Me and my sister have been huge Friends fans for as long as I can remember. So when I got an email about Friends Fest tickets just a couple of weeks before her birthday it was a no brainer! We had to go! And yesterday, after a 10 week wait, we did! We had such a good time.
Neither of us really knew what to expect because we'd never been before, but it was a proper festival. There was a main stage which had friends stuff going on, there was the Moonlight Diner where Monica worked in season 3, a gift shop, a Mockolate stand, the Chick & the Duck bar, which did the most incredible cocktails (I know that because we had a lot of them!), a wedding chapel where you could try on Monica and Rachel's wedding dresses, a silent disco(!), the most amazing mac and cheese stand and, the best bit, tours of the sets. We had an amazing time. It was so cool and we even got a little bit emotional when we went round Monica's apartment. We had so much fun, it was the best day! And I will be definitely be going again next year!
Did you get to Friends Fest? Let me know by commenting below - I always reply so check back -, on twitter, or dropping me an email at lolarocknroses@gmail.com. Also check out my instagram, facebook, bloglovin', snapchat -search lolarocknroses - & pinterest for regular updates.
Love love love xxx
P.S. Sorry about the quality of some of the photos, I ran out of space on my phone and we had to use my sister's which has a crack in the camera. Not ideal.
When it comes to giving advice I am the Queen Mother of All, I can dole out tea and sympathy and free hugs with the best of them. When it comes to taking it... not so much. However there are 5 great pieces of advice that I have been given in my life that I've really taken on board and you should too. Really they're too good not to share.
1. Never let someone else's behaviour change yours.
My Granddad was a very, very wise man, and he is the source of most of this advice, just fyi. Everyday he would walk to the shop for milk and everyday he would deal with the really rude shop owner. Regardless of how horrible this person was, and believe me he was not a pleasant man, my Granddad would always say hello, ask him how he was and say thank you. Someone's behaviour does not impact yours. Do not let someone nasty change you. Be a source of positivity and happiness even when others aren't.
2. Don't judge someone else's best by yours.
Again this comes from my Granddad, like I said he was incredibly wise. What you think is trying your best may not be the same for someone else. Someone else's best may not be as good as yours. Your own personal standards will differ from others. To you it may seem that that person has made absolutely no effort whatsoever but that person may feel like they've tried they're hardest. You can't hold people to your standards when their standard's will be different. You can only set an example.
3. Don't compare yourself to other people
This is one that gets thrown around the Internet a lot but it's so important! Honestly I'm really not qualified to offer this particular piece of advice because I compare myself to others all the damn time (right now I'm hating on myself for not being born Laura Michelle Kelly, google her!) and I always find myself lacking when I compare myself to others. It's a toxic behaviour that brings nothing good to my life, but that doesn't stop me. I get how hard it is to not compare yourself to others, it makes you feel terrible, but it's kind of addictive. Remember: to compare is to despair! I'll stop if you will.
4. Be kind, just to be kind
Kindness is seriously underrated. People aspire to be famous, or rich, or clever but not a lot of people aspire to be kind. Being kind just for the sake of being kind, in my opinion, is one of the best traits a person can have. Being nice to people isn't hard, even if those people suck. You don't have to like everyone, and you're certainly not going to, but being nice, even to those you don't particularly like, is so important. It costs you nothing to be kind and yet it is so valuable.
5. Give yourself time
Everything in life, and I mean everything, takes time. Good things take time. Relationships, dreams, careers they don't just happen. Give yourself time to work out who you are and what you want and then work for it. That's what I'm doing. Believe me I do not have my life together, not even a little bit. If you want to know what it feels like to be me, don't know why you would, but imagine feeling like your skirt is tucked into your knickers all the time and BINGO! That's pretty much it in a nutshell really. At the moment my life is eat, sleep, day job, blog, repeat. It's not glamorous but it's all part of the process. I'm giving myself time, you should too.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Let me know in the comments below, on twitter, or dropping me an email at lolarocknroses@gmail.com. Also check out my instagram, facebook, bloglovin', snapchat - search lolarocknroses - & pinterest for regular updates.
*Disclaimer*: I do not own the featured image, image used for entertainment purposes only. Image Via
I'm back from my break, although I'd hardly call it a break it having been the busiest and most exhausting 10 days of my life but anyway. So I thought for my second post in almost as many weeks that I would give you a a more detailed account of what I've been up to. So let's begin at the beginning:
Friday 11th July
(Picture via www.daylightfoods.com)
After a long, tiring
day at work me and my mum were called to my sister's for a chocolate strawberry
emergency - yes, that's a thing!- that required our immediate attention. Now I
feel like this needs to be explained because having read it back it does sound
completely insane. My sister is really good at planning parties, like really
good, so she was enlisted to plan and organise her best friend's mum's hen tea
party. Subsequently my mum was drafted in to make chocolate covered
strawberries which are something of a specialty for her. And I was called up
for chocolate melting duty being both the baker of the family and the only one
of us patient enough to actually allow the chocolate to melt. My mum's an
amazing cook but doesn't have the patience for desserts and my sister organises
the hell out of everything -mostly- together we're a cracking (and incredibly
loud) team. Everything was going
swimmingly until a mishap with some freshly whipped cream and melted ganache (warning
do not mix cold cream with boiling hot melted chocolate, the cream will
split!). After a mad dash around Tesco looking for emergency ganache - who knew
there was such a thing?!- we returned, the strawberries were dipped and
delicious and we celebrated by ordering a curry, which was also delicious. Friday was a good food day. And now to
Saturday.
