Today marks exactly 1 year since I stepped foot on London soil! I actually can’t believe how time has flown by or how things have turned out compared to what I expected. It’s been a bumpy journey to say the least and I thought I’d share with you what the last 365 days have been like as a lot of my followers have expressed how they miss reading my blog posts so here goes… Grab a mojito it’s going to be a long one!

London’s gorgeous skyline

So I just arrive in London on a cold spring day, I didn’t know a single person and my first instinct was to find other like-minded South Africans to ask advice from and gain knowledge on the London living lifestyle. Boy… was I shook! Now we all know how straight forward and abrupt South Africans can be however the ones here in London / UK seem to think they’re in some way better than everyone else. So here’s what happened in a nutshell – I joined a Facebook group called “Saffas in South England” asking for advice on where to live, if anyone wouldn’t mind putting me up for a week or 2, salary expectations etc. and the response I got was rather pessimistic and arrogant.

A lot of the responses I got were from South African’s that didn’t even live in the city, but on the outskirts. So to compare it: London city = Tamboerskloof vs outskirts = Caledon. A lot of them shut me down by saying things like I’d never get the salary I want or I would never be able to live in the areas I want, it’s just not attainable. But that was their unattainable and not mine! I will be honest and say I had a little rant on Twitter saying that the South African groups in the UK are so unhelpful and negative and one of the minions from the Facebook group (hello, if you’re reading this) took a screenshot of my tweet and posted it to the group. This is what the group members had to say:

Since they blocked me from their silly little group, here’s my 2c

@ Celeste – despite your opinion of me being a leech, I’ll have you know I worked hard for everything I’ve achieved in my life, no one helped me get to where I am and I’m doing pretty good! Check my LinkedIn profile for reference… And yes I am an opportunist! How else do you think I made such a success in my career in the last 12 months here hun 🙂

@ Carina – I left South Africa to get away from individuals like you that give a bad reputations for SA all over the world

@ Yo – I grew up with no parents and no university education. Trust me when I say I have life experience

@Lee-Anne – Been here for 12 months now and still not homesick 🙂 Kinda think I’ll stay here forever you know! Also made it to the top WITHOUT your Facebook cult group

@ Ruben – Fuck you too 🙂

It got so bad that I moved far away from the South African saturated areas of London just so that I wouldn’t have to be surrounded by a pessimistic atmosphere who thought they were never capable of achieving more. Don’t get me wrong, I have 2 South African friends here in London and I adore them but damn most of them have let this UK life go to their heads. Neeeeeeext……….

Also I went on my very first Tinder date and it turned out to be a nightmare! You can read about it HERE but I’ve since been on a few more dates (about 5) but it’s just one failure after the next. If it’s not that the guy is a complete weirdo by asking me on a first date if I can iron shirts then it’s that he is a complete fuckboy and trust me when I say that the majority of London men are that way… There’s very much a culture of “I’m just here for work and my career, not looking for anything too serious as I’ll move back to my hometown at some point.” So in terms of me finding a partner worthy of my time, well that went out the window!

I was LIVING for the snow in February!

At month number 3 in London I had just about used up all my resources and was running out of funds quick! I had still not found a proper full time job, I was feeling despondent and like a complete failure! I had contemplated one too many times about just packing up and going to South Africa and although my friends and family were quite supportive of whatever decision I made I knew in my heart the huge sacrifice I made to make this move happen. If you know me personally you’d know how driven I am to make a success out of everything I do and giving up wasn’t going to be that easy.

At the very end of month number 3 I managed to secure a temporary contract job at a major insurance organisation – top 3 financial services companies in the world! Finally the breakthrough I had been waiting for and I knew that I had to make the very best of this opportunity. Fast forward 9 months later and exactly 1 year in London, as I write this I have 3 job offers in front of me from some of the biggest names in the industry. To think a year ago I was unemployable and now I have all these opportunities which I never imagined possible when I first arrived. Having said that the company I currently work for has offered to switch my contract from temporary to permanent as I’ve displayed a good character and work ethic and have proven over and over what an asset I am to the company. *Celebratory drinks later*

