Seeing Spots

 I've been a huge fan of wax melts for a while. I like to use them in an electric wax melt warmer (burner). The ones I have are the inexpensive Glade (the plugins people) ones and were around £5. As much as I love candles I tend to forget to light them but having the electric warmer means I can leave it on and not worry about the flame of a candle. 

I have lots of favourite scents of wax melts and almost every time I buy some new ones they become a favourite. 

What I'd call the outdoorsy scents is my preference. Names like Fresh Air, Clean Cotton, Clean Laundry. You get the gist. 

When my friend set up her own wax melt company, I knew I had to order some. Not sure if this counts as an #Ad as I bought them myself but you know I'd be honest with you. You can find them on FaceBook Heavenly Scents Company and Instagram as @HeavenlyScents.Company

I bought 7 packs at £2 each and P&P was £3 so I paid £17 in total, which I didn't think was bad. They do packs with small honey combe shapes and large heart shapes. The hearts are much bigger than I expected and are good value for money. 

The packaging was a sturdy cardboard box, with the melts in wax paper and they sent sweets, always a nice bonus surprise. 

For month Facebook adverts keep popping up showing a Cath Kidston 4 Wheel Cabin bag and I’ve been so tempted but due to the current situation, I felt like it would be daft to make a big purchase.

The RRP on the case was £135. Which isn’t an amount I would spend on a full-size suitcase let alone a cabin case.

Back in May, it went in the sale and temptation grew. I’d just had a holiday canceled and despite it being a bargain I put it off.

I had a look in TK Maxx and to get an equivalent bag, with a decent brand it was between £35-60 but none of those spoke to me. “Take me home”, “Take me home”.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that this bag had been reduced again to £54 and there was a discount code on the website.  Meaning I paid £48.60 and it was free P&P.

I love the botanical gardens theming, the colours and the design. It also seems to fit in well with my love of Japan.

However, the main reason this design appealed to me, is that it reminds me of the conservatory in a local park.

My current cabin bag is a Roxy Rucksack with wheels but the handle is slightly too short and while it has a good number of pockets, in reality only one of the two main ones is useable at any one time.

I've tested the handle on this case for height and it's far better for me, and having the four wheels makes it much more stable. 

Because this is a traditional case, it has a roomy main compartment, with luggage straps so everything won’t fall out if you need to open it. There is also a small side pocket within the main case which I didn’t realise when I looked at it online.

Another internal pocket on the lid of the case, as well as a roomy front pocket which is always handy for keeping travel documents in.

While I haven’t been able to fully test out the case by taking a trip, it feels well made and I like that it came with a small padlock, when I'm using it for hand luggage I probably wouldn't lock the case but if for any reason I had to check the case or if it had to be stored away from me, if I was on a train for example then it means I can lock it for my own peace of mind and not have to worry about the case. 

Overall i'm really pleased with my purchase, it was probably more than I'd normally spend. The case feels well made and It is a  product I've been thinking about for a while. It's something that I needed (I probably didn't need it)

All I need now is to go somewhere to use it! 

 Over the weekend I got an invite to a group about my old high school.

Initially I didn't see the invite but then posts stated appearing in my news feed and my anxiety levels shot through the roof.

I didn't enjoy school. I was bullied in parts. I got things twisted back and I got in trouble for being a  bully by the people who were bullying me. Even with the zero tolerance policy nothing was ever done to me or them.

Like a lot of schools it had its troubles. Shit went down that no one should be part of. 

There were lots of fun times. Lots of strange times. 

This group seems to be full of "remember so and so who was a horrible teacher". "Remember how x year (err the one I was in) was the only year in the history the school not to be allowed a leavers do." 

Remember when we all got drunk (I did but not with the people who are posting!)

I've looking  back at old photos but to my horror one of the first posts in my forms year 7 photo and my year 11 year photo.

I don't know why its dragged up some shit I didn't know that I didn't want dragging up.

I'm kind of glad the actual school itself no longer exists

 Long after I left. It metered with another school. Got  rebrand and a brand new school was built quite far away from the two original school sites. 

Until this group was created I was only in contact with 4 people from school and even then only one is really in my friendship group and I'd say I see in a regular basis but I don't even know the last time I saw her. February? I mean covid has scuppered at least 2 meet ups.

What I need to do is delete the group invite, see if I can block the group but there is something stopping me doing this.

I need to see what's been posted even if it gives me palpitations. 

Have you ever had this. I wasnt even that memorable at school and I think part of my anxiety is because it's people who were my year group who are most active. 

 Primark Haul

 Over the bank holiday weekend, I had a trip into town with my gran and visited my local Primark.

I do love a good Primark trip and I thought I’d share four of the items that I bought with you all. 

