Wednesday 14 November 2018

Netflix Top Picks #2


In January I brought you my first installment of my netflix picks which included some of my favourite shows including - Pretty Little Liars, Cheersquad, 13 Reasons Why, Dynasty, Riverside, Stranger Things and You, Me, Her.

The best Netflix programme to be released for me in 2018 is definitely Queer Eye. It features five fabulous men who basically transfer all aspects of a nominated man's life. Each of the five guys work within an industry such as fashion, lifestyle, home design, relationships and cooking. They use their experiences and put it into place within the life of the person they are trying to help. It is just such a great feel-good programme and I love seeing how they transform someone's life in such an exceptional way.

I watched Girls Incarcerated at the start of the year and I loved it. It is set in an all-girls youth prison in Madison, America. This prison is for lesser crimes such as drug offences and stealing. All the girls are enrolled on a rehabilitation programme and it follows the lives of them in the prison and after finishing the programme back home.

The Staircase is a documentary filmed over an extensive period of years following a real life trail of a family. A woman named Kathleen is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her home, and her husband Michael is straight away put on trail for her murder. It follows the story and how the trail is put together from the prospective of the police and Michael and his lawyers. I found it very compelling and I was totally gripped leading up the trail. I was totally conflicted and changed my mind with every episode trying to decide my own verdict.

Good Girls is a show which has had me belly-laughing at times. It is based on three mum who are all having their own individual problems at home. They all need money and they start committing petty crimes, as the money comes rolling in the crimes become more and more extravagant. This leads to them making deals with a drug dealer and all of a sudden they are stuck in a very sticky situation.

The Adventures of Sabrina is something I was very excited to watch. I always remember when we were younger me and my sister both watched the TV show for years. This new Netflix show has been great and I love the feminist vibes. Sabrina is so sassy in her ways and views, and I think the part is played brilliantly. I am only currently half way through the series, but I already know I am going to be waiting for series 2 to arrive.

There has been two films I have recently watched which have made me feel 13 again. All the Boys I've Loved Before is a lovely film about a teenage girl called Lara who writes love letters to the all the boys that she has ever fancied. However, they are never meant to be posted, until her little sister decides to send the letters to these boys. It is an easy watch teenage heartthrob movie. Similar to this is The Kissing Booth, which is based on a popular guy falling in love with a quiet girl. However, the girl's new lover just turns out to be her best friend's brother. This is another great film which had me thinking about my high school years.

What is your fave Netflix show?

Lucy
xoxo


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Sunday 11 November 2018

Is overworking the only way to success?


I have been comparing myself to a lot of people recently as I feel as though everything I read is about having to work yourself in to the ground in order to succeed. I completely understand that it takes a lot of hard work, working endless hours and determination to reach a goal. However, I feel as though I am constantly made to feel as though whatever I do isn't good enough. I have definitely had periods of time in my life where I have doubted myself and my self-esteem has taken a knock. I feel as though I have been witnessing it in all areas of my life. I love that with my job I kind of leave it at the door. I obviously keep up to date with things I need to know about and attend courses, but I have no access to my work email at home and I obviously cannot really take my work home. I think I am lucky in this regard, as I do not think work and home life should mix. On my days off I use them to unwind as it is what I need.

I think blogging as a career is something which you must struggle to leave at the door. You can constantly do your work at home, you can pick up your laptop and start to write a post to get ahead. If I was ever lucky enough to turn blogging into a career, I would have to gain that work/ life balance for my own sanity. Victoria / InTheFrow is my biggest blogger influencer she has done some absolutely incredible work and she deserves all the success. I know on YouTube and on other social media outlets you are only seeing snippets and a snapshot of someone's daily life, but you can tell Victoria puts in the hours daily and nightly. She herself has openly expressed in her vlogs how stressed she has been recently. I also saw Tamara / GlamandGlitter who travels the world on a weekly basis for work, on one of her Instagram posts she flew from the USA to London and back to the USA in 48 hours. Someone asked her how she does it all and she replied honestly saying that there is no time for jet lag as work and content is always needing to be produced. Lastly, she said that it is "mandatory within this industry so I just do it". I honestly think Tamara is also one of the top worldwide influencers and it is easy to see it is due to her hard work. I am just not sure I could cope with all.

I know we all do things in different ways; I am not trying to compare woman to woman in the slightest. All jobs have different schedules and I am not going to deny this year I have come home from work and cried quite a few times at what I have seen and coped with. I know with time this will improve. I look up to the more senior staff for support but it can be crazy. We are all tested in life, but what I really wanted this post to be about is - does working all hours god send = success?

I do see certain influencers telling their viewers to chase their dreams and that everyone can do anything they want to. I just worry that we are moving in the direction that success only comes from running yourself into the ground. We are only appreciated if for example I volunteer to go into work on my day off. I am only coming from the perspective of the industry I work in, and I have also been a blogger for 5 years.

My friends and I have discussions about this often. Honestly, my friends have achieved so much already, and I have friends who are still working on their final goal. I do however find we all have a common ground of being realistic. I get people saying why don't you travel the world whilst you are young and have no attachments. Hun, I would love to, but it isn't just as easy to get up and go. I am just not sure that we can do everything that we dream of.

You can clearly see from how I have portrayed this post, that I have been comparing myself to others. Social media can be the devil, and I know that we have to be open the idea that most of social media is just the best and sometimes fake aspects of someone's life. I am just not sure how we measure success. I think many measure successes by the amount of money you have in your bank account. But does this equal happiness? I think we can often overload ourselves with work. I understand that in the blogging industry, it is difficult to earn money as you are relying on campaigns and regular readers in order to secure a steady income. It is essential though that we get that balance for our own sanity. It is not healthy to have no time away from your work life. Working so hard with such intensity at some point it has to come to a head and an aspect of your health whether it is physical, emotional or mental is going to start to be affected. However, once you are in the routine of this 24/7 work mode, it becomes life and it is harder to get out of the cycle than we think.

