This Week Vol. 5

This week I spent some time with Bella, and had the pleasure of photographing her for some of her outfit posts. Here are some of my favs.

I've also done quite a bit of shopping recently, both pre and post holiday hauls, and wanted to share a few of my favourite bits and bobs.  

Firstly, I bought these two tankini tops, both of which were on sale, from Peter Jones. I'm going to Greece next Wednesday for three weeks (I can't wait!), as a last hurrah/joint birthday celebration with my university friends. Time on this holiday is going to be split equally between chilling on the beach and partying in clubs, so I wanted to have some options for swimwear. I have a swimming costume that I love, but when I saw the pattern of this blue top and the style of black one I had to have them. I haven't bought a swimming costume in such a long time, the one I have now is actually one my mum bought that didn't fit her, so I think I'm allowed to spend a (little) bit on them.

I can't believe how well I did on this mini book haul! I got all these books for £3 from a Car Boot Sale! 4 out of these 5 books are on my to read list, so I couldn't believe my luck. I've been wanting to read Cloud Atlas and Eat, Pray, Love for a long time, and it's been hard to miss Gone Girl taking over. A friend of mine recently read The Handmaid's Tale and rated it really highly, so I thought I'd pick that up too. As for Face, it's Benjamin Zephaniah, what more is there to be said? Look forward to reviews of these when I get back from Greece!

I also purchased a few make-up/beauty items this month. I love wearing lipstick, but during my big move back from university I seem to have lost all the ones I own. So, before I went on holiday I thought I'd stock up. I got a variety of colours, mostly reds and dark purply colours, but I also branched out and bought a nude, which I have to say I am really liking. While on our Peter Jones spree (I say spree, we only bought about three things), I thought I'd have a look at the Guerlain counter as I'd run out of my perfume Insolence only about 6 months earlier. To my delight, it was on special offer. Half price! Woo, I really am doing well this month! That other perfume is a really nice, fresh lemon scent by Roger & Gallet. My mum had a voucher, so she got the ginger scented one.











and finally ...

• Loved this post from Elise on The Art of the Crop. It's something I'm not too good at as I hate to lose any of the photograph, but this has to change. Reading this post and seeing the difference a good crop can make has inspired me to take a second look at my photos and remember that they don't have to be perfect first time round!
• This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. OK, maybe not quite, but I can't believe I've not thought of this, or even seen a picture floating around the internet. 
• Just discovered Sea of Shoes, and am loving the hair. What with her and Skunkboy making it look so fantastic, I think I might have to go red when my hair grows out. I'm still at the awkward growing out phase at the moment, and am using it to experiment with some pretty wild colours. 
• As I'm writing this I'm listening to One Day More from the Les Mis Soundtrack. This stuff does not get old. 

What I'm Reading #2

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) | Mindy Kaling 

So, even though I still haven't got round to posting my full post on The Mindy Project (watch this space), I haven't exactly been quiet about my growing obsession with Mindy Kaling (just the other day I discovered a speech she gave to Harvard Law graduates earlier this year, and boy is it perfect. Damn). So the next step was, of course, to read her book. And all I can say is that it did not disappoint. Just the introduction had me in stitches; there's a particular section called 'Alternate Titles For This Book' that I think takes the award for the most hilarious list I've ever read.

I don't know how it's possible, because she's an incredibly successful Hollywood writer and actor and I'm an unemployed graduate living with my mum, but I feel like I have so much in common with Mindy. I also have so much respect for her, and she is so incredibly deserving of her success. Her book is really easy to read, and each chapter, whether a list, an essay or an anecdote, is perfectly crafted to hilarity. I realised reading this book that that Mindy Lahiri and Mindy Kaling are more similar than I thought (you know what they say, write from experience). You get to hear the true story behind some of the hilarious situations Mindy (and indeed other characters) gets into on the show. In conclusion, this book is currently only £3.50 on Amazon, and for entertainment value per pound, you're getting a ridiculously good deal. 

Bossypants | Tina Fey

So, I'm not going to say I didn't like Bossypants, but I think reading it straight after Mindy's book was a mistake. I don't know why I feel a connection to Mindy that I don't to Tina Fey; they're both significantly older than me, successful, intelligent and funny, yet it's Mindy that I want to be my best friend. I think maybe I'm slightly intimidated by (scared of) Tina Fey. She seems like an adult, she's married, she has children etc. I doubt she'd want to fangirl with me about the millions of TV shows I watch.

