To be honest I am not a huge fan of birthdays (anyone who knows me will know that) I mean celebrating getting older? No thank you! However I do realise that getting older is something that some people never get the chance to celebrate, and in that sense I know how incredibly lucky I am to experience life and I am very grateful for that. But on a small selfish personal note – I’m just not a fan of climbing the age ladder.

Celebrating my birthday isn’t all bad though – I mean presents right? And no one loves presents more than me!! And this “Lisa Day” was just full of the nicest gifts, and I felt well and truly spoilt. And it was lovely to spend an evening chilling with my family, before Luke took me off to London on the Saturday (separate blog post pending)

So let’s get down to it, another 365 days around the sun, and what a year it’s been. Since last years birthday I have continued my love of travelling and visited Florida (again) and ticked off of my travel list Iceland, Australia & Shannon Ireland. I’m hoping to visit a few more places before the end of the year (fingers crossed)

Although another year older I’m certainly none the wiser and still manage to walk through life making the same mistakes I promised myself I wouldn’t. And although the mistakes aren’t huge, they are the little things that really annoy me, like letting irrelevant people get under my skin with their irritating ways, sometimes it’s just people’s whole demeanour that I just cannot comprehend. Instead of blocking it out, I let it annoy me, sometimes ignorance is bliss right?

In 365 days I have been on a roller coaster journey with my weight, I hate the way I almost disrespect my own body, but you just can’t help what you feel. I’m just within the last few weeks starting to gain some confidence which I am enjoying, it’s a breath of fresh air to be honest to be able to give myself a break and not be so hard on myself.

Since last years birthday I’ve watched my small business gradually start to grow which I am forever thankful for. It’s tough at times, it’s hard work, but the hard work is starting to pay off. And I’m lucky to have an amazing support system made up of my husband, my mum and my dad – I’d be absolutely lost without them, and the support they give me and my small business, is something I will always be thankful for.

In 365 days I’ve laughed, loved and lived, I’ve made memories, I’ve been on adventures, I’ve slept in late on weekends, I’ve been on long dog walks, I’ve climbed the story bridge in Brisbane, I experienced the worst jet lag ever flying to and from Australia. I got delayed by 3 hours at Shannon airport because of storms, I’ve whale watched in Iceland. I’ve been blessed with some amazing 5* reviews on my Etsy shop, but equally I got a 2*, I’ve had Etsy parcels not arrive to customers. I did 2 new beauty courses and gained 2 new qualifications, I’ve cried at silly things and been super hormonal. I passed my final grade at skate school, I’ve started vlogging more, Hunter’s tested my patience to the max, I’ve not been sure in what direction I’m meant to be heading in. And you know what? All that is fine, its absolutely okay to take the rough with the smooth, to take every day as it comes and to realise that no matter what the situation it’s all part of learning and growing, and finally I think I’m okay with that.

So here’s a cheers to my 365 days around the sun, it’s been a journey and in reflection I’ve loved it, now to start another 365 days.

The post 365 Days around the sun appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Another very chilly start to the day, I was praying for some heat, but not holding out too much expectation, although at least it wasn’t raining! Genie + purchased for 2, and fingers at the ready to grab that virtual line for Tron, we were ready to hit the park!

Okay MK, seriously by far the hardest park to navigate right? It is ALWAYS busy , but seeing as we had landed right in the middle of fall break it was SUPER super busy!

But I have to say in true Lisa & Luke fashion even though it was a particularly busy day, we did pretty well, and I am very impressed with what we got done.

We started off the day the right day with breakfast at Crystal Palace, because that is one of my favourite character dining experiences, in fact I think all of my family love that one. It’s nice to kick start the day with a buffet, some Mickey waffles and a hug from Winnie the Pooh! Ahhh if only every day could start every day like that, I think I’d be a happy girl.

Finishing up our delicious breakfast it was time to head out into the already very busy park! Seeing as we are only here for a short time (1 week! Let’s not forget that) Luke and I discussed beforehand the list of rides we were not going to bother with, because NO ONE has time to queue for Peter Pan’s flight or It’s a small world right? Especially when those wait times were over 100 minutes, I kid you not! It was INSANE, and in my opinion those ride are definitely not worth the wait.

Instead we made a priority list of the rides we definitely had to do – Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean & Jungle cruise.

I have to admit it took me a while to get used to the whole genie + and lightening lane that has replaced my forever favourite fast pass +. Luckily for me Luke got his head around it a lot quicker which I am super grateful for, because if it had been left up to me we wouldn’t have gotten very far.

