2011

I didn't write a post on NYE last year. Looking back through my archives, I just posted a piece of creative writing on the 29th then I didn't write again until late January. I wish I could remember why. I dug my old diary out last night to look over 2011's resolutions, but there was nothing between November 2010 and August 2011. But, from what I remember, at the time I didn't want to remember how life was. 

I achieved 19 things in 2011 that I set out to achieve at the beginning of the year. Sensible, logical targets such as 'pass all of my AS levels with As and Bs' were scattered amongst much more subjective targets such as 'see the good in everything'. Incidentally, I think these two are the two I'm most proud of.


So why, after not bothering last year, am I writing now? Listen to the link below - I hope you'll be able to figure it out for yourself.


Jamie Hartman - Happy New Year (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIF89M07IWg&feature=player_embedded)


The new year is always anticipated with mixed emotions. In the days following Christmas, still in the run-up to the new year, I find that I tend to go a bit crazy. There's suddenly the realisation that the year is ending, and even though the whole world isn't going to end with it, the pressure to achieve always gets to me. Always.

“Say happy new year, ‘cause this is the end of all that was broken and you needed to mend. Let go of your fears, say happy new year. ‘Cause this is the start, start over new, and all that you wanted, all that you wanted, is coming to you. And you’re finally here, say happy new year.” I cannot begin to tell you how much those words have made me think in recent weeks. I think back to the beginning of the year and I remember how dark my head was...


January Exams, Fern's birthday, college magazine pressure, Amnesty Group pressure, Media coursework pressure (and can I please just say how awesome my friends were at helping me out with that - love you guys!), general life pressure, but then, a lot of memories too.

We reconnected with my dad's extended family after pretty much my entire lifetime at my Uncle Joe's 80th birthday party. We hugged, we caught up, sentences such as 'I have no idea who just hugged me' departed our lips but we didn't care. We were there, we were together, we were family. And throughout this whole year, I can honestly say that I have never stopped being thankful for this night.

That Media coursework I mentioned? Meet the cast and crew of You Call That News? My friends (L to R: Joe, Poppy, Eleanor, Danny [at table], Aiden, Eliza) were absolutely brilliant throughout the whole process of shooting, editing, re-shooting, photographing, covering a drama studio in newspaper and improvising after the lights wouldn't work. They were fantastic and funny, and I couldn't have been more thankful. Here is the actual advert, and here is the brilliant outtakes video I posted too. 

Friendship, in its purest form as far as we know, on Fern's birthday. There's also a shot of Eliza and I cutting out random shapes from coloured paper and Fern with her brilliant banner (as designed by Eliza in Photography class...) One thing we're all good at is deciding we must bring in food when it's somebody's birthday ;)

And then it was onto February, a month that generally seems to pass me by without me realising. It was a humbling month. February 16th will forever remain a poignant day in my memory. To Adam: I will never forget your composure that day, the way you came back to the stall and 'got on with it'. I admired you so much that day for how you dealt with everything that was going on.

March brought a fresh month, I recall. After the turbulence of February, it brought fun and new experiences. Poppy (hi, CT!) and I spent a day busking for Red Nose Day dressed as a hula girl and, well, I'm not sure what Poppy was. It was fun, it was liberating, and I'm thankful that nobody saw either of our rehearsals - one was spent sitting around her dining room table trying to choose songs we could half-sing, the other was spent sitting in my bedroom attempting to muster the enthusiasm to rehearse. This also brought a bus ride home on the college bus singing while Poppy played her ukulele. March was definitely Poppy's month, in my mind.

April was stressful. I remember being stupidly angry all month about pretty much everything. The 6th always sends me into meltdown, even though it really has no logical reason to, and this was coupled with several high-stress situations. We had the Amnesty handover meeting and I became President of the group, with the lovely but mental Jade was Vice President, Eleanor as Treasurer and Eliza as Press Officer. We said goodbye to Adam and Jonathan and looked forward to our future as a team.


May was massively stressful. The first anniversary of leaving school came and went without me really realising. We had exams and all the stress and pressure that comes with it. As you can probably appreciate, this left literally no time to think about taking pictures of anything...

Photo courtesy of the University of Leeds

Team Sheepish!

