Christmas at the Tardis

Well I'm sorry to say that Christmas seems like a very long time ago now, but its taken me a while to get round to the customary Christmas blog update. My feet have barely touched the ground since Christmas so I haven't had much time for blogging at all. Oh well... new years resolution... try and do one a week!

Anyway, Christmas at the Tardis was by no means a small affair. Not only has the house been decorated since the beginning of December (with co ordinated decorations might I add, victory was mine after all) but we had games, we had dancing, we had party food, ginger bread men, mulled wine and giant crackers. Fabulous.

As we didn't have enough time or will power to complete the arduous task of the Christmas dinner, we took inspiration from the wonderful Miss Solomon and her Iceland extravaganza. What you can't get from Iceland for £1 isn't worth having. And everything is a 'mini'. Well it starts off as a mini until you've eaten so many of them that it may as well be a double a 'biggy', but all that's for January to worry about... calorie is a word that should be banned in December.

So after eating until we were sick it was time for....

THE GIANT CRACKER

DA DA DAAAAA

Oh and what an impressive beast it was. Clearly it would've been a bit sad just to sit round the 3 of us pulling 12 crackers (that is one set of mini's that Iceland doesn't produce). So instead it was decided that one enormous one would be a better idea.

That teamed up with Santa Claus (one of my all time fave Christmas films) went down pretty well. Oh and the pressies... they were pretty cool too :)

Rimmel Primer is my new best friend

Since starting work at Superdrug I have become A LOT more obsessed with trying out the latest new products and have found that I seem to have a greatly expanded range of product knowledge hints and tips (largely thanks to Dare, the in store magazine that I work on).

I thought it might be good to try and share some of these every so often on the blog, so you've already had the very exciting glittery nails from GOSH and now it's Rimmels turn.

Primer is not something that I have ever used before but when you look around the Superdrug office, it's hard not to notice that everybodies make up is still in pristine condition as the clock turns half past 5 and it's time to go home. When I first started this use to frustrate me sooo much, as my face had slid as far as my ankles by this point in the day.

But never fear, primer is here!

Rimmel Fix and perfect is a great new one Rimmel have got out at the moment that's one of those great 'I do 100 things at once' products that are everywhere at the moment. It's not quite as all consuming as the latest BB creams that are dominating the new foundation products, but personally I prefer it.

I've given Garnier's BB cream a go, and yes its great, but personally I like to feel like I've got a bit more make up on than just a moisturiser. The BB cream feels a bit light for me, and while, like my housemate Charlie says this can be a selling point, for me it doesn't quite cut it.

Instead I go for a primer & the new Rimmel Colourmatch foundation which I'm loving at the moment.

The primer mattifies, brightens and moisturises to name a few of its attributes, and really does keep your skin looking fresh all day. Not only that, but your make up does really stick to it.

I've been spreading the word and after one test run with this beaut my mum was converted & if we can get mummy crouch on board I think you should all try it.

So finally no more melting face with eyeliner bags forming even darker circles around my eyes after a day staring at the computer screen. And finally an attempt at looking presentable come half past 5. What a relief.

The search for a Christmas Tree

After a lovely day spent feeling Christmassy and wandering around Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with the rents, guzzling red wine and soaking up the atmosphere I was all set and ready for The Tardis Christmas decorating session that is scheduled for this evening.

It was my job to hunt down a Christmas tree and get some decorations ready for this evening. Originally I thought that this would be a pretty easy task... go to Asda where they will have everything I need.

How wrong I was.

The Christmas aisles of Asda were in complete carnage. You could picture the sights before my arrival of people warring over decorations, Christmas trees and lights. All that remained was the debris from this battle that I had quite clearly missed. Which meant, to my dismay, that there were no Christmas trees, bar some ugly black ones, and only a very minimal selection of decorations.

Immediately I text the girls to brief them on the situation, but did not give up on my mission straight away. So I trundled off to try my luck on the high street.

Lidle
M&S
Debenhams

All tried to no avail.

And then, who should rescue me but a good old discounter shop. And all these nasty supermarkets are causing them to die out. Well at least they managed to still have a steady flow of trees, lights and all things sparkly.

