Shows in London, Spring 2014!

RUSH POST.

As you may know, I'm not the sort of person who goes clubbing or to parties, or the the cinema (I dislike most of the movies showing... pretty much all the time), or bowling (I get really bored by it! Believe it or not!) - yeah, I'm a really sucky 21 year-old. It's funny because in my first year of university, my friends were like, "Oh my goshh, you work sooo hard. You are so dedicated."

And I was like 'Yyyyeahh... my A's and B's do not accurately reflect me playing The Legend Of Zelda days before my unwritten essay was due.'

But honestly, though there are few things that I actually like. I really do love find new places to explore and walking around for ages, especially parks and lakes and LOTS of trees, I love trees - this ALWAYS gives me story inspirations. This is why my Story List is over 100 concepts long. Aside from that, I'm trying to expand my experiences and skills, and I've even considered Roller Discos and Ice Skating, even though the thought makes me wrinkle my nose!

BUT, one thing I really do love is shows. =D

Shows, or otherwise dubbed 'conventions', 'fairs', 'markets', 'exhibitions', I just love them. It's like walking into an exclusive world. I don't even mind if I only like it a little bit - I'm going with my Mum to a knitting show - I just love the idea of being able to find or learn something new there, especially is tickets are very affordable. Saaaay, £6 for two people =D now isn't that awesome?!

I discovered my first 'show' of that sort years ago, at Move It. When I stopped dancing "for good" about 2-3 years ago, I didn't really go to anything, until last year when I decided to go all out and went to MCM, Mind, Body and Spirit, Hyper Japan, National Home Improvement Show (I didn't post about that, I think.), and a few others. So, I've been hunting for shows! I thought this might be interesting for anyone dead bored out of their minds in London.


Shows I'm going to for sure

The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show
WHEN: 13-16 March 2014
WHERE: Olympia London
Website HERE

The Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Show
WHEN: 3-5 April 2014
WHERE: ExCel London
Website HERE

I bought both of these for my Mum, and one for me so she wouldn't have to go alone. She really likes this sort of stuff and she runs off the cutest cardigans on her knitting machine. Okay, so the one I saw was for a baby, but whatever man. =P I've wanted to do knitting for quite a while, but being dedicated to reading for uni and for myself, and writing my book and blog posts, I haven't found the time. I'd love to learn a new skill though. Been saying this for a while!


Pondering..
(in chronological order)

I found most of these on Amazon local or Groupon, so if you live in there area, check on there to get great deals! just go there first and type in the deal, or you can prob type it into google and it'll come up.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live
WHEN: Thurs 20th Feb, Fri 21st Feb, Sat 22nd Feb '14
WHERE: Olympia London
Website HERE
As I wanted to write a legacy of my family, I stopped to think when I saw this. The only thing is, I'm not particularly interested in this. I think I'll pass.

Art14 London: London's Global Art Fair
WHEN: 28 February and 1-2 March 2014
WHERE: Kensington Olympia (Hammersmith, basically..)
Website HERE
I generally like innovative art, but because my mind is... er... overactive, creative, crazy and the like, if I can see an image or make a narrative out of it, I like it much better. A black dot on a white canvas... I'm not sure if that really does it for me, though it does make me think about creation, I guess...
My favourite types of art are what I call Immediate Impact art. I also call it Officially WOW images on my Pink Sovereign blog. It's the images that make to inhale sharply on first sight. I love wild, bright colours, fantasy settings, aesthetic pictures. Yeah. That's me.

Ideal Home Show
WHEN: 14th to 30th March 2014 !! =D
WHERE: Earls Court Exhibition Centre
Website HERE

I'd heard of this before but knew little about it. My Mum says it's really popular, which may explain why it runs for half a month!!!! I think it would be great for ideas on improving our home.

London Super Comic Convention 2014
WHEN: Sat 15 and Sun 16 March
WHERE: ExCel London
Website HERE
I booked my ticket the moment I saw it. Even though I was disappointed by MCM, that was my issue and not because MCM was a bad event. I'm hoping that this convention will do it for me... whatever it is I'm actually looking for!

The London Cruise Show
WHEN: Sat 22 and Sun 23 March 2014
WHERE: Olympia
Website HERE
I can't go to this one as I work every weekend, and the last one I have for this tax year is on the Saturday of London Super Comic Con. However I'm badgering my sisters into taking my Mum because I think they'd really enjoy it. Also my mum's not the sort of person who'd whine and moan and not being about to afford it, she'll Oooh and Aaah about the lovely things she's seeing and set it as a goal for the (hopefully near) future, put it on a vision board or something, make it a positive thing. (That's why I love my Mum, to itty bitty pieces! She's my best friend. (Well. One of them. Heh.))


 ('hem' Kensington Olympia, Olympia, and Olympia London are, as I understand, all the same place. (e_e) )




Star xx

This is one of my Rush Posts - when they are all posted, you will find my NOTICE OF SUSPENSION.

Hyper Japan 2013 - Friday

Konnichiwa!

