What I Wore December 12th

Lee and I went Christmas shopping on the 12th of December, which felt really late and disorganised, but the lockdown meant we just hadn't been able to finish it earlier. I love Christmas usually but after the terrible year that 2020 has been, I'm not exactly feeling it. I'm really sad I won't be able to see my aunt, uncle, or cousins. We're going to see my mum and stepdad over Christmas, and Lee's mam just afterwards, but I'm sad that so many of our traditions just can't happen this year. Hopefully next year!

But to go Christmas shopping I thought I would try and dress a bit festively. I bought this top recently for a fiver from someone on Facebook. I think it's new, I really don't think it's been worn at all. It's from Simply Be. I love the silver foiling stars on it. I paired it with a black pleated skirt from Yours Clothing, but I think I got that from a swap or a sale on Facebook, I don't think I bought it new. I rarely wear all black but I liked this outfit a lot. 

We also dropped off my stepdad's birthday present as it was his birthday. We obviously couldn't stay, but the present was quite expensive so I didn't want to trust it to the post. Our post has been terrible again due to Christmas AND the pandemic I'm guessing. But it was nice to go and give Norman his present. 

In the evening we had a family video chat with my family, as my aunt's birthday is the day after my stepdad's. She opened her presents from us which was nice, and we did a quiz together which was fun. We'll be doing very similar for Christmas, I suspect!

I hope you had a nice Christmas, if you were celebrating.

Drive in Cinema in Bradford

In the middle of the month Lee and I went to a drive in cinema in Bradford, at the Bradford Bulls stadium. We had bought tickets to see Joker back in November, but then the second lockdown happened so it got cancelled. It was rescheduled for early December, but it was on at 9pm on a Sunday, which wasn't too useful for getting home from Bradford and going to bed ready to get up to work the next day! The company offered us the chance to change the tickets to a Christmas film, however, so we decided to see Miracle on 34th Street at 6pm on a Thursday, which was much more sensible. 

We decided to set off early and get food from Manjit's Kitchen in Leeds. I've been hearing so much about it, and I bought Lee a gift card for it back on our wedding anniversary in June. We've been meaning to use it ever since, but obviously the pandemic and lockdown has put paid to that. So this seemed ideal. We ordered online and picked the food up at just past 5pm. Their menu is all vegetarian, and it's somewhat of a limited menu currently, but there was still enough for us both to choose tons of food. 

We made our way to Bradford and had to queue for a little bit to get into the stadium car park, but it was all very well organised. We were given a speaker which we put on the dashboard. The film started about 6.30 and the speaker was brilliant. There were four different screens and we were shown to our parking space, which was at the back, but there were only about three cars in front of us, and we pulled far enough back so that we didn't have to look at the top of anyone else's car. The staff were really useful.

We got the food out and started eating. Lee had spicy potatoed and a bhaji in a beetroot bun that he said were really nice, although I didn't taste either. We had some onion bhajis to share. I got a tallit, which was a few little bits all at once. I got like a falafel in a korma kind of sauce, some daal, some rice, a potato samosa, and a lovely crunchy coleslaw. Oh, we got a paratha too I think.

As we were eating a member of staff came round to check our tickets. She put a plate on our car which said a number on it, in case we wanted to order food or drinks. You could do that online, and the adverts before the film said that there were vegetarian and vegan options available, so I might do that in the future. There were tons of drinks, including festive ones and alcoholic ones. The food truck was to our left and was certainly kept busy with staff popping backwards and forwards. And behind the food truck was a portable loo block, which was excellent obviously, and good if you've got kids. 

We didn't eat all our food so brought it home to eat the day after. Ideal for what we spent! I enjoyed the film, I think I have seen it before (it was the 1994 remake) but I didn't remember most of it. It finished around 8.15 and although we had to queue a bit to get out of the car park and give the speaker back, we were soon on our way home. It was a really fun experience and one I would recommend if there's one near you any time soon! It was the first time we had been out of the house in over two months really, so it was just so nice to be out and about. Out in the wooooooooorld. 

