Every girl needs a GBF.

(GBF = Gay Best Friend, if you didn't know)

I personally do not have a gay best friend and even my girlfriends/mother/step-mother refuse to come shopping with me because I'm so damn fussy. I guess you could say I'm a girl who knows what she wants, and if what I try on looks great but isn't what I had in mind, I'll still put it back so for this reason, I drive most people insane. This means I generally go shopping on my own, which usually suits me but when you need that second opinion, it does make shopping a bit of a drag.

This is why I like Sunday mornings and shopping afterwards, because on E4 every Sunday they show two or three repeats of various shows with Gok Wan who, lets face it, is like the fairy godmother GBF we would all love to take us shopping. And in watching his programme and seeing how he gets women who have much bigger body hang ups than I do to love their bodies purely through the way they dress, it gives me the ideas and inspiration to go shopping. I always seem to dress much better on those days too, and on more than one occasion have grabbed and filled a charity bag simply trying to get dressed purely because of Auntie Gok in the background!

If only he could be there preaching the body-image message from my little tellybox every morning. This is why I need a GBF. Or even a normal friend who doesn't want to kill me within a few shops. I need someone to reassure me when I step out of my comfort zone that it looks fab or to tell me it was a bad idea, and I need someone to point out things which I would never dare to try but would actually look great. Applications on a post card please.

Did I mention that the bus route which runs outside my flat in London goes straight to Bluewater shopping centre? As if I needed more of a reason to want to hit the shops, GBF or no GBF...

"Girl power" and other 90s shenanigans.

Seeing as I'm off out with the girls (aka the Spice Girls) tonight, I thought I'd share my 90s reminiscing with you all!

Firstly, our muses for the evening:

That dance will live on forever, genius!

Plus, so much other great music I couldn't miss out (all linked to youtube for your viewing pleasure!): Hanson, Backstreet Boys, M People, Aqua, 'The Macarena', 'Cotton Eyed Joe', Steps... I could go on for hours. Anyway, I think the most worrying thing is that a lot of the cheesy pop bands I looked up actually turned out to be 00s bands, which means I was much less cooler than I thought as a young teenager!

Now if you were a child in the UK during the 90s, you will also remember this little dude and cry with laughter when you watch this, trust me! (And yes, this is Bill Oddie with him!)

And of course, the amazing fashions:

• Denim, denim and more denim, worn on top of denim! Amazing.
• Dungarees. I miss them.
• Bright blue and purple eye shadow with patching bright blue/purple eye liner (which, might I add, they do not sell in Boots anymore)
• Knitted jumpers, oh the beauty.
• Turtle neck jumpers
• Gypsy style (which is back, again...)
• CROP TOPS. Fit.
• And apparently, the 90s saw the first chavs. Enough said.
• Scrunchies for putting hair up! Nice.

It was an amazing time, and I'm sure that I don't just say that because of the innocence of my youth, afterall, who couldn't be happy if they had 5,6,7,8, the Macarena and other dance routines to keep them busy?

Spice up your life! 

Feel free to share any other memories, I can't get enough 90s!

Back to normality.

If you had asked me two months ago how I defined my life, I would have spent ages rambling on about how much I have to do, how busy I am and how much I freaking love it! So it even came as a bit of a surprise to me when I sat down to blog a few days ago and had to apologise for my boring life, so I decided I'd get up in the morning and force myself back into my old, productive and often manic habits. 48 hours later, I have a sore back, sore feet, aching stomach muscles and a brain that can barely form sentences but I have:

1) Finished my dissertation completely, all the stupid jobs done and it is printing as I type;
2) Had amazing fun at a Rainbow and Brownie Royal Wedding Party (I volunteer there, I'm not a randomer);
3) Made a remote control car (yes, I actually do that on my degree course);
4) Been to the gym for a good, 2-hour workout;
5) Made a dress for the weekend!

And actually I thought I had done more than that, but actually for 48 hours that isn't bad!

I'm probably more proud of the dress than the dissertation though, is that wrong? Basically, me and the girls are off out this weekend as Spice Girls and as the fastest-replying brunette I bagsied Posh Spice. Which I thought would be easy, she had a fairly easy style with lots of short dresses, but do I actually own a plain black one? Nope. So I embarked on making one out of an old one which I've had for 4 years and not worn since. It was only £10 from Matalan at the time so I reckon I've done quite well out of this dress, and actually, potentially improved it (given that I spent an hour fixing it before I started altering it!)

Before:

After:

I'm impressed with my efforts, the dress may even make another outing as something other than a costume, it's really nice and obviously fits really well. All in all, a productive day.

Now my brain is going a million miles an hour, I've been bouncing off the walls all day but I've gotten so much done that it just shows I really do work best like this and I need to keep myself busy in future or I'll end up going mad! So once my dissertation has finished printing (the printer ran out of ink so I drove to the 24 hour Tesco to buy another cartridge, then had to get petrol... it's been another productive 40 minutes) I shall hit the sack because I need to calm down now or I won't get any sleep and will be tired rather than productive in lessons.

