These are a few of my favourite things

So yesterday I had my wonderful family come down to visit me, and the latter part of the visit was spent enjoying Mum's Christmas present, watching The Sound of Music at the Mayflower Theater. I love a good sing song, and musicals are right up my street, so I thought I'd do a blog relating to some of my favourite things. I am going to apologize in advance as this one will contain a list, I know, 'Not another list, this will be the third blog post containing a list'. But my last one didn't! (If you haven't read it yet and you love a bit of Harry Potter then check it out here).

Obviously my favourite things in life are my family, Jay,my friends and so on but that goes without saying, really you want to know about the weird and wonderful things that are my favourite. Well, lets begin. If I had more followers and I was a famous blogger or vlogger then I would have got my fans to ask me some questions, but since that is not the case yet I'll just imagine what I would be asked.

1. What is your favourite colour?Hmmm, I'm one of these people who doesn't have this one main favourite colour, I like to mix it up a little and switch between the two. However I am partial to nice warm, pastel yellow.

2. What is your favourite animal?Lion. As I'm a Leo and have a huge love for the Lion King naturally it has to be a lion. I mean they are the kings of the cat world and live a pretty cool life roaming the plains of Africa.

3. What is your favourite flower?Eurgh, the sound of all the men groaning, such a girly question. Well, it's a question all men should know the answer to as every girl loves flowers. Mine are seasonal, during the summer I adore sunflowers and daisy's, which is handy living next to a sunflower field at home. Other than that I find lillies to be a beautiful flower.

4. What is your favourite ice-cream flavour?Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate

5. What is your favourite cereal?Coco Pops, they turn the milk chocolatey.

6. What is your favourite TV Show?Right now I'm two thirds of the way through Gossip Girl and I don't want it to end. I'm also hooked on Pretty Little Liars, I've read the books and it's too late to stop watching it now. When I was younger it was Blue Peter and I was going to grow up to be a Blue Presenter and have two dalmatians. I am however the proud owner of a Blue Peter badge. I wrote them a letter about after seeing Mary Poppins in the West End, told you I like musicals, and two weeks later I received one in the post. Fun fact of the day for you there.

7. What is your favourite restaurant?Turtle Bay. Sweet potato fries and cocktails.

8. What is your favourite smell?Fresh bread, or a cake. Or the grass after it's been mowed. Or seaweed on the beach. Or Yankee Candles, I'd buy them all if I could.

9. What is your favourite Harry Potter movie?There had to be one really didn't there. Number three, The Prisoner of Azkaban.

10. What is your favourite holiday destination?Depends what kind of holiday you're talking about. I mean Disneyland is always going to be at the top of the list, but there are so many other beautiful places both in England and abroad.

So, there you go, 10 of my favourite things. Not quite raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but if you do want to know some more interesting favourites of mine please leave a comment! But for now I'll leave you with Julie Andrews and the Austrian Mountains.

Hogwarts in the snow

I can finally say I did it. This muggle visited the wizarding world and loved every second of it! I'd been waiting to go for so long, so when I bought it as a Christmas present for Jay (along with making, yes making, Harry Potter Monopoly) I've had a countdown ever since. My inner witch jumped for joy when my alarm went off at 5:45 on Saturday morning, and probably the only time I will be happy to hear my alarm at that time in the morning unless Disney is involved.

Now before I go on to tell you about the wonders of my day, if you don't want anything spoiled stop reading now. This will be the only time I tell you not to read one of my blog posts, but if you've already been or just want to keep reading then you may continue. 

My day began with a very early wake up call, curly hair that dropped after about 10 minutes and a 2 and a half hour train journey divided by a change at Clapham Junction. Not the nicest of stations, and I could have sworn my toes nearly dropped off, but I was on my way to the Harry Potter Studios. The best part of that morning journey was being greeted with snow. Real life precipitated ice falling from the sky. Being a Southampton student, I never see snow even when it's the tiniest bit and Jay has never experienced it since being away in Malaysia, so this just made us even more excited.

Now where to begin...

The journey starts walking through the doors to the Great Hall, yes I walked down the same floor as Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint; fan-girl moment! After listening to one of the guides you're free to begin your adventure into what can only be described as 'Aladdin's Cave' of props, sets, costumes. They recommend 3 hours to complete the tour, but me and Jay took 5 as we like to read everything. But why not. There's so much information to take in, and so many secrets to learn.

