Tea Stains and Daisy Chains: life

blogger

I went to a fireworks display earlier this month, during which the man with the loud-speaker told us to "look up". As we all turned our heads to the sky in anticipation, he added that he's found this a pretty good motto to live by. For some reason, this lighthearted comment has really stuck with me, so much so that I decided to include it in this blog post!

Don't worry, I'm not going to go all philosophical on you and start analysing the meaning of life or anything. No, instead I'm just going to share a bit about what's going on in my world at the moment. (This is definitely totally relevant and related because things are looking up, okay?). I get that this might not be particularly interesting for you as a reader, but I do like to include a variety of posts on my blog, with some offering practical tips and others being a bit more diary-like.

Two weeks ago, it was the first time in probably about two years that I was out every single night of the week. For lots of people my age (and any other age, come to think of it), doing something other than watching TV every evening is no big deal. But considering that pretty much all of my friends are at uni and I've spent most of this 'second' gap year sitting at home with the parents, this was a fairly momentous event.

I started the week by going along to the fifth or sixth session of the Alpha Course. For those of you who aren't sure whether this is a new language or some sort of fitness regime (when I told someone the other week, they replied by letting me know that their friend was doing Tough Mudder...), the Alpha Course is basically a series of talks and discussions about the fundamentals of the Christian faith . You may have seen posters outside churches asking 'What's the point?'; these would have been advertising the course. It's essentially a place where anyone, regardless of their beliefs (or lack of), can find out more and ask questions in a safe environment about God and the church. Having grown up in a Christian family, I've found it really useful being around non-Christians who are staring from square one, as well as those who have a really solid faith. It's been encouraging to hear other people raising the same questions and doubts that I've always had floating around in the back of my mind. Plus, it's free and we get food, so everyone's happy.

During the week, I had training for my new job at a bar in the centre of town. I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to choose an insanely popular and busy bar for my pint-pulling debut, but I'm telling myself that we need a challenge every now and then. I witnessed the throng of 21+'s a couple of Fridays ago, as I had my first weekend shift behind the bar. Beforehand, I was absolutely terrified and was shaking as though I was about to sit an oral language exam (my worst nightmare: why I thought I wanted to do French at uni I'll never know). But when I actually arrived and got going, it was no way near as bad as I'd imagined. Having to remember all the cocktails and being able to serve the different drinks at about one thousand miles per hour has definitely forced me onto a very steep learning curb, but I'm hoping that things will start to be a bit more enjoyable once I feel like I sort of know what I'm doing!

Now that I've got two jobs (and one of them involves ridiculous hours!), I've decided that I want to spend some of my money on getting myself insured on my mum's little KA. For me, being able to drive is literally the best thing ever, so I'm a very happy bunny. It's also great to feel as though I'm a bit more independent and don't have to cycle to the gym in the pouring rain or rely on my parents to come and collect me from work at 2am!

So that's pretty much my life at the moment. Although things seem to have suddenly picked up a bit, I'm still trying to fit in reading, art and writing into my week (not always successfully). But I'm not complaining, because about half a year ago I was doing literally nothing and definitely wasn't happy about it!

Life's good when it's full.

Harriet x

advice

Making Time for Art

17:42

31 day blog challenge

31 Day Blog Challenge- Day 7

14:41

Day 7: What's your dream job?

When I got back from my run this morning, (please take a moment to gaze in awe at my beautiful trainers on the left) I was all energised and pumped up with endorphins. It probably would have been a good idea at this point to get my head down and write this post. Instead I was distracted by the thought of a cold shower and also a chicken wrap. So now that I've actually come to sit down in front of my laptop, I'm feeling a little sleepy (yes, I know it's 2.30 in the afternoon).

So I'll try my best to make this an interesting one, but I can't promise anything!

Right, what's my dream job? During the last six months or so, I think I've come to the conclusion that I want to be a journalist. And failing that, someone who writes things and gets paid for it.

Ideally (and fairly predictably) I'd love to work for one of the big names, like the BBC, the Telegraph, the Guardian etc. But obviously people who end up there have laboriously worked their up through the ranks, starting with university or local newspapers; something which I'm more than prepared to do.

Alternatively, I could be a freelance journalist. Or maybe I could have a column in a newspaper. Basically, I just want to write.

