Glastonbury festival 2015.








Well, what do you know, my resolution to use disposable cameras more this year has resulted in this one getting developed - baby steps. Normally a bit of a mish mash, this disposable camera photos post has a bit of a theme and, in case you hadn't noticed, it's what Lionel Richie calls "GLASTONBERRY" (sic).

From the "lasstonbury" whatsapp group to the £20 Argos tent (IT SURVIVED), you could say our preparation was somewhat minimal. Turning up to Greenwich coach park to see others with six bags of camping gear rather than our own six bags of cereal bars and cloudy lemonade was a half "maybe we should've planned this" half "we just don't want to carry much/we're going back to basics/we've totally got this" moment, but it didn't half make the journey back easier. Fast forward a few hours (wish I could've), we were wristbanded and pitching camp in one of the quieter areas before heading into the arena to explore a little. I know people say this every time and I scoffed right back at them every time (feel free to reply "...nah", I understand), but Glastonbury festival is huge. That first evening was spent entirely trying to work out where the hell Avalon was, and we were still discovering new areas right up until Sunday.

I won't bore you with a play-by-play rendition of every act I saw (that's for the NME to make up), but let's just say Patti Smith is queen, the Who are top blokes, Josh Modestep has my heart, La Roux is the Ziggy to my Stardust, Kanye's a bit of a knob, and Lionel Richie is really, really smiley. Heading back to the land of liquid soap was equal parts hallelujah and take me back, because no matter how many times you can use your hot cloth cleanser there's nothing quite like standing in the middle of an english field with thousands of other people raising a toast for the scumbags.

Of course, the million dollar question: would I go again? It wasn't all 23° and perfect conditions 24/7 making for some miserable poncho moments, but given the opportunity, how could I not? When you're sat on top of the world in the Park, there's really nothing more magical.
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Underneath the eggshells.


Finally getting the Boots disposable camera developed that Clarity bought me last year.

Although I love how much my blog's photography has improved over the past few years, sometimes it doesn't hurt to get back to basics. When I first started blogging, I didn't have a digital camera (let alone a DSLR), so most of my posts were accompanied with photos from disposable cameras, and I've got a shoebox filled to the brim with printed-off photos on my windowsill. I know I say it all the time, but I will get back into the habit of carrying one around with me and share them here, as it's not all glossy HD shots and perfectly positioned flat lays, however pretty they look.

I hope you all had a lovely January, and here's to February getting off to a good start!
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And a smile.







five photos that make me happy


I remember getting a chain letter once, a real one in the post (this was pre-broadband and the computer made weird chirruping noises every time I wanted to look up cheats for the Sims #rememberrosebud). My mum declared it rubbish and it was promptly discarded, but these odd little things still live on, going through MySpace bulletins to posts on tumblr with hundreds of thousands of notes. My mum's scepticism has worn off somewhat and I tend to roll my eyes whenever I see them floating around, but when my friend Georgia tagged me on facebook prompting me to share five photo that make me happy, I thought that I might just give this one a little look-in. After a lot of whittling, here we go with no further ado - hooray!


one - the lads

Who knew the kids I went to sixth form with would still be the ones I buy misguided absinthe shots with? Here's to multiple courses of Christmas dinner and maybe that trip to Paris we mentioned in May...


two - blogging, and everything that comes with it

Three hundred and sixty-two three posts later, pressing publish means I've met some of the coolest cats out there, not to mention moving abroad, trying new things (and maybe trying too many burgers) and fuelling that unhealthy relationship with asos. It can be a little up and down, but I can't deny that my life's been a whole lot more fun with the smiles blogging has provided.


three - "let's start from the beginning, shall we?"

This rather grainy shot was taken at the best gig ever (although Finsbury Park was pretty good). They might not be achingly cool or have a singer who's a member of the twenty-seven club, but Arctic Monkeys will always have a place in my heart, and I can't thank them enough for the friends I've made through it (yes Blake, shout out for you).


four - london town

Liverpool's up there as somewhere I will always love, but home is where the heart is. I may never have been a zone one dweller - this photo was taken whilst on a photography walk the other night - but there's nothing quite like the excitement of the capital city. AND it has several hummus restaurants.


five - the hours lost to magnet

Taking this full circle to the girl who tagged me to do this, are the friends I made at university. I love knowing people from all over, but these ones (plus Clarity!) are the ladies I know I'll always be able to laugh till I ache all over with, and I really don't think you could ask for any more.


I tag Jazmine, Kavita, Carmen, Olivia, Camilla and everyone reading this who needs to remember that sometimes you just need to pause and remember that the little things are the most important.

If you liked this, I'd recommend reading Lisette's blog and her "Thankful Thursday" feature - enjoy!
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One year on: moving to Munich.

All photos taken on an expired disposable camera I bought as part of a job lot on ebay.

