We arranged to meet up this afternoon and have lunch at a place called “Buffet City”, which is a Chinese restaurant…but an “all you can eat” buffet.
We both managed two small plates before we decided we were full and left.

We started wandering around the city centre, not sure what to do but just chatting while we walked along.
And the subject turned to piercings…and I think you probably have a good idea where this is going…

I wanted to go into my usual piercing place to get a new lip ring and so off we went. As we walked in, Sam’s all “Hmm, I REALLY want a new piercing. Do you know if they have any piercings for £20 or less?”. I didn’t, so we went to the counter. Sam looked down the list and found the piercing she had really wanted for a few months and it was in her price range. I was innocently enquiring about some of the piercings I was kinda interested in getting at some point.

Well, between Sam and the person on the counter, I got talked into getting a piercing I’ve wanted for about…two years?

Long story short: I am now the proud owner of a septum piercing^{^}.

After we got pierced, most of the shops in the city centre had closed, so we decided to go home.

The jewellery I’m wearing in my new piercing is a horseshoe ring and it’s flipped up, so no one can see it. It’s a ninja piercing.
I’ll put photos up when the piercing is healed enough for me to be happy pulling the jewellery down.

Before we got in, I had a security guard ask to search inside my handbag. I asked why and he didn’t answer. I asked again and he said it was because my bag was “too big”. Seriously. Myke said that we were going to be sat down and the security guard said he had to check with ANOTHER security guard, who was obviously less of an idiot and permitted me to keep my handbag. Don’t know where they would have expected me to leave my handbag.

We got into the room where it was to be held and the crowd on the floor was massive. Although I was sat down and as far away from the crowd as I could be, I still felt claustrophic.

The first act on stage was Hellyeah, who were loud and awesome. I really liked them but Myke didn’t enjoy them quite so much. Think the crowd on the floor liked them too as they kept making little circle pits to run around in.

After Hellyeah, it was StoneSour’s turn to take the stage. They were very, very good but I didn’t like them quite as much as Hellyeah (the support act. Li HAD to like the support act the most!). StoneSour were the reason Myke wanted to go to the gig in the first place, so he was a very happy bunny.

The final act of the evening were Avenged Sevenfold, who are a bit of an emo group. I liked this group the least (as did Myke) but they had cool stage effects, with their backdrop gates going up in flames. That kinda made up for the fact that you couldn’t actually hear what they were singing; it was SO loud.

Also, the lead singer spotted a circle pit form and then die off and then said that the crowd should form “one of those circle pit things” and see which group had the biggest. Two circle pits formed but one was much bigger and he said for them to merge together…they died off instead.

I liked the gig but found the crowd on the floor to be much more entertaining to watch than the actual groups performing. I LOVED Hellyeah and liked StoneSour a lot. Didn’t think much of Avenged Sevenfold but I think I will still try out one of their albums before I totally make my mind up.

I didn’t manage to get any good photos of the gig; we weren’t allowed to take photos and if one of the security guards spotted anyone taking photographs, they would ask them to stop. I just got sneakier with it and would hold my phone on my leg and lean into Myke, so it didn’t look like I was taking any photographs. I know – I’m such a rebel.

All of his friends left to go on to other clubs but he decided to stay on and continue chatting to me.
Then me, the ex-colleague and her friend decided to go into another club. German guy tagged along. And paid for me to get in. And bought me a drink there too.

Us two were dancing and then my ex-colleague and her friend came over and I danced with them instead, while he started dancing with a couple of his friends, who either he found or found him.
I couldn’t shake him before, so when his attention was diverted, I snuck away.

I thanked him at the time for paying for me to get into the club and for buying me a drink but now I look back, I feel guilty just because I just wandered off.
I thought I was a nice girl but nice girls just don’t do that.

And by the way, he knew I have a boyfriend and I wore a ring on my ring finger just to make sure. So it’s not like I was leading him on, which makes me feel a bit better actually!

One of the items she tried and purchased was part of their new Venomous Villains range, specifically the “Magically Cool Liquid Powder”. It was advertised by the Sales Assistant as a “cooling and moisturising powder” and she tested it on my sister and then me.

I can’t say I liked it very much.

When it was applied, it felt like the brush had been dipped in water and then brushed over my face – that’s how wet it felt. And it felt cold. Just – ew. Really.
From afar, it did give me a soft “healthy” glow, which was nothing like bronzers (good because I HATE bronzers). When I looked up close to the area where the powder had been applied, it looked like the Sales Assistant really HAD applied wet powder to my face; it looked all all bitty and pitty in my skin.

