On Thursday I handed-in my Masters dissertation and for the first time since last December, I can legitimately do what I want with my time and not feel that niggling sense of guilt that I'm not working! Whoop! With this in mind, I thought I'd dedicate a little of my newly found free time to my much-neglected blog and tell you about some of the things I've been loving (and not loving) since my last post!
Another gorgeous production from the BBC! Adapted from Ford Maddox Ford's acclaimed novel, Parade's End is, according it's star, Benedict Cumberbatch "an essay on the death throes of the aristocracy before and after the First World War." And Mr Cumberbatch is probably right (he's Sherlock Holmes after all!) Parade's End is with doubt a social commentary and can be viewed as such. But it's also at its heart a good old fashioned love triangle between Cumberbatch as Christopher Tietjens: a brilliant, honourable, infuriatingly decent government statistician, his scheming socialite wife Sylvia, played by the insanely-beautiful Rebecca Hall
and Adelaide Clemens' spirited suffragette Valentine Wannop.
It's all unrequited love, unsuitable marriages, sexual tension and potential affairs...when put like that Parade's End sounds like Eastender's but with posher accents and corsets! However, Downton Abbey this is not! Parade's End requires you to think and getting up to pop the kettle on is not an option! However its gorgeously filmed, brilliantly acted and worth watching if only for Queen-bitch Sylvia and her witty one-liners! Parade's End is on BBC One, Friday 9.30pm.
My Pink dip-dye, courtesy of Directions Flamingo Pink - because who wouldn't love having pink hair?! Also modelled in the above picture is my latest MAC purchase, Morange! LOVE!
The downside to pink hair - dry ends! I know this is a slightly random thing to be loving but in recent weeks I've rediscovered VO5 Hot Oil Treatments and I absolutely love them! I'm pretty abusive to my hair, I (or rather my fantastic hairdresser Lisa) bleach it, dye it pink, curl it, roll it, back-comb it and am generally mean to it! These little babies sort all that out in a little over a minute once a week! If that weren't awesome enough, they're super cheap, only £4.29 for 4 treatments, available from the most highstreet chemists! (I don't know whether these ore available internationally, sorry!)
Sticking with the beauty theme, I've also been loving Clarins skincare. As you can see I use a tonne of Clarins products, favourites include the Hydra-Quench Bi-Phase Intensive Serum, Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner and the classic Beauty Flash Balm! Clarins products are definitely not cheap but I believe in investing in your skin and all the products I've tried really work on my oily, breakout-prone skin! They have ranges to suit all skin-types too, Mama C has super dry 50-something skin and she swears by Clarins! For stockists see http://www.clarins.co.uk/on/demandware.store/Sites-clruk-Site/en_GB/Stores-Find
Probably not so nourishing or so good for me as the above, I still love love love a cheeky Sloe Gin Fizz or two in Popolo! I have to confess that in recent months my social life has been pretty barren what with dissertation, work and the fact I've largely given up drinking but on the few occasions I've venture out and about, Popolo, on Newcastle's Pilgrim St has been my destination of choice! Cafe by day, bar by night, Popolo is what I imagine bars in New York to be like (one day I'll cross the pond and test the theory) - all leather booths, high steel chairs, curved bars and old movie posters! The atmosphere is invariably jumping and they have a cocktail menu to die for, my favourite is the Sloe Gin Fizz!
High-waisted hotpants: cute, summery, retro! Happy face! (Clockwise from bottom left: Topshop, Topshop, Primark, Primark, Primark)
And now for a bombshell...I really did not get Fifty Shades of Grey! I know its out-sold Harry Potter and pretty much every book ever written and a lot of people will want to hunt me down and beat me for not loving this book but I just didn't! I hated the neurotic unrealistically-naive Ana and the serial-killer-in-the-making Christian and all their frankly boring sex! I kept waiting for a plot to arrive but it never quite did...in nearly 500 pages! If you're after clever, funny, sexy escapism, lots of dashing-moneyed men and a good old romp then I don't think you can't go wrong with Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper or my personal favourite, Fiona Walker - available at all good book stores!
L
Xx
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