Vidcon and San Francisco

I got sent to the US again, Los Angelas in fact, for Vidcon. This is the worlds largest YouTube gathering and this year set a record of around 13,000 people! I spent most of my time sitting in panels, learning about the ways of YouTube and other social platforms. 

This was followed by a two day trip to the Future offices in San Francisco, was my first time there and oh my it's a lovely place from what I saw :) 

I could sit here and tell you about it all but to be honest I spent a tiny weeny bit of effort making this video:

Summertime is here again.

Work
Work is busy as usual, was happy to see Creative Bloq's channel doing pretty well (one of the little editing projects I took on). Along with PapercraftTV, still working on the rest of the videos but I'm happy with how the first two have turned out. Also had some FCPX training, it all makes a lot more sense now, once you get an understanding for the magnetic timeline you can do all sorts. 
Jerry is currently on an internship with the Digital Camera team, helping test lenses and review cameras/products. It's so nice to see his passion back again!

Last month I attended a Summer party at the YouTube creator space and got to take Jerry with me. Off to Vidcon in a couple of weeks and then flying over to San Francisco to visit our offices there. Am hoping to make my way into the centre of San Francisco some how, really really want to go on a tram ha!

Youtube

Believe it or not, I actually managed to pull myself together, pour out a glass of Rosé and record a video for my channel. I know, shock horror! After watching some of my older videos back, I realised I wanted to be more me, none of this acting up to the camera lark, just me talking to my audience just like I would to a friend (with wine :P).

I know I said it in the video, but I'm looking forward to Summer in the City a lot. Not there with work this year, but both Jerry and I are volunteering to help where ever needed. To be honest it's a good thing, not like we will have a lot of people queuing to meet us and most of our friends will probably be busy with that situation themselves haha! May as well be useful :)

Health

Haven't done Fitness Yoga for the last couple of weeks, mainly due to being away, tired or not having the money for both that and skating. But, I have become a lot healthier food wise, purchased a lot of salad and fruit from the stall by M&S recently.

Events and things
Finally got the BT router upgraded, cost us £35 but I think it was defiantly worth it as we haven't had any dropouts yet. If you're currently stuck on the Home Hub 2 then I recommend the 4!
Nan and I were meant to head to Bristol for a massage for us both, of which I bought as a deal on Groupon. Sadly it was cancelled that same morning, but we still went to Bristol anyway. I also introduced her to Falafel in St Nicks market, she approved :)

Our friend Holly is currently in Bath on an internship at my workplace at the moment, which means lots of opportunities for evenings and days out :) Also my friend Chris was in Bristol doing a BBC course, I popped over to catch up and have some Instagram fun!

Busy busy busy, but in a good way. Still keeping my promise to myself to go on adventures and relax as much as possible when I can. So far things are good, tad stressful here and there but good :)

Work, events, adventures, health and fun!

It's been 22 days since I last posted, apologies for that. Let's just say the last few week have been pretty packed and blogging kind of slipped to the back of my mind.

Work

Work has consisted of teaching lots of people how to use Google hangouts, whilst actually trying to figure out how it works myself! Once you've gone through the slightly complicated task of connecting your G+ page to your YouTube account, it's actually pretty fun to do a live broadcast.
I've also spent a lot of time training and revising for an exam to become YouTube certified in Audience Growth. Did you pass? I hear you say. Yes, yes I did and oh my goodness it wasn't easy! That trip to London consisted of a great view from my hotel room, nicest guy ever in a chinese restaurant (Mr Wu's), first ever experience of room service and a slight addiction to the Apple yoyo snacks at YouTube.

Events and adventures

Bath YouTube gathering was on the 1st June, along with the IF YouTube gathering in London on the 8th. Both of which I got sun burnt somewhere on my body. 

The Bath Gathering was a lovely chilled day spent at the royal crescent, many ice lollies were consumed and the burger in the evening at GBK was pretty yummy.

The IF YouTube gathering was a fantastic day spent in Hyde Park with about 14,000 other members of the public. It was great to see so many people come together to help promote the fact that world hunger should not be tolerated and that there is enough food for everyone.

I managed to grab tickets to a Michael McIntyre show here in Bath for Jerry and I. It was a great gig, it was nice to know that the ticket money was going to charity and I was happy to hear the names joke live :)     

Some evenings were spent playing Monopoly City (haven't played that version before) and making sushi from scratch which was a lot of fun!

Health and fitness

Fitness yoga is going well, had to miss out the second week due to being in London, but I've been twice since then. It's hard work but so relaxing at the same time, gives me time to forget about everything and just worry about the slightly painful stretch happening in my leg. 
Been buying lots more fruit from the market stall next to Marks & Spenser lately too. Treating myself to bowls of freshly cut fruit, get that healthy feel good feeling after one of those, specially after eating a McDonalds ha! The 5 bean chilli has been made a couple of more times since too, great filler that one. Also, brand new fridge/freezer! Need to get some ice lolly moulds so I can attempt some smoothie lollies nom!

