København

I got back from Copenhagen on Wednesday! It's taken me a while to collate everything to make a post, especially as I wanted to physically journal about it all first while it's still fresh in my mind. I was honestly so anxious before I went that I was almost tempted not to go and cancel the whole thing, and I don't mean to be dramatic but I feel like I've come back transformed. I often get too caught up in my own head, and being reminded that there's a whole big world out there does me wonders. I almost dread coming home as it's the fear of slipping back into old habits, but I feel more determined than ever to try and prioritise experiences and travel rather than spending all of my money on material objects. It's just not the same dopamine hit. The last time I went anywhere was Trieste (Italy) in July 2023, which was a month after coming back from Japan where I'd escaped to after being traumatised in Korea and unsurprisingly I did not have a good time in Trieste as I was still mentally unpacking everything that had happened. So this is the first real trip I've been on since 2020, before I moved to Japan, and I do feel like it's put me back in touch with the more carefree mindset I had back then. Let's hope I can hold on to it!

I only really went to Copenhagen to see Ghost, and figured I may as well have a few extra days to make a proper vacation out of it if I'm paying to go there anyway. Ghost were incredible, I preferred it to London (and I liked seeing them in London a lot!) The Royal Arena isn't as big as the O2, and I somehow got a really good seat. I think some were released last minute because when I was trying to figure out which country to go to the seats in Copenhagen weren't looking great until all of a sudden they were so I booked it quick. I was seated but first row and literally right next to the stage, and because the seats are on a platform so more level with the stage I'd argue I had a better view than the people standing at barrier and I didn't have to queue all day for the privilege. That was my biggest issue with London, I was so far away that it felt difficult to be immersed and I didn't have that problem at all here. I like being able to see the performers expressions (as much as you can with Ghost anyway), the details on the costumes, actually being able to identify the bassist over the guitarist, stuff like that. It feels more personal. There really were a lot of foreigners at this show too - Swedes, Germans, Brits, and Dutch were just the ones I heard, and even Tobias said that we'd "geographically fucked up his plans" as he'd assumed he was performing to mostly Danes.

I didn't really have any plans for what to actually do in the city otherwise, other than booking a ticket for Tivoli Gardens for one of the days. I'm a big theme park nerd and was quite excited at the prospect of going to Tivoli, one of the oldest theme parks in the world. When Walt Disney visited it inspired him to create Disneyland, and it has one of the oldest operating wooden rollercoasters in the world (which of coarse I went on!). It's really not a very big park and I knew this before going, you could easily get around the whole place in just a few hours and that includes going on all the rides. I still spent the whole day though, as honestly it was nice to just vibe in the gardens and read my book. I've been in a reading slump for ages and I read more on this trip than I have the entire year so far and it feels good! (I'm reading Conclave by Robert Harris as I saw the movie and was curious. I haven't finished it yet but I'm really enjoying it a lot! It's not the type of book I'd normally gravitate towards either which excites me and makes me wonder if I've boxed myself in too much with what I read which is what lead to the slump. But that thought is overwhelming too, as how on earth do you pick what to read from millions of books if you don't box yourself in at all!)

The robot lawnmower is dressed like a rabbit 🥹 I love whimsical details like that

For the other days I pretty much just wandered around on foot, and discovered some things by accident on my way to somewhere else. I looked up walking tours online, took a map from the tourist centre, and circled the bits of the walking tours that looked interesting to me and made my own routes. I looked at a lot of Hans Christian Andersen stuff as it's kind of everywhere, but also as an illustrator his works have always been a big inspiration to me (for my BA degree I illustrated a full book of The Snow Queen). It made me realise that I should try and do this stuff for British authors too, there's loads for AA Milne and Lewis Carroll and I just don't take advantage of it like I do when I'm away somewhere. I'm going to London next weekend to see BabyMetal so I'm already planning what I've missed there!

You'll be judged on sight and made to fit, so find a clique and stick with it

I went to London yesterday to see Mean Girls. Eh, I don't know. I'm not even a big fan of the movie to be honest, but I saw Georgina Castle perform World Burn on BBC's Big Night of Musicals and it intrigued me enough that I figured maybe I was overlooking it. After all, whether or not I like the movie doesn't always correlate - I love the musical of Heathers but don't particularly like the film, and I love the movie of Moulin Rouge but the stage musical is a mess. So you can't always tell! Heathers is probably the best comparison as both stories have essentially the exact same message to them, but Heathers does it better in my opinion but it probably does come down to personal taste. I found the humour of Mean Girls a bit too goofy and silly, more so than even the movie is. The last show I saw in London was Starlight Express which was also a silly, goofy time, but Mean Girls was so silly that Starlight Express seemed almost intellectual by comparison. And I think that's why I prefer Heathers, not only is it more my brand of humour but it also knows when to take itself seriously and have those heartfelt moments, which Mean Girls was lacking as it all felt very surface level and the characters were extremely one dimensional. I also straight up did not enjoy the music or lyrics, the melodies were barely distinguishable from one another and I really couldn't pull out a single song that stood out to me. It was okay and I'm not mad I saw it, but I also have no desire to ever see it again and it kind of confirmed to me that the current fascination musical theatre has with turning any and all movies into a musical regardless of whether it suits the plot is absolutely not for me and I hope it dies out soon.

