Sunday 28 December 2014

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year: Christmas Funzies


My Christmas this year was pretty much 3 days long, seeing three different groups of friends and family on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, It's probably too lengthy to describe what I did in words, so I shall describe using a few pictures to summarise my Christmas period. These pictures are mainly of Christmas day, as I didn't get many on the other days!

Now, one of my favourite things to do is decorate both the house in general but also the tree. This year we went for a 'subtle chaos' theme on our Christmas decs, and I think we did pretty well.

Artsy shot of a decoration in the christmas tree
Cute little window stickers on the back door (Excuse the garden)
Ho ho ho!
One of my favourite decorations, it's just so pretty!
  

Even the cats get involved in making the house
festive!

I did have a picture of my christmas tree but it's incredibly bad quality and doesn't do it justice.

Now comes Christmas day! Here in England, we celebrate it on the 25th December, becasue I know some other countries celebrate it at different times in December! 
One thing I was very please with first thing on Christmas day was my make-up.I spent AGES putting on fake nails on Christmas eve, and then painting them, and I think I did pretty well. I went for a pretty natural look, simply because I couldn't be bothered. Other than the fact I couldn't find my brow kit (cries inside) I thought it went well.


Both nails and make up in shot by doing a stupid pose.
All artsy and that again, and showing my dizzily festive jumper



Now, this year was quite an odd Christmas as it was SUNNY. Yes, a December day in England that wasn't particularly cold and/or drizzly! Amazing! So my family and I congregated outside, as it's a tradition in my family to all have breakfast round my house on Christmas morning.
BUT this was a very exciting day, as one marriage, one pregnancy and one beach hut were announced! So it was all very fun.

Bit of bubbly on the patio
The mother laughing on the patio




My niece and her 'friend' Tinkerbell.

Later, most of my family left, but my sister, brother in law, niece and I suppose niece-in-law,but she's more of a cousin, stayed for lunch and into the evening. I didn't do much at all the rest of the day, and nothing particularly photo worthy.

So I hope everybody reading this had/is having a wonderful christmas time! If you don't celebrate christmas then I just hope you have a lovely end to the year, 'Happy Holidays' I suppose. I wish everyone the best and hope you really do all enjoy yourselves. And if you want, let me know how your holiday period was via the comments!


Much love,

RubyLauren xx

Cheers!














Monday 22 December 2014

New Blog Name? (rubylaurenlives)

I have changed my blog name!

You're probably thinking 'you've only changed one word, whats the point?'
The point is I've realised I feel quite restricted. I realised I want to do random posts about anything I wish to, and feel like I can't do that if I'm just a travel blog, with a travel blog name. So hence, the change from 'rubylaurentravels' to 'rubylaurenlives'.
I haven't really traveled much yet, and I felt limited on the amount of travel posts I could do, but if I just have a general blog, I can post about things I really do have knowledge about and/or other things I enjoy.
Obviously I'm still going to post travel type posts, but there will be lots of other posts as well!
I apologise for the sudden change, but I feel like it was needed.

Much love,
RubyLauren xx

Saturday 20 December 2014

Get to Know Me Tag!



So, basically, this week I've had a busy week with college and various other things,so haven't had time to make an in depth travel post unfortunately. However, I didn't want to let anyone down so I decided to do a little 21 question get to know me tag type thing!



1. Are you named after anyone? Not really. My mum had a babysitter when she was younger whom she absolutely adored called Ruby, but I think she just liked the name and didn't specifically me after her


2. When was the last time you cried? Probably at some ridiculous TV Show or movie, I can't really remember, but it was some time ago.


3. Do you have kids? Nope


4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure. I think it'd be the type of friendship where you love them to pieces but sometimes you just want to shake their shoulders and tell them to be quiet for a minute. We all have that friend!


5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yeah, I do. Not in a mean way though, only with friends and family:)


6. Will you ever bungee-jump? No, I'm scared of anything that has the possibility to make me want to vomit. I can't stand fairground rides, let alone a bungee jump!


