Films of the Month - March

I watched ten films in March which is pretty average for me. Now that we're a quarter of the way through the year I can tell you I have watched 31 films, 15 of which I have never seen before. I've been to the cinema twice and seen just four films with Lee. We have really different taste in films so it's no surprise!

Here's what I watched:

West Is West - although I love East Is East I had only seen its sequel once before, so I decided to watch it. I liked it, but it's not as good as the first

Lee and I watched Return of the Jedi together, we don't seem to ever choose this one of the original trilogy. Loads of stuff happens that I'd forgotten about. 

I'd never seen The Imitation Game but I kept seeing it mentioned on Tumblr so watched it. I liked it, even though I'm not overly keen on Benedict Cumberbatch

Sam came to mine the week that everything was up in the air with Lee and I, when he was with family in Durham, and we watched this. I wasn't thinking too clearly so something comforting and familiar like this was lovely

I hadn't seen Grease in absolute years, and I really enjoyed the rewatch even though it's a ridiculous film

So then I watched the sequel, Grease 2, which I think is unfairly maligned, it's pretty good and Michelle Pfeiffer is great

I had been reading a lot about the Aids crisis so thought I would watch And The Band Played On. It took me ages to realise the main character is played by the guy who plays Joker in Full Metal Jacket (one of my all time favourite films, even though it is so depressing). I thought this was a really good film, I'd recommend it.

Lee and I watched Star Wars together, we always watch the Empire Strikes Back as that is my favourite. I do love this one, though.

I want to watch more Disney films, so I watched Lady and the Tramp as I've not seen it since I was a small child. It's cute! Not very long

Finally I watched England Is Mine, a film about Morrissey's early life. It's good, there's not much plot but it's very atmospheric of the late 70s/early 80s. Recommended for fans of the Smiths!

What I Wore March 31st

You've already seen this dress but that's because I couldn't resist posting the photo of Lee and I as we both look really happy in it. I did a huge Simply Be order recently, but I sent it all back except a few nighties and two dresses. This is one of the dresses. I loved the mint green of the skirt and I thought that this dress would be perfect for an Easter wedding.

The neckline is slightly Bardot ish, I guess you could wear it rolled down, but I liked it like this because it didn't show my bra straps. I think it looks nice anyway. I wore the dress with my Evans leggings and the leather boots I bought recently. They are slightly tight on the ankles but I think they'll give a bit as they're leather. I was really glad I'd worn them because part of Kelham Island was really cold, I was glad my leggings were tucked in!

The material of this dress is slightly like scuba material, and is quite staticky, neither of these things bother me but some people don't like those things! The dress was around £23 in the sale which is a great price :)

I love this style of dress as you'll know, I must own about ten dresses with the wide elastic band on the middle like this! I like the silhouette it gives me, and I feel comfortable in dresses like this. The colour of the skirt is a bit more minty than is showing in this lighting.

Wedding at Kelham Island

At the end of March my friend Roslyn got married at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield. Roslyn is one of my oldest friends - I met her when I was on a school trip aged 15, she was two years above me at school but we liked the same band and became friends. She was my witness when Lee and I got married. She is honestly the closest thing I have to a sister, even if we go through periods of not seeing each other much.

We went around lots of the museum during the day and Lee and I read quite a lot of the information. There's a lot about industry in Sheffield which is really interesting. The ceremony itself took place in the Engine Room, which houses the WORLD'S largest steam engine! It was stunning. We then moved into the museum itself for drinks and photos. The meal took places in the cafe and it was really nice. We had teak smoked chicken and bacon salad, then roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, roast pork, and some salads, and then chocolate mousse with little biscuits. It was really delicious.

Then we moved through into the pub on site, which is called the Millowners' Arms. There was loads of history stuff in there too. Roslyn and Paul took their baby for a quick drive round the block to try and get him to sleep, and when they got back there was a really nice buffet and wedding cake. Lee and I didn't stay long after that; Lee had slipped out already to go to a nearby supermarket for stuff we needed for Easter Sunday.

It is a really gorgeous place to get married though, and the staff were all really nice and very helpful. The food was really nice too. I'd definitely recommend it for a wedding!

I of course took a few photos:

Roslyn and the baby. Her dress was so pretty! It had a sparkly bit on the middle that isn't visible here

Some of the museum info, I liked this bit about Barnsley since I live here

Lee and I in the Engine Room. More on my outfit in my next post

The steam engine

Cute sculptures made out of some of Sheffield's world famous cutlery

Roslyn and Paul had gone for a rainbow theme and it was reflected in the flowers. These on the table were gorgeous

I was given a jar to bring home but very stupidly left them on the table in the pub! I hope someone else took them instead

Chocolate mousse and biscuits, it was yummy!

And finally, here's Roslyn and Paul giving their speech.

