sarahwilliamsandco

Free Summer Adventure Ideas

We’re all struggling for money, am I right? Some, of course, more than others. But who isn’t forever waiting for payday? If not, I wish you well, you must either make a killing or budget and save a heck of a lot. But the rest of you out there? The rate of inflation, compared to the increase of wages is no joke. However, we can’t live life letting money control or consume us. We have to live. We have to laugh, have dreams, have adventures, have fun, breathe. So to help you do that on this Self-Care Thursday, without breaking your bank, here are ten ideas to help you escape the monotony of your average day. These activities I have labelled as free but some will require a previous purchase (ie. a bike) so I apologise if they aren’t accessible to you. I hope you can find something else to satisfy your hunger for adventure on this list!

Museums

In the U.K. we’re fortunate enough to have access to thousands of free museums and art galleries. We also know it rains no matter what the season. Go and educate yourself on a new topic or take in an art exhibit.

Beach

If you’re lucky enough to live on the coast, go and explore your coastline. Whether that’s pebbly or rocky or sandy! A brisk walk on the beach is perfect any time of year; it’ll fill your lungs with fresh, ocean air. You could also substitute this one with a canal, a lake, a pond.. any body of water really!

Library

I love owning books and building my collection but I think sometimes I forget how excellent the library is. I spent hours there as a kid perusing the stacks for my next read. Another perfect rainy activity! Why don’t you buddy read a book with a friend?

Garden

Have a staycation in your garden! Too hot in the house but don’t want to see any people? Set up camp with a good book on a blanket with a nice ice cold beverage.

Local Festivals

In Liverpool, we have endless festivals going on year-round but often in summer. The best part, a heck of a lot of them are free to attend! My favourite is an African music weekend that takes place in Sefton Park called Africa Oye. Take a deck chair and some snacks and you’re set up for the day. I’ve also attended a folk festival where I saw a group perform sea shanties!

Botanical Garden

There’s something about being surrounded by flowers and plants on a gloriously sunny day. The bright colours literally command your brain to be happy.

Bike Ride

Going for a bike ride is an excellent way to collide pleasure and exercise. Whether you’re cycling in circles, to the shops or to the park for a picnic, you’ll always feel better afterwards. I guarantee it.

Park

Come on, think how many things you can do in the park! Go for a stroll, take a frisbee, skip pebbles in the pond, sun bathe, take a football, go for a run, read, photograph flowers, write a novel, or all your most desperate dreams. Just get out into some greenery.

Yoga

Getting your body moving is always going to be an excellent way to spend your time. Yoga sessions don’t need to cost £8 for thirty minutes. Get yourself on YouTube and I swear you’ll never be able to turn away from Yoga With Adriene. She’s infectious. Give yourself a second in the calm summer mornings to wake yourself up.

Hobby

My last one is simply to pick up a new hobby. I think it’s never not a good time to try your hand at something new. Train your brain to learn new knowledge. This one may incur some costs but a few cheap ideas could include: baking, gardening, jigsaws, a language, reading, journaling.

I hope you have an excellent August!

The Only Thing – Sufjan Stevens

August 1, 2019

adventure, amwriting, blogger, free, life, Liverpool, selfcare, selflove, summer, summerfun, travel, writersofig
Easy Summer Smoothie Recipes

Hey kids!

This week’s self-care post is super quick but unbelievably tasty. You guys know how I love a homemade juice. Especially in summer, they’re just so refreshing. I’ve been enjoying the heat we’ve had recently. Coupling an ice cold beverage with it? Perfection! I’ve got two for you. I’d say they cost under 30p per serving. Fuck shop bought. Super simple. Eyeball all the ingredients. Let’s go!

This first one I call Sunshine:

Frozen Pineapple

Frozen Mango

Orange Juice

Water

This second one I call Burst:

Frozen Strawberries

Frozen Raspberries

Apple Juice

Water

And there you have it! It’s almost like this post only took two minutes to write. Hehe.

