Christmas is almost here!

It's official. I am going to Finland for Christmas and New year. The downside is that Skywalker can't afford to come with me. To be honest the only way I can afford it is because my parents are paying for the flights.

Last year I had my first London Christmas since moving to London permanently. It was very different to the way my family spend Christmas. Not bad, just very different. I think I had a bit of a culture shock. We stayed at the flat that Skywalker shares with his dad. The biggest difference between a British Christmas and a Finnish Christmas is which day is celebrated as the most important one i.e when the presents are opened! By Finnish standards Christmas eve is climax of Christmas. All preparations are finished by Christmas eve. The perferably real, carefully decorated Christmas tree sits in a central spot in the living room as the central visual point to be seen by all. Our family follows quite a traditional christmas eve routine. Christmas Eve morning is filled with anticipation as the hours are counted until the presents can be opened. Some people will be still frantically running around shopping centres trying to find the last presents. In our home it is a laidback affair. Everything is done by the night before orchastrated by my mother, the master of organization. The traditional Finnish stuff doesn't begin until lunch time when you have the option of going to the sauna before having rice porridge with sugar and cinnamon. The tv might be on but we usually turn it off on this holiday and listen to seasonal radio and all the cheesy songs that usually make our teeth grind. After lunch some of us might scamper to our rooms to finish off packing gifts. We usually put on our sunday best and I love to make an effort and put on a lovely dress. The main event is Christmas eve dinner. The table is set with the traditional Christmas oven baked ham covered in mustard, boiled potatoes, beetroot salad, gravlax and casseroles with carrots, sweetened potato.  Me being a vegetarian I don't partake in consuming all of the traditional food but everyone else seems to love it. Mulled wine with raisins is a big treat for me. We eat and socialize in candle light for hours and enjoy the snowy view from our dining room window.

Around nine pm we move into the living room absolutely stuffed towards the chocolate trays and the presents that have usually "magically" appeared into a sack in front of the christmas tree. I will post some photos while I'm in Finland to give you a first person view into a Finnish Christmas.

Now my friends I am sorry but I will have to leave you to go back to learn my lines for the pantomime that I'm performing before I can enjoy wintery Finland.

The Joker and Harleyquinn unleashed!

Sorry everyone for the delay in posting about October MCM Expo 2011. Life as usual has gotten in the way of fun. I have been doing crazy shifts to try and tide me over till the pantomime in December. Anyway on to the more important things: our experience at Expo. Skywalker and I could only attend the event on the Saturday. Money issues prevented us from doing a whole weekender, we were even thinking of booking a hotel for the weekend but alas.

Our day started with a 6am wake up call for make up and hair. Doing Skywalker's hair and make up takes a good 2 hours and about half an hour for my own. We are perfectionists in our cosplays. We use professional theatre make up and a good professional tip for making scars is using liquid latex with tissue paper. In London the best make up resource for theatre make up is Charles Fox's. I can spend a fortune there in a heartbeat. So take caution if you do go.

Around 8am we were fully clothed and ready to go. Being a weekend London transport was useless as usual, another reason we woke up at such an inhumane hour. The top tip for making the most out of MCM Expo is to buy the early bird tickets and arriving early. You do not want to arrive around midday without a ticket; the size of the queue will make even hardened Brits want to take their own life.

Traveling to a convention in costume is definitely half the fun of cosplaying. Since the October Expo falls on Halloween weekend our appearance on the streets of London is less shocking than in the May Expo but nonetheless we received loads of quizzical and shocked looks, honks from cars and compliments. The bouncing of my Harleyquinn hat as I walked had us in permanent giggles. Skywalker managed to scare some children on the way. We met some anime cosplayers on the way and shared the rest of the journey with them. We arrived at the Excel centre around 11am and the area was already swarming with cosplayers. To my disappointment we heard we were sharing the Excel centre with a fashion show of some sort. Don't get me wrong I love fashion but with the volume of people who attend MCM Expo and growing each year putting another event on at the same time is surely counterproductive. I also had to stifle my laughter in as some fashionistas decided the queue with the most cosplayers must be the queue to enter the fashion show. No this isn't a Harleyquinn costume I am wearing but the latest trend from Paris!!

 After the long journey we headed straight for refreshments at Cybercandy which sells confectionary from all over the world. I bought Fanta grape soda which I haven't drunk since I was seven years old when we lived in the US! Ah nostalgia!

MCM Expo is a haven for collectors. I bought this adorable Catbus plushtoy from one of my favourite Anime films "Totoro" by Studio Ghibli! Come to think of it every time I've been to Expo I've bought a plushie. I might be starting a tradition.

