Playing catch up with ''October Week'' - Breast Cancer Awareness Mani

Ohhhhmyyyygoooood it's been so so long since I was last here sharing with you all! I just read my last post and had to laugh, go on read it, it's a favourite mani's from September recap posted on the second of October, a post in which I bang on about how I hope my October mani's are as good as Septembers, HA! What October Mani's!? Wishful thinking much?

If you're out of the loop - I just had a huge change in my life. I was living in Australia, but new (and unexpected!) changes to the immigration rules meant that I couldn't stay in the country legally anymore. Bring on the mad rush to basically shut down the life I had built for myself there, and prepare for a huge move to some other part of the world. As you can imagine that whole process has been soooo much more than time consuming, and stressful to stay the least, so my blog had to take a back burner for a while. Worst timing ever, story of my life!

So anyway, Welcome! This is the first post I am writing to you from my new (for a few months) home, with my Husbands family in Brazil! Apologies for taking so long to get back to it, but you know what it's like, you go to your husbands home country to meet your latino inlaws for the first time, and it's all ''heeey, come here and meet this family member, and that family member, eat some barbeque, drink a caipirinha, don't forget to go meet grandma on this side of the country, and the uncle on the other side of the country, and more barbeque, and more caipirinha, and the second cousin twice removed in that other place, and another caipirinha'', and so on and so forth...

I've been here a month and until last week I have basically been dragged around the south of Brazil in a hurricane of introductions, kisses, welcomes and food. Lots and lots of food. And cocktails. Whew! I've basically been eating like I'm on holiday for 6 weeks now because I also had a 2 week road trip in Australia before I got on the plane too, (one last good bye!) and quite tragically I have reached the 'Can't deny that I need to go on a diet anymore' stage, HA! Wish me luck with that one in a months time at christmas! But despite the excess junk in the trunk, it's been wonderful, and a tad overwhelming, and I have officially been approved and accepted into the family, and formally released to return to normal life again!

So here I am back with my lovely little blog (oh how I have missed thee!) and I have a lot of catching up to do! I am sad to have missed October, there were several naily occasions that I really wanted to mark with a nice mani that month, and not only did I miss them all, I didn't get time to post a damn thing! The frustrating part is that I actually had a bunch of mani's prepared for October in advance because I knew it was going to be madness, but I didn't realise that there would be so much madness I wouldn't even get time to write posts for the poor little mani's gathering dust in in my photo vault! I was most sad about the October specific occasions though, so I thought screw it, when I finally get back to the blog I'm just going to have ''October week'' so I can do the mani's I wanted to! And here we are, at my very own belated nail themed Oktoberfest!

First up in my Oktoberfest catch up week is my Breast Cancer Awareness mani. This mani is the main reason I decided to do October week, and I'm sorry that this post is turning into such a long one, but this is a really important one to me because my own mum has literally just had breast cancer. She came off the chemo end of last year and is still going through a multitude of rigourous and invasive tests that keep us in constant fear.

Let me tell you about my mum, she is wonder woman. No really! Not only can I talk to her about anything and she still always accepts me for who I am 100% all the time, (and I got some pretty craaayzee shit going on let me tell ya), she is also the strongest, toughest, craziest bitch I know, she handles everything like a boss and she pulls it off with mad style and elegance. My mum is the last person on earth you would expect to be struck down with something as silly as cancer, and yet, at just 46 years young she was diagnosed with a breast tumor, and chop chop, kissed goodbye to her left tit. (You may be shocked about the way I refer to it, but you should hear how my mum talks about it, cracking sense of humour that woman!) Even the cancer didn't get to her though, during everything with the tests and surgerys and chemo and tit chopping and what not, she still remained the strongest and toughest bitch I know, but more so. So you know this post is dedicated to my mammina! (Thats Italian for little mum, she's fierce, but comes in a tiny, tiny pixie like package!)

