30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 26 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 26
Name one place you'd love to visit one day

There are tons of places I'd like to visit, but let's be obvious and go with Orlando, Florida!

I just really want to go to the Disney Parks and Universal Studios and the water parks...just gah, I would love that so much! I think I'd love to go at Halloween most, because that's my favourite holiday and America do it so much better than us, but any time would be amazing...AMAZING! Ah!
One day someone will want to go as much as I do and they'll be serious in saving with me :)
Til then...I shall dream <3

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 25 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 25
Tell us about the last book you read



Unfortunately looking up this book cover I came to realise this has actually been made into a film. How depressing...will I ever get to read a book that hasn't been made into a film? Lmao...what a let down *sigh*

Anyway!
Asylum by Patrick McGrath!
Spoilers ahead I suppose

The premise of the novel is that Stella, the wife of a psychiatrist, falls for one of the inmates of the mental institution who is helping to replenish their garden and rebuild their conservatory. Edgar is in there for killing his wife (then cutting off her head, cutting out her eyes and mangling her face with his clay tools). They begin a passionate affair and he ends up escaping from the institution. The staff all suspect that she has been having relations with him and so judge her, and eventually she runs away to join him hiding in a grotty old building in London, leaving her husband and son behind.
Eventually Edgar's psychotic personality starts shining through and he assaults her. She runs away and ends up being caught by police and taken back to her husband.
He decides he wants to make it work, and is shamed in his job, so he moves them to north Wales where he gets another psychiatric job and she can re-cooperate while looking after the house and their son.
She eventually starts falling into a depression, missing Edgar, missing the excitement, and while she loses her grip on sanity it culminates in an awful scene where she watches her son drown, just smoking a fag and staring out to sea. That was really horrible to read.
Anyway, so she is taken back to the original mental institution as an inmate, and the narrator of the book - who is another psychiatrist that works there - is her new confidante and after a while she knows all the right things to say to make him think she's on the mend.
Here's where I started being sceptical with this book...this narrator, Peter, decides that he wants to retire, and asks Stella (after asking her estranged husband) if she would marry him and move away and live out the rest of their lives together. What?! I don't understand that point of view and I think it's a very unrealistic and unprofessional to ask a psychiatric patient that kind of thing. And especially with her track record! (She also - lacking emotion - shagged the farmer that lived next door in North Wales) And especially when I really enjoyed the narrator's emotional yet psychiatric approach to telling her story, it seemed to go against everything. But hey. Who am I to judge lol.
So anyway, life on the ward carries on, and at the yearly ball she gets herself dressed up all nice - which to Peter is a way of showing staff and patients alike that she is not embarrassed by what has happened in the last year, but to Stella is a show of affection for Edgar as she wears the same dress she wore at last years ball - and then afterwards goes back to her room where she's been hiding her pills and kills herself.
In a way I see it as a weak ending, but at the same time it fits her mental state, she was still yearning for Edgar but knew she'd never get to see him again.
Funny thing I suppose, or tragic, is that they had caught Edgar, and he was actually one of Peters patients again in the very same hospital...

I enjoyed this book on the most part. I do not agree that it's 'a tour de force of suspense' as it says on the cover, as I didn't find there to be any 'suspense' in it at all...but I still found it intriguing! As I do with anything psychiatry-involved :)

Sorry I just pretty much told the entire story...not quite sure why I went into that much detail lmao, just did it without thinking! Ah well. So that's Asylum by Patrick McGrath.

Now to try and find the film *sobs*

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 24 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 24
Tell us about the last film you saw in theatres



The last film I saw in theatres was The World's End!
Actually I saw the whole Cornetto Trilogy in the cinema, but The World's End was the midnight premier. And I loved it! I never got around to seeing it again before it left, but I can't WAIT for it to be released in November.



