New Year's Eve

The only time of the
year that one can wear
a dress that appears to
have been patterned
on an ostrich and get
away with it.

Hooray! Against incredible odds, we all survived the Mayans. And that means we get to ring in the new year!

This year, I was spending it with my English friends. Slightly dubious about the idea of a pub crawl when the divines fortold rain, I flexed my Google-fu and found a whole bunch of modestly-priced, well-dressed events. These ranged from the bizarre (supperclub - a fairly arty experience seeming to involve pole dancing, fire breathing and latex gear) to certain disaster (Casino at the Empire - because who needs money anyway?). We settled on Zebrano's on Carnaby Street.

My outfit was easily the most excessive I have ever worn - the dress's skirt was a frothy mass of gradiented netting, paired with white tights. I spent a good while debating whether it was a good idea to step out of the door looking like a fairy reject, but I failed to realise that the dress would actually be the least of my worries.

When I left for pre-drinks, I was experiencing a little discomfort in my toes. I waved it away - beauty is pain, right? Unfortunately things only got worse. The little discomfort turned into a sharp sting every other step, and then the feeling of blood seeping into my tights by the time I was on the Tube to Holborn.

And so I became that typical woman you see hobbling away from a club at night, wincing and gritting her teeth with each tiny, mincing step... except it was about 7PM and I hadn't even made it to the party yet.

I chose not to admit defeat, but to advance in the opposite direction. Upon my arrival at Holborn I informed my comrades of my crushing defeat in the battle of womanhood, and took the Tube straight back home. Upon removing my tights, I was greeted with the discovery that the skin on each of my fourth toe knuckles had regretfully parted ways with the rest of my feet. Ah, and we used to be so close...

It was a short battle, but I still bear the scars.

After performing toe surgery, disinfecting the wounds and slapping a plaster on each, I slipped on a pair of flats. They were not quite so elegant, more on the functional side, but man, I only have ten toes to give.

Back on track, I joined up with the others at Zebrano's. It was a pretty cool place - non-sticky floor and nice decor. Everything was relatively quiet at the time - it was about 8PM, so not a lot of activity yet.

In order to avoid drinking on an empty stomach (which went really well last time) I'd managed to grab a McChicken Sandwich on the way there, but it turned out I didn't actually have much to fear on the food side. The ticket included a glass of champagne and canapes, which were actually delicious! Duck pancake rolls, breaded chicken on sticks, mini spring rolls and some little pieces of steak.

I stuck mostly to Asahi over the night, but did try a few new things. Paid a little more to try cocktails - Strawberry Kiss was sweet, fruity and creamy, tasting very similar to Baileys, if it came in a fruit flavour. I also tasted a little of an Espresso Martini, which tasted like coffee, to no-one's great surprise. Tim didn't manage to finish his spiced rum and Red Bull, so was passing it around - it didn't really taste of alcohol at all and more like the blood of Jelly Babies. I must have more of this delicious, cruel mixture!

As far as music went, they started off with more sort of... background music, which was nice to listen to without being intrusive, and then evolved into more danceable stuff as the night went on, causing the creation of dancefloors. It was a mix of newer things like Gangnam Style, and the sort of thing I had dim memories of hearing on the radio when I was about twelve. (Ten years later, I am finally In Da Club, who could have guessed?) 

We also discovered a DDRX2 machine at roughly 4:30 a.m. on the way to Leicester Square while passing Las Vegas (the amusements, not the city), so Matt and I had a go. The panels were pretty terrible and unresponsive, requiring very rough handling to register a hit, but we still passed everything. I am not entirely sure what the mainly tracksuited locals thought of a group of guys in suits hanging around watching a fellow in a tux and a girl in a fluffy dress violently slamming panels on a dance machine, but it must have looked hilarious.

I had fun! I hope everyone else did. And a happy new year to all! :3

Some kind of... multi-person selfshot, because we're just that cool.

'What, there are dancefloors without coloured arrows?!'

I think I fell into some kind of... disco time portal.

  Whew, it has been a tiring, yet fun weekend!

Friday evening was the Christmas party with my work colleagues, held at Sway, a restaurant/club in Holborn. To be honest, the place's organisation could have been a lot better - everything seemed rather unprepared, and the food took a while as well. The upshot of this all was that I ended up having to leave fairly early, when I had been expecting to be done with dinner ages before then, but I did have a really good time seeing my colleagues outside of work!

While I didn't go down there after dinner due to leaving, I managed to get a quick glance at the club section as well. It was 70s and 80's disco themed, and cheesy enough that I would not have been surprised if the entire ceiling of disco balls split open and oozed molten cheddar onto that ridiculous dancefloor.

