8 Instagram Accounts You Should Be Following


Anybody who knows me knows I’m a little bit Instagram-obsessed!  I currently run four in total, my personal one future.mrs.brown (which gets neglected because I'm so busy concentrating on the other ones!), our travel one Gillian_and_Shauns_Adventures, my animal photography one Gillians_Animals and one for the family dog Suzie the.suzie.  So with following a whole range of different people over the four accounts I thought I’d make a list of some of my favourites!


Theme Park Worldwide


Twitter  
Youtube  
Theme Park Worldwide was created by theme park enthusiast Shawn Sanbrooke who started off just making videos as a hobby in his bedroom as a teenager.  Fast forward a few years and he now has a YouTube following of 170k, a Twitter following of 14.5k and an Instagram following of 32.7k.  Shawn goes all over the world visiting theme parks and filming vlogs about them.  He knows everything there is to know about rollercoasters, flat rides, dark rides, he knows the manufacturers of them and just about every fact you can think of.  He doesn't just visit theme parks, he visits smaller fairs and tourist attractions as well. 


What I love most about Shawn is he’s so passionate about what he does and so much effort goes into all of his posts and videos.  He even does a weekly show on YouTube with features such as “Guess the Ride” where he shows a zoomed in picture of a ride or a short sound clip and you have to guess the ride in the comments, “Merch Paradise” where he talks about some of the random rollercoaster merchandise he owns and “Interact with Me” where he gives mentions, shout outs and shares photos that fans have sent in. Thursday 16 August was National Rollercoaster Day so Shawn and his friend Alex decided to take on the massive challenge of visiting all 4 Merlin parks in the UK (Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland and Thorpe Park) in one day and riding one rollercoaster at each park without using any fast passes. If you want to know if they managed it you'll have to check his Instagram feed 😉


Chikkunmama




Chikkunmama’s account features her lovely little pet hedgehog called Chikulik, (which is a mixture of Japanese and Polish apparently).  I just find her whole page so endearing, she posts pictures and videos of Chikulik with little captions as if they're having little conversations between one another and they’re just so cute! Chikkunmama originally had a hedgehog called Chikkun (hence her Instagram name) but sadly he passed away a few years ago. If you think hedgehogs are adorable and cute hoggy pictures brighten up your day then follow Chikkunmama!

 Update: I'm sad to say that poor little Chikulik passed away on the morning of 11 October 2018 😭







The Asian Abroad



Nora is a girl from Singapore who left her job in 2015 and moved to Barcelona.  She initially just planned to stay there for a couple of months but fell in love with it and 3 years later has learned how to speak Spanish and bagged herself a Spanish boyfriend fiance!!  She created a travel bucket list when she moved to Barcelona and has managed to tick off quite a few places! Hers was the first blog I ever subscribed to when I started blogging myself and I love following her adventures and reading her interesting articles.  What I like about Nora’s Instagram is she always posts nice, colourful pictures and has honest, informative but amusing captions! She definitely sounds like a lot of fun!



Ally Law



Ally Law is a young guy who has become rather well known in the YouTube world for doing daily “madnesses” which more often than not end up in him and his mates being chased by police or security guards! They’ve climbed various buildings (and cranes!) in the UK and abroad, and completed “overnight challenges” by sneaking into places like swimming pools and cinemas, hiding until everyone else has left and then having some fun while trying not to get caught.  Some of it is stupid, some of it is insane but the people obviously love it considering he has 1.9 MILLION subscribers on YouTube! He has 181k followers on Instagram, 32.6k followers on Twitter and he even has his own merch website!
Dundee_Foodie

Being a food lover myself it’s no surprise that one of my new favourite accounts is Dundee_Foodie!  I love the fact that she’s local to me and she posts such amazing pictures of food and drink from eateries around Dundee and beyond.  She’s made us aware of so many amazing places around Dundee that we didn’t even know existed and she's got a knack for making you feel hungry just by looking at her pictures! If you love your food like I do, you’ll love this account and if you live in Dundee or the surrounding area she'll definitely give you plenty of inspiration for meals out or places to go for brunch!


Bonvoyagebigadventure




This account follows the adventures of Amanda and Rich Mitchell from the USA who left their home and jobs in June 2018 and are aiming to visit 25 countries in ten months.  I love this account because they post a bunch of great photos almost daily and they look so happy in every single one!  They’re not even 2 months into their trip (53 days at the time of writing!) and they have already visited Iceland, Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Malta and Italy! They are so inspirational.  I love their blog too. They have a whole page about the kind of sacrifices they had to make to be able to afford their trip, like going down to one car instead of two, stopping paying for cable, home-cooking more etc. There's also information about the destinations themselves, the lessons they've learned along the way and there’s even a book review for those who like reading while travelling or by the pool! 




