The Girl With All The Gifts - M.R.Carey.

Hello and happy Friday! I hope that you have had a good week. If you haven't then well done for making it through. For today's post, I wanted to do an almost book review. I don't really like using the word review but I guess it is more about me sharing my thoughts and opinions as oppose to a formal review. So with that said... let's get on with it.

I started reading this book quite a few weeks or even months ago. However, I actually purchased this book a little while ago on one of my book shopping sprees I believe and only got around to reading it recently. There are some books that I can read within days because they are such an easy read. However, there are others that take me a little longer, like this one, due to being busy as well as the book needing a little more of my focus. I don't want to go and give away the storyline but here is the blurb...

"Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh."

This novel was surprisingly thrilling, thought-provoking and just pure genius. 

It takes a concept that has been attempted by many and took an entirely new approach to it, in my opinion. The characters, storyline, and setting were thought out really well as well as being very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, even though it took me longer to read that usual. I may even go as far as to say that the storyline is one of the best I have ever read.

I don't want to say too much more, as I don't want to ruin it for anybody. However, I will recommend that you go and purchase this book as I absolutely loved it. 

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! 

Holly X

p.s- Sorry that this post is a bit mysterious and secretive but I just don't want to give anything away.

Not so summery summer walks.

Hello and happy hump day! Fun fact: it wasn't until a year or 2 ago that I realised that hump day actually meant the middle of the working week and NOT a slightly saucy day. Mean girls makes way more sense now. 

Anyway, on with today's post. So this time last week we had some family friends down for the day and decided to go for a lovely walk at Westonbirt Arboretum. I have mentioned this place a couple of times in previous posts, but basically, the Arboretum is pretty close to where I live so we often take advantage of this and go on walks. However, British weather being as unreliable as it is, decided that despite it being summer, it was going to be rainy and a little chilly too. Typical.

However, we still had a lovely day and I enjoyed every minute of it. I took numerous amounts of pictures on our walk, with such photogenic surroundings its hard not to, and thought I would share some of my favourites for today's post.

We found these BEAUTIFUL flowers that I loved. Look how nice they are! Definitely made me feel all summery, despite the weather.

There are tonnes of trees (obviously) but this one was huge!

My sister and I with our matching rain coats. I am 1000% obsessed with my coat and was actually pretty happy that the rain gave me an excuse to wear it.

I am not entirely sure what this plant is but it looks pretty cool.

My phone was full of photographs like this because it is just such a beautiful place. Despite my numerous attempts, it was practically impossible to fully capture how gorgeous this place is.

One of my favourite pictures I took. 

On this particular day, they were doing a little family trail things that we took part in. It was a great idea to entertain the children (and the slightly older children like myself) and helped to give them some extra knowledge too with the quiz!

At the start of the trail, you got given a worksheet and a pencil. On one side of the sheet, there was a map that told you where the quiz answers were and little pictures that you had to find along the trail and tick off. There were little pictures (like shown above) that we had to keep an eye out for along our trail.

On the other side of the sheet, there was the quiz. There were about 9 questions in total to answer. Around the trail, there were bigger signs attached to the trees that gave you some information about trees. You then had to use this information to answer the given question. I thought this was a great idea to help the children gain more knowledge in a fun and entertaining way! The trail was aimed at children but I personally loved it!

My brother (Alfie) exploring the plants.

I am not entirely sure what I am doing here but I thought it was too funny not to include. I think it's the serious face that makes me laugh.

Here is my outfit that I wore for our walk. I wore my boyfriend jeans, stripey top, raincoat and trainers. It was a very comfy and practical outfit and I don't think it looked too bad at all.

Some of the trees were different colours which reminded me of Autumn! The arboretum is a great place to go in the autumn with all of the gorgeous colours.

Another fancy photo where I tried (and failed) to capture the beauty of this place.

We finished off our walk with a yummy hot chocolate from the cafe. Not your typical summer drink eh?

So that is all for today's post. I had an absolutely lovely time and hope you enjoyed the pictures too.

Have a lovely day!

Holly X

Don't let your past ruin your present.

Happy Monday to you!

As you read this I shall be off at Thorpe Park, so there may be a post next week on my day out. But now for today's post.

So today I wanted to talk about this little quote above. I am always looking at little quotes/sayings and using them as reminders and to put things into perspective. However, I specifically chose to use this little quote in today's post as I feel that it is so relevant in so many people's lives, including my own.

Everybody has a bad day from time to time, it's inevitable. There are different degrees of 'badness' but no matter whereabouts on the scale your bad day comes, it still is a bad day none the less and you are allowed to be sad or angry or just damn frustrated with the cards that life has dealt you. People often view sadness and frustration as bad emotions. Now they're not necessarily pleasant emotions but I wouldn't call them bad. They are just as important of an emotion as happiness and the fact that you feel these emotions aren't bad at all. In fact, I would say that it is pretty good because guess what? It means you're human. Congrats! 

So first of all, except that it is okay to have a bad day. It happens but nothing is permanent and that's okay. Secondly, forget about it. Easier said than done right? But I honestly believe that to some degree happiness is a choice. So when you have a bad day, and you wake up remembering all of the nasty things from the day before, just take a breath. What happened yesterday is done. You can't change the past. All these bad things, like everything else, are only temporary. So take a deep breath, smile and go and create an amazing day. Sometimes when life is giving you a load of bad days, you just have to go and create a good one. 

Smile, be happy, stop worrying about the past and focus on how you are going to make this new week a good one. 

Don't let a bad day, week, month or even year ruin your day. 

Now go and kick this weeks butt. 

Holly X

P.s- Sorry my posts are still so rambley, its taking me a while to get into the swing of things. 

Netflix favourites right now.

Today I thought I would share some of the programmes and films I have been enjoying lately. Having finished school and being a little unwell lately, I have had plenty of time to enjoy Netflix and thought I would give you my current top 5.

1- Once upon a time. (currently about to start season 4)

My current no.1 has to be 'Once upon a time'. I started watching this series a little while ago with my sister, however there is only limited free time we have together meaning that (for the majority of the time) we are unable to binge watch the series - this is what usually happens on Netflix. This series is basically based on fairy-tales and the modern day world. Now I am aware it doesn't sound as if it would appeal to all, however if, it appeals to my zombie loving stepdad, then I am sure it would appeal to others who would expect otherwise.

2- Pretty Little Liars. (currently up to date)

Pretty little liars are 100% one of my favourites (as like many others I know). However, this came in at number two, mainly due to the fact that I can't binge watch (otherwise it would be a joint first). Now this programme is a 12 and is maybe not suitable for those of a younger age or those who scare easily. It's not typically a scary programme, but can be pretty creepy at times. I love it!

3- Admission. 

I believe that this film is a relatively new addition to Netflix but I may be wrong. I thought this romantic comedy was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I know that I am pretty easy to please but I really enjoyed this movie and therefore it makes it into my current top 5.

4- Clueless

Now I heard people talking about this film for ages and somehow managed to go my entire 17 years of existence without seeing it, until the other day that is. Honestly, it was your typically 90's teen movie but I loved it none the less. Plus, I finally understood Iggy's music video.

5- Orange Is The New Black

Once again, I was late to the trend and only started watching this programme the other week. I became addicted and watched the first 2 seasons within days. However, it was when I started the third season and realised it was the most recent season, that I decided to try and slow down so it wouldn't end. 

There are still a ton of others that I have enjoyed but this will do for now. 

Happy Friday, have a lovely weekend and I shall see you next week.

Holly X

Summer BBQ's and oreo smores!

Now this post is a little delayed as this BBQ was actually about a month ago but I still wanted to share it. 

So this was around the time that England got pretty hot, so of course we wanted to make the most of it and had a little family BBQ. It was a really lovely evening full of DIY lemonade, oreo smores and lots of laughter. Therefore, I thought I would share a few snaps from the evening.

My brother (Alfie) on our DIY slip and slide.

It wouldn't be my brother if he didn't find some way to injure himself.

I decided to wear my floral maxi dress from Forever21 (from my NYC trip actually) with some very messy hair and no makeup this time.

My DIY super easy (and very pretty) lemonade - maybe I should write a post on this?

The food for the BBQ - it was very yummy!

Alfie and his pet bird, they are so cute!

Post-dinner marshmallow toasting.

There is always someone who drops their marshmallow.

So that is all for today's rather brief post, I had a lovely evening and can't wait for more summer evenings.

Thanks for reading!

Holly X