Day trip to Aranjuez

Hello! Last Friday I went to the town Aranjuez with two of my friends. It was quite a dull day weather wise but a fun day nonetheless. I knew I wanted to return there as I was eager to do some walking in the hills outside of the town. Two days later I returned with Craig, we were armed with lots of fruit and reading to take on the hills. 

Moving to Madrid.

Hey folks! I think its  about  time that I share my experience of life in the Spanish capital  with you all.

This will be the first of a couple of post, as I have been here for quite a few months now there are many topics I'd like to cover with you - preparing for the move, moving, looking for work, a house etc! 

I want these series of posts to be as informative as possible as  there are so many things to consider when moving  to Madrid or wherever you are planning to go. 

A trip to Segovia and Rapunzels castle

Hello! I thought I would share some photos from a recent trip I was on. A couple of friends and myself made our way to the historical town of  Segovia. The landscape was beautiful and it was wonderful to get out of Madrid for a couple of hours. It was strange seeing mountains and sheep for the first time in months.  I grew up in the countryside so being in a city for 3 solid months was a big change but I love it.

Aquaduct

We visited  the Alcázar of Segovia which is a stunning castle. This castle was inspiration for the castle in the  Walt Disneys film  Rapunzel and the  Cinderella castle at Disneyland. 

On our way to the castle we came across this very unusal  and detailed statue near the Aquaduct of Romulus and Remus, the  founders of Rome, suckling on a wolf...

Segovia is definitely a must see place if you are ever up around that part of Spain. I think Toldeo is next on the list and then I will venture off to  Morocco early next year. 

Have a good day!

A shocking tale of make-up expiration!

Hello! While I was organising my make-up the other day, I spotted an interesting symbol on my Urban Decay primer,it was a picture of a little jar with '6m' written above it. I've seen this symbol many times but I always thought it was something to do with the weight of the product or some jazz like that. I'm absolutely useless when it comes to anything with numbers!But then it kinda struck me like a brick that it was an expiration date and I was gob smacked to find out that eye shadow primer expires in six months?! Even if I wore eye shadow on a daily basis  there is not a change in hell or high water that I  would use the whole 25ml tube up. Of course when it comes to eye make up, you have to be extremely careful but part of me hopes that Urban Decay are just covering their backs.  Anyway, this got me thinking about the expiration date on all my other products. I was pleasantly surprised by some and terrified by others!

Urban Decay Primer (25ml) - 6 months

Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer -18 months; Soap and Glory: Righteous Butter 300ml  - 24 months; Maybelline  Falsies  Mascara - 6 months

I always throw out mascara after 3 months as I find it gets quite clumpy and dries up pretty fast. You can decrease the amount of oxygen and bacteria getting into your product by twisting the brush when you are taking it out and putting it back into the bottle but I don't think it's smart to hang onto it for longer than 3 months.

Maybelline Colour Sensational lipstick - 24 months; Benefit's Hervana - 12 months; MUA eyeliner - 6 months

I was surprised by the short life span of eyeliner. I think, howeverm if you keep a lid on them and sharpen them regularly you'll therefore decrease the build up of bacteria  and you could get a lot longer out of them especially if you just use them on the your lids.I rarely use it on my actual waterline.

Urban Decay Anniversary Palette - 12 months; Gosh blush - 36 months; Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow foundation - 12 months

 When I checked the expiry date on my Urban Decay Anniversary powder eye shadows I could have cried - 12 months...This is just unbelievable to me! No, no and no...There is not a chance that I am throwing my eye shadows out after just 12 months. I haven't experienced any problems with eye shadows that I have had for longer than 12 months and I have yet to hear of any horror stories!

The Casualties 

Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker lipgloss - 24 months; Benefit's Benetint - 12months; Benefit Pocketpal - 12 months

I've never been into lipgloss and this one by Soap and Glory never excited me or gave me voluptuous lips either, so I don't mind throwing it out even though I rarely used it. I've had it for under two years and even though it hasn't expired yet, I can already see that it has gone off colour and the ingredients are starting to separate.

I've had my Benetint for about two and half years, the pocketpal came free with it so that was a lot of Benetint product to get through. I used it every day in college but as you can see from the picture, I have so much of it left! I never liked how Benetint felt on my lips and the lipgloss was just horrible looking and felt sticky so my pocketpal was neglected. These Benefit bottles really last for ages but when they have an expiration date of a year maybe it would be better if it came in a smaller bottle and were a few quid cheaper as well!
I noticed in the last few months that every time I applied Benetint to my face, I was getting tiny little red bumps on my skin but as they soon disappeared I kinda forgot about it. I never really connected the dots. Looking back, it was obviously the bacteria filled little dots of Benetint which I was blending onto my skin which were to blame for these brief outbreaks.Gross right? I have no choice but to toss it out!

I'm relieved that I only have a few products to toss out, from now on I'll be keeping an eye on all expiration dates. If you have any off colour products, products that don't smell  or work as well  as they used too then it's time to say au revoir!

Thanks for reading!

Online Abuse - The Never-ending Story ?

"I consider myself lucky as I have never been the victim of internet abuse." There is something fundamentally wrong with that sentence. No one should have to consider themselves lucky, internet abuse should not happen full stop. Like all forms of abuse, whether it's bullying (physical and emotional) in school, the workplace etc or being in an abusive relationship, all the focus appears to be on what to do if you are a victim. Victims are told various ways to help stop the abuse happening, they are advised to confide in someone they trust, make use of help lines etc. However, the focus is never on telling the abuser to STOP what they are doing, this part is just crammed in as a footnote. This seems so bizarre to me. 

Too many people have  cried themselves to sleep, self harmed and died because of abuse they received online. Yet it seems that  people are free to do and say whatever they want about people they know or complete strangers as they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet. I am all for free speech but what about freedom from harassment?  There is a difference between having an opinion and  posting vile abusive messages on someone's youtube, twitter, facebook page whether as a one off or on a continuous basis. I don't think I'll ever understand how people can attack a person in such vicious ways, have they no respect for other people or even themselves? 

It is easy to tell someone to ignore it but you can never know how a person reacts to receiving hurtful comments, some may shrug it off, but for others it may chip away at their confidence because as soon as something hateful is posted  it is not always easily removed from the internet or your mind.This is not a sign of weakness by the way, everyone reacts to every situation in a different way, it's part of the human condition. 

Regardless of weather you are in the public eye or just some girl blogging from her bedroom, no one deserves to be the subject of a hate campaign. The internet certainly highlights how nasty and selfish people really are, always trying to catch people out, judging them by reading into every tweet or facebook status. 

So what can be done to solve this problem? Do we make it the schools/parents  responsibility  to supervise their kids when they are online? However internet bullying isn't confined to those under 18 so do we bring in laws to punish  offenders in the more serious cases? But who are we to  judge what is serious or a minor form of harassment. Or do we simply say c'est la vie and allow  bullying and abusive messages to be  part of everyday life? 

I really don't know, from what I've witnessed online a majority of humans seem to be, unfortunately, beyond the prospect of developing any kind of  moral conscience. Perhaps any hope  I have for a hate free internet community  depends on whether the leopard  can change it's spots...

Again, I think that self respect is a lot of the problem but not a valid excuse. I leave you with this quote by Laurence  Sterne:

Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.