Christmas 2016 part 1

December was a generally busy month for me we held our Elektra awards at work again and then on the 8th we had our Christmas party. I wasn't going to mention this BUT not only did I have a fantastic night (I drank and danced way too much) but I won an award of 'Designer of the Year'. I was very happy to win that. It meant a lot to me as I have worked hard on a lot of projects this year and I was super excited and touched I won. 

It was great to have a fab night out with the people I work with, many of them I would consider friends too so that was a lot of fun. I also won a nice gift card with my award and treated myself to a coffee machine and a TV for our bedroom hurrah! 

Christmas as per usual came round super quickly and I packed up work on Wednesday 21st December so I had a lovely long break ahead of me. Thursday we cleaned the flat and had a friend round. Then on the Friday Matt and I had tickets to see Kiki's Delivery Service live in London. 

As travel cards to London aren't cheap for us now we live outside of London we made the day of it and went up to Winter Wonderland to get us into the full Christmas spirit. It was nice to look around and we had dinner afterwards and of course popped into Forbidden Planet for a little shopping spree. 3 for 2 on their manga who could say no huh? 

Kiki's Delivery Service was absolutely amazing. It was quite different from the film as it was just over an hour long, but that wasn't a bad thing at all. There was also only 6 actors but it was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! It was a really simple small space, but they were so creative with it and imaginative too. I loved all the imaginative ways they made it look like Kiki was flying! It was funny too, like really funny is some parts.

The acting was phenomenal and in all honesty I really wanted to watch it again, it is a same it had such a short run. If they do anything like that again in the future I will be straight up to London to see it!! That was a really lovely day out to start off the Christmas break and I throughly enjoyed it! 

No Man's Land and day trip to London

This autumn I have a lot of things planned. October is going to be crazy busy with the NFL, DST, Nottingham, The Libertine and MCM every weekend is jam packed with things to do! It is exciting times and also scary times for my bank account eep.

However to kick it all off I had booked tickets to see No Man's Land up in London. A chance to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen perform together live was too good an opportunity to miss out on so we booked tickets back at the beginning of the year.

I had to get a travel card and as they aren't particularly cheap from where I live now I decided to make a whole day of it. We got up early and headed to Toby Carvey to have a breakfast buffet. Afterwards we headed up to London and went straight to Camden to have a good look around. As soon as we got there the heavens opened up and didn't stop all day!

I haven't been up there in a while and I wanted to have a look as there is lots of clothes and trinkets that I love in Camden. Matt got himself a lovely new Pokemon T-Shirt and I got a cardigan ridiculously cheap in the sale in Collectif.

Camden croughnut 

Afterwards we went straight to the theater for the 2:30pm showing. Ian McKellen was running half an hour late but it was lovely to spend time inside a beautiful venue and also to be out of the rain and wind. The show was amazing and I really enjoyed it. The chemistry between the two actors was as good as I imagined it to be. I was left with lots of questions and a bit 'bamboozled' by the play at the end, but from what I can tell you take away what you want from it.

The characters were great and they were really funny too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it if you have chance to see it while it is on in London. The whole play is just 4 people in one room but its still feels like a grand play and is interesting thought provoking all the way through.

Afterwards we headed to the nerd haven the Forbidden Planet Mega Store, where we took full advantage of their 3 for 2 on their manga and I also got a Captain Jack Harkeness POP Funko too!

Mini Haul

We finished the evening with a Wagamamas and got home around 10pm. I have a lovely day despite the pouring rain and wind.

I am really looking forward to lots of days out in October, things have been pretty quiet over the summer so I can't wait for lots more trips and days out with Matt!

Video Games Live London date night.

Matt and I had a lovely date night/night out on Sunday; we booked tickets for Video Games Live back in 2015 as the it was less than a week after Matt’s birthday and our anniversary, so we thought we could make a nice evening of it.

We attended Video Games Live back in 2007 and had a such a good time we wanted to go the following year but unfortunately it took a few more years for them to play the UK again and it had slipped our mind a bit and we forgot about it. So I was delighted to see them playing around Matt’s birthday what better excuse to buy tickets?

I picked out my new Emily and Finn dress paired with my new Brogues, I really liked this outfit. It was still a pretty chilly outside so I paired it with my new leather jacket, scarf and gloves and luckily it kept me plenty warm! 

