Travelling light

Although I dither whether I want to live a minimalist lifestyle, one aspect of my life in which I fully support minimalism is when I'm travelling. I think travelling light is 100% the way forward! This is not to say that I've always done this- I guess I've learnt the hard way! On my recent trip (which covered 5 days, though only 3 full ones) I packed one carry-on rucksack and it was great. I've come up with some reasons why not taking 3 suitcases is great.

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You have more freedom. Picture this- you arrive somewhere after a flight/ train/ bus journey into a bustling station. With minimal luggage you can explore the place first, rather than your 1st priority being getting a taxi to a hotel to dump your stuff! Additionally, being able to first explore an area means that you may be able to find a better value/ nicer hotel if you haven't already booked. On my recent trip to S. E Asia I remember having to lug my 60l rucksack to our hostel in the heat for 40+ mins. This would have been so much easier if I had taken less stuff!


It's cheaper. So many budget airlines charge for bags in the hold now. These extras all add up so if it's just a short break, why not see if you can stick to hand luggage?

There is no risk of loosing your luggage. If like above you manage to travel without luggage in the hold you eliminate the risk of being the last person standing at the carousel waiting for your bag to turn up. Whist they mostly do turn up, you always waste a day or two waiting and wishing you packed more clothes in your carry-on!

There are no difficult decisions what to wear. With less clothes you often only have one option clean/ ready to wear! It's really easy to hand wash clothes or send them to the hotel laundry. If you plan multi-use clothes/ outfits all round a colour theme, you can get away with a super capsule wardrobe! My favourite multi-use item is my american apparel dress.

Keeps some room for souvenirs. If there's space in your bag you can buy more in the markets for you or as gifts!!

My little trip also gave me the perfect excuse to use some of the free samples that I'd collected recently. Here's a snap of my wash-bag that I took with me.

I've had the bag since I was about 10!! The only things I bought here were the toothbrush, the sunscreen, the deodorant and the face wipes!

Cheerio!

A Week in December by Sebastien Faulkes

This is the second book that I have read as part of my reading challenge that I set a few weeks back.

Sebastien Faulkes is one of my favourite authors although I have to say I have preferred his books set further in the past (ie. Birdsong, Charlotte Grey, Human Traces). Nevertheless, I had high hopes for this book!

From pinterest

The story focuses on a number of people who live in London and whose lives are intertwined one week in December sometime around 2007/2008 ish. There are quite a lot of characters ranging from wanker bankers to an Eastern European footballer to a would-be terrorist bomber. There are so many characters that it took a while for me to work out who everyone was and how they were connected. I think this is why I was slow to get into the book (and the reason it lay unfinished above my bed for so long!).

 It touches on a lot of modern themes such as causes of recessions, terrorism, loneliness and seemingly common in Faulkes' novels, mental illness. It also touches on love in a few stories, enough anyway to satisfy my sugar coated demand for a few happy endings!

One comment on the back said it was 'hilarious' which I didn't agree with. It was amusing in parts but with a black humour, mocking aspects of modern culture such as reality TV programs.
 
I would recommend it if you haven't read it. Although if you're like me, I'd read it in a short space of time to keep track of all the different characters! If you have read it, what did you think?

Sorry for the short review again, but I don't really know what else to say!

Cheerio!

Catch-up

I'm sorry for my week long hiatus from the blog world. I've been pretty busy the past week and rather than do my usual weekly round up/ picks of the week I thought I'd share  few things I've learned in the past week with you...

I didn't ride a camel, but I wish I had done! From pinterest

- Flying makes me feel rich. In other words, time spent in airports makes me spend money I don't necessarily have in duty free shops! I purchased my first ever MAC item (!) along with a very swanky Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream lip protector.

-Being a western woman in the Arab world is a lot harder than in the UK. I appreciate being able to walk down the street without drawing stares, propositions and catcalls which certainly isn't the case in the Arabic country that I was visiting my friend the past week. I wasn't showing any skin from my neck down. I was not particularly comfortable there because of this which is such a shame as otherwise it was a beautiful country!

-Always check your flight details. Seems obvious right? Well.. apparently not for me! When I arrived at the airport to come home, I had a very confusing few minutes where I couldn't understand why my flight wasn't on the board. Turns out my flight was the following day. Doh!!

