30 Days of My Chemical Romance

I know you’re all gonna get sick of me talking about My Chemical Romance but come on, I don’t think anybody gets over the band they loved as a 13 year old and I’m over the moon that they’ve announced their reunion. I decided to do the 30 Days of My Chemical Romance challenge to channel my excitement but I’m gonna do all the days at once. Here goes nothing!

1. Your favourite song and why?

At the moment I’m torn between ‘Summertime’ and ‘Vampire Money’. I wish I’d loved ‘Summertime’ when I saw them live because I really didn’t like it at the time and didn’t appreciate it enough but Oh My God it’s such a cute song. And I can’t help but love ‘Vampire Money’, it’s just so upbeat and it was a great way to end the Danger Days album.

2. Your Favourite album and why?

It’s definitely ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’. I loved the whole concept, pretty much every song on the album is straight fire and I just loved everything about it. I read the first couple of comics that were based on the album but unfortunately stopped reading them – I had to buy them off the ‘Forbidden Planet’ website and get them delivered and I tell you it wasn’t cheap, I was so young and not earning any money! I’d love it if they turned this into a Netflix series like they did with ‘The Umbrella Academy’.

3. If you could see a show from any era what era would you choose?

Probably the ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’ era but preferably a show once Gerard had gotten over his alcoholism because that would’ve been sad to see. But it would’ve been better ‘cos the venues would be smaller and they’d play more of their early songs. I already saw them twice during their ‘Killjoys’ era so I heard most of their songs but I would’ve loved to see a ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’ show.

4. First song you heard?

The first song I heard knowing it was My Chemical Romance was ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ – my friend put it on in RE and I realised I’d actually already heard it. I think the first song was actually ‘Famous Last Words’ because whenever I went to my Dad’s house I’d pester my sister to play the ‘pie song’ – I thought the lyrics were ‘to change that pie’ as opposed to ‘to change that part’. I have no idea why but my sister didn’t discourage me from singing that.

5. Your Favourite Member

My favourite member changed all the time when I was a kid but I’d say the one consistent is Gerard like I’m sorry. I remember having a long Mikey phase during secondary school and my friend Lucy asked me “If one member had to go who would you rather left the group – Mikey or Gerard?” I said Mikey because My Chemical Romance would just be weird with a different singer. I definitely had Frank and Ray phases at one point too. Asking me right now I’d probably say Gerard.

6. A lyric that means a lot to you

Cliché and lame but ‘I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone’. Many people know I don’t get on well with my step-dad so sometimes I’ll be sat in my room spiralling into a crisis about how nobody loves or cares about me (which I know isn’t true but you know how it gets) and this song and those lyrics remind me that I can do it on my own if I have to.

7. If you got to write part of the set list for one show only, what five songs would you choose?

I Never Told You What I Do For a Living, Summertime, Vampire Money, Teenagers and Na Na Na.

8. Favourite quote?

That the members have like said? I’m trying to think through every video I’ve ever watched of them. Maybe when Gerard was talking to the crowd at one of their shows and he goes “If you ever see shitty ass rock dudes in shitty ass rock bands asking them to show them your tits for a backstage pass I want you to SPIT RIGHT IN THEIR FUCKING FACE AND YELL FUCK! YOU!”

9. One of your favourite moments from ‘Life on the Murder Scene’?

It’s been so long since I watched ‘Life on the Murder Scene’, I used to watch that all the time. I liked watching the making of the music videos, my favourite was for ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’. If I had to pick a moment I like it when they’re showing the first MCR secret Santa and Gerard opens that pink hamster cage and he goes “OOOOOH IT’S FOR THE HAMSTER THAT I’M GOING TO BUY! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!” Legend has it he never even bought the hamster.

10. What was your first reaction to Danger Days?

Loved it. I think I would’ve loved it anyway but honestly I was so whipped for MCR when it came out that they could’ve picked any concept and I would’ve been like “AMAZING, SPECTACULAR, FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLE”.

11. A song that makes you instantly smile?

‘Blood’ makes me smile, I remember downloading the CD onto my iPod and seeing ‘Blood – Secret Track’ but I when I played it nothing happened. Until I fast forwarded 40 seconds or so and this song kicked in and I was like ‘… I’m sorry, what is this’. It’s so random but I’m so glad they shoved it at the end of the album.

12. A Song that Cheers You Up Straightaway?

As mentioned ‘Famous Last Words’ generally helps lift my spirits – as does ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’.

13. A song that you can/want to play on an instrument?

I can’t play any instruments, I am learning the piano but I’m a long way off being an actual competent player just yet. I’d love to be able to play either ‘Dead’ or ‘Teenagers’ on the piano because I have those piano covers saved to my iPod and I used to love listening to them as a teenager. Or ‘The Only Hope For Me Is You’ because I think that sounds beautiful on piano.

14. The song with your favourite lyric?

My favourite lyric as a teenager was ‘Oh how wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying’ from ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ like oh my god I was shook. Now I’m between ‘with a brick in hand, your lip-gloss smile, your scraped up knees’ from ‘Summertime’ or ‘if life ain’t just a joke then why am I laughing’ from ‘Dead!’

15. Favourite video?

I love ‘Na Na Na’ just because there’s so much going on and it’s really high energy. Either that or ‘I’m Not Okay’ because I loved the high school theme and it’s a funny music video.

16. Favourite era?

Probably Danger Days because that was my only active era as a fan. I became a fan when they’d wrapped up the Black Parade era so there was nothing for a while and then the Danger Days era. So that’ll probably always be my favourite era.

17. A Song that you’ve cried to At Least Once

Oh God, I cry an awful lot. I have a strong feeling I’ve cried to ‘The Light behind Your Eyes’ at least once. That and ‘The Only Hope for Me is you’.

