Half the year has gone.

Personal highlight of it? Why, that's easy:

And fall into my arms instead.

A couple of outfits I've worn recently:

Party!Bung.

Top: £2.50, Primark

skirt: £3, H&M sales

heels: £15, Dorothy Perkins sales

necklace: a friend's

Festival gal

Cardigan: £9.99, H&M

top: £8, Dorothy Perkins sales

jeans: £15, TK Maxx

clutch: £5, originally from River Island, bought in charity shop

Ladies who lunch

Flowery top: £12.75, Forever 21

cardigan:  £9.99, H&M (exactly the same style as in the previous cardigan)

Prom

Heels: as per before, dress: £17, Dorothy Perkins sales

necklace: a gift from Italy

Album review: A MILLION LIGHTS (Cheryl)

In a recession, we’ve got to be careful with how we spend our pennies. So Cheryl Cole, now ditching the “Cole” part of her moniker in an attempt to establish her a r t i s t e credentials, charging £10 for her new album, means that a decision into buying or not buying it should not be entered upon lightly. Or you could just always do as I do, and listen to all her songs on YouTube, which counts as listening to the entire album, which gives me jurisdiction to critique it.

Restaurant review: LADURÉE (Knightsbridge)

This year, for my birthday, I decided to try somewhere a bit more upmarket than my usual junk food haunts. So my best friend and I got our gladrags on and went to Ladurée, having seen it frequently heard it being spoken highly of, and wondering what the fuss was all about. 

Not a whole lot, as it turned out.

Gig review: LANA DEL REY (Lovebox, Victoria Park)

As you may have noticed by now, this film/footballer/food/whatever it is that I actually blog about blogger has an insane girlcrush on Miss Lana del Rey. I just adore her, I think she’s flawless, and her songs incredibally haunting and beautiful. I was fortunate enough to win tickets to Lovebox, held last weekend, of which she performed on the Sunday gig. 

And my my, she was incredible.

Lana has been criticized for being a poor performer live in the flesh, and from her rocky start on Blue Jeans, I can now see that 90% of that comes from nerves. 

As she first came on looking beautiful in a simple but effective combination of apricot blouse and skirt and Converse trainers, you could tell she was panic stricken. But the trendy east London crowd in Victoria Park, rife with hipsters for whom Lana del Rey is exactly their cuppa tea, adored her, and our enthusiastic chanting between songs visibly built up her confidence as the set went on.

As such, her rendition of Born to Die was better than that of Blue Jeans and she truly reached her zenith on her most famous Video Games, which she sang beautifully. 

Furthermore, I detected a cheeky smirk on her face as she sang “I’m in his favourite sundress, watching me get undressed, take that body downturn”, so it’s not unlikely that she was having a fleeting moment of nostalgia thinking of the man that inspired that lyric.

Bar review: RUBY BLUE (Leicester Square)

Smack bang in the middle of London’s Leicester Square is Ruby Blue, a nightclub-bar-restaurant hybrid. With bouncers standing outside and Vegas-esque lights luring you in, there’s something rather daunting about waiting to go in as your name is being checked off a reservation list. 

Five mini-reviews of 2012 releases: MEN IN BLACK 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld), WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING (Kirk Jones), THE DICTATOR (Larry Charles), THE AVENGERS (Joss Whedon) and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (Rupert Sanders)

Men In Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2012)

The third instalment of the terrifically fun sci-fi action series, although this time round Tommy Lee Jones does not feature that match, and his younger re-incarnation in the form of Josh Brolin does. 

Will Smith does the Will Smith thing better than anyone else and he and Brolin have terrific chemistry (better, arguably, than Smith and Lee Jones do), and the plot itself is very well-thought out and entertaining. 

There was a twist at the end which unexpectedly drew a tear from me, and the villain Boris is played with gusto by Jemaine Clement. 

Oh and there’s even time for a fabulous cameo by Nicole Scherzinger at the start! Great fun, recommended.

7.5/10