Live, love and learn.

The past Can also be good and yet it Can be Bad. It can define a person and make them who they are, One can grow and learn from the past, experiences make you stronger, from day to day tasks to unadulterated pain were you have learnt to survive, to grow into an individual with your own thoughts. , feelings and self determination. But sometimes One Can Hold onto The past Too much, to The good Times that can not be again, or dwelling Too much on The Bad.
The past can not be repeated, We must Learn from these mistakes, from The good moments and The Bad, but. we must look forward, we must grow. However, without a look to the past there is no future, we should always keep it in mind to a degree, but there cannot be a future if we dwell completely on the past, if we cling to it, with a narrow hope of repeating. it we create a futile hope and dream. The past is Unstoppable, it can not be repeated, but The Future is. 

                                                                 Live, love and Learn.
                                            Yesterday has been, Today has Come, but tomorrow Lives on.

We need to look forward, one eye on the past and one eye on the present with our arms outstretched ready to embrace the future. To Look with Both in One direction is futile, We Achieve our full potential that can not Learn Nor Way.
Do Not Leap Bridge if You have jumped this unsuccessfully before, Learn from it, and another Find The Present and The Future Pathway towards;find a path that will lead you to a safer bridge that will guide you to greener pastures.

FASHION: Ulster Bridal show at the titanic

Who would have thought so much work goes into standing at a stall handing out leaflets eh?

To begin with we had to have everything ready, new dresses (I lost count of the number of buttons i've sewn onto dresses by hand!) everything pressed and cleaned. Lace and net curtains made for styling the cubicle 6 mannequins, and lots and lots of leaflets. It was like Tetris trying to get it all into the car, all done in stages, up and down the stairs repeatedly.

Once ready, I walked with the Dutch girl Renee, to the Titanic building, luckily enough it was a dry pleasant day in Belfast for early easter. Once there we went straight to the 5th floor and had to search for an empty cubicle with "Lizzie Agnew" on it. Once found, it was then time to get everything from the, unpacked and get the stall set up. Thank goodness we were early and were able to find a cage to bring the majority of things up! The car park was on level -2!
Mannequins were delicately dressed, lace covered foam heads were graced with delicate veils, poles were raised with net and lace curtains hung from them along with the sign, and everything needed to be juxtaposed to their best feature. Phew! Thank goodness we'd come early so we could get it all done and have a break!

Having briefly gloried at the famous +Titanic replica staircase I took Renee on a brief tour outdoors and told her some facts about the titanic and the surrounding area of +Harland and Wolf before heading to the very top floor and marvelling at the beautiful surrounding area of Queens island and the Belfast skyline with the famous Belfast cranes Samson and Goliath.

The show opened at 3pm, a Friday there were not too many customers, but we still had a few interested clients, we watched the fashion show (unfortunately  there was only 1 male model and the females, although pretty were too small for some dresses, particularly the mother of the bride dresses) and took turns looking at some of the nearby stalls, we had great fun getting some funny photo booths photos and free sweets (the young men stall owners seemed quite talking with us, then again we were the youngest girls working there). We left early about 6pm as it was quite quiet and our boss felt fine managing it on her own.

The next day was another sunny one, Renee and I were on our own until 2.30 as our boss was dealing with a client from Dublin who was picking up her dress from the studio.  It was busier, and we had a lot more interest. I dealt with the customers mainly as Renee didnt feel as confident approaching them. We chatted in between and the show's photographer took a few snaps as well. The day seemed to go in quicker, again we were able to leave early.

The final day went in the quickest. Renee and I didnt go in until after 2. My walk to the titanic building was fresh and filled with sunshine. I passed a charity run that was being set up on Queens island, a couple hundred must have been taking part, luckily enough getting a nice day for it too. Beautiful bridal cars remained outside the Titanic building, open top and retro 50s along with limos. We chatted to customers and highlighted the shops uniqueness due to the hand designed and made in Belfast, therefore a tailored fit. I watched the final show, browsed and chatted once more before we finally began packing up.


Packing up goes in a lot quicker than setting up! However, there were a lot more trips  to the car in the staff elevator. At one point we took the stairs only to find out at the bottom we couldn't get out. We had to go up a floor again, and walk out through the building taking the escalators down to the car. Disaster! But it was our last trip thankfully (my arm was very sore actually from holding the dresses up too!)