I had put on a new top to go out. I got this recently from Simply Be - I did a huge order which included some Christmas gifts and some festive clothes for me. I liked this t-shirt that says "Express your elf!" It's in nice gold foiling and the quality of the top feels really high. I put it on with one of my favourite skirts. 

I put a wrap on to travel and to sit in the car in, and I was plenty warm enough even though we had the car switched off most of the time. Lee found our snowman hats from a couple of years ago, so I put that on too which helped with the warmth. But I would recommend packing a duvet or blanket if you think you might feel the cold in your car. 

Festive t-shirt from Simply Be and Scarlett & Jo skirt

The speaker in our car. The bright things outside are the screens

Food!

My tallit, it was all delicious

My ridiculous snowman hat

Looking across the car park

Films of the Month - November

I watched twenty one films in November, which was a lot! I was also doing Nanowrimo, which is where you write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. It is a BIG undertaking but I won it! I was even ahead of myself - I completed the task on the 26th of November! It's a very very bare bones first draft, but it's written, so I'm proud of myself. I spent a lot of the month writing with friends and sitting in front of my computer, so I watched a lot of films. Here's what I saw: 

I was still in Halloween mode at the beginning of the month, so I watched Hubie Halloween on Netflix. I'm not usualyl a huge fan of Adam Sandler (although I LOVE The Wedding Singer) but I liked this

And later that day Lee and I watched the Addams Family Values as we had watched the other one a few weeks previously

I watched The Holidate on Netflix and honestly, I've read the slating it's got and I don't think it was as bad as all that. I liked the main characters and thought it was cute enough

A friend had been recommending The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story, which is about how Lou Pearlman ripped off Nsync and the Backstreet Boys, among others. It's really interesting about how the record industry can work. I'd recommend it

Lee and I watched the 2016 Ghostbusters which is of course the best one

I watched Music and Lyrics because I'd seen someone recommend it. I liked it, Hugh Grant is at his best here 

Lee and I watched Hot Fuzz together which I really like

I watched The Holiday because I was beginning to feel a bit festive (as I think a lot of people were, because 2020 is a shitshow and you may as well do what you like). I love the film, it's one of my favourite romcoms and everyone in it is great. I dont't usually like Jude Law but even he will do too

I watched Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey on Netflix and would HIGHLY recommend it. It's a fun musical with a ton of steam punk elements, and Forest Whittaker is great 

Lee and I watched Friday the 13th, which I've never seen. I'm a total wuss when it comes to horror, but this was a good slasher film

I love Melissa McCarthy so I watched Life of the Party on Netflix. Its fun and funny, it was cute

Okay so I'm sure you saw all the controversy about Cuties when it came out earlier this year. I read it, but probably wouldn't have ever watched the film had I not read a post from a blogger I follow. She and I have wildly different political views, but I respect her opinion and where she's coming from. She had a very measured view of Cuties that was enough to pique my interest, so I watched it. And I have to say, I really liked it. It's about that difficult stage of being a tween, when you want to be grown and you're copying the actions of those older than you. There's very little of the dancing that caused so much controversy, and what there is is excellent. At each point, we're seeing the world from the point of view of the kids, so there's definitely parts where adults or even older kids are totally in the wrong. I recommend seeing it for yourself and seeing what you think

I watched the sequel to the Princess Switch, Switched Again, but didn't think it was that great. There was a lot of flim flam I felt

Lee and I watched Zodiac, about the Zodiac Killer. It's a long film but worth sticking with. It's really interesting to read about how they made the film 

I watched Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square and thought it was ADORABLE. Highly recommended for your festive viewing 

Sam and Jac and I watched Destination Wedding together. Sam suggested it. I like Winona and Keanu, and the film is pretty cute. They're the only people who speak in the whole film and it's quite intense and also quite hilarious

I love The Craft, so was interested to see the reboot, The Craft: Legacy. There are a lot of similarities but it has been updated brilliantly. The girl playing Lily was so good, and David Duchovny was too. If you like the original you'll like this

Netflix kept recommending The Christmas Chronicles 2 to me and I thought well fine, but I'd better watch the first one first. I liked it, although I found the little girl quite irritating. And I definitley cried at the end