18. A Song You Would Want Played at Your Funeral

If I could pick like anything then maybe ‘Dead’ would be funny but I have a feeling my parents would not be down for playing that at my funeral and it might ruin the atmosphere a bit. If we’re going for emotion then I want ‘The Kids from Yesterday’ played at my funeral.

19. Name three things that remind you of MCR

Skeleton gloves (bonus points if they’re fingerless), red ties and leather jackets.

20. One of your favourite photos

21. One of your favourite interviews

Controversial but I liked the ‘dog or cat’ interview where they had to pick one or another answer. Pretty sure Gerard himself said he hated that interview as it felt like a waste of time. I also like any interview where fan questions are read, I get a bit bored with like deep and meaningful questions. I wanna know what colour tooth brushes the members have lmao.

22. If you could meet one of the guys who would it be?

See, I’d pick Gerard because like he’s the lead singer and he’s been my fave for so long but realistically I think the member that would be nicest to meet and least intimidating would be Ray. I just get that vibe!

23. Your Favourite Costume

I would’ve had so many detailed answers to all these questions when I was like 13-15, now that I’m older I’ve forgotten quite a lot of this. I loved their killjoy costumes like that’s obvious, my favourite being Gerard’s or Mikey’s.

24. Your Favourite Killjoy

We all know it’s Party Poison like come on.

25. If you could choose one song for MCR to cover what would you choose?

Oh God, I’m hopeless at stuff like this especially since my favourite music now is K-Pop. Any Queen song I guess, they already did ‘Under Pressure’ but something like ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ or ‘Killer Queen’ would be interesting.

26. Have you been to/going to any of their live shows?

I saw them when they announced three random shows in the UK before they officially released their new album – I think they’d released a few of their songs but the album hadn’t actually dropped yet. They weren’t going to Birmingham so I begged my Mom for tickets to Manchester. My Mom knew how desperate I was to see him so accidentally bought me six tickets in her panic to get me some. We kept two and sold the other four. My poor Mom drove me and my friend Jasmine to Manchester then sat in McDonalds until she eventually got kicked out whilst we had a good time at the concert. Thanks Mom!

Once the album was released they announced a proper world tour where they went to more parts of the UK so I went to Birmingham and saw them all over again. I went with my friends Jackie and Jasmine with my poor Mom driving us all over again. At least this time she got to go to my Nan’s house whilst she waited for us. That night was so much fun and I’m desperate to see them live again so if they could hurry up and announce this world tour I’d be pretty happy.

27. How long have you liked MCR?

I became a fan in 2008 so 11 years now? Although they haven’t been my favourite band for all that time I have still liked them and their music. My most active years were probably 2009 – 2012 though.

28. Did they save your life?

I wrote a long post about fandoms that low-key saved my life but I don’t think any of the fandoms ‘saved me’, they’re just like temporary respite from the real world. If that makes any sense? At the end of the day I’m still here because I want to be here. The band helped me an awful lot throughout my teenager years but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they saved me.

29. How much do they mean to you?

A lot, I have a feeling I’ll cry if I get to see them in concert again. I’m so proud of everything they’ve all achieved and I could probably go on about it all day to be honest – but I won’t!

30. If you could say one thing to the band, what would it be?

Cliché but just ‘thank you’ I guess. And also ‘please announce your Europe tour soon you absolute cowards’.

There we have it, the thirty days of My Chemical Romance! Now for them to announce their Europe tour dates and I’ll be happy.

Travel Fails: Hong Kong Edition

When planning this trip I was extremely nervous. By this point I’d been out of the country by myself a few times but going out-of-continent was a step further so I made sure to do my research. I went on the ‘gov.uk’ website which advised Hong Kong was relatively safe for tourists, watched vlogs, read blogs of other solo travellers, googled the question, generally got a lot of advice and decided that Hong Kong would be safe to visit by myself. I booked it feeling relatively confident.

Of course no one could predict the protests that would start taking place throughout the city and as my trip began to approach I started to get nervous. I don’t know enough about the protests to comment my opinion on them, I was just slightly selfishly worried that they’d ruin my trip. The news made it sound disastrous but I kept an eye on ‘gov.uk’ website which basically said ‘you can still go but make sure to avoid the protests’. I started checking out tourists’ photos on Instagram and lots of people still seemed to be having a good time in the city. Besides, I couldn’t really risk losing my money so I set off.

The flights went okay. I was due to travel to Amsterdam and then Hong Kong. The first flight got delayed by twenty minutes and I was proper on edge about missing my second flight but even though we set off late we still arrived on time. The only fail from that flight is that during take-off I must’ve looked terrified because once we’d levelled out a member of the cabin crew came over and asked “Are you okay? I saw you gripping your arm rest during take-off.” In my defence, yes there was some shaking from the clouds but also the pilot was flying like a madman. But luckily we made it into Amsterdam in one piece.

My original plan had been to find a souvenir shop in the airport as the only snow globe I’m missing from my collection is Amsterdam (I started buying a snow globe of all the places I visit abroad but unfortunately didn’t start this until I went to Luxembourg). I was so stressed about my next flight that I just went straight to the gate and completely forgot about the snow globe. Earlier that year me and my friends had missed our connecting flight to Belgium and I was desperate not to repeat this as my flight was the only one going to Hong Kong that day. I went straight to the gate and just sat there until we were allowed to board the plane.

Once on the plane we were informed there was a delay which lasted about an hour but I wasn’t too concerned. My flight was landing in Hong Kong in the early morning and I knew I’d be shattered so I wasn’t fussed if we were late. In fact I hoped we were later so that I had less time to kill between landing and checking into the hotel. I was quite lucky on this flight because the middle seat on my row was left unoccupied (the guy had turned up, said it was his seat and then disappeared and never came back) so me and the window seat guy had extra space which was appreciated. We took off and landed in Hong Kong after ten hours of flying bang on the time we were originally supposed to land – apparently they’d put extra fuel in so that we could fly faster and therefore we made it on time. This never happens when I’m in a rush.

