Off With Her Head!

Meet the newest addition to my growing collection of Disney DVDs! I haven’t seen Alice in Wonderland in years – but has always been one of my favourite stories of all time.

When I was seven, my mum used to do her food shopping and leave me in a little book shop in Bray while I waited. Every day I’d pick up Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts and after a few weeks I had it finished! My mum bought me a lovely hardback edition of the book – and I consider it the first real piece of my library.

The story has also inspired many other art forms including some gorgeous trends in fashion. I think the creepy fantasy element to the book is what fascinates people – the white rabbit, growing and shrinking, the Dodo and a tea party. It’s Lewis Carroll’s strange and wonderful descriptions that have caused Alice to permeate into so many other areas.

I’m not sure the Disney film brought quite as much magic with it – but it definitely made a good effort! I can’t wait to re-watch it.

PS. the DVD says: Virtual Tea Party Included. Wanna join?

Baby you can drive my car

Well, its official – I am learning to drive! I had my very first lesson in Gorey yesterday morning… When I say first – I mean first proper, taught by an instructor who is registered to teach driving lessons.

My first actual lesson was with my friend Bernard when we were in fifth year. He took me out to a car park and had me practice starting the car. Also, I had a few really disasterous tries in Stephen and Dave Grimes’ field – with John Cannon in the passenger seat trying desperately to make me understand how the car works! At one point he lit a piece of paper on fire…and I still have no clue what that was supposed to mean!

Anywho – yesterday went really well. I didn’t cut out the car at all during my hour with my instructor. I also successfully hill-started the car. I drove out to Courttown (where we were in the woods -for all you Goreyfest folk) and round the back roads back into Gorey. I got the car up to 3rd gear, did some pretty nifty bends and turns and felt pretty confident behind the wheel.

Except for when a DOG RAN OUT IN FRONT OF ME! My reaction?! “What do I do?!”  Fido was fine, but I was a bit more nervous the rest of the way.

I think it’s like riding a bike – except with lots more things to think about. Mirrors, indicators, speed limits, gear changes…..not to mention stupid things other cars, children and animals do.

But with 5 more lessons booked and paid for – I’m totally headed for life in the fast lane…as long as there are no dogs about the place. Then I’ll be in the slightly slower, more cautious lane.

Today

We got a sneak preview of Summer.

Fingers crossed it wasn’t just a weather-tease!

Photo from here.

What a girl wants

Strolled into Topshop earlier (had a few minutes to spare before lunch) and felt both smitten and depressed. Smitten with the gorgeous new stock they have at the moment and depressed that I can’t afford it!

I have a major crush on this dress:

And although I’ve always been slightly “dress-obsessed”..I’ve started going for the skirt/top combo more recently. Today these skirts caught my eye:

I  also adored several pairs of shoes including these babies:

I realise the boots aren’t very summery – but they looked so cute with the dress I was wearing earlier on

Now, all I have to do is quit college, find a full time, well paying job and hit the shops!

Francoise Hardy

A mysterious character came into Karen Millen the other day and told me that I reminded him of this lady of the 1960′s.

I’d never heard of her before – but after watching her videos on youtube, I’ve become a bit of a fan! What a beautiful singer. In a weird coincedence, the name Francoise Hardy has just appeared in the book I’m currently reading (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). So, thank you mysterious browser: what a compliment!

All Kinds of All Ireland Talent

For the last five weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tyronne Productions on the All Ireland Talent Show! Now, now…don’t get excited – it was a short work experience gig and sadly was unpaid. However, I did get to watch the programme develop from start to finish, meet some fantastic people and learn a lot about how live studio TV works. What was my job?

The official stand-in for Dana. I kid you not!

When she wasn’t in studio at rehearsals, I got to stand around and pretend to be her! It was class.

Plus, I got to see the acts up close and personal and let me tell you – TV does not do them justice! I’m currently waiting for the final results now – and although I think all of the finalists definitely deserve to be there, my vote is with little Jack Lynch! He’s adorable, he lights up the stage and he is so talented. All at the age of seven.

Go B-Boy 6, Go!

Just Can’t Get Enough

I discovered “Cutting It” while looking for something by the BBC to watch. Here in Ireland we can’t view the iPlayer – so my roomie from up north loaned me the complete box set of this series! The show ran between 2002 and 2005 and centres around the dramatic life of hairdresser Allie Henshall (Sarah Parish). And when I say dramatic…..think long lost children getting pregnant by ex husbands sister’s mother’s porn stars. I kid you not. It is scandalicious!

Also – look out for Allie’s ridiculously dysfunctional family, especially her mother. This character has been made as disgusting as is humanly possible and it totally works.

Once you get past the incredibly cheesy title – “Cutting It” will provide some gasp moments – guaranteed! Plus its set in Manchester and we all know how much I like a bit o’ “Alrighhtt luv!” (in a manchestaaaa accent..)

I’m currently motoring through series 2 – and I only started about a week ago. Good luck college work!

I don’t need no good advice

…ok, so maybe I do.

That’s right folks – its essay writing time again. Which generally means more blogging! yay!

Image from here!

You must be jokin’?! Right?!

Leggings have been doing the fashion rounds for decades now. At a time in fashion-land where skinny jeans have reigned supreme – its clear that showing off your bum and ankles all in one opaque move is hawt. Then came skinny jeans for men – usually worn by the fashionably edgy, “I’m in a band” sort of guy. But, behold: the concept strutting down catwalks – Leggings for men. Or Meggings.

Martin Margiela’s S/S 09

Now, not being an avid follower of menswear styles (maybe I should be if things like this keep surfacing..) I was alerted to this trend by Guardian journalist Jonathan Heaf. Heaf decided to don a pair of meggings for work and see the reaction. How did he feel about his new look? ” I looked like an evil mermaid and felt as if I was walking with a crotch full of staples.”

Although Heaf describes the reaction of his colleagues and general bystanders as positive (maybe he counts constant laughter as a positive things?) and he got the advice of Justin Hawkins, spandex wearing frontman of The Darkness,  his girlfriend covered her eyes in fear! Perhaps we’re not ready for meggings just yet….

To love…

To love is good, too: love being difficult.
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
For this reason young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it.
With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered close about their lonely, timid, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love.
But learning-time is always a long, secluded time, and so loving, for a long while ahead and far on into life, is–solitude, intensified and deepened loneness for him who loves.
Love is at first not anything that means merging, giving over, and uniting with another (for what would a union be of something unclarified and unfinished, still subordinate–?), it is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself for another’s sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.

- Rainer Maria Reilke “Letters to a Young Poet”
(one of my fave little books)