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

Shelf No.1- Part 2

So, as you may have guessed by the title this is the second part of my bottom shelf tour! I'm going to get right into it because I have nothing else to say and this post is going to be preeeeeetty long anyway!

So, as you can see, this is where the bottom shelf morphed into notebooks and fiction (totally of it's own accord, the books literally flew and perched themselves on this shelf.) Next to the Children's British History Encyclopedia mentioned last time are three notebooks and an English to French/French to English Dicionary, there's not really much I can say about the notebooks other than they're pretty so I don't like writing in them (defeats the purpose really, doesn't it?) As far as the dictionary goes, as I mentioned in my 'Me?' page I am far from bilingual and need all the help I can get (However, I don't use it nor do I see myself using it at any point in the near future.) 

After that we come to Jacky Daydream and My Secret Diary both biographies by Jacqueline Wilson. I read these when I was around 8-10 years old and loved them, mainly because I was a huge fan of Jacqueline's writing. I've kept them mainly in case I ever feel the urge to delve into my childhood (which I do on a regular basis, in the means of watching Disney films.) 

The next three books are Slide by Jill Hathaway, Elixir by Hilary Duff and The Blessed by Tonya Hurley.  I read both Slide and Elixir quite a while ago, but remember them for having quite interesting plots and have kept them because (although I very rarely re-read books) I may want to re-read them. The Blessed, however I have not read. (Tried, but not read.) I decided to keep it because I keep on picking it up, starting to read it and then putting it back. In other words I WILL, I repeat WILL, read it.

Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara, Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking are the last four books on this shelf. Lovely, Dark and Deep- was bought by my mum during the weekly shop at Asda and has somehow landed on my bookshelf, she's read it- I haven't and that's that. Wreck This Journal was bought for me by a friend, Elke (Pronounced, El-Kah) for my birthday, I've started to 'wreck it' but it's apparently a rather slow process. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was borrowed from someone and I apparently haven't given it back. My reason for borrowing it is: I heard great reviews of it on the interweb. I did try to read it but, again- it just didn't seem to happen for some reason. Which is sad, because this particular book had a very intriguing plot line that I'd like to learn more about. (Maybe I'll get my own copy/ borrow it from the library to give it another go.) Finally, I bought A Brief History of Time whilst shopping with my dad. *Insert possibly irrelevant yet brief information (not about the history of time, hahaha!)*

A Brief Story:

My dad is a huge space enthusiast, he owns two telescopes, has multiple apps for star gazing (and whatnot) as well as forming quite the collection of space related trivia.

*Back to whatever I was saying earlier*

Where was I...Oh right "Whilst shopping with my dad." We were in the non-fiction section of Waterstones and I came across A Brief History of Time. Now, because of my dad's passion for space and astronomy related things- I am all the more interested in the ways of the world. I decided, what a better way to understand the working's of the Earth than from the beginning. Taadaah! I bought the book and (this seems to be the theme of this blog post) started to read it, then picked up something else.

Advice of the day: Never put yourself in the situation where you're reading 3+ books at once. It doesn't work. Unless it does work for you, in which case- bravo to you, fellow friend of the interweb!

That is all for now! I shall leave you with my song of the blog post: Gold by Spandau Ballet.

Gonna hit the road spotted toad-L

Shelf No.1-Part 1

Let's commence my shelf tour my bottom shelf! However, I have a few things to say before I go into detail:

There's no particular order to the way in which I organize my shelves. I have one shelf for 'classics/old books' and one shelf for non-fiction texts, (the one I'll be sharing with you in this post) which for some unknown reason, shares it's home with a few notebooks and fictional pieces of writing (Clear evidence that I lack organization skills.)

So, without further ado- here is the first (half of the first) shelf:

To the far left is a set of 9 Longman Literature Guides, given to me by my nan a few years ago and, as far as I know, are just study guides for A-level/GCSE/first year university students. In my mini collection, I have the study guide for: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. 

Propped up against the set of books is a drawing by my youngest brother or himself as a superhero, which I like to keep on display.

The next book is The Complete Human Body by Dr Alice Roberts (Although, multiple specialists from different fields came together during the writing of this book.)Given to me by my uncles at christmas, it is quite literally what it says on the cover. I find it to be quite useful when I'm doing some background reading on a certain way of the body. 

Next to that we have Fashion, published by DK (Dorling Kindersley) I picked this book up at The Works whilst in Evesham. I'm not particularly 'into' fashion but I do quite enjoy looking at the photo's (it helps me to decide if I would realistically enjoy to live in the Edwardian time or not.)

Moving swiftly on to my complete collection of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and my copy of Classic tales of Beatrix Potter.The Collection of Winnie the Pooh Stories and Poems was given to my parents by my grandparents just before I was born, as was the Classic Tales of Beatrix Potter (probably) I love both of these books, particularly because of the illustrations. The tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle is one of my favourites (I have a thing for hedgehogs, no thanks to Martin Freeman and Tumblr.)

The next three books are: The Usborne Junior Illustrated Maths Dictonary, (embarrassingly) The Sims Medieval official game guide and Al Seckel's Incredible Visual Illusions. I bought the Maths guide quite a few years ago now in year six and have kept it merely for reference because my mathematical skills are appalling. The Sims guide is my mum's, it's on my bookcase for safe keeping and my illusions book was picked up at a charity shop and happens to be one of my favourite things to look at when bored *takes a break from writing to look through the book.*

*Back.* The final four books on this half of the shelf are: Spider-Man: Happy Birthday and Spider-Man & The Spinster Six by Stan Lee and Michael Straczynski, Grey's Anatomy by Henry Gray F.R.S, The Oxford Popular School Thesaurus and The Children's British History Encyclopedia by Nicola Barber and Andy Langley. If you read my 'Me?' page, you'll know that I enjoy Marvel film's- however, I'm totally clueless when it comes to the comics so I "borrowed" the Spider-Man book from my youngest brother. My copy of Grey's Anatomy and the History Encyclopedia were both bought for me by my nan because I'm interested in history and the possibility of becoming a Doctor!

That is it for now my fellow friends of the interweb! I shall leave you with my song of the blog post: Hooked on a feeling by Blue Swede

I'm out of here white tailed deer- L