She Shall Go To The Ball!

If I'd have written this blog 48 hours ago, or even less, like I had been planning to, then it would probably be a whiny rant about the dire state of the British fashion retail outlets and how they seem to completely disregard about 90% of the young female market. Since finishing Japanese (woohoo!!!) and my weekend off (more about that later, maybe) I intended to resume my textiles revision. Instead, I have spent a large part of the last week trying to finally find a dress for my upcoming leavers ball. To be perfectly honest, I had practically given up before the week began and was mentally preparing myself to make a dress, and to be honest I was actually looking forward to it. Never the less, since my nanny was over from Ireland I tried once more to find a dress. 

Well let me tell you, I would never have guessed dress shopping would be so stressful! It has been the bane of my life for past month! First of all, I have trawled my local shops (no surprises there wasn't much there) then moved onto London and Westfield, which I made several trips to at various points in the year, and finally a nearby large shopping center. What I found was a severe lack of dresses suitable (at least what I or my parents deemed as suitable) for a ball. The few dresses that were suitable were well over £300 or even £500. There were a few mid range dresses that were about £200, but paying that for a glorified evening dress seems a bit steep for me. Then, the odd time I did find a gem they didn't have my size. Typical. 

Oh, I said this wouldn't be a ranty blog, let me get back to the point. Well, Murphy's law, yesterday I ended up going back to my local shop and buying a dress I'd tried on there weeks ago. It is an amazing dress and, thanks to some haggling due to a broken zip, it only cost £48! Why didn't I buy it in the first place, the males among you may ask. Females might understand;  the truth is, it was nice on me the first time I tried it on but, since I hadn't looked at much else at the time, I thought I'd find something better. Going back to it after weeks of joyless shopping I realised how amazing it really was, and since they still had my size (2 of them!) after all these weeks it must have been fate. 

The funniest thing is, the most stressful thing about trying to find a dress is the pressure everyone else seems to put on you. That's why I like shopping alone, or at least with a friend who understands. Having to justify every time why you don't want to even bother looking in "Jacques Vert" or the like (for the last time, 18 year old's don't shop there!!!) or why you don't want to buy a dress that fits you and they think looks nice, gets extremely tiring, much more so than trying the actual dresses on! Maybe it's just me, maybe a future fashion designer in the making is the hardest person to go shopping with. In fact, that's exactly the thing, isn't it? I said earlier about how I had resigned myself to making my own dress, I had in fact a few sketches already penned. I would still love to make these dresses, they were pretty amazing, if I must say so myself! Anyway, they were at the back of my head the whole time, I even knew exactly where I'd buy the fabric and knowing that it would cost about 10% of the price was an attractive feature! So I basically compared every dress I tried on to that, so of course nothing could beat it!

It's really got me thinking, the UK needs a prom dress supplier, not like those cheesy, tacky American ones though, that the average teenage girl can ship at, ie not over £200, under £100 even. Something that sells long formal gowns, and shorter flouncy prom dresses, and everything in between. There are too many retailers bringing out the same old dresses every year. Oh and another thing I noticed, considering the fact that girls going to these leaving balls are between 16 and 18 years old, why are there so many so called "prom dresses" that look like frumpy bridesmaid dresses, that age you so much? You're only 18 once and there'll be plenty of opportunities to wear more serious dresses in the future. I think there is a serious gap in the market there!  

I have rambled for waaay to long, more about my amazing weekend next time, I'm off to catch up on Mock The Week and have some coffee cake!

Lyric of the Day: "Haven't you people ever heard of closing a goddamm door?" - I Write Sins Not Tragedies, Panic! At The Disco 

I feel like I've been trapped in some sort of Japanese mind prison recently. What with having a near impossible, 3 hour Japanese A2 exam tomorrow morning, and my next exam being another 2 weeks away, I have spent almost all of the last two weeks living, breathing and practically eating Japanese. I really hope it pays off tomorrow. Oh well, to late to dwell on that now.

