It's well documented how much I love theme parks on this blog, but I am also partial to a cheeky zoo day out every now and then. I'm a little bit of an animal nerd and love chilled out days just watching them do their thing. Conor and I had been saying for ages that we wanted to visit so last weekend we ignored the warnings of thunderstorms and headed to Colchester in Essex to what I will easily call the best zoo in the country.

I'm a little bit biased towards Colchester Zoo, it's my childhood zoo and I have loads of happy memories wandering around the steep park layout learning about all sorts of different creatures. What I've loved most about Colchester is how much the place has changed and developed over the years. Every subsequent visit has seen their animal enclosures come on leaps and bounds, they really do go out of their way as much as possible to ensure their animals have the best possible habitats to hang out in and I've always felt this was reflected in the clearly happy and content nature of the zoo residents.








Another reason I adore this place is just the vast array of species, lots of which you won't find in any other zoo in the country. It's great to have the chance to observe an animal you wouldn't usually see in your day to day zoo and i really sets Colchester apart as something a little more special.








So yes, Conor and I were extremely lucky to be treated to some VIP treatment by a friend of mine who works at the zoo. We were given the chance to get really up close and personal with lots of different animals, feeding them and experiencing first hand how the keepers work with and train the animals they look after. This isn't just as a cheap trick either, these learned behaviours actually benefit the animals both in terms of enrichment and also safety when needing to move them into different areas of their enclosures. Adorable and practical, awesome!

What I loved most about my day at Colchester Zoo was how personal the relationships between all the keepers and their respective animal buddies were. Just a few minutes spent chatting with these awesome people and you could clearly see how passionate and how much they truly care about the animals they are responsible for!














We came face to face with some animals I'd previously been pretty wary of (Mandrills mainly, those teeth!) but by far the best moment of the day was getting covered with ring-tailed lemurs the second we stepped into their enclosure, amazing!

Thank you to everyone at Colchester Zoo for going out of your way to make our day amazing, if you ever get a chance to experience their Keeper for a Day experiences I would absolutely recommend it!

I've been a big fan of Flamingo Candles for a while now - their scents are all amazing and unique and the candles themselves look ridiculously cute to boot. What's not to love? So when I recently went for a snoop on their site to find they've launched The Melt Crowd - a monthly subscription service where eight delicious hand-poured scent melts are delivered to your door every month. This was a case of need, not want, and I signed up straight away and have had an eagle eye on the post box ever since.




So they finally arrived and oh lord never has a package smelled so good! Each box is a surprise - you never know what you're going to get but hey, it's Flamingo Candles so you know it's going to be amazing whatever they choose. What's really cool is if you sign up not only do you get exclusive scents and new range previews, but you also receive 20% off to use on their website. And, the cherry on the top, they also threw in a free wax burner just to say welcome to the club.

So here's a breakdown of the scents I received this month:

Violet & Lime
Salted Caramel &Pistachio
Orange Pekoe Tea
Mojito
Cherry
Lavender & Chamomile
Independence Day
Football Pitch

One thing I will say is that these scents are not for the shy-nostrilled. That is to say, if you prefer a subtle fragrance, steer clear of these bad boys. They are potent in the best possible way. To me, there's nothing worse than a diluted scented candle, I want my house to smell intense and delicious at all times and that is exactly what Flamingo Candles delivers.





The Melt Crowd is also great if you're indecisive or like to switch up a scent to match your mood like I do. It's a great idea also to keep different scents burning so you never become accustomed to a smell, meaning you'll relish every last whiff! The scents last up to 30 hours, so a good 5-7 days usage depending on how long you keep them lit.

I've literally never been so excited to burn something, I can't wait for my living room to become a smorgasbord of delightful smells from here on out!

This is going to be one of those subjects that's really hard to articulate about because it's such a deeply private and personal issue for so many, and one that I've recently realised is a lot more taboo than I thought it was. I've had a word with myself recently and decided to be a bit more open about this kind of thing in general, so I'll come out and say it. I'm not on any kind of birth control pill.

