I'm Back

Time has flown since I last blogged! As some of you may know I just recently returned from my trip to Australia! It was one of the most amazing things I've done, but im not gonna go into it too much, so I'm just going to mention my highlight.

Highlight: EVERYTHING. Seriously. But if i had to pick, I think it would be what I managed to do of the gold coast. The beaches are unreal, I really loved Byron Bay & Fraser Island was just beautiful, like nothing i've ever seen. Lake Mckenzie, also a highlight. Ahhh, take me back!

This is me on Bondi Beach abso loving life

I miss all my friends sooooo much! I wish I was still with all you guys. love you all.

But unfortunately all good things must come to an end so i'm straight back into work and the daily grind! It is looking pretty certain that I will be moving to Leeds in August! It wont be the first time I've moved out but it has been a while and long overdue, it will be great to get a bit more independence again. It just means a slightly longer daily commute to work but i reckon its gonna be good for me!

I'm also pretty excited by the fact that Byron Burger has just opened a new restaurant in York. Who'd have thunk it!? Cannot wait to get me a massive fattening Byron Burger! yum yum

I'm rambling.......it's easter! Happy Easter everyone! Come back soon for a proper blog post about something proper :) xxxx

Last minute travelling buys!

....the packing has begun...... I can't believe this is real life!! 4 days to go and whilst packing away, I realised, I hate my sunglasses. Shock horror. They're so boring, unoriginal and uncool, and it just put me in a bad mood (because it is the little things that get to us, after all). I decided to remedy the situation today, with a last minute shopping trip to get me some new sunnies and my last minute travelling essentials!

Firstly, I picked up these really nifty little lip butters from the body shop! I thought they would be perfect for the flight, and I mean who doesn't hate chapped lips at 35'000 feet! The sad reality of it is, that I actually have no life and find pleasure in making my lips smell of coconut. It's bizarre. They were on offer 2 for £5.60 at the body shop, like I said. There's tons of different scents, it would be handy if they actually wrote on the packaging what flavour they are. I got coconut and the other one, I'm not really sure what it is, some sort of nut I think!

As I will be living out of a backpack, due to travelling around a lot, I got some mini toiletries! They always look so cute in miniature version and I always want to buy them just on a normal day but it actually made sense on this trip. Space is limited! I got standard stuff like deodorants, but I also got some st ives scrub which I thought was pretty cool! 3 for £5 at trusty Tesco's. I also got my old faithful suncream. It is just THE best and always leaves me looking lovely and brown! Its Hawaiian Tropic, bloody expensive stuff, at £15 a bottle BUT it makes me smell incred and ensures that I will come back bronzed. I can't believe I forgot suncream until today. I need to get switched on! (also dont panic I have factor 30 for when I'm in Ayers Rock).

Finally, and lastly, its the sunglasses. Ta-dah! These are my new ones. They are Marc Jacobs and they were £50, down from over £100. They are a little odd to look at, and they certainly are different. At first glance they look a bit like ski glasses. But you know what, they are cool, and they go well with my hair cut, and even if I say so myself, I look nice in them. And if I dont get on with them, then I can always stick them on ebay!

Boom! So there we go. Last minute travelling buys DUNZO. I hope you enjoyed reading through all that, maybe its even given you some inspiration! This will probably be the last post I do now before Oz, so it's over and out for now. (hopefully) I will be able to blog whilst I'm over there, I would love too but it just depends on circumanstance. I know I said I was going to do a post about my activities while Im out there, but I decided against that mainly because I wrote it all out and it was really dull, and it actually was a bit all over the place, because not everything is planned to the last detail and it will be more fun to tell you about it afterwards.

xxxx Enjoy your weekend xxxx

So many breakdowns

I'm not really having a breakdown, I just feel like I am because I go away in TEN DAYS. Where the hell have all those months gone!? I just can't believe I'm flying to Aus all on my own. What was I thinking! I have visions of me getting lost in Abu Dhabi airport - keep me in your thoughts!

