Earlier this month, I went on a trip to St Ives in Cornwall with my boyfriend. It was a much-needed getaway and it was also my first time ever visiting Cornwall, definitely not my last as I had such a great time.
We went from Thursday - Sunday and driving from my house on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border took around 4 hours which was worth it for the pretty views and the amazing time we had.
Day 1
When we arrived, we had a few hours before check-in time at our B&B so we went down to the beach at Carbis Bay which was where we stayed. The B&B we stayed at was called Chy an Gwedhen and I couldn't recommend it enough. The hosts, Pete and Heidi, were so kind and the breakfast was great. We were so well looked after and I would definitely stay there again.
The location of our B&B was great too, we usually got the bus down to St Ives as it was just a little too far to walk and taxis back. The taxis were only around £5 and it took around 5 minutes, so it was very handy.
Related: 3 Days in Suffolk
Carbis Bay beach was so pretty and tranquil, it made me feel like I was abroad. You can hire out water sports there too and it's a lot less busy than the St Ives beaches.
After checking in and getting ready, we went into St Ives. We actually took the train there which was only £1 but we realised there was a bus stop right by our B&B so it was a lot easier than getting to the train station.
Joe used to go to St Ives when he was younger so he could kind of remember the beaches but it was my first time and it looked amazing. I am getting holiday blues writing this, take me back!
We went to a pub called the Lifeboat Inn for dinner which was right on the harbour front, then we went to Tretho Lounge for cocktails.
Day 2
On the Friday we had booked a trip to St Michael's Mount. I'm annoyed I didn't get a good picture of the mount from the causeway but I got some from the views on top of the Mount.
We were able to walk across the causeway although when we parked, it was covered in water but by the time we'd walked there, it was clear. I couldn't get my head round it. I loved learning about the history of the mount and there are actually people who live on there today. We went into the castle and inside, was mostly loads of pictures of old white men, but the views from the top were so pretty!
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After St Michael's Mount, we went back into St Ives for dinner. This time, we went to an Italian Restaurant called Peppers which was really nice. Then we went for an ice cream, they have really nice ice cream parlours by the way, I wanted to try every flavour! This was then followed by an evening in a really cool rooftop bar which was an extension of The Sloop Inn pub along the harbour.
Day 3
The weather was meant to be best on the Saturday and we hadn't really planned any trips for then so we decided to have a beach day. For September, it was still so hot and I managed to get in the sea (with great struggle) and get sunburnt - always remember your SPF, or in my case, to make sure you put it EVERYWHERE.
For lunch, we had crab baguettes from a Cornish bakery of which there were many (I can't remember the name of it now but there were about 3 of these bakeries in St Ives). I did have a seagull mishap which I would like to try and forget about but luckily, it didn't steal my baguette. Lauren 1 Seagull 0. This was followed by more ice cream.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Firehouse bar and grill which was good too. We also went to the arcade and played air hockey and on the basketball hoops. Annoyingly, I started to feel a bit ill on our last night, probably because my immune system is just not as good due to being in lockdown for so long earlier in the year. As a result, we went back to the room early and watched TV.
Sunday was then driving home day and it did take a long time to get home, mainly because of all of the traffic by Stonehenge which is the bain of my life anyway but apart from that roads were pretty clear.
I definitely hope to go to St Ives again and other places in Cornwall, it was so fun. A highlight was that so many people took their dogs on holiday there so I got to see loads of cute furballs.
Related: Places you need to visit in Dorset
Have you been to Cornwall?
After waiting a year and three months to go due to the pandemic, I finally went to see 9 to 5 the musical and it definitely did not disappoint.
As the show was at The Mayflower in Southampton, we headed over by train and went to a few shops and had some food and drinks before going to the event.
For lunch, we went to Zizzi in West Quay and I had the chorizo carbonara, so nice would definitely recommend! The burrata salad starter was so nice too. I also had the passion fruitini cocktail.
The show started at 2pm so we walked over to The Mayflower after lunch and getting in was super easy there weren't really any queues. There were no empty seats though as so many people must have been waiting to go since 2020 like us.
I had seen 9 to 5 the movie with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin which I loved, but this was my first time seeing it as a musical on stage and it was amazing!
