MADEIRA

Hey everyone,

Two weeks ago I was on my summer holiday on the lovely island of Madeira! For those of you who have never heard of Madeira before it is a Portuguese island that's quite far off the north western coast of Africa (I think that was an okay description xD), and it's quiet, cultured and very very beautiful.

We arrived on the Monday and spent our days exploring the capital city- Funchal- going on tours of the east and west, levada walking, swimming in the pool, and of course doing a bit of shopping here or there. So here are some snaps we took along the way, I'll describe what's going on as we go along...

My sister sitting on a rock at the highest point on the island

We visited a fish farm, awwwww

 Me, looking mightily squinty, with my new bird house. This was an ongoing joke throughout the holiday, it's probably too confusing to explain :/

Some FAB photography skills shown here by me

There was a food fair a town called Santana, and I thought this looked really cool

We decided to play a game of 'spot the Emily'in the Botanical Gardens. This round may have been too easy though...

 My sister liked the trees a bit too much

 Evening drinks out, that's me on the left and my sister on the right

 A big thing in Madeira is tobogganing down the hill, unfortunately we didn't get to do this, but we got to sit in a nice replica outside of our hotel 

It was very windy on top of that hill

Some nice street decorations

This is a traditional house in Santana, there is only one person that actually still uses the houses as his home, and he very kindly lets people have a look around for free (as you can see in the picture below). I thought seeing the houses was great as it really gave you a feel for the history and culture of the island, plus they look freaking amazing am I right?!

Casual person hang-gliding 

This is one of the views from a levada walk we did. Levadas are the water system that they use on the island to transport water from the mountains to all the different towns and you can do guided walks along many of them which give you some stunning views and allows you to see things you can see from the road-side. 

This was the pool and bar area of our hotel at night time

We thought this tree was really cool

We had lots of coffee, and as Emily put it I needed to 'Instagram the shit out of that stuff', and like a good little hipster I did!

And of course there is always time for a good old selfie (ew that word makes me want to vom)

Obviously I have many many more photos that I'm not going to share with you guys because I don't want to bore you to death, but I thought I would share some to show you this snippet of my life. It honestly was an amazing holiday and if you ever get the chance to go I would really recommend it. It's not the usual sort of place for young people as it's not really a party island, but me and my sister really enjoyed it, so I guess it's down to personal taste, and what you want from your holiday.

I was so happy because I managed to read the whole of the first Game of Thrones book and Divergent whilst there which made me really happy, but that's not really important :3

Anyway, I've got quite a few book reviews I want to share with you guys pretty soon, which I'm excited to write, and as it is also the summer holidays I will probably be doing some baking pretty soon, because why not?!?

Thank you for reading,

Love Katie xo

10 Things I Love

Hey everyone:) So this week I decided I would share with you the things I love the most. I'm basically just going to list some things I like and telly you what exactly it is I like about it, it doesn't really need much of an introduction so here goes...

1. Coffee

I know this is the stereotypical thing for a young girl to say they like, but I seriously do love coffee. I don't drink it because I think it makes me look 'cool', I just genuinely like the taste. I don't care where I have to go and what I have to do, I coffee is on offer I will be there. I'm forever going out with my mum just because she offers to buy me coffee whilst we're out, it's the perfect bribe! PS my favourite coffee shop is Costa because is does reaaaaally tasty coffee but also the really cool things such as frappucinos like Starbucks does.

2. WiFi

Oh WiFi, what a beautiful creation. I literally don't know where I would be without it. Anywhere we go there MUST be WiFi or I feel lost, even if I don't need to use it. As you can tell from my first blog post, I love spending time on the internet (some call it an addiction), and I honestly find it hard to go a few hours with out going on it! I am also old enough to remember the times of dial-up connection that took about 5 mins to connect to the internet, my computer did make an awesome sound whilst doing this though, so that did keep us entertained. I recently went on holiday for a week to Italy and I challenged myself to go a week without WiFi, I succeeded, and it actually felt like a massive achievement. (Sad, I know).