Anyway, moving on. The book. It's good, but to me, not anywhere near as good as Mindy's book. Bossypants is more biography than IEHOWM?, and although it was definitely interesting, it just made me feel like I've missed my chance. I know, I know, it's not all about me, but reading a book like this it's hard not to compare your life and choices to those you are reading about. There are definitely some laugh out loud moments in the book, but not as many as I'd expected, or hoped for. I expected to hear some stories about writing Mean Girls, but there were only one or two passing references. I think what says it all is the fact that I read it just under two weeks ago, but am struggling to remember anything that happened, whereas I can still recall specific scenes from The Shining Girls that I read over two months ago.

Orange Is The New Black | Piper Kerman

I've been wanting to read this since waaaay back in 2013 when I saw the first episode of Orange Is The New Black and it became my favourite thing. Ever. However, as I'm sure I constantly mention, I've not really had time. Although I did do a fair bit of reading at university, it wasn't, unfortunately, for pleasure. I did really enjoy reading this book, but it is significantly different from the TV show, which I both liked and disliked. 

It was fun to try to identify which character was which (as they have different names in the show), and even which parts of which characters were merged to make new ones in the show. Quite a few things in the book happen in the show, but at different points in the story, to make it more dramatic, and I suppose, TV friendly. But here's the bit I didn't really like, if I was Piper Kerman I'd be pretty pissed off with just how much is changed from the book. I don't want to say that the TV show makes prison seem harder than it is, because how the hell would I know, but they do seem to take small instances from the book and really blow them out of proportion. For example, I think there's one mention of lesbian sex in the book, whereas the show makes it seem like that's all people do. I don't know, but it just makes me reconsider the authenticity of the show. Which I shouldn't! Why does it matter really? The show's fantastic, it's perfection. 

I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, but I wouldn't recommend reading the book if you're a die hard fan of the show like I am. I wonder if I saw the Harry Potter films before reading the books I'd feel like this? I love the show so much, but now I know that it really is fictional, I feel like I love it just a tiny bit less. I don't know, maybe I just need to re-watch the show, it has been about a month. 

The Cuckoo's Calling | Robert Galbraith

Damn this book was good. I didn't have any expectations for this book going in, I just knew it was by J.K. Rowling, and therefore had to read it (bad I know). I've not really read a proper murder mystery before, but if they're all as good as this, I'll definitely be reading more in future (starting with the sequel to this!). Although this book is long, I didn't find anything superfluous. Just enough time is spent introducing the characters as exploring and developing the story. I couldn't put this book down; from page one I needed to find out who the killer was! And it wasn't easy, throughout the book my opinion on 'who done it' changed multiple times, pretty much every character that was introduced was a suspect, and I loved it! The characters are all fully fleshed out and intriguing, from the books' protagonist all the way through to the victims doorman and driver. Altogether a great book that I would recommend to anyone with a bit of time on their hands (as I said, it's long).

Volume One | Volume Three

Dolly In ... Venice

I got 24 hours in Venice this time around, not because I don't like it, it's one of my favourite cities (controversial I know), but because I've already been there twice before, the hostels are ridiculously expensive, and it just kinda worked out that way. Considering I spent ten of those hours sleeping, I think I did pretty well in squeezing everything in!

I walked from my hostel to St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge on day one. That doesn't sound like much, but it was about an hours' walk away, and I did pretty much stop and look in EVERY shop. I was looking for one thing in particular,  a Murano glass necklace to replace the one I bought three years ago that broke. Now, they sell these necklaces absolutely everywhere, but since I was there before, they've changed the way they make them. Whereas before there used to be a hole in the glass through which string was threaded and tied, now they attach a metal ring to the glass and thread the string though there. I of course wanted the first type, because that's what I had before, and I'm sure will last longer. Out of the fifty or so Murano glass shops I looked in, only 2 sold this type of necklace. I bought one at each. 

I'd love to go back to Venice in the future, maybe for my mutually discussed, pre-planned engagement? 

Holiday Jams

The music I listen to on holiday has a lasting effect, way after I've returned home. We had a pretty odd drama teacher at my school (I'm sure he was 'brilliant'); one lesson consisted of chatting to each other while peeling oranges. Only at the end did we learn that this was meant to cause an association between the smell of oranges and that lesson. It didn't, but now I see what he was getting at. This happens to me with holiday music.

For instance, I can't listen to Frank Ocean's Swim Good and the entire Channel Orange without being transported back to my interrailing trip two years ago. Specifically Croatia. Similarly, The Miseducation (which I discovered embarrassingly late), takes me back to a family holiday in Austria 3/4 years ago.

