In case I hadn’t mentioned it about a kajillion times, I am on Twitter spend a fair amount of time on it as a matter of fact. Yes, more than Facebook even (am I the only one who’s a bit over Facebook these days? Yes? OK then) so it’d be totally neat if you wanted to follow me.
I have had pink in my hair since I was 14 years old. My mum was scared I was going to dye my whole head blue because it had been a fleeting fancy of mine, so she got me pink streaks done at the front of my hair professionally. I never would have dyed my whole head blue as I was a total wuss as a kid and never defied my mum, so I won out big time! The same thing happened when she got my nose pierced or my 16th birthday as she was scared I was going to get my eyebrow done. Imagine a blue-haired teen with a eyebrow ring – ugh, so not me. Glad mum had her doubts about my wussiness and let me get these two things done tastefully.
Anyway, because of this I like to think myself quite knowledgeable about dying hair in non-natural, vibrant colours. Even before I got the pink streaks for the first time, I used to use this stuff called Magic Silver Rose which made my hair a vivid pinky-purple colour (it was a toner old ladies used as a rinse, bit like the ol’ blue rinse, but when used concentrated it was BRIGHT as fuck). As such I am a total pink-hair-snob and shudder when I see people walking around with bad dye jobs. Doesn’t matter what colour, badly done and poorly maintained colour looks nasty, though I am especially passionate when it comes to PINK.
That is why I thought I’d share my tips on dying hair vivid colours like pink so that if you’re thinking about getting your hair did BRIGHT then you won’t make the same fatal mistakes so many others have made! My advice needs to be triplicated for those who has all of their hair dyed a bold colour (or colours) as I can get away with a lot more as I have my pink strategically placed so regrowth takes quite a while to show.
I actually remembered to take a few photos while my mum did my hair last weekend. Yep, my mum. She is a pro at dying my hair which means I know it gets done well AND it’s free (I dye hair in return). It usually takes the better part of a full day to complete but she does a top-notch job each time so well worth it. Click the pics or full-sized images and descriptions.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I’m always happy to help out with tips for keeping bright, unnatural hair colours looking good! Another great reference guide is this one by Gala Darling. Just remember though, everyone is different and practice makes perfect. What may work or me might not work for you so experiment and keep trying til you get it right!
I decided I would go or something a bit more simple for my nails this time around as I needed a rest from stickers. My last lot displeased me greatly (tiny pink and white stars on a deep purple nail colour) by falling off all the time, despite four layers of top coat! Damn cheek! So after a successful trial run by my mum, I decided to try adding some fine crystal glitter to my nails. I couldn’t pink a colour til I found my el-cheapo fluro pink nail polish and realised this was going to be a match made in heaven!
Nothing at all complicated to this, I just gave my nails two thick coats of the pink polish and then dipped each nail into the container of glitter, shaking (and blowing) off the excess and letting it dry. When you first dip, you’ll have a tonne of glitter on the nail, most of which won’t stick (even if you dip your nail in immediately after painting each nail, as I did) so make sure to tap each finger gently so you don’t waste heaps of glitter. Once the coloured polish goes hard, apply at least one coat of clear top coat to seal and stop the glitter from flying off. Apply at least two coats for good measure (though you will still feel the roughness of the glitter even after three coats, FYI). This glitter was super fine which gives it the best effect, the coarser the glitter the rougher it will be to look at and touch. Oh and the glitter’s probably going to drag up the nails a bit, if you do the tips like I did. It actually looks cool how there’s lots of glitter on the tip and a little bit on the rest of the nail, but I am yet to work out how to keep the glitter in the one place.
Meanwhile, for further inspiration, please check out WAH Nails, a nail salon based in London. OMG if they had a shop in Brisbane I’d be broke because I’d be there every week! It’s inspiring me to get a bit more creative with my nails, though I doubt I’d ever be able to do anything like some of those nails. Wow!
For all of those not in Queensland, you may not be aware of the proposed changes being discussed in parliament about what times venues around the state can trade, what time lockouts should be and how public transport and police presence should be adjusted to crack down on alcohol-related violence, particularly in entertainment districts like Fortitude Valley (where I live and socialise). It’s been a HUGE issue, especially to those involved in the entertainment and music industries, and there’s a great concern that we’re facing a situation where nightclubs, bars and live music venues will be forced to close earlier because of a few trouble-makers who the law apparently cannot touch.