Can I also just say how being a beauty blogger has helped me in my professional career? I’ve since went on to become an industry ambassador promoting careers in the insurance industry and often do talks at schools and provide advice on social media strategies. I don’t think I’d be able to offer this skill set had it not been for my experience as a beauty blogger. I hope this explains why I’ve had to neglect my beauty blog for a while but will do another blog post on this at a later stage…

I’ve made some really good friends as well! I remember when first moving here I found it quite intimidating trying to make friends. I’d been so caught up in my circle back home that I didn’t even know where to start in terms of looking for new friends. Like how does one even make a new friend without having any to begin with?! Luckily for me I had joined a festival Facebook group (trust me to be in the party groups LOL) and had met a Danish guy who had introduced me to his group of London friends. He’s since moved but I still got to remain friends with the group and now they’re practically family! We do girly lunches, concerts and dinners – I honestly don’t know what I’d do without them!

My favourite girls!

It’s not all roses and smiles though, London is known for flat sharing and if you’ve ever flat shared you know that it could go one of two ways: tolerable or absolutely fucking terrible! When I first moved here I lived with 2 guys, an English and Irish guy. Contrary to popular opinion living with guys was a walk in the park. No drama, no issues, and just an easy going environment. It wasn’t until I switched homes and decided to live with 2 girls that my entire idea around flat sharing changed! I’m not sure if it’s because they both came from wealthy privileged families or the fact that they just lacked in maturity, but I’ve had possibly the worst flatmates I could imagine! It’s hard to think that girls can be lazy, messy, don’t exercise personal hygiene, eat junk food and lay in bed everyday, leave shit stains in the toilet, be inconsiderate with orgasm noises when bringing a boy over, I mean the list can go on and I’m not even half way yet! I’ve since learnt that you cannot really say one sex is better to live with than the other, it merely boils down to the level of respect your flatmates have for one another and some people are just simply put, how us South African’s like to say it: morsig!

Then let’s not forget about my lawsuit where I nearly got sued for £20,000 for writing a bad review on a beauty salon I visited! You can read about it HERE. I laugh about it now but it’s disgusting how companies in the UK threaten and intimidate people with lawsuits for writing honest reviews. My case is a prime example of why you should stand your ground and challenge companies that act unethically. Don’t let them walk all over you because I’ll tell you this – and that’s if a company is trying to sue you for writing a negative review on the services they’re offering, then they probably know what they’re doing is wrong and want to conceal the truth.

Knightsbridge

The Shard

With all of this I’ve had to put my blog on the back-burner unfortunately. I had to completely reinvent myself, my career and making sure that I had a constant income and therefore my career had to take priority. I hope now since I’ve taken up a permanent position in my company and I’ll be moving into a new home this weekend, that my life will become a bit more settled instead of a daily stress train. The fact that some of you still slide into my DM’s from time to time saying how much you miss my posts keeps that fire burning inside me to keep this blog running – and it will! All in good time 🙂

Thank you for sticking around for this long!

XOXO

Wowzers! Washing machines have come a long way since the good and trusty twin tub! Man… I still remember how we had to turn that squeaky dial to set the machine to wash, wait till it’s done and then dig deep into the deep blue to transfer your clothes over to the spin tub! And don’t you dare leave a missing soldier behind (a loose sock) LOL! Aaah those were the good old days!

Luckily today we’re living our best lives in 2018 and get to experience technology at its absolute best! LG has always been a household favourite of ours as they’ve always been in the forefront of innovation and constantly developing new products so we were quite pleased to receive LG’s newest edition to the family – the LG Smart Inverter Top Loader Washing Machine.

You might be scratching your head thinking: What is a Smart Inverter? Basically its built in technology that eliminates wasted operation by controlling energy use so you could save up to 36% of your energy (electricity) usage. Has your wash cycle ever been affected by a power failure and would need to restart right from the beginning once the power comes back on? With the new Smart Inverter technology your wash will pick up straight from where it left off, cool right?!

Not only that its packed with so many other cool features, here’s a quick look at some of them:

Turbo Drum: The new Turbo Drum enables the most powerful wash and removes even the toughest dirt.

Smart Motion: Choose between powerful washing, tangle free washing and delicate washing – always making sure that your garments get the right treatment!