Anyway. I don't want to give anything away to people who haven't seen it. Basically, Simon Pegg's character Gary King hasn't really grown up, and is one of those greasy goth drinkers that never got anywhere in life. He decides to see if he can get his friends from the old days to go back to Newton Haven and complete the 'Golden Mile' - which is the pub crawl through the town, finishing at The World's End. Somehow he manages to convince them all (including Nick Frost's character who has shared a bad experience with Gary in the past) and they return to Newton Haven and start their pub crawl!
All is going well (albeit awkwardly) when they realise that everyone is acting extremely strange, and no one seems to recognise them any more...then it all kicks off and I won't share any more. But I highly recommend seeing it!

I'm torn between 'talking about it because hey, it's my blog', and 'oh no, I don't want to spoil it for people!' but y'know.

What I will say, is that I was really shocked when it all started kicking off, I think I didn't expect such a high budget look, and there is so much choreography in the fighting scenes, and it's just really nicely done. It was so much more than I expected from the film and that makes me extremely happy!

I adore Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and I was not disappointed with the final flick in the Cornetto Trilogy. I can't wait to see it a gazillion times so that I have the same kind of opinion on it as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz so that I can decide which is my ultimate favourite!



And what makes me the most excited about it being released?
A FAT OFF BOX SET!
I hope they do me proud in that department, and being geeks I'm sure Edgar Wright will let the box set have eeeeeeverything :)

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 23 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 23
Your opinions on Lady Gaga.

I really like Gaga. I think she's fantastic at what she does. She's got the same edges as Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe, in the sense that she wants to be famous, she knows how to go about it and how to influence the pop culture, almost become pop culture.
Yes she tries to be controversial, and sometimes I think it's a bit over done, but it works! That's the effect she is after and she's doing it perfectly! She knows how to work the paparazzi and what the consequences are.
I think she's fab! I think the last album (or at least the hype around it) was a bit too obsessed with supporting LGBT rights - which I'm all for, but I just find the support for these issues tiring. I know that sounds awful, but hey.
I'm looking forward to the new album, and I'd love to get to see her live again.
I saw her back in 2010 and the above photo is one that I took! Yay! Best work my camera has ever done lmao.

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 22 *

30 Day Challenge 1

Day 22

Do you play a sport? Tell us about it. If not, talk about a different hobby you may have.

I don't play sports at all lol. But I love to watch 'extreme sports' a lot. X-Fighters is one of my favourites (as above) and I'd love to go see the tour one day!

But...as I don't do a sport...I guess my real 'hobby' is Art.
I've always drawn since I could pick up a crayon. One of the earliest things I drew was a face, so I've always drawn people. I drew with pens and coloured pencils for years and I really didn't feel like my art was getting anywhere, or not progressing anyway. Now that I work digitally most of the time I feel like I can experiment more. I guess it's the safety of having an undo button.

But anyway. Here is a newish traditional and digital piece just because.

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 21 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 21
Your favourite subject to study



This is a hard choice, but I guess Art. I mean I was always more interested in doing art than learning about dadaism and impressionists, but the artists I really felt a connection with I loved learning about! And I guess I did learn a few damn good things artistically from studying art at school and college lol.
I adored the learning I did for projects mainly, where it was artists I was interested in researching and not some dull Jackson Pollock crap where we had to learn how this coloured block means such and such...
I chose an image of Frida Kahlo 'cause I've loved her work since my school days, I remember working on something and my teacher said to me "You'd like Frida Kahlo, hang on..." and went and got me one of her art books for me to look at (which I still have actually...oops!). I fell in love instantly, knowing that this artist was the same as me inside, putting her emotions so bluntly onto the page that it felt almost intrusive to look at it...I loved it, and I still do to this day! Dali as well I'd like to throw in here :)
I've also chosen this photo because it's 'historical', and I feel like now I'm older and out of school I would love the opportunity to learn more about history. I never enjoyed it at senior school, maybe because I didn't enjoy the way the teachers taught it, or I was too wrapped up in my own world...the only time I seemed to care was when I got an A for a poem I wrote about the war in Year 9...
I adored learning about the Tudors and Greeks in primary school, I really did...but unfortunately most of it has just slipped out of my head and that pains me. I would love to have kept all that information.
I hate that I didn't enjoy history at the time, I would love it now. It's so gory and full of passion and revenge and death and fear...and I just wish school would have put that into my head.
But hey ho!