It was a really clever adaptation of the film and it was so funny too, at one point I think tears were coming out because I was laughing so much.
Related: Women don't owe you pretty book review
The characters were fab too. Franklin Hart Jr, the misogynistic CEO of the company is definitely more exaggerated in the musical than in the film which really helped to get the point across of how women have been treated in the office compared to how men have been treated.
I'd like to think the way women are treated in the workplace has improved since the 1980s but there are still some improvements that need to be made in certain workplaces I would say.
The three women main characters are so empowering and it's great to watch their journey and see a happy ending for each of them.
There was a great balance between comedy, and also keeping focused on the serious themes of misogyny throughout. Every so often, Franklin Hart Jr would make sexist jokes about women to one of his male coworkers, Bob. At the end of the show, Bob then hit him back with my favourite line: "What do you call a female CEO? A CEO."
I definitely need to see more musicals, I always love them! So far, I have only seen 9 to 5, Mamma Mia, The Rocky Horror Show and Shrek The Musical - all of which were so good.
Related: A-Z of date ideas
Are you a fan of musicals, which is your favourite?
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, I spent the Saturday and Sunday at Bournemouth 7s Festival. I had my ticket booked so long ago and was due to go in May 2020, so I felt like writing about my experience there.
If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that in lockdown last year, I tried recreating Bournemouth 7s Festival in my back garden.
Related: Throwing a festival lockdown party
Luckily I was able to stay at a friend's house so I didn't have to do any camping. I'm so glad, it was such a tiring weekend so I needed the proper sleep in a bed.
Day 1
For day 1 my friends and I went out for breakfast so we could line our stomachs and started drinking pre-lunch time. No judgment here it was a big weekend! We had some more pre-drinks at the house before heading to the festival at around 2pm.
The queue for day 1 was pretty long as we had to show covid passes or test results, tickets, ID, and our bags all in different places.
When we arrived we tried out all of the different music tents and got the drinks in. The sponsored drink this year was White Claw, which I really think helped me out. Because it's a hard seltzer which is quite watery, it was so easy to drink all day and was quite hydrating. They were also not too strong so I didn't overdo it too early. Incidentally, water was £3 and these cans were £4!
The headlining act on day 1 was Ella Eyre. She was good but the main tent was so full and we were so far back that we couldn't really see that well and it was getting a bit crowded, so we ended up just going to an RnB tent which was so good.
Day 2
Again, we had a couple of drinks before leaving for 7s, some of us were more hungover than others (I am smug because it's usually me but I felt amazing - thank you White Claws). We left for 7s earlier and there was no queue as we all had wristbands by that point so got in a lot quicker.
We did actually watch about 5 minutes of rugby on Sunday, I know it's mainly for sports but I much prefer just dancing and listening to music to watching the sports (sorry!)
After that we did a bit of the Bingo Lingo which was good, my feet were killing from the day before and there was still so much walking be done so I was just grateful for sitting down really.
As for the rest of the day, it was pretty much the same as the day before, just going between tents and dancing listening to the different music.
We didn't end up seeing the headlining act, but I can't remember who it was anyway and the other tents had such good music anyway that it didn't really matter.
It feels quite weird now because that was the last event in Bournemouth that I'll probably go to for a while because I've finished uni there now. But I'm looking forward to more events in the future.
Have you been to any festivals this year?
This year is the year of the staycation. As annoying as it is that we can’t go abroad, it’s much better for the planet and it reduces your carbon footprint. Did you know that a flight from London to Rome produces 234kg of CO2? That is the same amount that the average person in Sierra Leone produces in a year! A flight from London to New York is 986kg of CO2, which is more than the average person in 56 countries use per year, including Paraguay. (figures from The Guardian)This is a guest post by Caroline from Enviroline Blog.
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So I finally got round to reading Women Don't Owe You Pretty by Florence Given and thought why not share my thoughts with you? This is my first time writing a book review so I hope you enjoy and let me know if you'd like to see more of these.
First of all, the book was written by Florence Given, who is currently a 22-year-old writer, artist and influencer - the same age as me!
What is the book about?
It's a non-fiction book that talks all about the different areas of being a woman. There are different chapters about relationships, body image, building an identity and the difficulty in doing this in a world rooted in racism, misogyny and sexism.