Low Decibel Quiet System: Think – a little louder than a library but a little quieter than the office.

Smart Diagnosis: (My personal fave) With LG being the forefront of innovation, they’ve come up with a digital way to help diagnose and troubleshoot mechanical problems. Download the LG Smart Laundry App, link it up to the receiver built into the display panel of your washing machine and let LG’s little helpers do the rest. Talk about getting with the times…!

I definitely think it’s a good buy and coming in at just R5,999 for a 17kg tub (currently on promotion at Makro), it would be rude not to! To find out more about its features, specs and where to buy click HERE.

XOXO

If you had to ask any of my friends what Tarryn thinks about Tinder, they’d probably just laugh in your face and ask you to tell another joke, that’s how much of a disliking I have towards the app that seems to be taking over the traditional way of dating these days.

During December myself and a few friends had a few drinks and naturally we thought it would be cool idea to do something fun. Like create a Tinder account for myself! That poor account only lasted a mere 10 days. Douchebag upon douchebag graced the screen of my phone, not to mention the fuckboys that I already knew personally who were on there too. I decided to delete my account and try to meet guys the old fashioned way. Either way it wouldn’t have mattered if I had met someone as I had planned to leave the country in 3 months anyway.

On the 28^th of March I arrived in my new home town, London. London is an amazing place filled with so many interesting people to meet and being a newbie to this big city (and upon recommendation from a friend) I decided to give good ‘ol Tinder one last go! But this time not for the purpose of dating someone because let’s get real here – a girl needs to get her shit together in a new country before even thinking about engaging in a relationship! I genuinely wanted to make some friends and meet cool and like-minded people who wouldn’t mind showing me awesome places and introducing me to good people.

So I matched with this guy. Tall, dark hair, really he was my type but I promised myself that we were only going to be friends. We chatted for a day and decided to meet up and go for drinks the following night. The night actually went really well, no weird sexual passes from him that would ultimately make me run for the hills, he was actually really nice! So nice that we decided to go out the next night as well. We started off with some chilled drinks and then went to a more vibey scene so we ended up in a club in London. It was a fun night, we actually kissed a few times (yeah I know against my rules) and then the unthinkable happened,  my drink got spiked!

Thank goodness I’m okay and nothing terrible happened to me! But can you believe that? One minute I was fine and the next minute I could just about stand on my own two feet! It is scary to think now what had happened to me but it did and I can only just learn from the situation. The next thing I remember was getting out of a cab and throwing up alongside the road while this guy is holding back my hair. You can just about imagine my embarrassment! Long story short, I ended up passing out at this guy’s place, a person who I had only known for 2 days, woke up the next morning thinking what the fuck just happened. I’m not sure whether I should feel grateful that he was nice enough to help me or ashamed that something like that happened to me.

I don’t think it was the guy that spiked my drink though, but you never really know. There were a few times that I left my drink unattended throughout the night so it could really just be anyone. I’m not used to having to keep a close eye on my drinks as everyone in Cape Town is usually stingy with their drugs anyway. But jokes aside, lesson learnt!

Just as you thought that was the worst of it, I ended up having drinks with him a week later again. This time a lot more chilled. He introduced me to a good friend of his, we had wine and chatted. Obviously I apologized profusely about my behavior the previous week and he seemed to be understanding. But this is where the story gets interesting again.

His friend ends up messaging me like 2 days later suggesting we go out for a drink. My initial reaction was to say, hey like is your friend (Tinder guy) okay with it? Like I wouldn’t go have drinks with someone who my friend went out on a Tinder date with but that’s just me. He’s response was that he had asked the Tinder guy and he’s okay with it. Now I’m thinking what the hell is going on here?! Is Tinder guy passing me onto his friends? What a douchebag if he did!

After a few mojito’s I put on my brave-girl pants and decided to ask the Tinder guy if he’s giving his friends passes to go out with me. Turns out he’s friend didn’t ask him if he’s okay with it, but at the same time saying if I wanted to then he’s fine with it. So either his friend made a dick-move by going behind his back asking to hang out with me or Tinder guy is lying and is passing me off to his friends! Which leads me to my next assumption, do these guys work on a tag-team basis where the one reels the girl in from Tinder and then if he doesn’t like her hands her over to his friend?! My goodness! Tinder is a fucking dark world and anyone willing to go down that road goes at their own risk. I’m too nice for this shit! Since then, Tinder guy has ghosted me so I’m assuming that my gut feeling was right about them all along.