Of course, because I’m a total wimp when it comes to telling Sales Assistants what I really think of the products they’re trying to sell me, I said nothing and even acted like I liked the product and might even come back soon and purchase.

My sister bought the evil wet powder and is very happy with her new purchase. I won’t be buying it.

Suddenly, we hear lots of loud quacking. We turn to the sound and see “our” Whitey chasing another duck around the pond.

Seconds after I managed to take this photo, Whitey chased the other duck into some bushes, where he forced this innocent duck to do not-innocent things. Feathers went flying, let me tell you.

His broken jaw is very handy though; every time he winds me up, I just threaten to punch him in the face. I wouldn’t do it but he doesn’t know that and immediately shuts up.

He broke his jaw the night I came back from Edinburgh with Myke, to meet his nan for the first time.
We arrived in Edinburgh, after a NINE HOUR TRAIN RIDE, on the Wednesday. We had a quick look at everything around the station before getting into a taxi and making our way to South Queensferry.
We checked in at the Inn (we didn’t stay at a hotel) before making our way to see Myke’s nanny for a couple of hours.

I thought his nan was nice and I think she liked me too, as she invited me back for her 95th birthday, in February!

After we’d seen Myke’s nan for a couple of hours, we went back to the Inn and went to bed.
We woke up at half seven the following day because we only had one full day to see all of Edinburgh City Centre! We had our breakfast in the Inn (I had a small bowl of cereal, a small croissant and a medium coffee; Myke had some toast and a tea) before heading out to the bus stop.

We looked around the City Centre for a few hours and I took loads of photos (they’re in my Edinburgh set on Flickr, if you’re interested^{^}).
Myke was going to treat me to lunch but we had to use the toilets first, so off we went. I came out of the stall in the girl’s room and look what greeted me:

Yep – straighteners! We don’t have THOSE in OUR mall.

I came out and told Myke about my find and then we went to have our lunch; Spud-U-Like.

We did some more looking around and shopping before heading on over to something I’d been looking forward to seeing for a long, long time. And MY GOD, what a disappointment.
We thought it would be a bunch of tunnels and, oh I don’t know, DUNGEONS and that we’d get to look around quietly. Maybe there would be a few fake skellingtons hanging around and some “scary” noises.
What we got were some very-difficult-to-understand-Scottish-people doing amateur dramatics.
We entered and the first event was the whole group had to sit down on some pews while someone dressed like a judge told us off for being witches (the females) and cross-dressing (the males). And it just went downhill from there, really. The worst bit for me was when a MAN, wearing a CAPE and loads of MAKEUP and with TERRIBLE acting skills called ME “a little freak”. I laughed.
Anyway, unless you actually enjoy men in makeup and God-awful acting, then I’d recommend you don’t bother going to see the Edinburgh Dungeons. It costs £15 per person to get in and Myke and I spent the whole time thinking “Can we leave now??”.

After that little disappointment, we looked around the City Centre some more (I saw a The Gap, a Harvey Nichols AND a Louis Vuitton!), and I had my first ever Starbucks (tall, coffee-based caramel frappuccino with whipped cream – I’m now addicted) before heading back to the Inn.
We bought some fish and chips for our dinner and ate them overlooking the beach where the bones of suicide victims get washed up, which was nice. Then we headed back to Myke’s nan’s flat.

We had to leave the next day, so the rest of our trip was spent packing and sleeping and travelling.

We got back to Plymouth and I texted my mum to let her know that I was around Myke’s having my dinner and I got a text back saying that my brother’s on his way to the hospital. And you know the rest of that story already.

The day after I got back to Plymouth, my sister dragged me into town to give me my early birthday present; I was taken to The Living Art (a tattoo-shop) and was told that I will be having my first tattoo and that she was paying!
I decided that I wanted a three-leaf clover on the inside of my left wrist and it was done!

(I love it! I really liked it when I got it done but I love it more and more each day!)
After the tattooist had finished, my wrist got bandaged up and I was sent on my way.

I got home and got ready for my Line Manager’s Hen Party before meeting up with everyone at the Wetherspoon on the Barbican. I had a few drinks before going home again (wasn’t really in the mood because I felt guilty going out when my poor brother was in the hospital. Plus, I probably shouldn’t have been drinking a couple of hours after getting a tattoo…).

I think I’ll carry this on to another entry, as this one is over 1000 words long already.