True – Digital Farm Animals

July 18, 2019

amwriting, blogger, fruit, juice, plantstrong, selfcare, selflove, smoothie, summer, summerrecipes, sunshine, veganfood, writersofig
Reading Rush TBR

So it’s that time of year again: ~~The Booktubeathon!~~ The Reading Rush! That’s right, this year Ariel has teamed up with Raeleen and rebranded the readathon to include all reading social media communities. There is a new website with forums to engage in and badges to win. I’ll also be going to the Liverpool Read In at 6pm on the 25th if anyone local wants to join. It’s at the Waterstones café and the idea is to meet other readers and just have a nice hang out.

As always, there is seven book challenges. You can pick one book to cover each challenge or one to cover several; what you do with the challenges is totally up to you! Usually the seventh challenge is to read seven books but they’ve decided to put that as a bonus eighth challenge this year to alleviate some of the pressure people used to feel. Fair enough, I’m still going to try for it cos I’m mad. So what I’ve decided to do is pick three main books that cover all seven challenges for me. I’ll read these first. I’ve then selected an addition four (which also tick off at least one challenge) that I’ll move on to if I finish those first three. If I manage to read all seven books I’ll have covered all seven main challenges and then the bonus eighth challenge. However, say I only read 5 books (which is already a lot, I know) I’ll still have covered all seven challenges already. Make sense? Simple? Not a clue what I’m talking about? Okay, well here’s the challenges and then I’ll tell you my tbr and hopefully it’ll make more sense!

The Challenges

1. Read a book with purple on the cover.

2. Read a book in the same spot the entire time.

3. Read a book you meant to read last year.

4. Read an author’s first book.

5. Read a book with a non-human main character.

6. Pick a book that has five or more words in the title.

7. Read and watch a book to movie adaptation.

My TBR

(Challenges covered in brackets).

The Main Three

Everblaze – Shannon Messenger (1,5,2)

Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin (7,4,3)

The Bricks That Built The Houses – Kate Tempest (1,4,6)

The Bonus Four

Rubyfruit Jungle – Rita Mae Brown (4)

Felicity – Mary Oliver (2)

The Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston (3)

If Cats Disappeared From The World – Genki Kawamura (6)

Danny’s TBR

The Catcher In The Rye – JD Salinger (3,4,6)

George’s Marvellous Medicine – Roald Dahl (1,2)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams (5,6,7)

Carrie – Stephen King (4,7)

And that’s it! Are you doing the Reading Rush? What’s your TBR?

Happy Reading!

Nintendo Game – Alessia Cara

July 16, 2019

amwriting, blogger, books, bookstagram, bookstbr, readathon, readingrush, tbr, thereadingrush, writersofig
Stupid Shit My Dad Has Done

So yesterday was my dad’s birthday and I was having too much fun with him to remember to write this post! I like my dad a lot. He’s a cool guy and one of my best friends. He’s taught me so much over the years and he looks after me and my siblings. He’s also dozy as fuck and says stupid, annoying shit constantly. He does stupid shit even more frequently. I’ve written a Terry appreciation post in the past (you can read it here: https://sarahwilliamsandco.com/2018/06/15/fathers-day/), and, to be honest, I don’t want his head to get any bigger. So I intend to humble him instead with this post. Below is a list of things my dad has actually said and done. Brace yourself for the biggest eye roll of your life!

1. “What’s that, er, that bubbly stuff you put on your head?” “You mean shampoo?” “Ah yeah, that’s it.”

2. He once put the petrol cap on top of the car and then drove off. We never saw that petrol cap again.

3. He used to duck his head when we’d drive into multi-storey car parks in our people carrier with the roof box as if that made us shorter.

4. “Oh it’s a lovely day, boiling outside. Shorts weather.” “It’s two degrees.”

5. He once sat on a pizza.

6. He watches movies on the iplayer on his laptop and doesn’t make it full screen.

7. He drove into a grass verge and then wondered why we had a puncture.

8. “Sarah, my phone appears to have broken.” “No, it’s just not turned on. Here, just click the power button.” “Ah, I see.”

9. When playing ring of fire last new year: “Dad come on, you’re like four sips behind!” “I’m trying but it’s so fiery!” He was drinking ginger beer.

10. Got an egg out and juggled it in his hand whilst he got a pan out too. He dropped the egg and it splattered on the floor. “Good Jesus!”

