October Favourites!

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While I’m not sad to see October disappear it wasn’t all bad! Here are some of my favourites from the month of October!

Books 

It was a bloody brilliant month for books. From two of my most anticipated reads, Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers and John Green’s Turtles All The Way Down released I had high hopes. I was also sent an ARC of The Tattooist of Auschwitz which was an incredible read (review to come in January). Sarah Millican’s How to be Champion made me laugh a lot as did graphic novel Lumberjanes. I also really enjoyed Female and Raising Ryland, both looking at gender.

 

Fashion & Beauty

This month money was tight so I don’t have my usual fashion and beauty highlights but I did get some nice gifts. My grandparents bought me some foundation after mine ran out, knowing I’d be going to a lot of interviews and I can be very self-conscious about my skin. Bare Minerals is the only thing I can use on my skin without pain. My parents bought me some beautiful autumnal shirts (all from Primark) and they are SO flattering. Also, I managed to pick up a bath bomb from Lush as a treat for myself. I’ve also been having house pride with my Gryffindor scarf that I got from Lootcrate.

 

Relationships 

As most of you know, my boyfriend was travelling the country for the majority of this month. I was lucky enough to go and see him and the show in Reading at the beginning of the month and three weeks later I got to have him home after what felt like an age of waiting (if you’re curious to know what it was like when he came home you can find out here).

 

MCM London! 

This month was also MCM London and I got to wear my Wednesday Addams costume after seeing the wonderful Carrie Hope Fletcher play Wednesday on stage. Abbie went as BMO from Adventure Time…we certainly looked odd together.

 

General 

I finally got my hands on my piece that was printed in Love From (you can order issue 8 here), which was really cool. I also got my pre-ordered Harry Potter Pop Vinyls and found the Luna Lovegood absolutely adorable with her lion hat and there was some further Potter magic when my Dad bought me some Christmas decorations for my future tree in the Hogwarts houses. I’ve  also been enjoying the Autumn vibes with some walks and a great Halloween party.

 

What were your favourite parts of October? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Spooky Halloween Tag!

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Happy Halloween my wonderful followers! For tonight I wanted to share with you a spooky tag that I watched on ProblemsofaBookNerd (video at the bottom of this post). So while I’m apparently too old to go trick or treating, here’s a treat for you all!

1. Favourite horror or Halloween-themed song?

Thriller, I LOVE  this song and the video and the cover artwork. I remember listening to it as a kid and the laugh scaring me but loving it anyway.
2. Name something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark forest or in an abandoned building.

A zombie.
3. Have you ever played with an Ouija Board?

Nope, nope, nope.
4. Favourite horror monster or villain?

Dracula.
5. The creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

Feeling deep cold around me when it’s warm, like something was there… not ruling it out.
6. If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?

Run the hell away.
7. Are you superstitious?

Yes, I wish I wasn’t but I am. I don’t tempt anything!
8. Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?

I definitely do
9. Which urban legend scares you the most?

I don’t actually know any!
10. Do you prefer gore or thrillers?

Thrillers every time.
11. Do you believe in multiple dimensions or worlds?

No, I don’t think so.
12. Ever made a potion of any sort?

I used to mix everything up in the bathroom to make ‘potions’ as a kid.
13. Do you get scared easily?

I definitely do! I’m not a fan of scary!
14. Have you ever played Bloody Mary?

Nope!
15. Do you believe in demons/the devil?

No, I believe in something afterlife but not demons or the devil.
16. You’re home alone but you hear footsteps in your house, what do you do?

Grab something heavy and hide.
17. If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?

Umm can I choose none of them? Or a ‘scary movie’ because they’re meant to be funny…
18. If you could only wear one Halloween costume for the rest of your life, what would you be?

Hogwarts Student, I feel like that’s going to be happening a lot in the next few years.
19. would you ever go to a graveyard at night?

No, no, no!
20. In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?

I feel like a baseball bat is a good weapon of choice. I wouldn’t trust myself with a gun.
21. Would you rather go to a Halloween party or go trick or treating?

Trick or Treating every time!
22. You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final girl, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart one, or the killer?

I’d like to think I was a final girl but I’d probably end up dying first haha.
23. Do you have to watch something happy after watching a horror movie so you can go to sleep?

Why would you watch a horror movie before sleeping! What is this madness!
24. Whilst watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with their eyes covered the whole time or the person who falls asleep?

I go between shouting at the characters and hiding behind my hands.
25. Are you the one who gets scared, or the one who does the scaring?

The one who gets scared, I’m a total scardy cat.
26. Favourite scary book?

Ohh that’s a tough one! Jane Eyre I think. I loved how creepy and gothic it was!
27. How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?

I think I watched part of one when I was 11 or 12 maybe just a clip? I’ve generally just avoided horror films.
28. What was your first Halloween costume?

