A Secret Garden...

Hey guys!

So, today I wanted to do something a little bit different & show you some pictures I took when I was out & about the other day! Me & my mum were out, I was sipping on a cool lime refresha from Starbucks (my all time favourite summer drink) & we didn’t want to head home, so we decided to head for a place we know well – where my parents used to take me & my brother when I was little, in fact, so we all know & love this place!

It’s called York House Gardens & it’s right next to the river Thames. It’s changed a bit since I was little, but overall it still has the same appeal as it’s always held for me. It’s like a gorgeous little secret garden that’s tucked away.

I’m not going to go into too much detail – this blog post is going to include a load of pictures I took of various things – but we basically just wandered around for a while, taking some pictures & chatting. The day started off sunny & bright, but then it started raining after a while before stopping again, so some of the pictures will have different lighting/a different sky, but they were all taken on the same day! 

There’s a beautiful fountain there, which is one of my favourite things to see when I’m visiting. 

There’s also a beautiful pond area, which used to be a bit bigger, but it’s changed a lot since I was little – I once slipped when I was little & ended up accidentally pushing my brother into the pond (sorry again). There were some really tame squirrels, so we decided to go & buy some food for them – we ended up with popcorn! By the time we got back to the pond & squirrels, it was raining, so we sat under a tree & fed the squirrels popcorn until the rain stopped – at one point, we were feeding 4 of them! They slowly got braver & started venturing closer to us to get the popcorn, they were so cute! 

By the time the rain stopped, it was getting late, so we decided to head back home, but it was lovely to take a few hours out of our day to just forget about things & have a wander. 

If you’re local to Twickenham or the surrounding areas, I’d definitely recommend checking it out for yourself! If you’ve been before, what’s your favourite thing there?

FIRST IMPRESSIONS // Fire Emblem Fates & Limited Edition Bundle

Hey guys!

So, again, it's been a while since I last posted a blog, especially a gaming post!

Last year, Nintendo announced that they would be releasing a new Fire Emblem game, Fates (IF in Japan), which would have 3 different paths you could choose from - or you could choose all 3 by purchasing all 3 paths.. I really loved Awakening, the previous game in the series, and I've played most of the older games in the series that have been released over here, so needless to say I was mega excited! They also announced that they were going to release a limited edition bundle, which I really wanted from the second I saw it on a trailer.

Unfortunately for me, however, the UK/Europe release date wasn't until May 20th - a couple of days ago!

So, there's three different paths you can take in the game. Basically, you were born in the kingdom of Hoshido, but were stolen by the king of Nohr & raised there. The first few chapters show a little bit of life in both kingdoms, before you're asked to pick a side in chapter 6. There's Birthright - where you side with your birth family in Hoshido, Conquest - where you side with the family who raised you in Nohr or Revelation (which isn't out until next month) - where you don't pick either side. Whichever side you choose has different consequences, and each side is basically a whole different gaming experience. 

In Birthright, the kingdom of Hoshido is heavily Japanese influence - the buildings are based on traditional Japanese ones, they chose a lot of red & white in the colour scheme & the music is also Japanese influenced. Nintendo recommend that you choose this path first if it is your first Fire Emblem game, or you like to take it slow - it's a lot easier to get gold & level people up with side quests on this version, so it's a good way to ease yourself in.

In Conquest, the kingdom of Nohr is dark & based on vampires - the kingdom is in darkness & quite gloomy, and the main colour scheme is black & purples. They recommend this version for more experienced Fire Emblem players, as there aren't as many resources in this one - you have to spend your money wisely, as you can't just go on a ton of side missions to get money & experience.

I was browsing Twitter around a month or so ago, and I saw that GAME had tweeted about the limited edition bundle going up for preorder on their site, so I immediately went to preorder mine - especially as they'd put EXCLUSIVELY AT GAME, so I was wondering if Nintendo were going to sell a bundle at all. I was successful, so I was really excited that I'd managed to get the bundle - it included all 3 paths of the game on one cartridge, an artbook, a steelbook case & a double sided poster.

A few days later, I received an email from Nintendo - as I'd previously registered to be notified when the game wet up for preorder from them - & I saw they were selling a similar bundle, but theirs had a double sided commerorative coin & a free theme for the Nintendo 3DS, plus they had the matching New 3DS coverplates! So, I had a quick discussion with my brother & he said I should get the Nintendo one, as it was the same price as GAME but had a couple more things included, so I preordered their bundle & the coverplates. I then cancelled my GAME preorder, as I didn't need two bundles.

I was so excited for it to arrive, I've been avoiding watching videos or looking at anything about it online so that I don't see anything that'll spoil it for me, as it's been out for longer in Japan & the USA. Finally, however, it came on Thursday (a day early!) & I was so excited to unpack it & get playing! I really like everything in the bundle, I have the Awakening artbook too so they'll look nice together, plus I have a few other steelbook cases to display with the Fates one! The symbols on the coin are the symbols for Hoshido & Nohr, which I like a lot! 

