london: the harry potter studios tour and seeing kate bush live

hi guys! sorry for being so m.i.a. recently, a few weeks ago i moved into my student flat and i started university this week! so i've been crazy busy, getting used to things, meeting new people, exploring the city, so i haven't had much time to write (or read, really). i'm trying to get back into blogging now so there's gonna be a little backlog of posts before things get back to normal.

so at the end of august i went down to london for the weekend with my family. i had tickets to see kate bush and was planning on going alone just for the day but we decided to visit the warner brothers studio tour as well and make a little holiday of it. i won't say much about the harry potter tour as i believe the pictures speak for themselves, but it was wonderful. it was like being in a very warm, cosy environment and it reminded me a lot of my childhood. it was also incredible to see all the costumes and sets and things, it totally got me excited to start my costume course!

the main event of the weekend for me was, of course, seeing the beautiful kate bush in concert. i adore kate bush, so when i saw that she was going to perform again i knew it was something i couldn't miss. the show itself was magical; kate's voice blew me away and she seemed so comfortable and at home on stage. the love for her in that room was insane; we gave her a standing ovation after almost every song and everyone around me had tears in their eyes at some point or another during the show. my favourite moments were hearing 'top of the city' (which i had never really liked, but performed live it became this huge rock anthem and kate destroyed it), seeing her perform with her son, the story of the drowning girl (i had never heard any of 'the ninth wave' before the show but i sobbed so much, especially during 'and dream of sheep', it was so beautiful), and her 'cloudbusting' encore when the whole audience was on it's feet singing and smiling and just enjoying themselves so much. it was truly one of the best nights of my whole life. i came out of that show knowing i would never be the same and i was in a 'kate bush coma' for about 2 weeks after. plus, an extra bonus for me was meeting jarvis cocker of 'pulp' whilst i was in the merch queue haha!

so that is all i'm going to say on my weekend in london! i probably could ramble on for a lot longer but i should probably go get some work done! thanks for reading, and hopefully i'll be posting a lot more regularly now. :-) xx

the wizarding world of harry potter: a guide

hello beautiful people! as you may know i went on the holiday of my life in early 2012, to orlando, florida. orlando is my second home and very close to my heart, and i was quite surprised to see that i never really posted much about my trip, so i'm making up for that now! so here are some tips on helping you get the most out of your visit to the wizarding world of harry potter at universal studios' islands of adventure.

#1: time of year. how busy this park is very much depends on what time of year you are visiting. peak times like during christmas, summer, and the easter holidays are very busy; the park will be packed (and i mean, packed), and the queues will be massive. if you visit at off-peak times, the park will be a lot more spacious and you'll have a lot more time to browse and really take in the atmosphere.
#2: balancing your queues. there are currently 3 rides at wizarding world; harry potter and the forbidden journey, the flight of the hippogriff, and dragon challenge. if you are visiting at off-peak times then it is highly possible that you could simply walk onto any of these rides at any time of day, but if it's busy, then you need to balance the queues. there is no 'fast pass' or other queue-jumping system at wizarding world so there is no way to get around the queues. the forbidden journey ride is the most popular and will have a steady 2-hour queue during the busiest days, no matter how early or late in the day that is. most people get to the park before it opens and run straight for that ride, leaving the other rides completely empty. if you want to go on all the rides, i suggest taking advantage of the empty queues early in the morning to ride the flight of the hippogriff and dragon challenge, then face the 2-hour queue for the forbidden journey.
#3: a cheeky queue cut. one way to cut your forbidden journey queueing time is to join the queue at the gift shop. the ride exits into the gift shop, and from there you can get your belongings out of the lockers and then leave the gift shop. however, the lockers area also joins onto the queue at a 1-hour queue point, which is when you enter the castle and stash your items away. the locker area is always crowded so it's practically impossible for employees to keep track of who queued for 2-hours and who just waltzed in. walk into the gift shop, put your things into the lockers, and then join the queue inside the castle. this cuts your queue in half!
#4: avoid flip flops! if you're planning on riding the forbidden journey, flip flops are a huge no-no. your feet dangle off of the seat, and the ride really throws you around, and i can guarantee that you will lose at least one shoe on that ride. either take your flip flops off and hold them tight, or wear shoes with laces.
#5: wand buying. one of the main attractions at wizarding world is olivander's wand shop. however, queue's for this can be massive, going up towards the 2-hour mark. only 12 people can fit inside the shop at any one time, and once inside olivander's, there is a show; a light falls on one person, they say their birthday, then a wand 'chooses them'. those wands are based on birth months, and can be purchased at gift shops inside wizarding world. character wands can be bought at olivander's cart in wizarding world, or at any large gift shop at universal studios or islands of adventure. unless you really, really want to go inside olivander's, then i reccomend skipping the 2-hour queue and buying your wand elsewhere.
#6: butterbeer. in my personal opinion, butterbeer tastes gross. it looks like it'll be thick and creamy, but then it turns out to be light and fizzy. if you don't like sweet things (for example, if you hate yankee candles' vanilla scents) then it might not be for you, but you should definitely try it at least once, if not just for the souvenir butterbeer cup.
#7: day vs night. you might think that the best time to visit wizarding world is during the day, but you may be wrong. at night, the queue's are halved, the castle is lit up and beautiful, and there is no pesky sunlight to stop you enjoying the moving wanted posters of sirius black. the only bad point is that the crowd can get a bit rowdy as universal studios has a lot of bars and clubs near, and the air conditioning is not on at night (making sweaty, packed queues almost unbearable - much worse than during the day, in my opinion!).

so, there you go! those are all my tips and tricks for visiting the wizarding world of harry potter. i hope this has helped some of you, and if you've recently been to wizarding world then i'd love to hear about it! xx