Night on the tiles amidst a pile of WORK!

I was a bit naughty and arranged to come into work late on Sunday so I could go out on Saturday night, oops!  It was a belated 21st party for my friend Lauren, and I had a really good night!  I was with all her Uni mates so I didn't really know anyone, but about half an hour in we all got very drunk and became bessie mates haha!  As well there was a slight school reunion in the last club of the night (Wigan's a SMALL town) and I broke all my diet rules and got a 10" pizza and a cheeseburger afterwards, awful! Here are some of the snaps from the night, enjoy :)

xoxox

A trip into town and the two loves of my life: food and Gatsby

Stocked up on more books from the library and other essentials this afternoon, think I needed a bit of a distraction from food to be honest! Needless to say the diet isn't going too great; had a slice of cake, currently supping some red wine and I've caught myself staring at the contents of the fridge three times today :/.

Putting food aside now, I thought today I'd write about a bit of an obsession of mine. When I was in year 12 (so like 2008 - sigh) we started reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and I don't think I've recovered since. A few months after reading the book I stumbled across an article that Baz Luhrmann, the guy who directed Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet and Strictly Ballroom (we won't mention Australia!) had just bought the film rights to The Great Gatsby,WITH Leonardo Dicaprio as lead and Carey Mulligan as Daisy, and I've been waiting in suspense ever since! The movie is due to come out around Christmas and I will be there watching it on its first night! I saw the 1970's version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and despite loving a bit of vintage Rob, I thought visually it was a bit of a letdown. If you've seen any of Baz Luhrmann's movies then I'm sure you'll understand why I think he's the right guy for the job (I almost die every time I see the Roxanne scene in Moulin Rouge!). If you want to see the Great Gatsby trailer then there's a link here :)
Is there any movies that anyone else is crazy about, or is it just me that's this mad?!

Muchos love,

Fran

xoxox
"And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night."
The Great Gatsby
Chapter 9.

Superga Sale!

When I was in London I had a bit of free time so I was hopping from one blog to another (as you do when you go to London) and I came across one that I really liked: www.PrettyGreenTea.com is a great fashion/beauty/lifestyle blog, and as a girl who appreciates a sale I can always do with a good heads up, so cheers Daisy for letting me onto these great finds!  I've been wanting a pair of  Superga pumps for a while now, so when I saw Daisy's post that they were in a half price sale (here) the first thing I did was go online and buy myself a pair!

{Superga 2750 Cotu Classic in Lilac Chiffon were £45 now £20}

All my shoes seem to fall to pieces after a couple of weeks so I need something with a heavy sole, I'm looking forward to seeing how these beauties hold out.  The thing I noticed was that in the picture they were a lot more purpley but in real life they're more of a pinkish shade which I was pretty happy about.  On their website you can see all the celebrities who wear Superga (I'm so easily pleased!) and Alexa Chung is their cover girl, her legs are enough to make anyone go out for a pair!  

Right, I'm off to drool at my new shoes :)

Until next time,

Fran

xoxox

"With an extra strong, fully breathable pure cotton upper the timeless 2750 is a lightweight, simple canvas tennis shoe with vulcanised rubber sole. In production since 1911, this is a shoe you can genuinely dress up or dress down."

London 2012 :)

Hello my bloggerinos, I'm back!  Had the best time in London, DESPITE going during the Olympics even the tube was okay!  Me and Rich had a lovely time at the spa, his gran came down for a visit, I ate way too many fajitas (along with everything else - now on a last ditch birthday diet to make up for it!), we tried to play rounders but it rained so we got drunk instead, watched a LOT of synchronised diving and I went horse riding while he was at some fantasy football thing, so all in all a successful visit!  
I'm dead chuffed with myself because I went on an hour lesson and for the first time since I was about 9 I started cantering again!  It was brilliant and I feel so much more confident.  While I was there I was playing big sister to Richard's cousins too - by the end of the week they were pros at french braids AND fish plaits haha!  Anyhoo here's my photo roundup for you all, and I'll throw in an extra post about my new shoes that have arrived today... exciting!

Muchos love,

Fran

xoxox

Weekend Away and I'm going to Loooonnndddon!

I spent a nice long weekend at my dad's; on the Saturday we went horseriding at Bold Heath Equestrian Centre, then had home made chips with egg and finished off the day trying out their new hot tub with a glass of red, lovely!  On the Sunday we went to the christening of Zack and Eva, then afterwards got very drunk at a local beer garden, what a fab weekend!

{What I wished I had photos like! Photos found at miss-mc.deviantart.com}

{Me and my stepmum Julie}

{Me and Father!}

Today I've had a really lazy day reading and having a little shop with my mum.  I've been looking online as well shopping and I've fell in love with daisy prints.  This is one I've found on eBay, a sold out topshop blouse:

Think I had a bit too much free time...

Now I don't know how long it's gonna be until my next post, because I'm going to London for a week tomorrow! I might be able to fit one in tomorrow or a couple while I'm there, but if not then so long for now amigos!

Muchos love,

Fran

xoxox

Book Round up!

One of my friends does an English Literature degree (incidently she graduated yesterday as well and she's now getting funded for a PHD!) so we were talking about that and recommended a book to me which got me thinking, people don't really talk to each other about books enough!  Maybe I should sign up at a local book club, but lord knows I'm being old school enough going to the library!  Instead I thought I'd do something on here, and maybe other people have some favourites they want to mention. Spread the wealth, ladies!

Favourite Books of All Time

The Grown Up Stuff

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Not So-Grown Up Stuff

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Harry Potter Collection by J.K.Rowling

Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

And these are some of the books that I've recently read/am reading/am about to read:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ☆☆☆☆☆: 

Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. 

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini ☆☆☆☆☆:

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Anglelou ☆☆☆:

In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls--with candor, humor, poignancy and grace--how her journey began.  In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou describes her coming of age as a precocious but insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother, Bailey, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, whom they call Momma, runs the only store in the black section of Stamps and becomes the central moral figure in Maya’s childhood.

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence ☆☆☆:

Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford.  Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically,Clifford encourages her to have a liasonwith a man of their own class.But Connie is attracted instead toMellors, her husband's game-keeper, with whom she embarks on a passionate affair that brings new life to the stifled existence.  Can she find true equality with Mellors, despite the vast gulf between their positions in society?

Just started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson, and next on my list are:

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

And that's all in a month!  I realise this looks a tad obsessive right now and you're probably thinking why am I reading this nut-jobs blog again?! If so, my apologies! Doing Maths I quite literally haven't read fiction for nearly a year, so I'm loving it!

Muchos love,

Fran

xoxox

Graduation Day!

18th July 2012, The University of Sheffield

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."  ~Albert Einstein