I am not an expert on this whole situation but I am one of the many people concerned by how adversely these changes will affect the Nightlife in Queensland and may even cause loss of jobs for those who work at these venues (ie. students, shift workers etc). I’ve always thought the 3am lockout we have is ridiculous and has caused more issues than it was meant to fix. As someone who lives and socialises in the Valley, I see the trouble caused when people can’t get into venues at 3am and find themselves drunk and without their friends and have to go line up in the excessive cab lines full of other drunken, frustrated people. No wonder there’s so much violence! It’s an undesirable situation for anyone, and bringing that time from 3am to 2am will just make the problem a whole lot worse.
In an ideal world, everyone would listen to me and follow my super-awesome, informed decisions. Obviously that doesn’t happen (yet) so I will just tell you all my thoughts anyway and hope maybe someone will listen to me and realise I may know a bit of what I am talking about. First of all, there should be NO lockout at all. All the lockout does is cause people to foolishly leave clubs and make a mad dash to another club (for no real reason except “OMG it’s almost lockout, let’s go to some other club just because we won’t be able to go there after 3 and maybe it’s better than this one”) which inevitably leaves a lot of people on the streets because their drunken perception of time and distance meant they missed lockout by a couple of minutes. Needless to say, this pisses people off and since they have nowhere to go and so they have to make their sorry ways home. Therefore at 3am the taxi lines are bloated beyond belief, all full of these frustrated punters who were keen to stay out longer, and facing an hour wait for a cab while they slowly sober up, which only infuriates them further. Meanwhile the people who managed to get into (or just stayed in) a club before lockout, who decide to leave the venue after 3am are faced with these now half-sober, angry people whose moods are all their worst. Tempers flare up, fights happen and people get hurt.
If lockout was abolished and we could come and go as we pleased, there would be no more late-minute dashes between clubs before 3am and people would leave the venue and the Valley at their leisure. A lot of people would probably not stay out so long as most people feel the need to stay til at least 3am, and those who do want a big night can rest assured they have until closing time at 5am (which should also be extended, by the way) in which to visit various bars, pubs and clubs. It would also mean, those who leave clubs after 3am and find the cab lines are horrendous or that they missed the night bus, have the option to go back into a venue, which is a hell of a lot safer than spending the next hour amongst a broad range of drunk individuals who are probably itching for a fight.
Personally I don’t think there is a solution to late night, alcohol-induced violece. Aussies love drinking and there’s always going that unfortunate contingent of people who also enjoy fighting. Taking away the rights of the well-meaning majority because of the actions of the few obnoxious lout’s hell bent on picking fights and causing trouble is UNFAIR.We need to get rid of the bad elements and work towards making things safer for everyone else. Our public transport is atrocious and needs to run at times that coincide with venue trading hours, there needs to be a increased police presence to match the amount of people out and about (this should be a no-brainer but apparently isn’t) and we need services to help the people who overdo it and can get assistance before they do further damage and have to be taken away in an ambulance (is it Ravesafe who do this at the moment, or another group of volunteers?).
Let’s face it, we can’t stop people from wanting to go out drinking, so we need to make it as safe as possible for all who do and NOT let a bunch of middle aged politicians make decisions about the things they have NO clue about!
Somee links of note in regards to this topic:
Queensland Locked Out
Queensland’s earlier pub closing plan angers public
Venues brand 2am lockout ‘a return to Joh era’
Feel free to tell me your thoughts on this matter and give me some more links to add!
There’s not much that ticks me off more than people who constantly harp on about being bored or having nothing to do. I used to go crazy when people said it to me when I lived in London (seriously, if you cannot find something to do on any day of the week in London you’re either the most boring person alive or the most exciting, because clearly you must have done everything already). Living in Brisbane is, of course, not quite as thrilling as life tends to be in London, but that doesn’t mean you can ever say “there’s nothing to do today” because there always is.
