'Little Treasures': April 2014

(None of these pictures stayed where the fuck they're meant to, so I apologise if the formatted is completely unreadable)

As some of my readers may know, or if I even have any readers, from the 7th - 10th April I was in Scotland with my 'twitter friends.' I actually have stayed in one of their houses, slept on their sofa, used their toilet and shower, spoken to her parents and stroked her dogs. Looking back on it now that seems so surreal seen as just over a year ago I never knew any of these wonderful people existed.

A quick selfie me & Becca took on the train

So it all started on the Monday. My alarm was set for the ridiculous time of five in the morning, allowing me a couple of hours to get to Euston station for my 7.30 train to Glasgow. I think I was a little loud getting ready to walk out of the door as I actually woke my mum up, but that was all good as she was adamant she was going to drop me to the train station. Half way there I realised I'd forgotten my hairbrush, meaning I would have to buy one. I did not expect the fucker to cost me £6.99 though.

Becca was going to stay with her friend in Scotland on the same day so we arranged it so that even though we weren't staying in Scotland together we could get the same train so we'd spend a couple of hours chatting and catching up. We were actually chatting about Lancaster, and wondering where things were situated and a man obviously heard us and insisted that Becca look at the map on his phone to help her understand the surroundings better so that was quite amusing. Our train got in at just gone mid day and we bidded farewell. We're seeing eachother in May for McBusted so that should be fun!

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Hazel.. you know the one that lives in Scotland... she thought that there was only one Glasgow airport... Guess what happened?

SHE ARRANGED TO MEET LAURA AND APRIL FROM THE AIRPORT AND WENT TO THE WRONG ONE. So that left me and Sam to make our way to Stirling so that all three of them could met us and Hazel's mum could take us 'home'

April cutting her cake :)

God, I've been in Hazel's car numerous times... just realised. We even made a little stop off to Tesco on the way back so that we could purchase a little birthday cake for April's 20th for later on in the evening. How she didn't know what we were up to I will never know. "Sammy can come in, April you have to stay here bye."

So after all the dramas, we got back to Hazel's house around 2.30ish and started to unpack and get settled in, even opening some presents that our friend from France, Krystel had sent us. Bless her :)

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I was shit.

I am labelled the organised one, so even though I had never been to Scotland in my life, and Hazel doesn't like deciding I actually made a plan of what we were going to do on Monday evening. I decided that even though we'd met before, we were all still a little shy and quiet then a game of bowling and a Chinese buffet would probably help us to get close again. Nothing beats a bit of friendly competition.

I was adamant that I was going to win...

I didn't win....

Laura enjoying her Chinese with her chopsticks

April... the twenty year old Irish girl who had never picked up, let alone threw a bowling ball in her life beat me. I decided that she was no longer my friend. I have never seen someone so close to actually hitting the skittles on the lane NEXT TO US, actually win a match.

Anyway, we were all in good spirits after the bowling, next stop was the Chinese buffet. I think Laura would chose a Chinese buffet over life if she had the choice.

I've never seen a non-Asian person love the Chinese cuisine as much as this girl. Krystel had hilariously bought Laura some chopsticks, which she happened to take everywhere with her throughout the trip, constantly asking Sam "do you have my chopsticks?"

Scotland group photo

Side note: Every single thing we did on this trip, the chopsticks were there with us.

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We decided that we would have an early night seen as everybody had been up quite a number of hours, so we went home, lit April's birthday cake and ate some, and played a couple of card games and went to sleep ready for what tomorrow would bring.

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Me & April :)

Waiting to go in :)

We all woke up some what refreshed on Tuesday morning, still not overly sure what to do. After some debating and some amazing ham rolls courtesy of Allison, we decided to go on a ghost hunting tour later that night, but sadly this was completely fully booked. Therefore, in the end we opted to spend a day at the local safari park, booking our tickets online to save some money. In all honesty, I'm from London so nothing can really beat Colchester or London zoo, so I wasn't expecting much. But I was actually pleasantly surprised, they had animal shows, viewing platforms for the more dangerous animals, a little play area, food and drink stands and even little vans that take you around the safari bit if you didn't drive. Blair Drummonds Safari helped us bond even more, laughing with each other and taking lots of photos. Sammy even managed to almost fall into the boating lake, and we had to grab her to help her, that's a memory I'll never forget. We also saw a sea lion show, which although some people wouldn't agree with training a sea lion it's amazing how clever these animals are and the sea lion actually looked like she was enjoying herself splashing the audience and showing us what she can do.