On wednesday I'll be doing a post about what I'm going to get up to while I'm there, so please come back and read that! This weeks positive news is that I have finally managed to sort my horrible lips out. The days of my cracked and teared lips are gone people, and it's all thanks to this baby:

It's an EOS spherical, medicating lip balm. It was £6 on Ebay (because you cant buy it in stores). I had heard about these, but when my friend who is in america at the moment kept sending me pics of hers, in typical me style I wanted to try for myself. I never expected it to work but it really really does. They come in loads of different flavours, this one is sweet mint. It makes your lips tingle with a kindof burning sensation (good burning not bad) but it's not moisturising, more healing. So happy to have it in my life.

Can you believe I just wrote all that about a lip balm? It must be sunday. This week I also hit 2000 followers on my Instagram account (@itsjambino). In fairness it has taken me a while to reach that, coupled with relentless hash tagging which I know some people must be sick of! I hope my blog picks up too.....I'd really like to hit 1000 views by April!

Enjoy what is left of your weekend people, personally I am going for an Indian tonight, because my Australia diet is going so well :D

And if you believe that, you need to go take a lie down. Have a good one!

xxxx

March on!

I can't believe we are 3 days into March already! Wasn't it Christmas last week?!? This month is going to be a significant one for me - I go away on what I hope is going to the trip of a lifetime. In just over 2 weeks I will be heading off to Australia!

I'm flying solo on this one, but meeting a group of friends out there including one of my best friends (who is currently travelling). I can't explain how anxious/excited I am getting. It feels like so long ago when it was October and I was booking it & now the reality is upon me!

I think I am pretty prepared - I'm gonna do a proper post about this closer to the time going into a bit more detail about what I'm gonna be doing etc so look out for that! Going off topic now, I'm going to talk about the contact lenses I've been trying recently because I get a lot of interest in them, people asking me where I get them etc so I thought I would blog properly about them!

If you follow my instagram you may or may not have noticed that I have a colourful array of contacts at the moment and currently I've got Blue, Green and Honey coloured ones. I first got started wearing them a good while ago when I was buying halloween lenses and saw some blue ones and was like I really want to see what I look like with blue eyes! I got them and I just loved them. Unfortunately I got frustrated with them one day and threw them in a bag and wrecked them which was stupid and when I went to replace them they weren't being sold anymore....which was kind of weird.

Anyway I got my current ones from a company called Beautifeye (http://www.beautifeye.co.uk) and they are priced at £14.99. You get a free case and bottle of solution for that price which I think is pretty decent. I should point out that they are only 3 month ones, the yearly ones are slightly more expensive. So below is before and after pictures of my natural eyes and then with the blue contacts in. I think these blue contacts are much more natural than the other lenses I had. It's funny how they seem to change my whole complexion and make me seem lighter/whiter. (i'm sorry about how rough i look)

 

Then below is a picture of the Honey ones. I was gonna miss them out to be honest because they are pretty shit. They just look so fake and like a monster? They're meant to be natural and they just aren't. They're a bit weird and I wont ever wear them to be honest!

I look like edward cullen. They are just freaky looking! Not feeling them at all! But the blue ones are brilliant and the company that sells them were so efficient, they came in a matter of days with good packaging so I would highly recommend them. As for comfort....they are genuinely really easy to wear. I sometimes forget I have the blue ones in because they get so comfy. I'm like a pro at getting them in now as well, It used to take me like half an hour, now they are in after about 30 seconds!

So thats it, if you want to know which exact ones I have, just get in contact with me, I'm going to be putting a contact/email button at the top with my other buttons so feel free to get in touch!

xxx    Have a good week!    xxx

yes, I'm still alive

As the title says - yeah, it feels like I kinda dissappeared for a while. Last week was one of those annoying weeks where I wasnt necessarily in a bad mood, I was just feeling a bit cba, but nevertheless I did manage to get out and about a bit!

Last weekend I took a trip to Birmingham - It was random but there was meaning to it, my friend used to live there and we thought it would be something fun and different to do! Birmingham wasnt at all what I expected, its a lot older than I imagined. I have been twice before but it wasn't how I remembered!

