Oh hey.

It's, uh, been a while. 

I know this because for some reason, blogger opened on The Cake Brigade. Also because I haven't posted for weeks. 

I have excuses. For multiple reasons, I wasn't feeling October. I was down, it was getting cold and wet and dark, and then I got a cold, and then the cold turned into a cough which has only just gone, so I was pretty much not feeling up to writing daily on how crap I felt.

I did however plan to resume all services for November. Starting with my Nan's 90th birthday. But I didn't get to experience that, let alone blog about it, because half way through Halloween night, a wild virus appeared. It used tummy bug. It was super effective. 

So Friday was spent writhing in agony. Think the cinema incident, but with slightly less vomit. Saturday was spent feeling delicate from the previous day. Sunday was spent suffering from something else. And then there was today. 

I'm feeling better now, hence the post. Well, health wise at any rate. I fear Nano is a NoGo for me this year. 

I tried, got as far as 800 words of the 2000 I was aiming for and lost all interest. Maybe it's because I finished my story and this new one just isn't stuck in my head. Maybe it's because I'm already so behind and I know it can only get harder to catch up. Maybe it's because I know I can't afford myself the luxury of doing something purely for the pleasure of it. Maybe it's because I'm just too lazy.

Probably the latter. We will see, but I don't have high hopes.

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream

A few months ago, you may remember me posting about how I had run out of my Skin79 BB cream. I loved this stuff, but being an asian brand, it wasn't readily available in the UK. So, as a replacement, I settled for a western version, the Garnier Miracle BB cream. I was not impressed.

In response to this, my mother brought me the Missha Perfect Cover and the Etude House Precious Mineral BB creams for my birthday. They were due to arrive in July. They actually arrived on my birthday.

So the first one I tried was the Missha Perfect Cover.  I think it was the first BB cream I ever heard about, probably from Bubzbeauty, and has always been one of the main brands people talk about in BB terms, along with Skin79. I got No.21, which is light beige. It's SPF 42, which is pretty high for a make up product.

My first impression was that it was a lot thicker than the Garnier cream, as well as more of a neutral tone, both of which were huge plus points for me. It blended well, and had good coverage as it neutralised my dark circles enough without concealer, and I didn't feel the need to set with powder although it wasn't a matte finish.. It didn't feel too heavy, and I wasn't aware of the 'lots of product on my skin' sensation you can get with other products. It has a pump applicator as well, which is nice. No amusing english translations though, so that's a shame.

I'm really unsure about whether to include the photo I took, because I look so bog eyed in it. My face is wonky too, but that's just my face. Note to self, look past the camera when doing close up selfies. Maybe I'll take another photo next time I put it on and there is good lighting, and add it in with an edit.

In general, I was really pleased with it. I was concerned that it wouldn't be a good colour match after testing on my hand, but it blends out really well and seems to match my face tone really well. Since trying this out for the first time nearly 2 weeks ago, and with the options of this, the Etude House and Garnier to choose from, this BB cream has been the one I have used most frequently. It's just a shame it takes weeks to arrive, even if it is about the same price with shipping from Hong Kong included as many western brands.

CATCH UP MARATHON

YOSHI!

(That's Japanese. You don't say the 'i'. It basically means RIGHT!)

So, by my count, I'm 8 posts behind. Tonight, I am going to marathon through my catch up posts on the promise to myself that I can't watch another episode of lost until I have finished them all.

I have 5 posts planned out from last time, and this can be another one, so worst case scenario is only 2 posts of pictures of cats.

LETS DO THIS!

HWAITING!
(That's Korean. You say it like 'fighting' with a Korean accent. It's a cheer of support.)


... and that's one down.

MCM

I don't even know where to start with this post. Crazy, absolutely crazy ... and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it.

So Friday started with a very early drive down to London, picking up the creator and her partner and heading to Excel, which is basically to London what the NEC is to Birmingham. After a bit of faffing because we weren't on the normal lists, we managed to get in, find our space and set up our table. It looked pretty good, even if I do say so myself. Then I donned a tshirt, the cast showed up, and finally, the doors opened.

I didn't expect to feel so weird for not being dressed up. I knew there would be cosplayers, and I knew there would be a lot of them, but I didn't know that not being one of them would be so ... abnormal. It was almost like you didn't exist. There was even Tsubasa cosplayers, which was incredible. The costumes were amazing, and I felt utterly ashamed. Some of these people had more talent and had put more effort into their outfits than I have ever done for my costumes.

