e2 #269

Artwork by Zoe Zietman

winter wonderland

Style

Travel

Living

Merry Christmas from everyone at e2

Artwork by Grace Elwood

The festive season has arrived in earnest. The Coca Cola advert has graced our TV screens an abundance of times by now, and Christmas trees are popping up here, there and everywhere. That’s why, this edition, we’re taking you on a walk through winter wonderland.

What’s On

From the joys of scrumptuous Christmas dinners to the best festive markets in and around Bristol, e2 will help you celebrate this Christmas in style.

Make our Christmas wish come true... write for e2!

It’s never too late to get involved in writing for e2. There’s no commitment and it’s a lot of fun! If you’d like to get involved, email our section editors or meet them at their fortnightly meetings.

Give our team a Christmas greeting!

Living: Tori Halman, Sophia Hadjipateras and Izzy Kerr will meet at the ASS Library café on Thursday 12th December at 1.15pm.

Travel: Olivia Lace-Evans and Andrea Valentino will meet at the Refectory on Thursday 12th December at 12.15pm.

Style: Maddy Streets and Deanne Ball will meet at the ASS library café on Friday 13th December at 12.30pm. e2 is edited by Alex Bradbrook deputy@epigram.org.uk

09.12.2013

Bah-Humbug For me, the cherished festive season is about watching Love-Actually on repeat, opening presents at lightning speed and eating my body weight in orgasm-inducing food. However, I’ve come to realise that Christmas is just one big fat (quite literally the way I binge) excuse for doing anything that during any other time of the year, you’d never allow yourself to do. I’m all for embracing the festive spirit, but I’m just not sure how on board I am with the concept that ‘it’s Christmas’ is a valid line of argument.

please jump directly into a furnace and take the pile of disgusting knitwear with you

1. Tamagotchis. Tiny little pets you can

carry around in your pocket all day long, if they die you can bring it back to life.

What’s not to love?

2. Lego. You’re an architect in your own

living room. Spend days building that dream house you’ve always wanted, an army base, a helicopter or a firestation. You decide how everything looks, where everybody goes and what everybody does.In LegoLand, you’re practically God.

3. Rollerskates. Everybody knows walking is for chumps. With these bad boys you can glide around all day long, sliding around like soap on the shower floor.

4. Micro-scooters. Earning even more cool-points than rollerskates,

this handy, neatly-packed bundle of speed and sleek metal gives it’s driver immediate street-cred.

5.

The Sims. Go home Sims 3, with your high-tech graphics that make me feel as though I’m actually in Sim City. You’re not a patch on The Sims Deluxe Edition, Makin’ Magic or Pets. I happen to like my characters to be 80% pixels, and I enjoyed waiting 10 hours for the game to load - there’s nothing like a good bit of anticipation.

April is the cruellest month, TS Eliot wrote in ‘The Waste Land’. Oh how wrong he was.

The real cruellest month (or monthS in this godforsaken Arctic country) actually fall in the bleak midwinter when no matter how hard you try to cling onto the remnants of summer the harsh reality is that you are confined to living rooms, cafés and other stuffy overheated spaces for at least 4 more months. And sadly folks, that time of year has come…

Not that you need any but, just in case, these are some reasons to justify or consolidate your hatred for winter:

1 individuals going about the festive season without a care in the world, rejecting your own sanity and any scrap of logic and reason, I salute your optimism. You’ve got to have something to keep you going through the cold, grey English winters, be that an Olympic level of carbohydrate loading or poor fashion decisions based entirely on comfort. You can only use ‘it’s Christmas’ for a few weeks a year, so why not embrace this sin-cleansing statement given to us? Take some initiative; kiss whoever the heck you like at the Christmas party without any guilt whatsoever and binge drink for an entire month before anybody realises you’re an alcoholic. Santa would have wanted it, I reckon.

Tori Halman

6

Winter wardrobes mean less skin on show which is detrimental to the happiness of the student body who need regular eye-candy. Not to mention hat-hair.

Money wasted on taxis and cloak rooms during nights out, at a time when you are already broke in the run-up to Christmas.

Disintegration of house dynamic due to heating arguments.

Inability to use your touch screen phone with gloves on.

2 3

Wearing so many layers that your arms don’t touch your body anymore and you look like you need to seek help for obesity.

4 Having a 9 to 5 and therefore not seeing daylight ever.

5

Having to wait half an hour before you can drive anywhere thanks to the frost on your car. Yet NO SNOW to compensate?!

7 8

Extremely pale, white-verging-on-grey skin which needs coating in a vast array of chemicals so as not to frighten people off.

9 No more Frappuccino’s, flip flops or icecream for a long long time.

10

Going to bed all eskimoed up and waking up in Havana.

compfight: ancama_99

The first, and most obvious, example of this is all the goodies we consume from mid-November until the guilt kicks in around the beginning of January. Tell me, when in March would it be okay to begin eating chocolate, in the shape of a man with a beard, from 8am, and continue eating every hour until you break open the tin of Roses at 10pm in front of the telly?

And who in their right mind, when sitting outside in the garden in summer would reach for a pastry coated, mincemeat filled, pie of supposed deliciousness to satiate their appetite?

The answer, of course, is nobody.

What I’m trying to get at here, is that ‘it’s Christmas’ seems to be a sufficient justification for doing all these things. If everything we ate at Christmas was really that good, we would eat it all year round.

The same goes for Christmas jumpers. Sorry, what was that? You think they’re funny, cute, cosy, festive, and a bit of a laugh? Good God no, please jump directly into a furnace and take the pile of disgusting knitwear with you. At Easter, do people wear clothes adorned with images of bunny rabbits, or do you emblazon your wardrobe with hearts on Valentine’s Day? No. You do not. So, why, for the love of all that is holy, do we think it’s all right to don lumpy jumpers covered in Rudolph and penguins around December? If you’re going to get into the festive spirit with your outfits, at least go the whole hog and dress up entirely as something Christmassy – like Santa, or an elf – don’t just whack a knitted version of them onto your chest and think it’s enough. You

lazy fancy-dresser-upper.

I think I’ve made it fairly clear that these things bug me, but I’ll still accept them. After all, Christmas is a time to spread love, joy and all that. But there’s just one thing left, one little niggle, that I really can’t see the other side of.

Relatives.

If your house is anything like mine at Christmas, it’s swarming with family members you like about as much a Humanities student does scientists in the ASS. They’re not meant to be there.

It’s not their natural habitat, they look out of place, and to be frank, they do not belong. I don’t like these people any other month, and being polite to them this one day of the year seems about as fake as the singing on the X Factor.

Let’s just do everyone a favour and admit that, sometimes, water is thicker than blood. Have all your mates over on Christmas day instead; get roaring drunk and pass out before the Queen’s speech.

I feel a little like I am morphing into the female Scrooge in writing such a whinge; after all, all you happy

The gifts of Christmas Past

Travel

Fresher Things have gone a bit wrong. I’ve failed at living independently, made myself incredibly ill, and, if I’m being honest: I’m quite embarrassed about how quickly I was reduced to a sniveling, shaky lump.

In celebration of getting my first two essays out of the way, I decided that it would be a great idea to have seven friends down to visit from various universities.

Now, my flat is not spacious. It was only ever built for a maximum of five people to live in, and I feel like the fact that only three people ever moved in has somehow reduced the square-footage. It’s tiny. As a result, It was challenging trying to cram eight people into my miniscule ‘living room’ without running out of oxygen. This close proximity to other disease-ridden

teenagers was definitely my downfall. Merely hours after waking up the following afternoon, I found myself with a hideous cough, and a nausea that could only be partly attributed to summer fruits Lambrini.

I can’t be the only one to think that illnesses that involve coughing are definitely the worst ones. Not only are they beyond disgusting, and very effective at spreading the gross germs, they are also without a doubt the most irritating.

