The lovely Georgina over at She Might Be Loved is currently holding a competition with Lloyds Bank, to win an iPad Mini - who wouldn't want one of those? I figured that seeing as I haven't written much about my personal life throughout 2013, this would be as good a place as any to start. Upon first reflection, 2013 was a pretty uneventful year for me, but when I actually think about it quite a lot happened, both with my personal life and with my blog. Weirdly though, as you're about to find out, the first half of the year was quite eventful compared to the second half - everything quietened down after my birthday! The easiest way to order these thoughts about the year is in chronological order, so away we go...

January saw the year get off to a good start. After having started my (not so) new job in October 2012, I was on a temporary contract and was unsure of my future and what was going to happen. However, on the 3rd I offered a permanent contract and I was absolutely over the moon! Through 2012, I had a bad year with my previous job and eventually ended up being made redundant in difficult circumstances. After a year of stress and uncertainty, I was finally able to relax and not worry about being able to keep a job. I still work there now, over a year later and I'm very happy to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

In February, I did something that I had never done before - I met up with some girls that I had only previously known online. The first time was with some girls from the Black Milk community; I travelled down to Nottingham with two lovely girls and had a fantastic night meeting some really awesome people. It seems like such a small thing, but it was the first time I had ever travelled a distance (as opposed to just the city centre) to meet what was basically, a bunch of strangers. I was very nervous but determined to prove to myself that I could do it - I'd made a mental New Year's Resolution to say 'yes' to everything, and I'm so glad that I did. It gave me much more confidence and really boosted my mood in general.

However, in March my personal life took a downward turn. Several girls, that I had called my friends for the previous couple of years turned very nasty. It's a long and personal story so I won't go into it, but basically, me and Martin became friends with someone that they didn't like. This resulted in a lot of harassment, backstabbing and generally unacceptable behaviour and in the end, we were faced with no other option - we had to cut ties with them completely. Unfortunately, their antics carried on for several months afterwards and has only come to rest within the last few months. It would be stupid of me to say that it didn't affect me at all - they were all, at one point, very good friends of mine and I felt very sad about having to end on bad terms with them. I like to think that I have moved on now and hope that they have done the same.

The upside to March is that Martin's parents took us to London for a few days, which was the only holiday that I managed to go on last year. I'd only previously visited London when I was small, so seeing the sights really was an amazing experience for me. Despite the frankly awful weather, we managed to see everything from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace, ate at some fantastic places (Meat Market was my absolute favourite) and visited the Sherlock Holmes museum - something that had been on my 'to-do' list for several years! It was an unforgettable experience and I would love to visit London again at some point this year.

April saw me and Martin celebrate our six year anniversary - yes, six! Sometimes I still can't believe that we've been together that long, and now we're approaching our seventh year of being together. He really is my soulmate (If you believe is such things) and I can't imagine being with anyone else - and hopefully, I won't have to! We seem to always get hit by bad luck but I wouldn't change him for the world - we're hoping that 2014 is our year as 2013 as especially kind to us as a couple!

In June, I turned 23 and me and Martin spent a night down in Birmingham. A luxurious holiday it was not (Although we did stay in a fantastic hotel), but I really enjoyed myself despite managing to get ill. It was also one of the hottest weeks of the year, so we ended up walking around in the glorious sunshine and basically enjoying having a little bit of time completely to ourselves. We also went to go see "Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, courtesy of Martin's mum and dad and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. We also saw a few close friends which sealed in my birthday celebrations nicely.

The next few months were actually pretty uneventful, with the next memory that sticks in my mind being Halloween in October - for work, I decided to paint my face in the style of pop art/Roy Lichtenstein and it worked out far better than I had anticipated. I got positive comments on it all day, which made the long time it took to put it on completely worth it! I had people asking me who had done it for me, and when I answered that it was me people were pleasantly surprised. It was the furthest I had ever gone with fancy dress make up and it made me realise that I could do it if I put my mind to it - something I had never done before. The only problem is that I've got to try and better it for this year!

Finally, the last memorable thing that happened in 2013 was Christmas in December; a different one for me this year, because it was the first one that I had spent away from my family. I spent it instead with Martin and his family, and whilst it was different to what I was used to, I ended up having a lovely Christmas. If anything, this was the first time ever that I'd had turkey for Christmas dinner - I know, right? My family are vegetarians (I'm not), so I've always had their version of Christmas dinner and had never had meat previously. It's such a small thing to note in the grand scheme of things, but it's definitely something I'll remember for years to come!

Phew! This post turned out to be much longer than I had intended. If you managed to stick with it until the end, then give yourself a pat on the back! I daresay that this post has given you a little insight into my life - or at least what it was like - and it's certainly given me a lot of reflect on. If you would like to enter the competition yourself, then head over to Georgina's blog and get writing!