Renee and I returned to where are stall was and finally took some pictures on the famous Titanic staircase before saying goodbye. A great experience and a unique weekend indeed!

FASHION: Bridal intern beginings

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  My first month as a Bridal Intern

  I started my first day as an intern in Lizzie Agnew bridal design in March having previously come in to show her some of my work, some formal dresses and a hand sewn and hand embroidered cardigan I had made. Lizzies designs are all couture hand made pieces, bridal, mother of the bride and sometimes bridesmaids and flowergirls. Her styles are vintage, usually 50s, sometimes 20s, she also often does one-off red carpet pieces for local events, such as one she is currently working on for former Miss Ireland for the IN awards in Belfast.

  The first couple days she had me using my first rotary cutter, cutting net strips for huge underskirts (moisturiser or fine gloves are needed, the net really irritates the skin!!) I moved on to hand sewing lace strips to working on remodelling an old dress using only the skirt as a base, sewing on lace embellishements on the skirt and newly designed top. having just finished a bow for it it should hopefully be finished in the next week or so (pics will follow!) yesterday was spent binding some net for an underskirt for a client (mother of the bride in a navy blue, 50s style, different eh?) The Dutch student is currently hastily finishing a dress for the IN awards (i must say, it IS fabulous!) while I’ve to make more belts, buckles and bows, finishing odd jobs for the oncoming weeks before we do a bridal show at the Titanic building at the start of April. 

  Even though i've only been working here a short while, my creative juices are flowing, i've designed lots more dresses to make, have nearly finished one (a princess floaty style dress in white for summer) and have already purchased material for my next!!

  
  
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TRAVEL ITALY: Pompei, Herculaneum and Castel Sain'Angelo

MONDAY 27TH JANUARY

Got the train to Rome arriving at 9 and getting the 9.20 to Napoli arriving in an hour having decided to go via the High Speed train. Got the local Napoli train onto the Sorrento line and got out at Erculo Scavi. You exit the station, and walk straight down the hill about 400m arriving at the entrance to Herculaneum. It's a small town like area, quite poor looking, shabby with lots of graffiti, but we came here for the ruins, not to shop.
You walk over a long bridge area over the ruins. Its amazing, much better condition than Pompei as it was further away from Vesuvius when it erupted, instead getting covered in a cloud of ash. It's AMAZING! It just looks like an old abandoned town from 100 or so years ago its in such good condition, up to 3 stories remaining in some areas!
We snacked on our packed lunch, it was quiet, barely anyone about, making it more fun to explore. We ate in someone's house, in the atrium, which was nearly 2000 years old! Frescoes still adorned the walls in pretty great condition, along with marble work tops and pots in different Taberna. There was even wooden steps and door frames remaining!!!! It's here where the famous and very resourceful "house of Papyrus" was found parts of which we saw in the museum on Friday. These rolls gave some of the best facts about the Roman era and daily day of life due to their preservation thanks to the volcanic eruption in 79AD.

We saw some of the public male and female baths, with greatly preserved marble baths, frescoes and mosaics depicting water Gods and Nymphs. Pillars stood full height, buildings basically intact in a few of the houses, shops and temples. Unfortunately the main larger public baths were closed, but we found something amazing whilst down there, under the "sacred forum" fascinating and terrible at the same time...in the archways underneath, almost in cellar like areas, where tens of - small, large, old, young, alone, together, hands clasped in support, curled and hidden in fear - skeletons. Perhaps up to 30 in these 5 or 6 archways. It was so terribly morbid. They had come here, terrified, fearing for their lives from something they didn't understand, hiding in somewhere safe, under a sacred area. But they were not safe. Although they would have prayed, cried, whispered final words of love and endearment, they were buried and died, alone and together underground in ash. Horrific. It was awful, seeing the skeleton mother with a small child clasped to her breast. A couple entwined in fear, another, head hidden under their hands. It was a pitiful sight.

