day to day..

Sorry I have been  quiet on the blog front lately! Just a little update...

This last week has been an average week for me, food shopping with the mother, town, and bits of housework, washing up, clothes washing and ironing ect.. On the plus side, I start my new job next week, excited and nervous! I may have been for a trail day but they are always different to the actual job, so I don't know what to expect!

Also, in this week I have had some work done to my sleeve tattoo! Hopefully by the end of the week I can get my sleeve tattoo step by step ( as far as im up to) posted for you all to see, hopefully you will like! I will try my best to explain the various meanings of the sleeve to you. However, there are many reasons, as there are a fair few pieces that make up my sleeve =)

I must admit I have been quiet this week due to the new GTA V! I am so hooked currently on 42.1% game save Hoping to complete the story mode before I start my new job! then I can just spend time finding hidden bits, like the message scraps and hidden guns throughout the game 

GTA V !!

ITS HERE GTA V REALESE DAY.

Figured since today is THE day and its all anyone is talking about todays blog had to be GTA V related. Im not much of a gamer, I will admit im the one on GTA that usually just goes round killing people and such doing the odd mission.

First impressions
The build up for this game has been unreal, it was the game to have on pre-order! And today is the day, So far I have only done the first mission, where straight away you get to experience the way you can switch between characters in this game, which is one of the big attractions. The graphics are more realistic than I have seen in any game I have ever played, If you go to the strip club you can drink and the screen begins to sway and blur. The night sky in this game is clear faint clouds and stars, clear as day so to speak. The game starts with a bank heist leading into a shoot out with cops, then into a run from the cops.  I found that on different surfaces the characters speed of run varied, on snow it became more sluggish and slower, this amazed me, the thought and detail that has gone into every detail of this game. The drivability of this game are as flamboyant as ever.

Basically my first impression:  This game is amazing, detailed, realistic, well thought out and on a new level.

That's all I have to say on this game tbh! Like I said im not a big gamer, Just wanted to pass my impressions of the game on to anyone interested!

Thanks
Sam x

Day to Day Me =)

No real topic today. Just going to write about my day. Well my last few days anyway!

This week has been a good week, my fella has been of work with me this week, been nice to spend some time together. Then things got even better when I found out I had got a new job at Gala Bingo as you will now if you read my previous post =). This is such good news as its much closer to home than my last job in Nuneaton which was like a 2 hour a day bus journey! now I have 15 minuets into the local town centre!

Then things got even better the next day when Christopher (Fiancé)  passed his driving test! I was over the moon, so happy, and pleased for him! So very proud of him =)!

Also his birthday was this week, which meant I got to take him for a meal and make him brekky in bed, a day to spoil him :P! He is a big fan of Ghostbuster so the main prezzie I got him was the Ecto 1A 1:18th scale replica from the second movie=) Loved seeing the smile on his face!  For those who don't know what this is here is an image:

Along side this I got him a few smaller gifts =).

Today we just chilled really got up, watched some Big Bang he got for his birthday of his brother, I did a small amount of cleaning and then we had tea.. and here I am now writing this.. Nothing overly exciting today.

Just thought is share my highlights of the week with you all =)
Thanks
Sam x

New job!

Ill keep this one short!

I just wanted to shate my joy, so yestoday I went for a trial day at Gala Bingo!!

Woo  I got the job!

so happy, its full time which is good with me and my fiance saving for a house!

Also, its not just calling bingo numbers like everyone thinks! so much more to do I was

amazed! The staff are all so polite and bubbly! such a nice atmosphere.

I cannot wait to start! 1st October...woop!.

Thats all for today..short and sweet!

thanks..

sam x

Insanity fit test Day.1

The disks...I now have them. Excited so much!

Day 1.
Ok so day one is just the fit test which I wrote about in my last post as I had tried to follow it on YouTube. Well I now have the disks and followed it in full and  correctly, and It was such a buzz.
Im not going to make out that I am amazing and all that, no because im along way from perfect. However, I will share my score card for the fit test today, and every two weeks when the fit test is redone I will update to show you if there is any improvements.