Now let’s get one thing straight – Tinder is not the place to make friends. I repeat: TINDER IS NOT THE PLACE TO MAKE FRIENDS! Sure if you’re open to hanging out with a fuckboy then Tinder is right up your alley but as far as friends go, forget about it! They may tell you that they’re not in it for the sex or they also just want to be friends but truth be told, they’re telling 15 other matches on their profile the same thing!

I’ve spoken to a couple of guys over the last few weeks about their Tinder use and did you know that when they swipe right on someone, they’re not even looking at the girls profile, in fact they’re not even looking at their phone! They’re busy with something else while their one hand is occupied with just swiping to the right. The way I found this out was a friend of mine handed over his phone to me to ask if I could swipe on a few girls on his Tinder. So just as I tried to swipe right I got this pop-up message saying that he had exceeded his number of swipes and would need to wait 4 hours to swipe right on someone again. Clearly a message I’ve never seen before but he had explained to me that that’s just how guys use Tinder.

Another guy I spoke to showed me that he did the same thing. Except this guy is married. MARRIED! His excuse was that he’s going through a divorce so that justifies his Tinder use. Imagine you going out on a date with someone, not knowing at all that he has a wife and kids waiting for him back home?? And you’ll never know because they’ll never tell you! Guys are dogs! Just like they’ll never tell you that they only use Tinder for sex!

And then the old classic, the day my ex-boyfriend matched with one of my friends on Tinder probably not knowing that me and her were friends. He portrayed to be the most amazing person on Tinder but none of the girls he was chatting up knew how abusive he was towards me. So how many more narcissistic, abusive douchebags troll the likes of online dating apps? Do I want to find out? No!

Ladies, Tinder is nothing more than modern day prostitution in my opinion. Instead of a guy paying $$$$ on prostitution where he might run the risk of getting locked up where its illegal, why not just get on Tinder, take her for a few drinks, take her home and then seal the deal? Ever noticed how they’ll NEVER let you pay for anything? It’s because they’re “paying” you to put out later…

I fully understand that there are happy endings with some Tinder stories. A very good friend of mine is now actually dating someone who she met on Tinder and she’s happy so I’m happy for her. Yes they had to overcome a few hurdles to get where they are. I’m just not sure whether I could be with someone who might or might not be chatting up girls on Tinder while with you. That’s always a risk you take when you date someone from the online dating world I suppose.

There’s a saying that goes: “It’s not your girl, it’s just your turn” well here’s something: “A Tinder guy is everyone’s guy”.

Let that sink in.

I’m baaaack! In case you guys were wondering where I was hiding, I was taking a well deserved social media detox, spending time with family and just getting my plans for 2017 sorted. 2016 was a year that showed me exactly in which direction I wanted to go and where I want to be. It showed me that even with my fear of flying, I have such a desire to travel and meet new people and get to know different cultures. Which is why I resigned from my job last Wednesday and decided to move to the United Kingdom.

“You must be so excited” which is what a lot of people have been telling me. To be honest, I’m not that excited… If you know me personally you’d know that I hate South African winters, let alone freezing cold, snow filled European winters. As I write this I’m laying on a lounger next to the pool in 27 degree weather at The Bay Hotel. Besides the weather putting a damper on things I then still have to deal with the implications of Brexit, finding a job as soon as I get there because companies in the UK don’t want to employ me if I’m not there, finding a place to live, having to deal with snotty British people and having no friends and family.

“Then why are you going?!” …you must be thinking. Well let me see… It’s a mix up of many different things but mostly for personal and career development, to be able to travel whilst I’m still young, to build my career and then maybe, just maybe find someone to marry along the way too. After being single for nearly my 3rd year I kind of just realized that I don’t think there’s anyone here for me so I’m taking my search abroad. I haven’t been on a single date since my last relationship and I just get the feeling that South African guys in general aren’t interested in me. And that’s okay.