On the Saturday we went to an area in the city centre but not smack bang in the middle, which housed a few vintage shops and unique little shops and boutiques. Unfortunately, I'd have to resort to selling myself to afford to buy anything at the moment. My Australia trip has really wiped me out, but it's gonna be so worth it! I had a mosey in selfridges (fun story on that later) and then we got changed and headed out for dinner.

We had dinner at Zizzi, this was because despite the best efforts of Mr Naggy (aka ME) we failed to get a good reservation due to it being valentines. However that being said, I had a lovely meal and we followed this with a few drinks which led to an impromptu night out!! Birmingham didn't let me down, the nightlife is good and I had a really fun time. The hangover the next day certainly wasn't fun - hit by a bus doesn't do it justice! Somehow I managed to recover just before we had to check out - which by the way, when I asked the receptionist if we could check out, she looked at me as though I'd just asked her the square root of 56748567. Is that not a normal request working in a hotel......?



That afternoon we went to Selly Oak, and had a beautiful sunday lunch, before we headed home.



So this week nothing of note really occured im afraid, hence my awkward silence. Oh, apart from mid week when I get a call from my bank saying theyve frozen my account because someone was using my card in selfridges in Birmingham. Yeah......that was definitely me. But I can see why it would look suspicious - when have I ever bought anything from selfridges! Answer: never.

I went out in Leeds over the weekend, but haunted by my hangover of last Sunday I felt compelled slash terrified to NOT drink heavily, so I kept it pretty low key. This weekend - Newcastle road trip, cannot wait! I'm totally gonna be like "i'mmm baaaaack" when we get there. It's been too long!

Hope you all have a fun filled week, you never know what could happen! Catch you on the flipside ;)

xxxx

Moving on...

Sorry for not blogging - I've been really busy of late, with lots of plans and work and just no time to dedicate to a post! Hopefully now I will have more time to think of new and exciting posts :)

 

So as the title says - moving on. Yeah....I didn't think I would be doing that again so soon. It gets kind of frustrating when absolutely nothing works out in the way you'd hope. I'm not going to go into it but I keep hoping that something is going to go right for me eventually. And until then I suppose I will keep on trying because what would be the point in giving up.

 

Not sad, just mad.

 

And in summary:

 

 

 

Peace x

Weight Loss: My Story

Losing weight isn't something i've always felt comfortable talking about: I get asked quite often about my weight loss, what I did and how I did it. The attention can be nice, but at the same time, I think it's important to talk about all the baggage that comes with it, often it is not as great as it seems. After posting a flashback photo on Instagram the other day, I decided it would be worthwhile for me and anyone reading this, to talk all about it.

My weight loss journey began in March 2011, at the age of 20. At 5ft 11inches and weighing 15.5 stone (217 pounds). On the BMI scale that gave me a score of 30.2, which is classed as just "obese". Firstly let me state: Yes i was fat, but obese - no. I find the BMI scale a bit silly, I'm not saying it isn't useful, as I'm far from academic enough to rubbish it. I had high blood pressure, I was inactive but overwhelmingly - I didn't care. I genuinely thought I was ok, I knew I was fat, but I thought I was just normal. I wore XL clothes, with a waist of around 36 inches, and by March 2011 I noticed that the XL clothes were starting to get "snug".

After recieving some bad personal news on a day in March, I had a "I hate myself" moment where I looked in the mirror and thought jesus, what a state. (awful but true!). With the help of my mum, I decided to give the atkins a go. I decided on a diet of two omlettes a day, with a chicken and vegetable tea and snacks of cheese strings, and chicken pieces throughout the day. Immediately it worked, and within 2 weeks I'd lost 9 pounds, within a month well over a stone. I set myself targets, and near enough killed myself with workouts on the crosstrainer everyday, desperately trying to lose more and more. By the end of summer, I'd lost 3 stone, weighing in at 12.5 stone (175 pounds).

