October Life Update: A Lot Of Ramblings

Hi readers,

So last week I was ill and couldn't write. I had also spent the whole day in Leeds and arrived back late, so I was super tried too. I've been at work today and I'm not much in the mood to write now, but I wanted to post a little about a mix of things instead of missing another week. So here's a very rambling life update.

First off the Steampunk fair was really good. It was the biggest I'd ever gone to and I brought a lot of things, including Christmas presents for my mum. There was a lot of things to see and do even though I was actually ill on the day, but I still had a good time. I was not able to take as many photos as I wanted, so I've only got a few and no good ones of me wearing my costume! This photo above is the view from the top floor of the hotel we were in. I loved seeing all the city lights.

I totally needed a new camera! Also a new computer screen or two as my second screen is just dying. I'm still in debate about getting a laptop too. It would be nice to curl on the sofa or in bed and write. Especially as the nights are getting colder.

Anyway, here are some of things I brought and some business cards I collected;

I really like this candle jar. It's so petty and also looks easy to make, but you can't put a real candle in it because there's paper inside. I might have a go at making one myself. 

I brought the wolf and Toronto key chains together because they were so cute and cheap! The tree of of life my date - soon to be boyfriend!- brought me and I'm so thinking of turning it into a necklace as it would look way better and also I'd love to wear it instead of just carrying it around with me. The actual necklace, which didn't come up that well is a Steampunk style heart with keys and gears, it looks really nice, but not overly Steampunk, so I can wear it often.  

This gnomes were too cute to leave behind! I got the red one of my mum and the brown one of me. I love how they seem to be steampunked with those large goggles. Mine is currently sat on my desk with the clay dragons I got last time.

Also, I couldn't leave this guy behind! He's a battle toad drawn by this very out of the box artist. He also told me he was working on battle snail and I'd have loved to have brought that too. Have to watch out for it next time. 

My collection of business cards and flyers. Some of them might come in handy for connected people. 

With it being October now I've started Halloween! I've already got a few decorations and yesterday I had my first practice at making gingerbread. I need to improve on my icing skills though, but they did turn out okay and they are very tasty. I also made flapjack and I swear taking good photos of food is hard! I've got a few plans building for Halloween too, so hopefully I'll write about them soon.

To tie into this tomorrow, I'm going to be making soap with the young people at the youth center. I say make but really I mean melt and pour stuff, which makes life so much easier. The kids are going to love it and I got ghosts and bat shapes for them to make. Also, taking photos of clear soap is hard. I so need a good camera! Maybe an idea for Christmas.

Speaking of I've already started shopping! Mum and I are doing the advent calendar bags again and we are also doing the Christmas Eve luckily dip. I've had a great idea to make lip scrub and festive shaped soap. Can't wait to start that! I think I'm more excited about Christmas then Halloween this year because of all the things I want to make.

I'm also applying for a new job. Actually it's at the place I work and part-time, so it's going to be real suitable for me. It's receptionist, front of house and a bit of admin, basically it's what I've been volunteering as for the last few months. I need to finish off my application tomorrow now and get it sent in. I'm going to get an interview anyway, but I need to try and my best. It'll be useful to have another job anyway and lucky for me if it's in the place I'm at now.

Recently, I've been enjoying watching autumn settle in, especially in my garden. We put out food for the birds and I love watching them coming and eating. We mainly have blue tits, coal tits, greater tits and black birds. I've yet to see the robin though.

We also have a squirrel or a few! Most people see them as vermin and invading the homes red squirrels which are native to England. But I still like them and find them interesting creatures.

I think they delight in teasing my dog though! She is forever wanting to go out and chase them. She is a terrier too and so has that urge more stronger then other dogs. I think this squirrel was a young one and s/he was burying their nuts under the rocks. I just find them so cute!

Lastly, I'm having a hard time reading The Vampire Lestat. I forgot how long and going on with itself it can be! I still love it and due to the chapters find it an easier layout then Interview With A Vampire, but my deadline of finishing was actually to day and I'm only about a quarter through! I don't know if I'll finish it in two weeks time when I'm now meant to be reviewing it. Then it's Halloween and the review of Queen of the Damned, which I don't think I'm going to get read in two-ish weeks either. So I'm not sure what to do.... I guess find other posts to fill the gaps or not write on those days. Have to figure it out.