If the supermarkets are going to try and fend these little guys out, they better sort out their stock levels that's all I'm going to say. AND it was sooo much cheaper. A 5ft tree for £12 ... I should've got two really for that price. I have yet to open the box, so we'll see what it looks like when it's all up, but thank goodness they were there to save our house from any tears.

Watch this space... decorating commences tonight. I'm armed with a couple of bottles of mulled wine.

Comp ON

So the one that I usually claim to be my nearest and dearest has decided that it will be a charming idea to launch a retaliation to my blog in the form of her own site www.bertie-retaliation.blogspot.com.

What a charmer.

She has come to the conclusion that she gets too much grief on my blog and so now needs to start her own in order to reply to my accusations.

So, her first rant is largely down to the disagreement in our house over Christmas that I wrote about the other day.

I think that there is only one fair way that we can judge this, so I'm going to put it up for a poll.

Vote for the co-ordinated christmas of every Miracle on 34th Street lovers dream... picture the shop window of Harrods all nicely themed to the smallest detail of Christmas elegance... or my house. Even Hannah has admitted that this may be a flaw in her arguement as mummy crouch delivers a mean Christmas with coloured themed trees in every room.

or vote Christmas vomit.

It's your choice... I look to you to make the right decision. (Poll on the right)

While your there I've also popped up a little vote on our much loved X Factor judging panel. This is another strong bone of contention amongst our house.

As my previous blog informs you all we have X Factor wars running in the Tardis at the moment. Montana is backing Louis, Charles is behind Kelly and I'm in Gary's camp. Come final day we will be donning our X Factor masks and hoping for the best. Obv due to Louis ridiculous comments Hannah's already out of the competition, but I'm sure Louis will still strive to compare the contestants to "a young Lenny Henry" or whoever he decides to pick on next, and failing that claim that the definitely have the "likeability factor" (even if it is Misha B) and endeavour to get all of Ireland/Manchester/Liverpool behind them.

Anyway, something else for you to all cast your vote on... enjoy.

Escape to the Country

On my arrival back in Farnham (otherwise known as The Farm or Farmham… so wittily named by the one and only Hollie Poole) for one night only, and for an extremely mundane trip to the Doctors tomorrow, there are some key points to notice:

1)      It’s wetter

2)       It’s darker

3)       It’s colder

No wonder farmers have a reputation for being moaners!

I can’t believe that it’s less than an hour on the train away from my house in Clapham and yet it seems to have dropped about 10 degrees.

Whilst packing for my little stop over at home I did think back to my last frostbitten trip and try to remember to pack warmer pyjamas and an extra couple of layers, but apparently that’s not enough. Last time I was also confronted by a mummy crouch that was still refusing to put the heating on. According to her this is something that she has finally relented on but I can’t say that I believe a word of it. I’m tucked up in bed wearing a hoodie & fleecy PJ’s with not only my duvet, also snuggled beneath 2 more blankets & I can safely say that the only thing keeping me remotely warm now is the heat coming off my laptop.  It’s chilly. How it takes me back to the uni days of paper thin walls and constant shivering *sigh*. If only I had my wooly hat, gloves & hot water bottle to hand.

I am quite pleased that this fact of freezingness is also scientifically proven, as according to the padre “they had a frost this morning”, so clearly it’s definitely winter now. I’m pleased we haven’t had one of those yet. My poor tulips that I planted the other day probably wouldn’t stand a chance (now who’s the country bumpkin hey!?).

Hopefully soon it will start looking more like this...

The pretty way to do freezing.

I’ve speant the last couple of months saying ‘well it’s definitely not cold enough for the time of year yet’. I guess I forget that that the last couple of winters were in Brummy land & that I only really did a half winter last year as come January I was off sunning myself in the lovely Mexico. Only downside to that was that I had the Bertram with me. That’s enough to taint any sunny day. Hmmmm come to think of it, maybe I should be relishing my evening  in the cold. A welcome break from Montana… And if anyone has seen her latest blog idea you will know why that is a relief. She got mean. www.bertie-retaliation.blogspot.com will make a delightful read for any of you that would like to hear Han’s responses to my blog.

