I must stop neglecting my blog.

I really really must stop neglecting my blog and posting so infrequently. I know that posting daily is also boring, but so are month or so long gaps. So here goes. (I know, I say this ALL the time). 

Summer is nearly over. I am very, very sad about this. Although I plan to make next Summer rather good too, with loose plans of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Taking a play to Edinburgh Festival Fringe (I'll explain shortly!) and a holiday in Devon, next Summer I will no longer be a student and will have to actually start living a proper working adult life and trying to find somewhere to move into with The Boyf. Also, believe it or not this has been the best Summer of my life. 

I have done so much, seen so many people, improved and made so many friendships and all whilst having had major surgery. As you probably know, that's a whole other blog in itself but I really didn't think I'd have been able to do everything I have done. 

I thought surgery would have ruined my last Student Summer, but in fact it's enhanced it. It's not all been roses and ponies, I still haven't fully come to terms with the tragic loss of The Boyf's brother, but I don't think anyone has yet. Overall though, it's not been half bad. 

Since finishing working in Kent I've: 

• Been to Tentertainment festival and headlined it. 
• Went out for a 'Welcome Home' meal with friends. 
• Been to Stanton Moor for Adventure Day Mark 1 with the Best Friend and also seen her learn to ride. 
• I've been back to Church.
• Enjoyed the incredible heat wave.
• I've been to History Live! 
• I've had coffee with friends. 
• Had two riding lessons back at Barleyfields. 
• Worked my first ever bar shift at Loughborough's Graduation Ball. 
• Spent plenty of time at The Boyf's new Uni house. 
• I had a fab evening with friends and family before going into hospital. 
• I've had Open Heart Surgery. 
• I've bounced back from that and been to my favourite Paint-a-Pot place. 
• I went to Shrewsbury Flower Show and had a song dedicated to me by my favourite band Bellowhead in front of thousands of people. 
• The Boyf turned 21 and we had a lovely low-key celebration. 
• I've been back to Bolsover Castle and seen a demonstration of 17th Century riding in the old Riding House. 
• I've been to Newstead Abbey for our August Bank Holiday battle.
• I've been on a wild night out in town with the Best Friend. 
• I've been to the wedding reception of one of my dear friends that I've made through all of my Heart-Related-Stuff. 
• I've been for more coffee with friends.
• I've stewarded a horse show, 
• I've sorted some of my Uni stuff. 
• I've gone back and forth to The Boyf's Uni house again. 
• My Grandma has moved into a house in the village. 
• I've been to Pub Quiz over in Swad with The Boyf's friends. 
• I've been out for dinner with friends. 
• I've had numerous evenings in the pub or just chilling in the back garden with the Best Friend. 
• I've watched as much as I can of the new Rugby Premiership season on the tele. 
• And I've been on Adventure Day Mark 2 with the Best Friend to Dudley Zoo.

Overall it's been absolutely fabulous and after this week with just a few bits and bobs to do including more coffee with friends and working as an Ambassador at Harper for a day, we'll just have one final week in Wales before Harper Life starts all over again, this time though for the final time. I've also probably forgotten other things that I've done, but every single day of this holidays has been special and I've just loved it. There are some other things I wish I'd done, other people I wish I'd seen but you can't do everything no matter how hard you try and I'm sure everything will work out in the end. 

Aside from all this I've taken on a few other tasks, one of which involves Edinburgh! I have started taking on various tasks of recruitment/ website making for a few of the different things I'm involved in recently. I am helping with recruitment for my Battle Re-enactment regiment, which is going well if a little hindered by communication issues, but the essence is there. I have also started helping my dear friend Hayley (who's wedding reception I went to) with the group she is running for Teenagers and Adults with CHD, the heart condition that we have. It's going really well and I have been helping her with the social media as well as creating a website and starting a newsletter for the group. Most of the info about this will be on my other blog, but overall it's been absolutely wonderful to get involved with and one of the reasons I think I've bounced back from my surgery so quickly.

Also, I am running two websites for one of my friends who I've known for a long, long time through working at Barleyfields together in our teens. She's now at Uni doing a Performing Arts degree and is an actress and I've basically become her PA. It's a little 'job' that I'm helping her with, unpaid, but I really enjoy doing it and again, I'm running both her own website and we're about to start the website for the Theatre Company she's in the process of setting up. Here's where Edinburgh comes in. She is the process of writing a play that we are going to hopefully take to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a run next Summer. It's all very exciting but Amy is working very hard and I'm doing what I can to help. If it all comes together (and it's all going well so far) we and our cast will be off to Edinburgh. I will be in charge of paperwork and photography ready to put on the websites once we get back and if everything goes well and something takes off because of it. I've got myself a job. In the future Amy and I hope that she would be able to employ me in some kind of admin role, as she says, she'd far rather employ someone who's been there from the beginning and is a good friend than have to employ a randomer. And she'd let me pick my hours and work it round my family, something I dream of! One of the other things I did do this Summer was just last week. I did a photoshoot for Amy, so that she can pick some new shots for her website, it was a fab day and we found an ace tunnel to take a lot of the photos in.

