Tights, stockings and hold-ups.

Having worked at my firm for a year now, I've developed a particular style during the Spring/Summer months: skirts and dresses, usually paired with a waist belt and a funky pair of tights/stockings. Here are a couple of the pairs I've been rocking in recent weeks, and my thoughts on them.

Below: all from Primark

Sadly the middle pair is with me no more, as, just after two wears + washes, it had too many rips and ladders, which says it all about the durability really. However, I loved the elastic gusset top of the hold-up, and generally prefer wearing hold-ups as it puts less pressure on my stomach and means I can get away with eating a carbier lunch. The only thing you have to be careful with when wearing hold-ups is for the skirt not to be too short, otherwise you'll constantly feel self-conscious.

In terms of longevity, the floral wool tights on the left have lasted the best, and the Mickey Mouse fashion tights on the far right, as you can see, haven't fared quite so well, being made from much flimsier material.

Below: all from Marks and Spencer

The 2 pairs for £5 hold-ups are pretty crappy quality, and the elastic gusset top's hold isn't firm enough for my liking either. The hold ups in the middle are a dream! here they are on:

The colour is a great compromise between nude and black, and so far they are yet to ladder or tear.

Below: from TK Maxx

Despite the lady on the cover, these are actually nude coloured stockings. The quality of the stocking itself is fine, however the elastic part at the top tore a hole in itself which is frustrating, but not the end of the world, as this part is covered by the hem of the skirt.

Below: from Primark

The floral fishnets look kinda tacky on the packaging, but I absolutely love them on!

Stylish and sexy, you also don't have to worry about laddering due to the way the tights are made. The thick wool tights last long, but give a bit too much coverage on warmer days.

Cumberland sausage, mashed potato, onions and gravy.

Work canteen, £3.30.

9/10. Yet another fantastic dish from work! Loving it.

My May Playlist

How is it June already? Somehow, 5 months of the year have already passed by. For me, it's been lost in a flurry of deadlines, work, and countless boozing.

Now, I like to mark my #seasonsoflove with songs to associate certain memories with. So, here are some songs I've been listening to religiously in the past month (mostly whilst dithering about with coursework).

Problem (Ariana Grande ft Iggy Azalea)

Most RnB songs have a girl singing the lyrics and a male doing the rapping. In "Problem", we have girls on both. I love the playful spirit and sax loop of this song, and Iggy's Jay-Z reference in her verse makes my life.

Too Much (Spice Girls)

Not my favourite all-time Spice Girls song (that changes between "Say You'll Be There" and "Stop" depending on my mood), but, lyrics-wise, this resonated with me perfectly in the month of May. Much in the same vein as "Problem", it's got the whole I wish I knew how to quit you thing going on. Which I definitely feel for certain fellas.

Can't Remember to Forget You (Shakira ft Rihanna)
I'm not sure as to the veracity of this rumour, but I heard jealous hubby Gerard Pique put a ban on his missus having males in her music videos? As such, we have more girl/girl duets from her, rendering this the third song on my list about wanting to give up a bloke, no mata how difficult (sensing a theme here?) On her album, Shakira also covers this song in Spanish, which I like to listen to to practice my linguistic skills. #multitaskingBITCH

Timber (Pitbull ft Ke$ha)
Hurrah, a song not about men!! I'm not actually too sure what this song is about, mind, but it has an annoyingly infectious beat that makes up for its nonsensical lyrics ("face down, booty up", poetry, that). I also happened to duet on this on my birthday karaoke, singing the Ke$ha bit. I did not do the high notes any justice, really.

Fancy (Iggy Azalea ft Charli XCX)

TUNE. If there's one song I'm going to remember Summer 2014 by, it's going to be this insanely swaggerous, effortlessly cool from Iggy and our very own Charli XCX. The song is an ode to the high life, so whilst it's how the other 5% do live, and thus not something I'd be particularly knowledgeable about, you have a hell of a good time singing along about it. Hertfordshire-born Charli XCX is my new girl crush, she just has Je ne sais quoin, and the Clueless-inspired music video is great fun. The chorus is catchy as hell, and the machine-gun-rapping by Iggy Azalea is too ace. Champagne spilling, you should taste that.

