bookshoplaura

( Me last night at the wedding fair looking startled) (wide eyed selfie to demonstrate, the degree to which I'd been tangoed, to my boyfriend) ( me at last years wedding fair looking a whole lot prettier, I think) Last night we had our annual wedding fair in the book store which is about as random an event as you can stage in a book shop as any. At this point in time I don't really think it's my place to question the event and I've already decided to just go with it. As I type this, I'm sitting on my couch under a blanket half in pyjamas with a sore tummy and hair like a brush feeling suitably exhausted.  This is my second time modelling for the wedding fair so I'm pretty much an old hand at it at this point and by that I mean I don't think there's a future in modelling for me. Last year for me there was a bit of excitement on the day itself especially with the make over and that but it seemed to have faded for me this time around.  ...

Last year we had a wedding fair in the Bookshop where I work. I'm only there two years this May but I've been lead to believe this is something the shop has been doing for a few years now. Anyway I was cajoled into modelling along with several other girls in the shop and it was all nerves and excitement as we went for dress fittings and then had our hair and make up done. Now I distinctly remember at the time, quipping to my parents that they might want to stop by because it was the only chance they were going to get to see me in a wedding dress. Yet here we are a year on  and I'm still working in the shop so of course we're having this years wedding fair tomorrow evening and I'm going to be a bride again so here I am making a liar out of myself. So this year I wont say it's your only opportunity to see me as a bride because God only knows I very well may be modelling in next years show. In truth, I agreed to participate because it's easier to say yes th...

I know I am great at getting myself super motivated to make really big lifestyle changes and then tailing off a few weeks in when I realise it's not really working for me. I am looking into going on a new diet and I think this might be the one. I am well aware I have said this before on more than one occasion like some sort of dope who constantly dates assholes convinced I'll be the one to change them. Well it's not like that at all. Now just to be clear I've never tried a fad diet for weight loss. I don't think my half hearted attempts to lose weight in my 20's count as that was more me trying to cut back on junk food than actually following a recognized diet. I haven't tried the south beach diet or the Atkins, the fast diet or the 5;2 and I am not sure I see the merit in any of them really because surely if there was one really good one that worked then we'd all be on it and there'd be no need for the masses that come out every year. I do believe...

Today was my first day at the gym in about two weeks and I have never felt wobblier. I must have a very short memory because I am certain I was in much worse condition when I first started working out. I really did plan to go the gym last week but then I had that whole charade with my car running out of fuel before I even got out of the city and I wrote it off. Now I would love to tell you that it didn't really matter because I did my own workouts at home and I'm still feeling awesome but I don't want to start writing lies on my blog. I might just get completely carried away. During this so called break from exercising I may have made a few poor diet choices so let's just say I've looked better and I've certainly felt better.  I really should be slimmer seeing as I haven't had sugar in over a month, I don't eat takeaways and I can't have wheat. Let's just say where there's a will there's a way because I have done the impossible and got...

I know, I know, of late I have become a bad blogger. I have been most neglectful. Sometimes I have stuff to blog about and no time to write it and other times I have buckets of time but nothing notable to blog about. It's tough at the top. After all no one wants to read a half hearted blog where I regurgitate an earlier topic or at least I tell myself this while I am thrown on my couch trying to muster up the energy to go get ready for that other thing I should be really doing. To make up for my lack of bloggage I shall give the highlights of my week in this one super blog post and you will all be subsequently delighted that I have summarised it for you and saved you valuable blog reading time. Needless to say the highlights do not include my making a show of myself by breaking down on the quay and having to get pushed by strangers to the nearest parking bay. The night after all that drama I went to see a japanese film called patema inverted at Garter lane arts centre. It was t...

Recently I went through a phase where I completely gave up fruit. It was not a success. Although it sounds mad, my reason for doing this was because of a book I had read on quitting sugar. The book just made sense to me as someone who is very much aware they are addicted to sugar. The theory was in order to rid yourself of sugar addiction that you need to cut out sugar, all sweeteners and any fruits or vegetables high in fruit sugar. I had given up so much in the last while that it didn't seem like that would be all that difficult.  Clearly I had once again underestimated my lack of willpower and my childlike propensity to feel bereft upon realizing I couldn't have any treats for 8 weeks. Having tried some of the recipes the book provided and having none of them turn out vaguely edible I remained in that place where I had sort of given up sugar but was still baking occasionally with coconut sugar, eating the odd bar sweetened with xylitol and occasionally breaking down...