Well, apart from anyone that ever sniffs instead of blowing their nose. Snotty people of the world, I know it’s embarrassing to essentially noisily announce that you’re blasting germs from your nose, but we’ve all been there, and everyone hates a sniffer. As a result of my own debilitating annoying illness, I spent two nights trying desperately to muffle my own coughs to prevent my flat mate, whose bed is only on the other side of the wall to mine, from trying to punch through the bricks and kill me in my sleep.

Needless to say, I did a horrible job, drove my temperature up to 39º, and had to be collected by my mother and taken home. Sigh. I lose.

Having several days at home being brought soup and tea whilst trying not to die inside your duvet nest is certainly preferable to trying to drag yourself to the kitchen to make a breakfast of milk and

Room 101

Stephanie Rihon Fontriver: Pizzadude

Living

@e2Living

bread, because everything else takes too much movement.

The only hope I can cling to now, is that this is my annual Christmas illness out of the way, so that I can booze through the festive season without a hitch.

(I was definitely sicker than I’m making it sound. I’m just brave and strong and a fighter who can overcome anything - that’s what my mum says, anyway.)

Merry Christmas.

Style

The 12 dismays of Christmas Kids it’s ok...

Not to bother with Christmas cards, a chain text on Christmas morning ought to suffice.

To put your Christmas decorations up in November… it compensates for the cold!

To still wake up at 5 am from uncontainable excitement at the prospects of opening your presents from Santa.

To still leave a mince pie and carrots for Santa and his reindeers under the tree even though you know its a waste.

What’s On

To transform your bedroom, or house, into a tacky Santa’s Grotto.

To turn into a manic depressive on Boxing Day because you’ve got another whole year to wait.

To feel like you might cry every time you watch the John Lewis Christmas advert.

To put on approximately ten stone over the Christmas period, you need the warmth.

To avoid Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding like the plague. No-one actually likes them.

To still want to put the angel or star on top of the Christmas Tree, and get angry if you don’t.

To keep every gift you’ve ever got in a cracker, those tiny screwdrivers and pieces of plastic junk will eventually come in handy

To eat copious amounts of chocolate in the run up to Christmas, even if you’re lactose intolerant. Nobody wants to be a scrooge.

Whether you’re a frazzled fresher running laps around the Triangle like a headless chicken determined to fulfill the ‘lashing’ stereotype, a second year striking the work/play balance or even an exhausted third year facing the looming pressures of the ‘real world’, it is safe to say this has been a whirlwind term. After a glorious few months of bad decisions, copious amounts of alcohol and the formation of some beautiful friendships – yes, I’m going there – we come to the resolution of the winter term. Loose ends will be tied and new beginnings are on the horizon.

As the temperature plummets down to what feels like below freezing – non-existent central heating in my Redland abode makes the weather one of my primary focuses - a few things will begin to change but it’s okay, Christmas is coming right?! Oh the joys: all the freshers coupling up, sneaking in forbidden decorations into your blocks and the revelry of Christmas JCR endorsed fiestas ensue. Incidentally, I was once scolded by my accommodation manager for having a rice cooker, which I consider to be an ethnic bashing to my Armenian soul. I mean realistically how am I going to burn down the hall with some rice and chicken? The month of December will automatically fill your soul with abundant joy and happiness…but only if you have enough mulled wine.

I’m not saying this winter is the be all and end all of freshers – some of us only choose to go ‘mental’ in the summer – but the enigmatic magic of the first chapter is closing. The mad scramble for houses has begun, which is frankly more stress than it is worth, just make sure you have no rodents and tolerate 20% of your flat mates and you will be #winning.

“The month of December will automatically fill your soul with abundant joy and happiness” The trips to the German Christmas markets will proceed with cinnamon topped everything and stollen cake a plenty. If this is not enough festive fun for ya’ll, then just you wait for the Christmas formals in Halls. Even if your warden is the snootiest guy on the planet, I can assure you that after that bottle of wine – and mandatory pre’s at Spoons – you will be caroling on the tables. Whatever you do, enjoy this special time and embrace your new life.

And with that, your loyal columnist bids you farewell; Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Want to be a columnist for Epigram Living next term? Send two of your best pieces of writing to living@epigram.org.uk along with a Covering Letter on why you think you’d be right for the position. Deadline 22nd December.

09.12.2013

The 20 year old [Christmas dinner] virgin Doesn’t Christmas food just conjure up such magical memories? The warm, sweet centre of a sumptuous Christmas pudding. The lavish luxury of succulent turkey breast, accompanied by golden, crisp, melt-inthe-mouth roast potatoes. The sweet aroma of mulled wine, brimming with spices. Doesn’t it just take you back to giddily unwrapping presents? Family board games? Long cozy afternoons in front of a fire?

For you, maybe. But not for me.

Due to a childhood spent being Jewish, I have managed to never have a proper Christmas. I had never, until this week, had a Christmas pudding. Until very recently I thought mince pies were actually made out of mince.

No Christmas trees, no presents, no boozy family lunches, no Santa. My Christmases have always been spent in the traditional Jewish way- at 10,000 feet in the air taking advantage of cheap flights on the 25th of December. If you ever get the chance to take a flight on Christmas Day, you really should; nothing would make Nick Griffin’s head explode more than the sight of a plane-load of incredibly smug ethnic minority families being handed drinks by utterly miserable stewards in disheveled Santa hats.

“Christmas lunch is a lot like sex; everyone has their own way of doing it, but it’s fine as long as everyone is satisfied at the end”

I have once or twice celebrated Greek Christmas with a rogue Cypriot aunt, but it seemed to be entirely based around preparing, cooking, eating, digesting and discussing lamb. But that’s about it.

So, I thought that it was high time I experienced a proper Christmas meal. All of my friends talk about Christmas lunch with such fondness, but is the food really that good? Or does everything taste better when you’ve just unwrapped an Xbox?

The first thing I had to do was put together my Christmas menu. The issue was, I wasn’t totally sure what people eat on Christmas. I had heard rumours of gammon, turkey, chicken, goose - one absolute wild card said that their family always had venison (seriously, could you be more Bristol?). The first thing I learnt about Christmas lunch is that it’s a lot like sex; everyone has their own way of doing it, but it’s fine as long as everyone is satisfied at the end.

I decided to stick with a classic turkey breast and cranberry sauce combo for my first ever Xmas lunch experience. Bish bash bosh. I bought a packet of Bernard Matthews pre-cooked turkey slices and a thing of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, which had a strange feeling of déjà vu to it as a used to use Ocean Spray cranberry juice as a mixer when I was about 17 so the whole meal began to adopt a mischievous feel as a result. I realise that a £1 pack of ‘wafer-thin’ turkey (since when did ‘wafer’ become a standard unit of measurement?) is hardly the same as a massive 10 kilogram slow-roasted turkey behemoth and when I got home I realised I didn’t really know what to do with it. I panicked and put it into a sandwich. My housemate informed me I wasn’t too far wide of the mark, as many people do in fact make sandwiches out of leftover turkey and sauce on Boxing Day, but he is also Jewish so I was relying heavily on conjecture.

The resulting sandwich was pretty delicious. Strangely it made me think that I have just taken the fruity part of a Muller Corner yoghurt and popped it on a normal sandwich and it had worked (A future recipe idea perhaps?) I really enjoyed the different flavours, the sweet and the salty. Fair play Christianity. Nice one.

If that’s what my bizarre bargain basement concoction tasted like, I’d love to know what a proper turkey and cranberry sauce deluxe meal is like. If anyone wants to invite me round to their families Xmas dinner, feel free.

