Sonia's Journal

1. I've arrived safely in Bangkok and have eaten a huuuuuuge dinner at a 5 star hotel. Oysters, Parma ham, smoked salmon, racks of lamb, sorbets galore.

2. Before leaving London, I accidentally ended up walking into duty free and buying the latest Spring 2010 Chanel 2.55 "Uni" Messenger handbag in ivory/black flock velvet and antiqued silver metal. This bag is so new, it's not yet on the internet. I can't even show you pictures of it, the only ones I can find are of the plainer beige with gold metal version shown on the catwalk in October. But my model is beautiful. It is gorgeous. I honestly don't dare tell you how much it cost. I will say that it has almost maxed out my credit card, but I saved about £300 by buying at Heathrow. And I don't regret it one bit.

And that, my friends, is my LAST luxury impulse buy of the year, with the biggest bang of all!!!

See you when I get there. I will have internet access. I look forward to much eating, drinking, shopping and PLAYING VIDEO GAMES TILL MY THUMBS BLEED.

LOL, I'm actually pretty tired today. Had a bunch of friends over all day yesterday (fayeyong , wyldflowa , emmav , yun_min , fuuringo ) and we totally indulged in girly frilly clothes, posing, cakes, jewellery, perfumes and corsetry. Never got round to watching DVDs, too busy playing with stuff! I think we were trying on clothes for what, 4 hours solid?

So when I tweet I've been sorting my sock collection for 2 HOURS and still haven't finished! I do actually mean it...

Just found this screenshot on my computer, I should have posted this up on the 5th November for Bonfire Night XD



Anyway, I had a great time hanging out on Midsummer Common with Nana and Chloe - the fairground rides and snacks were quite extortionate, so we decided to go on one ride, the biggest one XD It was the whirly super-tall blue neon one. And just as we paid for our tickets, the booth lady told her heavy to raise the price from £5 to £6 O_O;;

We grabbed some toffee apples, then Matthew found us and we made our way to the food stands to watch the fireworks. They were great, my neck was hurting by the end of it XD I love sparkly things.

Then as I bought myself some fried noodles, Laura bumped into us, so we all made our way to the Zebra, which was packed full. I swapped my half of IPA with Laura's pint of Wychfinder (yum) then after chatting very briefly with Andy, Carol and Bethany, we walked back to our respective houses.

Matthew: "So, do you remember how the rhyme goes?"
Me: "Remember, remember, the 5th of november.... BLOW UP PARLIAMENT!!!"
Matthew: "... *headdesk*"
Me: "But that's what's important, right? Ne? Ne?!"

Yo bitches. I'll be frolicking in town on Thursday as in all the years I've lived in Cambridge, I've never bothered to partake in the festivities on Midsummer Common. THIS WILL BE RECTIFIED THIS WEEK.


(flyer nicked from raggedy_man XD)

Matt and I had a blast attending the wedding of his brother Daniel Bentham to Nicky Moss in Gemozac, near Cognac in Charente-Maritime. It was stunningly beautiful, in a huge farmhouse and gardens. Photos and a full report to come in time, but for now, just wanted to raise a virtual glass of Pineau to the happy couple.

Congratulations - it was absolutely AMAZING and I hope you have many many happy years together.

I was digging around in my archives and I came across this! A black/white photo from a theatre programme when I was in a production of the Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, 12 years ago.

Okay, they have landed. Here are my favourites, the rest you're gonna have to check my flickr album.







The whole set is here, the different photographers are credited:
www.flickr.com/photos/sonia_leong/sets/72157621950834747/

If you'd like to +fav them on deviantArt, you're welcome to! ♥
fyredrakemagick.deviantart.com/gallery/#Photos-cosplay

If you want more details about the costumes and the angst/joy in making them, view my cosplay island account: www.cosplayisland.co.uk/costume/list/sonia_leong

NOW THEN - BEFORE I LEAVE...
Just a notice to say that I will not be around from tonight till Monday night. My brother-in-law is getting married (finally!) in Angouleme. Au revoir, mes amis - I'm off to France.