I think this has been the longest I've gone without blogging and I've been feeling a weird sort of guilt or perhaps laziness about my lack of effort on that front. Nothing eventful had happened and everything would have felt forced so I let it go and forget the way my life likes to hand me some new topic or mishap. Thanks life. So I'm off work tomorrow and usually I drive to Clonmel after work to ensure maximum crossfitting on a day off so naturally that was the plan tonight. I'd put some petrol in the car when I was home last Friday and even though the gage showed it was low I thought I had enough to get back to Clonmel or at least if I was getting dangerously low that a light would flash on my car and I would just make my way to the nearest petrol station and rectify the situation. It all seemed pretty straight forward , right. So I left my place at 6 and headed onto the quay to join some of the worst traffic I've ever encountered in Waterford. I was crawling...

Today I have been walking around work with the worrying feeling I've strained a muscle as every step brings a twinge of pain. Try not to laugh too much when  I happen to mention that said muscle is in my bum because even though it sounds hilarious. it's not and I know for a fact I strained it at my last crossfit class just before you get carried away and start thinking something rude. I'm a nice girl. Not to whinge but I also have a sore foot. I'm pretty sure that's not actually a crossfit injury but a lot more to do with the fact that my mum bought me some boots recently in Tkmaxx and after first wearing them I realised the reason they felt funny is she didn't actually buy me a pair of boots but instead bought me two right boots and no left. Unless you turn them upside down you can't really tell so I've worn them a few times and haven't had the heart to alert her to her mistake. It seems however that my feet can tell if the blisters are anything...

I have been driving on a provisional licence for over two years now and honestly I'm not a fantastic driver but I'm not a terrible one either. I have only done one driving test and I can't say I liked it all that much so I've been putting off redoing it just a little. I can think of a few things that are likely to hold me back such as the way I reverse around corners (badly !) and my complete inability to parallel park. I'm pretty sure that driving alongside the cerb until you feel you're close enough to it to stop doesn't actually count as parallel parking. Lately though, my nieces, who are five and seven, have shown a great deal of interest in the big red L plates that sit on my car windows and over the last few weeks when I am driving around the place we seem to be having many conversations about what the Ls stand for, the fact that I am a learner driver and how long it takes to learn to drive.  I do know that kids of that age call the world as they s...

I haven't written a blog in a few days now and I'm starting to think I've forgotten how. Every topic seems forced and every idea seems  half formed and in some ways I'm probably on the cusp abandoning this project all together but I  think tonight is just that sort of night. Where I feel blue for no particular reason and I might just curl up in bed and forget all the things I should be doing because I  am nothing if not the queen of procrastination. I'm back to work in the morning after a few days off and I have that terrible sinking feeling like a child returning to school after holidays are over. I am at the point in the week where there's too much week at the end of my money and I'm wondering how I failed so spectacularly at managing my money yet again. It's not that I am sitting upon bags of shiny new things but perhaps some of the over priced strawberries I bought were not a strictly necessary but they made up for it by being very delicious. It...

Some people only eat pancakes on special occasions like pancake Tuesday and it wasn't that long ago that I was one of those people . When I had to give up wheat I put pancakes on the long list of yummy things Laura can no longer eat until last year when I started baking and experimenting and I decided enough was enough, I was going to learn to make some pancakes.  my first attempt was an epic disaster. I used almond flour on its own ( it's essentially ground almonds so a flour in name only) and far too much coconut sugar and ended up with this sickly sweet brown gloop that refused to fry and wasn't recognizable as any sort of pancake I've ever seen and then I found a recipe that worked but was later forced to abandon it when I realised I was inadvertently using a flour that contained gluten( Silly Laura). For a good while then I just gave them up and lived a miserable pancake free existence.  This was probably set to go on forever but then I started making spelt ( ...