I won’t lie, day one wasn’t fun. I landed at 10:20AM and my hotel didn’t open check-in until 2PM and I didn’t want to start dragging my case around the city. It was a Sunday so apparently there were protests happening but luckily not at the airport. I spent the morning in the airport before setting off at 1PM to find my hotel.

To be fair the transport in Hong Kong is so easy to understand that I didn’t get worried navigating. I did get worried on the Island Line when we went via Causeway Bay as I’d heard there were protests there and I’d seen that some do spill onto the MTR, however we passed by and all was fine. I made it to the hotel in one piece to be informed my room wouldn’t be ready for another thirty minutes. Obviously not the end of the world but as I sat down in reception I realised I was way more tired than I thought I was originally as I was feeling super spacey. Luckily the receptionist came over and informed me my room was ready and also that I’d been given a harbour view room. I was pretty happy with this considering harbour view cost extra and I hadn’t splashed out for it but it had paid off anyway!

The reviews had made it sound like the room was going to essentially be the size of a cupboard but it was a decent size and spotlessly clean. I’d chosen an ibis as I wanted a trustworthy chain hotel on my first out-of-continent trip.

Day One was a bit of a write-off to be honest. I was so bloody tired that I went out to try and do some sight-seeing in the local area but it was so hot and busy that after an hour or so I ended up back in my hotel. I read for a bit but found I was nodding off and it was still only about 4PM. I decided to have a ‘half-nap’ for a couple of hours which is where I lie down and try to sleep but also play music moderately in the background so that if I do nod off the music will startle me awake again – I get to relax but not so much that I can’t sleep later. Got up again, had a shower and then finally gratefully collapsed into bed at 7PM.

Unfortunately I was woken up by the woman next door. It sounded like there were three people in the room and one of them, whom I nicknamed Foghorn Voice, was on the phone to someone else and they were on loudspeaker. I didn’t want to get out of bed and check the time but I kindly gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was around 8 – 9PM and she had no idea someone was trying to sleep as it was still early. Luckily she eventually hung up and everyone in the room stopped talking so I managed to get a decent night’s sleep and was up early on my birthday.

My birthday at Disneyland was fabulous, I wrote a long post about it here but the only fail was that I hadn’t brought sun cream with me from England. I’d had a quick look in Boots before I left but hadn’t spotted any so decided not to take any at all – it had been hot in Japan but I hadn’t burnt. I quickly realised this was probably because the dresses I’d worn then covered pretty much all of my skin whereas at Disneyland I was showing a fair bit of chest and all of my arms were exposed. By the end of the day my chest, shoulders and nose were burnt. Also from all the walking I’d done I ended up with horrendous blisters and had to deal with that for the rest of the week.

The next day was October 1^st, National Day in Hong Kong. I’d initially been sort of excited upon finding out as I’d heard there was going to be a fireworks display and all sorts of celebrations but of course due to the protests I believe these were cancelled and there were major protests planned across the city. In fact that night I heard Foghorn Voice (at bloody 11PM so she was an inconsiderate hoe after all) telling whoever she was speaking to on the phone that her and her partner weren’t going out as they were worried about the protests. It got me wondering if I was being wise to go out but since I only had limited time in Hong Kong I decided I’d have to risk it.

My sight-seeing that day was on the outskirts of the city and I made it there on public transport just fine. I didn’t see any protests and where I was everything was nice and calm. I managed to tick everything off my list for that day and I decided to head back to the hotel early as I wanted to avoid the worst of the protests.

Too late unfortunately. I made it back to ‘Hong Kong’ station but unfortunately couldn’t change to ‘Central’ station because it had been closed in the protests. The station staff were telling people to go and catch the bus so out I went to the bus station to discover none of the buses were running either. I won’t lie to you I got very panicked at this point until I overheard a member of staff tell another tourist to ‘go and catch the ferry’.

The ‘star ferry’ had been on my itinerary but I hadn’t hoped to catch it in these circumstances. When it got to its destination I realised that although I was technically now closer to the hotel I was also on the wrong side of the river. Google Maps advised me there was a bus around the corner that would take me straight to the hotel. I felt a bit more hopeful as there were other buses working in the area so round the corner I went and started to wait.

The bus was meant to be once every twenty minutes but after forty-five minutes I admitted defeat and I had to go and find water because I was dying of thirst. Even though the sun had now set the city was still boiling and I was still completely panicked. The last thing I wanted to do was walk over an hour through the city back to my hotel and come across a protest. I was proper on edge, hot, thirsty and tired – all I wanted was to be back at my hotel!

After a lot of research I discovered there was another harbour where I could catch a boat to North Point harbour which was right opposite my hotel. Unfortunately this harbour was a half-an-hour walk away but I had no other plan so I set off hoping to find it.

About ten minutes into the journey I made the briefest eye contact with the bloke standing next to me and he turned to me, smiled and said “Hi.” I responded in the smallest voice ever and when he asked how I was I responded “Good, you?” and then immediately beat myself up internally for returning the question. When he asked for my name I ignored him. He asked me a couple more questions before I wearily said “I’m just trying to find my hotel.” “I want to get to you know you a bit better though” he responded and I said “Okay but I’m a bit busy right now”. Luckily he took the hint then and buggared off somewhere else but like? I was sweaty and stressed, some random bloke trying to hit on me was the last thing I needed – or expected to be honest!