So far on this trip I've been listening to Candy Hearts on repeat, occasionally mixing in the odd R'n'B track here and there. I first discovered Candy Hearts two or three years ago, and fell in love with their EP All The Ways To Disappear. Their first full length came out earlier this year, but until now I've not really had the time to fully appreciate it (by this I mean bombard my ears with it until I can stand it no longer. You'll be pleased to hear I'm nowhere near that stage yet!). I think I might do a full post on them at some point, but for now here's three tracks to get you started, but I can't recommend their album and EPs enough.

1. Coffee With My Friends

2. Bad Idea

3. All The Ways You Let Me Down

So apart from Candy Hearts, I've been loving Ariana Grande's new stuff (no surprises there). Best Mistake is a totally new direction for her, and it's perfect. I wish there was a whole album out there that sounded just like Big Sean's part. I'd never stop listening to it. Frank Ocean is the most similar I can think of right now, but if you have any recommendations please do let me know!

Finally, classic me, jumping on the bandwagon slightly (/extremely) late, I've been listening to Sam Smith. So I did download his EP Nirvana earlier in the year, for the acoustic version of Latch, but I only just got round to getting his album. I like it, but the singles are definitely the stand out tracks. In particular Stay With Me and I'm Not The Only One which makes me tear up every time I listen to it (more proof that I am an emotional wreck). I don't know why particularly, maybe it's Messina, maybe I'm just jealous of Sam Smith's career (it should be me!). My eyes are naturally green. My hair not so much, but anyway, listen to it. It's a good song.

Dolly In ... Slovenia

Sorry if these posts are becoming repetitive and boring, but I've still not stayed in a hostel that has (free) access to a computer. Access I need in order to be able to upload my photos, beautify and format my posts. (EDIT: I have now uploaded some pictures from my camera, they're not edited, but it's all I can manage for now)

For the last two days I've been in Slovenia. I've been here before, on my interrailing trip two years ago but, to put it mildly, it was a massive fail. Our train from Zagreb to Ljubljana had been delayed, meaning that the hostel we'd booked had closed, and we had nowhere to stay! My brave (and cheap) friends decided they'd wait out the night in a park, but I took the sensible (and wimpy) route by opting to shell out for a hotel for the night. This meant that where I got a good night's sleep and a huge breakfast, they got drenched and got about an hours sleep on concrete. You decide who did the right thing. (Hint: it was me.)

The next day we only had the morning to explore Ljubljana, and because my companions hadn't really slept, we ended up spending most of it in McDonalds with them eventually nodding off one by one. This time however, we did it a bit better. (Slash I'm just tagging along with a group who've already organised their whole trip, so ... Score!)

We allocated a whole day to explore Ljubljana, and ended up doing a free walking tour as well as tasting the national delicacies and spending a lot of money in the supermarket. (I also managed to squeeze in dying my hair, but that's neither here nor there.) The walking tour was ok, but surprisingly walking-light. I guess the city's a lot smaller than Budapest, but I didn't enjoy the fact that 80% of the tour (which was three hours long) was spent standing in one place. We did however see some really beautiful things, like the cathedral, dragon and triple bridges, as well as the bustling main square. It seems like a really pretty place, but also very conservative and religious, probably won't need to go back there anytime soon.

The next day we got the train to Lake Bled. It's only about and hour from Ljubljana, and then about ten minutes bus ride from the station. It was so beautiful! Unfortunately it was pretty misty and rainy, meaning I didn't get the photos I wanted (glittering water and what not), but it was still one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been. In the afternoon I took a boat to the central island (forgetting that I get incredibly sea sick) where I had a look round the church and ate some delicious hazelnut cake.

I have a strange relationship with water, as I've already mentioned, I love to swim. In swimming pools. But when it comes to the sea and other natural bodies of water, I'm a bit more reserved. I don't like not knowing how deep the water is, hence why I didn't join my friends canyoning. I've had so many fantastic opportunities to jump off cliffs and water falls, in the old town in Dubrovnik, in the Grand Canyon, but I'm always too scared. Maybe I should add something to my bucket list. 'Stop being such a wimp'?. 

Dolly In ... Budapest

So, let me get this out of the way before I start, just so we all know where we stand, I freaking love Budapest! I spent four days there, and can say I got a true feel for the city. With that said, I'm going to name the five things I like most about Budapest. If you're interested, read on ....