I think that's it! Thanks for reading.

January 2016 Update: January Blues

Hi readers and welcoming to my first post of 2016! 

It's taken me a couple of weeks to get around to writing this, but I've had my reasons, which I'll go into later. Firstly though, I was reading a magazine the other day that January is the worst time of year because we don't have anything to look forward to unlike the other months. Plus, its the deflate after Christmas and New Year because you've eaten and drunk so much, spent lots of money and had a ton of fun. Now, it's back to work or education with little money and feeling like you over did everything. Also, your New Year resolution has probably gone completely out of the window.

January and February always feel the hardest months to get through for me. It's cold and snowy- though I seemed to have missed nearly all the bad weather so far- and it's getting dark so early. Getting out of bed is super hard for me and I do tend to hibernate like a bear during winter. I'm not big on going out either- unless its snowed and it looks nice-because everywhere is muddy, wet or icy. And its so cold and though I do like walking, the weather has to be decent. 

My health, which hasn't been good in years, also doesn't like the winter weather. I've been a bit bad recently with things and something keeps triggering my asthma. I've no idea what it is, but my chest has been giving me lot of grieve. I've had to take strong painkillers for my other health condition and the side effect of that is that I want to sleep all the time. Also, my iron level has been down again, making me tried and grumpy. I've been trying to start eating better to help all this issues and to loss some weight, but my other side effect is that I don't feel like eating and I become sick and nausea, making things harder.       

Thankfully, I'm feeling better today though there is another event which has triggered these problems and I'm still struggling to deal with. I broke up with my boyfriend last Monday. He sent me a message about it then when we spoke I officially ended things. I was really mad at him because we'd just been to my brother's birthday meal on Saturday and spent Christmas and New Year together. I felt he'd just thrown that all way and it was like it didn't mean anything. I know that's not true, but I couldn't help but feel that way. We weren't meeting each other's needs and what I now want is different to what he wants because we are both at different stages really.     

It's real difficult because we were together 3 and bit years and I thought 'd found the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We never argued and were very close, we had enough in common and everything seemed to be good. I think though he kept this doubt about things between us and he let it grow and come out again. Will we get back together? Not anytime soon. He remembered what I had stated the last time we broke up and got back together, that if we broke again then a good amount of time, in which we dated other people and progressed more with our lives needed to happen before we decided if we should get back together. I think that's the best thing to do really. 

A lot of people give me the classic advice of 'if one door closes another opens,' and 'if it's meant to be it'll find away,' I told my dog- who I've been talking to a lot and been seeking comfort from- 'there were plenty more fish in the sea' and 'it really wasn't the end of the world.'  Sometimes though the classics catchphrases are just what you need to reassure yourself with. I'm going to miss him, no doubt about that, though he won't completely be out of my life. There's still Dungeons and Dragons and he did say he wanted to stay friends. I don't know how I really feel about that at the moment, but what I do want is for there to be a neutral line between us. I want to be mature and calm about it. I know that's going to be so hard to do, but I've got to come out of this stronger now, I don't have any choice. 

I was watching the birds in the garden this morning and I was thinking how that the blue tits, the robin and the sparrows have to live in the current moment. So much of their time and energy is spent finding and eating food. Winter is the hardest month for them and yet they find the will to carry on. They don't seem to have that many worries but for getting the basic needs sorted and it made me think about everything I had to appreciate. My basic needs have been met and exceeded, I've had a good life, been luckier then other people and yeah, even though I'm not rich and famous - which is probably over rated anyway, I'm doing okay. 

I wish my life was as simple as that of a bird's though. Humans compared to all the other animals live complicated, stressful and worry filled lives. The idea of going back to basics does attracted me, but I guess that would mean going to a small island with nothing on it and trying to survive. A Robinson Crusoe situation, but I couldn't cope without my books!        

Whilst watching the birds I also noticed that the snowdrops and bluebells were coming up in the garden. Though it feels far to early for plants to become up, it seemed the mild winter is causing then to appear. The splash of green in the bare brown garden, made me feel happy. Everything moves on and keeps on turning, things happen for many reasons and the world is full of goodness. I guess I just feel like nature is reminding me that things have their time and place, life just carries on. 

