Superdrug Haul (Also Known As Alex Spends Money She Doesn't Have...)

I popped into Superdrug to buy some "time of the month" supplies and whilst there figured I would pop a few new beauty items in my basket to cheer myself up...oops. I ended up spending WAY too much but I did get some nice new stuff! And I haven't done a big shop like this in a very long time.

Things I actually needed and provide some use in my life- floss and Nurofen. Nurofen are the best painkillers ever, highly recommend and well, there's not much to say about floss. Moving on...

These facemasks are amazing, make my skin feel great, always enough in the packet and at 99p PLUS three for two theres not much else to say other than pick some of these up when you're next in Superdrug. 

Oh what a surprise Alex brought more Rimmel make up! I picked up the Lasting Finish concealer, mono eyeshadow in "Gold Record" and the blush in "Santa Rose" because I don't have a blush in this colour and I've heard many good things. Rimmel is my favourite highstreet brand and I can't wait to try out these new products. 

I also picked up a Tanya Burr Lipgloss in "I Found Nemo" which is a really pretty coral pink. I wanted to get this for a while but was swung by the new packaging, it's so much more classy looking and looks high end despite the highstreet price. I can't wait to wear this. 

So that was my splurge in Superdrug...please let me know if you've tried any of these products and your thoughts!

Also on a completely random note, can high street brands STOP sealing their products with sellotape?! It's so annoying to remove and always leaves marks on the packaging. Worse is when people peel off the sellotape and USE the product or test it and then put it back. Ugh. Sort it out high street shops!! 

xxx

Interior: Pinboard

I am currently redecorating my bedroom. Since I was little I've always had walls absolutely covered in photos, ticket stubs, posters and inspiring quotes. However, soon I'm gonna be repainting the walls and so am already thinking about what to decorate my new bare walls with.

I'm not going to lie I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest pinning and planning (I know, my room will never look how some of those rooms look, sob) and I already know I want one wall dedicated to travel. However I also am not going to get away from my rustic, memory filled walls. 

So I found a pinboard that I had when I was about ten (and painted myself...hence the dodgy colours) and decided it to cover in a whole arrangement of memories. From a flyer about our freshers party, a bookmark from Washington DC, currency from both Vietnam and Bahrain and even a fake ticket to a fictional bands concert (Hectic Glow from The Fault In Our Stars) this has everything. I also have photos of all my favourite friends, a London Zoo ticket with my favourite animal otters on, Paris momentos, and even the wrapping paper my best friend used on my birthday present two weeks ago because I thought it was adorable paper. 

It only took me about fifteen minutes to arrange everything and get it looking how I wanted and I can't wait to hang this in my room. I think I'm gonna get more pinboards for my walls, I could even start theming them. Hmmmmm. 

If you want to follow me on Pinterest feel free btw. I'll leave the link here

Any interior tips? 

xxx

Reading 2015

Shamefully, I have never been to a festival before. I know, I'm a disgrace. I've always wanted to but have just never had to organisation skills to get it arranged with friends. However, Friday the 28th of August my friend and I headed to Reading festival for the day so I thought I would share the experience.

I know, going for one day and not even camping is hardly the full festival experience, but there was two reasons why we didn't go for longer 1) money (a weekend ticket is EXPENSIVE!) and 2) I wasn't a big enough fan of some of the Saturday/Sunday line up artists to warrant spending that much money. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to go for the full weekend and camp- Summer 2016 maybe?

Outfit 

I have literally no good photos of my outfit from the day...sorry. However for outfit I decided to keep it simple with a summery cami top from Primark that had this lovely blue and white flower pattern on, shorts from New Look and a grey hoodie from Asos. Of course, wellies were essential. I also put a pair of leggings in my bag which I was grateful for around 9pm when the temperature dropped and I started getting very chilly. And sunglasses were a must as we were actually very lucky with the weather and it was beautifully sunny. 

Make Up

I kept make up pretty simple, just going for a decent base, bit of bronzer, mascara and then making sure my brows looked neat and defined. I used suncream on my face to keep my skin protected, then a primer and made sure I set everything with a powder. I even used a setting spray which I'm never entirely sure makes much difference but I figure doesn't hurt to use it right? 

Eucerin Sun Fluid Mattifying SPF 50

Benefit PoreFessional (Sample Size) 

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in Vanilla

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in Ivory 

Benefit Rollerlash Mascara (Sample Size) 

Topshop Brow Pencil (Brown)

Topshop Bronzer in Sandcastle 

Rimmel Lasting Finish Powder Foundation in Light Porcelain 

Make Up Revolution Pro Fix

Real Techniques Powder Brush

Real Techniques Expert Face Brush

Real Techniques Nic's Picks Duo Fibre Face Brush 

And a random stippling brush I got from a set off ebay

Music

We saw some really amazing acts, from Panic! At The Disco, Bastille, All Time Low (who are two of my all time favourite bands) Alt J and the headliners Mumford and Sons who were incredible. We also caught some artists we hadn't heard before on other stages such as Elle King who was fabulous and I am now officially a fan, and Sunset Sons who my friend had heard of but I hadn't but were really great! 

