Kirstiekins Blogs: 2016

SIX CHRISTMAS FAVES

Wednesday

I mentioned in my last post that one of my favourite things about Christmas is snuggling up and watching a Christmas film, so I figured it's only right that I share some of my other Christmas faves with you all.

Friday

Every morning Rachel watches Jason and Jess eat breakfast in their garden from the comfort of her commuter train as it stops just outside the suburban town of Witney. However, one morning Rachel sees something she wishes she hadn't and suddenly Jess becomes Megan, and Megan is missing.

Wednesday

Simple Pumpkin Pie Recipe

If you're anything like me and can't resist a good bargain, then you too will probably have been tempted by the post-Halloween reduced pumpkins. Now I am not the best cook in the world, but I will have a good go at baking most things so when I saw this giant pumpkin for 10p in Lidl I figured that now would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at baking a Pumpkin Pie.

If you have never had Pumpkin Pie then you are seriously missing out. It isn't really a traditional thing to bake in the U.K; in fact, the only time I have ever had it is when I went to a Thanksgiving celebration at my universities International Society and have loved it ever since.

One thing that has put me off of making Pumpkin Pie in the past is the fact that I thought it would be too time-consuming, but it was actually really simple once I got into a bit of a rhythm, and I think I am going to make it a yearly tradition.

If you fancy having a go at making a Pumpkin Pie, you can find my recipe and method below.

Monday

Way back in February I took my mum to The Big Apple for her birthday, New York is one of her favourite places in the entire world - she loves the bright lights, towering buildings and yellow taxi's that just seem to appear out of nowhere; I am the complete opposite, I love quiet spaces, culture and being surrounded by history. Honestly, I am such a huge dork, and after going all that way on a plane (I hate planes) I decided to reward myself by dragging my mum down to Penn Station at ridiculous o'clock in the morning, fuel'ing her up with coffee and bagels from Dunkin' Doughnuts, and then jumping on a train to Washington D.C

I have always wanted to visit Washington D.C. It is a place that we see so frequently on the news with reporters outside the Capitol building or the White House, but D.C is so much more than that. Aside from the popular tourist attractions, there are a number of restaurants, museums, nature walks and historic things to do and visit. Unfortunately, as we went in the middle of winter and it was below freezing we didn't get to do everything on our list, but we did get to see a lot of the city under the moonlight! We missed the last bus back to the train station, so we had to walk a good few miles whilst barely being able to feel our toes, the upside of this was that apart from the odd homeless person or tourist, there was absolutely no one else on the streets, it was almost as if we had the entire city to ourselves!

Wednesday

G
Summer is the perfect time to throw yourself at your bookshelf and get on top of some much-needed reading, however, if you're anything like me it could take you half the summer to actually figure out what you want to read. So I have put together a guide of book categories to help you decide what to read over the next few months, and I have included some examples from my own bookshelf.

Sunday

Wednesday

If it isn't abundantly obvious, I am obsessed with my cat. Harry (full name: Harrold Bartholomeow) had a bit of a rough start in life, he was handed into my local vet as a tiny stray kitten starving and absolutely full of fleas, he spent three weeks there as they nursed him back to health and tried to find his owners, fortunately for me no one came forward to claim him.

Tuesday

The only thing better than seeing the New York Skyline from Liberty Island is being part of it. Ever since I saw Home Alone 2 when I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than to climb to the top of New York and look out onto the enormous buildings and vast blue skies; and let me tell you, it was everything I ever hoped it could be.

Thursday

Like a lot of other people, I discovered The 100 through the CW's hit show of the same name. I binge watched the first two and a half seasons in about four days, and then had to wait for new episodes each week. Imagine watching thirty-six episodes in a row, and the last one you watch is the one with THAT Lexa scene - I did not know it was coming, I was not ready.

Tuesday

I have to admit that one of my favourite things to do is snuggle up under the dim light of my laptop, and binge-watch TV shows on Netflix. There is no such thing as 'just one more episode' am I right?

Netflix has so much great content, both new and old so I figured I would share a few of my favourites.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Friday

Last Sunday I went to see the amazing Sarah Millican at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. I have loved Sarah Millican for so long, so seeing her live was an immense experience. She has such a fantastic stage presence and captured the attention of the audience throughout her entire set. By the time we left my sides were hurting from laughing so much. I really didn't want the show to end.

Monday

I wish we could have spent a lot longer in Central Park than what we had time for, as it is so pretty and there is so much to see, but considering the weather was ridiculously below freezing we decided to venture for warmer pastures and save what we missed for another trip (at a warmer time of year).