 

Tracky bottoms I own quite a few pairs of comfy trousers and workout leggings, but I don’t actually have any true tracky bottoms. I’m not sure why this is. I’ve been looking for some for a while and my mum has a few pairs from Primark and H&M, but I’ve always resisted buying.

When I saw these, I knew that I wanted them. They had a couple of colours, a dusty pink which I did like, I went for the mid-grey. I am a very messy person, so I thought the darker the better.

One of the selling points that they have pockets. The detail around the legs make them look a little bit interesting and I like that the cuffs are not tight elastic but help to give some shape, so they don’t just hang.

I got the XL which is a UK 18-20, they fit surprisingly well and are extremely comfortable.

 There is a strong temptation to buy more, I did go into Primark again today and forgot to look at them. This makes me think I don’t need or want them as much as I initially thought.

 

Pink long sleeve shirt I picked this up in a 2XL (UK 22-24) as I wanted it lose and oversized, it’s not quite as oversized as I’d have liked so I think I should have just got the XL and had it as a normal top. 

It is soft and comfy, one thing I’ve found while working from home is that I am cold the majority of the time, so think the top is perfect as the sleeves are full length and I don’t have to worry about extra layers.

Cycling shorts These are a must for me when I wear dresses. I should have a holiday in October and hopefully, I can wear lots of dresses. I picked these up in an XL and because they are nice and stretchy they are a good fit.

I prefer these leggings material shorts to the more sporty compression shorts you can get or ones that are like tights.

 Headband I have an addiction to buying a headband, but I often feel like they are too big and bulky or that I buy random patterns.

 I decided this plain black one would be a good middle ground because it isn’t as chunky as my other ones but it is still a little bit interesting as it has a self-pattern spot in the fabric.

Have you bought anything from Primark recently? 

 Rescuing my Nails

My nails have always been on the weak side and I’m sure I’ve documented my trials and tribulations of growing them before on the blog.

At the time of writing, I saw this product CND Rescue Rxx Daily Keratin Treatment a couple of days ago on someone’s Instagram stories and it struck a chord and I wanted to try it. 

I did a tiny bit of googling and ordered it from Amazon as it was the cheapest place, but this isn’t really a cheap product. I paid £14.75 and the product size is 15ml.

The product is a nail treatment rather than a nail polish or nail strengthener. You apply it twice daily and the bottle says for 7 days, but I’ve read to use it for 14 days and the claims on the box say results are from people who used the product for 4 weeks. I guess it’s open to interpretation.

My plans are to use it twice a day for 14 days before I use any other product on my nails other than hand cream and I may use a cuticle remover as they are looking a little ragged.

I also want to try and take daily pictures which I’ll put on my Instagram stories @seeingspots_ I have created a highlight called nails.

Day Zero.

The nails on my right hand are not looking too bad but they feel very weak and in danger of snapping any second.

Day One.

At this point, I have done 3 applications and the nails that felt very weak feel a lot stronger. I did think I’d have to trim the nails as I didn’t feel brave enough to file them but I have now filed them and they didn’t break as I was expecting.

I posted a photo of the product on Facebook and someone else has commented that they love this product which makes me feel better. This person also has lovely nails!

Day Two

I managed to take a chunk out of the nail on my little finger on my right hand trying on a skirt. The nail itself feels out and didn’t keep splitting as I expected it to. This is a massive positive for me.

Day three

So far I’m blown away, my nails feel a lot stronger. I can see noticeable growth on my right hand and they feel good. My left-hand doesn’t seem to have grown any but I think that’s more me than the product.

Day 4

Today I’m itching to paint my nails, I’m going to try and hold off but the urge is strong. One thing I’ve noticed today is the skin on my fingers feels very dry after using the product. I haven’t really noticed this before, I’m making sure I’m using hand cream as soon as the product soaks in.

Day Five

I gave in a painted my nails, I felt like I needed to. I don’t know why. My nails feel a lot stronger and I am planning on carrying on using the product but over the polish and removed the polish at the weekend. I know I should have kept up the product but had the urge to paint them so badly.

Day 6

I’m sticking with the nail polish today but my plan is to remove it in the morning and go back to use the product until we get to day 14. Even with polish, my nails feel good and touch wood hasn’t broken yet.

Day 7

I changed my nail polish to essence Heatwave, I did a coat of Rescue and then a base coat and two coats of polish. I didn’t use a topcoat as honestly, I didn’t bring it downstairs with me.

Days 8-11

The essence polish is still going strong with very few chips and my nails haven’t broken at all which is almost unheard of.

I’m not sure I’m giving the rescue a full chance right now but I was so surprised my polish lasted more than one day I decided to run with it.

I did use the Rescue today over the polish as I’ve read you can use it that way, it’s obviously not as effective but it felt like it couldn’t hurt.