I know, I put up with a lot of shit, don’t I? I think I’ll keep him though. He gets rid of all the spiders from my room.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Long Grey Mare – Fleetwood Mac

July 15, 2019

62, birthday, dad, family, parents, stupidshitmydadsays
Simple Self-Care

Hey kids! After Tuesday’s accidentally insanely long post I thought I’d keep today’s nice and short. We’re back with another Self-Care Thursday and this week we’re keeping it practical and simple. If you read the self-care posts you’re probably one of these people: 1) WOO, can’t wait to try a new activity, 2) Hmm yeah interesting but I probably won’t bother, or 3) Ew, so boring and cliched. Well! Whichever you are, that’s okay, you do you. BUT. You can definitely do this week’s tasks. I’m gonna give you lots of options of very small things and you just have to choose one! So easy, right? I know you can do it, lazy person, I’m looking at you. No hard thinking involved this week, the key is complete and total relaxation. Whatever that means for you. So remember, you might read one of these and go, urgh, that’s not relaxing. But that’s okay, skip it. It’s possibly relaxing for someone else but we can’t all be the same. And we shouldn’t be. Okay, we’re not idiots, we can read a list. Here we go:

Go for a walk.

Have a cup of coffee.

Light some incense.

Journal.

Bake brownies. Or cookies.

Have the fanciest bath ever.

Listen to your favourite album.

Have a nap.

Read.

Go for a massage.

Change your bedding and put new pjs on.

Try a new lipstick.

Do some yoga.

Go to a museum.

Make a fort.

Pizza.

Go see a movie.

Meditate.

Call your sister/brother/mum/dad.

Go for a run.

Binge a Netflix show.

Cook a new recipe for tea.

Light a candle.

Go for a manicure.

Lie in the garden or a park.

Go and have a beer with a mate.

And there you have it, kids. Now if anyone can get them all done in one week you’d be my hero!

Wherever I Live – Alessia Cara

July 11, 2019

amwriting, blogger, calm, life, love, relaxation, selfcare, selfcareideas, selflove, writersofig
Hay Festival + Book Haul

At the end of May, we drove down to Hay-on-Wye – a quaint market town on the Welsh/English border that is notable for its bookshops. Why, I hear you ask? Cos, for their less than two thousand inhabitants, there is over twenty bookshops! Often crowned ‘the town of books’, it’s been on my list for forever. We picked a nice weekend in May to go (in hopes of sun, lol jk) as we decided to do a combination trip of endless book perusing with intervals of camping and hiking in Brecon Beacons National Park. The week I planned to go just happened to also be the world renowned Hay Literary Festival. Serendipity! We decided to risk the crowds, invited my dad who loves a book, and headed down.

The festival itself was really cool. The festival bookshop, don’t even get me started, huge. It’s free for anyone to enter the site and then you just buy tickets for individual events. We decided to see a Q&A with Anna Burns, the award-winning author of Milkman. She had such a quirky, amusing manner and read her book extracts with such animation it actually really helped me understand the novel’s tone. We also saw Stephen Fry. He was due to read a couple of extracts from his books Mythos and Heroes but instead decided to do a reading from the third book he is currently writing in the series, unbeknownst to his publishers! The real treat to that event was the outstanding illustrator Chris Riddell was there live-illustrating the session! He was very impressive and hilarious.

On another day, we went for a walk at Henrhyd Falls which was a bit treacherous from the recent rain but completely picturesque and tranquil. Easily satisfied my hiking fix. Also visited the town of Brecon which was quiet and cute. Had a lovely vegan daal in an indie coffee shop there!

Hay, the town, was just lovely. It was everything you want from a small market town. It had a couple of delicious food places with great veggie options, and more importantly it had a cosy little pub, The Blue Boar, that became our local for the weekend. The atmosphere was electric with booklovers visiting from far and wide. But enough of all that, on to the bookshops!

They were everything I hoped and more.

We grabbed a little map of the book tour that most shops carry and got on our way. The second we saw a book in the display window we were in there. There was such a variety of genres, I was in heaven. There was an entire poetry shop where I wanted to purchase every single book. There was a bookshop called Murder and Mayhem which, you guessed it, was entirely crime-based. There was a bookshop with all sorts of old editions of my favourite modern classics. I found an edition of 1984 that was truly magical to find. There, simply, was too many to mention. My favourite booksellers included Addyman Books (and their Annexe), Richard Booth’s Bookshop, The Poetry Bookshop and Green Ink Booksellers.

