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A Little Life Update: More Than Halfway Through 2018

Hi everyone,

I can’t believe we are well in to August now and are more than halfway through the year… when the hell did THAT happen?! It only seems a like yesterday we were welcoming 2018, and seeing as we’re the other side of the middle of it, I thought now would be a good idea for me to give you a little life update and reflect on everything that’s been happening in my world over the past 8 months. There have been lots of ups, a few downs, and plenty of things in between to make it a little more interesting. Here’s a little round up for you…

 

I climbed Mount Snowdon

 

 

Back in June I took on one of the biggest challenges of my life as I climbed the highest mountain in Wales for a very worthy cause. As some of you may know, I am a proud ambassador for The Pituitary Foundation, a little known charity who offer help and support to patients like me who suffer with pituitary related illnesses and long term medical conditions. You can read more about my condition, and how it impacts my life, on this blog post. As an ambassador for the charity, I am often asked to take part in events, and raise awareness for the charity and for the conditions that affect thousands of people without many of us even knowing. I gladly signed up to the Snowdon event, along with my parents, their friends, and one of my best friends too. Our little team of 6 joined a bigger team of 56 and on 22nd June we all hiked the biggest mountain in Wales. It was an amazing day, with the weather making it even better, and it was hands down one of the most challenging, most rewarding things I have ever done in my life. Together we helped to raise over £23500 for the Foundation which is an absolutely PHENOMENAL amount of money and I know that everyone at the charity have been overwhelmed with people’s generosity. We’ve already planned Ben Nevis for next May and I can’t wait to do a challenge like this allll over again!

 

 

I travelled to 5 countries

 

 

Since the beginning of the year I have been lucky enough to take 3 European trips, visiting 7 cities in total, and exploring 5 countries. I kick-started my 2018 travel with a week-long inter-railing trip to Paris, Luxembourg and Bruges over the Easter period, then headed to Pisa and Florence for a long weekend in April, before spending my bank holiday weekend in Rotterdam and Amsterdam at the end of May. Given that I haven’t left the country for 3 months now, I am welllll overdue my next trip and am excited to say that this time next week I will be on my first ever CRUISE! Now that I’m 25 I’m officially old, right? 😉 We’ll be setting sail from Dubrovnik before heading to Valletta, Sicily, Kefalonia and Kotor before finishing up back in the Croatian capital. If you have any tips for a first time cruiser please send them my way, I suffer with horrendous travel sickness (yes, ironic as I’m a travel blogger) so I’ll need all the help I can get!

 

I appeared on a dating show

 

 

So this is super random and not travel related at all, but last month I appeared on a dating show produced by Heart FM and it was SUCH a fun experience. I applied for their new show ‘Traffic Island’ where couples across the county were match-made with each other and asked to pair up. I was selected and matched with a guy called Joel; it was a totally blind date and I was told nothing about him other than his name and age! I had never gone on a completely blind date before so I thought I’d give it a go – I have nothing to lose and I love dating, so why not?! However, just an hour before the date I was told by the presenter and producer that Joel wasn’t turning up and couldn’t make it – I was fuuuuuming as I’d spent ages getting ready but I agreed to go and meet the show team anyway. Halfway through my interview, Joel turned up after all (to which I replied ‘YOU’RE LATE’) and we were left to enjoy what was left of the date! It was a really cool experience, and something I would definitely do again as it gave me a lot of confidence. Sadly Joel actually turned out not to be who I thought he was (aka a genuine guy, WHERE ARE THEY ALL?!) so I am back in the dating game but hey, another lesson learnt! You can watch the video here… cringe!

 

 

I’ve spent time trying to figure out exactly what I want from life

 

 

At the start of the year I didn’t think my life would take the direction it has now, but then life would be boring if it was straight forward, right?! Sadly my position at work is being made redundant, and I am currently in the process of deciding whether or not to take a new role in the company, or whether to just move on and look for something different. Or maybe I should just leave and go travelling and try the whole full-time blogging thing again. My mind is soooo blurred at the moment and I have no idea what to do for the best, but I am hoping that I get some clarification over the next few weeks and can decide what to do with the next chapter of my life. Part of me wants to secure another role as financially I want to be in the position to look at buying a house in the next couple of years, but the other part of me is yearning to just escape, run away from the 9-5 office routine and jump on a plane to Australia to live my life and enjoy being young and care-free. Everyone I have spoken to has told me to do the latter, but I really do want to be a grown up with a house sometime soon. We’ll see what happens, but for now I am just taking things in my stride and trusting fate to do its thing for me. Things always work out just right in the end.

 

So despite the best part of 2018 having come and gone in what feels like only a couple of weeks, I would say I’ve had a pretty crazy start to the year and can only see it getting better from now until Christmas – even though I don’t want to think about the C word right now! Next week I am off on my first ever cruise which will see me tick 5 countries (and 3 new ones) off in one week, and I’ve also got some family events and some UK trips planned too. I’ll be sure to do a 2018 round up at the end of the year so will reflect more then, but for now happy summer everyone!

Love Jess x