Unfortunately I hit a dead end on Google Maps. It was telling me to continue walking but there was a ton of building work meaning I couldn’t go any further. I decided to try and get back on track and went up a ramp and into a tunnel which took me into an MTR station which was still open. I had a quick look at the map and realised if I went up I could change to a different line, go across, change lines again, come back down and end up at the station for my hotel. It was a bit of a risk because if I went up and the line wasn’t running or the station was closed then I’d be even further from the hotel but it was a risk I’d have to take.

Luckily the risk paid off as all the lines were open and all the stations I needed were open. I made it back to the hotel three hours later than I would’ve if the original station had just been open. I was just grateful to be back in my nice air-conditioned room. I had a shower and gratefully collapsed into bed. It sounds so easy and simple reading it back but I was genuinely panicking that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the hotel at one point. I honest to God don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to make it back to my accommodation before – I even bought some chocolate from the 7-11 in the metro station to celebrate.

The next couple of days generally went without a hitch, even the people next door were generally quieter until Thursday night. I got into bed at a reasonable time when next door started watching something – sounded like it was on a tablet or laptop and it was a stand-up comedian. They had it literally on full blast and the sound of the studio audience was going right through me. I put up with it for as long as I could stand before getting up and knocking on the door – you have to understand that I’m such an awkward person that this was a big leap for me! I’d expected to hear some grumbling but the programme was immediately switched off and then I didn’t hear anything for the rest of the trip – thank God!

All went relatively well until Saturday morning. I spent most of the morning doing last minute packing and getting ready to go then left my suitcase in the hotel and said I wouldn’t be back until 6PM. However when I left I discovered the entire MTR system wasn’t running due to protests that had happened the night before. I was a bit worried but tried to carry on with my day – I was going to catch a tram to the first sight-seeing place on my list but all the trams were packed and I was a bit confused anyway. I sat in a McDonalds for about an hour before messaging my Mom when it turned 7AM back home to ask whether she thought I should just go straight to the airport. I didn’t know if the public transport situation was going to get worse and I really didn’t need a repeat of Tuesday. She told me she thought that was sensible and I went back to the hotel to collect my suitcase – they seemed a bit confused that I was there so early but I wasn’t taking any chances!

Luckily the buses were still running and I caught one which took me to the airport within an hour. I arrived at the airport at around 2PM and my flight wasn’t until 10:50PM, I hadn’t even intended to set off for the airport until 6:30PM. But at least I was there and ready to catch my flight. I killed the time by watching shows on my fire tablet, got dinner when I was through to departures and had a good look around the airport Disney store before boarding the plane.

The flight home luckily went without a hitch, I slept better on the way back and got to Paris in plenty of time for the next flight. Unfortunately this time I had to go through security so I had to bin an unopened bottle of water and it just really annoys me when you have to do that. I just got off a flight, what would I have obtained between now and then?

The flight from Paris to Birmingham was absolutely horrendous, the turbulence was so bad that a member of the cabin crew fell over as she was walking down the middle and I consoled myself with the fact that at least it was happening on the short flight – you’re in the air probably less than an hour.

Overall I think considering what was going on in Hong Kong during my visit it was a relatively successful visit. I didn’t bump into any protests (I briefly went into a shopping centre where lots of people were yelling but that was it) and any problems that arose were eventually solved. So for my first solo out-of-continent trip I think I did very well! I’d love to go back to Hong Kong one day, hopefully when the political situation has calmed down.

50 Get to Know Me Questions

I love tags so much and considering I’ve hit a bit of writer’s block I feel it’s the appropriate time to whip out another tag. So here are 50 ‘get to know me’ questions!

1. Are you named after anyone?

I don’t think so. Originally I was going to be called Nicole but I had a cousin called Nicky so my parents decided it was too similar – in the end it didn’t matter too much as I don’t see her that often anyway but we were a bit closer growing up as our Nan lived locally so we all met up more often. They made Nicole my middle name instead.

My Dad apparently also suggested I should be called ‘Rochene’ which according to my Mom is an Irish name – odd choice as we’re not Irish and don’t have any Irish relatives so I’m glad that name was overridden.

2. When was the last time you cried?

Um I sort of cried yesterday because I choked on my drink at work. I didn’t wanna have a coughing fit in front of the whole office so I headed out and as I was wiping away my tears a girl came out and discovered me which was a bit awkward.

The last ‘proper’ cry though was a week ago. I was at Hirst’s Halloween party and I choked on my drink (??? Do I have a problem?) and spat it on the floor so Hirst’s Mom had to come in and clean it up. I was so worried that everyone was mad at me that I went upstairs and burst into tears so Becca and Jess had to comfort me. In my defence I was quite drunk.

3. Do you have kids? If no, how many do you want?

I don’t have any and I don’t intend to have any. I’ve looked after my nephews a few times and I love them to pieces but by the end of the day I’m more than happy to hand them back to their Mum’s as they’ve pretty much drained me of all my energy. I don’t think I’d make a brilliant Mum, I’m not very good at being an authority figure – I do care work and if I have to tell off one of the kids they just laugh at me and someone else has to do it.

Regardless of whether I’d be a good Mum or not though I just don’t think I want any. You’d have to accept your kid however they came out and they might just not be a very nice person. I’ve always said I’d rather regret not having kids than regret having a kid. I’m open to the possibility that I may change my mind in the future but right now I’m pretty dead set against it.

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself?

If I still had all my same interests then probably because we’d have a lot in common but I don’t know. I might find myself a bit irritating so I’m not sure.

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

All the time. My friend once told me I’m 70% sarcasm. I use it so often that sometimes when I say something serious my friends ask “Are you being sarcastic?” I get it off my Dad, he’s really sarcastic as well.

