The 'M' Word.

Hello my fellow friends of the internet!

I'm here today with a very overdue post! Today is the 15th of November. Flash back to 1978 a very important person in my life was born. That important person is my mum. Now before you roll your eyes and groan, I KNOW that was a predictable thing to say! However, my mother is pretty fabulous.

Before you totally think I've lost all sense of self restraint; I'm not gong to brag or gush. I'm just going to share with you some brilliant moments I've had with my mum (Sorry if I embarrass you mother. Mwahahaha.)

Top 5 Brilliant Moments: With Libby and Mum.

1. I really enjoy it when we take Rue (our dog) out for a walk and have very in depth conversations.
2. When she bakes. Anything. I mean, she can bake. 
3. I appreciate that she's there for me. Whenever I need her, I know I can ring her or text her and she'll be there for me (provided she has her phone on or I have signal. It's a faulted system I know.)
4. When we bond over books, films and TV series together.
5. The random nights we stay up later than usual laughing at ridiculous things (Like my appalling attempt at Beyonce's Single Ladies dance.)

We don't get a long all the time, I don't think any daughter can say they get on with their mother 100% of the time, but when we fight- we get over it and move on. At the end of the day I know that if I have a problem I can turn to her for help.

Aww look at that, baby me. How sweet. Moral of this post is I love my mum. Motherhood is a full time job and my mum is pretty darn good at it. I really hope she's enjoyed her birthday and I also hope that you, my fellow friends of the interweb, have experienced (in some way or another) the loving feeling of a mother (or mother figure.)

That's all for now, I shall leave you with today's song: More Than Words by Extreme

-L

Fireworks

Hello again my fellow friends of the interweb! I'm here today with a bit of a spur of the moment post! Due to where I live, I'm fortunate enough to not need to pay for fireworks to see them because I live on a hill and can therefore see everyone else's for free! The joy!

Today in England is Bonfire night! For those who don't know, bonfire night is where we celebrate a bloke called Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament! The fireworks represent the gunpowder and sometimes people will make a slightly satanic looking bloke and burn him (Sounds worse than it is!) However, most people enjoy firework displays and bonfires!

I have realized that I (for some unknown reason) really love fireworks. I was stood outside on my decking, admiring the free fireworks like a child. (My favourite fireworks are the "Glittery fairy thingies" if anyone was curious.)

I find that fireworks are used to mark something significant, the beginning of a new year, at an opening event,  a bloke trying to blow up the king- all of these things are important and I think that's why it resonates with me. I love the atmosphere of togetherness that they create, I love the colours and the noise! They just generally bring me joy and transport me back to the times where I could scream at things and it would be cute and not considered weird or bratty!

This video, made me cry when I watched it! That's the power that fireworks have over me. Any significant event in my life-expect to see fireworks!

That's all for now! I shall leave you with today's song of the post: Don't Stop Believin' By Journey (the live version because why not?)

Catch ya soon-L

Music

Hello there fellow friends of the interweb! I've been spending a decent amount of my time recently, on my phone or on YouTube listening to music and it made  me realize how much I appreciate the work artists do and how music plays quite a fundamental part of my life. (Would I like some crackers with that cheese I hear you ask? Yes please!)

I chose drama as a GCSE, so I think that gives me the right to call myself a performer (and I've performed so that's good enough right?) So, as you may (or may not) expect, music choice tends to be quite important on certain occasions.

Let me give you an example (that's defiantly not based on real life experiences) that demonstrates how getting the music right is key:

An Example Of How Getting The Music Right Is Key

Let me set the scene, two 14 year olds are sat in a small music practice room. One is a tall, floppy haired blonde boy with a guitar and the other is a short, muddy red headed girl with a bottle of water and song lyrics.

They are a duo without a name (at the time, all hail Lolli/Olliby, we can't decide! Suggestions?) and their performance was drawing near. With only 2 weeks left, they knew now was the time to seriously put work into practicing (well, Libby knew this, Olli was just sort of going with it as usual.)

The boy sat down and sorted out his strap (HAHAHAHA) whilst the girl sat opposite him, laughing to herself and preparing for the impending embarrassment that was no doubt soon to follow (as it did most practice sessions.)

Boy: Am I playing it from-

Girl: Yep, just do it from there it'll be fine!

Boy: Right...Okay...*Starts to play the song*

Girl: *Starts singing* No...No this isn't right...Can you move the thingy up a notch?

Boy: What like this? *Moves the thingy up a notch and does some fancy guitarist thing*

Girl: Yeah, that's cool. Back from that bit then.

Boy: Uh huh *Plays*

Girl: *Midway through singing* Mngahhjaja *Looks at lyrics* shsmfjiwmmsm *Laughs*

Boy: *Stops playing abruptly* What?

Girl: You made me laugh! It's fine, it's fine. Go back from the start of that bit.

Boy: Okaaaay *Plays*

Girl: *Midway through singing* Uggghhh! This is not going to work and we've only got 2 weeks left until the performance! Do we do another song? What songs do you know? What songs can you PLAY I mean?

