Rachel's Next Adventure

Today I thought i'd give you an insight to what I pack in my hand luggage. I've included a couple of photos but not everything is packed yet so its not all in the photos! Part 1 - My camera bag Contents: - Nikon D7000 - Panasonic HX DC-2 - Panasonic batteries - Olloclip Lenses for iPhone 6 - Passport - Pen - Small notebook - Lowepro SD card holder - Nikon lens - Small travel file (Disney tickets, PASMO card, etc) Part 2 - Our shared backpack Vans backpack. Contents: - Cocoon Grid-it - Two iPhone battery packs - My Glasses case - Naruto Eye Mask - iPhone charging wires - iPad Mini - Pens - Travel Organiser - Snacks  - Wordsearch book - Comics / Magazines - Japanese phrase book - Travel documents - Purse Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

We saw Inside Out on Tuesday, here is my fiancé's review. Inside Out I want to talk about the movie but before I do, let's just say I HATE CHEAP NIGHT. Old people elbowing me off the arm rest and then taking half my chair, people behind taking what seemed to be an endless supply of crisps and sweets in their bag which required their phone torches to be on, loud kids and generally not nice people do not make for an enjoyable movie experience. On with the movie. Inside Out follows the story of emotions inside a little girls head when she's moved from her home in Minnesota to San Francisco. An argument between Joy and Sadness results in them getting lost and her unable to feel these emotions. Eventually they get back and everything ends up ok but it's a genuinely upsetting tale about her sink into depression as she feels her old life slipping away and she distances from her family, losing all personality and eventually being unable to feel any emotio...

Just five days to go now and theres still quite a bit to sort out! Panic mode is setting in! I ordered a pair of Craghoppers for when I climb Mt Fuji, but i've had to get them one size too big as i've left it so late (my options were pay £50+, have a bigger size, or have a pair so long I fall and roll down Fuji) They've arrived and they fit! They're still a little long but i'll be wearing hiking boots. I finally got my hair cut, its so much healthier now and 4 inches shorter! My fiancé is picking up our tentpole bags on Saturday. Our bluetooth button is here, it works. But we need to get a replacement battery just incase. I bought my trekking socks and I found flight socks. I finally found a new comb, I like the ones where all of the teeth are the same distance, they're so difficult to find! I rented our rain jacket, fleece, backpack and mountain boots ready to be delivered to our hotel a few days before we climb. Tomorrow ...

I took a holiday off from work on Sunday for the Sunderland International Airshow, I usually take the Sunday off every year so i'll be keeping an eye out for next years dates being released so I can put my holiday in. Fingers crossed I can get it off next year too! I couldn't get Chinese New Year this year. The day started off well, sunny, blue skies, a lot better than the weather forecast had lead us to believe, we got to the beach for 10:30, went into Morrisons to pick up some drinks, and on the way out I found the snowcone stall, things couldn't get any better! And then, UMMFT, a seagull covered me in poo! A quick hike back up to the house, quickly washed and redid my hair, got changed and swapped over to a different camera bag, we were back down to the beach by 11:30. We got some food and then went to find a good space, but as you can see in the photo below, the crowds had appeared in the hour I was gone. They brought the planes forward by...

For a while now i've thought about buying another camera bag, just a smaller, more compact bag to protect my D7000 if I want to put it in a backpack rather than lug my entire camera bag around with me. I looked online for one for when we go to Japan and I came across a few but nothing that would actually tell me if my camera would fit in it or not. That was until I found myself on the Lowepro website, where I found their bag finder calculator. You basically put in your model of camera, lens sizes, and any other accessory you'd want to have in your bag, and it will find you all the bags that your equipment will fit in. I went for the Toploader Zoom 50AW, the 45AW would have been enough for my camera with one lens, but I decided to get the 50AW incase I wanted to put anything else into the bag at some point (I don't want a collection of camera bags again, after my Lowepro Computrekker AW didn't get used, but to be fair, the backpack was bigger than my entire b...

The same day our new Funko POP! vinyl figures arrived, my new Avengers Age Of Ultron Vinylmation arrived! The seven boxes I bought came in the display tray, its the first time i've ever been sent the display tray so I was pretty happy to see that! I got the main Vinylmation I wanted, but the problem is, I already paid around £20 for it a month or two ago when they weren't released in the UK! So now I have two, l have two of the last Iron Man Vinylmation too but those were both £8 blind boxed. I got the full cast of commons, but sadly no variants or chaser. Here's a video of the seven I got, with better views of them. What do you collect? Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Its time for our 10 days to go update! Right now we're in the middle of trying to figure out wether or not we want to/should attempt to climb Mt Fuji. It takes a chunk of time out of our trip so we'd probably go in the morning and down in the evening (missing sunrise/sunset) to fit it all in one day instead of two, the plus side is its supposed to be quieter in the morning rather than the afternoon, as people start going up in the afternoon to reach the summit for sunset. I just really want to get a stick and have it stamped all the way to the top. If we decide to do it we might book a hotel the night before (we already have plans to visit Fuji one morning, if we're already at a hotel we'd be able to take photos and then leave the camera rather than take it up Fuji with us!) and we'd need to rent the kit. [It looks like we're going to do it, but we'll need to book a hotel, hire hiking equipment, rearrange the timetable and figure out how to get t...