Day 13

We’re finally getting to the end and I’m really happy with how my nails are looking at the feeling. Looking at the pictures you won’t see much growth as I’ve given them a decent filing but the feel so much stronger than they did. In the past, I’ve been scared to file them for fear of them splitting.

I do highly rate this product and while I’ve always been taught never to say something is amazing or the best thing ever, I am impressed.

It did come with some good feedback from people I know and interact with on social media so I did have high hopes and I think it might have exceeded them.

I didn’t use the product daily as planned but I’m still, please with how my nails feel and look.

Going forward I’m going to try and use it a couple of times a week or if I go back to having gel nails. I will use it in between colours.

If it was to give it a star rating it would probably be 4/5. I think the only downside for me is the price. At almost £15 it feels a little bit too much for me to pay regularly, however at this point, I don’t know how long the bottle will last. I do think I’d be more willing to do a repeat purchase if it was £12 or under. Although that isn’t a vast difference it just seems like a better price to me.

As always I’d love to hear from you, have you used this product? Do you think you’d use this product? Or what do you use?

 5 Netflix Picks – Lockdown edition

Like many of us, I’ve been making use of my Netflix account so I thought I’d share my five favourite shows from recent times.

I will admit I am often behind the curve but if you haven’t seen these shows get I urge you to watch them.

My prime account is underused so if you have any prime TV show recommendations let me know.

 Umbrella Academy

I tried watching this ages ago and didn’t make it past the first episode, I didn’t get it. But when series two dropped I decided to try again and I was hooked. It’s quirky, funny, sweet, and violent. I do like a bit of violence to my TV viewing. It’s based on Graphic novels my Gerard Way but from what I’ve read they are different but similar to each other. I’ve watched both series twice and I can not wait for series 3. Sadly it looks like we’ve got a long wait.

The Fall

It also looks like I’m very late to this as well but we only recently found it on Netflix. There are 3 series with 6 episodes each series and we watched all of them in 4 days!

It’s not for the faint hearts, it’s quite graphic and violent. It’s one of the best police suspense dramas. The whole set of series is full of music that sets you on edge and has you checking around corners in your own home.

Gillian Anderson is also excellent. I mean isn’t she always but for me, she was perfectly cast.

 Giri/Haji

I have given high accolades to the above shows but this one is also up there with one of my favourites types of shows. I love police dramas and my next show will prove that.

This is set across London and Japan and is dual language and at first I found it a bit distracting and some times I had to rewind as I forgot I had to read the subtitles. I also found that I couldn’t binge this series as it took a lot of energy to concentrate but that might just be me, I do know people who have binged it.

A Japanese police officer is sent to London on an undercover operation to bring back his Yakuza (mafia) brother.

There is a lot of drama, violence but it is also made me quite emotionally invested in the people and plot.

My stand out plotline was Rodney, a half Japanese, half English rent boy who  by chance (script) ends up being amongst the main cast. He made me laugh, cry, be his friend, cuddle him.

Line of Duty

What can I say I love a crime drama. This had me hooked from the first episode. This follows the Anti-corruption unit get to the bottom of corruption within the police force.

Vicky Mclure is my stand out in this series, It twisting and turning drama, we are very excited for the next series which hopefully they have now started filming

Virgin River

I thought we’d had enough police dramas for one blog post, Virgin River is about a Mid-wife / nurse practitioner getting a job in the small town of Virgin River after leaving what seems to be a traumatic job in the big city.

It reminds me of an updated, modern Dr. Quinn medicine woman without the 1860s fashions and chloroform.

It’s a sweet drama and while it might be a bit formulaic it’s a nice watch and it really makes me want to watch Hart of Dixie again, which isn’t on any streaming services (yet! Come on Amazon or Netflix pick this amazing show up!) the cross association is helped by the Doctor in both shows is played by the same guy and spoiler alert he is equally as grumpy in both.

9 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me.

Hello and welcome to my blog, I haven’t written a post in the longest time and I’ve decided to blog every day in September 2020. 

I’ve done this challenge a few times and I’m not sure why I always seem to pick September to do it, maybe because September is the start of the new school year so it feels like a fresh start.

I thought as a refresh and introduction I’d do an about me post. Here are nine things you probably didn’t know about me.

1.   What was your best vacation/holiday?

I’ve been really lucky in my life to have lots of holidays and I’ve been to a lot of different countries and there are two standout places for me. Mexico, I really didn’t want to go, the flight felt too long, I didn’t want an all-inclusive holiday. But it was fantastic, and I’d go back in a heartbeat. I won’t talk about that but I did vlog bits of it which are on my Youtube channel if you want to have a little look.

