Are you sure where my spark is?

Hi guys!
Wow, I've been meaning to write this for a few days but I've just been pretty busy and therefore tired!
I neglected to write posts on my last 2 days in NY, so I'll have to write a very brief recap (mostly because I'm still so tired and jet-lagged I can't remember anything in any other way than 'briefly.')
Before I move on to that, I just want to tell you guys what I've been up to since I returned Friday night.

Aside from working on Saturday (with my body clock 5 hours behind, it's safe to say I didn't know where I was or what I was doing!) After work, for some reason I can't quite pinpoint, I decided to dye my hair brown. So, the purple is no more. I continued to be wide awake until about 4am GMT time and then decided it was absolutely necessary for me to re-decorate my bedroom and have a furniture move. I'll hopefully make a post about the finished product, if it works out! I spent all day on it yesterday and it's not even half done, oops.
Does anybody else ever just wake up with the urge that everything in their life needs to be completely overhauled? It's quite unsettling, but hey, it gets things done!

Whilst I anxiously wait for the delivery of my iphone 5 (upgrade time- and I have no idea when it's being delivered eeep) I shall talk a little bit about New York!

Day 5-  

If my memory serves me correctly, we spent most of the day in SoHo and then about 10 minutes in Chinatown, it was absolutely insane so we sort of walked for a little while and then decided to turn back out of fear of lack of oxygen.

A bit of shopping was carried out while in SoHo, and for a while I felt like I was back in England when a Topshop and Lush was spotted.
We found an amazing shop, and we just couldn't help but buy new shoes!

Hightop wedges with studs- nice!

We went back to our hotel for a while and then headed off out on the subway to meet Vicky, stock up on food for thanksgiving and I had my first real american apartment experience. I don't know if it's lame that it made me so excited, but I don't know, I think it's nice to break out of the tourist role for a few hours and just settle in to what it would be like to live in city like NY! 

Day 6- THANKSGIVING! 

Thanksgiving marked the only day we were up and out by 9.30am. We had to navigate our way around a very busy New York in order to find out where the Thanksgiving day parade would be travelling through. Eventually we found our way and caught the first hour and a half of the parade! It was such an amazing thing to experience, especially when you realise just how many people go to New York to see the parade! 

It started to get really cold so we went back to the hotel to sort out our suitcases (a mission and a half!) and then went back to Vicky's apartment for thanksgiving dinner. This basically consisted of me cooking roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings (from scratch, first attempt, and damn they were good!) Anybody who knows me will know that seeing me in a kitchen is a funny sight, it never happens- I think i'm allergic to cooking. 

We had the thanksgiving day parade on the TV, and it was just a lovely and relaxed way to end our visit. 

Yazz and I had to get back to the hotel pretty early as we were being picked up at 3am to go to the airport, but we couldn't not go visit times square one last time. 

I love that my coat is basically a tent.

And now? I am home and very, very grumpy about this. Partially because I hated leaving Vicky, but also because I always considered myself a countryside girl at heart, and this remained true last time I returned from New York, but now it's not so much like that. I miss how busy it is at all times of the day, how easy it is to get around the city, I also kind of miss how impossible it is to have a relaxing day when out and about in central Manhattan.
Take me back there, please!

New York is the only place I've visited outside of the UK/ Republic of Ireland, and I know I have to see more of the world, but I would do anything to return to that city right now!

On a side note, I have a couple of ideas for future blog posts- but if there's anything you'd like to see me write about/any interesting 'tags' please do let me know! I've been debating making a youtube video every now and again (because it seems like less effort than typing!) but I'm not sure how keen I am on that idea. I don't know, what do you guys think?

And lastly, is there anywhere you have visited and would recommend?

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @AGP_x

Day 4- "You guys have beautiful..." Americans love giving out compliments.

Hi Guys :)

I have to say, this morning I woke up very happy to be in New York after seeing friends post on facebook that places in my area of the county are flooding. So far, we are yet to experience any rain here, which I'm extremely grateful for!

