Sundaygram: Playing Catch-Up

Hello, Dahlings

You would not believe how many times I've started, scrapped, saved and to-do-list-ed this post. One again I have managed to be MIA for far too long, and once again, I do apologise.

I've spent the last two weeks settling back into uni and having a hard time, to be honest. My knee injury looks like it might be worse than I had originally thought and I've spent a lot of time this week half-out of it on pain killers when I've not been in doctor's waiting room and dragging myself to uni with the help of a stick. I have an appointment with a specialist this week who should chalk up a plan of action with me, but unfortunately I'm not hopeful that it will be all sorted any time soon, which has really been getting me down. The painkillers have also been affecting my anxiety a bit too, so all in all not a stellar week for me.

However, onwards and upwards and always look on the bright side of life (doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, etc.) and all that jazz - let's look at some pictures from... whenever the last time I did pictures was! Yaay!

Our kitten got a jumper instead of a cone when we got her fixed, and looks ridiculous (and highly unimpressed about it) | After this post, I took the plunge and got my hair chopped! | "What is this magic and why does it get more attention than I do?!" | An old picture of me that I found - now this is my ideal hair! | On a blurry night out back at uni | I did a thing and got a Blue Peter badge and now I think you should all be hugely jealous | I miss her :( | I get to read Harry Potter for my module this week. If I don't ace this exam, my life aged 8-now was basically wasted studying for it | Reminiscing about better, more mobile times in sunnier places with much-missed pals.

You want some favourite things? You got them:

1. 'Simply Home Yankee Candle' for Tesco (also I think Asda...?) - once upon a time, I spent a Christmas period working at a large national department store, and I hated it. The only bright spot was that they sold Yankee candles, and they were kept in a special cupboard. Every day I'd find some reason to slip into that cupboard and smell all of the lovely wonderful scents. It is a constant sadness to me that I can't justify the expense of buying one any bigger than the little 'tester' ones... until I came across these cheaper versions on my food shop the other day. A medium-ish jar is still £8, which is quite a bit for a candle but it's half of the price of the 'proper' ones, smells just the same, and is a nice pick-me-up treat - just what I need at the moment! 

I have the scent 'tranquil beach', which is a lovely summery smell and fills my room with hints of summer evenings spent at the seaside - which is definitely preferable to a little attic room where the neighbours are constantly smoking weed and getting the smell all up through my window.

2. The Carrie Diaries - I watched the entire series over two days. Having read the two YA books written by Candace Bushnell about her world-famous sex columnist character back in her teenage days I was intrigued to see the television version, and - sorry critics! - I liked it! I like Sex in the City well enough, and recently had a marathon of the whole series when I borrowed the box set off a housemate, but I'm in no way its biggest fan. I like Carrie, sure, but I never really got the whole Mr. Big romance (hello, Aidan is perfect?!) so I don't have the same feelings some viewers seem to have that the Carrie of The Carrie Diaries is wrong. I do find it sort of hard to imagine AnnaSophia (yes, her first name is all one word, I just googled...) Robb's sweet, naive version of Carrie turning into Sarah Jessica Parker's more street-smart version, but then who stays exactly as they were from sixteen to thirty?! 

My only problem with the series really is that I already know how it ends - with Carrie and Big and a wedding then no wedding then a little tiny wedding that she didn't really want and he did then whatever happened in the second film which really was sort of terrible. Yes, I know it's unlikely that a girl will end up living out the rest of her days with her high school boyfriend, but when it comes to TV I like to suspend reality and know that. Also, because obviously the chronologically later series came before this one, none of Carrie's friends from school end up being big parts of her life in later years - again, I know that's pretty realistic but I don't watch TV for realistic. I watch it for cool shoes and fantastical coincidences. I try to pretend that this show is about all-new characters because the knowledge of what happens sort of ruins all the suspense they try to build. Of course Carrie's soul-mate isn't  the brooding big-lipped Sebastian - he'll be all forgotten about in a handful of years and she'll be after a different brooding guy who apparently lives in a car. 

