Adventure | "We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon"

Hello again, it's been a little while. Life has been pretty (very) hectic for me these past few weeks. So far I've flown the nest, moved from Bristol to Lincoln, put an offer on a house, offer was accepted for said house and we have been buying/deciding things to renovate it. Crazy, huh? I'm used to coming up to Lincoln for a week or so at a time to visit my boyfriends family but now, he's just left to go back to work and I'm sat here all alone in a 4 bed house. It's only now it has occurred to me that this is real life. I have actually moved out.

I'm a grown up now. A grown up...

On the Friday before I left to start my journey to what feels like the other side of the world, my family took me for a leaving meal. It was such an amazing evening and I got to spend it with my favourite people. To top it all off, the gorgeous Alice (Alice's Antics), came down to say ciao while she was back from Italy. Gorging ourselves on steak, burgers, nachos and far too much alcohol, we spoke about the future and laughed about the past. The couple beside us thought it was so funny that my boyfriend had the challenge burger, I don't think I've ever seen a group of people be so engrossed with someone eating. I guess a 24oz burger is pretty funny... but not as funny as my Grandma asking me to take 'the selfie' with her. Evidence below. Although it was such a positive event, I couldn't help but feel a little bit sad that I wouldn't get to experience this again for a long time. We all left feeling a little bit merry, but for a good cause. It really was the best going away present I could ask for.

After waking up with a fuzzy head and taking Alice back to the train station, we finished the last of our packing and headed on our long journey up to Lincoln city. 3 hours on the motorway, a stop at the services and treating ourselves to a McDonalds we arrived at my new home. We didn't waste any time looking for a place to live and by the Wednesday, an offer was accepted on the house that we had fallen in love with. Unfortunately for us, that house is an empty shell. It does, however, mean we can create our dream home from the blank canvas previous owner had left us. The minute our offer accepted was so special. Danny picked me up and spun me around the room, we both fell on the floor laughing and I may have even shed a tear. Everything seemed to fall into place in that moment.

Having my future balance on someone saying 'yes' was the most exciting yet nerve-wracking experience I've ever been through. You could cut the tension with a knife every time the phone rang. Buying a house after just hours of viewing it is impulsive, but when you absolutely love something you have to go for it. Houses don't stick around on the market for very long anymore and we would have been gutted if we'd left it that little bit too long. I can't even tell you how many times we've driven round to see 'our house', it seems to be our favourite past time at the moment. To make things even more exciting, the last time we spontaneously took a trip to admire our new baby, there was a sold sign waiting for us. I think that was the best feeling in the world. That little place was going to be our home. Somewhere we could bring up our children, create memories with family, host dinner parties and fall even more in love.

Currently, Danny is back at work for the week and I'm sat here browsing home stores for lovely things to furnish our house with. If anyone fancies giving me any websites to check out, they will be greatly appreciated. You can leave suggestions in the comments or on twitter.

It's so odd to see my life changing so dramatically all at once. I've been here a week... already it's all systems go and it doesn't seem like it'll be slowing down any time soon. I think one thing I'm going to take from all this is to cherish every moment spent with my family. At home I saw them nearly every day and took it for granted. We didn't spend half as much quality time together as we should have. It gives me comfort that although I may be a few hundred miles away from them, if we look outside we still see the same sky. Homesickness hasn't kicked in quite yet, but I'm sure it'll come at me full force soon enough. 

Long Distance Relationships | "Distance means so little, when someone means so much."

Sunday. My least favourite day of the week.

It's that time again, Danny has left to go back to work for the week. 120 miles apart (he always says it's not 'long distance', but 120 miles is pretty bloody far), 5 days a week. I long for the days where we can wake up together every morning and fall asleep in each others arms in the evening. After two and a bit years of barely seeing each other during the week, we are looking at moving in with each other in the next few months, which means I don't have too much longer to wait.