It is a mainstream dive into feminism and is easily accessible for those who don't want to read mounds of feminist literature but still want to learn about feminism and the need for gender equality.
The aim of this book is to challenge the ideas you thought you already had about the world, gender and identity. Due to studying a lot of the things the book covers at university, I already knew a lot of what was in it however, this book still taught me a lot and has changed my way of thinking even more.
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Additionally, the book is filled with beautiful illustrations that Florence Given has created herself. At times, there are triggering subjects talked about such as rape or sexual trauma, (with appropriate trigger warnings in place) and these images just lift you back up after reading about these topics.
This book is definitely relevant at the moment, in a world where some people may even think what? Of course we have gender equality by now? By reading this book, you will know that we don't in this society still.
Should you read this book?
I would definitely recommend this book and I feel like this is an important read for everyone. I definitely learnt a lot and feel like everyone needs to read what is in this book. It hits you with cold hard truths that we all need to hear.
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Have you read this book? What were your thoughts?
Welcome to another post in my The Low Down series, where I basically just chat about important stuff and well, give you the low down.
In this blog post, I'm going to be talking about why confidence is so important, my journey and tips for you to become more confident. It's not easy and I wouldn't even say I'm a confident person, but I guess I just give less of a shit now what other people think of me.
This is so cliche and basically said all the time but life is too short! One day you might die (ok you will just trying not to be too morbid) and if you were to watch your life back at the end of it - you would wish that you just did the things you wanted to do, wore what you wanted to wear and were the person you wanted to be without caring what others think of you.
Why you need to work on your confidence
For me, I really think confidence would be the answer to all of my problems. You need it for job interviews, relationships, friendships, and loads of other reasons. I am someone who worries and gets nervous about absolutely everything so it comes a lot less naturally to me. This is why I have to work hard at stepping out of my comfort zone.
We feel comfortable around confident people and they are always easy to make friends with because they put themselves out there. However, if you're a worrier like me it can be really difficult, and you might be reading this like yeah right, like I could ever be confident? But you can, firstly you have to try and see what you can do about the things you worry about most.
It's easy for me to say stop caring what people think of you, but that would mean unlearning so many taught behaviours.
Why confidence doesn't come naturally to so many of us
Related: Being a nice person: the low down
Steps to gaining more confidence
1. Stop focusing on the person you should be, and start focusing on the person you are - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
2. Fake it 'til you make it
Related: Toxic positivity: the low down
3. Let go of your fear of rejection
4. There is only room for uplifting people in your life
Related: Friendships: the low down
As a lot of people are travelling more now, whether that be around the UK or abroad, it's important to know what to pack. Many of us will be out of the swing of it due to various coronavirus restrictions on travel, especially abroad.
For this reason, I am going to share with you a few of my travel essentials. I usually try to pack as light as possible because I hate having to carry heavy bags when I go anywhere, so this will probably be bare essentials and I may miss some stuff out that is important to you. These are just my tips.
5 essentials you need for travelling
1. A separate purse or wallet
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2. Miniatures
3. Hand sanitiser
4. Portable charger
5. Pain killers
Related: 10 European cities you need to visit
You might be thinking, what is a media kit and why I need one? Well, I'm here to answer these questions and give you some advice on creating one, and what to include.
What is a Media Kit?
A media kit is a document that bloggers, content creators and influencers use to show information about their platform. It's usually shared to brands so they can learn more about the creators they are working with.
If you want to work with brands, it's important to have a media kit that you can keep up to date with your stats. This way if you are emailing a brand to work with them, you don't need to send a long email about the views you receive on your blog or the engagement you get on your social posts. You can keep all this information in your media kit and attach it, such a time saver.
I used Canva to create my media kit and made sure the branding aligned with the colours I have used across my blog and social media channels to keep it all consistent. Mine is also only 3 pages because I feel like for now, that is all that's needed but yours may be more or less depending on how much information you want to put in. I would try to keep it to around 2-5 pages though, to try and be concise.
What to include
- A short bio about what your platform/blog is about.
- A photo of yourself.
- Who your main target audience is.
- Your blog and social media platfroms and stats - I just included followers on my socials, my blog views and blog domain authority, but you may wish to include social engagement rates too. Make sure these are up to date before you send it to brands.