Take my weekend for instance. It was action-packed, fun-filled and exhaustingly amazing. On Friday night I took advantage of the free entertainment being provided by Brisbane City Council and went to the Silent Disco in King George Square. If you’ve never been to a Silent Disco before then you are missing out! They’re becoming popular at music festivals and will probably be really popular after people got a free taste of one like we did in the City. As the name suggests, it’s a disco where it’s totally quiet, no music but lots of people dancing? You see, you get a headset on entry which has two channels tuned into the two DJs playing at the time which you can switch between at your leisure. That was you’re able to dance away while anyone without a headset has no idea what you’re listening to! It’s a heap of fun and while it takes a bit of getting used to at first, you totally get into it within no time at all. We ended up dancing non-stop for almost two hours – quite a feat considering no alcohol was involved and we were surrounded by 17 year old kids (and I foolishly wore heels)!
If that wasn’t enough for ya, I then spent my weekend at Supanova! For the unenlightened, Supanova is a pop culture convention held in Brisbane (and other cities in Australia) every year. It’s basically a chance for all nerds and nerds-at-heart to get together, many in costume, and buy comic books, anime, maga, DVDs and other stuff they couldn’t really buy anywhere else (well, without traveling all over the place, anyway) on top of meeting actors from cult TV shows and films, artists, authors etc. Personally I love the damn thing and go every year and spend literally hundreds of dollars on comics, figurines and various other cute crap I couldn’t get anywhere else. I also enjoy checking out all of the costumes – some people go to so much effort for ellaborate costumes of characters I’ve never even heard of, cartoon classics and anything in between. This year was my first time dressing up – I actually just went as a slutty Hogwarts student which resulted in a lot of good feedback and lots of pictures being taken (mainly from geeky boys who have a thing for Hermione, I’m sure). Next year we are all planning to do a big group dress up theme (maybe two for the two days the convention runs) which is something I have been eager to do since I first went. Bring on the geekiness, baby!
So, as I said, there’s never an excuse to be bored in Brisbane because there’s always something to do, even if you’re the biggest dork in town. If ever you feel that pesky boredom monster creeping in, check out what’s going on (I recommend Our Brisbane’s What’s On guide or utilising your social networking pages for suggestions, Twitter works wonders for me!). There’s always something going on to suit your budget, even if your budget doesn’t exist at all (ie. you’re broke).So stop your bitching and go get out there, fools!
It’s taken me some time to write some sort of review for Lady Gaga’s concerts (she had two in Brisbane and I went to both). I blame the fact immediately after that crazy weekend, I caught a bastard of a cold which is still hanging around and pissing me off. But there’s also the fact I needed a few days to come down from the high I felt from seeing her live.
I am a big fan of Lady Gaga and have been since I first heard about her and saw her perform “Just Dance” for Miss Universe 2008 before she really took off here in Australia. I was intrigued by her look, what music inspires her and the song itself which I thought was an awesome catchy pop song. Within no time the song was a huge hit in Australia and so anyone who thought themselves better than the masses who choose what songs appear in the charts declared her as a one-hit wonder and rubbished her. I’ve remained a loyal an and defended her defiantly whenever moron’s had something stupid to say about her, her music or those ridiculous rumours that kept popping up.
Suffice to say I was very excited about her proper tour of Australia as I wasn’t willing to waste my money seeing the Pussycat Dolls (I’m really not a fan of theirs to out it mildly) just to see her supporting them. I’d only planned to go to the first show on the Friday night but a couple of days before the date I suddenly got the bright idea that I should go to both of her shows (not something I put much thought into, resulting in a few heart attacks and a lot of money spent thanks to most people on ebay being complete morons) which meant my dilemma of not having anything wear was immediately doubled! Though thankfully it was also easily resolved.
I could go into a lot of lavish and descriptive detail about every part of her show, especially since seeing it twice meant I saw a lot of stuff I missed on the first night, but that would be boring and isn’t quite the point of today’s blog. You see, I was a little bit worried Lady Gaga was going to be all Gwen Stefani on me (I saw Gwen’s last concert and it was just dreadful, I loved her in No Doubt but as a solo singer she’s terrible and her show wasn’t very impressive at all). But I quickly discovered Lady Gaga is an amazingly talented woman! Not only are her songs great but she’s a fantastic singer! We’re talking about belting out he words without ever dropping a note, being able to sing some opera-style stuff and even did a gorgeous little showtune ditty! Her costumes were more amazing than you could ever, EVER imagine (the one up top is the most magnificent thing I ever laid eyes on – it all moved by itself, I kid you not!). She’s not the best dancer in the world but she danced just enough to look good without getting all Britney Spears on us. She played the piano in various ways, including one that was on FIRE and a few keytar’s to boot. She even played double bass! The set was fantastic and the transitions between the set/major costume changes were almost my favourite bit of the whole show (projected images of her on a white screen with thumping house music – some of the most divine and artistic imagery I’ve ever seen). The whole show had a storyline which tied everything together while also creating a real stage-show feel to the whole thing. And last, but certainly not least, girl has a GREAT ASS! Lemme tell you, I’d never wear pants either if I had a butt that good!