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 20 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 20
Do you wear glasses? If so, what for?

No, I don't! But I think glasses look nice so I don't know why people would risk eye surgery when glasses are stylish and come in so many different looks these days! They're just another accessory! But hey ho.
This photo is me wearing April's glasses on our way to see Zebrahead in 2008 :) also her bag I'm guessing 'cause I have no recollection of that bag lmao.

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 19 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 19
The initials of your crush(es)

K.H.!
Bit of a dull question but there you go! Did a nice lil font image for you there lol.

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 18 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 18
Do you drink soda more often that milk?



So I'm going to take 'soda' as the American term for fizzy drinks? 'Cause otherwise we have nowhere to go here as I HATE actual 'soda'...ugh *shudders*

Umm...I think I probably drink more milk? I have cups of tea and I have cereals often, where as I go through a 2 litre bottle of Lemonade in a week or more I suppose. And when I'm travelling I usually try and get orange juice if I can.

But yeah...so I have more milk...but I love both to be honest!

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 17 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 17
Your thoughts on UGG Boots



Well, to be honest I really like these boots! Unfortunately there are a hell of a lot of fakes out there that make them look cheap and tacky and for pregnant chavs with swollen feet...BUT...the real ones are expensive and really nice!
I remember a really long time ago (around 10-12 years?) before they were that popular me and my mum were in a Surfer shop in Cornwall and they had some imported from Australia, like £150, and they were gorgeous, and my mum really wanted a pair but couldn't justify paying that much...so I always associate them with cool laid-back surfer shops lol. I especially like these grey ones :3

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 16 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 16
Your favourite Disney Princess movie

Hard choice so I'll pick the following two!



The Princess and the Frog
I think Tiana is a pretty cool princess, when I first saw the film she was a bit of a drag, always going on about her restaurant and all that lol, but I've really grown to like her. And of course, the rest of the cast are amazing <3 I love Lottie, she's amazing, the Doctor is fantastic and I'm really glad they have a voodoo character in Disney now! And of course, Ray, he's my ultimate fave, bless him <3 It's an all round good ol' fashioned Disney animation! <3

Beauty and the Beast
I've always adored Beauty and the Beast, since it came out, and I love Belle's character; head in a book, standing up for her beliefs at all the times :) This film is full of fantastic songs and characters! I love Lumière and Cogsworth, and of course Mrs Potts and Chip! Gaston is amazing, he's such an arrogant know it all that you just can't help but love lol! And the Beast is beautiful, I love him so much, he's just such a good character design, he looks amazing, and after watching some of the extras of their initial designs you can see all those little ideas that really make him. I wanna watch it now lol!

Other Disney ladies that deserve a mention or that aren't actually on the list are Meg from Hercules (tragic-souled character!), Jasmine from Aladin (who stands up for her beliefs), Giselle from Enchanted (who I just LOVE to death <3 and should probably be more prominent on my list), and Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (that is a fab character, lovely build for a Disney girl too!), so there's my other little shout outs :) I just love Disney!

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 15 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 15
Tell us your favourite junk food

Burgers and chips!
I do love a good burger <3 I heard there's somewhere in Bristol that sells burgers with bacon and peanut butter, which needs to be tried at some point!
I have a bit of an obsession with chips, they are probably my favourite food if I thought hard enough lol, but I love potatoes in general! Crisps! Hash Browns! Chips! Roasters! Yum! <3 I have a post card on my wall that says 'Happiness is regular sex and potatoes' lmao, tis true.The photo above is from our last meal from 'Vanoosh' before April and Noah moved from near there. It was delicious as always lol, and I do kind of miss Vanoosh! But where they are in Swansea now had yummy fish and chips close by, and there's takeaways to call anyway :)
I guess my fave filling is cheese and bacon...who would love anything else?!
The best addition is a chunk of coleslaw and onion rings on the side...but that's optional really lol!
Looking forward to our trip to Atomic Burger tomorrow to celebrate me getting a job! <3
I do love pizza as well, but I think burger and chips is one of those meals that's always pleasing! Pizza can get filling really fast, with all that bread, but nah...burger and chips...perfection <3

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 14 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 14
Do you have siblings? Talk about them, or talk about what it's like to be an only child.

