Hello friends,

Once again, I've proven to be an awful regular blogger. In my defence, I've had a heck of a lot of work to do over the last two months or so, but I currently have nothing to do, so I'll write an update. All in all, it's not been the best two months, with thanks to a few unfortunate events mixed in with my own stupidity.

Beginning at my own stupidity, in the last few months, it's come to my attention just how awful I am with money. I have been absolutely, completely, totally and utterly broke for just about two months now (yes - I even used all of my overdraft). This came as a result of careless spending (not even on anything of substance - just the odd £10 and the odd £20), trying to keep up with friends who have a fair amount more money than I do, and not even attempting to keep track of it all. Budgeting is so easy, and I never once thought to do it, leading to a very broke and often very bored Ashleigh. I've been seriously bailed out by the Royal Bank of Mam and Dad when it comes to food and bills, and all the necessary stuff, but I'm lucky I have them. If I didn't I would be well and truly on my arse. So a great lesson has been learned, and will be put into practise next term - BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET.

On to horrible misfortune - my aunty was diagnosed with breast cancer back in September. It was all treatable, and an operation removed the tumor, but she still had to undergo chemotherapy, which she started a few weeks ago. Obviously, it's great news that it's treatable, but it's still shaken us as a family. It's not something you imagine to be a part of your life until it actually happens. The chemo is making her really sick too, and she'll be receiving treatment right up until the day before Christmas eve, which means she'll be feeling rough over Christmas. But we'll make the best of it, and make sure she has the best time she can. These kind of situations are all about positive mentality, which she has thankfully pulled right out of the bag. I know she'll be back on her feet and fighting fit again soon, and I can't wait for her to get there.

Misery struck again last week, as my dog Jess died at the age of 13. Again, this was something I didn't expect to affect me quite as much as it did, and I still haven't been home since happened, so heading home from university for Christmas is going to be weird this week. She was such a sweet little dog - an absolute idiot, but lovely. She's been part of the family since I was 6, and she's going to be missed.

Onto a more positive note - last week, I had the news that I'll be spending a year at the University of New Mexico next academic year! It wasn't my first choice (or any of my choices, to be honest) so I was initially quite disappointed, but then I took a moment to think about it. I would never have chosen to even visit New Mexico, let alone study there, so I'd never know what I was missing out on. Being placed somewhere out of my comfort zone is actually a great thing. My first choices for the universities were places I'm going to want to visit in two years, five years, and further into the future, and they're still going to be there when I'm done with university! But for now, I'm excited for my placement, and I'm happy. I'll be making another blog for my time over there, as it's something I'd really like to document and look back on. But I'll worry about that come next August when I'm jetting off. 

As of right now, it's the last week of the semester. I've but one presentation remaining, and then I'm free to leave. I actually can't wait go home this year. In the first year, nobody seemed to want to leave for Christmas, but it seems to be a completely different ball game - everyone's exhausted and ready for their home comforts! I'm headed to London for the weekend on Friday to stay with Emily, my cousin-turned-Mary-Poppins who now lives in Clapham. I may make a post about it... but I'm not promising anything.

Until next time, buddies.

xoxo

Two Months Later: I AM SO BAD AT THIS!

Hello friends.

Well, the inevitable has happened. I feel behind on my blog. AND I WAS DOING SO WELL!

I'm not entirely sure what happened. I just lost my motivation over summer, ironically being the period of time in which I had the most free time. It's not as if I had nothing to write about, either. I just lost the muse to do so. So I suppose this will be a whirlwind catch up.

In the middle of July, I went to France for two weeks with the father and brother. I'll be honest; my expectations were not sky high. I knew we were staying in a caravan (meaning personal space was limited, shall we say) and I definitely knew just how annoying these two individuals can be. But all in all, it was actually a very nice holiday. Unavoidably, my brother was a stroppy, grumpy teenager for a considerable amount of time, but I only nearly killed him once, which is a positive. The weather was beautiful for the majority of our stay, so there were plenty of pool days (we only went to the beach once, which I regret because the sea was absolutely gorgeous) and even - would you believe - a light tan. I also ate a truck load of lovely food, but I'm also happy about the fact that I managed to stay relatively healthy. I do love a good salad, and I indulged in plenty over the two weeks. All in all, a very happy fourteen days.

