What I Wore October 17th

Lee and I had to pop out on Saturday 17th of October. It was a bit scary really because infection rates were rising and various parts of the country were already in Tier 3 lockdown, and it seemed obvious that South Yorkshire would soon follow (which we did, the following week). I politically lean very left anyway, which I hope is obvious, but I am continually shocked at how badly this government has handled this crisis. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking, back in March, that by October we would be a long way through the crisis and life would be getting back to normal. Instead, the economy is shattered, jobs have been lost, the government decided to not feed children in poverty over the holidays, and the virus is more widespread than ever. It's very depressing. 

Anyway, we went out. I wore this grey top from Yours, which I've had a couple of years at least now. It's got some silver foiling on the roses but it's not obviousy in the photo. I put it on with this skirt that I got from a clothes swap, but I can't remember when. It's handmade, and it's crushed black velvet. I was a teenage goth so definitely wore my fair share of crushed velvet back in the day, which is why I picked this skirt up! I love it, it's quite long so I just wore it with bare legs underneath as we were mostly in the car. 

Plus, of course, my Dr Martens shoes. 

What I Wore October 10th

On October 10th Lee and I went to my mum's house for a fancy meal. She had got some vouchers for Cote at Home, so we had all chosen three courses like a month previously and it all turned up at my mum's house on the Friday morning. We had all forgotten what we'd ordered! When I'd looked at the menu there weren't tons of options but I went for a pea and mint risotto. 

We shared starters and sides, and there was tons of food - we didn't finish all the sides. My risotto was okay, but a bit too minty for me. The best part was the chocolate mousse I had for pudding. It was nice food, but nothing spectacular, we all decided. But we had some drinks together and had fun, which was the main thing - especially as a week later West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire were both locked down and not allowed to mix indoors again. I'm glad we got that date in!

I pulled out this ancient H&M dress to wear. I love the pattern on it. It's quite short so I usually wear it on holiday, but I wanted something cheerful so there we go. I wore it with cropped leggings and this cropped jumper from New Look that I've had for years too. I love the colour of it and I think it goes with the dress really well. 

Films of the Month - September

I watched TONS of films in September and I'm really glad I did! It was a good month for films. Plus Lee and I always watch loads of films on holiday, it's what we like to do. 

Here's what I watched:

I had been meaning to watch 1917 for ages, as I'd heard it was good. I liked it, it's obviously a harrowing subject matter but it's so well done

Netflix recommend Room to me. I read the book not long after it came out, and I've seen the film before too, but not for ages. I think it's brilliantly done

Netflix also recommended Kat and the Band to me and while I usually love films about music this was just a bit rubbish. BUT Dougie from McFly was very good so I did enjoy that

Lee and I started on some spooky films for the season but I'm a total wuss so we watch very tame ones. We love the Scream films, the first one is my favourite though

Everyone was watching The Social Dilemma so I did too. I liked it, and it did make me think about social media usage. I am usually quite savvy about fake news, and encourage my mum to do the same when some family members post nonsense or things that are racist. I also set limits for apps on my phone, which I find helps. I'd encourage anyone to watch this!

I've been meaning to watch Springsteen on Broadway for ages and I'm glad I finally did. A load of his songs just sounded amazing being played in such a pared back, low key way. I particularly enjoyed the rendition of Born in the USA (which is an anti war protest song)

When my cousin and his wife came to stay we watched The History Boys as my cousin had never seen it and wanted to. He liked it, but thought the ending was sad

Sam and I watched Interview with the Vampire together, well, apart but watching at the same time and chatting together as we did. Neither of us had seen it before. It's absolutely LUDICROUS isn't it? We just laughed through the whole thing

Lee and I queued up a bunch of films to watch while we were on holiday. The new Bill & Ted film was a top priority! We liked it, it's pretty okay - but I could've lived without Keanu in a fat suit, for sure (they're never ok)

I wanted to rewatch Kill Your Darlings so Lee agreed. We have way different taste in films so often one of us has to compromise. But he quite liked this, so that's a positive!

I also wanted to watch The Magnificent Seven, which I've never seen. Lee readily agreed because he likes it. It's great! I liked Yul Brynner best

I had also suggested we watch Aladdin as I wanted to see it. I haven't seen it since I was about ten years old! Robin Williams is great, obviously

And then we watched X Men: Dark Phoenix. We're a big fan of the X Men films, and especially the reboots with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, but this was just...... miscast. And disappointing. I think this is where the franchise and I part ways

And that's a wrap!