Lee and I are making our way through a list of 80s classic films, most of which I hadn't seen. We started with Beetlejuice, which I have seen and which I really like. Winona is a joy

Next we moved on to The Outsiders, which neither of us had ever seen. I liked it, although I felt it was over long. I'm going to write a zine about the film list

Finally Sam and I watched Spirited Away. We watched My Neighbour Totoro earlier in the year and I think I preferred that to this, although I like No Face a lot

What I Wore November 16th

Wait, you're thinking, I just saw that dress in your last post, Rebecca! I've seen this already! And yes, you have, but I'm not showing you the dress today! Instead I'm showing you the footless tights! 

I got the dress from Carolina Dress Room, as I said in my last post. I posted that last picture on Facebook and a bunch of people really liked it and went to order their own dresses from there. I've heard that some stuff, including the rainbow dress, went out of stock, and I've also heard that Carolina Dress Room refunded one payment without emailing the buyer to say why they'd done that. I think that's pretty bad customer service, especially as my friend may have chosen a different dress instead and probably would have spent more with them in the future. I understand they're a small operation, but my friend actually reached out and asked why she had been refunded, and said she would have appreciated an email. She STILL didn't hear anything back. It's a way to lose customers for sure, and it's put me off a bit if I'm honest. It's not the way to run a small business!

So what I'm really showing you here is the footless tights. The phrase 'footless tights' takes me right back to PE class at high school. For 'Games' we were usually outside and wore tracksuit bottoms, but for 'PE' and dance class we wore pale blue airtex blouses and navy footless tights. Shudder. I haven't worn any since then! But I've obviously tried Snag Tights before and know that they fit me. Back in March, in order to keep the business going through lockdown, they did an offer where you could buy vouchers to spend in November - whatever you spent they doubled, meaning you could get £20 worth of tights for £10, and so on. So I bought around £13 worth of vouchers and I also bought a few pairs of tights then, which I haven't yet had chance to wear. But when I do, I'll share them!

So November rolled around and I got my vouchers through for more tights. As well as, I think, around half of my Facebook and Twitter friends! I think we'd all bought some vouchers back in March! My feeds were full of babes receiving packages of colourful tights in the post! I went on the website and got five pairs of tights - two normal, two footless, and a pair of fishnets! They arrived really quickly afterwards and when I had to go out a couple of days later I decided to put my rainbow dress on and these footless tights in 'Mosaic'. They're a gorgeous bright turquoise colour and flow seamlessly into the dress. 

I was still a bit apprehensive about them, and they do bunch around my ankles a bit. But I could pull them further down over the heels of my feet, which I may do, and they look fine so I'm not too worried! I love them! 

What I Wore November 5th

I haven't bought many clothes this year because, you know, we've not had many places to go. I've mostly worn pyjamas and a soft bra and a cosy top, which is what I usually wear at home because my chronic pain means that's most comfortable for me to do. 

But I saw someone of Facebook had bought a couple of dresses from Carolina Dress Room so I went to look. The prints and patterns available are amazing! There's so many and they're so fun. I could have spent a ton of money, but I decided to just start off with one dress, because I didn't know how they would fit.

The sizing is, on the bigger side, rated at sizes 22-30. That's a big spectrum, and as you'll know I'm on the upper end of that spectrum. The website says the dresses are super stretchy, so I decided to give one a go to see sizing. I went for the rainbow pattern because I love a rainbow, and it is so much fun. 

It arrived very quickly. I had to pop out to do some deliveries so I put it on. It does fit me. The material is very soft, it almost has the feel of suede to it, and it's very stretchy. I had to pull down the waistband a little bit, but once I did it stayed where it should be. The only part that felt tight was the cuff of the arms, but I do have very fat arms so I'm quite sure this wouldn't be a problem for most people. And it wasn't too tight to be comfortable, so they're fine. 