—

While I was waiting for the show to start, I took not one BUT TWO illegal photos of the stage:

(If you’re wondering why it’s so empty…it’s because we were about half an hour early for the show. )

Derren Brown didn’t take my soul – for those of you who are normal, he apparently takes your soul if you go up on stage with him. He must have read my mind (or smelled my fear) because whenever he threw a frisbee at the audience, it wasn’t in my direction. Woo!

I would have loved to tell you everything that happened during the show but he asked that we didn’t (in case we ruin it for someone else, I guess) but it was brilliant and I loved it. So much so, that I would totally go again and can’t wait until he does his next one!
If you’re going to be seeing this show, start getting verrrry excited!

I must admit that I was pretty disappointed when I got there though – I had gotten all dressed up^{^} and had attempted to prettify myself by wearing A LOT of makeup^{^} and almost all of the other girls there had gone in little vest or tiny tops and just generally looking quite scruffy.

By the way, you are all going to be subjected to “reviews” of all of my makeup items, since I was really impressed by most of it.

—

In other news, I have something to tell you all which will hopefully make you laugh. (Everyone ELSE has laughed about it already, so you should at least have a little snicker.)

To get to the front door in work, you need to go up two steps. I was already on the first step and was about to get up to the second one when my knee suddenly “went” (ie, I suddenly and inexplicably lost all feeling from the kneecap down). I was about to fall backwards but thought that if I DID fall backwards, I’d land on my lower leg and will probably snap it on the step below me, so I threw myself forward instead. But I kinda didn’t have enough time to stretch my hands out and stop me from falling properly.
I ended up smacking my kneecap on the edge of the concrete step in front of me and banged both of my hands and MY HEAD on the front door.
I tried to get myself up but fell again, smacking my head AGAIN on the front door.
The cleaner thought I’d been knocking and answered the door to me trying to get back up.

That’s the end of the funny part.

The photo doesn’t do the blacks, blues and purples in my bruise justice – they’re MUCH brighter and more obvious in real life. It’s gotten very slightly darker since yesterday but that’s pretty much how it’s looked since I did it.
Although my leg doesn’t really “hurt” anymore, it’s really uncomfortable and stiff.
(Oh and I also managed to slice my leg a little while shaving it last night. Wonderful.)

—

This post is really badly written (and I apologise!) but I was up all Monday night consoling my mother, as my sister had announced that she’s moving out and I had to go to bed really late because the shower’s broken and I had to have a bath before I went to bed (rather than a shower when I get up) and I didn’t get home until around 9pm AND it took about 45 bloody minutes to fill the tub up.

We both ended up late but I got to our meeting up place before he did. While I was waiting, I heard a lot of noise coming from my right. I looked over and saw women practising their…pole dancing. In the middle of the city centre. In the middle of the day.
As soon as I spotted Matt coming, I walked over and asked him if he wanted to watch some pole dancing. He agreed and we went over. After we watched one performer, we walked off around the corner, before returning because I wanted to video it and put it on my blog (and Flickr and YouTube…). So we returned and I started filming the performances. For you lot because I know how interested you would be!

A little while later, we decided we were hungry. Matt suggested we get something at Subway, so off we went. Matt was amazed that I’d never had a Subway sandwich before. Honestly – it’s not that interesting! I’ve never had a Starbucks coffee either!
So yes, I had my first Subway today. AND IT WAS LOVELY WHY DIDN’T I TRY THIS BEFORE?!! I had meatballs and cheese in a 6-inch honey oats bread, with lettuce and green peppers. And I loved every single, messy, mouthful.

Eventually, we decided that we have had enough and would go and drive around on the moors but first – he had to pick up some cat food for his mum (I’m assuming she doesn’t eat it herself).

As we walked in, I spotted the pets and Matt left me looking at the furry little balls of fur while he picked up the cat food. When he came back for me, I told him I was going to buy a hamster.
Matt reminded me that the hamster would need a hamster cage, food, etc. I was all “I’ll need to buy food but we have loads of hamster stuff at home – we’ve had LOADS of hamsters!”, then I remembered that my clean-freak step-dad has been left unsupervised in the shed recently.

I rang my mum up to ask if we still had the hamster stuff and I got “YOU’RE NOT GETTING A HAMSTER!”. I lied and told her that I had already bought the hamster – oops! Turned out that we din’t have any hamster stuff left; Pete had gone and thrown the lot out.

We rushed off to another pet store, one where the prices were slightly more affordable – £30 for a hamster cage! I don’t think so!
I picked up this short, fat cage containing a house, bedding, wheel, drink bottle and food bowl and also got some wood shavings and a mini exercise ball.

