How well do you know yourself?

I don’t know about you, but it surprises me about much I have changed over the years.

I think that it when you turn 30 that your personality really kicks in and you find out who you are.  Sometimes that is surprising.

Up until 30 I was always shy, I agreed with everything people said, even if I didn’t agree.  I was always nice to everybody, and scared of being disliked.  These days, things are somewhat different.

I have always been a loyal person, have always fiercely defended my friends.  That has never changed.   Now however, I am not scared to say what my opinion is and most would say, and is no doubt evidenced by this blog, that I am rather opinionated.  Also very sarcastic, but only to those I know can take it.

These days, I say what I think and I mean what I say.  This is probably offset by the fact that I am still shy until people get to know me and I have still have the overwhelming urge to be liked.

This may explain the comment I got today

Babe, you know what, I know you and you are a sweetheart, but if I didn't, I'd think you were a bitch.

Well, I think that covers all bases there! At the end of the day, it is more important to know who you are, and accept it.  Be who you are and learn to like it.  Took me 32 years to figure that out!  

A Rant about the “Public”

One person is smart, people are stupid

If I had written this post a few years ago, I would be blaming the media right now for the views and reactions of the public these days.  But the fact is, the only people we have to blame are ourselves.

I first started to notice the real effect that the media had on the public when Madeleine McCann went missing.  The way her parents were treated in the media was horrific, especially bearing in mind what they were already going through.  But then I stopped to think.

The general public seem to thrive on controversy and “the next thing to rant about”.  The tabloids are obviously selling and writing about what the public want to read about, otherwise they would go out of business, with no papers sold.  So the question is, is it their fault, or our own?

With the whole phone hacking thing, although it was horrible that victims and their families had been hacked, the fact is that it has been going on for years.  People, mainly celebrities, have complained about being hacked for years, but because the public wanted to hear the stories, they didn’t care that how that information was obtained.

I have to wonder then, who really can judge the rights and wrongs of the media.  People in their millions bought and lapped up all the stories of kidnap, murder and sensational stories and in turn, the media are put under increasing pressure to produce those stories. 

Don’t get me wrong, phone hacking is wrong, but the question I have is how much is pressure to produce a factor, bearing in mind the obvious public wanting of these stories.  Shouldn’t we be accountable too?

This post started from watching the XFactor (British) this weekend.  A judge telling a 17 year old girl that she is a bully in front of millions, surely that is bullying in itself?  Because of his comments, the papers pick up on it, no doubt now she will be investigated by the tabloids, every person she has ever known asked for bullying stories, and the public will lap it up.

I was watching the results show and watched in horror when one of the final two was loudly booed.  What right do we have to do that to someone?  They still have feelings, yet it is practically turned into a blood sport without care of who is hurt.

Is that what the general public really have turned into?  A baying crowd, wanting blood and controversy no matter what the price? 

The fact is, the public have turned into sheep.  Following whatever is popular opinion at the moment, always looking for the next thing to get on their soap box about.   This is why I usually don’t watch the reality shows, and why I don’t read the tabloids.

The public need to vote with their feet, if you want news and stories of something more than celebrities, controversy and ripping people to pieces, don’t buy the paper. 

They write what sells, so in the end, the contents of the tabloids is our fault, not theirs.

Storm in a F Cup

So.  Large breasts.  Some men love them, some women want them, but to have them, I guarantee is a different thing.

I started to get breasts at the age of ten.  At that time it was a thrill.  Everyone wanted some too, it was the topic of endless discussion, made me feel special in a way, especially because before I wasn’t one of the “popular” kids.  Trouble is, they kept growing.

These days I am a FF cup.  Nearly every woman I encounter who brings them up, including friends, always have the same comments.  “I’ll swop you” “You are so lucky!” “I’d like to have them, just for one day”

Don’t misunderstand me, in some respects, I do like them.  But more often that not, they are a hindrance that I could do without.

If you have larger breasts, you have to have a confidence about you.  I don’t particularly, but I can fake it well.  They come up regularly in conversations, so much so that it gets extremely irritating.  They grew, they are there, they are really so not interesting to have conversations about them.

You get used to people talking to your breasts inside of looking at your eyes.  Clothes are a problem too.  You have to wear a v neck or a round neck in order to make sure they don’t look bigger, but with the majority of clothes, I end up showing more cleavage than I actually want to which attracts more attention than I want.

