On The Hunt For Halloween Part 1 - TK Maxx and Hobbycraft

Hi guys I thought I'd try something a bit new and do a series of Halloween Décor Hunting blogs. For the last couple of years I've documented everything I've seen on my Instagram but since my social media break (I've been back on Facebook but have everything unfollowed and turned off so all I see are my family and friends posts) the thought of going back onto Twitter and Instagram (unless it's posting airshow pictures of course) makes me feel nauseous. So I thought some blogs would be fun. 

This year, like the last few years, I've been obsessively watching YouTube vlogs of (mostly) American creators documenting their trips to various stores that have been stocking Halloween items since the summer (so jealous, my ideal would be Halloween in the height of summer - my favourite season combined with my favourite holiday). Some of my favourites are Jade The Libra (super cool and gothy) and Midge Munster (really cool vintage vibes). I've popped a couple of their videos below -

I also think it's incredibly unfair that the UK don't have any Spirit Halloween stores (see below again). 

I've managed to visit a couple of shops with their Halloween stuff out - TK Maxx , The Range and Hobbycraft. I'd pre-ordered a couple of bits on the TK Maxx website (lucky I had as they're no longer on the website) and when I went to collect them made the mistake of looking at the rest of the Halloween items that had come into store. 

The black and gold potion bottles were my click and collect, not included with my click and collect were the two cushions, pumpkin scented reed diffuser, pumpkin stack, decorative mini pumpkins or the black skull pumpkin ..... In my defence with TK Maxx stores they each stock very different things and a limited quantity so you really do need to grab it whilst you can. 

Last week my Halloween partner-in-crime Gem and I went and visited Hobbycraft to see what their stuff was like and I picked up a few bits -

I wasn't originally going to get this skeleton fairy but as we walked past it randomly fell on the floor so I felt a clumsiness affinity with it 😂

These pumpkins are so squishy! Although I'll have to buy another blue one as Helen has claimed it for post-Halloween. 

I got these pretty bottles.

And these stickers to go on these and other bottles that I might find. 

Gem and I also popped to TK Maxx as it would have been rude not to and I got this lovely pumpkin filled with pumpkin-scented Potpourri.

I'm also giving the Snag Tights Halloween range a try as I'm heard loads of good things about them as a company, they also go up to super fattie size like me! I've ordered the witch and oh my gourd sets to try. 

 

This week Mum and I are going to head over to Brighton to visit Homesense which is normally the best place for unusual Halloween bits but they never list them on the website so it's always a nice surprise to see what they have. I've seen a couple of videos of the insides of a couple of shops but not the Brighton one.

I still don't get this year's obsession with Halloween gnomes but I do like the haunted houses.

I'll keep you all updated on how we get on (how much my bank account cries) and post some photos asap. 

Love Jen

XxxX

Ps Halloween Gnomes yay or nay?

Duxford Flying Day - Celebrating 19 Squadron

Sneak preview 😉

A couple of weeks ago Dad and I finally managed to see some aircraft! We went to one of Duxford Museum's Flying Days which was celebrating 19 Squadron, and it was SO GOOD to finally be back at an airshow. As I've said in previous blogs airshows and aircraft are so key to my mental health, I can be lifted so much from seeing planes and the general atmosphere at shows (ditto for gigs). The last airshow I made it to was Duxford Battle Of Britain Airshow in September 2019 and the last airshow that I blogged about was Airbourne 2019. I did post a blog last year of my Favourite Airbourne Moments from the last few years but naturally it wasn't nearly the same. This is partly why I'm so excited to finally be blogging about planes again! 

Just after we arrived there was an announcement that "our friends from RAF Lakenheath have a couple of F15s in the area and will be giving us a flypast" so we dashed to the flight line to get the best view. They screamed along the runway and then back over us, there's nothing like the ground being shaken by jet noise! Of course I have a video of it on my YouTube -

Yay!!!!!!

 

After our most excellent surprise we went to look at the hangers. There are so many different exhibits and hangers to look around at Duxford I'd recommend getting there well before any flying is due to start so that you aren't rushing.  

Here are a few photos of some of the hanger contents -

Lancaster being photobombed by a Mosquito.

Hanging with a Spitfire.

My favourite ever plane the Panavia Tornado 💓

Lightning 

Jaguar

A pretty early Harrier

Mosquito

Concorde needs no introduction!