Even I know that this feast has to be accompanied by roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Fortunately for me, my housemate had made some roast potatoes and when he wasn’t looking I stole the crispiest one on his baking dish. Let us be perfectly clear about one thing; roast potatoes are goddam amazing. If anyone disagrees with me, I will break their jaw.

Roast potatoes are one of the greatest things in the world. End of.

However, everybody also knows that Brussels sprouts are one of the worst things in the world. They aren’t really a foodstuff, they’re just a farce. Why anyone voluntarily chooses to eat them is beyond me. I can only assume the reason they’re included in Christmas meals is to bring everyone down to earth.

Next up was dessert. For a gentleman’s 60p I had bought some ‘Mince

ly l o j e b o t n o s a e ‘Tis the s

Puffs’, the Sainsbury’s Basics take on mince pies. ‘Mince Puffs’ is a pretty rubbish name, it’s a homophobic joke waiting to happen. I wish somebody had videoed my first ever bite of a mince pie- it would have been like one of those Vines where a baby has pop rocks or a lemon for a first time. Good lord, they’re awful. I just don’t get it at all. They’re sickly, stuck uncomfortably between sweet and tart, in some feckless no-man’sland of unappealing flavours. I can only hope real mince pies are a lot better because ‘Mince Puffs’ are dire. I imagine they taste like what an old beer mat would taste like - lots of originally nice ingredients combined to make one culinary horrorshow. Gross.

The climax of the meal was a Basics Christmas Pudding For One, which looked so depressing it ought to come with the number for a suicide hotline stapled to it.

Again, I had never tried an Xmas pudding before and was expecting something light, festive and jovial. Oh no, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead what I discovered is that Xmas pudding is less of a dessert and more of a full body assault. It is richer and heavier than Oprah. I have no idea how people manage to eat these things after a full roast. Before I used to think that when people talked about how they’d have to run off the Christmas excess weight it was some sort of lame joke, but now I realise it’s a medical necessity.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first forays into Christmas food. Of course, the meal is about far more than just nutrition, it is all about tradition, family and festive cheer. But for us heathens, who of course understand none of those things, it remains slightly baffling.

Miles Coleman

Look good and go out A typical ailment of those unfortunate souls in relationships is, sigh, complacency. They can tumble around un-showered in baggy jumpers and trackies if they like but we want to feel good and slightly superior, so paint your nails, style your hair and let’s go to Christmas parties unlike those sorry sods..

Buy yourself one extravagant present The money that you are not spending on Mr or Mrs Right, you shall be spending on You, Yourself and You. Those American Apparel disco pants, yeah the ones that are £74.50, yeah you deserve them..

Call 3 old friends and one old flirt Those people you’ve been meaning to catch up with but never did? Do it. With university and jobs taking up our time it’s easy for friendships to fade so don’t be afraid to make the first move, they’ll thank you for it. Oh, and that guy who you usedto-kind-of-have-a-thing-with but you are now flirty friends with, have no shame in giving him a text too because who doesn’t love a little bit of fun.

Editor: Deputy: Online: Olivia Lace-Evans Andrea Valentino Emilia Morano-Williams travel@ deputytravel@ travelonline@ epigram.org.uk epigram.org.uk epigram.org.uk

@e2Travel

Style

Travel

Polly Johnson, Miami

There are some cities on earth that just scream: ‘Party Town!’. If Will Smith is convinced, then so am I. Where better to spend a New Years Eve to remember, or more likely to forget, than Miami: home to South Beach, year-round sun and enough bikini-clad roller-skaters to make you want to vomit. I had nothing planned, except to make my 21st New Years the best yet.

On the morning of the 31st, I woke up with a stinking hangover and a hazy recollection as to what went down the night before. Over the past four days, I’d had too many rides in the hostel’s party bus, too much cheap vodka - $15 for 3 litres! and definitely too much Pitbull in the DJ sets. Needless to say, a long day’s tanning on South Beach was required. Mini-planes flew along the beach advertising various events, such as ‘Nikki Beach with Avicii’, ‘Dr. Dre at Mansion’ or even Mr Miami, a.k.a. Pitbull, at the stadium where Miami Heat play. It was only the $200 price-tag that put me off. Our plan was to get very drunk back at the hostel with new friends, head to Ocean Drive and find a preferably cheaper party.

We grabbed some alcoholic slushies from the famous ‘Wet Willies’ before hitting the beach to watch the fireworks. The boys all had celebratory cigars, which was very Scarface, very Miami. We wandered down Ocean Drive, salsa-dancing with locals and topping up on tequila from the street vendors as we went. The details got blurred as the night went on, but somehow we all managed to sneak into a beach club completely free.

We danced on podiums, and narrowly missed falling into the ridiculous adjoining fountain display. Eventually we stepped outside to take a breather, and to top up with yet more tequila, only to be approached by a large man in a suit outside the club. ‘Head to the next hotel, take the elevator to the top’, he whispered ominously. Should we trust this man? Probably not, but by the time we had thought it through, we were already in the hotel’s reception.

Stepping out of the lift and into a crazy world of rooftop DJs, spectacular views and ridiculously beautiful people, we decided we had made a good decision.

Needless to say, I felt pretty underdressed in my sand-covered flats. As you can imagine, details after 3 AM are lost in a happy blur, and in any case, are utterly inappropriate for these hallowed pages! I do, however, remember being very disappointed that a place like Miami couldn’t offer me chips, cheese and gravy when I truly needed it.

Bristol is going to have to pull something out of the bag this year. Somehow, I don’t think La Rocca followed by Hunger Hatch is going to cut it. Then again, at least you’ll be guaranteed some decent chips.

As I waited for it to arrive the days seemed to get longer, the hours of light grew slowly shorter, and nights became colder. Finally, in mid-December I was starting the journey. We had booked a holiday to Australia for three weeks to visit my sister in Brisbane, which would reunite the family for Christmas. Setting off from sunny Milton Keynes, the voyage would take me on a mini world tour from London to Amsterdam, then flying to Beijing before finally reaching Brisbane. 48 hours of sitting in a box. By the time I arrived in China with deep vein thrombosis and knees that could no longer bend past 90 degrees, I regretted trying to save money on the flights.

Eventually I arrived Down Under, and as I woke up from my jet-lagged state, the sun shone brightly through the tiny aeroplane window and I immediately forgot about the previous 2 days. Christmas had arrived, but not as I have known it before.

It takes some time to get used to seeing tanned Aussies in shorts singing Christmas carols in the street. Or a wilting, dry, 50 foot tall Christmas tree standing proudly in the centre of Sydney. Something felt wrong. Like I’d awoken in Bristol to find everybody suddenly speaking French, or the colour blue had actually been red all along.

As we opened presents on Christmas Day, we were engulfed by 40 degree heat.

The closest we came to ‘normal’ was settling down to watch The Snowman and the Queen’s Christmas address. When the meal arrived the differences became apparent once more. Yes, we had all the classics: potatoes, parsnips, turkey, ham, pigs in blankets. However, blasphemously, they’d been barbecued. The soul of Christmas had been stolen. It didn’t matter that the meal might have tasted better than those that we have at home. The tradition had been lost.

Saying that, Christmas Day sitting on a beach, playing football and reading a good book wasn’t completely bad. I even took my Primark Christmas jumper out from the bottom of my suitcase and made a sand snowman to get back in the mood.

All of a sudden, it was time to go home. As we set off the next day, I reflected on a great trip that gave me a completely new perspective on Christmas.

However, as I settled in for another 2-day trip back to England, I must admit I was looking forward to leaving the heat behind and getting back to rainclouds and snow. The heat and beaches are great, but without the tradition and atmosphere, I’ll choose Christmas in England every time.