We picked the evening show, which now knowing what time it ended I wish I had picked the matinee as I didn’t get home till almost 1am, oops. So we headed to London  and went for a delicious Pizza Express meal in Wapping. This restaurant was sort of hidden away and had small half circle windows, the building had high ceilings filled with wooden beams and a revolving door to get in, it was really unusual and beautiful.

It was so quiet in there that we were the only customers at one point. Our food came quickly and tasted amazing! We then headed to the show which was a 20 minute walk away, but it was a really pleasant evening and I enjoyed looking at the city center from the water edge.

We arrived too early about 6:40pm and the doors opened at 7pm. It was warmer than I expected thank goodness and at 7pm we went in and took our seats. The show didn't start until 8:30pm so we enjoyed just sitting and chatting for a while. The time flew by and I managed to talk Matt into taking a selfie with me. He is a handsome chap *swoon*

The show started promptly and it was fantastic, although I have little interest in games I thoroughly enjoyed the music. A live orchestra is just beautiful what ever they are playing, the music is passionate and dramatic. Yet at other times it is so soft and beautiful moves you emotionally. The visuals they put with it make it fun too, makes me feel at home watching Matt play his games for hours at home.

They had a few world premiers and special guest that were great and they were presented with two Guinness World records too! 

The time speed past and it ended at 11pm, I wasn't expecting it to end that late as I said above and we had to make a dash for the train home before we missed the last one! It was a shame as we had to give the meet and greet a miss but it didn't take away from the show at all.

I loved watching the conductor Eimear Noone, she moved in a almost magical way. You could feel the passion and the music through her movements. The Orchestra were brilliant and the Laura Intravia who played multiple instruments and sang was just absolutely phenomenal. Her voice was breath taking and it just flowed from her effortlessly. Everyone involved were insanely talented and I really envy and respect them for what they can do!

I would highly recommend the night to anyone thinking of going. 

We then took a walk back the way we came and I snapped a shoot of the river at night and pondered how lucky I am to live a stones throw away from the center of London. Although I get frustrated with this city at times, I also feel very lucky to have grown up here and live so close. 

So I got back much later than planned so suffering slightly on Monday, but it was SO WORTH it!

I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend and please let me know if you have been to any Video Games Live shows!

Long bank holiday weekend!

So we have a date the 13^th June. I got an email through a week ago today that it would be available from the 11^th June. We were hoping to get in on the 12^th, I had planned on taking a half day and heading off to pick up and Matt and get the keys. Alas they are unable to do it then, so 9am Saturday 13^th June (which my grandma will be happy about as she keeps telling me it is unlucky to move on a Friday) is when we will move!

This weekend I had 5 days off in total. I had booked some time off as we were going to a gig in London on the Wednesday, but we started really packing and getting bits for the moved. I spent a fair amount of money this weekend on bedside tables, washing basket, iron, pans etc… all the bits I could think you need to have. I got some pretty good deals too. I didn’t realise how much work it takes to move. I think 9 years of us living in one tiny room means we have crammed so much stuff into every nock and cranny that was in there… We have thrown over 10 bin bags of stuff away. I think I took about 8 bin bags to the dump this weekend, including two big A3 printers. It’s such a shame to see a lot of this stuff go, but I of the attitude at the moment of if you can’t think of a time you will use it, then it goes.

We have filled my Grandma’s garage and its spilling into her spare rooms’ haha! It will only be for 2 more weeks. I can’t believe it is this close I am so excited, however at the same time I seems so bloody far away.

Other than packing and more packing and generally being exhausted and eating ice cream everyday… I had two nice days.

The first was Saturday and a trip to Brighton with my Grandma! We got some bits she wanted and did a bit of shopping, had fish and chips and an ice cream by the beach and we took her first selfie haha!

Wednesday was the day I was really looking forward to. After all the hard work of packing I was looking forward to a day of relaxing. We headed off to London about midday. I had my new dress on and felt very swish and summery. The weather was stunning and to make the most of my travel card we went to forever 21 first to return something and then the natural history museum. We did the dinosaurs which was very cool and headed off for dinner at Pizza Express. That was a lovely meal I really enjoyed that..

The gig started at 7:30pm at 100 Club on Oxford Street. It was a tiny venue but really nice, had a nice atmosphere. The support band was…. Let’s just say not to my taste at all. Astronautalis came on about 9pm and he was fantastic. The reason I started to listening to him was because of his stage presence when he supported Tegan and Sara and he hasn’t lost any of that. I didn’t know many songs as I have a few favourites I tend to stick to, but it’s made me want to listen and get to know more now!