-Parents are sometimes heroes in times of need. Because of my flight debacle I had to miss loads of house share viewings in the New Town I'm moving to. My mum, bless her, picked me up from the airport and drove me straight there to stop me missing any more! I think I better order an extra big bouquet for mothers day this coming Sunday!

-Free things are not always worth taking. Notably the full English breakfast option when staying in B and Bs. Far too big, far too fatty, I always regret it. I need to remember, just say no! (I used to really like these breakfasts but I just can't stomach them any more :-().

Right... I'll try and post more regularly from now on!

Cheerio!

Picks of the week/ Weekly roundup

Beauty
I've sort of rediscovered this kit. The eyeshadow pot in RSVP is really pretty and the whole look is just very fresh but polished. The concealer is also pretty good! It was a gift from a friend a while back and I'm still very grateful :-)

Source

Books
The only book I've finished this week is How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran and you can see my review (if you can call it that) in my previous post.

Film
I received this as a Christmas present and have only just got round to watching it. It was brilliant. Very random but very funny! 

Source

Food
I tried the Sorted Food coconut crusted chicken recipe (link). It was really tasty! I didn't make a papaya salad as we didn't have a papaya but I just did a normal salad with corriander and lime juice. I didn't take any photos I'm afraid but I can definitely recommend it! It was like healthy (ish) chicken nuggets and chips.. with a twist!

Music
I managed to download this song free from Amazon. It's strange because now it's 89p....  I really like it. It's not new or anything but I've just downloaded it this week!

I'm sorry for a pretty sparse post. I haven't mentioned quite a few categories just because I have nothing to really say about them! It's quite late at night and I wanted to get something up and just to say that I'm off for a few days, visiting a friend and so won't be posting!

Cherrio!

Learning how to be a woman with the help of Caitlin Moran

Caitlin Moran's book, 'How to be  a Woman' follows her life from an overweight, friend-less 13 year old through Brit pop to marriage and two children. I approached this book with caution as very few 'chatty' books like this can sustain my attention for however many chapters. She covers topics spanning a wide field of women related topics such as feminism (mostly), fashion, children, marriage and abortion.

Find it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Woman-Caitlin-Moran/dp/0091940737

She does it with a chatty style and enough slightly crude anecdotes that actually did manage to keep my attention. I kind of think she's trying to make feminism 'cool' again, trying to move it away from the 'man hating' image of previous decades. She touches on important topics that lots of women just don't discuss like abortion and topics that are maybe discussed more such as the portrayal of women in the media.

I definitely recommend it! (for men and women!). She talks a lot of sense without preaching or judging in a funny lighthearted way.

Please excuse my awful attempt at a book review. I haven't done one of these since school but I thought it'd be interesting! Plus this means I'm one book down for my book challenge!

Leopard print is a neutral

I'm currently still one the first of the books from my book challenge which is 'How to be a Woman' by Caitlin Moran. I'm really loving it and I'll do a proper review on it when I'm done but she has a chapter on fashion. In this, she lists things she's learnt about fashion, one of which is that leopard print is a neutral.. Now I know that the tone of this list is jokey but I've recently come to the realisation that she is 100% correct.

This has come as a bit of a shock because two years ago, the only thing leopard print I owned lived in my fancy dress box. Now, however, my wardrobe is home to a pair of leopard print flats and I love them, they are so versatile. There is very little they do not go with and so I agree with Caitlin that leopard print is indeed a neutral!

So, although I'm not likely to regard Kat Slater as my fashion icon any time soon (remember her?), I do think leopard print accessories in small doses glam up my outfits while staying true to my style. Here are some pieces that I could see myself wearing!

My pick of leopard print accessories

What do you think of leopard print? Are you a fan?

Guilty pleasures

I've spent the evening indulging in some of my guilty pleasures. No.. nothing kinky, just two of my favourite cheesy-but brilliant US tv shows... The Vampire Diaries and 90210! TV scheduling means that on Tuesday nights I can enjoy one after the other- amazing!

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Do you have any TV shows you know you shouldn't but you still enjoy? What do you think of these shows? Btw. I don't know if they even have teams, but I'm deffo team Damon!!