Anyway, due to this I have not really had a lot of creative things on my mind, or anything . When I do suddenly feel inspired I have to fight the urge to pursue the idea and push it to the back of my mind. I find this rather annoying, and it's made me realise that I really do want a job in the creative industry. I've really reached the end of my tether with this revision. I just find it very difficult to sit and try and retain information, my mind tends to wander, a lot. 

I comfort myself in the fact that this time tomorrow Japanese will be over and the only thing left to revise will be textiles which I don't mind as much and isn't quite as pressured as Japanese is (mind you I bet I'll be eating my words this time next week). Plus I've got some really great things lined up for the following 3 days after the exam! Firstly, on thursday I will be going up to Ravensbourne, where I could have been this evening if it weren't for Japanese, to see the end of year show for this years art foundation students and getting a taste of what next year will have in store for me. After that I'm going to stay up in London and try and go dress shopping. The last time I did this I gave up after one shop, so hopefully it will go a bit better this time. Although as it stand I will be window shopping as I have no budget. Anyway, on friday evening I am going to Wagamama's (which means selfish in case you were wondering, and I mustn't forget that for tomorrow's exam!) to see my favourite waiter, oh yeah, and not forgetting my friends, one of whom's birthday it is, which is why we're going.

But the to top it all off, and possibly the best news I've had in a while, I am going to the L.E.D Festival in Victoria Park this saturday!!!! And do you know why? Because my amazing mother WON us tickets!!! I had actually entered 3 separate competitions to win tickets to this, including one my local paper was running which both my mum and brother also entered. Well who would have known it but the local paper is worth reading after all! They called up my mum yesterday and told her she'd one! I know she'll be reading this at some point so I would like to say THANK YOU again!

I'm going to take this opportunity to say thankyou, to whoever might be out there, for reading. I know I tend to ramble a lot, but for some unknown reason this had record viewings last month (and by "record viewings" I mean about 150, which to be honest is the total viewing for the previous 4 months or so, so yes by my standards that is record!). So what I'd to say is thanks, and keep reading! And don't be scared to follow or comment!

Lyric of the Day: "Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so!"- Turning Japanese, The Vapors

(note: my Japanese exam was actually this morning, I got distracted before posting this last night but wanted to post it anyway. I'm sure this post is long enough already without going into the details but let's just say I am relieved, to say the least!)

So I officially left school this time last week, wow how time flies when you're revising Japanese all day! I know I left compulsory education two years ago but that doesn't really count, the following two years are practically the same as school. So this means no more lessons EVER!!! I don't think the enormity of that concept has really hit me yet. To be honest the only real lesson I had was Japanese and since I'm still doing that all day very day for the next 6 days I haven't really realised yet how much of a relief that is. Art is not really a lesson and we all know I'm far from finished with THAT. And well, the pathetic excuse for a lessons that is textiles, don't even go there.Whats more, the last day was the most unemotional last day in the history of the education system. Even my year 11 leavers day more sad, and I wasn't even leaving! That, in addition to the fact that I will still be going back there for at least another 6 or so days and we still have presentation evening and prom and all that jazz to get emotional over, means I don't even think I've realised I've even left school.

However, last night it suddenly dawned on me that without lessons, I will never see certain people again with a definite excuse. i.e. from here on in people who want to stay friends will need to make an actual effort to meet up. From here on in, you find out who your real friends are. Wow, that sounds dramatic. But it's true isn't it? Well, only time will tell what's going to happen from here on in.

On other news I am seeing my beloved White Lies again! (apart from Reading, which they'll be at and so will I!) What's more, it's at another intimate venue, Kasbah Coventry! Since York Hall was practically pure heaven I have high hopes for this one and I know they won't let us down! I'm actually getting really excited! Roll on the White Lies roadtrip!  

I'll leave with another photo I took from when we saw then at Shepherd's Bush this February, to remind you, in case you forgot, of how amazing they are (and how much a Dish of the Day Harry McVeigh is ; ) )

you don't know how long it took me to choose, there were too many good ones!

Lyric of the Day: "And just because he's had a couple of cans he thinks it's alright to act like a dickhead " - A Certain Romance, Arctic Monkeys