My Month in Favourites – August 2016

This past month has been crazy busy with work. In addition to making overtime at my day job as my holiday to Canada is coming closer and I need to get ahead of my work load for that period now, I've started freelancing for one of the big UK book publishers. It's super exciting stuff, but combined with my normal job and my blogging it does mean that I'm doing almost two full-time jobs. Busy, busy, busy. But let's get onto my favourites for August! In addition to my Canada trip only being a month away today (eek!), things that kept me sane these past weeks include: Dance Academy, Harry Potter, Pokémon GO, and a day trip to stunning Arundel Castle.

Dance Academy

After finishing my complete rewatch of That '70s Show (8 seasons in 6 weeks, yup) I was desperate for a new series to marathon on Netflix. A friend recommended Australian drama Dance Academy and this cheesy show was right up my alley, combining performance art with teenage drama and iconic Sydney locations I recognised from when I lived there myself, creating a really addictive TV series. It's only two and a half seasons long (with a proper ending) and episodes are just about 20 minutes each so I watched them all in a week. Hey, when I get into a show, I really get into it. I absolutely loved it and highly you recommend it out. A movie with the same cast is slated for release next year and I already can't wait.

Harry Potter

In anticipation of the film release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them this Christmas I decided to reread the entire Harry Potter series and what a delight it's been so far! For the first five novels I reread the earlier releases in advance of the new publications, but I didn't do that for the final few and so it's been a very long time since I reread some of these. I brought the first two and Fantastic Beasts back from the Netherlands when I visited in June but because the others are hardbacks I decided to not carry them in my suitcase but read them as ebooks instead.

I've read the first five novels and Fantastic Beasts so far and it has reignited my utter love for this series. I don't mention HP much on my blog but I was crazy obsessed with as a teenager and rereading them after so long is like experiencing all the intense emotions for the very first time, both my loves (the trio, everything Goblet of Fire, Neville, Cedric) and hates (Umbridge, Bellatrix, Sirius when he's sulking, Snape). I'm trying to save the final two books for my trip to Canada next month but I'm so into this series again that I don't know if I can wait that long...

Pokémon GO

I've never been into video games but the hype surrounding Pokémon GO made me curious and so I downloaded the app, and holy crap this is fun and addictive! I am very lucky that I live in London so there is an abundance of Pokémon and Pokéstops around every corner, and that definitely makes playing this game more entertaining (I tried it in places with less activity and got bored very quickly). I do have a lot of problems with my phone and have had to reinstall the game numerous times already because it kept crashing/freezing/turning off and that gets really frustrating, but when it's working properly I adore it.

I haven't done any battles yet, for now I'm just in it to 'catch them all' and explore new areas of London along the way. Hatching the eggs is a great way to get back into the habit of walking more as well, so win/win. I'm on level 20 with 75 registrations on my Pokédex (some of my favourites so far have been Pikachu, Mr. Mime, Doduo, Aerodactyl and spotting starters out in the wild) and am looking forward to seeing what the new places I'll be visiting soon (Brighton, Vancouver and Edmonton) have in store for me.

If you play, let me know what you enjoy the most about the game and what your favourite places to play are! In London I highly recommend Tower Hill, The South Bank, Holland Park and Green Park.

Arundel Castle

We just had a Bank Holiday in the UK (which I really needed to mentally recharge!) and rather than taking the opportunity for a quick city break I wanted to keep the travelling to a minimum and only go away for a single day. I recently discovered that a massive castle was only about an hour and a half away from London by train and so this was the perfect getaway to make the most from the long weekend, the beautiful weather we've been enjoying, and feeling like I've gone on a mini-break from London.

Just days after booking our train tickets to Arundel I was randomly contacted by the PR company for the castle about theatre shows they're currently hosting and while we wouldn't have been able to attend an evening performance as it wouldn't allow us to travel back to London the same day, I did take this serendipitous opportunity to enquire if they work with bloggers in other capacities and I was then offered a media pass for myself and a guest to visit Arundel Castle! A lovely surprise, and you can read my full post on the visit, with heaps of pictures from the gorgeous castle gardens, on my blog tomorrow.

Pink Parcel

Finally, while I already proclaimed my love for Pink Parcel in a dedicated blog post showing my July unboxing before, they do deserve another mention for this month's favourites. I won a goodie bag through their gorgeous Instagram account and look how amazing it is! I adore The Vintage Cosmetic Company design and I cannot wait to try out all these fab goodies. Thanks, Pink Parcel ♥ ♥ ♥



And that's it for my August favourites! What made you happy this past month?