 We Rate Dogs






We Rate Dogs describes itself as “your only source for pawfessional dog ratings” and is one of my favourite accounts because they not only post adorable pictures but the captions are most amusing!  They “rate” dogs out of 10 but they’re always above 10/10 because, well, they deserve it! 🐶 They also have a website where you can order merchandise such as tshirts, caps, mugs, calendars etc.  I thought their Instagram was popular with 578k followers until I checked their Twitter and realised they have 7.3 MILLION followers!  If you like dogs they’re definitely worth a follow!




Harlow and Sage





I’ve followed Harlow & Sage for a couple of years now after finding them on Facebook.  I just love them because they’re absolutely adorable!  The family started out with Harlow, a Weimeraner, and Sage, a Miniature Dachshund, but unfortunately Sage passed away in 2013.  Shortly afterwards they got another Miniature Dachshund called Indiana Thunderbolt to keep Harlow company and a year later another Miniature Dachshund called Reese Lightning joined the family!  They have also now started fostering other dogs which means lots more adorable pictures!!




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Why Ibiza is One of My Favourite Places


Enjoying the view in Portinatx

As a child I wasn’t as lucky as my classmates who were going to Disneyland or Tenerife every summer.  My dad worked full time at a garage and my mum did part time cleaning jobs while raising the three of us so expensive holidays abroad weren’t really an option (not to mention my mum’s fear of flying!).

I’m the baby of the family, the (surprise!) result of my mum’s second marriage so my two brothers pretty much had a life of their own by the time I started school.  I didn’t completely go without holidays though, we had a few caravan holidays around Scotland growing up which I loved, although it was always just the three of us. 
A little me with my big brothers around 1993

 So what changed it all?  One freezing cold, windy, rainy October week at Craig Tara (a holiday park) in Ayr!  It was just myself and mum that week and we stayed in a chalet, however there was a gap underneath the door which meant that the wind just came right into the room and it was FREEZING!  Mum ended up having to tape it up but it didn't make much of a difference. I think it was at that moment that my mum decided that we would never go on holiday in Britain again and promptly visited the travel agents and booked a holiday to Ibiza for the following year!

The first time we went (yes we went more than once!) we stayed in Playa D’en Bossa at the Hotel Don Toni, and we had such a fantastic time we went back there the following year and thus started our love affair with Ibiza!  Over the following years we visited various different areas of the island; Portinatx, San Miguel, Santa Eulalia – and loved every single place.

Santa Eulalia Centre

Santa Eulalia Beach
The view from the Hotel Presidente in Portinatx

Ibiza has a reputation for being a “party island” and I find it a shame because it’s so much more.  From the famous sunsets in San Antonio Bay to exploring the historic Old Town, there really is something for everybody and I’m dying to show it all to Shaun, who has never been (why would he go somewhere that doesn’t have a theme park?? 😕)

As you’ll probably have figured out by now if you follow my blog and/or Instagrams, I love my animals and nothing makes me happier in Ibiza than chasing the cute little wall lizards around trying to get photos of them! 

Just chillin'

His lunch flew away. Probably in circles seeing as he now only has one wing

This one was a total poser!

Other things to do on the island include snorkelling, scuba diving, boat trips, tours around the Old Town, castles, hippie markets, bus tours and countless beautiful beaches.  On our first trip to the island we decided to do an excursion over to the neighbouring island of Formentera which is absolutely beautiful.  There’s plenty to do at night time as well with Ibiza’s many restaurants, bars and clubs (ok you knew that bit!).

The BEST fresh orange juice I have ever tasted!


A lovely little bar in Portinatx
Once I got a bit older and moved out, mum and I continued to visit Ibiza almost yearly for our “girlie holidays”, my most memorable being when she had a little too much vodka and I ended up having to hold on to her walking down the corridor to the room because if I didn’t then she would bounce from wall to wall! 🙈 And this was before dinner (which I had to go to alone because by the time I was ready she was fast asleep on the bed!)

The bay where South Pacific was filmed!
I suppose the reason that Ibiza is one of my favourite islands is simply because it was the first place I went abroad with my parents and the whole experience was new for all of us.  It really surprises me the amount of people who don’t actually realise that there’s more to Ibiza than just pubs and clubs, hopefully this post prompts at least some people to do a bit of research and go and see for themselves!

 Have you been to Ibiza? Where did you go? Let me know below in the comments! 😊

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