London.

At the end of August, I packed my suitcase and headed down south to stay with my friend Gemma for a few days. She lives just outside London, so we had a couple of exciting days planned. I had previously only been to London twice before, and even then I didn't get to spend too much time there so I was looking forward to seeing our fabulous capital city, and of course spending quality time with Gem.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon, after a 2 hour train journey sitting next to women eating tuna sandwiches and cheese and onion crisps which nearly made me hurl. We spent the rest of the day around her town and chilling. After watching a film, we had an early (ish) night as we were up early the next day.

We got into London for around Nine-ish on Friday morning and waited outside Victoria Palace Theatre to get Billy Elliot day tickets (we were there so early, we were first in the queue and got front row seats!). I am so glad we did this though as we saved ourselves a lot of money! Next we hopped back on the tube and headed to Westfield Stratford City where we spent the rest of the day. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the size of the place and the number of shops! I thought the Trafford Centre was big but this is just another level. As a self confessed nail polish addict, my favourite shop had to be the Models Own bottleshop. We ate dinner at Pizza Express which satisfied my cravings for pizza and garlic bread which I have had for the past couple of weeks.

Billy Elliot was an absolutely amazing show. I have not seen a West End show before but after seeing Wicked on Broadway, the bar was set high. I would say it hit that bar and I was excited to get home and download the soundtrack. The boy that played Billy was a true star, and I have never seen someone that young dance so well!

On Saturday, we went into London for a day of Sightseeing. We went on a Hop on Hop off Bus tour which was really good. We started off at Baker St, and the bus took us around most of the sights, and even included a river cruise which was my favourite part of the day. We also briefly went into the National Gallery before walking down the Mall to Buckingham Palace (the plan was to see the changing of the Guards but unfortunately it wasn't happening on that day), popped into Topshop Oxford Circus (Oh. My. God. It was amazing), Hamley's and Liberty, had a walk down Southbank and went into the Natural History Museum to look at the Dinosaurs. In the early evening, we ate dinner at Nando's before heading back to Gem's house knackered.

Before going home on Sunday evening, Gem's dad took us both to TopGolf in Watford. It was a bit like a driving range with massive targets and you got points depending on where your ball landed in respect to the target. It was a really cool place and I wished we had something like it at home.



It was sad to say goodbye to Gem as I got on the train, and I felt really subdued the whole journey home. I had a fabulous time and it has made me even more excited to live with Gem back at uni in a couple of weeks time! ♥

for more pictures, check out my flickr

august in instagram

tough liquid diet decisions | drawing in my moleskine | watching disney films in bed | first relatively normal picture since surgery | with some of my family at my uncles 70th birthday party | off to london | with gem at westfield | the tube | cruise down the river thames 

jaw surgery; 6 weeks on

I apologise for this post being 6 weeks and a day on, however I have been to the hospital this afternoon and wanted to keep you updated on what occurred there. I was hoping that they would let me take my elastic bands off my brace, but unfortunately they haven't. Instead I've been given elastic bands of a different size and I'm going back again in 4 weeks. Hopefully they will take them off then as they are annoying me so much; I don't know how something so small can be so irritating!

As you can see, my face looks pretty much normal now, although I still have a little swelling under my chin and along my jaw line, but that is to be expected considering what the procedure actually entailed. I have seen a video on youtube of someone else undergoing the same procedure as myself, and even as a person that is not usually bothered by things like that, I did feel a little squeemish and astonished with how rough they can be. For those who are interested, you can watch the video here, but I do warn you, it's gross and not for the faint hearted.

Other than the swelling, I am pretty much back to normal. I no longer get tired, I have very little pain anymore although my jaw still feels a little fragile, and I am over the moon to say that I can eat normal meals again. Eating takes a long time as chewing is weird with my new bite, but I am improving. Hopefully now I can start to put some of the weight that I lost in those first few weeks back on. I had a bit of pain last week after my mum elbowed me in the jaw accidentally but that has thankfully gone now and no lasting damage was done. My chin is and lower lip is still slightly numb, but my folliculitis is getting better and the rash is clearing up nicely.

In these past 2 weeks I have seen a lot of family, and most of them were amazed with a) how much of a difference the surgery made and b) how quickly the swelling has gone down in such a short space of time. Both are something that I too am impressed with. I would also like to thank my family and friends for all the support they have given me over these past weeks, without which I wouldn't have been half as optimistic about my recovery as I have been.

Six weeks post op seems to be a pretty big milestone, as this was the period I was told originally that things would seem like normal. I am absolutely made up with the results of surgery and already my confidence is on the up. I would certainly go through it all again for the same results!