Lucy in the Pub With Cider

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The Buffy Binge – Xander Nearly Shags An Insect

The Buffy Binge – Xander Nearly Shags An Insect

Hello, dear ones. Here is another exciting instalment of my obsessive Buffy charting. It’s good to have a hobby that isn’t just refreshing twitter and crying. They go up every Thursday at 6:45, and you can read the rest here. Series One, Episode Four – Teacher’s Pet This week’s monster is a horrible massive insect Mrs Robinson type thing. She is pretty in her human form, though, so Xander…

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Time Of The Month – February 2017

Time Of The Month – February 2017

Alright, faithful readers? Sorry I failed to keep up a series for even two consequtive months. That is not brilliant at all. I my defence I have been hella busy. But I wanted to keep it up, because this is my favourite type of pots to read from other people. I can’t resist an other-person’s-diary. So here we go – In Reading Pantomime by Laura Lam Paul got me this little gem of a book for…

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The Buffy Binge – The Promise of the Premise

The Buffy Binge – The Promise of the Premise

Good evening, friends and foes, and welcome to the latest instalment of The Buffy Binge. I am working my way through the entirety of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and blogging about them, because this fictional realm of the undead is more soothing than what is happening in our own dark timeline. They go up every Thursday at 6:45, and you can read the rest here. Series One, Episode Three – Witch It’s…

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Starting Slimming World (Again) – A Beginners Guide

Starting Slimming World (Again) – A Beginners Guide

It has been three years since I started Slimming World. I know loads about it, and it works for me very well. Over the last six months though, my habits have been slipping. I’ve started feeling like I “need” biscuits to get through deadlines, pizza to help me relax. I’ve started buying multipacks of chocolate again. For most people these are normal and nice ways of using food, but for me they’re…

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The Buffy Binge - The Fight Begins

The Buffy Binge – The Fight Begins

Welcome, one and all, and Happy Buffy Day to you. For it was on this day, exactly twenty years ago, that we all first saw the glory that was the feminist icon of the Slayer. Except me, obviously, because I live in the UK. I saw it three years later, when it finally aired on BBC2, because there was no illegal streaming of TV shows back then. But I digress. In honour of this great feat, and how…

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Twelve Favourites From My Bookshelf

Twelve Favourites From My Bookshelf

I don’t know how you organise your books – some people do it by colour, alphabetically, by category… I organise my books much more according to emotion and the rules of chaos. Most specifically, I have a shelf, which is high up in my bedroom, and reserved for favourites. The books people are not allowed to borrow. Here is a handful of them – You can not borrow any of these books I’m always a bit…

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What To Do In Amsterdam?

What To Do In Amsterdam?

I spend quite a lot of time in Amsterdam and I really love it there. The people are incredibly nice, the food and bar culture are great, the city is beautiful. If you’re thinking of booking a trip (and you’ve been able to find affordable accommodation…), you should! Here are some starter recommendations for you – Museums My favourite museum in Amsterdam, and perhaps the world, is the Dutch…

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Time Of The Month - January 2017

Time Of The Month – January 2017

Hello and welcome to a new series – a monthly round up of events. I’ve never been a big one for diaries, partly because, when I was 15 the boy I like found mine and read it out to everyone (if you’re reading this, fuck you Danny!) and partly because I’m a talker – I like that people can hear me. But we are in astonishing times, and I think perhaps it’s worth making a record of what it’s like…

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Doing Your Tax Return Isn’t That Bad

Doing Your Tax Return Isn't That Bad - a half-arsed guide to self assessment for artists

“Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant.” – Hilary Mantel’s top tip for writing. People really do wang on about doing their tax returns, especially in creative circles. The way people talk about it, you’d think you had to fill out the form in Russian, in triplicate, halfway up Everest. As a consequence of all this fuss, when I came to do my first ever tax return last year, I was…

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Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land

With Good Me Bad Me, Ali Land has given us the perfect psychological thriller. Annie’s mother is a serial killer. For years, she’s been killing little children and getting away with it. But one day, aged 15, Annie can’t take the horror of her mother’s actions any more and turns her into the police. Annie is given a new name (Milly), a new foster family and a new life – but her mothers trial date…

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Trip to Thailand - Part Two, Khao Sok National Park

Trip to Thailand – Part Two, Khao Sok National Park

After the joy of drinking and reading in Khao Lak, we headed to Khao Sok national park to stay in Elephant Hills, an adventure tour outfit who offer elephant experiences, jungle tours and luxury jungle accommodation. Diligently spotting stuff over breakfast. Our first night, we stayed in the jungle camp, in a tent – but with a bed and en suite. It was kind of amazing, but also slightly…

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Trip to Thailand - Part 1, Khao Lak

Trip to Thailand – Part 1, Khao Lak

I’ve just come back from my very delayed honeymoon! Did you miss me? Why do you mean, you didn’t notice I’d gone because I’m a wildly inconsistent blogger? Rude. Like almost everyone I know who got married this year, we did two weeks in Thailand as our honeymoon and it was so so blissful. Neither of us had ever been to South East Asia (or, actually, Asia) before and we were looking for a little…

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Book Review - Christmas At The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Book Review – Christmas At The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

This charming page-turner is a true delight. The third in the Little Beach Street Bakery series, this book follows feisty baker Polly, her fiancé Huckle and their pet puffin Neil through a sweet and amusing account of the run up to Christmas, dealing with the pressures of work, the problems of their friends and the return of an important figure from Polly’s past. Funny, warm and engaging,…

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The Death of Hope, or Mary Berry's Tarte Au Citron 

The Death of Hope, or Mary Berry’s Tarte Au Citron 

I was taking to a colleague the other day and he said he hated the idea of hope. It was always harking to the future, he said. It drew attention away from what was happening in the present, and set you up for perpetual disappointment. “I hope it doesn’t rain today” – so what if it rains? Stay inside and eat malteasers on the sofa. Make the most of what you have, don’t wish your life away.  He is…

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Omnivore No More

When I was nine years old, and going through what my atheist parents fondly called my “God bothering phase”, I decided to give up meat for lent. No more meat for me, I thought piously. I will be kind to all the little animals and stop eating them. God will like that.  Three hours later I ate pork chops for dinner because I’d forgotten all about it.  Five years ago, I was flicking through online…

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Honey and Walnut Bread 

It’s bake off week 3 and its bread week. And. I mean. Bread? Really, what is bread but rubbish cake? Consider this less a recipe post and more a hugely heartfelt book recommendation – if you are interested at all in learning to make your own bread, buy this book –    Written by Bake-Off alum James Morton, Brilliant Bread is an accessible, readable treasure of a cookery book. He explains how to do…

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Summer 2007. I am 21. I am waiting to start an MA in Creative Writing, which I still can’t believe I got on to. In the meantime, I have gone to the Edinburgh festival to work as a venue tech. Mum said I should get out of the house – I was just moping about in Beverley. She was right. I love it here – the buzz and the sense that anything can happen, and I can help. My boyfriend just got his first…

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