The little time we spent there was not nearly enough time to get around the entire park, but we did manage to visit Strawberry Fields, The Zoo, and climb the rocks that are used in ninety percent of movies that are shot in Central Park, as well as well as do some general wandering.

Lifestyle || I don't like iced coffee.

So today I discovered that I do not like Iced Coffee. I love regular coffee, so I figured I would love Iced Coffee too, but it is actually really disgusting! Stay with me, this isn't a completely pointless post I promise it's going somewhere!

I am twenty-three years old, and today I discovered that I don't like Iced Coffee! Yes, I said that a minute ago but do you not know what this means!? Of course, you don't because I haven't got to the point yet! I found out that I don't like Iced Coffee, which obviously I didn't realise yesterday so that means after being alive for just over twenty-three years, I am still learning new things about myself!

No matter how old you are, no matter where your life goes, you will find something out about yourself that you didn't know the day before. You will never stop discovering who you are because you will never stop becoming who you are! Every day you become a little bit more you than the you were the day before. However, that doesn't mean life is the journey of finding your 'youness' it just means it's a journey of discovering your 'youness'! In the words of our very own Mother Monster, you were born this way! You were born you! so you cannot become what you already are... you just need to discover what is locked away inside of you!

Today I discovered that I don't like iced coffee, and I'm okay with that!

Kirstie xoxo

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Thursday

I love graphic novels; I especially love them when I find one that isn’t about superheroes, and the drama of their superhero lives, so I was very happy to find out that Marvel had created Graphic Novels based on one of my favourite TV shows, Once upon a Time. My friend, Cat, who is one of the best gift givers ever found this copy in Amsterdam and bought it for me for me last year, however as I have been so busy I have only just gotten around to reading it.

Tuesday

Whilst I was in New York I got to see my favourite musical, Wicked, on Broadway, which was everything I could have hoped for and more.

So this weeks NYC post is pretty photo heavy, but how can it not be when on our second day in New York, we hopped on a sightseeing bus and made our way down to Battery Park so we could see
The Statue of Liberty. I have been wanting to see Lady Liberty ever since I first saw her on TV when I was little, so finally getting the chance to see her in person was pretty magical.

Monday

I recently had the pleasure of taking part in the #Ninjabookswap. It was the first time I had taken part, and had signed up on a whim, but I am so glad that I did, as I had such a great time choosing gifts for my partner, and I really loved what I received too. If you ever get the chance to take part in a book swap, then you should do it, after all, book mail is the best mail!

Tuesday

My first day in NYC was more of a first evening. We landed at JFK around 4pm, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity at customs and the luggage carousel, we finally bundled ourselves into the back of a mini-van and headed off to our hotel. We were quite lucky, as there wasn't too much traffic which means we got to take the Queensboro Bridge and see the New York skyline at night - the movies do not do this sight justice, not in the slightest. Seeing this view with my own eyes has got to be one of the greatest moments of my life.

Thursday

“There’s no rewind, or erasing, or unmaking. The things that happened, they are you, you are them. You can escape, but you can’t get away. Just the way it is.”

I don't think I can explain how excited I am about this book. I don't usually read Crime-Thrillers as they aren't my thing, but when I was given the opportunity to read and review Find Her*, I couldn't say yes fast enough.

I was at work when it arrived. My mother rang me to tell me that I had a package, so I bribed her to bring it down to me so I could open it. I pretty much tore it open and (much to by bosses dismay) started to read it immediately. I was hooked by the first page.

If you're looking for a new crime-thriller novel to sink your teeth into? Then you should definitely check out Find Her!

Tuesday

New York City. It's the city everyone dreams of visiting. The tall buildings that tower into the sky, the bright blurs of yellow taxis whizzing by you, the adrenaline that starts pumping the very second you walk into The Empire State Building, knowing that very soon you will be standing on top of a national icon. It's beautiful. It's magnificent. It's inspiring.

Last month I was lucky enough to be able to visit the wonderful city of New York and experience all this for myself, and let me tell you now, there is nothing like it. It is incomparable.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be sharing my trip to NYC with you. I will cover the basics such as booking and accommodation, all the way over to food, things to do and how to get the most out of your time there!

