Friday 12 August 2011

Living For The Moment

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In recent months I've been surprising myself. I'm pretty wimpy at the best of times. Within 7 days of each other I witnessed three road traffic collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists. All three times I went into shock. I hate blood and needles, so you can imagine how it went last summer when I had my first ever blood test. In February I was taken to a motorbike dealer to look at bikes. Although they are impressive they look so big and powerful. My friend wanted me to sit on the back of a bike with him to get a feel for it. It took him ages to coax me on, and it was just an alien feeling. I felt so high up, so vulnerable and struggled to get back off, blame my short legs! 


Along came July and he'd got a bike. 


And I was expected to go on it.  


The day rolled around. He was collecting me from work, and I spent the day split between excited and scared. I made him promise he wouldn't go fast! I was strapped into the helmet and got onto the back of the bike. As he took off my hands were so tight around him, I couldn't actually believe I'd been so scared to just sit on a bike a few months previous and now I was on the road!!! 


By the end of my first ride I was so giddy with the adrenaline rushing around my body. I was so happy I'd just done it. After that I couldn't wait to get back on. My friend had a complaint his ribs hurt as I'd held on so tight the first time but actually I was an easy rider. It felt only natural to lean into the corners with him and I quickly relaxed about holding on. He'd always told me I'd love it. 


I've been on the bike countless times now and would say, like he told me, I do love it. What a turn around for the books! You get such a rush from riding and its made me really want to gain my own bikers license to ride. I got my drivers license nearly four years ago now and found it pretty easy. On my first lesson my instructor was surprised it was my first time driving! I sailed my theory test and passed my practical first time. I had the most senior examiner at my test centre so I wasn't hopeful. After the test he started with 
"I'm sorry to tell you..." I'm sitting behind the wheel, feeling deflated as I was pretty sure I'd failed. I'd been hesitant at my first big busy roundabout. I'd gone too fast over some speed bumps (he'd asked me a question so distracted me). I got stuck behind a tractor and when the lanes split I took a risk on a roundabout when I couldn't see (the tractor was in the way).
"...that you won't need to take your test again" I was so convinced I'd failed it took a few moments for it to hit me what he had actually said! 


I ride with my visor right down as I hate wind! I still go to itch my nose or move my hair and shake my head every time my fingers hit the visor. I must look such an idiot if anyone sees me! And I didn't realise how observant you have to be of everything when you ride. Its a completely different ball game to driving. The risks of a driver not seeing you, pulling out, cutting you up etc are magnified greatly. We've taken a very fast bike out for a test drive too. Our top speed was 110mph, even though it was capable of much higher speeds. 


Next on my list is my tattoo. I've wanted one for as long as I can remember but was never brave enough! I wasn't sure what I wanted or where. I've finally worked it all out I just need to crack on with getting them done so long as my first isn't horrendous. It was very important to me that I didn't get one that I would regret as its a lot of hassle to get removed. I will let you know how I get on! 


I've been left absolutely horrified at the events in England this past week. I never, ever thought I would see any of it here. It was like a nightmare watching the live feeds. London is one of my favourite cities and it broke my heart to see it like that. I have taken for granted how safe I feel living here and I didn't realise that until I felt scared. There are people that live every single day in fear.


Life will go the way it's meant to and I believe fate will always lead me the right way. I always get told I'm such a positive and happy person but I don't see the point in being any other way. My favourite thing is to smile at someone. It is so rare for someone not to smile back :) I found some images on weheartit and wanted to share. 


You only get one life, so live it x


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And my favourite place: the beach :)
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Thursday 4 August 2011

Fruit & Butterflies

I originally saw the lemon dress from primark while flicking through a magazine at work. It said it was going to be released 9th May. Since when did primark clothes have release dates?! Anyway, I checked my local store continually throughout May but never saw the lemon dress. I so wanted one! About mid june I found this
I loved the contrast of the black against the oranges and lemons. At just £9 too. I've worn this out and got so many compliments, it is so striking! Whilst in London I made the trip to Oxford Street's primark. That store really is one of a kind! Anyway I knew what I was looking for and I found it!!!
There was only a couple on the rail and the second I started looking for my size another girl started nudging me out of the way to get one! Always the way in primark, you see something you have to own and as soon as your hand falls on it another person starts pulling at it too. Drives me mad! I ended up in a battle with a woman in my store the other day as I was flicking through hangers on the right and she was flicking on the left! Honestly why are people so impatient, we weren't anywhere near the same size so I don't know why she couldn't wait for me to finish! Back to the lemon dress...unfortunately I couldn't get my size I had to get the next size up but I can adjust it. I wanted it so bad! I found my size abandoned further round the shop but it had a massive rip in it.
This is another of my fruity dresses. Amazingly its from george at asda! So pretty!
I finally found this butterfly top in a new look in london. I was browsing the sale section and soon as I spotted this I was looking at the sizes. Although its a bigger size than I wanted because its floaty it won't be noticeable. This is the black version of the butterfly top I blogged about in a previous post. I like this version more as the butterflies stand out more on the top. So happy I finally got one! :)

NOTD: Go

This blog post name is inspired by a track I can't stop listening to this week. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YelL9baa6YA


Onto the nails! I keep seeing girls with the ring finger manicure, where they do something different on just their ring finger. Although I like it, it's a little boring for me. For the past few months I've been doing my nails in all manner of various designs, colour themes and rainbow variations. I really wanted to wear the ring manicure but decided the colour I'd have on my ring finger I'd also put on my thumb. 


np290 - spring green np279 - bright pink

My Saviour

This post is about something I literally cannot live without especially after it proved my saviour whilst away from home.

