Recent Outfits

Not an outfit but these were my nails before the Halloween ones. A white base from Maybelline (pictured) with a purple metallic crackle from Avon.

I wore this when we went to look at a new car. Can't remember off the top of my head where my dress is from originally but I bought it from Oxfam. It's a nice stretchy size 18. I can wear it without the jumper but mostly I prefer not to. The jumper is a men's one originally from M&S but bought from PDSA. My mum had to shorten the sleeves as they were rather long. Necklace is a cheap owl one from Amazon.

I wore this Wednesday to visit the new Portishead Sainsbury's. It's very smart and new, I got flowers for being the first female customer (not technically but I don't think the woman had the chance to give them to anyone else). There was also glasses of fizzy orange juice - potentially alcoholic - and they were giving out free bags designed by a kid at the primary school I work at which was quite nice. We did do some shopping, their hot chocolate is delicious. Bigger packets than Tesco, cheaper and Fairtrade so I think we'll switch to buying there :D Other than that it'll probably be mostly top-up shopping if we go to their petrol station. If we're in Clevedon we go to Morrisons garage so it'll all depend on where we are or where we need to be when we need petrol.

One thing that annoyed me was that I applied for a job there numerous times, even went to an interview organised by the job centre and yet I saw people there that I don't understand how they got the job. One woman's only previous work experience is as a cleaner yet she was working the tills. A man who also had his interview arranged by the job centre who - from what I've seen before - has anger issues and I'm not sure if he's worked before and possibly has issues with learning. It certainly frustrates me but I think the biggest issue is Sainsbury's online application. Last 2 jobs, most recent education, references, and then a scenario questionnaire. It isn't complete enough to get a full picture of you and your history.

Top is from PDSA (can't remember where originally), skirt is the same and trainers were from Shoe Zone.

I wore this Saturday when we went to pick up the new car :) It's a silver 2004 Ford Mondeo. It is perfect! Mum loves it, she doesn't love parking it yet XD it's rather large. Dress is from Pink Clove, shirt is from New Look via PDSA, leggings are Lidl - they're comfy but starting to wear a little thin around the seams. Trainers are Converse.

I wore this when we went to visit a family friend in Clevedon. She's been mum's best friend since they were at secondary school and she's my Godmother. We don't get to see her much because she works Mon-Sat and mum's usually working Sunday's but this Sunday mum's week off work had just started so we popped up for a chat and show her the new car. Shirt is same as yesterday, trousers are Evans via PDSA.

I wore this Tuesday (yesterday) to go shopping in Clevedon. We did a stock-up of stuff for the freezer. We're trying to have a bit more organisation and variety in what meals we have. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it was rather dark thanks to the rain outside. Top is from Evans, jeans are from an old catalogue and boots (barely visible) are from TUK.

I was back at work yesterday and I'm already kinda exhausted. Although that may be more to do with the fact that I've got a cold. Ugh. I did think it was allergies at first but I had a sore throat and a cough which don't usually go with my allergy attacks. They're usually 24-48 hours of sneezing and runny nose which comes and goes super fast.

Blogtober Day 31 - Halloween!

I do enjoy Halloween. I love horror movies, the spooky side of life and cheesy decorations. :D This year I haven't really done much - just painted my nails:

The first picture was stage one of the initial attempt which I then had to remove for an interview (it went well and I should hear in just over a week).

This was this mornings attempt two. Practice will make perfect I think. Believe it or not my right hand came out better despite me being right handed. Must be residual traces of my childhood ambidextrous-ness coming out - I really need to practice that in case I break my arm or something.

Also meet Ethel. Ethel is my Halloween stuffed cat that I bought at the PDSA when I was volunteering there. It was probably Halloween 2012, I also bought a mug but I don't have a picture of that. She got the name Ethel from the Worst Witch books. The main villain girl is called Ethel Hallow and of course Hallow is the first half of Halloween but I didn't think that made a good name so I stuck with Ethel :)

Blogtober Day 30 - What Is On Your Christmas List?

Books as always. My Amazon fiction wishlist: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/1X21OFANT5ETE/ref=topnav_lists_1

A new phone. Ideally I'd like an iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S5 or something along those lines but I'm not in a financial position to have a contract at the moment (providing I get accepted at all) and they're too expensive to buy outright so I'm thinking the Motorola Moto G:

It would suit my needs for now and is better than my old phone (HTC Salsa) which is the main thing.

A Tesco Hudl 2 in Purple. I'd like a tablet for browsing in the evening and watching the odd video but I don't want anything too expensive and I like the look of the Hudl 2. The screen size is good too. 8.3 inches so bigger than the normal 7 but not so big as the clumsy looking 10's.

An iPod Classic. Sadly due to production being ceased it's looking highly likely that I'll have to buy used. I just wish I'd had the money to buy one sooner.

A Kindle so I can save what's remaining of my bookcase space for books by authors I already own. I also want a chance to read the classics but their charity condition is often not too favourable so to own them all for free on the Kindle is a big draw.

Lastly a Windows 7 Laptop. No image because it's not something that's brand specific, just needs to be 15.6 inch screen, at least 500GB hard drive and running Windows 7. I did debate being less picky and opting for Windows 8 but I've used 7 and am familiar with it, also I've heard from friends problems with updates trying to wreck the hard drive which means constant back-ups are necessary.

