I feel like I've been awake for a million years

Oh my god, guys, I'm so jet lagged. It's not terrible, I'm only about 3 or 4 hours behind, but it's 6:15pm and I really want to go to sleep. Alas, I have to go to dinner in 45mins and also I'm not an old lady, so my bedtime shouldn't be 6:15pm.

I'm trying to keep myself awake mentally and physically. I've been reading a bunch of articles on keeping yourself awake, most are completely unhelpful as I want something to keep me awake now, not what I should have done a few hours ago. Also, how is having a nap keeping you awake??

So far, what's worked for me is:
- spraying myself in the face with cold water (I've been using La Roche Posay spring water aerosol)
- eye drops - the ones marketed as "refreshing" work the best, but also make my eyes red and make me feel like I've pepper sprayed myself
- listening to loud techno music
- blogging - keeps the mind working to avoid the "fuzzy state"
- keeping the air conditioning at arctic levels
- drinking lots and lots of cold water
- keeping myself busy - doing my makeup, blogging, emailing, looking up how to stay awake web pages, etc.
- peppermint essential oil - put that Stuff everywhere

Seems like the key to staying awake are cold and wet things. Awesome.

Would it be weird if I asked room service to bring me up a bunch of lemons?

So I'm in Rome, you guys! Had a bit of a rough start. Note to self: drinking whilst jet lagged is not a good idea.

I ordered my first mixed drink at a bar! I wanted a vodka pink lemonade, but apparently pink lemonade doesn't exist in Italy, so I had vodka, cranberry juice and lemonade...it was a bit odd when I was looking forward to the unnatural sweetness of red cordial and lemonade, but it was nice. I want to try a cosmopolitan next.

I'm considering asking room service to bring me some lemons. I caught some sort of illness whilst on the plane and now my throat hurts, but I, stupidly, didn't bring lemon essential oil with me, so I'll have to treat it the old fashioned way, by drinking very lemony water.

Also, I've come to the conclusion that fruit is just better in Australia. Everywhere overseas we've been so far has had subpar fruit. Our fruit is the best, end of story.

Blogging at 40,000 meters high

Just chilling in business class with my cushy seat and warm mixed nuts, you know how I be.


Also, there's Internet up here...I didn't even know that was a thing. It's exciting though!

Since I'm going to be up here for another four hours, I figured I'd blog about things I wish I had/hadn't brought with me on this flight.

Shouldn't have brought
General stuff
- two books and an iPad. I really only needed the iPad because I can buy the books on iBooks and not have huge books filling up my carry on
- Three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and little else in terms of tv shows. I love that show, but did I really think that I could watch it for 24 hours straight?

Toiletries
- Toothbrush and toothpaste. Business class = free teeth products
- Hand cream. Same reason as above

Should have brought
General stuff
- True Blood Definitely Dead and All Together Dead (on iPad). For some reason, I decided to bring the most recent True Blood book that I've read to and then skip two books and bring the two after that. What is wrong with me?

Toiletries
- Jojoba oil. I sacrificed my 15ml bottle of jojoba oil in my one quart bag for hand sanitizer, I'm wishing I had chucked my little container of Yes To Carrots night cream as I don't think my skin likes it
- Band-aids. I brought a few, thinking I would just need to put them on my heels, but my feet swelled and made my usually comfortable, slightly rubbing, ballet flats become very uncomfortable
- A compact mirror. Would have come in handy when applying all of my skincare products at my seat
- Deodorant. One of those things that I always forget about, but is quite important

Very glad that I brought
- Small spray bottle of rose water. Super lovely and refreshing when I'm feeling gross on a plane. Also provides a way of taking off whatever previous moisturising products I had already applied
- Shea butter. I use shea butter as a nighttime eye cream and a lip balm. Shea butter is super moisturising and calming, so it's great for when my skin gets really dry from the plane air
- Moisturiser. obvious reasons
- Eye drops. This managed to keep me awake when it was 5am Brisbane time and only 7pm Rome time, and stopped my eyes from getting too dry and red
- Hand sanitizer. A must have for the bacteria conscious traveller. I used hand sanitizer whenever I wanted to apply a new product, eat anything, etc. and I'm hoping that it's safe-guarded me against getting sick or irritating my skin
- A comb and hair ties. A must have for stop-over showers. I hate shower caps, I always shower with my hair in a bun if I don't want to get it wet


