Ad – I received a bottle of Pinot Noir (the wine featured) from Independent Wines to taste and review. All opinions are my own.
Do you have a favourite wine? I think everyone has a preference for a certain grape or country of origin. I very much enjoy Italian Reds so when Independent Wines offered a chance to taste and review I was exicited. One selected was the Pinot Noir Rolhüt 2018 Adam’s favourite is Pinot Noir and I have to admit I admire the usual richness of this red, however, I was pleasently surprised that this was a more fruity, less heavy wine. I did a little research before to get some food pairing suggestions and awaited my delivery.
Italian Red Wine : Pinot Noir Rolhüt 2018
Trying Independent Wines
Independent Wine have an amazing range of red, white and sparkling wines to choose from. I found the website really easy to navigate and full of useful and helpful information when viewing the types of wines on offer. Each page of the individual wine has extensive tasting notes and an ability for customers to review and leave feedback to aid future purchasing decisions for others. You can search and select Wines by region, country and grape which is really helpful. Our wine came well packaged and protected.
The choice of Italian red wines was really good. Plenty of choice by region and some really highly rated wines. Reading the tasting notes for the Pinot Noir we were about to try had my mouth watering as it sounded so decadent. There are plenty of helpful articles on the knowledge base to help learn more about the wines on site to further help with buying decisions. I found the article Where to taste aromatic Pinot Noir really interesting and further inspired me to visit Italy one day.
Tasting Pinot Noir Rolhüt 2018
I first tried this alone to try and distinguish the flavours. I loved the tartness of this one and it was very easy drinking. It’s fruity but I wouldn’t say it’s too light. The wine was a ruby colour and well balanced. Fruity Pinot Noirs are recommended with lighter foods so I put together a board of cheese, salami, pear chutneys and rosemary crackers. The Pinot Noir Rolhüt 2018 is a perfect accompiment to this and the whole thing was very moreish. I felt the goats cheese/fruit chutney mix really complimented the Pinot Noir and made it even easier to drink. The wine had a really smooth finish and is one I would try again. It felt perfect for a late summer evening with friends and good food. Other food recommendations for this fruity Pinot Noir were pasta and salmon.
Pinot Noir Partnered with cheese, crackers and chutney
I am new to the works of VE Schwab this year and have only read two of her books so far but I have loved them both and can see why these books are favourited by so many people. I first read A Darker Shade of Magic earlier in the year and I am currently reading A Gathering of Shadows which is my 52nd book of the year – completing my reading challenge for 2020. Honestly, book boxes have really helped with my reading as well as being more active on bookstagram. Also my youtube is picking up nicely again so I’m hoping to do more bookish chats, reviews and unboxings which I cross post here, on IGTV and occassionally facebook. Anyway, I digress. If you fancy seeing an unboxing of the special edition Illumicrate Collections of A Darker Shade of Magic box you can below:
What’s Inside Illumicrate Collections: A Darker Shade of Magic
An illumicrate exclusive naked hardback edition of the first book A Darker Shade of Magic with foil cover design, exclusive end papers and shiny silver sprayed edges with ribbon bookmark. A set of dust jackets for all three books A hanging poster A set of acrylic character models An enamel pin A reversible book sleeve with art on one side and a quote on the other A giant Four London’s blanket
Firstly, this box is bigger than the regular monthly boxes and this is my first special edition illumicrate box. I have already ordered the Daughter of Smoke and Bone box for November but now I’ve seen the quality of stuff in the ‘luxe’ collectors editions I feel that this will just be next level. Also, there’s a blanket and I love a blanket. It’s incredibly soft and lovely. The artwork is all stunning too, I am so impressed and so happy to own these items. I love the booksleeve as the quote art is fantastic and the character art is just perfect. The character figures was a really cool touch and something I just didn’t see coming at all, a great way to display character art.
The recent Government campaign insists that weight loss is the answer to health, but this is problematic, fat shaming, poverty shaming and only focuses on eating less junk food. This, with the recent “obese people may have to sheild” come Autumn without addressing food desert areas, nutrition, movement and childrens’ access to meals and cooking skills is ignored. It is complicated. This is long.
*Obesity is a slur. It is used to health shame fat people regardless of activity, general health & diet and is assumed the person is stupid, lazy and has no willpower. It does not take into any consideration of the socioeconomics. Fat, whilst often used as an insult, is a neutral word and does not actually connote ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Slimming Clubs don’t want you to drink smoothies even though they are a great breakfast on the go and give you a portion of fruit/veg
Before we get into this lets completey ignore the governement ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme in August which is not going to be all about making healthy choices…If I’m going to go to Pizza Express or Nandos for a half priced meal I won’t be ordering a salad, and if I do, I’ll be covering it in dressing. So running these two ‘schemes’ alongside each other is a load of crap. Here are my issues.