But June and July, they were so rich, so full of life, which is why I'm referring to them almost as one huge month. I went to Poland with Psychology and formed friendships that I hold so close to my heart as this year draws to a close. We visited Auschwitz and gained a perspective that the majority of society really is missing out on. We sat in Krakow's beautful Main Square and cried to each other as we cleansed ourselves of the emotion we had been holding onto. We ran around hunting down random objects for the big group quiz. We lost a member of staff who was apparently ''hiding in a bush''. Quite simply, we felt alive. That first picture on the left is one of my favourites - Jess framed it for me as a birthday present. From left to right: Jade, myself, Jess. I then got back and it didn't seem like two minutes before Sophie, James and I were heading off to 'language camp', otherwise known as Linguastars. What an amazing two days - so inspirational and perfect for language geeks like the three of us. 

I mainly remember spending August feeling completely anonymous in Perros-Guirec, France. It was refreshing knowing that nobody knew me. I had fun going in and out of French supermarkets (weirdo alert!) (Super U Tregastel was my favourite) and even visited La Perlerie in Dinan, which I would definitely recommend for people who make jewellery. My brother and I spent evenings watching Not Going Out DVDs and eating Milka chocolate. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing.

Now for 'The Big One'. September. My 18th birthday, the beginning of Y13 and my second/last year at college. What an amazing month. There are so many memories and small moments that I wish I could spend time explaining to you - the way it felt to see my friend Rachel again after 4 years, the love I felt at my party, the brilliant in-joke of my cousin requesting Pure and Simple by Hearsay for me, the awkwardness of Jade and Jess yelling ''OH MY GOD IT'S LOADED!" while I was being forced to make a speech... It was perfect. Some of the photos here were taken by Jess or on Jess' fancy camera. I own the crappy ones ;P September was also the month of singing lots of karaoke with Eleanor at Jade's 18th (we thankfully missed her stripping off...) and realising that we really didn't know the words to any of the songs we chose. It was the month of things going back to normal after the quiet of the summer and the stress of the exam season. It was a month for reflecting upon family and friends and it was a month of gratitude. I hope that everybody who attended my birthday knows how thankful I am - yes, even you, Jacob, but next time please don't try to abduct Keyana halfway through ;)


October and November were months of parties and getting stuck into college work properly. November was a bit rubbish, but we need not speak of that now. The whole friendship group attended Aiden's fancy dress 18th, and Sophie and I sort of went matching (I was Spanish, she was French...and she stole my beret, too). November was also quite exciting as for once I had bonfire night plans. Sophie's parents hosted a fabulous bonfire party and it was ridiculously fun. I spent a lot of time 'bonding' with Liz (pictured with me above right) and I think everybody appreciated all of the cupcakes and sweets. Have I ever mentioned that Sophie's mum is awesome? No? Well she is.

Poppy and I also met Daniel Sloss and Kai Humphries after she kindly gave me her spare ticket to the Sheffield gig. Be jealous, folks, be jealous ;) (This is also why Poppy is awesome...)

And, finally, December. Eliza's hula themed 18th (I know, I know, and if I'd have known, I'd have SO saved my hula costume from March ;P). We also went for our annual Christmas gift exchange meal/bowling outing to Xscape and rather enjoyed watching Eliza and Sarah somehow NOT fail at the bowling part (you all know what I mean, guys). Christmas came and went, and life has gone on. I have spent the holidays in a Christmas-induced panel show style TV coma, doing nothing but watch things on YouTube or pick my mum up from work. But I'm OK with that, and I'll work hard to do well in my January exams regardless. 


Now I know there are bits I've glossed over. Goodness knows how many parts of the year I've deliberately ignored or even buried deeply in my subconscious. But that's how every year is. That's how life is, it seems. I may not have achieved all 30 aims for the year, but I achieved so much more besides. 


But, as I sit here at 01:21am on Saturday 31st December 2011, with Happy New Year on repeat and my old diary laid out in front of me, I am content. 


"I know, I know, how they laughed in your face. They hoped, and hoped, and they said you would break. Hold on, you're fine. When they cut you to size, then you turn round and smile just a little." I think if anything could sum my year up, this lyric does it perfectly. So many people around me know how accurately that describes the year, particularly the second half, for me. But despite everything that happened and the hours spent hurting, I'm taking Mr Hartman's advice to let go of my fears. 

This year I have cried (a lot), I have given my time to people who needed it, I have achieved, I have received 5 university offers, I have been enlightened by wonderful people, and I have been thankful. My life has been touched by beautifully-minded friends and I have been reminded of why it is so important to look for the good in every situation. 2011 gave me opportunities and I made the most of (the majority of) them. 