I’ve been asking a lot of people that made the move abroad how their experience was and if they could offer me any sort of advice and many of them had a similar story of being lucky enough to link up with family or a spouse on the other side. It’s always so much easier when you have someone on the other side waiting for you as that helps with your accommodation and also so that you have a safety net to assist you financially until you’ve found employment. I have none of that! I’m going in completely blind, with a lot of hope in my heart and hopefully enough money to keep me afloat for a month. I’m literally just going to wing it. Am I crazy? Possibly. Am I brave? People say so. Am I giving up everything in an attempt to make the most out of my future? Definitely!

The reason why I haven’t been on social media much lately is because I’ve been spending all my free time applying for job after job after job. Sadly with every application comes another application denial. As it looks now, it’s super difficult finding a job and I can only hope that things will turn around as soon as I’m physically in the UK. There’s a few people that I know of that have recently moved to the UK and have been searching for a job for MONTHS! I don’t have months to be looking for a job, this is what makes this ride that much more scary! And as much as I hate to admit it, I can’t see myself taking on one of those shitty jobs that they like to give to South Africans like packing fruit in a factory or working as a night shift security guard. I’ve worked far too hard in my career of choice to succumb to a job that I hate simply because it helps me “get by”.

My biggest fear is that this gamble I’m about to take doesn’t work out in my favor and then I’m left homeless on the icy streets of London WTF! Imagine the headlines: Worlds First Ever Beauty Blogger To Go From Beauty To Hobo. I could cry just thinking about it! But on a more serious note, everyone keeps on telling me that if it doesn’t work out then just come home. For me right now that doesn’t seem like an option. For me that seems like I’ve given up and that my financial sacrifice that I took to move to the UK would all be in vain. Besides that, I come back to nothing and with nothing and would need to start from the bottom up again.

Then there’s Brexit. Let me just quickly explain to you how Brexit affects me. I have dual citizenship with South Africa and Hungary. Hungary is part of the 28 European Union (EU) countries which allows free movement across Europe, well at least until Brexit happens. Britain wants to shut their doors to all EU citizens as soon as Brexit is officially put in place. You guys, Brexit is a real deal problem right now! Am I picking the worst time to go to the UK? Hell yes! I’ve been in contact with a couple of UK recruitment agencies lately and one agency (who’s name I shall not mention) who I asked for job hunting advice came back to me with the following: “there are a lot of candidates looking for work and with the Brexit situation, it will be a tricky year” What’s that even supposed to mean? Are they discriminating against  EU nationals to make them leave the country? Are they xenophobic? Is this why I’m finding such a hard time getting companies to look at my job application???

Then there’s my blog. I’m so worried that I won’t be able to invest much time into my blog. Not only that but it’s also going to take some time getting to know my way around the UK beauty world and to figure out where I should shop for all my essentials. I’ll have to rebuild all my PR connections and networks from scratch. Basically I’ll have to rebuild my entire blog brand and reputation from the bottom up before I can start collaborating with brands that I’m passionate about.

2016 was such a great year for What The Blog, I got featured in 2 mini mags associated with Clicks, I got featured on both the international Instagram pages of Essence Cosmetics and Catrice Cosmetics and I’ve received so much incredible feedback from PR companies commending me on my contribution to their brands. I can only hope that it will continue in the UK and that brands and PR Companies will continue to recognize my contribution to the beauty industry. I have so many plans for my blog for this year including a YouTube channel and I really hope and pray that I’ll be able to follow through with my plans and achieve my goals.

Side Note: I have no intention of discontinuing my blog whatsoever.

If I wasn’t humble before, I sure am going to have to humble myself with this move. I could possibly face tough times ahead but if it all works out then I sure am guaranteed amazing opportunities and adventures in the years to come! Once I’m all settled in then blogging will revert back to business as usual so don’t think that I’m going to forget about you guys that easily! Giveaways will still be extended to my South African family (you) and I hope you continue to follow my adventures on social media.

Also if you have any friends or family in the UK that would be willing to help me ease into my new hometown, show me around or someone that knows of someone that knows of another person who has tons of connections to get me a rad job, then also give me a shout 🙂

XOXO