It was my first gig with Matt for YEARS! And I really enjoyed it.

Now I cannot wait to for the next two weeks to come and go. I imagine it will go quickly this whole year has done so far! Fingers crossed all goes well.

Happy Thursday all…. And have a fab weekend. 

Training in London!

So this week I was off up to London to do something HTML 5 training. My company sent me up on a 2 day course. I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to it, I think it is the traveling and all the kafuffle that goes along with going to London. However over the weekend I realised it was something I enjoy doing, 2 days out the office and the weather was meant to be lovely so I changed my mind a bit.

On the first day I made the earlier train and I got to the place 40minutes early. I managed to pick up a coffee at Victoria and spill half of it down my sleeve… not impressed. It was a pretty run down building when I got there… I was a little disappointed as I thought a training centre in Kings Cross would be quite fancy and modern…. I went in and up to the 4^th floor and was pleasantly surprised… it was a well light super modern floor…. Lots of glass classrooms it was lovely! I had a coffee and avoid the biscuits and then at 10am we were called inside the room. There were just 5 of us so it was lovely and small. The trainer was a really nice guy and reminded me of a smaller Peter Capaldi. The course was a lot more basic than I thought it was going to be especially on the first morning; however it was good to brush my skills and learn a few new things.

Lunch was at a buffet they had loads of food, curries, pizza, Chinese and salads. I was good on Monday and had a small stir fry and an ice cream.  The afternoon was also enjoyable and picked up a little, and I left at 4:30 in a really positive mood. The sun was shining and I had, had a really enjoyable day.

Now the plan was to be healthy and get an early night Sunday and Monday and do they gym on Tuesday. This did not go to plan. I was in such a good mood on Monday that I decided I wanted burgers for dinner and I took matt over to lakeside as we had a 50% off voucher and we had a HUGE dinner and drinks and it came to £13!! Bargain I say!

So not really an early night at all Monday… then Tuesday I ended up being  an hour early so enjoyed some time in the sunshine and called the bank and headed over to the place…. Again the morning flew by….. Started to do more in-depth things which was good. Got better at small talking with our people and this time at lunch I took full advantage of the buffet and had pizza, noodles and some over bits and pieces and finished it off with a ice cream again.

The afternoon however I started to struggle, my concentration just died and I started to make some silly mistakes and I just wanted to go home. Not sure if it was later than I would have liked evening or the fact that 2 full on days of learning was too much for my brain! Anyhow I passed and we ended up at 4:30 again and I headed off to the station again. The sunshine was beautiful and I was in a pretty good mood even if I was in need of a nap!

Gym didn’t happen… and a KFC and a bag of chocolate appeared instead woops. I do now feel a little guilty. I have 5 weeks now to loose 7lbs! I can do it I just need to focus…

But I wanted to write about it as it was really nice experience and I had a lovely time. One big thing I did learn was I am NOT CUT OUT for the London rush hour commute. It is almost fascinating watching all these people who probably share the same train on a daily basis, all standing alone on their phones or reading and then everyone shuffles off and shuffles off to another queue to shuffle along. I didn’t enjoy the travel to London luckily I finished early enough to miss most the rush hour on the return… and I got on the train home early enough to enjoy a seat all the way :)

Anyhow I am back at work today and missing the idea of walking down a London street and going for lunch (even though I am in Croydon )

I now cannot wait for the weekend. I don’t really have any plans, but we are seeing The Avengers on Saturday so I am looking forward to that. I believe Matt is doing air soft Sunday so might be a quiet lonely day but hey ho…

The weekend just passed I got my Game of Thrones signed calendar back from the framer and it looks AWESOME. 

Me and Matt also took quite a big step and went to our first house viewing on Saturday. We got out the car and I was full of excitement, only to be let down by the fact they changed the times and no one was there and no one told us. I was NOT IMPRESSED at all. What should have been a really exciting experience was actually pretty depressing and a massive let down. BUT HEY HO! There will be more and hopefully they will go well.

I am hoping the rest of this week flies by and goes quickly because I am exhausted!

Hyper Japan 2014

This weekend has indeed been a busy one! I will start briefly with a friend of mine Jenna and her fiancé Mike. They opened up their own comic book shop and we went down at on Saturday. It is a really beautiful shop and it was rammed in there! I really hope they do amazing! They had some guest there too and I got my photo with a Dalek!