We rushed back to the pet store, with me thinking that if I get everything except the bloody hamster, my mum will kill me.
I ran in while Matt was parking and bought my dear little hamster, some little fruit-flavoured wood things (helps keep their teeth short and clean) and some hamster food.

We drove home, with me holding the hamster box and Matt trying to drive as smoothly as he could. By the time I got home, I was convinced that my new little hamster was dead, as I could feel him sliding around the little box every time we went over a bump or around a corner.

When we got home, I set up in his little cage and…he wouldn’t come out of the box. Matt had to leave after a while and told me to text him when the hamster ventures out. My brother got a bit bored of waiting and ended up tilting the box to slide the hamster out. The hamster wasn’t dead, just sleeping.

As angry as mum was when she first heard about him, she fell in love with him when she saw him.

His name is Killer and he is a Russian Dwarf Hamster. And I love him.

The day started off with me & Myke in town. I was planning on getting an orbital done on my left ear, to mirror the one in my right. I also planned to get myself a camera bag for my new camera.

Neither of these things happened.

Tribal Voice (where I get pierced) was closed down a few weeks ago, due to flooding. It appears that the damage was too much and they’ve chosen to move to a new location. It’s not finished being ‘done up’, so I couldn’t get pierced. Disappointed.

I can find bags to fit my camera but…they’re fugly. And I don’t like fugly. So no camera bag either.

Basically, Myke and I ended up walking up and down town a few times, before he left me to go to work and I left him to meet Matt.

I meet Matt, we go to his car and he drives us off to Saltram House; to have another wander through the grounds and to try and find that elusive Saltram Beach!

We wander ’round. I have my old digital camera out but my new one’s in my bag. I want to use my new one but it doesn’t have a case – it’ll get dirty! Matt convinces me to use my new camera anyway because other people are walking around, using their cameras without a case!

We carry on. I take pictures of random things I found interesting.

We find the beach and it’s sorely disappointing; there’s loads of rubbish around and the sand and water look dirty.

We carry on walking and eventually, there’s nothing else to do. Off we go to the restaurant, to use their toilet facilities and to get ourselves some ice cream, since it was really hot!

Matt said his toilet and sink were really low down; he had to stoop to use the sink and didn’t bother with the hand dryer at all. My toilet, on the other hand, was too high; I had to go on my tip-toes just to get high enough to SIT on the seat. The sink & hand dryer were both at the perfect height for me, though.

We buy these little tubs of chocolate ice cream and make our way out to the benches. To, you know. Sit and eat. As we’re consuming the yummy ice cream, an old lady comes and sits with us and starts talking. About random things. And she’d swing from one topic to another and back again. Both of us just wanted to go but didn’t have the heart to just up and leave and we didn’t really want to leave her on her own.
Eventually, her family comes back and off we go, back to the car.

As we’re heading back to the main part of Plymouth, Matt decided to take a detour. We get lost along loads of tiny country roads and finally end up in Brixton.
At some point, we decide to find Wembury beach.

We never found Wembury beach. We got lost a couple of times and found ourselves on private property more than once.

Eventually, we find what we think is a short pathway to the beach! Matt parks. As I’m getting out of his car, the door swings wide open and hits the car next to us. I scream. Matt panics and runs around to my side. Oh God – big scratch! Matt’s car is fine, the other car isn’t!
Matt rubs the scratch and it … goes away? Oh! It’s just dust!

We make our way down the path to the beach…
Takes FOREVER to get there and when we finally did, no sand. It’s a rock beach.
We walk around, I take loads of photos. We’re actually behind the breakwater, where I’ve never been and we can see Plymouth!

Eventually, we decide to go back to the car. Matt needed to be home at six-ish and it’s half six. Oops! He tries to phone home but there’s no signal.

We make it back to Plymouth and back to my house, where he drops me off.

I go inside and I’m glowing. Literally; I’m sun burnt! And I was covered up all day!

Yesterday was awesome! The best of the photos I took can be found on my Flickr account^{^}.

The original plan was for me, Matt, Myke and Vicky to all go together but Vicky wasn’t able to come (she left her uni coursework until the last minute and, instead of being able to have a day of fun, she had to code all day!).

We set off at about half nine this morning. We got there at midday.

We walked around and saw the famous Land’s End sign^{^} and the beautiful views^{^}. We walked over to the watchtower^{^} and had a poke around^{^}. We saw^{^} some^{^} animals^{^} and finally, we chucked some money down the wishing well (after making a wish)^{^}.

A great day was had by all! We have to do it again some time!

(If you want, you can view all of my Land’s End photos on Flickr!^{^})