Rachel's Next Adventure

Another relatively slow month house wise! The first week of July we had our joiner/electrician back for three days. He built us a new - I don't know the word, basically the sloped board thats above the stairs - and fitted that for us as the old one needed removing. He also flipped the office door for us so it doesn't open into a wall anymore, and moved the light switch to the other wall. We also had two more light fittings changed - now we just need the kitchen and extension lights changing, but those can wait for now. We got a few more boxes from Wilko and managed to put a few more Halloween, Easter and Christmas bits away that we'd found in the back room. We also ended up buying a few more bits in the PoundWorld closing down sale so we still need to put those away. We also picked up a nice storage box from the PoundWorld sale, and some black car spray paint from Poundland to repaint it to it'll match our living room. Now I just want the new ...

The final update. We've finally bought and received our Green car Japan Rail Passes - we bought them from JTB . We decided to go with Green again as we'll be travelling during the busy August period and in Green Car you have enough space between you and the seat in front to store your suitcase.  We've bought a new hand held fan to help us tackle the 39ºC temperatures we're going to be standing in at Disneyland and DisneySea. I've tested it out and it's amazing! It has three speeds/strengths and is better than the mains one I use at home! This is the one we bought. I've finally sorted a new hand luggage bag as my camera bag isn't big enough now that I need to take medication, prescriptions etc with me. I've decided to use this one I bought in Walt Disney World last year as it has the side bottle pockets. Really not impressed with the quality though so i'm hoping it doesn't jam up or fall apart on the flight....

The August box finally arrived while I was in London, so here it is. A little late but super cute! There are 12 days left to order this box If you use this link you'll get $5 your first box!

After work on Saturday I rushed down to the seafront with my fiancé where we managed to catch the end of the parade of sail and the Summer Streets Festival.

The tall ships races event started in Sunderland on Tuesday, and on Wednesday they had a firework display - just after the World Cup match ended - perfect timing, eh?. I recorded the fireworks so feel free to check out the video below. They'll have another firework display tonight at 9:30.

With the summer holiday season finally here the shops are all filled with cute, practical and affordable clothing, accessories and other items you may need on your upcoming holiday - or even just want for general day to day use! So I thought I would take this opportunity to show you all some of the things i've picked up over the last couple of months ready for our upcoming Japan trip, and, not gonna lie, this is pretty much all from Primark. [excuse the creases, these tshirts are living in a Primark bag until i'm ready to pack!] Mickey t-shirt £8 My first purchase for the summer season, I just love the design. Stitch t-shirt (lost price! £8?) I bought this because it was really big and baggy and in the summer heat in Japan it'll be ideal, but I'm not too sure, when I wear it it looks/feels like a hospital gown. Stitch t-shirt £8 It's a simple design and nice and baggy so it should be comfortable in the su...

I'm really starting to feel super unorganised with this trip now, we go in less than 60 days and we still haven't fully finalised our plans or even bought our JR Rail passes yet! Although, to be fair the JR Passes are only valid for three months so we'll probably buy them in the next week or so now that we'll arrive within the validity period. We've finally booked all* of our hotels - we're staying at the Sakura Hotel in Ikebukuro, Disney's Ambassador Hotel, MyStays Maihama, Granvia Hiroshima, Granvia Osaka, Granvia Kyoto and the Hotel Sunny. * I kind of want to add an extra night at Disney, just so we don't have to force onto a commuter train with luggage early in the morning! Currently looking at Disney Celebration, MyStays Maihama and Oriental Tokyo Bay hotels. We have our pocket wifi all booked, it'll be waiting for us at our hotel when we arrive, as always we've booked ours with Global Advanced Communications . ...