 We explored onwards, sneakily going over barriers as no-one was around. I was on the first floor of someones house, I climbed ancient stairs! The Curbs and roads were amazing to walk upon, again huge stone slabs were placed together to form the roads and pathways, but here, the curbs were raised exceedingly high (obviously to keep off the horse dung) It was so liberating to explore this ancient UNESCO world Heritage site without hundreds of tourists.
Back at the exit/entrance, we could see some of the models of items that had been removed, mainly statues. We were thrilled to recognise them as ones we had seen at the Naples Museum of Archeology!

Back onto the local train (which runs twice hourly) we stopped at Pompeii Scavi, it was cold and had started to rain; a drizzle. We stopped in one of the restaurants and had a cappocino each to warm us up, the waiters were impressed that they guessed right away we were sisters...most Italians do.
This time we got in, we had bought a combination ticket for the 3 sites so we could just walk on in. I presumed it was small from what I'd seen last time and from our tour of Herculaneum. I was very wrong. We walked up a slight hill and under a huge arch to the entrance of the town, or what i guess could have been called a city then, IT WAS HUGE. 
Bleak and dreary today standing cold amongst these huge surrounding ruins, you could tell it was once bustling with life. In the archways of the centre was hundreds of pots and clay pieces, some statues and some of the casts. One of a man, and the famous dog, held in a glass container. Some of the coins in the fountain had melted into it due to the heat of the eruption, they were in such great condition I believed them to be from now, thinking people had chucked coins in for luck. 
We walked left, entering one of the first of many street filled with houses, villas and Taberna.
The map we had really gave no real indicator of size! Small streets cut between some houses, creating alleys, so much larger and unfortunately for us, confusing than Herculanum. Some of the streets with the huge Cobbled stone paths were actually indented, deeply in parts, from cart wheels, it was amazing! Here they used bigger slabs as forms of pedestrian road footpaths to keep civilians off the dirty horse road, some of the footpaths were nearly as high as Rebecca was tall (she is just over 5 foot to be fair) 
on near the bottom we came across what seem like a tomb and monument area, it was all quite eery. I kept cracking up because i kept loosing track of Rebecca, she was being slow staring at the ground for "souvenirs" We befriended some stray dogs which were now being looked after by the UNESCO people of the Pompeii site under the "Cave Canem" scheme, think of the famous, beware of the dog mosaic from Pompeii. 

We walked up along a tall embankment area around the bottom edge of pompeii, around the north gate and walls overlooking the town and Vesuvius in the background and some of the Huge remaining aqueducts. We passed many houses, Taberna, temples, atriums and horto areas. Unfortunately due to how close pompeii was, the amount of people who had visited and natural erosion over the years the majority of the places were sealed off, available to only look at from the paths, and there weren't very many remaining mosaics or frescoes, the remaining pieces having been saved from further ruin by transfer to the Naples Museum of Archeology  (another reason to visit! To see the highlight finds that are no longer viewable here) 
It started raining more heavily, it was getting late and dark, the exit was impossible to find as well, thankfully we did find it having spotted some of the amazing theatros and passing on the outside some of the ancient Roman  Parentalias and Necropolis' from 14-37AD 
We walked along the outside of the pompeii site and hopped back on the train. We headed to "dante" again for some shopping and dinner (more tasty cheap pizza!) This time our high speed train did up to 300km/h on its return! It was a bit concerning though that the first compartment we were on was smoking, and when we tried to get off and asked a conductor he just referred us to another compartment (we arrived safely though!)

It's almost disappointing when you arrive back in Rome, the Naples underground is far superior, newly refurbished, the trains and the stops are state of the art and beautifully decorated, Dante looks like a high end swimming spa resort with all its crystal blue mosaic tiles. Florence is still the nicest though!

TUESDAY 28TH JANUARY
Averrdici, ciao!

