Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Thoughts

I was SO excited when I heard that I was able to play Animal Crossing again. How nostalgic! This game was my life as a kid and as soon as I heard there was an app it was installed on my phone instantly. Although it's not quite the same as the old one I am enjoying it and I am 100% addicted. Here's my thoughts..

What I Love:

• The characters are seriously adorable and just as cute as the old ones. My favourites are Cherry, Goldie and Chrissy. 
• It was pretty simple to get the jist of the game. Even to new fans of Animal Crossing it is very easy to understand and you get the hang of things easily. I also like how Isabelle is always available if you need to go back over the Beginner's Guide. 
• I don't know if everyone will love this but I like how in the beginning you don't just fly through levels and within two hours you're level 10. It takes a while to get through them and once you do level up it's been because you're dedicating time to the game. 
• I love how many Leaf Tickets you get. When you first start the game there are so many achievements that before you know it you have hundreds of Leaf Tickets! But try not to waste them, the achievements will end at some point and if you're like me and you've completed your current stretch goals, the Leaf Tickets do stop growing on trees at some point. I wish I wasn't so wasteful now.
• The current special event is Christmas themed and I am LIVING FOR IT. The festive trees, the fireplace I cannot get enough. If you're not wearing your free Santa hat right now you're doing things wrong, my friend. 

What I didn't like: 

• I am not a fan of the way the 'Market' works. Call me lazy but wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if you could purchase from the markets directly through our friend's lists instead of having to visit them? To me it feels like a waste of time and I would prefer if you could just purchase from your friends without having to make your way to their campsite.
• Eventually the animals at your camp will max out their friendship with you. This is irritating as you only find out what the animal wants once the friendship is maxed out. If we knew what the animal needed before this happened, we could prepare for that. 
• WE NEED CAMPSITE SPACE UPGRADES. This is my biggest pet peeve in the game. I'm hoping that we soon get an update where we can upgrade our camp space so that we can have more animals in our camp and also be able to put a decent amount of furniture without it being cramped. Without this feature I'm put off buying/crafting non-essential furniture as I don't have the space for it. 

Tips & Tricks: 

• As said before, Leaf Tickets are sacred. Try not to be impatient with waiting times on furniture/amenities and save those Leaf Tickets for a time where you have no option but to use them. 
• When listing items in your market try to sell fruit. It can only be harvested after a certain amount of time whereas fish, shells, and insects can all be caught to no end in the game. If one of your friends are looking to buy something.. it's most likely to be fruit. 
• Don't waste a listing space on a rare item! I have had no animals ask for super rare items so don't waste a space in your market with an item no one needs at the moment. I'd keep them in my inventory until the time comes where animals require them.
• Friend request everyone you meet! This is important because you need your friends to help you get into the Quarry for free. The more friends you have, the quicker and easier that will be!
• If you link a Nintendo account be sure to use your points from there! If you go to More > My Nintendo > Missions you will find that there are goals to reach and points to gain. Once you complete those you can get clothing, 5000 Bells, Craft Materials and Leaf Tickets. If you've been playing for a while and haven't checked that I'm sure you'll have lots of points waiting to be collected! 

I am still playing Animal Crossing and I literally check it every three hours to complete all my tasks. It's highly addictive and hopefully if they make a few tweaks it will be amazing. I'm overjoyed to have Animal Crossing back in my life, flaws and all. Let me know your thoughts and if you found this to be helpful!

Life Update!

So I have not blogged in a long time but I need to update you guys because TIMES HAVE CHANGED!

I was just reading back my last post about thinking about quitting University made me so upset for my past self. I knew the course I was doing was not for me and I was so scared to admit that and get the balls to leave but I did! I now know it was the best thing for me and I would not have been happy in that career.

Things are so different now. I am still living in my little flat with my amazing girlfriend and we are very happy and getting on better than ever. I am also a mother to three gorgeous little guinea pigs who light up my world as sad as it sounds. They just make the flat feel less sad and love-less. I had no idea there was so much to learn about guinea pigs! They are actually quite complex, sensitive creatures. I am definitely going to do a post on all the things I've learned since welcoming my little piggies as I have learned a lot of useful things that I haven't been able to find online.