In between navigating a busy park (even the queue for the toilet was out the door) but anyways in between all of that Luke managed to grab our virtual queue pass for Tron! It was for late afternoon and initially I was worried about it clashing with my time scale for getting that all important viewing spot for Happily Ever After! Luckily for us our group was actually called a lot sooner than I thought, meaning I still had plenty of time to get the good viewing spot.

In case you were wondering Tron was INSANE! like seriously it’s INSANE! It’s a very short ride, and it could definitely do with being longer, but it was brilliant! After our group was called we had an hour wait in the line before riding, which wasn’t too bad, and the hour went pretty fast.

Watching Happily Ever After in the evening was the biggest highlight of the day, it’s my favourite show, I think it’s amazing and the music seriously gets me! I definitely had a little tear in my eye, after all it had been 4 years since I last watched it! And also I have to say it was so nice to live in the moment and actually watch the whole spectacular rather than film it and watch it through my phone (which I am definitely guilty of!)

Oh and In-between everything going on, I still found time to FaceTime my mum (and Hunter) so it was a winner of a day!

It was a long and busy day, and once the day was over I couldn’t wait to head back to the apartment and sleep because of course another early start was just a few hours away.

Side note – Luke & I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, because we were far too busy for food! I mean who has the time to eat on a Disney holiday?

End of day stats

Breakfast at Crystal Palace

Rides 7

Steps 19,999

Miles 9

Holidaying at Disney is a serious workout!

The post Florida 2023 Day 2 – Magic Kingdom appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Of course the alarm was set for an early 6am on a very very chilly Tuesday morning. Luke & I were heading off to hit 2 parks in 1 day, heading off to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure. Combining the 2 parks together is something that we have done on every previous trip and honestly it really does work and it is more than doable. I would recommend doing universal first as it’s the park with less rides making it quicker for you to get around. Plus If I’m honest as the moment I find that park pretty bleak and in need of some serious good rides and a makeover!

Leaving our apartment at just gone 7am I was seriously wishing I had packed clothes a little more suited to the chilly October weather, if you don’t know I am the coldest person ever! I mean I was even cold in Australia! Yes I’m THAT girl!

Upon arriving just after 8.30am I was super shocked to see that the parks were BUSY! The busiest I’ve seen them in a long time, we usually always choose a Sunday to visit, but this time round it was a Tuesday, and I thought stupidly it would be pretty quiet (I was wrong) Although epic epic fail on my part – I failed to notice that we had booked our entire Florida trip right in the middle of fall break! Kind of explains everything really doesn’t it!

Still October chilly weather, fall break and two really busy parks were not going to stop us!

Okay so Universal Studios – I used to LOVE that park so much, it used to be amazing now it’s a little outdated there are not too many rides, and there were only two rides that Luke and I wanted to do. And one of them (mummy’s revenge) was down for the day due to technical issues! I think after paying for our day ticket we spent a total of one hour there before heading to Island of Adventure.

Island a of adventure as most of you will know is bigger and better with way more thrill rides. It is definitely the more thrilling park out of the two, and is home to my new favourite coaster – The Velocicoaster. I must admit I wasn’t too bothered about riding it but am so glad I waited the hour and a half in line, because hands down it’s a definite winner! The wait times for most of the big rides were 45 minutes plus, with us waiting in line for hagrids motorbike adventure and velocioaster coming in at over an hour (but worth it)

Leaving the park just after 5am, we headed to typhoon lagoon to pick up Lora and Henry before heading off in search of some dinner. We made a quick stop at the Mall because – I NEEDED to stock up at Bath & Bodywork’s, Luke wanted to grab a sweatshirt (told you it was cold!) then we grabbed a delicious dinner at the cheesecake factory, with the pumpkin pie cheesecake for dessert (Luke and I shared obviously) but it did make me question my skinnylicious main meal, trying to be good, but swayed by the pumpkin!!

Anyways the stats for the day went like this –

Ride count – 8

Step count – 21,345

Miles walked – 9

After a delicious meal it was back to the apartment and time for bed …. alarm was set for 5.45am, because do you even do a Disney holiday if you don’t set an alarm?!

Want to watch the vlog? Then check it out here

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16th October 2023 –

Waking up nice and early on a freezing cold October morning could only mean one of two things. Either I was off to work, or I was off on holiday. Thankfully this particular time it was the latter, and I couldn’t wait!

Let’s rewind ….. Back in the middle of August 2023 myself and Luke along with my sister and her husband had this CRAZY idea to book an impromptu ONE week trip to Florida which we would go on just a few weeks after booking. It had been four long years since we had last been in Florida, and so as you can imagine we were all just too excited to be heading back.

Luckily we didn’t have a huge countdown and just a few short weeks later I was all packed and ready to head off to Heathrow airport for a busy, fun and crazy week in the sunshine state.

Leaving our home in Essex early on a Monday morning the traffic was particularly bad (of course!) And even though we left with plenty of time, getting stuck in traffic meant that Luke and I were late for our lounge reservation. Heathrow was equally as busy and it took ages to check in, security on the other hand was a total breeze and pretty empty.

Luke and were still able to check into the lounge even though we were over an hour late, luckily the staff were absolutely fine about it. I love it when Luke books a lounge, I just love having that base and somewhere to escape the hustle and bustle of the airport and relax and chill for a couple of hours.

We we flew Virgin Atlantic (seriously one of my favourite airline’s if I’m honest) and we had a midday day flight, which is pretty standard when we fly to Florida. The flight as always was amazing, the food was good, the inflight entertainment not so great, but still I found a few things to watch.

Just over 8 hours later and we were touching down in sunny Orlando, I couldn’t wait to get off of the plane and feel that beautiful Floridian heat on my face. We got through customs and boarder control very quickly and all of our cases had arrived too, so off we went in search of our hire car! Travelling really does take it toll, and so after a quick stop at publix for some snacks, we checked into our apartment situated in 4 corners at the secret lake resort in Kissimmee, ate some food and fell into bed.

We were only in Florida for a short time so alarms had to be set and early wake up calls were definitely on the menu.

Check out my travel vlog here

The post Florida October 2023 Travel day appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

We booked this trip the week before Luke & I flew to Florida, it’s something we really wanted to do so just did it, and I knew it was a trip I wouldn’t regret.

We literally packed so much into our 4 days, that we couldn’t leave feeling like we hadn’t done something we really wanted to (okay apart from the blue lagoon, but that was down to Mother Nature and the volcano!)

In 4 days we had done: – all of which fyi I recommend)

The Beluga whale sanctuary

Whale watching

Fly over Iceland experience

Lava experience

Strokkur Geysirs

Gullfoss Falls

Raufarhólshellir lava tunnel

hveradalir geothermal area

kerid crater

Passed the blue lagoon and þorbjörn volcano (the one due to erupt anytime, but we HAD to see it one time whilst we were here.

Brimketill lava rock pool

Gunnuhver hot springs

Reykjanes lighthouse

Volcano man keyboards (if you know, you know)

Bridge between 2 tectonic plates (where the North American plate meets the Eurasian plate)

I mean seriously, we packed a lot into a short trip!

The 2 main things I personally struggled with the most was the currency – like everything is thousands, and I just couldn’t get my head around it. And secondly was the veggie options, on any menu I looked at there was only 2 veggie options available, everything in Iceland is very meaty! But honestly that wouldn’t put me off of coming back here in a heartbeat.

PS – They have a bath & bodywork’s in the airport – yes I was extremely happy and had to make another purchase on top of the hundred and something dollars I spent in Florida, but can you ever have too many hand sanitisers?

46,811 total steps

21 miles walked

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page – Life is short, and the world is wide”

Check out the travel vlog here

The post Iceland Roundup appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Wednesday morning as usual started with my Goldilocks porridge (seriously this girl LOVES her porridge) So we had always planned to head to the blue lagoon, unfortunately we decided not too, and had also been advised not too, in fact they had also stopped selling tickets to the blue lagoon, so even if we wanted too we couldn’t. And of course that was due to the could erupt any day volcano and earthquakes, that were happening just under and around the lagoon. I “heard” you have about 3 minutes to evacuate should anything happen while you’re there – so no thanks, I gave that a pass.

Instead we headed to Raufarhólshellir an underground lava cave created by a volcanic eruption over 5,000 years ago! I got my helmet and headlamp and couldn’t wait to head down into the cave which was pretty epic, and very interesting and lasted just over an hour.

Jumping in the car and heading a little further to the Hveradalir Geothermal Area, ‘the Valley of the Hot Springs,’ which is precisely what its name suggests—a fantastic destination with great photo opportunities. Although I have to say the sulphur smell was so bad, it was at times unbearable (and I don’t like eggs at the best of times) however it was all well worth it.