When I returned to University after the summer, the compliments only helped to push me further. Whilst I was happy with my new found appearance, and fitting into a size medium now, I still wanted more & kept the diet steady, ate healthily and by christmas had lost another stone, weighing 11.5 stone (161 pounds). I looked great at this weight, and was so so happy with myself. This was probably one of my happiest christmases ever. Because I was so happy, I did what most weigh losers do and forgot about being good, and just went for it. By the end of christmas I got weighed to find I'd put on half a stone.

I cant explain in words the panic that this caused. Losing weight gives you a new lease of life, and the scales that day made me feel like I was losing my grip of what I had achieved. I think for me this was the moment I went wrong, instead of not panicking and just keeping up my good healthy eating, I went into a full scale mission to lose weight. From that day on I let negative thoughts take over, I told myself I was ugly and fat and beat myself up about it every single day. At first I cut down what I ate in half, any meal I had I would eat only half of it. I would walk everywhere during the day, killing myself on the cross trainer at night.

By February 2012, I had stopped eating enough food to function. I was surviving on a diet of diet coke, weight watches crisps, fat free jelly pots and slices of toast. I had also started obsessively weighing myself, at least 5 times a day, sometimes up to 10 times a day. I began going to weigh houses at the market and getting weighed a few times a week, obsessed with getting tinier. Shopping for food was a nightmare, I found myself feeling full of anxiety and checking the calories on every single thing I bought. Things only got worse and some days I would eat little more than half a sandwich, or a bowl of cereal a day.

In under a year, I'd lost 6 stone, weighing a frail 9.5 stone (133 pounds), far too skinny for my 5ft 11 frame and giving me a BMI of 18.5, which is classed as a healthy weight. Yet another reason why I think it is a ludicrous scale. My bones and ribs jutted out, I looked emaciated and felt faint and dizzy most of the day.

I truly believe that without the kind words and support of one of my best friends, things would have only got worse, and I would have spiralled out of control. I slowly, through encouragement from my friend, began eating more day by day, and never looked back. Since then, I've put on a stone and a half and weigh a healthy 11 stone (154 pounds). I am truly happy with myself now and would never ever go back to the ways of when I was fat, or when I was skinny.

This is my true weight loss story. It is not fabricated & not many people know the extent of what actually happened and why. In some respects I do think I had a an eating disorder, but in others I don't, as I think it would be wrong for me to pretend I was as ill as some people with serious problems. In summary, what I was trying to say by posting this was that whilst weight loss is great, and has made me a better person than I was, it also caused me some of the worst times of my life. To anyone reading this I would say - if you aren't absolutely desperate, do not do a crash diet. I really believe that they cause negative/bad thoughts and habits and caused me to lose control of my own body. To anyone going through a similar thing and not lucky enough to have a caring best friend like I did - just tell anybody. It's the first step to regaining control.

I am a shining example of the benefits and losses of weight loss and it has made me who I am today in so many ways. Weight loss isn't all about the before and after pictures. It's about the story behind it. Good luck to anyone in your own weight loss journeys, and I hope you enjoyed reading about mine and take something from it, as it wasn't the easiest thing to share.

Take care xxxx

Pay Day Purchases!

I'm sat here so ill, and its 50 % my fault and 50% general illness. I've been crazy ill all week, on Thursday I sounded like Deirdre Barlow for the day! But then just as I was starting to feel better, I go and get horrendously drunk and spend my entire Sunday contemplating life while trying to eat nibbles of food. Good one. So I decided to do something productive, now that, at 5.40 pm on Sunday, I've finally started to make a slight recovery.

In the day between illness, and drunkenness, I got paid....and in true Jambino style I just waltzed into town and started buying things! But hey, if I can enjoy them, so can you: so lets see what I got with my dollar this pay day!

First of all, I got some clothes and accessories. I got a new bag, which was such a split second decision, but I really needed a bag for weekends away. Had a quick look on Asos and straight away saw a barrel bag which I liked. It was by Mi-pac and was pretty inexpensive, at £35, which for quite a big bag is quite a good price I think! Its just black and fake leather, with a little pattern & gold detailing on the zip and handle! It has an ostrich effect finish......not too sure what that means.