New Glasses!

When we got back off our holiday my new glasses had arrived in the post. I had been into Barnsley a couple of weeks previously to get tested. It was a bit of a nightmare actually because I had to go by myself, of course, and I really struggle getting tested anyway. Then, because I'm so shortsighted (I'm around -10 in both eyes) the optician couldn't get a decent look at the back of my eyes, so he dilated my pupils in order to see them better. Fortunately Lee had driven me into town and although I'd said I would get a bus home, once I knew my pupils had to be dilated I asked him to wait for me and fortunately he was able to. 

I found the sensation really weird and felt disorientated and dizzy for the rest of the day. I had planned to do work at home but couldn't see the computer well enough to do that, so I couldn't. But my eyes looked healthy so that was good, and the main thing. 

I tried on a few frames. Because of Covid, you then had to put the ones you'd touched into a box so they could be sanitised before going back on the shelf. So I didn't want to try on loads. I needed a pair of ordinary glasses and a pair of sunglasses. I chose two frames and spoke to the sales assistant. I pay for the lenses thinning on my ordinary glasses, but I'm not bothered about my sunglasses. That did mean that the lenses would be about a centimetre thick in my sunglasses, but I decided that was fine. In all, my glasses cost just under £200. And that's including a little bit of help from the government! It really annoys me because I don't CHOOSE to have such bad eyesight, and if I didn't have glasses I wouldn't be able to live an independent life. We were able to use some of my self-employment grant to pay for my glasses, thankfully. 

Anyway, also because of Covid, you don't go and pick up your glasses but they post them to you. You can still go in if they need adjusting but of course it does cut down on the number of people in the shop. My ordinary glasses haven't needed adjusting so that's good. 

So my ordinary ones are Converse ones, not that I was bothered about the brand, I just liked the blue colour on the front of the frames. The sides are leopard print, which I also like. My sunglasses are a nice blue colour, but unfortunately one of the lenses had been chipped in transit. I rang Specsavers and they immediately ordered some more for me, which came direct to me and arrived about a fortnight later. They're okay - I don't love them but I won't be wearing them loads over the next few months, so I'll put up with them for a while and see when we can afford some more for me. 

It took me ages to get used to my new glasses and my eyes kept going in and out of focus, but they seem to be okay now. 

New glasses! I love the blue, and there's a bit of turquoise too

New sunglasses, they're sort of a grey and blue mottled effect

Look how thick the lenses are though. Ridiculous. They're seriously about a centimetre thick

The leopard print sides of my ordinary glasses

And a closer look at the blue - they're nice aren't they

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 7

On our last day of holiday we decided to go to Royal Leamington Spa. I've never been and I actually thought it was further from Warwick than it is - the two places kind of just merge into one. We needed some kitten supplies and there was a Pets At Home so we called in there and we bought them some new little balls to play with. There were like eleven in the packet and I've been rationing them out because otherwise they all go missing at once! I swear our house is just covered in kitten toys and bits of paper and wrappers these days, it's ridiculous. The kittens were in a cattery while we were away and they were fine. The staff played with them a few times which is good. They also got neutered the week after we came back from holiday, they were both absolutely fine after it and healed quickly! If you want kitten photos, they have an instagram here! But yes, they were fine. 

We headed into Leamington Spa itself but weren't really sure where to go. A few things were still closed because of Covid. We hadn't eaten either, and then I spotted a hipster looking place called Warwick Street Kitchen, so we parked nearby and went in for brunch. It was really nice! Then we went into the CUTEST shop next door, it was like stationery and homewares and fancy toiletries. There were tons of things I wanted to buy but I restricted myself to some Halloween stickers and two French soaps. One of which is jasmine fragranced! Perfect! 

We struggled to find something to do after that and the weather was off and on. We had talked about going to Warwick Castle but it is nearly THIRTY POUNDS PER PERSON so we decided against that. We ended up going to Warwick Museum which was free and quite fun. There was us and two other people and two members of staff in there, so it was fine. It has some cool things in it including dinosaur bones and a huge embroidered artwork of a map of the area. 

We went back to the cottage and went swimming for the last time. It had been so lovely having the pool and I'm so glad we found somewhere with one - and really pleased by the added bonus that we didn't have to share it with anyone! Then we went to a nearby pub for tea. We'd chosen one that had vegetarian options on the menu but it was quite strange and the food and the service weren't that good. But, never mind, you live and learn. 