Yesterday was another good day (despite my lack of sleep and the headache that is *still* taunting me.)
I'd like to take this moment to pat myself on the back for officially becoming a genius at navigating the subway. Okay, perhaps not a genius but I managed to figure out how we get to Battery Park and then back to Union Square.
What's in battery park you ask? Well, that's where you catch 'The Water Taxi' to go see my pal Libby.
The captain of the boat was very friendly and I now have a picture of random strangers on my camera thanks to him.
Unfortunately, due to the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, Liberty and Ellis Island were both closed off to the public so repair work could be carried out. Nevertheless, it was still amazing to be that close to Libby, in all her glory.

A few photos of this part of the trip:

Looking a bit evil with the sun in my eyes.

Failed attempt at catching us and Libby.

After this, we then went to the 9/11 Memorial which was only a short walk away. Last time I went, the memorial was still being built so it was basically just a building site with a bridge over the top that I could walk across. It was amazing to see how much progress has been made in the space of just over a year, and I couldn't help but get emotional as soon as I saw the memorial. Just seeing all the names of people who lost their lives during 9/11, it never fails to shock me.

Tower 1- still in progress.

We headed back to Union Square to meet Vicky as she had got us guest passes for one of her classes. It was very interesting,in the best possible way, to see her performing. It felt quite bizarre to be in that setting, listening to the training they're given and the way the entire thing 'works.' I couldn't help but think that as much as I'd love to be able to, there's not a chance in hell I could ever do what they do. 

I have discovered a new level of respect for acting.  

(I should probably say- you can check out her website and blog here)

The rest of the evening was spent in Barnes & Noble, American Eagle (for Yazz, again) and hunting down food (mmm crisps, how substantial!)

Yazz fell asleep early, not quite over Jet lag I don't think, so I finished reading 'Looking for Alaska,' by John Green and shouted at people trying to enter our room.

Just another 24 hours in New York, really!



Day 3- Shake my hand, I'm the real Prince Charles.

"Dang lookin' fly, what I'd do to that!" Said the random cyclist.
Being surrounded by Americans still confuses me, you wouldn't think there was that much of a cultural difference but there definitely is!

Today has, thankfully, been another relaxed day! We pretty much spent the majority of the afternoon going around various shops, but the one that excited me the most was Bloomingdales! I didn't get chance to go in last time I was in NY so it was something I really had to do this time round. I had to divert my eyes away from the make up sections, which meant my favourite floor was easily the gift/homeware/christmas floor!

The little birdy you can see is a christmas decoration made out newspaper extracts!

I was determined to get a christmas tree decoration while out here, and I'm pretty satisfied with that.



After this we decided to locate Central Park (sometimes quite hard, considering how big it is) so Yazz could have her first Central Park experience. We also had our first salted pretzel (well, half pretzel- they're very filling!) which is another thing ticked off the list for this week.





Yazz wanted to go to Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, for which we had to queue to get in...

I've always kind of avoided these stores, mostly because it's not the kind of clothing I'd go for, partly because it's so expensive, but also because I find the idea of shopping in a very dimly lit store with dancing girls in bikinis a bit...odd. Maybe I'm missing the appeal of it?

We then went to the Harry Potter Exhibition, I went to this last year but it's only right for a British person to visit a British exhibition. There's nothing like hearing the soundtrack to remind you of home. I kindly volunteered myself to get sorted into a house by the sorting hat, and surprise- RAVENCLAW. Complete shock after I'd said my favourite house (/the house I'm in according to Pottermore) is Ravenclaw.

We had a very intense *sort of* Quidditch game, made the mandrakes cry, chilled in Hagrid's hut and then cried over the prices in the gift shop. However, I couldn't not get this item!