I didn't actually get much in the way of clothes, just one shirt. When i was shopping, I was so cold and I knew I didn't really have a suitable item of clothing for the night out. I decided I wanted a shirt, and found a nice ox blood one in Topman. It's literally just plain and boring, but the colour is nice and went well with jeans, boots and a leather jacket. Cost wise it was £30.......pretty happy with that.

In Boots I got more Soap and Glory Whipped Clean shower cream and body butter. It just smells so good! If you haven't smelt it, you need too!! It was 3 for 2 on that range, and you know when you want to get a meaningful 3 items. I went for Soap and Glory fake tan which is actually called One Night Tanned (lol) buttergel, which I'd never seen before and was like hmmm will give it a try. It's an instant body one that washes off......and I was pleasantly surprised!! It smells good (coconut with a fake tan hint) and looked nice and even. It was quite a subtle one so you'd have to coat it on if you were wanting to be really tanned! I got some Neutrogena hand cream (cant have enough hand cream) and more Burts Bees lip balm (mango one, wasn't there last time, had to have it!)
 

 

Then I was thinking about my post the other day, and when I was talking about hairspray (my mind works in random ways) and I thought hmmm maybe I'm being stubborn, maybe there is some perfectly good other hairspray (that doesn't turn my hair to rock). So I decided to try Lee Stafford Hold Tight hairspray. I havent tried it yet so will get back to you on that one!

The final thing I purchased was a bit of a random one!! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love phone cases, and I saw this one that I really liked & just had to have it! It's designed to look like a strawberry. The back is hard and looks like the skin of the strawberry and then above the lock button is a little leaf bit of the strawberry, so cute. Was only £1.99 from Ebay!

So thats it! I hope you enjoyed reading about my purchases as much as I did buying them! I promise the next post I do will be something different, something less fashion and something more life focused!! Come back soon!! 

Take care xxxx

What I Use

Hey everyone, today I thought I would do a fun (and hopefully useful) post about the products which I am using at the moment, mainly because I think its an interesting change to see what things a man uses to achieve his daily look :)

I am vain and I can't help that - I'm a firm believer that men should take just as much care of their appearance as women do - to a certain extent. I do use lots of different things and some of them may be perceived as gay or feminine but I don't really care and also I don't go too far with it - I am a man and happy to be one!

So firstly Hair, and at the moment I am using 3 different products for style and a couple of different ones for washing. For about a year I have used T-Gel everyday (£7 Tescos or Boots), which I admit is really bad, as it effectively is burning your scalp to stop dandruff (and you're meant to use it occasionally, alongside a normal shampoo). So oops on that one. But its given me nice dandruff free hair for a year, which is a big problem for men and especially was for me!! I've just switched to herbal essences, the blue hydration one. I think you are meant to switch shampoo every 3 months aren't you? That may be a myth though!

As for styling, firstly a shout out to a great product that I would love to keep using but for some reason can't. It's Fudge Urban Texture Junk (£3.50 at Superdrug). I have loved this so much, and has served me well but recently has starting clumping into little white bits in my hair! I realise I am going on a bit but I'm really sad about it haha. So I've switched to my old faithful favourite, Messed Up by Lee Stafford (£5.50 at Boots)! It's the one that comes in a little pink pot! I use this along with Got2b Volume powder (£4.00, Boots). If you haven't used any of these powders before give them a go - they do work! They do a volumizing one for women, and a styling one for men. I've used both & It's exactly the same powder people!! So a slight marketing con, but they are the same price so it means I can pick up any (if the men's one is out of stock etc). For hold I am using the best (and only) Hairspray I can find which will make my hair stay. I have very fine hair, and like having it styled every day so it needs to be one which makes it stick. Got2b Freezing Blast Spray is what I use (£4.00 at Boots or Tescos), you may have seen it in the bright yellow bottle. It literally does freeze your hair, and kind of turns it rock hard, which is annoying - but you really can't tell.

