Shopaholics Anonymous

Shopaholics Anonymous

Sunday, March 09, 2014

I can't help myself!! :-(. Went to do a nice simple food shop yesterday, even had a list of what I needed!! Then I ventured to the upper level of Asda Garthdee and it all went horribly wrong...

Prepare for a retro/geek overload.

The Goonies!! If you don't know who the Goonies are get yourself to ANYWHERE that sells DVDs and educate yo'selfs! (Sorry for the slang but I felt it was required). Love this t-shirt it's so very me, you'll soon learn that I like a good, comfy printed tee. Want your own one? Asda, boys section, £7! 

Bargain alert!!!!

Me and the dear fiancé are heading to the Dominican at the end of July, an because I am super organised we've already started hunting for the perfect luggage set...until then though it seems I have found the perfect luggage tags :-). These were reduced to £1!!! So of course  I got the Marvel one and my ever so grown-up and mature other half opted for Spongebob. Love, love, love! 

Speaking of Marvel...Asda seem to be having a bit of a fangirl/boy, love-in with the company. Which I am fully on board with :-). This is a ring-binder, I don't need another ring-binder, in-fact I probably have too many, but it's Marvel!! So yeah £3 later and it was mine. 

Ok didn't strictly buy this one yesterday, Damian got it for me the week before BUT I'm just trying to emphasis my point about the Asda/Marvel love-in. This is a notebook, again didn't TECHNICALLY need one but I am a big fan of having a dedicated notebook for each class, so this is my Celebrity Culture Notebook :-).  

Lastly from my adventures in Asda...

These are pretty self-explanatory. I'm a student, I'm in fourth year, I'm writing a dissertation, I NEED TO HIGHLIGHT! and these were £1...Sharpie Highlighters on same shelf were about £3.95 but in the spirit of the new budget conscious me I ignored the name brand and went for Asda's own. They work! 

So yeah...I'm Amanda-Jaied, I'm a shopaholic and even Asda isn't safe. 

Much Love

AJ

xx

My Inspiration

My Inspiration

Sunday, March 02, 2014

My Heart-My Home Part 2

My Heart-My Home Part 2

Saturday, March 01, 2014

I've been a bit quiet this week, sorry. Just been shattered and super busy so had to step back a bit, but a good friend of mine has asked me to do a post about something important to him and I can't say no to that!!

I wasn't planning on doing a follow up to the My Heart-My Home post but this ties in perfectly, so welcome to My Heart-My Home part 2.

So like I said a friend of mine reminded me on Tuesday evening about two beautiful parts of Aberdeen and asked me to raise some awareness. These are Victoria and Westburn Park.

I spent a lot of my childhood in Westburn Park and then along with the rest of the city (and me) it aged and fell behind in my mind. I still remember the cute little stone bridge, tennis courts, and acres of greenery were perfect for a summer's day learning to rollerblade, or ride my bike, but it seems in recent years the park has been forgotten about by both the city's residents and the council.

Photo credit belongs to www.geograph.org.uk

Victoria Park/Gardens used to be known for its abundance of Roses and the gorgeous scents that hit your nose when you walked in- growing up I always used to refer to it as the "blind people" park (in only a way a completely innocent child could) because you did not need to be able to see it to know it was beautiful. Then of course it to began to age and begin to fade into being just another open space surrounded by roads and new builds. Right in the centre of Victoria Park is a beautiful old-style fountain which lies empty and unattended, what could be a beautiful centrepiece for a summer-time picnic is simply a dusty old relic taking up perfect picnic space (and this saddens me). 

This is the photo of what the fountain used to look like, courtesy of the council website.

But www.geograph.org.uk shows us what it has been turned into through lack of maintenance.

Thankfully for these two beautiful green spaces a community group has come together to address the issues of the parks and they aim to return them to their former glory. In much the same way Friends of Duthie Park has worked to make Duthie the best it can be, Friends of Victoria and Westburn Park have formed out of a need to see true beauty returned to our city. 

The group are looking for members that are interested in being a part of a team that has Aberdeen's best interests at heart. I will not pretend to be an expert on what FoVWP are currently doing, but I intend to keep up-to-date by liking their Facebook Page, and following them on Twitter, and I would love it if you guys would do it too. Of course if you have time to help the team then definitely do that too!!

Facebook Page

Twitter Page

Much Love

AJ

xx

My heart-My Home

My heart-My Home

Sunday, February 23, 2014

I live in Aberdeen in the North-East of Scotland and I do actually love it. I mean yeah okay I am constantly making plans to leave after graduation, and I bitch and moan about the small-town mentality of its people, and when it rains and I'm stuck outside I bemoan our northern weather BUT I do love it really.

Aberdeen is the Silver City and it really truly does sparkle in the sunlight, it sometimes even sparkles in the rain and that's just pretty!! But due to a council more pre-occupied with doing up their own offices than the city as a whole, the city has developed a bad reputation. There are parts that need a lot of work and there are people willing to invest (or should that be were people...) but Barney Crockett and his ilk seem content to let our city languish behind places like Dundee and Hull, when it comes to City of Culture races, and forward movement in any way.

In a mood about the city not being recognised I decided to take a walk and just started taking pictures of some of the prettier sides to our fair city. These are things that I think we ignore in our busy day to day lives...sometimes you can walk through a place and not really see it. So I decided to take you on a walk with me through the medium of pictures :-)...

This is our gorgeous art gallery, I mean inside is full of amazing pieces of art AND the outside looks like this...I can't help but be drawn towards it. 

This is the piece that welcomes you the second you walk in the door of Aberdeen Art Gallery, and my favourite piece by Tracey Emin ever. If i'm feeling really down then I head straight to sit in front of this for 5 minutes, and it truly grounds me. 

Cowdray Hall...so often the subject of many a drunken student photo-op this war memorial is actually a really nice side of Aberdeen. It just looks majestic and is such a tranquil place to sit (despite the three roads of traffic that converge there.

HMT home of many a play. The theatre has it's too modern for my liking extension, but the true history lies in the main building, with it's opulent red velvet upholstering and gorgeous gold trimmings, it is a lesson in what theatres should look like. I still remember the moment I say my first "proper" play here, I remember crying through my first Opera here, and the excitement that rippled through the dress circle when Susan Boyle herself appeared to sing on stage after the story of her life. Many of my dreams were borne out of this theatre, and many a good time has been had. 

Honestly how many of you have actually noticed these shields? These make up the fencing around the wee garden opposite the theatre. Pro Libertate Patriae means "For the Freedom of Country"- surrounding William Wallace's crest these are supposed to be in keeping with the GIANT William Wallace statue that sits just outside this pocket garden...I couldn't fit the whole statue into a pic on my phone...but maybe next time. 

The Central Library! This is my library people, this is a big, gorgeous, granite building FULL OF BOOKS. I don't think I need to say anything else.

Joining the theatre to the library is this pretty little church. It's not my church, I don't even know what denomination it is...but it is pretty!

This surprised me...I don't think I've ever noticed these mouldings, or windows before, but again that's kind of the point of this blog post. Can anyone that lives in the city tell me where these are- I mean obviously I know but I'm intrigued to see if anyone else has noticed them.

There you go, a wee walk through a wee part of my wee city. Hope you liked it. In fact why not take a walk through your own city and share your pics with us?

Update: Lovely reader Lisa shared a picture of the William Wallace statue that she took (and developed herself) so here you go...

Much Love

AJ

xx