This is easily the longest blog post I have ever written. But, you know, it's got a year's worth of content in it, so... 

My aims for next year?
1) Laugh more
2) Find the courage to rise above those who want me to fall
3) Document things more - it's important to remember the bad as well as the good
4) Be present - and that can be interpreted in whichever way it needs to be

I hope that those of you who have made it this far are also able to reflect on a trying but rewarding 2011, and I hope that everybody has the 2012 they are hoping for. To those who I have referred to, and even those who I know and have not referred to here: thank you.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride." - Hunter S. Thompson

Besos ♥
Rachel 

Christmas

Christmas is all but over now. It's 7:50pm here in the UK as I write this and our household has settled down for a long night in front of the TV. Everything is as usual here. I've been Facebooking my half-cousin Zoe, who we haven't seen this Christmas, about her and her family's Christmas and uploading photos of yesterday's annual Christmas Eve gathering at my grandma's house. Nothing is wrong with our little world. I mean, Blogger won't recognise my photo album so I'm having to copy and paste URLs in from Tumblr, but other than that, nothing is wrong with our little world...

I took many ridiculous photos of food and baubles last night at my grandma's. It has become something of a tradition to eat tons of junk and then lose at Trivial Pursuit (my team came 3rd out of 4 teams, so not a total loss...) To put it simply, it's never a ground-movingly memorable event, but that's precisely the point - it's tradition. It's regular and we can seek comfort in the fact that we know how it is. Or at least, I can. I obviously can't speak for another 8 people.

My main task this year was to decorate our Christmas cake. I went for a penguin theme. Probably mainly because I watched half of Happy Feet a few days before going out to purchase the fondant icing, but also because I just like penguins...even if they have eyes as creepy as my iced penguins... I'm ridiculously proud of my decoration attempts, I even painted the whole thing with edible glitter and made snowballs out of coconut. Cake decorating is a serious thing, you know...


Today has mainly been spent in the living room sitting in the same seat for the majority of the day. I feel a bit like I'm going mental, but I can't figure out if that's because I've been in the house all day, or just because Christmas tends to have this effect on me. As Josh Groban sung, it's always this time of year that my thoughts undo me. 


I'm now just looking forward to the new year. I have a lot I want to sit down and write about it and I'm looking forward to shutting myself off for the world and spending an hour or two writing. It feels like so long since I last did that. But for now, I'm thankful - for family, for the small things, and for tradition. And as Miss Dusty said...

Besos ♥
Rachel 

Jumping on the Glossybox bandwagon

So, my friend Jess and I exchanged Christmas presents last Tuesday during our last Starbucks Tuesday of 2011 (sob sob). She bought me a cute little necklace with a Russian doll on it, a chocolate reindeer and a November Glossybox. She also requested that I 'reviewed' the Glossybox, because according to her I review a lot of things on here (do I...?) So here goes...

In terms of blogging circles, the Glossybox is one of the biggest crazes at the moment. For £12.95 (don't quote me on that, mine was free, remember...) a month, including P+P, you can receive a Glossybox through the post containing several different products. There are many other beauty boxes (Carmine etc), but it seems that this is the brand most talked about. I can't quite figure out why - it's certainly not the cheapest and a lot of people believe other boxes offer a lot more. So why is the Glossybox so appealing? 

Well, for me, there was something quite special about opening it up and finding out what was inside. I know a lot of people were disappointed with the November edition, and I can kind of understand why, but here's my 'review' anyway...

Illamasqua 'Freak' sample
The first product in the box was a sample of Illamasqua's Freak perfume. I like it, I wouldn't necessarily buy the full size bottle though. Lots of people don't like receiving samples as it feels like a bit of a rip off, but considering my box was a gift, I wasn't too bothered at receiving it. There's quite a lot of waffle on the inside about the scent itself - "I am bottled midnight" - that makes it sound rather grand. It also lists the 'top notes', 'heart notes', and 'base notes'. It was nice to receive as a little freebie and I'm wearing it seen as I have it. It's quite a strong scent, but being no perfume expert I have no idea what it perhaps compares to. 