Moving onto Face and Body now. In the shower I have just started using a Soap and Glory product, a range which I haven't used in a while, mainly due to me incorrectly thinking it gave me a bad body rash!! The one I've got at the moment is the whipped clean shower cream (£8.00 at Boots). Oh. My. God it smells amazing!!! Its kind of a feminine smell (its for girls really) but I don't care, it just smells so nice!! I'm tempted to try eat it some mornings! I had been using the Sanctuary Spa 12 hour moisturising shower cream (£6.50 at Boots. Can these products not have shorter names?!?) and I would highly recommend that one too.

I wash my face with just hot water. You may think that is a bit gross, but it was advice from my aunt to avoid spots and she is right and it worked. I never got spots as a teenager and never have since. If you think about it the skin on your face is very delicate and using perfumed soaps and washes isn't going to do any good is it! I occasionally use St Ives olive scrub (£4.99 Boots), if I have a spot or am trying to get fake tan off (which it is perfect for by the way). To Moisturise I have been using a product by Origins, its called GinZing. Its expensive, and you dont get a lot for the cost, around £30 from Boots. But in general im pleased with it, and I did get one compliment by someone saying my skin looked good. It's meant to wake you up, and it does kind of. I keep forgetting to use it and when i did for a couple of days, i broke out in a couple of spots.......so that could or couldnt be a coincidence.

For tanning, I have been through the mill of products, and still havent ever been fully satisfied. One that I am happy with at the moment though is U-tan (EEEK £30 from Boots), when my skin is good, it works really well, However at the moment I have really bad dry skin and so using it ends in a disaster! So to be honest i've given up fake tanning the last few months, but for a night out I use a little bit of Fake Bake Faux Glo (a tenner from Boots). I have recommended this to so many people and they all agree it is really good - it's a wash off spray, so its good for a night out. The only problem is you literally have to use the tiniest bit because the stuff comes out like paint and you can be orange in 3 seconds if you aren't careful!

Finally, cologne. I have to be honest - I do copy when it comes to fragrance. Its the one area where I am rubbish at being original. For the longest time I used Vera Wang for men, which I still like but you do get bored after so long. I then smelt Bleu de Chanel on someone and had to have it & it is my current fave!! I switch it up sometimes with a bit of Issey Miyake. If you are wanting a different smell to anybody else though, I recommend Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone. Its a unisex cologne and damn it smells good!!

So thats it! I hope you enjoyed reading this and didnt find it boring, it certainly is a long post and apologies for that, but please leave me feedback or a comment, I'd be really grateful.

Take care xxxx

My Week

Helllloooooooo! Overdue blog post alert! Sound the alarms!!

Sorry.

I've had a hectic week and made a mid week decision to just blog about it at the end of it, so here we are.....monday through friday was a blur. Work and gym work and gym. So when it finally came to friday I was ready to let loose!! The Vino was being poured at 4.30pm and this pretty much summed up my Friday night! I ventured into town with lots of my close friends for a night on the tilessss and had a great time, even though town was slightly quiet slash dead.

Anyhow, in my hungover state on Saturday I decided to mosey on back into town and spend the rest of my Topman voucher which I had great difficulty doing...NOT. Of course i ended up spending the voucher and then some. The voucher was pretty feeble in helping when I made it to the Till. Here's some of what I bought:

This was like a varsity style jacket, with leather look sleeves. I've tried countless jackets like this on and never really been sure but this one fit so perfectly, usually they tend to look a bit clunky on the shoulders and I hate that. It was £75, a little on the expensive side, but i doubt i'm gonna find one I like again so I just went for it.