I’ve seen every bloody argument for and against this faphobic rethoric and it’s just a load of shit. I won’t deny I’m worried about catching covid (again?) risking being on a ventilator and dying because I am fat but as Rebelfit excellently said, it’s not fatness, it’s not weight that brings vulnerable, elderly and obese (obese is a slur – it is always meant to health shame fat people) people into the same at risk group. It is more likely to be poor(er) cardiovascular health. Improving your aerobic fitness is going to be the healthier option to weight loss.
Better Health – Lose 5lb to “save the NHS” is massively stimatising. It should be about movement.
Losing weight takes time and energy and effort and it’s hard. Diets fail 90% of the time and loosing 5lbs for a fat person isn’t going to make much difference. Do you know what will? Movement. Not saying starve yourself. Not stopping bofoff offers on chocolate. Not banning adverts. None of that will work BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL STILL BUY THESE THINGS WHEN THEY WANT THEM and people will order what they want to eat in a resturant regardless of calories – but they’ll probably feel shitty about it afterwards so let’s just drive more people into harmful hating themselves, eating disorders, guilt and stress, more anxiety based behaviours and not moving because they’re so afraid of being made fun of for being a fat person moving.
Why can’t the money go to families for free fruit and veg vouchers? Why can’t the money go to discounted swimming lessons or gym memberships instead of slimming clubs? Why is it ‘lose 5 pounds’ not ‘why not start moving for an extra 15 minutes a day’? Why can’t the money go to local authorities in schools to teach kids how to cook so they have the skills when they’re older? Or adult cooking classes? Or online cooking classes that can be done when someone is time poor? These schemes ignore the fact that poorer people, who are more likely to be fat people, or people that were poor growing up, may lack the money, time and skills to prepare freshly cooked food for every meal for their family.
it’s all about finding a way to move and exercise that you love and that feels good
Movement can benefit you almost instantly, weight loss will not. It takes months and years.
If you start moving more today, regardless of what you eat, in a week, month, years time you will feel stronger, fitter and healthier. You will have less pain. You will breathe better. You will feel better. Look at atheletes and rugby players who are clearly classed as Obese because of BMI and eat a shit load of calories a day…does anyone reckon they’re unfit? NO! Because they move every single day. They work out. They build muscle. They have nutritionists helping them know what to eat and when. They have the money and resources for healthier meals.
The issue is not weight, the issue is lack of movement. You do not have to be thin, or starve yourself to be healthy. You just have to move more often. Yes cooking from scratch, eating fruit and vegetables, eating a colourful plate, eating slower, having chocolate in moderation are all healthy choices but we are discounting the biggest thing and that is moving more. I’ve read the answer is for GP’s to prescribe bike rides and for some areas to get free bikes which is great for those that 1) can ride a bike (I can’t) 2) have a garden/shed to store bikes in (I don’t).
The money would be better spent getting people to move more in a way that is accessible to them
Slimming World don’t care about you, they just want your money and for you to keep coming back.
I don’t want to waste my time doing slimming world, eating food I can not stand, constantly being drained of energy from not eating enough, and being shamed for not losing weight weekly. I’d rather be encouraged to go swimming, which I absolutely love to do but struggle to afford it. We eat relatively well when we’re not eating in resturants or having takeaways. I love adding peppers and onions and fresh herbs to food to make them taste better. I love to cook. I like decent size meals. I don’t buy crisps & chocolate on a regular basis but I’m still fat from over 10 years of dieting and hating myself and binge eating. Now I’m undoing the damage from that.
My advice, don’t diet, just move more, let go of the guilt, stop calling foods ‘bad’ and ‘good and work on finding a meal plan that works for your needs and circumstances. This campaign is fat shaming and poor shaming. It won’t work except to drive people to get fatter in the long run. If you do have the time and don’t know how to cook then find some recipe books to try. Take a look at Jack Monroe’s book, which all started from a single parent trying to cook healthy meals using tins. It can be done, but we need the skills to do it, the appliances and the time.
