Wales v Scotland... it was fun even if we had nothing to play for!

I was lucky enough to have tickets for two Six Nations games this year at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff... Wales v Italy and Wales v Scotland. Thanks, Neil!

Sadly the championship was already lost by the time we played Scotland on the final Saturday of the tournament, but it was still a great occasion and I'm really glad we were a part of it. I'm certainly not going to complain about a record win and lots of tries! I also love visiting the Millennium Stadium, whatever the occasion.

I thought I'd post a few photos from the day... enjoy!

Welsh rugby shirt gets another outing

One of my favourite places in the world

Just before kick off!

Ooh, fireworks...

Lining up for the anthems

Great view!

I love being in a packed Millennium Stadium...

Could it be yet another try?

Flocking out of the stadium!

We finished third in this year's championship... I'm hoping to finish two places higher next year!

Wales v Italy... hello Six Nations!

It's that time of year again... the Six Nations championship has started! Neil kindly bought us tickets for the first game of the tournament, so we went to the Millennium Stadium last Saturday to watch Wales defending our title in the opening game against Italy.

I haven't set foot inside the Millennium Stadium for over two years so it was great to be back! I might be biased, but I think it's the best stadium in the world. I've never had a bad seat in all the times I've been there and the atmosphere is usually electric, whatever the occasion. I love hearing the beautiful Welsh anthem and traditional Welsh rugby songs reverberating around the stadium... it gives me goosebumps every time.

I was hoping for a bigger win on Saturday, but I'll settle for the win alone at this stage of the tournament. There's a long way to go. We're playing Ireland later this afternoon and hopefully that'll be a win too, although I'm not as optimistic about this game as I was about the Italy game. Fingers crossed!

I suspect that France might win this year's tournament, but I hope my head is wrong and my heart is correct. Come on Wales!

Here are some photos for you to enjoy from Wales v Italy...

My new Welsh shirt! A Christmas present from Neil's parents

Welsh team warming up before the game

Pre match build up... amazing spectacle!

Getting ready to welcome the Welsh team on to the pitch 

Lining up for the anthems

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi...

Both teams in action!

Leigh Halfpenny kicks yet another penalty

Nearly at the end of the game...

I love being in an (almost) packed Millennium Stadium

Did anyone else attend any rugby games over the weekend? What are your Six Nations predictions?

Christmas presents... the clothing edition

I say 'clothing'... this post will mainly focus on the new pyjamas and fluffy socks I had for Christmas. However, I did have two other very exciting things for Christmas which I've photographed below...

I had these beautiful brown suede boots from Fat Face for Christmas from my parents. I've wanted these boots for ages but could never justify buying them for myself. I love the colour and the button detail, as well as the beautifully fluffy interior. They look great with skinny jeans, hoodie and denim skirt, or my casual dresses. I haven't been able to wear the boots much yet as the weather has been so wet and I don't want to ruin them... hopefully the end of January will be drier! I love them :)

I also had the latest Welsh rugby shirt from Neil's parents for Christmas which I was very excited about, particularly as I'm going to two Welsh Six Nations games this year. My old Welsh shirt was way too big for me so this one came along at just the right time. Roll on the Six Nations!

I love pyjamas! Neil bought the lovely three piece Winnie the Pooh pyjama set for me, and the pink spotty pyjamas are from my parents. A lot of the pyjamas I've had for years are too big for me now, so I might have to organise a pyjama audit and clearout to make room for new ones. If you don't love pyjamas, I don't think we can be friends. 

Everyone loves fluffy socks! I had these beauties from Sarah, my parents and Nicola and I've already worn them all at least once. They're super cosy in the winter and I always stick a pair on as soon as I get home from work. When it's extra cold, I make the bold decision to wear slippers as well with the fluffy socks underneath. Crazy times. 

What clothes did you have for Christmas? I've bought a lot of clothes with my Christmas money, so there's a blog post to follow on those soon!

Happy New Year... exciting times ahead!

Happy new year, everyone! What did everyone get up to on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day? I thought I'd say hello to the new year by listing a few things I'm looking forward to in 2014...

1. Wedding
2014 is the year of our wedding! The church and reception venue are all booked and Save the Date cards have been sent out, but I'm looking forward to sorting out all the finer details before the big day in August. I haven't had too many 'bridezilla' moments yet... watch this space.

