Sunday 29 March 2015

My Netflix Recommendations

Netflix is my one true love so I thought that I would share some of my favorite TV shows and films to watch on it. Recently I have been really loving all the newly added, so good job Netflix!

1) Pretty Little Liars.
I am only on Season 3 of this show, but I am hooked! It is such an addictive tv show to start watching so if you need to be revising or doing something else important I would not recommend watching this because you will undoubtedly become addicted to it.

2) Gossip Girl.
Another addictive show to watch, but so so great, I loved this and watched it so quickly as I got drawn into the characters, so again do not start this series if you have other things to do, it is very ADDICTIVE! 

3) Merlin.
I have always loved Merlin, I have every series on DVD! But having it on netflix means I can watch it easier so if I just want to watch something but I'm not sure what then Merlin is my go to tv program. Would definitely recommend this series. 

4) Disney. 
This is a bit of an odd recommendation as there is not a specific film I would recommend as all of them are brilliant, if you just type in disney to the search bar you get over ten disney films to choose from and recently netflix have been good with their choice of new disney films (brave, hunchback of Notre dam, Hercules and oz the great and powerful), definitely the best kind of films out there! 

5) Mock the Week.
A comedy quiz show that makes me laugh every episode, this is mine and my dad's sense of humor in a nutshell, and I love it! It is my go to program on netflix when I need a laugh, it's only the older series's though so would love it if the new ones could be up too *hint hint netflix*

Thank you for reading, let me know what your favourite thing to watch on netflix is at the moment, 
-J xox

New tea purchase

Hannah here!

This winter I spent christmas with my family in Denmark, while I was there one of the things I bought was this selection pack of teas. The packaging is of course in Danish but the name of this selection is 'soul warmer', it includes; green tea with Jasmine, strawberry tea, summer-berry tea, and herbal tea with blueberry. 

I have now tried all of them and the strawberry tea is definitely my favourite of the four. It is also the nicest strawberry tea that I have ever tasted, having a very sweet (non-artificial) and refreshing flavour. 
I would love to see more selection packs of this kind in the UK as I think they are a really lovely way of trying new teas. I also picked up another selection pack called 'Evening calm', although I haven't opened it yet so can't tell you much about it. 

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different style of post! I am a big tea lover so would love to hear if you have any tea recommendations! -H xox

Saturday 14 March 2015

Ypres trip

Today I went on a battlefield trip with my school, this is honestly one of the best yet most upsetting trips I've ever been on. We visited the Ypres region of Belgium where many battles throughout ww1 took place, so all around are cemetery's and battle grounds, I could not imagine living there and seeing them every day as after even one day I felt the impact.

The vast amount of soldiers who gave there lives for us in this one area is unimaginable and when seeing the graves it is hard to fathom that there are British or Commonwealth men lying in the ground who fought for us to be here today, some of whom may be related to me, or one of my friends or you?! Here are just some of the places we visited and a fact I learnt from each:

We first visited Mening Gate, this is a memorial for 55,000 soldiers whose bodies were not found and they do not know where they were killed due to many circumstances, when building this they ran out of room to write the names so a further 34,000 names of unknown soldiers are written on a memorial at the Tyne cot cemetery.

The Flanders fields museum was the next destination we visited and this picture really got to me, straight after this picture was taken a bomb hit and all of these injured who were expecting to go home died, this was also only 1 year before the war finished so had that bomb not hit all these men would have survived the war, the person who took the picture survived as they had moved a few metres from the site the bomb hit so he was able to print this picture with its story of despair.

The next place was the Essex farm cemetery, this is where the famous poet John McRae served as a doctor, however it is also where the youngest known soldier to die in ww1 is buried, he was only 15 which is an anomaly as normally you were not allowed to join until you are 18.

We then visited Leningrad which is a German cemetery, we went here to see the difference between how the British and German bury there dead and also to pay our respects of course! One fact that shocked me is that in one grave as soon as you walk in there are 25,000 German soldiers all buried together, and what makes it more interesting is that 2 Belgian men looked up every name in the grave and found that two British soldiers got mixed up within the mass of German soldiers. I cannot write down the kinds of emotions I felt when here, these people had lives and families and it confuses me how one war can take so many.

Lastly we visited Tyne cot which is the largest grave of British soldiers in the world with 11,871 men buried here. The saddest part was reading the sentences that some family's asked to have on their loved ones graves, some were very emotional on one grave this was written 'it was as if the sun had gone out' (this was actually at Essex farm but there were many at Tyne cot too). The sheer mass of graves that were here was astounding, again how could one war take so many.
Overall it was a very emotional experience which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone but especially history enthusiasts!
Thanks for reading,
-J xox

Friday 6 March 2015

My top 5 handbag essentials -H

 Hannah here!
Yesterday I gave my handbag a much needed clear out and noticed that there were a few items I always carry with me. So I thought I would share with you my current handbag essentials.

  • The Body Shop "Honeymania" hand cream 30ml- This sinks in super fast for on-the-go application.
  • Eos organic lipbalm in "Sweet Mint"- There's no need to stick your grubby fingers in a tin to apply this lip product. 
  • Carex refreshing wet wipes- This is just the brand that I am currently using. They're a fairly standard 'does the job" product, but definitely necessary. 
  • Chewing gum- To keep you minty fresh all day. I love the "Bubble mint" gum by Extra, it's definitely my favourite flavour. 
  • A makeup bag- I always have a small case to keep all the necessary bits and pieces together and prevent them from getting lost. My sister gave me this one for Christmas because I love cats, it's also a great size! 
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. I would love to know what your handbag essentials are! 
-H xox

Sunday 1 March 2015

Water and tea update.

Jess here,
In a previous post I spoke about how I was only going to drink tea and water this February and for about 15 days I was able to complete this successfully. Then my family and I went to harvester and I completely forgot and automatically ordered a diet Pepsi, and only after drinking it did I realise what I had done, after this I just had a craving for fizzy drinks! I did manage to hold myself off slightly however my will power is not the best and I ended up drinking about two more diet fizzy drinks. I was VERY disappointed in myself however even though I didn't complete the month without sweeteners, this small action has had an impact on my diet. I have now changed the sweetener in my tea for either one sugar or nothing, and I drink so much more water throughout the day, and even my family have started to drink more water because of us trying to give up sweeteners. So all in all it was a good idea to try it, although I have realised I have a slight addiction to fizzy diet drinks I am now drinking more water than I have ever drunk and actually do feel healthier in myself. I would highly recommend trying to give up sweeteners, even if it is just for 15 days!!!
Thanks for reading, 
-J xox