The Better Health campaign is rife in classist views
Again we are facing not just an issue with fatness but an issue with class which is rife in this country and it frustrates me to no end. The government do not acknowledge people living in poverty and on the breadline. Let me outline for you. You have priveledge if:
You own a fridge, cooker and other kitchen appliances that allow you to store and cook food
You can regularly afford to top up/pay your gas and electric
You have a choice of where/what time you can shop
You can feed yourself and your family three meals a day, plus have stuff at home for snacks
You work a 9-5 job with a secure salaried wage and know when pay day is
You do not rely on foodboxes
You know how to cook and prepare fresh food
You have the time to cook meals every day
You have access to your own kitchen
You have/or are the partner that does this
Now I can tell you that I tick most of the above boxes right now but I haven’t always. I have had to rely on food boxes, I have had to share a kitchen with six other families. I have had to only have one draw in a freezer and one shelf in the fridge. I have lacked the time and skills. And if you think that there are families who don’t have access to some or all of the above then you, my friend, are blinded by your priveledge. Some of the families that don’t have all of the above will struggle with what you think is easy so please stop putting shame on them.
Some of these families might rely heavily on meal deals, takeaways, ready made food, microwave meals because they can’t/don’t have the facility to cook and a lot of these options are high fat, high sugar and highly processed. This, and an inability to move more regularly lead to gaining fat. It isn’t because they’re binge eating chocolate and crisps every occasion they can.
But Fruit IS Cheaper…Let’s Unpack That Poverty Shaming Statement
Also, I keep seeing the argument that fresh fruit/veg is cheaper and I want to break that down because, in the long term, it isn’t and I saw an excellent analogy by a counciler dad on facebook which I will loosely paraphrase.
A bag of apples is, say £1, for four apples. That’s pretty cheap or the same as a multipacket of crisps. The bag of apples will be a snack for four people, or one person 4 times in a week. But one apple isn’t filling, and one apple isn’t enough fruit and veg a day, let alone a week. We are told that to be healthy we need 5-7 portions of different coloured fruit and veg every day. So lets add strawberries for £2, a bunch of bananas for £1, a packet of spinach for £2, some cauliflower for £2 and a pack of peppers for £2. Including the apples, thats £10, for a family of four and is what you need per day. So adding that up becomes £70 a week just on fresh fruit and vegetables. Thats no rice, no pasta, no herbs, no stock cupboard ingredients, no lentils, no potatoes, and the most expensive thing, no meat. That’s no snacks, no bread, no packed lunch ingredients (well maybe one) no drinks. So lets add that in.
Lets add some chicken for £5, a pack of mince for £4, ham for £2, cheese for £2, milk for the week £2, two loaves of bread for £2, some juice for £1, pasta for £1, Rice for £1, a bag of potatoes for £2, some cereal for £2 and some yoghurts for £1. Thats another £25 and for a family of 4 thats maybe three meals and lunches a week. So it’s not enough for a weeks worth of meals, so you’ll likely have to double this and add extra to bulk out the meals with things like lentils, extra veg, beans, pulses etc. It’s easy then to arrive at something like £150 a week for food shopping for a family of four. That quickly transfers to £600 on food in a month.
Now I know what you’re thinking, why not shop somewhere cheaper. Aldi and Lidl are cheap. Yep, youre right, they are. But if a single, non driving parent doesn’t have one local, has no family to drive them to/from and can only carry so much by herself on the bus then that’s going to be a lot of trips back and fourth, resulting in more money spent on transport.
You could be thinking why don’t they just shop for the reduced meat that goes on sale every night in certain supermarkets – again, I hear you, this is an excellent way to save money, but if you’re working shifts, a single parent or not able to drive to/from a supermarket at this time then you’re going to miss out. All these sweeping statements are fine if you’re a single person or you have help with any caring responsibilities but they simply do not work for everyone. It’s complex and it isn’t one size fits all. You can’t just tell someone to do better if they do not have the resources to do better, or differently.
So a family might have to resort to buying all frozen food which is cheap and easy to prepare, providing they have an oven and the electricity/gas to use it. HFHS processed meals which lead to an increase in fatness are cheap, but will give every member of the family a hot meal each day.
The TL:DR version – to afford all nutrition food for a family of four you need to live close to a budget supermarket and be able to get there in time for the cheap fruit and veg boxes which are usually in working hours. And know and have the time to shop in the reduced section. And have transport if your closest shop is a small newsagents that doesn’t cover all your meal making needs/where the costs are spiked.
How To Improve Poverty Stricken Families Health & Wellbeing
This is what I think the government should do to help families on the breadline instead of funding repair a bike and diet club schemes.
