Music

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I'm back from my weekend away (it's half term now) and decided to celebrate the healing power of music.
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There is no doubt, that if you are in a bad mood, the CD player is often the easiest and quicker way to turn. Or youtube (uk), because everyone knows the music on there is neverending. Specifically I'm talking about music you can sing along to - but anything will do.

When I was away this weekend, I went to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. They are so fun, and if there's one thing we love to do together it's to have a good "disco". With the magic of ipods, and the internet we can command pretty much any song into the room, turn up the volume, turn down the lights and start dancing.

We can find the lyrics of websites (hundreds come up if you search in google. My favourite is lyricsmode.com, as it plays the music and does the video for you too, down on the left sidebar). We can print them off and start singing along. Off the top of my head I think some of our disco faves were Amy Winehouse - Valerie, Rihanna - Dont Stop the Music and Kate Nash - Foundations.

I love the feeling of no self consiousness at all, just dancing and wiggling and singing with people you know. It must be so sad when people lose track of their family. Luckily I only have 4 cousins so it's not difficult!

When you're angry, there's no music better than Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler (see above). When you know the words - a necessity - you can belt them out so loud and feel so good. I wanted to add my favourite meatloaf song - life is a lemon to the playlist but it wasn't very successful, so above are some other good ones. The only one I could get was this live performance. It gets to about 1 minute before the main singing even starts.

The other kind of music that really cheers me up is La Oreja de Van Gogh - 20 de Enero (I have bunged into my Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler playlist). Once in spanish class we listened to it and my friend Jess and I have never dropped it since. Quality listening for all, whether you speak the language or not. You'll get the jist. Probably.

It doesn't take anyone particularly insightive to get that music is a great moodmaker. And of course tastes vary a lot, so the stuff that makes me feel good may not make you feel good. Have fun, and good luck!

Sunglasses

In the book Last Chance by Sarah Dessen (one of my favourites), Norman collects sunglasses and does paintings featuring them. He says they are ironic, because you can hide behind them, but they can also be a fashiion statement. A fictional male hippie has never been more right.

I think sunglasses can really cheer you up. I'm not sure whether this is simply because sunglasses make me think of Summer and thus warmth, or maybe because I wear glasses and love them, but honestly, if you slip a pair of those darkened shades onto your nose suddenly you can be a new person, and this at least partially helps your troubles slip away.

Every hollywood star worth their salt has a couple of pairs.

I personally have one pair of prescription sunglasses, and I really love them (you can see a photo of me wearing my sunglasses at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at my column page). Whenever I wear them I become mysterious, super cool, ice queen. In fact I urge all of you to get a really good pair and practise giving people strange looks i.e. smiling really widely, frowning, staring, holding your nose up in the air, etc, etc.

Not only this, but much like the fabulous vinegar sunglasses are good for your health. If you buy proper ones, they reduce the damage of UV rays on your eyes, protect against the suns glare and in recent studies have proven to reduce the effects of jet lag if worn during plane journeys! Don't just wear them when it's sunny either. Despite cloud coverage, damage can still be done. Obviously don't go overboard and go around squinting, but if it's reasonably bright, there's a reason to wear shades!

This can all protect you from cataracts and numerous other eye problems. Make sure you buy big dark ones, with 100% UV coverage. (This should be advertised somewhere on the pair). You can read more about the health benefits of wearing sunglasses here.

Frames-wise, anything uber uber cool, obviously.

Next time you're sitting in some sunlight, feeling peeved that this very light is shining in your eyes, whip out those glasses that you always carry around with you. And smile at some strangers. What could go wrong??
:)

Vinegar

Hello! I got tagged! I have never gotten tagged before - you have to list things about yourself. I was so hoping the first time I got tagged it would be this 4 things one. Anyway - I got tagged by Dorkys R. from Dry as Toast.

Oh goodness. I didn't realise how difficult this was. The following things probably aren't true.

Top Four Wishes

• I don't get tagged again (nah not really :P)
• Nobody gets hurt
• More happy people (everyone happy?)
• Everyone re uses plastic bags and gives all their change to charity.

