2013 - Favourite memories - January to June

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Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a lovely December and getting into the Christmas spirit. If not, then why the hell not?! Get excited!! Haha

Today's post is going to be all about some of my favourite memories of 2013, from January through to June. I'm some one that loves to take photos and document memories, but this post was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I guess having so many photos and so many files on my laptop, as well as so many good memories this year made it hard to pick out just a few choice moments but I've done my best to narrow it down! No doubt the minute I click publish, I will suddenly remember so many brilliant things that happened this year that I'd forgotten about, but that's just sod's law I guess. Anyway, here goes:

January: What better memory to start with than New Year's Eve 2012. Yes, I suppose this is sort of a 2012 memory, but as we stayed up most of the night this definitely still counts. I rang in New Year at one of my best friend's house along with some of my closest friends. There was plenty of food, drinks, karaoke and fireworks and then we counted down the midnight the traditional Spanish way. In the final 10 seconds of the year, you have to eat a grape every time the second hand on the clock strikes, so you basically have to eat 10 grapes in 10 seconds. I think myself and Alba were the only ones that actually managed to eat all our grapes. I basically just swallowed them whole, haha.

getting ready

teaching Alba how to do her first shot

Another favourite January memory of mine is when we celebrated one of my best friend's birthdays. We went to a big open space in town which has open barbecues and benches for everyone to sit at. We spent a lot of time just talking and having fun, as well as taking lots of pictures. Here are some of my favourites:

It was absolutely freezing that day, so two friends and I decided to go for a walk. We walked down this massive steep hill before deciding that we should probably get back to the party. We turned round, only to realise how steep the hill actually was and that we actually had to get back up it. We made it fun though, by taking pictures and having a race up the hill. I decided to go barefoot as I was wearing ballet flats and I got a head-start  but I still lost.

February: I remember February being quite a busy, yet extremely fun month for me. First up was Carnival, an annual event that occurs each February, where the residents of our town dress up and do a bit of a parade which involves floats. If they want to, they can then go up on stage and do a dance, sing or do a bit of a performance. The winners of the best costumes get a prize. Me and some of my closest friends went as cats and mice. Not the most creative, but still fun! The girls were cats and the boys mice. This meant the boys had to wear leggings. I've never been able to look at them in the same way again!

During the second week of February, I spent about a week in my hometown, Newcastle. I got to see some old friends, lots of my family and I even got to meet my niece for the first time ever. As it was February, it was absolutely freezing and it even snowed! With me living in Spain, snow is something that I really miss. There was the obligatory snowman making, snowball fights and I even made a few snow angels. You're never too old to get excited for snow. Because there was so much snow, there was definitely a Christmas feeling in the air so Julia (my Mam's best friend of God know's how many years) decided to do us a Christmas dinner, paper hats and crackers included! 

I also got to see my best friend of 15 years. We always say that we're not just best friends but we're also each other's twin souls as we are literally one in the same person. 

this is my "omfg help who left us in charge of a 2 month old baby" face

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Jed trying to steal my limelight and ruin my selfie

"I need to sneeze, can I just rub my nose on her head or something?"

Meg embarrassing us and falling off her chair.

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March: One of my favourite memories of March was spending a weekend with two of my favourite people in the world, Alba and Saoirse. They've been mentioned in most of my blog posts so it was only fitting to have them feature in some of my favourite memories of 2013. First stop was a dance performance, then we ventured outside into the cold to take some pictures and explore the area, as it was kind of new to us. We then went back to Alba's house and had a girly night in before getting up the following morning to help Alba's Mam with some riding lessons. Like most things that we do, this just ended up in us messing around and being silly. I do remember us taking a few kids for a ride and getting caught in the pouring rain though. 

Looking good, Alba!

saying goodbye

getting ready to walk home in the only shoes i'd brought with me... Thankfully, someone took pity on me and came and got me!

April: My favourite April memory, or the only one I can really remember really, also involves Alba and Saoirse, as well as our friend Noelia. After yet another dance performance, we went back to Alba's house for a weekend of sunbathing, challenges, pranks and girly chats. 

We started by convinced Saoirse and Noelia that I needed glasses. I'd recently found by old nerd glasses (2009 hipster phase...) so took them with me. I made them try them on to see if they "Liked them" and Noelia went "It's a bit blury looking through them" and Saoirse went "Wow! You can really see a difference". Brilliant. Next we convinced them that we had managed to balance a glass of water on each of my hands, and asked them to try it. We balanced the glasses on their hands AND THEN LEFT THE ROOM. We came back about two minutes later and they were just sat there, not daring to move so we claimed to have forgotten something and quickly ran back out. We eventually felt back so went back some 10 minutes later to find them knocked on to the floor. I've never seen Saoirse so angry hahahahaha. 

Next we did a series of challenges, including the cracker challenge, the smarties challenge, the jaffa cake challenge and chubby bunny. I won both the smarties challenge and chubby bunny. I guess you could say I have a rather large mouth. We also did the cinnamon challenge which I did not enjoy as I don't like cinnamon and, the worst one of all, was having to eat a sandwich made up of baked beans, hariboes, anchovies, jelly and custard. Yum. It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I even went in for a second bite...

The next day, we took some time to recover by having some much need R&R and spending some time sunbathing :)

Me at my most attractive

Alba's "Kate, why are you making me do this?" face

Help.

Going...

Going...

Morning hugs!

why are we sitting out here it's cold stop go inside please help me

boobs

May: May 2013 was also a busy month for me. I spent the first week of it in Salamanca and Portugal with my best friends and it was perfect. I can't remember all the places we went to in Portugal, as we went to so many, but the ones I do remember are: Lisbon, Sintra, Porto and Coimbra, along with a few others!

We did plenty of shopping, went on some gondolas (the water kind), went to countless museums, churches and cathedrals and were basically complete tourists by going anywhere and everywhere that was even remotely important. 

It was a great week spent with my favourite people in the world. We've previously spent a week in Paris and other parts of France together so we knew just how much fun we were going to have.

you okay there Miguel

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June: Unfortunately I spent the whole of June with a cast going all the way from my left shoulder down to my finger tips. Not the best way to spend your time when it's almost 40 degrees outside and you have two weeks of finals to do. Thankfully I managed to get it off in time for my formal, though still couldn't move it. Even though I graduated and my formal was in June, I'm going to write about that my next set of favourite memories from 2013 as I feel this is beginning to get a bit full. Instead, I'm going to write about when my best friend came to stay! As good of a holiday as it was, I think it would have been a whole lot better if I didn't have a cast on. This meant that we couldn't go swimming or do anything fun really, plus Meg was given the task of feeding, showering and dressing me, and basically being my slave for the week. It's a good job she loves me. Although, she was there when this accident happened, and she laughed so much she almost fell over so she deserved it. Plus she embarrassed me in hospital by singing whenever people walked by and burst into laughter when I walked out with my cast on and my t-shirt and trousers covered in plaster paint! haha.

basically sums up our week...

hahahahaha
i locked meg out

So that's my favourite memories of 2013, from January to June. This year has flown by! Feel free to let me know some of your favourite moments in the comments below.

Sunday's blogmas is going to be all about Christmas decorations and how I am going to decorate the house. Hopefully we are putting the tree up tomorrow so I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

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