Meeting Lewis Watson!

I was so lucky to stumble across a meet and greet event on Facebook at the HMV in Reading the other day for Lewis Watson's release of his new album 'The Morning', so yesterday I went down there and all I had to do to get in was buy the album from HMV which I was planning to do anyway! I was given a wristband and I was given access!

First off, we got to listen to some of the songs off the album live which was just incredible - he shared the stories and meanings behind the songs and he sounded identical to the record which is rare these days! I was blown away by how much emotion he put into each song and it makes me so happy to see someone that I've listened to and admired for years get recognition!

I did get some videos but unfortunately they won't upload properly, otherwise I would show you how great he is!!

We then got to meet him and get our albums signed! He was so lovely and thanked me for buying the album and coming which was amazing - he was so humble and sweet and I wish I'd had more time to talk to him properly!

Lewis and I, thank you to the security guard that took the photo!

Such a lovely cover!

It's signed! 

I listened to the album on the way home and I'm actually in love, I don't dislike any of the songs which is rare for an album! My favourites from the album are probably holding on, into the wild, stay, close, halo, sink or swim and castle street. 

You can buy the album from HMV, iTunes and Lewis Watson's online store.

You can also listen to the album on Spotify.

Jess xx

Food, glorious food!

For this time round, our topic for the Blogger Challenge is food!

As I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands, I don't get the opportunity to cook much but when I get the chance, I love it! I'm actually not bad either which is always a good sign with Uni and having to cook for myself looming over my head!

As I wasn't really sure what to do for this post, I've decided to find links to recipes of sweet food/snacks I would like to try and make at some point in the future!

White Chocolate Candy Corn Popcorn

I was obviously going to include this - an improvement on my current favourite treat!

Pull Apart Cinnamon Roll

I love cinnamon and this looks so nice! I can't wait to make this one day!

Pink Lemonade Doughnuts

You may have realised I have a bit of a sweet tooth...these sound amazing and I assume they can be made with any fruit juice!

If you guys try any of these, tell me how they go!
Jess xx

Challenge post five.

Book review: The Rosie Project.

Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman. A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos. But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling?

I bought this book when I went to Guildford with Kate in half term after wanting it for ages and I'm so glad I did! 

This definitely isn't a typical romance story as Don is the most brilliant and different protagonist I've ever come across in a book. He leads an incredibly structured life, planned out to the minute and a complete sticker to the rules - most likely living with undiagnosed Aspergers syndrome. He's blunt and quite incapable of interpreting people's emotions which creates a comical but loveable character. Then Rosie enters his life at the same time as he decides to create 'The Wife Project'; a 16 page detailed to help him find the perfect wife (non-smoker, omnivore, doesn't drink/drinks moderately etc.) and throws his life into chaos. Don is obsessed with a new project - the Father Project which leads him on an adventure across continents and closer to Rosie.

The book is written in first person so we feel a connection with Don as he struggles with his inner conflict between helping Rosie or carrying on with his constant, structured lifestyle in his overly formal and somewhat geeky narration. The character development of Don is also brilliantly done by Simsion as each slight change is analysed by Don, showing his base personality is still there no matter how much his life has been thrown up in the air. 

The other important characters (Rosie, Gene and Claudia) are each given fantastic plots and their own quirks which make them equally loveable. Even more minor characters such as the Dean have little pieces to give them a 3D personality instead of being flat, filler characters with no real purpose but to move the plot on. 

I finished this incredibly quickly as I found it quite an easy read despite some technical genetics discussions! I was funny, quite sad at times and generally brilliant - I can't recommend this book enough - it's probably made it into my top 20 books and I will definitely be re reading it!

I hope you guys pick this up as it's such a great book!

Jess xx

On the same note...

I also found this short story by Haruki Murakami - it's incredible and will only take 5 minutes to read at most!

Jess xx

A Day out in London

Mark came up to see me straight after I got back from Sicily and we went to London for the day which was amazing! He stayed over 3 nights which was lovely! We just stayed in on Thursday which was nice and relaxed `very good after walking around for a week straight!)
On Friday we decided to go in to London which was super exciting because I haven't been for ages! I love London so it was really nice to go to loads of different places (thank you travel card!) and see parts of London I haven't properly seen before. We went to Covent Garden first and looked around a few shops which was nice; I really like it there and I really want to go back again! I finally got to go to a Kate Spade shop! It was honestly so amazing. The shop was so cute and quirky and the displays were adorable! I'll do an extra blog about it with pictures of the shop because it was so amazing! I found an absolutely gorgeous top down from £105 to £42 and Mark was just incredible and bought it for me because he's completely perfect! It has stripes and bows on it; two of my favourite things so how could I resist?!
We then went to Portobello road/Notting Hill to have a look at the market and it was so nice! It wasn't too busy so we got to look around the stalls properly! We also stumbled across the Hummingbird bakery, which I'd heard about before from Carrie Hope Fletcher (ItsWayPastMyBedTime on YouTube!) so it made me really happy to be able to try them! I got a red velvet cupcake because I've heard so much about them! The cakes were quite expensive but so worth it, mine was really tasty! It was a really pretty shop and the cakes were pretty too!

How cute are these cupcakes?!

I loved this picture on the wall!

We returned to Covent Garden because we had seen all of the market and we stumbled across a sweet shop called SugarSin that was the cutest thing ever! We got some little pots of sweets that are really nice! I got fruit chews, got my brother berry chews and Mark got Banoffee jelly beans! I'll put the pictures on the same blog post as the Kate Spade shop pictures because it was equally cute!

Kate Spade top, Hummingbird bakery cupcakes (red velvet and chocolate caramel),
Fruit sweets from SugarSin and a Hummingbird bakery brownie
- from Instagram

Jess xx

Food for Thought (random thought of the day)

*random, rambly, nerdy post ahead*

Because of my cold, I keep losing my sense of smell and taste. It makes me realise just how much of our taste comes from the textures we feel on our tongue when we eat! Also, our tongues can still detect the sweetness/saltiness of the food so it feels like we're tasting what we're eating, when in reality, we're just feeling and getting whether its sweet/salty. The actual flavour is only a teeny part of food! So much more is involved which I find awesome! 

I also think that if you've tried the food before, our memories put the flavour in our heads so it's like you're eating normally! Obviously that sounds like you're just tasting it normally, but if you can't smell, you can't actually taste!

My brain thinks of the weirdest things sometimes...So!!! Enjoy a little insight to what goes round in my head daily! 

Jess xx

You've Got Mail!

I watched this film today and it was so amazing and cute!! If you like Rom com/Chick flicks, then you'll love this film.
It's about a woman who runs a little family-run bookshop in New York and about how it's being overrun by a new, huge big chain bookstore that is run by a multi-millionaire business man. Naturally, they become enemies because of him putting her shop out of business.
They both use an internet chat site called "You've got mail' and they end up talking to each other without realising that it's the other. Eventually, they go to meet up, completely unaware of what their mystery date looks like, and he realises who she is.
They become friends in the end and you can guess what happens at the end! :P
Obviously I'm not going to give it all away, but I do recommend watching it because it's such a cute film that's sweet, sad and funny all at once!

Such an adorable film - WATCH IT!