Four Places I Want to Travel To

• Spain (inlud. Sevilla, Barcelona -I'm going in March, Madrid and Grenada)
• New York (includ. Central Perk - yes I know it doesn't really exist)
• Ireland
• Mount Rushmore (+ be at the top of it looking down)

Four Careers I Want to Try

• Professional dancer
• Teacher
• Journalist
• World leader

Four Things I want God to say at the Gates of heaven

• Welcome!
• Remember, people in heaven know everything and everyone is happy
• Food to the right, leisure to the left, people straight on
• Have you ever read lovely bones? I guess heaven's a bit like that

(how am I supposed to know what God would say??)
I decided I don't like being tagged. It is far too difficult, although I'm glad I've had the experience. But now I have to put four more people through the same indecision and depserate deleting-what-you've-just-written as me. The lucky folk are:

• Meme at MemeLove
• ChicagoLady at IDKWYSA,TIML
• The Wife O Riley at Living with the Wife O Riley
• Robyn at Diary of a Mika Freaka

Remember - it is optional!! And now for some writing...
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Inspired by IG, who has only recently tasted the pungent power of marmite, another fabulous foodstuff:

If anyone had ever tagged me, with one of those list 6 weird things about you things, I would definietly have listed one as my extreme adoration for vinegar. When I say extreme I do not mean a kind of adding vinegar to everything manicness, or a vinegar-flavoured icing weirdness but more in a if I'm gonna use it, I'm gonna use it way.

As everyone knows, vinegar (known in chemicular terms as ethanoic acid) is the pH3 product of the fermentation of ethanol (alcohol). It has been used to flavour and improve food since before biblical times and has multiple mentions itself in the bible.

My favourite thing to eat vinegar with is unquestionably tuna. I really like to eat 2 good cans of brained tuna-ib-brin, mixed with the tiniest dessert-spoonful of mayonaise (Eurgh! But a necessity) and with drenched and utterly soaked in delicous cold vinegar. It just has a lovely fishy chewy texture, with a strong kick of vinegar. Ah!

I really love that flavour. Unlike it's "friend" - slimy slippery mayonnaise - it's got a voice of it's own and that voice speaks loud and clear. A drop, a spoonful, a squirt: let's face it, it goes with most things.

My only worry is that vinegar isn't very good for you. Does anybody know if it's secretly dissolving my innards? You can never be sure on these things. While we're on the subject, is pepper (as in salt and pepper) bad for you? Is it unhealthy?

Anyway, I come to write this ode to the amber liquid because it probably will cheer you up. Also, we ran out of vinegar and now there is none to go with my fish fingers and chips. lemon juice just won't cut it.

When you're down, try my tuna fish idea (as written above): Lots of protein and good to wake you up too. Maybe combine it with something more substantial, and don't forget to brush your teeth well afterwards.

Give it a go! Try something new (or very familiar)and shake that vinegar bottle, shake it good baby!!

Magazines (lets Plunket Breeze)

Everything can be so happy, then you can recieve one email and get a bunch more work to do! I was thinking and decided the world of magazines is an excellent place to cheer oneself up. _____________________

Magazines come in every shape and size and there's pretty much one or more for every subject. In my personal experience, I haven't actually read all that many so I have a lot to learn! There's my mum's Good Food and Good Housekeeping, my brothers PC Gamer, my younger brother's Spongebob Suarepants. I've dipped into Vogue at friends houses and National Geographical at the doctors, other fashion ones at the opticians. But that's not even that many, in the giant world of mags.

I used to get Mizz, which is a teenage girls magazine, and then I got Sugar (a slightly older teenage girls magazine). I currently get the free Duke of Edinburghs magazine that I kinda want to unsubscribe to, because it's a waste of paper, but I don't know how.

Yes, my area of expertise is definitely teen girl magazines. Lots of pictures, fashion, cringes: a simple formula that I'm sure would be easy to re enact to great advantage. Everyone has surely dreamt of their own magazine, and it would be different for everyone - their own little world. Perhaps you could even argue that a blog, similarly to a magazine, is a way of publishing oneself.