Multi supermarket free fruit and vegetables vouchers
Reduced gym/swim/fitness memberships
Subsidised swimming lessons for children under 11
Free school meals for primary school children
Resources to get proper cooking lessons back in school for kids, including the ingredients needed
Making healthy food more accessible
Getting rid of zero hour contracts and giving job security back to people
If you are reading this and genuinely want to improve your health then I would really recommend reading more about anti diet culture, such as Health at Every Size which is a brilliant book full of recommendations, scientific studies and how diets don’t work. Improving your mental health, wellbeing and appreciating your body regardless of size will help. It’s also important to consider fat liberation movements. Rebelfit is another excellent place for information and non bias, non discrimatory fitness programmes which have lots of like minded people of all different shapes, sizes and abilities that want to move more and get healthier. Health and weight are two very seperate things. Sofie Hagen, a fat comedien who I love to follow on Instagram, is another great resource for this and has a pretty amazing book too.
Body Positivity isn’t about being fat, lazy and loving your body
No one in the fat liberation or body positive movement says this is only for fat people to be fat and lazy. I have never seen that anywhere. I have seen nothing but encouragement for fat people existing and taking up the spaces they deserve to have. I have seen a call for joyous movement, for yoga, for swimming for weight lifting and I have seen people genuinely love and appreciate their fat bodies. If it’s about health, then shouldn’t it be about all health?
Improving mental health by focusing on positive self talk
Moving more to improve cardio health
Eating foods that you enjoy and eating a range of foods that sustain you
Recovering from eating disorders which include binge eating and disordered eating
Taking the time for self care to improve your relationship with food and your body
Having therapy where you can exist as a fat person not to be told “if you just tried to lose weight”
Do you think we haven’t tried?
Also, I want to add as a final point this comment that “you can’t be fat and healthy.” In my experience this comes from a place of shame or disgust. It’s frustrating because, for women, it absolutely comes from a place that women are here to be objectified and sexualised and that comment comes from a place where men* (usually) don’t want to fuck a fatty. Because obviously, we fatties are so desperate because no one could possibly ever want us sexually in any way ever…and the fact that there are people that put divorce reasons as ‘she/he/they put on weight after we got married’ like a big fuck you to that. Fatness is not the problem, thinness should not be the goal. Ever. Make the goal to move more, to get strong, to be healthy but stop making it about weight loss.
Midnight Sun is the latest book in the Twilight saga, 15 years after the first publication and almost eight years since Breaking Dawn Part 2 graced the silver screen. It’s a big book at 750 pages which tells the original story in the original timeline from Edward’s point of view. Years ago I read the leaked copy and was always curious to finish reading it. At the age of 31, about 12 years after reading Twilight for the first time I am looking on this world with fresh eyes and for the most part, I didn’t enjoy what I read. I purchased my copy from Amazon and there is an affiliate link at the end of the post if you’d like to buy and read for yourself.
A Basic Synopis of Midnight Sun
In Midnight Sun: New girl turns up at Forks High School, Edward things she is average, then in Biology her blood scent hits him so hard he decides he needs to run away but because he can’t read her mind he becomes infactuated with her, sort of stalks her and watches her sleep at night. Then nothing happens until page 650 where she is hunted by James who is ripped apart in less than a paragraph and more dialogue happens for the next hundred pages. Basically, I was not impressed with this book. I think I’ve over generously rated it 3 stars, but actually, officially, I’m going to downgrade that to 2.5 stars because it’s just not very good. In fact its one of the rare occasions I’d say the films are better because they’re over quicker and at least something happens.
My Review of Midnight Sun – May contain spoilers
So firstly, I was pretty excited to read this because I did really enjoy Twilight as a teen. Also, I’d recently read the 10 year anniversary gender bend version, Life & Death which had an alternate ending and that was pretty cool although still problematic as we all know this is. My biggest issue now though is that nothing happens in this book. I do not understand how it’s double the size of the first book give or take 50 pages or so. There is no need for Edwards inner monologue to be so much bigger when mostly that chatter is full of inner turmoil.
The book has a more mature tone to it which I enjoyed and reflected better writing and Edward being 104. It was interesting to see Bella in a different way rather than the self concious girl that can’t believe the good looking guy wants to get to know her. The hint dropping of Hades & Persephone and the fact this book takes place in the Spring gave some cool vibes. I also really liked getting to know Esme more as I feel she is massively overlooked in the original books with her compassion and kindness. That was constantly pouring out of her with her inner conversations with Edward. Also, still not a fan of Rosalie, but at least she comes across as a ‘proper’ vampire in her aggression and obnoxious distain for humans fueled by her never ending jealousy of what was stolen from her.
