October reading recap

In October I read 6 books, which isn't bad considering I took 2 weeks to read my first book and then read 5 in the span of 2 weeks !!!! 

Here's a closer look at what I read this month:

First book is "it's different this time" by Joss Richard. I bought this book when I was in Canada and I had a great time reading this. It made me feel very autumn-y!! It's a story that has 2 main characters, one woman called June and a man named Adam. At the start of the book you discover that they used to be roomates and then they receive an email that will change their lives. Lots of things happen between them and you discover all of that in the book. If you love the friends to lovers trop, the forced proximity trope but also the second chance trope, you'll love this book!!! I gave this a 5 star!

The next book I read doesn't really count as it's so small but I'll count it anyways! I re-read "the story of Tracy Beaker" by Jacqueline Wilson for the millionth time. I have decided I'm going to slowly (re)read all my Jacqueline Wilson collection and the first step was reading this one. Obviously had to give it a 4 star rating for nostalgia purposes!

The next book I read was 'the night we met' by Abby Jimenez which is also a book I bought when I was in Canada! This story is about a woman called Larissa, Mike and Mike's best friend Chris. Larissa went to a concert and decided to drive home with Mike. She's very good friends with Chris, they co-own a dog, they have their own mini book club as they both love reading. Chris starts to really like Larissa but she's dating Mike, so what can he really do? If you like the friends to lovers trope you'll love this! I really loved this book, I hated Mike but he was this way for the plot so can I really hate him? (yes) I gave this a 5 star and would recommend this book.

The next book I read was 'is this a cry for help' by Emily Austin. I didn't plan this but it's also a book I bought while I was in Canada. It's the story of Darcy, a librarian who is recovering from a mental health crisis. This story explores the theme of mental health and grief. It's also a LGBTQ story as the main character is a lesbian and married to a woman. I gave this a 5 star rating! I would definitely recommend this book!

The second to last book I read was "the nine night mystery" by Sharna Jackson. This story is about Wesley who organizes a birthday party for his neighbour called Rachel with the help of his friends called Josephine and Margot. The day after the party, Wesley finds Rachel dead. Rachel's friends who were invited to the party plan a nine night celebration for Rachel as part of a tradition. Wesley and his friends investigate to find who killed Rachel and while doing that discover that Rachel had lots of secrets. This is a mystery book, I liked this a lot I gave it a 5 star even though sometimes I found that there were too many characters and it got a bit confusing, but maybe that's the point? I don't really read mystery books that often but I liked this. 

The last book I read was "never ever getting back together" by Sophie Gonzales. The story is about Maya who's boyfriend cheated on her with someone called Skye. They are both invited to participate in a TV show to try and rekindle their love with Jordy. A few others of Jordy's exes were also invited to participate in this TV show. Maya plans to get revenge on Jordy for what he'd done to her but by plotting that she falls in love with someone nobody could've guessed. It's an LGBTQ story which is the main reason I bought and read this I can't lie. I gave this a 4,5 star rating. I loved the story but it loses half a point because at the start of the book it's just pure bickering between the girls but especially between Maya and Skye and I know it was for the plot but eventually it became too much. 

Did you read any book that you'd recommend this month? Let me know if you did!!!! :) 

My stuffed courgette recipe

Last night I made stuffed courgette that were, in my opinion, very very nice.

Here's how I made them (I didn't really follow a recipe I winged it)

The ingredients you'll need:

- 2 round courgettes

- minced beef, we bought a pack of 400g but I used some of it to make meatballs for my brother and there was a tiny bit too much for our courgette but obviously that would depend on how big your courgettes are so maybe 250 / 300g of mince?

- 1 onion

- grated cheese of your choice (I used mozzarella because it's what we had in the fridge and it's my favourite cheese but any cheese would work)

- salt, pepper, garlic granules

First step is carving out the inside of the courgette 

Next step is cooking the mince, the inside of the courgette (diced) and the onion (diced). That's also when I added the seasoning

I doesn't look appetizing at all now, but that's because I added cheese and it melted but I promise it was very very nice!!!

Stuffed the mixture previously cooked into the carved courgette, there was only a tiny bit of cheese left in the pack so I added the leftovers on top before chucking it in the oven! 

Cooked for 25mn and it was ready!

I served it with salad and the extra mixture on the side too!

Weekend in London day 1

About 10 days after I got back from Canada, we'd booked a weekend to London (mainly to visit the Harry Potter studios) and here's what we got up to on our first day there. We got the first eurostar that left from Lille to London at 8:30am and got to London at 9:30am which meant we had an entire day ahead of us before going to the studios on the next day.

