The random summer jobs I had as a teenager!

When I think back to summer jobs when I was younger, I don’t think of fancy internships, building a career or anything that looked impressive on a CV. I think of sweaty afternoons, doing jobs I probably wasn’t qualified for, earning a few extra pounds and convincing myself that I was basically an adult because I had somewhere to go and something to do. Looking back, some of the things I did during the summer were actually quite funny. Some were proper little jobs, some were more like helping out, and some were probably just excuses to spend time somewhere I wanted to be. If I wanted money for sweets, clothes and going out with friends, I had to find something to do and looking back, I think those summer jobs taught me a lot!

Babysitting - because I fancied the older brother!

This is one of the most obvious teenage summer jobs, except my reason for doing it wasn’t because I had a burning passion for childcare. Sometimes, when you are a teenager, you make decisions based on very important life factors. Like whether there is a cute older brother involved. There may have been a time when I was around 16 years old and babysitting was made slightly more appealing because I fancied the child’s older brother. The child was about 5 years old and the older brother was a little bit older than me. Teenage logic was brilliant. I convinced myself that doing almost anything was a good idea if there was even the smallest chance of seeing someone I liked. Looking after someone else’s children is a big deal when you are still basically a child yourself. Although I do wonder what the parents were thinking about leaving their precious children with a teenager who probably still needed reminding to tidy her own bedroom.

Working at horse riding stables - when I already had horses at home!

This one still makes me laugh because looking back, it seems slightly ridiculous. I spent time working at horse riding stables, mucking out the stables, cleaning saddles, making feeds, filling up hay and water buckets all in exchange for riding lessons, even though I already had horses at home and I was quite good at horse riding. I wasn't even paid! When I finished work, I still had to help with my family's horses. You would think that if you had horses the last thing you would want to do during your summer holidays was spend more time surrounded by horses but back then, horses were my passion, so spending my summer working with them and helping out seemed like the perfect job.

Cleaning a betting shop - before I was even allowed inside!

One of the strangest summer jobs I had was cleaning in a betting shop. I would go each evening after it had closed, empty the rubbish, hoover and clean. What is funny about it was that I wasn’t even old enough to be inside one when it was open. I was under 18, so I couldn’t actually walk into the betting shop during normal hours but I could go in and clean when it was closed. Madness! I was even responsible for making sure the shop was locked up each evening, which was crazy considering I was only about 16 years old. One night I remember finding a bag filled with that day's takings. Someone hadn't put it in the safe. I panicked, rang my dad from the shop phone and he said hide it somewhere and leave a note on the counter. It seemed like a good idea at the time but if someone had broken in, they would have just read the note and found the money. lol I got a bonus in my pay that week for being so honest and trying to help. Each Friday I would turn up to collect my wages, which would come in a little brown envelope and would have to try and get the manager's attention so he could come outside and give me it. 

Working in a laundrette - maybe this explains why I hate laundry now!

Another summer job memory that makes me laugh is working in a laundrette. At the time, it was just another way to earn some money but now, as an adult who looks at a pile of washing and immediately feels tired, I have to wonder if this was the beginning of my laundry problems. The sound of machines spinning all day, the smell of washing powder, folding clothes, dealing with other people’s laundry. I think teenage me accidentally ruined laundry forever. I am sure this was the summer I put on a ton of weight as the woman who owned it was a feeder. She made sure all the staff were fed when they were working and she was an amazing cook, so everyone ate far too much, with her asking again and again to eat more!

Car boot sales with my dad - one of my favourite summer memories!

Doing car boot sales with my dad was so much fun, even getting up ridiculously early, loading the car with things we wanted to sell and heading off before most people had even had their first cup of tea. Car boot sales were a proper summer tradition and you never knew what you were going to find. One person’s unwanted clutter was another person’s treasure. Doing them with my dad was probably less about making money and more about spending time together.

When I look back now, I realise those summer jobs were a big part of growing up. They weren’t glamorous, weren't always fun but they gave me independence, stories and memories.

What summer jobs did you have as a teenager?

The Wednesday Hodgepodge #70

I hope you are all having a good week. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to join in with the Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond! Each week there are 6 questions, we answer and then link up. Simple!

1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?

This is the first year that the change from summer to autumn isn't going to mean a big difference in mine and my families routine. I have no kids going back to school or college, so there isn't that big change. I can't see much changing for me between summer and autumn this year. I'll still be doing the same things, working on my blog, getting things done around the house and just getting on with everyday life. I do like September. I always feel that it's a bit of a fresh start with the weather getting chillier and getting darker on an evening. Things will start getting busier as we get closer to Christmas. October and November always seem to fly over and it will be Christmas before we know it.

2. Your favorite cookie?

My favourite cookie has to be a Nutella cookie from Batch'd which is a dessert/bakery company. They sell the most amazing cookies and although we don't get them very often, when we do, it feels like a proper treat. The cookies are big, thick and can never be eaten all in one go. There's Nutella on the top and inside.

3. What's something you've learned from a culture different than your own?

I've learnt quite a few things from American culture over the years, mostly from reading blogs and doing these Hodgepodge posts! America and England aren't worlds apart but there are so many small differences in everyday life.

