Save The Blow Dry

The lovely people from Save The Blow Dry sent me a sample of their shower caps a few months ago and I wanted to make sure that I had thoroughly tested it out before posting!

Ingeniously I have managed to leave both the cap and photos I had taken for this post back in my University town so for now you will have to take my word for how amazing this product is!

What the cap does:

KEEPS HAIR DRY
I am sure many a girl has faced the dilema of whether to shower and not wash their hair or just simply omit showering all together so as to not mess up the oh so temperamental wash cycle. With save the blow dry you don't need to worry about this as it managed to keep my hair bone dry all 15 times I have used it so far!

FRIZZ FREE
Not only does it keep hair dry but unlike many shower caps I have tried it actually kept my hair frizz free too! And for someone with naturally curly and out of control hair this is a definite must!

COVERS ALL THE HAIR
Again a definite bonus to this hair cap is that it comfortably managed to encompass all of my medium length hair without any ninja style manoeuvring to get it to do so. And lets face it who has time to bother with that before a 9am lecture!

GREAT FOR TREATMENTS
Having curly hair also means that my hair dries out really easily and this cap can be turned inside out in order to improve the effect of nourishing treatments. WIN.

If you fancy trying out the Save the Blow Dry for yourself then you can purchase it from here for £14.99. They come in lovely colours of pink and turquoise!


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The Wanderer Has Returned

I feel like I have been forever living out of a suitcase these past few months what with my Field Trip and commuting back and forth for my third semester of second year (seriously where has the time gone?!) but I am now finally home for a nice 4 month long summer, bar a 2 week trip away for some work experience and despite the fact I am returning to my retail job for the summer it is sooooo nice to be settled for a bit and not travelling back and forth to see my boyfriend and family and there is plenty of scope for spontaneous outings.

These past few weeks I have been mostly camping out in the Library doing my best to try and get as many points in my second year exams to give me the chance to hit the ground running when I go back to university in September. Third year is worth 2/3 of my overall degree mark so it really is the biggy and if I am honest it is already freaking me out a little.

Despite being a really bad blogger during exams I have been reasonably good at keeping up to date over on my Instagram and here are my highlights!




We had a  reunion of our Spain trip and I drank more than I usually do but I still managed to be tucked up in bed by 11pm!




Revising on the train journey back to Bangor. I really wasn't feeling enthusiastic about going back... well the thought of looming deadlines and exams is enough to put anyone off but my wonderful mum drove me to Chester station and got me a Costa hot chocolate, with marshmallows and suddenly my journey seemed a lot less daunting. Mums are the best.




I don't know if it is just me but around exam season I find that I do get a little stir crazy from spending all of my time in my room or at 'our' library table so one afternoon I took myself off to Cafe Nero for some serious chocolate cake and a change of work environment. It really is amazing how much my productivity was boosted by simply sitting somewhere else for a few hours.




Finally I decided that I needed a change of Filofax for the summer break and so I moved into my Crimson Malden. Initially I had bought it with the view of selling it on but I really struggled to part with it and as soon as I moved in it was clear why. I think I finally have planner peace! I am waiting for a few bits from etsy and then I will be doing a full set up tour!

Today is my first shift back at my retail job, so please do keep your fingers crossed for me!

I am planning a series of posts to help people prepare themselves for going to University so I would love to hear your input if you have any ideas of what you would like to see?

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BOOK REVIEW: Dancing in the Dark by Maureen Lee

Maureen Lee has long been one of my favourite authors, ever since I got into reading my Nan had been given me her copies of books from local authors who write about the Liverpool area. I am fascinated with the pressures society used to place on women and what life used to be like in the area I was growing up in. So when I was in need of a new book to read and spotted this in my local supermarket for a mere £1 and I thought it was worth a go. 

I am pleased to say that I wasn't disappointed and I found myself unable to put the book down and I was sneaking in chapters as often as I could. 

Amazon has a rather brief description of the book which is 

"Millie Cameron is not at all pleased when she finds herself obliged to sort through the belongings of her aunt Flo, who recently died. She hardly knew her aunt and besides, she has her own career to think about. But when she arrives at Flo's basement flat, Millie's interest is awakened.

As she sorts through her aunt's collection of photographs, letters and newspaper cuttings she finds herself embarking on a journey - a journey to a past which includes a lost lover and a secret child.

Picking through the tangled web of Flo's life, Millie makes the startling discovery that all the threads lead to herself . . . "

For me, the book was about Millie discovering herself by finding out about the life of her Aunt Flo who until her death she had only encountered once at a funeral. Millie is of a similar age to me and so some of the things that she is trying to figure out about herself were quite similar to what I have found myself going through in my early twenties and it was quite comforting to know that I was not alone in some of the doubts I had been having. I can't really say too much more without revealing a big twist that happens in the book but I highly recommend that you pick up a copy if you come across one.

