Valentine’s Day Survival Guide

I’ve been doing some reading on the notion of “surviving Valentine’s Day” when single. Let me start by saying I’m not certain there is anything to survive; it’s just a day like any other, but it does make for some hilarious reading.

A lot of these so called survival guides suggest avoiding the color red and cheesy films, and heart shaped anything. Some suggest sending yourself flowers and chocolates. Some others go as far as to suggest you shouldn’t even go out of the house or go out with girlfriends because “it’s sad and pathetic”.

I personally think the idea that your relationship status should impede your happiness is sad and pathetic, but each to their own. That said, there are some things I like to do on Valentine’s Day when I’m not romantically attached, to make the day more enjoyable and fun. 

The first and most important is to turn off my phone. There is nothing like a supposed romantic holiday to drag up ghosts from relationships past. The best thing to do to preserve your happiness is turn off your phone and avoid that drama altogether.

The next thing I like to do is have a pamper afternoon; take a long bath, do some masks. Just look after me. I mean…. There’s nobody I love more than me so why not show myself how much I care.

The last thing I like to do is have friends over, have a drink, play some games just have a giggle. Not because I don’t want to be alone, but because it’s fun and why not have fun when everyone else is out fighting because their partner forgot to get them a card.

I’ll be honest, I tend to have much better Valentine’s Day single then I ever have in relationships. Maybe that’s because romance makes me horribly uncomfortable or maybe it’s because Valentine’s is just like any other day and when you treat it special… you’re bound to be disappointed. Whatever the reason, don’t let a calendar determine your happiness.  

Anyways, I have to go and get some much needed sleep. But, before I do I have this question for you, how will you be spending your Valentine’s Day? And will you be spending it single? Let me know your plans in the comment box below. And as always, stay and play, safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch

xoxo 

One Month Down, 11 More To Go

One month down, 11 more to go. With one month of 2016 basically behind I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a quick recap.

My New Year’s resolution is… slow going. I’m not sure I’m any more positive, however, I am getting better at knowing when to walk away. I haven’t melted down at work yet this year. I just walk away, go relax upstairs for 10 minutes and then get at it. Which I guess is a small victory.

I’m about half way through reading Emotional Vampires at Work; which is surprisingly more useful than I thought it would be. I’m not so sure I’ll be able to implement a lot of it, but it’s been very useful in helping me understand my own automatic responses. Hopefully with a little time I’ll be able to shut of that autopilot mode and stay out of trouble…. I’m not holding my breath though.

In other work related news, I think I’ve finally convinced my old supervisor to apply for a job at my place. There is an ops manager job going, which is apparently rare because they like to promote from within so it’s not normal to walk into a management role, but the job is up and he’d be prefect. So I’m keeping everything crossed. It would be really nice to have the team back together.

So, that’s been my January, I’m still an angry, non-positive, single bitch, who if it wasn’t for the fear of jail would go on murderous rampage at least once a week. However, the year is young, who knows, maybe by December I’ll be all rainbows and magical unicorns.

Anyways, you sexy people, I am going to go and have a relaxing pamper night, but before I do I have this question for you; how are you getting on with your New Year’s resolutions? Let me know in the comment box below and as always, stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch 

xoxo

Leave Me Alone

Do you ever just want to stand up and scream “leave me the fuck alone!”? I don’t know why, but lately that’s me all the time. My disdain for being interfered with is at an all-time high. I have no tolerance for it at all.

Asking stupid questions, nagging, people not doing what they should; causing me to have to do things I should have to, all are flipping my bitch switch at a rapid rate.

I’m starting to think I’m part bear and should be hibernating right now. Which would explain my overwhelming desire to be left alone and why swiping people’s heads off sounds so appealing right now.

That said, it’s not that I’m in a bad mood or anything. I just don't want to go above and beyond. I want to do my job and go home. And please note I said MY job. I don’t want to extend myself, I want to coast. Which may sound bad but, Christmas took a lot of me and being sick over New Year, I need to recharge and am not being allowed to.

It doesn’t help that work is looking at a lot of changes right now; and changes and tiredness and difficult personalities are a horrible mix…. And possibly a deadly one for the next person that asks me a stupid question.

Anyways, I am going to go and get some much needed sleep. But before I do, I shall leave you with this question; what do you do to recharge? Let me know in the comment box below and as always, stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch 

xoxo

Cohorted Black Edition: January 2016

 This is going to be a bonus post. I received my Cohorted beauty box yesterday and I thought I’d unbox it for you. This box is pricey. It’s says it’s £35 a month… It’s not, it’s basically £70. You pay £35 your first month and receive nothing. The next month you get charged again and then you get your first box. Which would be fine if it’s worth it, but this is my 3^rd box and I’m still unsure.

You do receive higher end items, some of which are awesome, others I’m petty sure are discontinued and nobody else wanted. With that said lets get into the unboxing. 

This month there are 4 items in the box, which I think is the fewest I’ve received so far. I do know they were having issues this month due to flooding so I’m trying to be nice, but I’m not wowed and I sure as hell don’t see £35 worth of product, let alone £70.  

Too Faced: Souls Mates Blushing Bronzer - Carrie & Big:  This would be an awesome item if it weren’t for the fact we received one of these just last month. Luckily last month I got Ross and Rachel and I have enjoyed using it so I’m not heartbroken to receive another one, but, it would have been nice to get something else.    

Cargo: Lip Gloss Quad – Oceania: I HATE lip gloss palettes of any sort. It remains me of being a small kid playing with makeup. I won’t be using this item. It’s a complete throw any.