Arbonne FC5 Ultra-Hydrating Hand Creme
As well as the fact that I'm not an expert on perfume, I'm also not a skincare expert. My favourite hand cream is Nails Inc's Kensington caviar hand cream, but my collection isn't exactly extensive. 
What do I like about this product? Well, the smell is quite pleasant. You can, in my opinion (and that of my friend Fern [who also tried it out]), smell the kiwi which gives it a fresh, natural smell.
What don't I like about this product? The one I received was a little battered around the bottom. Not a great first impression at all - take note, Glossybox. I also wasn't a massive fan of the texture, while it seems to do its job and is a good hand cream, it's a little dry for my liking. I definitely wouldn't pay £19.00 for the full size product. My free (was in a free gift set when I spent £40 or more), full size Nails Inc Kensington works much better and is cheaper.

Nail Rock Designer Nail Wraps
Nail wraps are definitely a trend that I haven't jumped on. For me, these are on a par with the new magnetised nail polishes or crackle effect polishes - so many people are doing it that I just don't want to try it myself. However, seen as I received them, I will try them out. I've been advised not to attempt it myself, so Fern (who seems to know a lot about them) and Sarah are coming round to mine some time to do them for me. I'm not a massive animal print fan - again, I think because so many other people are - although I could perhaps try them on my toes...

Monu Skin Perfector
I'm not really sure what the purpose of this product is. I assumed it was a primer, and so used it as one. I'd actually been having a problem with my foundation lasting all day - a typical college day is long and tiring and my face usually shows it by the time 4pm comes around. So, I tried this out one morning (when I actually had the time to add another component to my morning routine) and found that it did help my foundation to stay on. I unfortunately haven't had time to use it again since, but the results of one use were very encouraging and I'm excited to try it again. 

Dead Spa Sea Magik's Dead Sea Bath Salts
(Please excuse the crappy photo - Blogger isn't playing today)
Award winning bath salts, apparently, so I had high expectations.
What do I like about the product? There's no smell, which is always one of my major problems with bath products. The claim to ''alleviate dry skin'' is indeed true. I've had a patch of dry skin on my arm and it certainly improved after just one bath using these salts. The picture to the right shows the colour they turned the water - a sort of light turquoise blue. 
What don't I like about the product? It could have a little scent to it. I know I said I liked that there was no smell, but there's generally always something and there was nothing with this product. I also think the packaging is ridiculous considering it's not a product you use in one go. Plastic bags are not practical at the best of times, let alone for a product with lots of tiny bath salts in it...

So this was my little review of November's Glossybox. Way out of date, I know, but seen as Jess requested it I thought I'd do it anyway.


Have any of you tried out the products yourselves? Leave us a comment with your opinions if so :)


Besos ♥
Rachel 

My week in pictures

Monday was the consultation evening for parents. It was alright, nothing awful and for once I didn't cry. The downside was that we had to run about between the common room and the LRC all evening and we had at least 20 minutes to wait to see my Psychology teacher because of it. Great stuff. When it finished, we had to drive to a service station to pick my grandad up (don't even ask) so ended up going for a coffee. Possibly one of the oddest nights of my life thus far. The coffee wasn't even that nice - that's what you get for using WH Smith's Costa Express rather than proper Costa. Hmm.


Sophie and I had a sort of picnic in the languages classroom on Tuesday. We couldn't go in the lab (booo) but Judith let us into her room (which for the first time ever, was warm, so warm we had to open a window. NCP languages students will know why this is such a massive deal ;P). I don't even remember what she was drawing a bridge for, but I do know that it amused me greatly. I spent lunchtime promoting World Aids Day with the rest of the SOS group in the common room. Above is one of the group pictures we took :)

I was kindly greeted with this obstruction in the park this week too (Wednesday?). It was so windy it actually knocked the tree down.  was the second closest to it in terms of parking. Not good. I don't think any cars were harmed/completely crushed by it, but there are usually LOTS parked directly underneath where it fell. I bet the drivers of those cars all feel ridiculously lucky...


Yesterday was Write For Rights day 2011 at college and the Amnesty group did a campaign in the common room. Students signed cards and petitions and one of our biggest staff supporters even had his class signing cards he asked reprographics to make for him. How awesome is that?! We also hosted our first ever Amnesty Debate in G6 and the group seemed to enjoy debating 'the death penalty and surrounding issues'. Little Rachel and Georgia even did some research and brought it with them. It warms my heart so much to see that there are students who care.
Then, finally, last night I went to the 18th party of someone I went to school with (Chris) and some of the usual group. In these photos I'm with Eliza and Danny. It wasn't the best party ever (there was no dancing and the music was fairly terrible) but it could've been a lot worse. It was nice to do something other than just sit in the house on a Friday evening anyway :) Eliza and I left at 10:30ish because she had work today and I've caught another cold :( Booo.