David Naylor

Polly Johnson

Living

A warm welcome to the New Year

Fed up of sitting in your student house, wearing all of the hats and jumpers you own, and huddling around the one radiator that actually works? Have no fear, Travel is here to help! We asked two of our travel writers to reflect on spending Christmas and New Years under the sun. Let our writers take you away from the rainy streets of Bristol, if only for a moment.

David Naylor, Australia

What’s On

Lapping up the Festivities in Finland If Santa Claus does exist, then he should consider relocating from the North Pole to Lapland, Finland, as it truly is a winter wonderland. Lapland is visited by thousands of tourists every year over the Christmas holiday, and it’s not difficult to see why. Just one day there, is enough to get you in the Christmas spirit.

After flying into the nearby airport in Rovaniemi, a sleigh takes you into the town, where you can then pick up the essential snow suit and other warm clothing to prepare you for your activities.

Highlights include tobogganing and snowmobiling, for those of you with a need for speed, or sleigh rides pulled by huskies or reindeer; although I’m not sure if they have any with a

red nose! You’ll travel through the beautiful forests which surround the town, filled with pine trees glistening with snow.

There’s also the opportunity to go and feed the reindeer; see if you can tell the difference between Dasher, Dancer, Donner (not Jason Donervan) and Vixen.

When you’re done exploring the stunning village, have a go at ice

fishing and see if you can catch something to cook for dinner. If this isn’t your style, there are numerous restaurants Flic kr: to eat at, some of J. O etin ger which I’m sure will serve a cracking Christmas dinner.

Either that, or help yourself to copious amounts of glögi - mulled wine, to warm yourself up from the cold.

Of course, a trip to Lapland isn’t complete without visiting Santa and

his elves at the grotto and asking him for multiple copies of Epigram in your stocking, of course! Apparently, if you ask the elves how to greet him in Finnish, you might even get an extra treat!

These are just a sprinkling of the activities that you can have a go at, but others include rides on the Christmas train, visiting the toy factory and snow castle, biscuit decorating at Mrs Claus’ bakery, and even Elf school, where you can see if you have what it takes to be Santa’s next top elf.

The best part is that all of this can be done in a single day, so it’s perfect for those looking for a quick winter break before ‘revising’ over the rest of the holidays!

Ciara Murphy

09.12.2013

Snow Place Like Home

Christmas Markets around Bristol Sarah Brodie

Until 22nd December. Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 9am-5pm A traditional German market complete with wooden chalets and twinkling lights, and conveniently situated on the number 16 bus route. The stalls are appropriate for gifts - if you want to blow your student loan on a hand painted candleholder, here’s your chance. However, the highlight of the market is the food. Sip a German wheat beer or mulled wine with rum, munch on churros, or indulge your inner child with a delicious bag of roasted chestnuts. If you spend all your money on the food, there’s always Poundland just around the corner.

Bath Christmas Market, Outside Bath Abbey

Market at the Moon, Bristol 1 North Street, Stokes Croft

Until 15th December. Mon-Wed 10am-7pm, Thurs-Sat 10am8pm, Sun 10am-6pm

Saturdays 12pm-6pm A quirky market in the courtyard of the Full Moon Bar and hostel.

Come and explore the wares of local traders, selling everything from tea to t-shirts. In addition, there’s live music all afternoon from Bristol-based artists, as well as craft workshops and plenty of other attractions - ever wanted to learn how to hula?

It will be an unusual day out celebrating the individuality of your city and picking up some unique gifts, as well as gaining cool points for having spent the day in Stokes Croft.

Flickr: Grete Howard

German Christmas Market, Cabot Circus

Although it may be a train ride from Bristol, they don’t call Bath the Christmas Capital of the West for nothing. This famed market nestles between the stunning Bath Abbey and historic Roman Baths. Lots of unique gifts are on offer.

Alongside the usual jewellery, clothes and decorations, you can pick up anything from Gingerbread House kits to toffee flavoured vodka (while eating a Steak Burger or Crepe Suzette).

If that’s not enough, there are short ‘shoppers’ services’ at the Abbey, and an ice rink nearby.

Spiegeltent Christmas Market Waterfront Square, Harbourside.

Sat-Sun 10am-4:30pm Christmas spirit is abundant at this market. There’s a Santa’s grotto, a funfair, and mulled wine from a double-decker bus café. It’s excellent for presents, with stalls packed with vintage clothes, accessories and handmade knick-knacks. There are also singers, dancers and a DJ to make Christmas shopping a little more bearable. If that’s not enough, you can then get your hair pinned in ‘a vintage style’ by the in-house hair stylists. What more could you want? Just make sure to go on the helter-skelter beforehand!

Polish Christmas is Łódź of fun To enjoy a Christmas rich in tradition it is worth travelling to Poland. Christmas Eve - ‘Wigilia’ in Polish - in this mainly Catholic country is one of the most important, if not the most important, family feast of the year.

There is always one more plate, knife, glass or mug than is actually needed placed on the table. This emphasises the remembrance of deceased persons – an inherent part of Christmas in Poland. In addition to this, the surplus dishes show the willingness to welcome unexpected guests or beggars to partake in the dinner ceremonies.

Christmas Eve starts in Poland

with the first visible star in the sky.

What follows is the breaking of a host wafer; of which each family member receives a part. This is shared with all family members while telling each other wishes for the new year. The custom of breaking host wafers is lovely because people have to think about wishes for every single family member and they have the chance to kiss and hug everyone. It is a very intimate custom. Some Polish people are even said to share the host wafers with their pets.

The supper is free of meat. It is very common to have fish dishes consisting of carp and herring.

Other dishes like pierogi - dumplings

filled with sauerkraut, mushrooms or potatoes and cheese - and barszcz czerwony - beetroot soup - all have a part to play too. To have exactly twelve courses for supper is a very special tradition on Christmas Eve in Poland. These represent the twelve months of the following year. To try each dish is to secure prosperity and luck in the next twelve months.

After supper, each family exchanges presents and sings carols, or koledy in Polish. Next follows midnight mass. The whole family goes to church. And yet, even after that, the feast is still not

over. Since it is technically a new day - past midnight, people are allowed to eat meat again. So they return home and have a second supper, this time containing meat.

Your success over the next year, according to an old folk belief, is dependant upon the success of the preceding Christmas Eve. If the evening is calm and peaceful, there will be a positive mood in the house for the following twelve months.

Another custom is to put a fish bone or fish scale into one’s purse,

which is said to also secure future prosperity. The Poles also ensure that their houses, as well as their moods, are sufficiently Christmassy. They decorate spruce branches and families often decorate the Christmas tree together.

Even if it is quite difficult to really partake in Poland’s varied festive traditions, it is still definitely worth travelling to Poland during the Christmas season, as the streets are so full of lights and Christmas trees that it is easy to get into a Christmas mood there. And if a Polish friend ever invites you to visit their home over Christmas, take the chance! But anyway, wherever you spend the day, Merry Christmas and Wesolych Swiat!

Lisa Mahlke

Editor: Deputy: Online Olivia Lace-Evans Andrea Valentino Emilia Morano-Williams travel@ deputytravel@ travelonline@ epigram.org.uk epigram.org.uk epigram.org.uk

Christmas: Worth a gander in Uganda

Brigh thope

Flickr:

Style

Climate change

Trust. My school teacher, Mrs Mary West, proposed the idea of taking a small group of students to the partner town in order to extend the partnership between the two communities and develop the links between our school and theirs. Over the last decade the charity has become very successful, establishing many community links through churches, engineering and medical projects, to encourage an independent, sustainable future for the town. One of the charity’s recent projects has been designing and making motorbike ambulances to transfer the sick and injured patients to the local hospitals from the more rural areas of Mbale. Thus far, it’s been a very successful addition to the hospital’s facilities and has saved many lives in the process.