3. Summer dresses - yes, you might still need to pair it with tights and a jacket - maybe even a scarf - but the time for discarding those bits and floating around in swishy skirts is nearly, almost, virtually upon us.

xx

An Open Letter to The Seasons

Hello, Dahlings

I'm the kind of person who, if you put a gun to my head, would say that my favourite season/s definitely lie in the latter half of the year. Crisp air, red leaves, cinnamon scented everything, Halloween, Christmas, New Year and hot chocolate all really float my boat. However, once all of that's over and it gets to around February/March time the cold drizzle and sleet starts to get wearying for even my extensive collection of knitwear, and I begin to yearn for a warmer, sunnier time; for barbecues and ice-cold Crabbies (although admittedly I do drink those all year round - but it tastes better in hot weather!); for prancing around in shorts and summer dresses; for daisy chains and water fights; for getting to wear my beloved Wayfarers as much as humanly possible; for days on the beach getting sand in every inconvenient crevice of skin and clothing; for the warm highlights and freckles that the sun always brings out of my dull wintery skin and hair.

So, summer, if you could just hurry up and get here permanently, that'd be great.

Summer 2011

xx

On Why this Belle Should Be Your Spirit Hat

Hello, Dahlings

So, remember when I told you why This Bitch should be your spirit animal? That was fun, wasn't it? Well, now I'm telling you why another lesser-known fictional lady woman should be your inspiration for How To Live Your Life. But instead of being your spirit animal, I'm quite sure Mademoiselle Blanc-Sec, of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (or Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec, in its national tongue), would much rather be your spirit hat:

Girl likes a good hat.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is a French film (yes, it has subtitles - but don't let that put you off!) based on a comic book series of the same name (yes, she has a comic book series of her own, much like the B--- I told you about last time. What does a girl have to do around here to get a graphic novel written about her, hmm?!).

Quick summary of the plot: Adèle Blanc-Sec is a journalist/author/adventuress/all-round badass motherfucker who goes to Egypt to steal/borrow a mummy so she can bring him home and get her baldy old man friend to bring him (the mummy) back to life so he can save her sister's life. Also, the baldy old man friend is a brilliant scientist/mind-wizard and brings a pterodactyl back to life which then proceeds to reek havoc upon Paris while a moustachioed policeman tries to hunt him down, accompanied by a posse of other moustachioed policefellows and a professional big game hunter.

Um. Can we please all take a moment to re-read that and soak in the awesomeness? Dinosaurs. Moustaches. Mind-wizardry. Tomb raiding. PARIS. What more could you possibly want?!

If your answer to that question is "A series of increasingly fabulous hats, s'il vous plaît", then don't you worry your pretty little hatless head - Adèle's got you covered:

Apologies for the less-than-stellar quality of these images, I screencapped most of them of a not-exactly-HD version

Have I got you sold yet? I'll take your silence for a resounding 'yes', and get on with telling you all about why you want this girl to be your spirit hat:

1. Adèle is French: 

Does it get any more stereotypically French than this?: image.

I'm as proud a British citizen as anyone, but let's face it: French girls are cooler than... well, than anyone who isn't a French girl. Do you know what would happen if I sat in the bath with my hair all whatever around my shoulders, with a locket round my neck, smoking a cigarette? Well, one I'd probably cough up a lung because I don't smoke and never have, but after that - I'd just look like a damp, frizzy-haired addict who can't go long enough between cigs to bathe, and my necklace would go all rusty and give me weird green markings and my eyebrows would not look that good. Do you know why? Because I'm not French.

Adèle can pull off spending all day in corsets and crinolines and sympathy-neck-pain-inducing headgear and look chic instead of fusty and repressed. Then she can sit in bath smoking and look sexy and brooding. She's like a female (French) James Bond. There are sadly few female characters like her in British literature/film - though a few are trickling in - and we need more. But even when we have more - they won't be French, so they just won't be this cool.

It's science.

If Adèle is your Spirit Hat, maybe she can rub some of that cool, I-don't-give-a-damn attitude off on you. She can make you believe that you can pull off that look, even if it is slightly beyond your normal comfort zone: all you need is to not give a shit.

2. She has the power to make men fall in love with her in seven words (or less):

These seven words, to be exact;

"For Andrej with a J, like Jaguar"

First of all, can we please commend her handwriting? The film is set around 1912, so there aren't any computers etc., but in our modern age handwriting is on the out, and isn't that sad? Here, Adèle has signed one of her books for a fan who then becomes infatuated with her (but not in a creepy way). 

Imagine being so awesome that you can make someone become your devotee with a quick scribble of your pen and a tilt of your head. Pop Spirit Hat Adèle on your head and try doing more than just giggling and blushing next time you want to flirt with someone - Adèle wasn't even trying to flirt here and she got herself a #1 Fan. 

