Nathalie Bonney's blog

I like shopping - I'm female it's near enough a given, right? But I don't like it to the point that, having been out on Christmas eve trawling the shops for the last few presents, I'm ready to hit the high street again just over a day later.

For me life as a student revolved around deciding which night of the week to stay in and how to make penne pasta for the umpteenth night in a row exciting.

After falling out of love with my old gym, mainly due to its £76.95 a month membership, I embarked on a spot of gym–surfing over the summer. With voucher websites and the gyms themselves offering plenty of free trials I could delay tying myself into a long contract and try out a few different gyms with the view of potentially joining one later in the year.

There’s something altogether less budget about budget airlines these days. The halcyon days where you could fly to Barcelona for a fiver or Prague for free even (barring taxes natch) are long gone and while flights are still cheap, airlines are constantly coming up with new and inventive ways to shake out the last few coins from their passengers’ pockets.

April: lighter evenings, warmer weather (hopefully), Easter holidays, chocolate eggs and hot cross buns. In the words of Julie Andrews ‘these are a few of my favourite things’.