Hi Dubai!

If you have seen my previous blog post, you will know that I went to Dubai over Easter and had an amazing time (the video shows it all). I have been back over a week now and I already feel the need to take a trip down memory lane and look at all my photos. Sometimes it's good to put your blog into good use and use it as an online scrapbook for everything you love. This is me doing just that...

If you are wanting to visit Dubai, these photos and my video are probably the perfect resources in persuading you to go (or in my case making me a bit depressed that I'm not there- sorry!). It may give you some ideas on what kind of stuff to see or do if you ever want to visit. Who knows?! Have a peek. 

(WARNING: excessive photo-taking and posing)

Our first night there we went on a little wooden boat in old Dubai to the souks at sunset. From what I know it was pretty cheap so it's a nice thing to do to venture out of the skyscraper jungle. Go at sunset for the best photo opportunities. Just look at that! 

The second day we went on a desert safari with Emirates Arabian Adventures. It was so fun and really good value for money (about £50-60 per person). It includes all transport, dune-bashing, drinks, camel-riding, 3-course meal in the desert, entertainment, henna tattoos, shisha, and more which I have probably forgotten. We got picked up from the Jumeirah Beach Hotel that had the best view of the Burj Al Arab so I, of course, had to take a very Instagram-able photo. 

For good measure, I thought I would throw in a picture of the Palace hotel where we picked some people up from for the desert safari. We later went for drinks there in the evening as we sat under the Burj Khalifa drinking Sangria. 

Sunset in the desert! (*tick it off the bucket list*)

Now skiing in Dubai was a pretty surreal moment. Ski Dubai is the largest indoor snow centre in the world so I had to go. The place was so big it had a chair lift in it, and penguins, a snow park AND a zipwire. I decided to stick to the skiing and it was incredible. I was so happy that I took a selfie by myself on the chair lift because I had no cares. 

These are the views from the Palace hotel which I mentioned earlier. Dubai is so pretty at night. 

Below is a picture of my crew before we went for brunch. Too. Many. Gins. 

The Atlantis waterpark, Aquaventure, was on the next day's agenda. I emphasise that the price on the website is wrong! We turned up and had to pay a bit extra and pay for a towel but we were too excited to care that much. The lazy river at Aquaventure is the king of lazy rivers, with rapids, slides, and a wave pool. I think we went round about 3 times and it is long. The staff even recognised us on our last circuit...

A really fun (scary) ride. And below: the queuing system in this waterpark was the best- a sit-down conveyer belt.

On our last evening we went to Dubai Mall to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, to see the fountains, and to go up the Burj Khalifa- the tallest building in the world. Due to Dubai laws not permitting the sale of alcohol in restaurants, the Cheesecake Factory had an amazing 'mocktail' menu that we all chose a drink from. They were huge and sooo good, I just wish were outside drinking them in the sun!

The portions at the Cheesecake Factory are absolutely massive. I will award anyone who finishes one of their portions a medal because my word, I struggled. It looked like I hadn't touched the plate when I finished. It was such good value for money considering the portion size and in hindsight, we should've shared! I decided on a Chinese Chicken Salad with orange, rice noodles and plum sauce. I mean, look at it, its the size of a small child!

(I am loving culottes at the moment- these are from Topshop). 

Up the Burj! SO TALL.

And there you go! As you can tell I had an awful time ;)

Take me back!

x

The Curvy vs. Skinny War...

Shockingly, the whole hoo-har of 'when did this become hotter than this' is turning women against each other- conflicting their opinions and targeting the opposite body shape. A sensitive topic, it allows women to get their claws out and fight for what they think is right.  And let's just say, we all know someone who enjoys doing that… 

So with every scratch and roar, some women are taking their cat fight to social media, using internet 'memes' to support their point. This raises three questions: one, why can't people accept other people's opinion? Two, why does your body shape matter to the point that it causes so much controversy and anger? And three, why do these 'ever-so-important' opinions need to be posted on social media? *Yawn*