I actually started my day at Kings Road, which isn't an area of London I've ever been to before despite it's fame. I had my heart set on going to Vivienne Westwood's World's End store though which sells exclusive items, as I was really hoping to splurge on a giant orb necklace. And I did!! It's a tiny shop and I'm not used to designer shopping so my anxiety was at an all time high of not knowing what to expect - am I allowed to just browse, will the staff by all up in my face, what am I supposed to say?? But it was fine and I felt really proud of myself to for doing it! I could have wimped out and emailed them to ship it to me (they don't have an online store, but you can email orders), but I really wanted to challenge my anxiety and force myself to just go and do it. The shop staff were very friendly and made small talk with me about my Labubu, but weren't pushy or overbearing in the slightest. And I got my orb! I've always wanted one of these necklaces ever since I started studying fashion at collage, they're iconic, and although it's something that's often counterfeited (which I disagree with on principle as an artist) the fakes cost into the triple figures anyway so at least having the real thing feels more of an investment than throwing my money away. I also got the dress I'd been eyeing up in Anthropologie last week.

I wore my thrifted Ganni dress as I knew I'd be looking in more bougie shops than usual so wanted to look the part, and also made the rookie error of wearing my new Doc Martens sandals with it 😖 They felt so comfortable out of the box and lulled me into a false sense of security. My feet are all cut up on the top, and covered in blisters on the sides and the sole, I can barely stand on them today! Even my slippers hurt! So I didn't get to wander round London as much as I usually would as I was in agony for much of it (even though I bought some socks and applied band aids). I'm going back at the end of the month though to see BabyMetal, so I'm not too mad. And I still did everything that I actually wanted to.

I'm exhausted today from it all though, and feeling very overwhelmed at the prospect of going to Copenhagen the day after tomorrow. I hope my feet heal quick so I can walk again by then!

Pussycat, pussycat where have you been? I've been to London, now I'm queen

Back in February (I think?) Aaron Tveit announced his first ever London concert dates, and you can bet I bought a ticket straight away! But last week I was going through a lot of stuff at home that was extremely upsetting, and I knew Ghost were about to tour the UK so I stress bought a ticket last minute. As I was going to London anyway it seemed almost silly not to go a day earlier and make a proper little trip out of it and properly get away. So I did! And I'm so, so glad of it ♥

I've been a fan of Ghost for years, but it was my first time actually seeing them live. I've also never been seated at a concert before, and I'm not 100% sure how I felt about that. I could still have gotten a standing ticket as last minute as I did, but I deliberately chose to sit down as I didn't want to have to queue all day to try and get near the front or risk standing at the back and not being able to see sod all. I had a good view, but it felt weird to me being so far away and I definitely missed being within spitting distance of the band, it's more immersive like that. Even when I go to the theatre I like to be front row, I like to block out the audience as much as possible and lock in to what's on stage as I'm too easily distracted otherwise. But I also turned up only 20 minutes before they took to the stage, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts. I was just glad to be there and vibe, and I will 100% be at all future Ghost shows. I've been a fan since around 2017 (as I was at uni when I discovered them) and had heard they were good live, but oh! It's maybe taken them from a band I enjoy listening to, to one of my favourite bands of all time honestly, I've barely listened to anything else since. The hyperfocus is locking in.

The Aaron Tveit concert was very chill the next day. I've seen him live before, but only in shows (he's the reason I travelled to New York in 2019 to see Moulin Rouge! on Broadway, and I met him after and gave him some of my art and he was really kind to me). Despite how many shows I've seen in London it was my first time in the Palladium which is a pretty famous theatre, and it's a lot smaller than I expected which meant that my seat was a lot closer to the front than I expected. I was only 5th row from the front, but that doesn't necessarily always mean that it's a good seat. But the tickets sold out so fast as soon as they were announced! 😭 So I had to pick anything I could as quickly as possible and hope for the best, and I was thankful it worked out.

What I wore for the two days. When I bought the Ghost ticket I immediately thought of this Ghost dress which was actually in my Vinted pile as I never wear it as it doesn't feel very 'me', so I tried hard to make it work. I thought afterwards I should have just worn one of my Moitie dresses and felt more comfortable! I got a lot of compliments the second day though which gave me a good ego boost. A pre-teen girl and her mum came up to me to tell me I looked like a princess, and the thought that I could be inspiring young girls to express themselves fully through their clothing really means the most to me.

I spent Saturday running some errands I needed to do but had no plans for Sunday, and although I knew it was Easter I completely forgot what that meant logistically and that everything would be closed as I'm so used to London just being open. Museums were pretty much the only thing open (and Schuh for some reason???) so I thought I'd go to the Natural History Museum and draw some creatures in my sketchbook, but it ended up being far too busy so I took this photo and then escaped across the road to the V&A which is my comfort museum and always a lot more peaceful.