I completely shattered my 2019 book buying system cos I just could not contain myself. I came home with fourteen books.. My five gifts from Danny (that I won from reading the entire Mistborn Trilogy in April) and nine from myself! Oops. Here’s a quick book haul, one line about each though or we’ll be here forever, kids!

Animal – Sara Pascoe

A recommendation from my mate. Quite scientific so far, as well as funny.

Felicity – Mary Oliver

Read Blue Horses and needed to devour more Oliver, especially a love poem collection!

#MeToo: A Women’s Poetry Anthology – Ed. Deborah Alma

Speaks for itself: brave, boss women who I’d like to learn from.

Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher

A very self-depricating, endearing memoir.

The Beauty Myth – Naomi Wolf

Quoted it in my dissertation, liberally. Yet to read it.

Emma – Jane Austen

The last to complete my Austen’s. Needed the old black Penguin Classics editions as a rule.

Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

An edition that’s very special to me, to match some of my mums favourite books from her collection.

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Just have been meaning to read it. We all know the story.

The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

Ditto. Also had a boss cover.

The Sonnets – William Shakespeare

Wanted for ages, found in an edition I enjoy. (Running theme?)

Peril At End House – Agatha Christie

Continuing my Christie journey with another Poirot!

After Dark – Haruki Murakami

Constantly hear about Murakami and haven’t read him! This one sounds mysterious and mad.

Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

When purchased was Our Shared Shelf’s pick of the month.

Silence – Erling Kagge

A little cute one Danny picked up that I know nothing about. Honing mindfulness skills I think!

All in all, a fabulous weekend. Cannot recommend Hay enough. Will be going back ASAP.

Come Alive – The Greatest Showman Soundtrack (Me and Danny had this album playing in the car all weekend. Also books make me come alive so that’s a nice little coincidence isn’t it?)

July 9, 2019

adventure, amwriting, blogger, bookhaul, bookreview, books, bookstagram, hay, hayfestival, hayonwye, travel, writersofig
Running in the Rain

So I said I’d update you about how my fitness journey is going and we’re almost a month in so I thought now would be a perfect time. Especially if your own motivation is starting to slip. If you need a sign to keep going, it’s this. This post. Go do what you need to do.

Week 4, Run 1. A Tuesday evening. The dreariest of days. Dark clouds and persistent rain that seeps into your very soul. Danny picks me up from work, we’re already in our workout clothes (a great little cheat tip if you think when you get home you’ll just get into bed). We debate the entire way home about the run. We’re both on both sides. No we’ve gotta do it, we’re doing really well. If we stop we’ll lose momentum. We’d have to do two in two days later. Wouldn’t be able to recover. Oh but this rain is horrendous. Christ, those puddles are covering the entire road! Watch that pedestrian! You’re gonna soak someone. Well we could do some yoga instead. Oh look the rain has gone way lighter now, let’s just see what Formby is like. Fuck it, let’s just go.

And we did. We just put our trainers on, started our Nike running apps and got outside. The warm-up walk was, I’m not gonna lie, a bit hideous. Very cold and just huge raindrops dripping down into your eyes. But then all of a sudden we’d reached the park, our favoured location for running and we were told to start our first running interval. And what happened after was magic.

We don’t tend to run next to each other because my pace is much slower so we’ve just been bringing our own headphones and pressing play at the same time. Since the rain was so heavy we decided to leave my AirPods at home, worried about water damage. (Are they waterproof, anyone?) The result of this is that I just had to run until Danny found me and told me to stop.

It was kind of amazing and kind of terrifying. It felt like you would be running for all of existence yet you could be cut off at any second. My conclusion? It was fucking freeing. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I drank any drops that reached my mouth, actually perfect for hydration. And I quietly muttered words of encouragement to myself. Sounds corny but it really worked for me. I got to appreciate the sound of the rain, the uber greenness of the trees, the intoxicating fresh air. I smiled numerous times on this run, something I didn’t think humanly possible for me. The high fives from Danny each time our paths crossed really helped too!