But before I start thinking about career-type jobs, I'm going to do an English Literature degree, so that I can improve my writing and skills. Also, if I did a Journalism degree and then changed my mind, I might find it harder to change path. Another reason I want to do English is because I love reading and I really enjoyed English A-Level!

At the moment (and hopefully for the next year while I'm working at home) I'm getting a bit of work experience by writing articles for Kettle Mag, Eat More Cake and MyStudentStyle (see 'What else do I write?'). Doing this has made me even more determined to be a professional journalist one day!

If you have any advice or tips about breaking into the field, then I'd be so happy to hear from you!

Harriet x

31 day blog challenge

31 Day Blog Challenge- Day 2

17:21

anorexia

My latest article for Eat More Cake

10:31

article

Is this your idea of a healthy relationship with food?

10:32

As I was scrolling through (and largely ignoring) the articles on the Daily Mail Online app this morning, this one particularly caught my eye. Of course, this is by no means the first product to be launched as a 'zero calorie' alternative, but the fact that this isn't even food seems to take things one step further.

Diet foods vs zero calorie 'foods'

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the ever-evolving array of 'diet foods', which are now available in most supermarkets. These ranges, such as Morrisons' 'NuMe' and Sainsburys' 'Be good to yourself', offer people the chance to make healthy choices, whilst still enjoying good quality food. However, by removing all nutritional value from a product, just because it tastes nice and contains 'too much' fat or 'too many' calories, surely turns the whole idea of a healthy relationship with food on its head? Food is our fuel. Imagine pitching 'zero calorie noodles' to a group of starving farmers in Mali; the concept would be simply bewildering. We eat to give us energy and encouraging people to forget this is not going to solve any problems.

The problem of obesity

As we all know, some of our diets do contain a higher number of calories than necessary. However, in my opinion, trying to tackle this problem by giving people what they want, only without the calories, is only going to cause more issues. Having these calorie-free options available seems to simply enforce the idea that we can't learn to control ourselves around food. Are we really so desperate for chocolate that we need to stick a 'listerine strip-type product' in our mouths to get some satisfaction? Surely if it's just the taste we crave, then eating just one square of actual chocolate would do the trick and wouldn't result in dramatic weight gain. This would also encourage a healthy relationship with food, something that seems to be somewhat compromised by a calorie-free option...

Eating disorders

Is it really surprising that 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, when food is labelled by the media and advertising as so distinctly 'healthy' (good) or 'unhealthy' (bad)? By offering these so-called 'unhealthy' foods in a zero-calorie form, the implication being made is that eating these foods results in weight gain and eventually, obesity. However, it's perfectly possible to enjoy 'bad' foods as part of a balanced diet. In fact, as part of treatment for eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, sufferers are encouraged not to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods; they are told that there is no such thing. In many cases, the sufferer has eliminated all these 'bad' foods from their diet and must now learn to re-introduce these 'fear foods'; something which is unsurprisingly difficult when surrounded by the message that these foods should only be enjoyed in flavour-form, without the calories, fats and sugars.

Unfortunately, as the levels of obesity continue to rise, it's unlikely that these products will be removed from the market any time soon. But hopefully, people will start to realise that the suggestion that calorie-free 'food' offers a healthy alternative, is a complete contradiction and simply makes 'zero' sense.

Harriet x

culture

My Day of Great Adventure

11:48

A train journey from St Albans to Kingston. No big deal, nothing out of the ordinary, right? Probably not, for the average eighteen year-old; but for me, this was a big day. This would be the first time I went into London on my own and the first time I planned a journey for myself. A few months ago, when I was struggling to see how I'd make it through the day, I never would have imagined that I'd spend a Saturday morning giving customers a gait analysis in a running shop, followed by an afternoon and evening in London at a university art exhibition.

When my cousin's girlfriend suggested that I go to her end of degree exhibition, I agreed enthusiastically, but knew that in reality, it probably wouldn't happen. I didn't know where it was going to be held, but it seemed pretty unlikely that I'd manage to get myself there. Anyway, I'd almost definitely feel awkward and out of place. Assuming she'd just asked out of politeness, I forgot about it, until she got in touch nearer the time with a date and a plan. It was at Kingston University at the end of May and lots of her family were going too. Despite the voice that was screaming, "Tell her you can't! You won't make it there by yourself! You can barely even function on your own!", I said yes. I must have been feeling particularly brave that day. Once I'd officially committed myself, I started to really look forward to it, as I was excited not only about seeing her and my cousin, but also about seeing her work.