Boy: *Thinks* Well, I can-

Girl: Great, do that.

Long story short the boy plays the other song and first time round it goes perfectly and they perform it and everyone loves it and they ride off into the musical sunset and live musically happily together forever (until Libby gets tonsillitis and Olli breaks a guitar string.)

Moral of that story is, although the girl could sing the song and the boy could play the song, it wasn't the right one, and as soon as they changed the song; they felt more confident in what they were doing and gave a kick ass performance.

My love for music is the main reason for doing a 'song of the post'. I decided that instead of making one post where I list all of my favourite songs (which realistically for me would be a stupid thing to do because I'd be here for hours.) I would instead pick a song that I adore or maybe a song that's relevant to the post and link it to you guys so you can get a taste of the sort of music I like to sing or listen to!

That's all for today my fellow friends of the interweb! I shall leave you with the aforementioned song of the post: Make You Feel My Love by Adele (her version of it anyways)

Happy Half Term to all and anyone who's got a week off!

-L

P.s This is the song we performed.

Friends.

Hello! I apologize for leaving you for so long, but as I've mentioned before I only want to blog about things when I feel like doing it otherwise, this will feel like more of a chore and less of a hobby! I'm in the mood for a bit of a chatty/long blog post today so be prepared for badly formed sentences and appalling spelling. In other words, get a cup of tea because I'm not planning on holding back at all.

As you may have gathered from the title, today's post is about friends. Personally I have issues trusting people; so all of my friends have been hand picked with care. Oddly enough, I've found friends in people I wouldn't have thought I would ever call a friend. Even more than that; I've become really close friends with people that I never thought I would consider a friend.

As much as I'd LOVE to name and shame my friends (trust me I thought about it) I'd end up forgetting someone and that's not cool so I'm just going to have to hope that you know who you are! Considering I'm shuffling through a rough patch life wise at the moment, the one thing I think I've needed most is support and I'm SO thankful to have a brilliant group of friends behind me.

Some of my friends understand what I'm going through and have experienced it themselves, some know my "deepest and darkest" secrets (although I'm a very dull person so none of my secrets are very deep and dark.) I have friends that let me use their Netflix account and friends that I've been camping with.

Recently (By recently I mean on Thursday) I went to the cinema with two friends to watch Annabelle. (Warning: it's a horror movie, I don't want to be responsible for any younger people scaring themselves.) It was fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed myself but (get to the point Libby.) I came to the conclusion that without those friends, or without friends in general- wouldn't life be dull? I don't want to go to the cinema alone, or go camping alone or dance to I'm Sexy and I know it on a bridge alone!

Everyone likes some time to themselves of course but don't friends make life so much more enjoyable? Have you ever nearly peed yourself whilst with a friends because something ridiculous just happened? Have you ever taken long walks with your friends just because you want to talk? When was the last time you told your friends that you appreciate them?

As horribly cheesy as it sounds, I was in a maths lesson the other day having an utter existential crisis and my friend was sat next to me giving me ideas for what I could do to solve my problem blah-blah-blah and I suddenly felt overwhelmed with appreciation for this person.

She didn't have to help me out, she didn't have to use up brain power to help me come up with solutions, she could have just left me to my own devices and sort it out by myself but she didn't. Instead she actually took the time to help me out and I appreciate her for that (she knows so too because I told her so in the lesson.)

I dedicate this blog post to all of my friends, to those of you who have: spent time with me, brought me food, share an inside joke with me and those who have calmed me down when I've been a little too emotional. Most importantly, I would like you to know that I appreciate you and I love you (Ohh she went there) because you're all brilliant and life would be very dull without you,

That's all for today my fellow friends of the interweb! I shall leave you with this posts song of the day: Centuries by Fall Out Boy

Till next time- L

Pessimism.

Hi there! So, I'm a very pessimistic person. When I say 'a very pessimistic person' I mean a VERY pessimistic person. I actually don't think I've ever met someone as pessimistic as I am, the only person that's come close to being as pessimistic as me, is my friend Charlie.

On a good day, my level of pessimism is probably about Bobby Singer (Supernatural.)

However, on a bad day my pessimism probably reaches Wednesday Addams level.

Everyone knows the idiom of "Is the glass half full or half empty" or whatever it is, but technically isn't it always full? Isn't air present in the glass where the liquid has been removed? I'm sure there are FAR more intelligent people that could answer this question (*Cough* Charlie.) But I found this which proves my point more or less.

I like to think of my 'pessimism' as a superior emotion that nobody else can fully understand. Much like the following emotionally stunted people:

Cristina Yang- Grey's Anatomy

Martin Freeman- Hardware

Spencer Hastings- Pretty Little Liars

Smeagol/Gollum- The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Now, I'm not comparing Charlie or myself to the above people, however I like to believe that we are full of just as much sass as Martin Freeman (bold statement to all you fellow fangirls out there.)

That is all for today my fellow friends of the interweb! I shall leave you with todays song: Wonderwall by Oasis.

