January 2020 | places & animals

Something I want to start on my blog is a positive monthly post of things I've done, places I've been or things I've been liking. Basically, I just want to do a roundup and look back on my month of the positives, instead of dwelling on how many bad days I had. 

I used to do monthly favourites but I didn't always have that much to put in, so it started to get pointless to me. Combining everything into one post means that I'll get to write about a variety of different topics. 

To kick off 2020, on the 1st of January, my mama, boyfriend and I took a little drive to The New Forest. It was surprisingly packed considering the weather wasn't the best, so we didn't get out the car. I love going on drives and I enjoyed driving through the forest and seeing the horses, cows and donkeys. The New Forest is my favourite place and I'm lucky that I don't live too far from it. 

Something I thoroughly enjoyed doing in January was playing around with macro lenses that my dad gave me. My brother got the Lego Central Perk set for Christmas, which by the way, is so cool. I wanted to take some photos of it and I really enjoyed photographing it and testing out the macro lenses. 

My mum had a photo shoot of my animals. My guinea pigs, rabbits and budgie have had many photo shoots before, but my hamster hadn't. He'd just woken up which is why his ears are down but I think he enjoyed getting treats for this. How cute are these photos? 

One Saturday, my boyfriend and I went to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Southsea. We both love animals and love watching animal shows together, so going to the Blue Reef Aquarium was so much fun because we were getting so excited about all the animals. We loved seeing all the sea life, but I think we were both extremely excited about the sharks and otters. I learnt so much about the otters from our visit as we were there around lunchtime when the otters got fed and there was a talk about them, which was really interesting. 

We then went to Zizi's, which was a new experience for me. We were trying to find somewhere that did gluten free and vegetarian around Portsmouth as I have a gluten intolerance and I'm vegetarian and Zizi's came up in Port Solent. I am highly impressed with the gluten free/vegetarian/vegan menu and that they ask you at the door if theres any allergies/dietary. Not many places I've been to has had separate 'free from' menu's, so this was impressive for me and I'm pleased with the choices on there. I had a gluten free pizza which was really big and tasted really good.

In January, I got my rabbit spayed, which was something I had planned for a while. I think it's so important to spay your rabbit as it reduces their risk of cancers. Getting Flopsy spayed was one of the scariest things I've done. Operations on humans have scared me for as long as I can remember, so taking my bunny in to get surgery was terrifying. I cried and couldn't relax at all until I got the call to say she was okay and was awake. I cannot tell you how much of a relief that was. 

It was hard not being with her for the whole day but when 4:30pm came around, I was so excited to pick her up. I just wanted her home with me. The vet made me laugh when I went in because she told me it's sometimes difficult to get rabbits to eat after surgery, but not Flopsy. Apparently Flopsy was eating all her food in her packed lunch I made her and they even had to give her more. When it comes to food, Flopsy gets very excited. 

Seeing Flopsy's wound was something I was dreading. I don't have a tough stomach, so when I first saw her wound, I cried. Seeing it was extremely difficult, but thankfully it's all healed. She had 2 checkups after and the vets were happy with how it's healed, so I'm really happy about that. I think it's made me a bit less stressy about wounds and things like that because after the second day, I was checking it so often, it didn't make my stomach turn anymore. I'm so proud of Flopsy for taking her painkillers twice a day, but I think she enjoyed them to be honest because whenever I gave them to her, she took it so quickly and kept licking the syringe after it had gone. 

(I didn't have any photos, so I took this one from my mums Instagram @judyb22_)

On the 25th, my mum, her friend Maria and I went to Southampton to see the Chinese New Year celebrations. I was quite anxious about going because all I could think about was how many people would be there. I forced myself to go because I knew my mum really wanted to go and I wanted to go with her. I was coping pretty well until after it had finished and I looked around and saw how many people there were. I went into a bit of a panic but started to calm down a bit once we had walked off. We found a place that did gluten free cake, so we went there, had a drink and did a little bit of shopping. It was a lovely time out. 

I mentioned this in my previous post, but I dyed my hair again. This time I dyed it black/blue (although the blue only shows in certain lights) and I love it. I used to dye my hair black when I was 13/14 and I like it. I am quite pale, so when I have black hair and plait it, I kinda look like the girl from the Adams Family... Dying my hair makes me feel better about myself, so its something I love doing.

Towards the end of January, I got my rabbit a stroller. Yes, I'm that crazy animal lady who buys her bunny a stroller. It is more than a stroller as it turns into a car seat, a trolley, backpack and a bag. I think its the coolest thing and I was so excited for it to arrive. I keep walking her around the house in it until the weather warms up a bit for me to take her outside without her turning into an ice cube. She seems to love it. I really want to write a review on this at some point.

The last thing I want to write about in January was another little photo shoot I did with my hamster. I get him out all the time and usually let him run around on my bed. For some reason he just wanted to sit by me and he let me take these adorable photos that I thought were too cute to not share. 

And that was my positive highlights from January. What did you do in January?

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