Why vote?

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Hello (:

Look at me getting all topical and political. Let's be serious for a moment though. Voting might not seem like a big deal to you. Putting a cross on a ballot paper and hoping you get the outcome you want might not seem like you've had your say or have changed anything. But, you have and you need to take advantage of the fact that in the UK we all have the right to vote.

This will be the second time I have voted. The first time I voted, I was eighteen and had no bloody clue who to vote for or what to do at the polling station. My mum marched me up to my old primary school (where our polling station was that year) and told me who to vote for. All I knew at the time was that my family didn't back the Conservatives and that I probably shouldn't vote for the British National Party.

So, I did as I was told. The outcome wasn't in my favour. To say I thought I'd wasted my time and effort was an understatement. But my mum had hammered it home that women had died so I had the right to vote, so I ought to.

I understand why young people don't vote. I don't feel like some stuffy Eton educated forty-something man is in any way relatable. I don't feel like there is anyone in Parliament who represents me, a twenty-three year old woman, university educated, but my school and college's were far from private, surviving on minimum wage in a job I don't enjoy.

So, read up. Research each party's manifestos. Vote for what you believe in. But, do take these promises and claims with a pinch of salt. Things won't change over night. Just because you voted for X party, it doesn't mean there will suddenly be an influx of jobs, university fees will be lowered (or even abolished) or that the minimum wage will be increased. I know at the last election, a lot of my pals voted for the Lib Dems because good old Nick Clegg had promised to rid the country of tuition fees. Then he teamed up with the Conservatives and fees were tripled.

Register to vote, read up on policies, educate yourself. Vote because in this country we have democracy and so we have the privilege to have a say in who leads.

My friend made a good point at the weekend. She said she wasn't sure who to vote for, but if she didn't vote at all she didn't feel like she could complain further down the line when things weren't in her favour.

You can register to vote here, today is the last day you can, so please do it. Whether you've never voted before, or have, make sure you get to have your say this year.

The Happy List

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I had started a post that was me banging on about how miserable I am and various reasons why. I don't want to post that. I have been really sad and down this week. It's possibly a combination of vicious female hormones and the fact I've had four job rejections land in my lap this week. My 2015 goals have never felt so far from happening, it's really getting on top of me. Instead of wallowing, I thought I'd put together a list of things I do to try and cheer myself up.

1. Listen to some happy music 
I've talked about this here, but if I'm sad I'll be there cracking out the ballads in order to make myself feel even worse. But, in anticipation of Slam Dunk next month I've been listening to a lot more pop punk. Pop punk just makes me feel like summer is well and truly on the way. I'd highly recommend treating your ears to As It Is' album stream of Never Happy, Ever After. But, definitely go and buy it when it comes out next week, too!

2. Watch something that makes you feel better 
And don't feel bad about wasting a whole day doing this. We have whole series' of 2 Broke Girls saved onto the Sky planner and sometimes I like to watch a couple of old episodes before work. I like watching 'reality' TV like Made in Chelsea, TOWIE etc. it's nice to escape into their little dramas instead of thinking about your own. Even starting to watch something new can give you a focus, especially if it's really good.

3. Read 
Similar to the above point, read that book you've been putting off. Or re-read something you love. I used to re-read a specific chapter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when I was younger, because it always made me feel better.

4. Paint your nails 
Or put on a face/hair mask. Do something to properly pamper yourself. I think if you feel like you look better, you'll genuinely start to feel it. Like everything else, it gives you something to focus and concentrate on. And, who doesn't like looking at freshly painted nails, preferably in a bright/pastel colour.

5. Buy yourself a present 
It doesn't have to be anything extravagant. Little pick me ups are a good way of cheering yourself up. A new outfit for a night out gives you an excuse to organise one. Buying some new books for your Kindle gives you something to do in your spare time. Or even something small, like a box of chocolates, it's all a little treat and it probably won't cure how you're feeling, but it'll banish it for a while.

6. Remove yourself from situations 
Don't put yourself in a position where you're going to feel low. It's difficult if work is making you feel down, as it is with me. But, try to put a positive spin on it. How many days are left before the weekend? How many jobs did you apply for recently? If you have interviews coming up, set time aside to research and plan some questions and answers. Try and chat with your work pals and organise something with them. Last weekend, I found myself leaving a pizza night at my pal's house earlier than usual because another friend was unknowingly upsetting me. So, I got a taxi home, had a Rekorderlig and watched a film.