We had mostly packed on the Friday night, so the next morning we just put things in the car and drove home. We dropped things off at home and then picked up the kittens around lunchtime. We had had such a nice time but it was nice to be home with them. And I know we're so lucky to have been able to go on holiday in the pandemic. I feel like we did it in the safest way possible. 

A map of Warwickshire in the museum

Swan! 

These were bits of pottery found, I liked them

Lee, proving he was taller than a sabre toothed tiger

The really cool embroidered map

This is where we were staying, near Rowington

Bye bye pool! :( 

I was wearing this Joe Brown's dress to go out in, I love the colours in it

Here we are in the pub

This was the main room of the cottage 

And the other side of it 

The cottage itself. The other one was to the right of this picture

This was the pool house! It was really lovely to stay there - I'd go back!

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 6

We went swimming first thing on the Thursday of our holiday, as we hadn't been on the Wednesday. We wanted a nice quiet day as we were both really tired. We had a lovely swim and then a shower and then ate some lunch. We then headed into Warwick as I wanted to visit the independent bookshop there. It's called Warwick Books and it's right on the market square. 

The staff greeted us really warmly and said they liked my flamingo skirt. which was nice of them. Their children's and YA sections were really nice, I wish I'd taken photos actually. I bought three books, as always you can read my book reviews here on my book blog. We also managed to get a wheely trolley/small case from the Oxfan shop next door which we've put the zine distro into. We had a big box but it was breaking, and it meant that if Lee dropped me off at a zine fest I couldn't carry it by myself, I would have to wait for him to come back. We've been after a wheeled case for a while, but we didn't want to spend too much. So this one, which looked close to brand new and was just £6.50, was perfect. We've put the zines in at home and it's got loads of pockets for all our other bits. I'm happy about it!

We left Warwick and drove to Henley nearby, where we'd got curry from previously. There was an ice cream shop so we went in there and got ice creams. I had banana fudge and salted caramel and they were both really nice. We thought there were more shops to look round there, but there weren't, so we just went back to the cottage and relaxed.

I was wearing my flamingo skirt with a pink and yellow tie dyed t-shirt that I dyed last summer. I love it, it's really soft and the colours are so nicely pastel. I wear these two a lot together!

I took this photo of myself because I was feeling cute. My hair was also really long at this point. Lee cut it back in March but it's grown loads since then, it was nearly to my waist. I've had it trimmed since then though as I had a lot of split ends

Henley high street

And the other way

And my huge ice cream!

Outfit of the day!

Holiday in Warwickshire - Day 5

On the Wednesday of our holiday we went a bit further afield and went to Stow in the Wold in the Cotswolds, which was just under an hour's drive away from where we were. We managed to park in the market square and went in a couple of shops. We bought some Christmas presents which was good, and also some delicious orange creams which we ate over the next couple of days! 

I was really exhausted by this point, though, so we didn't stay in Stow that long. I don't feel like we got the full experience of the place so I'd like to go back and see it again. 

I also thought we'd been to Stow when we were on holiday in the area over a decade ago, but I didn't recognise it at all. I thought very hard and thought maybe I was getting confused with Bourton on the Water, so we headed there. That was definitely where I was thinking and I recognised it straight away with the shallow river running through. It's gorgeous! 

We walked over the bridge and went into a pub for lunch. It was quite bizarre thanks to Covid, but the food was nice enough and I had a lovely glass of Sauvignon Blanc so I can't complain. We went into a couple of shops but by this time it had started to rain quite heavily and we were both tired so we didn't stay too long. We ended up stopping Moreton on the Marsh to get a drink and cake, too. We got back to the cottage pretty early but decided to not go swimming and just had a quiet time on the sofa watching TV and films. We had leftover curry for tea, which was still great. 

I was wearing this new blue jumper which I've been saving for autumn and which was perfect. I bought it from Crazy Clearance a few months ago. It's a lovely pale blue, and it's quite thin which I prefer in a jumper, and it's really nice and soft. I really like it! Plus it was only about £11! 

An old coaching inn in Stow

And another! So gorgeous, I would have liked to go in

Bourton on the Water!

Ducks!

They all came swimming over but sadly we didn't have anything to feed them

I bet on a sunny day there's about a million people in the water here

The pretty sign 

The colour isn't too obvious here but this is my new blue jumper!