 The coverplates!

The Nohr/Conquest side!

The Birthright/Hoshido side!

For my first playthrough, I decided I wanted to go with Hoshido & take the Birthright route - I want to play them all eventually, of course, but I thought I'd do what Nintendo recommend & take this route first. As I'm writing this blog post, I think I'm on chapter 12, so I thought I'd give a quick first impression while I'm here.

As in Awakening, you get to customise your character - in Awakening, it was Robin (although you can rename them), in Fates it's Corrin. There's a few more options to customise Corrin with, which I thought was a nice touch! 

 This is how I customised my Corrin/avatar!

I don't want to go into the story too much, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to play, but I'm really enjoying the story of Birthright so far! I like how most of the chapters have such beautiful Japanese music & scenery, it's nice that the majority of characters on this path have Japanese names too. There's quite a few different side quests you can spend some gold on, so you can level grind if you need to & I'm finding it fairly easy to level up & raise the support between characters even without grinding! They kept the same art style as Awakening - there's sprites for much of gameplay (and they've added feet, as many people complained about the lack of character feet on Awakening) which I like a lot. The story is really gripping, and I feel like I'll be onto Conquest in no time, if it keeps sucking me in like this!

So, there we have it - the limited edition bundle & my first impressions of Birthright! Are you planning on getting the game at all? Which path will you choose if you do? 

Happy playing!

xo

My Piercing History!

Hey guys!

When I was in my mid to late teens, I decided I wanted to get piercings – I’d wanted my lip pierced since I first got into AFI & Davey Havok had his lip ring, & over the years, the list of piercings I wanted grew. Thankfully, I didn’t get every single one on my list – I remember at one stage I wanted the bridge of my nose pierced (no offence intended to anyone who has/had one, I just look back now & realise that it really wouldn’t have suited me) but I did get a few!

Before I start – I can’t remember the exact dates, or even years, that I got my piercings, or exactly when I took them out! I know roughly what age I was though!

First off – when I was 16, I knew the first piercing I wanted to get was my lip. I’d wanted it for years (as I stated above) so one weekend, I decided to just go & get it done! I went to Old London Road in Kingston for this piercing – I got most of them here, I think - & I think I took a couple of my friends with me too, for moral support. It didn’t hurt at all, but I remember looking down at the needle in my lip before closing my eyes so I didn’t have to look, haha! I actually got it done just before my GCSEs started, so I had to cover it up with a plaster for my exams so I didn’t get marked down for having it (my school were weird for things like makeup, piercings & hair dye). I had this piercing for the longest time out of all of my piercings – I only took it out when I had my tonsils out about 3 years ago because I had to & by the time I was less groggy, the hole had closed (I’m one of those people whose piercings close up pretty quickly). I still miss that piercing to this day & I keep getting really tempted to get it back! 

Next up – I loved my lip piercing so much that I decided to get the other side of my lip pierced too (that’s called snakebites, for people who might not know). It was about a year later I think, so I persuaded a friend to come with me again & I went to the same place, as I’d had no problems with it before! When I first had it done, I loved it – however, I eventually got bored of having it after about 6 months, so I took it out & let it heal. I actually got it pierced again before I went to college in 2009 though – I have a ton of pictures of me with lip rings in – so I had it redone, then when it healed, I got rings instead of studs for a while! I didn’t really like the rings, though, so I went back to studs. Again, I got really bored of having snakebites & felt like I had too much metal in my face, so I took out the left side again (the first lip piercing was on the right, so when I had the second ones, they were both on the left)

When my grandad died, I was devastated & I knew I wanted to do something a bit rebellious, if you will. So, a few days after New Year’s Eve (when he died) I met up with my best friend Jen & headed into Kingston again to get my septum pierced! I got it done with the staple looking bar, as I’d heard they were easier to flip up & hide. No one knew about this piercing for ages – I did show my mum, but she thought it was fake at first - & if I remember correctly, I only got caught out because someone tagged a picture of me with it down on Facebook & my family saw it, so I had to come clean, aha. I only got rid of this because it fell out in my sleep one night & by the time I woke up, it’d closed up on one side & I was too scared to force it though, so I had to just leave it to close – I was getting a bit bored of it by this point, though, so it was probably a blessing in disguise.

I also got my nose pierced when I was at college – I think me & one of my friends went to Up In Smoke in Croydon to get it done. I got mine pierced with a really thick ring – which I regretted – but I loved that piercing a lot. I didn’t want it done with a stud, as I knew I’d just end up losing the stud, so I always had a ring in. I took this out because it got a lump on it & my mum make me take it out, so I reluctantly did. 

Finally – I got my nose pierced again about a year & a half ago! I got it done at Tattoo UK in Twickenham & got it redone in the same spot as my first nose piercing. I’ve had no problems with this one & I love it!

So, that was the story of my piercings! I’ll insert some photos too, so you can see what I looked like with piercings. 

Do you have any piercings? What do you have/what would you get?