Right, that's five. For June, in the theme of numbers, I shall list the six songs I was obsessed with this month. Plot spoiler: Fancy will probably still be on there.

Review of some magazine freebies

I got the May/June editions of Company, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire. Two of them had Elle Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, two of my favourite working young actresses in, and I fancied the look of the freebies that came with the other. As the three freebies were all above the quality of the usual chocolate bar/malfunctioning mascara that you usually get, I thought I’d give my thoughts on them.



Nail polish:
- The turquoise one is not a particularly flattering shade, and will be relegated to the back of my nail polish drawer. - The peach one, however, is utterly adorable. I’ve been wearing it with a sparkly pink topcoat on my finger and toenails and it’s a perfect pastel look for the Summer, especially given I have sparkly pink flip-flops as well. LOVE.



Nip + Fab Dry Leg Fix:
Having ‘shiny legs’ is somewhat of an obsession of mine, especially during the Summer, and given that this is a product devoted solely to that, I was enamoured immediately.
The smell is minty, but not obtrusively so, and application is easy: just squirt out as much as you require and spread on your legs.
It is very effective, and one application will keep my legs smooth for a whole day. Love this product; wish there was more of it to go around!

Aromatherapy Associates face products:
- Still yet to use the cleanser
- The Face Mask is lovely; it hydrates your face without feeling too ‘sticky’ like other face masks. Application and removal are also extremely simple.
- Moisturiser: wonderful, worked wonders on my face when my skin was going through a dry patch! Again, I just wish there was more of it!

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Po Chung Ma Cha (Tottenham Court Road)

An unpretentious Korean restaurant, Po Chung Ma Cha is situated on a street sandwiched between several other Korean and Japanese restaurants, two of which I have reviewed here. Such is the dense competition on that road alone, product differentiation between these eateries is tantamount, and perhaps it was the extra spices the chefs added to their dishes, but this place definitely stood out, taste-wise.

The interior decor was nothing special, bordering on shabby, with an option to sit around the area where the food is prepared in a setting that is almost canteen-like. The upside of this is that the people there have gone to the restaurant with the sole aim of eating and catching up, not for posturing. And personally, I find being in the company of other people who love eating heightens my enjoyment of the meal more.

Your bill will be considerably cut by the fact that Po Chung Ma Cha supplies unlimited amounts of green tea, all exceptionally well-brewed. The meals are nothing short of delicious. For starters, we shared fishcakes, although these turned out to be fishcakes like nothing I’d ever seen before, swimming around in noodle stew. Once you get over the fact that it doesn’t look like what you’re accustomed to, it’s an absolute treat. For mains, I had a beef bibimbap, and again, they were great. Despite it being quite chilli, I asked for even more spicy sauce, because the ingredients were utterly moreish; the cucumber, in particular, went very well with the sauce.

We didn’t sample any of the carbs, so I can’t speak for them (my experience from Korean restaurants is that rice tends to be fairly run-of-the-mill), but in terms of meat and vegetables, I really liked it here Points were sadly lost for the fact that we were all but ushered out of the place by waiters, who were a bit too keen to get to their lunch break, as well as the nuisance that arose from not being allowed to split the bill when paying by card. These two foibles aside, you won’t find a better Korean place that boasts better flavour around Bloomsbury.

Grade: A-

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Edit: 19th October 2014.

I went to Po Chung Ma Cha again on a Friday night, and the place was absolutely buzzing! By the time we left, a queue of about 10 people had formed outside. This time seafood pancake was ordered, as well as a fantastic stew of an assortment of seafoods and a spicy chicken bimbimbap:

The service was fantastic; the lady saw that we hadn't applied the sauce to the bimbimbap evenly, so she helped us out. The seafood pancake has been done better at Koba, but the seafood stew was an absolute dream! Sat on an electric heater so the food was piping hot throughout, it featured a mishmash of mussels, crabs, and all sorts of seafood delicacies that I adore. The spiciness of the stew it was in was optimal too, and paired with the rice from the chicken bimbimbap, the whole thing was delicious.