The Friday seemed crazy at the time, but it was ridiculously quiet compared to Saturday. I left the table maybe once to pee, and I definitely didn't eat. The next day I was supplied with free food from the VIP room early, so I didn't really have an excuse.

I went into sales person mode, and basically took control of the table so that everyone else could go and have a look around every so often. I wasn't bothered that I couldn't, it was far too busy and at least I could have a chair behind the table every so often. I've always been good at selling people into buying stuff, but everyone else seemed shocked. I think they all see me as this quiet, shy girl who takes a while to come out of her shell, and they couldn't understand where I got the confidence from to not only talk to all these random strangers, but to also convince them to give me their money. I don't know either, really. I think its my geminian side, I can just switch to a different personality. Like an actor.

We had 4 people separately come dressed up as characters from the show. That was crazy. People who had paid such close attention to my designs that they wanted to replicate them. They got pretty close too. I'm still just so overwhelmed.

I don't know what else to say. It was so intense, and seeing the fans was incredible. I got referred to by name, and asked to sign autographs. Me. It's crazy.

The Picnic

I had booked my train home with a little lie in on a Sunday morning in mind. But that was not to be. I got kicked out at 7.30 in the morning, with 6 hours to kill until my train. Luckily, I have lovely friends.

So at 9 am, I showed up at my friends house, and I drank tea while she woke up and showered, and then we headed to Regents Park with a picnic and gossiped about everything for hours. It was lovely.

Then we realised it was half an hour until my train and rushed back to pick up my bags and get to the station. I fell asleep on the train and then spent the rest of my afternoon catching up with YouTube, watching TV and eating candy floss and a giant Kinder egg.

And that brings me back up to date.

London-bound

If you had been reading my last few posts, you'll have known I was working on a shoot this weekend, and therefore should not have expected a post. But I don't want to miss out documenting a single day this year, so here I present to you a small series of catch up posts, starting with Friday.

What can I say about Friday other than the fact that it was mostly taken up by packing and getting ready for Saturdays shoot? Before, when I had trained it to London, I had got a virgin train, but this time I went Chiltern. I think I prefer virgin, they just have more space for bags and what have you, and it wasn't so busy. However, virgin was a much slower service, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts. I think I'll check out both in the future and just go with the cheaper option.

Having said that, if I had waiting for just a couple of days before booking my tickets, I could have got a return for 50p, so that sucks.

Sod's law, I guess.

Tuesday Catch Up

Sometimes it's really hard you know.

I was feeling shitty, full of cold and just about fit for a day in front of the TV with a duvet and berrocca on tap. So we went to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory. Sigh.

It was ok. I had to cope with the tube, which was actually fine until it was busy coming home. We did sit in the drivers seat though. We also stood on the meridan line because that seemed to be the thing to do. The observatory itself was kind of interesting, but it wasn't as big as I thought it would be. I guess paying extra to go in the planetarium and see the show thing may have made more of a day of it.

When we got home, having picked up dinner which I then didn't eat, I pretty much crashed. We just watched more Sex and the City, attempted Haywire before giving up and going back to SatC, and then I was cold so got into bed and fell asleep. At about half 10. Like, before midnight.

I know, early right?

Apparently, I made noises while I was sleeping and he had an insomnia attack and was awake and bored (sound familiar?).

Lies.

Monday Catch Up

I'm pretty determined that I will end 2013 with 365 posts. This means that if I miss a day or two, I catch up when I am able to post again.

I went down to London on Monday, and having just got home after spending most of my normal blogging time sleeping, now is the catch up time.

Monday started at school, and I had two really good sessions. I'm trying to span them out now until half term, so then we can start something new to work on until Easter.

One of the good things about heading to London from work is that I'm already a quarter of the way there, so it feels like a super short journey. We watched Sex and the City, which I never have understood all the fuss over, and then went out for snacks, pizza and DVD's.

Just 2 slices of pizza and 2 films later, I started feeling a little iffy. Then I threw up. I hate having a cold.

On the plus side, we did watch Wanderlust, the film about the invisible electric alien things, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. All of which were better than I expected.

Pros of today: good school, boy and films.
Cons of today: vomit.