#100HappyDays: Days 31 – 37

Happy Monday everyone! Back today with my weekly updates on the #100HappyDays challenge. So far, so good.

31

Day 31:

I… bought shoes again. Oops. Actually they just jumped into my car window and I had to take them home. What’s a girl to do?

32

Day 32:

Had this delicious halloumi salad at work. It was so NOM.

33

Day 33:

Had a lovely run at the Kliprivier Nature Reserve and some thinking time with a friend.

34

Day 34:

These clouds while I was running. Sometimes it is so wonderful to realize how insignificant the human race is.

36

Day 36:

So. I started drinking herbal teas instead of a straight dose of caffeine through the day. It hasn’t been easy, but rooibos is delicious and it makes life somewhat better. I’m not completely insane and am still drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. But. I might growl at people in the afternoon due to severe lack of caffeine.

37

Day 37:

Spent the day with a lovely bride to be, celebrating, and eating way too many fudge brownies. I am not eating ANYTHING next week. Okay, I’ll eat. But not brownies.

What made you happy the past week?

PS: Did you pick up the mistake?

#100HappyDays: Days 9 – 16

day 9

Day 9: When I moved into my new place at the beginning of #2015wasashittyyear last year, my dog had to go live with my sister. While I am really grateful and happy that Nicci Noodle got to go to a safe and happy environment and be with people that love her, I still miss her snuggly warmth every day. I got to spend some time with her recently and that made me really happy. I’ve also been kind of obsessed with block heels since they came back at the end of last year. They are great – you can actually work in them because they provide support for your feet, and they look uber cool – I feel like I can do anything when I wear them. I saw this pair in the shops but they didn’t have my size, and when even the online store for the retailer didn’t list them anymore I wrote it down as bad luck. So when I found them in another branch, my happy cup filled over and I was dancing (at least in my head) in the shop.

day 10

Day 10: Started watching Homeland Season 5 – oh goodness, what a crazy great and intense season! Also did nails in a gorgeous new color and continued with my adult coloring book.

day 11

Day 11: This sassy little book bag gave me such joy when I bought it.

day 12

Day 12: I’m busy reading this incredible book from Elizabeth Gilbert – Big Magic. It is everything I want in a book that wants to be self-helping. I am having such a great time. The woman is sensational and I just want to be like her when I grow up.

day 13

Day 13: Johannesburg was being lovely

day 14

Day 14: Had some delicious meals throughout the day and updated blog’s look as well.

day 15

Day 15: These Paris prints in my room makes me so happy. Motivation and reminders of what I want to do in my life.

day 16

Day 16: I’m doing really well with the no-sugar thing so far. However, with amazing cappuccino I don’t even think about sugar. How amazing is that?!

What made you happy this week?

 

 

Book Review: The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)

BookCover

Plot: (via Amazon)

When Andrea first sets foot in the plush Manhattan offices of Runway she knows nothing. She’s never heard of the world’s most fashionable magazine, or its feared and fawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly – her new boss.

A year later, she knows altogether too much:

That it’s a sacking offence to wear anything lower than a three-inch heel to work.

That you can charge cars, manicures, anything at all to the Runway account, but you must never, ever, leave your desk, or let Miranda’s coffee get cold.

And that at 3 a.m. on a Sunday, when your boyfriend’s dumping you because you’re always at work, if Miranda phones, you jump.

But this is Andrea’s big break – it’s going to be worth it in the end.

Isn’t it?

Rating: 7/10

Hmm.Despite the incessant use of “Um” and the inexplicable length, I enjoyed this book. It is well written and paced, but it gets very (excessively) descriptive in places. I am really fond of beautiful clothes but hearing every few pages about brand upon brand upon brand from a character that claims to not care about fashion got tiring quickly.

Then there is the whole spin on first time employees. An experienced worker can spot them a mile away. With a freshly printed university degree in their hands, these children expect superior treatment just because they deigned to show up for the interview. In my book experience eclipses education every single time. I’m not saying that Anna Miranda wasn’t terrible to Lauren Andrea. I’m just saying that you are sitting here with a woman who has already lifted herself up in the world, risen to success, and a snot bag university graduate that expects to be treated like royalty just with absolutely zero experience. But it is a good look into that whole first experience of employment, as well as how relationships that worked in the carefree university life simply collapses under the weight of the real world.

Now to the farce that “this book isn’t a real life account of my experience at Vogue”

I truly don’t believe Anna Wintour gives a shit what an ex assistant says about her. Who would? By selling this book Wintour was only made more notorious and I don’t think she saw that as a bad thing. If you read Andrea’s life, and you read Weisberger’s life, it’s the same thing. At this point I’m only really interested in who Christian Collinsworth is in real life.

Book to movie adaption: They changed quite a bit, but both the book and the movie works well. I loved Emily Blunt as senior assistant Emily in the movies, but think her character was much more nasty in the movie.

The main character sporadically comes across as a petulant brat who thinks everyone was put on this planet to be nice to her, but I think that is a result of the first person way the book was written. It also seems that she has misplaced intellectual snobbery – she constantly places herself above her coworkers in the intelligence food chain. I had a really good time reading this, just thought it was a bit long to match to content, but it was pretty enjoyable. Now I must re-watch the movie because I love that movie!