All in all she exceeded my expectations and thrilled the hell out of me. I had to endure weeks of teasing prior to the show from friends who refuse to accept the fact she’s any good and think I’m pathetic for loving her so much, but now I laugh in their faces and say “you have NO fucking idea what you missed out on”. I only wish I could have taken the doubters with me to show them how great she is, because it would have blown their minds and I would have received a thousand apologies from all of them. And if you don’t believe me, check out this awesome review by Obnoxious Owl which only strengthens my point!
Check out the rest of my photos here!
I hate money! OK so that’s a damn bold-faced lie but I do hate what money does to people and how people act around it. It drives me insane how peoples lives can revolve around their pay cheques and how no one else seems bothered by this sort of mentality. I consider it a really unhealthy attitude to have towards money and personally never let anyone but those nearest and dearest to me know if I am running low on funds and am eagerly anticipating my next pay (and then again, only on the rare occasion would I say anything about it to them at all). I honestly do believe your financial situation directly relates to your relationship with money, so that if you find yourself always thinking about your next pay then you’ll always find yourself broke the day before and desperate for the money to land in your bank account so you can go buy some dinner. I also believe this sort of attitude means you place far too much importance (I don’t think that’s the word I’m looking for but it’ll do) on money so that when you do get paid you go all kinds of crazy and end up over-spending which means you’re going to wind up broke right before your next pay once again. And so continues the cycle.
Look, we all have those weeks where all out money disappeared on bills and god knows what. But we don’t have them every week (no one could possibly have a bill every single week that wipes out all their pay unless they have some sort of shitty, low paying job or a bunch of kids). Get real and start prioritising you slack motherfucker. No one forced you go go piss away half your pay on the weekend after pay day, not did they encourage you to still go out the next weekend even though you know you can’t really afford it. Taking your lunch to work was daggy as hell when we were all kids but no one gives a shit as adults so stop spending crazy amount of money a day on lunches when it costs you dick all to prepare your lunch the night before and take it to work with you. Stop being a snob and walk to work or catch the damn bus, driving your car or catching a cab is an expensive alternative when you know you’re going to be lucky to have two $1 coins to rub together in a weeks time.
I know I talk about being a spendaholic but I rarely find myself broke or even with less than about $100 in my bank by the time my fortnightly pay rolls around. I have NO idea how I do it, since I tend to spend money on a lot of frivolous things all the time, but I guess it comes down to prioritising and being sensible with my money. I’ll never buy something, no matter how badly I want it, if I know it could mean being broke for a day or two as a result. If I have a big bill due I will compromise by spending the weekend in and spending as little as possible. It works pretty well for me, and while I find myself sitting here broke and bored at home due to an unexpected and very large electricity bill coming our way this week, I know this is an uncommon occurrence and will make sure the electricity bill is never left til last minute ever again!
Whenever people I know (and there’s a lot of them who fall into this category, I ain’t targeting no one in particular) bitch and moan about how broke they are, I find it hard not to shake them and maybe even give them a few slaps around the head because I know they pissed most of their money away instead of being responsible and saving their money for once in their damn lives. PLUS some of these people earn MORE than me too, which makes me even angrier, especially consider I know how much more debt I have than them as well.
In summary, people need to learn some responsibility and how to damn well respect money. It’s evil as hell but it’s a necessary part of life that we all have to deal with. Unless you’re a bum student or have the worst job in the word that pays dick all, you have NO excuse to wind up broke every damn week/fortnight. And if you choose to live the sort of life where partying hard and throwing your money way on useless luxuries is your thang, keep your fat trap shut about how broke you are the day before pay day because it’s fucking pathetic.