7. What's your favorite cereal? Not much of a cereal eater really, as I can't really have milk, but I used to love Frosties or chocolate Shreddies.


8. What's the first thing you notice about people? Hair, eyes,shoes. And in that order. You can tell a lot by the shoes someone is wearing.


9. What is your eye colour? Browny-green, it depends on the lighting.


10. Scary movie or happy endings? Can I have a scary move with a happy ending, or am I being too difficult


11. Favorite smells? Fruit Fusion and Cotton Yankee Candles, and anything topical-y basically!


12. Summer or winter? Winter! Jumpers, fluffy socks and hot chocolates are my life


13. Computer or television? Computer, as you get more TV Shows on a computer than you do on TV!


14. What's the furthest you've ever been from home? Florida, I think, that was the longest flight anyway!


15. Do you have any special talents? Not really, I'm pretty average at most things!


16. Where were you born? England


17. What are your hobbies? Listening to music, binge-watching TV shows, practising make-up, and hanging about with my friends (mainly in Brighton)


18. Do you have any pets? Yep! Two cats: Sally and Maisie


19. Favorite movie? I don't really have a favourite movie, but I love The Breakfast Club, Love Actually and ALL the Harry Potter movies. There's so many more but those are my main ones:)


20. Do you have any siblings? One half-sister (same dad but different mums) who's a lot older than me!


21. What do you want to be when you grow up? At the moment, a speech therapist, but that could change. But by the time I have grown up, I want to travel to as many places as I can


Thank you for reading this post! My next one will be all about my Christmas as it's very soon (eeeek) but I'll have a travel-y post after that one! See you soon!


Much love,


RubyLauren xx

Saturday 13 December 2014

10 Days in Florida - A throwback to summer 2014.

I'm very lucky to have parents who enjoy going to new places as much as I do, so I've been on many holidays to lots of places, but the one place that I always said I'd love to go is Florida! I mean is there any British teenager that doesn't want to go to Florida? I don't think so. I think it pulls us in as England is so dull and boring, but Florida seems like a place of dreams (how cringy). Anyway, my parents always said 'We'll go to Florida when you've finished your GCSE's (a type of exam you take at the end of high school here) and so we did!
But enough blabbering on, lets get on to reminiscing this summer, when I went to Florida.

WARNING: THIS POST IS VERY LONG

One thing I established from my 10 days in Florida, is that 10 days isn't very long at all. I mean, in my small town in England, it's an eternity, but in somewhere that's a tourist's heaven, it's difficult to fit everything in in 10 days.


It's a long flight from England to Florida, around 9 hours I think. So on the first day we were pretty delirious but I think the atmosphere would have made us feel delirious even if we weren't sleep deficient (and by we, I mean my parents and I). The reason for this is because everything is so...crazy. Not only is it incredibly hot,but there's just so many THINGS. I can't really describe it.
But anyway, we got to our room and found this AMAZING view through the window. That's when I realised this holiday was going to be a great one.

(View from the window in the room, insane right?)

After a bit of a sleep,we decided to go and take a look around Universal Studios. We stayed within the Universal Studios park, in the Hard Rock Hotel. Admittedly it wasn't cheap but it was so worth it,as it was SO nice and the staff were incredible. From our hotel, we could either walk to the main Universal park, or we could get a water taxi. I think you can guess which one I decided I liked best.

(Water taxi)

(View of the Hard Rock cafe from the water taxi ft mi madre)

(Famous Universal globe thing)

Now THIS is the bit I've been most excited to write about. We found out just before we went to Florida, that the brand new part of the Harry Potter world was opening while we were there. So I was super excited about this. We first went to Universal a few days earlier than the official opening, BUT we were in the right place at the right time and managed to get on one of the dress rehearsal rides of the new Hogwarts Express feature! Literally, we were just walking in to the area whilst they were letting people in and we managed to slip in with the crowd. We weren't allowed in the whole Diagon Alley yet, but this was still absolutely insane. I HAVE NEVER FELT SO THANKFUL TO BE IN ONE PLACE AT ONE TIME EVER.
(PS:I am a MASSIVE fan of Harry Potter, so you can imagine my excitement)




(Hedwig chilling on some suitcases)

(HOGWARTS EXPRESS)

I did get pictures of the movie on the windows of the Hogwarts Express as it moved, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise for anyone!