With Danny being in the military, I'm fully aware that our situation could be one hundred times worse. He could be jetting around the world, but he is only halfway across the country. People try and make a point of saying 'it could be worse', but just because it could be, it doesn't mean what we do isn't hard too. I find comfort in thinking that there are only about 12 weekends left before we take the first step into buying a house together. We've made it this far without spending every second of the day with each other, we can make it through this.

Even though long distance relationships are hard (...really hard), they do have their benefits. You get your own space, miss each other throughout the week which makes the friday night cuddles even better and appreciate the time you spend together so much more. Just knowing that he is travelling down, blasting my One Direction album, to my house at 3pm on a Friday makes me so warm inside. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Butterflies still swarm my stomach when I open the door and he's there with a little grin on his face. Basically, 2 years on and we're still in the honeymoon period, it's great. We've been together since we were 19 and have done so much growing up. It's almost as if we're morphing into proper adults. Eeek. Recently, we've begun planning the next stage of our relationship, moving into a house, for me that just cements what we have. I'm getting all giddy just thinking about it.

However, spending the majority of your time without the one you love is hard. You spend hours just wishing they could be with you because you're having a bad day. Everything around reminds you of them. With Danny being so far away so much of the time, my insecurities are sky high. It's not easy at all to control them, but it's something I have to try to do. A long distance relationship won't work unless you make them. There has to be effort put in and compromises made. I never saw myself in a relationship like this, but now that I am, I couldn't imagine anything else. He is everything to me, and even though I don't get to see him everyday, the time we do see each other is so special. I try to make every second count. Just waking up, cuddled into him, on a Saturday and Sunday morning makes the days spent without him a bit better.

Are long distance relationships worth it? Definitely. Don't completely write off a relationship with someone that lives miles away. If you do, you'll never know if that person was 'the one'.

Are any of you in a situation like this? How do you cope?

Moving Out | "Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands."

So this is it, this is the year that I'm moving out. Expect another post on this when I've moved and I'm settled in... It's exciting, but God damn, it's terrifying. I've never lived away from home for more than 2 weeks before and this time it's for good. I currently live in Bristol, a big city with everything I could possible want or need on my doorstep. I've spent 21 years in the same place, people coming and going out of my life and it's finally time for me to move on. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to miss this part of the country so much. It's all I've ever known. Starting completely from scratch in an area I don't really know, but I'm just excited for this adventure to begin.

Bristol. My home.

With my boyfriend being in the Royal Air Force, I will be packing my life away and moving half way up the country. It's a crazy thought being so far away from my family, my friends and my job, but it's something I need to do. People keep asking me if it's a good idea to leave everything behind, but if I don't do it now while I'm young, when will I do it? We get comfortable in one place and never go and experience other things. For a long time, I've been starved of inspiration and motivation to do the things I usually love and I'm really hoping this change will ignite my fire again. 

Luckily for me, we will be moving up to Lincolnshire which is where Danny grew up and his family still live, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with that territory and it won't feel completely alien to me. Lincolnshire is such a beautiful area and it's SO flat. Hills are pretty much my arch enemy, so this is a great factor for me. If you ever get to go to Lincoln in your life, there is a Cathedral (see below) which is so stunning you would be a fool not to visit it. The only problem is that it's basically at the top of the biggest hill I've ever seen, accurately named 'Steep Hill'. 

Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire.

Friends come and go, but family are for life. This is something I need to remember as I'm so nervous about drifting away from my family. Even though I might not see them everyday, or speak to them when I want to, I know that they will always be there. It's always going to be hard to just pack up and leave when you're so familiar with this routine but there has to be a time where you think about what is best for yourself. As much as I'm nervous about this new chapter of my life, I am so ready for it, and when I say ready, I mean that half my life is already packed away in boxes. I even have a whole box just for candles alone (I really love candles...). I will definitely miss Bristol and everything I've come to know here, but it's time for me to move on.

The view from my room/Lots of boxes already...


I'm hoping that in this change, I can find myself. 
I'm ready for you, adventure. Come at me.

Have any of you moved out? How did you find that experience? If you have any tips, leave them in the comments!