Crocs

CROCS

Earlier this month, amidst the scorching British heatwave I remarked to my friend that Crocs were the ideal summer shoe. This comment was met with panicked eyes whilst my friend questioned our friendship, as well as no doubt my sanity, but I kept my composure and went on to elaborate. 

Before explaining my reasoning, I will first give you an insight into the reasons I feel I have the authority to make this claim. From the age I was old enough to wear shoes and complain about them, I have always had problems with finding comfortable footwear. From flip flops to Birkenstock’s it is very rare that I am left without a new scar after purchasing a new pair of shoes, and this struggle is only made worse by the added factor of attempting to clothe my feet in hot climates. On day 5 of my recent trip to Bali this summer, my Birkenstock’s got stolen from my hostel room, and instead of feeling annoyed, I was actually relieved that I didn’t have to carry on putting my feet through that two strapped torment. Coming home with 5 fresh scars and a few blood stains on my flip flops only confirmed my belief that I would have avoided this horror had I swallowed my pride and invested in some Crocs. 

The first reason I believe Crocs should be a holiday goers first choice, is the fact they act as both a dry and a wet shoe. Wearing it’s hybridity with pride, it floats effortlessly between the boundaries of sea and land. This the little mermaid-esque behaviour ends the struggle of whether or not to take your shoes off while passing through small spaces of water, making your decision for you. Secondly, (though I’m sure my first reason was enough to make you open a new tab and search for your very own pair) they are seriously breathable. Unlike other shoes that claim to have breathable material, Crocs undeniably have this asset, I mean have you seen how many holes they have on their tops?? Thirdly, as if the bold choice of Crocs alone won’t make you stand out from your less enlightened peers, they are seriously customisable.  The ever-growing selection of badges are slowly making Crocs the Pandora charm bracelet of the shoe world and I, personally, am living for it.  

Though I thought my campaigning for Crocs was ground breaking, on my most recent holiday I couldn’t help but notice that I was actually late to the party. Like a game of where’s wally, where wally was actually EVERYWHERE, I was shocked to discover that I was able to spot at least 5 Croc campaigners a day. I was even more shocked that the voice in my head wasn’t judging them for it. Shortly after realising that I wasn’t the only backer of Crocs as the ideal travelling shoe, I began to notice Crocs popping up on my Instagram timeline, chiefly thanks to ASOS. As my go-to shop and fashion guider, I took this as the ultimate nod of approval, and immediately began to trawl their site in search of my very own pair. Swallowing my pride and purchasing a pair, after years of turning my nose up at the brand, was nothing shy of a moment of sheer self growth. 

If you don’t own a pair of Crocs ask yourself, why not? Pain no longer has to be beauty when all the signs are pointing at Crocs as the new go to shoe, and I’m here to tell you that it’s not too late to join this super comfortable revolution.  

Name Necklaces

NAME NECKLACES: Trashy and Fabulous

I’d like to devote this post to the newest addition to my jewellery collection. This time last week, my mum gifted me with a name necklace and it has quickly grown to be my favourite necklace ever, and not just because of how much it makes me feel like Carrie Bradshaw. 

I have always been a fan of gold name necklaces, but never thought that they would look right on me, even though I’d just be wearing my own name so I don’t really know what my logic was with that one. Weirdly what I love about them is the fact they look a little bit cheap and so fabulously trashy. By trashy I don’t mean that they look tacky, but rather that I think the necklaces encapsulate all the best parts of trashy books or trash tv, with their glory being the way in which they don’t take themselves too seriously and don’t masquerade themselves as being of diamond quality. 

https://www.soufeel.co.uk/necklaces/name-necklace

Name necklaces add fun and personality to outfits when worn on their own, as well as being a perfect choice to stack with other chains or chokers. They also have the added bonus of showing people how to spell your name, a bonus I am personally very grateful for, with my necklace replacing all of the numerous kaitlin/ caitlyn/ katelyn alternatives. So if you (like me) are an aspiring Carrie Bradshaw, looking for a new addition to your necklace family, or are simply getting tired of correcting people’s spelling of your name, then boy have I got the necklace for you!

Stressed.Out.Student

SOS: Stressed Out Student

It's got to that point in the holidays where I have realised I’m behind on getting ahead for next term. Whilst summer theoretically brings the chance to get on top of work, reading, and to do lists, I tend to find myself in the rut of copious planning and limited action.

