Sophs blog

As we live in one of the most expensive cities in the world it's handy to have a few free activities in mind for when you're out of pocket. The other day me and my friend Aidan put our heads together and had a completely free afternoon bar our tube fare.  The plan for our thrifty afternoon was to go searching for spring flowers. We started in Bond Street to see the time lapse of flowers in St.Christophers place; it's worth checking out online (I use TimeOut) what free pop ups are going on around the city as you might find something really fun.  After checking out this cool spring installation we wondered down towards Somerset house. This is one of my favorite locations as its free to go in and during the summer seasons you can have a splash in the fountains. We walked through and went across the river seeing daffodils along the way.  The beauty of South bank is that there's so much to look at and so many places to go; you could take a stroll through Bo...

As an English lit student I do a lot of reading (no shit), but I can honestly admit it's rare when I enjoy the majority of the books I study. This term I'm taking a feminist writing module and have absolutely loved some of the books on the course so wanted to share those with you. 1) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists.  This book is a great introduction to feminism and while it didn't teach me anything new, I think it can teach people who don't quite get feminism a lot of things. It breaks down the bad reputation of the word 'feminist' and highlights the main point of feminism: equality. If you know someone who could brush up on their understanding or just fancy a good read, then this would be a great choice as it's short, accessible and amusing. 2) Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.  Set as a prequal to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea reflects on the inequalities of race, marriage and class and foreshadows the...

It's been two years since I was diagnosed with coeliac disease and over that time I've noticed people have a lot of misconceptions about it so I thought I'd highlight a few of them and break them down. For those who don't know, coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks itself when the person with it eats gluten. By not cutting gluten out, those with it can get bowel cancer, become infertile and generally have a really low immune system which can make them susceptible to things like flu and thin bones. So one of the most common things people say to me when I say I can't eat gluten is "can't you have just a little bit"... Absolutely not! It's like asking me to poison myself, what fun that would be. This definitely links back to people not realizing that it's an actual disease that would make me really ill. You'd be surprised at the amount of times I hear this, and it's getting really boring laughing it off. Ano...

The last thing you'd think of when looking at the picture for this post is cauliflower right? Well surprise surprise that's exactly what it is. I think Cauliflower is quite an underrated vegetable, one we might associate with dull school dinners or as a lazy boiled side. But if you know what to do with it, Cauliflower can be incredible.  The picture for this post is buffalo cauliflower made by Wingman's chicken. It soaked up all the flavor of the buffalo and blue cheese sauce and was a lighter, less greasy alternative to chicken. This kick started my obsession and I've been craving this particular dish ever since.  I've decided to write an easy recipe for this post, one that I use regularly that I think will convert those who aren't sure: Whole roasted cauliflower.  Ingredients: - one cauliiflower - tbsp salt -  1 and a half tsp cumin - 1 and a half tsp paprika - 1 and a half tsp tumeric - 1 ceyenne pepper ...

Since it's snowing I'm sure we've all had many cosy days in, but the films are running out and we've drunk our body weight in tea so what should we do now? I've taken this opportunity (also known as snow day 4.0) to clear out my Facebook by which I mean deleting a load of people. Sometimes I look at the amount of friends I have on Facebook (1024) and it's like I definitely don't have that many friends in real life. Who are these people and why are they allowed to see all my content so casually? With social media it's so easy to be exposed so I think you need to divide up your platforms and decide what the purpose of each one is. I keep Instagram public but Snapchat and Facebook are definitely more personal and private. But then is my Facebook really private with a good 700 people I probably don't even know on it? This is why clearing out Facebook occasionally is very important. I don't want people who don't know me seeing private photos a...