Just a quick post to share the two new additions to our Funko POP! collection. When I was visiting Forbidden Planet International to preorder the new unmasked Iron Man POP! figure I noticed Secret Squirrel was also available for pre-order and well, I couldn't get Secret Squirrel without getting Morocco Mole now could I? These weren't due to ship out until the end of August so I was surprised when they appeared at my door a few days ago. I also ordered a Muttley but he hasn't arrived yet. I grew up watching Hanna Barbera shows on Cartoon Network and some of those shows were my absolute favourites and now my aim is to collect all of the Hanna Barbera POP! figures from my childhood. Back when I was growing up, Hanna Barbera was bigger to me than Disney, although now Disney is one of my most favourite things on the planet (the resorts, not necessarily the new movies). Next, i'll probably collect The Flintstones. Follow this blog ...

We saw Ant-Man last night, here is our review! So. Ant Man. Imagining a Mrs Doubtfire-esque comedy about a man dressing as an old woman, I was surprised that it was a typically Marvel action movie with a fair dose of comedy. The whole idea of the movie is ridiculous but it works, pretty much like everything Marvel seems to touch. While it doesn't reach Guardians of the Galaxy levels of shock acclaim it does hold well as a filler movie and a lead up to the next Avengers movie (evident by a load of Avengers nods). Personally, I'm waiting for the Guardians meets the Avengers movie however I won't be holding my breath. Back to Ant Man. We got this anti-hero criminal who wasn't a bad guy who gets tricked into stealing a suit which shrinks him to ant size and he also learns to control ants. He uses his new-found powers to take down an evil company who are making their own ant suits which are massively upgraded (see the first Iron Man) and Ant Man sav...

As a graduate i'm always interested when I see themed graduate items and keepsakes, even three years after I graduated. So I was so happy to find that the new Hallmark Keepsake is of Goofy The Graduate, and I just knew I had to have him. They only sell these in America so it was a bit of a pain to find one online, but I managed to get one off eBay, I think all together it cost around £18 with postage and tax, and even though that price seems low, I was pretty disappointed at the size of this figure when it arrived (It took around three weeks to get here), as its only around three inches tall but it looks a lot bigger in the photos and there were no sizes on the listing, or even on the box it came in. Overall, I love this keepsake, but I do wish it was a bit bigger as its not really standing out on my bedside table as its smaller than the Vinylmation and Funko POP figures it stands by. Hallmark have a lot of nice Disney themed items on their American webs...

When we contacted Hays Travel for a quote on our trip to New York, we were met with a price higher than we could book it ourselves (Although we'd not be ATOL protected if we did that). After thinking about it for a week or so we called them back up and got a new quote - this time with a different agent. Heres what happened: Agent 1: Price around £2100 Agent 2: Then an extra £120 to pay by deposit. Then more fees for prebooking seats (even including the AA flight when AA don't charge to prebook your seats!) Price around £ 2500 . Back to Agent 1 the next day: Same price as the first time she got us a quote, NO charge to prebook seats with AA, and NO charge to pay by deposit. So I contacted Hays Travel Via Twitter, who insisted on discussing it in direct messages. It took 10 days to get a reply after they said they would investigate, and the reply on the 10th day said "we'll investigate this today". What had they been doing the previous...

On Monday my new Disney Tsum Tsums arrived! I only ordered Lilo, Angel, Jumba and Duck as I already have Stitch and Scrump, so i'm glad to finally be able to welcome them into my Stitch collection. Fingers crossed when I go to Japan in three weeks i'll be able to get the rest of the set that wasn't released here, as well as the lovely new Stitch popcorn bucket from Tokyo Disneyland! Are you collecting Tsum Tsum? Who's your favourite? Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

20 Days to go! My Mam gave me another £100 towards my holiday (she's the best), so I took it straight to Debenhams and had it converted into Yen. We've got two hotels to pay for when we arrive so this £100 is going towards that. (It's approximately ¥18,300.) I've spent a while playing with Google Translate, mainly for the pronunciations of things. I've done some research and it looks like my GHD hair straighteners will work in Japan, but they won't fully heat up. So i'll just have to wait and see how well they work, and if they don't i'll pick some up on my first night before we head over to Disney the next morning. I've quickly added up some/most of the attraction prices i've already written down and its coming up at ¥18,310 so just over the extra Yen I ordered. Although thats supposed to be towards our stay at the Hotel MyStays Maihama and Hotel Sunny. I updated all of my iPad apps, but still need to download new ones an...

This is a delayed post, I made these back in May but due to having to keep them secret for a couple of days I ended up forgetting to post about them. Back in May a couple of our friends left work, on the same day! I had made these cupcakes for their leaving day but in the end they were locked in one of our friend's lockers and she was ill that day so they never got to have any before they left. I was working a lot of late shifts that week so I didn't have time to make any cupcakes so these are the Asda premade cupcakes they sell in the cake aisle. I decorated them with Nutella and some edible decoration sheets I bought from Amazon. I bought the icing/ricepaper sheets from Amazon (click for item) , they are printed on sheets and you have to cut them out yourself, so consider that if you're in a rush or need a professional looking finish. The cupcake toppers only took two or three days to get here from the order date. Follow this blog on BlogLovin...