Two summers ago I was seeing a boy who always got bitten. I’d never known anybody to get bitten so much, and his were everywhere particularly on his face. It drove him crazy, and then I started getting bitten! He told me the worst thing I could do was itch them, but try not itching them! Most of the time I don’t realise I’ve been bitten until I itch it! I tracked down an old tube of germolene under my kitchen sink and carried it everywhere. It eased the itchiness of the bite and soon became my go to product for everything from paper cuts (so painful!) to dry skin. Soon I’d used all of the old tube and immediately bought another.

In early July I noticed that my lips felt dry, tight and uncomfortable. It seemed unusual as I regularly use lip balm. I hate the feeling of dry lips, and have been told on several occasions I have a lip balm addiction. On closer inspection my top lip in particular looked tight and not as plump as usual. I carried on using my lip balms and hoped it would go away soon. I went out for lunch and took a different lip balm with me: cherry lip smackers. I’d used lip smackers as a young teen, and when primark started selling them I soon accumulated several. I told my friend at lunch about my lips because after we’d eaten they felt so uncomfortable. I used Vaseline to soothe them and thought no more of it. Later on she left me to catch an irregular bus and I’d seen something in new looks sale. It’s a pain they don’t refund sale items now so I didn’t want to buy it unless I knew it fit and suited me. So I went back and afterwards made use of the mirror to check my make up. I used the cherry lipsmacker as my lips felt dry. As soon as I applied it a burning sensation spread over my lips. It was so unbearable I looked at them in the mirror and they were bright red and looked swollen. I wiped off as much as I could and used Vaseline.

For the following week they remained tight and uncomfortable so I switched to the green aloe vera Vaseline (I’m a blue tin girl) thinking the aloe vera would be extra moisturising. I was going to London a week after the new look cherry lip smacker incident and was anxious about my lips. I packed every variety of lip balm I own and a few lipsticks. Of course I packed my germolene. I knew I’d probably cut myself or gain an injury somewhere in the days I was there plus it weighed nothing!

My first day in London was Thursday and I reapplied green Vaseline every so often even if I didn’t need to as I didn’t want my lips to dry out. By half two my lips were burning again. I asked how they looked and was told they were blistering. I almost burst into tears at this moment. The thought of my lips blistering was intolerable not to mention painful and unsightly. Getting my mirror out I was horrified at the state of my lips even under all the green Vaseline I could see just how bad they had got. We were in a tourist shop on Oxford Street and even though I knew there was a Boots I didn’t know where exactly and how long it might take to get there. I remembered my germolene and decided to risk using that on my lips. Removing the Vaseline I rubbed some on and hoped for the best.

Shopping helped to distract me and I knew the local  anaesthetic would numb the pain in my lips. It’s pretty weird having germolene on your lips. It goes on as a white cream but dries clear and lasts for hours. I only reapplied a few times a day, and it lasted through food and drink and the night. Before long my lips had calmed down and the blisters disappeared. When I got back from the hotel Thursday evening I removed all of the lipsticks and lip balms from my bag except my blue nivea stick. I use it at work and even though I knew I probably wouldn’t use it I didn’t want to be without any form of lip balm. 

I used germolene on my lips the entire time I was in London. I tweeted how sexy I looked going out wearing it one night to make myself smile. The week after I came back from London my tongue was really tender and sore. I couldn’t eat anything strongly flavoured and my tongue felt as if I’d burnt it really bad. It’s almost like it spread from my lips to my tongue. I’ve since come to the conclusion it could be one of two things:

The piriton syrup sticks to my lips so I lick them. Last year they changed the packaging but I didn’t notice until this year when I used the last of last summers bottle and got this one out. However I just assumed they’d revamped the packaging. Companies do it every so often and I didn’t even think the ingredients could have changed. Even though I had used lip smackers when I was younger again it could be different ingredients these days. These are the only two products I can think it could be unless there was something wrong with my lips which seem unlikely. I have not used either product until this week. I have used the medicine once, on Tuesday and I made sure none of it touched my lips. I accidentally used the cola lip smackers Friday night as I was in bed on the phone and my lips were dry. On Saturday my lips were uncomfortable so it seems it is the lip smackers that don’t agree with my lips.

Let me know if you have experienced anything like this. I really can not praise the magic of germolene enough. If I hadn’t had that I would have bought more antihistamine medicine which probably would have aggravated the problem further! I don’t think I will ever not have a tube in my bag now!

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