Oil have that

Facial oils have been a thing for a few years now and I'd resisted because I have combination skin and thought that adding oil to it would not help at all. How wrong I was. I tried a sample of Clarins Lotus oil a couple of years ago. OMG, my skin felt good. I use it as an overnight treatment and love the feel of it and the fragrance. This is my second full size bottle.
Then I bought some Tata Harper Replenishing Nutrient Complex. I thought it was ok, but not as good as the Clarins. Then I re-read the instructions! It's supposed to be used after moisturiser not before. Much better. Like it a lot. It won't replace the Clarins Lotus oil, but will complement it.
Last week I bought some reduced price Sanctuary Spa Therapists secret facial oil. When I tried it I thought it felt too heavy and like I'd dipped my face in cooking oil. I then looked at the ingredients- first in the list- sunflower seed oil. So, yeah, cooking oil. Not impressed even though it's a tenth of the price of the Tata Harper. Waste not, want not, I'll massage into my knees!

Cult beauty

So up to now I've been happy with Clarins and Estée Lauder skincare products and thought I was doing fine. And then I started to read Sali Hughes' beauty column in The Guardian which led to other beauty bloggers and the incomparable Caroline Hirons. I realised I'd been missing out on some really good stuff, partly because I lived in a small rural community away from the main shopping centres and partly because I had stayed with what I knew.
My Gran, God rest her soul, always had an amazing complexion despite being a chain smoker and as far as I know used soap and water, Ponds cold cream, splashed on some 4711 cologne and titivated herself with face powder and a bit of lippie. But she always looked good. She knew what worked for her, and what she was prepared to pay.
Well.
I like using makeup. I like using makeup a lot. I use a cleanser or balm to get rid of my makeup, a second cleanser to help my skin, I use serums, facial oils and moisturisers. I still have my Clarins and EL but I'm extending my range quite a lot. I need to, if I want to look moderately human.
So, as the knitting is off the boil at the moment, the football team is rubbish, (Sam Allardyce is now the manager!! FFS) and I haven't recovered from the stress of moving house yet, the blog will now be a repository of skincare and makeup info.
Today I got a parcel from Cult beauty and got off the High St and into the world of interesting, often high end, gunk to slap on my face.
I've started using Zelens eye cream. Until now I'd been happy with clarins eye cream which was good for the crows feet, but not doing much for the strange hashing of wrinkles underneath my eye. A while back I got a tiny sample of Zelens which I thought was pretty good. So I forked out for a small jar.
It reminds me of the Estée Lauder Advanced Skin repair eye serum, a similar consistence, like a thick paste rather than a gel or cream. I like the feel of it, hopefully it will have the desired effect.

I'm back! And having a laugh

I'm inspired to pick up my blog again after having a brilliant day at The Fringe in Edinburgh.
We've enjoyed The Voices of Lions , a young male voice choir which is a finalist in the BBC choir of the year contest ( final stages in October 2014); they are a lively bunch of young men, wonderful voices, and a lovely choice of music.

They sang in St Cuthbert's church, which I'd never visited before. It's a lovely setting, great acoustics.
Then after a quick lunch at Zaza in the Grassmarket, we saw St Andrew's Revue at Paradise The Vault. A slick funny quartet, witty and lively.
Then off to NMS to see the exhibition on Common Cause, the Scottish regiments from around the world which fought in WW1. Very moving.
Tea and cakes at Patisserie Valerie, always good.
Finally, laughed ourselves silly at The Leeds Tealights at The Mash House. Very very energetic, very very funny.
So, a busy fun day being tourists in Edinburgh. I love Edinburgh and hopefully we'll move back there soon. Living out in the sticks is not as much fun if you have to commute into town, so let's move there!

what a summer!!

This has been a fantastic summer for sport: the Tour de France was amazing, the Olympic Games were fantastic, the Paralympic Games were awesome and then to top it all off doesn't Andy Murray go and win the US open at Flushing Meadows?? It took him 5 sets and nearly 5 hours to beat Djokovic but by golly it was worth it! He's the first British man to win a major title for 76 years. (The last British woman was Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon in 1977, 35 years ago.)
The only downside is that football has become much less enthralling for me. I keep up with it but I'm getting irritated with the overpaid prima donna players, the moaning managers and the cynical fouls and play acting to win penalties.

We caught up with the Tour of Britain this week. Stage 3 set off from Jedburgh yesterday. We were there and stood within 10' of Wiggins and Cavendish. Borders Council were one of the sponsors and did a lot of work with the local schools and got all of the children involved.

Some of the children were chosen to ride out from the start a minute or so before the official rollout. It was tremendous to see the start. One day we'll see the finish of a stage and that will be massively exciting!

I've managed to finish my Lilybet socks uring LaVuelta de Espana ( the Spanish cycle race) even if they were supposed to be finished during the Tour de France! I'm very pleased with them, they're cosy and a very pretty colour. The pattern was well written too.

