Sunday Favourites #110

It's that time of the week again...

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I love these Christmas card designs from Andrea Kett. Some feature Sooty and Sue... nuff said!

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This yellow eye make up look is so striking.

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I love Audrey's Autumnal outfit. That coat is beautiful!

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I adore these tattoos from Sasha U, especially that gorgeous bespectacled fox!

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I want to make this colour wheel cheesecake!

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Did you know there's a hotel in Brussels with a different Pantone colour scheme on each of its seven floors? It looks like heaven! (Although, I think the fluorescent orange floor would give me a headache after five minutes).

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I'm in awe at these stunning mosque ceilings. The detail is incredible! They must have all taken years to complete! 

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This teeny tiny koala joey is bloody adorable! I can adopt him, yes?

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These photos were recently taken in Chernobyl by a drone. The heap of gas masks is particularly unsettling.

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These amazing paintings of animals have actually been painted on to naked human bodies instead of canvas! They're incredible. The images are also available to buy as prints, at the source.

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These otters are too cute!

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And some capybaras enjoying some watermelon.

Louise's Lovely Links

♥ I couldn't stop laughing when I read why Home Alone 2 is one of the most disturbing films ever made.

♥ I was fascinated by this post: what if other planets were as close to Earth as the moon? Can you imagine having a planet the size of Saturn dominating our skies?

♥ You might find Mandy Leigh's 25 beauty blog post ideas helpful if you're a beauty blogger suffering from writer's block.

♥ Here's a huge list of links on how to deal with mental illness, with specific links for a wide range of mental illnesses from depression and anxiety to self harm and addiction. If you have a Tumblr, why not reblog the list? You might just save somebody's life this Christmas.

♥ These red panda GIFs made me smile.

♥ Take a look at this video of a dog who is terrified of doorways. Instead of allowing his phobia to win, he's found a hilarious way to conquer it.

♥ This video of an adorable French bulldog puppy playing with a doorstop is the cutest thing I've seen all week.

♥ Check out these photos of a ghost town in Cyprus where time has stood still since the seventies.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Linkin Park Live In London November 2014

Hey guys,

I'm back with the final instalment of my recent adventures in London.

This post is extremely long, but I hope you'll indulge me just this once. I don't get to have fun often anymore! If you actually want to keep reading, grab yourself a drink, put your feet up, and get comfortable! This might take a while...

We made it to the O2 in time to catch the last couple of songs from Linkin Park's support act 'Of Mice and Men'. I had never listened to their music before, but I loved what I heard. I'm going to have to check out some of their music. Any recommendations?

I was pleased to see how good the view was from our seats. We were in the closest tier to the stage, and even though it was a side-view, it wasn't restrictive. We had a great view! (Or, I would have if I hadn't been stuck behind two guys swaying and waving their arms like pre-teen girls at a boyband concert). 

It felt like an age before Linkin Park appeared on stage around 9pm, but believe me when I say they were worth the wait! The show started with a bang of drums, guitars, and twenty thousand fans roaring along to Guilty All The Same. I don't think I've ever been part of a louder audience! It was incredible to be a part of it.

They performed a great selection of songs from each of their studio albums, with early hits from Hybrid Theory, like One Step Closer and In The End, to tracks from their latest album The Hunting Party, such as Final Masquerade and Until It's Gone. They also performed a lot of mash-ups, which were amazing, although I wished they had performed more full songs because hearing just a verse or two of my favourites before they merged in to another was just plain cruel! For instance, one of the mash ups was Leave Out All The Rest, Shadow of The Day and Iridescent, which are three of my favourite songs of all time. They sounded great as a mash up but I wanted more, dammit! Haha! Yes, I've heard them all live before in full, but that's beside the point!

Hmm, I wonder if you can tell who my favourite is...

I'll let them off since the show was phenomenal!

One thing I love about Linkin Park, besides their amazing music, is how much they interact with their fans. It seems to be a tradition for Mike to jump in to the audience during In The End to sing with fans, and on this occasion, they invited about thirty fans on stage during the closing song 'Bleed It Out' to mark the end of The Hunting Party tour. Everybody looked like they were having a blast and it was so fun to watch. It actually made me a bit emotional! It was a brilliant end to an incredible show.

A blurry shot of Chester topless. You're welcome!

Joe giving Brad a piggy back ride around the stage during Bleed It Out to wave at fans.

It was hands down one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Linkin Park have yet to disappoint me. They sound even better live than they do on CD, and they sure know how to put on a good show. I'd even go as far as saying they're the best band I've ever seen live! I can't wait 'til the next UK tour; I'll definitely be going!

Here are a few videos I took. The footage isn't brilliant as I was shaky and the guys in front kept blocking my view, and the sound was booming from the base but you'll get the idea. If you watch them, be sure to turn the volume down first; the music will deafen you!

During the show, I tried so hard to stay on my feet so I wouldn't miss anything. It was a struggle as the pain was burning from my neck to my toes, but it was actually my wobbly legs that were causing the biggest problem. I'm not sure if it's the pain, medication, or weakness from being house-bound, but my legs shake constantly these days, and lately it's started to really affect my balance. It makes it particularly difficult to stay up right when I'm stood still and have nothing to hold on to. I kept losing my balance and had to hold on to my sister a lot so I didn't fall down and make a tit of myself. Thankfully, I didn't slip, and just took a lot of rests, but afterwards I had to pretty much crawl up the stairs to leave the arena. There weren't any hand rails to make it easier. One of these days I'll start feeling less self conscious of walking at a snail's pace like a frail old lady. I get embarrassed when I hold people up, even with the girls behind me.

