The Journey Continues Online

  How has it taken me this long to discover Lord of the Rings Online?? There I was, trawling through the internet as I always do on my days off when I'm not in my usual sloth state of relentless sleeping and eating, when I decided to look for some LOTR related stuff to put on my Tumblr. After doing an initial Google search it didn't take me long to come across a link which has changed life as I knew it. 

  For anybody who doesn't know, Lord of the Rings Online is basically a huuuuggee MMORPG based on J.R.R Tolkiens writings of Middle Earth coupled with the movies directed by Peter Jackson. You basically choose your class out of men, dwark, elf and hobbirt, create an avatar and away you go completing quests, earning deeds and titles and fighting any monsters that cross your path. And obviously you can interact with other players you come across in the game which is always pretty fun. What I find so brilliant about it is literally every town, village and city ever written about by Tolkien is accessible in this game. I've only been on for less than a week but already I've travelled from the Shire, to Weathertop, to Thorins Gate. I even attemped to reach Rivendell and Rohan but my character isn't levelled up enough to survive the journey :( 

  Ok so it looks a bit like RuneScape at first. When I started playing my initial reaction was like "oh no, this looks like a waste of my time", but as I've got the hang of it I'm amazed at how addictive it's become. In a similar way to The Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion and Skyrim, there is a main Quest storyline you can complete at your own leisure, and you're not tied down to it once you start, you can pretty much come and go as you please or go off and do other quests alongside it which is always pretty handy.

  My only criticism of this game is that in order to have certain things such as horses and houses or to acquire the majority of skills you need to really be successful when playing, you need to actually buy them with real money from the LOTR Online store rather than use in game currency, making it much harder for anyone playing purely for free to level up or get very far in a short period of time. Aside from that, this gets a solid 8/10 from me :) .

Going to see my boyfriend last week I decided to take along my Lord of the Rings DVDs to complete his Middle Earth education. He'd already been put through nearly 5 hours of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, so it only seemed right we ended things right there and them with The Return of the King.

  It all seemed to be going well at first. In the beginning he sat there with this patient look on his face that let me know he was finding it a bit boring, but as it went on and got to the siege of Minas Tirith and King Theoden's army riding to the rescue of Gondor (oh come on, don't start with the whole"spoilers" thing. How could you not have already watched this), it was evident he was getting more and more into it, because you know, that was the aim.

  However, when his flatmate walked into the room just over halfway through, he clearly forgot I was right there and let slip he'd found the first 2 boring and even with this one he only liked it. Yeah, that's right, "LIKED". Not "loved". Just "liked". If looks could kill the one that I shot him would have had him dying a long drawn out painful death. And to add insult to injury, I only went and left my DVDs at his flat SO NOW I HAVE NO TWO TOWERS DVD TO WATCH AND I'M GOING TO CRY DIE!

Talking With Tony- Episode 3

   A whole week has gone without posting anything on here due to my being away for most of the time, so it looks like it's once again time for your weekly dose of Tony-related madness. So just what have I been talking about with Tony this week?

  Well, believe it or not we actually missed out on a whole day yesterday. Turns out shouting at Tony means he's guaranteed to give you the cold shoulder for the rest of the day. Not even being super sweet when doing his order at the end of his shift was quite enough to soften enough, so I decided to hold out hope that Saturday would bring with it some Tony love.

  And running true to form, when I rolled into work at half 11 Tony was his usual bright eyed, sarcastic self. "Tell your boyfriend I'm coming too" he announced when I told him of my plans in a couple of weeks. "No chance" I replied, feeling not a bit of remorse of having shot his suggestion down in flames.

  The rest of the day was accompanied by his good old McChat up lines, including the tried and tested drop and pick up, always done with that cheeky little grin and sashay that only he can pull off. At the end of his shift when I told him he needed to send me some photos for this little piece he whipped out his iPhone 5 (the show off) and started snapping away before I realised I was being included in the impromptu photoshoot.

  So there you have it folks, yet another chapter in the life of Tony Cole.

Talking With Tony- Episode 2

Looks like it's that time of the week already folks, and on time as promised. That's right, it's Talking With Tony, with the one and only Mr Tony Cole! As you can see, rather than pose with fruit this week, he's opted to look rather nervously at a cactus before attempting to eat it. Why he wants to eat a cactus, I don't know but what he does in his own time is strictly up to him*. 

So, what has he been rambling on about this week you ask? Well, after reading my little piece last week the next day he provided me with some brilliant material in the form of a little something he dubbed as "McChat up lines". 

Here's a little example... So there I was, serving a customer, blissfully unaware of what was going on around me, when suddenly I heard a voice behind me go "oops my bad" in a purring and seductive tone. Next thing I know a hand is lightly running down my leg before reaching all the way down to pick up the well placed ketchup that had taken a tumble from his hands mere seconds before. "What on earth are you doing Tony?"I enquired, a little gobsmacked at his unabashedness. "McChatting you up of course" he replied before giving me a cheeky wink and sauntering off to cause mischief elsewhere.

