6 Pieces Of Advice For When You've Just Had A Tragically Wonky Haircut

Last night I received a really rather tragic haircut. I came home to find my haircut was incredibly uneven and to make matters worse I preferred the longer side. Only solution? Chop off the longer side to end up with a short bowl hair cut which looks hilariously like a mushroom. Excellent.

Here are 6 practically useless pieces of advice I'd like to share in case this ever happens to you...

1) Go into the hairdressers and overdose them on pictures of what you want your hair to look like. Leave nothing to chance. If you want an EVEN haircut, point at the picture and ask for NO wonky bits.

2) If you're not sure as to whether your eyes are playing tricks on you and you happen to have an unobservant Step Dad at close proximity ask him for his opinion. If he gives you the 'I spy a shit haircut look' then it's really time to panic.

3) What's a great way to annoy someone just after their Step Dad gives them 'that' look? Have the hairdresser say down the phone "You're welcome to come back later. I'm MORE than happy to squeeze you in and correct it for you." Oh wow thank you so much. I am most grateful for your squeezing. Can't wait to see you. AGAIN.

4)What's an even greater way to annoy someone that has returned to the hairdressers for the second time in the space of 3 hours? 
Have the manager refuse to give you a refund. Yep. No apology, no refund, no hair products, Not even a mint from their tacky little bowl on the counter. Knob.

5)How to feel better about your new mushroom haircut that you seriously hate? Thank your Dad for passing his hairy gene on to you and be safe in the knowledge the hair on your head will grow quickly. As well as your leg hair, your armpits etc. Dad, I owe you one.

6)How to know it's time to get a bloody life and stop being so shallow and worrying about your mushroom hair? Walk into Boots a day later, buy some Dry Shampoo, queue up to pay and see a Lady in front of you without any hair due to cancer treatment. Carelle, you've been pathetic.

A year ago I would never have publicised the fact that I paid for a terrible haircut. I'd have sworn my Mum and best friends to secrecy and blag the fact I love my new 'do'.
Laughing at your own minor misfortunes is healthy and an incredibly important skill in life to master, (one I'm still working on). What better way to make me realise I need to get a grip and help me realise this really isn't a big deal? Publicly share it on social media so I can gain perspective and realise just how much of a pathetic moron I have been in the last 24 hours.

Turns out the manager called me up yesterday evening to apologise for how I was treated and said he will offer me a full refund and a complimentary blow dry, (the latter of which I won't be accepting) but thanks anyway...

I hope this makes you feel better about your own hair. If it's even AND it's the length you want it then you're a winner in my eyes.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in my next bloggy :)

C x

10 Things A Typical Brit Learns When Eating Breakfast In America

"I'm just not a breakfast person" is a phrase that has NEVER left my lips. I go to bed thinking about breakfast and I wake up every morning hungry. Without fail.

America is my little food baby's dream and one of the first things on my priority list whilst I was in LA was to have breakfast every morning at an American Diner. The priority of breakfast came WAY before shopping, Disneyland and drinking gallons of Californian wine in a swanky hotel. So when we heard Mel's Drive-In was just a short walk away on Sunset Boulevard I was pretty EGGCITED. (Bad joke. Soz)

Of course the portion sizes were bloody enormous but that never stopped me over ordering and feeling like I had eaten enough wheat and sugar to last me... until the following morning...

Things I learnt...

1) When you ask for a cup of tea they panic and hand you a tea bag accompanied with a plate of lemon and 2 x tubs of honey JUST in case the token Brits didn't ACTUALLY want ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA. 

2) What does a hash brown in America look like? Imagine getting a brain, smashing it on the floor and then putting it on a plate. That. 

3) Boysenberry jelly is a thing.

4) Apple Butter is also a thing.

5) (Look up) How does the butter come? In a cosy PAPER SLEEPING BAG of course... 

6) They put a slice of orange on top of nearly EVERY breakfast order. One of your five a day obvs...

