So some of you who've been following my work and vlogs for a while (thank you so much, you are awesome!) may have noticed that I didn't do a lot of acting in 2019... There is actually a reason for this! From May I kind of took 6 months away from acting. I say "kind of" because I didn't actively look for work, go to festivals, or attend networking events. But I did take any acting jobs that just came up. This was so that I could throw myself into working as many "normal" job shifts as I could find, including working 7 shifts in 3 days at 3 different locations around the south of England (and no, it was not 1 location per day) which was probably a bit too much it I'm honest. Won't be doing that again if I can help it! However it has all paid off as I succeeded in my goal to save up enough for the deposit to buy a flat! Which I'll hopefully be doing next year!

I'm so SO excited I can't actually express it in writing, so just imagine me doing a bouncy little happy dance. It has been very hard to make the sacrifice of not getting to act for most of this year because I really really missed it and it's something that I have been doing and chasing since I was only 6 years old. I've felt pretty isolated from the industry and my industry friends at points, and I've felt very frustrated at not being able to move my career forward. Felt stuck even. But I am happy to have achieved what I set out to do and hit my flat deposit goal. It is a really big deal for me, especially in a career full of uncertainty and instability.

Next year will be the first time that I'll be able to really knuckle down and go after my goals with my acting career. It'll be the first time that I'll actually be able to afford to go to the casting director workshops and film festivals. To go to classes to work on new skills and get better at the ones I already have. To take time off for auditions and workshops without worrying how the time off (because there's no holiday pay when you're self employed) will affect my ability to pay my rent.  In this crazy creative world I will have something that I wasn't sure I would ever have... some financial stability. And the freedom that comes with it to actually move my life and career forwards.

I'm so so happy and excited about this, so although it was tough to pull back on the acting this year, in the long run it is an investment in my career and in my life. I'm really looking forward to 2020 and the opportunities it will bring. I also want to take this moment to say thank you to those of you who support me and my work, it really does mean the world to me and I'm very grateful for it. I hope to bring you many characters that you will hopefully enjoy!

The pads are also slightly bigger than cotton wool pads are and I like this because I found them easier to use and remove my makeup with. It also means that you need to use less of them each time you take your makeup off and so don't have to do so many washing loads.They are really lovely looking but I did accept that they weren't going to stay that way for long once I started covering them in all my makeup! But one thing that I found to really help with the cleaning process is to quickly give them a rinse and a rub between my fingers straight away before putting them into the laundry bag.

Another thing that I liked about them is that they're soft and double layered, so not only do they feel good on my skin but you can also really use both sides as they don't soak through with the cleanser. Although you get 18 pads in a pack (so 36 sides) to remove your makeup with, I found that with my bust lifestyle I was going through them faster than I was putting on washing loads. Luckily Eco Panda also do another pack containing 16 pads, a laundry bag, and a face cloth. So I'm going to get myself one of those to top up what I'm already using. I'm really glad that I got to try these and now use them every day! Next up I'll need to find a sustainable alternative to my bottles of cleanser and toner...

If you'd like to have a look, or get some for yourself then just follow this link and click HERE.

I know it’s only November but for me Christmas has started already. For the last few years I’ve worked performing shows for immersive grottos and brought their magical, fantastical and sometimes wacky characters to life. This year it’s Professor Freeze in her magical snow laboratory as well as her assistant Anti-Freeze! We have a crazy bubble filled lab, Santa’s Snow Nog, and making magic snow fuel.

It’s a lot of fun but it can also be quite a challenge. We perform a show every 20 minutes to about 100 people at a time (especially when it’s sold out in December) and the show is 15 minutes long! So yes, it can be hard work and high stress. Especially when you get a grumpy, stressed out or rude parent... But it is all worth it for the looks of pure wonder there you get from a lot of the children as they enjoy the experience and feel the Christmas spirit.

Then there’s the people that you work with - they are amazing! I’ve honestly had the best of times with these people (especially playing games of Muggles Against Humanity in our down time, and racing to fold endless amounts of flat packed boxes while creating more new harmonies for the annoyingly catchy jingle that we made up).

It takes a special (and patient) kind of person to do Christmas work with kids, but it is rewarding and enjoyable to keep the magic alive for them. Plus you can really go to town with these larger than life characters! It’s good exercise for you improvisation skills too because even though it’s scripted, whenever small children are involved it will inevitably not always go to plan. Although these often result in some of the funniest shows of the season!

There’s also the things that happen that leave us all in either utter disbelief or fits of laughter once the audience leaves the room. We’ve only been performing for 2 weeks so far this year and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the number of parents who don’t know how to use a funnel!

The rest of the season should be a lot of fun. We will have our ups and downs, but I will get to share it all with the most fantastic group of people. When it’s all over and done with on Christmas Eve then I’ll enjoy my hard earned and well deserved holiday until January! If you would like to meet the characters that I play or see some of the fun that we get up to then be sure to check out my vlog series The Reel Road over on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/lydiakay

Audition nerves are something that pretty much every actor has to deal with, and I actually think that they are a good thing - stay with me here. If you're nervous about something then it just means that you care about it. It's also a good way to keep your ego in check. So yes, I think being nervous about auditions is a good thing. That being said you don't want to let your nerves take over, turn you into a complete wreck and ruin the audition. Nobody wants that, and we've probably all been there at least once. So how do I beat these nerves, or rather keep them under control?