It took me such a long time to post again. I really didn't want to post anything depressing so I just didn't post anything at all. But now I have something HAPPYYY to share :3

I have been looking forward to Hyper Japan for months, especially as MCM (talked about that in another blog post) was a bit of a disappointment for me. H.J. was at Earls Court, only like a 30-minute journey for me, which is greeeat. We got there an hour early, and a good thing too because we were one of the first in at five-past two. My sister isn't really 'into' Japanese culture the way I am but she agreed to come with me, so I had someone to talk to while we queued for an hour. I planned to go anyway, but luckily I saw an offer on Groupon which was two tickets for the price of one. Neat. I had Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea in my bag but its a depressing book and I was excited so I ended up not reading it.

Queuing was a pretty simple affair. Like I said, we got there an hour early but went in almost straight away, unlike MCM Comic Con London, where me and my brothers waited a further hour and a half. Didn't see very many cosplayers, but the Lolita and Gothic Lolita outfits I saw were so, so very adorable and lovely to see. Japan TV were walking up and down the queue doing interviews.

In brief, there was a wide variety of things to explore in Japanese culture; sweets, kawaii sweets and kawaii culture, jewellery, costumes and traditional Japanese outfits, music (J-pop, yay), food such as rice dishes and noodles, swords (katanas, I believe... Azure said they looked like Kill Bill swords, and I just rolled my eyes. We're at a Japanese festival, and she's relating cutural icons to American movies), toys, t-shirts, anime-themed items, manga and comics, magazines and books, game demos, uniquely-styled artwork (sometimes with the artist present), and so much other memorabilia.

The live stage had musicians playing and I wish I had got the names of some but we were eating tempura noodles at the time and it didn't occur to me. Maybe it's in the brochure.

One thing that really struck me was that there was so... much... s p a c e .

At MCM, you could barely move. Sometimes we actually had to huddle in lines and waddle along because it was so jam-packed, and it was the most frustrating thing after queuing for so long and being excited enough to want to see everything at once.

But at Hyper Japan 2013, it was like there wasn't enough stalls. Towards the back, you could stand in one space and spin around with your arms out and not hit anybody. Granted, there was lots to do, lots. But still, I wish the space was filled with more stalls so that I could indulge even more in japanese culture =] I was reading Anna Scholz's blog which briefly mentioned last years' Hyper Japan, and it reminded me that Saturday and Sunday will be a LOT busier than the Friday, so I have no doubt all the space will be filled tomorrow with more stalls and people!

I picked up quite a few leaflets and freebies, especially ones on visiting Tokyo, entered a few prize draws and stuff, and it was really fun.

What I bought:
- Strawberry Pocky... couldn't resist [for the sister who came with me (call her Azure)]
- Little cat notebook [me]
- milk oyster card holder [me]
- Hello Kitty choco-toffee treat [for my other sister (call her Aime)]
- Winter Is Coming (yep, Game Of Thrones) geek soap... smells awesomee [sister again]
- Chocolate Dorayaki [little brother]
- Plum Wine (that ish tastes AMAZING... we tried sake too, but MAN that's strong.)
- Tempura noodles (great, but didn't taste as nice as they looked! It was my own fault - would have appreciated it better with an appetite but I let my excitement carry me away. I wasn't actually hungry at all. )
- Plum Tea (bought to wash down the noodles, not realising that's its not actually TEA, rather, a sweet drink. Was DELICIOUS though. Mmm. Right, from now on it's me and plums forever. Goodbye, cranberry.)

I spent hardly anything at MCM, but must have spent between £40 and £50 at H.J. (I was paying for my older sister too, her share was about £20 so I actually spent only £30-ish.) Felt so good going home with all those bags. Money well spent ^_^

I am starting to regret not going back to get this beautiful art print I saw, but I was still if-ing and but-ing so I decided to leave it.

I am so gutted that Destiny Blue wasn't there today. I was hoping soo much to buy a print from her of 'Freedom: Not A Number' and 'Lose Yourself In Me' in particular. I'm working tomorrow and Sunday so it's not even like I can drop by over the weekend. Now I have to wait until next year to see her. Makes me so sad :(

Well, it's decided. I am definitely coming back next year.

What now?

I signed up to Japanesepod101.com, and I'm supposed to be taking a free Japanese trial lesson at Alpha Japanese school in Holborn, so that should prepare me for the Japanese course I'm going to take when I get back to uni.

Did I mention I have a fan with my name on it in Katakana characters?

=]

Got it from the Alpha Japanese School stand. Well, the festival is on for another two more days. So, y'know. If you can get to Earl Court - go.

Star.

My Experience Of MCM Comic Con London 2013 - Saturday

Of the two festivals I had lined up for this weekend, Mind Body and Spirit festival on Friday and MCM Comic Con expo on Saturday and (possibly) Sunday, I fully expected to be blown away by the latter. I WAS NOT prepared to come home disappointed from MCM and wishing that I'd gone to the MBS festival twice!

MBS festival was AMAZING. MCM was, at best, 'Meh'.

Okay no, it had some pretty sick moments in there. But let me start from the top.