7. Have something to look forward to 
Plan things with your family and your friends. Put all your holidays in at work and sort fun things to do on your days off. It can be lunch with an old friend, a holiday or festival, a trip to the cinema or theatre or a day out to the seaside. Put the dates in your diary and focus on what's coming up next. Whenever I feel low at work, I try and keep in mind the next time I'll be off or the next gig I'm going to. It gives you a point to work towards.

It's pretty self explanatory. You've got to do things for yourself. That's something I'm slowly learning. I'm feeling down and out this week, but next week it'll probably be a completely different story. This list isn't very original or thought provoking, but if it helps someone to feel a little bit better, then that's great.

What do you do to cheer yourself up?

Dublin

Hello (:

This post has been a long time coming, I was supposed to write it last week, but I ended up doing some over time and had a busy weekend going to The Deep and not doing much else. Without further ado, here's the lowdown on the trip I took over to Dublin with my two pals.

We booked this trip back in December after my friend found it on Groupon. I'd never used Groupon before, so I had no idea what to expect. In total it cost around £94 each and that included return flights and two nights in the hotel. We snapped it up pretty quickly and I kind of put it on the back burner, feeling a bit more enthusiastic about going to Amsterdam, as I've visited Dublin before.

Part of the deal was we had to fly from Birmingham, which wouldn't have been first, second or third choice of airport for us, as it's quite a trek. We set off super early, and my friend drove us there and back, opting to leave the car at the Airparks car park. This was a good idea, as we knew her car would be secure, as well as all the bits and bobs we left there. It was fairly cheap as well, and it includes a bus transfer to and from the terminal.

The flight was pretty uneventful, we flew with Ryanair, and I was expecting a lot more hassle than what we actually got. I've not had the best previous experiences with Ryanair! When we arrived in Dublin, we got a taxi to our hotel. We were staying at the Regency Hotel, which was a midpoint between Dublin centre and the airport. The hotel itself was a lot nicer than any of us were expecting, especially after reading some questionable TripAdvisor reviews.

It was early afternoon when we arrived, so we set about getting a taxi into town to buy some needed toiletries - we'd been told we could only take hand luggage, but ended up having our bags checked which was a tad annoying - and had a general look around. We ate at Eddie Rocket's, which is a 1950's style diner, and all the food comes in red baskets and the staff are dressed like extras from Grease. The food was amazing and we left feeling very full, but very happy.

Because of our flight times, we only really had one proper night we could use, so we decided from the moment we booked that we'd be going on a night out on the Saturday. Because we'd gotten so many taxis everywhere, we spoke to all the drivers and got a lot of opinions on where to go and which bars and clubs would be the best for us.

We were dropped off at Temple Bar, which is the big tourist hot spot. A lot of the pubs and bars have live music and it's very folk-y, and not really our thing at all. Back in 2012, I'd already been in the actual Temple Bar pub with my parents and sister and hadn't enjoyed it much back then. We avoided that and headed to Buskers instead, which played a lot more chart music and cheesy pop (still, not really my thing, but Desperadoes were 4 euros). It was a really lively atmosphere, but not the place to go if you want a more authentic Irish experience, as it was full of tourists. The club beneath Buskers, Alchemy, was pretty good too and we finished the night off in there. I've got to say, drinks are pretty expensive in Dublin. My friend had a double Archers and lemonade and it cost her just short of 14 euros.

On Sunday, we decided to take advantage of our hotel's facilities and headed to the pool. I was super hungover and was determined not to enjoy any moment of it, but was quite surprised. There's a rule in Dublin that in public pools, you have to wear a swimming cap. Which, as someone who goes swimming quite regularly, absolutely confused the hell out of me. A taxi driver had informed us, it was due to hygiene reasons. We sat in the jacuzzi for a while, before me and my friend managed a few lengths in the pool before it got really busy.