By the end of the run I’d ran the furthest yet and achieved my quickest pace per kilometre. I got straight home to more water in the form of a massive gulped drink and a hot shower! Isn’t water incredible?

I had an hour or so of sneezes but all evening we said how happy we were that we’d gone and I think that’s all we need to keep pushing ourselves. Each run we’re getting slightly stronger and building a little more stamina. We’re in it for the long haul. If you are too then I hope that story could be a little push for you somehow.

The meal planning has been going okay but could definitely improve. The yoga is virtual nonexistent right now so that’s something I need to work on, for sure. But the running is our success story this month. Let’s see if I can keep it up for another five weeks!

Side note: Laura’s (your lovely Couch to 5k trainer) playlists are giving me life, don’t get my wrong. But I cannot wait til I can run to my own music!

See you in the next update, make good choices til then!

You Get What You Give – New Radicals

June 6, 2019

amwriting, blogger, fitness, health, life, plantstrong, run, running, selfcare, selflove, update, writersofig, yougotthis
May Wrap Up

So it’s been a hot minute there. Sorry, I don’t want to force posts when they’re not coming cos I want this to be fun! But here we are back again with another book wrap up! Who doesn’t love talking about books? Clearly I love it.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars – Kai Cheng Thom

Like nothing I’ve ever read before. I heard of this book a couple of months ago from Emma Watson’s book club, Our Shared Shelf. When I saw it on the shelf in Gay’s The Word I knew it must be mine. I loved the fantasy and magical realism elements. The fierce ties of sisterhood were heart-warming to read. I enjoyed having the chance to read a trans-themed book from a trans author, something we’re still very much missing in the book world. Also, those bees? Love those bees. Would definitely recommend.

Book Love – Debbie Tung

This book is perfection. Read it. She has a way of drawing and expressing exactly how I feel about almost everything in life! I loved her first book about being an introvert in an extroverted world although I understand how that may not have landed if you are in fact extrovert. It’s not insulting, you might just not understand the exhaustion you feel when you get home from being ‘social’. But fear not. If you’re reading this post I assume you like books. This new book is completely devoted to books! (I’d say the name is pretty apt then.) The illustrations are beautiful and I love their greyscale colouring.

We Are Okay – Nina LaCour

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time. I thought it was a heart-warming look at grief and loneliness and finding yourself. I thought the plot built up a little too much to uncover something a little mediocre but aside from that I enjoyed it. I didn’t need a ‘big reveal’ to enjoy the book. I thought it being a close and sometimes painful examination of the rubble of someone’s life was amazing enough. It was nice to see a lesbian relationship in a ya as well as a wonderful story of friendship and chosen family. A small thing, but I found the stark contrast of weather in the present and flashbacks really interesting. Weather definitely links to emotion there!

No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference – Greta Thunberg

A lovely gathering of Greta Thunberg’s public addresses to date. I enjoyed reading them as opposed to hearing them because you can really appreciate how cleverly crafted her speeches are. Got a little repetitive but that’s the fault of the publisher, not her. Perfect gift for a young, budding activist in your life.

A Happy Death – Albert Camus

As always, Camus explores some excellent concepts. The idea of happiness; how you achieve it; can you find it if you’re looking for it? Can you die a happy death?Personally, I preferred his later, similar work, the much more well-known The Outsider. I did find a lot to like (Zagreus, his experience of travelling alone, the heat of Algiers) although I occasionally found some of these characters a little nauseating, possibly that was the point. Either way, I think the overall ability to make me think deeply is what will keep me coming back to Camus.

The Other Side – The Greatest Showman

June 4, 2019

amwriting, blogger, book, bookreview, books, bookstagram, currentlyreading, wrapup, writersofig
April Wrap Up

So back in the innocent days of March, Danny was reading Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasy trilogy, Mistborn. Now each of these books is around 700 hundred pages but I said I thought he was reading them quite slow and that I could of course do it quicker. A bet was born. He was reading them in about three weeks, perfectly reasonable, most would say. I thought I could do all three in a month. The wager then turned out like this: if I read all three novels in the month of April then Danny would buy me five new books of my choosing. And so the page adventure began.

Did I do it?

