Tweet, tweet...

Nope, this isn't a reference to my twitter (shameless bit of self promo there), it's actually a post dedicated to my new tattoo idea! I do ramble on about tattoos alot, I love them, and hopefully if I have the willpower to save up this summer, this will be my first bit of ink!

I've always wanted my first tattoo to be relevant to the passing of my grandparents, last year. Mainly because it reminds me how close I was to them, how they have shaped me as a person and how their loss affected my family. So, the idea is this - an open birdcage, with a dove flying out. Now, either under the dove's wing or on the door of the birdcage will be my grandparents initials: "J" for Joseph, "M" for Margaret. The 'meaning' of the tattoo is my belief in the Holy Spirit guiding my grandparents into the afterlife upon their death. And a birdcage, well, because I love them!

The hardest thing to pick is the design of the birdcage, and I've found a few ideas here:

All images found on weheartit

My favourite design is the last picture (just above), I think I'm going to take that image to my local tattoo place and ask them to sketch it! Minus the handle on top and the birds. So, what do you think? :)

Review: 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

Views are 100% my own

As I mentioned in my last post, if you've known me a while you may have heard of this book! 1Q84 is written by the amazing Japanese author Haruki Murakami, who has also written Norweigan Wood - also a great book.1Q84 was greatly anticipated by the literary world because it had to be translated which of course took a while! I won't give too much away in this review, and of course this is my opinion!

Book 1 & 2 were published first by Murakami and I got my mits on it last Christmas. The story involves two main narratives, Aomame and Tengo, whose lives seem very distant but get increasingly intertwined as the book progresses. Again, I really don't want to give any of the main plot away to any prospective readers but there is an excellent twist which came as a complete surprise to me! The narrative is deep and engaging, the characters moving but also I found I could relate to some of the concepts in the book.

One negative to the Book 1 & 2 possibly could be the consistency of the content. This probably is just a personal thing, as sometimes I find it hard to stay engaged in a book for such a long period of time and it did take a while to read, despite me being a fast reader. I stopped reading it during exam periods etc, and overall it took me 2-3 months to complete. Murakami possibly may have necessarily fleshed out the novel with somewhat unimportant facts and characters, but maybe I just didn't link up the story lines well!

I received Book 3 as a gift at Easter, and couldn't wait to get started, as Book 2 is left on a huge cliffhanger! Murakami's strong point, definitely. In Book 3 a third narrative is introduced, which at first I didn't enjoy because I didn't like the character of Ushikawa, however I guess he isn't meant to be liked! As the book progressed though, his narrative was definitely an integral part of the storyline. 

As usual, I was gobsmacked at how Murakami managed to intertwine all the characters and their individual stories, and was left very happy at the outcome of the novel.

I would rate this book 9/10 - a must-read if you like Murakami's writing style! If you haven't read any of his works before, I suggest reading Norweigan Wood (see review on my old blog here) as it is shorter but you still get a feel for his writing style.

Has anyone else read 1Q84, or any of Murakami's books? 

Are you inspired to read this book?

Feedback on my reviews is always appreciated, I want to make them a regular thing!

Best slow dancer in the universe

Oh hi there, long time no see! Apologies for the absence in blogging but I haven't really had time! Luckily my exams have finished, Summer is here and I've got plenty of time to ramble on. How have you all been? So much to catch up on! In a nutshell:

1.Applied for (what feels like a thousand) jobs

2. Had an interview at American Apparel, but sadly heard nothing back!

3. Struggled through my exams

4. Lived in squalor for my last month at university halls

5. Came back home for summer!

There we are, you're all caught up now! I hope everyone enjoyed their Jubilee weekend, I really enjoyed it even though I wasn't expecting to! Poor Prince Philip being in hospital though, anyone else think the Queen looked dead lonely?! :( However by the end of the weekend I was feeling very patriotic, which isn't like me!

If anyone's been reading this blog or my old one you may remember I started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, what feels like an age ago. Well, I'm nearly at the end of the last book! Yay! Going to be reviewing that on here soon :) also will be posting a summer reading list, as I've got a massive pile of books to get stuck in to.

I'll leave my ramblings at that for now :) Hope you're all well!

x

Spectrum

Having a lovely night in with me, myself and I. There's two things I love more than anything in this world: being lazy, and eating (and now I sound like an obese layabout!). So, I'm eating hot cross buns whilst perusing the blogs, and will watch some form of telly later.

I've been back in Liverpool a few days now, and have been getting back into the swing of working... ish. Tried revising in the sunshine on Sefton Park but there were three distractions: my man, lack of sunshine and ALL THE CUTE PUPPIES. Ahem. Seriously, so many cute dogs in the park. My favourite was a little Pomeranian that came running up to sit with Jack, one of the cutest sights I've ever seen :') definitely want one now!

I met up with my best friend Manda the day before I went back to Liverpool, and went on a little shopping spree..well in the nail varnish department of course. Topshop has such a lovely range of colours, I restricted myself to 3! I got Milkshake (a very pale pink), Parma Violet (pale lilac), and Celestial. I love Celestial, had it on for a few days now. It's not my usual shade, I'm more of a red/pink girl myself but I couldn't not get it! It's like that periwinkle colour, light blue but with lilac tones.

Here's the reason I've come back to halls before everyone else! Revision, yaaaay. 5 and a half weeks til my exams start. I didn't revise half as much as I should have for my last batch of exams, and only just passed them, so this time I aim to do better. I enjoy the modules so it shouldn't be too hard! Fingers crossed!

And last but not least, I thought I'd swoon about Jack a little bit more ;) haha. He surprised me with this lovely basket of Body Shop goodies on Wednesday, how sweet eh! It was mostly vanilla stuff, which he knows I love. It contains a bath/shower gel, body lotion, body puree (we both have no idea how this differs from the lotion!), soap (which smells divine), and cocoa butter lip balm. It tastes amazing! I'm a lucky lady, aren't I :)

xxx



The Wolves

I thought I'd ramble on about my lovely week in Liverpool :) First and foremost, I managed to get myself a lovely boyfriend. His name is Jack, and I'll probably mention him a fair bit on here as we spend quite a lot of time together! I was spending a few days with Jack after my job interview in Liverpool, and thankfully I got the job! Such luck is coming my way recently haha.
We spent the week relaxing, eating (well that was more on my part but still - he introduced me to Bar Burrito, best place ever, nom), and wandering round Liverpool. We went to watch The Hunger Games with people who were still in Liverpool, and it was really good! Worth the extortionate ticket prices I reckon. Our last night together was spent doing what we do best... eating a nice meal and watching House, cuddled up under a big duvet. Bliss. It's been a lovely few days, and I made a few purchases which I thought I'd show you!

Jack treated me to Book Three of 1Q84 after he found out I'd got my job, which was really nice of him! Can't wait to get stuck in. I also got The Road by Cormac McCarthy as I've been meaning to read it for some time, and it was only 50p from a charity shop so why not eh?

Also I got two new films to watch, one I watched with Jack out of pure fear of the film. Has anyone watched Let The Right One In? I'd recommend it actually, even if it is abit odd at parts and slightly hard to follow... I'm going to watch it again and hopefully understand more of it! Also I purchased The Other Boleyn Girl, a really good book and also a good film. It's got my two favourite actresses in, and Eric Bana thrown in for good measure... what's not to like? ;)
xxx