It is no news that there is some sort of metaphoric tug of war between curvy and skinny people. In the recent years, our social media feeds have been bombarded with images of body transformations and comparisons between people of different sizes. It was until the other night I found an image and decided to read the comments, which you will gather, left me feeling pretty opinionated and critical upon the matter. Understandably, anyone would when people are arguing what is better- challenging those of the opposite shape and size that in fact their body IS the best and is what men WANT. The one difference between me and the people commenting on that image is that I had no desire to let my voice be heard on what progressed into a brutal Facebook war. So I decided to do it on here and make a valid argument (unlike the other commenters). The image used was the one below:

The first thing that drew my attention was the crazy 'thigh gap' in Candice Swanepoel's legs. It kinda creeps me out but anyway. More importantly was the fact that people were so willing to let themselves be heard- regardless of how others may react to it. Name-calling, swearing, and directing their opinion at individuals on the comments, people seemed to have no filter (or care) at how it can hurt someone's feelings. Social media destroys our communicational barriers. It allows people to adopt another (and more argumentative) persona. It was almost like people were looking to find an argument and get them riled up. All that came to mind is how much time they were wasting on something that simply stated an opinion (hence the 'I think') and why they couldn't just accept that. But yet again, why on social media? To reach more people? To make more people involved in an active and persistent debate?

As the comments flooded through, it was clear that skinnier girls were offended at how they were portrayed as an unrealistic figure- arguing how it isn't their fault and that it's natural for them. I understand, this image targets skinny people whilst applauding those who are curvy. But what isn't taken into consideration is that curvy people are targeted (and even ignored) in other ways, such as on the catwalk and in the media. The act of compromising is not considered. The image is simply a justification; a response to what has been the norm for the last decade, that being curvy is not desirable. This led me to the thought of what possessed someone to put this online. Maybe the power of social media allows people to unite in their opinions? For example, you click the 'like' button and join others in their preferences- getting some sort of weird social buzz from it. It's like you willing and instantly join a Facebook group of people who prefer curvy people to skinny people and for some reason, feel instantly better from it, like a virtual high five for sharing the same ideology. It's all pretty bizarre. 

In modern society, the idea of curvy has had people in question. What classifies curvy? Where does the line draw between curvy and overweight? Curvy women out there have been justifying their figure for the last few years now against the one industry that made skinny trendy: fashion. The bony, more masculine figure became fashionable and in my opinion, still is. Clothes shops are still catering for skinnier people and ignoring that women do have boobs and hips. I understand that there are certain cuts out there that don't flatter non-hourglass bodies, but there are also clothes out there designed with the skinny body in mind and you only have to take one look at catwalk pictures to prove it. 

But catwalks and fashion aside, the unification of curvy people seems to be driven by one thing; that their body is what men want. As delusional as it sounds, women seek to please men physically, which greatly frustrates me. The culturally sensitive nature of women, as proven on the comments of the image, is for them to care about what others think over the importance of their own self-confidence and self-esteem. Male opinion is a crucial factor in justifying the curvy figure on social media sites, mainly Facebook. Whoever put this image online, wanted men to like this- proudly committing themselves to the opinion that 'I think this looks better than this' aka. 'I don't like skinny women'. Women then access the information of 'likers' and feel better if their curvy figure has had the male approval. Unfortunately, making one feel better, makes another feel worse. What the comments on the image show is that 'memes' like this create a huge emotional impact. And for what? Changing a law, gaining world peace? It's only for wanting to be the most attractive, popular, and sought-after body shape- that's all. 

What's proven is that it's not even worth it: the targeting, the justification, the argument. Everyone has their own opinion but the context of social media provides no substance to the argument and opinions, as you instantly become another commenter on the image that feeds the constant and repetitive debate. If anything, you are connoting ideas that you're uneducated, bored, and easily offended. The key is to not care. If we didn't care, then the whole curvy/skinny war wouldn't be an issue on social media and responsive images like these wouldn't be posted. The public have the power to determine what makes social media as we are the contributors. Our size shouldn't be part of it. Besides, your body shape is only a fraction of what makes you attractive. 

x

The Kavos GoPro Video...