Technically I have 2 half brothers and 2 half sisters on my father's side, but I have never met them.
Charlie, the eldest is now following in our father's footsteps and has become a tattoo artist, which is depressing to say the least, 'cause that should have been me lol...but I guess I can't grumble. And when I saw Rosie, the eldest girl at his funeral she looked just like me but younger...it was surreal! Not sure how old she is now though.

But, in general life, I am an only child!
I don't really know if I fit that whole spoiled brat category that people put us in, maybe I do...
I know I've always been shy, and that might have something to do with it, but it also could be down to not having a father figure. I think not having a strong male figure in your life makes a lot of difference. But I don't feel disappointed or let down by being an only child, it doesn't bother me in the slightest! I suppose I'm not one for sharing so much, but I am a very generous person, so I guess I don't share but I give a lot. Which is nice really!
I don't know if I'm any better off or worse off for being an only child, it makes me a lot closer to my parents than a lot of people I know I suppose...

Anyway. I'm proud to be an only child :)

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 13 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 13
Your thoughts or opinions on Mean Girls




I  think I did quite well with that selection of Mean Girls gifs from Tumblr lol...

I've never seen Mean Girls. I think I'd like to see it, and I imagine if I'd had seen it when it was 'in' I would have really liked it...but I've just never got around to it. One to add to my long long list!

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 12 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 12
Your thoughts or opinions on Harry Potter

Well...where do I begin? I really do love Harry Potter.
I don't seem to have this whole 'Harry Potter saved my life' opinion that most die-hard fans seem to have...but I do have a place in my heart just for everything related.
I own tons of Potter merch if that's any kind of guide, but unlikely.

We first read the books in school when we were about 8 or 9 I think? And when I passed my SATs in Year 6 my Grandma bought me the set of 4 that were out. Unfortunately I only really got to the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban and then I just kinda stopped, but I always knew I liked it, and when the films came out I watched all of them as soon as I could. I started reading them all again after Deathly Hallows came out and I fell in love properly!

I think my favourite character is actually Harry, but I do love Sirius as well. My favourite book was Half Blood Prince, which they translated to screen rather terribly as I feel it's the most important book, and my favourite film is probably Prisoner of Azkaban <3

Eventually I will be getting a Harry Potter tattoo to go on my film/book leg, and I'm thinking of the Snitch. I know I want quirky little things from films, but there's tons of things in the Potter universe that are quirky, but when I saw Deathly Hallows Part 1, when Harry and Ron get out of the basement when Bellatrix has Hermione, the snitch flies out of Pettigrew's pocket and up to Harry, and I just think that's adorable! I like how it has a personality of it's own and how it's connected to Harry because he was the first one to catch it...it's just so cute!

Anyway...I am a big Potterhead, and I dream of getting to go to the Harry Potter World at Universal in Florida :) One Day! At least for now we have the Studios here in England, which is AMAZING and I've already been twice lol. Can't wait to go again!

Sadly I found out it's LeakyCon this week in London...but I can't imagine anyone would go with me anyway and I don't really know what goes on there enough to know if it's worth it!

So yeah...yay <3

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 11 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 11
Your top three favourite bands

I really cannot choose three favourites without feeling bad about the others...so let's go for the 5 that I think are my tops for so many reasons. In no particular order!