In fact any Maureen Lee book comes highly recomended by me, I have yet to read one of her books that I did not enjoy!

What have you been reading lately? I have a 4 month summer soon so plan on doing plenty of reading!

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Places I have been... Barcelona (The Summer Edition)

Apologies for being a really bad blogger lately, long days in the library have resulted in me coming home and curling up in a ball with hot chocolate and netflix, and that isn't exactly blog worthy! 

I'm still working on the 3rd installation of my Andalucian Adventures but I thought that I would share with you some of the other places that I have travelled to!

I took a gap year before coming to university and although looking back I didn't do as much travelling as I could have done I still managed to squeeze in some pretty awesome places! First stop Barcelona in July! 

This isn't the main Plaza de Catalunya of Barcelona, however it was the main square in the gothic quarter where me and my best friend stayed for the duration of our trip... If anyone visits Barcelona and doesn't take a trip to the gothic quarter then they are seriously missing out, it is such a stunning area and it is filled with more authentic shops and restaurants than you find on the main tourist tracks. As my Spanish teacher used to say... Eat where the locals do. 

Which is exactly what we did when we stumbled into this cute little restaurant above (although I'm not sure quite how authentic the hotdog is!) 

I think it may be impossible for me to visit a new city and not check out their Zoo! Barcelona's offerings were surpassed my expectations (and that's coming from a girl who lives up the road from the infamous Chester Zoo). It was really cool to be able to see a Tiger properly like this, but don't worry he did have plenty of places to hide in his enclosure, he was just choosing to sunbathe in quite a prominent position!

Perhaps not the most traditional picture of Park Guell but it was one of my favourites, I loved the detailing on the Lizard's hand! Despite managing to get immensely lost on the way, Park Guell was perhaps one of my favourite places I visited whilst in Barcelona- there is something to be said for sitting in the shade, reading your book whilst people watching with your best friend. 

I don't know about you but I think that this Starbucks in the Maremagnum shopping centre quite possibly has THE best view of all Starbucks?! (well at least the ones I have been to) and Maremagnum itself is pretty awesome, for those of you who have never been to Barcelona- it is basically a shopping centre which is built on the sea.... ON THE SEA. Plus it has all of my favourite Spanish shops in it, ALL of which were currently having a sale when I visited #winning. 

We took the funicular (you have no idea how long it took me to learn to say that word!) and a cable car up to Sala Montjuic for an open air film festival and this was the view from the cable car :) 

A jazz band played before the film started (10pm!!!) and lots of the local's had come prepared with picnics and warm clothing. Me and my friend managed to neglect the fact that it might be a tad cold up in the mountains at 10pm at night and so spent a lot of the film huddled up under our picnic blanket but nonetheless it was one of the best experiences that I have ever had. You can hire deck chairs for a small fee and should you find yourself there I definitely recommend doing so!

I mentioned in my 8 nerdy facts that I had been to the Mammoth Museum in Barcelona and being the Zoology geek I am it was definitely a good way to kill a few hours whilst the rest of Barcelona was on Siesta! For anyone who is heading to Barcelona soon the website of the museum can be found here. 

Has anyone else been to Barcelona? Didn't you just love it? 

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Andalucian Adventures Part 2- Birds Galore

I finished Part 1 of my Andalucian adventures having just climbed a mahoosive mountain (I jest not, go take a look at that thing!). Our next stop was Donana National Park where we visited a wetlands site which was pretty serene, I mean just look at that! 

They had several strategically placed hides around the site and as we were pretty much the only visitors there at the time, we got to see plenty of wildlife! 

Like this little fella who if my ID skills serve me correctly is a 'Little Egret' 

He spent a lot of the time we were watching him fishing but unfortunately I didn't have quick enough reaction times to get an action shot of him in the process! (So this is him just before he took a plunge!)

This is perhaps one of my favourite photographs of the entire trip because I spent a lot of my trip pointing my camera at a butterfly, only for it to fly off just as I hit the shutter! I haven't managed to ID this butterfly yet so if there are any butterfly experts out there then any help would be greatly appreciated!

Right back to the birds! This is a Glossy Ibis and there were quite a few of them around at various hides but considering we were there about 5pm it is quite normal to see a lot of them on the reedbed at that time of the day. It is a shame because this photograph doesn't capture the true glossiness of the feathers of this bird!

The scenery of the wetlands took my breath away, there were picture perfect spots around every corner I turned and I am really regretting not getting snap happy for once in my life!

It amused me because the White Storks build their nests on pylons which looks really comical from a distance (in fact I found most of the mannerisms of the storks to be amusing!)

My final shot of the day! We then returned back to the hotel in El Rocio (a little town that resembles something out of an old western movie, no really, google it!) but the next morning we decided that as the group had loved our visit to the wetlands the previous day we would go out before breakfast (cue 7am starts!) and return for a morning bird watch. But oh boy was it worth it! 