The Batman: Arkham City video game was being promoted so our costumes were very apt for the situation. We met some other great Batman cosplayers. Here we are with a great Catwoman. I keep seeing so many great Catwomans that I'm tempted to cosplay as her myself in the future. Before that I have at least 3 other cosplays that come first and one currently in progress. Posing for photos is definitely a big part of the cosplay culture and refusing is considered ridiculously rude. Why dress up if you don't want to pose? Being asked for a photo is also a big compliment for cosplayers. It means your work is considered of a good standard. Cosplaying is not a hobby for the camera-shy. The first time we cosplayed as Harleyquinn and Joker we could hardly take one step without being asked to pose for a photo.

I borrowed this great foam mallet from another (male) Harleyquinn. I need to build a mallet. Right now! (I wish my bag wasn't in the photo.)

         2 sides of the same character: Arkham Asylum Harleyquinn meets comic book Harley.

                                           Should I be concerned? He's MY Mister J!

The first Arkham Asylum Scarecrow I have ever seen. I'm impressed. Apparently the claw is made from a Pringles tube, syringes and tubing. A Pringles tube?!

Two-face and Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy is a very popular cosplay but this one was my favourite. I wonder how he made those scars?

It's not all about Batman. Here was a wonderfully whimsical Tonberry (I bought the plushie last year!) from the Final Fantasy game series. I especially love that he/she has a person dedicated to hold the speech bubble! Skywalker loves posing too much to just hold my speech bubbles.

I am constantly impressed by cosplayers' imagination and creativity. I have seen excellent cosplays of things I would never even think of like this Pac-man group. They made my day!

This is a remote controlled R2D2, yes you heard me a remote controlled R2D2. With beeps and lights and everything. I found out there's a whole internet community for R2D2 builders. If I had the skills I would make one for Skywalker. That would possibly be the only present I would ever have to give him.

                                                                         Simples!

                                             Retro cosplay: Banana1 from Bananas in Pyjamas.

                                       A fantastic female Madhatter equipped with china teacups.

I had an admirer too, in a white suit. I resisted temptation but had a sneaky cuddle!

That's enough for me for now. I don't want to clog up my blog with all the photos I took. If people like this post I am considering posting more about cosplaying. Please leave comments. It was a fun day as always. Anyone geeky who loves dressing up should definitely give it a try. Warning it is very addicting activity. I am hoping my elaborate Lulu cosplay will be finished for May's MCM Expo. I have all the fabrics but need to buy boning for the corset top. I have never made a corset before, fingers crossed it turns out ok.

All Hallow's eve is approaching!

                  One of my favourite times of the year is approaching! Any excuse to dress up and play! Ever since last year me and Skywalker have spent halloween weekend at the MCM Expo London. A massive cosplaying event and the first one I attended in England. Funnily enough my very first cosplay was at the Ropecon in Finland. It was probably ten years ago when I cosplayed as Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels. I wasn't even aware I was cosplaying then! I always  have the intention of having a new cosplay for each year but this year life got in the way of my plans and I was unable to finish my cosplay in time. I'm hoping to have it done for May's Expo. So I will be re-wearing my costume from last year. Harleyquinn!  And Skywalker as my Joker. Here is a pic from last year's Expo. I have made tweaks to the cosplay since the photo has been taken. After Saturday I will be posting photos from this year's Expo and our experiences. My expectations are high as last year we went down a storm and posed for what felt like a million photos! I hope to meet old and new cosplay friends and have a ball. If there's any cosplayers out there that recognize me leave a comment. Also any comments from non-cosplayers welcome too!

Kliché?

I think I have some explaining to do about why I stated I might be a walking, talking cliché. My life has followed a certain very well known pattern I have seen in several forms of media countless times. I was an outcast as a teenager and severely bullied for many years (a topic for another post) and to survive I started to feel strangely proud of my freak status. Due to my experiences I was diagnosed with depression and have been in therapy for many years and still go to this day. I have chosen to pursue a career in one of the hardest industries in the world and despite all my self doubt and fears I have unwavering feeling it is what I was meant to do. I will not stop trying until I get there. Oh and I waitress part-time. A waitress aspiring to be an actress. What is more clichéd than that?! Yet it is my reality.
             Thankfully as I have grown up over years I no longer take myself as seriously as I used to as a teenager. Sometimes you just have to laugh if only to keep sane. I have this inked on my skin. P.S It is misspelt on purpose.