2015: the highlights

Hello everyone,
what's this? Two posts in one day? This really is a miracle!
As 2015 hurries to its end I thought it would be really cute and very emo to look back at some of my most favourite memories from this year. I really enjoy it when people make posts like this so please leave me a comment or tweet me some of your stand out moments from this year.
I would like to think 2016- the year I graduate and drown in the adult world, will be just as incredible as this year has been, here are some of my favourite things from 2015:

My Sound of 2015

Hello everyone,
it seems that 2015 is almost behind us. I think one thing you've probably learnt if you've been a devout follower of my blog this year is that I love music. Yeah I know, 99% of my posts are about some band from Sydney, but today I'm going to be highlighting the realm of my musical interests, and in no particular order, telling you why they're the best. Let's go!

they say writing is therapy

Hello everyone,
I'm writing this post on reflection of what happens to be the worst week of my life. If you know me personally then you'll probably have guessed what this is about, but for those of you who don't know why, you're about to find out.
Eleven years and six months ago, on a sunny June morning, I had in my lap a tiny puppy sitting in a bowl, on his way to his new home for the first time. His ears were too big for his body and he was restless as each green light disturbed his attempt to sleep. This morning, on a rainy December day, that same puppy, who grew into his ears and could sleep through
a hurricane returned home for the final time, in a teeny box with his name written on it.

Hey Violet @ O2 Academy Islington

Hello everyone,
here's a little update on what's been happening in my world:
uni, work, placement, uni, uni, uni, work, placement. It is a never ending cycle that pretty much aborts my socialising with friends, but December 2nd was a fantastic exception.
The emo's (me, Emmy, Amy and Emma) had planned to have a cute AF Christmas meet up at Winter Wonderland in London, followed by Pizza Hut Buffet, Oxford Street shopping/photoshoot and Hey Violet. Unfortunately 3/4 of the squad ended up stuck in traffic for over six hours, YES THAT'S SIX HOURS, during a journey that should have taken two hours. It's safe to say we've reserved Winter Wonderland and Pizza Hut Buffet for next December, but one thing did happen and that was seeing Hey Violet at the O2 Academy in Islington.

5SOS- Sounds Good Feels Good

Hello Everyone,
so this post has been a few days in the making, mainly because I needed to dedicate a shit ton of time for listening to the album, discussing it with friends and trying to narrow down my favourites.
As we all know, I'm a massive fan of 5 Seconds of Summer and on October 23rd I felt like a kid on Christmas as I downloaded the album and hit play for the first time. I didn't know what to expect in terms of sound, from songs that have been released such as She's Kinda Hot and Fly Away I knew it was going to be filled with catchy little anthems punching the references to 1D right where it hurts. I had read about some of the songs and was a little nervous  to hear them (aka Broken Home).
The overall sound of the album is maturity. Their self titled debut featured songs the lads had written at 16 and 17 years of age, songs that fans attached themselves too but Sounds Good Feels Good was made in real time, talking of love as the members experienced it, talking of travelling and being on the road as they lived it and on reflection of getting out of a little town and living life on an enormous platform nobody could ever imagine.
The riffs are heavier, the songs are drenched in the blood, sweat and tears of the musicians they admire and worked with, such as Alex Gaskarth, the Madden brothers and John Feldmann and, for me, the album seems to be split into stages of life- the first being the coming of age and realising life isn't all that jazz when you can't even afford a bus fare, the second being that love often SUCKS both romantically and within a family and the third is the prospect of life getting better, if you just take the bad with the good.

It Eventually Happened

Hello everyone,
I feel like it has become a bit of a habit to start every post with a *sorry it's been a while message, so *sorry it's been a while!*
This is going to be a tiny emo post about the day I had yesterday, when I finally met 5SOS again after what feels like 9749 lifetimes but in fact was a year.
It will come to no surprise for you who are reading this because of Twitter or being my friend that me and some of my friends are a tad obsessed with this Australian band. When they announce shows we pounce online for tickets, when they say they're coming back to the UK we amber alert one another. Since September 2014 we've had a stroke of bad luck with every attempt we've had at meeting them; they've flown to Sydney whilst bunches of girls waited for them at Heathrow, they've arrived sans band member, they've flown from Manchester whilst we've sat in Heathrow departures, we've been given false info and just in general not been in the right place at the right time.
I don't want to look as though I'm complaining about all the bumps in the road of trying to meet 5SOS, because I have been so fortunate to have met them multiple times, and have the loveliest memories of meeting them, but it is the most disheartening thing to fail, especially when 294984984 people you know are posting their photos and you're a little emo.
The main thing is, through all the angry drives home, rewriting songs to fit our misfortunes, for every time we said we were done, that was it, it was finished, we were never coming back, WE NEVER GAVE UP!