For one thing we saw a Bittern and a Night heron; then we left the hide to see this beautiful sun rise through the woods and returned back to the hotel where I FINALLY got my first cuppa in Spain, I was having serious withdrawals by this point!

Writing this post has made me really nostalgic for my Field Trip and despite the pile of work I now have to do- I would do it again in a heart beat!


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TAG: 8 Nerdy Facts About Me

The lovely Joelle from February Girl shared her 'Inner Nerd' challenge for bloggers on Twitter last night and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to give it a go. I am a bit of a self confessed nerd after all!

So here are my 8 nerdy (and somewhat cringe worthy facts!)

1. I have read my Harry Potter books so much they fell apart
...Literally! So when my parents got me a new boxed set for my 21st Birthday, this is what happened!

2. I own 5 Filofax organisers and counting!

Most people don't understand the concept of owning one Filofax never mind multiple but I don't seem to be able to get enough lately!

3. I secretly wish that my life was a black and white movie sometimes

Preferably one that looks a bit like this...

4. I'm a massive Taylor Swift fan

This isn't necessarily nerdy per se but for a 21 year old, I think its borderline geeky!

5. I have willingly visited and researched a Mammoth Museum 

In Barcelona, whilst on holiday... yup!

6.  My ideal job would be to take over this guy

(David Attenborough for the less nerdy)

7.  I don't understand which colours go together and frequently have to send my mum pictures of my outfts before I leave the house!

8. I do Zoology and go on Field Trips to places like this

So thats my eight nerdy facts! If you've also done the tag I'd love it if you posted the link in the comments below! :)

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Andalucian Adventures Part 1- Views to die for

It has been little over a week since I returned from my university field trip to the National Parks of southern Spain, and after a good bath and plenty of catching up on sleep I have finally gotten around to sharing some of what I got up to with you all! Before I went on the trip I thought that I might gather enough material to fill one post full of what I did but now that I am sitting down to write it, it's going to be at least 3... eeep (well I did see an amazing amount of stuff packed into 10 days!) 

 After a hideous 2am meet up at the bus with little sleep beforehand as I was waaaaay to paranoid that I would somehow manage to sleep through the gazillion alarms I had set followed by a 6.40am flight from Manchester to Malaga then another 3 hour bus journey to our final location, the view in the picture above was very much appreciated. I'm telling you, eating dinner to that sunset is something that I will never forget, ever. 

We stayed at a place called Tajo del Aguila which was just the most serine place I think I have ever stayed and I really would reccomend it as a base for those who want to explore the natural surroundings of the area, I mean you really don't have to venture far, this view of the flora was taken walking down to the onsite lake!

And this little fellow (ID: Iberian wall lizard) was also spotted just basking in the sun at the side of the path and was quite ammenable to us all sitting and taking a photograph of it. I always get jealous of Mediterranean areas and other countries that have cute little reptiles running around all over the place (providing they cannot kill me that is!) 

Then there was some sunbathing by the lake (and swimming for those brave enough to jump in and embrace the cold water... you guessed it, I was not one of those people!) before heading back up to the hill for dinner and a much needed early night. 

The next morning after breakfast we all met on the patio ready to walk up the hill to the bus and whilst we were waiting for the slackers to hurry up- we came across this little guy which is a Rhinocerous beetle, pretty cool huh! 

Next up was my first mountain walk of the trip (I kid you not, I walked to the top of this- yes me, the girl who dodged PE in high school) It was a fun and very tiring walk with a smidge of getting lost in the mist but the amount of things that I saw totally makes up for it! I mean we saw an iberian deer!

There were tonnes and tonnes of pretty plants along the walk and I fear that if I stopped to photograph them all then I would still be up climbing the mountain now! This one really stuck out to me though, just because its different and I don't feel like I have seen anything quite like it here in the UK. 

I was amazed at how many creepy crawlies we came across whilst turning over rocks, this Harvest  Man Spider being a prime example. But fear not, we were responsible biologists and made sure to put any rocks back in the same position that we found them so that we didn't disturb any habitats or disrupt their micro-climates too much! 

This is another example of our finds from rock turning, believe it or not this is actually a Lizard, designed to look like a worm... pretty clever no? For those of you who are interested, it is a Slow worm Lizard and did a really cool defensive behaviour of flicking itself back and forwards frantically... the idea being that a predator (such as a bird) would not be able to actually get a hold of it. 

After a lunch break and more climbing we reached the top and stopped to admire just how peaceful and deserted it was... sometimes it really is a nice feeling to be able to look down and be like... I walked up here. 

All of that occurred in just 48 hours, madness! If you're doing a course which ever offers a Field Trip then I wholeheartedly recommend that you go (even if you live off of beans on toast for a month!) I'm already missing my field trip antics (and selfies!)

I hope you enjoyed Part 1... stay tuned for the next instalment shortly! 

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