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!

Watercolour

I was just browsing through my old files and came across some more pieces of writing, so I thought I'd select one of the less depressing pieces and post it here.
Comments would, as always, be appreciated. But be kind...i'm pretty sure this is about 3/4 years old and I've not bothered to edit it at all!

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

How much longer are you gonna give in to the fear?

Last night marked the 3rd time I have seen Evanescence live! They played at Wembley Arena so we got to the venue at about 2.30. We just about made it to the front barrier, but quite far to the left- it was actually really nice to be on the side that Tim and Troy play on, the previous times I've been more towards Terry and Amy's keyboard so it made a nice change. Thankfully the view was still pretty good, and the sound was immaculate!
I'm kind of lost for words on what to say. There were tears (on my behalf, of course) and confetti, lots of singing and screaming. I had a migraine (i'm still trying to shake it off- it's been lurking since wednesday night and I can't say I'm loving it,) which did kind of dampen the experience because bright lights are not my friend at the moment, but there was no way in hell I was going to miss their last live show for this album!
The set list was incredible, and they added 'Disappear' and 'Swimming Home,' and I love 'Disappear' so that made the throbbing migraine entirely worth it.

I wish I had pictures and videos to share, but I'm 'that' person who's too busy trying to live in the moment rather than worrying about the pictures and what not. So, I'll have to steal a couple of my friend's photos.

Confetti during My Immortal <3 

Words fail me when it comes to seeing Evanescence live...they've been my favourite band for nearly 10 years and they've played such a massive, important part in my life and growing up. I hate that there's probably going to be another 4/5 year wait for another album to be released (if they release another one, that is) so that's a reality I'm just not ready to face yet.

There are very few videos of last night on youtube at the moment, but I'll leave you with this. 

Going Under...the first single I ever bought :') 

(As a side note, there were some people up in the seated area who were throwing some amazing shapes. Bit of ballroom dancing, the robot...especially the 2 older men, absolutely loved it!) 

My fever burns me deeper than I've ever shown

Today I have learnt that whenever I say "I'm not spending any money," I am basically telling a massive lie. My bad. I've been in an awful mood for the past week or so, retail therapy was desperately needed! I even paid for express delivery on a couple of these items because I'm just too impatient to wait! 

Skirt from boohoo.com -£10

I already own this in the Berry colour (and I have a very similar one in purple, courtesy of primark) and I was shocked when I realised I only own 1 black skirt, so of course I had to change that! 

Aztec Vest from boohoo.com - £10

This is literally on the first page of the 'day tops' and I have no idea why I like it, as it's not something I'd usually go for it. It could be the migraine, but I hope I love it just as much when it arrives.

(As a little bonus, boohoo.com also offer 10% student discount. Can't complain!) 

Bracelets from etsy.com - Approx £8 (including overseas shipping)

I love these, so yeah, I ordered them. As if I needed anymore bracelets! 

I already own these boots from Primark, however I had a search online and you can buy them from ebay for £25. (Although I'm sure I only paid £15 for them, so it would be worth popping in to the shop beforehand to see if they still have them in stock!)

We drink the fatal drop

I don't think I've ever really done anything like this before, but I thought I'd just make a short post about my 'go to' make up. I do like to play around with eye make up if I have the time/if I'm awake enough in the morning, but like anybody else, I have my set routine that is quick and simple (but still effective...I hope!)

Here we have it!

Items used: 

Face:

Rimmel Fix&Perfect Pro Primer - £6.99

 L'oreal true match (shade: C1 rose ivory) - £9.99

Dainty Doll loose mineral powder (shade: 001 ultra light) - £19.40

Eyes:

HD Brow Eyebrow Kit (shade: bombshell) - £18

Bourjois Volume Clubliner (shade: ultra black) - £6.99

Bourjois Volume Glam Ultra Curl Mascara - £7.99

Barry M Kohl Eyeliner (shade: silver) - £2.99

Lips:

Yves Rocher Cream Lipstick (shade: rouge) - £14.50

Since this morning, a lot has changed, and I'm not sure how I feel about this. 

For about 2 years, the bourjois clubliner was my go to liquid eyeliner. However, over the past 2 weeks I have fallen out of love with it and I rushed to superdrug to buy a different eyeliner. I'm intrigued to see how I get on with it, or if it's been a bad mistake, only time will tell. 

I had a bit of a mini 'haul' earlier today (my friend is useless at reigning in my spending!) and as superdrug currently have a 3 for 2 offer, I don't feel too guilty about being open with my spending! 

L'oreal True Match Foundation- as above :) 

L'oreal Studio Secrets Primer- £14.29

L'oreal Superliner Gel Intenza- £9.99

Simple Baby wipes- £1.35

To be honest, I'm happy enough with my Rimmel primer but I ran out of it this morning and as I love the Loreal foundation so much I couldn't resist trying out the primer! 

Am I the only one who prefers baby wipes over actually face wipes? If the normal 'simple' face wipes are on offer, I'll go for them, but I love using these baby wipes. They're so nice for my ridiculously sensitive skin and they're a lot cheaper!

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

Remember, remember the 5th of November. 

For those of you outside of the UK, you may not be familiar with Bonfire Night! So here's a very short history lesson; 
At some point in the 1600's, on November 5th,  a nice man called Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up The House of Lords with gunpowder. However, poor old Guy Fawkes was outed and his attempt failed and he found himself being sentenced to death. It's now a tradition for Bonfire night to be celebrated every on the 5th of November, and this usually consists of fireworks, sparklers and a fire topped with some form of a stuffed doll supposedly resembling Guy Fawkes. 

Every year I go to the same fireworks display, it's the only free one in this county and the surrounding county, yet it always seems to be one of the best- not bad for a tiny village! Usually I go with my Nan, however this year I went with my sister and her Fiancee and I thoroughly enjoyed it!