The Dangerous Summer

So let's start here...I didn't get into The Dangerous Summer until the summer of 2011, just before they released War Paint actually. And I instantly fell in love with them! I remember buying Reach for the Sun and their EP If you could only keep me alive, and I played them constantly (along with War Paint once it was released) for months...with maybe a few breaks for Deaf Havana, but not much. When I started travelling more in 2012 I listened to them on my iPod alot and now I class them as my travelling band lol. They just make me feel summery and lovely. I got the new album THIS MORNING ftftftfdskgsfnsrh! And it's great, the summery feel isn't quite there but I'm sure it will be once I've listened to it as much as the other albums lol...
I've seen them 3 times now and I can't wait to see them again in October! <3 In a little club that Kev used to frequent, so he should enjoy it too :) So excited!
They are also the first band I've committed to my body! So that's a biggy :) My tattoo is from A Space to Grow from their Reach for the Sun album.
It's hard to pick one favourite song because I can't think of any I don't love! But I'm going to go with Where I Want To Be...it starts Reach for the Sun and it still gives me chills when the verse starts up and I get to sing along and know I'm in for a good album <3 So enjoy!



The Used

It took me a while to really appreciate The Used for some reason, I mean I loved Taste of Ink when it was out, and any song I heard by them I loved, but they stayed a little under my radar. I saw them (from far away) at Download festival when I was 16 and they were really energetic and fun but again they didn't grab my brain in. (If you don't know this yet, I'm very picky with the bands I give my heart to lol)
Then when I was 17 I bought In Love and Death and was hooked right in! <3 I bought their first album straight away and listened to them both for months, especially the summer between my two college years. It helped that Alex Pardee did the artwork for ILAD and I adore his work, so the mix of the two became a main focus of art projects.
There's something about them that just fires up my imagination and gives me the inspiration to create art, and I love that! The summer I mention probably produced most of my favourite traditional art or atleast some of the more fun ideas.
I still love them to this day and I think that they're one of those bands that will never get old or change their style too much to ruin what works well.
Not sure which song to pick as my favourite...I do love Sick Hearts from their B-Sides album Shallow Believer...so we'll go for that :)



Good Charlotte

I first saw Good Charlotte as the prom band in 'Not Another Teen Movie' and then not long after they released The Young and Hopeless...and that was when shit got real yo, lmao! I fell instantly in love with Good Charlotte. I bought that album and their first album too, and I've stuck by them every single and album since! I bought all the merch I could, and by their Chronicles of Life and Death album my room was plastered in GC poster and the walls had album artwork drawn on, lyrics written across them etc...they were my first 'huge' obsession I guess! My friends all got some kind of GC lyric wrangled into their Leavers book message and even into my college years they were a big part of my life.
I still love them to death, I've seen them 6 times now and I will always travel for one of their tours...they're just a really fun live band! They play all the old favourites and never let you down. They're just brilliant. I hope they keep going for a long time yet! Can't wait to see them again.
It's hard to pick favourite songs again, I think I'll go for Predictable 'cause it's a kind of middle-ground single over their career and I love the video :3



Deaf Havana

I knew the name Deaf Havana from reading Kerrang! over the years, and I remember them for being the first band name that I felt started the whole 'screamy music with song titles that never match the song lyrics' lol! But I can't really remember their music. Then towards the end of 2010 they released Smiles All Round...and that was it. I was addicted. I bought their albums and downloaded their old EPs, bought all the merch I could and waited patiently patiently patiently for a new album! Watching out for all their updates and waiting for the day I'd get to see them live. Finally I got to see them with April when they supported Underoath in Bristol. That was amazing! We were almost the only people who knew who they were and it was great standing at the front singing along and taking photos! I've seen them 7 times now I think, and I'm seeing them again in October after their album release in September...Can't wait!
Who knew they'd become big and now it's so hard to get to the front without squealing 17 year old girls bashing you out the way!
They will always hold a place in my heart and I'm sure they'll be the next band to get committed to ink lol.
So let's go with Smile's All Round seeing as that's the one that made me love them, and I still find it gives me chills now! :)



