Note to self: don’t buy any Lush stuff over Christmas until after December 25th. Am I a little late to the party or did Lush just do a really good job of hiding the fact that they have an epic Christmas sale! 50% off all of their amazing Christmas stuff, including the magical Snow Fairy shower gel that sends me into a candy floss bubble gum induced coma every time I use it.
So I told myself I would spend a tenner, ignored my own advice and just started bunging stuff into my basket, got to the till and was told that my total was just over £9. £9?!! I couldn’t believe it! I purchased six bath bombs in total having previously treated myself to other festive Lush goodies in my ignorance of the sale, so a lot of the stuff that was now discounted is already sat on my bathroom shelf at home. Oh well, lessons learned. I picked up a sweet and glittery Lush Candy Mountain, two of the festively spicy Lush Cinders, a Lush Father Christmas which is like Snow Fairy in bath bomb form(!), Lush the Christmas Hedgehog that has a creamy buttery texture and a giant ridiculously sparkly Lush Holly Go Lightly that will annoy my boyfriend when he sees the fairy dust residue in the bottom of the tub once I’m done with it. 

Calvary

Which I suppose leads on to my next gripe with the movie which was the pacing. I loved the way Wild slowly trickled all the gory details of Strayed’s tragedy along the way and how with every state line crossed another piece of her puzzle was put together for us. I felt like there was still so much of her I had yet to discover and all of a sudden the film ended. And it didn’t feel triumphant like completing a 1000 mile hike should feel. There was no elation, and I feel that this was partly because no true struggle was ever portrayed. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the task at hand here and I am in no way insinuating that in real like Cheryl Strayed didn’t put everything she had left into this, but Wild did not depict the enormity and impossibility of the task effectively or realistically enough for me and thus he payoff left me cold.

I love dark rides! LOVE. Even the crap ones, I'll go out of my way to find them. Dark rides <3 Have a random selection of ones that I like (I'm not including things like ToT or Mystery Castle because in my opinion they are more drop tower than dark ride, I'm choosing to represent the ride in the classic sense): Ratatouille (can't remember its proper name) - Walt Disney Studios Paris, France  The suspension of disbelief this attraction thrusts upon you is ridiculous, so good to the point that I actually did a ride where I tried to 'take myself out' of the ride and have a look at things from a technical perspective, but it just kept drawing me back in. It's excellent, everyone go ride it now. Fata Morgana - Efteling, Netherlands The amount of animatronics in one room oh my Christ. And I love things themed to stuff you don't get that often, it's nice to see something a little different even if one can't help but feel all of these attractions are a little bit more 'inspired' by Disney than the creators would care to admit. Maus au Chocolat (definite rodent theme here) - Phantasialand, Germany  I'd been on Toy Story Mania before riding this but wasn't exactly blown away by what was effectively a game on wheels. Maus on the other hand is fantastic! It has an original (enough) theme, a great storyline, a fun game that doesn't distract from the narrative, and it ends in a cake shop. yes. The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman - Universal's Islands of Adventure, USA  Arguably, Transformers is better 3D technology or whatever, but I love Spidey. I prefer the use of live sets alongside the screens over just screens any day. I wish they'd bring back the original soundtrack though! Trans'demonium - Parc Asterix, France  I don't have much of a memory of this other than it reminded me of a Tim Burton directed nightmare, and what's not to love about that? It was utterly mad and full of 'what the hell was that?' moments, which are always a winner. Pirates of the Caribbean - Disneyland, USA  Nothing like a classic Disney E-ticket dark ride, and for me Pirates is king. The Cali version is my favourite, mostly because of the bayou setting at the beginning of the ride but also because it has all the good elements of the Paris version and they have seamlessly incorporated the Sparrow animatronics. It's very very enjoyable. Droomvlucht - Efteling, Netherlands  I sat with my mouth agape the entire ride. The detail! The smell! The fairies! It was like somebody had been inside 7 year old Jordan's imagination and put it there in front of me to ride through. I adored it, it had an incredible sense of nostalgia for me and that just added to the enjoyment. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - Universal's Islands of Adventure, USA I couldn't exactly NOT include it, could I? It's ridiculous, the queue is as legendary as the ride (if not more so) and there's a real element of peril, which I enjoyed. That and the ride vehicles are interesting and different. Hobs Pit - Pleasurewood Hills, UK  OK, I visited and rode this when it was at its peak during Halloween and had extra actors and stuff, but my god I just was not expecting how good this was! It was actually scary and for a moment I actually believed I wasn't in a shack in the middle of the Norfolk countryside but actually down a mine fearing for my life. Excellent, shame I'll never get to experience it in the same way again. Indiana Jones Adventure - Disneyland, USA  Another 'Wow!' moment, when you go through into the 'open' bit of the ride and there are just cars and snakes and crystal skulls and whatever else all just going mad in one room. And I LOVE the movement of these ride vehicles, a sense of complete lack of control and it's awesome.  So that's my top ten dark rides off of the top of my head! This list is based on rides I personally have been on so I know I'm missing things like Mystic Manor. What do you guys think? What would you have included? Feel free to comment below!

Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. Weirdly, I haven’t heard that much hype around it and I have been purposely avoiding looking in detail at what exactly the ride is. I’m very intrigued as to what it actually is! Everything else I wanted to go on this year I made happen though so I’m quite pleased.

6) Kelly Osbourne Dodgy Girl Mac lipstick. I missed this when it was in stores and have been eyeing it up on eBay ever since, but seeing as I'm a bit of a cheapskate/high street brand girl when it comes to make-up the thought of spending £30+ on something like this doesn't fill me with joy. So someone can make me happy by gifting it to me instead. I've searched everywhere on the high street for a similar colour but to no avail so I'll be happy when this finally gets on my face.
7) Green Glitter Eye Clutch by Lunaonthemoon. I'm a big fan of supporting small businesses and usually take to Etsy when searching for interesting and one of a kind presents to get people. When browsing one day I came across this shop. It's brilliant, totally wacky yet extremely wearable and fabulous. I love an eccentric accessory and I don't think you get much more eccentric than this!

8) The Twilight Zone Boxset. In one of those things on Buzzfeed about 'What to Expect in Your 20s' (you know the ones I mean) there was a bullet point about how TV shows often become the central topic of conversation over anything else. So so true. I literally had to sit myself down and watch a few just to keep up with the conversation (spoiler alert, nothing is as good as everyone says it is. Maybe Game of Thrones. Although not so shocking when everyone has already told you that you HAVE to watch The Red Wedding episode. Shit got so real. Anyway I digress...). So back to the point, I wanted to try something a bit different and have always wanted to watch more of The Twilight Zone besides the infamous episodes. So I'll have me a boxset, thank you very much.

That's everything major that I've asked for this year, I think I've been good enough to deserve a few treats this Christmas, although admittedly I do much prefer the giving of gifts over receiving them!

Let advent commence!