That's right, a Ravenclaw pen :')

After heading back to our hotel room to offload our bags, we went back out to go to the top of the Empire State Building. I'm probably completely overusing this word when posting about New York, but the view was breathtaking. It's bizarre to see everything so lit up and for everything to be so far away but still so massive- and it was lovely to see Libby's torch lit up!

It's so hard to get a decent photo when your camera is as rubbish as mine, but just...lights!!

Now, I'm off up to the rooftop lounge to hunt out the stars (little obsession of mine- I like to see nature while surrounded by the rest of New York!) before heading off to bed. :) 







Day 2- Have a good day y'all

Hi-de-hi campers :)
I did intend to post this last night but wow New York makes me tired; I went out to the rooftop lounge at about 8pm to have another look at the view and I came back to my room and my friend was already asleep! It's been pretty hectic.

Yesterday we went for a nosey around times square, I'll still always prefer it at night time so I might have to drag Yazz there so she can see it in it's all glory :)

We spent way too much time in Toys 'r' Us (why am I 20?! I want a Barbie Malibu beach house!) and got very excited by pretty much everything. Yazz found some Auntie Anne Cinnamon sticks so she was happy...and I was happy because we found some huge penguin stuffed toys!

We made quite a spectical of ourselves while trying to get a photo of us both and the 3 penguins, but it was worth it!

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Adventure Time toys, there was a tiny section of stuff but nothing for Marceline (aka cartoon me.)

We went on in to a few shops; forever 21, American Eagle, Hershey Factory and M&M world...however by this point I was in a bit of a bad mood as my headache was in full force and I'd managed to lose Yazz in the crowd in the space of 5 seconds and ended up being cornered by 4/5 huge guys trying to sell me a CD. It started off with one confusing me (not hard to do, and their selling skills are incredibly good) and signed a CD for 'Kcutie' eh, and then demanding $10 off me, so I was just like 'eh sure whatever gets me away,' at which point a few more guys came along, signed cds, threw them at me and then got a bit aggressive when I didn't want them. SO, that did put me on a bit of a downer but all was healed after we made our way to the Rockefeller centre.

We had planned to go Ice skating, but with funds being what they are we didn't go yesterday. I think we'll probably leave it til later on in the week and see what we have left $$$ wise! It was pretty awesome seeing all the skaters, and the christmas tree was in the process of being put up!

We got to fast track the queue for 'Top of the Rock,' and I had timed it so that we would get there just in time for sunset. Luckily our timing was pretty good, so we got to see the sunset from the top of the Rockefeller centre which was breathtaking!

We stayed until it got dark so we could see all the lights, and we witnessed a couple getting engaged (n'awww cute!)

Once again, Empire State Building behind and the sun is just setting :)

(The sun was glaring in our eyes which would explain Yazz's face.)





I think we have a pretty busy day planned, so I'm hoping my headache will subside enough for me to not want to punch everyone in the face.

I still haven't had a Salted Pretzel, so that's definitely on my agenda!

Hopefully updated this again later or tomorrow!

P.s If we had a dollar every time we were complimented on our hair colour, we would be rich. 

Day 1- First full day in NY and my funds are already low!

Hi Guys!

I'm not sure how regularly I'll actually be able to blog as it's been a bit hectic, so this is going to be pretty short!
Yesterday we started off the day by taking a visit to the hotel's rooftop lounge with breathtaking views of New York! The weather was surprisingly pleasant after being warned that New York was somewhat colder than England (quite a task!) So we soaked up the views for a while and I can easily see it becoming my favourite place for the week! It completely reminds me of Shisha bars in Camden which makes me a very, very happy person!

Well Hi there, Mr Empire State Building

There's a very friendly man who works here, and he insisted on taking a snapshot of us under an archway in front of the skyline :)

We then went down to the Hotel's restaurant/bar so I could have my first coffee of the trip and Yazz could have a mocktail (served by a rather attractive guy!)