My dad, myself and my brother on the way to France! Possibly the only nice picture of the three of us since the brother was in nappies.

A bonus highlight of the holiday was the revelation of my dad's apparent love for 5 Seconds of Summer. Since falling in love with them and their music a few months ago, I've slowly wormed their songs into car playlists and such. Seeing as we drove to France, I brought the album, hoping for a few cheeky plays. I'm not kidding when I tell you that it was on repeat for the entire trip. All of it. And I'm also not kidding when I tell you that it's still in his car. He hasn't switched CDs. My dad listens to 5 Seconds of Summer every day, and he drives around for a living. You can't make this up. Well done, 5SOS!

Then came August, bringing the absolute best weekend of my life. Ever. I went to Reading Festival. There are simply no words to explain how much I enjoyed myself. Unfortunately, some of the people I went were, to put it politely, dicks. But honestly, it doesn't matter. I stayed with the people I liked and had an absolute blast. In total, I saw Jimmy Eat World, Foster the People, The Kooks, The Horrors, Jake Bugg, Clean Bandit, Imagine Dragons, A Day To Remember, The 1975, Paramore, Disclosure and Arctic Monkeys.

Some absolute highlights included a moment where Paramore's sound system cut out, and they were left with one working microphone and an acoustic guitar, and the crowd sang The Only Exception (it was so overwhelming, I actually cried), the Arctic Monkeys set in its entirety (even though I had lost all my friends by this point), and The 1975, who absolutely blew me away. Matty Healy is a true star. And then there's the Disclosure set, which blew my head off. I'm not necessarily a fan of that kind of music, but that set was like some kind of religious experience. I was absolutely entirely consumed by the whole affair (okay - I wasn't exactly sober but THAT'S NOT THE POINT) and I think being around five rows from the front in a tent overflowing with tens of thousands of people may have contributed to that. When it was over, I felt like I had been dragged through a bush backwards, and I couldn't help but think that's how you're supposed to feel after something like that. It was surreal and incredible and I cannot wait to go back next year. (I would insert a photo here, but between a combination of no phone battery and enjoying myself far too much to document ever move, I ended up taking about two photos all weekend. Oops.)

So here we are in September! It's been a slow starter - nothing all too exciting has happened, but I moved into my new house for uni today! I absolutely love my room, even if the house could do with a few improvements on the whole. I may do a house/bedroom theme post in the future when it's all completely decorated and looking lovely. Who knows?

And that's pretty much it for now. I hope I've patched up the two-month hole in my blog somewhat, and now that I'm back at uni, I'll probably find motivation to continue blogging more frequently. (Let's be honest, what motivates me to write these things is knowing that it's more fun than doing something important like working. Procrastination Level 100!)

Until next time, chums!

xoxo

Birthday Lush Haul!

Hello Friends!

So last Friday was my 19th birthday and I must say, I was slightly spoilt, particularly in the Lush department. Finally, my hinting Instagram pictures, tweets and Snapchats have paid off and the people around me have at last realised that I'm now partial to the odd Lush product.

Quite a few of them a new to me, but I'm excited to give them all a go. But nevertheless, I thought I'd make a little post including all of my little treats. Enjoy and be jealous!

Here's the Creamy Candy bubble bar - I had The Comforter too, but managed to use that one before I even had chance to take a picture of the whole thing, I only used just over half, but it was still the bubbliest bath I have ever seen!

The old trusty Big Blue. I've bought this quite a few times myself and I am obsessed with the smell of this. It's not sweet and it's not anything else either. It's just bloody lovely.

The Sex Bomb. Y'know, just in case. (As if.)

Space Girl. I've bought this myself before too. I was apprehensive about the glitter at first because I didn't really fancy emerging from the bath looking like a disco ball, but it's actually just a really subtle shimmer that doesn't even stick to you. It just looks nice in the water!

Dragon's Egg. I've never had this before but it just looks and smells mightily refreshing.  And it's massive, so there's extra time to marvel at the fizzing of it. It really does fascinate me.

Sakura. Now according to the Lush website, this fellow will 'evoke the first sign of optimism the first sign of spring brings'.  I'm told I'm quite a pessimistic person. Let's see if this balances out, shall we?

Last but not least, Think Pink. It's another ol' faithful, this one. When I think of Lush, I think of this bath bomb. I don't know why. I just do!