- Brands you have worked with in the past. This is optional, if you are new to this you won't be able to add this just yet but it's just a good way to show your experience if you have it.
How to use it
Bit of a chatty one - I just thought I'd update you all on my life as I have finished university!
A few years ago, I wrote posts on applying to uni and wrote updates on how my first year was going, but since then I haven't really spoken about it that much on here.
So after 4 years of being a Communication and Media student at Bournemouth University, I have finally finished and I got a 2:1 overall with a 1st in my dissertation! I am now working as a Social Media and Communications Coordinator for the same organisation I did my internship with between second and third year.
I am so glad I went to uni it was such a good experience, obviously there were some downs but I wouldn't change it. I won't get into all of my highlights and lowlights for the year because that would take forever. Maybe I will do that when I am really missing uni but for now I just wanted to update you all.
Related: Top tips for starting university
What have I learnt?
To be honest, I feel like most of the stuff I learnt was about adult life and what kind of person I am rather than academic. Obviously I did learn a lot about media too, I feel like I can never watch a film or read a newspaper article properly again without analysing every word or every scene. But reflecting back, the experiences I had will mean more to me than that kind of stuff (sorry lecturers).
It was a shame that Covid kind of got in the way a little bit of my final year but I have still been able to do lots of fun things with my friends. 2021 is definitely the year of the bottomless brunch!
Luckily, because I live an hour away from Bournemouth I can go and visit whenever I want and I will still have friends living there.
I live in a very small town where I'm never really pushed out of my comfort zone so uni really helped push me to make friends and put myself out there (usually helped by a little Dutch courage too).
Where do we go from here?
As I mentioned before, I am starting my career in social media marketing and I am really enjoying it so far. I'm really looking forward to see how my career goes too. At the moment I am still learning about it while working.
I've had a few questions about university and applying to jobs so if you want to know anything, please feel free to ask me.
Related: 7 ways to enhance your CV
To be honest, I just can't believe uni is over it's so weird how quickly it went. I still feel the same age as when I started too, I feel like everyone says that.
It definitely feels like the end of an era but also not in some ways because I am still planning to keep in touch with all my uni pals as much as possible.
Last month, my boyfriend Joe and I had a lovely day out in Weymouth. Usually I would write posts when I spend a few days away somewhere but I has such a good time that I thought I'd share it with you. Living in Bournemouth, it was close enough for us to go there for a day trip but our tenancy for our student house ends very soon sadly.
If you are not from the UK, Weymouth is a lovely seaside town in Dorset, England where lots of people go and stay for a holiday and now I know why.
Sea Life Weymouth
First of all, we started our day at Sea Life Weymouth. I am like a child when it comes to seeing animals, I just love it so this was really good. It was a lot more expensive than the aquarium in Bournemouth that I'm used to, but it was a lot bigger and better.
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We had so much fun seeing all the animals and it was the first time I'd ever seen a seal in the flesh. I had fun taking pictures of them all and I created a Weymouth and Sea Life Instagram reel too, which you can see below.
Visiting Weymouth
After visiting Sea Life, we took a walk along the beach and into Weymouth. As we went on a weekday that was a bit cloudy, it wasn't too busy but there were still quite a lot of people about.
Living in Bournemouth for uni, we go to the beach a lot but it was nice to go to a different one. I am a lover of the beach!
Related: Placed you need to visit in Dorset
After walking round the beach for a while, we walked to the harbour and then went through all the little side streets that had some really cute shops.
Sadly, we didn't stop anywhere for food except an ice cream so I would love to go back and do that. I love going to seaside towns and eating local seafood.
A bit of a short blog post this time as we only spent one day in Weymouth but it was a lovely day nonetheless.
Where have you been lately that you really enjoyed?
This post contains my monthly advertisers.
Welcome to another Meet My Advertisers post. This will actually be my last advertisers post for a while. I have started a new job after finishing uni so have a bit less free time on my hands so I want to focus on creating my other content and writing my weekly blogs.
I have loved sharing some amazing blogs with you and will let you know if I start my advertising service again, but for now this will be my last.
Anyway, keep reading to see some great blogs that you need to check out this month!
5 Blogs you need to check out this month
Check out these posts from Lynn
Start by checking out these posts
Read these posts from Caroline
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