From there we headed to Kerið, a 6,500 year old volcanic crater lake located in the Grímsnes area in south Iceland, not only did we visit it, we all got to walk around an actual volcanic crater! It’s a must for anyone heading to Iceland.

Spending the rest of the late afternoon walking around reykjavik (which is so pretty) and having a look around Hallgrímskirkja cathedral, we ended the day with dinner and an ice cream. Before heading off to sit outside and wait for the northern lights to appear – and they certainly did not disappoint.

I had fallen in love with this absolutely beautiful country although most of the names of places I couldn’t pronounce. But it is a stunning destination, and I hope to return one day.

12,605 steps

6 miles walked

Watch the travel vlog here

The post Iceland November 2023 Day Three appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

So day 2 of my amazing Icelandic adventure and we were heading off on about a 2 hour drive to see the strokkur geyser which has been around since about 1789, as well as some other geysers. I wasn’t sure how WOW I would find them, but actually up close they are amazing, I mean that is all a natural occurrence, so that was some definite WOW factor.

Whilst in the area we also took a drive to Gullfoss Falls, which is probably one of the most beautiful places I have visited! The two-tiered waterfall has a total cumulative height of 32 metre (105 feet). It is also the largest volume waterfall in Europe. But much more than those facts, it’s STUNNING!! But it’s also oh so very, very cold! I’m sure I’ve gotten frost bite on at least 3 occasions during this trip! But still I am having the best adventure, Iceland is just dreamy, picturesque, beautiful, stunning I could go on and on, but really it is everything. Oh and the people are pretty friendly here too.

Really couldn’t seem to get my head around the money though, everything is thousands, luckily I have a Luke (everyone needs one of those)

Finished off the day with a meal at A Hanson and an ice cream from the parlour, because when it’s freezing out, get an ice cream right.

Total steps – 12.419

Miles is walked – 5 1/2

Check out the travel vlog here

The post Iceland November 2023 – Day Two appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

After a decent breakfast we headed into reykjavik where we firstly did the fly over Iceland experience (think Epcot soarin’ with less scents pumped into it, and this time you fly over Iceland instead of California and the world) But we absolutely loved it, Luke said it was better than Soarin’ I don’t quite agree with that but it was good.

Next it was the Whale watching tour which I was so so excited for, this had been a huge bucket list wish for a very long time, so I couldn’t wait to get out on the albeit slightly choppy water. Firstly the boat was much bigger than I expected, I saw Jane McDonald do this in one of her cruising shows and her boat was much smaller and faster, ours in comparison was pretty big – but I wasn’t here for the boat, I was here to see some whales.

So before we went out we all got told the sea was pretty rough (don’t worry I did a quick scan for the life boats) and informed Luke that the waters were way too cold for sharks so should we capsize the worst thing we are going to get is hyperthermia, and not eaten at least. I love to give some reassurance. To be honest I didn’t find the sea that rough, I love boats, the motion makes me chilled and sleepy. However the cold was on another level, it was beyond freezing! My face was frozen and I could barely talk, my fingers I’m sure got frost bite and that was with thermal gloves on. It really was unbearable. BUT it was so so SO worth it, when we saw the humpback whales just doing their thing, I mean what an experience, it’s one I will never forget. I mean I can say that now but at the time when I was getting frost bitten I wasn’t so enthusiastic! Once we started to head back to the docks I found a small window of opportunity to sleep, I think I had a sweet little 15 minutes, the motion of boats, planes and cars makes me so sleepy, so I grabbed a cheeky cat nap (I wasn’t the only one!)

Before dinner we managed to go and see the lava experience which was pretty interesting, and only took about an hour, it’s all indoors and when they actually release some lava the whole room you sit in turns really really warm (something I am totally here for)

For dinner we headed to Le Kock, I did struggle slightly with the menus as I think Icelandic people just love to eat meat, the veggie/vegan options are limited. Still I did have a lovely tomato salad at the le kock so I can definitely recommend!

This cold cold weather had me CRAVING a hot chocolate so Luke found a little gelato place so I could order a pistachio hot chocolate (with whipped cream, living dangerously in Iceland!) and sit in the warm and enjoy it.

It was so cold, it was unreal, the cold consumes you as soon as you step outside, so anytime I could go in somewhere and get warm, I was grabbing that opportunity!