Immediately started annoying my mum on the train lol 

After an hour we made it to London!!!! I always forget how fast it takes from Lille to London on the train!

We got a hotel that was literally a 2mn walk away from the station so that was perfect. We dropped off our lugagge at the hotel and immediately went out to explore. 

We had booked the David Attenborough exhibition for 12. After a 30mn tube ride we made it to the National History Museum but we only had like 20mn to eat so we found a bakery (Paul, we have some in France!), had a quick sandwich and a drink and then we went in!

I mainly took videos during the exhibition so here's one of the only pictures I took. I love jellyfish!!!!!! The exhibit was cool, it was fun but a bit underwhelming, but my sister loved it so that's the main thing as she asked to go! 

 Booking the exhibition gave you an immediate entry for the museum so that's what we did after. 

I saw this cool crystal.

Obviously saw the blue whale skeleton which is way bigger than I thought, it was really impressive. I love whales!!!

Saw this cool window of stained glass!

Saw the animated dinosaur which I still find cool even as an adult lol!

We ended up staying at the National History Museum for a couple of hours. 

Here's what I ended up buying at the museum! I've loved collecting crystals for as long as I can remember! I have a big collection of them and these are the perfect additions to that collection! :)

We then walked towards Harrods because we thought we'd hit the shopping for my brother because we could tell he was bored of the museum lol!!!!

I remembered seeing online that they sold Jellycats in Harrods and I was right!!!!!

Here's the two Jellycats I bought!!!! I'm very happy and excited about these. I can add these to my collection too now hehe :)

After a little rest at the hotel, me and my mum decided to go to Weatherspoons for dinner. My brother and sister weren't hungry as we'd had a little snack when we came back from shopping.

I got a vegan sausage wrap which was very very nice, it tasted exactly like real sausages! And my mum had a backed potato because she's always asking me to make them at home but they never taste the same so she was very happy about this!

And of course I couldn't go to Weatherspoons without having the cookie dough sandwich!!!!! It's still as delicious all these years later !!!!

And then it was time to go back to the hotel because we were waking up early the next day for another exciting day....!!! 

Solo travelling to Canada day 10

On my last day in Canada, it was Canada day so I had to wear my Canada football shirt I'd bought!!!!

My plane was technically at 9:30pm (you'll see after why I say technically lol), checkout was at 11am but I got bored of waiting around at the hotel so I thought might as well wait around at the airport so I got a lyft there. My driver was really nice, he was morrocan and the day before Morroco had qualified itself for the next round of the World Cup so he was all excited lol!

Made it to the airport after a 25mn drive.

Saw this cool mural.

Had a roam around the shops, I saw there was supposedly a shop that sold sonny angels so that's what I was on a mission to find. Didn't find them but I found a book and some Canadian sweets I wanted to buy. I also saw Heated Rivalry in the wild lol!!

Made it to my gate!!!!!!! Never thought this would happen. I was fed up of pushing all my luggage around everywhere I went so I checked in my luggage and just as I did that, I got an email saying my flight had been cancelled... NOT good. So I went to tlak to a person that worked for Air France and they told me my flight wasn't cancelled. I was told I was put on the 9pm plane ON THE NEXT DAY!!!!!!!!!!! I totally panicked (and cried a bit I admit, it was the only time during my 10 days there that I actually stressed). I ended up bumping into a group of boys my age who were in the same situation as me and they told me how to reschedule my reschedualed flight. Which I did. I was put on the 5pm plane today. I dropped off my lugagge but was convinced I wouldn't be going home that day. 

I did end up making it on the plane in the end!!!!!!!!!!! My next worry was that I'd be landing at 5am French time and my train to Lille was at 1:30pm. In the end when I landed I managed to reschedule my train for 8am which was perfect because I got through customs and baggage claim within 30mn. I had time to grab a drink and a snack for the train ride. The complications didn't end there....... my train was cancelled lol. I then asked my mum to meet me in Lille and her train was delayed. Then my train from Lille to Dunkirk got delayed. Then my train left Paris and we got stuck for an hour so we were even more delayed. I honestly thought I would never make it home. In the end I made it home at about 2pm and I was honestly exhausted but I couldn't sleep. Then I slept for almost 12 hours and got totally jet lagged but after the next day I was fine!

Loved the way these clouds looked.

The advantage of landing at 5am was that I got to see the beautiful sunrise. 

More pictures from the sunrise.

Anndddddd then I was home!