A-Z of Me: B is For... Boyfriend

B is for Boyfriend...

His name is Tim, I met him about a year ago, on an online dating website. I'm pretty sure I got a notification to say that he had looked at my profile. So I wandered on over to his profile and had a nosey at him. To be honest my first impressions weren't great. I mean I thought he was cute, and his profile sounded nice.. but to be honest I wasn't entirely convinced. However something in me said, 'give him a chance'.

We started chatting and as expected he was lovely, at the time we first met I was going through a tough transitional period in my life, and Tim was there to listen to me. I think I probably took this for granted to be honest, I remember he used to give me advice and I'd find myself getting annoyed with him for lecturing me. At that point we had only been on two dates, and whilst we got on, and I could tell that he liked me, I just couldn't let go and be happy with him. So it was at then that I decided to let him go. He obviously was very upset, I'm pretty sure I gave him every cliché in the book... In fact I'm sure he's told me since them that he counted them off with his friends and had a good laugh about it. To be honest I wasn't ready for a relationship at that moment. I had just moved home from uni, had started a job that I hated, and REALLY wasn't getting on well with living at home, and I pushed him away. This was around the time that I admitted I was suffering with depression, in fact I wrote a post all about it here.

A few months after this, I was on my meds, switching jobs, and overall feeling much better. I found myself wondering how Tim was, and I decided (probably selfishly) to message him and see how he was doing. Understandably he was a bit prickly with me, seeing as I had brushed him off with the worlds worst break up lines. However I explained myself to him, opened up, told him everything I had been through, and he saw it from my point of view.

We started talking often, although I told him not to expect a relationship out of us, as I still wasn't sure what I wanted. We started going to the cinema together, dinner, and just hanging out in general. Then I had my car accident, and it was a pretty scary moment. It made me realise that I couldn't waste time, and that I should grab things while I could.

The weekend after my car accident, Tim took me to Thorpe Park to cheer me up. He doesn't even like rides, but he took me because I do. He even let me drag him on a few of them with me! At the end of the day when he was dropping me home, we were talking in the car, and I caught him looking at me. (queue cheesey line) He was looking at me, like he never wanted to look away... and I kissed him. I was very cautious about the whole thing, and I made him make a promise to me. I made him promise that he wouldn't fall in love with me, and that if he did, he wouldn't tell me until I said it first. This was mainly because I didn't have any idea where our relationship was going to go, and I didn't want to break his heart.

Needless to say I had absolutely nothing to worry about! Tim is the absolute perfect boyfriend, and our relationship blossomed quickly. In November we went to Bristol for a long weekend, and that was when we first told each other we loved each other. Since then we've spent Christmas together, visited family, went away for my birthday, AND we moved in together last month!

Things are going great for us, and I have never been happier. I can't wait to see what the future brings us, and I see it being a very long and happy future!

#BEDM 2: 5 Favourite Posts

Hello again all! Thank God it is Friday, I have a five day weekend this week, and I couldn't be more excited to not have to get up early on Monday morning!

Today's prompt is all about my favourite posts that I have written on this blog, and I really struggled to find just five to write about... but alas, here they are, in no particular order

1) Getting Personal: Heartbreak Hotel

I wrote this post when I was admitting to myself that I was struggling with a break-up, for someone that I had been holding on to for a long time. In fact I didn't really truly let go of them until I met my current boyfriend Tim. Even then I struggled. This post got quite a good response from other bloggers in support of everything I was talking about. So if you are struggling through a break-up then please give this a read.

2) Treasure Trails

This post was all about something a little bit nerdy, that I started doing last year with my Uni friends. The treasure trials are mysteries that encourage you to search out clues in whatever town you are in to solve the case. If this sounds interesting to you then please go and check out the post!

3) Easy Peasy Ice Cream

This is one of my favourite recipes that I ever made, but I haven't had a chance to make it again since! I will definitely have to get a shift on and do this again. It only has two basic ingredients, and then you can simply add what you want to flavour it with. My version was a snickers one!

4) #BloggersHalloween

I attended my first proper Blogger Meetup, and met lots of lovely girlies! As you may be able to guess by the photo above, it was a fancy dress party, and I went as a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who. I actually also won the costume contest, and won a Zombie experience for two, which I have yet to book actually... Don't worry I haven't forgotten! This was also around the time I started up my Youtube channel again (which I NEED to get back into), so there is a video accompanying this post.

5) Bliss in Bristol

This was one of my favourite posts to write.. Mainly as it's all about the first weekend away that Tim and I spent as Girlfriend and Boyfriend. We went to Bristol for a weekend, and got up to all manner of things, you'll have to read the post to see why it was such a great weekend!

So there we have it. My five favourite posts from my blog! I'd love to hear in the comments about what your favourite posts that I have written are...

Bliss in Bristol

Last week I was lucky enough to have a whole week off of work. Originally this was so that I could attend the Abertoir horror film festival in Aberystwyth. However for personal reasons I had to cancel those plans. However rather than just waste my time off, my boyfriend suggested that we spend the weekend somewhere else. I spent a week by myself in Bristol at the beginning of September for my training with work, and I suggested that we return there so that I could do some of the things that I didn't get around to last time! So I thought I'd share with you guys a couple of the things that we did/saw.