2. New house
I'm looking forward to becoming a home owner this year as Neil and I will hopefully have our own house within the next few months. We'll be moving in together after the wedding and I can't wait to choose furniture, curtains, utensils, rugs and so on... Pinterest will come in very useful for the next year or so!

3. Honeymoon
I'm so excited about having a long relaxing holiday in September after the wedding. We're hoping to start booking flights and so on in the next few weeks and will probably be visiting two or three Italian cities. Italian food is amazing... I can't wait!

4. McBusted
I'm off to see McBusted in May! Neil bought me tickets for Christmas after I moaned for weeks about not being able to afford to get any. I've already seen McFly 8 times but have never seen Busted, so I'm in for a treat.

5. Hen weekend
I'm also very excited about my hen weekend which will be taking place in July. I'll be having one hen weekend with university friends, school friends and friends based in Cardiff, then another hen do with my friends from work. They will both undoubtedly be Disney-themed and full of food!

6. Six Nations
I always look forward to the Six Nations, and this year Neil has bought tickets to two of the Welsh games in the Millennium Stadium. We're off to the first game and the last game, and I'm hoping for another championship win for Wales. Fingers crossed!

7. Russell Howard
Neil very generously bought tickets for us to see Russell Howard in February (he's a keeper!). Russell Howard is one of my favourite comedians and he's always been hilarious when I've seen him in the past, so I'm very excited about this little outing.

8. Fake Christmas 
I'll be celebrating Fake Christmas with my university friends this month. We've decided we prefer to celebrate Fake Christmas in January as it expands the Christmas period even further. I'm excited about Kirsty's amazing Christmas dinner, more presents and traditional Fake Christmas games such as 'rate the boys'!

9. Mini break
Neil and I are hoping to have a little mini holiday in the next few months just to get away for a few days. Some possible options are Snowdonia, Dublin, London and Disneyland Paris. Any other recommendations for a relaxing little break?

10. Christmas 2014
Christmas 2014 will be our first Christmas as a married couple! 356 days to go :)

Wales are the champions!

I wrote a blog post just before the Six Nations tournament started and stated my predictions for the final table. Here's what I predicted:

1. Ireland
2. France
3. England
4. Wales
5. Scotland
6. Italy

My predictions couldn't have been much further from the final outcome! I was pretty pessimistic about Wales' chances before the tournament started, and even more so after we lost our first game to Ireland. However, after we won three away games in a row and seemed to be improving with every game, I dared to hope that we could actually clinch the championship against England. We decided to watch the game in my flat so that we'd actually have a decent view of a TV... I'm very short so am never guaranteed a good view when I watch games in the pub.

Pre-match fuel!

I'm not going to attempt to describe the game, except to say that it's probably one of the best Welsh games I've seen in my lifetime. Every Welsh player put in 110% and played with pride, composure and pure determination. It still hasn't quite sunk in, and probably won't for a while. The final score was 30-3, so we retained our championship title with plenty of points to spare!

Photo from www.bbc.co.uk  

So this is what the final table looked like:

1. Wales

2. England

3. Scotland

4. Italy

5. Ireland

6. France

As you can see, not one of my predictions were correct. Scotland and Italy had a great tournament... France and Ireland, not so much. Judging on my awful predictions, I don't think I'll be taking up gambling any time soon. 

Six Nations 2013... what will happen?

It's that time of year again... the Six Nations tournament starts tomorrow! I love love love the Six Nations and can't wait for it to start. Wales won the Grand Slam last year, but I have a feeling we won't be retaining our crown this year after our performances in the Autumn internationals. We did get better towards the end to be fair, but we just couldn't close out the game at the crucial stages.

We've been blighted by injuries too which hasn't helped matters, but at least Leigh Halfpenny is fit and well again. He was the only player who stood out for me in the Autumn and he literally puts his body on the line every time he wears the Welsh shirt.

Photo courtesy of www.wru.co.uk 

Despite my apparent pessimism, when the game kicks off against Ireland at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, I'll still be super excited and will be convinced that we really can win the game and the whole tournament. Call it blind optimism if you want to, but it's the effect the Six Nations tournament has on me. It's just a great rugby tournament with a unique atmosphere, and it definitely brightens up the otherwise dull month of February. 

Here's what I think the final table will look like... I hope I'm wrong. It always feels wrong to predict that my team will end up in the bottom half of the table!

1. Ireland

2. France

3. England

4. Wales

5. Scotland

6. Italy

What are other people's predictions?