Bed time...

Things I want.

So I'm skint, yet somehow this drives me to do more window-shopping than ever! So this is my current wish list for once I've worked out my disposable income this month.

From Dorothy Perkins. To go with a coral pink cardigan I already have and these shoes...

...which are the most amazing shoes I have seen in years. And now my student loan is in, do they have them in my size online? Nope. I may actually cry. So if you're listening Dorothy Perkins, sort your life out. Thanks.  Anyway...

Skirt from Joe Browns online

Such a cute vintage-style dress from New Look which would go so nicely  with the shoes that DOTTY P'S DO NOT HAVE IN STOCK. Ahem. I'm over it, honest...

From Zara, but I need to find some better shoes than those granny-tastic beasts on the model.

As an outfit together from River Island. It was chosen with THOSE shoes in mind but I may opt for some grey dolly shoes. I have a skinny brown belt which will go nicely too.

And I'm not sure how I've made it through life without these yet... some fold out pumps I spotted in River Island.

Shopping spree over...

Money now please?

And yes, I realise this is the third blogging genre I've attempted in two days, but I'm bored and enjoying it!

New beginnings.

I keep thinking over how different my life will be this summer when I move to London. Whilst I currently live in a city, I live in a very small one at that, the pace of life is spectacularly different and the more I am realising the expectations are different.


Don't get me wrong, on gorgeous sunny days like today, Plymouth is the place to be.

Plymouth Hoe

But for the other 360 days of the year, it returns to it's usual guise of grey apathy and indifference. People here are generally happy with their lot in life, never aspiring to anything more and even if they do, they don't have the opportunities to progress so end up settling down quietly. It's something I've always known about Plymouth, and it's only been recently that I've been able to put my finger on what it is that makes me start crawling up the walls and browsing for cheap train tickets to London. And whilst that is obviously fine for some (and who I am to judge how others choose to live their life), it's not something I ever want to resign myself to. Hence why, on the 2nd of July this year (it's not a set date yet in anyway other than in my head), I'm moving to London.

Having been to London a few times recently for interviews and to visit friends or hit the shops, I'm now realising just how different things are:

The pace of life - whilst some people hate how fast paced and anxious London seems, I love it. People rush because they have somewhere to go, something better to be doing, someone they are desperate to see and it is that which epitomises my love for the city. Down here, if you saw a bus just closing the doors but there was another one in two minutes, no-one would even break out into a jog. Life is precious people, we should be fighting to enjoy and make the best of every second, and I wish people would realise that

The advert my friends talked about
(from the H&M website, I have no
rights to this image).

The style - In Plymouth, you are either a 'chav', an 'emo', a 'student' or a grown up. Which ever group you are in dictates the fashion you wear and the places you hang out. Everyone looks the same, no-one dares break the mould and when you do, you're mocked even for donning a bright lipstick. People look at fashion models and the people on the H&M adverts and question "who would wear that?" and state "well you can't wear that every day" or "no-one can work in heels like that". Yet in London, people wear what they want. There are no groups or cliques of fashion and trends, you can never feel too over-dressed or like you've made too much effort. And whilst this is a rather superficial observation, in some ways it isn't. In London, you fit in because you are one in 6 million, not because of the clothes you wear. And whilst it undoubtedly means I will spend my entire disposable income on clothes and shoes in my first few months, I hope it is as invigorating as it seems.

The things to do - In Plymouth, if it's raining, you either go: bowling, swimming, to the cinema, shopping or ice skating. If it's sunny, you go to: the Hoe, the Barbican or the beach. That is literally it. You struggle to think of new things to do after only a month-or-so simply because there is nothing new to think of, nothing new to do. When I move to London, I'm going to make a pact with myself - I will not go to the same place twice in my first year. Because I can, because I want to experience new things, meet new people, eat new foods and find new things that I didn't even know existed..

The food - This links to my pledge from the last point, because there is so much more to experience than what I can find here. On browsing the yellow pages, you find only 8 different cuisines listed, and one of those is 'British', and I want more. On visiting Brick Lane market with a friend last summer, the food hall there gave me more choice than I'd ever had before, and that was one small hall in one small part of London. I want to eat Ethiopian food, snack on Vietnamese products and guzzle down the tastes of Turkey, I want to try new vegetables, see new ways of cooking and, above all, take them home with me. Whilst I do love my 'Homepride' pasta bakes, there is more to food than that.

Travel opportunities - I want to go on the Eurostar and go to Paris! I want to fly away for the weekend to Prague, to Amsterdam, to Rome, to Madrid... and I want to do it all without a 4 hour trip to the airport either side of the trip.

Can you tell I'm getting rather excited about moving to London? I think I'm even more excited because I'm doing it on my own, not with a boyfriend, not even with a friend and although I will know people in London, I'm far enough away that what I do with my time is completely within my own control. Sounds amazing, I can only hope it lives up to my expectations, though seeing as life is what you make it, I'm sure it will.