Treating Myself

Today was my first Saturday off both work and volunteering since my birthday (in July) so, naturally, I was going to make the most of it. And by make the most of it, I meant going into Belfast and treating myself... because I'm worth it. Sorry, I couldn't help it. So I hopped on the train by myself because all my friends work weekends and off I went.

There's something so rejuvenating about taking a long train ride by yourself. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with having the ability to plug in your music without being rude and turning it up full volume, looking out at the world speeding past and just having time to think. It's beautiful.

The journey ended too soon for my liking even though it was like 45 mins and I was thrown back into the drastically swift world of the city. My first stop, after Paperchase that is, was Lush. I haven't been to Lush in over a year, regretfully, so I decided that I had to buy at least one thing before I was allowed to leave. I was wandering around aimlessly when one of the employees thrust a rather large beaker under my nose and told me to smell. It was Christmas in a jug. Perfection. He asked me what I was looking for, and under my request he showed me the moisturisers. I was treated like a queen. When I eventually left 20 minutes later I exited with plenty of free samples and the nicest smelling moisturiser ever. 

I then made a beeline for one of my favourite places: Waterstones. For those of you who read my blog and don't know what Waterstones is, firstly, shame on you, and secondly, it's basically the British version of Barnes and Nobel. Sadly on this visit I didn't buy any novels, but I did however buy a beautiful notebook that I cannot wait to fill with whatever takes my fancy.

Since I ended up staying in Waterstones for much longer than I anticipated (as per usual), I decided to head upstairs to their little in store cafe where I had the most beautiful strawberry cream filled muffin with a cup of coffee. As I always have a book in my bag, I just whipped out Hollow City by Ransom Riggs and sat in quiet contentment for an hour and watched the world go by. 

I then decided that I should actually buy something to show for my trip, so I headed on into my favourite shops, namely H&M, Topshop and New Look. I bought a cheeky little mustard coloured sweater, because autumn, and a new pair of ripped black jeans.

My final (and favourite) place in Belfast is this iconic little second-hand bookshop called Keats & Chapman down one of the city's backstreets. It's one of those shops that has no order and has books piled right to the ceiling in stacks that are sure to topple if you move the wrong book. After a good half an hour of searching, I found and bought myself another copy of The Great Gatsby that I could annotate and make notes all over without feeling guilty about it. It was the perfect ending to a great day.

That's all for now guys! I hope you enjoyed reading this little post and I'd really appreciate a comment or a tick in one of the three boxes below to give me some feedback!

ttyl,
N x