Dayumn, I just realised that I'm going to be in Rome in two hours. Weird.
(yep, it took me two hours to write this, people kept on giving me food and distracting me)

Flying long distances – What I take in my checked luggage – Toiletries

As I said in my last post, I will be flying to Rome in a week and am quite excited. This post will be all about the precautions I take to ensure that my toiletries do not leak or if they do they are contained and the kinds of toiletries and makeup that I bring with me on longer trips (I’ll be going for three weeks, going to Rome, Milan, Florence and London)

Rome, Milan and Florence
In Rome last year it was really humid and really hot, at the moment, it’s looking like it’s going to be quite cold, disappointing, I was hoping I could skip Australia’s winter again. Since I’m not sure if it will be cold or hot, I’m bringing some things that work all round or can be ditched depending on temperature.

So things that work in cold weather would be more moisturising foundations, moisturising lotions, coconut oil for my hair, honey for face masks, etc.

Things that will be good for warm weather are things such as tinted moisturisers or mineral foundation, green clay powder for masks, lighter moisturizers, facial mists, sweat proof cheek tints, etc.

I will be bringing a combination of both and various products that I can use smaller/larger amounts of depending on the weather.

London
I’m expecting London to be rainy and somewhat cold, it seems like it’s pretty similar to when I went last year, so I will be bringing waterproof mascara, waterproof eyeliner, long wearing eye shadows and multiples of my makeup brushes (cold, rainy weather means they will take longer to dry after I wash them).

General packing tips
I will be putting all of my clothes in packing cubes and then in a dry sack (waterproof sack) to protect them from weather and incase my products explode in my bag. I will also be putting my toiletries in a dry sack because I figured that something that keeps liquids out should be able to keep liquids in. I’m not sure how they’ll cope with the air pressure of the luggage area…but I’ve never heard any horror stories of those vacuum-sealed bags bursting in luggage, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I’ll also be putting each product in a new smaller sized travel container, as those containers are made to not leak, and then will put them in individual Ziplock bags.

What I’m bringing:
Hair products
- 1.25” ISO curling iron
- Redken Real Control Thermal Resist spray
- 30ml Moroccan oil treatment
- Lush Big shampoo
- Lush American Cream conditioner
- 30ml coconut oil

Skincare
- 20ml Lush Ultrabland
- 250ml Bioderma Crealine H20
- 30ml Perfect Potion Moisture Base
- 30ml jojoba oil
- 30ml green clay powder
- 30ml manuka honey
- 15ml rose oil

Makeup (powder and creams thick enough that they won’t leak makeup products will be stored in socks and then inside my shoes)
- Lily Lolo mineral foundation in Blondie
- Korres tinted moisturiser
- Bobbi Brown Concealer Kit in Warm Ivory/Pale Yellow Powder
- MAC Studio Sculpt concealer in NC20
- Mattify power
- Benefit Benetint and Posietint
- MAC Fluidline gel eyeliner in Blacktrack
- Urban Decay Naked Palette
- Lancome Doll Eyes Waterproof mascara
- MAC Paint Pot in Constructivist and Painterly
Brushes – which will be stored in a Sigma Brush Cup Holder
- Sigma Precision Angled P84 brush x2
- Sigma Tapered Blending E40 brush x2
- Sigma Large Angled Contour F40 brush
- Sigma Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki F80 brush
- Sigma Angled Top Kabuki F86 brush
Sigma Large Powder F30 brush
- Real Techniques Shading Brush x2
- MAC 252 Large Shader brush x2
- MAC 217 Blending brush x2
- MAC 212 Flat Definer brush
- Eco Tools Slanted Eyeliner brush

Flying long distances – What I take in my carry on luggage

Assuming you're checking some luggage and not just taking carry on. This is more so for longer trips, what to bring for the plane itself.

I'm flying to Italy in a week, quite excited and nervous. Especially because I have a constant fear of the airport people losing my luggage and thus losing my mass amounts of makeup and beloved skin care products.

