Apologise once again for the late blog. Long hours of work and a computer that is rather here and there doesn't allow me to do this easily : (
Today's post is split between two topics: Spanx and Reunions
Spanx
I'm going to a friend's Masquerade Ball today (I know, how posh am I, lol) and decided to try on some of the dresses I wished to wear yesterday. Once I had finally chosen the dress I stood in front of the mirror to check how it looked. That's when I was like - uh oh! I am not that big in size that I am going to complain, but since the running around of panto in January I have been a bit lax with exercise and have been eating "well" and the tummy that I had joked about on panto was now definitely there.
Now we are not talking beer belly or anything like that. I like to know of it as a "Care Bear belly" (I loved the Care Bears as a kid) which basically means it is a very slight mound that is slightly cuddly : ) Anyway, normally I have no problem with my slight roundness until you put me into a skinny cocktail dress, then it shows big time.
My week has been hectic with a capital H, so I didn't have much time to play with but decided to go to a local department store to find something to solve the problem. Unfortunately for me, the only one nearby was a rather posh shop, so no own brand stuff, just the expensive stuff. An array of different items hung in the lingerie section marked "support". In all honesty, this had been a section of lingerie that I had either ignored or just not noticed before. And this is where the Spanx come in. Spanx (for those of you who don't know and I didn't know until fairly recently and I work on musicals) are very tight, generally unsexy pants that hold in everything so you can were slim line clothes. I have to say, I didn't even know there was so much choice. As well as pants of all different lengths and shapes there are basques to were under clothes. Most of the stuff ranged from £17 - 75 (people spend that amount of money on this!).
So, I head into the changing room with a range of items (from the lower part of the price bracket : s). Well, for someone who had just done a laundry call for a show, it was not the time to try these evil contraptions on. I was contorted and made to look even worse most the time, by these evil pants and basques. They were all so difficult to get into (well, the ones I could get into) and so hot. How people wear them under normal clothes in Spring is beyond me!
In the end, I took all the items, handed them back to the lady and walked out. I decided that most of them were not holding me in any better than I tight pair of high rise cycling shorts I have, so that's when I had the idea. I'm not going to pay this amount for hideous pants that I know for a FACT I'm not going to want to wear, so it's cycling shorts with my cocktail dress. I can have a secret smile all night knowing I have cycling shorts under my beautiful dress, but who cares if it does the trick and saves a few pounds : )
Reunions
Reunions are a nice thing with the right people and you find you do them a lot more of them as you get older (especially when time passes so quickly and you just don't get to see everyone all the time).
I didn't used to be a fan of the "Reunion" and that was mainly because when I was a child I didn't know that many great people that I wanted to see again after we lost contact. That and I reunion has to be something that all the parties involved genuinely want. It doesn't work if "so and so" has only gone because she's been pressurised into going. I have never been to a reunion for primary or secondary school (and probably would never will) and the college one I went to was awful (you are mates with certain people for a reason, don't try and force friendships with a whole class it doesn't work).
I have also had reunion meet ups with old friends, which has been good but it is always hard to keep the contact up constantly when your life is quite hectic.
Anyway yesterday, I met up with a group of people I originally worked with from 2004 - 5 and between us, a group of us have kept in contact since. The thing I love about our meet ups (I wish they could be more often, as we do have a great time) is the fact that we all got on so well when we worked together and we have been able to take that laughter and connection out of the workplace (which is normally the difficult things - when your not laughing about the stupid printer at work and idiotic people in other departments, sometimes it can be forgotten there is an out-of-work person in there too).
I think another reason we are so close is that our ex-manager (who is part of the group that meet up) allowed us to be our natural selves at work, which meant we worked to our abilities and we were taken for who we were (even if she is reading this, she is still one of the best managers I have ever had and that's not me trying to gain Brownie points). My time with this bunch of people was so good, that I always base future jobs with people on this experience. Mainly because I had work satisfaction through the role and the people I worked with and it proves that can exist and it's quite easy to forget that in the arts (unfortunately not everyone is always as great as they make out).
So I met up with the girls yesterday (our only guy part of the group, the MG, couldn't make it because of his filming schedule - alright for some) and we ate, drank, laughed until the hours ran out. I want to thank them all for a wonderful evening and I hope we do it again soon. Friendship appears in the most random places (most my friends I have met through jobs I've enjoyed or random interests I have tried) but when you find it, it doesn't matter how long it is until you see them next, it will be like it was only yesterday that you saw them. It can't be bought and that's what makes it a wonderful thing! Awww : )
(Pictures will start appearing at the bottom of my blog again soon, but I've had to write this in a hurry : s)
Blog title inspired by Fall Out Boys' Thnks Fr the Memories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onzL0EM1pKY
Today's post is split between two topics: Spanx and Reunions
Spanx
I'm going to a friend's Masquerade Ball today (I know, how posh am I, lol) and decided to try on some of the dresses I wished to wear yesterday. Once I had finally chosen the dress I stood in front of the mirror to check how it looked. That's when I was like - uh oh! I am not that big in size that I am going to complain, but since the running around of panto in January I have been a bit lax with exercise and have been eating "well" and the tummy that I had joked about on panto was now definitely there.