Then on Sunday we had tickets for Hyper Japan. We’ve never been before and talked about going last year but didn’t. This year however Matt has really gotten in to Japanese stuff and Manga and Anime, so we went. It was only £24 for 2 day tickets which I thought was pretty cheap. For all the other conventions I go to, I know to get there as early as possible as the queues can wrap around the building so we planned to get there for 8:30ish and the doors opened at 9:30.

I got up at 6am!! Which is a crazy time for a Sunday morning and got ready. We didn’t actually have to leave until 7:15 at the latest but I ended up being ready by about 6:30am oops. After being late for comic con I took no chances but I was ill then so I think they had a big part to play in my lateness.

We stopped of course at Clapham for our pretzel and got to the venue for 8:30am. The queue however was tiny!! I think next time we can get up a little later and get there for about 9:30-10am!

We got in pretty much bang on 9:30, they had a much better system than LFCC and it was much smoother. The hall was fab there were many stalls but there was tones of room to walk in-between them. The first thing I spotted upon entering was TOTORO! So I ran over like an excited school girl and got my photo taken with him!

We then ended up going to 3 talks in a row. The first was a little strange and was a Secret Ninja, the next was a pretty cool robot talk and then the third was a software called Vocaloid which meant they could make music with human voices with humans! They mixed this with a traditional puppet performance and previewed an exclusive 30minute film using it. I will admit I did not know what was going on but it was really cool!

We then literally ran for food as we were so hungry! We had NO IDEA what we were ordering and joined a queue that were selling noodles as we knew what noodles were! We picked noodles that came with dough ball things and prawns. I have to admit that the price was pretty steep for the amount you got £14 for two. Then it didn’t help that we did not like the noodles very much at all, but we were so hungry we ate it all!

Next we just went round and had a look at all the stalls. I have to say I was a little disappointed (although don’t take that as it made the day any less enjoyable!) there weren’t as many stalls as I thought and not that may manga stalls for Matt. I thought it would be a little more like comic con stalls. They had lots of individual sellers too but the stuff was very ‘cute’ and pink and a little too cute for my taste!

However I did have a great time, and the atmosphere was great and we stayed from 9:30 till 5pm and the time flew by!  I also got some pictures with other cute characters! No for a picture spam!!

Domo came out to say hi! and had a photo opportunity which of course I got excited over

This Panda was sooo cute and I wanted to take him home. 

You can see how excited I was by him haha!

I wore my space dress (it actually fits perfectly now) 

I got Matt to snap a picture of it!

Me and Matt waiting for the talks to start!

I had a great day out and I think will go again next year. I think MCM is going to be the bigger one for us this autumn for Matt to get his Manga stuff, but I would say it is definitely worth going to Hyper Japan! There were a lot of traditional culture bits than I thought and I really enjoyed that too! There were also some BEAUTIFUL cosplayers… less than I thought but there were some amazing dresses and wigs!

We were home by 6pm and got a Dominos on the way home which was a bargain (any size £6.99) and that was just delicious! Now much to my dismay it’s Monday and now I have a quiet August

Nothing much now until September/October!

27^th September is Euro Gamer 29^th September off to France 18^th October is LFCC Winter and 25^th October is MCM! So that is a busy month to look forward to!

Hope this week goes quickly so I can sleep all weekend as today I am KNACKERED!

Birthday Girl Birthday Weekend!

So as I now write this I am a grand age of 25! I have just had a 4 day weekend and to be honest has been amazing. It makes coming back to work really really hard. I only have to do three days but it seems soo long especially when Matt has the WHOLE DAMN week off.

So where should I start. I will start with Saturday and Sunday I guess. Saturday was slow I saw Gemma for a bit, I actually can’t remember what else I did. Oooh I popped to the Valley to get a couple of bits, but just chilled out for most the day.

Sunday was the first big awesome day. I woke up around 6am! This almost killed me, but I got up and curled my hair really nicely and did my makeup packed some ridiculously massive bag with a spare coat and all sorts and we headed off at just gone 7am. McDonald's breakfast was the first stop and I got one meal and a snack wrap cause HEY IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND :p couldn't actually eat it all. Then we arrived in London at the Olympia around 8:15am and parked up and joined the queue. It was pretty small to be honest and never really got too much bigger not compared to the summer anyway.