Having argued bitterly with my sister for not getting up early we were not able to do the final tow things on my list today, Castel Sain't Angelo was chosen, however villa Borghese was not (Sooo sad, there's Caravaggio works there! And the Villa Medici nearby) We arrived in central Rome around 11, and for once, the sun was out and it was a bit warm. Jackets were pulled off and we basked in the partial heat.
We viewed the lovely Piazza de papleo browsing shops on our way past as we strolled to Castel Sain'Angelo.Originally a mausoleum to Emperor Hadrian in 2AD it has, over the years been used as Barricks, a fort and stronghold, a prison, a treasury, papal rooms and finally, a museum. The Archangel Michael was said to have appeared on the roof of the moment plague of 590Ad. Hence the change of name to "saint angel castle" We crossed the Tiber river and the Pont Angelo, entering the monument,
following the spiral upwards procession just like thousands of Romans once had to pay respects to Hadrian, we came to the intersecting floor create by Pontif Alexander for a drawbridge and continued on up. here we viewed the museum section, seeing some beautiful greek and Roman artefacts, such as; Alexander the Great (Like Hadrian, also Diefied) Julius Ceasar, Marc Anthony and Octavian (the man who brought down the ruin of Cleopatra and Egypt) Although the Borgia rooms were not viewable, Paul III were, all beauitfully frescoed with a huge gallery sized library. more stairs finally led to the top terrace pverlooking all of Rome and guarded by the Stuatue of the Angel Michael (the 6th angel model, this one from the 18th century) We strolled along the top battlements and then the lower circular foundations, its amazing to think of how this monument has seen and has been used for so much, so many different things, from Popes and Prisioners to Emperors and tourists, its witnessed so many historical momuments, even more so than the Colosseum. 

Afterwards we browsed the antique shops and ate lunch at the Trevi Fountain, for once it wasnt completely pakced with tourists!We then headed to Spagna coming across an amazing antique and hand made cameo shop called "Marco's" ran now by Leonardo he had some fabulous antique and new pieces which he'd hand made in his workshop, unfortunately he was unable to use his lovely pink hawaiin conch shell in his pieces as it had become endangered. He also informed us of how the Japanese loved him, showing us an article about him and the shop in a Japanese magazine. his pieces were all half price for the January sales, id spotted a beautiful antique handpainted ivory cameo, originally 180euro, after some sweet talking I walked away with it for 70 euro. SUCCESS! the shop was also filled with lovely venetian glass pieces, next door was a custom tailors, definietly worth a look, just on from the left of the Spagna Metro exit.
We sadly got the metro and then the bus back to the hotel before getting our lift to the airport (a very small airport may I add) departing at 8.55pm Italy and arriving in Dublin at 10.30pm GMT. back to normlality and worse weather unfortunately!

TRAVEL ITALY: Roman Forum, Palantine and the Colosseum!

Our Hotel does two morning shuttle bus lifts to the Ciampino train station so we had a bit of a lie in and got the 10am shuttle bus. Love the train here, its double decker, it makes me feel like a 13 year old again when you had to always sit on the top deck of the bus, the novelty has worn off now, but not for a train! It's new and I feel awesome! (I know, I know, 21 going on 12)

At the Termini we got the B line Metro and got off that the Colosseo station. The first thing you see when you get to ground level is the sheer size of the Colosseum, raising high and wide in front of you, sun shining behind it. A very impressive sight never mind that its 2000 years old!
Thankfully an off peak season and early on a Sunday it wasn't too full, however, we decided we'd head first to the +Roman Forum  and Palantine.
A "redutto" combination ticket to see all 3 was just 7.50 euro, choosing to forego the audio guide.
We turned left and explored the Palantine area first, the area where the mythological story of Romulus and Remus began, the founders of Rome.
We spotted a HUGE aqueduct, some of which are still used in Rome and has brought fresh drinking water throughout Rome since the Roman era, I later used a public water tap to refill my bottle!
There was the old "stadium" or "horse training ground" which would have been like a beautiful garden track area for the horses. Lots of different levels of buildings remained and huge sections of architecture, amazing to still be in existance after so long, especially since it's exposed to the elements. Rebecca (My sister) and I were quite naughty....we may have taken some "souvenirs" from the ground, shards of stone, even some pottery. Bad I know, totally worth it though (I have some shards from the royal palace in Bangkok and Angkor Wat) It had become quite cold and had begun to rain, we had some lunch under a tree and marvelled at how some of the oranges had already begun to ripen even though it was January. The was a miniature indoor museum built to house some of the artifacts found in the area to protect them from the weather, statues, frescoes and part of marble designs.It was quite interesting it showed and explained how the Romans used art and propaganda to depict Queen Cleopatra as a Gorgon (Medusa) and the struggle and defeat of Marc Anthony and Agustus as okay by depicting them as Hercules and Apollo. There was also many designs the defeat of Egypt. There were even older archeological finds underneath, from the megalithic period!
We looked down into Flavia's house but unfortunately it was all sealed up (perhaps for renovation purposes?) It looked amazing, large with great frescoes remaining on it! We could look through Augustus' house though, protected under a series of roofs. We could go inside some of the rooms here and look at the remaining bright frescoes in reds, oranges, yellows and greens.
We wandered onwards, walking through many of the "hortos"  one of which still had a beautiful marble working fountain in some of its originality from over 2000 years ago, impressive! We took an underground walkway (which would be so eery to do at night!!) and ended up behind Flavias (known as a Crypto) from around the "nymph garden" having gazed over the Roman forum from a beautifully raised Panoramic area.

