Thursday 7 July 2016

Fun With Friends and an Encounter With Arabella...

With all of us in desperate need of meeting up and having a good long talk, I met up with Sammi and Shalisa in Reading on Saturday. I thought it was going to be a pretty quiet day, but it turned out to be quite eventful.




It has been a while since I last wore Meta's Candy Star Rabbit, so I decided to wear it. I had been intending to wear it one last time and then sell it, but I ended up coming up with a few outfit ideas for it. So selling this skirt has been put on hold for a while! I had my concerns about this outfit. I decided to try and make use of the wide variety of colours which appear on the skirt, which involved adding pinks which I am not sure 100% matched. There was also the task of balancing the 2 main skirt colours throughout the outfit.




My accessories were mostly candy themed, which ended up with me using a lot of Angelic Pretty jewellery. As the blue on the skirt is not a widely used shade, I ended up making the star clips which I attached to the cuffs.




We initially went perfume shopping in the Oracle Centre. I ended up getting a bottle of perfume which I had mentioned in my recent post about perfume. Shalisa also ended up getting a lovely rose perfume from the Body Shop. It was interesting to find another rose perfume which actually smelt of roses! Perhaps I need to keep more of an eye on the Body Shop in the future.

As we exited the shopping centre, we were confronted with this interesting "lady" called Arabella. This is where things went a bit strange. Upon seeing us, the lady with the umbrella and Arabella decided that they absolutely had to come over. There was the usual questions about what we were wearing and where we got our clothes from. Then the lady told us that Arabella had a gift for us, and we were given a box to open which contained a key and a safety pin inside. Upon taking the gift, we were told that we had to go underneath Arabella's skirt (cue internal screaming). The lady absolutely insisted that we should do it and this poor gilr holding a sign just sort of muttered "just go with it" at us. After scrambling underneath her skirt, which was very small and claustrophobia inducing, we spoke to a man who wore a dodgy veil and one of the worst fake 'French' accents I have ever heard. We were told that this key had the power to grant each of us a wish and then we had to attach the key to the underside of her skirt. If the weird, sexual undertones were not bad enough already, we then each ended up having to take Arabella's cherry. And there is also photographic evidence somewhere out there of us being underneath this lady's skirt.




Sounds peculiar right? Here is a picture of the cherry I took from Arabella. I wonder what that is supposed to symbolise... Allegedly, this was part of some sort of art festival that was being held in town. This has to be one of the weirdest experiences of my entire life and I am still confused over how on earth all of this even happened. As we walked to the pub, the 4 of us looked at each other in disbelief.



Before getting food, we decided to go and take some photos by the riverside. Don't be fooled by the lovely, sunny picture. It kept alternating between sunshine and cloudy skies, which made photo taking very frustrating. It also kept raining at several points during the day. But aside from the weather, I am glad we found a nice photography spot so close to the only pub in Reading that we dare to set foot in.




There are these lovely ruins nearby but sadly the general public are not allowed in. It is a pity, because they could make for a lovely photo opportunity. Sadly, it seems they have been closed for a very long time and there are no signs of it opening again.




There was a sculpture nearby, which seemed quite contrasting to the old looking ruins. I did quite appreciate the hidden faces in the sculpture though.




We got so flustered with the weather, that we sort of forgot to take group shots. But here is a solo shot of Sammi. She wore Dreaming Macaron so cutely. Sammi loves yellow, so it seems a natural choice for her to wear.




Shalisa looked pretty in her Baby dress too. I believe it is Alice's Ribbon Kingdom? I always get so confused with all the print names when it comes to Baby. I liked that her hair and bolero matched the lighter pink in the print so well.




Then we went for food and it started off by sounding so promising. The Outlook had some new options added to their menu and a few of us were keen to try out their new hog roast burger. Sadly, the burger did not live up to its name at all. There was barely any pork, which seemed to have just been mixed in with the stuffing. I had way too much apple sauce, so when I bit in to my burger I got a very appley and salad mouthful with hardly any meat. The bun on mine was overdone as well, so it was rock hard. In the end, the bacon was the only good bit, and there were only 2 rashers. I have had some good meals at the Outlook before, so this was a huge let-down for me. The others did not seem impressed either. I am hoping it is a case of the pub having an off-day, but I wont be getting the same meal from them again.




Sammi and I decided to indulge in some Pimms, which for some reason was bright orange in colour. It tasted different as well. It was still nice, but I suspect that orange juice had been added. It just didn't taste like the Pimms I know and love. At least it came with a cute strawberry stirrer! We also all got the chocolate fudge cake again, which at least lived up to its usual standard.




We had a bit of a walk around the shopping areas again after leaving the pub. As we exited the Oracle from another way, I found a UFO machine with LED ducky keychains for £1. Being the duck obsessive that I am, I naturally had to have one! I got the green one first, then tried my luck again for my desired blue ducky. Alas, I got the pink one, but the pink one is still pretty cute. I think I got a bargain here, although I am glad I walked away from the machine when I did. I could have quite easily wasted a load of money trying to get that coveted blue one! I got undressed and put my pyjamas on right away when I got home. I think the ducks look quite good next to my birdie themed pyjamas.

So we had a day of very mixed fortunes. I still can't quite get my head around the Arabella situation and keep asking myself whether this really needed to of happened. My heart was really racing at one point, as I had no idea what we had let ourselves in for! Even the pub food was terrible. Having a noisy family with about 7 kids sat near us didn't help either. But despite all this, I was so glad I had the chance to see Sammi and Shalisa again. I don't really want to go in to much detail, but I had a terrible June, and just going out and having some fun with my friends was a huge pick-me-up. It felt good to laugh again. And if nothing else, I am grateful I didn't have to deal with the Arabella business on my own!

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