Costa Christmas 2013. (Picture heavy)

I'm a complete and utter Costa fiend and always become excited when their Christmas menus are released. I adore their frosted mint hot chocolate and was extremely sad to find out that it wouldn't be returning this year.

On a happier note, their Christmas takeaway cups this year are completely and utterly adorable.

The full list of their Christmas offerings (taken directly from their website)

Seasonal Drinks:

Black Forest Hot Chocolate
Chocolate & Orange Mocha Latte
Gingerbread & Cream Latte
Hot Spiced Apple
Salted Caramel Latte
White Hot Chocolate

Festive Food:
Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sourdough Panini
Pulled Pork Wrap
Turkey, Stuffing and Bacon
Soignon Goats Cheese & Christmas Chutney Panini

Christmas Treats:
Black Forest Fancy
Chocolate & Orange Fancy
Chocolate Yule Log
Gingerbread Muffin
Gluten Free Christmas Cake
Honeycomb Crunch
Marshmallow & Chocolate Cupcafke
Mini Chocolate Cornflake Clusters
Mince Tart
Rich Chocolate & Rasberry Torte
Ruby The Reindeer
Stollen Bites

So far, I've tried several of their Christmas offerings and here's my verdict on each of them.

White Hot Chocolate & Cream

With caramel sauce instead of cherry sauce.

I've never heard of any coffee shops selling white hot chocolate so my curiosity piped up instantly. I had to try it.

I made the mistake of ordering a large and found that it gets sickly after a while so I recommend ordering a medium. I prefer it without the cherry sauce but then again, I hate anything cherry. I've also had it with caramel sauce instead of cherry which I loved.

2/5 with the cherry sauce. 4/5 without & with the caramel sauce.

Honeycomb Hot Chocolate & Cream 

I adore this! The balance is just right. Not too much honeycomb but not too little either. You can taste it but it's not overpowering. One of my friends tried a bit of it on Thursday and he said it was really sweet so if you're not a fan of sweet drinks, I'd stay away from this one. 5/5

Chocolate & Orange Mocha Latte



 I hate coffee but curiosity got the better of me. I couldn't taste much chocolate & orange but I still liked it. I don't think I'd get it again, though. 3/5

Hot Spiced Apple

This tastes like strong hot apple juice with a kick of cinnamon. I can find cinnamon to be overpowering but not with this. I really liked it but found it quite hard to get through. It took me nearly an hour to finish it.

I'm in no hurry to get another one but I'll probably get at least one more before they go. 4/5

Honeycomb Crunch

I was so excited about trying this but to say that it disappointed me is a huge understatement. It was vile. It was so disgusting I threw it away after a few bites. 0/5

I didn't think about photographing it individually and I won't buy another one for the purpose of photographing it.

Chocolate Yule Log

A bit too sickly for my liking unfortunately. I love chocolate but this was just too much for me. 2/5

Chocolate & Orange Fancy

 I LOVE THIS. I adore anything chocolate orange and it didn't disappoint.

Thankfully, the cake wasn't too dry which I find with a few of Costa's cakes. However, it depends slightly on which one you go to. If there was only one item from the Christmas menu I'd want to be permanent, this would be it. 5/5

Overall, I love their Christmas menu! Their Christmas products are available until 2nd January so if you want to try anything on the menu, head to Costa soon if there's one near you.

Week in photographs.

I apologise for not blogging over the last few weeks. I haven't felt motivated and don't want to blog for the sake of blogging. Nothing worth blogging about has happened anyway.

That said, however, I'm working on a review of sorts of all the items from the Costa Christmas 2013 menu I've tried so far so keep an eye out for it!

On Monday, I went to Costa with one of my friends and remembering a friend's suggestion from last week, I ordered a white hot chocolate with caramel sauce and edible gold stars instead of cherry sauce while waiting for him. I'll be getting it again for sure. I'm not a fan of anything cherry and the cherry sauce is no exception.

