"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

On a par with the Oscars...

Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the delay, but as promised, I have lots of photos of the membership of the New Theatre looking lovely on our cruise along the River Trent for the annual Boat Party for you. I staying in Notts a bit longer than planned so haven't had time to do a post- sorry!
On Monday, the Park Yacht Club played host to the initial photo shoot (ranging from near-professional to pretty ridiculous) before we got on the boat and enjoyed the barbeque, live music and *ahem* open bar. It's so nice to see everyone dressed up; we get so used to seeing each other in jeans and stash hoodies that we forget that everyone owns other, smarter clothes. It's also great to see so many people all at the same time- that's a rarer occurrence than you tend to think.
About halfway through the cruise we started giving out the Nottingham New Theatre Awards (hence the blog post title!), which celebrates various achievements in acting, directing, ensemble, tech, backstage etc as well as giving out commendations and fellowships to our graduating members who have gone above and beyond throughout their New Theatre careers. I came 3rd in the Best Uncut Actress category, which was a lot more than I was expecting so I was really excited about that- probably excessively so to be honest. Never mind! I also got to hand out a couple of awards which was so nice- particularly the commendation that went to one of my best friends/adoptive older brother. (I'll post the photo at the bottom of this).
After the Boat we went to Bodega, my favourite Nottingham club, where we had the upstairs to ourselves and the DJ was happy to play quite a lot of our, admittedly retro, requests. :) The night was sad at times because it has been a bit of a difficult year for everyone, and there are a lot of leavers this year, but the night wasn't spoilt in the least.
Serenade@CaribIsland in Derby was great too, we got hopelessly lost again despite my high hopes for the combined sense of direction of the whole (5-strong) cast and crew, but we had, luckily, set off in plenty of time. It was a bit like driving a set of unruly children around at times but they made me laugh so much! The show went really well and the food was gorgeous- next time any of you are in Derby, go to Carib Island and have the jerk chicken followed by sticky ginger cake; you will not be disappointed!
I had meant to come home on Friday, but I stayed for my housemate's birthday yesterday, for which we went to town for cocktails in Dogma and Coco Tang. I got complemented on my dress a few times which was so sweet to hear. :) Nice to realise how kind strangers can be :) . All three of us needed cheering up a bit for various reasons and I think it's safe to say we managed it! When the music was good, we had a really good time. I'll check the pictures and perhaps put a couple up here- they might not be that suitable though! Tehe.
Not really sure what I'm up to for the rest of the week yet, but if I find myself doing anything interesting, I will let you know!
xxx

Me giving Matt his commendation on the boat.

Me and my beautiful friend Emily, who's committee position I'm taking over next year. My dress is from Asos and I had silver shoes from George but I don't think they made an appearance in any pictures!

I prefer the back of the dress to the front, and this (below) is the only picture I have of it, sorry.

Here is the link for the dress- also available in black (better pictures there too!)- http://www.asos.com/Asos-Petite/Asos-Petite-Exclusive-Strappy-Skater-Dress-With-Gold-Clasp-Detail/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2863600&SearchRedirect=true&SearchQuery=Strappy%20Skater%20Dress%20With%20Gold%20Clasp%20Detail

 

Terrible of me, but this is (L-R) Phil, Alex, Gen, James and Dan who were all involved in the UNCUT show 'Moon' last semester :) We only had two weeks to put it on so you can imagine that it was slightly stressful at times... But they're all great so I wanted to put them on here!

This is the only photo of all three of us from last night so I'm sorry it's a bit dark. We were in the kitchen attempting to use the camera timer and not entirely succeeding... Ah well. (L-R) Jess, Me, Kathryn.

Another Asos dress- can be found here...

http://www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-Skater-Dress-in-Sequin-And-Lace/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2349333&SearchQuery=Skater%20Dress%20in%20Sequin%20And%20Lace&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=36&sort=-1&clr=Black

This also has a lovely plunge back with lace side panels, thing they're my new thing!

Want to be Serenaded (@ Carib Island)?

I've been in Nottingham, where I'm at Uni, for the past few days, and they've been pretty busy! On Wednesday I had a slightly hectic Makro run to get refreshments for the theatre, including a run in with a jobsworth security man (grr) the we had the by-election where I ran for (and won- yay!) Costumes and Props Manager for the committee next year. Then I went to Antalya, a Turkish Restaurant, where the show I produced for 2Magpies Theatre 'Serenade' was performed on both Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday we also had the meeting to decide who gets commendations and fellowships in the New Theatre Awards at our end of year Boat Party on Monday, which is very exciting but currently TOP SECRET! :) The same 2Magpies show (but not quite the same, because there's no script as such) will be performed at Carib Island restaurant next Wednesday 19th June in Derby. If you want to see it (and trust me, you do), tickets can be bought from www.2magpiestheatre.co.uk . It's only £15.50 for both a show from a brand new theatre company and a delicious 3 course Caribbean meal. You can't really argue with that!
Anyway, shameless plug over! I went into town today to buy a handbag for the Nottingham New Theatre Boat Party on Monday. I was determined that I didn't want a clutch bag for fear of dropping it, or getting bored carrying it and then forgetting, blah blah blah... But I knew I wanted silver, and after traipsing round for ages finding nothing suitable, I ended up with, yes, a clutch bag. However, I went to Paperchase and bought some silver ribbon to make a little wrist strap, so if I do drop it, I'll know about it/the risk of it plunging to the bottom of the River Trent, never to be seen again, will be greatly reduced. Which I think can only be a good thing. It's pretty basic sewing-wise, but I will put a picture up anyway, to show you what I mean.
Hopefully by Tuesday morning I will have lots of pictures of everyone on the boat looking beautiful, so I will put some of those up as soon as possible. I can't wait, it's the only time we ever see each other all at once as there are too many of us to fill in the theatre at any one time, plus everyone always looks so gorgeous!
Sorry for the report style post- didn't want anyone to think I had forgotten about this!
I fully intend to have a much more interesting post by Tuesday, so I will be back then (or soon after...)
Speak soon! xxx

Twitter- @NicolaBethanFox

Shivers down my spine...

'The Birthing House' by Christopher Ransom
Firstly, my apologies for the quality of the pictures, again, they're only from my phone and it doesn't have a flash. I think I need to start saving for a decent camera really, but you get the idea. :)
I bought this book for 50p at the little charity book stall at Tirley Garth yesterday and finished it about half an hour ago. For a while, it's been one of those that I've picked up every time I've been into Waterstones or WHSmith or wherever, um-ed and ah-ed and decided on something else. Something else probably not as good. I don't normally go for scary novels, and I'm a complete coward when it comes to horror films. When we watched 'Insidious' in halls last year, I had to sit squashed up against my flatmate who had seen it before because he would flinch whenever a scary bit approached and I then knew when to cover my eyes. So maybe it was the distinction from my usual choice that helped me enjoy it so much: I don't really have anything to compare it to. Well, I say enjoy. It genuinely was like watching a horror film (in my limited experience), complete with shivers and increased heart rate. You can't bear to read the next page but putting the book down is out of the question. I was totally gripped from the very beginning and it kept me engaged all the way through. I didn't really want to put it down, but as it got darker outside, I thought it might be a good idea...
I would, however, criticise the summary on the back cover. It really doesn't give the reader any idea of what the book is actually about. I know no publisher with a brain would think revealing the whole story on the dust jacket is a good idea, but in this case, they've probably lost out on quite a large part of their potential readership by putting so little. I don't know if you can read it properly on the photo, but I will put an Amazon link too which will have a clearer version. There is so much more to the text than the blurb even hints at, including illicit affairs, ghosts (or are they?), infanticide, historical insights and a lot of pregnancy/parenthood, which would-be-readers have no chance to consider.
Another slight criticism is of the writing style. There is a lack of consistency at times which might be seen as off-putting by some readers. If this was a Uni essay, I'd say that the erraticism of the narrative style is reflective of the disturbed and inconsistent mentality of the central character, but it's not, so I won't. There was a bit, a fight scene, where there was a lot of name repetition, which was really annoying, clunky and would grate, I think, on most fluent readers. On the whole though, it wasn't bad at all, there was enough detail to create a rich picture of the house and its inhabitants, but didn't get stuck on it. A novel paced like this one can't afford to get hung up on flowery language and Ransom doesn't, much to his credit.
It is pretty explicit in parts (should probably have at least a '15' rating) and the ending is somewhat dissatisfying, but then again, I personally always like the end of a standalone novel to tie up every possible loose end- not knowing is the worst thing! On the whole though, I was genuinely gripped and very spooked, even sitting in the sunny garden, Pimms in hand, which is really quite a feat. Not only that, but you really get behind the characters, some are a little one dimensional, but the central ones certainly are not- even the 'evil' character tugs at the heart strings more and more as the reader comes to better understand her. Which probably helps make it even scarier- how much does who we can sympathise with say about us? The central character's subplot was also interesting, helping to build up a richer image of Conrad and saving the novel from becoming structurally and narratively repetitive.
I will stop rambling on now, but I'd recommend 'The Birthing House' to anyone who actually enjoys horror films (madness!) or doesn't, but is feeling a little adventurous.
Definitely the best 50p I've spent in a very long time! :) If you do read it- let me know what you think!

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Birthing-House-Christopher-Ransom/dp/0751541710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370891623&sr=8-1&keywords=the+birthing+house

Christopher Ransom's Website: http://www.ransomesque.com/

 



How very English summertime!

Hi everyone!
This afternoon I went with my mum on a rhododendron walk at Tirley Garth, which is about ten minutes drive away from where I live. It's a private residence, but every so often, they have an open day, I think generally for charity. They are quite famous locally for their rhododendrons, which my mum has a bit of a thing about (but honestly, it's not as bad as blossom), so she wanted to go and I thought it would be nice to go too. I may have sounded sceptical in the last sentence, but honestly, they were beautiful and at times quite amazing really, so I thought I would share a couple of photos with you :) I hope they come out ok, I'm still working my way around this and they were only taken on my phone, so sorry if they're not all that great.
Afterwards, we were going to have tea in the café, but something got us onto the subject of Pimms instead, which obviously took immediate precedence. Especially as it's not meant to be sunny tomorrow: it was effectively a requirement! Sitting in the garden with glasses of Pimms and fruit topped off a very English, almost Edwardian afternoon. I never can resist the historical! :)

 This is the beginning of the rhododendron walk. They got a lot bigger and more impressive as we went along, but it was shadier so the camera wouldn't have shown it properly.

 I thought the red one was quite unusual- this may be wrong (no expert) but I really liked it!

It's a bit squashed (sorry!) but my mum took this photo of me next to the fountain in the ornamental garden bit. I will try and work out how to adjust it but for now...
I Am Wearing...
Sunglasses (really old)- Next
Watch- Next £15 (unable to find on the website but I only bought it recently so it should still be in the shops. It's very cute- it has a cat's face on the clock face!)
Top- Topshop (no longer on the website)
Trousers- Uniqlo http://www.uniqlo.com/uk/store/goods/07575900001
Shoes- New Look http://www.newlook.com/shop/shoe-gallery/view-all-shoes/light-brown-ballet-pumps_227741621

Let's give this a go...

Hi everyone!
As you can see, this is my first post on this brand new blog :) Less obvious is the fact that this is my first blog post ever, unless you count the 'blogs' I had to write for one of my modules last year (which I don't).
I have to admit, I don't really have a foolproof plan for what I'm going to put on here or what exactly I want it to communicate, I've just been reading fashion and food blogs for a while and it looked like such fun, I thought I should give it a try!
Quick explanation re: the name of the blog. I know it seems a little random, and no, I don't actually live by the sea, either at home or at Uni, but I do love the seaside very much, and would like to live near a beach in the future, so that explains that bit! As for the rest, my main interests are fashion (although I do need to be braver on showing that with my own clothes I think) and beauty, hence 'style' and cooking/baking- so 'sweet'. I wanted a name that communicated the primary things I imagine I will be posting about, but it was harder than I thought, so 'SweetOnSeasideStyle' was what I eventually came up with! I also have a minor obsession with navy and white sailor stripe clothing, so thought that fitted in quite well :)
The theatre is also a big part of my life, but trying to squeeze something about the stage in there was too much- the sibilance was really getting a bit over the top...
As mentioned, I'm not particularly experienced when it comes to blogging etc, and am on a continuous quest to be less useless on Twitter, so bear with me and I will try my best to be entertaining!
Thanks everyone, and I'll post something more specific (and hopefully interesting) as soon as I can.
Bye for now!
xxx

Twitter- @NicolaBethanFox