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 Journal By Shannon

I really hope I can find some people who relate to me through this post. As you can tell by the title, I am a very fussy eater. I have been ever since I can remember. I know I used to eat some different foods when I was younger, just by looking at old photos and seeing pees on my plate. I obviously then stopped eating certain things and my mum just gave me what I wanted to make things easier. She never actually noticed how bad I was at first, as I'd been stuck in my ways for so long I could not get out of it.

I used to have such a weak immune system because of what I was eating. Although I still eat the same things now and I don't get ill as much as I used to, I guess my body is just used to it. I sometimes have to take iron tablets, but I know I don't get a lot of nutrients that my body needs.

What do you eat?

Good question, not much. Let's start with breakfast foods. I will eat toast, only white bread, only Anchor butter, I don't mind Lurpak, sometimes I'll have strawberry jam (the smooth one). I like crumpets and bagles but I only have butter on them. Oh and I do love eggs and soldiers, but I don't like the white bit of the egg.

Lunch? Lunch is a difficult one for me, I don't like any sandwiches, I only like butter on bread. I will eat a crisp sandwich, only ready salted Walkers though.

Dinner? I don't have much choice, these are the ranges of foods that will appear in my dinner. Curry (just the sauce, can't be hot!!) with rice, beans, chips (not oven, ew), bacon noodles, chicken and mushroom pasta, spaghetti bolognese (can't eat the bolognese on it's own, only with garlic bread), pizza, roast potatoes, sweetcorn, yorkshire puddings and that's about it. I am the worst.

Going abroad...

I always feel so bad when I go away with someone and can't go to certain restaurants as there won't be anything I'll eat.
           

The left picture is a meal I had more than once in Disneyland Paris. It was so good though. The 2nd picture is a meal I had in New York in McDonalds, just large fries, a Diet Coke and an Oreo Mcflurry. I do now eat a cheeseburger at McDonalds which took me about a year to manage to eat a whole one. I know that's so strange but it's a texture thing.

Anxiety

I hate the feeling of thinking everyone thinks I'm weird. I am so different when it comes to food I get so paranoid people will judge me. One thing I hate the most is going out for meals. I have to google the restaurant and check out their menu before I go. I will even look at the kids menu if I can't find anything I like. I love an Italian restaurant or a Chinese restaurant because I know I'll like the food, but when I get told we're going to a steak restaurant I panic. They waiter will ask everyones food orders and then it's my turn "Can I just have some chips please?" It's so embarrassing. If you're fussy you'll know being invited out for food for a group meal is the worst.

Getting better and eating more?

It seems impossible. This is all mind games and fears of trying new things. What is the worst that can happen? I won't like how it feels or how it tastes. But I still can't do it, I will try a tiny bit of food and I struggle so much. If anyone has struggled with the same things as me but managed to overcome them then please please please let me know what you did. I would love to get help and see someone it's just having no idea where to find someone. I would love to magically be able to eat everything without going into a panic. Unfortunately it'll take a lot of work. I am sick of being fussy, so sick of it. I go Europe for 2 weeks in September and I have warned my friend I will be living on pizza and pasta. Luckily she said she will be too.

Sorry this post wasn't that much of an interesting one, but I've been wanting to write about this as its a personal struggle I have to deal with and any advice anyone has would be much appreciated.

- Shannon x







Last Wednesday (19th July) was my girlfriends birthday. I get so excited for other peoples birthdays, more than my own. I get so excited to buy her presents and spoil her rotten. Here are some of the presents I got her, one didn't arrive in time which is a Justin Bieber stadium t-shirt. Hopefully it arrives soon I ordered it ages ago!

*Decorations*






*Birthday Presents* 


I got these face masks from Primark which were £3 each. One is for her one is for me but obviously I let her chose which one she wanted to use first. They had loads of other choices too.


If you've seen my room tour post you'll know we have loads of Tsum Tsums. So I thought I would buy Abbie these to add to our collection, they're so cute.


We love Lush bath bombs! I couldn't decide which ones to get Abbie so I went with the Cosmic gift set instead, it comes with Intergalactic, which in my opinion is one of their best ones. The twilight one is amazing too.


Can't go wrong with some Harry Potter socks! She loves Harry Potter.


This was Abbie's main present, her pink vans. They looked so nice on her too! She's now made me want to get some myself.

*Colchester Zoo*

For the day time I suggested to Abbie if she would want to go to the zoo, she said yes so I pre-booked tickets as it's slightly cheaper. We ended up walking through the gates without even needing our tickets (kind of annoying could've gone for free!) I've got so many photos to share as I took my good camera this time! So this post may be a long one.