Further procrastinations include photographing my reflection in a
hopeless attempt to delay having to actually turn my laptop on

At the start of the summer I wrote out all of my required reading and promised myself that by August I would have read at least two module lists, packing my holiday suitcase with a 60:40 ratio of sun fun attire to books. Long story short: while I came back from my five week trip with zero extra book knowledge and a few thousand freckles, my books came back with curved spines and a severe vitamin D deficiency from not seeing the light of day for over a month. 

My stress of the moment is that I still have no idea what I want to write my dissertation on. It’s good to focus on less researched, less mainstream topics, but my main interests have always been sexuality and gender- the uk top 40 of the literary world. In the spirit of being proactive, I’ve been spending my days scrolling through largely unhelpful diss advice articles. Instead of continuing to drown in my sea of stress I’ve decided to simply find some books that I’m interested in, most likely focused on sexuality and gender issues, and try to find any niche pearls to latch onto within these books. 

Luckily the doomsday that is the first day of term hasn’t yet approached and so I’m pretty sure I still have time to solve my stresses. I have written out an elaborate reading schedule (in hindsight might have been better to spend the time it took planning to start said reading) and I have already sent my stress panic messages to all of my group chats, so the first two steps in my familiar routine are already done- progress. 

I’ve concealed an extra batch of books in the hidden zip compartments of my mums suitcase for our holiday this weekend- mum, if you’re reading this it’s too late- and I’m ready to promise myself I’ll come back with a much better idea on what I want to do my diss on, I’ve even pinky promised this time. 

Coffee

COFFEE

At the big age of twenty I am sad to admit that I still don’t fully understand the obsession with hot drinks. Whilst I admire the notions of a hot cup of tea and it’s apparent ability to make you feel cosy from the inside out, I have always had an aversion to hot liquids. To illustrate the magnitude of my distaste, I will reveal the embarrassing secret that I don’t even really like hot chocolate. I am a self-diagnosed chocoholic so it pains me to admit to this betrayal of the cocoa fandom, but seeing as this is one of my first blog posts I can’t imagine my revelation will cause too big of a stir. 

That being said, while travelling in Asia this summer I discovered a truly shocking love of coffee. Coffee was always my number one most hated hot liquid, my Starbucks order is a Caramel Cream Frappuccino and the smell of Costa alone makes me uncomfortable. My past interactions with coffee have been purely transactional. This time last year my mum told me that she read an article on the benefits of black coffee and relayed the info that drinking two cups a day makes people lose weight. I spent the next month holding my nose and chugging coffee as if it were a beer keg at a frat party. After a month of holding my nose and drinking my daily steaming mug of rancid I faced the cruel reality that I, the true mug of this tale, had actually GAINED four pounds. Thus my hatred intensified. 

However, being a skint backpacker made me decide to set our feud to one side. While in Bali I said yes to a free trip to a coffee plantation. It was here that I was introduced to vanilla coffee, and goodness gracious was this sweet nectar of the gods my cup of tea. Truthfully, I don’t know if I meet the criteria for being a coffee lover when what I loved about it was the fact it didn’t taste like coffee, but at least now I can say yes to meeting up with friends for coffee dates (5 points to me for getting one step closer to being a functional adult).  

The range of coffee, from avocado to the most expensive Luwak coffee  that earned the plantation its ‘cat poo chino’ name (please don’t make me explain it), shocked me. It shocked me that this many coffee options exist in the world and yet the British nation, a nation associated with tea and coffee, are happy to accept an Americano as an adventurous order option. It was at this point that I realised that I didn’t hate coffee, what I hated was the glorified dish water that dares to call itself coffee. 

As I have grown older, the burden of replying ‘no thanks’ when anyone asks if I ‘fancy a cuppa?’ has grown heavier. My family have always assured me that my tastebuds will change and I will grow to like it but after trying the treasures of the plantation, I vow to thee that I will never settle for the classic Kenco coffee. 

People always talk about about how travelling changes you. On my last morning in Vietnam, while my friend and I mourned our final free hostel breakfast, I stared into my steaming hot cup of vanilla coffee and realised that travelling may not have changed me, but it had changed my tastebuds forever.

Present day: me enjoying a coffee from Temple Coffee, Leeds,
a place that also strives to surpass traditional caffeine confines :)