During this summer we raised £250 by organising a musical concert in our local church. The money was sent out to Uganda in September in

order to fund a decent community Christmas meal. Within the last couple of weeks I was pleased to receive a thank you letter from Pastor Apollo and his wife Janet, who will use the money to create a community Christmas meal. They wrote, that ‘As a family we were only able to host a few needy children and youths for a Christmas meal. But from the time you extended your hand to us, very many are able to enjoy Christmas with us. We hope one time you will come over and we celebrate together. God bless you and Merry Christmas.’

In Uganda, Christmas is celebrated as a religious festival rather than a marketing extravaganza. The people of Mbale are the most uplifting and happy individuals I have ever met, despite their deprivations. Since visiting Uganda I am humbled to have continued this friendship established from my two previous visits. I know that the money we have raised will be directly utilized in ensuring the Mbale Community will have a decent meal on Christmas day.

The sun creates light that splinters the atmosphere, warming the earth’s surface and enabling life to form on our lonely planet.

However, due to the effects of greenhouse gases, the earth’s atmosphere is thinning, the intensity of the sun’s heat is increasing, and the polar ice caps are melting at unprecedented rates. The Arctic Circle is the part of the world most liable to be affected by climate change, and our own behaviour as a species is contributing to the melting of the ice. As we burn more and more fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will increase, causing the earth’s atmosphere to thin even further.

The self-destructive irony of all this is that the more the Arctic Circle shrinks, the more money, oil, gas and mineral companies pour into the region. Governments and industry have benefitted from global warming in numerous ways. For example, major new shipping lanes have opened up, such as the Northwest Passage, which companies benefit from due to shortened travel distances.

This may lead to a growth in tourism in the Arctic Circle due to improved safety and increased accessibility, which would cause further environmental problems.

While some people may profit from increased tourism, the Arctic Circle itself suffers immensely. The livelihood of the Inuit communities in the northern region faces daunting challenges. These communities survive through subsistence hunting, and as the sea ice reduces, populations of certain species are declining and are even becoming extinct. The harvesting of certain animals provides full employment for some communities in good years, but with the rising temperatures this way of life is being devastated by the unpredictability of the sea ice. Their transportation is also affected. Local people rely on frozen roadways to transport supplies, but the changing landscape provides new difficulties.

The National Wildlife Federation has expressed particular concern for the polar bear in this region. In 2007, the group encouraged the American Congress to place the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. The United States Geological Survey concluded that the sea ice will continue to rapidly shrink over the next 50 years, perhaps wiping out the entire polar bear

Lydia Griffiths

Dear e2, inter This idyllic wapped sn scene was use in near my ho rrey.

Dorking, Su utiful ea Enjoy this b while time of year erry you can. M !

Christmas Love, xx Jo Laverock

Flickr: Blake Maybank

Christmas is a time for giving and receiving. It’s for stuffing your faces with turkey, chocolate and pudding and enjoying spending time with family and friends over a glass, or two, of mulled wine. However in Uganda the idea of Christmas is a very different concept.

Uganda is an incredibly religious nation that encourages the telling of Christ’s birth, but struggles with the supply of food for both individuals and families. This is a struggle that some people in Uganda face most days, not just Christmas Day, and since I visited this amazing county I have pledged to send money out every year to fund a decent Christmas meal.

The opportunity to go to Uganda arose six years ago as my local town, Pontypridd in South Wales, was linked with a town in Uganda called Mbale through the charity P.O.N.T - Partnership Overseas Network

ere! h e r e w u o y Wish

What’s On

A FINAL THOUGHT ON...

In our last ‘A Final Thought...’ column of the term, Neil Graham considers the impact climate change is having on the landscape and wildlife of the Arctic Circle, one of the most beautiful and remote areas on the planet.

world

Travel

Living

@e2Travel

population. The reduced level of ice also means that the polar bear is denied the time it needs to hunt seals. Images from David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series show that the jolly round polar bear that we picture in our minds has become anemic and malnourished.

So, what can we do to protect this winter wonderland from a perennial summer? One expert suggest that ‘moving investment is one of the root concrete things we can do.’ Finding alternatives to fossil fuels is imperative, and the World Wildlife Federation has been campaigning to get banks and governments to put their money into renewable energy to divert our energy requirements away from fossil fuels.

Whatever you do, shun the skeptics. As David Attenborough puts it: ‘there is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.’ We cannot let awareness of climate change be clouded by obscurantists.

Editor: Maddy Streets style@ epigram.org.uk

@e2Style

Deputy: Deanne Ball deputystyle@ epigram.org.uk

Online Amelia Impey onlinestyle@ epigram.org.uk

Christmas- there’s no better time for the Mary Poppins full skirt Vivienne Westwood £348 Matchesfashion. com River Island tch

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£35 Riverisland.com

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updates on the 1910 version of the full skirt. As it is Christmas, and indeed the season for festive splurging, I will start with Vivienne Westwood’s punk take on the famous flowing skirt. Available on matchesfashion.com, the skirt comes in an “Aztec lurex” fabric, cinched in at the waist and perfect for the party season. It is however, priced at a cool £348, so if that is perhaps a little too far outside Santa’s capabilities, I present you version two: The River Island Box Pleat Skirt. Coming in at a more reasonable £35, this grey midi number is the embodiment of Miss Poppins. Paired with an on-trend fluffy jumper or even a skinny ribbed crop top, this skirt ticks both boxes for either informal or formal festivities.

For my third example, I propose my absolute favourite: the Topshop taffeta party skirt.

This tucked-in and pleated beauty comes in a range of pearlescent hues, from an acid greenyellow to a deep crushed raspberry, making it compatible with many upper-half options, whether a simple leotard or body, or even a little button-up cardigan.

Although priced at £48, the proportion of length to fullness of skirt makes it totally worth the spend- and I’m sure the 21st Century Mary Poppins would love it too…

p.c o

Christian Dior AW13

It’s about that time of year when every channel on the television, no matter what time of day, chooses to play some nostalgic family Christmas film. For me, although technically not a Christmas film, my personal favourite has to be the classic Mary Poppins. Now, before I hear you ask, “How is this related to fashion?!”, please let me jump in.

Mary Poppins has long been a subtle influence on the fashion world. The first example of this presents itself quite obviously through the iconic “Mary Poppins bag”. This carpeted beauty, able to contain everything a girl might need, has been re-appropriated by many namely designers. Alexander McQueen gave us a patent version with the “Evie”, YSL gave us the oversized “Muse” and Dolce and Gabbana went the whole hog with the tapestry “Miss Dea” snap purse. And it doesn’t stop there- we only have to look at Christian Dior’s Winter Collection last year to see Miss Poppins embodied in their thick, navy boiled-wool jackets and coats. So what can the designers look to next?

Well, the startlingly obvious of course- that beautiful, full and billowing skirt which gives our heroine that striking silhouette.

Now, I understand that Mary Poppins may not perhaps be the most fashion-forward of trendsetters, and so it is here I hope to offer a few

To psh o

£48 Topshop.com

The Aviator Jacket

Style

Travel

Living

Supercalifragilistic Style

There’s no denying the appeal of the aviator jacket this season; versatile, timelessly trendy and not to mention super warm, this classic piece is the perfect autumn/winter staple.

Originally conceived to keep the pilot warm and dry whilst high in the sky, the innovatory combination of durable leather and ultra-comfortable sheepskin has since proved to be a winner in the style stakes too, coming back in to fashion year in, year out.

Vivienne Westwood

Balenciaga

What’s On

Fast forward to Autumn/Winter ‘13 and the trend is everywhere, reworked into a plethora of styles, fabrics and silhouettes; from sporty and oversized at Acne, to tailored, military vibes at Vivienne Westwood.