But I've gone off on a tangent. When I was younger, a friend and I used to make our own magazine for fun. We'd write articles and cut out pictures from other mags. The first ones we made were called Lipz. Each of the issues had different names like "Flamin' Hot" Lipz and "Peachy Plum" Lipz and we wrote little articlesand stories and made adverts - they were amusing and kinda satirical.Last year me and that friend we doing some reminising and decided to make another magzine - bigger and better (A4) than ever before! It would be called "Plunket Breeze" and would be an alternate, satirical teen girls magazine. "Cos a girl just gotta have something to plunket breeze with". I remember loving the front over - we cut out pictures of lipgloss from loads of other magazines and made this funky colourful mess on the front.

There are articles such as "10 ways to get Beaten up in Britain" and really outlandish embarassing moments and a quiz entitled "How Close are you and your Best Mate?" where questions go like

"2. The reason you spend all day at her house is:
-U've got no other friends
-Her mum is so beautiful *sigh*
-It makes you realise how much nicer your house is
-Find a nu best mate"

"8. Your best mate stood you up, what do you do?
-Find a nu best mate"

Good times, good times.
Actually I just read the magazine again - it's hilarious - way better than any actual published magazine.

Well anyway, magazines are pretty great. I know in America the subscriptions are ridiculously cheap - when I bought a copy of seventeen when on holiday this year I remember it being something like $10 for one year. Shocking no? You could pay a good £15 easily for a 12 months subscription in the UK. Lap it up, you lucky guys.

So enjoy your magazines, in their different shapes and, their different minds and prices. Don't cheer yourself up with a book - roll over the floor reading a funny mag instead!

Wellies

If you do not live in the countryside, there is a good chance you have never experienced a really good pair of wellies (wellington boots). Of course some people may still own wellies, but will not be getting the full benefit from them unless they are frequently walking in the countryside.

Allow me to explain. The humble welly (also known as the gumboot, topboot, rubber boot) was invented by the Duke of Wellington (hence the name). As a thick, heavy and waterproof boot it is undoubtedly unsuitable for city wearage.

Maybe you were thinking you'd make a bold fashion statement by marcing through streets in your cool boots? However, soon you'd meet the error of your ways when the boots begin to chafe and legs get tired, your feet get sore. Even the funky coloured ones you can buy fall short when it comes to concrete, tarmac and slippery supermarket floor surfaces.

No, the only decent place to wear wellies is in the countryside. You must pull on your footwear(worn with a skirt and wooly tights, jeans or other trousers) and march off. Remember to wear lots of layers because the cold wind will get you. These days, there is rarely a conversation that begins at school that doesn't include the words "I'm cold".

Ready? Off you go up your hill. Goodness , there is a puddle 3 feet to your left! Take a large sidestep and jump in it! Now the incline begins. The footpath is dusty and well trodden but just a little to the left there is a muddy trench between the edge of the farmers field. Run in it! When crossing the stream do not take the stepping stones or precarious pathway. Stamp across (but try not to clean any mud off your wellies). In fact, at positively any opportunity try and stamp mud onto the shoes. Mud mud mud!

If you have followed the intructions carefully, by the end of your exhilarating walk you should be hot, smiling and rather pink in the face, not to mention your damp and mud soaked body. When you return to your house you will strip off your wellies and many layers of clothing.

And relax. Your wellies have done their job, you are happier and healhtier due to the exercise. You mind is clear and you will get an excellent nights sleep tonight.
Raise your muddy wellies to the air and cheer in rubbery celebration!

Good internet places to buy cool wellies (or the most interesting ones that come up on google)include http://www.funky-wellington-boots.co.uk/ and http://www.wonderfulwellies.co.uk/.

Mills and Boon

Please can I draw your attention the the link on the right. The one that says my column? Yup - my column in the local magazine is published a few days early on the internet, so you can all read it. I am so proud of it that I don't think my next article will be anywhere near as good.

Anyway, plunging ahead.
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Have you ever heard of Mills and Boon books? I remember the first time I ever heard of them was when reading some trashy teenage fiction. I'm fairly sure one girl accused the other girl of reading "Mills and Boon". At the time, I really didn't know what she was going on about and ploughed on with the rest of the fun story.

The second time was when I did my work experience at Derby Central Library. The (huge) library had almost an entire wall of the bubblegum coloured books, all cheap hardbacks with titles like "The Secret Virgin" and "Blush of a Billionairess".

I overheard two of the other librarians gossiping about how some women came in weekly and exited with whole bags bulging with them, and how they'd return having read them all in a few days. I was curious, but I knew everyone so didn't want to get any for myself...