We saw the beautiful underground natural looking grotto known as the "Nymphaeum" which still had some remaining frescoes and mosaic tile floors, the "fountain" was designed to look like a natural underground waterfall.
The Roman forum  was amazing, more buildings remained, more columns, like an ancient city centre closely spaced together. The sun was finally out, and although still cool it looked beautiful, the sun against the azure skyline with ancient marble ruins, temples, columns and buildings, darted before us, amidst paved paths and grass areas.

There were some tour guides taking people around the ruins, couldnt believe it when I heard and American guide compare the great fire of Rome to the 9/11...ITS NOTHING LIKE IT!!! I really cannot stick some Americans, they think they know everything and always try to relate everything to them (then again, I know a lot of non Americans like that too!)
There were remains of some of the temples; Apollo, Saturn and Cybele (a female temple) Ceasars temple and the Cryio was where the public could go to listen to the emperor and voice their own opinions and problems. It was HUGE! And still in great condition. The ground floor was nearly 2 stories in height, there were still some hints of frescoes on the walls.It was interesting to see that he interior architecture so popular in the villas of the Renaissance period was seen here, the high rooms and arch ceilings!

I loved being able to walk upon the large cobbled slabs where the Romans once walked upon over 2000 years ago!

Next was the famous Colosseum. Beware of the gladiator men, do not get a photo with or off them, they will demand a fee,  a large fee! Beware pickpockets and scammers, a friendly man outside offered us a tour which would cost 30euro each!

Its so huge, the floors so large! It's always been a famous Roman monument over the centuires, a constant remainer of Rome's greatest, its witnessed so much! Although most of the marble has been stripped away over the centuries for other projects (mainly by the rich for personal monuments and buildings) it still depicts the greatness and advancement of the Roman Intellect, their ability to create this huge arena through sheer man and animal power.
Games were performed here, Gladiators fought, Christians and Prisioners died, animals attacked and water shows were preformed. Many Christians were attacked, killed and eaten alive by beasts, remains of wolves, horses, bears and even griffons (which i personally thought were mythological) were found!

 We went up to the 2nd floor (only those with special permission or on a tour can go to the 3rd remaining floor) It was still really high up but the view was still excellent, the stage floor was gone (it would have been wood, natural fibres decay quicker, particularly wood and textiles) underneath the stage was a complex system of small spaces and slots used for a pulley system for flooding and letting out the animals, small cramped hard heavy conditions needing tens of men to work together in these small underground spaces to pull together to move the door. The sheer size, complexity, age and remains of this arena is outstanding! Our decision to go after the forum was a good one, less people were there and we sailed in having already got our tickets at the forum, no queue for us!

Cold and tired with dusk in the horizon we headed to Spagna for some shopping and dinner. We entered the old Greek coffee shop (the oldest in Rome and a must see) it was lavishly decorated inside, full of antique paintings and rich furnishings, however we quickly left having discovered the ridiculously expensive price of coffee, near 9 euro!  We ended up having a take away coffee at the Trevi fountain when dusk finally reached us.We had dinner in a home made spagetti restaurant,  We bought some wine, browsed the shops and heading for the train arranging to get colleted by the shuttle bus, we were tired and tomorrow would be another long day. unfortunately, we got off a stop too early. There was nothing at this stop.I Panicked. The shuttle bus took pity on us and agreed to collect us. We waited at the side of the road, got several stares, particualrly from driving men, not good! they could have crashed! I really dont have much transport luck!