1. Culture

Everywhere you turn there's something great to look at, whether it's the architecturally fantastic opera house or the stunning St Peters Basilica, or just the big, black wooden doors that line the streets, hiding beautiful indoor courtyards (and my two hostels).  I took a walking tour that lasted about 3 hours, and was shown the best of the Pest side, including the Basilica and the Jewish Quarter, as well as the castle on the Buda side from which you get incredible views of the city. Not forgetting the famous Chain Bridge that crosses the great dividing Danube river. At the other end of the number one metro line, deeper into Pest, is the main park, where the biggest baths are. There's some fantastic sculptures here in Heroes Square.

2. Everyone is/speaks English

Ok, so I know this is not a positive for everyone (in fact its probably some people's nightmare), but when you're spending most of your days and nights alone, it can be great to not have to worry about not being able to book your ticket, order a meal or pay for your hostel due to the language barrier. It also makes me feel a little bit safer and more comfortable if I'm walking around a new city and hear some English people talking. It makes me feel a bit less far from home. 

3. The public transport

Really?! Public transport? LAAAAAAME. No, no, no. Give me a second to explain myself. The Hungarian language is very different to English (I swear one of the tube stops was called Uzo Aduba), and yet I still managed to navigate it with my usual level of grace (which consists of me both talking to myself and dancing at any and all moments I'm expected to stand still) and ease.

There are four metro lines in Budapest, and they are four different colours, yellow, red, blue and green. Simple. Unlike your varying shades of blue and red, your teals, and your burgundies of the London Underground. (Don't confuse this for complaining. I love the tube, but I also happen to speak the same language as it.) There are stops at every and all major landmarks, making it easy for the flying visitor.

The lines are also pretty different when you get on them, making it easy to identify if you've confused your metro 1 for your 4 etc. The 1, as its name suggests was the first metro line in Budapest (and the second in Europe - thank you free walking tour), so the cars are pretty old and rickety. They remind me of a Disney ride. The stations are all just below ground so they're very light, allowing you to admire the wood paneling and tiled walls. The 2 and 3 get steadily more high tech until you reach the 4. It's the Hungarian version of the jubilee line (wow I sound like a nerd), and goes between the two main train stations of Budapest.

The busses and trams are also pretty great, and if you're not of a nervous disposition (read: me), you'd probably be able to go a whole holiday not paying for transport. You don't buy your tickets on board, and no one seems to come on a check (but if you do get fined, don't blame me!).

4. Baths. Baths. Baths.

The baths were definitely my favourite part of the trip so far (yep, I said it), as I mentioned in my previous post. In ascending order, my three favourite things are swimming, swimming outdoors, and swimming outdoors in a wave pool (ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but they're all definitely up there). We went to the second biggest baths in Budapest, for reasons I explained in my last post, but they were still pretty large. There were 2 heated indoor pools, one heated outdoor pool, and one outdoor, cool wave pool. For access to all of this, as well as a locker and restaurant, I paid about 5000f, the equivalent of about £13. I would absolutely recommend the baths to anyone going to Budapest, as for that money you can stay there all day.

5. Everything's so cheap!

Waiting for our train to Ljubljana I realised I still had about 2000 forints (about £6/7) left, so thought I'd spend it on snacks for the train. Boy did I underestimate how hard this would be. In the end I ended up with a 2 litre bottle of water,  a cherry coke, a massive bag of crisps, 3 croissant things and 2 packets of savoury biscuits, and this only came to 1000f! £3 for all that! Yeah, and that's just the start of it, you can get excellent food for about £5, and less excellent, but still decent food for around £3. Altogether a win on the money front!

I loved Budapest, and will definitely be going back, if only to go to the main baths and have a night out in the ruin bars on more than a few hours sleep!

Dolly On ... Holiday!

Apologies for not posting on Friday, but I was having a last minute rush to get packed for the holiday I was taking on Saturday, for six weeks, that I booked on Thursday. I know, short notice much? Anyway, one of my school friends was travelling with some of her uni friends and asked if I wanted to join, which of course I did, but I had the secret cinema on Thursday which I'd paid £50 for, so wasn't able to leave until after that. The plan is to hang out with them for a week or so, then explore Italy, then meet up with some other people in Greece.

