Book review: Frankenstein

Frankenstein- Mary Shelley

You know I love books. I love books in the way a mother loves her child. I don't ever stop reading, even if that means I have to read the back of a crisp packet! However, I've never read much in the way of classics. When I was younger, I tried to read Sense and Sensibility (or was it Pride and Prejudice?) and found it so dry that I was totally put off reading literature from the early-1800s. However, there is still that little emo kid still inside me that is drawn to all gothic and mysterious, so when Frankenstein was offered as a selection of the Mirror Book Club, I didn't even need to think about it. Let me tell you, I am glad I gave it a shot!

To be honest, I found the beginning dull and dry. The first volume recounts the background of Victor Frankenstein (the man who creates the monster, which does not have a name) and, although crucial to understanding his motives later in the novel, it is a little hardgoing. What I found interesting was how Shelley skips so quickly over Frankenstein's making of the monster. Maybe I wasn't paying attention but suddenly, he was lamenting how ugly his creature was. I expected more of a build up.

Once the monster is created, however, the story gets moving. Frankenstein panics at how hideous his creation is and, in his flustered state, loses track of his monster which disappears for a couple of years before Frankenstein's younger brother is killed. Later we found out that the beast spent these years observing a French family, learning their language and ways but, when rejected by the family that he grew to care for dearly, he wreaks havoc upon his creator's life, killing all who are dear to him.

I found Frankenstein to be a self-obsessed and self-pitying character. Instead of finding solutions to his problem, he fixates upon seeking revenge, which only leads to more destruction. He despises himself for creating such a monster and laments the loss of his potential life. However, I also found myself wondering about his sanity. Again and again, he finds himself at the body of a loved one, with the monster just out of sight, slipping in and out of his vision and, at one point, is even charged with the murder of a friend. Is his monster real or is it in fact an aspect of his own personality?
This question was addressed in an interesting essay included at the back of my edition. It considers the possibility that both creator and creation are one and the same, reflections of each other, and discusses religious symbolism- both are simultaneously God-like and Satanic in their motives. Together, they form a trinity of man, God and Devil. 

Shelley's novel is fraught with symbolism and forewarning. It is beautifully constructed and ultimately a tragic warning against the dangers of pride and vanity. It's changed my mind about 1800s literature, and I can't wait to read more! 

Buy Frankenstein here

Affiliate links have been used in this post. 

Wedding plans are go!

Amazing news! Rich and I are officially getting married this summer! We were originally planning to get married in 2013 but, as I mentioned here, we weren't very good at saving and had to postpone it for a year. However, we have now booked the wedding so we're all good to go now! 

In the run up to the wedding, I'm going to post monthly updates so you can see how it's coming together.

Now, we're going for a little unconventional wedding and are getting married in Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida. You know how much I love Harry Potter so it shouldn't come as a surprise! My best friend Laura is our officiant and we're going to have a meal in the Three Broomsticks afterwards as a kind of mini-reception.

Of course, this means our friends and family won't be around to celebrate with us, so we're going to have a proper full-on wedding reception when we get home. Our Florida wedding will be legally recognised in the UK so we won't be having a real wedding in England, but we're still going to treat the reception as if we did. We're probably going to have a little ceremonial exchanging of vows and I'm still having bridesmaids (including Leona!)

Our "England wedding" is going to have a literary theme as we're both avid readers, and our first conversation on the night we met was about literature (I know, rock and roll!). I'm envisioning lots of vintage hardbacks and pastel colours, along the line of this blog's colour theme actually! It's going to be held in Rich's workplace, which is a lovely quaint little boarding school in Surrey. 

Our outfits will be the same both in Florida and England. We want to look fancy but not over-the-top: We can hardly stroll into Universal Studios in full-on bridal gear! I don't want to give too much away, only to say that my dress is inspired by this costume from the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special! (You can also see a video of it here). Oh, and there's going to be lots of mint green. I'm Slytherin, see, so it's fitting! 

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I've already bought some accessories to go with the dress but I'll wait until they arrive before I show you them. By the end of the month, I should have quite a lot of the wedding booked and bought. Speedy Gonzalez! 

5th February 2014

Coat: Dorothy Perkins

Boots: Legroom c/o Fashion World

I've always had fat legs. Even when I was a size 10, I had calves too chubby to fit into boots. I've always pined for some black winter boots but just accepted that it wasn't to be. Then Fashion World sent me these amazing quilted Legroom boots. Hoorah!
I chose the EEE fitting as I figured this might give some more room around the calf. When I pulled them on, I was horrified to discover that not even extra-wide, plus-size boots would zip over my calves! Luckily, this design has a secondary zip and buckle on the other side, so I loosened that and finally had my chubby calves encased in boots. Yay!