There's a few ways that I find work well, and they all work together too. The first thing is to embrace them, to accept that it's ok to be nervous and to know that everybody else feels it as well (even if they don't look like they do). Learn to see it as a sign that you care about your work and be proud of that. Secondly you need to change your perspective on auditions themselves. You need to learn to enjoy them and have fun. We should look forward to auditions, not dread doing them. If you're having fun instead of worrying about how you're doing then you'll definitely give a better performance.

Which brings me to the next, and probably the most important piece of advice. This is how you re-wire your brain so-to-speak. The audition IS the job. It is not the thing that you have to do, or some test you have to pass to get the job. Don't focus on trying to get the part. You already have it, for the time that you're in the audition room. For the time that you are in there the role is yours. That is your time to become that character. That is your time to show them who you've created from those words on the paper. That is your time to perform. Yours. So don't screw it up by not being there in the moment because you're nervous about whether you'll get the part or not. You have the opportunity to play that part RIGHT NOW. The audition IS the job, everything and anything that may come after is a bonus.

This is how I managed to get my audition nerves under control, so that now I can appreciate their presence as passion and actually enjoy the auditioning process. And it has honestly changed my world just by adjusting my mindset. I love my job! Oh and once you leave the audition room - forget about that job. You played the part, you did you work, and now it's time to look for the next opportunity. Get straight back to work and look forward, if you get a callback or the role then it will be a wonderful surprise! If you've been lucky enough to get offered two jobs while working hard like this then you'll be one of the few in demand actors who's able to choose which you'd like to do more. I really hope this helps any of you who struggle with nerves like I used to, and break-a-leg in your future auditions!

Dying is actually really good fun, well fake-dying for a movie is. Real dying not so much. Thankfully I only do the former. I've been strangled, stabbed in the head, half-zombified, beaten to death, and had my throat ripped out. Yes, all that in THREE films! But it is good fun, you really get to play with the intensity of the moment and as mine were all rather gory deaths I got to wear the most disgustingly awesome makeup too!

Fake-dying is a messy job, I'm not kidding! I've left showers looking like a scene from 'Psycho', I've had so much fake blood in my mouth that I've had to hold my breath for fear of drowning in it before the director said "Action" and I could spit it out in a spectacularly dramatic fashion, and I've had a bone sticking out of my leg that was so realistic looking it freaked out the rest of the cast and crew! (Especially when I ran at them with it. I couldn't help myself.)

It's a fun challenge dying convincingly, but the real challenge comes when trying to get the makeup OFF at the end! And that stuff does not want to come off! The blood stains, your hair will be so sticky that you just try not to think about it, removing black eye makeup brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "panda eyes", you'll keep finding little bits of liquid latex on yourself for days to come, and you'll wonder if your nails will ever look clean again.

But you know what? I love it all! When we were kids we loved the chance to get really messy and it's great to be able to do it for work now as an adult! It can definitely be hard work sometimes but for me that's part of the fun and I'm happy to give it my all when filming these scenes, when filming all scenes. While there are some issues with dying all the time - like never being in the sequel - if Sean Bean can win an Oscar from doing it then I'm quite happy to continue enjoying my death scenes. Although it would would be good to start surviving a few in the future!

This week I wanted to tell you all a little about my zero waste journey and cutting out single use plastics. Why I started it, how I got started, and how it's going.

Ok so lets start with the reason why I started. It was honestly because one day last year I realised that I couldn't remember the last time I went anywhere without seeing rubbish on the floor. And not just in the city (I live in London), but everywhere. Even in the middle of fields while out walking, or half way up a mountain! 

The more I started to notice the rubbish (particularly plastic) everywhere I went, the more it started to make me angry. I am not an angry person, quite to opposite in fact, and it was driving me crazy that I was starting to feel like this constantly because I was constantly surrounded by this infuriating amount of litter. I was walking down the street to work one day and complaining with a friend about the amount of plastic litter on the floor and right there and then I decided that I had to do something about it. So that is how my journey began.
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It's definitely not the most exciting story, but I decided on that day that I would eliminate single use plastics from my life. Getting started seemed pretty daunting because now that I was aware of it I realised that we use SO SO much plastic in our day to day lives! How on earth was I going to stop using all of it?!? The answer turned out to be one thing at a time. One little swap after another. So bit by bit I started changing the way that I lived and how I shopped. My very first swap was to start using shampoo bars instead of bottled shampoo. (I don't really count using reusable bags for my shopping as I was already doing that, or reusable water bottles because I was also doing that already to save money..)