Something Corporate

Aww man, Something Corporate feel so sacred to me that I don't seem to like talking about them. I know it's odd, but they feel like a beloved child or pet that you want to hold close lol. I first heard Punk Rock Princess when it was released over here end of 2002 beginning of 2003...I found that they were playing here in Bristol so me and my mum went along to see them in a small little club. If I'd have known then that I would love them as much as I do now I would have been bought their album to obsess over before hand and be right down the front with the tiny crowd pining to get near Andrew with all my heart! They put on an amazing show. Andrew's piano was gorgeous, covered in stickers, and the way he played it and threw himself around it and stood on it etc kept me in awe. I remember his long hair bouncing with the music and I remember nearly all the between song banter. I also remember all the songs people went mad for, and when I bought the album after the gig I was surprised to see which were the fan favourites. They also played Konstantine which they are known not to play often anymore...so yay!
I wish I still had my ticket and it makes me extremely happy and depressed at the same time to know I was there! I had bought a sweat band and a t-shirt which I still own both now, and I got the North merch too when it was released. I got some when they did their 10 year anniversary, and I'm in constant wait for them to tour.
They are such a good band, they make me cry with how much I love them, I know it's dumb lol. Me and my mum both love them, and we got to go see Andrew McMahon in London earlier this year...and it was amazing. I felt exhausted afterwards from holding back the tears of hearing my favourite songs from SoCo and his other band Jacks Mannequin. It was also heart-warming to hear all the fans singing along...even if there were more singing to JM than SoCo!
Anyway...I'm going to pick I Woke Up in a Car because me and my mum love that song.
(lol just started playing on youtube and I teared up lol!)



I would class a few others as top favourites, like Five, A Day to Remember, Slipknot, Pink etc...but I won't go into them. So enjoy my top 5!

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 10 *

30 Day Challenge 1
Day 10
Talk about your pets, or the pets you would like to have

So my current pet is Tic-Tac, who is a Giant African Land Snail (which from a quick wiki search I think he is an Achatina fulica...). I call him a 'he' although they are actually hermaphrodites...so 'it' would be the preferred pronoun I guess! 
Anyway...I got Tic-Tac around the beginning of 2009, so he's about 4 years old now! Aww :) He's been asleep for about 9 months unfortunately, but it's been so humid here lately that he's woken up again! I think it's the tank he's in that he doesn't like the atmosphere  much...but I'll be trying to make it better for him now.
This is my favourite picture of him :)


In 1997 we got our beautiful pussy cat Tiggy :') I swear he was my soulmate or something but I won't go into the whole deep daemon style descriptions right now...Tigs was always the most important thing in my life and I miss him all the time now that he's gone. I have a touchstone with some of his ashes in, and a gorgeous little urn with the rest of them in. I also still have all the whiskers he'd lost over the years :) Lost in our house anyway lol. He had to be put to sleep in Dec 2011. <3 It's actually hard to see the photos of him from the month or two before he died, he doesn't look himself at all...
So look at his beautiful face <3

I don't have any other pets, although I did almost come home with a goldfish when me and Kev went to Barry Island! They had them on one of the game stalls as a prize, and I hate that, but I thought I could give one a good home (and call it Barry of course!) but then I thought it would be hard to get it home without traumatising it on the train etc. So alas I am Barryless.

I'm also really wanting some pet rats, which I've wanted for a couple of years now...but it just doesn't seem like the right time ever. I currently have no job so I would not be able to afford the rats let alone the expensive cage and toys etc! And I'm not really home much at the moment with all the travelling back and forth to Newport...so we'll have to see what happens. One day I would really love some though. They're so intelligent and adorable and aww I just want some so badly! :)

30 Day Challenge 1 * Day 9 *

30 Day Challenge
Day 9
Your favourite meme at the moment

I don't really know how to answer this, I mean I love alot of them? I can't really pick a favourite of right now. I guess Grumpy Cat is a favourite of mine to see, but I really like the actual cat Tardar Sauce more so than the memes...so here is a pic of her and her brother Pokey <3



This is one I've had for years in a folder too...I just love the cats face! He looks so chuffed with himself for having his fancy bowtie! (Added a chuffed gif too lmao)




And then this one just killed me when I first saw it <3 I can't remember if it was this one exactly, but it was definitely Joseph Ducreux, who is a dude! Lol I love it <3



There was probably a much easier way of answering this question but I'm just not 'with it' when it comes to internet stuff lol.