As my alarm went off at 9 (promptly snoozed, last night's optimism seemed misplaced), I couldn't help but think "thank god it's not this time last year" when I woke up at 4.30 for my one-way flight to Munich. Seeing as I never published a post immediately after returning from my six months abroad, I thought that now would be a good a time as ever to sit down with a rather large cuppa and get talking about what was, to me, quite an important chapter.

Why did I intern in Munich?

It'd be a downright lie to say I'd always wanted to live in Germany. I studied German from year seven right up to A Level (where changing school for sixth form killed my passion for the language as I was stuck with a teacher who didn't particularly inspire me). I'd considered studying English with German at university but I didn't get the grades so stuck with straight English and the rest, as they say, is history. After graduating and its inevitable "what the hell am I doing with my life?" panics, I started looking around for alternatives to the London-based internships and jobs I'd been looking at, and saw that Stylight was looking for british interns.
I had never even considered moving abroad (having no money and no fluency does that to a girl), but a skype interview later I was their newest SEO and online marketing intern and was looking at easyjet flights and downloading the dict.cc app. I knew little about Munich other than it was the capital of Bavaria, home to Oktoberfest and, you know, was Hitler's city of choice (perhaps apt to bring this up on Remembrance Sunday, bear in mind that Munich's moved on a lot since), so touching down in Freising was the start of a learning curb that lasted me through right till the day I returned to the UK.

How did I prepare for the move?

In a word? Badly. If you plan to intern with Stylight, bear in mind that they don't give you much time to move over there - I think I initially had three weeks - but I managed to put off my start date by a week using the excuse that flights were cheaper (lol, no, I had tickets for Knife Party's Haunted House which I was not going to miss). I knew that Kavita was out there, so I sent her a tweet, we started emailing, and she completely reassured me and helped me out a load, and is now someone I'm lucky enough to call a friend. I'm not a planner, and this move wasn't any different. Most people say that I was pretty brave to move to Munich on such short notice, but it's more likely that it was a heady mix of not having much on and sheer stupidity; that said, I don't regret doing it at all.

What was interning at Stylight like?

Just a little disclaimer here, a fair bit's changed since I was there, so I'll keep this bit short and stick with what I know.
Stylight's offices are based in Neuhausen, which is a little bit West of the city centre. Stylight HQ is absolutely amazing, with plenty of natural light, a nap room (only used when I was hungover after the Christmas party) and free cereal. You sit split up by your department, then with a team of countries (mine was UK, Netherlands and Sweden, but that's probably changed since), but everyone takes lunch 12.30-1.30 so there's plenty of opportunity to chat with everyone else; or you can stereotypically arrange hourly catch ups at the coffee machine over a brew of Yorkshire Tea. Every week there's the TGIF meeting, where everyone comes together to discuss what's happened in their department over a beer. Stylight like to claim that they've got a bit of a reputation in Munich for throwing amazing parties, so that's always good fun to look forward to too.
I was assured as I left that they were planning to change this, but there are a large percentage of interns working for Stylight, so there's a lot of new starters and people leaving on a weekly basis. Despite this, I've made plenty of friends who I still keep in contact with now.

What's happened since?

I always knew I'd have to be back in the UK on a certain date as I'd committed to jury service, leaving just under a week between completing my contract and my flight back. Since touching down, I haven't stopped. Two weeks of jury service were followed by interning at Cath Kidston and Oasis, and the latter offered me a job which I've been enjoying ever since. Did interning in Munich help my job prospects? It must've in some way, but I think it's more that I was interning for an extended period of time in an online retail environment, rather than because it was abroad. Regardless, it gave me an opportunity to discover another city, and get to Berlin for €16 return.

The million dollar question: would I recommend it to you?

If you've got the wanderlust bug: go for it. Don't expect it to be anything like Berlin, Munich's pretty tame: the population's rich and you'll definitely feel like the poorest person in the room balking at the idea of paying €3,90 for a tequila shot (then doing it anyway...), but it's absolutely magical at christmastime and you'll never not find it funny to see people wearing lederhosen and dirndls on the U-bahn - then buy one for yourself. It can be pretty pricey out there (Munich's the 39th most expensive city in the world, which stings after living in Liverpool but prepped me for London), and I was lucky enough to make a little bit of extra money from my blog to help pay the bills, but it can be tough at times if you don't have savings to dip into.
I am 100% glad I did it, but six months was just the right amount of time, and I was more than happy to return to Essex as my half year was up. And, let's be honest, it's got my "what's an interesting fact about you?" ice breaker covered for life.

If you want to get more of the nitty gritty feel free to tweet or email me.

And shout out to the amazing people I met out there (plus plenty more): Lauren, Kavita, Carmen, Charlotte, Lizzy, Charlotte, Stina, Marta, Anni, Romy, Rosa, Marine, Stephanie, Piero, Linda, Nina, Willemijn... too many to say you all!
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I've been looking so long at these pictures of you.