Thus, my grade of A- from last time was reinforced, although this place impressed so much this time round, it is extremely close to an A! (Just the seafood pancake let the side down I'm afraid :P)

FILM REVIEW: Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014)

Turning the well-known story of Sleeping Beauty on its head, Wicked-style, Maleficent tells the story of two lands. One is ruled by a vain King, and inhabited by discontent mortals, unhappy at the extent of inequality facing them (an apt parable for society today, perhaps). The other is full of mythical creatures, including pixies, walking trees and lots of fairies, one of the most prominent of which is the titular Maleficent.

At the start of the film, Maleficent is but a girl, and, given her advanced magical powers, already somewhat of a protector of her land and those in it. She is alerted of a human boy of about her age, Stefan, who has crossed boundaries to her land, and tried to pickpocket a diamond. Confronting him, she forces him to return the diamond, but, despite the compromising circumstances in which they meet, she comes to like him. He, like her, is an orphan, and, when he accidentally singes her with his iron ring, throws it away as a gesture of goodwill. Maleficent is deeply moved by this, and the two become friends, and then lovers.

However, whilst the young Maleficent is a romantic, Stefan is more of a pragmatist. After he hits adulthood he leaves her to fulfil his ambitions, and makes his way up to become one of the King’s cronies. On his deathbed from a failed siege of Maleficent’s land, the King promises he will name his heir and betroth his daughter to anyone who can slay Maleficent. Stefan is fond of Maleficent, but he is much, much fonder of power and glory, and, whilst he stops short of killing her, abuses her trust, drugging her to sleep, and cutting off her wings so as to give the impression that he did indeed slay her. And that is where our good girl turns into the embittered, malevolent figure of villainess that we remember from the Disney cartoon.

Hot on the heels of last year’s multiple-Oscar-winner Frozen, Maleficent is another Disney movie that subverts the conservative ‘girls need a Prince Charming to swoop in and save them’, and instead, promotes solidarity between sisters.

The central dynamic here is between Jolie’s horned fairy ruler and Elle Fanning as Aurora, the good-natured, trusting princess whom she had cursed as a baby. Both are well-cast; Jolie’s English accent is spot-on and she delivers her sarcastic lines with relish and genuinely instills fear into the audience. We genuinely believe hell hath no fury like a fairy scorned.

Elle Fanning impresses in a role that, in just about every other young actress, save perhaps Hailee Steinfeld, I would have found extremely grating. Aurora is naive, bordering on gullible (in one brilliant display of dramatic irony, she calls Maleficent her ‘fairy godmother’), but Fanning's winning smile and sweet performance keeps her endearing rather than dopey. The relationship between the two is the strongest part of the film, and when Aurora comes to learn the horrible truth, it is genuinely emotional; we feel as disappointed as she does.

Whilst the leading ladies are well-cast, the supporting men is more of a mixed bag. As Diablo, Maleficent’s sidekick raven, Sam Riley is an inspired choice. I’m so used to seeing him in offbeat indie movies like On The Road and Control, so to see him in such a high-profile blockbuster was a delight in itself. Diablo is a bird Maleficent rescues, with the view to becoming her wings after her’s are stolen from her, and whilst Diablo goes about his tasks, he is not afraid to question his mistress and give her lip back, elevating him into a much more interesting character than the standard Crabbe/Goyle-type yeomen.

However, as King Stefan, Sharlto Copley is a bad, bad choice. I feel the film’s casting directors missed a trick, because, whilst we’re obviously not supposed to sympathise with the man who broke Maleficent’s heart and betrayed her trust, there’s nothing wrong with making him dastardly handsome, just to yo-yo with our loyalties a bit. Copley is unattractive, and sports an angry Scottish accent. As such, I was firmly on Maleficent’s side, no matter how horrible her actions. Not ideal.

The middle act of Maleficent dragged, and some of the dialogue is pure cheese (such as when Aurora meets the young pup who we believe to be her Prince Charming). I was also somewhat underwhelmed with the three good fairies; I adore Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple, and cheered inside when I saw them. But whilst I found them amusing, I feel their foolish antics somewhat outstayed their welcome in the film, as did the meandering sequences where Aurora gets to see Maleficent’s kingdom.

That being said, the fantasy action sequences are nothing short of breath-taking: hyper-energetic and thrilling without being overly violent, and the showdown finale was brilliantly staged. All in all, a good popcorn movie that was a little on the indulgent side, but it promoted empathy and girl power. And that’s never a bad thing in my eyes.

6.5/10