Take your styling inspiration from Stockholm based fashion house, Acne, and mix up classic winter pieces, such as the cable knit sweater, with modern prints and textures for a truly eclectic look that’s right on point for this season. Who couldn’t love the brilliant contradiction of rebellious fingerless gloves and ‘grandpa chic’ slipper shoes?!

Check out these cool high street alternatives to get the look for a fraction of the price.

Acne

Deanne Ball

Navy Wool Aviator Style Jacket, £35, Burton.com

Black Shearling Look Biker Jacket, £80, Topman.com

Barney’s Faux Shearling Jacket, £85, Asos.com

Women

Sportwatch: Increasing women’s sport particpation in Bristol SportWatch is a Bristol based organisation dedicated to providing increased coverage of women’s sport in Bristol. Their website is regularly updated to promote upcoming sporting events in Bristol and features regular stories on local women athletes, as well as commentary, sports reports, and news articles. The campaign is only 2 months old and is part of the local Bristol Fawcett Group that campaigns for gender equality and women’s rights in Bristol. They gave evidence to the recent Mayor’s Sport Commission which aims to raise sporting aspirations in the city. We spoke to the founders of SportWatch.

48% of girls believe getting sweaty is not feminine What were the reasons for undertaking the campaign?

‘I came late to sport and really loved it, it made a massive difference to me personally in terms of I was going through a stressful job reaching the higher echelons of management but not really feeling I had all the skills, and sport really helped me with that. It helped me to deal with stress and was an outlet and one of the really important things about not always getting it right, sport teaches you that as long as you try your hardest that’s OK. So that’s a big life lesson and to me it feels natural that if I feel passionate about something I will campaign for it. So to reflect on that I thought “hang on a minute, why wasn’t I playing sport since I was young?”’

100% of managers at The University of Bristol Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health are men

What was the response like to your evidence?

‘It was a little disappointing that it wasn’t on their radar already, but they were really receptive and I do feel confident that our evidence will make a change.

Everyone just immediately accepted that there is a problem. The mayor really wants Bristol to be a city of sport. People think that Bristol is rubbish at sport but what they really mean is that Bristol is rubbish at men’s sport! So what we were trying to focus on is that we have lots of really great women’s sport to build upon. We have number two football team, a Bristol ladies rugby team that plays in the premiership and 3 of their players play for England, the Clifton Ladies Hockey team are at the top of their national league. With the mayor wanting Bristol to be a sporting city the problem is that we are not going to be able to attract the top men’s international games because we don’t have the facilities, but there might be opportunity to attract a big women’s event. Also when doing the analysis of the Bristol Post in October there was no coverage of women’s sport - I think that highlights the point of the male dominated sports media industry.’

How can we give more coverage to women’s sport?

‘One of the reasons the media gives for not covering women’s sport is because football is so popular, at the moment 50%of The Guardian coverage is football but if they did it on demand it would be 75%. Sowhy don’t we focus on the fact that we do have a really good football women’s team because there is likely already a really big fan base there based on the fact that men’s football is so popular. One for the reasons that men’s football is popular is because it has that loyalty, and people really stick with their team and the politics that go with it.

So we need to get this with the women’s side and get people engaged.’

Interviews by Hetty Knox Sport Editor

Is it a money problem? A lot women would go to fitness classes etc. but many of them say that they can’t afford to go regularly.

‘I think it goes back to the culture that will root women to a fitness class rather than encourage them to pick up a football and kick it about for free. I think perceptions of what is and isn’t ok for your gender are formed at a really young age. I spoke to a teacher of 7-8 year old girls who didn’t want to do sport because they didn’t want to get sweaty or they don’t see it as being girly or attractive.

The image perception sets in at a really young age. Research says that the women that always play sport have less body issues. Sport has the potential to help so many girls and women.’

What do you think of the labels in sport? For example there is football and then there is women’s football.

What evidence did you give to the mayor’s ‘We should make an effort to put comission?

‘We discussed the evidence of women participating less the gender in front of the sport, in sport. 12% of men participate in team sport each for example men’s rugby not just week and less than 2% of women do. We also talked rugby. The other thought is that about the benefits of sport that are unique to women in an ideal world, one word would and the wider society benefits such as women managers encompass both genders, such as competing in sport and the way sport can help with athletics. We had a big debate over leadership skills. We discussed the barriers in sport that this for the name of the website, we are unique to women such as cultural barriers, and how deliberately called it Sportwatch as girls aren’t necessarily given the same encouragement it should be an inclusive term that at school and that doing sport is seen as unfeminine.’ doesn’t exclude either gender.’

Bristol Academy

96% of female Chief Executives competed in sport as a child

What do you think of the lack of women on the boards of National Governing Bodies in sport?

‘If you don’t have women at the table then people just aren’t thinking about it, you’ve got to challenge that.

In terms of getting more women coaching too, it can be quite inaccessible, costly and take a lot of time, if I was a woman with a family I probably wouldn’t be

able to do that. But I do think that if you don’t have women in management and in the sporting bodies nobody is thinking that actually we should structure this differently. ‘

If you’d like to know more about Sport Watch or find out about upcoming women’s sport fixtures in Bristol, visit their website: sportwatchbristol.wordpress.com Or if you would like to contribute to Sport Watch Bristol they are keen to receive articles : Reporting of local sporting events, Interviews or features with women athletes, Sports commentary, specifically in relation to women and girls Email: sport@bristolfawcett.org.uk

in sport Sportsister: the heartbeat of female sport in the UK Sportsister is a prominent voice in celebrating, inspiring and encouraging women’s participation in sport at all levels. Founded in 2008, just before Beijing Olympics, it is the leading women’s sports magazine in the UK with approximately 30,000 readers per month. We spoke to the editor, Danielle Sellwood about the issues concerning women’s sport.

you are blonde so as long as the pictures come out well there is a good chance”. I was completely staggered - canoeing for 125 miles and beating half the blokes wasn’t enough, I had to look glamorous as well. The photographs didn’t come out particularly well because I didn’t bother to pose for them in that way, it was a training shot. We didn’t get featured.

I just thought that was ridiculous and something needed to be done. We have all seen a lot of women sports stars get over looked. Chrissie Wellington is a prime example, she’s famous within her sport and probably in other countries but the average person on the street wouldn’t recognise her. She’s an incredible athlete and deserves a much higher profile than she has.’

80% of women are not doing enough exercise to stay healthy

What was the drive for setting up Sportsister?

‘No one was talking about the issue back then (2008).

For my job I spent a lot of time looking at gaps in the market in the sports industry and the women’s market in terms of clothing and products was booming but there was no media covering women’s sport. Also I was a sportswoman myself, I was an international level canoeist, and it’s always been something that’s been on my mind. I had a few experiences when I was canoeing and the press coverage was appalling. There was one particular occasion when I was doing the Devizes to Westminster race, I was in a good mixed crew - we were tipped to be in the top three overall.

One of the newspapers got in touch as it was quite an interesting story, I asked the interviewer what the chances of us getting into the paper were as it would be great for canoeing to get a mention. She said, “well

Graeme Robertson

www.chiclifestylemagazine.co.uk

Is the lack of media coverage that women in sport get due to the male domination of the sports media industry?

‘I’ll give you an example of the first press day I went to, it was the pre-Olympic press day for cycling for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

There were about 100 people there including press and athletes - Rebecca Romero and Bradley Wiggins were there (before he was famous!) and I was the only female journalist. One of the other journalists asked me where the loo was because they just assumed that I must work in PR, I couldn’t possibly be a journalist.

This is changing and has changed a lot in the past five years but we’ve got a long way to catch up to have parity of women working within the sports industry.

