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    #8 The Paris Wife by Paula McLain Review

    A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. Firstly, I’d like to say that I’m not sure how accurate this is as a portrayal of Ernest Hemingway & Hadley Richardson’s marriage as I’m not exactly an Ernest Hemingway historian, nor have I read any of his books. I did however enjoy it very much. I’ve had this book on my shelf since my birthday in March, I had picked it up in Waterstones about a month prior to this (being automatically attracted to any book with Paris…

  • Life

    There is no fog on the Tyne.

    This weekend past was my first night out since having my daughter.. in fact since falling pregnant with my daughter, so May 2011. My three closest friends from University invaded from the south and I’d booked us a hotel room in Newcastle as my home town doesn’t have much to offer in the way of a wild night out. En route, getting in the mood with a bit of Jimmy Eat World They arrived in the afternoon and we checked in. I haven’t seen these girls in a long time, but things never change. We all live in different places now so we don’t see each other very often even…

  • Other

    #6 Herman the German Day 10

    White Chocolate Chips, Cinnamon & Apples, my flavouring for Herman Today was the Herman the German Friendship cake finale. I’d spent ten days carefully caring for him, following the instructions, researching the perfect flavouring for him and it came down to this afternoon when I added the final ingredients and baked him… he survived and he tasted delicious! But first, a recap of the past five days… Days Five – Eight As you can see, he continued to bubble and you can see the rim around the glass dish where he grew over night and then shrunk away when it came to stirring. My mum wasn’t best pleased at how…

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    #5 Beauty on a Budget: Aspirin Mask

    Being a single mum means these days I have very little money to spend on myself. Most of my clothes come from eBay (unless my own mum sees fit to treat me) I can only really buy make up when it’s on offer and anything done in a salon, I can basically forget about. My mum dyes and cuts my hair for me, I pluck my own eyebrows and wax my own legs (when I can be bothered obviously.) Anything that can make me feel good and is cheap, I’m there. I discovered the wonders of an Aspirin Mask when I was googling for ways to combat milia. Milia are…

  • Other

    #4 Herman the German Day Four

    On day four Herman is hungry! As of yet, I haven’t killed the Herman cake mix! He’s still happily bubbling away. Whenever my sister comes to visit the first thing she does is lift the towel and check on him (she’s dreading day nine when I plan to pass some onto her, she struggles to cook a frozen pizza let alone look after a cake for 10 days then bake it!) He has our kitchen smelling of yeast and sometimes in the morning this turns my stomach! Never mind, I’m looking forward to eating him in another six days. He has been pretty uninteresting the previous two days, just rising…

  • Other

    #3 Herman the German Day One

    Guten Tag Herman! I had an interesting day today because I was lucky enough to meet Herman. You’re probably asking yourself “who the hell is Herman?” which is the exact question I asked myself when my cousin’s fiancĂ©e Inca text me this morning to tell me she had “Herman the German” for me to look after.  Herman the German is a sour dough Friendship cake which you pass around to family and friends (which in my opinion is a million times better than those stupid chain mail letters we used to do as kids). You must nurture him for ten days before dividing him into four, passing three parts onto…