I wanted to like this book and enjoy revisiting this world, but the slow pacing almost made it unbearable towards the end.
Other than that, this book is boring. At first I was really getting into it but at 400 pages, the end of the original book, and only just half way through I was getting a bit impatient to finish. Maybe I’d spent too long in the world of Forks by reading the other book first, I started reading the same conversations, the same dialogue again. It got tideous. Honestly, the amount of conversation in this book is so long and so unnesscary. There are pages and pages and pages of the same conversaion over and over which got so tiresome. I honestly had to keep putting this book down to yawn, stretch and get out of the monotomy of it.
Pin this – Midnight Sun Book Review
The book is problematic in how it talks about relationships. Of course 19 year old me was here for that trashy romance and inhaled the original Twilight books within weeks of each other, but now, with my life experience I can no longer look on this book with romantic notion but instead feel unsure and creeped out a bit. I’ve read of people talking about Bella and Edwards relationship being their one true pairing and it’s just…not.
So is Midnight Sun worth reading? Well that depends. It’s the same story and I learned nothing new about Edward’s character that you don’t find out in later books. If you’re a fan of the series I’m not going to disuade you and if you’ve not read it then I’d just stick with the shorter Bella version personally.
All The Other Issues I had before and Now with Midnight Sun
Basically I hate how Vampires are in this book, it’s stupid. I know it’s fantasy and I know my preference is for high fantasy in an epic, glorious world rather than a small town in a forest but sparkly vampires still just sounds strange. I also hate this idea of vampire venon. This recreation of Vampires was just so unneccesary and was just needed to alter to the ending Meyer wanted to try and build a super long series about a girl wanting to be turned into a vampire and her boyfriend saying no. I don’t like how they’re portrayed as essentially gargoyles to be honest. It’s just weird.
Also, nothing happens in this book. The fact that the scene where they kill James is like, 4 sentances long, is so pointless. It’s just proof that Meyer can not write action scenes even 15 years later. I hate to feel like I’m author bashing but really when you analyse the plot it’s just girl meets boy, filler dialogue of every day lives, a car chase and then they’re at prom. I didn’t need the long winded description of exactly how Alice faked the accident, I didn’t need to read word for word Edward watching the tape where you already know what has happened. I didn’t need the massively descriptive feel sorry for me backstory of Edward gone rogue. There were too many boring details that just didn’t need to be there.
I feel sad to be writing such a negative review because I wanted to enjoy this book but I got so frustrated with wanting to hurry to finish it that it’s tarnished how I feel about the series. I’ve basically paid £11 for a book to change a series I loved as a teenager and that is annoying. If you want to do the same and buy the book here’s an affiliate link below for amazon because I might as well get something out of it…
One of my goals for 2020 is to read 52 books or around one a week. Some might be new, some are ones I’ve had for a while or been meaning to read, some I haven’t quite finished yet and some will be recommendations from others. You can see all the books I’ve read so far on my Good Reads 2020 Reading Challenge.
Our entrance hall is really tiny but I love that it’s a bit of seperation from the front door to the rest of the flat. Usually its a bit of a mix of shoes and coats but I’m trying to tidy it up a bit and I’ve been thinking of creative ways to change the space. Wooden flooring seems like the most logial idea. It’s a small rectangle space so I think measuring and laying the flooring would be pretty easy and it could actually transform it a little. Wooden flooring makes sense because its where we take of our shoes and I want an area that will be nice and easy to keep clean and tidy.
Another small space I have been thinking of transforming is our large walk in cupboard which I think could be turned into a mini office area for me. That of course would involve a lot of sorting out and decluttering but it could actually work really well. As this room is off the hallway and close to the entrance hall of the flat it would make sense to get wooden flooring to transform the entire hall and cupboard space. I would love to have ones that look like old shabby floorboards. I think its a look I’ve always loved and wanted to bring into my home a bit more.
Transforming small spaces can be really fun, with new flooring, a lick of paint and a good clean up you can make it look really lovely. Our entrance hall needs a bit of work with some new coat pegs and a more sturdy shoe rack. We could do with adding a lamp shade as well to be honest. I’d really like a kallax unit with boxes to put shoes away in as some of our older pairs look a bit tatty and I think using better storage could make this area look so much tidier than the plastic one we currently have.
