Exam Stress

It's that time of year again; when everything is life seems to no longer exist, apart from studying that is. Each semester I ask myself, why oh why do I do this to myself...This semester is pretty similar, except for 1 small detail, These are my last exams ever!!! Did you hear me (I'm shouting now) EVER!! Queue the music Maestro...*Rocky theme tune plays

 

After 5 long years, it’s finally coming to an end. Fingers crossed this year I will graduate from Dublin Business School, with an Honours degree in Psychology. 5 years ago, I made the decision to go back to college. I have to admit I was reluctant at the time as it had been several years since I had been in a classroom. Initially I signed up to the Diploma in Psychology so that I could test the water so to speak. Once I got a little taste for college life I was hooked, line and sinker! Hard to believe that was 5 years ago now. The moral of the story, throw caution to the wind lads and don’t be afraid to make the jump. I did and boy am I glad of it now. During my years in college, the arse fell out of the Irish economy, and the fact that I was up-skilling at the time; eased some of my anxieties around employment etc. Lucky for me, I am in full time employment, earned off the back of my degree.

Although I know the end is in sight, it doesn’t help me to  deal with exam stress I am experiencing right now. Things that do help though are:

Have a revision timetable – start planning well before exams begin. Set realistic goals.

Make your books, notes and essays user-friendly. Use headings, highlighting and revision. I have to do this as I can’t learn black and white print. All the pages start to blur into one and I end up answering questions 1 with notes I had for question 2.

Prioritise! Scale back on what needs to be revised

Get plenty of Sleep – Pff…There’s no time for sleep. Just kidding, you can’t function on a sleepy brain. Trust me; I’ve tried (lots of times)

Eat Healthy – I usually forget that eating is important, primarily, because my stomach shuts down when I go into ‘fight or flight’ mode pre exams. Once the exam is over and the adrenalin levels off, I get very light headed and weak. Note to self –Bring food to exam.

I hope some of these tips help if you are doing exams at the moment. I’m a lost cause, after 5 years, I’ll be up all night, chewing my nails 10 minutes before and fainting afterwards!

Kel x

Pimp my Shrimp

                                                     

Top of the morning to ya,

I'm feeling some Saturday giddiness coming on. Today's post title comes from the fabulous (sweetie darling) Nail Lacquer from Catrice, no. 820.
'Pimp my Shrimp'.

Speaking of pimps, you guys have got to check out the amazing Al Green in an all inspiring 'pimp' outfit. Click the link below to watch Al perform on Soul Train..

p.s. Keep an eye out for the handbag...the boots....the hot pants....oh and then there's that latex vest! I kid you not!

We love you Al Green x

Al Green "Tired of Being Alone"

Papa Paparazzi

I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until  you love I own you, papa paparazzi (clutch bag). 

I am just loving these paparazzi clutch bags, 

Prices from 45.00 sterling from www.ebay.com or www.asos.com

I need one in each colour! Which one would you choose?

Kel x

The Dreaded Smear

Smear Test! Vagina! ..."Who said that"... "I did".., have I no shame? Eh not really, when you consider that a regular smear test can save your life!


Let’s face it girls, no one willingly signs up to this cervical screening business but it’s something that has to be done whether you like it or not. A chat with the girls recently made me realise that there are a lot of woman out there that are still avoiding the dreaded examination. Seriously, its 2013 ladies! The cervical screening program was not set up to torture the female species, it’s in place for a very important reason, and that is to save lives and reduce the number of cervical cancer incidences in Ireland.


Most of you are probably aware of the The National Cancer Screening Service which was established by the Minister for Health and Children in January 2007. The program examines the prevention, screening, detection, treatment and management of cancer.


In the past cost would have been a factor in women not attending check-ups with a smear test costing approximately €90. Now, CervicalCheck provides free cervical screening to women aged 25 to 60 years. This covers all aspects of the test from making the appointment, the initial consultation, the smear test, sending the sample to the laboratory (postage), the smear test result, follow-up and appropriate consultation if necessary.


I was invited to have my smear test done recently and was pleasantly surprised to discover that smear tests have come a long way, even in the last 3 years alone. (Due to my age, I am only called every 3 years for screening). No longer can the idea exist that a foreign object gets launched in there and they crank you open. It’s not like that at all, yes, it may be slightly uncomfortable for a few people honestly it’s not that bad.


The majority of times, smear test results come back completely normal, or on the odd occasion you may be referred for what is called a Colposcopy. This happened to be the case for me. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous but that was until I was met with a genuine smile at the Colposcopy clinic in The Rotunda Hospital. All of the staff from the admin person behind the desk, the nurses to the Doctor, the service was excellent. They were very aware of the awkwardness and nervousness that might arise in that kind of setting and did their very best to alleviate any of that. The examination itself takes about 20 minutes and was worth it for the ease of mind. Everything is explained and described along the way so you know exactly what is going on and what will be happening next.


All in all, girls, for something that happens once every 3 years, it sounds very silly not to, doesn’t it?


If you haven’t already, log on to, www.cervicalcheck.ie and register for the National free cervical screening program.

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments box below, it might help another lil lady.


Kel x

The Salon -IFSC

Daydreaming about holiday plans for this year, it got me thinking about last year’s holiday with the girls and the preparations in the lead up to it. Of course, my body was waxed within an inch of its life, feet received their first VIP treatment of the year and nails were prepped and polished. All that was left was the hair! No panic though..I was prepared well in advance and scooped up a deal on living social for The Salon in the IFSC.