My Mum informs me that I was a pumpkin.
29. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

I was a Hogwarts student for my best friends Halloween party and Wednesday Addams for Comic Con.
30. If you could have a spooky Halloween pet (black cat, owl, bat, rat, wolf), what would you pick?

A black cat, hands down. I get to look after Ali’s Mum’s black cat Suki and she is beautiful!

There are my answers! Let me know your replies in the comments!

Check out Cici’s video below!

Long Distance Love: When They Come Back

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Today marks a week since Ali got home from tour and he’s already been back out at work again today! It’s been a really busy and weird week for a few reasons, mostly because I got quite sick on his second day home and had to go to the hospital. That was a homecoming he wasn’t expecting!

But how does it feel to have him home? Well, a mix of feelings. I’m so happy he’s home and that it feels like home again. Relieved because now I have someone to talk to again and cuddle when I need it. Also, weird, I got so used to just doing my own thing and not having anyone around that the first few days felt strange, almost like we were both being too nice to each other.

It was definitely an adjustment, for Ali, having time to chill out and not having a strict time plan for each day like he had for a few months (as well as not going to bed at 2am every day) and for me having to think before I put my speakers on in the morning or just came home and went straight to my computer.

Overall though, I think it was good for us. We both had our own lives for the past 2 months and were forced to be without each other. I realised that I can manage on my own, he seems to have realised he’s not as introverted as he once was.

As much as I think it was a good experience, I’m so, so glad I have him at home for a few weeks before he goes off overnight again. Sharing the bed might be a pain, but it’s worth it for the cuddles in the morning!

I’m Not Going to Miss October – Life Update.

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It’s been a funny old month and although I was really looking forward to it initially, I’m not a fan of October 2017. This month my life has, again, completely changed in a way that I didn’t expect, although that might not be a bad thing, in the long run, I’m still working that out.

At the beginning of October, I lost my job, something which was a complete shock for me. It completely knocked me off balance. I had a lot of self-doubts, a lot of questions, a lot of stress. Following that, I had my bank cards eaten by a machine, a nasty case of tonsillitis and ended up in Accident & Emergency. It was pretty tough for a few weeks. Why am I writing about this though? Why am I posting about it on the internet?

When I started this blog I wanted to be honest about what my life is like, initially at university and now as a graduate. I didn’t want to mislead those of you who read my blog. It’s been emotionally and mentally draining to go pick myself up again and go on the job hunt when I wanted to just cry.

It hasn’t all been negative. Ali’s come home from tour and having him here has been wonderful. Having company again and someone to wake up to and wish me luck as I leave.

I’m determined to make November better, to be back in work and back on track heading towards 2018.

Feminist Friday with… Jess Wade

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As a part of my Feminist Friday series, I’ve been asking lovely bloggers and writers to write about Feminism and what it means to them. Today, the wonderful Jess from makingphysicsfun speaks about Inferior by Angela Saini, women and science. So, over to Jess. 

Did you, like me, read the Google memo this summer and role your eyes? Or perhaps look up the new Nikon D850, and be confronted with an ad campaign that consisted of a wall of 28 men. Maybe you picked up the Time’s Education Supplement (Sept 2017) to read boys were “better at physics” because they pee in urinals? Or waited for the announcement of the 2017 House of Commons Science & Tech Select Committee with naïve optimism, thinking it might continue the women-dominated glory 2015 – 17, to find out it was (you guessed it!) … all men. Every single time I get tired of talking about the need for more women in science – well, physics and engineering specifically – a new scandal makes part of me think I have to try again. But the rest of me is thinking – maybe they are right? Maybe women really are crap at photography. Maybe I am worse at physics than the boys in my group because of how I go to the toilet? Maybe women are bad at technology because we don’t have enough testosterone? I don’t say this out loud much, I wouldn’t want to let the side down!… but these miserable thoughts echo around my head every time I have to stand on stage.

And then, I was asked by Physics World to review a copy of Inferior by Angela Saini. Angela Saini is an Oxford-trained engineer who has had a phenomenal career in popular science writing and journalism. In 2009 she was named the European Science Journalist of the Year by the Euroscience Foundation and three years later won the Association of British Science Writers’ award for best news story. That year she became Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2015 she won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Kavli Science Journalism gold award for a BBC documentary into bogus universities.