Overall, I am so much happier now. Anxiety is still a big issue for me but there are good and bad periods and right now I'm doing well. I want to begin blogging again as I really miss it. I've deleted quite a few of my earlier posts just because they were so embarrassing I literally couldn't leave them up haha. I am gonna aim to be blogging at least once a week about a range of things such as makeup looks, beauty product reviews, guinea pig advice, homeware tips, my life in general and just generic rambling on to put my thoughts somewhere. Hopefully you guys enjoy reading that or find it entertaining haha.

I will be back before THURSDAYYYYY with a new post that will be a little more interesting than this hopefully. If anyone who used to read and comment on my blog is still sticking around.. let me know!!!

Quitting University?

When I got into University I could hardly believe it. I was academic however, my behaviour deteriorated at school which resulted in my work declining. Once I screwed my head back onto my shoulders I got my shit together and tried hard to get good grades. So once this payed off in a Uni offer I couldn't believe my luck.

I had finally found something I was sure I wanted to do and would be proud of a career. Nursing was never an option to me until I found out that you could choose mental health as your field. While I was unsure of what I wanted to do for years, I knew it would involve mental health. It was a subject I was always interested in and I felt I could relate to patients on a different level to others as I had experienced and seen a lot of mental health issues in my own life. At the time everything was perfect and I was sure I had made the best decision of my life. However, this safe and comfortable feeling soon changed.

Once summer came and I knew September was approaching I was still confident in my choice but slightly apprehensive due to being such an introvert. I knew I would have to work on being more talkative and outgoing but I was sure that since they interviewed me, I would have the skills somewhere inside me to adapt once I went out on clinical placement. To me, nurses were loud, outspoken and confident all of which I was not. I assumed this would come to me over time as I learned the skills and knowledge I would need for my chosen career.

Academically, university is a BIG step up from school. My first module I felt was going well and I could handle until I got my assignment back to find out I had flat out failed. To find out you have failed at the first hurdle is not only incredibly disheartening but it made me think the doubts I had weren't just in my head. My assignment was a simple workbook-style essay which I thought I had done quite well on. The reality was I got 38%.

I also found this out while on my first placement and went and cried in the toilets like in an American movie. However, I enjoyed my first placement at an alcohol abuse day clinic where there was a small team, all of which I warmed to and eventually became a lot more talkative with. This placement was a lot of observing and not doing very much. While on placement I realised my idea of what I thought nursing would be was totally different. I imagined us counselling patients, checking up on their progress and delivering individualised care. This was not the case. All patients would be in two categories, aiming for complete abstinence or reducing their alcohol intake. From this category almost all of the patients would receive the same care plans and encouragement. Not that I would put down my placement AT ALL. I think they were amazing. I just expected it to be different. Fifty percent of my day was spent doing paperwork in an office which I was told there was plenty more of. My visions of how my 'dream career' would be fell apart over these four weeks.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council are also very discouraging to young student nurses I feel. My university lecturers said The Code of Conduct was our new bible so I read it over and over making sure I was aware of everything and anything. My uni also banged on about the importance of what we post on social media. This to me, was obvious. Keep patient confidentiality etc. However, it was so drilled into us that I almost felt like we were not aloud an opinion as a health care professional and as a woman with A LOT of opinions I was not happy. I felt like they were trying to restrain us but I believe social media can be the best way of expressing and receiving other opinions in a positive way. I just felt very restrained.

As of now I have just started my second placement which is a nightmare. I have submitted my second assignment which I'm sure I will fail because apparently if I think I'm doing fine, it's definitely not fine. I need to begin re-doing my first failed assignment and get ready to begin my second year very soon. My placement is on an elderly ward which is totally new to me. TOTALLY NEW. I've never even really interacted much with elderly people. So when I was shown how to wash someone once and given one lesson on personal care I was so overwhelmed and stressed out. I literally broke down in tears to a member of staff because I just feel so out of my depth. One staff member also, among other things, said that I am too shy and quiet and in short, will never make it as a nurse if I continue to be that way which I feel is just confirming everything for me. I just feel so done at the minute.

