blogging

Super Gorgeous May – Day 1

/ Sam Siddique / Leave a comment

I have decided to start doing a photo a day challenge called #SuperGorgeousMay which I have seen a lot of people participate in last month including my friend Rachel and it looked like a lot of fun so I thought I would join in and have a go!

Instagram user @SuperGoreous has posted the following photo a day challenges on her account.  These are the challenges for this month:

 

I will attempt the different challenges throughout the month of May on my Instagram account (@ubersupersam) but I will also try to blog about my photo a day each day if I can!

So let’s get to it!  Today’s challenge was to capture something that had ‘pretty packaging’.  A lot of people have been taking snaps of something makeup related so I thought I would do the same (after all it’s called ‘Super Gorgeous May’ isn’t it?).
I really love creating nude looks on my eyes as I don’t think colour suits my skin tone very much as I have really dark circles.  Urban Decay’s Naked range is amazing (in my opinion), the shadows are really pigmented and the colours are so pretty.  Even though they are nude colours I really think they help make my eyes pop and I find that it last all day!  I do love the packaging on the Naked 3 palette the best – it kind of reminds me of melting chocolate or silk.  I have always been a fan of Benefit and I love their little kit boxes you can buy as they have small samples of lots of different products that compliment each other and work together.  This is especially great if you don’t want to spend lots of money on just one product that you won’t use very often and instead can have a little bit of everything and they are the perfect size to pop in your bag!  The other thing I love about these little kit boxes is that because the packaging is so pretty, after you have finished with the products you can re-use them as keepsake boxes.  I just love the cute vintage feel you get from the Benefit range, I always want to buy something from the counter whenever I walk past because everything looks so tempting!

 

As today’s challenge was simply to do with packaging I have tried not to go into too much detail about the actual product themselves (but maybe I can do some posts in the future on those).
People mentioned in today’s post:
You can check out Rachel’s Instagram account on @rsgrey to see what she did for Super Gorgeous April and her blog http://nothingrhymeswithrachel.blogspot.co.uk
#SuperGorgeousMay is brought to you by @SuperGorgeous as mentioned earlier.  If you want to give it a go, do check out the hashtag and get snapping!