Of bloody course I did it!

The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson

I’ve been trying to think since I finished the trilogy about which is my favourite. It’s super close but I think it’s this one. There’s just something magical about the beginning of an adventure. Strangers coming together to become family. This book is the most epic revolution you’ve been looking for. The magic system is so unique and boss. I get a lot of Oceans Eleven vibes from this but like fantasy. Fucking read it already.

Blue Horses – Mary Oliver

Fit a sneaky extra book in when we were away in Paris. I’ve been trying to read more Mary Oliver since she died and I didn’t know who she was. This had all elements of Oliver I’ve come to love: nature, feminism, simplicity, love, animals and the everyday. We did read this to each other whilst we were drinking red wine though so I think I need another flick through, the end is a bit hazy.

The Well of Ascension – Brandon Sanderson

Loved this second instalment to the Mistborn trilogy. There’s a charming naïvety to the first book that is completely crushed in this one. It’s brutal, it’s war, it’s twists and turns and sneaky politics. It’s fascinating and delves so much further into the world than I even knew was possible. Some boss new characters as well as more detailed narratives of our favourites.

The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson

Man. This book gave you all the answers you could have dreamed of for a final book in a trilogy and then some. A perfect instalment that takes us to new places in the world. New systems of magic are discussed and I could not stop turning pages. I really didn’t want it to end. 720 pages simply wasn’t enough. Even twenty pages from the end you’re questioning how the fuck it’s going to tie up. You won’t be disappointed.

So yeah, if you think you even slightly like fantasy (and I know all you fuckers watch Game of Thrones) then I implore you to read these books. They’re mind blowing, one hundred times over. The big question is, shall I just buy another five Brandon Sanderson books with my winnings?

Pink Tiger – Flizz

May 7, 2019

amwriting, blogger, bookreview, books, bookstagram, brandonsanderson, currentlyreading, fantasy, kelsier, mistborn, thefinalempire, theheroofages, thewellofascension, vin, wrapup, writersofig
My Fitness Journey

This week’s self-care post is gonna get real. Be gentle with me. So I’ve had this shift in my mindset. An epiphany, if you will. I went the doctors a couple of days ago and she told me I was too overweight. Like this is not something I don’t already know. And like, she wasn’t being rude, just harsh. I guess to like shock me into change. And I got to work after and I was like do you know what? Fuck it. I’m literally the only son of a bitch standing in my own way. The power to change is 100% in my hands. So why have I been settling for so long? Why don’t I love myself? Why don’t I care about my body and show it the kindness and gentleness and ass-kicking it deserves? Cos seriously, when is this tomorrow? I’m not sure it exists. And that’s no way to live. I know I put on a lot of weight when my mum died but I need to stop seeing food as a comfort. I need to see it as the fuel it is. Even before then I wasn’t massively healthy though. So I need to stop making excuses. And I need to actually hold myself accountable instead of constantly letting myself off. There’s only so many times you can give yourself a break before you actually admit that you’re being a hinderance to your own health. So that’s going to change. I’ve said this to myself privately so many times that it’s not even funny. My hope in sharing this personal blog post is that I keep myself accountable. But also that my words can maybe give you the push or encouragement you’ve been needing to develop your own healthy lifestyle. Physical appearance is definitely not everything and it’s not what I want this journey to be for myself. But it is part of it. I also want to strengthen my mental health, my confidence, my relationship with food and just my general happiness. I want to nurture some good habits. And I wanna be able to do a legit goddamn push up, sue me. So who’s gonna use the next few beautiful, (hopefully) warm months to start or progress their fitness journey? I believe in you. You are so strong, so beautiful and so fucking cool. Whatever your goal or intention, work hard. It might not be easy but hopefully it’ll be worth it. I’ll check in soon. I’m gonna be working on some healthy meal planning, Yoga With Adriene on Youtube and the NHS’s Couch to 5k podcast. Until then, look after yourselves. Don’t look back.

Homecoming: The Live Album – Beyoncé (Because if this album doesn’t make you want to move your body then nothing will!)

May 2, 2019

amwriting, blogger, change, fitness, health, healthylifestyle, lifestyle, mentalhealth, self love, selfcare, selfdevelopment, writersofig