Saltwater Sandals Review

I thought I would do a quick review of my Saltwater sandals. Lee and I were away by the seaside in the middle of August and I took these with me and they more than stood up to what I needed them for, so I thought I'd write a review. Just to be clear: I was not in any way compensated for this post. I bought the sandals myself; this is not an ad or a sponsored post.

I think I mentioned before that I went shopping with my mum a couple of months ago and wanted to buy some Birkenstock sandals for the summer. We popped into Office because I was looking for a particular style of Birkenstock, and I noticed they had Saltwaters for sale. I've seen them on Instagram but didn't know they were now available in the UK. I wasn't sure they would fit me - I have quite thick ankles! - but I tried them anyway.

I was pleased to find that they buckled easily, on the second hole. They have quite a lot of holes so would fit a range of ankle sizes. I loved the red leather colour, and I think red can go with pretty much anything when it comes to shoes, so I bought them. They're US sizes, so I would say try a range and find which is right for you. Mine are US7 (I'm usually a UK6), and although they were a bit tight across the top of my foot, I knew that being leather they would stretch as I wore them.

The box shows you what to do with your new shoes: bend the soles in a bit, and stretch the front of the sandals by pulling the bits away from each other. I did that. It also says that if any part of the shoe is rubbing, to wet it and let it dry while you're wearing them. The first time I wore them, I had a little bit of rubbing from the very middle of the heel on the sole of the shoe, so I did wet them and it did seem to help. I will say that the soles of the shoes are very thin and that can be a problem for some people; I usually find that but with these I don't.

I've worn them a few times over the summer and been comfortable. The leather across the top has stretched which has made them even more comfortable. I had already decided that I'll look for another pair later in the summer or in the sales, maybe the different style across the foot or maybe the same but in a different colour.

Anyway, then came the true test: the sea! Saltwaters are supposed to be waterproof, and I like paddling, so I was determined to give them a go. On the Monday of our trip, we stopped on the beach near our cottage in Allonby and walked down to the sea. I let the waves wash over my feet and it was joyous.

I really believe that the sea is restorative for me. I needed to blow the cobwebs away and I definitely did - cold water running over my feet, the waves lapping towards me, the wind blowing through my hair. I felt peaceful and free and definitely happy.

What about my shoes, though? I kept them on, got back into the car with them dripping wet, and then took them off outside our holiday cottage. Lee had got his shoes wet too, so we left both pairs on the doorstep overnight to dry. I was a bit worried because often when you get leather wet, it never really looks the same afterwards? It crinkles at the edges and never looks as nice. But when I went back to the shoes, they looked just the same. The edges looked fine and the leather still looked in good shape.

And when I put them on, they felt like they fitted even better than they had before! The leather feels a lot more supple now and they feel really good across my feet. I'm really impressed that they survived the water - and of course I will definitely use them for paddling again! They're definitely worth what I spent on them. And they're very, very beautiful.

Visit to Prashad

My friend Laura asked me if I wanted to go to Prashad's restaurant which is between Bradford and Leeds, very close to the M62. It's a totally vegetarian restaurant, and there's lots of vegan choice, gluten free, nut free, and so on, too. We went on Wednesday 17th February; we hadn't booked a table so we had to wait a few minutes but it wasn't too long a wait at all.

The restaurant has won lots of awards and is fine dining, so prices are a little higher than they are in your average Indian restaurant, but it's worth it. Everything is decorated very nicely and as soon as we'd sat down we were brought a complementary amuse bouche - I didn't catch exactly what it was but it tasted a bit like falafel and was yummy!

We got poppadoms and pickle tray to start off with; the poppadoms had cumin seeds in and were yummy but were very thin. I ordered chaat to start with and Laura had dahi puri. The chaat was delicious but very spicy.

Chaat (NF)(MF)	£6.55
A medley of tastes and textures: diced hot samosa, topped with pastry, potato, chickpeas, yoghurt & tamarind dressing. Dahi Puri (NF)(MF) £6.55 Mini crispy puris individually filled with potato & chick peas and drizzled with yoghurt & our magical tamarind chutney.

For main course we both went for massala dosa with paneer filling. It was one of the strangest things I've ever eaten due to how it was presented in the crepe, but it was delicious and very filling.

Massala Dosa (V optional) (GF)(NF)	£10.95
Additional Paneer Filling £1.70
Lentil & rice flour crepe with a spiced potato &onion curry served with lentil broth and coconut chutney.

Finally Laura had chocolate orange ice cream but I was too full.

Orange infused Chocolate Ice Cream	£6.25
Rich ice cream served with honeycomb

Our total bill was just under £56 which I felt was fair for what we'd had. It's a really nice experience and I'd definitely like to go back!

All opinions are my own! I just liked the restaurant and thought I'd share :)

Book Reviews for February

I haven't read as much this month as I did last month, but we did buy me a tablet so I've been using the Kindle app and I really like it. (My tablet is an Asus Memopad, it's PURPLE, I love it!)

I'm on Goodreads here so do add me!



1) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I'd avoided this for so long because I don't really like John Green, despite the fact that he's huge in YA fiction. I tried to read An Abundance of Katherines and loathed it, so I hadn't read anything else. But we're doing this and the film in my Children's Writers group so I had no choice. I didn't hate it. I thought it was manipulative in parts - that the reader was "supposed" to feel a certain way - which I didn't like. I also think the portrayal of Augustus was slightly ridiculous - teenaged boys aren't like that. But, I liked Hazel and I didn't hate the book.

 

2) Look Who It Is by Alan Carr. This is his autobiography, although in ends in 2008 which seems a shame as he's done lots since then. It does focus on his childhood though, which he recounts in typical fashion. I enjoyed this, nothing too strenuous but interesting to learn more about him.