Speaking of back-ups a 1TB (minimum) external hard drive would be nice for said back-ups. Also at the moment where my PC's hard drive is tiny I have files spread over a couple of memory sticks which isn't very practical. A hard drive is easier to grab in the event of a house fire.

Blogtober Day 29 - Year In Review So Far.

So far this year has been like any other with a noticeable exception. I'll do a timeline sort of thing.

January: I had been volunteering at Oxfam with mum since November and it was fine. She had been ordered by the job centre to find voluntary work, I happened to be there and got suckered into joining too. We did Saturday afternoons. The normal job centre hassles.
February: Still at Oxfam. Did a course which I hated. The tutor said some rather out of line things regarding my weight, how close I am to mum and making assumptions about my mental health.
March: Mum got her job at Co-op so we both left Oxfam. I had to do organised work experience with the job centre so I started volunteering as Sue Ryder.
April: The car failed it's MOT so we had to scrap it.
May: Nothing of note that I can remember. Interviews, job centre hassle. The usual.
June: Did a course on Business Admin. It involved an interview at the end but despite the assumption of a lot of people on the course not having previous experience lack of experience was given as one of their reasons for not hiring me. I didn't mind too much as it was zero hours contract as and when you're needed and thanks to travel I was pretty much limited to two locations.
July: Left Sue Ryder. Someone mum knows sold us a car.
August: I had my 24th birthday. The job centre started talking about threats of full-time work experience at a city farm in Bristol.which I really enjoyerd.
September: I had a taster shift at Waitrose for something called Feeding Britain's Future which I really enjoyed, seeing behind the scenes etc. My job centre adviser thought it was a proper job interview though *rollseyes*. He did get me an interview with Churchill Cleaning Services which has lead to my job at the primary school down the road. The people I work with are nice and the job itself is fine, it's just 10 hours is not enough.
October: Nothing major so far this month. I am in the process of arranging an interview for later this week and I'm currently on half term so no work. There are a couple of other things in the works which I don't want to discuss in too much detail yet.

There we have it, my year so far. Started the same as any other, voluntary work, worry that things will never change, but now I have a job and things are starting to look up a bit - finally! :D

Blogtober Day 28 - Favourite Music.

My Chemical Romance. The band that got me through the hard times. In particular 'Welcome To The Black Parade'. The creativity of the video, the lyrics. It just means everything to me.

Fall Out Boy. As previously mentioned another of my favourite bands. The first album of theirs I bought was Infinity On High and 'Hum Hallelujah' is one of my favourite songs on the album.

Mika. A bit different to a lot of my music tastes which tends more towards the rock side but ever since he started I have loved Mika's music. 'Blame It On The Girls' is probably one of my favourites and the video is really cool and quirky too.

It wouldn't be a music list without The Cure. I've loved them even before I knew what Goth was. I remember I found a cassette of Disintegration in a charity shop and loved it immediately but my favourite has always been the classic 'Friday I'm In Love'.

As mentioned on the movie post Labyrinth is my all-time favourite film so for the incredible David Bowie what could I pick other than a song from the movie? 'Dance Magic' never fails to put a smile on my face and I often find myself humming or singing it in the shower.

There's so many other artists I could list considering how big a part of my life music is but I'll keep it to a list of 5. Maybe I'll start up a Music Monday feature or something? It's something to think about anyway.

Slightly frustrated today though as I was going to do a cool orange and black spiderweb design on my nails for Halloween but it's looking like I've got an interview Thursday evening so there's not much point adding the webs to my orange. I have taken a photo of the orange though which I'll try and post for Halloween and maybe I'll try and do a Photoshop of what it would have looked like.

Blogtober Day 27 - Favourite YouTubers.

I don't really watch YouTube that much. I mostly use it for music videos. I do have a couple of channels that I follow though.

Firstly have my current favourite video 'Save Rock and Roll' by Fall Out Boy featuring Elton John. I've listened to the album via YouTube and it's epic! Fall Out Boy are definitely one of my favourite bands.

Simon's Cat! The illustrations are so cute and I love that there's no words, only sounds. This is Scaredy Cat the 2014 Halloween video.

Laci Green is a really interesting person and of all her videos the ones on feminism are definitely the most important for clearing up misconceptions.

Scarlet Saint is the only 'lifestyle' blogger I follow (the whole thing lately around Zoella confuses me because I have no clue who she is). I first became aware of her when BBC3 did the documentary 'Diaries of a Broken Mind' about teenage mental health. Scarlet has problems with anxiety and dermatillomania (me too but I think to a lesser extent) and I immediately found her really interesting and relateable. I even watch her haul videos just because I find her style really open and friendly. I decided to showcase her video on Bisexuality myths and facts here because although I am gay rather than bisexual it's something I care about as evidenced by this post here.

Blogtober Day 24 - Where Do You Hope To Be In 10 Years?

1. Be in a job that I love.
2. Retrain for said job if necessary.
3. Be in a loving relationship.
4. Have moved house - possibly to one I've bought.
5. Published at least one book.
6. Made my way through at least part of my bucket list.

A short and sweet post today. Looking at the subject list I won't be back until Day 27 so I'll see you then.