The thing however that irritates me more than anything is the touching thing.  When you have large breasts, they somehow appear to be public property.  The amount of times I have been out, in a bar or a club and a man has had a comment about the size, and then copped a feel.  Every single one (after a slap or a few heated words) seem to think that they have done nothing wrong.

The other view people tend to have of you is, although to be fair this only comes from the sleazy type of man, that you are automatically easy because of your big breasts.  I’m not by the way.

They say you have to own what you have and make the best of it.  So that’s what I do.  Just wanted to give the perspective of a girl with a lot up top.

Baby, Baby, Baby Noooo!

Question.  What is it about people when they have a baby.  The most normal person in the world suddenly turns into this baby obsessed, all they can talk about person.  Like they have just given birth to Christ or something.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends who didn’t turn into crazy people when they had a baby.  To be fair, they were crazy anyway, being my friends, but in a good way.

 

When a friend tells me they are pregnant, after the mandatory congratulations etc (am not a baby person myself, never want one but am not evil, I can be nice and say congrats) what I don’t tell them is that they are put on probation for social networking.

 

For the purpose of the blog, I will use Facebook as the social network of choice.

 

Things that are Allowed

• Telling people you are pregnant – it’s interesting, people will want to know and congratulate you.
• Scan photo – not something I am interested in at all, but ok, some may like it.
• Occasional pregnancy updates.  Please note this does not include tales of throwing up, heartburn or      anything gross.
• The first baby picture. 
• Afterwards, occasional, and by that I mean one every month, pictures of baby.

Things That Fuck Me Right Off

• Creating a Facebook page for the baby, including when it is still inside you.  It is wrong, it is stupid and if it sends me a friend request…. DENIED!!!
• Constant updates regarding how you are doing, particularly relating to morning sickness, sex life (yes I have seen pregnancy sex life updates) etc.  I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.
• Once the baby is born, photos every other day.  Yes your baby is cute (hopefully).  No I don’t want to see it every day.  It’s a baby, WE HAVE ALL SEEN ONE BEFORE!
• Daily update reports.  Baby has smiled, giggled, had a baby massage etc.....

By the way, what the fuck is baby massage??  People have been having babies for thousands of years.  I have yet to meet a baby that said “Hey, you know what I would like?  A nice massage!”. 

 

I am probably coming across as the anti-christ of babies, which I am not.  I’m happy if you have had a baby,  I respect your choice to have one and appreciate how much you will love it.

 

The thing is, I don’t love it, I don’t want to see it every day and I couldn’t give a rats ass what it does until:

 

a)  It starts speaking and;
b) Actually, that's about it.

25 Things Random Things

This was something done on Facebook a while ago, but I figure, if you are going to do a blog, you should give people something about yourself too.

You are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I have a love of shoes (which is a problem in itself, see 2) and Formula One.
2. I have a major case of climacophobia (fear of stairs, climbing, or of falling downstairs). Be it one step or twenty, dizziness ensues and panic sets in.
3. Everyone says I pout all the time but I don’t, it’s the shape of my lips people!!!
4. I have a few really close friends as opposed to loads and loads, which I prefer.
5. I love horror movies, the scarier the better, but horror books make me too scared – yes I am weird!
6. I love fast cars, driving myself or being driven. There is nothing quite like the thrill of going over 100mph.   Probably why I love F1!
7. I would sell my soul (or part of it at least) for a Porsche 911.
8. I always try to make sure that the people around me are happy.
9. I am like Bambi on ice when it snows – I am guaranteed to fall over.
10. I am still looking for someone who is my brand of crazy, and wonder if I ever will.
11. I subscribe to the saying “Sarcasm is the highest form of wit”.
12. I have one sister, one half sister and a half brother.
13. I don’t want children, but I do want to get married.
14. I am having problems completing this list!
15. I love punk, rock, some heavy metal and some pop music but I hate country.
16. I am incapable of buying anything in a sale, if no one else wanted it, why should you?
17. I have never had a filling, a broken bone or stitches.
18. I don’t believe in God but I do believe that your soul carries on somehow/somewhere after death.
19. I have lived in more than one country and would one day love to move away again, preferably somewhere sunny.
20. It took me two attempts to pass my driving test.
21. I love secrets. Having them and having people confide them in me.
22. At different parts of my life I have been a blonde, a brunette and red head.
23. I am an extremely ditzy person, but I like that about myself.
24. I will automatically give you my trust and loyalty, but woe betide you if you break either.
25. I wonder quite a lot whether people are talking to my eyes or my chest!

