Author: Lisa

My failed hair experiment… Kind of.

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

After reading this article on The Independent, I decided to try not using shampoo.

I’ve been thinking about doing something with my hair for awhile now, because I haven’t liked the way it has been looking. I haven’t had it professionally cut in more than a year, instead of opting for the do it yourself hair cut, which has had some interesting results. (I may have accidentally created a fringe one time, but everyone said it looked great.)

My hair is quite dry and breaks very easily, probably from all those years of dying it black. However, my hair is not black anymore and is more my natural colour than it has ever been. It even has a reddish look about it.

Anyway, back to the no shampoo thing. After reading the article, I decided to stop washing my hair. No shampoo, no conditioner, just rinsing it under water. The first few days were ok. My hair was looking slightly oily, but was not actually that bad. In the article it said it would take about 10 days for the natural hair oil to calm down a bit and stop producing as much. Unfortunately, I did not make it that long.

Hair after a few days of not washing with shampoo. Notice it does look a bit oily.

I lasted 7 days before I caved and shampooed and conditioned my hair. Afterwards, my hair felt fantastic. It was soft, shiny and just looked all-round fabulous.

But after a few days of shampooing and conditioning my hair again, it started to look lackluster and dry.

Somehow I have ended up shampooing and conditioning my hair every second day, with adding oil to it the night before I wash it again. My hair seems to be ok, but I’m still not satisfied. It is still quite fragile.

So I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my hair in the long run now. I know it definitely needs a cut, so I may attempt that again.

My hair today after straightening it with a GHD – best by far.

It was an interesting experiment to break from the norm though. How cowboy-ish of me.

How often do you wash your hair? Have you given up shampoo? What do you think is the best way to care for your hair?

Oh My God, You Guise.

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

The other day I saw my first musical since moving to Sydney, the city of shows! In Australia, at least. It was Legally Blonde: The Musical.

Ta Da! *jazz hands* (google images)

Now, I love the Legally Blonde movies. I have lost count of how many times I have watched them. They are the ultimate feel-good, girl-power movies. So, needless to say I was excited to see the musical. Who doesn’t like singing and dancing?!

It was at the Sydney Lyric over in Darling Harbour. I was able to walk from Man Piece and my apartment – amazing.

Back to the show… IT WAS AWESOME.

If you are in Sydney and wanting to go see a show, go see Legally Blonde. It’s the best of everything.

The only criticism I had was Elle’s voice. It sometimes ended up on the too-nasally-high-pitched-annoying scale. I know this is how she is supposed to be, but I never really noticed it in the movies. It might have been because it was a stage show and there wasn’t any sound editing. Otherwise, she did an amazing job.

Best song has to be the, “Oh my god, oh my god you guise”. I have actually had that stuck in my head ever since and only that bit, because I don’t know the rest of the song. Oy vey.

OR, Gay and European. That was just fabulous.

Best dance would have to be the work-out video. Just amazing. So much energy needed for that, I was mesmerized.

The best accessory would have to be Elle’s pink, lace-up, knee-high, heeled boots. I would really love a pair. Amazing.

The boots. The boots! Look at the boots! (google images)

Glee Season Four: “The New Rachel”.

/ Lisa

Glee cast promo pic, source: google images.

Last night the first episode of season four of Glee aired on New Zealand television – less than a week after it first aired in the States! Yay!

So, first of all, thanks Four for doing this. This is one of the major issues with TV networks in New Zealand and Four is doing something to rectify it. Because seeing spoilers is quite lame.

However, I was less than impressed with the new episode.

During season three, I started to not like Glee as much as I did when it first started, but I thought it redeemed itself a little by the end of the season. I had hopes that season four would continue with the redeeming, but after seeing the first episode, I am sorely disappointed.

The first thing that really irked me was that the New Directioners had become ‘popular’ and were starting to act like the rest of the ‘popular’ people. As in, they began being mean.

I was actually sitting there thinking, “WHAT?” Especially when Artie joined in in the mocking of the lunch lady. Why wouldn’t he just tell them to shove off? They all know what it is like to be picked on and need to stick up for each other. I was unimpressed.

The next thing that irked me was that they only let one new person into the group. Sure, there were some bad auditions, but Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies) is part of the group and she can’t sing or dance. I don’t get it. Especially because I thought Jake (Jacob Artist) was amazing and he wasn’t included in the list! Then, the one person who was added, Marley (Melissa Benoist), was rather so-so.

There was even a quote by Artie about acceptance. This entire episode for me showed they are definitely not accepting anymore. There doesn’t have to be a set number in New Directions and over the last three seasons they have been all about getting more people. They should be ecstatic that so many people want to be part of the group now.

The fight about who would be “The New Rachel”? No, just no. This was an absurd competition and it shouldn’t have been Blaine who won either. Yes, I like Blaine, but gosh, he gets so many songs already. Share it around!

Now, I know a fair few of the characters were seniors and were moving on and you got a taste of where a few of them had headed, but aren’t they still part of the cast? I’m not sure anymore. Santana and Mercedes are by far two of the best singers and they were no where to be seen.

And where was Rory?! The other Glee Project winners were there. In fact Alex Newell, who originally only won a smaller episode arc than Damian McGinty, looks to have become a series regular, which I highly agree with. But was this at the cost of Damian?

After all of this, I was quite disappointed in Glee and it did not leave me feeling good, like it usually does.