I don't have a photo of the last thing I want to mention, but guess who got two offers from the University of Leeds yesterday? ;) It seems that it somehow inspired me to learn Swedish again, even though neither of the courses I've applied for involve Swedish at all, and today I sat and did a lesson. I also wrote most of my Christmas cards. Just a ton of revision to get done tomorrow, then :(


Besos ♥
Rachel 

I don't have time to blog

I don't (have time to blog), but here I am anyway. Probably for my own sanity more than anything else. I feel like I've been neglecting my blog again and I don't like that.

Tonight was consultation evening at college, which is possibly the most awkward and uninspiring event in the college's calendar. My dad sat having a conversation with my grandad over the phone whilst we were speaking to my Psychology teacher. MORTIFIED. I'm going to be apologising for that one in the morning...

I don't know what it is about parents' evening, it just depresses me. It's also an extra hour or so in college - two hours total including travel time - when I could be doing something productive. You know, like work. No major concerns but still, depressing.

This week is busy. Again. Starbucks Tuesday with Jess P2 tomorrow, Guerra Civil revision with James P3, World Aids Day promotion (late, I know) at lunchtime, Amnesty on Wednesday, Amnesty campaign set-up on Thursday, Amnesty campaign on Friday, SOS meeting on Friday, photo-taking for a Mayor's Award thingy also on Friday. Meh. College's motto of ''there is no such thing as a free period'' is evidently true. My head hurts from all of the pressure.


My Psychology teacher told me this evening that she could ''feel my stress''. I'm glad somebody can - the rest of my teachers seem to think that it's perfectly normal to have 7000 essays a week. UGH. I don't understand how anybody is supposed to cope with the workload. Even if I do nothing for Amnesty, SOS, WT etc, I STILL don't have time to fit everything in. Life itself is tiring, let alone everything else on top of that.


Rant over.


Besos ♥
Rachel 

Christkindelmarkt & more on Daniel Sloss

Hellooo :)

So, today about half of the college year went to Leeds. Myself, Eliza, Keyana and Katie made up a small part of that half. In a nutshell, Eliza bought a dead fish hat, Keyana bought a cannabis incense stick, Katie nearly froze to death and I didn't do anything funny or sad. Enjoy a few photos...

Eliza hiding behind her candy floss...

Eliza and the dead fish hat. We did about 7 laps of the market while she made her mind up about that, and she didn't take it off all the way home

I still don't know if they were *really* pancakes, but they were nice

"Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere"

We saw Aiden in the bus station (Hi, Aiden!) and I made him take a picture of us. I'm not sure if Eliza was talking, yawning, or being deliberately dim

Right, more on Daniel Sloss. Not much, as I need sleep, but a little more. Firstly, the venue was quite small - though easily the best venue I've been to for comedy yet. You could see the whole audience quite easily and it seems to be true that comedy works best in an intimate venue. We knew who 'stoner man' was by the end of the night. That doesn't generally happen in an arena. Equally, we all witnessed one man spit on another for no reason. You don't get that in an arena either. Secondly, I've never been at a show where the main act invites the whole audience for hugs after the show ends...except for last night. And yes, we did go for hugs, and our group hug was great, thanks ;) I also owe Poppy a response to her battle rap (see yesterday's post), so you can watch for that and it'll complete my story of last night.

Now, that was terrible blogging, but I'm tired, so goodnight.

Besos ♥
Rachel 
 

If you're losing an argument, just battle rap...

I've just got in from seeing Daniel Sloss live in Sheffield with my good friend and comedy twin, Poppy. It was brilliant. In fact, today as whole has been brilliant, but tonight was definitely the best bit :)

To quote myself, taken from Facebook, "Brilliant day laughing at odd strangers in the LRC, spilling coffee all over the field (again), laughing at Cory's Swedish accent, ranting on the way home and finally meeting Daniel Sloss and Kai Humphries with Poppy-Jay...even if she is now battle rapping at me..." 


If I'm being honest, I hadn't heard all that much from Daniel Sloss before, and I hadn't heard anything from Kai Humphries, but the gig was fantastic and I now have two new comedians to stalk follow. I'll write more tomorrow as I'm out all day with friends and will have plenty to say, but in the meantime, here's a picture taken on my phone, and one I stole from Poppy as mine was so terrible...

Hey there, demon eyes...

We were doing the standard ''ohhh, which camera do we look at?!'' laugh, obviously too cool ;)

And just a last photo of Poppy and I - these are obviously our ''we just met two awesome comedians'' faces :)

Thanks must go to Poppy for the free ticket <3 Laughter therapy is the most wonderful sort of therapy I know of and it was awesome to catch up with my CT (that's Comedy Twin, for anybody who isn't myself or Poppy). Love ya, CT! (even if you are a hummussexual...) :)


Besos ♥
Rachel 

They hoped, and hoped, and they said you would break

It's weird when something upsetting happens. I tend to go through stages...
1) The event consumes everything
2) I freak out about everything
3) I try to forget about everything even vaguely related to anything that has happened
4) I just feel permanently broken
I'm currently in stage four, and life is just hard.

For a while, I didn't write about it, I felt like I couldn't write about it. The unwritten rules of society stopped me writing about it. Well, those and my conscience. But by not writing about it, I never had the chance to address it - and when you're never able to address something, holding it in becomes quite tiresome. 

Why am I writing this now? Well, the tale starts way back, but for argument's sake, it started at about 4:05pm today, when my Spanish teacher asked if I was alright. I'm sure you can all related when I say that I knew I'd break down if somebody asked if I was OK. It seems to be (unfortunately) quite a common occurrance. I think I did a fairly decent job of holding myself together (that means I only cried a little). She spent a few minutes explaining to me that when you ''hold things inside, they only stay inside''. I understood what she meant. I've heard it for seven years now, every single time I've been upset. Except for last year, because the person who always said it was suddenly no longer there every day and rarely there at all. It was so strange hearing those words again. It didn't matter who was saying them. They could have whispered, they could have shouted, it didn't make a difference. I heard them.

And even though I heard them, I'm still exactly where I was before they were even said. Why? Because there's still nobody there. It's all well and good to know you need to talk to someone, but what about when there's nobody there? No teachers, no family, no friends, nobody who will sit with you and just listen. 

In the meantime, everything is also just bad. Christmas is coming and I no longer even care about it. I'd almost rather be at college because we're behind in Psychology and it feels like time is running out. It's as if I'm living every single day waiting for the last grain of sand to drop through into the bottom of the hourglass. I don't feel like I'm living life by my own time. 

I wish I could continue writing and try to make all of that make sense, but I have three essays to do and two books to read. I don't have time. 

Besos ♥
Rachel 

E' questo amore che ho per te

This week I've been driving a fair amount. I've been driving a lot recently. Fern and I divide up the journeys to college and on the mornings when I pick her up, I usually have enough time to listen to Oceano by Josh Groban while I'm on my way. It has quickly become one of my favourite songs.

Jess and I took a trip out to Starbucks on Tuesday, we played Josh Groban songs on my phone, picked up nice coffees (Caramel Macchiato, lovely) and then played the same songs all the way back to college. It was also a year since his album, Illuminations, was released.

This week also means it's been a year since I organised college's Children in Need activities with Chloe. So it's been a year since this...

Gosh, how much have we changed?! It's Chloe's 18th party tomorrow night, it was her birthday yesterday. We spent lunchtime standing on the Anti-Bullying Week stall in the common room. She was my form buddy and now she's my Psychology and SOS buddy. She was one of the first people to speak to me in tutor last year and I'm so thankful for the friendship we forged through that. I hope she has a wonderful party <3


Lastly, look who's been decorating ;) Do you like it? :)


Besos ♥
Rachel

Allow me to be a little shallow... (nail polish review)

...but this is going to be a post about nail polish. It doesn't get any deeper than that today.

Because today, folks, I am dipping my toes slightly into the waters of beauty blogging. I'm not likely to leave them in there long, but you know, it's always good to try something new. 