The evening before the exhibition, I researched my train journey and wrote down all the connections and changes on a post-it note. This in itself was new to me, as I'd always relied on other people to organise any travel arrangements. Even in doing this simple thing for myself, I felt more confident about it all and wondered why I hadn't done this before- there was no complicated formula to it that everyone but me understood. It was so easy and I realised that the only reason I hadn't done it before was lack of self-belief, rather than lack of ability.

Arriving at St Albans train station on Saturday, I felt very grown up. I was clutching my new purse as I walked in and looked up at the information board. In the past, I would have taken a step back at this point, allowing whoever I was with to check the train times and buy the tickets. About six months ago, I would have been too scared to queue up at the ticket office and ask for a return to Kingston, but now this felt completely normal. I got myself to the right platform and waited for the train. I realised that, although this felt like an adventure to me, to the majority of other people around me, this was just a mundane part of their daily routine. When I got on the train, I started reading a book that I'd brought with me. Before, I would probably have felt too self-conscious and embarrassed to do this, but this time I decided that nobody else is interested or bothered in the slightest in what I choose to do on the train; it's only me who thinks everyone else is laughing at me! Anyway, reading on the train is hardly out of the ordinary!

About 10 minutes before we actually arrived at King's Cross St Pancras, I put my book away and got my ticket out, so that I was all ready. (Hopefully in the future I'll learn to be a bit more relaxed and will get it into my head that the train is going to stay at the platform long enough for me to get out!) Thankfully, I'd been to St Pancras many times, so was quite confident that I knew my way to the underground, but I still followed the signs religiously, just to be certain! My parents had been sure to remind me to go Southbound on the Victoria line, something which they probably had reason to worry about, as in the past I would have just followed someone else and not noticed the different directions. I took the underground to Vauxhall, where I would then take the overground to Kingston. When I arrived at Vauxhall, I looked at my yellow post-it and saw that the connection I'd planned on getting wasn't leaving for another half an hour. Last year, I would have just accepted this and waited, but this time I checked the information board and saw that an earlier train on platform 8 to Strawberry Hill was also stopping at Kingston. While I was waiting for this train, I listened over and over again to the announcements, just making sure that I had definitely got it right! Once I'd heard the recorded voice say 'Kingston' for the third time, I was pretty sure it was going to be okay...!

When I arrived at Kingston, I decided that I fancied a cup of tea, so went to the little stall on the platform. For some unknown reason, I used to think that café owners would see me as a nuisance and a bother if I went up and ordered something. (Obviously, this is completely irrational, because most would be begging for customers!) But this time, I even had a little chat with the guy who made me my tea and found out that he'd been to his friend's art exhibition the weekend before! I left with a smile on my face, realising that having a short conversation with me was far from an irritation to him; in fact, it probably made his day just that tiny bit more interesting.

Now that I'd finally made it there, I was looking forward to getting to the exhibition and meeting some new people, which is something that would previously have filled me with dread. I was still a bit anxious about fitting in and knowing what to say, but I needn't have worried as everyone was lovely and made me feel so welcome. The exhibition itself was for the final-year university art students to showcase their work, so there was a lot going on. I hadn't really seen any of my cousin's girlfriend's work before, so it was amazing to see it displayed so professionally. Maybe I'm slightly biased, but hers was definitely among the best there! This was actually confirmed by people who know what they're talking about, as she was approached by several galleries wanting to exhibit her work. As for my worries about fitting in, the art students were probably the best role-models imaginable for individuality and acceptance; I had never seen so many quirky outfits and wacky hairstyles under one roof before! The atmosphere was so relaxed and chilled, so I felt as though I had every right to be there, celebrating with a friend, just as everyone else was. We all went out for a meal afterwards, which was so much fun and I felt confident enough to chat to different people.

All these new experiences obviously took it out of me, as I almost fell asleep on the train home!

