A Fond Farewell to 2011, Hello and Welcome to 2012

I think 2011 was a good year. Really. It started off a bit shaky, as I had a bad flu and started the year bundled up, freezing and seething at the St George’s Circus bus stop in London – waiting for almost 2 hours for my bus.

But it was a year of successes and great people and I am happy about that. I had my fair share of stress –with exams in the very first week. Add trying to study with sinus headaches, sore throat, hacking cough and fever, in the dead of London winter, and you can imagine my ultimate joy! Semester 2, while on paper, looked like it would be a cake walk, was probably worse than the jam-packed semester 1. The assignments never stopped and then of course, the dreaded D – dissertation which was a nightmare of epic proportions! But even with all that, I managed to get it done, with Distinction, and will be heading back to the Big Smoke in no time at all for my graduation.

I started the year as a student and end it as a grad – an employed grad no less, which is much better than many others can say. I am beyond grateful for that, on a very serious level, because so many of my friends are still job hunting and scouring the job ads, and waiting. I gripe about having to roll off my bed at 3.30 am each day and about how tired I am, but I am thankful that I have a job to get off the bed for. The car won’t pay for itself. Yes…the end of public transportation came at the end of 2011 as well – a real triumph for the high heeled princess. I do not miss running after the South Eastern, South West or Southern trains, or hopping maxis back home. Nope. Don’t miss it.

The Pavilion, Brighton

Though I did not get on a plane this year, other than between home and London, I did manage to do some adventuring. The UK, while cold and grisly, is a beautiful country and I explored other parts of London I had not yet explored (not just the cocktail bars and pubs) and also ventured to areas outside of London for a change, including Windsor, Wales, Bath, Bristol, Brighton, Rye and Hastings. If I could sneak in a trip to Edinburgh on my short escape, 2012 would have started off nicely I think – cold but pleasant.

I enjoyed a few great festivals in London as well, like Taste of London and the Wine and Cheese Festival. I miss events like those actually.

Lots of cooking as well - and now that I am back home, I am sure there will be much more.

I also made my debut as tv star, in the T-Mobile wedding ad, though you can only see the length of my dress and not much else. Still it was a fun experience. Met some great people during that experience.

But not as great as the people I met over the year in London, from classmates, some of whom will be lifelong friends, to the oddball adventures, public dating disasters and funny stories, to those who made the cut. Lol. These people brought fun, laughter, support and everythingness. A girl can only be this lucky once, right? Well, I am awesome, so I have it a hundred times over. My peeps are great!

We lost a friend this year but move forward with renewed hope because friendship is powerful and so is forgiveness.

Blog-wise, I have not always been consistent. When I was too busy with school to blog, I then became too busy with work. Balancing a real life with blogging is often challenging. Still, it is a fun outlet. I did my one and only anonymous vlog, as did Pablo. Did a photo challenge, but in the end, I blogged when I could.

So what will 2012 bring? God knows. I am praying for it to be a happy year – more happiness than sadness. Really hoping everyone, including myself, remains safe and healthy and happy over the 366 days of 2012. We can only ever take it one day at a time but I can still have a long term vision!

The lovely Grenadines, West Indies - right next door

While my movements will be restricted for a while, seeing that I have started a new job and thus have no real vacation time, I will have weekends, so there are places I can still go on a time crunch, including St Lucia, Grenada/Grenadines, Antigua, Miami (of course!), New York (not in the winter like last time) and who knows where else. 2013 will see me back in Europe but until then, gonna love my hemisphere as best as I can.

People wise – the year will undoubtedly end with some farse aunt or family friend asking if the husband will come in 2012 and my farse and bright response will probably be, “Find him and ask him”. I will again be forced to defend singledom and my right to life despite not being tied to some loser til death do us part. I have no idea what life will hold for me but guess what…life does not wait. I have learnt a lot about myself in the past year and reaffirmed what I already knew, and I will be having fun and being the fabulista that I have always been.

That being said, I want to wish you all a very Happy 2012. May all the things you wish for yourselves and your loved ones come to pass, and just have fun. Life is short and love is endless – love life.

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Memorable Mobile (phone) Moments

The vague twitterings

So I can finally blog about my day on Tuesday. So to make a long story pretty damn short, I won a competition and ultimately won myself a chance to be on the set of the new T-Mobile UK ad.  For those who don't know about the T-Mobile UK ads, they are loads of fun. I cannot decide which one I like the most but getting the chance to be on set for the new one was something I was excited about.

Now I was under the impression that I was just going to be on set, and see how they did the whole thing and for a Communications postgrad, that in itself is exciting. Little did I realise, I was going to be IN the damn thing. lol. When lovely Charlotte called me and told me to dress up in my "Sunday best", I was like "say what?"

Needless to say, the trininista is always prepared and despite being away from home, I did manage to throw a couple frocks in my bag while packing how many months ago, so I did in fact have an item which could be aptly described as "Sunday best". And despite all my quarrelling about no heels in London, I do in fact have a pair with me. I would never leave home without a pair of heels. AS IF!

Charlotte would not divulge much about the location, the concept, what I was going to be doing - nada. It was all pretty 007, and I showed up at the meeting point, which was not the set, and had no clue what I was getting myself into. I figured if I was in a silly purple dress, with a rose hair accessory, and heels, in the middle of rush hour morning - a dress which was more Caribbean than Britain, and on a cold English day, I was hopefully going to be indoors.

Furthermore, Sunday best typically means a) a church or b) a fancy schmancy dinner. The next stop was in fact a hall, where I assumed we would be for option B, but nope - just briefing. It was so clandestine, you would not believe. Not a peep from anyone. Zero. Nada. Rien.

There were probably about 80 other people there - all in fancy suits and fancy dress and hats. I loved the ladies in their hats. All sizes, all colours. Some of these gals took this thing really seriously, coming with suitcases with different outfits and hats to make sure they looked right for the part so they could be caught on camera. I wondered whether I could pull off a hat and decided that yes, I could, cause I am fabulous.

My lovely rose hair accessory

The other lucky winners - all great people might I add - were also clueless, as were the other 80-odd people. We then underwent a cursory once-over by wardrobe, who politely decided who was fancy enough to stay in what they were wearing for the shoot or who would end up in what I would later call, the dreaded choir outfit. I passed the test, in my purple Caribbean dress and rose hairpiece, but they took poor Sonso away from me and I had no idea where they had gone with my friend until later. I could not stop laughing after seeing the expression on her face when I next saw her.

At the church. Yes...the church. The concept was more than obvious by then, but will let you see for yourself below. Keep in mind where I am and what people are looking forward to here. I still managed surprise and enthusiasm because really it was loads of fun, even after doing the same take a million times and acting surprised every time.  Also there was Louie Spence, who I imagine is a big deal here cause everyone was like "Is that Louie Spence?" - just thought I would put that in there although even after Googling the chap, still have no clue who he is, except that I assume he helped choreograph the scene.

But the company was good fun, as I sat with 3 gorgeous and funny boys, who made laughing and smiling throughout the shoot rather easy. The other extras (sorry...the politically correct term is support artist) were superb and it was a good day out for the oft-frazzled postgrad. And while my classmates were pulling hairs out over their proposals, I was standing and smiling on cue, and later posing for photos, with "royalty".

The ad is not as great as the others they have done and I expected more actually, especially after all the secrecy and hype, but the fun factor was high for us there on the day. I can put that on my list of fun London moments.

Never a dull moment in trininista-world! Here is the ad, which was released today and which is why my code of silence is finally broken. You can see the edge of my dress but that's all and I am pretty happy with that. I am not a tv star!

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