Showing posts with label 1990's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1990's. Show all posts

Monday, 6 November 2017

Being a Baby About It

Hello!

So after what it would seem as weeks worth of Halloween or fancy dress parties, this weekend saw Mr Warehouse and myself meeting up with some familiar faces from our old workplace to celebrate in true 90's style with an old work colleagues 40th birthday party. You would have thought that I had ran out of ideas to dress up as and I will be honest with you that by Saturday afternoon I still did not have a clue what I or Mr. Warehouse were going as. 

For months I had been planning some ideas in my head something simple that would be easy to pull off. Maybe  a Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake double denim combo? Or perhaps a Posh and Becks PVC leather catsuit look? Obviously Mr Warehouse and I had to be "Twinning" with whatever we wore. But what could be more 90's than pops power couples? Well it got me thinking. TV and film are always great starting points when looking for fancy dress ideas. So hitting up Google I decided to look into some of my favourite TV shows growing up. 

One of the classics that I looked into was The Rugrats! With Angelica speaking to me in a way that no other cartoon character had before with her bossy attitude and need for constant attention I thought that she would be perfect! But that would certainly take a lot of effort and not being blonde at the present moment would mean I would have to buy another word for probably the fourth week in a row. Maybe some of the other characters would be a better choice?! Then like out of nowhere it struck me! Why not go as Phil and Lil from The Rugrats. It was so simple! And that was it! With the idea firmly planted inside my head I headed to town in Vivienne to purchase the necessary costume components. Hitting up Primark first I found all the pieces I needed in the men's section with extra large pink t-shirts and even larger green vests. Hopping from the town centre over to another retail park where I visited Hobbycraft in order to pick up some yellow, pink and white felt. 

At home I made headway with only a short time before we had to leave the house again for some fireworks with Mr warehouses brother and his family. Grabbing my hot glue gun I got to work sticking down the yellow duck and tissues in the pockets of the outfits, adding in some pink bows for details on my outfit. Completing the look by fitting into some skin coloured leggings and curly hair I thought that we certainly looked the part even if Mr Warehouse had never seen a single episode of the nearly two-hundred that were made of The Rugrats that's found more than a decade. 

After an eventful evening out watching some local fireworks with Mr Warehouses family we headed over to the party venue. I was excited to see some of my old work colleagues and was even more excited about the potential of having a couple of drinks whilst having a boogie on the dance floor. Unfortunately though it would appear that after arriving Mr Warehouse became very tired and weary. I could empathize as to why as Mr Warehouse had been working most of the day. I was almost certain looking at him there in the light of the disco set that there were many other places he would have preferred to being rather than at a party dressed as a toddler and with dance music banging through his ears. I on the other hand was well up for a party and was thoroughly looking forward to a good drink. But looking around I noticed only one or two of my old work colleagues had made it. I missed them all terribly. 

As I got talking to my old supervisor I soon realized that my career move had been for the better. As much as I loved looking back on my time with my old company through Rose tinted glasses, it was certainly not all lightness and sweet. Whilst I had grown to adore my job as well as the people surrounding me in it, the sales peoples and engineers especially, as well as other office members, I think I knew deep down that it was not going to last much longer. In the months leading up to me leaving I had it been becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my working career and the fact that I felt like I was still being treated as the twenty-two-year-old girl that walked through the doors several years earlier was patronizing to say the least. The constant belittling and making me out to look as though I didn't know what I was doing, when in actual fact I knew exactly how to run the ship tighter and fairer than anyone was taking its toll. Enough was enough. 

I hated the fact that I left, but I have to remember that this was a decision on took not only for me but also for my future self and family. Sounds ridiculous I know but I took the decision to move jobs because of the luxuries we would have as a little family with just me, the Dog and the Bae. Since my decision last year almost to the day, Mr Warehouse and I have indulged in a holiday (or a few) both with and without the dog and have many more fun things planned for the future. I don't think that I would have ever been able to afford to have Vivienne on the wages I was getting back there. But money isn't everything and whilst I have the progression and option to go further with the company I work for now, something I would have never got if I stayed where I was, I have lost contact I feel with some amazing people. 

I wish that my old work life could have continued in the way that it had started with partying into the early hours most weekends, dating random fuck-boys and living life to the fullest, it was time to grow up. Whilst they were some of the most memorable and happiest moments of my life, every chapter must come to an end for a new one to begin. 

 'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx 

Monday, 9 October 2017

Drowning - Under Da Sea

Heyy Heyy, 

So when most people say that they feel as though they have not had a weekend, I can almost literally relate as for the last week I feel as though I have not had a single day outside of the office including this Saturday and Sunday just gone. A combination of anger, disappointment and frustration has left me well and truly exhausted this weekend and I am thoroughly looking forward to having this weekend off ... Hopefully. I will be honest with you all now that I am completely drained and in all fairness am done with the whole situation after being let down. 

Anyway, on with the show and what a show it was. So after Saturdays letdown I had headed home in order to relax a little before heading out to a party that evening. But this wasn't just any type of party. Oh no! This was an 80's themed 30th birthday party. The lady in question was Mr Warehouse's friends from when he was growing up in and around Marston Moretaine. She was turning thirty (I mean I was shocked when I heard that it was the big three-zero that she was turning. Looking at her you would have assumed as I did that she was not a day older than me at twenty-six). In celebration to where she came from was celebrating the era that was the 1980s. Everyone of importance was there - Michael Jackson, Sinitta, Madonna, Smurfette, Slash and me - Ariel from The Little Mermaid, in toe with Prince Eric of course. 

The idea of The Little Mermaid had been around for awhile in my head and originally started out as a sort of macabre version of a Halloween costume, complete with fishing hook through the cheek and all. But on hearing that there was another fancy dress party to add to the two Mr. Warehouse and I were already invited to in the autumn of this year I was thoroughly excited to look at the possibilities that seemed almost endless with the 80's churning up some creative and indeed crazy fancy dress ideas. Obviously I toyed with the idea of being Cyndi Lauper with my Prince or George Michael by my side however everyone would be doing exactly the same and I wanted myself and Mr. Warehouse to stick out in the crowd. The Disney Classic splashed it's way onto our screens in 1989 as the red-haired princess tried to figure out a way of growing legs and becoming a human in order to live a normal life on land with her Prince. 

The legend that is The Little Mermaid started its life not in the deep, luscious oceans of Barbados or the Caribbean, but off the coast of Denmark. When Hans Christian Andersen, the Scandinavian answer to the Brothers Grimm, started writing books like The Ugly Duckling and The Princess and The Pea, he probably had no idea just how popular the little Danish icon since at the time in the mid-1800's stories like this and others were overlooked and not given the proper credit they deserve. The innovative and adventurous Hans made friends in later life with world famous Charles Dickens, responsible for Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. Hans even made a journey over to visit his British friend in the late 1840's and since then had been a major influence on other British writers such as A A Milne who inspired Winnie The Pooh and even Beatrix Potter who brought us the fun times of Tom kitten and Peter RabbitHans Christian Andersen died after he sustained a serious head injury after falling out of bed in his home in CopenhagenDenmark but on further inspection by Medical teams was seen to start showing early signs of liver cancer and in the summer of 1875 he died, aged seventy. 

Tributes to his work and art can be seen all around the world including countless stage shows and films not to mention an an amusement park in Shanghai. But for me personally one of the most touching tributes to such a influential storyteller has to be the magnificent statue that sits in the harbor of Copenhagen showing a little sea creature in all her beauty. I plan on visiting her one day, however with Ryanair flights getting cancelled left, right and center because HR cant get their pilots to plan holiday effectively and Monarch being the latest casualty in the bargain bucket prices of a cheap holiday abroad I am not so sure when I will get a chance. Besides I have Prague to save for as well as a Luxe beach holibob next year with the Bae. 

Thinking about it just now, re-enacting Kylie and Jason's wedding from Neighbors would have been a really good idea and probably a lot more simpler and effective in the long run since everyone kept asking who I had come as. Maybe we'll save that one for next time! I mean the possibilities are never-ending and I can only hope that I am able to get the same level of inspiration for my Halloween costumes with Mr Warehouse as well as the 90's themed party in less than a few weeks of an old work colleague. I have already suggested to Mr Warehouse that we dressed as a couple back in the 90's. I'm not talking of loud shirts and baggy pants. I was more along the line of a double-denim Britney and Justin look or even and all out Posh and Becks PVC twinning. Either way I am sure that we will name it just as we always do. And who knows maybe I will be able to take another one of my Disney Princesses of my list of dress-ups. 

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx