Turquoise

My absolute favourite colour in the world is turquoise. I'm not ashamed that it's in no small part due to my tweens and my having watched Aquamarine, the movie about the mermaid with blue streaks in her hair, and it being one of my favourite chick flicks of all time.



I love turquoise. It's such a beautiful colour - blue-green, reminds me of the sea and the coast, but at the same time it's versatile enough to be used in just about any setting. Turquoise and the sea at Christmas, turquoise shutters on the windows of a white house, a turquoise bedroom... You get the idea.

It also helps that since Sri Lanka last year (still probably my favourite trip I've ever taken) I've loved the ocean.

Now, I've had blue hair before - I've had blue running on the underside of my whole head, and then just last month I went to a salon here in Edinburgh for turquoise highlights. But still, it wasn't enough. I lusted after a head full of turquoise and having real magical mermaid hair.



The only problem? I'm dead scared of bleaching my hair. I've heard so many horror stories about bleaching and I knew how difficult it would be to have my hair stay in relatively good condition, plus because I was performing I knew that not many people would be okay with having a turquoise-headed girl on stage.

So I decided to go for a turquoise ombre, from my dark brown/black hair fading out into turquoise ends.



I think I'm going to call this DIY job a success. I love it!!!! I love how it has just the right amount of magic - it's not full-blown turquoise, but it's definitely got just that touch of heart-fluttering beautiful colour.

Here's how I did it:

You will need blue bleach powder, 20/30 volume developer (40 is really strong so I wouldn't really suggest it), La Riche Directions Turquoise dye, a mixing bowl and brush, aluminium foil, a shower cap or a plastic bag big enough to wrap your head around, a garbage bag and gloves.

I also very strongly recommend a good moisturising conditioner, protein treatments, hot oil treatments, argan oil, coconut oil, and being prepared to give your hair lots of TLC.

Wear your gloves or you will wind up with blue-stained fingernails like mine. Wear a shirt you don't really care about because it will get damaged (and make this your hair-dye shirt), then cut a hole at the bottom of your garbage bag and wear it like a cape.

Refer to this video.



Now, here are the steps.

1) Equal parts blue bleach powder and 30 volume developer, mixed to a whipped cream consistency and applied to the tips of my hair. I bought mine from Sally Beauty Supply - 500g of powder and 1 litre of developer for about £17, which will last me a very long time. Here's the YouTube video I watched to learn how to do it right.



Basically, coat the hair in bleach, making sure to get every last strand, then wrap it in aluminium foil.

2) Leave on bleach for 45 minutes. Rinse out, and check to see if the colour is light enough to work with.

3) I put another batch of bleach on for another 45 minutes, but my hair, which is pretty strong, is very damaged and fried right now so I would absolutely NOT suggest this!!!!! Leave it on for 20 minutes more at most, and you should probably also wait a couple of days before re-bleaching it. You want your hair to get to at least an ash blonde:

4) Condition your hair like crazy, because after having been bleached that much it is extremely damaged. For this I suggest protein fillers, coconut oil, argan oil, any good strong conditioner for dry/damaged hair, and hot oil. Right after I'd washed out the bleach my hair had a mad amount of breakage at the tips, but thanks to an intensive care regimen the health in my hair is starting to come back.

5) Apply the dye (I used Directions Turquoise) to the places you want to colour. Because I have ombre as well as highlights, I just mixed it in on my entire head to make sure I'd get everything that needed to be coloured, focusing on the ends and running my fingers through my hair so I would get the inside as well and not just the outside of my hair. Also, despite the massive amount of hair on my head, I only needed half the 88ml jar to coat everything!

6) Wear your shower cap or plastic bag on your head, use a hairdryer to heat the hair and dye up (this helps the dye to penetrate and last longer) and leave it there for 3-5 hours. You don't actually need to leave it on this long - 15 minutes is enough, really, but I want my colour to be longlasting so I left it for longer. Unnatural colours like turquoise are only stains to your hair, so it won't damage your hair regardless of how long you leave it in.

7) Rinse out with cold water. I repeat, cold water. This closes the cuticle and seals the colour in. Your head will burn because it's just so cold, but it will be worth it.

8) Towel dry. Do not blow dry or use any more heat treatment on your hair. Condition well with coconut oil and argan oil, a treatment for damaged hair, and whatever else you feel is necessary.

The first time you wash your hair, the water will turn blue. Don't worry! It's just the excess stain rinsing out of your hair. You should try to extend the time between washes to make your dye last longer; I wash mine every 2-3 days, and I'm trying to go even longer in between so that I'll get the most out of my turquoise hair.

That being said, do your research on what brands you want to use when dyeing your hair. My turquoise highlights were done with Crazy Colour, which is horrible and not a brand I would recommend at all. It lasted maybe four washes. I chose Directions this time because I loved the colour (when you first do it, it comes out more like blue, but then fades to a good proper turquoise) and because it's only £3.25 from Amazon with £1 shipping. It's a good brand, it lasts, it's got beautiful colour and it's inexpensive. What's not to love?

And that, my friends, is the story of how Cheryl turned into a mermaid.

Will you be dyeing your hair unnatural colours anytime soon?

If you haven't already, you should probably follow House of Turquoise. This is the place where I feed my turquoise obsession.

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Haunted Dublin

Not gonna lie - I believe in the paranormal. I could've sworn I've experienced ghosts on more than one occasion, and while I used to be a skeptic about these things, right now I've just had enough experiences with them for my mind to be turned.

My friend Lester, who I was staying with in Dublin, and I took a guided walking tour with Hidden Dublin walking tours. It was roughly 1.5 hours for €13 on the Haunted Dublin tour, which I thought was a pretty decent price to see a side of Dublin which you wouldn't often encounter, and have a nice time listening to ghost stories.

On the evening that we went, our tour guide was Anna. She's born and bred Irish, and she was fabulous and an amazing storyteller.

The tour started on a square near Dublin Castle, and immediately Anna launched into stories of history and people who murdered people or people who simply disappeared. The story of the Walking Gallows, for instance, was interesting because we were standing right in the centre of the square where Lt Edward Heppenstall, the Walking Gallows himself, was said to have murdered dozens of people by hanging or strangling with a scarf, a makeshift gallows.

We were also told stories about a row of steps which used to be lined with prostitutes waiting for business, and how this very same row of steps was the place where several prostitutes were last seen, having disappeared.

We also made a quick stop near where the Hellfire Club first met, not far from Christchurch Cathedral. But that was only the first half of the walking tour - the bit which I found really interesting was the second half, when we went into St Audoen's Cathedral.

"St Audoen's arch and the old medieval walls"

It is old, the walls date back to the medieval ages, and even by day the building is imposing. But by night, it is creepy as hell. It's dark, there's no light, and only the moon provides any sort of illumination. And I promise you, it is haunted. (Anna, our tour guide, told us that it is said to be the most haunted building in Dublin. I do not question that one bit.)

The moment I walked in I knew that something had happened there regarding children. And I later found this curious, because Anna told us stories about a lady who stood watch by the gate, and it wasn't until later that she even mentioned that children were in any way involved. By the time she told us the story, I already knew that there were children involved.

What's more, a child had been tugging on my sleeve the whole time I was inside that small section of the building, standing by the gates and old Medieval walls, and listening to Anna talk.

It's a curious sensation, when you know that there's a spirit around, and he or she is interacting with you - if it's a nice spirit, you just let it be, and you're pretty calm for the most part. If it's a nasty spirit, everything in you is telling you that you shouldn't be there. (I'll get to that later.) And if someone else sees something you can't see, or feels something you can't feel, you freak out more than the person who's seeing it all.

Anyway, after Anna had told us about how illegitimate children would be abandoned at the gates of the church and was telling us about ghosts that she had herself experienced in the church, I was minding my own business just listening to her talk when I swear to you I saw a ghost. A blonde boy-child, sitting in a corner, the same boy-child who'd been tugging on my sleeve the entire night. Apparently, the same boy-child that several other people have seen before me.

I was a little surprised, but now that I think back on it I wonder if I had been too calm in just saying to the tour group that there was a child sitting there. The people who had been standing in the direction where I was looking panicked a little bit and moved behind me. But really, they didn't need to, because the child was harmless, very sweet and nice if a little bored. I promise you I am not lying.

