Tam O'Shanter Farm

Hello everyone,

So yesterday I went to Tam O'Shanter Farm in the Wirral. I went with Dale and Noah and we had a really good day, considering it was a bit of an unorganised adventure, we didn't really know where we were, where we were going but we got on a bus, got off and followed signs.

We saw two goats like this one which were so lovely. This one was actually pregnant so she'll be expecting a little kid soon!

We saw a pen full of chickens, hens, roosters etc which were very entertaining to watch.

Firstly, pigs are my favourite. Secondly, pigs are so much fun!

Yes, that is a pig smelling a tree.

Look at that little face!

This bird was so cool! Although its got ths hairstyle of a 65 year old woman, its still the best hair style I've seen on a bird before!

This was a painting in the café at the farm of all the animals that I was so impressed with!

It was overall a really lovely day and the sun came out for us later on!

The farm is so lovely and it's an urban farm which means it is run and funded by charitable trusts. They have pigs, horses, goats, ducks, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, all of which you can get close enough to, to see them.

The farm is very family friendly and welcome dogs as long as they're kept on leads. Another great benefit of this farm is that admission is free but they welcome donations to help the farm.

I would definately recommend visiting if you're around the Wirral/Birkenhead area, whether it be with kids, for a day out, or for a walk.

You may notice the severe lack of photos than the usual anount I upload in a blog post. Well, I'll tell you exactly why that is. I decided I'd do some filming and shoot a little video during the day. This is something new I'm trying when I visit places and hopefully my videomaking skills will improve as I do it more.

You can find the video on my YouTube channel, I have linked it here for you to easily click on and go and view it.

This is something a little bit different, but I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you soon

VW Festival 2016

Well hello there! 

This is the first time you're hearing from me since returning home from London and I must say, I have enjoyed being home! While I haven't been particularly busy, you can expect some posts to follow today's. Yay!

So if you've been a regular reader of  my blog over the past year-or-so, you'll know that I went to the Volkswagen Festival last year. Well it's that time again!

The VW Festival is held in Leeds at Harewood House and this year it was between the 12-14 of August. Last year it was a beautiful sunny day but this years event brought slight rain showers which didn't give as good an atmosphere. But less of the bad vibes, here's some photos from the day.

This was the first cute little Volkswagen van that I saw when I got there. It was converted into a ice cream van and decorated with pale pink and white bunting.

This was a really cool converted boot of a car, for any Jack Daniels or Kraken Rum fans, you'll be impressed with this. 

P.s. they do work!

These colourful cars were amazing. I particularly like that they are block coloured across the front, top and body of the car.

This is the view, similar from a picture on last years post, from the top of a hill of Harewood House.

Patriotic, I know.

Of course, Herbie was there again, this year.

The fancy dress theme that they had this year was 'Circus' and the graffiti tent had this cool art on the walls.

These guys were spraying the side of a van which we saw the beginning of in the graffiti tent. We went back later on to see the final result...

Wow! They're so talented! I was so impressed!

Harewood House have Penguins as part of their Zoo so we had a walk around and looked at them for a while and then walked through the bird enclosures to the other side by the farm.

They had really cute goats, two of which I took pictures of (above). 

This was the full two-part enclosure for these animals. on the far side were goats and an alpaca. On the nearer side, the majority were goats. The also had a donkey, which was too far away and facing the opposite way for me to take a picture. However, if you have (really, really) good eyesight, the donkey is way in the distance by the shed on the far right of the picture.

These were two cute, lazy pigs, only one moved while we were there and scratched itself against the mesh enclosure it was behind. Also, not a pleasant smell...

I also had an opportunity to relive a childhood memory! I brought some Dairylea Dunkers jumbo tubes with me for lunch which I haven't eaten in about 7 years, so that was an enjoyable experience! I enjoyed them.

I also tried my hand at these circus tricks again like last year, slightly more confidence, I must admit!

And finally, we ended the day watching a bike stunt show. This was so good last year and just as good this year. I love watching Mountain Bike and BMX stunt shows and these guys put on a brilliant show considering the limited performance space they have. They also proceeded with their show, despite having to postpone it several times because of weather conditions.

All round an enjoyable day, despite the weather and also despite not seeing the famous cars from last year, like the Ghostbusters car, the Delorean, the A Team van, and some others.

I recommend it for anyone interested in VW vans or cars and also, there is plenty for younger children to do. For the both years I have attended, they have a circus area where you can practice circus tricks like spinning plates etc, face paints, and fair ground rides. Other than the VW shows, there are stalls to walk up and down and often live music.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed that, I have another post due up soon which I will post towards the end of next week.

See you soon!

Aoife

London: Monday 25th July - Thursday 28th July

Hello, hello, hello, I can't really believe I'm about to say this, but this is the last week of my month-long Internship in London. I have 3 days left in work this week, and the 4th day travelling home, and to be honest, it certainly hasn't calmed down towards the end, I'm still busy, so there's still things for me to write about and share with you.
I have also added in Friday's day just because it was so good so I want to share that too!

I hope you have enjoyed following my journey through a series of blog posts and photos. I hope I have made it as entertaining as possible and I look forward to reading back over them and reflecting on the experience I've had.
This is a pretty emotional moment, where I will say, for the last ever time, let's see what I've been up to this week! 