I feel little bit better after writing all of this now. Having time to reflect is important and I know it's going to take awhile before I move on again. My lack of motivation and wanting to do things will fade and for now I'm just going to do the small things and take little steps. Hopefully, I'll meet someone else soon. It is a big world out there after all. 

I found this last image on another site and I just love it. It really fits in with what I've been writing about too. I thought it looked like a nice thing to finish on. Till next time. 

Images from: 

https://pixabay.com/

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c3/fe/d0/c3fed0cd1cce09f81cf7a24cf5b48330.gif

Norwegian Wood Review - This Bird Has Flown

The weather is really bad right now. Had about a month's worth of rainfall in the last 24 hours and they say that more is to come over the next few days. Luckily, my town hasn't flooded, which is saying something as the river is only across the street from my house. I heard on the lunch time news that a few towns and villages had been taken over by the rapid down pour. So, I'm grateful that it doesn't look like this will happen to me! I do love the rain though. I like watching it fall and wondering how I can best describe it in a story. The weather can set a whole range of tones and moods, just like nature and the seasons. Which brings me on to this post's subject, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

Published in 1987 and set in 1960's Japan, this is a tragic love story with two different love triangles. It is also the most recognized of Murakami's work. Now romance novels aren't my thing, yeah I do like some love stories in the horror or supernatural books I read, but I like it to be a sub-genre more than the actual genre. I first heard about NW on a late night TV book show and added it to my list of books that I should read someday. I can't remember what the TV review said as it was about 4/3 years back. I read NW last year-ish and straight away fell in love with Murakami's style of writing. Not being able to read Japanese, I read the English translation of the book. During my MA Creative Writing, I had a class on translation which was very interesting and I realised that most people probably don't think much about the language side of things when they read. It's easy for a writer to translate another writer's work and there's okay money in it, but what got me is that sometimes the writing translator won't stay true to the original work and can try to make it their own. This is a problem I had with the 3rd Murakami novel I read- Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World.

NW is translated (by Jay Rubin, 2000) well and seems to have stayed true to Murakami's style. His writing is so poetic, that after a few chapters you forget you are reading fiction and find yourself believing it to be poetry. This is because he uses a simplistic, yet full of meaning, short and rhythmic vocabulary, which is very readable. The imagery he creates is also amazing and beside from LOTR, I can't think of another book that has blown me away through the pictures that the words can create. I've never been to Japan, but through Murakami I was able to visualise a very clear image of the novel's settings and well, it felt like Japan was on my doorstep instead of being hundreds of miles away. As for the characters, I took to their names well, but that's because I'm use to it from the manga/anime that I love. You also get a clear picture of the characters and their lives. You can deeply connect with them all and sympathize with the events they've had to face in life.      

The themes in NW also fits in with this, as there's love, tragedy, heartache, suicide, solitude, sex and growing up. The narrator of the novel Toru is reflecting back on his college years and the loss of his true love. This comes about because he hears the Beatles singing 'Norwegian Wood', a song about an affair. (Though I've lived in Liverpool, the home of the Beatles for the last 3 years, I'm still not a fan of their music.) So, that explains the title of the novel, but other connects can be made as well. Such as the backdrop for much of the novel is set near Kyoto in a mountainous/forest area and the main female character, Naoko's favourite song happens to be NW. At times affairs do happen in the book and also the song's meaning 'this bird has flown' can be read as someone become free through dying, which towards the end of the book is something that can be sensed. There is also something about the tone of the name that gives it a depressed, dark feeling and that really does linger under the surface of the novel. 

The reason why I wanted to write this post was because I watched the movie of NW today. Though I know it's only been a few days since I wrote about The Hungry Games, my mind is still interested in reviews. I still don't plan to make a large feature about them on my blog though. But it's nice to have more focus to my writing for a change. So, the movie which came out in December 2010, is a good representation of the book, but for me and like The Hungry Games, if you've not read the novel it can be hard and confusing to follow. The film is in subtitles, but there is actually very little speech, which reflections on the main characters' love of solitude and not being able to openly discuss their feelings. Another thing that threw me was the student civil unrest, which is explained in the novel, but not the movie and though Toru is seen to stand against the unrest, he doesn't share his thoughts on it, like he does in the novel. However, this theme appears not to have any meaning in the overall content, rather it's a reflection of the turmoil that is happening in Toru's life.