Later, we went upstairs, to an old church garden, and this is where I got pretty freaked out for the first time really the entire night. I felt a heavy unfriendly presence, and it was like someone was pinching the back of my neck trying to hold me back a little, and also my legs started to go funny like they were heavy, and they had that pins and needles feeling though I was standing up properly.

We were told the story of the Green Lady who had been waiting for her lover, but the presence that I felt was an unfriendly male one, supposedly a new spirit to the area who had just moved into the space, so to speak. Just thinking about it isn't the most pleasant thing, so I'm not going to.

It's a tour definitely worth the €13, but not a tour for the faint of heart either. If you're in Dublin, I'd say it's one of the activities you shouldn't miss out on. 

The Hidden Dublin walking tours operate on Thursdays and Saturdays at 8PM starting near Dublin Castle. Tickets may be purchased directly from the guide or pre-ordered online here. This post was not sponsored in any way; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Race2Amsterdam

I am proud to announce that I am taking part in the Edinburgh Students Charity Appeal's RACE TO AMSTERDAM!!!!!

On November 9, I will travel from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. Against several other teams from the University of Edinburgh, my teammate Jasmine and I will run, swim, or fly to Amsterdam, attempting to beat out the competition and be the first to get there.

The only catch? We can't spend a penny on transport. That's right - we've got to beg, borrow, steal, or hitchhike our way to Amsterdam.

And all this is for charity.

My supported charity is the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which I have been supporting for some time now.

For as long as I can possibly remember, I've loved animals. I love whales, dolphins, cats, dogs, wolves, tigers, cheetahs, giraffes, snakes, gazelles, and just about every animal you can imagine.*

*Insects not included. Especially not butterflies. Good god, I'm terrified of butterflies.

Cheetahs are one of my favourite animals. I first heard about the Cheetah Conservation Fund years ago, about seven years ago I think now, and I was impressed by what they do with their work; I started donating to the Cheetah Conservation Fund about three years ago.

Cheetah numbers are dangerously low, and they are listed as a vulnerable species. I know it doesn't sound as important as 'critically endangered' like the black rhino or the hawksbill sea turtle, but we shouldn't wait until they are critically endangered before we start thinking about saving them, right?

On that note, the Asiatic Cheetah subspecies found in Iran is in fact classified as being critically endangered.

About 10,000 years ago, cheetahs were forced by abrupt climate changes to heavily inbreed, as many types of cheetahs went extinct. This means that the current genetic population of cheetahs is not very diverse at all. They are so closely related that the cheetah species today has an unusually high susceptibility to disease and sudden changes in their environment - disease is likely to affect not just one individual cheetah, but the entire species.

Cheetahs continually face the threat of being hunted by farmers; because of human encroachment on cheetah territory, cheetahs are being forced to hunt livestock. When livestock gets killed, farmers get angry and hunt down the cheetah that killed their animal. On top of that, cheetahs have a very slow rate of reproduction, and when they do, 90% of their young are killed within a few weeks of their life. Tell me that doesn't make you sad :(

So what does the CCF do? Because humans are one of the cheetah's biggest predators, the CCF prevents or minimises cheetah-human conflict by introducing the Anatolian Shepherd Dog to farmers, which guards the livestock and prevents cheetahs from killing livestock before anything happens. And when damage does occur, they ask farmers to go to them for assessment and compensation rather than having the farmers hunting down this already threatened species.

The CCF works with farmers to produce Cheetah Country Beef, or meat that is sold from farmers who have pledged not to kill cheetahs.

On top of that, the CCF runs an orphanage programme for abandoned cubs. Cheetahs rescued from cages or abandoned because their mother has been killed by predators are raised with the CCF, and released back into the wild when they are ready.

The CCF has a centre in Namibia where you can go and work with the cheetahs and help with conservation work; I want to go to Namibia to work with cheetahs there so badly!!! Only 10,000 cheetahs remain in the wild, of which 30% are in Namibia. Also, only 70-100 critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs remain, almost all of them in Iran.