Oh my, I really enjoyed myself at this con ^^

Even though I volunteered to work behind the table a lot, I still had lots of opportunities to dash off, have food and take porny photos ♥

Things that stood out in my mind -

Friday
- the sat nav being a bitch and dropping off my windscreen lots so I had several near crashes (O_O)
- being pleasantly surpised upon setting up the SD table just how pretty all our books look (♥u♥)
- chilling with Pud & Ems at Cafe Xanana, my favourite cafe back when I was studying at Warwick (^.^)
- discovering that no matter what, Bar Fusion mangled every beer they offered (T_T)
- loving the '80s themed party that Ellie, Gypsy, Mark, Chevi et al were glittered/neoned up for! (^o^)
- meeting up with Kit, Fez, Sephy, Nina, Scarlett and chatting with them
- not getting lost driving to my hotel at midnight
- shaving EVERYTHING that night (^.^;;)

Saturday
- waiting in the hotel lobby for my taxi whilst part dressed as Shura (with a mini dress just about covering me) and OAPS staring as they got onto their coach (XD)
- LOLing at reactions when I flung off my dress in the dealers' room and added my bandages/swords. If I couldn't strip down to that thong in front of the dealers I've known for years, then I wouldn't have been able to deal with walking around like that anyway. Tom/Kneebone, Hideki, Andrew, Bryan, Paul, Hugh, Gurinder, you can pick your jaws up off the floor now.
- Seeing Hel & Scott in their awesome cosplays. And my jaw did drop at seeing Scott looking sooooo cute ♥
- tripping on my chaps and falling over in the dealers' room!! Thank f*ck for custom made thongs, if that baby shifted even a little bit, no amount of shaving could have saved my dignity XD
- going out for a mini shoot with Kaka (and others I will mention later) whilst she was still in her SC4 Taki. Mmm, boob rubbing
- giving a "professional artists' panel" whilst dressed in practically nothing XD
- seeing lots of familiar faces like Kairi-moon, KTCoope, CowgirlEm, Cin at the panel!
- grabbing some foods at Bar Fusion with Ems & Pud (the Thai red beef curry was quite nice ^^) Spotted Wing and lots of other lolitas, probably post-catwalk ^^
- doing an awesome Soul Calibur pimping photoshoot with Yas, Odangochan, GunstarVixen, Ilpala/James, Ailsa-chan, Sephirayne and others!! There was a good bunch of us, I'll post up photos ASAP when I find them!
- bex, your frock coat was sooooooo cute and fabulous!!
- getting the most awesome portrait from the Kuma guys!! ♥
- doing a really pR0n style shoot with Fez (i♥u, those ones will be shown to very select people only, haha!)
- watched a truly awesome masquerade with KTCoope and spuffed much with whenever we saw anything we liked. Particular ones I loved were the Kuroshitsuji circus pair (Fez, Kit ♥), Lelouche & CC (Ellie, Gypsy ♥), a ridiculously cute Seiten Taisen (Scarlett!), Spoilerific Midna and Zelda (Nina, Keekal ♥), Sorceress Edea, Yuuko + Mokona, Steampunk group, KhaosKomix guys!!
- chilling in the halls and looking at silly/smexy photos with my lovelies. It was so surreal though, they were staying in Hall 4, Jack Martin residences... which was where I stayed for my first year at uni, so it felt very very weird!!
- changing and heading out to Bar Fusion to chill and drink ourselves silly (met Ev as well, lovely girl!). OMG Nina, your choir boy Grell was sizzling in them hotpants (*¬*)
- after several whisky doubles (thanks P-chan ♥) and Dominos pizza brought by Snap as Sebastian (LOL, ALL pizza delivery boys should dress as butlers, it would make them so much more hot), we finally got chucked out of the bar, whereupon I dragged as many people as I could into the disco!!
- shimmied like a hooker with Keekal, Jacob/Leviathan, Shenny (I think! it was dark and my memory is a bit blurry), Sephy (in the best t-shirt ever), Nina, Karen (I LOVE YOUR FLUFFY BOOBS), Aleister (my man, my man) and several others but I was very blurry! Paul attempted to get some shots of me dancing, but I'm hard to catch XD Chococat, absolutely awesome set darling ♥
- As the last song played (LOL, PORTAL) had to go out for a post-dance cigarillo with Aleister and Snap. Oh yes, it was well deserved.