Lancome: Le Correcteur Pro – 300c bisque: The colour is way off for me to use this product as its intended. I might get some use out of it if I use it as an eye shadow base. But this item is another miss for me.

Too Faced: Lip Injection Color Bomb -  Never Nude Enough: The colour is nice. The product itself was created by the devil. It burns, it smells like plastic and it settles in every line in your lips. It’s the hat trick of shit.  I’ll also say this, I put it on 30 minutes ago and took it off 28 minutes ago, my lips still hurt and I can still smell it.

So clearly this box this month was a complete waste of £35. Hopefully next months will be better, but we’ll have to wait and see. Let me know if you like these unboxing in the comments down below and as always stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch

xoxo

Birchbox Unboxing - January 2016

I was struggling with what to post today, then a knock on the door brought me my Birchbox, so I figured why not do a quick unboxing for you lovely people. 

 The first thing I noticed is the box is adorable. One the lid it says “Best Year Ever” with a lot of pictures of cute and inspirational things on it. Great looking box to start the year.

Inside the box there are 6 items, most of which are simple size. My immediate reaction is, I’m not impressed. I normally love my BirchBox it’s one of the boxes I really look forward to getting but this month…. The highlight is the box itself.

Inside the box you get:

Benefit – They’re Real Tinted Primer; I will give this a try, but as a whole I think lash primers are a complete waste of money.

Jelly Pong Pong – Lighten Up Brightener + Waterliner; I have never met a Jelly Pong Pong product I’ve liked so; I think I’m just going to pass this along. At the end of the day, it’s nude eyeliner…. Nothing to write home about.

Crabtree & Evelyn – Le Source Ultra-Moisturizing Hand Therapy; It’s winter, it’s a hand cream, I’ll use it. It seems to sink in quickly and didn’t leave my hands sticky like some hand creams do. Not in love with the smell, but it’s not overly offensive.

Parlor – Moisturizing & Repairing Shampoo and Conditioner; I HATE shampoo samples, also as much as I hate foil package samples and this managed tick both boxes and because of that it will be going straight in the bin.

Absolution- L’Eau Soir et Matin; It appears to be a cleansing water. I’m not wowed, but it is something I will use.

Birchbox – Compact Mirror; It’s cute. I like the “#NoFilter” on the front, the mirror itself is decent. It’s probably the best item in the box.

Like I said at the start this isn’t the best box I’ve received from them, but next month is Valentine’s day and I can’t wait to see the box they do for that. What subscription boxes do you guys get? Let me know in the comments below... I'm always looking to feed my addiction :-)  and as always stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch 

xoxo

Let's Be Positive

Like I said in my last post, I’ve been tasked with the goal of being more positive this year and in an attempt to make a little headway with this goal I’ve been doing some research.

Let me start by saying there is a lot of utter bullshit out there on the matter. I don’t know whose writing this shit, but they clearly never spent one minute in the real world. “Eliminate all negativity from your life” …. Ok, so I’ll quit my job and never leave the house again. Let’s be honest, most the advice on the matter is highly unrealistic and impractical and because it’s unrealistic and impractical it’s never going to work.

That said, I did manage to find few none crackpot ideas that I’m willing to try.

The most interesting being the idea of “Two Steps Forward”.  The idea is when you find yourself judging others, or focusing the negative, or complaining; you counter it with 2 positive thoughts or gratitudes.

So for example; when I find myself thinking my day shift are a bunch of brain dead wankers. I can counter that with, I’m grateful I have a job and I’m surrounded by lovely, hardworking, helpful individuals on nights.

There was also the controlled breathing technique I’ve been meaning to try for about 28 years. It’s said those who can control their breathing can control their life, I kind of think this is hokum, but I’m willing to give it a try.

The third and final thing technique I’m going to try is setting attainable goals. I’m not sure this one is going to work for me. I’m not very goal orientated, I’m more of a fear of failure orientated person, but I will try setting a small goal every day and seeing what effect it has on me.

I’m probably not going to try and implement all these at once, but over the next few months I will give each and every one of these a fair shot and add and subtract as necessary. I’ve heard small changes are more likely to stick anyways, so we’ll see.

And if none of this works I shall take a few more acting classes and play a character during working hours. It’s always good to have a plan B right?

Anyways, you lovely people I’m going to go and get some sleep, but before I do I have this question for you; what do you do to be less negative?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. And, as always, stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch 

xoxo

New Year, New Plan

Happy New Year you gorgeous people. How the hell have you been?

I’ll be honest, I took a longer break than I originally planned. I planned to take December off and revamp things here for 2016. However, I kind of got sick and busy in November and my hiatus grew a little…. Ok, a lot. Hopefully with the changes I have planned for this year, that won’t happen again.

 

The first and biggest change being I'm going from 8 posts a month, to one post a week. The thought behind that being it’ll free me up to do more collaborative work and have more fun with my writing again. I’m aiming to have a new post up every Friday, however, as long as there’s one up a week I’ll be happy.

The other change being I’m not planning on dating in 2016. I want to spend the year getting my ducks in a row, working on myself and focusing mainly on my career, both writing and transport. I want all that to be solid before I introduce any possible source of drama into my life.

On the working on myself side of things, I’ve been tasked with the mission of being more positive. Which is hard for me. I’m not negative like my boss seems to think. I’m just sarcastic, and dry humored. Which is fantastic for my writing, improv, and the stand-up I’m starting to tinker in, but apparently puts character doubts in my boss’s head that will hold me back from promotion. So, I need to work on it or at least work on hiding the real me while I’m working. 

Anyways, you sexy beasts, I’m going to go, but before I do I have this question for you; what is your New Year’s resolution? Let me know in the comments below. And as always, stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch 

xoxo