I also picked up this hoody. Theres not much to say about it other than its light grey and comfy haha. The sizing was a bit weird on these hoodies, I bought XS and it was still quite roomy! Not really sure if its meant to be oversized or not! £20 & a bargain :)

I popped into Lush to get some of the sea salt spray. I'd been wanting to try this for a while, Im a fan of using salt spray to style my hair. its a nicer texture than using gel, and after receiving abuse from my hairdresser (apparently the texture of my hair makes him cringe) I decided to give it a go. Its £10 for a bottle of the stuff.....and while its ok......its not amazing! It smells nice but it kinda just does the same as all the others. As for giving my hair curl......it just doesnt work im afraid. Probably wont purchase again. I also have an ongoing cracked lips problem so I tried some new lip balm as nothing seems to work (blistex, nivea, carmex, lip smacker) so i went for Burts Bees. Hadn't really heard of it but so far its doing a good job and I like it! Yes gay I know but im sick of having gross lips.

 

That brings me to today. I met up with one of my good friends and her little boy, Noah, who's 15 months old & what a lovely little boy he is!! I can't get enough of the little lad. I had such a lovely time with them both. We ate at Zizzi - was impressed with not only the food but the family friendliness, as i know my friend can worry about eating out etc. All 3 of us enjoyed it and didnt feel like a burden to the staff! After that we strolled around York, and through the Musuem Gardens.

And that brings me to now. Sunday night and I am wiped!! Time to spend some of my weekend relaxing, ready for Monday Morning. 

This week I've been listening to London Grammar a lot. I'm really starting to love them. If you haven't given them a listen - go for it! Not everyones cup of tea but worth a mention :)

Enjoy your week whatever you get up to!

xxxx

London Weekend!

Hello and welcome to the start of a new week! I had such a lovely weekend - I mentioned in an earlier post that I was heading down to London this weekend so thought I would inform you of what fun things I got up to!

Having done all the typical touristy side of London numerous times I left it up to my trusted tour guide to show me some different sides of London and he didnt disappoint! On the Saturday we started the day with a visit to Greenwich with a great view of the financial district across the Thames and a quick look at the Cutty Sark. Then we wandered on up to the Royal observatory which is part of the Royal musuems, to have a look at an exhibition that's running at the moment - "Astronomy Phototgrapher of the year". This was fascinating and would recommend going to see it if you can - plus its free!

We then had a mosey through Greenwich Market and then onto Borough Market for some food!! This market was solely a food market and it was amazing - I had the best roast chicken and stuffing sandwich I think i have ever eaten in my life!! We walked the indulgence off with a nippy stroll by the Thames, past Shakespeare's globe theatre and the Tate Modern.

Such a lovely day then finished off with a meal in Islington - at a restaurant called Meat People. The name is a giveaway - lots of meat. Probably not one for the Veggies! But it was excellent and I would highly recommend to meat lovers!

On Sunday we ventured out to Hampsted Heath and had a gorgeous (although muddy) walk up to Parliament Hill, a fairly well known place because of its spectacular view over London. It didn't dissapoint! After that we walked to Hampsted Proper and then finished the day off with a "passing" stop at Buckingham Palace!

It was sad leaving on Sunday I can tell you that, but alas all good things must come to and end and back to the daily grind it was. I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip. I loved the things I got up to, exploring different sights and foods is really my idea of happiness! I hope everyone had a great weekend too - Monday's over now so breathe a sigh of relief and here's to next weekend! :)

xxxxx

Londres

I'm heading down to London again tomorrow!! Should (fingers crossed) have quite a busy weekend so expect a lovely blog post about it on Sunday/Monday. Have a great weekend whatever you get up to! :) xx

Mens Fashion - Golden Globes 2014

The Golden Globes took place on Sunday night, and whilst the attention is always on the female fashion, I wanted to take a closer look at the male fashion on display! Obviously at this kind of event it would be out of character to not wear a suit, but still theres plenty of variety to see within this.

My favourite suit fit wise has to go to Bradley Cooper - whilst i'm unsure who he is wearing, the fit is perfect on his body and he has obviously had it impeccably tailored. The style is classic, so he can't really go wrong here. He looked great and to me definitely one of the best dressed of the night. I much prefer the black suit and dickey bow combo as oppose to a tie!