You know i'm not much of a review writer so here's my fiancé's review of Ted 2! Ted 2 What can I say? Juvenile humour and a teddy bear that talks a lot like Peter Griffin make this movie either one you're gonna love or hate. This movie even had a Family Guy-esque intro sequence! If you've seen the first movie, this is more of the same. The plot: Ted needs to fight for his legal status as a person in order to not be classed as property. It seems that this was the brief for the movie and they had to scrape a way for this to happen, something to make the government stop him having any legal rights. This sets up a scenario where, while watching the famous scene from Roots where Kunta Kinte gets his foot chopped off for refusing to say his name is Toby, Ted turns and says "that's just like me" or words to that effect. Don't get me wrong. It's got hilarious moments but that's all this movie is, a series of gags designed to ...

For my birthday I was given four Vinylmation blind boxes, they were all from The Jungle Book series. Here in the UK we don't get any Vinylmation releases and over the past year its gotten even more difficult to get vinylmation here. My nearest store doesn't stock them - only the big, flagship stores do, so my nearest is the Disney Store in the Metro Centre, and every time I've visited the store recently, they've either had none, or just had the flags. Here are the four I unboxed. Baloo King Louie Mowgli Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy and Dizzy I had already unboxed King Louie in Disneyland Paris when we went over Valentines so i'll be putting this one on eBay. I'm hoping to get some new, and hopefully exclusive Vinylmation on my trip to Tokyo which is less than 50 days away now! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Recently I had an idea for a new photo series, it's been a while since i've really shot anything i've planned out beforehand other than the Danbo and Vinylmation photos I took around Valentines Day. My idea was to take photographs of toys/figures and put them onto a background photo that fits the character and what the figure is doing. I made a quick mock up of the figure I took the idea from, using a background image I found on Google - but I do intend on taking some photographs myself when i'm in Japan in August. Background Photo Credit Because its just a quick edit, the photographs don't seem to sit properly, the figure stands out from the background too much, to me anyway. I'm also hoping to take a similar photograph for Animez, where there will be figures visiting the shop. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

At Sunnycon - either last year or the year before, my fiancé and I bought a Danbo figure from the Animez stall, and i've recently starting taking a few photo sets with it. But now, this Danbo is lonely, so I went into Animez and bought another one, i've ordered a bow from eBay and will be naming this Danbo, Danbow! Thats right, this Danboard is female! Here are a few photographs of our original Danbo: Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook '

So the countdown has reached thirty days! Not much has happened since the last update but i'll fill you in anyway! On Thursday I bought pretty much the last of what I needed, all I need now is: maybe a few new clothes,  to wear in my shoes a little,  to pick up more Yen next week, to buy two new luggage tags for the new suitcases, get firework tickets (fingers crossed), my fiancé still needs to get pretty much everything, maybe order more Yen as we have to pay for two hotels when we arrive or we might just pay by card, get my hair cut, write up some directions, check the voltage on the travel hairdryer/buy new one, print a couple of bits of paperwork for hotels etc We also added our third case on the return leg direct with Air France as Hays Travel had lied to us and said it wasn't possible to prebook a case on the return and it had to be done at the airport (we knew this was wrong as we'd booked an extra case back with Air...

On Saturday the 13th of June I put in the holidays i needed for New York in October. And then, on the 18th of June, we booked up to go! We changed our hotel from our original choice and are now flying with British Airways via Heathrow, so we'll be getting theres two hours later than originally planned. Our new hotel has free wifi though, and thats the main thing I look for in a hotel! It seems like most hotels in New York don't offer free Wifi, not even in the lobby. I'll be posting updates here when we knuckle down and get planning what we want to do and see when we go. The main thing we're hoping for now is a good view of the Autumn/Fall foliage, but theres no guarantee it'll have started by the time we go. I'm hoping to pick up a Hallmark Disney plaque while we're there too as the website doesn't post internationally and I can't find it on eBay or Amazon! Have you ever been to New York? What do you recommend we see and do? ...

^This was the winning entry^ Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

I was supposed to spend as little as possible as we're off to Japan soon and everything I buy at the convention will be available there, and a lot cheaper. But at the same time, anything I bought at Sunnycon would free up suitcase space for other items when i'm in Japan! I spent more than planned, but I couldn't find that many things I wanted so it could have gone a lot worse than it did. Saturday The first two items I bought during the convention were blind boxes from Estatic Arts, I was told I could pick which one I wanted but I decided to go for blind boxes on my first two. I got a Menma (box 6) and Sakura (box 4), I then went back in the afternoon and I picked out the ones I wanted the most - boxes 2, 3, 5 and 7. Sunday Overnight I decided there was two more of those Naruto figures I needed, so my first stop in the morning was for those, I then went back in the afternoon and bought Minato but I don't seem to have a photo of him! ...