After waiting a year and three months to go due to the pandemic, I finally went to see 9 to 5 the musical and it definitely did not disappoint.

As the show was at The Mayflower in Southampton, we headed over by train and went to a few shops and had some food and drinks before going to the event.

For lunch, we went to Zizzi in West Quay and I had the chorizo carbonara, so nice would definitely recommend! The burrata salad starter was so nice too. I also had the passion fruitini cocktail.

The show started at 2pm so we walked over to The Mayflower after lunch and getting in was super easy there weren't really any queues. There were no empty seats though as so many people must have been waiting to go since 2020 like us.

I had seen 9 to 5 the movie with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin which I loved, but this was my first time seeing it as a musical on stage and it was amazing!

It was a really clever adaptation of the film and it was so funny too, at one point I think tears were coming out because I was laughing so much.

Related: Women don't owe you pretty book review

The characters were fab too. Franklin Hart Jr, the misogynistic CEO of the company is definitely more exaggerated in the musical than in the film which really helped to get the point across of how women have been treated in the office compared to how men have been treated.

I'd like to think the way women are treated in the workplace has improved since the 1980s but there are still some improvements that need to be made in certain workplaces I would say.

The three women main characters are so empowering and it's great to watch their journey and see a happy ending for each of them.

There was a great balance between comedy, and also keeping focused on the serious themes of misogyny throughout. Every so often, Franklin Hart Jr would make sexist jokes about women to one of his male coworkers, Bob. At the end of the show, Bob then hit him back with my favourite line: "What do you call a female CEO? A CEO."

I definitely need to see more musicals, I always love them! So far, I have only seen 9 to 5, Mamma Mia, The Rocky Horror Show and Shrek The Musical - all of which were so good.

Related: A-Z of date ideas

Are you a fan of musicals, which is your favourite?

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, I spent the Saturday and Sunday at Bournemouth 7s Festival. I had my ticket booked so long ago and was due to go in May 2020, so I felt like writing about my experience there.

If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that in lockdown last year, I tried recreating Bournemouth 7s Festival in my back garden.

Related: Throwing a festival lockdown party

Luckily I was able to stay at a friend's house so I didn't have to do any camping. I'm so glad, it was such a tiring weekend so I needed the proper sleep in a bed.

Day 1 

For day 1 my friends and I went out for breakfast so we could line our stomachs and started drinking pre-lunch time. No judgment here it was a big weekend! We had some more pre-drinks at the house before heading to the festival at around 2pm.

The queue for day 1 was pretty long as we had to show covid passes or test results, tickets, ID, and our bags all in different places.

When we arrived we tried out all of the different music tents and got the drinks in. The sponsored drink this year was White Claw, which I really think helped me out. Because it's a hard seltzer which is quite watery, it was so easy to drink all day and was quite hydrating. They were also not too strong so I didn't overdo it too early. Incidentally, water was £3 and these cans were £4!

The headlining act on day 1 was Ella Eyre. She was good but the main tent was so full and we were so far back that we couldn't really see that well and it was getting a bit crowded, so we ended up just going to an RnB tent which was so good.

Day 2

Again, we had a couple of drinks before leaving for 7s, some of us were more hungover than others (I am smug because it's usually me but I felt amazing - thank you White Claws). We left for 7s earlier and there was no queue as we all had wristbands by that point so got in a lot quicker.

We did actually watch about 5 minutes of rugby on Sunday, I know it's mainly for sports but I much prefer just dancing and listening to music to watching the sports (sorry!)

After that we did a bit of the Bingo Lingo which was good, my feet were killing from the day before and there was still so much walking be done so I was just grateful for sitting down really.

As for the rest of the day, it was pretty much the same as the day before, just going between tents and dancing listening to the different music.

We didn't end up seeing the headlining act, but I can't remember who it was anyway and the other tents had such good music anyway that it didn't really matter.

It feels quite weird now because that was the last event in Bournemouth that I'll probably go to for a while because I've finished uni there now. But I'm looking forward to more events in the future.

Have you been to any festivals this year?

This is a guest post by Caroline from Enviroline Blog.

So I finally got round to reading Women Don't Owe You Pretty by Florence Given and thought why not share my thoughts with you? This is my first time writing a book review so I hope you enjoy and let me know if you'd like to see more of these.

First of all, the book was written by Florence Given, who is currently a 22-year-old writer, artist and influencer - the same age as me!

What is the book about?

It's a non-fiction book that talks all about the different areas of being a woman. There are different chapters about relationships, body image, building an identity and the difficulty in doing this in a world rooted in racism, misogyny and sexism.

It is a mainstream dive into feminism and is easily accessible for those who don't want to read mounds of feminist literature but still want to learn about feminism and the need for gender equality.

The aim of this book is to challenge the ideas you thought you already had about the world, gender and identity. Due to studying a lot of the things the book covers at university, I already knew a lot of what was in it however, this book still taught me a lot and has changed my way of thinking even more.

Related: 5 books I wish I'd read sooner

Additionally, the book is filled with beautiful illustrations that Florence Given has created herself. At times, there are triggering subjects talked about such as rape or sexual trauma, (with appropriate trigger warnings in place) and these images just lift you back up after reading about these topics.

This book is definitely relevant at the moment, in a world where some people may even think what? Of course we have gender equality by now? By reading this book, you will know that we don't in this society still.

Should you read this book?

I would definitely recommend this book and I feel like this is an important read for everyone. I definitely learnt a lot and feel like everyone needs to read what is in this book. It hits you with cold hard truths that we all need to hear.

Related: The art of blog writing E-book

Have you read this book? What were your thoughts?