This evening I've been talking (a lot) to my friend, Jess, about nail polishes. Her sister saw the above picture, I think on Tumblr, and she asked me about them. Well, I ended up searching for the glittery polish you can see online for her sister, and found no reviews of it anywhere - a fact that made me a little sad, because it's a beautiful polish ;)

Now, I'm pleased to report that the polish(es) in question could be yours, but not so pleased to report that only if you purchase £40 worth of Nails Inc products first. If you're thinking ''ouch!'', I sympathise. My mum bought me a set of 15 mini polishes for Christmas and the lady at the counter said we could get a free gift if we bought another product. Well, I spotted the beautiful glittery polish in the free gift set and decided that purchasing another polish would be worth it if only for the glittery one. I was right, but we'll get onto that later ;)

I chose the limited edition 'Old Bond Street' (the larger polish in the picture) because 1) it was limited edition and 2) I've had a thing for multicoloured polishes like this one recently. It is a lovely colour and there's certainly plenty of it. It's a combination of greys, beiges and purples. It shouldn't look good, but it does.

So, that sorted, I moved onto the free gift set. There were two choices of boxes - the pink one (which I chose) and a purple (I believe, don't quote me on it though). Both contained a hand cream - which my mum reports is lovely and she wants to go back ASAP for one herself - and a nail file, but more importantly, three small polishes.

The pink set includes: Edinburgh Gate (glitter), Leicester Square (purple), Burlington Arcade (pink). In the picture at the top, I used Leicester Square with Edinburgh Gate on my ring finger and rhinestones to add to the glitter :) The good news is that these polishes LAST. The above nails lasted for a week without chipping, and only chipped when I started moving tables about in the common room at college for an Amnesty campaign we ran.

What I'm trying to say here is that if you're likely to be heading to a Nails Inc concession anytime soon, and have the money or craziness to spend £40 or more on polishes, definitely watch out for this. I already have my eye on at least two more polishes that I'd like to try. 


And, it looks like it's available online too folks (http://www.nailsinc.com/nailpolish/your-free-gift-when-you-spend-40-on-2-or-more-products/976/). Even if you don't want it yourself, it'd make a great gift for a fellow polish-lover :) The only downside is that I seem to have fallen in love with Edinburgh Gate, but alas, it is not available to purchase independently of the free gift set :( I'm on the look out for a good alternative, so will let you all know if I find one. Deborah Lippmann's 'Happy Birthday' is a pricey but similar polish, I may do some investigating... ;)

What are your favourite Nails Inc polishes? :)

Besos ♥
Rachel

Caminaría en la infinidad

Before I get started on what I really have to say, that title has nothing to do with anything I'm writing about. I just like the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHgBcthsblY) and couldn't think of a title.

Now...

It's fair to say that lately, I've been distancing myself from a lot of thing - from my friends, from my family, from anything online, from my college work a little too. Why? I honestly couldn't tell you. I suppose when you're going through something difficult, things like that tend to happen, though. Thinking about it, I was sick of explaining the same stories to everybody every time I saw them, I was tired of feeling like I had a duty to keep everybody updated on every single aspect of my life at the time. Especially when they can't do anything to help you with the things that are causing you trouble. 

So, this week I've slowly been building back up to shortening that distance a little. I've been almost living in the language lab to get back up to speed with all the college work I missed without being able to access a computer at home. I also went and sat with the usual crowd in G block for a while today. And I've realised one vital thing: distance can be a good thing.


Why? People get agitated and bored of the same people and the same conversations every day of their lives. You then start misreading their body language, the looks they give you, the words they choose, as all being that they're unhappy with you. But when there's a bit of distance between you every now and then, you actually find you have things to talk about - it's not just dragging yourself over the same point again and again until there's nothing left to say. And certainly for me, creating a bit of distance between me and my friends has helped. I still know what's going on with people, but I haven't found myself completely wrapped up in what they're all doing, because I'm not really ever there to witness anything. And equally, I'm getting my work done and coming home with nothing to do. I'm not saying there's no downside, but it can work to your advantage. 


Even more equally, the fact that my laptop decided that functioning was no longer its favourite task has worked to my advantage. The distance that was placed between me and social networking has meant that again, I haven't found myself wrapped up in what everybody else is doing. I haven't had a moment recently where I've caught myself ranting about pointless Facebook statuses or what A said to B. Don't get me wrong, I've also spent a large amount of time making virtual pizzas on an iPhone app I have, but it's not like I've spent even more time telling people about it (until now, but this doesn't count). 


So yes, today's lesson has been that distance can work, and it can work well too. I'm slowly sorting out my headspace and everything else on top of that, but I'm not sure I could be doing that if everything was just as intense as it was before...


Besos ♥
Rachel