blog // blogger vs wordpress

The time is coming... the age old debate of Blogger vs Wordpress.

I haven't really done any research on the difference, but I've been told that Wordpress is more customisable? Then again, how much of a pain is it to update all links and move everything over?

Hmm... What do you use?

music // boybands

Something has happened to me lately and, it must be admitted, is not that surprising. I have once again become susceptible to the phenomenon known as "the boyband".


It all started when I was about 9 or 10 when a long haired band of brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma ripped up the airwaves with a song called "Mmmbop". I'm sure you know to whom I'm referring to. Yes. Hanson. From there it was a small step to enjoying the sweet harmonies of the Backstreet Boys and an even smaller step to liking Five, Nsync, Boyzone and Blue. Not to mention the brief sonic relationships with A1, Ultra, Westlife and an assortment of other boybands (they all seem to come from the UK...).

While I readily admit to still being a fan of BSB (they were the best - pshaw to NKOTB!) I definitely grew out of boybands. I went through my alternative music stage and stopped listening to commercial radio and was often found saying "what do you mean you haven't heard of Unsigned Local Indie Band before? Come on, surely you know Semi Alternative Trendy Band?" I was a bit of a music snob when I was 18 but oh how the mighty have fallen. Or maybe I only ever pretended to be a music snob because as soon as Gaga and Katy Perry appeared I was all over it.

I wasn't fussed with the Jonas Brothers but understood the appeal (see: Obsession with Hanson), but then came the rise of the Beliebers. I remember being at my friend's house watching Ellen and squealing with laughter over a tiny brunette kid with a bowl cut. That kid's song was played on repeat by my younger sister to the point where I once yelled at her to "turn that stupid Baby song off!" Months later that same song was covered on Glee (because, yes, of course I like Glee) and I downloaded the Glee cover... and then the Justin Bieber album... and then it just snowballed. I even saw his movie. The kid is freaking talented. Did you know he's wicked on the drums?

So finally, over the last couple of weeks I've had a rather unhealthy looking playlist on my iPod. I say unhealthy, but it's only unhealthy if you're into "cool" music. As evidenced by this very blog post - I don't. Also, have a look at my birthday playlist. Mind you, everyone who came to my party loved every second of it!



Anyway, I digress again. The main point of this post is to address the sudden onslaught of love caused by One Direction. Someone at work played What Makes Your Beautiful months ago with the preface that it was ridiculously catchy and it is. I just didn't get hooked then. I was at my friends' house and one of their songs came on and I rubbished it with a derisive snort. Craig informed me that it was a great pop album and "very early Backstreet Boys". He must have said the magic words because I downloaded it... and now I'm ridiculously (sadly) hooked!

A few months ago I would have been "Harry Styles who?" and now I can tell you he's the Nick Carter of 1D - a flirt, totally cheeky, but seemingly sensitive, and when he was 17 (which was really only a few months ago) he dated a tv presenter 15 years older than him - which is well outside the cougar rule. (Half your age plus seven for those who want to know.)


They started causing Bieber-like hyperventilating while they were still on X Factor in 2010 and now they've pretty much taken over the world. See: selling out eight O2 arena shows in London for next year in 20 minutes and selling out their first Australian tour in under 10 minutes. It's hysteria of amazing proportions. I'm actually going to try and hunt down some scientific articles on fangirls and Beatlemania because I just don't get it. Sure, they sing and they're cute and all, but what have they done to warrant girls screaming in their faces and declaring marriage proposals? I love the Beatles. I've been to Liverpool. I don't even get Beatlemania. [Jess, if you're reading and you know where I can find some research, let me know!)

But everytime I hear What Makes You Beautiful (see below) I do want to be 12 and bouncing around on the beach with some cute boys. Not that I really talked to boys when I was 12, although I think I did have a crush on one. He had curly hair. It set a trend for the rest of my crushes (uh oh, Harry Styles has great curly hair). Every time I hear Gotta Be You, I feel like I need to be strolling in the woods wearing a large scarf and every time I hear One Thing... well... I just flipping love it, it's so catchy! And if the French interview at the end doesn't endear 1D to you... nothing will.


I blame you Craig for uttering my boyband kryptonite and comparing 1D with BSB. Now look where I am. Hopelessly addicted to this one album full of amazingly catchy songs by Swedish songwriters and five cute English lads with a darn good stylist. Those Swedes and Simon Cowell know what they're doing.