For starters, Ranch is amazing stuff! I discovered ranch through American blogs and now I understand why it gets put on everything. I had heard of it before but I had only recently seen it being sold in shops. Now we always have a bottle in the cupboard. School life is another big difference that I find so interesting. Homecoming, school spirit, football games, cheerleaders, lockers and proms all seem to be such a big part of American school life. We do have proms now, but when I was growing up they weren't really a thing. Graduation parties are another one. There seems to be so much excitement around them. Halloween is another one. We celebrate Halloween in the UK of course but Americans really go for it. Thanksgiving looks like a wonderful holiday. Getting family and friends together, having a big meal, watching the parade, American football and just spending time together without the pressure of buying presents sounds fantastic. We don't have anything quite like Thanksgiving in the UK and I think it would be lovely to have a day dedicated to just getting together and eating far too much food. I've also learned just how many different words we use for the same things. I wrote a whole blog post about the differences between British and American words because there are so many! We have crisps, they have chips. We have chips, they have fries. We have sweets, they have candy. We say holiday, they say vacation and so on. There are loads of them.

I've picked up loads of little things from American blogs over the years, from recipes and food ideas to traditions and different ways of doing things. It's one of the reasons I enjoy reading blogs from people in other countries.

4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic...which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.

I'd have to go with a food critic, it sounds like a dream job, being paid to try new places to eat! It would be a good excuse to step outside my comfort zone and try different food that I wouldn't normally order. I like the idea of being able to share my opinion and help other people decide where they might want to eat. I wouldn’t want to be a really harsh critic like the shouty Gordon Ramsay though, I am too soft for that.

5. What's a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?

When I think about random things from my childhood that I still remember really clearly, it’s toys! I can picture them so clearly and remember exactly how it felt playing with them. 

My Little Pony were probably my favourite. I remember how much fun it was brushing their hair and arranging them all together. Then there was my Glo Worm, I wouldn't sleep without it. I also remember the Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone. I had it and then my girls ended up having one too. Another toy that stands out for me is the Fisher-Price Activity Centre. It had all the little things to turn, spin, push and move and I can vaguely remember playing with it when I was really little and I definitely remember my brother loving it too.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

My random thought this week is that I really need to get better at remembering the random things I think about! All day, every day I have tons of random thoughts but when it comes to answering this question every week, my mind goes blank! I think I am going to have to start writing them down so I have something to say at the end of my Hodgepodge post. Lol

A very random day out in Hull!

A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated Stu's birthday a day early with a trip to Hull. It is the biggest city to us and a short bus ride away. It is always a fun day out and we usually head there with shopping in mind, even if we don't actually buy much but this time we decided to do something a little different. We had no plan about having lunch. We were just going to see where our feet took us and make a day of it.

No birthday day out is complete without food, and our first stop was Wings International Cuisine. It is a large all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant with a huge choice of food. You can find Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Thai and Italian dishes, along with roast dinners, grilled meats, salads, sides and then an entire section dedicated to desserts. If you leave hungry, that is your own fault! It costs £18.95 per person, which I think is pretty good considering just how much choice there is and the fact you can go back as many times as you like.

I started with a plate of plain noodles, garlic mushrooms, my favourite Coca-Cola chicken, prawn toast covered in sweet and sour sauce, roast gammon and some Doner kebab. It was very random but how often do you get to have all those different things on one plate? The rest of the family got stuck in too. There was pizza, curry, lasagne, chicken pie and sushi being eaten around the table. The desserts are probably my favourite part though. The plate in the photo above was Ellie's and she didn't mess around. She had mint chocolate chip ice cream, mini chocolate gateaux, apple jelly, profiteroles, Oreo cheesecake and marshmallows covered in chocolate. We ended up spending around two hours at Wings eating and chatting. By the time we left, we were all completely stuffed.

I couldn't not include a couple of photos of Stu, my fella, since it was his birthday celebration. Most of the photos I have of Stu are ones when he is doing something silly like sticking his tongue out or being overly smiley!

Normally, when we go to Hull we stick to the same areas. We go shopping, grab a drink and then head home. This time because we weren't actually shopping for anything, we had nowhere we needed to be. So we started walking down streets we don't normally go down. We headed towards Queen Victoria Square, which always seems to have something going on and we weren't disappointed.

There were people dressed up as octopuses, which is not something you expect to see and there were some guys on stage singing. We weren't completely sure what was going on at first but we were wondering if it was connected to the reopening of Hull Maritime Museum. It's had a major refurbishment. We did think about going in for a look around but the queue was so long and from what I saw online was that all the time slots for pre-booking were full, so it's something to remember for next time.

As we carried on walking, we came across something else that made us stop for a minute. There was a group of older people sitting on chairs doing seated exercises. I have no idea whether they were just a random group of elderly people who had joined in or whether it was an organised activity but it looked like they were having the best time. We just stood there thinking well, this is something you don't see every day!

