Save your eugoogily

Alma, Mandy and I ran the 10km run in aid of the yellow ribbon foundation this morning. The run wound it’s way from changi village, up towards the airport and the last few km’s were through the changi prison facility. Which really looks more like a set of hdb flats with a big fence than a prison

Alma and I left for the race at 6.45, a full hour before the start, all we had to do was go the few mrt stops and grab a shuttle bus. Easy, and that part went fine, the bus ride was another story. The bus got stuck in traffic resulting from all the road closures due to the run. The race start time came and went as we entertained ourselves on the bus…

We got to the start line and off we went. It was a really hot day, no clouds, no breeze, so the run was a real challenge. I started strong with a good run/walk strategy and the first 2km were past before I even knew it, even getting to the drink station at 6km was quite alright. But at the station I really needed to pee, this overwhelming need, like I was going to wet myself! The line took forever and when I finally got to the tiny portaloo there was hardly anything, other runners – is this typical? Have you experienced this before? It happened again at the finish line too. Weird.

Anyway, gross anatomical things aside, after my pee-break I found it really hard to get back into the previous rhythm/excitement and from the 7km mark til about the 8.5km mark I was really starting to struggle. I dont know if it was the stop or if it was just that this section was pretty exposed to the blazing sun. From 8.5km onward the run was inside the existing changi prison compound and I think shade coupled with the view of the finish line spurred me on, but that last little bit was not too bad. I even managed to run for the last 500m to cross the finish line.

So now, I’m sunburnt, I’m tired, but I’m pretty happy to have made it through!

Having more fun?

Not really.

Let me explain, I am now uber blonde to test the more fun theory. I know I was blondish before, but I’ve fully committed now.

As for the more fun thing, so far no real difference. In fact, I spent my saturday cleaning and reading – which, while lovely – is not typically considered fun.

I went to the hairdressers on my day off on Tuesday determined to go full platinum blonde. Its something I’ve always wanted to do and chickened out of last minute, settling instead for a safer less dramatic head of highlights. I figured that I am trying really hard at the moment to generally improve myself, from diet to fitness to work to love life, maybe it’s time just to be brave and take a chance. Either it will look awesome and I’ll be overjoyed, or it will be awful but at least it’s something crossed off the bucket list.

To assist in my dialogue with the hairdresser I took a couple if sample photos of the colour and cut shape i was after. These are what I had for reference:

(photo credits to whoever took these…)

So after suggesting I go instead for highlights (NO!), my hairdresser set to work…

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(FYI, the gameboy in all those pics is my iPhone case rather than a gameboy I habitually carry with me in case of photo opportunities)

My 11am appointment was complete after 4 applications of bleach and 6.5 hours, and I snapped this minutes before exiting the salon (and it’s free wifi…)

I posted on facebook and got lots of lovely compliments from friends around the world (thanks all!).

But alas, the salon lighting was forgiving and the reality was actually a lot lighter and drier. Here is a closer to the truth pic

It’s not necessarily bad, just very light. I feared I was a little closer to doc from back to the future than I was to lady gaga.

The problem with such a big colour difference from before is that I can’t wear a lot of the colours I was wearing and I need to wear makeup (including foundation to control the red in my skin tone) everyday. This means I’m constantly late when heading out for the day as I have to try on loads of different things and concentrate on getting makeup right. The line between chic and whore is a fine one when it comes to makeup…

I’ve started to try and look at what my fellow blondies are doing for their makeup. Agnyess dean has similar colouring to my hair, so been looking at her pics a bit.

I’m not quite there yet, but am really having fun with the new colours and looks available now. I LOVE that I can now put on any colour lipstick I want (I’m going to do buy some blue and purple shades tomorrow!) and I also love that I can go pretty extreme with eyes too. This was tonights look

Also, this monotone blonde is a great canvas for all my clips and headbands!!! Hurray!

This has been a pretty self indulgent post tonight. Far too many photos of me for one offering. Maybe the egotism is tempered slightly if I do a dougie howser style summary which tells you the lesson I have learned (you’ll have to imagine your own old school computer with blue screen and white 24bit text)

My lesson was, if there is something you’ve always wanted to do or try, and you haven’t because you’ve erred on the side of caution (eg. shave your head, get a piercing, wear leather trousers) I encourage you to just go for it. Try it. Even if it’s just one time in your life. You may be thrilled at the result and its just as good as you imagined. It may turn out different to what you thought but you learn to live with it and eventually embrace the result regardless of it not being like you planned. You might absolutely hate it, but at the end of the day hair grows back, piercings can heal over, trousers come off. Whatever your result, you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone, thrown caution to the wind and done something real and new instead of being an old person one day wishing you’d tried things when you had the chance.

I’m Jerry springer, look after yourself aaaand each other.

Bowie has landed

Ladies and gentlemen, earthlings and aliens.

The man walks among us.

Bowie has arrived.

Big congratulations to jess and simon on their lovely little boy and lots of hugs to bug brother Jagger.

(Bowie actually arrived a few weeks ago now, but it took me a while to get a photo!!)