The fit card
For any one who has not done or seen the insanity 60 day challenge here is a picture of the fit test card:

The fit test starts with a warm up, and finishes with a warm down. ( sorry to state the obvious just being thorough)

After the warm up you take part in 8 different exercises each one minuet long as mentioned in my last post. Ok, I don't want to keep repeating the same over and over, you can always refer back to me previous post.

My results
Lets get to it, my scores are as follows:

Exercise 1 is switch kicks, two kicks make one rep. (my highest score of the fit test)
Total : 70 reps

Exercise 2 is power jacks.
Total: 35 reps

Exercise 3, power knees.
Total: 60 reps

Exercise 4 is power jumps.
Result ::15 reps

Excercse 5, globe jumps (the worst score of the fit test, my personal hate).
Result: 10 reps

Exercise 6 is suicide jumps.
Result: 12 reps

Exercise 7 is the push up jacks ( these killed my legs!)
Result: 13 reps

Exercise 8 is the plank oblique.
Result: 33 reps

Is clear which exercises I am pants at, but hopefully after 60 days I will see an improvement!
I will try to keep updates throughout, if not I will defiantly keep my fit tests each two weeks updated!

 hope you enjoyed..
Sam x

Tattoo Number 2!

Hey,
If you read "my first ever tattoo" blog you will know that I had this tattoo soon after my first..I think it was like 3 months later?

Tat number 2:

The  writing says "one life take two" - I know the writing on this one is not brilliant and this is what I meant by Paul (the tattooist mentioned previously) is not one for feminine tattoo's. Or writing for that matter. I hope to get this touched up at some point to make it look a bit better because despite the writing, this is my favourite because of its meaning.

 

Placement

This tattoo is placed on my left shoulder blade. Out of the tree tattoos I have this was the most painful. It has put me of having any more on my back for the mean time. 

 

What is it?

This tattoo is the "tree of life" with the phrase one life take two across its roots.

 

Meaning

As mentioned this is like my fav  tattoo due to its meaning to me. Its a long, complicated story so ill make it easy and simple.  When I was born I seemed to be a perfectly healthy baby until a few days after my birth when my mother realised that no food was staying down at all. For weeks my mom was back and forth to the doctors with me, as they didn't believe my mother. They thought she was over exaggerating and put it down to a sicky child. However, my mom already having three children prior new it was more than that and kept on, all this time I was loosing a lot of weight. Eventually the nurse kept me in over night to feed me and saw it all happen for herself and sent us to hospital immediately. The consultant at Coventry University hospital came to examine me as he had been told they thought I might have pyloric stenosis, and the consultant didn't believe this as he had never in his years of his profession seen a little girl with this condition.  It was such a big deal when he saw it and realised for himself that he asked my mom if he could show me to his class of student doctors. I was kept in hospital for a few days whilst they got my blood gases right for surgery, as to correct this problem and to save my life I had to have an operation. However it was risky as I was now so underweight and only 5 weeks old with a server case, the operation itself was only 50-50. Eventually I was taken for surgery and luckily survived and I am now 21 years of age. So I consider myself to be rather lucky to be alive. and that is why I have the tree of life with "one life take two" written across is as I feel I was given an extra chance to life.

 

Luckily with a lot of research and technology being the way it is today it is now much more common in girl and more easily picked up. Although it is still rare and more common in boys than girls.

 

If any one is interested in this condition and would like to know more here is a useful link I have found on google: http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/infantile-hypertrophic-pyloric-stenosis ( it'll probs tell you ore than I could I ay have had it but I have never really looked into it in detail I just know what my parents have told me..)

 

Hope you enjoyed

Sam x

 

Insanity 60 Day Workout ?!?

Hey guys,
For days now I have been seeing all over Facebook friends and family raving about this "insanity workout dvd". One of my cozens informed me this was a hard driving work out by a trainer named "Shaun T".  I took it upon my self to do some research through Google. After reading about it I was intrigued, but sceptical.. I didn't really believe the results people where getting. I then used YouTube to watch peoples journeys on the 60 day program and asked my cozen more as she is 2 weeks in. She says she is already seeing results and the YouTube videos I have see have also confirmed this.