The Vodka Scooter

You may have seen this before, but it made me laugh so much am going to share with you anyway.  I didn't write it, but I wish I had.

How many times have you woken up in the morning after a hard night drinking and thought, 'How on earth did I get home?'  As hard as you try, you cannot piece together your return journey from the pub to your house. 

The answer to this puzzle is that you used a “Vodka Scooter."

The Vodka Scooter is a mythical form of transport, owned and leased to the drunk by Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine. The Vodka Scooter works in the following fashion - The passenger reaches a certain level of drunkenness and the "slurring gland" begins to give off a pheromone. Bacchus or one of his many sub-contractors detects this >pheromone and sends down a winged Vodka Scooter.

The scooter scoops up the passenger and deposits them in their bedroom via a Trans-Dimensional Portal. This is not cheap to run, so a large portion of the passenger's in-pocket cash is taken as payment. This answers the second questions after a night out, "How did I spend so much money?'

Unfortunately, Vodka Scooters have a poor safety record and are thought to be responsible for over 90% of all UDI (Unidentified Drinking Injuries), such as bruised legs, stubbed toes, scratched hands and a sore spot on the top of your head.

An undocumented feature of the Vodka Scooter is the destruction of time segments during the trip. The nature of Trans-Dimensional Portals dictates that time will be lost, seemingly unaccounted for. This answers a third question after a night out, "What the hell happened?"

With good intentions, Bacchus opted for the REMIT (Removal of Embarrassing Moments In Time) add on, that automatically removes, in descending order, those parts in time regretted most. Unfortunately one person's REMIT is not necessarily the REMIT of another's and quite often, lost time is regained in discussions over a period of time.

Independent studies have also shown that Beer Goggles often cause the Scooter's navigation system to malfunction thus sending passengers to the wrong bedroom with the wrong person, often with horrific consequences.

Vodka Scooters come equipped with Thump-A-Lot boots (Patent Pending). These boots are designed in such a way that no matter how quietly you tiptoe up the stairs, you are sure to wake either everyone else in the house or your downstairs neighbours. Special anti-gravity springs ensure that you bump into every wall in the house and the CTSGS (Coffee Table Seeking Guidance System) explains the bruised shins.

Don't forget the on-board heater, which allows you to comfortably get home from the pub in sub-zero temperatures, wearing just a small outfit for the ladies or for the men, no jacket.

Vodka scooters........the wonders of modern technology...have you ever had a ride on one??!!

Bad Bieber

I keep hearing news reports, well I says news, more like gossip sites headlines that Justin Bieber has recently tweeted, saying he has “bought” a tiger.

According to the reports I have read, he was visiting a zoo in Sao Paulo, Brazil when he tweeted a picture of a white Bengal tiger, saying “Look what I bought”. Hmmmm.  He is, apparently, and I say apparently because I have no interest in him whatsoever, quite fond of pranks so the news may or may not be true.

He was however the cause of my blog today.  Mainly because, me being me, I saw the headlines and said to myself, apart from the fact that surely his advisors, parents etc would have advised him against it, how could he possibly have a “pet” tiger in the US?  Turns out, unbelievably, you can.

In a world where three of the nine subspecies of tiger are now extinct, with the remaining six on the danger list thanks to hunt, deforestation, poaching and trophy hunting, how can you possibly justify keeping a tiger for a pet?

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums have estimated that there are up to 12,000 tigers being held in the US.  Considering that the wild population is considered somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000, this figure is astounding.

There are only (please correct me if I am wrong here) 19 states in the US that ban the private ownership of a tiger.  How in this day and age is that possible?
 
Just think about it, where you would prefer a tiger to be?  Here:


That’s where they should be.  Where they were born to be.  I can’t imagine the privilege of seeing a wild tiger, in it’s own habitat, living and doing exactly what it was meant to. 

Or, would you prefer to see it hanging on your wall or as a rug on the floor?  Being shot for pleasure?  Being killed and cut up to be used for Chinese medicines which have been proved not to work?

I know what I would prefer.