So there we have it. I have officially found an incentive to bathe. I've always been a shower person, entirely against the idea of lying in a pool of my own filth, but Lush just changes things, doesn't it? Lovely jubbly. 

Until next time, amigos!

xoxo

(ps. After taking all the pictures for this, I now can't stop smelling my hands. SO GOOD, MAN.)

Mid-Year Check In

Hello friends,

Blogging has been a bit slow over the last few weeks as I've been enjoying the remainder of my time as a Fresher. So this post will be a fill-in of what has happened recently, but is mostly a check-in point for the year. A progress log, if you will, of how my year has been going.

So Friday was the day I said goodbye to the Swansea Student Village, where I've been living for my first year of uni. The process of leaving was a surreal feeling, watching everything gradually being packed up over the last week or so. I may have been back and forth from home a lot throughout the year, but I still became immensely attached to the village. It was like a tacky little holiday camp, but has left me with some incredible memories. What was nice about the last few weeks was that my housemates and I seemed to come together and become closer than ever before. Admittedly, I've had my ups and downs with the people I've lived with, and I've felt let out on numerous occasions, just because I feel like I'm very different to some of them, but none of that seemed to matter over the last few weeks. Obviously, the idea of being separated for three months dawned on us (and in my case, a lot longer, as I won't be living with them next year) and we've all kind of clung onto each other. We've made the absolute most of the Swansea night life and spent way more nights in watching films and TV shows together as our little family. It's been really nice, and I'm really going to miss my little crumbums next year (inside joke - anybody seen We're The Millers?).

Ready for the summer ball. I'm going to miss these freaks!

So now I'm back home for the summer, desperately seeking a job or something to do with my time that'll cost me no money, especially now I have reason to save. I bought a weekend ticket for Reading festival this August. At first, only a small group of us were going but now more and more of my friends seem to be buying tickets. It's going to be quite the weekend, and I'm extremely excited for the whole affair! I also have a fortnight in France with the family to look forward too, which should be nice. There's also my birthday at the end of this month, where I get to see some lovely people I haven't seen in a long while (cough +Rachel Bott) and have some self-indulgent fun. I have faith in this summer. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun!

Now onto the evaluative side of this blog. At the beginning of the year, I set myself a few goals for the year. They weren't strict resolutions, just a few things I thought would improve my 2014. So how am I doing so far?

Blogging: So far so good, right? In January, I set myself a target of at least one blog post a month. As it turns out, I have a lot more to talk about than I expected to, and I've posted twelve posts since that target. A few of my posts on what I would consider to be more important topics have done pretty well too, which I'm happy about. Apparently, I can speak a lot more sense than I thought sometimes! I'm just enjoying documenting and writing about some of the things in my life and I definitely want to keep this up.

Living: In January, I didn't think I was using my time wisely enough. This probably came from the fact that deep down, I was disappointed with my first term at university. It wasn't anything like I expected it to be, and I felt like I wasn't doing enough to enjoy it. But I do think I've done a lot more in the second half of the academic year. I've gone out a lot more, I've expanded my friendship group and I've generally made more of an effort to be open to new possibilities. As a result, I do thing I'm living a lot more. Obviously, I still spend a massive chunk of my time in front of my beloved laptop... but baby steps, guys. Baby steps!

Image: The goal was to either change myself until I could find an image I was happy with, or to ease myself into being comfortable in my own skin. I expected fulfilling this goal to be a lot harder than it was. This year, I'm beginning to realise that, holy shit, I'm not ugly. Am I overweight? Yes. Does that define me? Not really. Obviously I have my down days where I look in the mirror and see precisely nothing that I like, but those days are becoming less frequent. I've found a balance between dressing and finding an image that I'm comfortable with, and not giving a damn what other people think of me. If I feel good, why should I care about what other people think? The other night, I got called a 'fat bitch' by an absolute idiot in a drunken state. Had that happened some time last year, it would have sent me into a spiral of self hate. But you know what? I really do not care. 

Positivity: I have a friend who says I'm the most pessimistic person he has ever met. The more he says that, the more I play up to it, because our friendship thrives from that kind of banter. But whilst I have a strong ability to be a pessimistic hypochondriac-diva, I'm actually more positive now than I've been for a while. And I think my response to the previous three goals has proven that. So yes - so far, so good!

