What Sophie Said

I was really late to the Instagram game – we’re talking 2015 – so am still a newbie and finding my way around. But I think I’m getting my head around it. And as so many people had warned me would happen, I’ve fallen in love. I love Instagram. One thing that sticks out was an ex-colleague, Sarah, who told me she loves it because ‘it’s really hard to be negative via an image’. Now of course there are exceptions to this, and I’m not going to go into the whole discussion of real vs fake here, but I agree. It’s hard to moan or slate anyone or anything with a picture. When I log onto Twitter there are rants and moans and sadness, and I’m of course guilty of these things too. But on Instagram, I’m greeted by beautiful images. Instagram has made everyone a photographer. With simple edits and filters, the most ordinary of photos take on a gleam of professionalism, and scrolling down my Instagram feed is lovely. I follow friends, I follow bloggers, an...

This post has taken me a while to put together, simply because my life has been taken over by essays, my dissertation, and trying to plan for life after university! Anyway, on Easter Sunday, my mum’s side of the family all came for lunch, and my parents decided it was the perfect time to sort through huge boxes and suitcases of photo albums and other memories that have been filling up our garage. The collection has grown as we have acquired collections from my grandparents and from great aunties, so going through them with the whole family present seemed appropriate. At the gathering was me, my sister and my parents, my Auntie Anne with fiancée Will, Auntie Jane and Uncle Bill, Auntie Elaine and Uncle Mark, and Great Auntie Jane with husband David. A lovely full household of Tophams (my mum’s maiden name). Baby Sophie, looking like I'm wrapped in a cloud A picture I now love which I discovered of me and my lovely grandparents, who are no longer with us. Very, very spe...