Life Lately #2

Laura, where the hell have you been?

It's been almost a month since I last published a post. But with good reason. This Easter while everyone was enjoying their chocolate eggs, myself, Kris and my parents were hauling around furniture. As mentioned in my last post, we moved to a new town, went on holiday to Iceland, then started new jobs. Blogging took a bit of a back seat, but hopefully now we're settled in and happy I can get back on it!
We moved into a little flat on the edge of the town centre. It's got everything we need and is pretty close to perfect. I've started a job where I can not only enjoy the work, but learn a lot too. I've gone from living out in the suburbs into the middle of town but not had to compromise safety, noise levels or price. I'm really looking forward to living here and even though Easter weekend was busy and full of lots of hard labour, it was worth it.

A few days after we moved in we headed to Iceland. I wrote about the time that I went with my family in 2015, but Kris had never been and I wanted to go back. It was our first ever holiday abroad together, so it was pretty special.

Last time I went we flew with EasyJet, this time we went with IcelandAir and I really really recommend it! The flights were great and we even had personal TVs, which is unusual for such a short flight (2-2.5 hours). It really helped my anxiety having something to fully distract me from everything going around me. We also booked a package through the IcelandAir website that meant our flights, hotel, transfer and trips to The Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon were all sorted. It meant we had little to stress about once we actually got there because we'd pretty much paid for everything except food, something that's quite expensive in Iceland. We really made the most of our hotel breakfast to save us money elsewhere! On the first night we were tired from travelling and just headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for food. I really wanted to go because it wasn't open when I went in 2015, and I was always jealous of my Stepdad's t-shirt from the old cafe that closed a few years back. Now the Hard Rock isn't really a cheap option here in the UK, but in Iceland it's actually pretty reasonable compared to other places! I was squiffy about the fact that we paid £10 for a portion of onion rings, but they turned out to be the best that either of us ever tasted!

We did the usual touristy stuff and visited the Blue Lagoon - I didn't take any photos this time but there are a couple in my previous Iceland post. It was just as good as last time, although it was quite windy so the waves picked up a bit! Plus it started blizzarding for a bit and we took refuge in the grotto. It's an odd experience to be nice and warm up to your neck then pelted with ice in your face! The gift shop was horrendously expensive but I did treat myself to a silica mud mask in duty free at Keflavik airport. I wanted to just buy a small amount but the sample pots were tiny! I think it's the most expensive beauty item that I've ever purchased...

We also went on The Golden Circle tour, another thing that I did last time I went to Iceland. Because of this, we went for the slightly shorter version of the tour, but it was still a great experience. I last went in summer, so this time I was wrapped up a lot warmer! It wasn't particularly cold, around the 2-4 degrees mark, but the wind chill was terrible if it picked up, especially by the coast!

Towards the end of the holiday we ended up doing a little bit of celebrity spotting. On the morning of the final day we headed out early to explore Reykjavik. We went to The Settlement Exhibition, a small museum that houses an excavated viking longhouse underneath Reykjavik old town and details of how the island came to be inhabited. There we were reading about the exhibits, when a man came up to me and started speaking. He soon realised that I wasn't the woman he'd come with and apologised for confusing me with someone else. I turned and said not to worry, then ended up doing a double take. It was Ricky Gervais! We then spent the rest of the time at The Settlement Exhibition walking a few metres behind him, as not to get too close. It's almost as though I was scared of bothering him, rather than being starstruck...

Our second encounter was at Keflavik airport on the way home. I was in a bit of an anxious stress because our bus had took a bit longer than planned to get to the airport, then self-service check in hadn't worked and we had to queue up to sort our suitcases. There was a group of three blokes ahead of us with so many suitcases, boxes and skis. I grumbled to Kris that it'd take forever to check all that in, which wouldn't help us with our timing. A IcelandAir staff member turned up and told them if they followed her she could sort out their bags, directing them to the desk where you check in large/unusual items. It was once they turned around and came past us that I realised that one of the men was Sir Chris Hoy! After they left we continued to queue, until we spotted an abandoned suitcase. Queue my brain going into panic mode for a few seconds because argh unattended item in an airport, before I realised that it was probably one of their bags. So Kris ran after Chris Hoy and asked him whether he had a bag missing. Alas, it was his and we reunited him with it.

We thought that was the end of our encounter. We managed to get through security, go to the loo, get some breakfast and get to the gate with just enough time. When we landed in Manchester we were walking to Arrivals when a man came past us quickly and walked ahead of all of the other passengers. It was Chris Hoy again! Bless him, he was obviously trying not to be spotted. He made it to passport control before this happened, when a lady spotted him and got so excited. Her son must have been a fan, because she ran off and told him, who then went over and asked for a selfie. Chris Hoy had chosen a pretty secluded spot in the baggage claim hall so I don't actually think anyone else knew he was there. We jokingly stood with our backs to him trying to block him from other people's view. It felt like a weird little secret that we knew he was there.

So yes, Iceland was quite eventful, but to be honest our whole lives right now have been eventful. We've had new jobs to start, events to attend, furniture to build and family visiting. We're hoping that things will settle down a bit now, April was one hectic month!