On one hand we’ve hardly got any women working in the sports industry (in journalism) and on the other, the vast majority of men that are working in the industry love the traditional sports. They might report now and then on the minority sports but they have no real interest or love of them so it’s not a natural thing for them to do. It’s as much a problem for the minority sports as it is for women’s sport. If we look at the SPOTY awards contenders there are some really significant men not on that list, so it’s not just about the women, it’s about sport generally. When the Olympics are on everyone loves seeing them but as soon it is all finished people forget that we loved hearing about canoeists or we loved the rowers or people from different sports. For some of them their achievements are arguably more impressive because they are not on huge grants, most of them are struggling and are having to make a much bigger commitment for their sport but the standard they are reaching is no less than the professional (well paid) athletes. I think it is important for youngsters growing up to see lots of sports covered, I firmly believe that there is a sport for everybody but if you only ever see three of them in the papers and you don’t like those then you might think that sport’s not for you.’

What do you think the other key issues facing women in sport; do you think a lot of it is to do with education?

‘We need to get women being seen doing sport in all sorts of media, whether it is on TV, in magazines so it becomes a lot more normal, regardless of if they are elite or if it is just a local fun run - just being visible.

So although obviously it comes down to lots more coverage for elite stars, in a lot of the magazines we try to speak about grass roots programmes to make it seem more accessible. For young teenage girls, it obviously depends on the school and the teaching, but for them it is more who they see on a daily basis.

And mostly they are bombarded with celebrities and pop stars and we need to make sure that they are bombarded by positive role models that are female role models across all different sports who all have a different style, look or body shape. The problem sometimes is that they lump sportswomen into one type of person, one sort of look. But if you take an athlete from surfing and from mountain biking and a Jessica Ennis and a swimmer. They are all potentially very different characters and body shapes and have different enjoyments of different sports. There is such a vast variety of sports out there and it is important that young girls are exposed to all those possibilities.’

5% of sports media coverage is devoted to women’s sport Your website is quite tailored at the moment to the coverage of elite athletes; do you have any drive to focus on making sports more accessible for women?

‘When we set up Sportsister it was about rebranding sport for women and being like your sporty friend that showed you all about sport and how to get involved.

Because women’s sports stars are starting to get more coverage we are stepping away from the news slightly, although we will cover this what we do want to do for 2014 is make sport much more about helping women get involved in sport. More about training plans etc. and we are going to go out to events and make our presence known. We have lots of exciting plans that are much more about recreational sport and participation.’

The FA and Sport England will invest £2.4m in women’s football, aiming to create 40,000 new female players.

Editor: Maddy Streets style@ epigram.org.uk

@e2Style

Deputy: Deanne Ball deputystyle@ epigram.org.uk

Online Amelia Impey onlinestyle@ epigram.org.uk

A quick guide to the must-have purchases you’ll want for this holiday season, by fashion writer Emma Ward www.hellocuteness.com

Living

Essential Christmas Clothing It’s official: winter, and more importantly Christmas, has finally begun! We’re past October, the month dedicated to devil horns and cat ears rather than elf hats and stocking fillers; through November, when only the odd enthusiasts whip out their Christmas jumpers and watch endless re-runs of Elf, and officially past the hallowed Countdown day, December 1st! This means that the first advent calendar chocolate has been eaten, the cheesy Christmas decorations have gone up, and most importantly, you can tell yourself that any clothes you purchase in this sacred month are ‘Christmas Clothes.’

Primark

Office, £85

Travel

This helpful little phrase means that if you buy an item, or several, you can promise yourself that you will wear it to some vague Christmas occasion therefore the price tag doesn’t really count – after all, what’s Christmas money for if not to reimburse you for spending money right now? If anyone tries to argue against this profound logic, they are obviously not embracing the Christmas spirit and you are fully within your rights to shout ‘Scrooge’ at them until they leave you in peace, most probably wandering the aisles of Topshop, credit card in hand. To save you some time amid all the essential ‘Christmas Clothes’ shopping that you’ll be doing, we’ve written out your very own Christmas list, full of all the must have items you need to keep you looking cosy, and of course stylish, for the festive season!

The must-have boot For boots this season it’s all about the cut out – if they’ve got a slash across the side or a peek-a-boo on the front then you’ve hit the jackpot. If you’re able to, splash the cash on slightly better quality as this means that your boots will stay in great condition throughout winter and hopefully for many winters to come! For a bit of a change from standard black, why not go for this navy buckled pair from Office, definitely on the pricey side but a worthwhile investment! However for those, like me, looking to save a few pennies, Primark have an extremely similar pair in black, so you can be fashionable and still have some spending money left for a few last-minute presents!

Style ASOS, £48

What’s On

If you do one thing this winter, head to Zara.

Among the sea of £100+ items, you’ll find a little Christmas miracle- a slick, never-go-out-of-style coat for only £39.99 (thank you Santa!) The coat features an ever so stylish boyfriend shape with an extra-large lapel and muted camel colouring, ticking all the boxes for the androgynous look that is so popular right now. If you’re looking for something slightly more glam, the coat also comes in a scarlet option: just team with a fur headband and a bright red lip to add a bit of wow this winter!

The must-have dress shape Put down the peplum ladies, there’s only one dress that you should be wearing this winter - the drop waist! Tipped to be the biggest style for next season, get a step ahead of the trend setters and pick up a drop waist dress now to score extra fashion points. A quick stalk of the Company or Look magazine Instagram pages will give you some inspiration; rail after rail of Spring 2014 collections feature drop waist dresses in every colour. Be warned however, for winter you want to keep to darker shades and thicker fabrics. This little purple number from Asos is perfect as the rich colour and long sleeves keep it firmly in December territory, just add a pair of wooly tights and chunky boots for a cosy Christmas look.

Zara, £39.99

Zara, £39.99

ASOS, £40

The must-have coat

09.12.2013

Clothes Swapping

www.sassyhongkong.com

a jumper or t-shirt that’s just not your style? This is the perfect opportunity to give your clothing a new lease of life while also picking up a hidden gem or two to supplement your winter wardrobe. The great thing about clothes swapping is also how easy it is to plan – they even did one on Made on Chelsea. All you need is a group of friends who are willing to part with some old clothes. Then it’s simply a matter of bringing the people and clothes together and rummaging around for something you’d like to take home. The left over clothes can

Important

workers and help improve their working conditions, and left over clothes will be given to The Clothes Line, a student led organisation which supplies homeless people with clothing for job interviews so they can get back on their feet.

The great thing about swapping clothes is that it encourages you to look analytically at your wardrobe so that you can work out what things you’re wasting your money on, whether it’s sequinned hot-pants that just aren’t quite your style but looked great in Cosmo, or endless pairs of jeans that admittedly aren’t all g e t t i n g worn. Next time you go shopping, you’ll be more aware!

And for those occasions when you can’t resist the impulse buy, you can feel better about your bank balance by knowing that you can donate it to a friend or to charity if you end up never wearing it.

Lighthouse

be donated to charity, which leaves everyone with a feel-good vibe as well as a new outfit – it’s win-win!

If you think organising a mini clothes swap seems like a bit too much hassle so close to Christmas, than don’t worry because The Clothes Swap Committee have set up their own event for all University of Bristol students, which means more clothes for you to pick from. As long as the clothing is clean and in good condition, the Clothes Swap are happy to accept it and for every piece that you donate, you receive a credit for a new piece of clothing. If you happen to find more items than you brought, that’s fine too but you will be charged a small fee – but don’t worry, it will still be a lot cheaper than if you’d bought it new from a high street shop! If you have no clothes to donate, you can still come along but you will be charged a small entry fee and those with donation-credits will be given priority, so that sustainable shopping is appropriately promoted.

Any money made will be donated to Labour Behind The Label, a charity which works to support garment

The Clothes Swap

The end of the autumn term is drawing closer and these last few weeks can seem a bit of a drag before the fun of Christmas begins.

With deadlines, no student loan left and freezing student flats, it’s not surprising if you’re feeling down.