On a side note there was a lot of activity with one volcano not too far away! Another larger earthquake – this time measuring magnitude 3.6 – was recorded on November 6th on the Reykjanes peninsula. The tremor follows a series of earthquakes in the area (who knew!) as magma continues to collect beneath Mt. Þorbjörn.

The siesmic activity is located near the town of Grindavík, the Svartsengi power plant and the Blue Lagoon. We definitely needed to keep an eye on this.

Total Steps – 9897

Miles walked – 4

I officially love Iceland!

Watch the vlog here

The post Iceland November 2023 – Day one appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

It was a super cold Sunday morning on the 5th November and a very early start for Luke and I when our journey began. We left Essex for Luton airport at 01.30am boarded our no fuss easyJet flight at 06.15 am and 3 short hours later I found myself in a very cold, but very beautiful Iceland.

With our hire car collected (which was all sorted before we we travelled) we had an about 5 hours until we could check into our hotel. So after a quick google we decided that we HAD to make the 2 hour 15 minute drive to Seljalandsfoss and then the 45 minute ferry ride to Vestmannaeyjar, off the south coast of Iceland to go and see little grey and little white at the whale sanctuary (don’t get whale sanctuary and Sea World confused, because we all know my views on the latter)

The Sea life trust beluga whale sanctuary is only open at weekends out of peak season and was free, but during peak season it’s about £30 but is open everyday. I was honestly lost for words when I came face to face with my most favourite animals on earth, and yes I did cry, but I’ve never seen anything like it. They are wonderfully amazing and you are so close to them. I spent ages just watching them swim around. I knew all about the beluga whales at the sanctuary because I watched a documentary all about there rescue a few years back (well worth a watch) it was an epic task to rescue them from a Shanghai water park where they had been cruelly kept.

We spent about and hour and a half at the sanctuary, and because it was quiet we pretty much had the place to ourselves with the exception of a few other families. The journey was long to get to the island but honestly so worth it.

Finishing up at the sanctuary we walked around the island with the name I cannot pronounce honestly had problems with the name pronunciations in Iceland, before making the ferry ride and car journey back to reykjavik to check into our hotel.

We were booked into the Hotel Viking, and had the cutest (seriously) cutest little cabin that was like something straight out of a fairytale, it even had little wooden beds. The whole cabin although small and compact was warm and inviting and I instantly just fell in love with it. After checking in a random guy from next door knocked on our cabin door and told us the Northern lights were visible!! So grabbing our camera’s were stepped outside and were then absolutely blessed when we saw the northern lights, it was like OMG there they were! And they were breathtaking!

Anyways a quick meal later and that was us tucked up in our little wooden beds just like Goldilocks or Snow White, the day had been long and we had survived on 2 hours sleep maximum.

But I couldn’t wait to wake up Monday and explore this beautiful place.

Check out the full vlog on YouTube

The post Iceland November 2023 Travel Day appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

We booked our trip on the 28th December 2023, and although we had been talking about it for a year it was still pretty impromptu. And that’s what I love – not thinking too much about it, just living in the moment and doing it.

Jet lag was a killer, the worst I have ever had it, and we both struggled so much especially during the evenings, the cold weather (I’m not exaggerating) didn’t help with that though. And don’t get me wrong we had some absolutely beautiful weather too but it does seem to rain every day though (pretty much like it does in Florida, but I always travel prepared)

Over the course of our 8 days (not including travel) We did 114,066 steps and walked 55 miles. The days were long and tough going with the jet lag, but as a couple we knew that and Luke and I are not ones to waste our time sleeping in when there is a world of adventure to be had and memories to be made.

I didn’t see a single highly venomous (will kill you in 30 minutes) snake or spider, which was something that I was really worried about – more so spiders than snakes. I didn’t see any great white sharks although I swear I did see a few people with missing limbs and your mind can’t help to wonder if that was a shark attack…… likewise I didn’t see any wild crocodiles either (pretty sad about though)

I think the final part of this blog post has to be dedicated to Luke, the best husband, friend, travel buddy not to mention my inspiration – in the whole world. No matter how short our time is in any place he makes sure that we don’t miss out on anything, he knows all the best spots, he does his research and above all this he always makes sure that my happiness comes before anything. I just adore all of our many adventures together, and I look forward to many many more.

But for now it was time to say goodbye, and get ready for the long journey home – 1 train & 3 planes – it was long! But I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Life is too short, so make the planes and travel,

“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” – Oscar Wilde

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