The main reason I planned to come to New York this year (after thinking last year was a total once in a life time experience) was to see my friend Vicky, who is currently studying at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film institute, so after seeing her hovering outside of the hotel through the window I was very excited to go and pounce on her!

We just had a very relaxed afternoon, and she departed to go an Actors festival(?) so Yazz and I went on a hunt to find a McDonalds...which we were succesful in achieving after about 2 hours of getting distracted by shops!

I had my first Sephora experience, and I would compare it to heaven. I mentioned in a previous post that I had my eye on a Tarte blusher so as soon as I saw it, I just had to get my hands on it!

Mmmm the packaging <3

I got this in the shade 'dollface' for $27 (i think!)

I also had my eye on the Urban Decay Smoked palette (well, i've wanted it for so long but can't justify spending so much on it!) however, I had to put down an extra $140 deposit for the hotel, so I'm really hoping they have this palette at the Duty Free in JFK...I don't think I'd feel so guilty about it then!

I went a little bit crazy in Bath&Body Works, but I did have a $10 off voucher and I managed to get a couple of christmas presents!

I'll make a more detailed post about these items at a later date.

What girl can go to New York and not purchase something from Victoria's Secret?!

It really was all so pretty...but I like me some comfortable pants!

After the unplanned mini shopping spree, and after overestimating our appetites in McDonalds, we met back up with Vicky again to go see a show that was on at her school.

It was only $5, but I would definitely have paid way more than that! The staging was simple but the acting was effective, funny and hard hitting.

Succesful first day!

(Saying that...I'm remembering how hard it is for me to find food that I like as a very fussy vegetarian, bit of a lack of energy going on. And I still have a rather bad headache, but I'm ignoring it for the sake of New York!)







New York- Day 1 (sorta)

Hi guys!
So I'm writing this from my small top bunk bed at 5am after a journey that was a bit more stressful than it needed to be. We arrived at Heathrow yesterday morning and decided to have a pre-11am drink as it would be our last one for a week!
The flight was delayed for an hour and then after finally landing in JFK, we had a 2 hour wait to get through the border so we indulged in a few games of eyespy.
After finally making it through and getting into our shared taxi, I'm instantly reminded of how much New York roads terrify the beejebus out of me. I arrived at our hotel feeling very sorry for myself, vomited a little (damn illness that won't leave me alone!) and was delighted by our view of the Empire State Building from the window!
We both pretty much threw ourselves into bed straight away so no investigating has been done as of yet, but I'm looking forward to hunting down the first pretzel of the trip.

Hopefully the next post will have a few photos in and be a bit more lively, but for now I should try and sleep a bit more!

So you wanna call me the devil's advocate?

I've noticed my lipstick collection has been building over the past few months, so I thought I'd share a few swatches of my favourites! At the moment I seem to be sticking more to the red and purple palettes, winter just makes me love the darker shades that little bit more. (Sorry about the not-so-brilliant photos, lighting is a bit rubbish at the moment and it's kind of hard to get all the shades as accurate as possible.) 
I seem to go through different make up obsessions, and at the moment it's definitely lipsticks! 

Pink palette

(From L-R) 

1) Glossy Box in Glossy Pink- RRP £9.50

2) Dainty Doll in 003 It's my party- RRP £12.25

3) Lancome Colour Design in Wannabe- RRP £9.95

4) Barry M Lip paint in 113 Sheer pink - RRP £4.25

Red Palette

(From L-R)

1) Yves Rocher in 101 Framboise/Rouge- RRP £14.50

2) Avon Ultra Colour in Red Kiss- RRP £0.99

(this shade is no longer available through Avon so I had a look on ebay, just for you guys!)

3) Barry M Lip paint in 121 Pillarbox Red- RRP £4.25

(no idea why this looks orange- it's definitely red!) 

4) Rimmel Volume Lipstick in 085 Holler- RRP £1.19

Purple Palette

(From L-R) 

The first 3 shades really aren't showing all that accurately...sorry! 