Aimee Was Watching: Scream Queens

Hello everyone,
So I just finished watching the two hour episode of Scream Queens which aired last night in the U.S and I immediately had to express my reaction somewhere, so here I am, ready to blurt out why this TV show is one you should ALL be watching.

Halsey's London Shows

Hello everyone,
please forgive me for the rambling that will take place in this post as I attempt to convey the experiences I had seeing Halsey at her first headlining UK shows. Let's see how this goes, shall we?
First things first let's go to the day before the Islington show, where I met up with 5 of the Halsey Squad to begin our camp out. Given how fast the shows sold out, and the fact the venue had been upgraded, we'd anticipated a strong turnout for campers, but in fact we were the only 6 people, and so our night of playing the Seven Second Challenge, watching Boobah YouTube videos and running away from foxes began. The morning of the show fans turned up in mini groups and the atmosphere came to life, we cosied up in Starbucks and this is a PSA for you to NEVER DRINK A PEPPERMINT LATTE! We had a little issue with the queue being unaware there was an O2 priority queue but resolved any doubts we had about our campout being worthless and our tiny hearts grew as we raced to  the barrier for the show.

ITUNESVERSARY

Hello everyone,
So today I found myself scrolling through a massive emo avalanche on Timehop as a result of an event I attended exactly a year ago today; 5SOS @ ITunes Festival!
The emo swamp of posts included selfies of a sleep deprived me consuming pumpkin lattes to feel a little more alive, the massive banner with 5SOS's faces on which I woke up to outside the Roundhouse and on more than ten occasions the word emo was used!

HALSEY: BADLANDS REVIEW

For most people, Friday August 28th was like any other day. However, for some souls, the day marked the release of the long anticipated debut record from American singer/songwriter, Halsey, as she released Badlands to the world.
The alternative musician, who is signed to Astralwerks, has an intense following. I remember when she released Ghost in 2014 and I listened to it on repeat as I paraded to university, some time later came her well received EP Room 93, which spurned out fan favourites such as Hurricane and Trouble. Badlands promised to depart from the days Halsey was better known as Ashley Frangipane and with its release, fans such as myself have been pulled into the dark, imaginative spiral which the bad lands entail.
Castle, the opening track for the record throws the listener in at the deep end, as Halsey embarks upon the dystopian metropolis and is 'headed straight for the castle' supposedly to become queen of the bad lands. There's a choir trickled into the chorous which backs up her inauguration into this seemingly sinister place. Lyrically the song offers an insight into Halsey's position as a woman fighting in a predominantly male industry. On several occasions Halsey has bought up the topic of the struggles that are placed in her way as she climbs her position within the music industry. She's rejected labels who didn't support her intentions, and took control of having a female-female love relationship for her video for Ghost. With the statement 'there's an old man sitting on the throne, that's saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut,' this power struggle punches through the hypnotic rhythm of the song.

A Little Bit of Lush

Hello everyone,
it's been a little while, mainly because I've been busy at work and planning some of my dissertation, but I'm back with a new post. This is going to be about Lush, the cosmetics/beauty chain which is as ethical as it is wonderful. I recently discovered that my local store is stocking some of the Oxford Street exclusives and so I went and got myself some treats with the hope of having a little series of hauls over the next couple of posts. In each one I'm hoping to give you a little view of three products I've purchased. In no way, shape or form is this post sponsored by Lush, I simply love their values and products and, as someone who is trying to make their makeup and beauty products vegan, I wanted to show that beauty doesn't have to be painful, for you or for animals.
So, let's get into the very first little bit of Lush (none of the following are Oxford St Exclusives):