That afternoon, we headed across town to the Guinness Storehouse. It was interesting, but it was so busy. I'd recommend booking tickets, you get like 10% off if you book online and you get to skip the ridiculous long queue. Because it was so busy, it was difficult to properly take your time and look and read each piece of information. It also meant the queues to learn to pull the perfect pint and the cafe were really long, so we decided not to wait and press forwards. The whole Storehouse wasn't what I was expecting, I hoped it'd be a bit more interactive than it was. Good for beer enthusiasts though, as there are a few interesting facts along the way.

The main exciting point of the Storehouse was going to the Gravity bar at the very top, the walls are made out of windows and it overlooks Dublin centre and the view was incredible. It was such a clear day and you could see for miles. I can only imagine it looks even more incredible at night. You also get a free drink in the bar, Guiness or a soft drink.

We had a walk up to Grafton Street to look around the shops and I got a picture with Phil Lynott's statue to show my dad. As everything started to close, we headed up to Temple Bar to get something to eat, opting for an old favourite, TGI Friday's. We ate Jack Daniels chicken and drank cocktails, before stopping for a 5 euro cocktail in Buskers. It was a really chilled out evening, and the perfect way to end our trip before the 3AM wake up call on Monday morning.

I love Dublin. It's one of those places, like Amsterdam that I feel sort of drawn to. I feel like I could genuinely live there one day, if the New York dream never happens, who knows what will be the back up? I'd recommend Dublin to everyone, but if you have as little time as we did, definitely plan in advance what you're going to do. We knew we wanted to have a night out and my pals wanted to go to the Guinness Storehouse. There's plenty of other options too, of course.

Have you ever been to Dublin? What did you do there?

March Reads

Hello!

I decided to give the blog a little revamp before I posted anymore. So, here we have the results of my afternoon. I think it looks a lot nicer, still simple, but I definitely prefer the script font instead of what I used before.

Anyway, moving on. As I said in my March round up, I read some books that month that I wanted to talk about. I feel like I'm getting stuck in a reading rut at the moment. A lot of the books I choose are of the same formula and I love a good chick lit novel as much as the next person, but I find myself getting a bit bored with them sometimes. I often long for something with a bit more to it and a more complex, intricate story line. Unfortunately, I didn't find that last month.

Tied Up With Love by Amelia Thorne
Izzy is unemployed, she's got no direction and no idea what to do with her life. When she's wrongly 'kidnapped' by a company who specialise in staged kidnappings between couples, she see's this as an opportunity to gain herself a new job and some extra cash for her trip to Australia in a few months time. The only obstacle in her way is the boss, notorious womaniser, Ethan Chase.

I had such high hopes for Tied Up With Love. I bought it on a whim for my Kindle after reading a lot of five star reviews on Amazon. So, I was expecting a lot of greatness. It started off really well, the whole idea of the Kidnap My Wife (or KMW as it's often referred to) company was something new and exciting. It felt fresher than other chick lit I'd been reading. As soon as Izzy and Ethan get involved with one another that's when it really starts to drag. It all becomes a bit too smug, a bit too over dramatic and I often wondered why either of them bloody bothered. It's a decent, frothy read, but it ended up really lacking towards the end. 3/5.

Do You Remember The First Time? by Jenny Colgan
Thirty something Flora is having a life crisis. She should be happy with her long term boyfriend, Ollie, but something isn't totally right. At her best friend's wedding, Flora bumps into an old flame. A wish upon the wedding cake sends her right back to being sixteen. The only problem is, no one else has gotten any younger.

Another book I had high hopes for. I thought Do You Remember The First Time? sounded like it'd be quite funny, very light hearted. It wasn't, not really. I was initially a bit confused with the plot. I liked the thought of Flora going back to being sixteen and changing things so the future had a different outcome, but when I realised it was only Flora and her parents who changed back to how they were, it seemed a little off to me. Her pals Tashy and Clelland recognise her, as does Ollie, but no one else does. It's like a weird parallel universe that doesn't have any real explanation as to how or why it happened.

The story was decent, but I think it lost it's way a little bit halfway through. I wasn't rooting for Flora to get back to being thirty, and I didn't care what happened to anyone. There were some funny bits, and in places I did enjoy it, but it didn't ignite any inspiration in me. 3/5

I really, really, really need something new to read. I want something that will inspire me and make me think. I know I'm probably not choosing a genre that encompasses those things. I find it very difficult to read
a lot when I get stuck in one of these ruts and just end up slowly wading through book after book that I don't enjoy and find other things to do in favour of reading.