Before I delve into this subject, which it'll become apparent in a minute I feel very passionately about, I just want to clarify than I am in no way condemning those that choose to use the pill. That's what feminism is about, the freedom to make the choices that are right for us. You do you, and that's fine, work with whatever works for you and I'll support you all the way! This is just my personal experience that I want to discuss for anybody feeling like they don't have a choice to be pill-free.

When I've 'admitted' this to people in the past, they've been shocked. Like it's so engrained into our minds as women now that we should be on some form of birth control that those of us who dare not to regulate our bodies with hormones have become the outsiders. Which is weird isn't it? When the pill first became available it was a revolution, a controversy that women could now be masters of their own bodies. It was scary to many that all of a sudden women had such power. And now it feels almost like those tables have been completely turned and the pill has become just another means by which to control and regulate women's bodies, as society so often strives to.

So let's delve into a little background and I'll talk about my relationship with the pill. I first started the pill when I was 14 and was on it until I was 22, so a good 8 years of hormone control. I ALWAYS suffered with it - I had every symptom from headaches to weight gain to bad skin to loss of sex drive. And every time I went to the doctors to complain about it I was just given a different brand to try. They say your body usually takes about 3 months to 'get used' to the side effects and they should eventually die down, but mine never fully disappeared and for so long I just kind of accepted that this is how life would be and surely this is better than risking getting pregnant right?

And of course, that's my job as a modern woman with the choice to get pregnant or not to ensure that this doesn't happen, right? It's basically expected that all of us are just on the pill, because that's the way things are. There were so many instances where I was getting down to it with a guy only to suddenly have to ask the guy to put a condom on and they would look shocked at the realisation that I wasn't on the pill. The pill makes us convenient, another weight off of their minds. It's our job to regulate our bodies so that they don't have to think about it, duh!

It can also lead to ignorance about how our bodies really function. I started my periods when I was 13 and just over a year later I was on the pill - I barely had a chance to experience true menstruation before choosing to control the whole show chemically. That day back in 2012, and I remember it so clearly, when I chose to ditch the pill for good, was like a revelation. I felt truly liberated and free for the first time ever since becoming an adult. All of a sudden I felt like I could feel things again, and I sort of staggered back in horror as I realised what a spell I'd been under, my emotions and mood swings restricted with the trusty synthetic hormones keeping everything nice and diluted.

And what's scarier still, studies have proven that being on the pill and under the influence of synthetic hormones could actually have an effect on who you find attractive and who finds you attractive. So when you think about things that way, or at least the way I see it, any relationship you enter under the influence of the pill is never a 'true' attraction because it's skewed by fake hormones. That is fucking terrifying to me!

So yeah, I may be erratic and crazy one minute and crying with joy the next. I might have to use 'inconvenient' alternative methods and don't have the ability to 'skip a period' if I so wish but honestly, the past four years since ditching the pill have been the happiest of my life. I've never been more in tune with my body and so in touch with my emotions and honestly I find that incredibly empowering, more so than anything a little sugar coated tablet could ever give me!

So I guess the point of this blog post is to point out that you do have a choice. Don't suffer on the pill or go on it just because your friends are and that is what's socially expected of you. You know what is right and works for your body and you are allowed to make choices that are beneficial to you, not the people you choose to have sex with.

What do you think about the pill? Did you noticed a difference once coming off of it? Let me know in the comments below, I'd love to have a chat!



*Super cute artwork by Cherry Cats!

Since getting back from Orlando I've been in a bit of a weekend funk, choosing to lounge around in my PJs binge-watching Netflix. Enough, I said, and last weekend we headed south for another UK theme park fix to Paultons Park and the Lost Kingdom!

The Lost Kingdom at Paultons Park is the Hampshire family park's latest themed land following on from the hugely successful Peppa Pig World which opened in 2011 and has been a must visit for every UK parent with a toddler since. I hadn't visited the park since early 2011, so was intrigued to see how much had changed at a park many were now saying rivalled Chessington and LegoLand for the esteemed title of best UK family park.