As promised in my previous post, here is the Kavos music video Ruby and I made on holiday. Videos like these make me so nostalgic (I want to go back!) For other videos I've made like these, check out my YouTube channel. All footage for this video was shot on a GoPro Hero3. Enjoy!

x

Sun, Sea, Sand (and a Small Budget)

When you're a student and your purse seems to have holes in it, a holiday becomes less of a plan and more of a fantasy. Desperate to make a holiday happen, I worked solidly throughout summer- motivated that at the end of it all, I WILL get that holiday. 

My friend, Ruby and I decided we will have a small budget and make wherever we go a relaxing and blissful break away from all that hard work. So, two weeks before we planned to go, we booked a holiday for a mere £160- including our accommodation, flights, luggage and transfers through Olympic holidays to (judge if you may), Kavos. Notoriously famous for being a wasteland of drunken Brits falling out of Irish pubs (in Greece may I add), our desire for a holiday was clearly off the scale of desperation. So determined to avoid the endless armies of 'lads on tour', we boarded a plane to Corfu for a wishful week of sun, sea, sand, and lots of Greek food. 

I suppose the point of this post is to say that a cheap last minute holiday to a party resort is possible to do nicely. Our accommodation was very basic but huge (plenty of room for dancing), it had a balcony, and a nice pool area with a cheap bar. Not that we drank a lot like the rest of the resort (we had as much as wine at dinner), but the soft drinks were reasonably priced too. We stayed at the Oula Maisonettes- just on the outskirts of Kavos but within walking distance to amenities like restaurants, the beach, and a supermarket.

After a day round the pool on the first day, we ventured to the beach on day two in a bid to find a nice area of beach that didn't look grimy. By luck, we found a bar which had an area of beach and a pool that looked more Marbella than Kavos from it's white and seemingly upmarket design. To be honest, I think we went there most days just because it didn't fit in with its surroundings, tricking us into thinking we paid more for this holiday than we actually did. 

Next door to this pool/beach area, was undeniably our favourite restaurant. Called the Falconera, it was a beautifully traditional Greek restaurant run by a girl we described as a cross between Leah Jenner and Whitney Port. The Greek salad was the best, and in our time there we got free bread and houmous (the best I've ever had) and free coconut and orange cake on our last night. It is one of the oldest restaurants in resort, but the interior and menu has a contemporary twist that distinguished itself highly in comparison to others. It was like a little bit of luxury on our cheap trip! Plus, the food was incredible. 

Despite being on a budget, we managed to scrape back a few euros for something other than food. In the middle of our holiday, we went on a boat trip to the Blue Lagoon- described as turquoise, crystal clear waters that has been featured in many films. On our way, the weather wasn't particularly promising as it resembled more England than Greece. With our towels round our heads sheltering us from the shower of choppy waves and rain, we hopped on the boat on the way to Sivota on mainland Greece. If you ignored the weather, Sivota was a lovely little village with cute outdoor restaurants, cafes, and gelato shops. We decided to do an ice cream stop and take lots of photos of the picturesque landscape which displays a more calm version of the sea we previously experienced. 

With the sunshine peaking through the clouds, we headed to the Blue Lagoon for a swim with the fishes. As soon as we arrived the sun came out and it was absolutely amazing. I don't think we ever got out the water apart from jumping off the boat! There was so many fish! Due to the crystal clear water, it was a perfect moment to try out my new GoPro and here are the results…

Another one of our adventures on our budget holiday was renting out a quad bike for the day to explore the rest of Corfu's beaches. Not one for the faint-hearted, it was quite scary at times and it is pretty dangerous, but hey, we survived! We found a quiet beach on the other side of the island which had a beautiful sandy shore and lots of elderly people (haha). Even though we were the youngest there, it was a nice break from being round a pool bar listening to music so the silence was actually super relaxing.

I made a video for this holiday from all the footage we took on my GoPro which was so fun! I'll make another post for it soon. I think we proved to ourselves and everyone we know how easy and cheap it is to do a decent, relaxing beach holiday on a very cheap budget. There was obviously some things that you would expect on a holiday this price such as, rubbish flight times and very British resorts, but you can definitely ignore this if you try (and indeed we did). 

I'm definitely going to do a last minute holiday more often!

x