1) Revlon Super lustrous Lipstick in 475 Icy Violet- RRP £7.49

2) Rimmel Volume Booster in 062 Desirable- RRP £3.99

3) Revlon Colour Burst Lipstick in 010 Plum- RRP £3.49

4) No7 Sheer Temptation Lipstick in 9 Sassy- RRP £9.00

5) Rimmel Lasting Finish in 400 Lights Out- RRP £2.99

I leave for New York on Friday, so I'm hoping to raid Sephora while I'm out there. I've had my eye on the Tarte brand for quite a while, so although this is going to be New York on a budget (i'm taking very little money out there) I'm hoping to find a lipstick or blusher that will making parting with my $$s worth it! 

If there are any lipsticks you feel I should know about, please do let me know! Lipsticks make me happy :) 

Also as a small side note- hopefully I'll be able to blog while I'm in New York so be sure to keep an eye out for those posts. It'll hopefully be everyday but it completely depends on how busy we are (or how sleepy I get!) 

Don't forget to follow this blog on twitter @AGP_X

Just a few updates!

Hey guys,

As it's a Sunday, and there's an extra hour to the day thanks to GMT, I figured I'd be semi-proactive and make a few updates in regards to this blog. Some of you may have noticed (although probably not) that I updated the layout a few days ago, I just wanted to make it a bit easier on the eyes and easy to navigate! (If somebody wants to make me a banner for this blog though, it would be massively appreciated!) 

I've also just made a new twitter account that I can use for all things blog related. My twitter is security protected and I like to keep it personal, so it makes sense for me to have something that is open to the public. There's no point plugging my posts to the same people over and over again on my own twitter.
If you're interested in following this twitter, just click here. 

Okay, so that doesn't sound particularly active for today. I have also been messing about with google+ but I really don't know how to use it/'get it', so...I'll probably just share my posts to my profile and leave it at that! 

As I go to New York in 18 days (and counting!!!) I might start queueing up some posts for when i'm away. If there's anything you'd like to see, let me know :) 

As always, I'm still looking for guest bloggers, leave me a comment if this is something you would be interested in. If you already blog, leave a link to your page so I can check it out :) 

This has been an uninteresting post, apologies! It was more for my own benefit than anything else. 

New York, New York

True to form, I am spending money that I don't have.
Last night (/2am) I booked a hotel in New York, so I can go visit my friend who is studying out there.
I always like to believe that I have a special talent of magicking money out of my ass, but sometimes this isn't always true!
I have remembered that I only have 2 lots of wages from work before I go so I am desperately trying to get some ££££'s so I can convert them in to $$$$'s!
(If only I didn't have bills/had the sense to save my wages over summer, oops!)

I sell items on amazon, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd just take a look and see if there's anything you'd like to buy.
Every little helps ;)

My Amazon Store

If anybody has any good, quick money making schemes, I'm open to suggestions (within reason!)

Also, have a look at my blog post about my trip to New York last year!
The City That Never Sleeps

The city that never sleeps.

Writing about my trip to New York is pretty hard. There's so much to say, yet at the same time there's no need to say anything. Everything is as you imagine it;

The buildings are huge and intimidating, there's a Starbucks on every corner, it's impossible to get anywhere quickly, everything is overwhelming. 

It's only in hindsight that I realise how much I loved it, and how much I am now missing it. Despite the overwhelming heat (and therefore sunburn,) the constant honking, being harassed as you walk down the street, not being able to eat properly and therefore compensating with loads of junk food, having to punch people (almost literally) to get anywhere... I miss it. I miss being away from here. I miss being one small insignificant person in a crowd of people. I miss the feeling that if you went for a walk at 3am, it would be interesting and somewhat safe. 

Central Park was strangely beautiful. I'm used to parks being peaceful, another part of the countryside. But as you sit in Central Park, you're surrounded by noise. A funfair, buskers, hot dog stands, children on school trips, hundreds of people gathered together. Hundreds of lives coinciding in one place. That is what fascinates me about cities. For some reason, all those people are there at that present time and yet we're all there under different circumstances. Then you look up, and buildings are towering over you and you're reminded of how much there is out there. 