Due to my double-booking, I then headed off to a gaming party/sleepover/cat safari at Matt's house. Unfortunately, I was struck by stomach pain which rendered me tired and immobile, so I spent a painful first half of the night upstairs lying down and waiting for painkillers to kick in. My mood was improved by the tuxedo kitty Mork, who seemed in a caring mood (which is odd - he is usually a bit of a treat-whore and so demands food for cuddles). But it was nice, he purred and nuzzled and curled up next to me, which was welcome company. Luckily I recovered in time to return to the living room and see the success of Tim, Anders and Matt's collaborative efforts at Megaman 3. 

It is a little known fact that Kenny is the archmage amongst kitties.

Mork on the piano!

The next morning, Anders was sadly not feeling very well and so went home. The rest of us met up with Jake and had a session of karaoke in Earl's Court, followed by the hearty meal of... a KFC family bucket. We were a fairly multicultural and similar-aged 'family' to say the least, but damn, it was cheap.

After that, a trip up to Embankment to snatch some DDR time. I've been trying to branch out a little, so we tried out the non-vocal of SEDUCTION, which was nice, and then used up two songs on Xmix1, which is three minutes long and includes sections of Dance Celebration, Votum Stellarum, Poseidon and Uranus. In total I played three games in a row - at my comfort level, instead of above, but I wasn't even exhausted afterwards, so perhaps I am getting less fragile! Hooray!

By contrast, a photo of me taken two years ago after a single DDR session.

Aaaand after that, a pub visit or two. I only felt like drinking right at the end, but I tried rum and coke for the first time and that was okay! I was pretty tired after all this, so I am glad today is a chill day, but that was all good fun. :3

ASOS money-off codes for all! Wheee~

 It's that time of year again! That time when I realise that I've been carelessly washing my jumpers until they have shrunk to doll-like proportions. And that the way things are going, I'll be wearing a burlap sack to New Year's. At least it won't matter if I spill things on it. ;__;

So it's a good time to be able to get money off things, right? How about at ASOS? :O

For once, given the level of reward, I've actually used a Facebook app - Fashion Bingo. It's basically 'spot the item, frame or lyric' with a card like the above, with rewards ranging from 5% to 30% off codes, or £1000 if you get crazy lucky somehow. I'm an Ellie Goulding fan, so I generally choose her. She is so cute. ♥
 

You can only click on items which show in the video, and only after they are shown. You win if you make a horizontal line.

I've played four times, and so far, I've managed to get two 10%'s and a 15% off code, so the returns are good! It looks like they might only work on full-price items (perhaps?) but that's still pretty decent. The codes will last until 30th December, but this game only runs until 14th December, so time to squirrel away some codes...

Here be spoilers (for Ellie)

 

Only you can be

The aching in my heart

My enemy

The only animal I couldn't fight

You hold me in the dark 

when storms arrive

...

And then she sings 'Only you' about 5000 times, in case you didn't click that panel yet.

War paint, for sailing the seven seas

'Why didn't I just go dressed as Luffy
from One Piece?'

So, I recently had to dress up for Imperial/UCL Japan Society boat party! And it was a ton of work, at least for me, so I figured I'd write about my amazing journey into the feminine world of cosmetic treachery, deception and illusions.

Hair
I attempted to curl it using some stronger products this time, but once again my incredible genetics won out. 'Firm hold', my flat, Asian ass. Gave up on that, secured the rest with a hairband and clip, and then twisted some fabric flowers into it. I borrowed the idea from Star Wars Ep. III's funeral scene.

Eyeshadow
I usually don't use this, but I thought I'd give coloured eyeshadow a go. I was wearing a green dress with silver accents, so I went for silver eyeshadow with a little smudge of greenish teal towards the outside.

For this, I used various 17 Eyes eyeshadows (17 eyes D:). I feel somewhat wary about buying that brand because 17 is a long way behind me now, but as yet no Boots cashiers have laughed in my face and snootily enquired if it wasn't a little 'young' for madam...

Eyeliner
I tried several brands of pencil eyeliner in the past. I don't know whether it's that I have eyelids oilier than ten thousand McDonalds meals or what, but they all kind of dusted off slightly over time, resulting in my overeye line ending up also below the eye. Panda eyes!

I wish I looked this cuddly when my eyeliner shifts.

So for once, I 'splashed out' (hah) £8 on some Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Espresso Ink, which is just a more delicious sounding way of saying 'brown coloured'. I suppose a makeup range with colour names like 'turd' or 'asphalt' may not sell so well. Anyway, I like this stuff. It actually stays put!