I will give it a few concessions. As already mentioned the addition of Alex Newell to be a regular is great. I also quite liked Kate Hudson’s character. That was done right. I enjoyed her. Leading on from this, I also liked the Rachel storyline and the addition of Kurt at the end was great. But I’m thinking, and it was mentioned on Twitter, that it would have been so much better if a Kurt and Rachel spin-off had occurred. That would have been amazing.

So overall, I was not that impressed. I will keep watching, probably, because I’m still invested in it. But I think I would have preferred to see more of the contestants from The Glee Project actually make it on to Glee instead of ‘Marley’, they at least are not blah, which is my initial impressions of Marley, and probably won’t change.

Trade Me? Trade This.

/ Lisa

I’ve had a guts full.

Yip. A guts full of Trade Me.

Up until a few weeks ago, I would only use it occasionally to buy or sell the odd thing. But a few weeks ago, of course, Man Piece and I made the move from Auckland to begin a move to Australia.

Queue me trying to sell basically everything that I don’t use anymore, which is a lot of stuff. I’ve been selling clothes, DVDs, CDs, bags, and miscellaneous objects. It has been going alright. Seeing money coming into my account still has mostly been the reason for it going alright.

However, I don’t think I have ever encountered so many stupid, obnoxious, annoying people in my life. These people I talk of are the Trade Me regulars. The ones who pretty much buy all their stuff from Trade Me and want basically everything for nothing. Who think they can bitch and bully you into giving them what they want.

When I say this, I do have to mention that several people I have dealt with have been absolutely marvelous. So thank you to those people.

Yet it is aways the few that ruin it for the rest.

I have had the few that put bids in and email you initially saying they have paid and this is their address, but you wait and wait for their payment which never comes. They obviously never intended to pay and make up some story about “urgently” needing the goods so that you ship them as soon as possible. Yeah, I’m not falling for your lies. After repeated emails and a week having passed since the auction closed, you have to request your success fees back from Trade Me and start the process all over again.

Yay.

Then I’ve had the ones that email you non-stop. Seriously. For one pair of shoes I sold, I got emailed five times in one day by the same person. I just don’t even…

Then there are the ones that are unhappy with the goods you shipped them. Some just give you bad feedback saying this is not what they expected. Sure, that’s a cross you bear buying things off the internet without seeing them first hand. This happens all the time when people buy things from online stores. But maybe next time, you should read the auction more carefully or examine the picture, or even ask me a question! *shock horror*

Then there are the ones who take it even further. That when they are unhappy with the product they seek a refund. I’ve had one buyer accuse me of advertising a pair of shoes inaccurately when, in fact, she just needed to know the definition of the colour ‘midnight blue’ and needs to grasp the fact it is not navy. ‘Cause seriously, it’s not. It’s described as a colour so dark it is almost black. So basically it’s black with blue undertones and in sunlight it looks a very, very dark navy. Navy in natural light and artificial like looks navy. End of.

This buyer can’t seem to accept that fact, she just wants her money back so has complained to Trade Me about me. I have provided evidence which is indisputable, yet she still has it out for me. Well, I’m not going to budge, because you know what lady? I’m not the first person you’ve played this game with and you will not win.

[Dems fighting words, they are!]

But after this experience with a Trade Me buyer, I’m done. I actually can’t be bothered with Trade Me anymore. If this is how I am treated by someone I do not know, who makes false accusations about me, and is a down right bitch towards me, I don’t want to have that experience any more.

So once the current auctions (unfortunately which I listed today) run out and my fixed price offers expire, or someone finally buys my stuff, I’m out. Goodbye Trade Me.

It is not just the user experience which has lead me to this decision. The fees are ridiculous as well. I know it is a business and it needs to make a buck, but gosh, I’d rather just donate everything than get charged 10% of the winning bid.

Oh, and just for the record, I am not a store. I don’t have to do shit.

Yummy Mummy’s Cheesecake.

/ Lisa

There is this place, which could be known as the middle of nowhere. Mostly because it is halfway between two “somewheres”.

This middle of nowhere place is Woodville. I guess it’s not so much middle of nowhere. It does have a name. Most nowhere places don’t even have names.

In this little Manawatu town called Woodville, there is this tiny cafe and bakery called ‘Yummy Mummy’s Cheesecakes’.

I have passed this delicious bakery many times in my life. You even see the sign when entering Woodville from either end. However, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago, that I actually stopped there and purposefully walked into Yummy Mummy’s.

And I was impressed.

I ordered a simple chicken, cranberry and brie sandwich, a mocha, and of course, a cheesecake. It was all so satisfying.

An individual serving of one Yummy Mummy Cheesecake. This one was banoffee.

The coffee. Mojo, nonetheless.

I unfortunately did not snap a shot of the sandwich. It was JUST a sandwich, yanno.

But the thing I really loved about Yummy Mummy’s Cheesecakes was how it was decorated. It was covered in those old school, yet new, funny signs and tea-towels, which I happened to take some snaps of. YOU’RE WELCOME.

This one reminds me of my sister, for some reason. What do you think, Susan?

The other aspect of decorations in the cafe were shelves filled with heaps of old baking stuff. And I mean old.

Then there was the cool aspect of having an old TV with the tube removed and ceramic ice cream cones as sugar holders.

So if you do find yourself in Woodville with a hankering for a coffee and some cake. I would highly recommend Yummy Mummy’s. The coffee is good, the cheesecakes are delish and the atmosphere and service is pretty alright too.

But if you find that you have never quite made it through Woodville, or have never been and want to try some cheesecake, THEY DELIVER OVERNIGHT.

Now how about that?!