So firstly, the entrance had changed massively. What used to be a humble wooden shed emblazoned with the now forgotten park mascot at the time Percy the Owl (RIP) was now a super modern looking building with a giant swanky toy shop on the left and a nicer park restaurant on the right. The entrance...well it doesn't scream theme park to me. Firstly, there's no park logo on the front so one could be forgiven for mistaking this clinical looking building for a local youth centre or similar. It's modern, yes, clean and fresh, yes absolutely, but it just doesn't scream 'theme park' from the exterior. I don't walk up to it and get excited for a day of fun like I do at Alton Towers.








Once inside things were beginning to look a little more familiar. We wandered through the quant British rose-gardens and topiaries and turned left, straight for the Lost Kingdom and, more importantly, +2 creds for me mwahaha! And then it rained. A lot. Bastards. We huddled under a nearby umbrella and that gave more time to take in our surroundings - and more importantly to us at that moment in time bemoan the lack of shelter from weather.




There were to be many more rain intervals like this during our visit, and we experience the same problem again and again, sheltering under trees, parasoles and the like. Not too annoying but feel like with the Great British weather being as it is a little more shelter might not go amiss.

Anyway, I digress. Lost Kingdom. Initial thoughts were: I'm getting wet. Secondary thoughts were: this is quite cool! I was concerned that it might look quite 'plonked' and so many themed areas in smaller parks tend to, but a good blend of foliage and rock work make the area flow rather nicely. As a Jurassic-Park-but-not this actually was minimal on the casual copyright infringement and instead chose to go for a more mystical element of dino theme. It confused me at first, but then I listened to the storyline playing in the queue for some of the rides and apparently there's something about digging in a mine and this is how the place was discovered. Neat! I like that Paultons Park have gone out of their way to steer clear of the Jurassic Park sinkhole by going in a totally different direction, it makes their area much more appealing and unique feeling.












Coasters then. First up was Flight of the Pterosaur, a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster. Usually I find these incredibly dull, but the added rockwork and general flying around the area really adds to the ride and makes it much more of an experience. Plus it's great to look at off ride too, so ticks all the boxes! The other new-for-me coaster in the area was Velociraptor, a Vekoma Family Boomerang similar to Ben 10 at Drayton Manor. Again, this was made a lot more interested by its surroundings and I love the little details like the smashes walls of the station. I'm pleased Paultons Park chose to go with these coasters too, they offer something different to the UK family coaster-scape that is currently awash with Big Apples, Mack Powered affairs and the occasional custom job. Gives families a bit more variety and the chance for kids to 'build up' to taking on some of the bigger guys!

Annoyingly we missed the dino show, which I really wanted to see because the pics look fab. Anyway, a combination of rain, lunch and bad planning meant we missed it, but the arena looked great. Themed to a dino enclosure with signs of escape (OK, getting a little close to the Universal mark here but I'll forgive it for being cool) and complete with dino poo, one could easily be forgiven for mistaking this as an actual animal enclosure on first glance - really cool!













We also rode The Dinosaur Tour, a jeep safari thing that gets you a little closer to the kinder dino species (with a surprise at the end!) Here's my gripe with the area. The dinos themselves are a little ropey. In comparison with the excellent rockwork and foliage and other theming, these really cheapen the area and bring you back with crashing reality that this is a silly kids park. Which is a shame, because the rest of the area is really good!









The other newly themed area is Critter Creek, a kind of nightmarish Tim Burtons meets Looney Toons affair full of neon colours and bug eyed creatures. I really liked it for its wackiness, and you can't fault them for their originality on this one even if it was a little insane looking! Again, another great way of breathing life into a previously ignored area of the park.

We spent the rest of the day mooching around the rest of the park, feeling awkward in Peppa Pig World and reriding Magma, the fabulous airtime-filled drop tower before heading back to sunny London town.





Paultons Park is definitely on the up. I can't believe how different the place is after just five years away and if the Lost Kingdom is anything to go by I can't wait to see what developments the next five years will bring!

Have you visited the Lost Kingdom at Paultons Park? What did you think? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!