 The first thing we did was go see some creepy crawlies, we didn't plan which way we was going we just headed towards the giraffes and elephants as we wanted to feed them. We went in a part I don't even remember going in when I was younger, I had no idea it existed.




The animals are so beautiful, I love them so much but I also feel so bad they're at a zoo. It's a love hate thing. At 12:15 was the giraffe feeding time and 12:30 was the elephant feeding time. I've never done this before so I was actually quite nervous. The giraffe was so cute and took the leaf so gently. The elephant however touched my arm and it felt so strange. It was funny because you could hear it sucking up the food haha.


We then went to see the lions, their enclosure was quite small compared to some of the animals which wasn't nice to see. The animals were just chilling/sleeping.



The meerkats were adorable!!


We then had some food, we bought a feast with us and it was delicious! Although Colchester Zoo isn't too expensive for food and drink. We got a Calypso slush puppy and it was only £2.25 each which is pretty good. We then saw the Crazy Sands stall was open. This is where you pick a plastic container which is in the shape of an animal, you then fill it up with different colour sands. I always did these as a kid and it made me so happy making one again (yes I am 22, no I do not care).



We then saw the Otters and Flamingo's. I didn't get any good pictures of the Otters and they're my favourite. They were all a bit hyper and any photo I took was super blurry.



We went on their train that goes around a couple of the enclosures. It stops and lets you go inside where the lemurs are.


Here's some more random photos of us, penguins and sea lions!








 That evening we went out for dinner with Abbie's family to Bella Italia which was lovely. We then had a chilled evening in doing face masks. If you want to see the vlog we filmed from her birthday then click here.

I hope you had an amazing birthday Abbie, I love you so much.
Can't wait to celebrate the big 21 next year!!

- Shannon x












I thought I would do a post on all the places I've visited outside of the UK. I will try to include photos of each place, I think I have found a couple for each place as I went on a hunt through my Facebook and through old photo albums. If you know me you know I love to travel and get around the world. I want to visit so many more places and I'm constantly thinking about my next trip away. I don't remember the exact years I went to certain countries but I should roughly remember my age.

Lapland, Finland (age 6 or 7)



Lapland was actually my first holiday on a plane. I went with my dad and his friend's family who were actually my next door neighbours. I did not want to get on that plane I am pretty sure he had to drag me on it as I was so scared. Lapland was amazing, I didn't go on the ski lift as I hate heights and was too frightened but I did walk up the bottom of the slope just to go down a couple meters. We met Santa there and met his reindeers. Those are my main memories, I was pretty young so don't remember too much.

Spain (age 7)



Well I'm looking like the happiest child in both photos! I was actually very relaxed on the lazy river but was very grumpy in the bottom photo. Probably sulking about something. Spain was my first holiday in a hot country with my mum, step dad and brothers. I got my hair braided which ended up being a tradition every time we went away. Spain is lovely, the weather is always great and definitely a reasonable priced place to go to.

Tenerife (age 8)



Tenerife was amazing and I definitely want to go back there. You have to go if you get the chance. Our hotel ended up being overbooked and we got put into one of their sister hotels over the road, which ended up being even better than the original one. It was less crowded too which we preferred, nothing worse than having to worry about not getting a couple sun loungers. Also, digging my outfit in that bottom picture, I even remember that bandana! I'm shocked at myself for holding a parrot though, I used to be scared of everything.

Majorca (age 10 or 11)



This was when I started gaining weight around this age from being bullied by people who lived round my street. Maybe I'll do a blog post on that one day. Anyway Majorca was nice, I don't remember much of it apart from the pool being freezing. I probably wouldn't go back as nothing stood out for me. We did have a waterpark view from our balcony though, it wasn't the biggest waterpark but we did go one day and all had such a good day.

Turkey (age 13) 




I went to Turkey with my dad, auntie, uncle and cousins. We stayed in Marmaris and the weather was perfect. It was an amazing hotel, it even had its own mini waterpark. It had loads of pools, games room, a minutes walk to the beach. Even the food was great, you watched them make their pizzas for lunch which I loved. Although one night my spaghetti smelt like cigarette smoke, I'll always remember that.. I didn't eat it of course.

Cyprus (age 15)



I would love to go to Cyprus again. We stayed in Aiya Napa, but not the club scene area. Nissi beach was amazing, the sand was lovely and the sea was blue. The temperature can get so hot in Cyprus, we went in May/June time and one of the days it got to 42 degrees. The pool was a great way to keep cool though! We did go to a water park on one of the days but the floor would be so hot we'd all be running to the grass or shade to stop our feet from burning.