There's one more thing that can't go without a mention. After my Gran died in April after suffering with dementia, I promised myself I'd become more involved with related charity communities. So this weekend, I signed up to a Memory Walk in aid of the Alzheimer's Society, with all of my family. It's such a wonderful charity who do a lot to help people who suffer from dementia and their families. The walk is sponsored, so if you're in a position to donate, here is a link to my JustGiving page, where you can also find some details about the work the charity does and the event itself. 

So that concludes my June check-in. Here's to another six months of positivity!

Until next time, muchachos!

xoxo

May Catch Up!

Hello friends!

I haven't written anything for a few weeks now, so I thought we'd play catch up. May has been quite a busy month for me so far and I can't quite believe that it's just over a week from being over already! But now that I'm done with university work for the year and I have some more free time, here are a few stand outs of the month.

May didn't get off to a great start for me. As I may have mentioned once or twice, my immune system isn't great, and right from week 1 of May, I had managed to land myself a kidney infection. It started off with me either being boiling to the touch whilst shivering uncontrollably, or a human ice cube whilst sweating like a pig. Then came the agonising pain that felt like somebody kicking me very very hard in my sides constantly for the best part of a week, resulting in a stable diet of cocodamol and antibiotics and virtually nothing else (you know I'm really ill when I lose my appetite - this was serious business here!).

But, to brighten up my week of illness, I carted myself off to Cardiff to see McBusted at the Motorpoint Arena, with my two best friends, my aunty and two other chaps. I might have been in pain, but I have to say - the show was AWESOME. I felt like I was 8 years old again, finally getting the chance to see Busted live after being deprived of such a treat the first time round! I had more than enough fun to forget about the state of my health, and it's always lovely to see the McFly boys perform. We were stood right at the back of the arena as we arrived quite late (cocktails took priority - sorry boys!) but it made no difference, as far as I'm concerned. I still enjoyed every song they played and managed to get one or two great photos with the added bonus of extra room to dance!

Doug's wonderful rendition of My Heart Will Go On - hilarious.

The next thing was to move back to Swansea for the last term of my first year in uni. I didn't have a great deal to do but seeing as I was paying full rent, I figured I would make the most of the Student Village. I had one essay to write which, for a change, I feel fairly confident about. Then I had some time to just chill out with friends. The weather has been pretty amazing recently (she says confidently whilst a thunderstorm cracks into action outside) so everybody has been outside in the sun having barbecues and playing ball games, like a good old fashioned 'summer'. It's been pretty awesome! But unfortunately, it couldn't last forever. I still had one exam to go so inevitably, I had to do some revision.  I may have gone slightly overboard with the visual learning, but what can I say? It works for me. 

My wall of knowledge. Actually covers the length of my bed.

Another treat May brought me was a trip to London to see We Will Rock You. The show closes in the West End at the end of this month, so I absolutely had to see it before it left. Not only am I still in love with the show from when my school performed it back in 2011 (I could still quote most of the script and sing every note of every song, and had to try very hard to keep my mouth shut during the performance!), but my absolute favourite West End star, Oliver Tompsett was playing the lead role of Galileo Figaro. I fell in love with him as Fiyero in Wicked, and my adoration has only multiplied by seeing him in this role. He is so talented, it physically hurts me. I recommend anyone who likes musical theatre to just find something he's in and go see it. I'm not sure what his next show is, but when I do I'll be sure to share. You should also check out this song to give yourself an idea of the ridiculous smoothness of his voice. So obviously, I very much enjoyed the show. I'm sure it's touring again some time in the near future, so be sure to see it if it plays near you! 

I also had a whiz around the London Eye whilst I was in the city, which I had never done before. It was a cool experience - I found it a little surreal seeing so much flat, built-up land coming from a tiny valley with a mountain in every direction you look. 

So after these treats, I returned to Costa del Swan for some last minute revision and to sit that dreaded Politics exam (which was held in an Indian restaurant - quite bizarre). It could have gone better, but then again, it could have gone worse. All I know is I'm glad to have it over with and I can safely declare my first year of university over!

So that's been my May so far. It's definitely been better than April, I'll tell you that for nothing. Next month should be fun with the end of year shenanigans, the summer ball and of course, my birthday! 

Until next time, muchachos!

xoxo

A Wicked Evening!

Hello friends!

