Rachel's Next Adventure

Day 0 - Getting There I'm finally back home, so here is the first instalment of my trip diary/trip report. The trip got off to a pretty bad start, once we landed in Amsterdam we found out our flight was delayed two-three hours! It could have been worse though, they kicked 140 people off that flight and moved them to a flight the day after, with an extra connection thrown in in Osaka! One we finally board we're told about another delay! We were delayed 30min for refuelling, then not long after this we discovered that my fiancé's in flight entertainment wasn't working! They managed to put a selection of films on for him but he didn't get to pick which ones and he couldn't pause the screen or anything. In the end they gave him a voucher for money off his next KLM flight, which is fine since we'll probably have a flight or two with KLM next year. Then once we started descent.. yet another delay! Just 15min this time as w...

The spending ban at the beginning of the year went down hill. After feeling disgusted at my bank balance every time I use an ATM, i've decided I really need to bring back this spending ban now i'm back from my holiday. The only problem is i've got Barcelona, New York, our 10th anniversary, my Mam's birthday and Christmas to contend with over the next few months. I'm going to cut what I spend elsewhere and see if I can get my bank balance looking happy again! Next year's holiday is going to be pretty heavy, especially since we'll need to pay for flights and hotel in full when we book them as we're not going through a travel agent - I honestly wouldn't waste my money booking with an agent for Europe. Obviously i'll still buy myself a few things, and i'll maybe pick up a little extra overtime once winter kicks in (well, its not like we're going to be going to the beach or having BBQs then is it?). I...

Its still early days, in fact, when this blog post goes live, i'll just be on my way back from Tokyo, but due to the new restrictions with getting holidays from work (I'll be missing Sunnycon 5 next year) I need to get in quick. We've had two plans for the last year to either travel around Europe or visit China (Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai) but didn't know which to go for next. I wanted to visit China next and get both of my last two Disney parks done and crossed off the to do list (although I think my life would be without meaning the minute I cross off my last Disney park!) but with Shanghai Disneyland not due to open until Spring 2016 I thought we should give it a year to settle in, work out any kinks and hopefully the crowds will have died down a little by 2017.  So it looks like we'll be travelling around Europe! We've not planned out anything yet, but we need to be quick, at least with picking our travel dates so we can...

The next two photographs are a similar theme to the last post, but the editing was done a lot quicker and messier, it was just to show the owner a quick mock up using his photo of the store (very small, taken from his website) and some merchandise photographs I took for his website and magazine advertisements back when I was a student. I look forward to taking new photographs and making a proper image like this for him, with the items chosen specifically as they are current and work well in the set up, as I just had to make do with what I could find in my back catalogue for this mock up. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

With our New York trip only a few months away, I thought i'd make us a nice, themed savings tin exclusively for the trip. I made it in the same way as the Disney Savings Tin . First, start off with an empty tin, and remove the label. Measure your tin and open a new page on Photoshop. Let your creativity run wild. Background photo source   Print out your design (I had to print it at 110%) and glue it down onto your tin. And there you have it! Your finished savings tin. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

On a recent visit to Forbidden Planet in Newcastle I discovered a Naruto figure from The Last Naruto The Movie, I asked a friend who said it was a fair price so I went back and bought it. I think it was the only one they had as i've not seen it on the shelf ever since. Its a very well detailed figure and I definitely recommend tracking one of these down if you're a Naruto fan or figure collector.  Here are some photos of the figure. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

As we've been really busy planning and sorting ready for our trip to Japan - we're still not finished - we've been neglecting our planning for Barcelona. The planning for Barcelona isn't going to be as serious as it is for Japan but as we go just over a month after we get back from Japan we thought we'd better at least start making a list of what we want to do in Barcelona. Here is what we've got so far: Barcelona Zoo Barcelona Aquarium Gothic Quatre Basilica of the Sagrada Familia Barcelona fountains Park Guell Cuitat Vella Port Aventura Beach – Barceloneta / Nova Icaria / Bogatell Parc de Montjuïc Does anyone have any other recommendations? Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook