Making the most

I firmly believe that weekends should be spent being productive.
This is especially true of Ryan and I as he spends a lot of the week away with work, so we always embrace the weekends and try to make the most.

For the last 3 weeks, I've been finding fun things to do that get us out and about.

Week 1
Sat
We went to Bristol museum to see the New York apartment exhibition they have on at the moment, and although not my cup of tea, I thoroughly enjoyed walking around and remembering visits from my childhood. Ryan and I have also developed a new game called 'Contemporary Captions'. For example... for this guy we found below, we decided his caption should be:

"Grab your coat love. You've pulled".

See what caption you can come up with for this one. Comment below.

"Whaaaaatever!"

Sun

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day so we decided to venture south and go to Exmoor for a picnic. It was honestly glorious sitting in the sunshine eating sandwiches. Bliss!
Afterwards, we headed to Dunster Castle where Ryan FINALLY signed up as a National Trust member. Now I can take him EVERYWHERE! I thoroughly recommend becoming a member because not only is it completely worth the money, you really are doing your bit to help preserve the properties, garden and land for future generations. They're all part of our heritage and culture, so why wouldn't you want to preserve our history?

Week 2
Sat
Saturday was an absolutely glorious day so we decided to go out for lunch. We went to the Primrose Cafe in Clifton and managed to get a seat outside. We then went for a mooch around Clifton looking at the overpriced antiques. My grandparents would've had something to say about the prices... haha
We then headed over the suspension bridge to Leigh Woods. We were going to have a look at the exhibition that is currently on show there but we couldn't find it. Instead we went for a LONG walk (mainly because we lost our bearings... oops). It was such a nice day and the woods are kept beautifully, again because it's National Trust owned. They have a mountain bike trail so I might have to try that out in the next couple of weeks.

Sun
We went away for the night for our 1 year anniversary to Tortworth Court but I won't bore you with the details. I did beat Ryan at monopoly though!

Week 3
Sat
Saturday was quite a fun day as we went to play adventure golf at Pirate Bay. As you can imagine, it was pirate themed and even had boats on pulleys to add to the experience! Plus, I won... much to Ryan's dismay.

We then went for a drive out into the country where we had a cold drink and homemade cake from a farm shop. We're really lucky in Bristol where it's easy to do that. We're surrounded by green!

Sun
Bristol was holding an affordable art show so Ryan and I went along. It was £5 for a ticket and it honestly got me in a really creative vibe. I'm now looking for a canvas to bring out the inner artist in me!

This weekend was a bit hectic with hospital visits but Ryan and I did manage to squeeze in a visit to Leigh Woods again. Still didn't find the exhibition but we did manage to collect some beautiful autumnal leaves. Watch this space for my artistic flair!

As you can see from my activities, it's really not hard to make the most of the time off. Don't be that person that sits in front of the TV all day. Get out and about come rain or shine. That's what wellies and waterproofs are for!

Make the most!

Alice x

We've been Active Citizens!

We did it!

Team Lamjung climbed Mount Snowdon and had a GREAT amount of fun doing it =)

Ryan and I hiked the Snowdon Ranger path in January, but this time I took the team up the Llanberis path. It pretty much follows the mountain railway track up to the summit which I think makes a lot of people look on enviously at the train as they shuffle up the steep incline. Having said that, it feels great getting to the top knowing you've just climbed the third highest mountain in the UK. Plus this hike was more significant for us as we knew this is what the people in Nepal have to do a lot of the time.

I thought it would be a nice idea to carry red balloons (the colour of DEC and Nepal) to garner some attention and get people talking to us. A good idea in theory but the gales liked to take the balloons into the team's faces somewhat...
And let me just clarify to the countless amounts of people that asked us... I WISH the balloons helped take us up the mountain, but really we were just carrying extra air. They still looked good though as you can see in the pictures.

We also managed to hand out our awareness leaflets at the summit to spread our message and give people an idea of what people of developing countries may have to go through. It's worth bearing in mind that people climb Snowdon for fun or a sense of achievement. The people in Nepal climb up and down because they have to. I would say that the team spoke to approximately 70 people on the day which is great towards healthcare awareness in Nepal. I even managed to get a couple of tweets with our hashtag #hikeforhealthcare!

The team have also had great success in raising over £400 to go to the DEC Nepal appeal.
There's still time to donate if you haven't which you can do either online:

www.justgiving.com/hikeforhealthcare

Or via text:

LAMJ75 £(plus the amount you would like to donate) to 70070

You may think that £400 isn't a great deal considering there were a lot of people climbing Snowdon on Saturday, however the whole point of the climb was to raise awareness to those that may not have been already aware. The people I spoke to were genuinely surprised by the healthcare facts I presented to them about Nepal, which hopefully means it will stay in their minds for longer. I always find that when I'm told something surprising, I remember it for much longer... but that's just me.

Just thought I'd also point out that the final group photo was courtesy of Reiss Parmar. Thanks Reiss!!!

Thanks for everyone's support and I'll keep you updated with further VSO/Nepal updates =)

Alice x