Whether you're trying to find yourself a new suitor or simply out to make new friends or impress in the work place, Adèle would want you to try being memorable - a funny quip here, a witty comment there and hey presto! You've stuck in someone's memory.

3. "She listens to her instincts... not her publishers" (direct quote)

Adèle is meant to go to Peru to write her new book and has been sent there by her boss - but instead she decides to go to Egypt, for the aforementioned mummynapping. 

Spirit Hat Adèle doesn't think you should just float through life doing what you're told. Spirit Hat Adèle - while she "respects protocol" (later direct quote) also thinks you should fly your own flag and listen to your instincts every once in a while. After all, unlike Adèle's mummified buddy - on ne vit qu'une fois (or as my 12 year old sister would say, #YOLO).

4. She is always impeccably dressed and accessorised at all times:

When travelling,

When tomb raiding (NB: I want those gloves!),

When visiting important politicians, 

Even when playing tennis! (She looks a bit upset here because a hatpin has just gone through her sister's skull. But doesn't she look elegant at the same time?)

Spirit Hat Adèle would need to be either very neutral or ever-changing, because she will want you to be well-put together at all times. I admire her for this. Yes, we live in the twenty-first century and girls can wear trousers and onesies are somehow socially acceptable and in certain places it is ok to go shopping with rollers in your hair and your pyjamas on (but a full face of make-up that suggests you have got ready this morning - so did you wash your hair to put those rollers in? So did you get dressed? Did you pick out daytime pyjamas? WHAT HAVE YOU GOT AGAINST CLOTHES?!), but that doesn't mean you have to. If you want to, that's fine. No judgement. Well, maybe a little bit but I promise I'm far too British to let it show. 

Look at Adèle. Look how well-fitted her clothes are and how nicely everything tones. Look at her putting on her kid leather gloves with the little button detailing while a man holds a gun to her head. Elegance and grace in the face of everything and anything - my ideal shopping partner.

Is she fussy with her clothes (hats non-withstanding)? No, not really - for the era, she could have been much fussier. Unless she's dressing to impress she's all about simplicity (again, hats are the exception) and practicality done in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I like it - I'd love to see what she'd wear nowadays. I bet she'd feel exactly the same way about Ugg boots that I do.

5. She has some excellent words of wisdom:

6. She is a mistress of disguise...

... and she never gives up.

It's good, every now and again, to play about with your image and shake it up a bit; Spirit Hat Adèle is a great believer in this. Yes, she tried out all these new looks in order to get her baldy old man friend out of prison, but you know what? That just shows perseverance: another positive trait to have. If at first you don't succeed... try a pair of specs or a false moustache!

And speaking of moustaches... a quick 'tash interlude is necessary here, I think:

On with the show.

7. She is literally the best sister ever:

My sister is moving to a new flat this week, and I bought her a doormat. Adèle's sister is paralyzed, so she steals her an ancient mummy and uses her baldy old man friend's mind-wizard powers to bring him back to life so her sister can be cured.

I think we can see who's winning here.

The sister storyline is really the emotional heart of the film - it shows Adèle's give-a-fuck attitude crumbling. She loves her sister so much that she'd steal a corpse in the hopes it would save her. Spirit Hat Adèle wants you to be a kickass friend and sibling.

And I think that's about it for why Adèle Blanc-Sec should be your Spirit Hat...

Oh no, wait a second. There is one more, tiny, little thing...

8. SHE RIDES A PTERODACTYL:

DO YOU RIDE A PTERODACTYL? No. Adèle does. That is some bad ass motherfuckery right there. I'm sure we can all learn something from it once we have stopped being blinded by sheer unadulterated awesomesauce.

There is nothing that can top RIDING A PTERODACTYL, so I shan't try. Au revoir!

xx

Hair I Go Again...

Hello dahlings

First of all, I DO NOT CARE how punny and cheesey that title is - I literally laughed out loud when I thought of it a minute ago. I LLOL'd (patented by me).

Second of all, it's that time of year again; the birds are cheeping, the clocks have gone back, the sheep are lambing, the sun is doing its darndest to warm up the earth and get spring sprung... and I'm bored with my hair. Wah wah, first world problems, eh? I'll just add it to my current collection of them, the best being "but I can't work out on my dad's new treadmill because I hurt my knee snowboarding, woe is me". I really need a reality check. Anyway -

You might remember a post I did almost a year ago in which I also bemoaned hair boredom; then, I was crushing on all things fringey - and indeed, I did go and get a fringe, and for a while we were happy, my fringe and I:

LOOK HOW HAPPY!