Afterwards, we went to Subway for lunch where I had my first meal there for over a year. Sadly, my knee injuries flared up and I had to go home earlier than planned because the painkillers were taking longer than usual to work. We still had a great time together, though.

My copy of Showtime, Storytime by Nightwish arrived on Tuesday. I adore it! I've been listening to it non-stop since. I watched a bit of the documentary but switched it off and don't plan to watch it any further for personal reasons.

 Floor Jansen has improved tenfold since joining Nightwish last year. I've been a fan of her for years but she was rusty with Nightwish at first. Now, however, is a completely different story. I still don't like her take on some of the songs but she's well and truly improved. I can't wait for the new album to be released!

I went to Garlic & Shots in Soho with one of my friends on Wednesday and had a great night as usual. I had a horseradish shot (pictured) which was vile. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be and I've had worse but it was vile all the same.

I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire yesterday and loved it. It's outstanding. I wasn't a fan of the book because while some parts of it were brilliant, it took too long for me to get in to but I had high expectations for the film and wasn't let down. I loved every second.

It's easily the best book to film adaption I've ever seen. I'm usually highly critical of book to film adaptions but I have nothing bad to say about it.

If you want to see it and haven't already, do it. I couldn't recommend it more. I'm planning on pre-ordering the DVD soon and would see it again on Tuesday because of the cheap ticket prices but can't because of family matters that need to be taken care of. I can't complain, though.

If you live near a Cineworld cinema, register at mycineworld to get 10% off your cinema tickets. It doesn't sound like a lot but cinema tickets are usually ridiculously expensive so any discount you can get helps a bit so take advantage.

 Another good way of getting cheaper tickets is to try going during off-peak times (generally Monday - Friday before 5pm). However, this will depend significantly from cinema to cinema so make sure to check.

For more information, go to this link.

I hope you've all had a good week and have a good weekend!

Back to the usual.

Last week was horrific. I was a complete mess. I barely functioned. Thankfully, I picked back up slightly on Saturday and therapy resumed today so things have gotten back to normal.

The clinical psychologist wanted to see me for five minutes about what happened last time I was there (read about it at this link if you don't already know) and asked if her or my therapist could've done anything differently but they couldn't have.

EMDR isn't an option for the time being which is understandable. I told the clinical psychologist I wanted to keep that option open along with all others and she agreed to. In fact, she was extremely happy about it.

Afterwards, I saw my therapist and we discussed it further before moving on to discussing what the past two weeks were like (last week especially). She told me that I have a certain maturity that a lot of people my age don't have because of everything I've had to go through and am still dealing with.

We also discussed me comparing myself to other people and ended up having a really interesting discussion about social networking, the media and their influences on our lives. However, because it started towards the end of our session, we're going to continue it next week.

On a different note, I received a text from one of my best friends afterwards telling me he was okay. I had texted him on Thursday asking when he was returning to England and received no reply. I started worrying so I texted him again last night and asked him to text me so I knew he was okay. It turns out that he had replied to my first text but it didn't get through.

I’m so relieved.

Weekend musings.

A former friend texted me yesterday afternoon to tell me that her now ex boyfriend left her and pulled the personal issues card.

Let me give you a highly condensed version of the back story so it makes more sense.

This former friend (I'll call her Angela to protect her identity) met her boyfriend (I'll call him Steve) last year and got with him in November.

He's taking part in a lot of shady things and didn't let her meet any of his friends. I wasn't the only one concern. Several of her friends expressed concern about this and had others but as you can probably guess, she didn't listen.

In September, I stayed with her for the night and she ended up having an hour long argument with her mother about her relationship with Steve during which I went outside to have a few cigarettes. I still heard the argument, though.

I was unable to sleep that night and ended up calling my mum at 6am and broke down crying once she answered. My dad kindly collected me a few hours later and I went to sleep almost as soon as I got home.

When I woke up, I saw a text from Angela blaming me for the argument with her mother and causing problems in her relationship. I replied telling her that unless she changed her attitude, I never wanted to hear from her again. Since then, I've received several abusive text messages from her.

