Book review: CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTUARIAL TUTOR (John Lee)

As part of my job, I have to sit actuarial exams in tandem to working. I sat CM1 and CS1 in April, and CS2 in September (the M stands for Maths and S stands for Statistics). I have had the good fortune of having passed all three exams I sat this year (hence the rather extravagant Christmas present I got myself), but luck was only a small factor in why I was successful. John Lee, who’s expert tutelage I received for the two Statistics modules, played a huge part.

That's not him btw.

His new book, Confessions of an Actuarial Tutor, is a compendium of amusing things that happened to him in his ~20 years of teaching actuarial students. For anyone who’s ever met John, he writes as he speaks: a mixture of gallows humour, self-deprecatory banter, nerdy mathematical jokes and a sprinkle of that unique John Lee eccentricity.

Happiness is the same price as red bottoms.

In a happy sequel to me getting my Gal Gadot piercing, I passed the exam I sat in my September sitting. As I've developed a tendency to treat myself for exam passes (and the substantial toil I put myself through to pass them), I also got myself something for being successful this time. 

Except, whereas a cartilage piercing only costs £30, I levelled up substantially this time, with £495 Louboutins:

Those red soles ❤️

For my next exam pass, I won't be splurging on something quite as extravagant (I'll probably get another ear piercing!), but I just had to get these heels this time. 

I've heard Louboutins, or 'red bottoms', name-dropped in many of my favourite hip-hop or pop songs (whether it be from Iggy Azalea, Cardi B, J-Lo, Ariana Grande or Lizzo), so there's always been a cachet around them. 

My two personal favourite references to Loubies in music is Ariana Grande trilling 'happiness is the same price as red bottoms' in 7 Things, and Jennifer Lopez (who I will be rooting for to win Best Supporting Actress next year for her fierce performance in Hustlers)'s song Louboutins.

And now I finally have a pair of red bottoms to call my own. ❤️

My 10 favourite films of 2018 [5-3]

Part 1 of the blog was here! As I've written longer mini-reviews for the top five this year, but don't intend on writing a full review of the first-placed film (like I did last year with Dunkirk #twinksonabeach), I'm going to divide coverage of the top 5 as a 3:2 split!

05. The Favourite

Yorgos Lanthimos made my personal top 5 of 2017 for his deliciously wicked take on the Greek tragedy, The Killing of the Sacred Deer, and he does the business again with another amoral morality tale, although of a very different flavour.

My 10 favourite films of 2018 [10-6]

I know, I know. 2019 is nearly complete, and I'm only now dropping the favourite films of 2018 blog? In my defence, I have to feel like I really endorse all the films in my top ten to merit writing a blog about them, and, for the most of 2019, I hadn't seen enough 2018 titles which inspired that level of passion.

However, having caught up with some of the titles that came out in 2018 that I wasn't able to catch then, you can now consider me sufficiently enthused! If you're curious about what my 10 to 6 was for 2017, click here (spoiler alert: some Chalamethirst is present).

10. Game Night

Max and Annie, a married couple who are somewhat uninspired by the monotony of their lives, find their weekly Game Night upstaged, when Max's brother Brooks gets fake-kidnapped. Or so they think. As they track him down, they begin to realise that he's truly in jeopardy, and Max, Annie and their group of friends must use their wiles, resourcefulness and knowledge of random trivia to save Brooks.

OOTD: cocktails in a pop-up bar in Paddington

Shirt: Hawes and Curtis

Trousers: Topshop

I usually find Hawes and Curtis shirts a bit steep, but there was an Easter weekend deal on them (3 for £X, I can't remember how much exactly now), and my credit card was also offering 15% cash back on money spent there. Given that I adore H&C's lovely designs, I took this as a sign that I should stock up on some work shirts!

TV review: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK season 7 (Netflix)

this review contains spoilers for the final season of OITNB. I've left it quite long after the show dropped before posting this review, in the hope that fans of the show have caught up by now!


The final season of OITNB had a lot of loose plot strands to tie up, including Taystee being given a life sentence for a murder she didn't commit; how Piper acclimatises to life on the outside, whilst her wife Alex is still incarcerated; and Daya being the prison's chief drug pusher, whilst her mother supplies the drugs and her boyfriend, the Head Guard, sneaks them in.

This is a lot to juggle as it is, but OITNB's scope has never been anything less than ambitious, and in keeping with topical issues, the prison has freed up space to house detainees who are on the precipice of being deported. Two of said detainees include Maritza and Blanca, inmates who had been released in previous seasons.