Sunday, April 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Lifestyle

Lifestyle

Serial Binge Listening

Many people have been lured into the "Serial" podcast hype under the premise of a real life murder-mystery: in the 12-part podcast, acclaimed journalist Sarah Koenig examines the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18 year old school girl found buried in the woods in Baltimore, Maryland. Despite Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, being convicted of first-degree murder in 2000, Koenig makes it evident that his sentence is mostly based on presumption, with only one questionable witness testimony and no DNA evidence to solidify the claim. Koenig has seemingly presented a chance for us, ordinary, run-of-the-mill podcast listeners, to solve a crime that has imprisoned a potentially innocent man for 15 years! And so, invariably, you are hooked, only to find that this could not be further from the truth:...
Lifestyle

Instagram’s That Will Step Up Your Fashion Game

Instagram’s That Will Step Up Your Fashion Game In a world obsessed with visuals: computer graphics, film, TV… it’s no surprise that Instagram is now bigger than Twitter. Instagram is dominating the social media world and with it comes the popular, fashionista accounts that are influencing the fashion scene. @shaym - famously known for playing Emily in the U.S TV show Pretty Little Liars. A Canadian accent with Filipino descent Shay has the perfect island princess style. Her instagram is full of beautiful maxi dresses, bikini’s and accessories. Not to mention she takes gorgeous pictures of her travels so is perfect for those looking for travel inspiration also. It’s perfect for those of you who are in love with summer and festival style. @kyliejenner - the youngest of the Kardashi...
Lifestyle

Gym: The First Steps

Never been to the gym, but scared to go? or simply don't have the time? ...Well read on. Perhaps you just want to get into shape, do some cardio to lose that ab-shrouding gut, or maybe you want to start lifting weights; why not all three? As many know, attending your first gym session can be daunting, for a number of reasons. From experience, friends that I've converted from couch-potato to gym-attender, have expressed their worries, the most common being their first session. For example: "I'm scared people will be looking at me, what if I don't know how to use the equipment?" Tip 1: Research If you've never been to the gym, and want to start lifting, for instance; it won't hurt to research before you go. Looking at simple form videos (How to complete the movements) can put you...
Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Lifestyle

NewTube

Sitting alone in the room and talking to a camera – not something most of us are used to. And yet thousands of relatively normal people do those very things, pretty regularly. And have people watch them. Here’s our account of some new Youtubers that have caught our eye this month. Youtube is not only a website for funny cats and fail videos, it’s become more than that. It has recently become a job for many users, with many of them able to work for YouTube thanks to their wide audience: the more subscribers and view on a video a channel gets, the higher probability it has to get YouTube partnership and thus earn money. But the universe of video-blogging is not just made of celebrities like PewDiePie, with over 31 million subscribers: there are many who fly under the radar in vlogland. ...
Lifestyle

Walk Away Your Essay Stress

Winter is coming. Which means the nights are drawing in, the trees are losing their leaves, and we’ll be waking up to more frosty mornings. And as university students, we’ll also be waking up to looming essay deadlines as the end of term draws ever closer. We’ll be stuck in the library, desperately trying to cram in that reading and finish off those essays, and for many of us we’ll only see the daylight when we leave the library to go to class, and on our morning walk to campus. Our only chance to experience the changing of the seasons will be a quick walk up through the woods on campus to get to a lecture up in the Windsor Building. But I’d like to suggest we all take a few hours and do something different: get out there and go for a walk. Here at Holloway, we’re lucky to live in a lov...
Lifestyle

The struggle is real

The struggle of finding an affordable, stunning, and practical winter coat is no myth, it is very, very real. One is left with just two choices; either freeze to death looking fabulous or brave the cold dressed as a bear. The problem is that most of the coats on the high street look similar: they are either sleek and skimpy, or big and snug. The purchase of a coat requires an informed decision, as this will be a statement piece within your wardrobe throughout the winter season. This is particularly the case in a country like England, whereby the weather requires any nice outfit to be overshadowed by a coat. Everyone's advice is to wait for the winter sales, however, it is well known that people either at the larger or smaller ends of the size range do best in sales; anyone with what you...
Lifestyle

Jungle in The Highstreet

Trees are becoming bare and Jack Frost starts to paint the grass icy white most mornings. Winter is coming! Hands and noses will turn blue and the inevitable debate of when to turn on the heating is drawing close. However, lurking in the shadows is an exotic jungle of stripes and spots bringing a touch more reminiscent of Kenya and Zambia to glacial city streets across Europe. The surmounting fur coats and animal prints of the past few years have indisputably invaded the high-street. It started with the likes of Alexa Chung’s classic Chelsea boot and Nicole Richie’s fabulous fur coat; Leopard print is an a-list love that has inevitably spread to stores of every cliental. Even in Egham high street ‘The British Heart Foundation’ has Zebra print gloves on display. Recent fashion weeks all ...
Lifestyle

Quirky Nail Art: Newspaper Nails

Tired of block colour nails? Fancy trying something quirky? If you want to try something different, I recommend the newspaper nail look. It is an interesting look, and a great way to reuse newspaper before recycling it! It is also a fun platform to start with for those who want to experiment with their nail art in future, and a good starter point because of its simplicity. For the ultimate newspaper look I recommend white nail varnish, but if you fancy something a bit different, feel free to use any nail colour of your choice. You can also use water instead of Vodka, but I find that rubbing alcohol works best for longer lasting results. What you will need: -Vodka (or any rubbing alcohol) -Base coat -White nail varnish (or any colour of your choice) -Top coat -Newspaper Steps:...
Lifestyle

A costume that doesn’t fall into the cheesy or vulgar category

“This t-shirt is totally cost effective, and easy to make yourself. All you need is an old t-shirt, a pair of scissors and a bit of creativity. What I love most about this idea that it is something a bit different to your standard store bought type of outfit that, let’s face it, is probably more at home in a strip club than a house party. Another great thing about this t-shirt is that it’s a bit subtler than the norm, yet completely in keeping with any niche Hallowe’en theme you come across. Accessorise with leggings or a contrasting t-shirt underneath, if you want to protect your modesty, and lots and lots of layered jewellery, the older and spookier the better." - Chrissie Ambrose "I saw a great idea online which I ended up using for the RHOscars Nom(nom-nom)inations party last year, ...