Orlando, USA (age 17)



(Orlando, Miami and the Bahamas all link into one trip) This was my first time going to America and I had never been so excited before. We were so jet lagged we had been awake for about 42 hours. But once we slept that first night we were ready to go explore. We went to Universal studios, Disneyland (although I wasn't that into Disney then and future me is so annoying at younger me for not being excited about Disney). We went shopping one day and just got excited about everything American. Orlando is a must for the future, we want to go for a couple weeks and go to all the Disney parks.

Miami, USA


We didn't spend long in Miami. We drove down to Miami from Orlando and ended up in a tropical storm, which then went on to be a hurricane. We stayed in a motel which was really creepy we was so scared as we had our own room and my friend's nan and grandad was in a room upstairs. We wasn't sure if the cruise was even happening, but it just ended up being delayed 12 hours and by the time we got on the cruise it was like the storm had never happened.

Bahamas



The pictures I took in the Bahamas I still don't believe are real. The first one is an island called Coco Cay I believe. The island is just for people on the cruise lines, it was unreal, the sand was so white, filled with beautiful shells. The sea was so blue and clear you could see tiny fishes swimming around. I want to explore more of the Caribbean it's so beautiful.

Paris, France (age 17)



Mine and my best friend Taigan's first venture to another country without an adult! Paris is so beautiful and photogenic. There are a lot of beggars around and you have to have your purse close to you, we saw a little kid trying to pinch someones purse from their bag whilst we were in McDonalds. Be careful anywhere you go we were extra careful and had no problems. The Eiffel tower is huge, I couldn't quite believe I was going to go to the top of it, part of the lift bit I had to shut my eyes as you could see outside as you were going up but once I was at the top I was fine.

New York, USA (age 19)



Even looking at these photos makes me miss New York. Definitely my favourite city ever, I love the vibe of New York, there is so much to do there, we didn't even fit everything into 5 days. I went with my friend Hannah and it was out first proper holiday without an adult, and we were going all the way to America. We booked it as a package holiday with Virgin so transfers and all that were included. If you haven't been to NYC you have to go. I am going back next year and I'm so excited already! Make sure you go to Baked by Melissa, they're tiny bitesize cupcakes which taste amazing!!!

Disneyland Paris, France (age 20)



Mine and my girlfriends first ever holiday!!! We went to the most magical place for it too, although the weather was not magical. It was 36 degrees the whole time, of course we went during a heatwave. We managed though, they had water fountains all around the park for people to fill up their bottles so luckily we didn't have to pay €3 anytime we wanted water. Disney is such a happy place, you can act like a kid no matter what age you are.

Spain (age 21)



This was our first relaxing holiday together and we went back to Spain! I'm not sure what part we went to when I was little but this time we went to Costa Brava. It was a quiet area we were in so next time we'd probably go somewhere that has a little bit more going on. The beach wasn't that great here, it wasn't sand it was more like tiny tiny stones. The hotel was great, we enjoyed the cocktails very much.

Disneyland Paris, France (age 21)



Back to DLP! But this time it was for the Christmas season, a great change in the weather compared to last time. This time it was so cold, but we had many layers which kind of helped but not really. Disney is magical anyway but at Christmas time it's a whole different level of magical. You have to go during the Christmas season they have snow machines, different shows going on and a Christmas parade too. I want to experience it again it was incredible I am sure Abbie would agree with me on this one!

Cape Verde (age 22)



And lastly (for now) Cape Verde in Africa. I did my first blog post on this place if you want to go read that just click here! I have never been anywhere like here before. We didn't explore the island much unfortunately but the hotel itself was amazing, you could feel the African vibe it had going on. The beach was incredible, although they had a red flag every day (which means no swimming) you could still go in just not far out, but I don't like swimming in the sea much anyway. Amazing place!

That is all the countries I have travelled to! I have been very lucky to have been able to go to so many amazing places. I am constantly saving up for somewhere new to go to. I love to travel and hope me and my girl can go to many more countries.

My next trips planned are:

  • Travelling Europe for 2 weeks in September 2017

Paris, France > Amsterdam, The Netherlands > Bern/Interlaken, Switzerland > Venice > Rome, Italy

  • Los Angeles & San Francisco in May 2018
  • NYC end of 2018

& possibly Budapest!!

Hopefully many more to come! Thanks for reading, comment below of any places you recommend I should go!!
- Shannon x



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My names Shannon and welcome to my blog! I like to post about travel, food, life, beauty & everything in between! Feel free to check my about me page to find out more.

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