Well, what can I say really apart from I'm sorry. We're at the end of January and I've only blogged once in thirty days! That's shocking! I could ramble on and list off a dozen and one excuses as to why I haven't put my fingers to a keyboard in quite some time, but let's face it, it mostly just comes down the the simple fact that I'm been extremely lazy and also just simply haven't had the time. I've been racing around like a mad women, back and forth between work and other general mundane life situations and in amongst all of that the whole month seems to have just vanished before my eyes; I swear that we were only ringing in the new year just last week.
Now with February upon us and hopefully some sunshine too, I just can't stand this constant cold snap, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things once more and, fingers crossed, not full into such a blogging rut as this one has been. Okay, now that the apologies and feeble excuses are out of the way I decided to cobble together a small list of things that I've been enjoying this month, in a vein attempt to make this post somewhat relevant or at least to give you some ideas of what you could possible doing whilst trying to escape the cold weather.
• the cinema: there are an abundance of amazing films currently playing at cinemas around the country at the moment, not to mention all the awards nominated ones. So far I have seen a grand total of two of this years Oscar contenders; The Imitation Game, which myself and Grandma saw just before Christmas, and The Theory Of Everything, which we all went to see last week. I still haven't decided which one my I loves best as they were both truly stunningly brilliant films and they both deserve all the recognition that they're currently receiving, however in my heart of hearts I have to lean more towards TTOE, as it made me cry throughout and just the sheer physical transformation that Eddie Redmayne had to go through in order to portray Stephen Hawking was phenomenal. I now also have a contender in the 'why are you so perfect, heart eyes everywhere' camp in the form of one Eddie Redmayne, however I will still forever see him as Marius, not that that's a bad thing!
• Fruit tea: over the month I've rediscovered my love of fruit teas in general, especially the strawberry and raspberry offering from Twinings. It makes such a nice change to mix things up once and a while as, as much as I'm partial to a old fashioned builder's tea there's something very refreshing about it's fruity counterpart that you just don't seem to get from your box standard blends. I also want to give an honourable mention to the Blackcurrant and Vanilla tea, also from Twinings which I've been drinking like it was going out of fashion, that is some yummy tea right there.
• Music: I seem to be stumbling across lots of new (to me at least) music this month, the first being Years & Years which I actually found via the indie film God Help The Girl and my love of Emily Browning, who I personally think is a fantastic actress. The band's lead singer, Olly Alexander co-stars in the film with Browning and the ever loveable Hannah Murray (you'll probably remember her as Cassie from Skins) and after hearing him sing a few songs; did I mention that the film is based to the music by Belle & Sebastian? I hopped onto the wondrous magical YouTube and hey presto, up popped Years & Years. They have just recently started to gain more recognition and have also just been awarded the top spot in BBC Radio One's Sound of 2015. So if you haven't already heard about them get cracking and take a listen to what you're missing! And for anyone wondering, yes the film is pretty good too so maybe give that a watch when you're next browsing Netflix.
• Books, books everywhere: As I'm sure you all know I'm a huge bookworm, actually I think 'huge' is a bit of an understatement as my relationship with books has become a tad ridiculous. They seem to have migrated off of my overcrowded bookcase and are now setting up their own little stacks and towers on my bedroom floor, under my bed and in every last possible nook and cranny that they can wedge themselves into. However, the odd thing about it is that I haven't actually brought a new book since November, instead I'm slowly finally getting around to picking up all the books that have been sat gathering dust that I've been meaning to read for quite some time. At the moment I'm currently halfway through Looking For Alaska (yes I know I'm most defiantly late to the party with that one!) Orange Is The New Black and I'm just about to finish The Book Thief.
• Accessories: As I'm a complete baby whenever I encounter anything even remotely cold I've been on the hunt for a decent hat for quite some time. 'But Jade, surely just whack on a knitted bobble hat and you're good to go!' I hear you cry, well it's just not that simple, I wish it was, but it's not. As I have such a tiny pea head I constantly find that bobble hats either swamp my head and end up falling down and covering my eyes or that I'm left with the stupid flap of extra material at the top which makes me look like one of the seven dwarfs; which at four foot ten is something I'd quite like to avoid. Anyway, I finally found just what I was looking for in the Topshop sale last week; sadly I had to venture into Bournemouth as my local store was very rudely shut down! I still don't think that I've quite recovered from the emotional trauma that that bright neon green closing sign caused! As I was saying I found this super cozy Russian style hat in the sale that had been reduced to a purse friendly £5 from its original £22! That's not too bad if you ask me. The great thing is that it's actually extremely small so it fits on top of my noggin perfectly, however I have been asked why I had a hedgehog on my head from the children at work, I guess everyone's a fashion critic these days!