I booked a flight to Budapest on Saturday at 8 am, which for some reason meant I had to wake up at 3. Urgh! But I got here in one piece, and managed to read quite a bit of Bossypants on the plane. I took a bus and a tube from the airport to the centre where I checked in at my hostel. It was very small, there was only one room, with six beds, and one bathroom, but it was actually really nice. The staff were great, and so was the location, there wasn't really anything else I needed. I met up with my friends in the evening, and we went to the most delicious Thai place (I know I should probably be eating traditional Hungarian food, but ... whatever, I'm very picky) and had pad thai. All of us. And oh my goodness was it delicious! (So delicious in fact that I had it for dinner the next day too! And wouldn't even mind having it again today. But I'm getting ahead of myself.) We then planned to go out to some of the famous ruin bars they have here, but I only made it to one. (Remember at the beginning when I told you that I woke up at 3 am, well here's where that bit rears it's ugly head.) The bat was called Szimpla (they seem to love putting random z's in everything over here), and I had actually been there before a couple of years ago. Anyway, after purchasing my malibu and coke and finding a seat, I could feel myself doing that awkward thing where your head starts to go because you're falling asleep and can't keep it up (that's what she said, I know). So that was the end of that wild night. It ended before it began.

The next day we headed to these incredible baths, not the main baths though, as the night before there'd been an insane party there that had apparently turned into a massive orgy, and apparently there were used condoms everywhere. Eew, right!? So anyway, the baths we did go to were awesome, there were indoor and outdoor naturally heated pools that kind of felt like you were taking a bath with loads of strangers, but strangely that didn't seem the bother me. Maybe there was something in the water ;) The highlight of the baths was the wave pool, yes, you read that right, the WAVE POOL! Every hour for 15 minutes most of the people in the complex headed to this massive outdoor pool. It was awesome, but also pretty strange, to see a pool filled with near 100 adults all smiling and having fun. Maybe it's just me, or England, but at swimming pools it's usually people doing lengths. Exercise and what not. And at wave pools, or any other water/fun mash up, it's usually full of children. So this Hungarian, fun-filled adult soup was unique, and I loved it. I'm such a cheap date, if you want to impress me, just take me to a wave pool.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now, but ill try to post something on Wednesday. Not sure if you've noticed, or care, or whatever, but I try to post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I will continue to do that for the rest of my trip, wifi permitting. I'm writing this on my phone, so excuse the lack of formatting and the poor quality of my phone pics (they're probably not actually that bad, but ill apologize just in case anyone's offended by the lack of DSLR quality pics). So, see you guys soon, I may or may not be in Ljubljana.

This Week Vol. 4

So this past week or so I've been kitten-sitting for a friend of my mum, and I had a really great time chilling, relaxing, watching films and playing with cats! Look forward to a LOT of film reviews in the coming days (weeks?), but for now here's a kitten.

After spending such a long time with these baby cats, coming home, my cats look like monsters! They're HUGE!So I also spent a day at The Chelsea Physic Garden, and managed to snap some great photos of the plants, and the many, many wasps.

On a totally unrelated note, Anaconda is such a tune. If you haven't heard it yet, it samples Baby Got Back, and is awesome. The Flawless Remix is also pretty epic.

Dolly On ... Becoming Vegan

I was born in 1993, when Mad Cow Disease was the talk of the town. My mum, being the hypochondriac that she is, decided to vow off meat, and raise little old me as a vegetarian. As I got older, and the fear of Mad Cow abated, my mother went back to eating meat, but I did not. There were various opportunities along the way (as well as some very disapproving family members) for me to become a meat-eater, but for one reason or another, I did not. Sometimes it was because of the animals, sometimes I think I just liked to be different. By the time I was in secondary school, two out of my three closest friends were vegetarian, and my diet moved away from being a choice, to just being a part of who I was. I won't pretend I've never been tempted to eat meat, growing up I dreamed of going to a restaurant with my family and being able to choose anything on the menu! But, whether by choice or just habit, to this day I have never eaten meat. 

So, why, and when, did I go vegan? I'd been thinking about it for a while to be honest, since I read something about dairy being bad for your voice, but it was when I watched the documentary Vegucated that I found I could no longer even think about putting a product of animal origin into my mouth. The film follows three meat eaters who convert to veganism for six weeks, during which time they are well and truly 'vegucated'. They are taught how to lead a healthy vegan lifestyle, from where to look for vegan products to how to get protein in their diets. But, they're also show what it looks like on dairy farms, and how badly cows, chickens, and other farm animals are treated. They show the artificial insemination of cows, and the removal of their young, and explain that when the cows are no longer able to produce young, they're killed. I'd never really investigated dairy production before, but it is truly horrifying. 