Anyway, that's a long way off yet, in the next few weeks I'll be on holiday with The Boyf and the Elder Basons in Aberaeron, Wales for a week before heading back to Harper to start life in the cottage with Yorkshire Housemate and Leicestershire (nearly Norfolk) Housemate and catch up with the Engineering Boys and all my other friends. I cannot believe that it's been 3 years since I started at Harper and I've made it to being a Fourth Year student. Crazy.

If you'd like to keep an eye on what I've been up to (and up to date Leicester Tigers rugby match commentary) you can find me on Twitter @Basonnn.

Imminent Arrival of Autumn, in more than one sense!

September has just arrived and Summer has nearly left us for another year, luckily the weather hasn't turned completely dire yet but it's definitely getting darker earlier and I'm totally not a fan of that. 

Technically though, my Summer Holidays aren't quite over yet, and I still have more adventures to look forward to. Since last writing I've also had lots of other exciting things happen. 

Everything to do with my heart and CHD etc is still ticking along nicely and one of the nice things was to do with that, so you can read about that here.

As well as that, The Boyf turned 21, so we had a nice quiet evening celebrating and I cooked a special 3 course dinner, he opened pressies and we just relaxed and enjoyed a quiet evening together. I bought him the new Leicester Tigers rugby shirt since he is a season ticket holder now and he proudly sported it to the first game of the season on Saturday. 

The Best Friend has been learning to ride, after finally overcoming her fear of horses, so since I can't ride at the moment I have been accompanying the Best Friend and her sister to their lessons so that I still have a reason to go down and see my friends from the yard, and my favourite horses too! She's doing really well in her lessons and is really enjoying it, so we're all happy ladies now.

As well as this we have been to the August Bank Holiday battle. This was at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire and it was a bloody good weekend! We did a battle here last year too, but luckily this time it was a hell of a lot drier than the one in 2012. It was also a very good way to be celebrating being 1 month post surgery and being with The Boyf for 4 years now. I can't believe it's 4 years, it seems like it was only yesterday, yet he's been in my life all along at the same time!

During these past few weeks though we did have Kieran's funeral, Kieran is The Boyf's little brother who tragically drowned off the coast of France at the end of July. It's been a rough ride for everyone and especially The Boyf who was in England whilst the rest of the family were still in France and I was in hospital when it happened. It meant that The Boyf was here, there and everywhere trying to sort out all the logistics of the accident on this side of the channel whilst trying to visit me in hospital and comfort his Grandparents who were all still back at home too. I am immensely proud of how well he has done and the fact he is back to work now and back to rugby training now, something which he hopes to do consistently this year, is brilliant. Kieran's funeral was emotional as expected but was a very lovely celebration of the young man he was becoming. With a Doctor Who theme running throughout, I think he'd have been very pleased to see so many Daleks, TARDIS (TARDII?), K9s, Cybermen and Sonic Screwdrivers all in the same room.

So it's now onwards and upwards getting ready to go back to Uni and start the dreaded final year. I'm very much looking forward to moving into the little cottage with Leicestershire Housemate and Yorkshire Housemate (different Yorkshire Housemate from last year) and with the Engineering Boys just down the road.

I still have a few things to look forward to before going back though. The Best Friend and I are heading to the Zoo for another adventure at the weekend and I will be going back to Church and hopefully going out for dinner with friends from Church next week. I have coffee arranged with a friend for later this week and we're hopefully going to the Game Fair at Weston Park next weekend. As well as this there are a couple of Sunday Night Pub Quizzes (highest score and finishing position ever the Sunday just gone, I'll have you know!) left and something I'm really looking forward to, a holiday in Wales with The Boyf and the Elder Basons. It's something that I think we all desperately need after the high emotions of this Summer to make sure we're all relaxed again before getting back into the swing of Uni and being back at work with less lovely weekends in between. 

If you're wondering why Autumn is on the way in more than one sense, well, my baby cousin, who will be called Autumn is due to be born in a couple of weeks and having not had a baby in the immediate family since her big brother was born nearly 16 years ago, we're all very excited, plus, out of my 3 fully related cousins, she's the only girl! 


If you would like to see what else is happening over the next few weeks, in 140 characters or less, you can find me on Twitter @Basonnn.