I don't have too many good photos as I was too busy enjoying the live music but I thought I'd post them anyway. 

P!ATD

ATL

Bastille

Mumford and Sons

Top Tips From A First Timer

• Be prepared for all weathers- that means suncream, sunglasses but also wellies and something to keep you warm. 
• Take tissues, hand sanitiser and wet wipes. Festival toilets are certainly not pleasant and you don't want to be caught short.
• If you can take some snacks/something to keep you hydrated (water not vodka preferably) as food and drink on the festival site is ridiculously overpriced.
• Check out some of the smaller stages, you might discover your new favourite bands! 
• Portable chargers are a life saver- this meant I could take as many photos/videos as I wanted and use my social media to my hearts content whilst not worrying about have no battery for the journey home. I have this Anker one and I highly recommend it.
• Make use of the app. Reading and Leeds has a free app that has the complete schedule for every stage which was super useful for planning our day

So that's my Reading experience in one post, as I have said I was a newbie but will definitely be heading back for more. 

Have you been to any festivals this summer? 

xxx

Vietnam: The Food

"But it wouldn't as awful as a summer in Ohio without cable, hot water, Vietnamese food...or you"

This is a lyric from one of my favourite musicals The Last Five Years and I gotta say I understand what Cathy is singing about. Vietnamese food was damn good.


We ate traditional Vietnamese food pretty much everyday, from crab spring rolls to rice to noodles. Some personal favourites were dumplings, beef steak and sweet potato fries with sesame seeds on. Mmmmmn.

Before going to Vietnam the closest I'd come to Vietnamese cuisine was the Asian style of Wagamamas, but now I will be hunting down a Vietnamese restaurant near me. I fell completely in love with the food.

This tasted similar to Pad Thai and was absolutely delicious. 

Street BBQ- a hot plate in which sweet potato, squid and beef were all cooked on. Absolutely delicious but the spitting oil was seriously hot when it caught your leg! 

Otherwise known as beef steak, this was brilliant. It was beef steak, chips, egg, pate and vegetables in a thick gravy like sauce which when finished you mopped up with bread. Delicious! 

Our food on the last night was delicious, especially our fruit mocktails. It was even decorated with little ducks made out of carrot which was adorable until my friend broke mine. Grr. Also enjoy T and K in the background! 

I wish I'd taken more photos of the food, I guess at the time I was too busy enjoying! We also had a food tour of Hanoi where we we tried lots of different foods from around the Old Quarter, including fried food that was freshly cooked. I had a sweet potato doughnut which was genuinely one of the best things I've ever tasted, a long with coconut ice cream and finishing with egg coffee. Egg coffee sounds gross I know but it was really more like a creamy, milky thick layer on top of coffee. It sounds bizarre but honestly it was so good! 

And finally, not technically Vietnamese but in Bangkok airline on my layover I had a green tea frap from Starbucks which was damn incredible. WHY IS THIS NOT A THING IN BRITISH STARBUCKS? But this just reminded me to mention how incredible the tea was in Vietnam. Served with pretty much every meal and served cold it was delicious and I wish I could have bottled it and brought it back to England.

If you ever find yourself near a Vietnamese restaurant I strongly advise you to go in- it's delicious!

Now I'm craving a sweet potato doughnut and some Vietnamese tea...

xxx 

Photobox Polaroids

I am one of those people that has thousands of photos on their phone, but I very rarely print them off. I'm such a photo hoarder but in reality I only look at one or two photos at a time (the ones I pick as my phone lockscreen). Since going to uni I've been making a real effort to print off my photos either to stick up on my walls or to put in a photo album or my diary. 

I find Photobox has some really good deals and you can get a lot of prints for not much at all. Ages ago I had £5 credit and that got me about 100 prints! 

However, when I saw they had some summer deals on and I went on their website the polaroid prints caught my eye. I love polaroids, the instant and vintage feel about them, so having my carefully shot iPhone photos printed onto polaroids was the best of both worlds. I got 12 decent sized polaroid prints for £10.99 including delivery which I think is pretty good value considering how expensive real polaroids cost. 

The polaroids come in this little box with a magnetic close which I thought was a really nice touch.

These are my 12 prints- a selection of photos from my last term of uni/beginning of summer

There was the option to add text before ordering. I did this on some of them leaving some others blank. 

On the blank ones I'm free to write my own caption which I love. 

Photobox have their sale on for another few days so pick up some cute photos whilst you can! I can't wait to stick these on my wall. 

*This post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own* 

xxx

Vietnam: The Other Volunteers

My time in Vietnam could have been very different had it not been for the fantastic other volunteers on the same project as me. There was 13 of us in total, 7 French girls, 2 American girls, 2 Japanese and 1 other British girl. We spent pretty much every minute of our time together, from when we woke up to when we went to sleep, eating together, working together, relaxing together and even sharing a room (two/three to a room). By the end of the trip we were all really really great friends, and saying goodbye really sucked!

Super professional hard working volunteers...

One of our forfeits was to post an ugly selfie 

Gals in green

Relaxing on our boat trip to Ha Long Bay

One of the nicest days of our trip, hanging out with everyone as the sunset over Ha Long Bay

Kayaking in Ha Long Bay with my fellow Brit

Friends that nap together stay together right? 

Projects Abroad aka how many people can we fit in a mini van

At a beautiful lake in Hanoi 

Last night with my French pals 

One of our last activities was writing goodbye messages on cards we stuck on our backs- it all got a little crazy!

I am so lucky to have made so many incredible international friends and had some brilliant girls to share this experience with. They really made the whole trip a thousand times more magical and I will never forget our many, many sing alongs on the bus, dodging motorcycles whilst trying to cross the road and discussing everything and anything with them. 

xxx

Vietnam: Volunteering

Obviously the main reason I went to Vietnam was to volunteer so that seems to most obvious place to start with my Vietnam blog posts.

The majority of our time volunteering was spent at the Friendship Village, a village for children age 6-20 who are offspring of former Vietnamese soldiers and affected by Agent Orange. We spent time within the classroom helping with the children, as well as painting and gardening to help renovate the centre. It was a really incredible experience, and taught me so much. We also had the chance to meet with some Vietnam war veterans who shared their experiences with us.

Working in the classrooms was a really fun experience. We started by helping the kids with some basic writing or number work, a lot of them would loose concentration very quickly so it was important to keep them focused on their task. Communication was also tricky at times, but I quickly learnt that whilst they may not understand "try that question again" if I put the rubber on top of their answer it meant they should rub it out and try again. After that we would do a game or something that would get the kids moving. They loved "if you're happy and you know it"! After the kids had had their lunch we would do some arts and crafts or colouring. I have to say my crayoning skills are still on point.

For a couple of days we worked on renovating the dining room, giving it a good clean and a fresh lick of paint in order to make it much brighter and nicer for all the children to work in. It was hot, heavy work but the room looked so much better after our two days of work! We also did some gardening which again was hot work (everywhere in Vietnam is hot!) and the extra team of volunteers really helped make a difference around the centre.

The highlight was definitely just spending time with the kids, whether it was playing in the playground after lessons finished for an extra hour or so, or spending the evening watching a movie with them. They were all so great and we had lots of fun being with them!

Now for some photos...

After painting the dining room 

With the war veterans

With the one of the directors of the centre

Friendship Village

Painting in progress

Arts and crafts 

One of the lovely kids in Skills class 

Selfies with one of our kids

See-saw times 

Being at the Friendship Village not only taught me so much about working with kids and in a team, but also about the Vietnam war and the lasting affects that it had. It was challenging at times but ultimately it was so much fun and I would hundred percent take up an opportunity like that again. 

I hope you've enjoyed learning a bit about The Friendship Village, to find out some more here's some links 

x, x

xxx 

Projects Abroad Vietnam

Back in February I decided I needed to plan something for Summer. I was in a bit of a rut, some crap was going on in my personal life that had led me feeling miserable and desperate to get out of my usual life. I also was vaguely aware that I should probably start doing something that will help my future career prospects, so I was trailing through countless job/internship websites looking for something in the charity sector when the same company kept popping up- Projects Abroad.

I hadn't heard of it before but after spending a few minutes on their website I was already intrigued. They offer short term specials abroad for young people age 15-19 who want volunteering experience and also to travel, which is basically me in a nutshell.

Projects Abroad offer a variety of projects in tons of different countries, but it didn't long for me to decide on Vietnam. I studied Vietnam history when I was sixteen and the country has always been on my bucket list to visit. It looked a beautiful country with such a rich history.

So before I knew it, I had paid my deposit, joined the official Facebook group, and had my jabs. I checked in my rather large suitcase, waved off my anxious parents at Heathrow and soon I was on a plane to Bangkok ready to change and get on a second flight to Hanoi.

Volunteering in Vietnam for two weeks on a Care and Community Project was 100% one of the best experiences of my life. I can't put into words how great it was, from the country, to the kids we worked at, to the other 12 volunteers. It was truly magical and taught me so much from confidence in myself, I learnt about other cultures and countries (not just Vietnam but France, Japan and the USA from the other volunteers). I tried new experiences and foods and met some amazing new people who will stay with me for a long time.

I was so sad to get on the plane home (although the promise of a comfy bed and a decent shower made it a tad easier!) but I can't wait to share all my experiences on here. There will probably be several posts, from Volunteering to Food to Vietnam as a country so look out for them!

Projects Abroad

xxx