In case you haven't actually heard of Mills and Boon (which is probably likely) it is a romance book publisher, with a name for trashy and clichéd but harmless. Mills and Boon began publications in 1908 and thus celebrate their 100th anniverary this year. There are countless "Mills and Boon" writers, and countless "Mills and Boon" books. I'd always thought, or heard rumours that it was easy to become a Mills and Boon author, and it'd be easy money, twisting the same old girl meets boy formula day after day.

Mills and Boon books have a lot different categories to suit all audiences, all with different colours for ease of definition. There's Modern (navy), Romance (the traditional pink ones), Historical(purple), Medical (?? - aqua) and more as well as the raunchy Blaze ones (sexy red). Need I explain? Those are a new addition. Until recently Mills and Boon were all fairly innocent: I can confirm this. I am quite curious about the medical themed romance ones though, the description on the website reads:
"Pulse-raising medical situations, from the breathtaking energy of emergency response and rescue to care and community of family practice. Sometimes passionate, always emotional, these stories promise the ultimate in romantic medical drama."

It wasn't until today that I actually read a mills and boon, and I've begun to realise that in my retirement I probably won't be settling down with a fluffy lilac biro and writing some flimsy romance, I don't think it's as easy as it looks.

Seeing as I have only read 2 ("The Hostage Bride" by Kate Walker and "The Italian's Bride" by Diana Hamilton) it really isn't that much of a fair test - but I'm going to read at least one more, for the purposes of research (where am I getting them from? Well, this Friday after school I went to my local library and grabbed a few off the shelf - a shelf slightly smaller than the Central Library shelf - I had to get loads of other random books too to diguise the pink ones. Luckily no one recognised me...)

I found the book okay. It really was what I was expecting. The heroine (Felicity) was going to marry this rich guy (Edward) because he'd pay off her fathers debts to his rival, another rich guy (Rico). But Rico kidnaps Felicity before she can marry Edward because his sister (Marie) is pregnant with Edwards baby and wants to marry Edward. Then Felicity marries Rico because they fall in love, and Marie and Edward marry happily too. The second one had a smiliar storyline.

I'm thinking this is pretty much the same for all Mills and Boon books. There is problems for the men and women at the begining of the book. The man has power and wealth (and handsomeness), but the woman is very pretty and so the man wants her. They both are in love with each other but don't believe the other one feels the same so this complicates matters. They eventually admit their passionate feelings for each other and marry. At the end the woman has some power and wealth whilst the man now has a relationship to complete his life. Of course there are lots of other obstacles along the way like illegitatmate babbies, and fathers and kidsnappings.

Aah.

I think what stuck me most was how often weak the first heroine was. When Felicity was being kidnapped, she got put in the back of Rico's car in her wedding dress. Now most people in normal situations would try and find out why you've been kidnapped, try and escape etc. Or at least be upset or angry! Fliss could have taken off her wedding shoe and broken the glass to cry for help. But no - Felicity sits docile in the back seat complaining about being thirsty and thinking about how attractive the back of Ricos neck is, about how overcome she is with sexual desire. *eyebrows raised all round* She was always being decribed as "vulnerable". Get some backbone woman!

It was certainly a learning experience to read, and I can see why some people might get hooked on them, for the little thrills and twists and the comfort of a fmailiar storyline in a new setting. I would recommend them, but not for everyone. They are incredibly cheap to get hold off - at the Mills and Boon website you can purchase various books for as little as 99 pence (2$)! And loads of libraries have them. In fact if you sign up to the Mills and Boon book club you get 2 free books, and from what I've read there aren't any catches. (I might be wrong though). Go on, read one! Have a bit of frilly fun to cheer up your day!

I would one day I would quite like to write one of these books, but I'd have to read some more of them. Am I up for the challenge?

"Valerie was sitting at her bedroom window looking out over the Parisian landscape. The sun was setting and she could hear the rattle of dustbins and whiff of tobacco smoke as Gergiemme took a break from his failing restaurant business on the ground floor. At least the beautiful view was good enough to calm her worries. She wondered where her mother might be in the towers and spirals of Paris. She probably wouldn't return until dawn, but at least that meant the coast was clear for Valerie to visit her secret prison boyfriend..."