I like the V&A so much as it has all of my interests under one roof: it has a theatre and performing arts section, illustration, and fashion history. I studied fashion history and textiles up to A-Level and wasn't sure whether I was going to pursue that or illustration up until I went to uni (and picked illustration). It's still a big interest of mine though, so I love seeing all of these old garments and how they're constructed.

I don't know why this dinosaur exists in a Coach store, but I enjoyed it.

We have no troubles here!

I saw Cabaret again last night, as I haven't been able to get it out of my brain lately. I didn't really think about it much after originally seeing it back in November, but I've been grossly ill for most of 2025 so far and wasting a lot of time on TikTok as I was capable of little else. And if you're also on the musical theatre side of TikTok you've probably seen the Ukrainian production of Cabaret on your For You page and I am OBSESSED. I don't know what it is about this production that's captivated me so much, but it's made the whole entire musical click for me in a way seeing it in November didn't, and subsequently made me appreciate stuff from seeing it in November that I hadn't before! I also watched the 1972 movie which has a lot of changes from the stage version but I really enjoyed all the same, and despite not liking theatre recordings I forced myself to watch the 1993 pro-shot of the Sam Mendes production with Alan Cumming and Jane Horrocks. And obviously after going through all of that I felt like I needed to get back down to London to see it with my new understanding as soon as I was healthy enough.

I still have my original beef with interactive theatre, but now I knew what it involved and how the theatre was set up I was able to pick my seat accordingly which alone gave me a much better time. Although the audience around me were wasted, which spoilt it a lot and I do blame the 'immersion' aspect because if you set it up like a club then people are going to treat it like a club and act up. It's a shame, and it really spoilt the tone of the darker scenes, and I wish the theatre would deter and control this kind of thing as it's an expensive night to have ruined by drunks.

The cast has changed since I last saw it, and my opinion was mixed. I loved Marisha Wallace as Sally Bowles, she was wonderful and utterly heartbreaking! Billy Porter was the Emcee which felt like stunt casting (which this show has a history of doing a lot of to be fair) and he was underwhelming. If you're unfamiliar with Cabaret, it's a show set in early 1930s Berlin and takes place around the Kit Kat Club during the Nazis rise to power. It tells the story of Cliff Bradshaw, a traveling American writer who moves to Berlin at the beginning of the musical, and his relationship with Sally Bowles, an English performer at the Kit Kat Club, and features a background plot with Cliff's landlady and her relationship with a Jewish man while antisemitism is rising. It's essentially a frog in a boiling pot story detailing how Nazism was able to rise, and the Emcee, aka the Master of Ceremonies, is the host, the narrator, and oversees the whole entire plot so he's kind of a big deal. My biggest issue was that Billy Porter never really dissolved into the role, I was very aware throughout the whole thing that I was watching Billy Porter rather than Billy Porter as the Emcee if that makes sense. The role is usually preformed with a German accent which Billy seemed to struggle with and only used occasionally, performing most of the role as an American which was quite jarring. And he didn't really have the physicality for the role either, he didn't command the stage with his presence whenever he was on it, he was just there. I was really spoilt last time seeing Adam Gillen who was phenomenal, but I had hoped for better considering Billy's reputation and accolades. I still really enjoyed the show though, and it was wonderful getting to experience it again now I had more context for everything!

It also felt really good to be in London again! Funnily enough I haven't been since I last saw Cabaret as I didn't want to have to deal with the Christmas crowds in December and then I got sick. I miss it when I'm not there though, and I want to make going to the theatre more of a priority again instead of wasting my money on other things. Especially as there's so much I want to see this year! I already have tickets for Aaron Tveit's solo concert in April (🥹) and a concert of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame in August (omgomgomg). I'm seeing Starlight Express next month too and have no idea what to expect. I have technically already seen it when I was a literal child and my school took me to see it on a school trip when I was about 7, but I remember nothing other than I got obsessed with my roller skates for a little while after. I couldn't even name a single song from the show, but I'm looking forward to going in blind with no expectations. It should be fun if nothing else!

Nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about

I spent yesterday in Liverpool, which gets a bad rap but it's actually one of my favourite cities. I first went back in 2017 (I think?) for Beatles Week and did all of the expected Beatle-y things that go with that like the museum and the Magical Mystery Tour, and ever since I've enjoyed just going for the day now and then. I used to get the train, but since I moved I realised it's both easier and a lot cheaper to drive and it's made it a lot more accessible for me which feels exciting. I last went back in November, but I've been sick for most of 2025 so far and have barely done anything and was getting itchy feet, so I decided to go again and just vibe in the city centre doing nothing in particular as it's fairly low energy whilst still having a proper day out. Sometimes it's nice to just get dressed up and travel somewhere different from the usual to take in the atmosphere, people watch, draw by the River Mersey, etc.

For the Year of the Snake.

While I was there I also managed to get the two new Jellycats I've been wanting that have only just been released! I already had the plushie storm cloud, now I also have the bag and keychain (which needs a perm!) I'm especially pleased as I recently got Angelic Pretty's Misty Sky JSK and I think they'll go together really perfectly! I love being able to get things for my collections on my travels, as it then gives those items more meaning to me.