When in Caerphilly

/ Sam Siddique / Leave a comment
I always like to have a bit of an explore but I find that I don’t get many chances these days to do so.  I feel somewhat ashamed that, apart from in my childhood I have never really explored any surrounding areas around Cardiff properly.
I really am a big nerd and love walking around historical sites and museums so was excited when I finally got to have a look around Caerphilly Castle and let me tell you, it is bigger than I thought!  I had a local tour guide show me around – my best pal Nathan.  My sense of direction is quite awful so it was just as well he was there otherwise I might not have made it back!  From this shot you really can’t tell just how big the place is but as you can see it was a lovely day if not a tad muddy (I really should have worn my wellies).
Nathan @ Caerphilly Castle
When you look at an aerial shot you can get a better idea of it’s true size – making it the largest castle in Wales.
Caerphilly Castle
Caerphilly Castle and grounds
As it was numbingly cold I attempted to take as many pictures as I could so it was just as well that I had my nifty smart phone compatible gloves with me as I think otherwise, my fingers may have fallen off from frostbite.  I have to say that as awesome as it all was walking around and looking at the ruins, I wish there was more… stuff.  Stuff like more plaques with information to read about certain areas or what certain rooms might have been used for, or even having items and objects displayed in those rooms as all of them were bare.
Taking sneaky shots of my tour guide
Wooden carving “holding up” the leaning tower
The bareness of the Castle was beginning to get to him…
When we got to the Great Hall we were greeted by a man who referred to us as “Sire” and “Lady” (I am definitely no Lady) and just before he went on his break he told us that that they were doing talks about castle life for all the school children visiting for the day but had covered up the tables of pretend food so that no one nicked anything.  Nathan mentioned that usually there were various shields and armour displayed in the Hall but all that remained were some flags and a few tables.
The Great Hall was by far the prettiest of rooms and have found that quite a few people have hired this as a wedding reception venue which I thought was quite lovely – the room has a lovely sort of rustic look if you’re into that sort of thing.
Great Hall ceiling
A quick photo before masses of school children turn up
There were various statues and models of some things such as how the castle defences would work, complete with sound effects.
I did spend most of the day playing photographer as I had just gotten my new iPhone 5s as a birthday present, so was excited to play around with different shots as I was wandering about – I have to say I am quite impressed with the quality of pictures.
I am quite nerdy when it comes to taking photos of ruin – I guess I just fancy myself as a bit of a photographer sometimes (I must get it from my dad) – you can see that I got quite into it and I’m sure Nathan was shaking his head at me when I wasn’t looking!
What I found quite interesting was that, as many times as the castle came under siege, it was never once taken – meaning it had one bad ass defence system in place!  Some of the castle was cordoned off for safety reasons but it really made me want to climb on all the rocks even more and pretend I was Indiana Jones.
Speaking of bad ass defence systems… the picture doesn’t do it justice really as the trebuchet was HUGE and probably works to this day.  I’m sure it could still do plenty of damage.
I believe this was called the Ballista, I might be making that up but it was basically a massive sort of crossbow and is quite heavy to operate.  At this point whilst we were checking it out, a gaggle of small school children turned up and joined us and blocked us in.  They kept attempting to lift the weapon and move it around, which, fair play to them they actually managed to do between five of them.  The teacher who was with them kept apologising to us and then made a side remark that watching and listening to the kids was actually hilarious – he wasn’t wrong.  Instantly, these kids and their amazing imaginations were pretending they were part of a siege and began “loading and firing” the weapon and trying to take down the castle and barking orders at each other.  Eventually we managed to escape with good timing as we had spotted a kid that was the spitting image of the character of Russell from ‘Up’ (except he was ginger) and Nathan could not stop giggling every time he caught sight of this kid.
Ballista… I think!
I guess maybe the castle is a little more bare in the winter months because of the weather perhaps, so it might be worth re-visiting in the summer when the warmer weather returns and we remember to take a packed lunch with us – by the time we were done I was cold, sniffly and starving!  But it was a good day out with my best pal in any case – I should learn to get out and explore more!

In Which I Try Again

/ Sam Siddique / Leave a comment

Well it is New Years Eve and here I am once more, ready to try again.  I haven’t written or done any form of blogging for so long that I think I may have lost my knack for it.  I almost feel that I have wasted my degrees by not continuing with my writing as religiously as I should have.  So now that 2014 looms, I have decided to re-boot this old, crappy blog.  Honestly, the only thing I have been proud of was starting the now well-known and successful The Siren blog with Elena Cresci when I was studying for my Masters in Swansea University, and I absolutely love that it has grown so much and is being passed on to new generations of would-be writers and journalists studying at Swansea for a taste of something that is fun, creative and innovative.

I haven’t the foggiest what it is I’ll be writing about, but rest assured it will be boring as hell and I apologise in advance for sending you to sleep!  I will also at some point sort out a new look for this blog as well as invest in a proper domain name, because I can’t be having “blogger” at the end of the address now can I?

Resolutions:

  • I will aim to take a picture of something every single day for the next year using one of the cameras I have invested in (a few months ago I was silly and bought a Diana Mini camera without real thought to where I will get them processed and how costly 35mm film was to buy – oops).
  • Keep up with this blog and make it look and sound decent.
  • Figure out what I will write on this blog (probably everything).
  • Start my writing again and enter some competitions as well as write some reviews.
  • Finally sort out every last bit of junk from this room.
  • Go on a proper holiday.

I think that should keep me busy for now.  And on that note, I hope that 2013 will go out with a bang and that 2014 brings you sunshine, rainbows and unicorns…and sprinkles, lots of sprinkles!

And just for good measure, here is me dressed as a stocking filler…er, in a stocking.

Stocking costume designed and handmade by my talented mother and aunt