"We're all going on a... Summer Holiday!"

I've been away! On 12th July I flew out to Jersey with my parents and arrived about 45 minutes later, which was perfect. As soon as you arrive you really feel like you're somewhere foreign (not surprising considering the island is only about 15 miles away from the French coast) without a ridiculously long, cramped plane journey. Aeroplanes and I have a love/hate relationship: love the speed and the resulting arrival, hate the actual flight. The airport itself was tiny and reminded me of a lighthouse- very cute!
We stayed in the main town, St. Helier, which was ok- some really lovely parts, some kind of average- just like you get in any town I suppose! On the first day we went for a walk along the beach and for the second and third we hired a car and did a bit of an island tour. I have to admit, I am so glad my dad was the one driving- I'm used to narrow country roads, but some of the ones we (often unintentionally) ended up on were crazy! It is probably 'testament' to my map reading skills that I managed to get us repeatedly lost on an island only 9 miles long by 5 miles wide, but I never did claim to be an expert in such matters.
We saw some gorgeous places, in fact, every coastal village we stopped had its own kind of charm. I loved Gorey, in the shadow of Mont Orgueil Castle, as well as St. Brelade's Bay and the beach at St Quen. To be honest though- nowhere was unpleasant! My photos are sadly minimal, but I'll post a few on as well as a link to the Visit Jersey website for you to have a look at :)
I didn't wear anything particularly exiting I'm afraid, although the trousers from the Tirley Garth photos did get complimented by the lady in the Feel Unique shop (which I didn't even know existed!) which was really kind. I'll do my best with shopping directions though.
I would recommend Jersey to anyone who appreciates a beautiful view and who wants to feel like they're really going away, but doesn't really like flying. We came back on the 15th, which was far too short a time. I really didn't want to come home, which I think is a sure sign of a good holiday. I'm now really keen to visit Guernsey and see how different or similar they are. Maybe next summer...
xxx

Visit Jersey website: http://www.jersey.com/english/Pages/default.aspx

 One of Jersey's beautiful beaches.

 Me and my Mum. My dad has a tendency to take photos of people as they look into the sun, because of the light on the lens, so sorry for the squinting!

 Dreadful angle, but this is Gorey, and Mont Orgueil Castle.

Me in the sea on our second day. I'm wearing a New Look dress that I bought in the sale years ago so it's not available anymore. It only cost me £5 and I've worn it so much!

My bag is from Mango on Regent Street- I can't find it on the website but I only bought it at the beginning of June so it may well still be in shops.

This I can link to! My auntie gave me a voucher for my birthday and this is what I bought with it :)
http://www.jackwills.com/en-gb/product/milholme-bikini-pant-01679100106



Revenge doesn't really look good in Prada...

Hi everyone!
Really sorry for my lack of posts recently- I wish there was an exciting reason for it but to be perfectly honest, it's just because I haven't been doing much! I've started working on the essays I have to do for the exams I missed due to glandular fever, been enjoying the sunshine and watching a LOT of Wimbledon. I am absolutely loving it (so much more this year than ever for some reason) and I will be slightly gutted after tomorrow. Really going to miss the Wimbledon related tweets of @MarianKeyes too, which have been pretty hilarious throughout! I do feel kind of bad for sitting inside while it's so beautiful, so I keep dashing outside in between matches so I don't miss it. :)

In other 'news' (sorry), today I finished reading Revenge Wears Prada- the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. It catches up with Andy Sachs ten years after she suddenly quits the job a million girls would die/kill for and sets up a magazine of her own.
I so wanted this book to be good! I loved the first one and the film is a great go-to, but the sequel just doesn't really make the grade. I can't deny that it has its merits. It's pretty easy summer holiday reading and I'm sure that if a film was made of it, it would have just a much of the glitz-and-glam that contributed so much to the appeal of the original. Unfortunately, that kind of appeal only goes so far, and apparently doesn't really last as long as two novels.
Andy goes from being the aspiring writer everyone roots for in the first novel to a bit of a sap whom the reader wants to give a good shake in the second. There were certain elements of the supposedly hellish job she had in The Devil Wears Prada that, let's be honest, we were all a bit jealous of. In the sequel though, she really does have what appears to be the perfect life; her own successful wedding magazine, a great apartment, a rich, beautiful, doting fiancé, yet she cannot be pleased. It's very irritating, not only because of the picture perfect lifestyle itself, but the way she always manages to find the tiniest negative to obsess over, which manages to permeate everything, even through a third person narrative. A pretty impressive feat to be honest...but not in a good way.
The story itself is fairly predictable, from the sickness after the wedding to the reappearance of Alex, the reader can see every plot development, glittering like one of Miranda's Hermes bangles, from dozens of pages away. There was only one point at which I was slightly surprised (I won't say, just in case you're already halfway through) and I got over that one pretty quickly. Aside from that, various sub-plots were introduced for apparently no reason; going nowhere and apparently having next to no palpable effect on any character or any contribution to the plot development. At all. Which was frustrating.
I still enjoy Weisberger's writing, and the more general ideas of her novels, so I think I will give one of her other, non-Devil/Prada novels a try, based on how much I liked the original Prada, but somehow I don't think I'll be reading this one again. Luckily I had a Sainsbury's 'Here's how much you could have saved, so have it off your next purchase' vouchers when I bought it, so I don't feel too put out. Read this if you liked the first novel in the set and want to catch up with Andy, and find out how she ends up, but to be honest- employing a little imagination after reading this and the back cover of the paperback means you probably don't really have to. Time to kill? Go for it. But don't feel obliged.

 Front Cover

 

Back Cover

Hopefully I will have a bit more to talk about next time I post and I'll do my best to be a bit quicker next time! :)

xxx