Watching the sea lion :)

Boating lake :)

Me, Laura & Alpaca [James]

Hazel's mum was determined that we HAD to go to Lemur land. When she went last time she was surrounded by so many lemurs. We went to Lemur land... and saw four fucking lemurs. Four. We had more fun kicking a stone along the floor than spending time with the four lemurs.
We also had some amazing doughnuts, although one of Laura's did end up on the floor.

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We didn't have anything planned for Tuesday night so we decided to just have a little walk around Hazel's home surroundings. Even if you hate tennis, you can't go to Dunblane and not go and see Andy Murray's postbox for when he won gold at the Olympics so we went to see that. We also went to a park, like the children we are and went on the swings, slides and a roundabout. Hazel got the Irish to try Irn Bru, and I still think the stuff is rank. All in all it was a great day and I thorough enjoyed myself. We finally got home about 11 and ate a jacket potato...

Me & Hazel :)

Post box :)

Swings :)

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We were woken up on Wednesday by quite loud barking dogs, quite early in the morning. But then again, it was our last full day together so we thought we'd make the most of it. We were planning to do mini/crazy/adventure golf, but every café we rang up didn't have a course. So in the end we ended up doing actual golf for some unknown reason... We ended up at Stirling University and a couple of times I heard London accents walk past me which was nice. It was actually a really nice university with lovely grounds and lots of buildings. So basically, we were shit, I don't think any of us completed a hole in less than 5 hits and I think my record was potting a ball in about 15... golf isn't my strong point. We took nice pictures though...

Sammy & April :)

Me & Sammy :)

Hazel juggling :)

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Hazel's mum cooked us a lovely curry for dinner (I had to awkwardly ask for no rice though, so I got a naan instead) and it was so, so nice. We then decided that we would do a very normal friend outing and go to the cinema together to see Divergent. The time we wanted was fully booked though, so we ended up booking one for an hour later and spending the next few minutes in McDonalds, eating McFlurrys. I tried the crème egg one, and it was so yummy. I actually want another one typing this.

Me & Laura in McD's

We took the sweets that Krystel bought us to the cinema, but they were eaten before the film had even started, so I ended up eating alot of April's popcorn. The film was good, although I didn't 100% understand it but the main male character was a SHIFT. I'd let him control me anyday...

When the film finished it was a very surreal experience. I actually looked across from me expecting to see Alice, Rachel and Nicole...

After the let down of the ghost experience the night before, it seemed a good idea to make our own ghost tour and walk around the local woods at midnight. Now yes I am 22, but I hate the dark, I never walk the streets later than about 10, so it was such a weird experience. I haven't even told my mum that we did this as she'd go mental. My boots were covered in mud, I was cold and I was being led down a very black alleyway... The girls are madzers.

This was our last day together and although everybody was tired we ended up being idiots and taking unattractive photos of us all on the floor and eating doritos at 2.30 in the morning...

Believe it or not this is the most decent one..

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We all woke up Thursday relatively sad that our time together had come to an end so quickly. I honestly had such an amazing time in Scotland. Hazel's mum is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She told us that "Everything is yours, help yourself" and even said "please come back." The train station goodbye was horrible; there were tears and very long hugs, far more longer than the goodbyes at Blackpool.

The four and a half hour train journey was so worth it, because I got to spend an amazing few days with friends I truly believe I will have in my life for the foreseeable future. We may not live close, but we keep in contact constantly and Scotland is a memory I will never ever forget. I love you all and hopefully see you all in the summer!

Below are a few more random snaps: