Foodies Festival '11

On the 30th May myself and the manfriend attended the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court thanks to being offered some free tickets, and being a food lover myself, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a day of tasting and stuffing yourself!

Although the day started with a slight wait for a cash machine (which also charged you £2.50 for withdrawals) the festival offered something for everyone's taste, including wine, cheese, fudge, chocolate, coffee, ice cream, and tea. 

There was also a choice of foods from around the globe including Jamaican, Japanese, Spanish, or of course your good old British burger. 

Although personally I felt the free samples were slightly lacking, there was the opportunity to sample some food and drink, and of course special offers from retailers to tempt you into a sale.

The highlight of the day had to be the Hog on a spit! It was the most popular stall close to lunchtime, but well worth the wait. For £5.50 you could get a ciabatta, with apple sauce, pork and even crackling meaning one word - NOM!

My other favourite tasters had to be the cocktails, ice cream and cupcakes (which had various stalls around the event) all offering something different, it was hard to decide what to have and definitely sent the taste buds tingling!

The atmosphere was also nicely set with the feature of a live band who were very entertaining, and the sun eventually breaking through the clouds to make us all regret having layered up for the rain!

 I'd highly recommend the Foodies Festival to anyone who wants a relaxed day out in London. It wasn't too busy or the area too big, so you could easily navigate yourself around without fear of getting lost. It also allows you to be adventurous and try new foods, whilst also supplying the old favourites. 

For £25 a ticket (which is valid on all three days) and under 16's getting in for free when accompanied by an adult, it's something the whole family can enjoy and something different to do up in the City.

Forgive me...

But I shall not be posting on here for a while due to revision for A level exams :(

I don't want to rush my posts and blog stuff for the sake of it, so once my exams are over I can and will fully dedicate and put my all into my blog :)

So keep an eye out!

AHOY ME HEARTIES! - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

So straight to the point, the question on everyone's lips is - have Disney taken it too far by bringing out a fourth Pirates film?

My answer: definitely not

BUT

I'll admit it didn't blow me away. It carried on the same Pirate jokes of precious rum and Jack Sparrow's odd sense of humour which we love Pirates for, however...

I felt the storyline was a tad predictable at times, and halfway through Jack seemed to loose his oomph and fade into the background, before finding it again nearing the end, a bit out of character for him. 

Then again, the storyline was a lot easier to follow than At World's End and also introduced the more interesting characters of mermaids, zombies and Blackbeard, which added a nice touch of fantasy into the mix of swashbuckles and ARGHHS!

It was also nice to have a strong female lead of Penelope Cruz as Angelica when compared to Elizabeth Swan played by Keira Knightley. Although I love her as an actress, I felt Elizabeth didn't develop well as a character and had run her course, as had Will Turner (which explains why they didn't star in this film).

The only thing I feel Disney have milked would be the character of Barbossa. He started as a pirate, then was killed by Jack Sparrow, only to be brought back alive to help find Sparrow, and then ends up in the King's Royal Navy, but by the end of Pirates 4 (spoiler alert!) is back to being a pirate!? Can't a man retire these days?

Anyhoo, it's an enjoyable watch that'll make you laugh and has definitely kept the Pirate's of the Caribbean spirit alive, I'm just not sure whether Disney should think about making a fifth...

Plus size model to star in H&M campaign

H&M's last campaign featured size 6 model Gisele Bundchen (below)

So it's refreshing to see for their new campaign 'Big is Beautiful' they've decided on size 18-20 model Tara Lynn (below) proudly showing off her curves.

I believe it's about time stores took a stand against the stereotypes found in the modelling industry, and campaigned for the use of models with fuller figures - REAL women! 

Obviously this campaign has been designed with the need for more fashion conscious designs when it comes to larger sizes in mind, but I would argue models should be the UK average dress size of a 14, as should shop manikins, to reflect a more real sense of body image. 

Channel 4's body confidence test done by the public found 45.3% of women and 23.9% of men often felt pressure from magazines and TV to have a perfect body and 41% of women agreed they rarely felt proud of their appearance, not exactly amazing results...

It's time we took Aunty Gok's advice and started loving what we've got! 

Teenagers have enough to worry about - exams, revision, weekend jobs, relationships, new experiences, being skint - to then have not feeling comfortable in your own skin on top of that as well.

H&M's campaign gets 5 stars from me, and lets hope other stores follow suit.

Time to get chinwagging...

Blogger deleted my old blog so I hope this isn't on here twice...

Anyhoo...

I'm an aspiring journalist and love writing so when my manfriend suggested setting up a blog I thought why not as it means I have something I can regularly write on and practise my writing skills :)

So here I am

Gimme sometime to get used to the site and I'll be posting in no time!

Just to warn you...