i heart you, diet coke

Dear Diet Coke,

You have quenched my thirst for all these years.  Nothing beats the jaggy, fizzy feeling of your bubbles when I’m thirsty.  Lately it’s been hard.  People have been so nasty about us, they keep telling me that you’re bad for me and full of chemicals, but all I see is your good side.  Sometimes just knowing that you are there chilling in my refrigerator is enough to put a big smile on my face.  I can’t seem to keep away from you, you are like a drug to me.  I’ve tried so many times to cut you out of my life, but everytime I miss you so much.  I love you Diet Coke and I have a bit of a crush on your brother Vanilla Diet Coke who isn’t around as much anymore which makes me sad.  I just wanted to let you know that you make me smile and I will never give you up!

always,

Lisa xo

 I am also loving the photo in this blog.  It has 3 things in it that rock my world…Lolita sunglasses, Diet Coke and Twizzlers!

(image @ weheartit)

An Old Friend

The last 2 days have been a bit manic for me.  I had bought the boy a driving experience day for Christmas, driving his favourite car, a Nissan GTR, around a race track.  Today was the first date we could get it booked for, so yesterday me, the boy and my parents (as my Dad was to record the day in photographs) jumped in the car and drove the 5 hours from our home to Leicester in England.  After a long drive we were starving and we hunted around until we found somewhere to suit us all (me wanting vegan friendly food and the boy not liking spicy food) and we came across The Golden Dragon.  It didn’t look much from the outside, or the inside for that matter but it seemed to have a good choice for vegetarians so we settled on it.  Well, I really learned not to judge a book by it’s cover.  The food was incredible.  I’ve eaten in really high end, fancy Chinese restaurants that I thought were amazing but this place was unbelievable.  I had Salt and Chilli Aubergine to start, which I’ve never seen on a Chinese menu before but was delicious.  I followed that with Tofu with Sweet & Sour Sauce and steamed rice which was cooked to perfection and for dessert…..Toffee Banana.  I have had banana fritters before but I had never had toffee banana.  It’s basically a banana fritter that has been dipped in caramel which has solidified around it, so you get a hard outer shell much like a toffee apple with a hot banana inside. Two words….UH MAZING.  It really was one of the best meals I’ve eaten.  If you ever happen to be in Nuneaton, look it up.  To top off a great meal, I got a really nice message in my fortune cookie, one which suits me to a tee……

“Your feet will touch the soil of many countries”

I guess I am going to be a traveller forever.  After dinner my Dad and I went for a walk along the canal that our hotel was situated on.  It was filled with houseboats and as we were walking we got chatting to a man who was mooring his boat.  It turned out he had moved to the UK from Yemen 47 years before and he had recently turned 65.  He wasn’t happy in his job and had an epiphany of sorts that he should quite his job, retire and buy a houseboat…..so he did.  He’d never driven a boat before in his life.  But now him and his partner live in their houseboat and stay for up to a couple of months in one place before they move on.  It really inspired me.  It’s exactly the kind if life I hope the boy and I have one day…only maybe instead of a houseboat we will have a vintage VW Camper or Air Stream, travelling around America.

The boy really enjoyed his day of driving and I’m happy it made him happy, but the day meant a lot of standing about for me.  After that we were back in the car for another 5 hour drive.  Needless to say, I got home tired and a bit cranky and needed some home comfort so I turned to an old friend.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides came into my life when I was about 17.  I hadn’t known anything about it but pretty much chose it based on the cover.  I was literally hooked from the first line.  The writing is beautiful and the story is both captivating and devastating.  I’m not going into the plot right now.  Since buying the book I have read it at least once a year and I currently own 3 identical copies of the book (I pick them up in thrift stores just incase I damage one or I find someone worthy to pass it along to) and a copy of the book has travelled in my backpack on all the trips I’ve made.  Like I said, it’s an old friend.  I can dip in and out of it when I feel like it and know whole sections off by heart but I never tire of it.  In fact, it’s becoming more beloved to me as time goes by.  I also adore the movie adaptation by Sofia Coppola.  The imagery and styling that she uses make it look like one big hazy, soft-focused, vintage, 70s dream.  It inspires me.  I love the clothing, the Catholic statues, everything about it is just how I imagined it would be and Sofia really couldn’t have done it any better than she has.  Long story short, I also watch the movie a lot and tonight after a long day, I am looking forward to being in my pjs, drinking a huge mug of decaf green tea and eating some dark chocolate with chilli and letting my old friend, The Virgin Suicides, comfort me.

(images via weheartit)

Mademoiselle Coco

Words can’t express how much I adore Coco Chanel.  I completely admire the way she single-handedly built a fashion empire after coming from very humble beginnings and I think she is an inspiration to women everywhere.  Here are some of my favourite words of wisdom from Mademoiselle Chanel herself….

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”

“As long as you know men are like children, you know everything.”

“A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”

“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness.  And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny.  And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”

“I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.”

The Other Boy In My Life

Apart from the boy, for the last little while I have had another boy taking up a lot of my time.  Some nights he has been coming to bed with me, some mornings I have been waking up to him and really I have spent a lot of time just hanging out with him.  His name is Harry Potter.  I decided recently to re-read the Harry Potter books and it’s been awesome.  They totally take over my imagination and I get swept up in the magic of it all.  J.K. Rowling is a genius, in my opinion anyway.  She has created a world and characters and even a sport, Quidditch, which have become beloved by not only myself but millions of adults and children the world over.  I still can’t believe that a lot of the Harry Potter story was written in a cafe in Edinburgh that I have frequented on many occasions.  I love Rowling’s style of writing and one of my favoutie passages is…

“…by the time they finished, moths were fluttering low over the table and the air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle.  Harry was feeling extremely well fed and at peace with the world as he watched several gnomes sprinting through the rose bushes, laughing madly and closely pursued by Crookshanks.”

I love all the characters but my two absolute favourites remain,

Luna Lovegood, who is bohemian and weird and wonderful

Ron Weasley, who I think was the first ginger boy to catch my eye!

 The other characters are classics.  Professor Snape with his dramatic over-pronunciation of every word he says, Hagrid a big, friendly giant with a flowery umbrella for a wand.  The entire Weasley family are great and I imagine spending a summer with them in The Burrow would be awesome! 

 And what can I say about Albus Dumbledore?  The greatest headmaster in the world.  The wisest man in the entire wizarding world who gives amazing advice….

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilites.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

and my favourite…

I also adore the Harry Potter movies and think that they have done the books justice.  The casting has been spot-on, from Alan Rickman as Snape to Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, every character has been perfect.  The movies are a feast for the eyes and I long to be at Hogwarts sitting at a table in the great hall with the ceiling bewitched to look like a starry sky and a feast of food before me.  I cannot wait for the first part of the final movie to come out later this year.  I will be sad that it’s the end.  I am excited about the opening of the Wizard World Of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Florida this year.  I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to visit, but I look forward to the day I can spend time in Hogsmeade, drinking Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks pub, buy Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Beans from Honeydukes, a Sneakoscope from Zonko’s and a wand of my very own from Ollivanders.  A little bit of me hopes everyday when the mailman has been that there will be a letter addressed to me sealed with a Hogwarts stamp, telling me I have been accepted to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry! 

(images via weheartit)