Hometown Glory

I live in a village near Grimsby and Cleethorpes and both get a lot of flack; there's not really much to do, it's a hardly a cultural hot spot. When you're young, you just want to get out quite frankly but even though they have many flaws, they have a little beauty too. I'd say Cleethorpes does more so than Grimsby, especially in the summer months. I've many a memory of me and my friends playing games on the beach and messing around on the boating lake. Cleethorpes is filled with cute cafes, restaurants, antique shops and of course a great number of delicious fish and chip shops (the best being our famous Steels restaurant, photographed above), we're quite proud of our fish round here. It also has classic seaside town essentials: arcades, bowling alleys, a pier, cheesy nightclubs (the pier being one of them. Another even has indoor grass), crazy golf, ice cream, doughnut and rock shops and a fairground. 

Cleethorpes may have the beach but Grimsby has a little gem; Gulliver's nightclub. Despite living in Leeds for a year and visiting friends at universities in other big cities, to me Gullies is still one of my favourite places to spend an eve. It maybe small, sweaty and not so clean, but I love it anyway - it's plays music I like, it's always filled with familiar faces and you can buy a vodka slush which is very nice indeed!

I took the pics above with a disposable camera (I like the effect they create) on a cold February day so Cleethorpes looks quite eerie but I kind of like the ghost town feel. When I got the photographs back, it made me appreciate the two towns on my doorstep, they ain't that bad really...

"Oh, we only sing when we're fishing!"

Got any love for your hometown?  

Billy Bragg New England

I love him.

SO cute.

Topshop - £46

Favourite looks from 2011 awards season...

 New Hollywood starlets on the scene Hailee Steinfield, Emma Stone and Mila Kunis are definitely ones to watch on the red carpet in the coming year. My two favourite looks of the whole lot are Rosamund Pike in Alexander McQueen and Michelle Williams in Chanel. I'm rather sad the awards season is over...  

Foxy Lady

I saw this pic of Ashley Olsen in that gorgeous jumper a couple of weeks ago and I instantly thought I NEED, I NEED, I NEED! but it turns out it's vintage, I know urban outfitters sell jumpers with foxes on them but they just aren't the same as Ashley's! I think it's time to get the Granny stitching. Those Balenciaga shoes are fierce too, I most definitely need that colour in my wardrobe. Then I see a pic of Alexa Chung rocking the 70s trend in this foxy maxi looking cool as ever, does she ever get it wrong? AND then I hear Mulberry's Autumn/Winter 2011 collection was inspired by the fantastic Mr Fox and that they left crushed velvet, fox masks (above) out for everyone at their show which of course I WANT. Foxes are the chicest animal in town right now, I think they know it too, just look at their arrogant stance. They know, they know.

  

You can get your hands on Alexa's dress here.

20? really?

Next week I turn 20 and I'm really not happy about it. Birthdays used to be so exciting, all the presents and attention (ha) but now they just remind me of how little I've done, you know you're getting old when you have regrets. Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I carry on with that? I suppose I should learn from my mistakes and I guess I should be grateful I've made it to 20 right? I know, I do realise I'm groaning about something I shouldn't be groaning about but I just want to hang on to my teenage years! They had their low points but they were so fun and you can get away with so much when you're a teenager. I also feel I haven't done enough teenager-type things, you know WILD things haha. I don't have any tattoos, any crazy piercings, I haven't really done any drugs, I don't smoke, I haven't woken up somewhere unfamiliar. Your teenage years are meant to full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll aren't they?...I've just been hopelessly drunk on many occasions and I can't imagine that will stop when I turn 20 (thank God). 

I've decided to celebrate my birthday by hosting a "Tragic Tea Party," since most of my friends are at uni I thought I'd keep it a low key affair this year; just a girly eve. I'm making them dress up as tragic women, either real or fictional - think Shakespeare's Ophelia and Juliet or Marilyn Monroe. I'll post some pics after, I think it will be quite cool. 

Maybe I'll just be a teenager in spirit in my twenties, I shall hopefully be attending university in 2012, by then I'll be 21 and I'll be surrounded by 18 year olds so I'll have to act a little younger to fit in, it would really be rude of me not to...Plus how should one act at any age? I don't think it's so clear cut anymore. Age is just a silly number, just do what you want to do...I'll keep telling myself that. There are positives to aging though - WISDOM. I hope I have a little of that to share around when I'm older.

Kate Moss getting her 70s on

Clad me out in Missoni

Discovered Missoni's new ad campaign the other day; it's so refreshing, it's playful and fun, it kind of reminds me of Benetton campaigns (the uncontroversial ones that is) because of the bright colours and big smiles. The Missoni ad was quite a contrast to the other ad campaigns in my mag which were so severe and serious. Loving the 70s floppy hats, I want to get my hands on one for the summer, they're already everywhere. I'm also deliberating whether or not to purchase some 70s style jeans, I'm a short arse so it would have to wear with heals or wedges and I don't like to wear those in the day so it would mean I could only wear them dancing in the eves, clearly thinking too much out loud right now...well not out loud but out into cyber space.

a little quote I like...

  

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence"

             

Christoper Hitchens

 

Us and Them.

For a long time now I have always worried about my chances of entering a career I enjoyed that had a big pay packet. I don't want to end up with job like the ones my parents have (mum - cleaner, dad - predominately unskilled work for agencies, step dad - window cleaner though he did used to be a teacher which I think is a pretty admirable job). There's nothing wrong with these jobs but I want more and I'm not very good at cleaning anyhow. I,  like many people, went to state school and a sixth form college, both of which I'm very fond of but as you grow up you realise that having this kind of education means you have to work twice as hard as those who are privately educated to get into the best universities and then go on and get the best jobs. Statistics prove that those that are privately educated occupy the top jobs (doctors, politicians, heads of the top companies, barristers, journalists etc - professionals if you like). The recent BBC 2 documentary, Who gets the best jobs? explored this. Even though I knew the majority of the content already due to studying inequalities extensively in my sociology A-level class, it did ignite something in me (I'm a sucker for a documentary, they leave quite an impact on me) - motivation! But also at the same time it made me incredibly depressed!

Over the past couple of years anyone who inspires me or even just occupies a high position (generally in the fields of journalism, politics and the arts) I google them to find out where they attended university or if they went at all, it has become somewhat of an obsession, a very weird obsession. And for a long time one of my "working class heroes" has been Alan Johnson (above), he left school at fifteen and worked as a postman and rose up though the trade unions into politics. I was very upset when he resigned from front bench politics, who's going to be my working class pin up now? Aye? Well I have found other examples during my time as an investigator into successful people's backgrounds such as the current editor-in-chief on British Elle, Lorraine Candy - she left school at sixteen and entered journalism working for her local paper. Though examples like this a few and far between, the fashion industry is dominated by the privately educated too from the current editor in chief of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman to the new creative director of Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton. Now the fashion industry isn't one I want to enter (not that I'd turn an offer to be a fashion journalist down ha...journalism would be my chosen career if I could choose, I know I don't particularly demonstrate the best writing skill or style on my blog but practice helps right?) but many do and I suppose I just wish everybody had access to the same opportunities and  I know that's impossible really but I hope the gap between the haves and the have nots shrinks a little or a lot...There are other problems to do with the world of jobs I have such as the decrease in our manufacturing industry but that's another subject for another rant, another time...

       (image - google images)