Because of my fear of losing my products, I go to drastic measures to make sure that I would have them for however long it would take them to find my luggage. So I bring around a weeks worth of products with me on the plane.

My 1 quart bag will contain something like this:
- 30ml Bioderma Créaline/Sensibio H20 (review coming soon) - makeup remover and cleanser. I like this because you don’t need to wash it off, so it’s good for cleansing on a flight when there’s not a lot of water available
- 20ml Perfect Potion Moisture Base - my everyday moisturiser
- 15ml jojoba oil - also used as a moisturiser
- 50ml aloe vera gel - very moisturising and good for when my skin's irritated
- 10ml shea butter - I use this as a lip balm and nighttime eye cream. It’s also really good for any irritation I get on my skin
- Three samples of hand cream
- 10ml Yes to Carrots Nourishing Reparative Night Cream (also review coming soon) – lovin’ this night cream, feels really lovely to apply and not much is needed, super moisturising.
- 15ml Perfect Potion Herbal Renewal Eye Cream
- 15ml Dermalogica Skin Hydrating Booster
- 10ml Elizabeth Arden 8-Hour Cream – Really moisturising treatment, I use it for my lips or any irritated and dry bits on my skin.
- 20ml Lush Snow Fairy shower gel – super sweet scent, very satisfying for washing off all the plane funk

My non-liquid items will be:
- A few Lush toothy tabs – great dry alternative to toothpaste that’s not messy like tooth powder
- A change of clothes – I wear leggings and a t-shirt onto the plane (I know, leggings aren’t pants, but my God they’re comfy for a plane ride), and then bring jeans and another shirt for when I shower during the lay over
- iPad, books, things to do, etc. – also a charger for my iPad because they have power outlets on the flight I’m taking and it would be really annoying to have to go and buy one if they lose my luggage
- Lush Soak and Float solid shampoo and Jungle solid conditioner
- A comb, hair ties and such
- And I’ll buy some gum at the airport for takeoff and landing

I’ve been very tempted to bring my new curling iron with me in my carry on, I love it so much and I don’t want to lose it! I doubt they’ll lose my luggage (I will be taking precautionary measures such as printing out my itinerary and putting it in the first pocket of my suitcase), but I’m still anxious.

Defence mechanism

I'm very proud of my defence mechanism of shrieking, it's a good one to have. It would totally suck if a rapist jumped out at me on a deserted street and I was stunned into silence. I would rather be shrieking loudly and hysterically than standing there mute, draws way more attention.

Just five minutes ago, I was walking into my lounge room and I catch this blue cooler thing on a table outside the window (it's nighttime btdubs) and I yipped like one of those little dogs. And then felt stupid when I realised that it was a box and not a murderer wearing a bright blue jumpsuit (wouldn't that be terrifying though?!)

I also have a pretty good fighting defence, like one time whilst doing Earth Hour with my friend, she started talking suddenly from a room while I was walking down the hallway and I nearly punched her in the face.

Nope, nope, nope, no, don't want to, can't do it

Gah, I have block exams next week and I'm freaking out a bit because I have a speech during that time and I can't handle public speaking at all. AND! It's on something I feel passionately about (Abortion and how it should be available to all women) so I'm gonna feel like an idiot when I'm stuttering through it.

AND again! I can't even write the thing because whenever I try to I freak out about thinking about doing the speech.

So, instead of manning up and writing my speech, I'm blogging anxiously and compulsively eating mints. Classic blogger behaviour, right?

The anxiously blogging bit, not so much the mints...or maybe it is? I don't know.

If I was ever in one of those news videos where they interview bystanders after a suspicious murder

I would be that crazy person that's like "Well, obviously it's zombies." Completely serious, zombies are becoming a real problem. What's most scary is that all of the zombie attacks have been in America, and all in the same month.

Man eats other man's face
Body parts found strewn across a street
Man kills his roommate and eats his heart and brain
This link explains all of them around the world
CDC speaks out as "Walking Dead"-like incidents grow


So, in summary, we all need to get our zombie plans sorted. Go bags, weaponry, reinforce our homes.


And anyone notice that there aren't any lady zombies? Win for the ladies.