I can see it from the other side of this, that hard work does take determination, sleepless nights and sometimes risks. I am not in any way denying we shouldn't work hard to reach our goals, as it does take a mixture of so many things to become successful. I think what I am really trying to say is success is measured in lots of different ways. We need to all be a little kinder to ourselves and learn that things can take time to get there. I have learnt to stop comparing myself to others, and measure my own success by what I have achieved already. I have a mental list of everything I want to achieve but I know it will take time, and I need to not be too hard on myself. Things can sometimes takes a little bit longer than expected and that is okay.

Lucy
xoxo

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Wednesday 7 November 2018

Siena


Whilst on our travels around Tuscany and Florence, we decided to take a day trip to Siena. The only downside was from Florence it took an hour and a half to get there, which for a day trip is quite a long way. However, we have heard such great things about and it was a must- visit place in our guide book so we decided we needed to make the effort to go. As the journey was long we planned it all the day before to make it as seamless as possible. We got on a train at around 9am and the train was direct to Siena. It might seem like on this trip we visited to a lot of cathedrals, but this was a must see attraction and my god I am so glad we did it. From the front it is stunning with the huge stain glass window, but out of all the duomos (cathedrals) we visited I think Pisa's front was my favourite.

The tickets to go into the cathedrals cost 15 euros which at first we all thought was quite expensive. We found that each town and city very much varied in price as to how much they charged to visit their own cathedral. The cathedral inside was honestly absolutely breath-taking, I was very much taken a back. I can hands down say it was the most stunning place which I have ever visited, ever. My parents and I were just wandering around trying to take it all in, but it was just so beautiful. The entirety of the flooring throughout the place was covered in marble. Each different slab of flooring told a story. They have laid a small pathway throughout the cathedral to try and preserve the flooring from wear, which is completely understandable due to the immense amount of tourists who visit on a daily basis. Each piece of marble flooring told completely different stories and all done with such intricate detailing, we stood around each one interpreting what is trying to be portrayed. 

There was library which didn't look like anything special from the outside, but wow from the inside it was something else. From the pictures you can see that the entirety of the ceiling was covered in embossing which were brightly coloured. You can see that is has been really well maintained, and it was definitely the surprising element of this visit. Every single part of this duomo is beautiful, and I can easily say that the interior is the best I have ever seen. When you get back from your holidays and people ask "did you have a great time?" this visit to Siena is what I have been telling everyone about.





We discovered through reading in the handbook that there is a secret viewing point which you can go to. It was kind of hidden away in one of the back buildings. It was a little tight and narrow spiral staircase which you go up. It was all worth all the steps as you get to see this absolutely beautiful view of the entire town. You were able to see how big the site of the duomo really was and all the different elements which make it up.


There is no denying that the duomo is the stand out piece within Siena. However, the town its self is stunning. There was lots of shops to looks round and the whole town oozed character. As on all holidays we stopped for endless coffee and cake tea breaks. Overall, it was such a great relaxed day where we were able to stroll around at our leisure taking in everything around us. I have also written posts about Florence and Pisa if you want to find out about the rest of this trip.


Lucy
xoxo
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Sunday 4 November 2018

Pisa



Whilst on my travels around Florence (which you can read all about here), we decided to do a one day trip to Pisa. We had pre-planned the trip so we set off from Florence centrale train station early doors and the train to Pisa was approximately one hour. When we got there we needed to get a bus to the sites that we wanted to see. The main reason for this trip was to see the leaning tower. Until I did some research before the trip happened, I did not release that the tower is in fact on a world heritage site which holds a variety of different site seeing opportunities. 

Once on the site we were in absolute awe of just how beautiful everything was. The Pisa tower is one of four buildings which make up this complex. The first building constructed was the Cathedral called Duomo di Pisa which is absolutely inspiring, and it is set on a white marble platform. The next addition to be created was the baptistery. Then finally the campanile and the cemetery were added. When you buy your tickets you have to decide what package you want to buy. You buy the tickets for the tower on their own and they cost €18 each to go up to the top. The rest of the sites you can buy in different combinations for one site it was €5, for two €7 and for 3 €8. We decided we want to just pay €5 the baptistery. To go into the cathedral it is free, but you have to go to the ticket office to get a ticket with a specific time on which I think is a great idea so you do not end up queuing for hours.

I thought it was all very organised as we decided to go up the tower first we arrived at 12pm and we managed to get a 1pm slot. There have 40 slots per every 15 minutes. My dad and I arrived and we got into the entrance of the tower at 1.05pm. There are 297 steps to climb up which does not seem a lot when saying it out loud. However, the steps were small in width and the spiral up to the top was very tight. Once at the top though, it was worth all the huffing and puffing that it took to get there. The views were absolutely incredible from the top. The tower has eight stories stacked on top of each other. At the top you can feel the definite slant in the tower, you can stay and walk around the top platform and look at the bell chambers.


This is the view from the top of the duomo  -


The cathedral was absolutely beautiful both inside and out, and even if you don't want to pay to go into the sites it is worth a trip just to walk around the collection of buildings and look inside the duomo. I have been completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the duomo's which I visited whilst on this trip to Italy. The baptistery was just as magnificent as everywhere else, and we all came away saying how glad we were that we made the effort to go.




Unfortunately, when we got back to the train station we did not have enough time to explore the town of Pisa. I would love to go back if I had the opportunity to and see what more it has to offer.

Lucy
xoxo
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