Stay loose bull moose- L

*This post is dedicated to Charlie, a very fabulous and superior being.*

Give Me Grief.

Last year in May my Grandfather passed away. Regretfully, I didn't deal with it well and therefore am still dealing with the repercussions of that, but that's a different blog post (If I ever decide that I want to talk about it at all.)  

I remember stumbling across this video (A little too late may I add) and totally understanding everything Louise had to say. One of the things that struck a chord with me more than anything is her honesty and bravery.

Not everybody would be able to post a video about this, not many people would want to share a moment of 'weakness' with millions of people. But she did. I can say from personal experience that talking about death is a very difficult thing to do. I'd much rather ignore it and pretend it didn't happen but that's not the case.

Not talking about things doesn't help, if anything it prolongs the pain you're in and manifests itself into something more than just grief. Whatever emotion you're feeling: anxiety, sadness, happiness, stress, confusion etc- talk about it. I'm saying this now because I understand what it's like to not talk about it and I can't help but feel that getting it off of my chest at the beginning would mean I'd be in a better place now and after all, nobody's going to judge you for feeling what you feel.

My friends (more or less) have been great after I've explained to them what I'm going through. The hardest part of it is working through it and the initial action of understanding within yourself that you have this issue to face.

The most important thing to know, is that having a mental illness or feeling any extreme version of emotion doesn't make you any less of a human. It doesn't make you weak. It doesn't mean you've been defeated. Yes, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge that can be overcome. It's a challenge that will make you strong. It's a challenge that will give you determination.

That's all for now Fellow friends of the interweb, the video is below at the bottom of this  paragraph thing but if that doesn't work click Here to watch it.

The song of this post is: You Raise Me Up by Westlife mainly because all of my friends cry when listening to it so I thought it fitting.

-L

The Hairdressers.

Yesterday I went to the hairdressers. My dad booked me in around a month ago and yesterday morning I was SO excited; however, whilst at the hairdressers, I managed to come up with (basically) this entire blog post, so I'll shut my mouth (odd thing to say considering my mouth's not open) and get to the point!

This is a photo of the interior of my hairdressers (courtesy of Google.) It's very trendy isn't it? Very clean, white and shiny, which is fabulous however I'm an idiot and I currently have a concussion so I ended up sliding from one place to another instead of walking. 

Now, whilst at the hairdressers I realized that I'm probably the one type of customer they hate the most: The 'I'm too passive to tell you anything that isn't positive, so I'll continue to communicate in overly happy uh huh's and smiles' customer. So, what with being aforementioned customer, I decided I should share with you a list of things that happen a lot when I go to the hairdressers:

A List Of Things That Happen When I Go To The Hairdressers:

1. When being asked if I want a drink, I will always answer 'No, thank you *smile.*' The same answer will follow 'Do you want a magazine to look at?' No, I do not- however thank you kindly for asking me.
2. 'Is this your natural parting?' If you mean 'Is this where your hair is when you roll out of bed in the morning?' Then yes, yes it is.
3. Ending everything with 'Okay' or 'Good'. Usually used like this: 'She'll be with you in a minute, okay?' No. It's not okay. (Seriously, even if it wasn't okay I don't think I'd be able to tell you, so it's fine that she'll be with me in a minute.)
4. The hair wash. Now, this is a total dilemma- So much so, I'm going to include a list within a list:

The Hair Wash: A List Within A List:

1. The awkward neck angle, it's fabulous to begin with but then it HURTS. I'm talking about chronic neck pain. Not only that but what am I meant to be looking at? Why can't they have built in TV screens attached to the ceiling? Or abstract works of art? Write a poem on the ceiling! Anything that means I'm not counting the number of lights in the ceiling.
2. 'Is this temperature okay for you?' Usually it's fine but I cannot imagine myself telling the lovely person 'No. It's painfully hot.' Obviously, I'd HAVE to if I was verging on tears but otherwise I think I'd keep my mouth shut.
3. When the water decides to run along the side of your ear and down your neck. This means that I have to conceal my laughter. IT TICKLES. 
4. Having Flynn Rider (Aka, Eugene Fitzherbert) give you a head massage. Now, having my head massaged is an intimate experience- nobody other than me is allowed to fondle my hair follicles. So having someone who looks like my favourite Disney prince:

Crossed with Petesjams (Youtuber):

Was extremely distracting. Although, I did enjoy the head massage (does wonders for concussions!)

At the end of my trip to the hairdressers I was VERY pleased with the outcome and no doubt, I did enjoy my time there; the staff were friendly and attentive, the hair cleaning products (didn't want to limit it to shampoo) all smell lovely and they definitely gave me what I wanted, which is what we want from a hairdressers really isn't it!?

That's all for now my fellow friends of the interweb! I shall leave you with todays songs of the post: I See The Light (Tangled Cover) By Petesjams and Carriehopefletcher and Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dam (I thought I'd treat you to two songs today! Note the Disney theme.)

Till then penguin- L