Films of the Month - November

I didn't watch many films in November, or at least it felt that way, although the actual number is eleven. I was busy writing for Nanowrimo. I didn't actually write 50,000 words of one project, but I did write 50,000 words over several projects! I got three zines finished ready for sticking, and I wrote a fanfic for an exchange I'm doing. I'm counting it as a win! Sometimes rules just need to be broken.

Here's the films I did watch:

Someone had recommended Girls Trip to me so when I saw it on Netflix I thought I would watch it. I enjoyed it

This was on when Lee and I were away in Grassington. I loved this film as a kid and enjoyed the rewatch

I've never seen Reservoir Dogs so Lee and I watched it while we were on holiday. I thought it was okay

Airplane is one of Lee's favourite films so we watched this while we were away too. It's daft but I like it

I've seen The Help before but watched it again, I really like it

I read the book Let It Snow last Christmas (my review is here) so when I saw that the film adaptation had come to Netflix I watched it straight away, even though it was a bit early to be festive. I liked it, although the book is better

Netflix also recommend The Laundromat, which is about money laundering. I thought it was really good, I would recommend it

I've never seen the live action version of Cinderella and I liked it. It looks really pretty

Lee and I watched Life of Brian and it never fails to make me laugh

I've never seen Mrs Brown, either. It's about Queen Victoria and a man she got close to after Albert died. It's really lovely, Billy Connolly is great

Lastly I watched the Secret Life of Pets 2. I liked it, although it's not as good as the first one

Seeing Friends in Mirfield

At the end of November I got together with three of my four friends from 6th form college. It's not often the five of us manage to get together and unfortunately Michelle wasn't able to make it from London. But Ailsa was coming up from Didcot so me and Gillian and Amy made plans to see her.

We all went to Gillian's house in Mirfield. She made jacket potatoes and Ailsa had brought a three bean chilli and an avocado salsa which were both so good. I was beginning to feel better and could actually taste the food, which was delightful! We sat chatting for ages and then Ailsa had to go.

Gillian had baked gingerbread, including vegan gingerbread for Amy, and then she made royal icing (again with some vegan - made with aqua faba - for Amy) and we made really little and cute gingerbread houses. I'm not very artistic with things like this but I enjoyed gluing together with the icing and using all the sprinkles to make them look pretty.

I was wearing my hand tie-dyed top, originally a white t-shirt from Simply Be, and my Scarlett & Jo skirt with this gorgeous yellow pattern. I thought they looked really good together, very bright and colourful. I also put this pastel heart bracelet on - I've had it forever but don't wear it often. It is very 90s mosher aesthetic, don't you think? 15 year old me would have worn this every day of her life!

I also put on my rainbow lace sparkly trainers from the vow renewal. Ailsa hadn't seen them before and loved them!

Ever so carefully decorating our little houses

Mine - I do love the sprinkles!

Rainbow shoes

I still wasn't at a hundred percent but I think I was looking a lot better than I had been

Very cute little bracelet that matched the outfit

Christmas Shopping in Sheffield

I usually go shopping with my mum one day before Christmas and have a bit of a special day doing Christmas shopping and having a nice lunch. This year we had planned to go to Manchester. I wanted to go to the Northern Quarter and go in all the indepdent shops there, and then have lunch there before going into the Arndale centre for some shopping too. We had decided to go at the end of November and had even booked train tickets from my village.

Then I caught a cold. At the beginning of the week it didn't feel too bad, but then it got worse in my sinuses and I felt awful, especially at night. Whenever I laid down my face would hurt, which would stop me sleeping very well. I ended up only getting about four hours a night. On the Friday morning that my mum and I were supposed to be going shopping, I messaged her and said I was too ill to go.

She managed to get a refund on the tickets, minus an admin fee, which was pretty good. But I still needed to go shopping and time was running out. So I suggested we go to Sheffield. We parked at Nunnery Square on the Park & Ride and got the tram to the cathedral. My mum's never been on a Sheffield tram before! She was very excited.

We got off and went into Caffe Nero for a drink. I had their hot chocolate Milano which is really rich and yummy. I could barely taste it though, which was a shame. Then we went down Chapel Walk into the small shops there, where I picked up quite a few presents. The Christmas market was on the main precinct there, which was an unexpected surprise. We looked at all the stalls there, then wandered into Orchard Square to go in the shops there. By this time we had both managed to pick up most of what we needed, so we went down to Pizza Hut for lunch. Again, I couldn't taste it too well, but it was just what we needed.