Other than that, I am very proud to announce Tony now has his own blog. "Where" I hear you cry? Well scroll on down this page and you'll find I've already linked to it, but for all you lazy people out there, here it is again ;) http://tonyjohncole.blogspot.co.uk

* Just to cover my back here, in no way does this blog condone attempting to eat a cactus under any circumstances. Don't try this at home kids ;)

Don't Come Dine With Dave... Not Ever!

Ahh, the Victoria Sponge. How quintessentially British and perfect for a summers evening One look at this photo and you have to ask yourself how can something look so perfect? Surely there is nothing that can ever make you doubt its beauty, yes? Think again.

Logging onto Facebook this afternoon I was greeted by a site that looked a bit cross between a... well, actually it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. You see, my friend clearly decided to have a stab at baking, because clearly he has nothing better to do with his summer than murder recipes for Victoria Sponge. Accompanying his, err... "masterpiece" was an image of how the cake was Meant to turn out. I call it a cake, but that may actually just be an insult to cake. Why don't you take a look and judge for yourselves? I'm so sorry Dave, you did try. But I can never un-see this...

Major Roadworks Ahead. Expect Delays

For the next week or so depending on how much time I'll be working, how lazy I'm feeling etc, this blog will be undergoing a bit of construction again in a bid to freshen up the layout, improve viewing experience etc etc, so my apologies if the layout looks a little off for the duration, I'll be messing around with the html coding and other techie stuff a little, a lot of it is experimenting, trial and error, you know, that kind of thing, fingers crossed I don't completely mess it up though! During this time updates may be a bit slower, but thank you in advance for understanding why ;) . 

Another Minion Joins

Hey guys, would y'all help me in giving a shoutout and big old bloggers welcome to the one and only Mr Tony Cole as seen in a little segment on my blog I like to call "Talking With Tony". Why not go take a look at what he's got going on at his little part of the internet "Tonykins", he's just started so let's help him get those all important first page views ;) . As always, link is below, happy viewing my lovelies.


Tonykins

Talking With Tony

Hi, this is Tony. No, not the watermelon silly people, the thing holding it up and evidently eating away at it. Let me tell you a little bit about him. I work with him at McDonalds and he is one of the only people there who can make a long shift go quicker. Needless to say, in order to be my friend he's also barking mad. 

So what did I talk about with Tony today I hear you ask? Well, there I was, doing drinks for customers when Tony turns to me and says with a forlorn look on his face "Nina, why have you never mentioned me on your blog?". My heart broke the way he looked at me and I said "For you my dear, I will not only run home as swiftly as my tired little feet can carry me and write about you this very night, I will turn you into a blogging phenomenon, the likes which has never been seen before".

And thus, "Talking With Tony" was born. Keep checking back weekly to see what Tony's up to, the conversations we'll be having, and most importantly, which fruit he's decided to pose up with next time ;) . 

Delusionally- She's Finally Cracked

Guuuyyysss I don't often do this, but my friend has just started her own blog on here, and I've linked to it at the bottom of this post. She's probably the craziest friend  have, and from what I've read so far it's amazing enough for me to be crying with laughter, so if you like cats, drawings and the ramblings of a delusional, then what are you waiting for ;) ?

I Told Them No

It's Scandaleyes All Right

I'm not a big make up person. Anybody who knows me will tell you when it comes to make up I like to keep it to the bare minimum. In fact, the only thing I like to make an effort with is my eyes, and even then this only started once I went to university and realised people actually care what you look like in public. 

Scandaleyes Show Off Mascara
 from Rimmel London, £6.99

When it comes to make up I tend to mainly focus on my eyes as that's how I often think my eyes are the most attractive part of me after my hair, but seeing as part of my work uniform is to wear hair up and hidden under a hat it kinda restricts what I have to work with to my eyes when it comes to the looks department. My daily (incredibly short) make up routine therefore only consists of mascara and 2 types of eyeliner, one for the eyelid and the other for the under eye. Hardly excessive wouldn't you agree?

Exaggerate Eyeliner Noir,
Rimmel London, £3.99

However, although I've said I don't put a lot of effort into it and don't resort to spending hours in front of the mirror perfecting it, my mum is very much against the idea of me wearing make up, partly because she feels I don't need it and also because let's face it, make up is expensive, especially for a student living on a budget. That aside, my mum has even compared me before to looking like Yzma from the Emporors New Groove, which is a little harsh if you ask me. Yes she may have ridiculously long eyelashes and be wearing a ton of eyeliner and even have the super slim body I envy, I don't look like a wrinkled old purple hag last time I checked ;) .

Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil Jet Black,
Rimmel London, £2.99

The downside of wearing make up for me though is ever since I started getting into it I've noticed a big difference in how I look with and without it, which has often lead to me now refusing to leave the house without wearing any, whereas in the past I've been quite happy to go out all natural and not care much what I looked like. When I was with my boyfriend last week and he was on Skype to his cousins, I kicked up a big fuss about being seen on webcam with no make up on because I was convinced I looked awful without it, only to be told I looked nice regardless. So this week I have pledged to put away the eye pencils and mascara brushes and go about my daily business to prove to myself it's ok to go against the flow and shun make up ;) . It's only Monday, but let's hope I can last the week!