Sunday
- god awful hangover, straight onto the opiates. Strapping on my binder, slipping on the shirt, cufflinks, cravat and waistcoat, I felt like a real man, headache and all XD
- drove the right way, thought it was the wrong way, went back and then realised I was correct and got to the university 15 mins later than expected (Thanks Glenmorangie doubles, f*ck you too)
- spotted Piers on the way in. Other people I saw gradually during dealer hours - Neil, JVC, Subi, Mary, Hunter, Anjiten, Willie, Wikivic, Tenshianna, Kate, Azure, Ushio, denji, Pantheria, Neon Martian guys, Genki Gear, Team Giblets and probably many many more   ^^
- Keekal dragged me off to the make-up panel where we learnt and discussed many useful things! Sadly, Jacob/Leviathan didn't have that much time to get made up XD
- had a most leisurely and enjoyable lunch in Bar Fusion with my fabulous cosplay lovelies. AWESOME Peacemaker group you guys!! Food photos for the win. And OMG Gypsy, when you said blue spandex, you were really really not joking (O.O)
- couldn't resist re-enacting the scene from Trinity Blood vol.2 Silent Noise light novel, where Abel meets Isaak in civvies for the first time at a cafe. Thank you Sephy for providing your awesome Abel and Fez for being so accommodating and taking awesome photos!!
- final stint at the table was very chilled indeed (maybe I had too many cigarillos during the shoot I felt very relaxed, hehe)
- after packing up everything, said a final goodbye to everyone and drove home before it got too dark ^^
- once I got home, it was straight onto the port triples and well deserved takeaway! Tandoori mixed grill for the win ♥

Photos to come a little later once they start coming in and being edited, but here are two tasters for you:





Photo credits to bento_dan  and fez ♥ (fez-kuro.deviantart.com/)

Thank you so much to everyone who was concerned - Matt is recovering well, although he can't really sit upright for too long! No bending over at all either. Standing or lying down for him only for the next week or so XD

Hello! Just a quick invite on super short notice T_T

I accidentally ordered faaar too much meat and my fridge and freezer are stuffed full. Therefore, mini BBQ available at my house. If you know where I live, or you're Cambridge-based and I don't hate you, you're invited. Just let me know XD

Bring salad. NO MOAR MEAT

So I've been re-organising my wardrobe (Looong overdue as I've just been too ridiculously busy over the past few months, but I really need to switch over properly to my summer clothes) since 6pm yesterday, and it still looks like another 2-3 hours to go. But I'm getting there...



What is hilarious though is trying on an outfit and saying to Matthew as he plays FFXI on his laptop on our bed:

"This outfit totally does not work, right?"
"...Right...?"
"You know why, don't you?"
"... Because.... it.... looks ... cheap?"
"Exactly!! The skirt is 2 inches too short to be acceptable and worst of all, the WHITES DON'T MATCH!!!"
"... Of course."
"The BTSSB gothic cutsew on top has a primarily OFF-WHITE panel and white lace, whereas the off-brand skirt below has pure white lace trim!! Urgh, the frustration!!!"
"..."

Due to popular demand, I hereby give you some photos of me when I was 18-20.

YES, I WAS BLONDE. Well, partially XD

I've been doing a bit of ebaying to try and get in there early with my casual cosplays. I call them casual, because they are not hard to do. YAY!! In these cases, I was lucky enough to have most of the items in question already, with only a few pricy things (i.e. the gorgeous blonde wig).