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day for me, mostly because I got to see my favourite musical ever Wicked for the third time! I knew it was the closing night last night, so literally the first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning was Wicked. Then to add insult to injury, I saw about ten pictures of the opening scenery from various other Wicked lovers on Facebook, and I was absolutely gutted I hadn't had chance to see it while it was at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. But then, a change in the weather was to come! I got a phone call from my lovely chummy +Ffion Thomas, asking me if I wanted to go with her and her family, as her brother's girlfriend couldn't go any more (for very good reason, too!). She didn't need to ask twice - I WAS GOING!

The opening scenery - I'm always mesmerised by that map!

 

I had been to London twice before to see Wicked, both times with the same cast. There's always apprehension about touring productions and different casts, especially when what you had seen the first time was absolute perfection. But I have to say, this production did not even slightly disappoint. Obviously it was a little different, and I have my favourites from both casts, but it was truly incredible. I don't know if it's because I'm a few years older than last time I saw it, or maybe because I've been in more productions myself since then, but I noticed so many more details this time around, like the absolutely obscene standard of dancing throughout, or how tight and powerful the harmonies of the chorus were. In particular, the Dancing Through Life and One Short Day sequences showed off the amazing chorus, and still remain as my favourite scenes.Not to mention our lovely Fiyero and Elphaba nailing one of my favourite duets ever, As Long As You're Mine. I'm just in awe. Everything was amazing. I recommend absolutely anyone to buy tickets to see Wicked, either on the remainder of its tour, or on the West End. It is powerful, moving, funny and witty (seriously, some of the Wizard of Oz references are brilliant!). There's a reason this is my favourite show. Okay, I think I'm done gushing now. 

And of course, there was an excellent reason I got my hands on that ticket! Ffion's brother's girlfriend, Sophie, had gone into labour earlier in the day. Then in the opening bars of One Short Day, we got a phone call from the hospital and a little wave of commotion made its way across our row as we learned that Ffion's second nephew, Daniel Ray Jones had made his way into the world safely. Congratulations, Aunty Ffi! 

So I said this post was going to be happy, and I think this pretty much stepped up to the cause! An all round excellent evening to write about.

Until next time, amigos!

xoxo

Why Dementia Sucks.

Hello friends, I'm afraid another serious post is upon us. Hopefully the posts following this will be far lighter reading, but this is an important topic, and is something that's shaken me to the core for the last few weeks.

On Wednesday 9th April, my family sadly lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's disease. She had been in hospital for a few weeks and her health had been deteriorating severely and quickly. By the end of it, we were just glad to see the end of her suffering, regardless of how difficult it was for the rest of us. I wasn't exceptionally close to my gran in the later years of her life, but she was always there, and before her dementia got the better of her, always brightened the room and brought a smile. I was shaken by her death more than I ever expected to be (not that I really knew what to expect, having never lost a close family member until now).

But this post isn't necessarily about my loss or my mourning. It's about the disease that brought it about. Over the past few months, I've done quite a bit of research into Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia. Dementia is a difficult term to explain articulately, but it's basically progressive damage to nerves in the brain, causing loss of memory, confusion and other symptoms which are all hard to watch someone experience. Here is a basic summary of the disease and its symptoms, or this video explains it all equally as well.

 But what I've come to realise is that regardless of how destructive it is and how big a scale it affects people on, there still seems to be a stigma of some sort around the disease. Whilst research and support organisations exist, they are nowhere near as well-known as organisations for the likes of cancer and other diseases. I just find this hard to believe and frankly, ridiculous, when dementia accountable for so many deaths. In less than ten years, over 1 million people in the UK alone will have some kind of dementia. And yet nobody in the media, in politics or anywhere else that would raise awareness seems to talk about it.

Fortunately, I have found an organisation that sparks some hope to the cause. What I want to do more than anything is to help break the stigma surrounding dementia and Alzheimer's, and to see a more public approach to tackling the disease as a whole. The comedy genius and all-round legend, Seth Rogen has taken a strong step towards making this happen. He and his wife have set up an organisation called Hilarity For Charity, in aid of Alzheimer's. He has also made a great effort to expose the disease to the American public and government. Here is a video of his speech to Congress on the matter. I urge you to watch it, because he truly hits the nail on the head.