However, as with so many spring-fling relationships, we grew apart - which is to say that my fringe grew downwards, and I let it. For a while, I tried to rock the vampy, all-one-length centre-parted look pulled off so well by the likes of Ms Dobrev and her ilk:

Image.

But as it turns out, that look really works best on people who a) are already ridiculously attractive and need no help from their hair to make their face look better, and/or b) have straight or mechanically curled hair, because on naturally curly hair like mine, it looks less like a conscious style choice, and more like your hair is just sort of... hanging. Which is not a look I really really love:

(Clearly, I am quite drunk here. I do not know what emotion that face is meant to be portraying. Also: the hair. It hangs as much as I did the next morning)

In the process of getting bored of my hair just flopping on either side of my face, I was also getting bored of those wispy, weird ends that hang over my shoulders - you can see the difference in quality on the picture above; the curls around my ears look fairly glossy and quite healthy (this is actually a very good picture of my hair itself, I now realise), but at the bottoms it looks duller, frizzier, and generally not amazing.

I have yearned for long, Rapunzel-esque locks since at the age of 10 (as I think I have already said in a previous post, but this is my blog and my emotional trauma) I had a bob chopped into my hair against my will. Of course, the hairdresser who did it kindly straightened my hair so that it looked nice when leaving the salon, and both her and my mother (who, being a naturally curly girl herself, should really have known better) failed to explain to me and my naive little ten-year-old brain that once I'd washed all the gunky products out, my hair would bounce up into a frizzy ball of curls. Just what you want when you're about to start secondary school!

The thing is that, with a few exceptions (e.g. Taylor Swift, pre-blunt fringe makeover - why did she do that? She was a curly inspiration before! - the girl who plays fake-Amanda on Revenge, Meredith from Brave), super-long hair only looks good curly when those curls are fake - hello, Kardashians! If, as I have, you Google 'long curly hair' at least 60-70% of the results are of girls with long hair and tongued in curls, rather than natural frizz-tops like myself. 

There is a reason for this; the longer your hair grows, the heavier it gets, and so curls will fall out unless they are of the super-tight corkscrew variety, like the girls mentioned above. My hair, whilst being pretty curly, is more relaxed than that, so I can only get it to about the length in the above photo, maybe an inch or so longer, without losing curls. 

And if it was all one length and I just had really long wavy hair, that would probably be ok with me - but I have very thick hair which requires layers, so I end up with hair that naturally has a lot of thick curls at the top and peters out to thinner, wavy layers at the ends. That means that I either have to spend a lot of time each morning heat-damaging my hair so that it all complies... or I make a change to get an easier-to-manage mop.

Image.

Dahlings, I think you can guess which option I'm going to go for. As I said, I love the look of long hair - Kate Middleton, Rose from The Londoner, Tamsin Egerton (another girl I should have put in my category of 'girls who can pull of really long curly hair') - but I think, for the time being, I'm going to have to love it on other people and admit defeat (until, in another 6 months or so, I get bored of whatever I do next and try for another change...). 

And anyway, I have a new hairstyle crush: the 'Chop', as popularised by model Karlie Kloss, pictured above. 

Now, as I said - I've had a bad experience with bobbing my hair. I will not be going down a route quite so short again; I have learnt my lesson. However, I am really loving the blunt, swishy, collarbone-brushing look that's been popping up all over the place lately:

Karlie again: image.

The lovely Fearne Cotton: image.

Not just a new look - Greta Garbo rocked it too: image.

The radiant Elizabeth Olson: image.

The girls of Pretty Little Liars never fail to get me into a hair frenzy: image.

Famous hair-chopper Miss Watson: image.

Another actress who chopped off her locks after leaving behind a big role: image.

Some of these styles are longer than others, some shorter, and none - unfortunately, naturally curly: Leighton Meister's is downright straight, but I still had to include it because it encompasses all the things I like about this style; it's clean, simple and somehow very grown up... in other words, it is that holy grail of all things Hepburn - chic. 

"Oh," this hairstyle says "I'm sorry, I'm just too busy being a sophisticated woman of the world to bother with miles of hair and all the brushing and styling that it entails. Excuse me while I rush off  on my Vespa/in my town car (delete as appropriate) for my appointment with other worldly interesting people to have witty, intelligent banter over cocktails and mini burgers that won't affect my gamine little waistline whatsoever whilst wearing stilettos as if they're slippers! Ciao!".

