Hello! :) So today I've decided to do something a little different - a story!! Let me know your thoughts!

Hearing the sound of sirens makes me jump, every time. It's terrible, it's a sound that we hear quite often in this part of the land. That's right, crime is quite rife. Well, actually that's not true, I live in a neighbourhood that just happens to have the clumsiest people you'll ever meet - seriously, I'm not lying! 

Last week the guy next door squealed the place down because he hit his toe on the edge of his front door. He squealed so much that the lady across the road thought there had been a murder and phoned the emergency services. Can I point out that he had steel toe cap boots on and in reality, he felt nothing. Come on, that's the point on steel toe caps! And I say squealed not because I'm being mean but because that is actually what he sounded like. My eight year old brother ran down the stairs in his pyjamas shouting about how happy he was that my dad had finally bought him a pig. 

"And I shall call him Sir Squeal-a-lot," he told us whilst my dad read his paper and mum and I watched with wonder. Sadly dad broke the news straight away as once my brother realised that everyone, including the fish, were watching him, he gave my dad a chance to speak. 

"There's no pig, son. Not today." Bless him, he was so disappointed that he let out a huge sigh, looked around and then headed straight back up the stairs in silence.

Through this whole debacle, I learnt a lot! I learnt that my brother had always wanted a really loud squealing pig and that my neighbour sounded like one. 

Oh life just keeps gets better!

until next time...

Hi all! I was tagged by Kathie K to do the The Winter Wonderland Challenge tag and although its quite late: here it is! :)

The rules:

1. Answer the questions.

2. Link back to this post. :)

Have fun! ♥

What is your favourite winter drink? How do you make it? Why is it your favourite?

My winter drink(s) are: lemon and ginger tea and hot chocolate :) and cranberry juice - not together, I haven't tried that! hmmm...wonder what that would taste like! :) Ok, so that's more than one drink but still. Hot Chocolate is easy to make because I ahem, boil the kettle, put three heaped tea spoons of hot chocolate powder into a mug, pour over boiling water and mix! ta da! Hot chocolate - and you can add peppermint too to give it a mint taste with whipped cream and marshmallows...yummy!! The tea - boiling water + tea bag in a mug :) it's soothing and tasty :)

What is your favourite winter month?

December- the beginning of December is the build up to the holidays and the festive season so everyone is fairly jolly and then of course the holidays! It also means I have time to go and visit my family in London! Woo!

My local park back a few winters ago when it did snow! Such beauty!!

Do you get snow where you live? How much?

We get a bit - not as much as Canada but one things for sure, when we do get snow the whole country grinds to a halt!

What is your favourite winter activity?

Going out for walks and feeling the cold air on your face and watching your breath as you can see it on colder days :) I love it! 

What is the best thing about winter?

The clothes - boots, jumpers, scarves - the clothes are my favourite. 

What is the worst thing about winter?

When it snows and the snow is lovely, don't get me wrong...but after snow there is horrible horrible mush and black ice...its slippy and horrible!!

Favourite winter-associated symbol? (E.g; Father Christmas or a snowflake)

Big mugs with chocolate sprinkles, mittens and boots, mince pies - and snowflakes! 

But there were some down points and these, I have found, happen to everyone. It might seem like we are alone in our struggles but there are people out there and in our lives that know what we are feeling. Some have been through the same thing! Talk to someone!!

A few downsides:

• In the last few months I have been struggling to find the time to update my blog :( 
• I'm no longer a student and this makes me sad :(
• My popular post wasn't well received by every reader - but I guess this is part of life :)

Ok, in the past few month there may have been something I forgot -maybe neglected - to mention, I graduated. That's right, I graduated!! GRADUATED! I wore a hat and gown, walked on stage, shook some hands and walked off again, and it was exciting!

That's literally what happened, but it really felt like something. I wasn't really sure what to expect and graduation took so long to come round, I almost forgot about it...till the week before when I realised I had no clothes or anything sorted!! Thankfully my lovely mum had ideas, and pink it was! Honestly, I'm not a big fan of pink and it wouldn't ever be my first choice, but it all worked out well!

I Googled graduation beforehand and read something along the lines of: 'its meant to be as exciting as your wedding day' - or the next best thing. I can't really make that comparison and don't really know if that's true because I haven't had a wedding day! But it was fun!

The ceremony was pretty standard, everyone had their names called out, people gave speeches and like I said, pretty standard stuff. Like in films!! The only part that was missing was the hat throwing; for health and safety reasons we weren't allowed to throw our hats! Huh! Would have been a bit difficult for me anyway seeing as I pinned it to my scarf!

The thing I remember most are my friends and family :). It was so nice to see everyone again and spend some time together, fuss over each other, what more could you ask for?

Also, I now have extra letters at the end of my name but as of yet, I’ve not used them. I don’t think I’ll ever use the letters.... Actually, thinking about it, it did take me three years, many sleepless nights, and horribly long exams to earn those letters, so maybe, just maybe, I will put them to use.

So what I learnt guys, is that make the most of it all when you can. It can only get better :) Congratulations to all those who graduated, wherever you are! It's an amazing achievement that we worked hard for and we should be proud we reached that milestone. May there be many more achievements to come!