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Photos from kodak disposable cameras (the second batch taken on expired film)

I was going to start with the old classic "if you haven't been reading my blog for very long, then you wouldn't know that I'm rather a fan of film photography" line, then, on checking, I realised I haven't posted any of my disposable camera shots for the entirety 2013. For me, this came as a little bit of a surprise, but getting an iPhone (and, of course, immediately downloading instagram) for my birthday/Christmas last year, and finally investing in my DSLR meant that I had a means of taking photos on the go, which was much more convenient than the few day wait for your photos to be developed in Boots, even if my advantage card points have suffered a noticeable dip. I have about five on the go right now, with one simply lying around waiting to be developed (I left it in Kendal though, so thanks for posting it back to me Clarity!), so I'm going to try my hardest to get back into it in the new year, as there really isn't anything better than flicking through your printed photos. It goes to show how much my blog has developed in the past year, changing from something I did in my (lots of) spare time at the university of liverpool, to a place for me to develop my photography skills and write fushwun in a way that won't bore my friends in real life (although I did get you a point on the pub quiz for that, don't you forget!); I'm happy with the way it's changed (and am particularly proud of these four outfit posts), but it's always nice to share something that you enjoy, and bits of my life which aren't necessarily picture perfect.

I did think the end of the year would be a pretty good time to share the few that I have taken over the past few months; a more "me" end of year summary than a year in style or instagram post. Although these are only images of heading to the Isle of Wight Festival with Jazmine, Olivia, and Sabby, and a romantic trip to Paris to celebrate the latter's 21st, a lot has happened this year. I only went and bloody graduated with a good grade, then found myself moving to Munich (and even managed to set up a German bank account by myself, speaking constantly in the language that my A Level teachers assumed I'd just give up on afterwards, and kinda had...), not to mention travelling round more of the UK (Sheffield, York, and the Lake District), going to gigs (personal highlights include Miles Kane's acoustic set in Heebie's, Beyoncรฉ et al at Chime for Change, Brownstock, Knife Party's Haunted House, and, of course, Arctic Monkeys at Earl's Court), and having a damn good time whilst doing it. Here's to a 2014 with less rain (impossible), tea prices at an unprecedented low (unlikely), more girl bands (there better be), and more laughs (definitely).

Click through for more disposable camera photos.
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See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight.

1. Up close and personal mere minutes into 2012.
2. Girls got $.
3. Pub golf on a leap year.
4. Classy mugs.
5. The best flatmate you could ever have the fortune to meet.
6. Annabel and Sian and experiencing Snobs.
7. Lunchtime walks through Spitalfields.
8. Olivia and Jazmine babin' out for the latter's birthday.
9. Boys.
10. How we request songs at Brownstock.
11. What are we like!
12. Studying English Literature through the means of classic hip hop.
13. Forever wishing I were blonde.

Thirteen memories from twenty-twelve, captured on film, and slipped inside a shoebox to be rediscovered when I'm old and nostalgic.

xxx
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When I was a child running in the night I was afraid of what might be

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1. Hungry for the Breakfast Club
2. Patisserie Valerie
3. Reflections upon Liverpool
4. Me, Claire, Sian, and Bel in Birmingham
6. Bracing ourselves for Sabby's birthday

It certainly has been a while since I've posted any of my film "photography" on my blog. In fact, I still have a set to scan, and a few rolls of film waiting impatiently to be developed, but I like to think this'll only heighten the surprise/shame when I do finally see what delights are trapped inside the feared negatives. I don't see myself as a photographer, and leave the technical stuff to Jazzy, Lily, Laura and Sophie, but I still like to have a camera (or two, or three...) in my bag to capture moments in time. I know that a lot of people think bloggers ought to have a pricey DSLR to be worth taking up precious pixels, but my little point and shoot and I are plodding along just fine. The above photos were taken with a job lot of expired disposable cameras purchased from ebay, working out as well under one British pound each. They may not grace the pages of a glossy magazine, but I'd rather have a stack of these than a floor to ceiling pile of Vogues any day.

Today marks the end of a summer of interning. Three months of commuting past the Olympics - done! I'm being a little cheeky and leaving early today, in order to get to Brownstock festival before the ticket office closes. It's becoming tradition to end my summer sitting on a ground sheet surrounded by a buzzing bassline from afar, friends cross-legged playing guitar as the sun sets, and dancing to unknown (and familiar!) bands. I may have dreams of Coachella, but I really don't think anyone can do a music festival like the brits!

Enough romanticising, and a quick mention of romance - I'd just quickly like to say congratulations to the newly wedded Mr & Mrs Wren. I wouldn't put it past Eloise to make her first dance a Pitbull tune...

xxx
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Hello, I'm Rebecca: social media exec, new-ish coffee drinker and loafer-wearer.
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