We carried on walking and eventually ended up at Hull Minster. I always think it is such a beautiful building and it is one of those places that makes you stop and have a proper look at it. We didn't go inside this time because it looked as though there was some sort of event taking place but we didn't mind. We found somewhere to sit outside in the shade for a while and just took some time to admire the building.

It turns out we can't go anywhere now without visiting an Irish bar. I don't know when this became a thing, but somehow it happens every time we go out now. We stopped off for a drink and Stu decided we were going to stop for a little bit to watch the football that was on the TV's. Just when we thought about leaving, a singer started setting up his microphone and everything. I checked on Facebook and he was due to start at 4pm so we hung around for that and I was glad we did. As the girls said "he sung all the Irish bangers". lol Whiskey in the Jar, The Wild Rover, Tell Me Ma, Zombie by The Cranberries and Rattlin' Bog that I only know of The Wiggles doing it and seeing videos on TikTok. lol

Once we'd had enough of the football and music, we decided to carry on exploring. This time we went on a little history hunt to find something I'd never seen before. The smallest window in England! The window can be found at The George Hotel on Land of Green Ginger, one of Hull's historic streets. It is tiny, a centimetre wide glazed slit in the building, so if you weren't looking for it, there is a very good chance you would walk straight past without noticing. The George Hotel itself dates back to 1683 and was once the gatehouse for an older coaching inn. I love finding little bits of history like this. The best part was you can actually look through the little window into a small room decorated with skulls and spooky things.

Hull is somewhere we visit regularly but there are still so many little things we haven't seen and this day proved it! It turned out to be a really lovely way to celebrate Stu's birthday and have a great family day out.

Our weekly meal plan! 24th - 30th August! #MealPlanningMonday

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was a really good one and it was a proper family weekend with us all being home together. I can't remember the last time that happened with the girls being out with friends or working, so it was really nice to have everyone home at the same time. We enjoyed some good food, watched TV: The Voice UK, the Grand Prix and football, had plenty of chats and just enjoyed each other's company.

Last week's meal plan went really well. We ate everything I had planned, although not necessarily on the day that I had originally planned it for. It worked out pretty well because we ended up eating the hearty comfort food like the cottage pie and sausage casserole on the days when it was raining. Yes, we've actually had some rainy days! Not rain all day, every day but enough to give the garden a good watering and make us want something warm and filling for tea.

Over the weekend, I didn't bother doing our usual grocery shop. Stu is off work all of this week and he has said he will help out with the cooking too. So, rather than going out and buying loads more food, we're going to make a proper effort to use what we already have in the freezer and there is plenty in there! I had a bit of a look through and found things that I had completely forgotten about. We've got cauliflower cheese, chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries, diced onions, mixed vegetables, fish fingers, frozen chips, mushrooms, chicken breasts, garlic bread, minced beef, battered fish fillets, roast potatoes, mini corn on the cob, potato waffles, chicken pies, sliced peppers, beef burgers, sausages, garden peas and tubs of leftovers and probably more if I dig deeper. This seems like a great opportunity to clear some space in the freezer while also saving ourselves a bit of money.

This week is going to look a bit different as we've got quite a lot going on. Ellie has another job interview and is still waiting to hear back from a couple that she went to last week, which is exciting. Stu and I need to go into town to buy some birthday bits for Ellie's birthday and of course we have a meal out planned. I need to help my dad with a few things on the computer and there are a few jobs around the house that need doing too. So, instead of planning meals for each day, I just have a list of meals that we can have depending on what we are doing that day. If we're out and about, we'll have something quick and easy. If we're home and have more time, we can cook something that takes a little longer.

On the menu this week we have:

A meal out for Ellie's birthday!

Of course, we have to eat out and celebrate the birthday girl! I won't have to worry about cooking, washing up or deciding what everyone is going to eat. I can just sit down, we can all order what we fancy and enjoy some family time, maybe with a glass of wine or two.

Fish, chips and mushy peas.

This one is completely from the freezer, which makes it an easy tea! We've got battered fish fillets, frozen chips and of course, we'll have mushy peas with them. It's one of those meals that doesn't need much planning at all.

A day of the tubs of leftovers.

This is probably my favourite meal of the week. We have a few tubs of leftovers in the freezer so we're going to have a bit of a lucky dip and see what we fancy. I think there is chicken curry, sausage casserole, pea and ham soup and maybe some Bolognese.

Beef burgers with potato waffles, baked beans and fried eggs.

This is a bit of a random meal but I think it will go down well! We've got beef burgers and potato waffles in the freezer, plus baked beans in the cupboard and eggs.

Chicken breast, cauliflower cheese, sweet potato fries and mixed vegetables.

This is going to be our little roast dinner of sorts. It should make a nice filling meal without actually having to make a full roast dinner.

Sausage, onion & pepper tray bake.

This is one of those meals where I'm going to make it up as I go along. We've got sausages, diced onions and sliced peppers in the freezer, so I'll throw them all together and see what happens. I will add some potatoes of some sort too.

Chicken pies with mash and peas.

There is something very satisfying about a chicken pie with mashed potato and peas. It's simple, filling and definitely one we all enjoy!

What are you eating this week?