 
The Deal: colour, cut, treatment and blow dry.

 
The Salon looks fab online so I was super excited about my appointment complimented by the ‘Im going on holidays tomorrow’ feeling. It was a Saturday morning and I had no sitter for my 5 year old daughter. So as I had done on many other occasions, I brought her with me. She is very well behaved. In we went for our girl’s day. We sat in the reception area for about 10 minutes and were then escorted down to the hair area. My treatment and colour was discussed and the employee disappeared off to get the colour chart.

 5 minutes later she reappeared to tell me that she would not be doing my hair and that I would have to leave. I said ‘excuse me’ She said she would not be doing my hair as I had a child with me. I reassured her that there would be no issues and that my child was extremely we behaved and is used to coming along. Just to add there was no one else in there at the time, it was completely empty so I was surprised when she said the presence of the child would upset other customers.

I quickly tried to come up with a solution myself as none was offered. I asked if it would be ok that my husband comes in to collect her, which would take 30 minutes. The manager was consulted but this was not going to cut the mustard with her. I approached the counter to speak/plead with her. I explained I was going on holidays, I had travelled a distance in etc. but I got nothing but pig ignorant replies. Rude is an understatement for this person.

 Anyway, to cut a long, unacceptable appointment short, I was given 45 mins to get home and back for another appointment. I got back in, the colour was applied and washed out. I was told the shampoo was the ‘treatment’. Whatever, you half expect them to cut corners anyway with vouchers. I was really only worried about covering the greys at that stage.

I was sat down for my cut when the stylist started to dry my hair. I told her I was getting it cut to which she replied that it was a ‘dry cut’. I thought only men got them!! Seriously could this place get any worse..yes..it could…Said stylist then ran the scissors across my back in what she had decided was a straight line. GET ME OUT OF HERE!  There you go love, that’s lovely, off you go now, we need the seat

Although I was happy to just get out, it wasn’t until I got back to the car that I discovered the colour stained across my head, face and neck. The stain remained there for my entire holiday. The intensity washed out but the marks remained, leaving me with what looked like a bad skin condition.

All in all a BAD Experience.

I previously reviewed The Salon on the rate my area website along with a lot of other ppl. Checking the website today I see reviews have been disabled. In other words the company no longer want new customers to know the truth!

 Have you experienced The Salon?

 Kel x

Neals Yard Remedies - A review pour toi

Neal's Yard Hand Care Collection - £28.50

Anyone that knows me would be surprised to hear that I splashed £28.50 on this Neal's Yard Hand and Nail set. I normally stick to the budget brands. With so much competition in the market now, cheaper (in the monetary sense) brands have certainly been pulling their weight of late.

Despite my tight ass disposition, I ordered the set around Christmas time. Everyone should gift themselves at Christmas time anyway, right?

The set contains:

Nourishing Melissa Hand Polish 100g


Melissa Hand Cream 30ml


Nourishing Melissa Nail Balm 10ml


Nail Brush

When the set arrived I was immediately disappointed, the size of the hand cream and balm are completely disproportionate to the polish. Not wanting to judge this book by its cover, I decided it was probably the case that 'a little goes a long way'. Wishful thinking as this was not the case. You need to use a more then normal amount of the hand cream to cover both hands. The polish is black in colour, and while it may be petty to mention, it just didn’t float my boat. I kept this product in the bathroom and it just wasn’t a product I'd associate with cleanliness. The nailbrush, in my opinion, is a waste. Unless you would like to remove a layer of skin, bin it!

After a couple of weeks, I began to question the effects. I found my hands to be very dry, particularly around the cuticles. My nails were weak, broken and in general, just the pits. I stopped using the product, changed back to an old reliable and noticed a positive change.

A month passed and I thought I'd give the set a go again. I was very disappointed to have found the same results after only a couple of applications.

Other websites rave about this product, but I for one wont be unfortunately.

Let me know if you have tried these products and what you thought?

Kel x

                  



You belong to me ...

Blink and you will have missed it! But I promise you this, the sun did shine in Ireland today for at least 4 minutes. Long enough to inspire some much needed nail love. Fed up with dark 'sensible' colours, I threw caution to the wind ( the gale that blew after the sun went behind the clouds) and reached for a pretty summer colour.
Today's colour is thanks to; Essence colour & go in no.53, 'You belong to me', Complimented by two coats of Angelica's 'Emerald Isle' on the ring finger.

Thanks for checking out today's nail post

Kel x

Live Laugh Love

Premier post

Hello to one and all,

As the title suggests, this is my first post. Can I get a whoop whoop.! 'Whoop'. I have never blogged before in my life, so be gentle on me. Recently, finished college, I have found myself with some extra time on my hands ( I actually have a life now) and as I religiously follow other people's blogs I thought that it would be fun to start blogging myself. True to line two, I'm a blogging virgin and will be working hard to get the blog lingo down so that I don't appear uncool in the b log world.  This blog doesn't have a specific theme so you can expect to read about anything from nail varnish to the Masai Mara. Whatever each post entails I do hope you enjoy reading about all the weird and wonderful things that goes on in the life of moi !

Y'all come back now ya here ...

Kel x