I don't know what they're telling you but I know we can turn this around.

Jumper: £21.50, French Connection. Joni jeans: £32.40, Topshop. Trench coat: Laura Ashley. Cossack hat: £10, F+F. Bowler bag: £43, Marks and Spencer. Wedges: c/o Shoe Zone. Necklace: Grace Face Boutique. Lipstick: MAC Ravishing. Nails: Nails Inc "The Thames".

I don't know why I was so excited to take these photos; they're the most cliché autumnal images you can find on the internet (yep, spot the classic "hold a leaf in front of your face" shot), but we keep going back to them for a reason! The park in town, only a few yards away from here, was the most obvious place for my mum and I to head to take them, and not just because it's only a stone's throw from M&S. The place I normally associate with picnics and school lunchtimes (which once included sitting on a bench and consuming an entire tub of Ben and Jerry's with a friend. In October.), is currently home to rust-coloured leafy avenues. It's not quite freezing point yet, so I wore a surprisingly non-itchy jumper over skinny jeans, with a trench coat, comfy wedge-heels and a hat that's far, far too big for my head - but it's fluffy, which makes it okay.

In the course of writing this, I think I've received four Paul Hollywood-based snapchats after last night and made my way through three mugs of tea. So it's time to stop procrastinating and putting off important things and get down to serious phone calls and emails - moving country is hard. I'm also planning to head to the AX Paris party tomorrow night, so let me know if you'll be there, and I won't be that weirdo sitting in the corner on her own!

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Tonight make it magnificent.

Cropped pale blue jumper: £10, Primark. Blouse: £13.50, Miss Selfridge (old). Joni jeans: £30, Topshop. Anna boots: £76.50, Topshop. Socks: Primark (part of pack). Holiday bag: gift, Cath Kidston. Lipstick: MAC Ravishing.

This time last week I was on a train (the novelty of that mode of transport wore of a long, long time ago) heading northwards to visit Claire, Gem, Maria, Sarah and Emma in Birmingham. I can't say I've explored the city too much in my many times visiting as I somehow always end up in Selfridges and the Mailbox, but what I have seen makes me want to find out more about the rest of it. The above photos were taken by Claire just outside the grounds of the cathedral, and I added the typical touristy photo of the town hall - you can't complain about its architecture at all! As I knew we'd be doing a fair amount of wandering around the city, I thought I'd wear a sensible outfit (for once), donning my trusted Topshop anna boots, joni jeans (which I'm actually less than impressed with regarding wear, has anyone else had issues with them once they've been washed?), a cheaper and purposefully less fluffy version of that Topshop jumper, and my "bag that everything fits in" which I've been using since I got it for my birthday nearly two years ago, perfect for carrying pyjamas, playsuits and, um, vodka.

We spent the day wandering round the town centre, before calling into GBK for burgers (come on, we are bloggers) and a catch up. Sadly Emma and Sarah had to leave us after the meal to do important grown-up things like sleep, but the rest of us returned to Snobs for a night of dancing on broken glass and requesting Blondie. Leaving the next morning (read: afternoon) was made substantially better with nachos and orange juice, and I didn't even have any annoying passengers on my train home! This weekend is being spent a little closer to home, as I've just spent the morning making triangular sandwiches ready for a DIY afternoon tea. Thug life, right?

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I'm just sitting watching flowers in the rain.

Trench coat: c/o Laura Ashley. Blouse: £4.50, Jack Wills, via charity shop. Pencil skirt: £1.50, Jigsaw, via charity shop (I know, I need to sew the hem up!). Chelsea boots: £8, Bally, via charity shop. Umbrella: mum's (similar here). Necklace: c/o Laura Ashley. Rings: Topshop and vintage. Nail varnish: rainy day, Topshop.

This blog is slowly but surely turning into a series of weather observations, but when you're British that's hardly surprising - it's a bit soggy, isn't it? Although I can never be bothered to carry an umbrella round as they're so encumbering when wet, sometimes I'll have to admit defeat, particularly when I came across my mum's old Mary Poppins style duck umbrella. Underneath its boughs (or, um, metal rods) I wore a classic trench coat, which Laura Ashley asked me to style up, along with four other bloggers. It's hardly difficult to decide what to wear with something as classic as a trench, particularly as the camel goes with pretty much everything. I chose a completely charity shop ensemble (coming to a grand total of £14!), keeping the palette muted to show off the piece I entitled my "raindrop" necklace. I mean, if you're going to go with a theme, you might as well go 100%.

I also had a chat with the Laura Ashley girls about the new furniture collections a while back, so feel sure to click through and listen to me rambling about chandeliers!

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I've seen those English dramas too.

Polkadot blouse: mum's, vintage Sarsaparilla. Leather skirt: £4, charity shop (similar here, and probably won't fall apart the first time you wear it). Two-tone flats: 50p, Russell and Bromley via ebay. Shopper bag: c/o Laura Ashley. Lipstick: Topshop Really Ruby.

Apart from the obligatory burger snaps, you may have noticed a few bloggers' instagrams had a slightly different backdrop than usual yesterday. Lucy, Kristabel, Carrie and I headed West to visit our pal Dina in her university city of Oxford. One of the most beautiful cities in the country, with undoubtedly some of the most awe-inspiring architecture around (yep, I'm the girl who walks round staring up at the buildings rather than looking where she's going), I couldn't wait to head back after my two years away. 

If you don't know much about the system at Oxford, applicants apply to a college rather than to the university as a whole, and each college has its own mini campus. Dina's at Lincoln, so we headed there first to have a wander around the quad and check out the Harry Potter-style dining hall (they actually filmed it down the road at Christ Church), which put my own university's carnatic halls to shame. We meandered around many of the city's colleges, including Magdalen (where my outfit photos were taken!), which has its own deer park, and New, home to some of the most colourful flower gardens I've ever come across. The location for our mandatory group shot (taken by the ever-patient Sonia) was underneath the bridge of sighs, which should probably be renamed the bridge of lols after the amount of failed jumping shots we attempted to take - you can't have everything, after all.

We probably needed the exercise after our lunch at Atomic Burger on Cowley Road. In true fashion, we piled in at peak time, and squeezed around a table with Dina's university friends. I sampled the Jake n Elwood (blue cheese, bacon, and onions), although I noticed a Messy Jessie and Bandit around our table. It's definitely worth popping into if you're in the area, even if only for the Barbie-themed toilets. We rolled (nearly literally...) into Pierre Victoire for dinner for something a little more refined, if that's how you classify eating with a knife and fork. Sadly we then went our separate ways into the night, after our day of being tourists. Looks like I'll be heading back soon though - we didn't even have time to go punting!

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