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I haven’t actually thought this. Maybe hair? I’m always drawn to like bright hair or interesting hair, and I think most guys who have thick or long hair are quite attractive so I probably notice that first. Other than that probably what they’re wearing.

7. What is your eye colour?

Blue! I got blue eyes like my Mom and my brothers got my Dad’s eye colour.

8. Scary movie or happy endings?

DEFINITELY scary movie! Even if I think a horror movie doesn’t look very good I’ll go and watch it at the cinema. Horror movies are very hit and miss, I think it’s a difficult genre to get right and everyone will always have differing opinions on whether it was good or not. My favourite horror movie is probably Orphan just because I loved the twist at the end – I love any film with a twist. I also loved The Visit because that was a fun mixture of horror and comedy, with a good twist at the end. I love being an idiot ‘cos it’s very rare that I see a twist coming in horrors making it more enjoyable.

9. Favourite smells?

I love the smell of coffee even though I can’t stand the taste but it does make me hungry for some reason? Probably because I associate it with first thing in the morning before I’ve had my breakfast. Bread baking in the oven, freshly cut grass, warm cookies… Most foods smell really nice to be fair.

10. What’s the furthest you’ve been from home?

I have a feeling it was Japan. I’d go back to Japan in a heartbeat, it’s my absolute most favourite country I’ve ever visited.

11. Do you have any special talents?

Define ‘special’ – I think I’m pretty good at writing, not amazing but like pretty good. I can’t think of any like party tricks I have though.

12. Where were you born?

Shrewsbury Hospital, most people in my town were born there. Originally my parents lived in Dorset and I am forever grateful that they chose to move up to Telford before I was born. Telford’s not perfect by any standards but it’s much better than Dorset. Fun fact, I recently found out my parents nearly moved us all to New Zealand before I was born which would’ve been weird. My Mom said it was because of my brother’s autism and my Dad said it was because my Mom changed her mind.

13. What’s your zodiac sign? Do you believe it?

Libra and I’m not sure. I like star signs and I always check mine but I wouldn’t go as far as to say I necessarily believe them.

14. What are your hobbies?

I love going to the cinema or theatre, I love just sitting there and watching other people do stuff. I prefer the theatre but I go to the cinema more often and I enjoy them both. I also love reading but I feel like these days I’m way more fussy with what I will and won’t read because I’m just bored of reading the same romance formula in every single book. I love listening to music and going to concerts but I have more fun at concerts if I’m seated, I can’t be bothered with this standing malarkey. With my friends I like playing games, either on the Wii, laptop or just the verbal games that we play. There’s probably more stuff I enjoy doing but these are the first ones that come to mind!

15. Do you have any pets?

No. When I was really young we had a dog called Bruno and a fish called Fred. We eventually had to put Bruno down unfortunately and my Mom always felt guilty about Fred’s small fish tank so in the end we gave him to a friend who had a pond full of fish in her garden.

I begged for a dog for absolutely years but my Mom wouldn’t have it so I switched form and begged for a rabbit instead. In the end she caved in and got me a guinea pig instead. We bought one off a woman who’s guinea pig had had babies, two of them were going together so I had the third one and she asked if I wanted to have the Mum as well to keep her company so we ended up with two guinea pigs. Toffee the baby and her Mum Tina. We had them a few years until they both eventually died.

Now we don’t have any pets but since I travel so often I’m not too upset about it. It would be a hassle to find someone to look after my pets every time I go away so yeah, not in a hurry to get any pets.

16. Do you have any siblings?

Sure do. Two brothers, five step-sisters and one step-brother. People always ask if we’re close and although I get along with most of them I wouldn’t say we’re ‘close’. I don’t really see my step-brother, in fact I think I’ve only met him once but he’s a bit of a bad apple so he doesn’t come over often.

My two step-sister’s that are my step-dad’s children used to come over every other weekend when we were younger and I was close to them, especially the younger one who was around the same age as me, but they stopped coming as they got older. I don’t blame them, their Dad didn’t really do much with them and I imagine it was quite boring being over here for them.

I’m closer to two out of three of my step-sister’s that are my step-mum’s children. Two of them live in Telford and I’m close-ish to them but not like overly close. I get on well with the one who still lives in her home town but again not close.

I’m not close to my natural brothers either. The eldest is another bad apple and although I love him I don’t particularly like him very much. My other brother who’s a few years older than me is severely autistic – I love him and like him a lot, I look after him quite regularly but due to his learning difficulties I can’t really say we’re ‘close’.

I took a cute question and turned it into something much more complicated haha!

17. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Uh I am grown up now and I’m a Business Support Officer in the School’s Department for our local council which like is a decent job, it pays well and I get on with my team but it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected to be doing when I was a kid.

I wanted to be a writer and I suppose I still do but I don’t really write like… At all. So I’m not going to achieve that anytime soon.

When I was younger I had all the typical aspirations like I wanted to be a vet, a nurse, even a skateboarder at one point for some reason but it flitted about all over the place.

18. Who was your first best friend?

When my Mom was pregnant with me she met a woman at the hospital who was also pregnant. I came along in September and she gave birth in November. They met up regularly and obviously would bring us along for playdates. Her name was Georgia and I believe we went to the same nursery, we went on day trips like I remember us going to Drayton Manor together I think, then we went to the same primary school. We were friends throughout primary school but naturally made other ‘best’ friends. Then we went to different secondary schools and gradually lost touch. My Mom still gets on with her Mom but they’re not as close anymore either.

19. How tall are you?

I’m not sure of the exact measurements but either average or slightly below average height.

20. What is your least favourite thing about yourself?

Um my weight most likely as it’s just embarrassing. I’m a size 20 and I don’t love it.