7) They create breakfast concoctions that will, umm, make you go find a sick bucket... 
- Fried Chicken Waffle
- Short Stack Pancakes with diced ham and steak
- Local grass fed beef patties with eggs and FRUIT.

8) "More is not less" when it comes to decor

9) They take "How do you like your eggs in the morning?" to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
*Insert American Accent*
"Suuuure, would you like them... fried, scrambled, over easy, eggs over hard, over medium, soft boiled, sunny side up, sunny side down etc"
"POACHED PLEASE..."

10) If you did't leave the diner wanting to be carried out on a stretcher from severe tummy ache rivalling an appendicitis then I'm afraid you just didn't try hard enough. 

Mel's Drive-in is open 24 hours a day! So if you find yourself craving a fried chicken waffle at 4am then you now know where to go!

Mel's Drive-In is a breakfast lovers dream world. If you find yourself in LA then this has got to be your morning hangout.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you in my next bloggy :)

C x

Feeling A Sense Of 'Happiness Guilt' On My Way To LA

For the last few weeks my boyfriend has been working in the States. His work plans unexpectedly changed whilst he was out there and he was given five days off in LA. Last Sunday he surprised me with tickets to go join him for a few days. This was something I NEVER expected and I was so bloody happy and excited. I suddenly felt like THE luckiest human being on the planet. A surprise trip to LA. Pinch me.

An eleven hour flight (when you can't sleep) is a dangerous length of time to be inside your own head. My stomach was doing somersaults with excitement but I had this huge wave of guilt hanging over me. My thought process went a little like this...

- Why do I deserve such an incredible surprise?

- I could probably work a little harder

- I could probably do more for other people

- Am I sometimes selfish?

- Some people are fighting for their life and I'm casually on the plane to LA

- Some people went on holiday to Tunisia and never came home again. Life can be so unfair.

I suddenly felt plagued by a severe sense of what I call 'Happiness Guilt'. I felt so guilty that such an incredible experience was happening to me. There's so many people in my life that I would have absolutely loved to have seen them surprised in this way but the fact it was 'my' surprise made me feel uncomfortable, other people deserve it more than me, surely? I dream of the day that I can surprise people I care about and spoil them rotten but accepting the fact someone else thinks the world of you and wants to spoil you can often be a difficult situation to accept.

I knew I had to snap myself out of feeling this way. I couldn't get the tragic victims from the Tunisia attacks out of my head, the families of the victims from the missing Malaysian airline, the families that have just lost a loved one to cancer etc. I couldn't stop thinking about the people robbed of their lives and here I was jetting off to LA happy as larry...

I guess what I'm trying to say is if something happens to you which gives you a 'pinch me' moment and fills you with huge amounts of joy and happiness then please please embrace it. Live for the moment and lap up every second of it for you don't know what is around the corner, (soz to get all morbid). Don't let being happy make you feel guilty. Enjoy the fact that in these incredible moments you're the kind of person that can appreciate how lucky you are, be humble, stay grounded and realise how bloody fortunate you are. Forget bloody surprise trips to LA, I'm fortunate to have my health, a roof over my head and incredible people in my life. Anything more than that is a huge luxury I feel very blessed to have.

I genuinely had the best four days of my life in LA with my boyfriend. It all went far too quickly but we didn't waste a moment and I was never without a smile on my face. The best feeling to take from my trip is the fact I feel safe in the knowledge that I KNOW how lucky I was to have that experience and the best thing to come out of it? I feel inspired again to be the best version of myself. I want to get back on the blogging game (it's been two weeks since I last posted), I want to work my absolute butt off, I want to appreciate my health, have empathy for others and embrace the happy times in my life because none of us know when a terribly sad time is around the corner. The tragedies we hear in the news shouldn't depress us or make us feel guilty for being happy. Use these situations to gain perspective, savour our happy moments and stay humble because unfortunately life can be so so short.

Thank you for reading my deep ramblings. Really needed to get this one off my chest.

What a lovely feeling it is to be blogging again. Thank you so much for reading.

Love Carelle...x