When it comes to travelling, I am not shy of hunting around for the best deals, booking everything separately, and figuring out things as I go, I actually prefer to do things this way, but as I was travelling with my mum, I opted to book it all online with Expedia. My mum likes to know that everything is planned before she travels, she doesn't want to faff about looking things up once we get there. Expedia allowed me to scroll through and choose hotels and flights based on our needs and budget and then add on extras once we had finished. These extras included transfers, sightseeing bus tours, excursions, helicopter rides, and other bells and whistles NYC had to offer. We opted to stay at The Washington Jefferson which I will talk about more in my next post and to fly with British Airways. I also chose to book our airport transfers through the 'add-on/ extras' section, so I could put my mother's mind at rest.

Aside from a day trip to Washington DC, we booked all of our attractions whilst we were there, but I will go into all of those in a different post, (and that post will be linked right here when I have posted it.

What did it cost?

In total, not including anything I did whilst we were there the trip cost £1250. Please bear in mind that these figures were for two people

£940 for return flights with BA.
£260 for a five-night stay at The Washington Jefferson.
£50 for return airport transfers.

However, just because I booked it through Expedia, doesn't mean I didn't do everything I could to get the best price possible. Here are some tips on how to save when booking through travel agents

Many hotels will charge extra for WIFI. Some at extortionate prices ($10.00 a day). Always read the small print when it comes to WIFI. If you find a hotel that is an extra $30 but offers free WIFI, do the math and figure out whether or not you'll actually be saving money by staying at the cheaper hotel without free WIFI.

Do you really need to add breakfast to the bill? Buy some cereal bars and keep them in the room, or go out and pick up something from the local shop. Most hotels will get you to pay $10.00 a day for breakfast, and all they will offer is some croissants and cornflakes.

Fly on a Wednesday. I don't know why, but for some reason, it is always cheaper to fly on a Wednesday. Most airlines abide by this unwritten rule, so if you can, travel on a Wednesday.

Be prepared to shop around. If you can book everything individually then do it, you will often find out that planning everything yourself, and booking it all individually will be a hell of a lot cheaper than booking through a company.

-----

New York City is everything you could hope it to be and more. I could sit here explaining it to you all day, but anything I say will not do it the justice it deserves. Hopefully over the next few posts, I will be able to show you a small part of what makes it so great, and why you should go there.

Kirstie xoxo

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Thursday

“Depression is like a heaviness that you can’t ever escape. It crushes down on you, making even the smallest things like tying your shoes or chewing on toast seem like a twenty-mile hike uphill. Depression is a part of you; it’s in your bones and your blood.”

This is another one of the books that I had on my 'To-Read' list for longer than it actually took me to read. I bought it back in October with a gift voucher my brother gave me for my birthday and aimed to read it a week or so later, but as always I ended up deciding to read other books instead. I was intrigued by the blurb, books about mental health and suicide have always interested me so I figured this would be a great read.

(I may or may not have used it as a coaster a few times, which is why the cover is a little dirty)

What is it about?
Sixteen-year-old Aysel is Haunted my her father's violent crime. Her mother has a new family and will barely look at her, her friends have distanced themselves, and the other kids at school think she is weird. Aysel is alone. That is until she finds herself on Smooth Passages, a website that helps people find suicide partners; when someone from the next town over requests a partner, she can't help but reply...

My thoughts
I was expecting a lot more from this book, maybe because I had been wanting to read it for a while and had built it up, but it left me feeling incredibly let down. I feel like it's a cop out when anyone says this, but, I honestly think that although it was a great premise, it could have been put together in a better thought out way. There was enough plot to drive the narrative, but the characters came across as being a little two dimensional. In all honesty, I only read it to the end because I wanted to see if they actually went through with it.

It's a YA novel so I didn't expect it to venture too far into the darkness, but I did hope that it was going to go further than what it did. The writing, on the other hand, is electric. Her vivid descriptions of what it is like to live with depression and suicidal ideations, especially from the mind of a young person are powerful, believable and undoubtedly full of raw emotion. There are some great one liners and paragraphs that really resonated with me which makes me believe that the author has a real understanding of depression and suicide.

“Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at dealing with it than others.”

Why should you read it?
It is a real eye opener to teen depression and suicide, especially to those who have never suffered from either of them. It definitely is a good read. It is not a mushy-gushy love story which I particularly loved as love stories irk me with a passion. You should read it if you enjoy books of a similar theme such as It's Kind of a Funny Story, Go Ask Alice, and I'll Give you the Sun.

“And this time, I can feel my hand. I can feel everything. And I want to keep feeling everything. Even the painful, awful, terrible things. Because feeling things is what lets us know that we’re alive.
And I want to be alive.”

Trigger Warning: Depression, Suicide, Death.

If you are struggling please call the Samaritans on 116 123

Have you read this book? Share your thoughts below.

Kirstie xoxo

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