Tired

At this very moment, my thoughts should all be in the two 3000-word essays I have due in a week, because I am a) working all weekend, b) I am seeing my boyfriend for the first time in 4 months on Tuesday and essay writing will be impossible for at least 24 hours from that point.

I should not be blogging, yet here I am. Why, you ask?

I needed an outlet for talking about something that has been part of my daily life pretty much since my fourth year at Uni started just over a month ago. Namely, tiredness. This is also why my blogging has dropped to almost-zero since Uni started. So here I am, sharing the reason behind my quietness.

I didn't think having a part-time job and studying would be this time-consuming. But then, last time I did this, I was working 8 hours a week in high school. At this moment, I am routinely given almost 10 hours above my stated availability.

But balancing my studies and work are not the worst of it. I've been feeling very weak ever since I got sick, even after I recovered. Today, I got home from work and thought my legs were going to give out. My hands were shaking and I felt lightheaded. And while I was hungy, I had had a small fruit salad less than 2 hours before, so my blood sugar can't have been that low.

I'm constantly cold. And while I could attribute this to our flat being cold, I'm cold even when the heating is on, and no one else is as cold as I am. I can only type, or read, for short periods of time before I need to sit on my hands to warm them up. I hold a warm mug or a jar candle while I read online articles to keep my fingers from going numb with cold.

My recovery time from exercising has lengthened, and when I get tired quicker when I am exercising. It's third day since my Bodypump class, and my thighs are still so sore and tense (despite stretching and hot showers) that I find it hard to walk normally.

I am tired all the time, and the shortening days and constant rain are making it worse. I wish I could point to an easy culprit for my symptoms, but I do regular exercise, walk everywhere, sleep minimum 7 hours a night (and usually find it hard to get out of bed with anything less than 8) and eat a fairly healthy and balanced diet (and I only say 'fairly' because I succumbed to buying a pack of biscuits this week...).

Could this be just the lack of sunshine, or stress? I really don't know.

Perfume Collection

 When I started reading beauty blogs, one of the first posts I read was a perfume collection post and ever since I began blogging, I've wanted to write one myself. Funny, since I am not a beauty blogger. But then, for me perfumes can be a very integral part of your personal style. It's like an accessory, a statement piece. I feel the same way about lipsticks and nail polishes (but you won't catch me blogging about for example foundations, highlighters or mascaras) — so you might see me raving about those in here one day.

My collection of perfumes is not large — but I am quite happy with what I've got. I don't tend to buy a lot of perfumes, but rather take my time to find what I like. So, without further ado, here they are, from the oldest to the newest!

Kenzo - Flower by Kenzo

This was my first 'proper' perfume. I got a set of three of these bottles as a present, for Christmas I think, when I was 17, and as I did not wear much perfume back then, 2 of the bottles remained unopened for years. I still love the perfume, and since I really started using perfumes couple of years ago, it's been one of my go-to scents. It's not too overpowering, so it's a nice 'daytime' perfume. As you can see, I've almost ran out now. May have to repurchase, as I've grown very attached to it!

Chanel - Chance

I got this for my 18th birthday. It's been a fair few years... but it still smells like it did when I first opened it! I store all my perfumes in a cool, dark place which probably helps. I also didn't really use this until well after I turned 21, as it felt much too classy and grown-up for my 18-year-old self. Which explains why the bottle is still so full. I've been using it quite a lot in the past year, whenever I want to feel more 'classy' and 'grown-up'. 

LUSH - Smell of Freedom

I LOVE this perfume so much. The spicy and zingy scent is gorgeous. The only problem is that all three that I've had have smelt different (the first one was my favourite). I first bought this as a solid perfume, then got another solid and an atomiser after I ran out. But like I said, neither of them quite lived up to the scent of the first one, which is a pity. It's still lovely, but not quite perfect anymore. Sadly I think this has now been discontinued — I'll be devastated when I run out!

Guerlain - La Petit Robe Noire 

I fell in love with the bottle, and when I tried it, I loved it even more. Berries, almonds, liquorice and Lapsang Souchong (smokey black tea)? This was made for me. Nick surprised me with the perfume and body lotion gift set last November since he knew I'd had my eye on it.  I am spoiled!

I know a lot of people dislike this perfume, but I find it a really exciting and unusual scent that I keep sniffing all day long. It has personality!