It's a funny sensation, as my calves feel quite tight but my feet are swimming around in the extra-wide boot. They're also quite heavy, but it didn't take me long to get used to. Despite this, my boots are very comfortable and I'm over the moon that I have a pair of boots to wear in winter that actually fit my calves!

365 29- 35

029 The sweetest letter from a girl in my class! She's not being rude with the chubby comment! The children were playing around and competing over chubby faces ("I have a chubby face!" "I have a chubbier face!"), so I stupidly said "I have the chubbiest face!" They thought it was hilarious and now they keep joking about me being chubby!

030 Taking all my piercings out for my MRI.

 031 Our Universal tickets arrived! 

 032 A lovely day! The weekends are so beautiful lately.

 033 A delicious Frankie & Benny's ice cream sundae. Yum yum yum! 

034 I bought the dress part of my simple-dress-and-fancy-overskirt wedding outfit. Here's a sneak peek!

 035Time to light a new candle. This one is absolutely gorgeous and has such a great throw!

Word of February: Plan

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I really don't want to bore you guys, and I'm terribly sorry if I'm turning into one of those wedding obsessives, but the next 6 months might be a little wedding-heavy. Since we've decided to actually get married this year (more on that later this week!), my February is going to be made up of planning, planning and more planning!

I only have one real goal here, which is plan/ book as much as I can and then post an end-of-month update on my planning progress. Exciting times! 

What to expect from an MRI scan

I've briefly touched on my recent health problems on here and, if you're following me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet about them quite a bit. In an attempt to get to the bottom of them, my GP is in the process of sending me for a billion tests and consultations. I had an MRI last week to scan my head and, as I'd had no experience of them before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought there might be other people in this situation, so it made sense to document my process. I really hope this helps some of you!

Of course, this is just my experience so not everything will be universal, but the main elements should be the same. I should also warn you that it's going to be a loooong post! 

Prior to the scan
My GP recommended an MRI on the Monday and sent off the referral form to the hospital. The next Tuesday, I received a letter from the hospital telling me my appointment was for that Thursday. It was very quick and short-notice but luckily work were understanding! The letter included all the information I needed, including where to go, what the process entails and what I should wear. It also included a little health questionnaire, making sure I had no existing health conditions, such as heart or kidney problems, that might be affected by the scan.

On the day
It's important that you don't wear any metal so I had to take all of my piercings out. It took quite some time but I eventually removed all of them. My face felt so empty!Just look at my tunnel-free ear below! I had to be careful not to wear any metal so anything with zips, buttons etc was out. I wore leggings, a cotton pull-on dress and a woollen jumper. Note: If you wear a skirt, wear leggings! I'll explain why later. My shoes had metal details on but they didn't go into the scanner so the radiographer said they were fine, and I was fine to wear my bra as the underwiring didn't affect the scan. I also couldn't wear make up as there can sometimes be metallic fragments inside products. Perfect timing as I have a horrendously spotty chin right now and kept complaining about it! 

My appointment was at 1:30 with a scan time of 1:50. My mum came to pick me up at 12:45, which I thought was insanely early, but it turns out we had to queue about a half mile to get into the car park. Crazy! It's definitely worth leaving well in advance, just in case!

At the hospital
We followed the little map that the hospital sent to find the scanning centre, but it was signposted all the way so very easy to find. However, when we reached the scanning centre,the two ladies on the desk were very rude and made me feel pretty awkward. Referring to me, one said, and I quote: "Shall I deal with... it?" (Rich said it was because of my spotty chin- they weren't sure if I was human!) 

Luckily, the woman who led us out to the scanning unit was very friendly. She showed us the waiting room next to the scanner, which was a pretty depressing place as you can see here. There were only 5 seats too, so it's lucky that there was only one other person in there!

After waiting about 10 minutes, the radiographer called me over to a seperate area and went through the questionnaire I'd filled in, checking that my answers were correct. She also made sure I had nothing in my pockets and that I wasn't wearing any jewellery. She then asked me to sit back in the waiting room until they were ready for me.

Preparing for the scan
At 1:50 exactly, an old lady came out of the scanning room, propped up by two nurses, which I assumed was just because she was an ill, elderly woman. The radiographer called me over and took me into the scanning room. This was a little scary as there was a huge vault door with a massive sign on the front with a billion warnings all over it. Behind the door, the scanning room was split into two sections- the first contained all sorts of computers and crazy medical equipment, with a door that led into a larger room containing the scanner and a large window between the two. I was surprised that I was going to be in a full body scanner as I'd assumed they had little ones specifically for head scans. 

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Inside the room were three people- the radiographer, the nurse and a man who looked far too young to be messing around with my brain and massive magnets! I'm not sure what his role was. He took my glasses and placed them in the "computer room" (I'm not sure what to call it), and the radiographer and nurse helped me onto the bed. There was a pillow under my head and they placed a wedge-shaped pillow under my legs to take the pressure off my back. It was very comfortable!

The radiographer clipped a white plastic cage over my head. There was a mirror on the top. She asked me whether I wanted it on or off but I wasn't fussed so she just took it off. She gave me some ear plugs and a buzzer in case I needed to contact them, then the nurse handed me some ear phones and asked if I would like some music. She gave me a choice of modern, easy listening or classical. I asked for modern but she forgot about it and I ended up with a mix of all three. I was happy with that.

The scan
I wasn't worried at all, but the radiographer and nurse were very reassuring nonetheless. The radiographer said I could keep my eyes closed or open them, but asked me to close them as I went into the scanner as there was a laser beam that would shine in my eyes. At this point, I was suddenly aware that, as my feet were facing the window and were propped up on that cushion, they could probably see right up my skirt. Lucky that I was wearing leggings! 

The bed slowly moved back into the scanner, and I have to admit, I was surprised by how small it was in there. Luckily I'm not at all claustrophobic! I was also surprised that it was very light in there as there was a blue-white light shining from somewhere behind my head. I kept my eyes open for a bit, but it got a bit boring staring at the white surface 6 inches above my face, so I closed them at that point.

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Through the headphones, the man told me that the first scan was going to be 20 seconds. I was ready for a really loud noise, but it wasn't as deafening as I expected. It started quite quietly, like a dull roar, and slowly built up. I lay as still as possible and found it surprisingly easy- I thought I was going to be a lot more fidgety!

My next scan was 3 minutes, and the music started during this scan- Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. The bed vibrated a little, but I actually found it quite soothing. If it wasn't quite as light in there, I would definitely have fallen asleep! The next scan was 4 minutes and I found myself becoming very relaxed. I didn't really think of anything, I just lay there listening to the music and chilling out!

The final scan was 90 seconds and the man warned me that it would be a lot noisier than the others so the bed might move a bit. It was pretty loud but, again, not defeaning. He was right about the bed though- It was shaking all over the place like something out of Poltergeist! I just found it so difficult not to burst out laughing. First it was shaking my head, then shaking my legs, then shaking my whole body. I just found it really funny!

After the scan
After that scan, the bed suddenly started rolling back out. The nurse asked if I was ok and of course I was fine. They unclipped the cage on my head, then asked me to sit up. I just sat straight up as usual and was surprised that both the nurse and radiographer reached out with cries of "Woah, woah, woah!" I stood up and was suddenly hit by a crazy dizziness. They told me to sit down for a bit and fetched my glasses, which really helped. 

As I walked out of the room, I felt like I'd just got off a rollercoaster. I had that light-headed feeling where the world feels like it's tilting, or like you're walking on air. It suddenly clicked why the old lady needed help getting back to the waiting room. I sat down for five minutes, by which point I had recovered, albeit with a slight headache, then the radiographer led us back to the main entrance. We were out of the hospital at 2:10. It was such a quick process!

What next?
The radiographer told me that I should get a letter in about 10 days and will need to make an appointment to see my GP and discuss the results. Hopefully everything will get sorted out!

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience. It was not scary at all, and was over so quickly. I know a lot of people worry about MRIs but please don't- It's over before you know it! 

30th January 2014

Jumper: Topshop
Dress: Primark

I'm calling this my Orville top. I wish I could fly... I know it makes me look like I have the build of an American football player, complete with padding, but I can't help but love it. It's so soft and fluffy! I'm supposed to be on a spending ban (I never thought I'd say those words!) but I couldn't resist when I saw it in the Topshop sale! 

You may also have noticed that my dress is a little creased. This is probably the time to admit that I don't actually own an iron. I've never needed one- We hang our washing up to dry and the creases just drop out. Unfortunately, this has been stored a little screwed up, but I have more important things to worry about than whether my skirt has a few creases. At least I'm honest, right? 

As you can see, I'm totally make up free. I took these photos just before heading out for my MRI and the letter I was sent told me not to wear make up as some of it can contain magnetic fragments. I guess I don't need to look my best when I'm sticking my face in a gigantic magnet! I also changed my jumper last minute because I realised it had metallic fibres in it. I didn't fancy getting stuck to the machine!