Price and What I decided to do instead to try it out first!
After this research I wanted to try it out for myself. However the DVD box set is like £105 of amazon, it can be found slightly cheaper on Ebay and such places. This is a lot of money to pay out and then give up. So today I took to YouTube once again and found some one had uploaded day 1 of the training program. This was 25 minuets long, from what I have read as the dvd progresses the sessions get longer and then in the second month they become 1 hour long. I watched this video through and decided to give it ago. I followed the session all the way through doing all the exercise and did as many reps on each as I could possibly do. If you are looking at buying this workout but like me want to try it first before paying for
 it...I would defiantly say to try this method.

What the first session I tried out was about - generally..
They are not kidding when they say it is intense and hard. There was 2 exercises on the first session I struggled with, and it has you sweating within the first exercise. Basically, Shaun T gets you to do an exercise warm up, then you will have a card with different exercises on ( I just watched the video and followed as I have not brought this dvd yet). He gets you to do each exercise for 1 minuet each then write down how many reps you managed. Then he gives you a short break f about 1 minuet and then you do the next exercise and so on...

So would I Want to do it??
It really is intense, however after doing this first session on YouTube I can say I am hooked and defiantly will be doing this "Insanity 60 day Workout" it seems to be a good energetic, cardio based way to get fit. From what I have read you get a calendar with each days session on for you to tick of as you go along with a nutrition guide to help you understand what's best to eat with doing these exercises'. For me the calendar will be an incentive to keep going.

I am so glad I stumbled across this work out, and would defiantly recommend for any one after loosing some weight and wanting to tone up!

here is  link explaining the challenge and showing peoples success stories.. www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/insanity.do 
It is defiantly for those who are determined to stick to it and get the body they want..
I must admit im excited to get this and get my 60 days started!

My first ever tattoo

So as you may have read in my welcome post, I have a passion for tattoo's, so this will be my second post, I will begin with my first.
Here is my first tattoo..

Placement
This is on my left forearm. It was done at a small tattoo studio in Coventry on the canal basin by a bloke named Paul, he is a lovely person and a great friend to my mother. However, for feminine tattoo's I personally wouldn't recommend him, you will see why in my next blog post.

Meaning
The meaning behind this tattoo is simple.. it is what it says " faith is the souls heart, the window to life and beauty". Many have read this and asked about my religious views, I just want to say Im not highly religious this tattoo is about faith, which can come in many form, faith in yourself, faith in life ect.. To me this means to have faith in myself, having faith in myself makes me happy and thus the window to a beautiful, and happy life, when im having a hard time I look at this it never fails to make me smile.

Just a little note..=)
I just want to say Im not the sort of person who gets a tattoo for the sake of it. I had been wanting a tattoo since I turned 16 I spent until I was 20 years old to think of exactly what I wanted. I know 4 years is a long time to think but I wanted to be sure of what I was getting and that I would never regret it. I had many ideas and this was the final one I settled on to be my first. I had a few idea's I struggled to choose over and my second tattoo was soon after due to this.

I know Tattoo's are not everybody's cup of tea, but for those who do like or are interested in tattoo's I hope you like this post and any other tattoo related posts I do.

Welcome

Hey, so I figured I would give this ago...

I'm going to start with this intro so you can get to know a little about me and what I intend to post about.
Right lets get to it...

This is myself and my Fiancé Christopher =)

 

My name, as you have most likely figured out by my blogs URL is Samantha Birkin, most just call me Sam. I am 21 years of age from Coventry in the West Midlands.

I started work in the retail industry working part time when I left school at 16 whilst studying for my A-levels. Once I left sixth form I became a full time worker and in the past few years I have worked my way up to management.

 

What made me decide to do this? Well... I have some free time to be able to sit and write and have always been interested in doing a blog..so no time like the present. I want to share my world with others- even if it is just a normal day to day  life. I want to be able to share my passions, dislikes and general thoughts with world beyond my family and friends. I am young and have a love for tattoos. I currently have three, one being a sleeve in progress, yes a young women with a sleeve tattoo and no I don't regret it, and no my tattoos have never affected my career.

 

So from that I guess you can see I will be spending my time talking about my passion for tattoos and other passions and dislikes of mine, my family, and sometime just general day to day activities.

 

I hope you will enjoy...

Sam x

 

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