My overall favourite was a trip to Australia when I was 14. I was probably too young to fully appreciate it but to go all that way and see things I never expected to. From the opera house, Sydney harbour bridge. Going to the zoo on Christmas Day. Visiting my mum's Uncle in the Blue Mountains.

Sitting in our hotel room watching the new years fireworks over the harbour bridge at midnight.

It probably was a once in a lifetime trip. It was such a long time ago now. (Michael Jackson was Christmas number one that year!) but I have such strong memories from it.

Not all of them good. My mum got bitten by a spider and we spent the day after boxing day in a hospital that looked like it was part of the set of Son’s and Daughters. The walls wobbled when you walk. In the waiting room, there was a load of day patients in gowns who’d got bored sat on the ward and wandered in for a chat. We’d forgotten our insurance documents so my mum’s uncle said she was his daughter. There is only about 12 years between them but no questions were asked and she got the antivenom.

I would go back to Australia but the flight length puts me off. Maybe one day I will go back.

2.     What is your favourite smell?

This also related to holidays and I can’t tell you the exact name of the smell other than the trees in Benidorm (applies in other cities but I smelt it first in Benidorm when I was 8)  

It might be some type of honeysuckle or apple blossom as I recently got some Cath Kidston products which has a slight reminiscence of the smell.

I smell it periodically and always after it has rained. I can’t even really liken it to anything but when I catch the smell it's just so lovely.

3.       Have I ever skipped a class

I wasn’t going to include this as it’s such a long time ago since I left school and I didn’t really skip classes, however, the only time I did try and skip something in school I got caught along with my friends!

I went I Sixth Form within my high school and we had a service of reconciliation. When all the priests from the associated parishes / primary schools do mass and we decided to skip it but we were also too lazy to actually leave school, so we went to a sixth form study room and hid under the tables.

As so few sixth formers had turned up, most other people had done the sensible thing and left the school grounds.

We got marched through school and didn’t even take the short cut to the hall and made to sit on the front row and it was so embarrassing, we should have just gone to it. I think everyone who had left school got detention for it so at least we didn’t get that. Just the humiliation of being marched through school.

4.      Would you ever become vegetarian?

Never say never, but probably not. I love a lot of vegetarian meals and I do want to have more plant-based meals but I don’t think I could do it long term.

When I was at uni my whole flat did vegetarian week and when I went to buy my lunch at work the only hot veggie option was tuna past baguette! I had a bit of a do with one of the kitchen staff and ended up with a cheese butty instead of the warm heart veggie feast I’d hoped for!  

5.       Top 5 Biscuits

I love it when people ask fun questions, not that the others aren’t fun but biscuits are a bit of a hot topic on my work team. We even have some who gets called Jamie Dodger as he loves biscuits so much.

Picking 5 is hard, I imagine it’s like picking your favourite pet. It’d probably be easier to pick my 5 least favourite biscuits (Digestive biscuits are on my Tom Cruise list!)

In no particular order; Jam Cream Biscuits (Ikea one are excellent bit not really fussed on the brand), Party Rings, Pink Wafers, Ginger Lemon Biscuits (Hills) and Hobnobs (All variations).

6.       Where would you like to travel to if money was no object?

Japan, I’ve recently fallen in love with the country. I’ve watched a few JVloggers for a while but in lockdown, I’ve been watching more and more and I think the fact we can’t go has ignited my want to go more.

I’m attempting to learn some basic Japanese (Duolingo and a few other bits and bobs) but it’s been added to my bucket list. I think if I went I’d want to go for 3 weeks (if I could get that long off work in one go) and as much as I want to do the big cities I’d also like to go off the beaten track a little bit and see some of the countryside.

7.       What was the first film you saw in the cinema?

I thought this was an interesting question, as I am an avid cinema, goer (pre-lockdown) so you might be shocked to learn I didn’t go to a cinema until I was 11 years old and only because I didn’t really have much choice.

The first film I saw in a cinema was Beethoven. It was 1992/3 we were in Florida and it was the cinema in Downtown Disney.

It was a rainy Florida afternoon and it was a choice of sit out in the storm or go and see the film. I’m so glad I went in and saw it and I think it sparked my love of cinema. Although it was about 12 months before I went to the cinema again. The second film I ever saw at the cinema was Jurassic Park, the last day of Year 7 in high school. Sadly it wasn’t at downtown Disney and just at the local Roxy.

8.       What is your favourite musical?

This might be the hardest question, there are a lot of factors at stake. In a theatre? At the movies, modern? Old school? Cheesy?

I’ve narrowed it down to three but now I’m typing I’m thinking of more. Ohhhhhh

Theatre: Singing in the rain, We will Rock you and Evita.

Movies: Evita, Grease 2, and State Fair.

9.       What is your day job?

I’m a billing analyst. I deal with queries, complaints, stats, process improvement. I’m sure that raises more questions than it answers.