I think I am just running on so many emotions at the minute which is confusing and scary. I don't want to drop out because I know how disappointed people would be with me but I also don't want to be stuck in a job I hate forever. I feel as if I already know I want to leave and get a full-time job and figure myself out but I can't admit it to myself.

However, this could just be stress and I just need to ride it out to find my passion and why I was so excited to sign up in the first place. Right now is just incredibly confusing.

RED HAIR TO BLUE HAIR TRANSITION!

Now, if you are experienced in home dying or experimenting with your hair you will know how notoriously difficult it is to remove the red pigmentation from hair. You may also be aware that to get blue hair your hair has to be very, very light. If any brassy tones remain we are told it will not work and in the past for me, that has proven to be true.


My Hair


I have been trying to strengthen my hair this year since I had a good few years of bleaching the shit out of it. To calm that little voice that screams "dye your hair Janna! Dye your hair!" I have a pin-up style fringe and dye my fringe instead of my whole head (you can see this to the right) still unhealthy for my hair, but better than me bleaching my whole head. The before picture is actually the day before I dyed it blue so this is the most accurate picture as to what colour it was before. Although it had some orange tones from my red dye coming out on the ends of my fringe, it was by no means faded thoroughly so I began this process with 95% of my fringe being a bright, vibrant red.



The Vitamin C Method

Although I have dyed my hair A LOT I have never used this method. I often brushed it off as having no chance of working or making a difference because it seemed weak to me but I was pleasantly surprised... I crushed up four Vitamin C tablets and mixed it with enough shampoo to cover my fringe and the consistency surprised me. I left for a few minutes and came back to find the concoction had foamed up and had turned orange due to the tablets. I did the vitamin C method twice as after the second try I saw no difference from the first time I did it. I was really surprised to find it had lightened my hair significantly and my fringe was about 50% orange but the red at the top didn't seem to budge with this method. I would highly recommend it though, it definitely provides a visible difference, isn't damaging and is very cheap. As you can see I look so damn attractive with cling film on my head.. dayum girl.



BLEACHING - DUN DUN DUNNNN

After attempting to remove the red healthily and not getting it completely where I wanted it I decided to bleach it. You can find the products I used down below, the bleach and developer came from Sally's and there is no bleach to developer ratio to stick to... just make a smooth paste, easily found if you YouTube it. I knew I would probably have to bleach it so the Vitamin C method was really just minimizing the job the bleach had to do. I bleached my fringe three times and the picture to the above is the outcome. I ideally wanted to bleach it twice but this wasn't the case. After my third round of bleaching you can see I was left with very light roots and although the picture does not translate this, the red lifted to a pale pink/peach colour. I bleached it once more and saw no change so I decided to use La Riche's Directions White Toner.



Toning and Applying the Blue 

I swear by Directions and would HIGHLY recommend the brand to anyone who wants to dye their hair an un-natural colour. Their dyes are semi permanent but I find they last a considerable amount of time and not only are they vegetable based meaning they are not damaging to your hair, I find them very conditioning and you can also mix pots to achieve the desired colour. Although I have used many different colours by La Riche I have never used their toner (pictured above. You can see it's a pastel purple colour, great for toning yellow.) I found it to lighten my hair quite significantly and further remove the red pigment that was still slightly visible in my hair. The result was very successful, you can see this from the difference of the pictures. I think it definitely integral in successfully applying the blue to my hair. I could see the white toner had worked on the parts of my hair which were blonde and had lightened the peach colour the bleaching left behind. After this process I did not see any way of lightening my hair any more that it already had and decided to apply the blue.

This was the nerve-racking part. I applied the blue knowing my hair wasn't quite the colour I was advised it should be but I got impatient and put the dye on anyway. I used Directions again, Lagoon Blue this time. Once the dye is on, from experience I usually can tell if it's going to take to the hair or not and I was confident it would.

AND THIS WAS THE RESULT! 

I have included a before picture and three after pictures. I absolutely love this colour and I can see myself keeping this for a long time which is incredibly rare for me. I am thinking of mixing some green with the Lagoon Blue to have some different tones in there but I will keep it mainly blue. This is a colour I can tick off on my to-do list and I hope you can now acheive it with my honest and simple steps. Leave a comment if you have any questions and GOOD LUCK!