21. Funniest moment through school?

I have so many fun memories of school that I’m struggling to narrow it down to one particular ‘pee your pants’ moment. My favourite day though was ‘enrichments day’ where we were taken into a room and told to work on our English Higher Projects whilst waiting for our substitute teacher to show up. She never turned up and I tried my best to concentrate on my project for the first hour or so but under the bad influence of my friends I quickly became distracted and we spent the whole day just messing around. Best day of school ever.

22. How many countries have you visited?

Uh let me list them… Spain, Tenerife, Cyprus, France, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Greece, Poland, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Belgium, New York, San Francisco, Germany, Hong Kong… And I think that’s it? So eighteen countries. I’m desperate to visit many more and have trips booked to Florida and Sweden next year. I’m bound to book something else soon too.

23. What was your favourite/worst subject in Secondary School?

My worst subject was Science without a doubt, it’s the only GCSE I failed but luckily I managed to scrape a BTECH in it and now I never have to worry about it again.

My favourite subject was probably English because that just came naturally to me in secondary school and I just felt like I understood that. I also quite liked RE weirdly because I liked having debates.

24. What is your favourite drink? Animal? Perfume?

Chocolate milk, sea lion and I don’t really have a perfume preference. I’ll happily wear it if someone buys it for me but wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to buy any for myself.

25. What would you name your children?

I love naming kids, even though I don’t want any myself if I ever play the Sims I always make them have kids. For a boy I quite like the name Adrian and for a girl I like Maxine.

26. What sports do you play/have you played?

In Primary School at the end of Year 6 you were presented a medal for any clubs you’d participated in and I was determined to get as many as possible – quite a good idea from the primary actually as I doubt the plastic medals cost much, all the kids were desperate to get one and it meant we were being active. I can’t remember all of them but I remember I did swimming, cross country and netball for definite.

In Secondary after one netball PE lesson my teacher pulled a group of us aside and begged for us to join the netball team so at lunch when they had their practice I went along. The teacher never turned up and I was so irritated that I never went back. It’s a shame because I would’ve liked to have taken part and it may have made a difference on my health if I’d taken an active interest in a sport in Secondary.

Now that I’ve left school I don’t really have much interest in a sport. I joined couch to 5K with my Mom but unfortunately missed a lesson one night because I was away and then never went back. My Mom graduated and now she loves it, she goes running about three times a week at least. I joined the gym with my friend Becca and for a while we were doing well but then we fell out of the habit. I like going swimming with her and we do go to fitness classes sometimes so I do get some form of exercise just unfortunately not as regularly as I’d like.

This was a bit of an essay of an answer to essentially say I no longer play any sports.

27. Who are some of your favourite YouTubers?

Achievement Hunter are currently at the top. I do love Dan and Phil still but probably not as much as I did as a teenager. I don’t really actively follow many other YouTubers, I’ve gotten into watching travel vlogs now of places I’m going to visit which I enjoy but nobody specific.

28. How many girlfriends/boyfriends have you had?

Um I had two boyfriends in primary and two boyfriends in secondary. Nothing serious, my longest one in secondary lasted about a week. Since him I’ve not been in a relationship with anybody else.

29. Favourite memory from childhood?

It’s funny because I had a conversation with my Mom not long ago and I realised that she had no idea what she was doing when we were growing up and I’m quickly realising pretty much no parent does. I’ve always said that fair play to my Mom, no matter how chaotic things were with my brothers my Mom definitely provided me with a happy childhood full of happy memories so it’s difficult narrowing it down to one.

Every year my Mom would make sure we went on at least one holiday – not always abroad, most years we went to a caravan. I think my favourite holiday was the year went to, I wanna say Gran Canaria? I don’t really remember the country very well but I remember the hotel and the holiday itself. I went with my Mom, Step-Dad, brother and Nan – my Nan came to share a room with me and my brother and gave my Mom and Step-Dad a bit of a break as well. The hotel was actually incredible, it was all inclusive and I remember helping myself to hot chocolate throughout the day. I spent most days in the pool with a girl named Shakira that I’d made friends with (not the actual singer unfortunately but she was a nice girl), the evening entertainment was amazing and best of all was the restaurant. One of the waiters would leave me teddies and toys on my seat every night when I went down and our reserved table was in front of a chef who would make animals out of food for me and just generally have a bit of banter. I have nothing but fond memories of that holiday and it was so much fun.

30. How would you describe your fashion sense?

I am trying so hard to get more decent clothes because I wrote a while back about how all my clothes were pretty much just suitable for work. For a while I literally just wore the same dress every day but in a different colour. I have managed to expand my wardrobe a tiny bit but not as much as I would like yet.

My perfect style is both ends of the spectrum to be honest – I either want all black or a very colourful outfit. I don’t know what my fashion sense is!

31. What phone do you have?

Samsung Galaxy A8. The Samsung phones are the best I’ve ever had so if I was to upgrade I’d get another Samsung phone.

32. Tell us one of your bad habits!

Digging the top of my fingers into things like sharp points on my phone case or my nails or something similar. I don’t know why I do it but I can’t help it.

33. 3 things that upset you?

People treating me like I’m younger or more naïve than I am (calling me innocent, apologising to me for swearing etc.), feeling left out of things and people commenting on my weight.

34. 3 things that make you happy?

Music, money and having a good time with my friends.

35. How is your relationship with your parents?

Most of the time pretty good. I get on really well with my Mom although we do have the odd fall out. I think we’ll probably get along better when I move out but that’s not happening any time soon. On the whole we do have a good relationship though and always have.

