Well since the last The Week That Was post I’ve been to Mallorca, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, so today’s edition may feel a little jumbled. Hopefully it will make some sort of sense though.
I guess we won’t know til we start, will we?
So let’s just get on with it…
I’ve been watching…
I can FINALLY say that I’ve seen Wall Street. No idea what took me so long to get around to it given that I’m pretty sure it has always been on Sky Cinema but hey, at least I’ve seen it now. I feel like there’s no point telling you too much about it as I am almost certainly the last person on earth to see it, but I will tell you that I loved it, I cried and I’d forgotten just how much I fancied 80s James Spader.
Despite the fact I still haven’t gotten round to watching my DVD copy of West of Memphis, I watched Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory the night before we left for Mallorca. If you’re not familiar with either documentary, they cover the trial, imprisonment and eventual release of the “West Memphis Three” – three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers, in 1994, of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.
You don’t need to have seen the previous Paradise Lost instalments to follow Purgatory as the first two thirds of the film bring you up to speed on what the previous documentaries covered, but needless to say it’s a gut wrenching watch.
If it hadn’t been for the original Paradise Lost documentaries, it’s fair to assume that there wouldn’t have been the pressure and media attention needed to get the men eventually released. Damien Echols himself, who was facing the death penalty, says he’d be dead if it wasn’t for the work of the filmmakers…
I’m really intrigued to see West of Memphis now, to see how it differs in its coverage. Critics said at the time that it held its own despite the argument that there didn’t need to be “yet another” movie about the case, so I’m bumping it up my must-watch list. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is on Sky Cinema.
Then whilst on holiday, I watched Dope. By some miracle I had successfully downloaded it to Sky Go before we flew and hooking it up to the hotel telly actually worked (I KNOW)…
This film had everything: comedy, drama, romance, high-jinks, a killer soundtrack and an important message. It’s a great film and I can see why people have been raving about it. Again, it’s on Sky Cinema.
I also saw De Palma, the fascinating documentary about legendary director Brian De Palma and his truly epic back catalogue of movies. I’ve blogged about that in full here and it’s in UK cinemas now.
In less successful movie news, I tried to watch Dark Places having loved the book but I had to give up after twenty minutes. I didn’t want to believe the reviews that it was terrible but guess what? It is! If you thought the Gone Girl movie didn’t do justice to the book, then Dark Places will make you want to swallow pins.
I’ve visited…
Pre-Mallorca, I had the best brow wax I’ve had in ages from Olga at Strip Chelsea. I’ve blogged about Strip before (in this post I claim it’s the best waxing salon in London and I talk specifically about their brow services here) but I still want to shout about Strip from the rooftops every time I go because they’re just so GOOD there. I don’t work with them in any way and I don’t get free or discounted treatments, I just really am a massive fan.
Sticking with beauty for a sec, I had my nails done for the first time in forever just before hols. I hadn’t had Shellac for a full year but I went back to the wonder woman I always see if I want perfect nails – Arta at Beauty at Era – and went for full on crazy brights with Gelish’s “I’m Brighter Than You”…
I paid £25 (including tip) which I think is very reasonable for West London and this is what they look like today, just shy of three weeks after application…
The colour has faded a tad due to all the sun/sea/chlorine and obviously the polish has grown out a bit, but they’re still chip-free on both hands. If I could insert the nail emoji here, I would.
I’m not going to blog about my trips in this section or it will become the world’s longest blog post, but here’s a little video from Mallorca…
I *think* I’ll be blogging about the Mallorcan hotels tomorrow (I am seriously in such a muddle at the moment) and of course there will soon be a blog post and video from my ridiculous trip to Belgium with Ford Europe. Just call me The Stig.
I’ve been listening to…
Mostly the soundtrack from The Harder They Come, loudly and on repeat.
I’ve been eating and drinking…
I’m going to try and film a Food Favourites this week so I’m going to hold back a couple of the bits I’ve tried that I want to keep for the video (there’s a lemon drizzle cake gin for goodness sake) but I can safely tell you that some of the best food I’ve eaten since the last post has come in the form of Dutch sandwiches. Have you ever had garlic and pesto butter? I didn’t know it existed, but it does and spread on dark rye bread it’s something to behold. It’s nothing compared to mustard butter though (again, WHAT? How did I now know about all these marvellous butters) and I am now seriously contemplating moving just so that I can eat mustard butter and cheese rolls more regularly.
I don’t have any pictures to illustrate as I shoved them all in my gob far too quickly, but I am genuinely trying to come up with an idea for a series of posts based around me driving around Europe eating lovely cheeses. So, yeah. Watch this space. (If anyone can help make this happen then please, CALL ME IMMEDIATELY).
I’ve written…
I put together a ruddy lovely date night outfit based on LFW SS17 trends for Quidco and it was all high street, so it’s actually affordable too. You can find that here. Then I also blogged about the toss-up between creating content on holiday and actually switching off and relaxing, you can find that here.
Next week, I’m looking forward to…
Heading to Suffolk’s Wilderness Reserve with Pink Lady apples, going to Belfast to see my sister, seeing The Railway Children with my mum and going to Gerrard Gething’s Ordinary Creatures exhibition.
😀
x
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