So that's pretty much it. All I want to do is spread awareness in the hope that Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia become better recognised so that more people can be successfully diagnosed, sufferers and carers can have the level of support they deserve and to make the campaign against dementia as big as campaigns for other illnesses. Please do give these videos a watch, and if you're affected by any of this personally, I urge you to get involved in some way, whether that's by sharing your experience, joining in a charity event or even creating your own, which is something I hope and aim to do in the near future. 

Until next time, amigos

xoxox

(ps. I promise my next post will be something a little more smiley. Here's to hoping the rough times have come to an end for now!)

Ideal Roadtrip Playlist TAG!

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Hello, friends!

A few weeks ago, the lovely +Rachel Bott tagged me in a post, and I'm only just getting around to responding because of a few crazy weeks of uni work. So this will be an IRP post, which stands for Ideal Roadtrip Playlist. It's not going to be quite as long as Rachel's extensive post, but I thought I'd make a list of some oldie-but-goodies, and some songs that are really getting me in the mood for summer!

1. Rather Be - Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne 

2. Best Song Ever - One Direction

3. Best Day Of My Life - American Authors

4. Paradise City - Guns N' Roses

5. (I Can't) Forget About You - R5

6. Starships - Nicki Minaj

7. Chasing The Sun - The Wanted

8. American Idiot - Green Day

9. Dress and Tie - Charlene Kaye ft. Darren Criss

10. Red Lights - Tiesto

11. September - Earth Wind and Fire

12. Bubbles - Biffy Clyro

13. We Built This City - Starship

14. She Moves in Her Own Way - The Kooks

15. Brave Heart - Neon Jungle

16. In Too Deep - Sum 41

17. I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys

18. Somebody Told Me - The Killers

19. In This City - Iglu and Hartly

20. Town Called Malice - The Jam

21. Love Drunk - Boys Like Girls

22. Lies - McFly

23. Kiss N' Tell - Ke$ha 

24. Counting Stars - OneRepublic

25. I Predict a Riot - Kaiser Chiefs

26. I'll Be There For You - The Rembrandts 

27. Pompeii - Bastille 

28. No Tomorrow - Orson

29. How Ya Doin'? - Little Mix

30. Jump - Van Halen 

So there you have it! Thirty songs that would significantly improve any journey I was to travel. Some are better known than others, but they all just make me want to go drive somewhere (if I could drive, that is). Do feel free to make your own post involving Rachel's invented tag. 

Until next time, chums!

xo

These are a few of my favourite things...

Almost every blog of any kind that I follow has made one of these posts and one point or another. Yes, it's that time in our online relationship at which I share with you my favourites of (more than) several categories. Obviously, some blogs would be more specific about these things but I'm really just a rambler, so the list will be general. The majority of what I talk about is going to be highly recommended by me, so if you haven't checked them out already, I urge you to. They may not be your cup of tea, but hey - they just might be!

Bands/Artists

Without a doubt, my favourite band has to be McFly.

 I share this fact with a great sense of loyalty. They came onto the music scene in 2003 and, with a slight blip (it really wasn't cool to like them in my group of friends, and I can't believe that actually stopped me from listening to them but it did), I've been a fan from the start. 10 years of awesome music, cute faces, hilarious Youtube videos and a lot of ups and downs. I sincerely recommend them if you've lived under a rock for the last decade and have never heard of them. If you like anything from pop to synth to beach to rock, you're going to find at least one album you like.

Lately, I've also gotten quite into the Arctic Monkeys after hearing their AM album which is fantastic in every way possible. I was never a fan before, but that one record has converted me. There's just something about it, man. 

I'm also unashamedly in love with a band called R5. Maybe I should feel a little shame because 18-year-old front man, Ross Lynch is the star of a corny-as-anything Disney Channel show called Austin and Ally. But alas, no shame is to be felt.  Made up of four siblings and a friend, they are the definition of feel-good. I know they don't float everybody's boat (I've tried playing their music to friends who have greeted me with blank, unimpressed expressions) but they simply never fail to make me smile. The fact that they're all gorgeous helps a bit, too.

Youtubers/Vloggers

The list of Youtube channels I am subscribed to is probably longer than my arm. A while ago, I went through a Youtube-crazy phase and... well, I haven't gotten out of it just yet. I could talk about so, so many channels and tell you what's wonderful about them all, but I'm going to condense this as much as I possibly can. 

Zoella. This girl is wonderful. I really don't take much of an interest in beauty blogs (read: I couldn't give one fuck), but I really enjoy Zoe's videos simply because she is so likeable. She always looks fantastic, and she does it on a budget which is something a broke-ass student such as myself can appreciate. I'll name-drop her brother, Joe Sugg (ThatcherJoe) here too. He's hilarious.

Tyler Oakley. King/Queen/Almighty Ruler of Youtube. As far as I am concerned, he can do no wrong. He is flawless, funny, and more importantly, honest as anything. 

ItsKingsleyBitch. Kingsley. This was one of the first channels I subscribed to whilst watching his first Christmas Overexposed Countdown. It's not often I can pinpoint a favourite video on a whole channel, but on this occasion, I can. Overexposed 2010 #7: Love The Way You Lie. I have never ever laughed that much at a Youtube video. Just. Watch it.

Jim Chapman. A more recent discovery. I clicked with his videos right away. We have the same sense of humour, we think the same things, we share a lot of opinions. I want to high-five him just for understanding my brain without ever actually interacting with me in any way.

ItsGrace. Grace Helbig. Another very recent discovery. Unpopular reality: I was not subscribed to DailyGrace. I had no interest. But as the controversy over her leaving MyDamnChannel at the start of 2014 got the Youtube community talking, I decided to subscribe to show some support and absolutely did not regret it. I'm honestly looking forward to seeing her every day in a new video. She is honestly hilarious and I hope her new channel has every bit of the success as DailyGrace did! 

MeanMugen. Here's the wild card. The story is, I follow this guy on tumblr and saw that he was starting a Youtube channel, so I chose to subscribe. Thus far, he has only made three videos on this channel, but I think he's got this down already, and I'm excited to see where this channel goes. Give him a chance guys - make sure to subscribe!

TV Shows

Glee. I'm not even going to try to make you like this show. Either you do or you don't. As an avid fan from 2009, even I appreciate that the plot has fallen apart over the years, as has the continuity and overall standard. Also the songs just sound like covers now, and it's lost its originality. But do you know what? I love it. It's not even a case of liking it any more. I'm in it until the end now, it's like a blood bond or something. 

Pretty Little Liars. Oh. My. God. This show is absolutely incredible. I pretty much marathon-ed the entire three and a half series of it in the space of around two weeks when I discovered it in the summer. I was entirely hooked. If you've never seen it before, the establishing plot is a group of five girls. One of the girls, Alison, goes missing, and the show really begins on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance. I'll say nothing more of the plot because even in the pilot, there's a shock plot twist. Any idea of an upcoming plot you have when watching the show is guaranteed to be wrong. It's so unpredictable, and yet every twist seems to be PERFECT for the plot. Amazing. I urge anyone of any demographic to watch it, and to stick with it. And when you get to the mid-season finale of season 4, you might as well watch the spin-off show, Ravenswood, starring one of the much loved characters of PLL, Caleb, played by Tyler Blackburn.

Teen Wolf. Another new discovery of mine. I had two reasons for starting to watch Teen wolf. Number 1, I discovered the beauty of Colton Haynes and number 2, everybody and their dog on tumblr were talking about it and I felt a bit left out. So I started at the beginning and became obsessed after about three episodes. The second half of season 3 has just started and it is absolutely incredible so far. There's a jump in the acting, the plot, the darkness and it really is amazing. An excellent watch if you're into all that supernatural stuff, or like me, really enjoy looking at beautiful, shirtless men (I'm looking at you, Hoechlin).

Beauty products

As I've said before, I'm really not into the beauty side of anything. I care very little for fashion and what not. As long as I look presentable, I'm not particularly fussed. But I will tip-toe slightly into the pool of beauty vlogging just because I need to share my love for this one product.

Maybelline Master Precise liquid eye liner. This thing is an actual god send. Up until my purchase of this very product, I was never blessed with the ability of being able to use liquid eye liner. I just could not master it. But this product has just made it far easier for me for some reason. It's more of a pen and that seems to help my shaky hand draw on some flicks that actually tend to match each side! It stays on, too, which is very good if you're one of those people like me whose eye make up tends to smudge whatever you do. Highly recommended.

So I think I'll leave it there for now. Maybe I'll save some other specifics for a rainy blogging day with no inspiration. Do check out the things you've never heard of in this blog, because everybody likes to learn. I've been me, you've been you. Bye for now!