The dress also has pockets! And it was well warm enough for me even in early November. I set out, and got three compliments from people as I saw them, including a complete stranger who wanted to know where I'd bought it. I got back and got Lee to take this picture, which I then uploaded to Facebook. I got a TON of likes and comments on it, and a few people said they were also going to buy the dress or one similar. It was £34 I think, so not super cheap, but definitely cheap enough for such a cute dress.

I really want a couple more now, including one with CATS on. The sizing works for me even at the upper end of the spectrum so I think it would work for a looooot of people too. The fit and flare is really cute too. 

Films of the Month - October

I have barely done anything since I wrote my last films of the month post! Once we'd been on holiday we did very little in October. We went to my mum's once and out once, and I went to work a couple of times to pick things up, but mostly we stayed at home. Virus cases were rising rapidly, so it seemed safer. South Yorkshire then went into Tier 3 so we couldn't mix with anyone. I was struggling working from home and I was considering going back into the officer, but it's got a lot busier again recently and then of course we were told to work from home if possible. 

I had some additional stressors in October too, but I started November with a much sunnier outlook and feeling much better about things. Of course, we in England all went into national lockdown at the beginning of November, and I'm not sure if it'll be over by the time this is published. I guess it's a good thing I don't have to go anywhere, but I have been really lonely. Lee is obviously working from home, but I can't really bother him all the time as he is working! I've been video chatting with some friends and I am determined to just get through it the best I can. 

Anyway, here's the million films I watched in October. At the beginning, we were still on holiday, and Lee and I also carved out a bunch of time to watch films together. 

First of all Lee and I watched The Addams Family while on holiday. It's a classic, I love it

We also watched Withnail and I, which I had been meaning to watch for ages. It's so funny

Sam and Jodie and I watched the new Boys in the Band on Netflix. It's okay, some actors are better than others, but I like the original better

I watched 24 Hour Party People which is one of my favourite films of all time ever. I hadn't seen it in ages

Lee and I watched Scream 2 as we had seen the first one a couple of weeks previously. I think it's the weakest of the original trilogy, but I still like it

I watched Love, Guaranteed which Netflix recommended to me. It was good, very cute. I love Daman Wayans Jr so it was nice to see him

Sam and I watched East is East which neither of us had seen in forever. Not all of it is great but we did still enjoy it

Lee and I watched Scream 3 which I really like for the film in film aspect, but I think the ending is weak

I watched Emma, which tons of my friends have said was great. I did like it, it was very tongue in cheek

Someone had mentioned Coalition, which is a dramatisation of the 2010 election, when no party had a clear majority and the Lib Dems had to decide who to form a government with. It was ridiculous, but I quite enjoyed it in a cynical kind of way

I don't know why I had Romy & Michele's High School Reunion in my head, but I did, so I watched it

Lee and I watched Scream 4, which is definitely the weakest of them all. It has a rubbish motive!

I've never seen Marie Antoinette, can you believe? I liked it, it looks amazing and I love Kirsten Dunst

I watched the new Rebecca on Netflix. The book is one of my favourites, and I like the 1940 film too. This one.... did not match up. Lily James is too pretty to be the new Mrs de Winter, for a start. I thought it looked really pretty, but no, it didn't live up to the book for me

Someone on Twitter had recommended Rocks to me, and I want to pass that on to you. It's GREAT. It's on Netflix, go and watch it! It's about a young girl in London, Rocks, whose mum leaves her and her brother and Rocks has to look after them both. It's lush, there's a lot of really natural scenes of young girls being young girls, which I liked

Lee and I watched Halloween which is one of the horror films I can cope with, because I know where all the scary bits are

Sam and I watched Heavenly Creatures which I had never seen and which she hadn't seen for years. I liked it, I loved the relationship between the two girls and how it turned so sour

Everyone kept saying how great Enola Holmes was, which imagines a younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft and the adventure she has. It is GREAT. Definitely watch it if you like Sherlock Holmes or YA novels, as it's so good on both of those. I am certain there'll be a sequel and I can't wait

Just before Halloween Lee and I watched The Omen, which again is a horror film I can cope with

And finally, on Halloween itself, I watched The Craft with some friends online. I have loved this film for over twenty years so it was great to watch it again