My friend Jasmine's supported charity is Breakthrough Breast Cancer, which campaigns for healthcare improvements in the UK and fights breast cancer through research and awareness.

So if you would like to help save the cheetah or contribute to fighting cancer, you can help us by donating to our team, Wanderlust With Purpose, as we make our way to Amsterdam!

(We are not affiliated in any way with Passports With Purpose. We simply grabbed Wanderlust With Purpose as our team name because we were inspired by PWP's example.)

Our team target is £350, so please donate as much as you can spare to help these charities.

The race will start at Bristo Square, 9AM on the 9th of November 2012. From the starting line, we'll all be giving everything we've got to get to Amsterdam.

To help us, please click here. The link to this donation will also stay in the blog sidebar for at least the next 6 months, should you wish to go back at any time and donate more.

See you at the finish line!

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A Ryanair review

Dear world, I have joined your understanding in the frustration towards Ryanair.

Having flown Ryanair for both my flights, to and from Dublin, and having both flights delayed, it is my sincere belief that Ryanair is an airline that I would only fly if I were on a budget (which, sadly, I am) and if there were absolutely no flight cheaper or no other alternatives were available.

I admit, I went in feeling more than a little scared that I would either a) be made to pay an extra €50 for excess luggage, or b) face horrible people at the flight gate, but while neither of these fears were realised, having my flights delayed with no updates on the situation was far from ideal.

I am proud to say that at neither of my flights did I get stopped for excess luggage - in no small part due to my having worn half my clothes and sticking a feather quill in my hair. We'll get round to that in a bit, but first, this is what happened with Ryanair.

On my flight to Dublin on Thursday October 10, my boarding pass stated that gates closed at 7.40AM. I got to the airport at around 7.20, cutting it a bit close, but nonetheless I was there. I reached my gate at 7.35AM, having seen all the airport panels showing my gate 'now boarding', so I was expecting to be the only crazy last-minute person there. You can imagine my surprise when everyone was still waiting.

Never mind what the panels claimed about the gates being 'now boarding'; the gates hadn't yet opened at all, even those who had purchased priority boarding were in line. Mind, this was a pretty small waiting area, so it got pretty crowded.

Long story short, I freaked out when at 7.50AM, standing pretty near to the people who were taking boarding passes at the gate, I heard the staff say "The pilot isn't in the aircraft."I don't know if Ryanair possesses next-generation autopilot technology, but I like my planes to have someone sitting in front.

At 8AM we finally managed to start boarding, and the panels switched from 'now boarding' to 'final call'. I'm glad that I was standing close to the staff so at least I could keep a ear on what was going on, but for passengers who had absolutely no clue why we were being delayed (the delay wasn't even reflected on any of the panels!) I imagine they must've been furious.

Like many budget airlines, Ryanair doesn't rent airbridges, so we have to walk the stairs to the ground level, walk on the Tarmac and then up movable stairs onto the aircraft. My flight was supposed to have taken off at 8.13AM, and of course, at 8.13AM I was still walking on the Tarmac. We didn't take off until 8.40 at least.

*

On my return flight back from Dublin, I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. My flight was supposed to take off at 10.55PM and arrive in Edinburgh 11.59PM; I got to the airport at around 9.30, giving myself at least 50 minutes to clear immigration, baggage check, and everything before my gates closed 40 minutes before departure.

When I got to the airport, the panels showed that the 10.55PM flight to Edinburgh had been rescheduled for 00:20. Well, at least this time they made it known that we would have to expect delays.

Luckily for this flight, we were kept informed of what was going on (the plane that was supposed to be flying to Dublin and then make the return flight to Edinburgh had faced a delay in taking off from Edinburgh, pushing the entire schedule backwards) so it wasn't a very frustrating wait.

Still, though, at least I didn't get stopped for luggage at the gate - in no small part because I was wearing my camera on my body rather than stuffing it in my bag, and the feather quill I bought from Dublin I stuck in my hair because I had no idea how it was going to fit in my luggage. Also, I was wearing four layers of clothes when I came back from Dublin - a camisole, a turtleneck, a thick sweater, and a coat - so I was pretty warm in the plane but at least it saved me from having to part with €50.