We got back on the tram and back into the car, then went to Asda for the rest of what we needed. My mum wanted a new top for Christmas so she tried a few on. I got nearly all of the rest of what I needed in Asda. By this time it was around 3.30 and my mum wanted another drink, but because of what the Parkway can be like I said we should come back closer to mine.

We ended up getting a drink in our gym which has a Starbucks concession in it! It was nice though.

I had managed pretty well even though I was streaming with cold and leaving a trail of tissues in my wake. And I felt better knowing that I had crossed so many things off the list.

I didn't take any pictures except of the drinks I had, so here you go:

Chocolate Milano

This black cherry cream soda is my favourite drink ever, but I can never find it to buy anywhere. At some point I'm just going to have to buy a case of it! 

This Starbucks Christmas hot chocolate is toasted marshmallow flavour and it's really nice, I would recommend it!

Sunday Out in Sheffield

Robin Stevens, one of my favourite authors, was doing a signing at an independent children's bookshop in Sheffield, back in November. I immediately decided Lee and I would go, and then I said we should have something to eat for lunch afterwards. Lee agreed, so it was bright and early on a Sunday morning when we set off to Sheffield.

The bookshop, Rhyme and Reason, is on Eccleshall Road, and it's really lovely. It's absolutely crammed with books and I'll definitely have to go back and have a proper browse. Robin did a little reading then signed her books. I waited until the end because it was just me and then lots of small girls, and I didn't want them to wait for me, that's not fair. Lee and I had a nice chat to Robin - she's very, very lovely. I got all of my books signed (there's ten and I own them all!) and by the time we had finished it was still only half past ten!

It was a little bit early for lunch so we decided to go to Graze Inn, where we went in the summer with Bettie and Jen for brunch. We liked the food before and indeed, I had the same thing, a vegetarian breakfast. Lee had eggs Benedict but without bacon. If you're having brunch then you get free toast and juice which is nice and appreciated.

We got home at about half past twelve, meaning I could relax for the rest of the day, which I really needed as I was coming down with something.

I wore my burgundy Scarlett & Jo Lollidot dress with hearts on, it's one of my favourite dresses and although it's thin cotton it's fine to wear in the winter with a cardigan on.

Robin reading part of her latest book

Look how beautiful the book set up was!

Robin was SO gentle with her young readers, which I really loved

Me and Robin - her dress had tiny macarons on it!

My nail polish was Nails Inc Carlton Gardens. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I think it looks better from afar than it does up close. I like the colour

Breakfast! Poached eggs, garlic mushroom, a veggie sausage, a chargrilled avocado, a potato rosti, and halloumi sticks

I took this when I got home but you get the idea. I was wearing leggings but had taken them off already

I got a bookmark and a badge and the only book that I didn't have, which I bought in the bookshop

A Saturday Out in Meadowhall

On the 23rd of November, just over a month before Christmas, I woke up and realised I was really quite stressed about Christmas shopping. Often we are really on the ball with buying Christmas presents and get all kind of things bought in October and November. However, this time, for some reason, we just hadn't. We had bought a few stocking fillers while on holiday and at a craft fair I went to, but we really didn't have the bulk of it done. We had planned a quiet day in making something nice for tea, but I suggested we go to Meadowhall instead.

Lee thought I was mad, but agreed. We got there about 11am and it was really busy. I've rarely seen the malls so full! We parked near Marks & Spencer and went in there first. We went all over - Meadowhall, Waterstones, Lakeland, HMV... so many shops. Lee chose a couple of bits for himself which is a huge help for me, and we got presents for nearly all his family and some stuff for my mum and stepdad.

At lunchtime I said we should go for lunch in the Oasis. We chose Coal, which we haven't been to for ages but which I liked last time I went. It was quite busy and I felt that service was a little on the slow side. I went for tapas and Lee had a pizza and some coleslaw. I ordered a raspberry smoothie which was really nice. The food, when it came, was really good. I had halloumi sticks, which were delicious, a Greek salad which was really nice, and nachos, which we both shared. Lee's pizza was just a margherita as he doesn't like a lot of stuff on his pizza. It was fine food, just busy!