Here be some test/WIP/unfinished shots... click on them to be taken to my Cosplay Island listings to find out more info on them and zoom in on pics.

First up, Isaak Fernand von Kampfer, Trinity Blood (artbook version, civilian clothes at the opera house)


Secondly, Integra Hellsing, Hellsing (anime version)


I dunno when to wear Integra. Suggestions? AyaCon is Isaak above and Shura from Soul Calibur IV (dear GOD). October Expo is Isaak in military dress for the whole weekend (as that is gonna be such a bitch, it will get proper exposure, godamnit. Unless there is enough demand from Soul Calibur group for me to bring Shura along as well...). Maybe Cosplay Ball? Was thinking of Isaak, but because of proximity to public, perhaps Integra + Walter may be less inflammatory? Minami 2010? Oh whatever. XD

Wai, thank you so much to everyone who said hello and who bought/flicked through/got high off my works!! ♥ I had a really great time at the show. It was lovely to meet up with lots of familiar faces again and to wander around the stalls and pick up some cute things!! Saturday was horrendously busy and Sunday I was blind most of the time, haha - so sincere apologies if I didn't manage to make it around to your stall or if I forgot to buy your work / ran out of cash by the end of the show - I WANT YOUR STUFF, HONESTLY!!! I even forgot to buy some of Sweatdrop's releases, and I was behind our own frickin' table!! Next time, Gadget! Yes, I will make a point of buying everything I need from the very beginning at AyaCon.

Much thanks go to the Expo organisers for putting on a great show and to Emma for the work behind the scenes.

So, did you see me? Let me know! This is how I looked like on both days:

Saturday: Abel Nightroad, Trinity Blood (I shall retire him for a few years, now)



Sunday: Kamiya Kaoru, Rurouni Kenshin (OMG, 2001 cosplay rising from ashes)


And now for a quick round up (as I seriously need to get some work done)

Saturday - heaving!! Saw lots of SD forum members, yay! And lots of other independent creators, yay! And lots of cosplayers I knew, yay!! And lovely lovely lolitas from loligothUK/teapartyclub, yay! And a chance to chat with other industry folk yays!! (Seriously, I can't name names, because once I get started, it's just gonna be GIANT. If you fall into any of the above categories, know that I ♥ you and that I truly care about/appreciate you). I mostly worked behind the table though, but had a lot of fun doing so. So yes, thanks for chatting to me, you lovely person you. Yes, YOU. Had a nice dinner as well (filthy conversations aside).

(But we were getting SOOOO annoyed with the random idiots that wanted to use our Artist Alley supplies and paper and pens etc. to WRITE stupid signs. Hello, the provisions are for people who want to enter the competition, not your personal sign-making stand? *thwack* I really enjoyed hearing how dock was resolute in one case of idiots, when he found out what they wanted the stuff for, he just took it back from them and said NO. Cue some name-calling, but any more than that and they wouldn't have stood a chance against him, haha.)

Sunday - much more relaxed! I even got a chance to chill and have some lunch with my gorgeous, gorgeous cosplayer friends. Chocolate oddities from Bruges for the win. But again - apologies if I blanked you or didn't recognise you, couldn't wear my glasses with my cosplay! And curses for running out of cash right at the end and having to pack up quick!! And OMG, visit from parents and siblings!! ♥ See you next weekend!!

Now that I've finally had a chance to breath from non-stop working over the past few weeks (seriously, I was turning around several rounds of 30 pages every 3-4 days) I'll bring you all up to speed with stuff ^^

Thank  you to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday, on the Sweatdrop Forums, on LJ, on Twitter, on Facebook, on my phone, by post and in person!! It was mega-appreciated and although I couldn't get back to you all to thank you all individually (I pulled at least 14hrs of inking on my birthday!) it brightened it me up and kept me going.