It took me a while to make that first swap because I had to use up all of the shampoo that I already had. It was important to me not to waste it and so once I was down to my last half bottle, I switched to shampoo bars. I've since switched again to use Beauty Kubes shampoo as I've found that it's kinder to my hair. Next up was another easy swap, my toothbrush! Switching from plastic to bamboo was really easy and I actually like my bamboo toothbrush better as it's slightly smaller and easier to clean my teeth with. It's a shame that there's not an alternative to the plastic bristles yet but it's still a lot less plastic. When disposing of them I've been pulling the bristles out and saving them to either recycle somewhere suitable or to put into an eco brick.

After that I went on to make a few more wonderful easy swaps: reusable cutlery, lunch boxes, reusable straws, period pants (I wish I'd discovered these earlier!), deodorant, bars of soap, produce bags, mason jars to pre-prepare my breakfast, getting an epilator (which will last me for years), re-using packaging etc to wrap presents, and finally glass bottles for ketchup and mayo.

There's a quote that I've seen a few times which I really love: "We don't need a few people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly." I don't know who wrote it but I think they're spot on. We all need to change the way that we live to create a better future and ensure that our planet does have a future, preferably one where humanity doesn't go extinct. But it's not a competition, and we shouldn't shame people because it doesn't look like they're doing enough. Cheer them on instead for the changes that they have made, no matter how small, because it all counts towards what we want to achieve. Everyone's journey will be different, everyone's circumstances are different; but I think it's really important now that we all wake up to the issue and start doing what we can.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever blog post!
I wanted to start off with a really fun one and thought what could be better than sharing one of my recent adventures with you all.

Last week I FINALLY took a couple of days out of my crazy busy actors life schedule to actually have a little mini-break holiday and do something fun for myself! (I'm not very good at treating myself as I'm very goal driven so can be a bit of a workaholic sometimes...)

We had a couple of vouchers from last Christmas that needed to be used and they were for a night's stay in a hotel and an experience. Seeing as how I like adventure and being active, it was decided that we'd go to Snowdonia in Wales and check out Bounce Below (which I've thought looked cool ever since I first heard of it). Bounce Below is one of the attractions at Zip World near Blaenau Ffestiniog in a massive underground slate cavern, and is essentially four floors of bouncy nets that are strung across the cavern with slides and net tunnels too.
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To say that Bounce Below was good fun would be the understatement of the year. I had an absolute blast!!! When you book you get given an hour to enjoy the experience and while that may not sound like long, let me tell you that after forty minutes of jumping around like a loon, sliding, and laughing my head off I was absolutely knackered!

One hour is definitely long enough and it's more than worth the money. I highly recommend the experience to anyone except those who don't like heights. You can see through the nets to the levels and people below you, and the cavern floor below that, plus as it is bouncy the floor is anything but stable. But yes, as long as you're ok with heights then you will love it.

To add to the atmosphere the staff play music (I won't forget bouncing along to Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine) and the whole cavern is lit with colourful lights. The experience is child friendly and they provide mats to help you get down the slides too.

While Zip World itself doesn't have a cafe, there is one on site and they have good and reasonably priced food. They even had jacket potatoes to keep my wheat intolerant tummy happy. There is also a gift shop and a couple of other experiences with the company who own the old quarry, though we definitely did not have time to do it all in one day.

In the afternoon we decided to do the Zip World Caverns experience as well because quite frankly it looked amazing. And it was! ​

Oh my gosh, where do I start with this one... It's a three hour zip lining and climbing experience through the caverns next to Bounce Below. I was excited about it from when we booked it, I got more excited when I could see other people doing part of the course during our time on Bounce Below, and it honestly lived up to every expectation. I absolutely LOVED it and can say that it is probably my favourite climbing/zip lining experience so far.

Like Bounce Below, the caverns are lit with bright colours and the location is just beautiful. You have to start off by going through training to make sure that everyone knows how to use the equipment properly and safely, and the equipment itself is extremely clever. With some of it designed by a local man, you are attached to the safety line at all times and it is not possible to take yourself off of it, there are clever lock style gates that help you move from section to section. I felt very safe doing the course because of this, which was great because once you set off it is not with your instructor so you can go at your own pace, there's even a way for you to overtake each other if you're faster or slower than the others around you. Don't worry though because the instructors are on hand watching you on cameras so they can come to assist you if you need help.

During the experience we completed eleven zip lines, scaled the walls of the cavern, scrambled a little on the slate and up nets, crossed rope bridges, and even got to choose between the challenge of monkey bars or a tightrope at the end. I chose the tightrope because I just don't have that much upper body strength (no seriously I tried them in my local park and only managed two bars before failing hilariously), and I didn't fancy just ending up dangling above a cavern!

I had the time of my life doing the Caverns experience and it was certainly the highlight of the trip. I've love to go back to Zip World again at some point to try out their other experiences, especially as they also have two more sites, so hopefully that will be possible...

If you want to see more from my experiences there then you're in luck as I will also be posting a vlog from the trip so do keep an eye out for that on #TheReelRoad playlist on YouTube!

26/11/2019 - Christmas Starts Now
12/11/2019 - How I Beat Audition Nerves
22/10/2019 - I Keep Dying...
15/10/2019 - Why Plastic Free?
08/10/2019 - Zip World