Monday 25th July

Monday was a generally consistent work day. And by that, I mean I did the same thing all day, which, funnily enough, wasn't anything at all. 

Monday evening was a completely different story. I jumped straight on the bus outside work again, and headed to Covent Garden.

I went and ate in a pub/bar/restaurant type place and had Macaroni and Cheese with Garlic Bread.

After hanging around for an hour or so, I went to see Mamma Mia!! 

Overall it was an enjoyable show, and I was very thankful to have the chance to go, however the second half was significantly better than the first. I don't know if that's generally the case that you find with most shows, but I felt like it could have been more lively and enthusiastic, compared to the slow movement and generally stationary musical numbers. I think it could have worked better with a little bit of dramatic acting/performing the songs. I was disappointed that the actors didnt have the audience very excited the whole way through, which meant during very big songs like Mamma Mia and Dancing Queen, no one danced or even swayed a little bit, except me, but a limited amount so not to distract the people behind me...

The show was only on for approx. 1 hour and a half, not including the interval, and I was home around 10:45.

I had been SO tired all day, I went straight to bed and asleep at 11 to catch up on my sleep.

Tuesday 26th July

Crazy, I know, but on Tuesday I went to Brighton!! Just conpletely randomly got told that "You have to see our Brighton offices!" So away I went, to see our offices in Brighton.

I went to the station about 10am with a colleague and got my ticket, got shown to the platform and away I was sent to catch the train.

An hour and a half later (due to delays) I arrived in Brighton! I headed out of the station with my map, down to the office and "worked" from about 12 until 4. It was way more chilled down there!

Once I got out, I walked straight down to the Seafront. I didn't realise I would be as close to Brighton Pier as I was, and I must say, it was a bit of an emotional moment for me, finally being in Brighton, after wanting to go for so long and finally getting to see the "Brighton Pier" huge sign.

I took some photos along the way as I explored and got some chips on the pier. Which were terrible, they were still like raw potatoes! But they filled a hole to keep me going for a little while as I carried on.

I went for a walk along the Pier and explored what was there, and then on my way back, became dangerously close to a Seagull.

Once I'd seen everything there was down there, I ended up walking around the lanes, which was a purposeful accident. By that, I mean, I decided I wanted to go and find them, but didn't realise I was there after just stumbling across them.

I found a cool little shop that sold prints and merch and poster and tshirts etc, and I got this badge.

Breaking Bad, yes. I also picked up this badge for Dale and got this print for him which I think he'd love. (I can update you on the answer on Thursday so keep reading!)

I had a walk back along the Seafront and up to the Station where I sat and waited for my 6:30pm train.

Once I'd caught my train, it took me about an hour and a half back to London and I jumped on the bus and got back about 8:30.

Wednesday 27th July

Wednesday was my last day in work and it was generally quite a normal day.

I got my last piece of toast and I got a Raspberry Granola Yoghurt.

Once it came to 5 O'Clock, it dawned on me and I felt a little bit like "Oh my goodness, this is the end..." 
After saying my "Goodbyes" and "Thank yous" I headed home for about an hour and then went out to dinner with some family that I have in London, who I have never met before. I did take a photo of my food, but it's disappeared from my phone for some reason, I had a chicken burger, anyway.

They brought me the loveliest little gift and a card. This bracelet with my initial on and a little heart on the other side, so it will always be a little something to think of them from home.

That was such a lovely evening and before I knew it, it was 11pm and I jumped in bed ready for home the next day!

Thursday 28th July

Thursday came around so quickly and I felt a bit sick with nerves and excitement to be going home.

I said my final goodbyes to my home for the past month and left the flat at 9:50 to catch the 10:45 train home.

We had to change which made the journey home 3 and half hours...Is it even that far to drive!?

I got to the train platform at home and it was such a relief.

I seen some family which was great and I didn't expect on my first day home, BUT, the biggest and best surprise that I could never have expected, my parents and brother had redecorated my room while I was away! I finally have the white walls I've always wished for and everything is so beautiful.

For the rest of the night, I just talked after spending a month with limited chances to talk to people! And then before I knew it, it was time for me to climb into my new bed and sleep my first night back at home.

P.s. Dale loved his Ghostbusters print!

Friday 29th July

So on Friday morning I had an orthodontist appointment, which lasted about 5 minutes, and then I went to an exhibition that was being held in the Cumard Buildings by the waterfront in Liverpool. It was called The Jam: About The Young Idea and loving their music and that era, I had an amazing time!

I had such a good time and bought an About The Young Idea newspaper that had been put together specifically for the exhibition.

I would recommend anyone who is a fan or who is interested in going, to definately go, you pay an entrance fee of about £5 or £10 (depending on peak times) but if you think you would like it, it's on until September 25th and it's worth it!

I then went for something to eat with my Dad and came home to visit people who hadn't seen me since I'd been home.

And that's it. It's all over and I've successfully completed a whole month Internship in the capital city. It feels pretty surreal that it's happened but I am so grateful that it has.

I have everyone to thank for the experience I've had, my parents for everything they helped with and provided, the people that actually made this happen to get offered this opportunity, the company for willingly taking me in and showing and teaching me so many brilliant things, my friends and family for supporting me in any decision I made and coming to visit while I was away, and lastly, you, for coming here and taking (extensive) amounts of time out of your day to read this blog and follow my journey.

This has been a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Thank you and Goodbye, London! x