When Saini was investigating the science of the menopause for a Guardian article, she discovered that there is very little scientific literature explaining the biological mechanisms that caused it. She realised that everyone takes it for granted that research will be fair and unbiased; that experiments will be ethical and that the results will be reproducible. But what if the people who wrote the rules of science were biased themselves? Saini’s ground-breaking second book, “Inferior”, uncovers how science has gotten plenty of women wrong, often due to the biases of the people and processes involved in research. An advocate for equality and honesty within scientific discourse, Inferior does not set out to prove that men are sexist scientists- it highlights stories where assumptions, poorly designed experiments and hasty press releases have failed 51 % of the population. She is a phenomenal journalist determinedly persistent in untangling the evidence from both sides to present pure fact – her bibliography is 29 pages long with 306 distinct articles and books covering the gamut of evolutionary psychology to anthropology. Inferior has it all: from understanding bluebirds to babies, shouting at dodgy f-MRI studies and picking apart the lazy stereotypes that prevent women entering science and technology careers. Reading Inferior has given me my voice back… and I am going to short very loudly.

You can catch Angela Saini on her UK university tour or at a local event. You can buy Inferior here.

Angela has written a comprehensive response to the now infamous Google memo, which you can read here.

 

Bio: Jess is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Physics and Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial College London, creating chiral molecular structures as the active layer for electronic devices. Jess has been involved in projects to support gender inclusion in science, as well as encouraging more young people to study science and engineering. She won the Institute of Physics (IOP) Early Career Communicator Prize (2015), “I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!” (2015), the IOP Jocelyn Bell Burnell Award (2016), the IOM3’s ‘Robert Perrin Award’ (2017) and the Imperial College Dame Julia Higgins Certificate (2017). She sits on the committees of the IOP’s Women in Physics Group, Communicators Group and London & South East Branch. She is also on the council of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) Young Women’s Board.

If you’d like to write for Feminist Friday please get in contact, I’d love to hear from you! Email chloefmetzger@gmail.com. 

Book Review: How Not To Be A Boy – Robert Webb

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I’d heard Robert speaking on the radio about his new book, mentioning gender, depression and coping with loss, something I didn’t expect. I’d watched him in various TV shows and not really thought about Robert the man, rather than the actor.

The autobiography covers a large span of Webb’s life in detail and has the wit and humor that he brings to the television that he creates so well. I would thoroughly recommend getting the audiobook as possible as it makes the whole book come alive, particularly with the impressions of Webb’s family and friend.

This is a man who readily opens up about his faults. He candidly talks about failing his exams at 18, about how he felt he mistreated women in his youth and the fear of turning into his father. This brutal honesty is what makes Webb’s book. There’s no hiding, no excuses from him. That said, we know that there is a lot going on for him as a late teen, such as losing his mother.

Most interestingly, the book focuses heavily on gender expectations, something that Webb didn’t feel he could fit into. While his brothers were loud and boisterous, he preferred to be quiet and play. He found himself lost in what he ‘should’ be, rather than what he was, a sensitive young man who felt a little lost. He speaks candidly about how he didn’t feel he could show emotion openly he was on the cusp of being a man and men didn’t share feelings and talk. Something that lead Webb to a deep depression and almost cost him his place at Cambridge.

In this Webb lays out the ways in which these gender expectations affect both men and women and how toxic they can be to all of us. It was absolutely fascinating to read. Webb talks about his own experiences of having feelings for another boy at a young age and struggling with this and wondering what it meant. Again speaking about what it meant to be a boy, and later a man, and in his background that did not mean falling in love with another boy.

To put it simply this is a story that will promote change. Of course, it’s a very entertaining read, I laughed so much while getting through it but at the same time Webb has managed to bring in big questions about society, while making you feel like you’re having a conversation with a friend. From sexuality, gender norms and mental illness to falling in love, Webb has put his signature twist on the world and made it into, hopefully, an easier conversation to have.

I adored this book and gave it 4.5 stars! If I could change anything I’d want to know a little bit more about his relationship with David Mitchell as we all usually think of Mitchell and Webb together! That said it’s an inspiring and thought provoking read, I’d recommend it to anyone!

When Your Confidence Takes a Hit

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Hello, hello, hello!

It’s been a little while since I’ve spoken about how I’ve been feeling lately, which was how this blog started in the first place. I mean it’s, possible, that I’ve been doing this on purpose, maybe.

Almost 3 weeks ago I was let go from a job I quite enjoyed. It was something that happened out of the blue and I went into shock and immediately doubted myself and what I was good for. Which seems like quite a natural response, I think. Either way, I didn’t expect that I’d be looking for a job again, going to interviews again and trying to rebuild myself again.

My relationship with confidence has been a long and interesting one. To a lot of people, I outwardly seem a very confident and savvy person. In fact, in interviews, I’ve been told I’m a very confident person. Yes, I can be. In situations where I pull out my confidence cape and I’m Super Chloe, I can do anything. Then I go home.

I go home and then the cape comes off and I struggle. I wonder what the hell I’m doing, if I’m going to be able to make all of this work. If, in the next 5 years, I will have to go through it again.