Halfway round you're taken to the back-lot, ultimate tourist experience. You'll need to make sure your camera is charged for this part as this where you get to board the night bus, ride Hagrid's motorbike, visit 4 Privet Drive and ultimately have a photo with your Butterbeer mustache! It tastes like a butterscotch cream soda with a dollop of ice cream if any of you are wondering! 

After this you get taken through the creature shop, and learn about all the interesting going ons behind the scenes, and one thing I will say, you will never watch Harry Potter in the same way again. Upon leaving the creature shop, you turn a corner and find yourself down Diagon Alley. From Olivanders Wand Shop to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, you'll want it to never end, and next comes one of the most amazing parts of the whole tour, Hogwarts itself. Don't rush this part, and make sure you look through the screens of information as you'll find out things you never would have dreamed of. Finally after absorbing yourself in Olivander's Wand Shop your tour comes to an end with the gift shop. This will add another half an hour to your journey, and you better have a pocket full of galleons if you're wanting to buy anything! I will admit, we did buy a Marauder's Map, but we couldn't come away empty handed now could we!

We then had a 2 and a half hour journey back, and bed never felt so good, but it was a day and a half, an experience I would recommend to everyone and anyone. And it excites me to say I'm going back again in a month (a raffle prize won by my dad for the family, I couldn't say no to Harry Potter now could I!)

New Year, New Me

I know what you're all thinking, another one of those 'This is going to be my year' posts. Don't worry, it's not. I'm all for people seeing the New Year as a fresh start, but I'm not one to post my yearly and future activity all in one 1000 character post on Facebook (that's where the Twitter 140 character rule comes in handy). I don't think I can even remember what my last years resolutions were, most probably along the lines of I will take up jogging, or I will start going to bed earlier, none of which made it past the 1st January 2014. However, even though I'm not one to stick by resolutions, I am one to make lists. Whether it be a grocery list, birthday present list, chore list, to do list, I worship them. This is the year, I graduate University, turn 21 and move in with the boyfriend. So why not make it one of my most memorable years yet by creating a 2015 bucket list.

1) Visit a new countryI want to go somewhere I've never been before, somewhere where not many of my friends and family have been before so I can create some memories there.

2) Read 365 booksI love reading and I don't do it enough. Which is why I want to have read one book for every day of the year by the time it reaches 1st January 2016 (maybe 5th January 2016 as I am 4 days late on writing this post)

3) Start my driving lessonsI may be 3 years late, but better late than never aye. And if I start, who know's maybe I'll even finish driving lessons and pass my test.

4) Go to an outdoor cinema
Just like the movies, literally. On a warm summers night, with blankets and a flask of hot chocolate what could be more romantic?

5) Sort photos into a photo albumMaybe a bit of boring antic on my to do list of 2015, but I don't want to look back in 5 years time and have to look at my photos on a screen. I want to be able to flick through photo albums and relive the memories

6) Do something spontaneousI don't have a clue what this might include, but I want to look back and think I'm glad I did that rather than turning down an opportunity because of something like money.

7) Drink more water
I feel good when I drink the recommended amount of water. My skin looks good when I drink the recommended amount of water. So why don't I already drink the recommended amount of water?

8) Earn lots of moneyIt would be so nice to be able to look at my bank account and see a nice healthy figure rather than one that makes me shut laptop at the speed of light.

9) Ride a tandemSomething I'm yet to experience, but I will be equipped with a helmet and elbow pads.

10) Learn the constellations
The night sky fascinates me, who wouldn't wan't to know more about our wonderful world we live in.

11) Go surfingLets cruise the waves? Totally dudeeeee.

12) Learn sign languageI feel this is language which should be second nature to everyone, and I want to be a part of it.

13) Throw a Disney partyI'm 20 years old and yet to have had a Disney fancy dress party, who even am I?

14) Go Skinny Dipping 
Yep, I've said it. I've never done it, but how can you feel at one with the world until you have been naked with the world?

15) Complete my travels of the UK
I technically have only seen half of the UK due to only ever visiting England and Wales, so nationally I should make it up to experiencing the whole country right?

So there you have it, 15 challenges for 2015. Some of the things on there may seem a little out there for the year but you've never heard of dreaming small. Happy New Year!