Just me? Ok then.

I am not under any impression that this is a particularly easy maintenance style - there may be less, but it will require regular trimming and it still needs styling, and obviously all of the lovely ladies above will have had teams of people prepping them before these photos are taken. But in the year I turn 21 (in less than two months!), I can't help but be attracted to the idea of this hairstyle. I wouldn't go as short as most of these girls - Ashley Benson's locks are probably a more realistic length for me and my curls, since cutting an inch of my hair wet is equivalent to an inch and a half to two inches dry and curly, and the shorter it gets the curlier it gets, so if I cut it too short I will be back in curl-ball territory - but short is definitely the look that is beckoning me at the moment.

And the most tempting thing of all? If I go shorter before the summer, no more horrid, sweaty, itchy neck due to a nest of hot hair sticking to my skin for me! And with that lovely image in your minds, I think I'll leave you...

How do you feel about this style? Would you go for a similar look - or do you already have it? 

xx

Sundaygram: Happy Easter

Hello dahlings

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope you've all spent the day pigging out on chocolatey goodness... in my family we always have a big roast too, so I'm full to busting right about now - just the way I like it! Though with summer on the horizon I know I should really be cutting out on the naughty snacks... the Anti-Diet here I come!

My knee, which I twisted while snowboarding, is still giving me troubles so I've spent quite a bit of the week sitting with my leg up, glutting myself on all the trashy TV and non-course-related books I've been missing whilst studying (oh so very hard!) at uni - yet more naughtiness that will have to end soon with exams lurking, unfortunately. However, I did manage to get out of the house a couple of times - and take more than four Instagram snaps, which has been unusual for me of late! Without further ado, let me share them with you...

A's dogs playing tug-of-war | Day out in Bath with my Dad | A present from my sister

Kitten wants to share the shreddies! | Lunch in the oh-so elegant, 40's-feeling Browns in Leeds | I baked Paul Hollywood's hot cross buns (twice - the family scoffed this lot in a day so more needed to be baked up for today)

Sleepy kitty | New shoes (for when my knee goes back to normal) | Oh help, oh no... it's a chocolate Gruffalo!

And for my Sunday Favourites:

1. Doctor Who is back! Exciting times for a big geek like me... I just can't resist a bow tie. Bow ties are cool!

Image.

2. Essie nail polish in 'Cocktail Bling' - the perfect grey/purple/green/blue shade that's simple enough to go with everything, but ever so slightly edgier than a neutral tan or pink colour.

Image.

3. Home comforts - now that I have a house (rather than a room in halls) at uni I don't go quite so crazy over sofas and the TV when I come home, but it's still nice to come back to a place where I feel 100% at home, the fridge is always full, and there's cats. Oh, the cats.

Image: mine.

xx

'Stay Gold'

hello dahlings

Today's post is a little different from usual, and the reasons behind it are a little bit strange too, but I'm sticking to it. 

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll recognise 'Stay Gold' as my usual sign-off. If you're really really observant (and I doubt you'll have been too bothered about it to be honest), you might have wondered why in my last post I didn't use it. Well. 

The thing is, 'Stay Gold' is not something I just invented, or picked up - it's a bastardisation of a quote from one of my favourite books, the woefully under-read The Outsiders, the real line being "Stay gold, Ponyboy".

Image.

Written by S. E. Hilton in the late '60's at the ridiculously tender age of sixteen, The Outsiders is about a group of Greaser boys - i.e., boys from 'the wrong side of the tracks' - and the consequences of a fight gone wrong with a gang of their rivals, the Socs - i.e. the rich kids. Three of the boys - Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry - are actual (orphaned) brothers, but the rest are general misifits and together they create a loving, dysfunctional family unit in which the gang looks out for and after one another. This unit is tested - and, frankly, comes out with top marks - when (SPOILER! But it happens early in) Johnny accidentally (in self-defence) kills a Soc and he and Ponyboy have to go on the run, aided by other members of the gang.

It's while they're hiding out that sensitive, literature-loving protagonist Ponyboy reads the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost, and the 14 year olds discuss it's meanings; that everything good must come to an end, that being gold is your youth, innocence, getting pleasure out of the little things. At the end of the novel (MORE SPOILERS!), Johnny dies, and in his last breaths urges his friend to "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold...".

