It’s been a busy old week in the Doré household.
We went on another one of the Belmond train rides we’ve been doing with clients this summer, it was a good’un too! What a wonderful way to end this year’s trips.
This time the train went to Longleat safari park, and oh boy it was fantastic! What’s not to love? A historic train, 5 star food and animals! Heaven utter heaven.
I decided to theme my dress for this week’s train trip. Animal print seemed wholly appropriate for a day at the zoo.
Dress from Primark, vest top from M&S, Shoes from Jimmy Choo, Bag from Burberry.
Having now done 4 Belmond British Pullman train journeys we’ve become quite friendly with the staff on board. Hahahahaha
It was a fantastic day out. I love Safari parks, and having had an adverse reaction to some anti malaria medication I know I will never be able to go on an actual African Safari, I’m gutted as I’d love to go.
But our day at Longleat came up trumps! I’ve been many times before when my boys were little but things had changed, we got on the boat ride which used to just be to look at the sea lions in the water and take you over to the ape enclosure, but now in the lake we were surprised and delighted to find an incredible addition!! Hippos!! Actual real life hippos, swimming (well walking, hippos can’t swim) the lake of a stately home. I cried I was so happy.
Hippos are my favourite, well joint first with giraffes. I know hippos aren’t the friendliest of creatures but then, neither am I :) ….I just don’t happen to kill 500 people a year. They are one natures biggest killers, I mean mosquitoes are the world’s biggest killers but not quite as adorable looking as a grumpy hippo!
And the worst thing about hippo slayings is that the grumpy buggers don’t even eat meat, they are herbivores, they just kill people for the fun of it by all accounts, they can snap a crocodile clean in half! Savages really, but they are cute.
Chris adopted the pigmy hippo at Colchester zoo for me one year. I mean I love them and all but out of all the animals he chose a hippo…not a graceful antelope or a statuesque giraffe, nope, he got me a short fat hippo hahahahaha!
This made my day!
We’re going to go back as we didn’t get a chance to go round the house, and that is definitely worth a visit.
We then had a really wonderful weekend, it started early when Sam, Milly and Zak turned up early to surprise me. They were coming for the weekend but weren’t due till Friday evening, but they arrived early in the afternoon which meant I got to have extra baby cuddles with Zak.
I bought him a giraffe from the zoo, we bought Sam one from there when he was a baby. He adored that toy, so I hope Zak does too.
Saturday was Ben’s 21st birthday party, and like all 21 year olds he wanted a bouncy castle hahahahaha
I took Zak to see the pumpkins I’m growing his for his first Halloween in the garden. I think he was suitably impressed. Hahahahaha
My baby one is now 21. :o
So many princesses in one place!
Blessed with family and friends, good food and sunshine. Couldn’t have been a better day.
Happy birthday Ben, I couldn’t be more proud if I tried.
He and his girlfriend Kaitlyn have now flown off to New York for 5 days. I could not be more jealous, but I really hope they have an amazing time.
Your eyes haven’t deceived you, I did indeed have 3 outfit changes, the first one was the shorts and T shirt I helped set the party up in, Then the leopard print skirt was my first choice for the day, but when I was outside I hadn’t taken into account how blustery it was and it blew open and my knickers were on show, it seemed a better idea to not wear that as I had children coming, I didn’t want them scarred for life at the sight of my granny pants (knickers for my American friends).
So I wore the pastel flowery skirt as my final choice of the day, and even while bouncy on the castle I didn’t show anyone anything I shouldn’t have. Yey me!
I made a bit of a stoma boo boo recently, for reasons that are not clear I have at some point put two used up cans of bag release spray back in my cupboard of supplies. So I’ve had a very hair raising few days to see if the half can I actually have left would last me till the calvary arrived with my box of supplies….thankfully it did.
I am extremely lucky, no one wants to have to pull old bags off their skin, I’ve had to before and it isn’t fun.
Mind you I’ve been doing a lot of weird stuff of late. I like to weigh myself each morning, bagless and as light as possible (I know it’s not helping but I’m a trier), anyway a couple of times last week I forgot to put a bag on after I weighed myself. One time it was only about 30 or 40 seconds before I noticed but on Thursday last week, I put my dressing gown on went downstairs, pottered about the house, sat down to have breakfast, it was only when my dressing gown opened and my arm brushed against something wet that it startled me out of my skin! I was in utter shock! I ran upstairs and bagged up and then had the delightful task of retracing my steps searching for Sue droppings! What on Earth is wrong with me!?!
Thankfully the gods were on my side. No spillages or accidents to clear up. There’s never a dull moment owning a colostomy that’s for sure. Hahahahaha
I count myself lucky that I can laugh about the weird and wonderful things that occur with a life of stoma owning. I imagine some people would have been sickened to their stomachs at my unfortunate forgetfulness at not putting a bag on.
But life only has to be serious and sad if you want it to be. I appreciate that’s easy for me to say as I feel positively about and towards my colostomy.
I also appreciate that some people don’t come to terms with having one. I get it, believe me I get it even if it’s not how I feel personally.
It’s an incredibly traumatic event, I just happen to be jovial and don’t take life too seriously. Well stoma life that is. There’re plenty of things that cause me great anxiety, I’ve got all sorts of weird and wonderful hang ups going on in my brain but I’m blessed and grateful that my stoma isn’t one of them.
Top from Marks and Spencer, Skirt from Athena Procopiou, Shoes from Tory Burch.