France and So On

St Mont Michel

I'm sorry for being away so long. That's all there is to it really. I have many excellent reasons, but  wont bore you too far. Basically, I've been on a French exchange. That might sound amazingly brave, but sadly, I'm not courageous enough to go off and speak no English to a stranger for a week. The exchange was organised by my school, and the whole of the year 9 French class had the opportunity to go. Some people weren't all that keen to do something which would have a benefit to their education, but I managed to bully blackmail persuade one of my best buddies to go with me. To be honest, it was amazing, even thouh I was extremely lucky with my Frenchy. I got a girl who was pretty similar to me, and was so nice and so friendly that I didn't want to go home at the end of the week.

Of course, because I'm a teenage girl, my main concerns were the friendship groups, the outfits I wore every day and what I ate; but despite myself, surprisingly I actually did learn an awful lot of French. We stayed in Normandie, which was beautiful, but remarkably old, and went to the French school for all of two days. (whoopdedoop). The school has been doing this excact echange trip, with the excact same activities for about 2000 years, the very first trip being led by Jesus riding a dinosaur. Then, like now, they went to a goat farm, summer tabgerning, to St Mont Michel, a cemetary and D-Day beach and into the tiny village of Athis De L'Orne.

My favourite place I have to say was St Mont Michel. This was partly (like 98%) because I'm such a geek, and St Mont Michel looks EXCACTLY like Harry Potter had kids with Cinderella and then their kid turned out to be an amazing island wih a cathedral on it. I apologise for the lack of photos, but my phone's schocking, and besides I lost it on the ferry. (Is it bad that I felt disappointed when the Ferry people said that they'd send it to me in the post? Bad me.) St Mont Michel has stairs everywhere like some steam rollers nightmare, and a big castle thing perched on top of the island like an elegant birds nest, and I'd highly recommend it.

Without photo's I had to find some way of validating the trip, s that was it folks. I've got a hell of a lot more where that came from, but I'll take pity on you poor fiends reading this, and leave it at that. It was so sad to leave my Frenchy (called Elodie by the way - how French!), but I said I'd keep in contact. We'll see how that one goes (I'm pretty lazy.) ANyway,

Until next time

x

Retail therapy, exams and the horrific world of politics

So, this is it folks. The day we've all been waiting for. It's election result day, and we've all been given the chance to change our country, to rid ourselves of the conservatives and start a new era. So, what happened? Honestly, I don't know. I'm pretty left wing; I support the Green party, and Labour, so why so many would vote Conservative is beyond me. Now we're going to have to wait another five years before we have our next chance to get someone new, and meanwhile, the Conservatives have pretty much free reign to make whatever horrifying decisions they like, not that thye didn't already. Ugh. I am done with politics.

Anyyway, life's been hard. Well, y'know, in a sort of middle class mild teenage angst sort of way. Plus, we've had exams; so, so many exams, and now we're having to retake some because of some great reason that the teachers haven't bothered to divulge to us unworthy slaves. Grr. After all that, some serious retail therapy was definitely in order. I used to love Primark, but the whole dying child slave's final words stitched with the blood of thousands sort of thing kind of put me off. My new obsession is TK Maxx, and it's pretty darn good (although a bit too easy to spend £50 if you ask me. Which they didn't. Hence my lack of money now.) I'm going to show you what I bought so you can be just like me make sure you buy stuff that's good or something.

1. The trousers are very boho, but that's not the greatest thing. The best bit is that they're just like pyjama bottoms, but they're acceptable to wear in public! (pyjamas will get you some weird looks, trust me.) Please, just save yourself some hassle and buy these. They make me so happy it's even worth spending FIFTEEN POUNDS on them. Fifteen.

2. These make up brushes are so soft and fluffy I swear they are crafted purely out of disney fanfics. I've used two of the three so far, and they're amazing (except they smell of plastic, but they are made of it I suppose, so it's not fair to criticise. I don't criticise people because they smell human after all.)

3. I wore this dress today. That should give you a picture of how much I love it- it's British spring, which is the equivalent of monsoon season anywhere else. (Nah, that's too dramatic. It's not that exciting; it's mostly constant showers. All year. Ugh.) Oh well, while I wear the dress it's summer in my heart.

4. Isn't this just the most gorgeous colour nail polish ever?! I think so anywhere, and it's on my toes right now, and it would be on my fingers too if our school wasn't so harsh and and dystopian.

5. Um. I got this out of pure necessity, after my dear mother 'accidentally' put my mascara through the wash, and then it sort of died. I'm glad she did though, because this stuff (Bourjois queen attitude if you want to be more technical.) is really good, and doesn't slowly travel down your face during the day like my old mascara, until you looked like a panda at a funeral. 

6. These were kind of an impulse buy. I haven't had chance to wear them yet (damn you, British weather.) but they're nice, I guess. It's just that they were ten pounds. I'm still in shock.

7. AH, memories. I've worn this already, on a freezing walk up a hill, with my jacket making my bandeau slide down, the wind strong enough to fly our dog as a kite, and the potential to get lost anywhere (and I did.) It was great.

So, that's where my £50 went, and je ne regrette rien folks. Apart from the fact that all that money spending fun is over now, probably for a good while.