Things with my Dad were a bit rocky when I was a kid, he feels like a completely different person now but back then he could be quite horrible sometimes and I did have moments as a kid where I hated him and wished I had a different Dad. When I was younger I saw my Dad every Friday and even as an adult it annoys me that he ALWAYS spent that Friday in the pub. He’d leave me in the house with my older siblings and if they weren’t there he’d drag me to the pub too. If he had me for the weekend to give my Mom a bit of respite we’d just stay in all weekend, we wouldn’t go out anywhere and I had to entertain myself. Now he’s older he doesn’t go to the pub anymore and when he sees his grandkids he actually does stuff with them which annoys me a bit but like, you can’t change the past.

He’s mellowed out a bit now and I’d say we do get on a lot better. We don’t always see eye to eye admittedly because he HATES when I travel solo to the point where if I tell him he gets very arsey and he admitted he’d rather not know if I’m going away. So I don’t tell him anymore.

36. What’s on your mind?

That I need to walk to ALDI but it’s raining and I’m enjoying my last day of freedom before my parents get home from their holiday later.

37. What’s your talent?

Writing I guess. I’d say it’s about the only talent I have.

38. One word that describes you?

Kind – I hope! I feel like kindness is the most important thing to me but I do often worry that I’m not as kind as I’d like to be.

39. What’s your favourite quote?

“Nobody else is gonna put right for me, nobody but me is gonna change my story” – it’s actually a quote from a song from the stage show of Matilda but it’s actually quite a good philosophy to live by.

40. Any pets?

Pretty sure this was already one of the questions?

41. What is the farthest you’ve been from home?

And this one.

42. Are you an extrovert or an introvert?

Definitely an introvert. Although I love meeting up with my friends I also really value my alone time and look forward to it. For example whenever my parents tell me they’re going on holiday and leaving me in the house alone I’m over the moon. I love travelling solo because I can just chill on my own. I love my family and friends but I definitely need my regular alone time!

43. Are you left or right handed?

Boringly I’m right handed. I had been alive twenty-two years before I discovered that my Dad is left handed. I was amazed.

44. Do you consider yourself a good cook?

Me and my friends regularly have jokey banter about who we do and don’t trust in the kitchen and pretty much every time I get roasted for being a bad cook but I’m not THAT bad! I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a good cook because I’m not perfect or anything but I’m better than people expect. My main issue is not liking to be in the kitchen at the same time as my step-dad so I don’t get enough time to practice. I make nice dinners when my parents are away though!

45. Does your name have a special meaning?

I don’t think so, I’m not really sure where my parents plucked Hollie from (or Holly as my birth certificate says but I prefer the ‘ie’ spelling). I only know the Nicky/Nicole story from earlier.

46. If money were no object what would you get for your next birthday?

I’d fly business class on a plane to somewhere exotic for a long sight-seeing holiday with all my friends. More than one country and it would last over a month.

47. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

I have actually looked at how to live in Tokyo but um considering I can’t speak Japanese I doubt I’d be able to get a job over there. Also their working hours are different to ours and even a maid in a café whilst we visited confessed she doesn’t get much chance to go on holiday so it’d be moving to work longer and harder for presumably the same amount of money or less. If I could afford to move there just for the sake of it without having to work then I would in a heartbeat.

48. What’s your favourite thing to have for breakfast?

At home I can’t stomach the thought of toast for breakfast, it’s just way too dry. I love toast at pretty much any other time of the day but just after I’ve woken up? No thank you. So at home I always have a bowl of cereal.

However I do love hotels that offer a full English breakfast. In Germany the breakfast in my hotel wasn’t great but they had a pancake making machine and they were lush, I won’t lie. So my favourite breakfasts are probably either full English or pancakes. But on the average morning a bowl of cereal is fine.

49. What’s your favourite gadget?

I literally cannot be without my iPod. It goes everywhere with me and I’m always devastated if I leave it behind somewhere. My iPod Nano finally bit the dust earlier this year which didn’t surprise me as I’d to rip the volume bottoms off a while ago to keep it working and it was just generally in bad shape. For some reason an iPod Touch was cheaper and it took some getting used to but I like it now.

50. What’s your longest relationship so far?

As mentioned, I haven’t dated anyone since Secondary School and it lasted just under a week because once we started dating I quickly began to realise I didn’t like him after all. When I broke it off with him he sent me a message along the lines of ‘but I’m not like other boys, I see past your looks and don’t mind dating someone like you’. Charmer.

So there we go, 50 Get to Know Me Questions! Hope you enjoyed them.

Ten Favourite My Chemical Romance Songs: Updated

Ya’ll, it happened – My Chemical Romance announced they were reuniting for a show in California later this year. There’s a lot of speculation about whether they’ll announce a full tour (I will sell my soul, please make it happen) or whether it’s a one-off, does this mean they’ll make new music etc. etc. But either way I’m excited. I had read a theory they would announce their reunion in 2019 and I held onto that hope with such desperation and it happened. Dreams really do come true.

For a while I sort of ‘got over’ My Chemical Romance and didn’t really care about them very much but weirdly in the past few weeks my love for them had been revived. I have a theory it’s because my Mom finally got my old laptop from when I was a teenager to start working and there were a few MCR related things on there and recently I couldn’t stop listening to the songs. I really, REALLY wanted to see them live in concert again as I think they’re pretty much the only band where they could play any song and I would be word perfect on it but I told myself that wouldn’t be happening any time soon. Now I have a slither of hope and I am CLINGING TO IT.

I decided to write an updated list of my ten favourite songs – I’d love it if they could perform these songs at a reunion concert but like, we’ll see, I’d be happy just getting to see them live again at this point.

10. Headfirst for Halos

This is a song off of their first album ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’ and it was one of the first songs off the album that I loved. Pretty sure the song is about drugs but like it’s an amazing song. Fun fact, in school we had to write a poem in class and I’m not a big fan of poetry so I wrote down some of the lyrics for this song and passed it off as my poem. My teacher was impressed but my friend Lucy was suspicious so she walked up to my friend who also loved MCR and said one of the lines from the poem and of course my friend started singing the song so I got caught out.