For style I liked Usher's suit - he was wearing Calvin Klein. I love the burgundy colour which I tihink makes it look expensive and it is a tasteful colour to wear if you are going to stray from black. The fit is ok but looks slightly tight to me - but overall a really good look! I dont think many people would be able to wear this colour and make it look as good as Usher did. Yay for Usher!

The final look im going to talk about was worn by Idris Elba. As a fan of Gucci suits, I couldnt help but  love the Gucci tuxedo he was wearing. The colour is just beautiful, I love blue and if i was going to one of these events (in my dreams ha!) I'd probably go for this steel blue colour. The style is slightly different to those worn by most but it works and definitely stands out from the others! If you can stand out, but not like a sore thumb then you're onto a winner in my eyes!

I didnt want to make this post too long - I could easily talk about each look in these pictures but I just wanted to highlight my favourites. I Hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you did, let me know :)

January Fashion Pick

So now Christmas is out of the way the time has come to stop wearing my beloved christmas jumpers (boo!) but whilst its still winter i'm focusing this month on layering, and the key piece which i've been using a lot is this Lumberjack shirt!!

Its a kind of tartan style, and i'm loving tartan print at the moment. I have been wearing it as just a button up shirt, but have mainly been layering it over a plain white tee, with a zip up hoodie over the top and then finishing the look with a leather jacket. It also works quite well with a sherpa style wooly coat I have! It's a nice change from chunky jumpers and also keeps me nice and cosy!! On my bottom half i've just been wearing dark wash skinny jeans and then plain blue pumps.

I hope you like this shirt as much as i do - it's definitely a daily item that I'm sure I will be wearing a lot throughout this month! Let me know in the comments below what you think!

P.s  - a little style tip I picked up on - Ralph Lauren t-shirts like the one i have on in the bottom right picture are cheaper if you buy them from their sleepwear range & they are exactly the same as the normal line (if you dont mind that it says sleepwear on the label!)

Lumberjack Shirt - (Reclaimed Vintage @ Asos) £35

Jeans - (Asos) £28

Tee - (Polo Ralph Lauren) £45

Amazing day - Harry Potter Studio Tour!

I've chosen this as my first post because I wanted to share the amazing day i've had and hopefully this is a fun way to introduce my blog! So today (11/01/14) I was up at the unthinkable hour of 7am, filled with plenty of excitement for the day ahead. HARRY POTTER!!

After a shaky start (almost missing our slot after travelling all the way from York to London) we made it and queued up for the start of our tour around some of the real sets used in the Harry Potter films! The tour begins in the great hall - at first its kind of surreal and it takes a while to accept that these are the real sets used - once that sinks in it becomes much more fascinating!

Once through the great hall you are free to roam and explore - from Hagrid's cottage to Dumbledore's office - there's so much to see. What is apparent is the amazing detail that goes into these films and you soon realise why they cost millions to make! Each scene has hundreds of different pieces that make it work - from oil paintings specially painted just to hang on the walls, or handmade wand boxes to fill the shelves! For example all the wand boxes used in Ollivanders shop scenes are handmade and hand decorated - no CGI trickery!!

My Favourite part had to be the next stage of the tour - outdoors. This is where you get to witness some of the amazing exterior sets such as Privet drive and of course the Weasley's car (see above pic!). I should mention there is also a chance to have a go with some special effects - you can watch yourself fly around london on a broom!! Pretty fun as long as you're brave enough to get up in front of everyone and do it (which sadly i wasn't!).

Back inside again you get to see a model version of Hogwarts - this was pretty cool! It's basically the model they used to film external shots of Hogwarts, so clever! Towards the end there was of course a gift shop - which I have to say the prices were just mental - but worth getting a momento of your day even if its just picking up a few sweets like i did!

I had such a great day and it is well worth a visit - I highly recommend to anyone, even if you aren't really a fan of Harry Potter, it's still a magical day and something worth doing whilst its around!

I hope you enjoyed reading my first post about my day & let me know if you have visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour and what you thought of it!!