U L O U S ❤️ D A Y and you get spoilt by your other half.. 

Lots Of Love

Carina

💋💋

New Nails

Lots of Love

Carina

💋💋

Poundland Haul

Was browsing online the other day, as I was trying to get some ideas for little presents for Valentines for The Boy.  I had seen some Valentines bits on various peoples Instagram’s who I follow, I had no idea what I wanted to get, I don’t want to spend anymore than £20.

I thought I’d have a look in Poundland and Poundworld, they had some cute little bits but not much I would get for The Boy, but there was bits that I liked and wanted to buy!!  So after work I popped into Poundland as its literally right outside the bus stop in town, I noticed a LOVE Plaque they had and I had also spotted this on bellatesoriblog Instagram page, and I thought to myself I so want that, so I grab one when I went in.  I also spotted online they had a set of 3 small heart bowls so I picked them up as well , I actually went back on Thursday after work and picked up another set so I have 6, they are really cute.

Poundland have got some nice home bits in at the moment, I also spotted a marble dining set, each item priced at a £1 each so I’m contemplating whether to get six of the mugs, bowls, large plates, small plates and also Tea, Coffee and Sugar canisters.

Poundworld also have some good bits in, these are what I spotted online. I love the mugs and these would be ideal for me and The Boy as he always says I’m the Boss but I tell him he is! I also spotted this Heart frying Pan and LOVE balloon.

Lots of Love

Carina

💋💋