There's no mistaking a VC-10

The NHS Spitfire 

The flying display started with a Spitfire MK1 and a Hurricane MK1 -

 

Hurricane getting airborne behind 'Miss Helen' (more of her later)

 

 
 

 

The beautiful sound of those Rolls Royce Merlin Engines was followed up by the Yak 50 which was impressively agile. 

 

Next up was the unmistakeable sound of the Harvard's radial engine 

I really like the paint scheme on this Harvard

This is a Nanchang CJ-6 a Chinese WW2 era plane which I've never seen before

We had a great display from an always crowd-pleasing Extra 300

  

Finishing up the day was the beautiful P51 Mustang 'Miss Helen'. Whilst I adore Spitfires and Hurricanes, it's been so long since I've heard the whistle of a Mustang (see video below) I was overjoyed to see her once more. 

As you can see I took plenty of photos of her .......

Her silver paintwork glinted so beautifully in the afternoon sunshine. 

  

  

One of the things that pleased me about the day was that I was finally able to use my new video camera that I bought at the start of the year when I thought that RIAT, Airbourne et al were still going ahead. After a false start at Headcorn Airshow back in June (it rained, nothing flew, enough said) I was able to have a quick play with it at Goodwood (for more on that have a look at my blog here) and I was pretty happy with the results but cars tend to go in a straight line rather than perform victory rolls so I wanted to make sure the new camera was up to the task and worth the money. You guys can be the judge but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

I have tickets to the Battle Of Britain show at Duxford (the flying list already looks fantastic) and am planning on going to Bournemouth Airshow ) on Sat 4th Sept with a local coach company and possibly getting up at stupid o'clock on the Sunday morning to go up on the train if the weather is bad/I missed something the day before. Hopefully both will go ahead and I've now had both my covid jabs without turning into a zombie (take that anti-vaxxers and covid deniers) which gives me a bit more hope. I'll keep you all updated!

I hope you all enjoyed my first airshow blog in ages with hopefully a few more to come this year.

Love Jen

XxxX

I Feel The Need For (The Goodwood Festival Of) Speed

Back in July (I'm the worst for Blogging at the moment sorry) Chris, Vana and I went to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed. For Chris' upcoming 30th birthday we always said we'd go to an F1 race but unfortunately the price and possibility of crowd cancellation we thought we'd give the Festival Of Speed (another event we also had on the 'to go to' list) a visit, and I'm so glad we did! It was such a fun day and we actually got to see more than we would have at an F1 race. 

Obligatory "We've arrived!" selfie

First pit stop of the day

Our attention  was immediately caught by the revving up of the rally cars. I can't pretend I know much about rallying but the cars sounded cool 😂.

I know that this is a Subaru!

The cars ran in different 'Batches' twice a day which was great as it meant we had the opportunity to see everything. The next batch we saw were some historic F1 and NASCAR cars. 

 

  

 

  

 

Goodwood House itself is beautiful

I was also really excited as the Red Arrows were displaying and it was the first time I'd seen them in two years!!

Yay! 

New for the display this year was the 'NHS Pass' as the RAF's way of thanking the amazing NHS staff and their work and sacrifice through the pandemic. It was fantastic to hear the cheers and applause from the crowd too. 

I love how close they get 💓

Chris caught me photographing the Reds with my new Red Arrows tattoo on show 😂

You can see my video of the Red Arrows display here -

Before the next batches we had a look around and the cars on static display. 

Not quite sure I can afford this for your birthday Chris!

A lot of the F1 teams had this season's cars on display in their garages (they also had the Mercedes and Red Bull merch stands next to each other - spicy!)

Aston Martin - no Inspector Seb sadly. 

Red Bull 

Ferrari 

Whilst we were at the Ferrari garage they revved up one of the engines and it sounded awesome!

Mercedes

Williams had some of their championship winning cars on display. 

McLaren - sadly no Lando or Danny Ric. 

We then went to another vantage point to watch the F1 cars and a couple of bikes run again.

 

 

Bruno Senna driving his uncle Aryton Senna's McLaren

Jenson Button driving Keke Rosberg's 1982 Championship Winning Williams

Chris watching Jenson!

 

We think this is Mark Webber's Red Bull (driven by Alex Albon - give him his seat back!)

Esteban Guttierez in the Mercedes

He also pulled some donuts

And last but not least the F1 Safety Car!

You can check out my video highlights of the day here- 

We had an absolutely fantastic day and I really hope we can go back next year.

Love Jen

XxxX