So! What have I been up to? Well, done a few events here and there, but right now I'm gearing up for heading to the London MCM Expo this weekend! I'll be crossplaying Father Abel Nightroad from Trinity Blood one last time before I retire him for a bit (and cosplay the bad guys, and more females XD). I'll probably only be in his outfit on the Saturday as Sunday morning the husband has to head off in the morning, so can't really help me get dressed... I may just bring another surprise cosplay out from the closet for Sunday, ohohoho.

LATEST BOOKS FOR SALE AT LONDON MCM EXPO
Just a reminder of the latest things you can pick up from me at Expo! First off, the beautiful, lovely shiny reprint of Once Upon a Time... is available to buy!! Come on you know you want it.  £5.99 for a digest-sized 160 pages of shoujo angst!! Secondly - probably one of the shiniest things to come from any independent publisher... Aya♥Takeo volume 1! Full colour throughout, large format B5 size and 64 pages compiling the first year of the webcomic. £8.99 and it is yours.



LOVE STUFFING VOLUME 1: ADVANCE VIEWING COPIES/SAMPLES AT LONDON EXPO!!
OMG, it's done!! The printers will finish it within the next 2 days!! SQUEEE!!! But sadly, overland shipping from the continent will take a little while, so the books will not arrive until after the Expo. BUT - a few advance copies are being couriered to me - so that anyone can have a flick through and check out the samples! I can set up a mailing list for you all, so that you'll be informed the moment it's available on the Sweatdrop website so that you can order them ASAP!! £5.99 for 192 pages of romantic comedy fanservice!! Available to buy online from NEXT WEEK!


GIRLS FC CHILDREN'S BOOKS
A couple of months ago, I was asked to illustrate the covers of a series of really charming books for girls about football. I really enjoyed the first book, read the draft text from end to end and loved it. Perfect for 9-12s, very character driven and fun. If you'd like to check them out, follow the links to amazon from clicking the pics! (btw, I am definitely the illustrator of the covers, I think some older info got left on one of the books XD)

These books will be out officially around July/August. I'll be illustrating the next set of them as well, look out for more in future!

RANDOM
Have a random meme from me - 16 and Now:

Just saw you on BBC2's Property Watch! XD Haha, that was a pleasant surprise for me and Matt and lovely to see your 'warm' welcome to the TV crew!

Yo! Just wanted to confirm that KFC/chilling/gaming will be held this evening at dock's place ^^ 6pm onwards

Right you lot, I'm working my butt off trying to finish a book for the printers which is already late and I have yet to start on 2 new projects which need pages by this Friday and next Monday. Not to mention another AyaTakeo page before Sunday. BUT... it is my birthday tomorrow. And for the first time in... 3 years? I'm not away working at some event on the day or that weekend!!

I demand Saturday night to be club night. You. Me. The Junction, in Cambridge. 22:00. Mr. Scruff is DJing till 03:00. The stars have aligned, it is meant to be. Dock, Selina, Caz, lemme know if I/Matt can crash at yours or something afterwards XD Let's buy some tickets.

Then I want KFC on Sunday evening. I'll probably want us all to nom chickens and play lots of videogames in a location that is easy for people to get to and can accommodate a fair amount of bodies. So! Again, I ask for the kind people above if they are willing to let me abuse their friendship XD (no pressure tho, grateful if you can, perfectly happy if you can't)

Then next week, over 12,13 and 14 May evenings, I want to hang around with other people and watch EUROVISION. GODAMNIT, I NEED TO SEE THIS.

Over and out

LOL, Tiggy got chased up a tree by a terrier. She ran up too high, it took us about 30mins to coax her down. Even Matthew clambering into the tree didn't help. It was only the last resort method (i.e. "Oh fine, I'll get the ladder then") that worked - when Matt came back with the ladder Tiggy began to make her way down the branches gingerly. She finally jumped down, we shooed her into the house and she just flopped over for a while. She's so unfit XD we gave her some treats and brought water out for her. She finally seemed to perk up after a few minutes.

I wish I took a photo XD When Matt was halfway up the tree, imploring Tiggy to come down into his arms, and Tiggy one level of branches higher, mewing "No!"