Now we are not talking beer belly or anything like that. I like to know of it as a "Care Bear belly" (I loved the Care Bears as a kid) which basically means it is a very slight mound that is slightly cuddly : ) Anyway, normally I have no problem with my slight roundness until you put me into a skinny cocktail dress, then it shows big time.
My week has been hectic with a capital H, so I didn't have much time to play with but decided to go to a local department store to find something to solve the problem. Unfortunately for me, the only one nearby was a rather posh shop, so no own brand stuff, just the expensive stuff. An array of different items hung in the lingerie section marked "support". In all honesty, this had been a section of lingerie that I had either ignored or just not noticed before. And this is where the Spanx come in. Spanx (for those of you who don't know and I didn't know until fairly recently and I work on musicals) are very tight, generally unsexy pants that hold in everything so you can were slim line clothes. I have to say, I didn't even know there was so much choice. As well as pants of all different lengths and shapes there are basques to were under clothes. Most of the stuff ranged from £17 - 75 (people spend that amount of money on this!).
So, I head into the changing room with a range of items (from the lower part of the price bracket : s). Well, for someone who had just done a laundry call for a show, it was not the time to try these evil contraptions on. I was contorted and made to look even worse most the time, by these evil pants and basques. They were all so difficult to get into (well, the ones I could get into) and so hot. How people wear them under normal clothes in Spring is beyond me!
In the end, I took all the items, handed them back to the lady and walked out. I decided that most of them were not holding me in any better than I tight pair of high rise cycling shorts I have, so that's when I had the idea. I'm not going to pay this amount for hideous pants that I know for a FACT I'm not going to want to wear, so it's cycling shorts with my cocktail dress. I can have a secret smile all night knowing I have cycling shorts under my beautiful dress, but who cares if it does the trick and saves a few pounds : )
Reunions
Reunions are a nice thing with the right people and you find you do them a lot more of them as you get older (especially when time passes so quickly and you just don't get to see everyone all the time).
I didn't used to be a fan of the "Reunion" and that was mainly because when I was a child I didn't know that many great people that I wanted to see again after we lost contact. That and I reunion has to be something that all the parties involved genuinely want. It doesn't work if "so and so" has only gone because she's been pressurised into going. I have never been to a reunion for primary or secondary school (and probably would never will) and the college one I went to was awful (you are mates with certain people for a reason, don't try and force friendships with a whole class it doesn't work).
I have also had reunion meet ups with old friends, which has been good but it is always hard to keep the contact up constantly when your life is quite hectic.
Anyway yesterday, I met up with a group of people I originally worked with from 2004 - 5 and between us, a group of us have kept in contact since. The thing I love about our meet ups (I wish they could be more often, as we do have a great time) is the fact that we all got on so well when we worked together and we have been able to take that laughter and connection out of the workplace (which is normally the difficult things - when your not laughing about the stupid printer at work and idiotic people in other departments, sometimes it can be forgotten there is an out-of-work person in there too).
I think another reason we are so close is that our ex-manager (who is part of the group that meet up) allowed us to be our natural selves at work, which meant we worked to our abilities and we were taken for who we were (even if she is reading this, she is still one of the best managers I have ever had and that's not me trying to gain Brownie points). My time with this bunch of people was so good, that I always base future jobs with people on this experience. Mainly because I had work satisfaction through the role and the people I worked with and it proves that can exist and it's quite easy to forget that in the arts (unfortunately not everyone is always as great as they make out).
So I met up with the girls yesterday (our only guy part of the group, the MG, couldn't make it because of his filming schedule - alright for some) and we ate, drank, laughed until the hours ran out. I want to thank them all for a wonderful evening and I hope we do it again soon. Friendship appears in the most random places (most my friends I have met through jobs I've enjoyed or random interests I have tried) but when you find it, it doesn't matter how long it is until you see them next, it will be like it was only yesterday that you saw them. It can't be bought and that's what makes it a wonderful thing! Awww : )
(Pictures will start appearing at the bottom of my blog again soon, but I've had to write this in a hurry : s)
Blog title inspired by Fall Out Boys' Thnks Fr the Memories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onzL0EM1pKY