We went straight in around 9am and got two talk tickets that cost £40 eep. And then walked around the stalls twice as it was just sooo empty and quiet. We went and sat in the car as it hit me how tired I was and actually fell asleep for an hour. We then went back in to the talk with Michael Shanks and Suanne Braun and Michael’s wife joined in too which was great as I love her in SG1 and Andromeda. I have to say the talk didn't flow as well as past talks and there wasn't enough SG1 mention for my liking but it was enjoyable. Just wish I hadn't sat behind the really tall guy. Boo.

We ate Lunch in the car and did some more browsing. Matt wanted me to pick out thinks for my birthday which I did although the stalls were fewer and not as good as the summer so I didn't find that much stuff alas. 

I spent about an hour debating if I should get an autograph from Virginia Hey, and I’m glad I worked up the courage as she was the nicest lady ever! She was so chatty and happy and told me I had a beautiful name :D

Then I had Michael's photo shoot at 3:30pm and swooned a little. His Accent and how nice he was to me and then I hip bumped him when they took the photo all made me smile WAY TOO HARD eheheh! Not a fan of me in the photo but I think it is nice and natural!

I picked out a few bits during the day and we also grabbed tickets to the Star Trek talk that was free. That ended up being really awesome! Had two actors from Deep Space 9 and Voyager. The drive home was pretty horrible loads and loads of traffic but we got back and ate pizza and watched Star Trek!

Much to my dismay I forgot my camera and I didn't really take any pictures which really was a real shame! I will make sure to take some next time!

Monday was a lovely day. Just got up when I woke up and went into Croydon which was nice as it was soo quiet in there. Got a few bits I needed and Matt got me a lovely jumper for my Birthday to add to the pile of gifts he had bought me! We got home and I showered and chilled out and then got ready and went out for dinner with my Mum Dad and Sister. It was really lovely and the food was delicious.!

I got home stuffed to the rim and begun the countdown to midnight so I could open my gifts hahah! 

So midnight came and I got to open all my gifts! I've shown a few on here already. I ended up with 4 jumpers….

Polar Bear one (from Matt) – H! by Henry Holland

Polka dot (from Sister)– Forever 21

Squirrel and fox ones (from my Grandma) – New Look  

I got a dino from Matt and the pop figures as well as the tree necklace and snowflake necklace. We got them from Comic Con.

Sarah got me the air fresher and gloves and socks and Laura got me the other necklaces, note book and light coloured scarf. My aunt also got me the peter pan necklaces which I FREAKING LOVE! They looked soo good on with some of my jumpers!

I also got a beautiful coat from my mum and dad too but I haven’t taken a picture of it yet! It’s a Hell Bunny Millie coat I think I mentioned it in a previous post.

Then on Tuesday I got up early again and began my loooong 2-3 hour drive to Longleat safari park.

We were greedy again and stopped for Maccy D Breakfast again oops! Then carried on our journey, the M25 was horrible and very stop start but after that it was a clear run, a very long run but clear, took almost 3 hours in the end! We stopped off and then went straight into the Safari bit.

It was great and I really really enjoyed it. There was a lion that walked in front of my car and big animals you usually have to look through bars and windows to see were right next to my car. It was great soo much fun and amazing to see these animals so close. The Monkey bit though I did not enjoy I watched them peel the rubber off the car in front and snap the Ariel! Eeep I got out of there ASAP! 

The next bit was then a walk around zoo bit, but it was all so interactive. We got to walk with actual penguins and through lots of animal bits. We walked past a enclosure with birds and a man was in there feeding them and had two on his arm. I was like I WANNA DO THAT MATT. So we got £1 handed it over and got some bird food. I walked in hoping a bird would land on my arm and BAM around 7 just landed on me. They were in my hair and on my back and just everywhere! It was so funny Matt got some pretty good photos of me being mugged by the birds ehehe.

Matt got some beautiful pictures of the animals and I wanted to share a few below. He took over 200 so I just picked 10 of my favorites. 

So now I am back at work and it’s pretty awful. I generally had an amazing 4 days. The weather has been great, Sunday was perfect and it was sunny and dry till about 2pm yesterday and then started to spit around 4pm… but we left around 5 so it was fine.!

Now I have to wait until Christmas for some more time off. I cannot wait until the run up to Christmas; it will forever be my favourite time of the year!

I want to end on a comparison. A body and head shot of myself 1 year apart both a comic con in the same place. I think I have changed a lot :)