Mascara
I am not fond of mascara. I just cannot get it right. Inevitably some of it smudges onto an eyelid, then I poke myself in the eye with the wand, and a great clod of it falls off into my eye and forms a waterproof blob of fail orbiting my pupil. And so I'm left crying and clutching my bloodshot, streaky eye, lamenting everything wrong with the world.

Because I hate it and usually skip it, I'm still on the first tube I got. It's called Maybelline 'The Falsies' Volum'Express Waterproof 2: Electric Boogaloo. Seriously, it's like no-one can just call their product 'mascara' and be done with it.

Meanwhile, at the Maybelline factory.

And with that, my eyes were done.

Of course, none of this would show up on photo, that would
just be too easy.

Concealer
I've currently got a red scrape, bang in the middle of my nose. It's a remnant from my acrobatic double life as software engineer by day, cat burglar by night, and a laser beam that got too close. No, it's not because I scratched an itch too hard, why would you even say that? Get out of here. At the same time, I've been rather sickly this week, so I probably have the eye-bag equivalent of two rubbish sacks right now.

I use a blend of Revlon PhotoReady in Light Medium, a stick concealer, and the liquid MAC Select Cover-Up in NC30. Revlon's pretty good at covering, but it has little sparkly bits, which are harvested from the shed skin flakes of real vampires (maybe) and can cause an effect called 'cast'. These sparkles reflect light, which is fine and dandy until a camera flash, when all the areas you were trying to hide are suddenly blindingly white.

So I conceal the concealer (!) with a thin layer of the MAC liquid concealer. I find the MAC stuff a little too thin on its own, but it has a much less cakey finish, reduces the levels of Cullen detritus on my skin and colour matches my blindingly yellow skin nicely.

And so I evolved from 'me' to 'me with a bunch of paint on my face'. Fuck yeah.

Oh my god, I painted my nails silver too,
with all the finesse of a mentally-challenged
three-year-old.

Double dressup - Expo and Hallowe'en!

Mini top hat, yaaaay!

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote - been busy with starting work. But I thought I might as well chronicle my recent dressup adventures.

Firstly, the London MCM Expo 2012, I cosplayed as Mio from K-ON!, because I am fairly fond of her outfit in the ED, 'Don't Say Lazy'. I completely ran out of time while trying to make the dress, so I ... went as Lazy 'Don't Say Lazy' Mio. :'D I basically put together a top and a skirt instead. I still had everything else though - turquoise stockings, armwarmer and mini top hat.

The Expo was pretty fun all in all - got to check out Hitman: Absolution, pick up a little chibi Asuka figurine and watch Anders catch all the Pikachu-onesie cosplayers. Even got to check in on Kenny - oh most adorable of lazy, derpy-mouthed cats - on the way back. :3

The week after that, uni friends were holding a Hallowe'en party! I'd never been to one before. While it would have been fun to make a costume, I wasn't really up to it and wasn't expected to anyway so I bought mine.

Red Riding Hood! I'm not 'little' though, despite what some freakishly tall guests said. ;___;

Stockings were grievously harmed in the making of  this costume.

I bought cheap stockings and a suspender belt, intending to maul them a bit for a more 'escaped from wolf' look. They actually began destroying themselves from just... wearing them. Toes sticking out on the left foot? Yeah, that happened within about 10 minutes - my toenails made short work of them. Basically I had several holes and two ladders before my scissors even touched them! China quality, guys.

There was a slight worry that we had not been told exactly to dress up... but luckily, yes, some other people had done so, with varying levels of effort. Will had a fairly fabulous pregnant-with-Satan's-baby costume with black curly horned wig, fake glitter eyelashes and pillow-baby. The entire look was completed with a beer. :'D So classy. And so it was pretty fun hanging out in the kitchen or watching some completely incomprehensible black-and-white horror movie. 'Are those zombies having sex?'

After four beers, I was feeling completely healthy, despite my empty stomach. And then, I had two fateful Jägershots. My streak of healthiness continued for about half an hour more of wandering around, poking a drum kit and keyboard playing.

Then, very, very suddenly I was in the top floor bathroom, cycling between:

• Purging the offending liquor into a toilet
• Sleepily clinging to the floor, refusing to let myself be peeled off it
• Begging tearfully to ... not be left alone on the floor. Yep.

Add to this that I was still in costume, and I conclude that I have probably looked better in my life. Luckily this all went unwitnessed by most, I could still walk and remember mostly everything, Ramie called a cab and Matt (who had the misfortune of witnessing the above meltdown) managed to get me back home okay.

But I don't like the smell of aniseed anymore. ;__;