Oopps! It’s been over a month since my last blog post. I have been meaning to write posts, but as the picture above suggests, I have been struggling to juggle everyday life recently. For those of you who follow me on Twitter know, that I have been manic with the planning of Nottingham Fashion Week later this month and with all my other work, blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

I will be back to blogging as often as I can. I will post my ‘Toal Buys This Week’ tomorrow, although it will be a ‘Total Buys This Month’ post.

Thanks for keep following and telling me your favourite posts, it’s all appreciated.

A while back, I was talking on the phone to someone whilst I popped into my local coffee shop and order a “tall, skinny,  peppermint cappuncino.” It was one of those, hold on a second, I’m just placing my order.

When I got back on the phone, the person I was speaking to commented on whether he heard right about ordering peppermint syrup in my coffee. I love all things mint (apart from shower gels) and didn’t realise to him, this was unheard of. He couldn’t believe anyone would order peppermint in their coffee and he hadn’t heard of it either. This lead onto a full on conversation about the types of syrups that do go well in coffee and what shouldn’t. So much so that we were going to go to an Italian coffee shop and ask them about it.

That day was some months ago and each time I order a tall, skinny, peppermint cappucino, that conversation plays back in my head. I have never had that request frowned upon in coffee shops, and they have the peppermint syrups for a reason in coffee shops.

I just thought I would throw it out there and think what you guys thought to it. Is it really such a bizzare request. Most of all, I would love to know if there are others who love peppermint in their coffee. Please take the below poll and let me know.

At the end of most years, I set myself goals – some realistic and some just very hopeful. At the end of 2010, I set myself a different goal; to meet 365 new people in 2011. I was doing well until the end of the year, where I didn’t quite meet 365 people, I was 72 short.

At the end of each day, if I met someone new, I would write this at the back of my diary. Looking back at the list, I can’t quite believe the people I have met. Some were one off chance meetings, some business contacts, some I never want to see again and others staying a lot longer and having a deeper meaning in my life.

As I hold a lot of training events throughout the year and visit clients at their offices, this means I generally get to meet a lot of new people. However, this year I have been ill quite a bit. Although I was in hospital, this was an opportunity to meet new people!

I love people and I love meeting new people – just as well as my job relies upon this. So I wanted to record all the new people I met in the year.

I remember a friend asking me how I would class people I have ‘met’ and if I would record people who serve me in shops? I wouldn’t class that as meeting people. The way I recorded people were those who I was introduced to or vice versa. If they didn’t know my name or we didn’t speak at length then that wasn’t really a meeting I would record. If I had, I think I would have met a lot more people and achieved my target. Also people I spoke to or got to know on the phone would not count either!

I would recommend doing this as it is very interesting at the end of the year looking back at the list and the people you have met – also how you have met them. I have actually enjoyed compiling this list and it hasn’t been hard work at all, as at the end of the day, I just record the names in the diary and that’s it. I have enjoyed it so much that I have already started doing this for 2012.

If you do try this – let me know how it works for you!

 I know this is my personal blog, as oppose to a beauty/fashion (or even a shopping) blog. However, I did want to keep a limit on just how personal I made it. I didn’t want everything to be available in years to come, nor do I want to bore you to the point you stop logging on. Having said that, this post is a rather personal one.

The other day I didn’t have such a good day. Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have caught a glimpse of that. For the first time, I had one of those days that when someone asked how if I was okay, I actually cried. I cried full on fat tears – in the middle of the office, on the afternoon of the Christmas party. This is very unlike me. I then could not stop the tears, they just wouldn’t stop flowing. Thank goodness for waterproof mascara! I can’t tell you how glad I am that I didn’t have the whole mascara streaking thing going on either!

I’m the kind of person that when I do cry, it’s in private – not everyone needs to know about my pain. It was the kind of crying I needed to do after things had built up and I was just carrying on. I later knew it to be a form of release. That evening, only one thing was needed – my mum! I cried in her arms, she may not be able to make things better but she is what I needed at that time. I lay on her bed and just cried and cried and cried. I even got to the point of crying that I gave myself a headache and an earache. I even cried to the point that I didn’t even know why I was crying. She told me that I needed to let it out my systems as it’s getting rid of toxins.

That night I even cried myself to sleep. Before doing so, I didn’t realise how important crying was. I have heard people saying about needing a good old cry and I actually really felt I needed that. The following morning my eyes were hurting and I was still crying. I really must have kept those tears stocked up.

As it was coming to the end of the year, I was thinking of all the times I cried this year. I can only remember one time in June. Actually I have probably cried at movies or something sad on the news – but that doesn’t really count. This cannot be good. Although I cried the following morning too, I still felt quite sad. However, there was something different and I did really feel better for having cried. I really need to do more of this, but probably not the night before a heavy work day.

I probably don’t handle things personally so well when they do go wrong – I move on without really having felt the pain of things. I am a great believer of needing to hurt. How else can you enjoy the good times if you have not seen how bad things can get. Also, pain makes us stronger and builds us up.

Moving into 2012, I have a new motto. Whenever something bad happens, I will allow myself just one day to cry or be miserable about it. Then move on, there is no need to let the misery build up. It’s like a natural therapy session or having a massage – but free!

I don’t know whether this post will help anyone, but I just wanted to share what a few hours of having a good cry can do.