Goals

My aim for the next month or so is to get back into vlogging! No more excuses, quality isn't a major importance for me, also there are lots of events coming up soon of which I want to document through the power of video as well as Instagram images. 
Think I'll start off with a random 'I'm still here' vlog on my main channel, followed by actually making content for SweetSensations. Just need to get back into the pattern, make it part of my routine like it used to be. The whole having a full time job excuse doesn't really work anymore sadly ha!

Warrior, into sunshine warrior.

Last night I tried Fitness Yoga for the first time ever! I realised I'm not as bendy as I used to be but really enjoyed the challenge. Even though you are not pressured to push yourself, I did just that to see what my level was. I came away feeling shattered but in a great way, also very relaxed. I just need to work on my breathing, but then again trying to balance, watch how the teacher is doing it and concentrate on breathing at the same time is pretty difficult. Unfortunately I cannot attend again next week, but I look forward to going the week after.

Today was a stressful one, a lot going on at once and prioritisation changing every thew minutes. Did actually find myself getting pretty frustrated and wanting to just walk out at one point. Stupidly I didn't go outside for some fresh air, first mistake right there. 

One of those get home and unscrew the lid on a new bottle of wine evenings. As well as sort the rubbish out and do two loads of washing but that's just normal haha!

And as I write this entry, the weather man states that this has been the coldest spring since 1979. Little depressing. Oh and scattered showers tomorrow, ah well, that's what you get for living in the UK I guess. Oh look, Friday is even worse and a wet bank holiday Monday. Well, you didn't really expect two great bank holidays in a row did you?

On the road to a bigger smile

So the post before last was a positive one, I spoke about the extra activities I talked myself into and since then I've been doing a lot more!

Health & Fitness

Firstly, I thought I might tackle the whole mood thing with some herbal remedies. A friend suggested St Johns Wort to me, but once I reached Holland and Barrett I soon discovered I couldn't take it due to the contraceptive pill. Thank goodness for their knowledge! Anyway, I was recommended 5-HTP for mood and anxiety, along with B-100 for tiredness. For a couple of days I took them, I think they were working but I wasn't too sure, so I decided to go off of them for a couple of days to see if that made a different. I didn't really notice much change, but maybe that's me being a little impatient, or it could be that the B-100 is so large I worry I might choke every morning! I haven't taken them for the last 4 days or so, but think I'll try again. If nothing by the end of the bottles then I might not bother again.

Why is there a random PSY mask I hear you say, well this was a present from my friend after her visit to South Korea. It's a face mask and reminded me how much I use to use these things when I was younger. Loved having fruity weird stuff on my face and then peeling it off after.
Last week a guy at work mentioned about doing some Fitness Yoga at a gym near by. Not such a bad idea, Fitness Yoga on Tuesdays and Skating on Thursdays, sounds like a great fitness routine to me! So tomorrow I'm going to attend my first class and see how it goes.  

Doc

Still remains to be the cutest hamster ever and is becoming more smarter week-by-week. The hamster run is proving to be pretty pointless as he's figured out how to climb out of that now, but he can now climb up his slide with little effort. I did mange to capture this lovely shot of him whilst he was investigating the sofa.

Activities

Last Saturday Jerry and I took the train to Cardiff to meet up with a couple of his friends. We enjoyed some lovely food and tea in this quirky little place called Bill's Cafe Bar & Restaurant. The rest of the day was spent playing board games and entertaining the beautiful Ivy. 

One of many great things about that trip was Rachel's amazing 5 Bean Chilli, which I had a go at last night and succeeded! I have no idea why I haven't made it before, was amazing. She also made Bread and Butter pudding of which I've not been a fan of in previous years, think that was due to a bad cookery lesson at school... but I'm fully converted now. 

Other fun events including having some friends round for a Eurovision party. Honestly I think we spent more time discussing the nibbles we had rather than the actual show. My batches of chocolate orange and banana fairy cakes (2 separate flavours) went down well though.

Work life

I love the fact that in my role everyday is different, I know I'd only complain if everyday had the same boring routine. I'm learning to control my work load a lot better now, mainly through writing out lists on post-it notes. I have a white board behind me now, always fun to rub tasks out. Seriously need to start snacking on healthier foods though... oh and drink more water instead of 10 cups of tea a day!

Got an exam coming up in London next week, bit nervous and it's weird going back to revision again after all these years but I'm sure I'll be fine. 

Overall a good couple of weeks, need to keep this up!