I fell in love with Broadway. Or more specifically, Daniel Radcliffe. We previously purchased tickets to go see 'How to succeed in business without really trying,' and it was amazing. Full of laughter, an incredibly talented cast, a song about coffee and Daniel Radcliffe himself (proving that he can be far more than Harry Potter.) We loved it so much, we then decided to go see it again a couple of days later. Totally worth it, and our seats were even better that time. I can confirm that Dan Rad is so short, and charming. A true cheeky chap. A new crush has been established. 

We also went to see 'The Phantom Of the Opera' on our last night. Unlike the two previous shows, the crowd was far less enthusiastic and actually pretty annoying. But the show itself was pretty spectacular, the staging was dramatic and the music was generally beautiful and operatic. Just what you'd expect of Phantom of the Opera. 

I think we covered all of the touristy obligations. We visited The Museum of Modern Art, The Rockefeller Centre, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue, and of course visiting the Statue of Liberty. The latter being my favourite, as I have repeatedly told people that 'I WANT TO WAVE AT LIBBY!' The ferry journey made me feel a little more connected with the rest of the world, and with nature for that matter. New York City gets a little claustrophobic. You never realise how big Libby is until you get up close, and typically the first thing I noticed was how big her feet are.

Also on the agenda was a visit to the Harry Potter Exhibit. Again, one of my favourite parts of the trip! It makes me proud to be British, and as soon as I heard the music I instantly felt at home. I got so excited. I sat in Hagrid's chair, saw a bunch of the costumes and props and got to play with Mandrakes ^_^ At the end of it, I wanted to buy pretty much everything from the gift shop. I settled for a Bellatrix Lestrange wand and postcard. 

We didn't really shop that much, however we did visit Macy's (where I spent $150 on Bobbi Brown make up,) Forever 21 (which slightly disappointed me) and a nice big H&M. The Toys 'r' Us was easily my favourite store, purely because of the Willy Wonka section! And a ferris wheel INSIDE the store just blew my mind. 

(I'd like to note at this point, none of this is in order and it's not brilliantly explained because I am still jet lagged!) 

After being advised to do so, we caught the Subway to Brooklyn to try and find a Flea Market. They don't make transportation easy, and it's no competition for the London Underground. Everything I wanted to buy from the Flea Market consisted of items far too large to bring back on a plane. Typical, really. Brooklyn is so...typically american. The apartments with people sat outside on the steps, the kind of people there, the views. Just everything. This made me realise how much of a comfort zone Manhattan had become for me. 

The entire trip would not have been complete without the constant banter between Vicky and I, consisting largely of quotes from the IT Crowd. It also would not have been half as enjoyable without a nice hotel room to relax in, and the daytime delights of iCarly, Victorious and Dr.Oz. We spent much of the trip getting excited over Irish/Scottish pubs and our English accent radar was on full power. 

I'm also kind of missing the stereotypes of NY. Apparently the black guys out there have a thing for pale girls with red hair, I don't understand this but oh well, I'll take it. 

This entry does not pay justice to New York, but then I don't think anything could.

I'm still completely mind-blown by the fact that I've been on American soil, as lame as that sounds. I'd love to go back at winter time, to save myself from burning again. I couldn't live in NY, that's for sure. But the idea of living in America has grown stronger in my mind. I'm determined to see more of it, all sides of American life; because I know New York is just a tiny fraction of the mammoth country. 

Lastly,

Thank you to Vicky for putting up with me for 9 days. I struggle to put up with myself, no idea how you managed it! 

For a more detailed account of our trip, visit her blog: http://victoriaorourke.blogspot.com/ 

And Vicky, one last thing,

THIS OSTRICH THINKS I'M A LADY!! 

-K

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