Once we were outside, we headed back to Greenwich pier to get the boat back to the London Eye. We were surprised by how few people were aboard with us. Out of 20,000 people (at the gig alone), there were only around two dozen of us aboard! Why don't more people use it? I'd much rather embrace the cold and take a relaxing journey up the river than squash in to a hot, claustrophobic carriage on the Underground with hundreds of sweaty strangers.

Plus it gives you the opportunity to pose for photos with a giant penguin when you get back on dry land...

I would've given him a bear-hug, but I'd lost the ability to stretch my arms. It was a miracle I was still standing.

Remind me not to wear my black ankle boots with black leggings again; I look like I'm wearing suede wellies! Haha! I did get to wear my new (p)leather biker jacket from Dorothy Perkins, though, and it was surprisingly warm against the cold. It came in handy so I don't feel too guilty for putting it on my store card.

We walked back along the river-front to Westminster Bridge, where we hailed a cab, headed back to the hotel, and raided the vending machine for munchies. My pain was through the roof, so I crawled straight in to bed with a heat patch and a hot water bottle for my back, and we just spent the next few hours chatting until we fell asleep. Rock 'n' roll!

The next morning my pain was excruciating, but my little trip to London was and still is completely worth the pain it put me in. I had a fantastic time seeing one of my all time favourite bands live again and getting to see my best friend for the first time in almost a year. Even without the concert, all three of us still had a great time together in the city.

For me, it was so good to experience a little part of my old life again. I used to go to a lot of concerts, and visit London several times a year to shop, sight-see, and catch a show, and those things are what I miss most in life. I couldn't do anything on the same scale this week, but I'm proud of how much I managed to cope with. I might have some explaining to do to my physiotherapist this morning, but I don't care what the repercussions are; the memories of the great day will keep me smiling well in to the new year! 

Bring on the next one!

Thanks for reading!

There's No Place Like London: Part Two

Hey guys,

I'm back with part two of Monday's London adventures. If you missed part one yesterday, you can catch up with it here.

Today's post is all about our visit to Covent Garden, and a boat journey down the Thames to the O2. I was going to include the rest of my London trip in this post, but decided to split it in to two so I don't crash your computers with a million photos. I have scheduled the last part to immediately follow this one, though, and if you're a Linkin Park fan you might want to check it out!

After a few hours resting in the hotel that afternoon, we (my best friend, sister, and I) headed over to Covent Garden to get a quick bite to eat and wander around the piazza before making our way to the O2. We were hoping to experience Covent Garden in all it's festive glory, but we couldn't have imagined the scene that awaited us.

It was so beautifully decorated for Christmas, with hundreds of giant red baubles and disco balls hanging from the rafters, and yellow fairy lights framing the arches and doorways.

There was a giant Christmas tree adorned in pretty red and white lights, and an enormous reindeer lit up in white, alongside it. Even the cobble stone streets were lit up with festive cheer. I've visited Covent Garden at Christmas once before, but I've never seen it decorated on the same scale.  I was blown away by how gorgeous it was. 

Inside the piazza, we grabbed a burger and fries from Shake Shack, and ate outside so we could soak up the festive atmosphere. The fairy lights were twinkling, and we could hear live music coming from the ground floor beneath us. At one point, we heard a man singing opera music, and by the impressive quality of his voice, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a trained opera singer or theatre actor. Opera isn't really my thing, but the music had a Christmas-carol like quality to it and really added to the festive ambiance. 

I tried to take photos of all the pretty things I saw, but most of them came out blurry, and the rest are crap, so I'm sorry about today's photos. I was saving the battery on my Canon (the camera I use for my blog photos) for the gig, and my iPod, and phone didn't want to cooperate. Neither has a flash so they don't work well in the dark.

Once we were finished eating, we grabbed a cab to Westminster bridge.

We decided to travel to the O2 in style, and took a boat from the London Eye up to Greenwich. The leisurely trip down the Thames takes about half an hour, and it's far more scenic that the tube. It takes you past Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, London Bridge, Canary Wharf and other iconic landmarks. The views of the sky line lit up at night are amazing. I've gone to the O2 this way once before, but this was the first time I did so at night and during the Winter. It made the trip all the more special... even if it was freezing! If you wrap up warm (or sit inside!) it's an enjoyable trip and you get to sight-see along the way.

We weren't crammed in like sardines like we would have been on the tube, and it didn't cost as much as a cab. It was also far gentler on my back than cars, buses, and trains are.

The man charged us all student prices (£8 return), even though only one of us is still a student! An adult return was about £12, I think. In my opinion the boat is the best way to get to and from the arena, and I'd choose it over anything else any day.

It was a short walk from Greenwich pier to the O2, which took us through a tunnel with rainbow coloured lights, which looked amazing. I could have stayed there taking photos all night, but I didn't even get the chance to take any half decent photos; everybody was freezing and wanted to get inside.

Once we were through security, we grabbed a drink, made our way in to the arena, and waited impatiently for the magic to start... it wait seemed to take forever...

To read the rest of my London adventures, check out part three, which will be live immediately after this post.

Thanks for reading!