Beach Beauty: Taking The Joy Out Of Travel

In a time when travelling for months on end is the norm, and water sports like SUP are a la mode, why is it that beauty regimes for beach and holiday are so exhaustive? We know too well that the images we aspire to are far from reality, but it's time the mags caught up and dropped some more down to earth edits. After all, there are many types of travel and most are not the 5 star kind. These expectations are no recent development - but far from reducing with globalization, beach beauty regimes have spiralled out of control. For me this realisation came in 2 steps: firstly when I saw a friend's post on facebook of her eyelash colouring gone wrong. The second wave came when I read an article from The Pool on the new fad 'vontouring' which both filled me with dread and had me in stitches. 

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Moomin Food

My attempt at Smoked Salmon with Griddled Lemon, Cucumber and Sourdough Croutons

Tonight I surprised my family with a Scandinavian surprise for dinner! A few weeks ago I saw the recipe in a tweet from The Pool (a new site that is full of great articles on everything from beauty to politics) and kept it in mind for a later date. Since finishing my exams on Friday I've been desperate to try it out in my free time.  Anyway, it went down so well that I thought I'd let you in on it! 

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Food

Life Lessons From Japanese Leadership Style

Right: Memoirs Of A Geisha - a Japanese themed novel I would recommend.

I have recently submitted a coursework on Japanese Leadership Style that I really enjoyed writing (a bit of a rarity when it comes to reports!) and its given me a few good tips that I wanted to share with you ambitious people! I am a big believer in learning from other cultures and Japanese Leadership Style can offer us countless positive messages for success. At some point in our lives most of us will be required to take the lead - from captaining a sports team, to managing a small business, or even leading the way out of a holiday disaster! So check out these Japanese tips:

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Achieve

Accepting Some Home Truths About Social Media

Ceci n'est pas une pipe (an image from pipetea.com)

I'm starting today's post with a little reference to 'Treachery of Images' - a painting by the Belgian surrealist painter Magritte. His painting is of one of those old school pipes, not dissimilar from the one above. Underneath is written 'this is not a pipe' as, state the obvious, it is in fact just a painting of a pipe... Groundbreaking. This may seem pretty random, especially in relation to social media but the point I am trying to make is that (1) not everything should be taken at face value and (2) there are a number of different ways to look at things. This idea can and should be applied to social media as it is not always representative of real life. Just as the painting of a pipe is not really a pipe, a photo of life is not always what real life looks like. Phew... Deep!

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Z LOVE: The Ultimate Summer Wishlist

Left to right: Accessorize Z Collection, Zara Reversible Metallic Shopper Bag, Zennor Bikini Cowrie Bottoms.

I was going to leave this post until later in the season but since it's a heatwave... may I introduce you to my gorgeous trio of summer desires! Being dark haired, pale skinned and head to toe covered in freckles hot weather is never going to be my ideal climate, but that won't stop me from lusting after beachwear. These are my favourite hot trends at the moment - coincidentally all beginning with Z! 

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Desire

How To: A Work Away Birthday

Raspberry tart, The team beach adventure, Nick's chalk drawing

We all know that as you get older birthdays get less important - or so we are told. In my mind, presents or no presents, its the day to celebrate your life... even if it is by yourself. Career opportunities have taken me away from my comfortable routine, my friends, my family, and for the first time in my life I will be working on my birthday. But this is not a bad thing, particularly if you are happy with your life choices and are content to break tradition and make some nice experiences for yourself. This post is a bit about how I spent my day, but also it might give you some ideas for how to make the most of what is just any other day...

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Personal

Inspirational Women: Channeling Easkey Britton

Finisterre store (a leading cold water surf brand: source Finisterre webpage), Easkey Britton (source Easkey Britton webpage), Display picture taken by me at the event in London.

In quiet reflection of yesterday's events, I am trying to get my head around how Easkey Britton can have achieved quite so much in such a short space of time - At 26 she's the big wave Irish surfing champ, has an Environmental PhD, and was nominated Oxfam Hero Ambassador. That's not to mention she is the founder of Waves of Freedom - an initiative that has introduced surfing to Iran with Iranian women amongst the first to take part in the action!

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