(Ah yes, snow on the roofs whilst feeling like I'm in a sauna)




















(Y'all Universal Studios builders go all out...Jeez)

Later on in the day we didn't really do much, but we did go out for dinner and got this super pretty picture of Universal in the dark


The next day was a lazy day just hanging around the pool, but the day after was the busiest day of them all: DISNEY DAY.
As an English person,I couldn't quite comprehend the sheer size of basically, well, everything both in Florida and America in general. Like, I'm pretty sure Florida is a similar size to the whole of the UK. But it was Disney that really showed me. From the entrance to the Disney park, it took us 45 MINUTES to get to the actual ticket booth thing. 45 minutes. It's not a long time in the grand scheme of things, but that's just inside the park, and by car as well. It's insane.
I didn't take many photos in Disney, as I was busy trying to do everything, so just to sum everything up, here is a picture of the magic castle.



TADA! Yeah...sorry about the lack of photos.

The next day was Sea World, which was, as a summary, super adorable. Again, I forgot to take many photos as I was busy 'seizing the day' and all that sort of thing, but I got a couple cute photos. 

 
 
(For any of you wondering, I did not go and see Shamu on moral grounds. Keeping an animal of that size in an enclosure no matter what size, in my opinion, is completely wrong.)

The next day (I think, they all blur in to one) was one of the two consecutive days which were the best days of my life so far, and I'm not even kidding.

The first of which was going to Discovery Cove, aka, the place where you swim with the dolphins.This has always been a dream of mine, and I was so excited when I heard it was going to be a reality. But not only could you swim with the dolphins at Discovery Cove, you could also snorkel with fish in a lagoon and have a look at some birds and otters whilst floating along a 'Jungle River'
You weren't allowed really to take any of your own photos there, so all the ones I've got were on underwater disposable cameras, or from the dolphin swim.
So here, enjoy a picture of my kissing a dolphin. Her name was Coral :)



:D :D :D

Now, the second best day of my life: The opening of Diagon Alley.
We waited in a queue for around two hours to get in to the actual place, but they had movies playing everywhere, fans to keep us cool and all sorts of celebrations going on at the same time.
Now, I'm not a rollercoaster person, but if I were, I would have had to wait 8 hours to go on the new Gringotts ride. 8 HOURS. That's insane, and you can definitley see how obsessed with Harry Potter everyone was that day.


(Confetti and multiple people in Diagon Alley)


  
(The dragon of Gringotts. Every so often you'd hear a few grumbles and roars and then BAM fire from the dragon! Completely insane)

I forgot to take a picture, but they had an ice cream parlor there that sold butterbeer ice cream. IT WAS SO GOOD. I find the colder butterbeer is, the better it tastes)

Anyway, that pretty much comes to the end of my trip. This post is way too long, but I had so many things I was so excited about. I can't imagine anyone has actually read to the end, but if you have congratulations and thank you!
This was possibly the best 10 days of my life. I'm very grateful that my parents took me out there and I hope to go there again one day! I would 100% recommend all of it to everyone. Overall, I had great fun and got a great tan!
I know the days here didn't add up to 10, but we spent a few just hanging around the hotel, doing  nothing particularly photo worthy.


Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you soon, if that's what you say on here?? I don't really know, but I'm going to say it anyway.

Comments and suggestions for future posts would be greatly received.

Much Love,

RubyLauren xx


Sunday 7 December 2014

Who, What and Why - Reasons Behind the Blog.