Here come the girls!

London 2012

The Olympics is a wonderful showcase for women in sports, and so many sports are represented too.
Team GB's first medal was won by Lizzie Armitstead in the Cycling Road Race. She took silver behind Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.
The first medal for swimming was won by Becky Adlington in the 400m freestyle. She won Bronze. The amazing Camille Muffat (France) won the gold.
The first Gold medal was won by Helen Glover and Heather Stanning (Rowing) in the women's pair.
These are all tremendous inspiring women, they work hard, they train hard, they are so dedicated, and I'm so proud of them.
They've been joined on the podia by the Equestrian Eventing team (silver). This is one of the few sports where men and women compete against each other. Zara Philips (HMQ's eldest granddaughter) is a valued member of the team as is Mary King, who is a classy lady in her 50's competing in her 5th Olympics.Tina Cook, Nicola Wilson  and William Fox-Pitt make up the rest of the team (We'll let him be an honorary woman!!)

We have more succesful women rowers (Kat Copeland, Sophie Hosking, Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger), cyclists (Victoria Pendleton, Dani King, Jo Rowsell and Laura Trott).
In Judo Gemma Gibbons won silver (78kg) and Karina Bryant won bronze (78kg+).
The women's football team won their group undefeated (beating Brazil!) and were knocked out by Canada in the QFs.
And the most golden girl of all : Jessica Ennis, who won the Women's Heptathlon on sat 4th. I cannot imagine how anyone trains for 7 different disciplines, but she does. A foot injury kept her out of competing at Beijing, but she has fought back and worked hard on improving her field events.
Anyone who has a daughter will be pleased to see these wonderful women, they are fabulous role models for our daughters ( and for us). Hardworking, dedicated, focused, classy women.

Brilliant and totally bonkers!



London 2012The opening ceremony in London on Fri 27th was amazing: a quirky, moving, funny exciting look at Britain. I was moved to tears, I laughed out loud, I pogo-ed around the living room.
After Beijing 2008's wonderful elegant ceremonies we wondered how we could compete with the stylish precision that dazzled the world. So Danny Boyle decided not to, he decided to play to our strengths and created a different show.

We had children's choirs singing Jerusalem (England) Danny Boy (Northern Ireland), O Flower of Scotland (Scotland, obvs) and Cwm Rhondda (Wales), there was the pastoral idyll of a time gone by transformed into the Victorian industrial age which then forged the olympic rings in iron and suspended them above the stadium.



HMQ- raising the bar for all pensioners

To a collective gasp of joy and disbelief we had HMQ as the best ever Bond girl "appearing" to skydive into the stadium with Daniel Craig.

 

We had a wonderful moving tribute to the victims of the London bombings (7/7/05) when 52 people were killed by terrorist bombs in London the day after London won the Olympic bid.
No one else would have pure comedy on display, but we did when Mr Bean joined in playing the Chariots of Fire theme with the LSO conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
And then the Olympic cauldron was  lit. There had been much speculation about who would do this, but no one could have predicted what we saw. Each of 204 countries represented at the Games carried in a large bronze petal, which were then put into the shape of a large chrysanthemum flower ( a nod to Beijing perhaps?). Sir Steve Redgrave carried the flame into the stadium but then passed it to a team of very young athletes, teenagers who compete at a junior level who then carried it around the stadium and they lit the petals. The torch was symbolically passed onto the next generation and they united the world. It was beautifully moving.
I couldn't get to sleep afterwards it was so much to take in, and I couldn't knit either while watching it.
It was wonderful. Thank you Danny Boyle for such a fabulous show.

Allez Wiggo!

What a brilliant Tour it has been!                                
Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the TdF in its 99 year history. He is an awesome athlete and a gentleman to boot: when some of the riders were affected by carpet tacks being thrown on the road and causing 20+ punctures (stage 14) he slowed the peloton down to allow last year's winner Cadel Evans to catch up.

He worked hard today on the final stage to ensure that Mark Cavendish won the sprint on the Champs Elysees. He has not only won the maillot jaune with style and class, he's also become a hero to the French because he respects the race and its history.

It's been fantastic to watch him, Froome (who came 2nd), Cavendish and the rest of the Sky team. It's amazing to see British lads come 1st and 2nd, and another Briton (Cav) win the final stage. That's Cavendish's 4th win in Paris and his 23rd stage win in the TdF in 4 years. Amazing, unbelievable, wonderful stuff. It's the 100th anniversary next year and I would love to be in France next year for any of the stages. I can dream.

I've not finished my Lilybet socks though- I thought I would get the first sock finished today but realised I'd made a mistake and had to rip back an inch on the foot. Then when I was watching the live coverage it was too exciting to be able to concentrate on my sticks and string so I had to put my knitting to one side. Hopefully I'll get this pair finished before the end of the olympics. Our cyclists are in action next weekend too. Allez Wiggo! C'mon Cav!!