Co-ordinated Christmas?

Finally I feel like I'm allowed to say that it's time to get Christmassy. Working in retail generally means that I've been in a Christmas mindset since July, it's actually technically Valentines day for me now. But, with X Factor nearly finishing, the Christmas music being in the shops, the decorations being up in Covent Garden, the coca cola ad being on the TV and the extreme crowds gathering in Oxford Street, it's here. Only 3 more days until the first advent calendar can be opened and we can light our all important advent calendar that has been waiting for its moment of fame since September.

We are trying our hardest in the house to hold out and wait until December before we can put the Christmas decorations up. I'm going home tomorrow and no doubt mummy Crouch will probably have the halls well and truely decked already.

How exactly we decorate the house is something that is still up for contention. Whilst I, like Mummy Crouch, like to go for a co-ordinated plan to Christmas decorations with themed rooms; gold for the living room; red for the kitchen etc. But, in contrast Han & Charlie seem to be in the "we've just thrown up Christmas" camp. We'll see what prevails. I have a horrible feeling I may be losing on this one as I am outnumbered. Maybe, I'll just let them decorate and then when I beat them home have a quick rearrange!

The other week we had a lovely little reunion with our German friend Toby. We met him in Vietnam and have had our random little meet ups in Cambodia and now London. Another one of our travelly crew that's decided to come over to England for uni & another one of the peeps that we now get to show the sights that London has to offer. We went on a trip to Covent Garden. My fave place at Christmas. Largely because of the beautifully well co-ordinated decorations that they put up at this time of year.

Not only is there a giant Christmas tree, there is also a giant reindeer, giant baubles AND giant candy canes and they're all in red. Perfect.

 Anyway, we had a lovely morning of street performances, violinists & roast Chestnuts... could we get any more British I wonder?

So we've gone from rendevouz in blazing hot sunshine with Toby, to wintery afternoons a la Londres. Hopefully it won't be too long until we can have sunshine meet ups again!

The Viking's have invaded

One great thing about going travelling is that you quickly make friends all over the world.
We met two particularly special (and crazy) Norwegian ladies in Buenos Aires that we then went on to rave it up with in Brazil & Laos. It's pretty fitting that the three countries that we managed to see them in were the messiest of all of the places that we visited. And so I introduce to you... Ingrid & Cecilie

The crazy Norwegians, how we love them.

I can safely say that we have been through thick and thin with these girls; near death experiences as we launched ourselves off zip lines and giant slides, severe alcoholism and I've even seen Ingrid squat (classy I know - she won't let me put up a picture).

And so now, due to the obvious good impression that us English girlie's have made on them Ingrid has decided to make the trip over and come to Leeds university this year :)

Which also means that we get the pleasure of her company in London every so often.

After the arrival of her friend & her other viking friend Helene chaos quickly ensued as the standard drinking games quickly began. If anyone has read my other travel blog you will remember that drinking/drinking games played a rather large part while Han & I were away. And of course this always continues when we have our travelly friends to stay.

We learnt a new one this time though... I didn't know that there were any left that we didn't know! Anyway, this one appears to be quite fatal... it's called the Bus Driver... and is probably responsible for the severe memory loss that has taken place. Basically, it involves cards and drinking... A LOT.

This also resulted in us mixing wine and vodka. Never a good idea.

Anyway, not only did we learn a new drinking games, we also had many lessons in Norwegian. I think we're pretty much fluent now. We have learnt the Norwegian drinking song, Skal! And other essentials such as, can I have a cup of tea please. Can't remember too much of that now, but oh well, I'm sure it will all come flooding back when we set foot on Norwegian soil or snow in January. We've also been teaching Ingrid to speak 'proper' English. No more American for her! She will learn to say pavement instead of sidewalk and autumn instead of fall. bookyaka.

And so after a messy night, the Vikings, their headaches and their enormous bags full of swords, shields & helmets were back on their way again.

Can't wait for the Oslo reunion!