Hello to anyone who may be reading this post.
I feel like I ought to explain myself. I ought to explain why I, a 17 year old girl from a seaside town in South East England, is writing a travel (/all sorts of other bits and bobs) blog.
I'll start with explaining who I am.
My name is Ruby, I am 17 years old and I live in a seaside town in England, not too far from Brighton.
(The most recent selfie I have taken)

Normally, travel blogs are written by 20-somethings who have the money and freedom to be in new places every week or month, and take stunning quality photographs wherever they go.
That's not me. However, one day, I wish it is.
I'm not really sure what I want to do with my life in the future, it's ranged from astronaut to swimmer, and now currently it's at speech therapy (which I'm hoping will stick, as I've got to chose my university course pretty soon.)
However, I have always wanted to travel. Ever since I was a little kid, I've been lucky enough to go on multiple holidays to multiple places with my parents. These holidays included going to Portugal, Rome, New York, Lapland and Florida. I know how lucky I am to have had these experiences, but I've always wanted to go to even more places. I love the idea of being on an aeroplane and not knowing exactly what's going to be on the other end of the journey.
I've come to realise that talking about my holidays with my friends and family so often makes me seem a) as if I'm showing off and b) really bloody annoying. So, I decided, I wanted to share this excitement and culture with other people who actually want to hear about it, and this would be best via writing a travel blog.
I'd be lying if I said I wanted to do this as a full time job right now, but maybe in the future I will want to. I don't know.
I'm not expecting this blog to be perfect or popular. I'm just a 17 year old girl taking pretty crappy quality photos, and explaining about them with my English GCSE. I'm no expert, but I will improve eventually, but it will make some time. However, right now,  I do have passion and excitement, and that's all I care about.
This will not be a full travel blog, at the moment I may include other things as I'll run out of travelling to post about! So I'll probably be doing travel-related tags, reviews and all sorts of other things.
Many thanks to any of you who read this, or anyone who starts to follow me.
Lots of love
RubyLauren xx

Saturday 15 November 2014

A Day Trip to London.

On the 8th of November, I went on a day trip to London with my family. I'm very lucky with the fact that it's only  a train ride away from where I live so it didn't take too long. We went up to London to see 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' which is an art installation dedicated to fallen soldiers, at the tower of London, but I'll explain more further on in the post. However, we also went on a general stroll around the city. So here is my day, told via photos and (probably badly explained) captions...



We got off at London Bridge station, which means we had to walk along the river Thames to cross Tower Bridge to get to the Tower of London. It was a grey, cold day, as most autumn winter days in England, which you'll probably see in all the pictures.

 
Large poppy on HMS Belfast, which is a military ship turned museum on the River Thames, next to where we walked along.


Crossing tower bridge. As you can see from the ground and multiple coats, it had been a bit rainy, but that's nothing abnormal in England.
Then we got to the Tower of London to see 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'. Basically, it is an art exhibition of 888, 246 ceramic poppies in the moat of the tower. The significance is that 888, 246 is the same amount of soldiers that died in the first world war,and this year was the centenary. By the time I post this, the exhibition will have started to be taken down) from the 11th November. Which is why we went up on the 8th, as almost all of the poppies will have been positioned by then, as more are added every day until the 11th. Anyway, it was absolutely STUNNING. The sheer number of poppies doesn't hit you until you get there, which makes you realise the devastation from the first world war.There were massive crowds surrounding it, however most people didn't mind, as it was brilliant to see so many people having such an avid interest in both art and history. I haven't got the best photos from the best position, but you can get the idea of the exhibition.





Incredible, right? I still can't really comprehend the sheer number, it's so overwhelming!


Anyway, that's about the end of my post about London. I would definitely recommend going to see the poppies whilst they're still there in large numbers, which they won't be for long!

Thank you to anyone who's read my first post on this travel blog and I'm sorry if it isn't perfect, as I'm just learning to do this properly! Feel free to comment any questions or advice for me!
Thank you and see you soon (I guess??)
Ruby x


 

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