 When she was diagnosed with cancer I was soooooo pissed off. My mum has not had an easy life, I have watched her struggle through like a trooper for many, many years in the face of all kinds of stuff that one woman alone should never have to go through. I have grown up longing for the day when she would finally get everything she ever wanted and deserved from life. That day finally came, mammina was bestowed with everything she had ever wanted to make her happy, and at that very same moment the cancer reared it's ugly head threatening to take her away from it all. You cannot begin to imagine how angry I was, she is an amazing person and deserves so much more from her life, it's so unfair that this should happen to her now when her happiness is already so long overdue. I hated whatever cosmic force it was that would deliver such a blow like that to my mum, of all people. So fucking unfair. But mum didn't think so...

She said she was happy with her life, that she had four beautiful children that all turned out way better than she could ever have hoped and prayed for, children that she loves and that love her. She said that even though she had not been with her current partner for very long (it was a couple of years at the time of her diagnosis), she still considered herself most fortunate to have met him and to have finally experienced real love and respect from someone who truly wanted to make her happy, even if only for a short time.

''Some people never get to have what I have had even in a full lifetime, never mind a half'' she said...

''I have been so lucky, and I'm ready to go'' she said...

2 years and an ''all clear'' later, I still can't see things the way she does, I'm still pissed off and angry and think it's unfair, so nobody can tell me that she's not wonder woman, or that she doesn't deserve this dedication, and so much more besides.

In the end it all just goes to show, it doesn't matter how tough and invincible you know you are, nobody, and I mean nobody, is immune to the clutches of the big 'C'. Breast cancer in particular is so ridiculously common, the statistics are insane, and how many of us actually even know how to examine our boobs properly? Or what the hell we are even supposed to feel in there?

If you are not all already fondling your breasts on a regular basis ladies, you bloody well should be. You all need to be at the same point I am, fondling your breasts so often that it becomes second nature and random stangers keep catching you absent mindedly molesting yourself in innappropriate places. You may laugh, but that is how vigilant you need to be! Call me paranoid (though it is in my family now and I think I'm justified in being so) everytime I go to the Doctor for something whatever it is, I always make a point of getting my bewbs checked by a professional too seen as I'm already there, you can never be too careful. For some strange reason the male Doctors are always overly nice to me... :) (I'm just joking of course, all very professional!)

So before I allow you all to finally see my breast cancer mani, I INSIST that you click on this link below and learn how to give yourself a proper breast exam, then you can see the mani as a reward :)

Seriously though, click it bitches. Breast cancer doesn't have to be a killer anymore, but you have to know your body well to make sure you catch it in time, so you can show the cancer who the real bitch is, and not the other way around! If you don't know how to examine yourself, or what your even looking for, then take advantage of this opportunity because you really should know this stuff, regardless of how young you might still be.

LEARN HOW TO FONDLE YOURSELF PROPERLY HERE!

OK now you can see my mani haha.

I'm not going to talk about how I did this mani or what I used, this post is already long enough and frankly, how I painted my bloody nails seems so unimportant in light of the real message behind them, we're obsessed with nails yeah but lets at least get our priorities straight! ''Stop painting your nails when you should be stroking your boobs woman!''

If you do have any questions about the nails though, feel free to ask.

I hate to keep you all much longer but I have one last thing to say, or to ask rather, from all of you.

My mum's battle with cancer is still not over. Only one year ago was she given the all clear after her course of chemotherapy, and she still has to have monthly tests to make sure it really is all clear and that it doesn't come back, but the lastest tests have been great cause for concern. Basically the lastest test results have worried the doctors enough to put my mum through yet another rather lengthy series of additonal tests to the ones she usually has, the doctors won't discuss 'potential' problems with her when there may be nothing wrong at all. She will only know what's going on once the confirmed results of their medical exams come in, and in the meantime all the doctors say for now is 'we're just being precautious', but that doesn't change the fact that more tests means more possibilities for negative outcomes. My mammina, trooper that she is, is refusing to worry about it. Until the doctors say there is a problem - there is no problem, and she believes that the postive energy being sent to her from all the wonderful family and friends she has dicsovered are surrounding her during this hard time, will be the biggest influence over what happens next.

So this is what I ask of you my lovely readers and fans, send my mammina some positive vibes, all the positive vibes you can muster, leave that positive energy in a comment below or simply send it from your heart via the airwaves, it really doesn't matter. Just keeping sending your love so I can keep my mum, because she's too young to go, and I'm too young to be without her....

I love you mum XXX