Books of the Month - March

I only read four books in March. I would have liked more, but things conspired against me. Lee and I are currently living apart. We had a huge argument at the beginning of March and Lee went to Durham for a week to give us both some space. Since then I've seen him about twice a week, and he's staying with friends in Sheffield.

It's been difficult. I've never lived by myself and I'm finding it tough. I am finding it very helpful to have Ivy with me, she's been great company and has slept on Lee's pillows next to me almost every night. I'm quite scared of the dark so I've been leaving the bathroom light on just to put a bit of light into the bedroom when I wake up in the night. I haven't slept very well, and I haven't really been settling down to read like I normally would. I'd started something that was really heavy, so I gave it up and read two middle grade books instead, and then an easy YA read.

I think Lee and I will be okay, but we need to get some stuff in place to help us both be better. We're both quite mentally ill, and need some help to work through some stuff. We've been talking a lot and already started to make progress. By the time you read this, he may well be back at home, although we're both willing to give it longer than that if we need to. We've been together a really long time and generally things are really good, but we have some underlying issues that need sorting out if we want to be together for another eighteen years. I love him very much and I know he loves me, so I'm pretty positive about things, even if I am often feeling very vulnerable, scared, and alone.

I think social media can often give a really rosy impression of life, and I don't like it. Life has its ups and downs. I didn't want to lie about it, so here's a little update into my life.

And here are the books I read in March:

What I Wore March 24th

As I said, Lee and I went to Preston for a literature conference, and I wore this dress for the first time. I ordered it recently off the Scarlett & Jo website, and really liked it. It's really similar to the new purple polka dot dress I have, but I think the style really suits me and I think they're really good quality and easy to wear. I thought the background of this dress was navy blue, but it's actually black, so I paired it with a black cardigan instead of a navy one. I like the flower pattern, and I of course love the pockets. I need all my dresses to have pockets, to be honest.

Photo an Hour - March

March's photo an hour happened to fall on the day that I was going to the Northern YA Literature Festival, held for the first time. It was in Preston at the UCLan campus and it was free! I'd registered for tickets way back in January and booked two for Lee to come with me. Now, Lee and I are currently living apart and have been since the beginning of March. We're still together, but we're trying to sort out some underlying relationship stuff and to give each other a break from the other. But I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with going by myself so I asked Lee to come along. We have been seeing each other a couple of times a week so I thought we would be okay and would have a good time. And we did! Lee stayed over in our house both nights and we had a nice weekend together. On the Sunday we went to the supermarket to stock up on some bits for me, and then we had lunch together before he went.

I think we will be okay and will sort it all out, but we need to just be apart for now.

Anyway, back to Saturday. We got up at stupid o'clock to go to Preston, got to the conference in time for it to open, listened to the first panel, had some lunch, listened to another panel and the author conversations, and attended a bunch of signings, bought books, all that good stuff! We set off home about five thirty, and when we got home we ordered a takeaway and watched Star Wars. I crashed into bed just before 10pm and then woke up about midnight on the verge of being sick. I felt dreadful! I went back to sleep and then woke up about 4.30am with my stomach still really upset. I managed to go back to sleep again and got up about 10. I still didn't feel right! But the clocks had gone forward and it was a sunny day, both of which helped me feel better.

Anyway, he are my hourly photos from Saturday:

7am and I was awake, in a fashion. I was so tired, I hadn't slept well on the Friday night. Also why does my left eyebrow look perfect and the right one look weird?!

8am and we set off, we had to go to the post office first to collect something. This is just as we were leaving our street.

9am and I was playing DJ in the car. We listened to some very weird cover versions, but this one reminded me how much I like the original

10am in the queue for the conference with Lee. 

11am and the first panel, on getting into publishing, was about to start

Noon and I was in the queue for Anna Day (on the left) to sign my book. I enjoyed listening to the other lady, Teri Terry, but I don't have any books by her

1pm. Lee and I went across the road from the venue and were going to go into Subway, but it was really busy so we went two doors away to this falafel place. I had the hummous platter with falafel, it also came with a pitta bread. It was SO GOOD! I really enjoyed it. They had really nice juices, too.

2pm, this was the panel on feminism in YA. 

3pm, ish, kind of, this was another signing queue. The room was pretty well laid out, I liked it

4pm, this was Alwyn Hamilton talking about her books

5pm, I was getting tireder and taking ugly selfies, oh well!

6pm, back in the car on the way home with the sun shining behind us

7pm and it had fallen dark. This was on the M62 on our way home

8pm ish, we decided to watch A New Hope, this is Luke and Obi Wan, I know it's not easy to see

9pm, me curled up in my pyjamas... And like I say, I then headed off to bed!

Books of the Month - February

I only managed to read four books in February, because one took me almost two weeks and also February is a short month! I read Wing Jones by Katherine Webber, The Lido by Libby Page, The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. As usual, my book reviews are over on my book blog.