The Aquarium:

On our first full day in Bristol, we paid a visit to the Aquarium, which was actually not even five minutes away from our hotel! I love aquariums, especially when they are filled with brightly coloured, beautiful fishies!

The jellyfish were one of the first exhibits that we came across, they had two tanks of these jellyfish, some under blue light, and some under red. I managed to snap this beautiful picture just as it opened up!

This stingray was swimming right on the top of the water, and kept lifting it's mouth up into the air. It was really cute.

We managed to stumble across my favourite tropical fish! Although this one looks less than impressed that I managed to get a picture of him.

I couldn't resist snapping this picture of all the beautiful clown fish in this tank. There were bright orange, and black ones, which I had actually never seen before. We were even just in time to watch the tiger sharks being fed, but I didn't get any decent pictures of that.

Shopping:

I literally couldn't resist popping into Primark whilst we were in Bristol. Especially seeing as the Bristol Primark is a massive FOUR FLOORS! It's literally a bloggers dream...

I couldn't resist messing around with the novelty christmas glasses, although I simply couldn't bring myself to actually buy a pair! I did however manage to find my perfect Christmas jumper!!! I have wanted to buy myself one every Christmas for the last three years, but I have never been able to get one in time. This year however I am pleased to announce I have got one. I'll keep it as a surprise!

I also managed to convince my boyfriend to buy a Christmas jumper, so that on Christmas day we will both look as silly as each other. He didn't seem impressed at first, but warmed to the idea once we found the perfect jumper for him!

Of course a shopping trip wouldn't be complete without a little treat for myself, and I found that I just couldn't resist this amazing tiger top. Once we got onto the main highstreet, we were both surprised to find that there was a German Christmas market going on from now right up until Christmas. I didn't manage to snap any pics but I found this one online:

 There were German food stalls, sweet stalls, German beer bars. As well as other christmassy gifts! I became a little bit enchanted by one of the jewellery stalls and couldn't resist buying myself this necklace as a nice momento of our trip.

Food:

Me and my boyfriend both love food, and so of course we were both excited about eating out for three nights! Seeing as we arrived fairly late on the Thursday night, I just suggested that we grab something at a restaurant close to the hotel, so we opted for Prezzo's.

Neither of us were hungry enough for a starter, so just kicked it off with the mains. He had a classic pepperoni pizza with chicken, whereas I opted for a Calzone with chicken, pepperoni, and peppers. Mine was absolutely delicious, and I almost polished it off.

If you know me at all then you will know that I cannot resist having a dessert, even if I am fit to burst. I didn't want anything too heavy, so I settled on the three gelato's. Although I didn't realise that they came in cones, and were basically full sized ice creams. I didn't have to worry though, as my boyfriend kindly stepped in to save me! Pictured above are chocolate truffle, and two bubblegum cones.

On our second night we decided to visit Frankie and Benny's. I had actually been on my last trip to Bristol and assured Tim that he would love it. Although there was a slight hiccup with our table, and waiting time, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I decided to have a bit of a treat, and started off with a cosmopolitan. Although this was unlike any cosmo I had ever had, and was slightly sour, though still enjoyable.

For starters I went for the bacon and cheese potato skins, which are absolutely TO DIE for!

After my sour cosmopolitan I decided to go with a sweet Pineapple Mai Tai, we got a pitcher so that we could share, although I ended up drinking the majority of it!

For mains we both settled on the same thing, BBQ ribs. The plate was massive, and I was a little worried about how I would finish it, but I decided to leave the fries, and focus on the ribs! Our meal at Frankie and Benny's was so good, that we are going back this evening! Obviously not to Bristol...

On our final night we went to Za Za Bazaar. A world food all you can eat buffet that has a little bit of everything. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to get any decent pictures with my iphone, and I forgot to take my camera. But here are a few pics I found online:

If you ever go to Bristol you absolutely MUST go to Za Za Bazaar, it's about £18pp not including drinks, and you get to eat as much as you can stomach. You are limited to how much time you have in the restaurant, but I think this is fair, otherwise you could just sit in there all day and eat... That's how much food they have!

Everything Else:

On top of everything I already mentioned we managed to fit in a round of jungle themed crazy golf, go ice skating, visit a museum, and complete another Treasure Trail. All in the space of three days. 

To top it all off, right before we were leaving I spotted something in Build-a-bear that I really wanted, and not only did my boyfriend not complain, but he actually offered to buy it for me! So say hello to Rainbow Dash!

I had a really amazing time in Bristol, and it was the perfect treat for me and my boyfriend to share together. Although we've only been together properly a month today, it feels like I've known him much longer. He really knows how to treat me, and lets me be 100% myself. I hope that we'll continue to grow together, and that he'll continue to put up with me! Hope you enjoyed my post, and I'll leave you with the first actual photo of us together: