I’ve been so busy lately, it’s insane! I love retail in the build-up to Christmas, it’s such a buzz - people are already doing huge Christmas shopping trips! I can guarantee that my own shopping won’t be started for at least another month…
A week ago, a Benefit cosmetics shop opened very close to where I work, which of course is a good thing - even better because as we’re “neighbours” we get 10% discount on everything and I’ve easily spent £100 so far (one of my colleagues has spent way more than this), it’s fair to say that we’re a little obsessed. I’d never thought much of Benefit before… a few years ago a friend of mine was pounced on by some sales assistants in a department store and given a Benefit makeover and came out looking really scary, this new shop is amazing though and the girls there are so helpful! My current favourites are BadGal Lash, Posietint and Miss Popularity and I’m sure there will be many more in the very near future.
A new shopping centre opened in west London on October 30th - Westfield shopping is now the biggest shopping centre in Europe, so how is it possible that I only just heard about it the other day?! It’s been 5 years in the making and a new tube station has been built for it (the first new tube station to open in about 70 years!) I feel like I’ve been living on the moon or something. A couple of months ago the company that I work for were recruiting staff to work in a new branch ‘in White City’ and I totally dismissed it, if I knew it was to work in an amazing new shopping paradise I would have given it a bit more thought! I’m going to leave it a week or so to calm down (a little) before visiting it - today Shepherd’s Bush tube station was closed due to overcrowding because of people visiting Westfield, and they were expecting 100,000 visitors today, I’m glad I didn’t stop by after work!
I bought Photoshop for my mac 2 weeks ago and I’ve not had any time at all to play with it, it’s awful! My next day off is Thursday so I guess that’s when I’ll get to mess around with it.
Today has been ridiculous! It’s my only day off this week, so I planned loads of work and important things for today. After a small lie-in (I got up at 8am) I set to work, and mentally prepared myself for an entire day’s worth of work…
and I was finished by 11am.
Yesterday I spent the day messing around in central London trying to find some new clothes - ended up buying a few things but none of them are clothes.
Apart from all that (which is pretty irrelevant!) I’ve been planning my next move. I didn’t plan on being in London for so long (and I definitely didn’t plan on getting a job here!) and it really is time to move on. I was hoping for Berlin or Paris but I’ve been offered an awesome position in Madrid for a few months, it really is too good to turn down so I figure I’ll give it a go and see what happens. I seem to have accumulated way too much stuff while being in London so I need to get rid of a whole load of things, probably about 90% of everything I own - I’m aiming to leave with one suitcase. I know, ridiculous. It’ll never happen.
I guess I should also start learning Spanish! I learned it at school for a while but that was when I was 17, I’m 21 now and it’s all pretty much gone from my mind because I’ve not been to Spain for a while (or any Spanish-speaking countries even). If anyone has any great resources for learning Spanish that would be really awesome.
I am sitting here eating cereal with a fork! I have no idea why there are no spoons here but there you go. A friend of mine just got back from America and brought a few boxes of Lucky Charms cereal with them, so I can guarantee that I’ll be living off their marshmallowy goodness for at least a week or so! Unfortunately they were discontinued in England quite a few years ago, apparently marshmallows for breakfast isn’t a great idea (who knew??). It’s been about a year and a half since I was last in America so these are an amazing treat for me!
(Photo from Chicago, 2007)
Apart from eating really unhealthy food, I’ve been working like a crazy person (and have also been quite ill - not related to the unhealthy food though I promise!) hence why I’ve been a little quiet on here. I currently work in retail/cosmetics and this is a really hectic time of year for us, getting ready for Halloween/Christmas (our company has decided to combine the two this year - Halloween products will be on sale until January!) it’s really busy but really fun, I’d be so bored working in an office.
Unfortunately though, 2 days ago I managed to slip on the floor at work (my own fault totally - I was in such a rush to deal with some paperwork that I didn’t notice that the floor had been mopped, and it’s a slippery floor when it’s dry nevermind when it’s wet!) and fell flat on my face! Luckily, there’s no bruise on my nose like I was convinced there would be, however I do have a huge ugly bruise on my leg and it’s really difficult to lift anything with my left arm.
I fail at life, basically! Haha.
So a few weeks ago, I did something I never really thought I’d do. I went through everything I’ve worked on in the past and I put most of it through a shredder.
It was strange for me because it included a lot of stuff that I’d worked really hard on and had envisaged looking back on in 10 years or so, not to mention the amount of money that it had cost me in art supplies for some pieces. I did keep about 5 pages in total, things that I’d written in Chicago and Paris and certain train tickets/boarding passes and things like that.
As soon as I did it, I felt like I was finally free! It sounds ridiculous but it felt like all that work was weighing me down and keeping me in the past or something. The person who wrote those things doesn’t exist anymore. The reason I’m mentioning all this is because this blog is kind of a new home for my writing I suppose. I’ve been blogging for a few years now but this feels a lot more appropriate that where I’ve been writing for the past few years.
As for myself (since this is a new blog, I feel I should introduce myself even though a few of you will already know all this) I’m 21 years old and I currently live in London. I’m working in cosmetics at the moment but I’m a qualified TEFL teacher and in early 2009 will be back on my travels. I don’t like to stay in one place for too long!
Anyway I suppose that’s it for the quickie introduction. More tomorrow!