We all know that, in life, we’re going to have highs and lows. There’s going to be times when it completely floors you and your confidence. I’ve been dealing with that a lot in the past few years and trying to piece myself back together and carry on.

I’m taking steps to be more confident and to embrace whatever happens in my life. It’s hard but sometimes you need to be your own cheerleader, know your strengths and ignore those who want to put you down. It’s such a tough internal struggle for all of us but, to me, carrying on is the only option.

 

 

Book Review: Riot Days – Maria Alyokhina

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In 2012 a group calling themselves Pussy Riot staged a protest ,called ‘Punk Prayer’, against Putin and the Russian government. Following their protest  the women were forced to go on the run from the law. Maria, called Masha in the memoir, is one member who gets caught and sent to prison for her ‘crimes’, this is her story.

The story of Pussy Riot hit headlines worldwide, women put in prison simply for protesting. Going into this memoir I didn’t know what to expect, I’d followed the story with interest but wondered what had happened to the women. This memoir explores the reasons behind the protest and what many people forget, the humans who lived it.

The book is set out in a fragmented style, almost as if it were a diary. That said it can make it incredibly hard to read. There were times when the book jumps between time frames and situations, which caused a lot of confusion while reading and meant that I often lost concentration while reading. I also think there was an issue with the translation, some things didn’t come across clearly, leaving me to guess what the author meant.

This is an important book to read, there is a lot we don’t know a lot about what happens to political prisoners. With Masha’s determination and status within her prisons she was able to make some changes to the way women were treated in prison. She was able to give them some basic human rights, many of which they are denied.

It is a fascinating look at the reasons behind the movement, however, there were points where I felt too distant from Masha, I didn’t feel like I knew her as a person. She mentions a son at the beginning but he’s hardly mentioned for the rest of the book, I wanted to know more about her life, her family and who she was outside Pussy Riot.

I gave Riot Days 3 stars. While I enjoyed it and thought that it was an interesting look at the life of a political prisoner and what lead her there. That said, there were issues with the way translations came across and the format made it incredibly difficult to follow.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.

7 of My Favourite Things About Autumn

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I love Autumn, it’s by far my favourite season

1.  The colours are so beautiful.

Hampshire is very beautiful and driving through as the colours begin to change is always one of my favourite parts of the season.

2. I can wear boots, all of the boots! 

I adore boots because you can match them with anything and still look stylish. I have 4 pairs just to wear to work, they’re so snug and, personally, they’re great for butts.

3. Autumn fashion is the BEST. 

Carrying on with the boots theme Autumn fashion is my favourite because I feel the most confident. It’s time to hunt out my big jumpers, thick tights and dresses. I’m particularly in love with anything mustard yellow at the moment.

4. Halloween & Bonfire Night

I have so many great memories of these two nights as a kid, there was something just magical about them. I like the fun side of Halloween, I’ve been to Mickey’s Not So Scary party in Florida a few times which was just so amazing. This year I’m going to a party at friends. For Bonfire Night I’ve always loved going to displays and this year I can watch from my own garden!

5.  Going out for a warm drink 

I love popping out with friends to get a Hot Chocolate (sorry no Pumpkin Spice over here!) and be really cosy. And it’s now only a few weeks until Christmas drinks…sorry not sorry.

6.  New book releases everywhere! 

There are so many good books that come out in the autumn and you have an excuse to get a big blanket, get comfortable and read to your heart’s content!

7. From November 1st the countdown for Christmas starts…no I’m serious. 

CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS.

What are your favourite things about Autumn? Let me know in the comments below!

 

This or That: Books Edition!

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I found this great tag over on Jenny in Neverland’s blog and thought it would be something fun to try! So, let’s give it a go.

Audiobook or textbook?

I love having a physical book in my hands as much as possible, that said, I absolutely love listening to audiobooks on the go, especially autobiographies.

Paperback or hardback?

I’m a huge fan of paperback books, but, I fully appreciate a nice hardback.

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

It definitely depends on my mood. Sometimes I like reading about real lives and people but at other times I want an escape so I read fiction.

Harry Potter or Twilight?

I’m a die-hard Harry Potter nerd I love everything about the Wizarding World (I’ve even subscribed to the Loot Crate). That said, I did have a Twilight phase in my teens and loved the books (the films, not so much).

Bookshop or online?

You can’t beat a good bookshop trip, can you? If I ever won the lottery I’d head straight to Waterstones Picadilly and go absolutely mad.

Standalone or trilogy?

Standalone, I’m not that keen on trilogies.

Sweet and short or heavy and long?

Sweet and shot, definitely.

Cosy read or reading in the sun?

Cosy reading every time, blankets or a duvet, comfy clothes. Bliss.

Hot chocolate or coffee?

Hot Chocolate om nom nom.

 

What do you think? Let me know below or do your own post!