If you are interested in conservation and the preservation of the wild animals of this planet,  link on this link: Four Paws

And So It Begins

X-Factor is back on our screens.  It is a guilty pleasure of mine.  I'm not one to watch soaps or even many TV programmes.  Am more of a movie person.  But X-Factor I quite like.

I like watching the different acts, figuring out who I like and who and I don't.  Watching them progress, or crumble, during the weeks.  What I don't do, and for the life of me I can't understand why others do, is invest my emotions into it.

At the end of the day it is just a reality show, with people you don't know, and won't care about three months after the show is over.

What I hate is not the X-Factor itself, but how people get so invested into it.  It's a competition, some will lose, one will win.  It's that simple.  There will always be the people in there put in for entertainment only, this year it's Johnny Robinson and would also have been Goldie, if she hadn't figured out that she was a fun factor only.

Every single year people get irate about the fun factor people staying in and others who can sing getting voted out.  But in the end, the best people are usually in the final, so who bloody cares?  People get so mad about people getting voted off, with cries of "I'm never watching again, it's a farce!"  But of course, they do still watch.

Get a life, realise it is only a reality programme, and enjoy it for what it is.  Rant (mini) over.

It’s Illogical, But Then, So Am I

I believe in making an effort when I go to work. You will usually find me in nice shoes, a dress, make-up etc. Don't get me wrong though, I am not the oompa loompa type with false eyelashes, three inches of make-up and hair extensions.

The hair though, confuses me.

Like everyone, I get the days when I get up too late to do anything with it, or have washed it the night before, going to bed with it still wet which means I closely resemble someone who has stuck their fingers in a plug socket in the morning.

Those are the days though when I people have complimented me on my hair. When I haven't done a damn thing with it and I have looked in the mirror and gone "Eek!".

The first time it happens I presumed it was that thing that people do, lie to someone about their very bad hairdo by telling them it's lovely. On a side note, I wouldn't do that. If I don't know you, I am not going to lie to you about something and if you are a friend, I would tell you straight. Well I would direct you to a comb at least.

Anyway, this happened a couple of times and then today, hair messy, I got asked if I was going on a date at lunch as my hair was nice. Then later, someone else commented, asking me what I had done as they wanted to do something similar.

WTF is going on people?

So today I have drawn a conclusion, why spend the time doing my hair, when it looks better when I just crawl out of bed? Although of course, being a woman, I will continue to ignore my own advice and carry on with the straighteners.

Your Music Mood

Music, the thing that you can sit back and listen to, dance to, cry to, use to uplift your mood and make your day a little better.

The thing I love about music is how it makes you feel.  How you can be in a bad mood, then the right song comes on and it completely lifts you out of the doldrums.  Songs hold your memories, you listen to them and it takes you right back to the memory of the time that you heard it.  Good memories, bad memories, memories you never want to forget.

Here are a (very) few of my favourites, some with an explanation of the memory I hold.  The first I will post the Youtube video here because it is so special, the rest are links to listen to if you wish…

Teitur – The One and Only

This song is one of my favourite memories.  This was the song my best friend walked down the aisle to on her wedding day.  We had all jetted off to Cyprus for the wedding, just 14 of us, all the best of friends.  Listening to that song brings me right back to that day, without doubt the happiest I have ever been for someone else.

Livin' Joy - Dreamer
An oldie (in relative terms) but again one packed full of memories.  A dance tune from the 90’s which takes me back to when I first started hitting the town when I was young(er).  The excitement of going to a club for the first time, hearing the music, it makes me smile every time I hear it.

Bad Reputation - Joan Jett

No explanation needed, if you love punk rock music from the seventies, you will and probably already do love this.

The Way we Were – Barbra Streisand

The most painful song I own.  Nothing to do with the movie, this was the song my mum played at my dad’s funeral.  I rarely listen to it, but I could never be without it.

Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – Baz Lurhmann

This song changed the way I thought when I heard it as a teenager, and now when I listen to, I realise how true it is.

Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis

A “get me of out of a bad mood” song.  I defy you not to smile when it plays.

Inside – Stiltskin

It’s beautiful.  The video is not great,but I implore you, get the song.

Song 2 – Blur

Pure driving song, if you love to drive and this comes on the radio on the motorway, watch the speedo!

Well that is just a very few of the songs I love.   Enjoy!  I do not own the rights to any of the materials, right or songs above.