The main thing that strikes you about this movie is the deep connect to nature. There's so many great shots of the landscape through the changing seasons. This is a much better backdrop to reflect the characters' feelings. The Japanese clearly have a thing about nature and love showing it off in all it's glory. One of my favourite parts was towards the end of the film where Toru goes to stay in a cave near the sea for some nights. The raging sea reflects his anger and loss so well, it was difficult for me not to be crying along with him. When he returns home he looks like the sea has worn him down, as it does to rocks and all the tragedy of his life is reflected in that moment. However, he knows he has to go on living. I like the scenes in the woods too, because of the symbolic meanings of finding solitude and reflection in nature. The woods become something of a secret place for Toru and Naoko. 

The first love triangle is clear from the start with Naoko dating Kizuki and them being best friends with Toru, who is hiding his feelings for her. The second triangle is between Toru, Naoko and Midori. Once again though Toru can't really have Naoko because she's mentally unstable, so he turns to Midori instead. This story does have something of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet about it for me. I guess it's because of the whole tragic love story and the fact that a few characters commit suicide. The movie did capture the 60's in Japan though and I guess when people overall think about that country they still have an ancient image in their heads. So, it was interested to see how 'westernise' Japan was in that era. 

Like with most other Murakami novels there is an underlining confusion for the reader. This isn't really to do with the Japanese setting, it's more how to do with Murakami's style. His characters will say and do things that sometimes don't make much sense or else appear wrong. This happens more at the endings than anywhere else in the books. I got the same sense at the end of the movie that I got at the end of the book. That confused, unsure sense about what the characters were going to do next. There seems to be no real closure or certainty from the characters, though we know this has all been a reflection from Toru, so clearly he has gone on living and coped well with letting go of the past. (I don't think that came across in the movie, though there were a lot of flashbacks). I think one of the reasons why Murakami's novels end like this is because he's letting the reader draw their own conclusions. That said, NW is an awesome book and Murakami is a writer to fall in love with.        

Images from:

http://www.onexday.com/2009/october/30.html

http://moviedroneblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/preview-norwegian-wood.html

http://www.buzzbox.com/news/2012-01-05/haruki-murakami:norwegian-wood/?clusterId=7695650

Lots to say in this small space!

Hi, followers!

I've been away on holiday again and this time I was staying on a narrow boat and traveling along the Grand Union Canal. Me and my family hired a 6 bed boat called the Carisbrooke Castle and it was massive! A living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and seats at the front and back of the boat. The space was so needed because we took Sandy- my dog-with us as well.



Most of the time we were just relaxing and watching the world pass us by. Everything seems slower on the boat because you are just traveling gently along the water and watching the nature and other boats around you. The other times were spent dealing with the locks. They are scary things at first and do take awhile to get use to. They are used to get a boat up or down because the canal fits in with the landscape and therefore has different water levels.

This is a lock.

So, firstly the water inside the lock must be at the same level the boat is at. If not the water must be flooded or drained from the lock and this is done by using a windless to wind the paddles on the gates up or down so that the water can flow. Once this is sorted the boat can go in the lock and both gates and the paddles get shut.

Next, the paddles are open on the other gate, so that the water can drain/flood to make it level on the next side. Once this is done, the gates can be opened to let the boat go on. There are lots of different kinds of locks and most of them can fit two boats in. Some are single, but you can get a staircase 2/3 locks together or a flight 3+ all after each other, others can have 2 sets of paddles and the bottom ones must be open first or the boat could be filled with water!



The locks were the hardest part. I mega enjoyed all the nature though! check these pics out.

Those are like my highlights. So after all that fun, today has been an important day for me. I started my volunteering job today at the RSPCA Charity shop. The only thing I did was put clothes on hangers and putting tags on the clothes. I did some teddies too and that was about it. I've got to go back tomorrow, so hopefully they'll give me some more things to do, I get bored so easily!

Also I got fitted for contact lenses today. I had to have new glasses first because my eye sight has changed again. I don't much have a choice where my glasses are concerned because I need to wear them 24/7 and without them I just can't see anything! So now I've some cool brown square shaped glasses that look really nice and also I'm able to wear the standard contacts which is mega good. I've to wait a week now for them, can't wait!

That's about it for today anyway, think that's enough.