3. Bagels

Bagels are by far my favourite food. They're brilliant, you can have them in so many flavors, and have pretty much anything you want on them. Many people don't understand my love for bagels, because apparently they're 'just bread', but there is something about the crust outside and the soft, squidgy inside that makes them better than any other bread. I recently watched an episode of the sit-com Community, where one of the characters, Britta, says bagels weirdly and the rest of the study group take the mick out of her. I would seriously recommend watching Community, its such a funny program, and the bagel episode is in season 1, maybe episode 16, but don't hold me to that!

4. People with Curly/ Wavy Hair

Curly or wavy hair is THE BEST. Girls with Long hair that is wavy or curly can pull of any look. It can look elegant or nicely messy and casual, but whatever someone does with it I always find it looks nice. I myself have long curly hair, where as my sister has straight hair, and I always find I can do soooo much more with my hair with out putting in too much effort. Guys with curly hair are so cute also and instantly more attractive, I seriously don't know why if you have naturally wavy locks you would choose to straighten them!

5. Sprinkle of Glitter and Zoella

Sprinkle of Glitter and Zoella are my absolute favourite girl YouTubers. They do make-up tutorials, collabs and lots of funny vlogs and I always get excited when I see that either one of them has uploaded a new video, and it always makes my day when they've uploaded one together. They have such an amazing friendship, they always have a laugh together and call each other 'chummy', they always look amazing with or without make-up, and they are my idols. I really look up to as even though they are reasonably well known they are still very down to earth, kind to their subscribers and never take any of the rude hate to heart.

6. Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese island off the coast of west Africa. It is a beautiful place, every spare bit of land you can possibly think of is filled with vegetation making even the built up areas appear lush and green. Even though it is a very touristy island where lots of people visit it never seems very busy, there are plenty of coffee shops (!!!), shops, areas to swim, places to walk, and historic attractions to see. The climate is constantly between around 20 to 28 degrees Celsius all year rounds, so it is never too hot or too cold. Basically Madeira is the holiday destination for everyone. I have visited the island twice, both times staying just outside of the capital and I had such an amazing time going in toboggans, visiting lidos and eating lots of cake!

7. Skirts and Dresses

I hate trousers. I'm not a particularly girly girl but I would definitely wear a pretty skirt or dress over a pair of jeans any day. I always feel very self conscious in trousers because I feel people can see the exact shape of my legs, which I annoyingly hate, whereas in a skirts my thighs are hidden and I have the added bonus of always looking pretty. I also hate tracksuit bottoms, I don't have anything against people who wear them, I just don't own a pair because I personally can't stand them. However some people love them and I perfectly understand that everybody has there own taste.:) (Sorry that was such a ramble).

8. The Colour Orange

There is something about orange that has made it my favourite colour for as long as I can remember. It's bright so I always feel happy when I see it and I always have a cheerful day when I'm wearing it. I love everything and anything orange, when I was younger all I would wear was orange tops with shorts. Thankfully I have grown out of that stage, but I still love it and will occasionally throw on an orange top every now and again. I also found over the summer when I stupidly sat out in the sun for 5 hours without sun cream that an orange t-shirt really makes your skin look a lot less pink than it actually is!

9. Chemistry

This is my favourite subject to study. Most people think that chemistry, or any other science,  is boring and that only 'nerds' enjoy it. I don't really care, I find it more interesting than art, maths, history or any other subject, because there are two sides to it. Like with all the sciences and many other subjects there is the practical sides, doing experiments, or the theory side, learning all about the building blocks of life,  reactions, etc. This means your able to get involved and do things sometimes instead of just looking at the hard facts all of the time. (Plus some of the experiments are extra cool.)

10. Garnier Body Moisturiser

This stuff is a life saver. I have a weird obsession with moisturizing, I have to do it everyday or I feel weird and unclean. I find it really odd how some people just do not moisturize at all, but i guess some people just don't need to! I love Garnier's body moisturizer because withing seven days your skin is perfectly smooth with no spots, rough patches or dryness. They do different products dependent on your skin type, (eg, normal, rough...) but I find that all of them work a treat:P

So there we go, 10 things I love. I realize that some of these are really odd whilst some are really stereotypical and girly, but oh well! The normal post day will be Monday so sorry this one was sooooooo late, the days just flew by this week because I was so busy, but stay tuned for next Monday. :))