Uni summer ball 2014

So me and my friends went to our first uni Summer Ball (more like music/funfair event) on Monday. We regretfully haven't been to many student events at all as most of us don't live on campus, though that's no excuse (a personal aim for next year!), so I knew that it may be a bit of a 'in the deep end' moment as it is the biggest student event in Wales. Tickets were £40 each so we were hoping for something pretty grand and many acts such as Scouting for Girls were headlining.

We arrived a while after it started and after going on a few rides ( i love rollercoasters/rides, the bigger the better!!) we realised that we had paid to stand in a field and chat/drink. Ok, this actually sounds quite fun, but call me an idiot I can do this almost everywhere and anywhere if I chose to. You can already guess that we didn't stay for long. We did give it a chance and it just didn't seem like our scene, so we didn't see much point in staying for much longer in a situation that we weren't really enjoying. However, I think if we had come later - perhaps 8.30 or 9pm, then it could have been excellent (I've heard and seen many many positive comments from other attendees), but we just didn't fancy waiting hours just for the sun to go down (the dark outdoors is somehow more fun don't you think?) and for them to start playing some good music.

Oh My Love playsuit, £40 incl. student discount.
Wore with denim jacket & purple Doc Martens. 

I must also add that my day didn't start very well either - I discovered actor Rick Mayall, from a great comedy show that I like had passed away that morning, plus my friend had a dress catastrophe after an hour's wear (although thankfully unnoticeable with a jacket on!)

Here's what we did instead: Ditched the 'ball' and went into town and decided to have an Italian at Frankie and Benny's. I had Penne Arrabbiata which was stunning because I loveeeeee olives (despite not realising how much chilli the meal would would involve!), plus delicious Mango sorbet for dessert. I also had a tea (because I'm hardcore) and the waiter joked to me 'you're on the hard stuff tonight then?' when he brought it over :P - It's strange because with some friends I'm more confident/chatty WITHOUT a 'proper' drink that I could possibly be with other people even WITH drink (does that make sense? Probably not)

Basically we spent ages in there and had such a laugh. Cheesy to say this, but it really does come down to the people you're with and not the event itself.

I don't think the ball was BAD - like I said I've heard great comments about it and I'm sure most people genuinely enjoyed. It's all about preference at the end of the day. I think it would have been really fun if somehow we had persevered until the later events occurred/gone later or if it started later and cut out the rubbish early events/we were in a bigger group/didn't still feel like nervous freshers - haha!

Ultimately though, it was a great day and end to our first year at uni. All that's left to do is to collect our results - fingers crossed!

What was your end-of-term uni/school event like?

Danielle x

All photos in this post belong to Danielle at cupofloveliness.blogspot.com

Leeds, Thor and Bookish Blues

Morning! I hope everyone has had a great start to the week. I thought the post-Easter period was a fitting opportunity to resurrect this blog after an unnecessarily long 'hiatus' (can I even call it that after ONE blog post?!).

Anyway, I spent Easter in Leeds with my grandmother which was nice, not to mention hilarious (my grandma in Nandos: "is the WINE bottomless too?"). Yes, despite the fact that it was the hotel in which the coffin of the infamous Jimmy Saville was displayed in in 2011 (boo), the Queen's Hotel was great - it had everything we needed and more, and its Art Deco style, something I hadn't seen much of before (I'm a Premiere Inn/Travel Lodge enthusiast myself), was a welcomed bonus.

Its only flaw was, unquestioningly, the price of a cuppa in the hotel's bar/coffee shop: an order of 1 nothing-special-about-it tea and 1 latte cost almost a tenner (is that ridiculous or am I just stingy?!). Indeed, that aspect to the hotel wasn't my 'cup of tea' (the idiom, i mean - I didn't literally deny that I drank the tea. Bit awkward.)

Though I went there mainly to visit family, I still had pockets of time to waste, which were inevitably spent discovering how Leeds ranked shopping-wise. Here are a few of my buys:

Marvel Thor Basketball Tshirt - Urban Outfitters / Flower Necklace-watch (Vintage) - Pop Boutique / Celestial Bracelet -  Contemporary Enamels / Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I bought this on my kindle on a whim, having recently read  Eleanor and Park (a much welcomed light read after months of obeying my hefty uni reading list). I saw it for £2.39 on the Kindle Store and before I knew it I had clicked 'Buy Now' - oops!

Safe to say I was pretty satisfied! However, as a bookish* person I couldn't help but notice that in all the shops/arcades I passed I DID NOT SEE ONE BOOK SHOP except a comic book store (which I don't read, despite my Thor adoration - I think maybe a certain Chris Hemsworth is the reason behind this though. Just maybe). In fact, just now I googled 'book shops leeds' and an article entitled Where are all the bookshops in Leeds? was the second result. How peculiar.


On that note, I'd better stop here. I have an essay deadline which I have been pretending doesn't exist for weeks, that I really MUST crack on with. Goodbye! 

Danielle x

* this being a romanticised/politically correct term for someone who uncontrollably and at times psychotically hoards books despite already owning like 29 to-be-read-soon ones. For more embarrassing bookishness, friend me on GoodReads @ heydani :)

All images in this post belong to Danielle at cupofloveliness.blogspot.com