Nothing Gold Can Stay - The Outsiders film

The whole novel is beautiful and heartbreaking and golden, and genuinely is one of those books I will read over and over for eternity. That quote is to me a phrase that is just so perfect I believe the author must be some kind of genius.

This week I met up with some school friends, and we got to the topic of discussing tattoos. I already have one, a different quote, and while talking about potential future ink I realised that all of my other ideas are also quotes - if I ended up getting them all I'd look like a walking notebook. But this quote bubbled instantly to my mind when someone asked what else I'd get, and suddenly I realised just how much I love it, and how perfectly it sums up so much about youth and life that I believe in, and I just didn't want to use it as a sign-off any more. I wanted to keep it for special - I think that it deserves to be better looked after than that.

It might sound crazy to you that I felt the need not only to keep two words 'for special', but that I also decided to share that with you, but I'm ok with that. I don't think I've kept it from you that I am a ha-uge literature nerd, and I know there'll be others out there working on my wavelength.

However I also wanted to share with you the origins of that quote, and how much it means to me and how fantastic that book is, because dahlings - you need to read it. And if you haven't got time to read it? Well, can I sell you on a 1983 film starring a handful of Brat Pack actors, including a certain Mr. Tom Cruise, a very buff Mr. Patrick Swayze and a dashing Mr. Rob Lowe, among others? I can?! Well, quelle surprise.

Image.

The film is actually also pretty good - and has a fantastic origin story in that a teacher from the  coolly-named Lone Star Elementary School in California wrote to director Francis Ford Coppola on behalf of her students asking him to adapt the book into a film. He went away to read it, fell in love and made it happen.

I was going to make this post into a big long thing about all my other favourite quotes, but I realise that it's fairly long now as it is, so I won't - I don't want to write a novel myself about things other people have written. Personally, I always love discovering new books and quotes that people love, so hopefully this will inspire you to share your own favourite 'stay gold'-esque quotes in the comments, or books like this that have changed the way you think. And please, if you've liked this weird ramble, let me know! I could be quite easily encouraged to write more...

You know what to stay, dahlings.

xx

Greetings from Philipopolis

hello dahlings

Guess who's back, back again? 

I hope you've all been having a wonderful week while I disappeared off up a mountain in Bulgaria - I know I have, and I thought I'd share a few of the snaps I took with you lovely lot.  

The view from our back door | A on the slopes | Me and my super-80's hired board, looking like a bluebottle | I was very impressed with these chips that look like crisps | The mountain top engulfed by a snow cloud (quite scary to board down in!) | The resort at night | Our apartments from the chair lift | SO MUCH SNOW AND TREES! | The last day.

I could have shared about a billion other pictures with you, but in all honesty they're much of a muchness once you get past the sheer amount of cold white stuff covering everything and the fir forests - which took me quite a while to do, I'll admit. A spent most of our first day there laughing at my reaction to so. much. snow!! - it's piled feet high on roofs! The real ground was nowhere to be seen! I could have sunk into it! 

We went right at the end of the season, which meant that on the weekdays when all the locals had gone back home we had the slopes almost completely to ourselves, which was fantastic, though it also meant that a lot of the restaurants (and, most annoyingly, the "24 hour non-stop!" shop) had shut up for the summer. We still managed to get our hands on - and teeth into - a fair amount of yummy, cheap food though - should you ever be looking for a good holiday place on a student budget, the exchange rate to Bulgaria is crazily low from the UK so I'd definitely recommend it!

The resort we stayed in was Pamporovo, not far (well, a couple of hours by windy, icy, terrifying-taxi-journey-inducing mountain roads) from the city of Plovdiv, which I learnt from a guide book was historically - and quite frankly, hilariously - named Philipopolis, after Philip II of Macedon, who conquered it in 342 BC (thank you, Wiki!).

Of course, me being me I managed to run over some chunks of ice on my first day and flip over quite impressively, then insist on continuing to board as much as possible for the rest of the week which means that I will no longer be doing my planned two-week challenge that I'd hinted at in my pre-holiday post as it involved running and I currently have an under-inspection knee that needs a lot of rest and prescribed inflammatories before they can even tell me what might be wrong with it. Ah, life!

Don't worry, though - I had plenty of afternoons sitting in front of our fire resting up to plan one or two posts that shall be coming your way shortly. 

Frances xx