[EDIT] And if you got all the way down to here, I just discovered a great blog post about confessions of a fangirl. I think anyone who used to love a musician/actor/famous person will get it.

fashion // marni for h&m - part 2

Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to sleep early when you know you need to get up early the next day? Well I definitely felt that on Wednesday night before Marni for H&M launched! My friend Jon is a veteran of these fashion events and under his tutelage (and very detailed email complete with a screencap from Google Maps), I managed to leave the house on time, and made it to Bond Street for 6am. I was blasting my iPod and powering up the escalator so I really didn't notice that Jon was yelling my name as he came up the escalator behind me. Whoops.

I'd lined up with Jon at the Knightsbridge store for the Lanvin H&M collection, but it was during winter, it was freezing and we waited outside for 3 hours. Yuck. We did get free gift bags with woollen scarves though, and I got my gorgeous yellow dress (above). Selfridges was a lot more civilised. The security guard who gave us our wristbands for the first group (hurrah!) kindly told us to go and wait in a cafe as we were guaranteed entry and wouldn't have to worry about coming back until closer to 9am. So we sat in Starbucks and had breakfast, then moved to another Italian cafe and had more hot drinks, before lining back up outside the entrance.

Once we were inside it was all a little bit mental with the amount of people grabbing clothes and boxes of accessories. I was getting things for a work friend too, but I somehow managed to grab the silk maxi dress and accessories I wanted. Thanks friends who held things for me! Here's what I picked up...

big issues // kony 2012

I know everyone's been tweeting, facebooking and talking about Kony 2012. It's been getting some criticism over sources of funding, facts about the LRA, why they're only petitioning the US government, etc, but it's still a very powerful piece of media and well worth watching.

Thanks to Jess who directed me to this interesting article about the legitimacy of the charity.

fashion // marni for h&m

Here's my proposed new wardrobe by Marni for H&M! I wasn't much fussed with the Versace collection but I adore these Marni dresses and all of the accessories. When I moved to London, the Lanvin collection was released and I lined up with J from about 6am at the Knightsbridge store. I had just gotten a temp job at Harrods, so I lined up with coffees until I had to go to work - luckily just around the corner! It was definitely worth it since I got my gorgeous yellow dress... This will be the last H&M collection I'll be in London for, so bring it Marni!

nanoblock // grand piano

Yes, I bought another nanoblock kit! You might remember my giant panda one from a little while back. I found out where you can buy them online and I think the Eiffel Tower might be next...

Next to a film canister for size... it's teeny tiny!

saturday night // bowling at rowans

If I can please alert you to my score of a perfect 100! Not quite the 300 pros score, but y'know... I doubled my score from the previous game.

And again, my totally talented friend Aaron made a video of us and, dare I say it, but we look pretty cool! Watching it made me feel like I wanted to hang out with all the cool people in that video. Is that a bit lame? Oh well, have a look. Excuse the extreme close up of my face...

Finsbury Park Bowling at Rowans from Aaron Rainbird on Vimeo.

church street // stoke newington

While Mon was here, we went for a long stroll to Church Street in Stoke Newington. It's a lovely little street packed with vintage stores and yummy places to eat.

This is Clissold Park where the snow hadn't quite melted.

That stuff is frozen water. Yup.

Orange, carrot and ginger juice at The Blue Legume and In the Sylvanian Store. Wall to wall Sylvanian animals!

Samples of cake and a cup of tea was just what we needed after a long afternoon walk, and I picked this gorgeous black dress up for £10 in one of the vintage stores!

Then it was off to Big Red for nachos before a spot of bowling... (another post to come and it includes a video!)

tv shows // suits

I'm surprised it's taken me this long to blog about my new Favourite TV Show Of All Time. Suits! My housemates are thinking about staging an intervention because I often have something Suits related on my computer screen. That being said, they've watched the whole season and loved it too! Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht... mmmm...
Anyway, it's about a hot shot, intelligent, charismatic, cocky lawyer (Macht) who hires an associate (Adams), who doesn't actually have a law degree, but is supremely intelligent himself. Harvey Specter and Mike Ross. Babes! They have a bit of a Dr Cox/JD relationship. My housemates and I have decided that Harvey is like a modern day Don Draper. Donna (Harvey's secretary) is my other favourite character and she's so hilarious and sassy.
So if you haven't seen it yet, definitely give it a looksie! I love a television show with intelligent characters since the shows I've enjoyed recently include Sherlock and Bones.
And now here's some pretty pictures. The following are all from suitscaps.

Not an official photo, but I found it on Tumblr.

instagram // a day in the park

While Laura's ladywife (aka best female friend) Monica was staying with us, we went for a leisurely walk through Finsbury Park to get to the BIG Sainsbury's and pick up Henry. Large grocery stores are somewhat of a novelty in London. You need to trek to the suburbs to find one!

Here's some BS (before snow) and AS (after snow) of Finsbury Park.