*

Ryanair isn't the best airline to fly, but it is cheap. If there are alternatives, I would very strongly discourage people from flying Ryanair. There are plenty of other budget carriers - Aer Lingus, EasyJet, Jet2, FlyBe, and countless others. Some of these have flights cheaper than even Ryanair's, if you look around for the right flights at the right times.

For me, as far as budgeting in trips is an issue, I will have to continue flying whatever airline is cheapest - and most of the time, this will mean Ryanair. I haven't had the best first impression of them, but I do hope that subsequent experiences with Ryanair will be much better than my first.

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Irish Autumn

I was in Ireland for five days this past week and the sights there were breathtaking. The leaves haven't started falling as much in Edinburgh, so Ireland's more into autumn than we are here! The changing colours on the leaves are amazing. This is my first autumn, so I want to properly enjoy this :)

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Trip planning, made easier

Note: This post was not sponsored by anyone; any thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Two-thousand years ago, Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethleham for a census and wound up without a room, with poor ol' Mary having to give birth in a barn. Imagine how much easier baby Jesus would have come into the world if he'd been born in a proper room instead of a barn. (In case you're wondering, yes I'm already starting to feel the holiday spirit!)

Now, imagine of the happy family had been able to book a room in a nice inn somewhere. Thanks to the internet, by far and large you're guaranteed of at least your transport to a destination and your accommodation while you're there.

Online planning tools have done a world of wonder for planning trips. Probably one of the most well-known sites is TripAdvisor, where people give reviews on a number of activities in different cities. I've used TripAdvisor several times, and I can safely say that well-received group recommendations have always resulted in enjoyable activities for me.

However, there's a huge chunk in travel planning that can be a big headache, and that's planning your itinerary. For this, my go-to website is Tripit.



I discovered the wonder that is TripIt a while ago, about May of last year when I was preparing to take my first 'freedom' trip - that is to say, a trip without parents, without schoolteachers, without any sort of supervision really, one where I was allowed to go as an independent adult. While researching for the trip and trying to plan what was going on, I realised I needed something to help me keep everything nice and tidy, and that's when I discovered TripIt.

I'm a huge fan of free-and-easy trips; I'm not keen on guided tours, because they always feel rushed and I don't feel like there's ever enough time to take in a place at your own leisure. With free-and-easy, I get to do the things I want to do and spend as much time as I want.

The great thing about sites like TripIt is that they allow you to enter detailed and well-organised information - there are categories for everything, from flights (and car journeys and rail journeys and boats) to places you want to visit, accommodation, and lots of other categories that keep everything well-organised, and on a nice time-schedule too because you can put in start and end times.

Any sort of plans or bookings, when sent to you via email, are easy to import - by forwarding to plans@tripit.com it imports automatically into your trip itinerary! I love how fuss-free this option is, and how everything is just kept so nice and tidy.



And if you're travelling with someone else, there's even options for you to share your itinerary with that person or make it public!

I love this site, it's so easy to keep your travel organised.

Will you be using TripIt in the near future?

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Arthur's Seat

One of the coolest things about Edinburgh is that we live pretty much on a volcano. An extinct one, but still, I like telling people that I'm living on a volcano.

The two big volcanoes in Edinburgh are the one the Castle sits on, aptly named Castle Rock, and Arthur's Seat which is part of Holyrood Park. Arthur's Seat is named so because supposedly a huge battle was waged by King Arthur in the medieval times on top of this extinct volcano! Lots of nice Arthurian legends about this place - pretty cool huh :)



These are the ruins of St Anthony's Chapel. It's beautiful how time has torn down the walls of this place, leaving only one wall remaining.

My friends Taylor, Adam and I spent ages (well it felt like ages to me) climbing up the paths on Arthur's Seat; beautiful soft grass and rocky paths together. I was so ridiculously exhausted by the time I was halfway through, I just collapsed on the grass to catch my breath! Thankfully though, the grass is so clean it's amazing to just lie there.

By the time we made it to the top, it was pretty much dark. And this was the view we saw.

Oranges, blues, the silhouette and street lights of the city.



Edinburgh is beautiful by night. :)

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