9. I Never Told You What I Do For a Living

On my last list this was my favourite song and I do still love it ‘cos it’s so f*cking raw. I love the ending of it, I don’t even know how to describe it it’s just RAW. I don’t really 100% even know what the songs about but it’s angsty as Hell and I just love it. For a long time ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’ was my favourite album but unfortunately I think ‘Danger Days’ has overtaken it now.

8. Teenagers

Every My Chemical Romance fan loves this song, let’s be real, it’s an absolute bop. For a while I had been intending to go to Birmingham with a bunch of other fans to recreate the music video but unfortunately it fell through and we never got to do it but it would’ve been so much fun. I also remember singing this song on karaoke at my uncles wedding and for some reason it got everyone super lit, even people who didn’t particularly like the band. It’s just that much of a bop I guess.

7. Famous Last Words

This song is angsty too and oh my god I love it – ‘I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone’ were like the most important lyrics to me as a teenager. Even now as an adult if everything has gone to sh*t this is still my go to song because it’s so powerful. I remember walking to my friend’s house after school and we were playing this song and screaming the lyrics the whole way back – I sincerely hope we didn’t pass anybody as I doubt they would’ve been impressed. If I am lucky enough to get to go to a reunion show I really REALLY hope this song is on the set list, it would mean so much to me.

Fun fact, this is the first song I heard by them because my step-sister kept playing it when I went to visit my Dad’s house and every week when I went over I’d ask her to put on the ‘pie song’. I thought the lyrics at the start were ‘to change that pie’. I didn’t even realise it was by them until my friend Jasmine played me the song on her MP3 Player and I instantly went “OH MY GOD IT’S THE PIE SONG!”

6. The Kids from Yesterday

I’m really surprised this song made it onto the list because over the years I’ve never particularly liked it. I’ll listen to it if I’m listening to the Danger Days album as a whole but if I’m picking specific songs I never would’ve chosen this one. I’ve been relistening to the Danger Days album a lot lately and I feel like for the first time I actually ‘understand’ that album – I won’t explain because I’m sure most people figured it out when the album was first released but I’m a bit stupid and didn’t get it until I was bloody 23 but like I got it in the end. But this song just hits different now and I really love it. It’s creeped up my list of favourites and I’d be happy to see this song live again so I could fully appreciate it this time.

5. Dead!

I mentioned this song in my previous post because I loved it then and I still love it now. I remember buying ‘The Black Parade’ album, listening to it for the first time and loving this song the second it kicked in after ‘The End’ – before the song had even finished I knew it would be a favourite. And it still is – this song goes hard and I absolutely love it. Another song I’d love to see live again but doubt they’d pick to play. I wish I could’ve gone to the Black Parade tour but unfortunately I wasn’t a fan at that point and I was primary age so my Mom might’ve not let me go anyway – and even if she had I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate it enough.

4. Summertime

I fall in and out of love with this song. At first release didn’t think it was anything special. At their Birmingham concert I remember Gerard announcing they were gonna play ‘Summertime’ but I only cheered because I thought he’d said ‘Cemetery’ as in ‘Cemetery Drive’ so I was a bit confused when they started playing this. As per usual with me I started listening to the song more after the concert and fell in love with it. Then as time went by it fell back into my ‘nothing special’ category until my recent re-listen to the ‘Danger Days’ album when I realised I do love this song after all.

3. Welcome to the Black Parade

Arguably the most iconic My Chemical Romance song ever. Even people that don’t know much about the band know this song. This was the first song I listened to knowing it was them and I’ve been hooked ever since then. I still love this song so much and I don’t doubt they’d play this at their concert ‘cos it’s their most popular song ever and to be honest I’d be in danger of crying because this song has so many memories attached to it. I hear the G note and I’ll be in floods, I tell you.

2. Na Na Na

This was the first album they released whilst I was an active fan so it was my first ‘comeback’ as a fan (do we use comeback for non K-Pop groups?). I was hooked straightaway. I mentioned in my last post that one night My Chemical Romance changed their website and I received a message off my internet friend Lauzz to get online straightaway as something was happening. I sat up all night on my sister’s laptop talking to my internet MCR friends and watching the website like a hawk. It was a bit of a waste of time as nothing happened for over a week but part of me misses being that excited about something. Like I get hyped for stuff but I haven’t felt that excited for something in ages. I was meant to be going to a festival the next day and I was absolutely exhausted but I didn’t care.

I didn’t have a laptop when the song finally dropped so I had to watch the musical channels and hope it would come on – luckily MTV or a similar channel put aside some time to specifically show the new video and I was over the moon to finally see it. The day the album came out I walked from school straight to the town centre with my friend Jackie to buy the special edition of the album which came with a bandana – pretty sure I got Party Poison’s – and spent the entire evening listening to all the songs. That album is my favourite now, pretty much all of the songs are bops.

1. Vampire Money

This song is at the end of the Danger Days album and as far as I can tell was pretty much a middle finger to Twilight as the Killjoys concept seems to end with ‘Goodnite, Dr Death’ and then this song kicks in (which is why I don’t think I understood the album at the time). I’m glad this song comes on after otherwise the album would end on such a depressing note but because this song kicks in it doesn’t. Essentially I’m pretty sure the idea of this song is that Gerard was offered the part of Edward in ‘Twilight’ and didn’t take it, thus inspiring this song. So uh thank you Twilight.

I’ve always liked this song but it’s only recently that it’s become such a strong favourite and I couldn’t even say why, I just really like it!

So yeah, those are my current favourite My Chemical Romance songs. Everyone form a prayer circle that they do decide to return to the UK and that I can go to at least one of their shows if not more. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment your favourites!