Since I watched that film, back in March, I've tried my hardest not to eat anything of animal origin. I won't lie, it's been hard, and I've very nearly ordered a whole pizza from Dominos just to satisfy my cheese cravings, but I've stuck with it, and can see myself being vegan for the rest of my life. The first few weeks after watching that film were the easiest, if I'm trying to give something up, I do best if I go cold turkey (that's exactly how I gave up biting my nails). In those first few weeks, if I even looked at a bottle of milk or a packet of cheese, the image of a female cow being artificially inseminated against her will flooded my mind. This image pulled me through. 

I feel that since I've become vegan, my diet has actually become more varied! As a vegetarian I had a pretty unhealthy diet. I ate a lot of cheese. A lot. I'd eat a lot of pasta, and bread and potatoes, basically anything I could eat with cheese. Now though, as a vegan, I feel like I've had to rewrite the entire recipe book in my head. I never used to like baked beans, but now I have them with everything! I'm eating a much bigger variety of vegetables, from carrots and broccoli to sweet potatoes and kale. Although my diet has technically become more 'limited', I actually feel like the amount of food I can eat has doubled. OK, that's not technically true, I do miss the choice you get being a vegetarian. Being able to go to a shop and pick up a sandwich, or going into a cafe and grabbing a slice of cake, is a thing of the past, but it's something I've got to deal with.

Now I realise I've started to talk about this like it's an illness I'm getting over, working one day at a time to see myself through it, and, of course, it's not. It's a choice I've made. But the fact that I chose to live this lifestyle doesn't make it any less difficult. If I'm really craving cheese and you say to me 'well, you chose not to eat it', while true, it's not very helpful. The choice I've made, to me, is a no-brainer. Living any lifestyle that is not vegan just seems incredibly selfish to me. What gives humans the right to treat animals like a product? Animals are alive, they have hearts, and lungs, and blood pumping around their bodies. They have brains! They can think! They may not realise they are being kept ripe for slaughter, but a female cow knows when her new-born calf is taken away from her as soon as it's born. Allowing an animal to go through pain in order for me to have grated cheese on my pasta is just not worth it. It's selfish.

It seems that as people get older, having grown up seeing eating meat as 'just the way it is', there seems to be less questions about their diet. I'm guilty of this myself, I never really questioned my diet growing up, I actually thought I was doing a really good thing being a vegetarian (which I was, to an extent). I think that veganism and vegetarianism should be discussed with children at school, if for nothing else than to let them know that there are other options out there. There are so many questions I'd like to ask about meat-eaters, like why cows, pigs, chicken and sheep? What have these particular animals done that's so bad they deserve to be farmed to death? I've spoken to my friends about this, and while most would turn their noses up at even the thought of eating a horse, they're absolutely fine to go out and buy a Big Mac. I think this is the thing that annoys me the most about meat eaters, it's the fact that it's a blind following of the 'rules'. It's not even a choice anymore. I know I am always looking to break the rules, but in this case I think it's fair. Eating dead animals is just the way it goes, nobody (or very few) questions this. 

Over the past few months, as I've said, I've been very tempted to go back to being a vegetarian (who am I kidding, to eating cheese!), but I've taken the time to think about it, and have realised that this is the self-centered option. I could eat cheese, but then I'm just contributing to the culture of factory farming and treating animals like they're a commodity. Over the years, so many meat-eaters have said to me that they would consider becoming vegetarian if meat didn't taste so good (usually they mean bacon). I've usually just nodded along politely and explained that I wouldn't know, because I've never tasted meat, but I wish I'd responded differently. I wish I'd asked these people why they think their personal experience of delicious food is worth more than the life of an innocent animal. I'd like to hear what they'd have to say to that.

Reading this back I feel like I've strayed from talking about veganism, to being down-right mean! I don't intend to be, I just have a lot of feelings, and it really helps to get them all down on paper. Or at least virtual paper. If you're reading this, I don't want you to feel offended, I just want you to think. I would love if one person read this and thought about their diet. Not in a calorie-counting way, but in an ethical, self-less way. 

Thanks for reading. None of these pictures are mine, but they are click-through. 

To read the rest of the Dolly On ... series, click here!

This Week Vol. 3

Obsessing over everything Mindy Kaling does: watch this and this

Watching The Amazing Spiderman 2, surprised I liked this considering I hate the whole reboot thing

Listening to Jessie J's new single with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj

Enjoying cat-sitting for a family friend, gonna miss kitten snuggles

Trying to find the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe (and failing)

Dreaming about my future travels

Planning for the future. Ahhh career plans.