Until next time

x

The Best Bits of Buzzfeed Part 1

Oh Buzzfeed. If I fail all my GCSE's and get pulled down the plughole of life, then it was probably your fault. Buzzfeed definitely is the singularly most addicting website on the internet with the possible exception of Vine, and Pinterest, and YouTube and - well, there are a lot of time wasting things I'm addicted to, but still. None the less, me and Buzzfeed are pretty close, and here are a few of my favourite posts. (I'm sorry I can't fit the list into one post, but the world of Buzzfeed is a big place)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/oi-m8-u-wot?utm_term=.uurvgaRdz#.qa76ybXNB
Pictures that perfectly sum up what it means to be British.
This is the best thing that ever happened on Buzzfeed. Ever. I'm British, and most of these are so spot on that I can barely function. I UNDERSTAND, YOU PEOPLE!!!! I don't know if other nationalities would find it so funny, but I love it. Gah.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hayleycampbell/look-at-the-inside-of-my-jacket#.ptBrByGxo
Guardian articles that you would want to read
This one has a pretty tragic back story. So, because I'm British and middle class (and left wing btw) I read the Guardian every Saturday, religiously. Originally that's why I looked at this post, but then I started getting kind of excited about all these amazing stories that exist, and all these crazy funny peoples loves I could read about. I was going through, trying to find links to the articles when the harsh reality hit me. THESE ARTICLES ARE NOT REAL. I put that in caps so that no one else has to go through the bitter disappointment. They're still funny though.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/29-things-that-will-make-you-grin-like-an-idiot-however-badl?bffb#.uaKZDM976
Things to make you happy
If you've had a bad day, I guarantee this will make you feel better. Maybe not chocolate level better, but pretty darn good.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/keelyflaherty/times-the-sherlock-fandom-won-tumblr?utm_term=.hoJ4JADdj#.jpx4qK1RJ
The Sherlock fandom winning at Tumblr again.
Um yeah. I am a Sherlockian, and therefore anything to do with Sherlock is automatically a priority. Again, I can relate to these posts, and the weird people behind them, but even if you don't like Sherlock (who even are you.) these are probably really great. I haven't been able to find anyone who doesn't to ask them so. (By the way, talking about fandoms for a second, go on urban dictionary and look up your fandom name. The definitions made my day.)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/americans-try-british-food-for-the-first-time#.nhp5jExPW

Americans try British Food for the first time.

I find this pretty amusing, even though they ate the hot cross buns wrong. Fools.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/low-carb-lunch#.jmr4dMegE

Low carb lunch ideas.

I don't particularly care about the carb content of my lunch, but I'm always looking out for healthy lunch inspo for school. (As I said before, the lunches at my school are kind of tasty, but not tasty enough that I want to go through a cardiac arrest.)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/mililedge#.atVryDa1x
Ed Miliband reactions that sum up your life
Ok, so I do realize that everyone is sick of the elction by now, except me, and probably the BBC. Still, Ed Miliband face is pretty fabulous, so any excuse to marvel at his cartoon features is a good one.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kitkatuk/people-winning-at-social-media#.ggV439bZ2
People who won social media.
If you thought aware social media is a competition then you should probably just go back under your rock, because the thing is, you just don't see competitive things online. There aren't any smug selfies with celebrities, or pictures of cool parties, or stories about expensive holidays, except on every social media page ever. Sadly though, fun time's over, because no one can compete with these (mostly) geniuses. Sorry, folks.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/five-minute-hairstyles-for-busy-mornings#.so4VbykoA
5 minute hairstyles.
I am not a morning person. Regardless of what time I go to bed I seem to need more sleep than your average person, even compared to other teenagers. This explains the contrast between my normal school hair (probably clean, but still wet, brushed (barely) and maybe put into a ponytail if you're lucky) and some girls in my year, who look like they spend hours perfecting every last strand. While spending that long on my hair every morning would be nice, it's kind of unrealistic, considering I usually end up with about ten minutes to get washed, dressed, pt my face on etc. These hairstyles are mostly great, and maybe soon I'll be able to bluff my way into making it look like I care about what my hairs doing.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/pippa/50-diy-anthropologie-hacks-for-every-facet-of-your-5ocb#.ygORbn7r4
Anthropologie DIY's
I feel kind of guilty for putting this one in, when other perfectly good posts got axed, especially as I don't even know what Anthropologie is (I'm guessing either a shop or some type of hippo). Still, while some of these look pretty horrible, some of these are very tempting.Whatever this 'Anthropologie' is, I like its style. Plus, these save you money apparently, so it's a yes from me.

I'm sorry I couldn't fit all of Buzzfeed in one post, but I'll do a new one soonish.

Until next time

x

Earrings in a Bottle

Now, this probably makes me look extremely stingy, because out of my two friends who've had birthdays in the last two weeks, how many presents do you think I bought? HAHAH NONE!! I spent no money, only my own sweet time, and still they didn't get offended and (I don't think) vow to never talk to me ever again. This one was for my friend Lucy, and the picture is pretty shoddy, so you cant really see what it is. Again, I'm not classing this as a tutorial, on account of the fact that I hate it when people say that there's an easy tutorial and then they're all like, oh, just get your butterfly leatherette and some 24 carat gold, then blend it with almond flax meal Scandinavian sugar meat, and then add some of your soul and your first born child and add some washi tape and you're done! In this case, I used some wire, some blank stud earrings I got from Tiger (which is the best shop that there is, by the way), two random blue stones I had from somewhere, and a teeny weeny bottle.

In case you hadn't guesses, I made earrings in a bottle, and a kind of wire tree to support them in. I literally just glued the stones on with super glue, so I don't know if they'll fall apart, but they will probably;y be held together with my prayers, like most things I make. Whether or not Lucy will ever wear the earrings, or indeed be able to get them out of the bottle remains to be seen, but she seemed happy, and I stayed up late enough to make them that they county as thoughtful. I would have liked them, so it was probably fine.

Until next time

x

Oh, by the way, do you like the new font? Let me know x