But just because you might not have that extra cash to splash, it doesn’t mean you can’t return home with a few new additions to your wardrobe..

One of the big problems of high street trends is how quickly they come and go, encouraging us to hand over money on a regular basis for clothes that we’ll wear only a couple of times before they disappear into the backs of our drawers, never to see daylight again. While we’re all guilty of this, there is a way around this that means you don’t have to feel shamefaced for every impulse buy, a method which can in fact gain you more clothes in an affordable and sustainable way. The answer? Clothes swapping.

Bought a skirt on impulse that you’ve never really worn? Been given

Maddy Streets

Information

Clothing Collection:

The Main Event:

Time: 1-2pm

Time: 2-5pm

Where: Outside the ASS Library

Where: Physics Enderby Room

When: Tuesdays/ Wednesdays/Fridays

When: Wednesday 18th December

Gift ideas to stock up on The only thing more exciting than the thought of sitting on a real sofa when we all head home in December is what will be waiting for us under the Christmas tree.

So whether you’re struggling with gifts for friends and family or looking for some inspiration for your own list, here are some ideas that will bring smiles all round.

The Christmas break means parties, get-togethers and, of course, New Year’s Eve, so presents don’t come much handier than this Mini Lip Bullet Duo from Topshop (£10). The lip bullets are one of Topshop’s most popular products from their makeup range, so this is a great opportunity to try out a couple of shades. The miniatures come in a nude and deep berry, which are perfect for experimenting with different looksmaybe a smoky eye paired with the nude or a dewy base, fluttery lashes and statement berry lip. To top it off, the set comes in a cute neon PVC case that can be reused. This purse-friendly gift should hit the mark with all makeup lovers. fringed edges makes it timeless; the perfect accompaniment to any winter outfit.

If you’re a false nail virgin, there’s no better reason to shake things up than the Elegant Touch collaboration with House of Holland.

This is a huge collection of designs, ranging from the avant-garde to more everyday nail looks. A favourite here at Epigram is Heart Breaker (£8); a long claw shaped nail with whole and broken heart designs on the tip. This is such a fun gift, but if you’re still not sold by the fake nail trend, then there are loads of Christmas nail polish sets out to choose from. One that caught my eye is the Nails Inc. ‘The Editors’ collection (£16). This set contains five polishes which are perfect for the party season; South Kensington (a silver foil effect), Chelsea Embankment (a gold glitter), Marylebone Lane (a red glitter), Park Lane Mews (a deep wine red), and bestseller Porchester Square (a nude). What more could a girl need?

It’s always nice to be prepared for a white Christmas, even if it’s just wishful thinking. Bring some style to the Boxing Day walk with these super-cosy Chakku mittens from Barts (£32.99) The fleece lining will keep your hands warm through the Christmas season and beyond, and wearing up-and-coming Amsterdam brand Barts will earn you serious fashion kudos. Just don’t attempt to use your phone wearing them- you will drop it.

For those struggling with those impossible-to-buy-for boys, simple is best. This Penfield Danbury Wash Bag, exclusive to ASOS (£16) is masculine and sophisticated, and the colour is classic and unoffending - how can he object? Sticking to the simple is best mantra, Glen Lossie have a beautiful range of high quality accessories that make perfect Christmas gifts. This grey scarf (£18) is 100% lamb’s wool, and the classic cut with tassel-fringed edges makes it timeless; the perfect accompaniment to any winter outfit. These gifts will make you very popular come Christmas.

Laura Sievers

Living

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Editor: Josie Benge whatson@ epigram.org.uk

What’s On

The best pick of this fortnight’s theatre, film, music and more.

Stage

Se7en Dwarfs To serve as an antidote to the festive season’s sickly-sweet entertainment, the Wardrobe is showing a darkly comic, adult only anti-pantomime. The show is a cross between the beloved fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the 1995 cult horror movie, Se7en. It promises to be twisted, ridiculous and utterly hilarious.

Wednesday 11th – Sunday 22nd December The Wardrobe Theatre Inter:Mission Free Student Evening Inter:Mission are hosting a free evening of student performances at Be.In Bristol, the stunning new venue on Whiteladies Road. Acts will include Bristol Revunions, Improv Society and a variety of acoustic sets.

Style

Travel

Wednesday 11th December Be.In Bristol Comedy Extravaganza at the Spiegletent The Speigletent has selected a variety of talented stand-ups for an evening of hilarity and shenanigans. Some of the names include hugely successful new comedy star Aisling Bea, as well as Larry Dean, Emily Rose and many more.

Tuesday 17th December The Speigletent David Brent & Forgone Conclusion Attention fans of The Office, Ricky Gervais is bringing his much-loved character, David Brent, Fli to Colston Hall. The paper-merchant-turned ck r: na indie frontman will be performing cringedw or worthy ‘hits’ such as Freelove Freeway, ks Slough and Equality Street. Tickets are on limited release, so book quickly to avoid disappointment.

Screen The Economics of Happiness As part of their ‘Reality on Film’ Winter Series, The Arts House is screening this highly acclaimed documentary about the relationship between wealth and wellbeing. The film features speakers from across six continents talk expressing their views about huge issues such as climate change, technology and the importance of localization over globalization.

What’s On

Wednesday 11th December, The Arts House

Sound

Monday 16th December Colston Hall

Kill Your Darlings Daniel Radcliffe makes a return to the big screen as Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg, in this part biopic, part comingof age story, part-thriller set during the poet’s early years at Columbia University in the 1940s.

Fri 6th – Thurs 19th December The Watershed

Tuesday 10th December Thekla

Planning a Christmas Dinner with the flat? For the less culinary gifted among you, here’s a selection of affordable places to have an early festive meal before heading home for the holidays!

The Social With its cosy atmosphere and vintage armchairs, The Social is an ideal setting for a friendly festive gathering. Main course prices are all in the very reasonable region of about £10, including delicious winter warmers such as slow roasted duck or root vegetable gratin.

130 Cheltenham Road

Nebraska Alexander Payne’s latest film is a dark comedy about America’s classic mid-west culture, shot beautifully in black and white.

Fri 6th – Thurs 19th December The Watershed

Hot Wuk The self-proclaimed ‘UK’s maddest bashment party,’ is landing at Thekla for one of the last big nights outs of the term.

Daisy Braslington

Sound Extras

Flickr: premasagar

Frankie Rose Frankie Rose is a founding member of Vivian Girls, as well as a drummer and occasional vocalist for Crystal Stilts. Her solo music is poppy, upbeat, ethereal, and well worth a listen.

She will be supported by Brighton four-piece Fear of Men. Thursday 12th December Start The Bus

The Living Room This harbour side restaurant’s Christmas Lunch menu looks absolutely divine. It offers 3 courses for £18.50, ranging from classic dishes like stuffed turkey, to more exotic options such as harissa, oregano and ricotta tart.

Explore Lane, off Anchor Road

Foodcycle Christmas Pop-Up Restaurant FoodCycle Bristol tackles food waste by taking surplus food from supermarkets and turning them into delicious, healthy meals. At this festive extravaganza, they’ll be serving up a delicious three course vegetarian meal, accompanied by live music and artwork from local artists. Entry is £5 and will go towards funding the project’s community kitchen in Easton.

Wednesday 11th December, Coexist at Hamilton House Kurt Vile Formerly a member of indie rock band The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile has become best known for his solo career. His album released earlier this year, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, has received glowing reviews across the board.

Saturday 14th December The Fleece

No Scrubs & Midnight Groovies The 90s club night returns to Lakota this month alongside disco-themed newcomers, Midnight Groovies. Two rooms will be playing wellloved 90s classics, whilst the third will showcase Midnight Groovies’ smooth, funky tunes.

Sat 4th December Lakota