3) The Teashop on the Corner by Milly Johnson. A friend recommended Milly Johnson to me as her books are set in Barnsley (where I live). I had some Amazon vouchers to spend and they had loads of books on 3 for £10 so I chose this one as part of that. It is nice to read something set in Barnsley, even though I felt the geography was off sometimes. This is pure chick lit but it's well written. The women are great, but the men are too. Often the men in chick lit are rubbish, but not here. This was a really big novel, but nice to get my teeth into.



4) The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan. Oh man, this book. I read it for a Bloggers Book Club discussion and I'm really glad I did. It's a collection of 9 short stories and 9 essays from this author, who graduated from Yale and was then killed in a car crash 5 days later. One of her essays - the titular one - went viral, and her family published this. I went into it quite sceptical - what if it only got published because she had died? However, when I finished this I was genuinely upset that Keegan never got to write a full length novel or more of her excellent stories. The essays are interesting and the stories are SO gripping - the one set on the submarine was TERRIFYING. I recommend this so much - it isn't much on Kindle at the moment.



5) The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths. I absolutely love Elly Griffiths' early novels, which centre on an archaeologist called Ruth Galloway. They're slightly ridiculous and stretch plausibility at times, but I love Ruth as a character and her live and friends. They also have a strong theology/mythology theme, which I love. So I was interested in Griffiths' first novel which doesn't focus on Ruth. Instead, it's set in 1950 and focusses on a policeman called Edgar who was part of a secret service thing with a lot of magicians in WWII. A woman connected to one of the magicians gets murdered, which means Edgar has to get back in touch with all his old friends. There's a lot to get into, and I really liked it. I'm excited to see what Griffiths writes next!

What have you been reading this month?

Book Reviews for January

I've decided that I'm going to do a monthly round up of what I've read each month. I am concentrating on reading more books this year - last year I only managed 40some which just isn't enough for me. I would like to get to 52 this year. We shall see!

I'm on Goodreads here, feel free to add me and recommend stuff to me! I read in many genres - I love Young Adult as that's my MA specialism, I like crime writing, I like literary fiction, and I like plain easy reads, especially about women and their lives. I like non fiction about people's real lives, too.

I have so many books - in fact one day I might do a post about my bookshelves. I say MY because nearly all our books are mine - Lee doesn't read much. He likes Stephen King and non-fiction, but that's about it. I also have a Kindle with TONS of books on it that I've collected for free over the 3 years that I've had it. I swap between the Kindle and a paper book and have no preference for either - I love them both, for different reasons.

I've kept a list of books read for a few years now, but this year I'm adding whether it's an ebook or a paper book or from the library. I'm adding the date that I finished. I rarely tandem read, so mostly it will show how quickly I've read a book. I'm excited to see what the year brings!

Here's what I've read this month:



1) This is a Dan Brown-esque novel about the Romanov family, saying that Alexei and Anastasia survived the massacre at Yekaterinburg, and that in the present, Russia is trying to elect a new Tsar, and an American lawyer must rush to unravel the truth. I like conspiracy novels like this so I enjoyed it.
2) I read Animal Farm when I was a teenager but hadn't read it since then. I devoured this (it is short) and enjoyed the reread.
3) This was an anthology of new women writers and was a mix of poetry and prose. I really enjoyed all of the stories and a lot of the poetry, and I like to support new writers.



4) I loved the Ramona books when I was small and recently bought them on eBay for less than £10. They're so funny, and clever. I recommend them for small children
5) This has been all over Young adult forums and I got it on Kindle to see what the hype was about. It was interesting. It broke all the rules of YA fiction! I did like it, but with reservations
6) I don't read many classics but I liked this one, it was an interesting story.



7) I got this for free on Kindle and it was a nice enough story. I liked the main character and the setting. We need more boys in YA, so I liked it for that
8) Again I read this when I was small and loved it. I found it while tidying recently and read it. It's one of the better Blytons, I think.
9) I bought this in a charity shop a couple of years ago and picked it up on a mooch around my bookshelves. I've read The Outcast by Sadie Jones and enjoyed it, but this is very different in style. A lot of people hated it - I didn't, but it is a very odd book.

What have you been reading this month?

Raues Review

I was contacted by Raues who make plus size customable clothes. They have a nice range of clothes and all of them can be customised by length, sleeves, neck-line, whether you want pockets, and so on. I chose the Angie dress as I liked the colour and the detail on the neckline.

When you sign up to Raues you get to a page where you have to enter lots of measurements from all parts of your body so that they can make the clothing accurate to your body. There are really clear pictures to show where on your body you should be measuring, and with the exception of my height I managed to do them all myself.

The dress arrived quickly from the US and nicely packaged. It is fully lined and has a zip on one side to help putting it on and off.

I love the top, I love the neckline and the way it sits on my chest. I like the pockets, too - I always appreciate pockets. The dress is short on me so I will wear it with jeggings.

I took these pictures in the dark so the colour isn't accurate, see the website for a more accurate colour. You could also check out Fat Heffalump, who got the same dress for review!

Ann Harvey Review

Ann Harvey contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be interested in doing a review for them. Now I always quite liked Ann Harvey for "occasion" wear; I had a nice red top from them and I still have a bluish skirt that I wore for a friend's wedding several years ago. I also had a great swimming costume from them! So I'm happy to see that they're back in Bonmarche, especially as it means Bonmarche is now an option for bigger plus sizes. 

When I was contacted I was told to choose what I wanted, so although there were a few things I liked I chose this dress as it's quite me. It's knee length, with an interesting pattern, and at the back it has a funky pleat detail. It's lovely and stretchy and the material is nice and silky, so it feels like quite a posh frock! It's retailing at £35 currently.