Marc Jacobs - Daisy Dream 

 I don't generally buy perfumes myself (with the exception of LUSH perfumes). I think this is partly due to the fact that they're fairly expensive, and partly because I didn't use to wear perfume all that much until a couple of years ago. 

When Daisy Dream came out, I really wanted to try it. It looked and sounded so nice, but quite different to my usual tastes (I don't like the original Daisy perfume, and don't generally go for florals). I tried it on at airports every time I flew this summer and could not stop thinking about it and kept going back to sniff it at shops every time I had a chance. So I had to buy it. At £47 for 50ml, it was not terrible price-wise, but it still stung a little bit (student budget and all that). But since I'd been working all summer, I thought I'd treat myself.

LUSH - Lust

 Lust is perfume I had tried before and then decided I didn't like it. I've started liking the scent of jasmine lately though, and as I gave this another try about a month ago, I fell in love and decided that I had to get it. I wanted a solid perfume (I'd loved having Smell of Freedom as solid perfume — easy to carry around and no danger of spillages or of breaking a glass bottle), but they didn't have one in stock in my local shop so I had to wait a couple of weeks to get my hands on it. So happy I did. Good value for money as well, as the tin only cost £6!

 Do you have any of these? What are your favourite perfumes at the moment?

Until next time, 
Jenni 

I'm Back (And I Went To London)!

It's been almost a month since my last post! I have no other excuses other than that life happened. I moved a few days after my last post, which meant all the usual things: packing, stressing, cleaning and unpacking. To add on to that, I started my fourth year of Uni two days after moving, and also got the mother of all colds which kept me in bed for 3 days solid and I have still not entirely recovered. In short, the beginning of my final year of Uni has been a little bit of a nightmare.

This past weekend, I left all the stress and mess (I still hadn't finished unpacking!) in Aberdeen and headed down south to London to visit a friend who recently moved there after graduating. There was a lot of food involved, as well as catching up, laughing and just chilling around.

My friend was working everyday, so I occupied myself by doing a little bit of shopping, exploring and wandering around. I left my camera home, deciding that I didn't want to carry anything heavy around this time, so I just took a lot of photos with my phone.

Here's some photos from my weekend — you might have seen some of them if you follow me on Instagram, but hopefully that's okay! 

 Morning selfie! Everything started well — good hair, good face, decent eyeliner. The moment I stepped out of my friend's flat, I realised I'd left my wallet in my suitcase, I had no keys, no idea where she works and no way to contact her until her lunchtime. I saved the situation by playing Sherlock, aka staring through the windows into every cafe I found on the main street until I found her.

Liberty! I just love the black and white Tudor-style buildings. Like, so much.

I popped into Ladurée in Covent Garden. I've been to Ladurée three or four times, but never actually had their macarons. I know, I know. But I rectified my mistake this time and purchased salted caramel, liquorice and gingerbread macarons to enjoy with my friend later in the evening. They were delicious. Gingerbread was voted the favourite.

 Cookies & Scream is a must when in Camden. I had been looking forward to trying their Cookie Dough shake, but since they were out of cookie dough when we got there, I went for Peanut Butter Chico (aka cookie) shake. It was amazing. I also bought Peanut Butter and Jelly Chico (pictured left) to takeaway. Because.

I bought sparkly shoes from Dorothy Perkins (here), since they had a very exciting 30% off shoes offer going on (and still continuing!). I was rocking them with my tartan dress (Primark, last year, you know the one) while exploring the markets on Sunday.

 

I made my first visit to Columbia Road Flower Market! I did not buy anything, for obvious reasons, but it was still an experience.

I had the best cupcake of my life from Flavour Town in Old Spitalfields Market. It was called Pumpkin Spice and I have no words to describe it, it was just amazing. I wish I could have bought everything. But I will be back.

We had dinner at Comptoir Libanais! I wasn't too hungry that evening (must have been all the cupcakes) so I chose to have another starter as my main, but it was all delicious.

I had been fawning over Petra's majestic fluffiness online before our visit to Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium and was not disappointed in person. She was so incredibly beautiful (and soft)!

Last but not least, The Harry Potter Studio Tour! As a huge Harry Potter, I've been wanting to go since it opened, but somehow never had the chance. I flew on a broomstick, had butterbeer and fangirled over all the small things.

The ultimate mirror selfie, right?

I'll be sharing more about my visit to The Harry Potter Studios and Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium in separate posts soon!