If you have any recommendations for me, please leave them in the comments below.

March

Hello (:

Monthly update time! I feel like March has been a bit all over the place, a bit dull and I've felt a bit lost and aimless. I started March having pizza night round at my friend's house watching Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and a ridiculous Ex On The Beach marathon. Now, don't get me wrong it's not that I don't enjoy doing this with my pals, because I really do, but not every single weekend. We tend to fall into patterns of staying in and doing this more often than not, and sometimes it gets on top of me a bit. After this weekend, I didn't see my friends for three weeks because of reasons that will be explained.

The first week in March I was a cripple. I trapped a nerve in my neck which impacted on my shoulder as well. I couldn't turn right (but I could turn left, so ha, Derek Zoolander!) at work I was having to move my whole body round to speak to people and I couldn't do what I'd agreed to do, because lifting my right arm was so painful. Fortunately now, it's fine and I've not needed the physio that the doctor threatened.

The week after that, I was struck down with a horrific virus. I could feel a sore throat coming on at the beginning of the week, totally wrote it off as part and parcel of having a cold, then I lost my voice completely. I felt drained and a bit floppy? That's the only way I can describe it. People at work took the piss out of me, which resulted in a lot of not very nice words croaked out by me. I was sent home from work after about an hour when I couldn't speak at all one Friday. I felt shocking and was really upset because the next night I was going to see Steel Panther with my sister.

Steel Panther were bloody good. I even wrote about it over here. They're a band I've loved for years now and I'd never seen them. I bought the tickets with my last £50 before we went to Tenerife last July. So I'd been looking forward to it for a while and having lost my voice I was gutted. I was determined for it not to totally ruin things and stocked up on peach flavoured Soothers and made sure I kept having a drink. I did find I couldn't even mime along as it kept drying my throat out, making it even more painful.

The morning after Steel Panther, I woke up in my sister's uni halls with my eyes gunged together. I knew what it was, I just didn't want to contemplate it. One of my biggest fears is anything happening to my eyes. If I see someone touch their eye, putting contacts in, anything like that it makes me want to be sick. I was the nightmare child that whenever I went to the children's hospital to have my eyes tested and had to have eye drops, I'd be pinned down on the floor and have my eyes prised open by my parents and the nurses. So, to get conjunctivitis as a result of that flipping virus was the icing on the cake of a fabulous week.

Because conjunctivitis is highly contagious, I had a couple of days off work. My voice was still gone, and my vision was blurred some of the time too. It was a right jolly good time for me.

After all of that, we boarded a ferry to hop over to Amsterdam. I had a fab fab time, loved every minute of it and really want to go back because I feel like we didn't have enough time to do everything I'd have liked to. No sooner had we got back to Sheffield, but my sister and I were getting a train over to Nottingham to see Papa Roach at Rock City. I can't say this was the most enjoyable gig of my life. We were squished at the back and couldn't see a bloody thing. I've never seen Papa Roach put on a bad show, but I got to a stage when I was waiting for it to end because it was uncomfortable, and not very nice. Rock City should probably look into lowering their capacity allowance because paying to see the back of someone's head wasn't my idea of fun.

Last week, I was back in Manchester, which is probably becoming my second home, to see The Blackout's Final Farewell Tour. I've lost count the amount of times I've seen The Blackout, and I knew as soon as this had been announced last year that we had to go. It was such a nostalgic, but appropriate farewell, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it is sad to see them go. The Blackout/Kids In Glass Houses reunion tour in a few years pls!

March was rounded off with finally seeing my pals after going to gigs/being ill/being in Amsterdam, having a big old catch up over a Nandos and we had a spontaneous cinema trip to see the new Cinderella. It wasn't bad, but the costumes were more impressive than anything else.

On the blog, I've been quite bad this month. Because it's been all work and not much play I've felt like I've not really had much to talk about. I rambled on about my love for Amsterdam and chatted a bit about being an over thinker and over worrier. I do have some March reads to chat about, and I'll be posting that next week.

Until next time!