We went down towards the other end of Meadowhall and went in a few more shops. I have very specific requirements for my annual diaries so we went into the Works so I could chose them for myself. I think that was the shop with the worst queue - everywhere else was busy but didn't have long waiting times to pay, which was good.

We finally left at about 4pm! It had been a long day, but successful, and I felt a lot better and not nearly as stressed.

We had planned to make salt and chilli tofu for tea. Lee isn't keen on tofu but I've been saying that if you press it and fry it first then that makes it really yummy. He decided to believe me and bought all the ingredients the day before. We put the tofu to press as soon as we got home. We put it between two plates, with plenty of kitchen towel, and rested some heavy cans of pop on top. It really helped to get a lot of moisture out.

I dredged cubes of tofu with cornflour, and then fried the cubes in oil. It doesn't take long for each side to be fried. Lee cut up all the other ingredients, and then he fried those in a different pan. He then added the cubes of tofu.

Meanwhile, I fried chickpeas in the same oil as the tofu had been in, because it seemed a waste to only use it once. It's a recipe from Jack Monroe's blog - you fry the chickpeas until they float to the top of the oil, then drain them, and then shake paprika, spices, salt and sugar over them. They're really nice for a snack! I decided to leave the sugar off last night which made them really spicy and savoury.

I would definitely make the tofu again. We put soy sauce on it and just ate it like a snack, because we weren't very hungry, but I would eat it with rice and maybe hoisin sauce for a full meal.

It turned out to be a really fun day with just the two of us. I'm so glad we broke the back on the Christmas shopping managed to have a relatively stress free day out too.

Raspberry smoothie

Halloumi sticks with chilli sauce

Greek salad

Lee's pizza and coleslaw

Nachos - these were only okay - there was too much salsa for me

Fried chickpeas covered in spices ready to eat

And the salt and chilli tofu - so delicious!

A Clothes Swap Cardigan

Hello, I'm writing to you from last decade, 2019! Gosh, doesn't life move so fast. I remember where I was for the dawn of 2000, do you? Happy New Year, anyway!

I picked this cardigan up at the clothes swap in Leeds back in August that Lee and I went to. It's a size 22, but cardigans are often looser, and with this style being that waterfall kind at the front, I tried it on and thought it fitted fine and would look nice. I forgot I'd picked it up for a while, but then in November I picked it up. The weather was dropping colder and my office at work is not the warmest of places. It does have a radiator but then it's too hot, so I turned it off. So I was tending to layer up, and this cardigan was perfect to do that with.

Plus it was free! I like spending my clothes money on fun clothes, not work appropriate clothes. So to pick up something plain like this to wear for work is ideal for me.

I want to link again to my post on Fast Fashion and the Plus Size Consumer, because I think my points are worth reiterating. It isn't easy to shop ethically as a fat person, so clothes swaps, which encourage reuse and recycling, are really good.

I took this photo when I got home around 3.30, so it isn't perfect, but it'll do.

We Will Rock You at Leeds Grand Theatre

In November Sam and I went to Leeds Grand to see We Will Rock You. I had seen it advertised when we saw Kinky Boots there back in April, and wanted to see it. I love Queen and I had heard good reviews of the show, so I asked Sam if she also wanted to go. She said yes and she got the tickets since I bought some ones for another show a bit later. 

She was already in Leeds when I arrived so we went in and sat in the bar for a bit. We had seats in row R of the stalls, which is shorter than the rows in front of it meaning that even at the end of it, you're pretty central and have a good view of the stage. 

The show was really good fun. It's very kitsch and camp and tongue in cheek, which are all things I love. It's very funny, the costumes and choreography were excellent too. Plus all the singers were really good, really talented. The story is a bit of a nod to Flash Gordon and a bit of a nod to the Rocky Horror Show. It's just really fun, so I really enjoyed it and laughed a lot. I would see it again in a few years or something. 

I also want to say that Leeds Grand is one of the better theatres I've been in for seating. Often theatre seats are old, and small, and can be uncomfortable for me to sit in. I manage, but I often end up in even more pain that usual. But I think they redid the ones at the Grand, and they're much better. They have a lot of leg room, and they're quite wide too. I was sitting next to another plus size person, and we were both fine and didn't really argue over the armrest either. So I would recommend it from that point of view!