I don't buy the personal issues excuse. He had his fun with her and got bored. That's what it is. However, because of how badly she treated me, I have no sympathy for her whatsoever. I can't forgive her for treating me so badly.

Yesterday evening, one of my best friends posted to my Facebook timeline saying she wants to see me before Christmas. A lot of my friends want to see me yet I still feel unwanted. Why? I don't know.

All that aside, at least there are a few good things coming up. The third (and sadly, final) series of Borgen starts airing here on Saturday, I have no therapy tomorrow which gives me a whole week off any appointments of any kind and I'm probably going to Costa this week to sample their Christmas menu. I should be pleased but I'm shattered. Completely and utterly shattered.

I'd love to not feel anything.

Katatonia, Lacuna Coil and Paradise Lost @ Roundhouse 3rd November 2013.

WARNING: This post is going to be very picture heavy, and will contain a fair amount of fangirling.

It's also mainly about Lacuna Coil.

I woke up at 8am to begin getting ready to meet a friend of mine and queue early. I left the house at 10:30am to make my way to Camden so I could get some Chinese food from one of the food markets for breakfast before meeting my friend.

I ended up running into said friend in Camden who had a bottle of Disranno & coke with her and after she got her food, we headed off to the Roundhouse and arrived at approximately 11:45am.

Not long after we arrived, Cristina, Andrea and CriZ of Lacuna Coil walked past. The few of us that were already there ran up to them and they were more than happy to stop for photos despite being on their way to  get breakfast.

The first thing Cristina commented on was my hat as she has the same one. I ended up getting four photos with her and a lot of hugs. I got slightly carried away but she didn't mind at all.

The best part? She remembered me! My adoration and respect for her grows every time I meet her.

Cristina and I.

Cristina and I.

Cristina and I.

Cristina and I.

Andrea told me that they're aiming to release their new album in March and plan to do a headlining UK tour next year. I'm already hoping for a Birmingham and/or Oxford date along with the obiligatory London one.

Andrea and I.

CriZ and I.

Maus of Lacuna Coil walked past a couple of hours later. I had been trying to get a picture with him for over three years but never could for one reason or another. That changed, though, and I got three photos with him.

Maus and I.

Maus and I.

Not too long after, another friend arrived with the alcohol he promised me. Needless to say, I ended up rather drunk.

Just before 5pm, Maki walked past and was more than happy to stop for a few minutes to pose for photos.

Something I adore about Lacuna Coil is how kind they are to their fans. They don't have to be. They could easily ignore them but they stop whenever they can to talk, sign items and/or pose for photos.

Maki and I.

At around 5:30pm, we were let inside the venue and I went to the merchandise table to get the Lacuna Coil top I wanted. I ended up wanting the hoodie as well but didn't have enough money. It'll probably be available online in a matter of weeks, though.

The top. It's far nicer in real life.

I ended up in the second row towards the right of the stage. Not the best view but it could've been a lot worse.

I found Katatonia extremely boring. They were playing the entirety of Viva Emptiness in reverse which I like but I found their set to drag and wanted it to be over.

Lacuna Coil, on the other hand, were fantastic. It was my eighth time seeing them live and they didn't disappoint. Every performance I've seen of theirs has been magical in different ways. I've never not felt an extreme high after seeing them live.

Setlist:

I Don't Believe In Tomorrow

Kill The Light

Fragments of Faith

Heaven's A Lie

The Game

Our Truth

Upsidedown

Without Fear

Swamped

Intoxicated

Trip The Darkness

Spellbound

Paradise Lost were much better than I expected them to be. I don't listen to them often so I wasn't too sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. Lacuna Coil were the band of the night for me, though.

I left barely being able to walk and with an aching body for the next two days but I didn't mind. Getting home wasn't too fun, though.

I had hesitated to get a ticket given that Lacuna Coil were only playing a support set but I'm so happy I got one in the end. I met some awesome people and out of the three bands, the only one I didn't enjoy was Katatonia.

I can't wait for Lacuna Coil's new album to be released and headlining UK tour next year.