Saturday 12th July
On Saturday me and my
bestest, quite impulsively, decided to spend the day in London and caught a 20
minute train to the Big Smoke for a day of shopping, sunshine, awesome cookies,
excellent theatre - we saw Once- and some quality best friend time. Being British and therefore used to the temperamental (read dreary) British summer time we'd both checked the weather and brought jackets and umbrellas with us due to the 'stormy rain' that had been promised. As fate would have it it turned out to be a bit of a scorcher in the capital so we ended up carrying our jackets around all day. Ah the curse of the overly cautious and prepared.
We got into London
around 10:30ish and headed straight for the TKTS stand in Leicester Square
-when we do a day in London we do it properly, and that means taking in a
show!- to get tickets for Once. I've already seen Once and thought it was
incredible, which it is, and had to share it with The Platonic Love of My Life
(she'll get that, no one else will) so I convinced her. And because she is a
human woman and Once is about a gorgeous, heartbroken, guitar playing Irishman
-be still my beating heart!- she also loved it. But more about that later.
Once we'd got tickets
we headed straight to the MAC store in Covent Garden, where I simultaneously
managed to be in make up heaven and too intimidated by the very heavily
made up salesmen to actually buy anything. So to Selfridges we went where I
actually was in make up heaven and no less intimidated. However I somehow
managed to overcome my very real fear of the impeccably made up sales people
and bought a lipstick. Not just any lipstick either. I bought my very first MAC
lipstick (shocking I know how did I not own one already?!). After what felt
like hours of near constant swatching I had made my decision and came away with
the MAC Amplified Creme Lipstick in the shade Girl About Town - it seemed
terribly appropriate- which is the most beautiful blue toned fuschia. It is so
very beautiful in fact that I couldn't actually wait to wear it and had it out of the box and on my lips within moments of purchase.
Isn't it gorgeous?!
Following my minor spending spree in Selfridges it was nearly time for the matinee of Once so we took a casual stroll down Regents Street. Where my new lipstick was immediately tested by the purchase and immediate consumption of the single most amazing thing to ever pass my lips. I am talking about the glory that is the triple chocolate Ben's Cookie. I had never tried a Ben's Cookie before with them not being readily available in the fashionless backwater from which I hail. But it honestly tasted as if it had been made in God's own oven. Ben, whoever you are, you are a cookie genius!
(COOOOOKIE! Picture via
www.stereogum.com)
After we saw Once, which I loved just as much the second time around, we wondered aimlessly - it being far too hot to do anything with any sense of purpose - down Shaftesbury Avenue in search of food and shopping. Instead we found Forbidden Planet AKA Nerd Heaven. For those of you who don't know Forbidden Planet is the most amazing comic book store. Now I am no comic book nerd BUT I really love a lot of the things associated with the art of comic book nerdery. I'll give you an example I love The Simpsons, Doctor Who, pretty much every Marvel film and even some of the DC ones as well and that is just the tip of the iceberg. So whilst I am not a comic book nerd I could appreciate that Forbidden Planet was awesome, even though it was quite clear that some of the clientele hadn't showered in, well, ever. Here are just some of the hidden treasures we found.
These are the greatest
things I’ve ever seen.
I’m not sure that this is necessary
We also found the most
terrifying action figure of Amy Pond, which I refused to photograph because honestly it will haunt my dreams forever. When we left Forbidden Planet we headed back to Covent Garden towards The Shake Shack for Burgers and Crinkle Fries but the queue was ridiculous so after an idle hour of window shopping -in which I scratched the face of my Marc Jacobs watch (sob) when coming out of Dior - we decided to head home for an early-ish night. All in all we had an amazing day in the Big Smoke! I just wish I had got more pictures. But here are some of the photos I did take.
I took this purely so I could send it to my friend
who’s last name is Reid. Because that is how cool I am!
This is both terrifying
and amazing
Sunday 13th and Monday 14th July continued pretty much as usual, although I came down with a really bad cold which couldn't have come at a worse time due to a very important event that took place on Tuesday 15th July, which I touched upon in yesterday's post (read it here).
Tuesday 15th July. The day I graduated from university.
Me and my step-dad Terry, in one of the few pictures that survived my graduation... it's a long story. To sum up Terry doesn't know how to use an iphone so took about 50 pictures of my graduation without taking a single one. He was pressing the home button instead. My mum went ballistic!
I woke up with a blocked and snotty nose, a sore throat and a temperature but in true Brit fashion kept calm (I didn't) and carried on (barely). After my sister did my hair I got dressed all fancy like and me, my mum and step-dad piled into the car and headed to Bedford for my graduation ceremony. I think the fact that I was ill sent me into a disassociative state because I didn't even register that I was graduating until I had the cap and gown on and was rushing into the ceremony. Where my mortar board would just not stay put, falling off no fewer than four times. Despite being really ill I had such a good day. The highlight of which was when my former flatmate (and bestie, though he'd deny it), the forementioned Mr. Reid, came and found me for a quick chat before he headed home to Newcastle. I was so touched, bless him.
Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th July
(Picture via www.radicalpossibility.com)
I was so ill that I had to call in sick from work and spent the days in bed, moaning and feeling awful. There is nothing worse than being ill in summertime.
Friday 18th July I attempted to go back to work but was sent home ill.
Saturday 19th July was my uncle's wedding.
Me and my cousin/bestie Jade, we were pulling those faces on purpose! For any Friends fans out there these were our Chandler can't take a good picture faces!
I was still ill - hence the glassy eyes and red nose,- but managed to make myself look and feel somewhat human (although you can't tell in the picture, hehe). It was such a lovely day. It was so nice seeing all my large and mental family in one place. We are quite the clan. I also got a mention in the best man's speech congratulating me on graduating which was a bit embarrassing but nice as well. Sunday 20th July was spent in a pub garden with the aforementioned family.
The past 10 days have been so busy but really nice, apart from the days when I was ill. But I am back now and will be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as normal. So I will be back tomorrow with 2 Stars & A Wish #7.
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