You may be wondering why I've bothered to write a post about a journey that probably seems pretty insignificant to most of you. To be honest, I'm also wondering this myself! I guess I just wanted to show that progress and achievement is all personal. If you do something that you wouldn't/couldn't have done before, you deserve to feel pleased with yourself. Also, I think that reflecting on these small achievements (like I have done by writing this piece) is important, because otherwise they are easily forgotten and overshadowed by failures (such as getting a rejection letter after a job interview). So if you were hoping to take something away from reading this, then maybe you can just think about how you might reflect on the little steps you take, which may help you to feel more motivated in your daily life.

Harriet x

childhood

The Very Special Diary of a Very Special 12 Year-Old: Part 3

17:45

In case you've forgotten what this is all about, here is the third diary entry from my holiday to the Lake District. I would like to remind you that I was twelve...TWELVE, okay?

"Wednesday 2nd April 2008- Woke up again. Had some coco-pops, toast and a kiwi fruit for brekki. (My brother has made a friend called Ben by the way) (He thought his name was Bernard!) Anyway.

Then we set off merrily (er...no) to a quarry near a little place called Rigg Beck. How delightfully charming. We parked our car and started walking along next to a river. After a while we crossed the river. (For me and my brother that basically meant throwing ourselves onto the grass on the other side). Ho hum pigs bum. Then the path got steeper until we were walking along the ridge. It was really tiring. Next we got to the peak of Aikin Knott (1500ft). Quite steep (so vatti says). We then continued soggily along the ridge to Ard Crags (1905ft). It was raining you see. Only spitting though. Then we walked for another mile and got to Knott Rigg (1823ft). All that time we were walking along a ridge where we could see far down into both valleys. Eeek.

At Knott Rigg we stopped for lunch. Then Dad and Josh had a fight and tried to push each other into sheep poo. Clearly I had to join in and rescue......the poo.

Next, we walked round on the other mountain ridges on the other side of the valley. It's quite hard to explain. Oh well. I know what I'm on about. It was really vair vair fun because there was loads of bracken and me and my brother kept diving in it and walking in deep paths.

On the way down vatti fell over and we found out that he has really bad bum reflexes.

When we got down to the farm we had to walk on road and then through bogs and stuff. It was quite fun actually. We finally got back to the purple house, which was the landmark for the car. Also we saw some lambs.

The walk took 5 hours. Woop de doop.

We drove to Keswick. Unfortunately. I had a really nice custard cake in a tea room. Yum. I think it was called Bysons or something. Next we went to a old-fashioned sweet shop. Clearly we bought sweets.

To my delight (ha ha) we went INTO Booths. Ahhhhhh. I bought my tea.

When we got we did stuff like pool. Then we had tea. I had tomato soup and bread and beans and yoghurt. Yey. Dad cooked it.

Played cards and pool.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

P.S. It was the best walk I can remember."

I must have been pretty tired after that walk because that was a fairly half-hearted attempt at being funny. Not to worry, I was back on form the next day...

"Thursday 3rd April 2008- Woke to the sound of an elderly warthog flirting with a frog. Oh, no that would be my brother.

Had some toast and fruit for breakfast.

After we had packed our rucksacks we set off in our car and parked in Seatoller. We got into our flattering walking stuff. A tiny bus came and drove us up about 1000ft. Clearly this is not cheating. The bus ride was quite scary actually because the road was vair vair steep and the bus kept on stopping. Eeeeeeeek.

When the bus dropped us off we couldn't see anything. It was sooo misty. We were in a cloud. Woop de doop.

We started walking up a hill. Then another hill appeared out of the mist and that just carried on happening all the way up. It was really boring until me and my brother started rock climbing. OK, the rocks were vair small but vair vair fun. Tee hee. We also ate sweets that we bought yesterday. Yum.

We were looking for a path that we would be turning down because when we got to that we had 500ft left (according to Wainwright) (Lol). But suddenly out of the mist we saw a man standing next to a cairn. We were at the top of Dale Head (2400ft)! Yey. Also, my theory was true. We saw loads of people at the top but none on the way up. Ureaka! Er...no. We also saw snow at the top.

The way down was way funner (is a word!) because it was easier and rockier. There was quite a lot of snow around. But we couldn't go near it because we could have fallen off the mountain. Fun fun.

We stopped for a nourishing snack (lunch) at a place where we could see Dale Head Tarn. Woo hoo.

When we set off again we got lost but then we found the quarry we were supposed to be at. We realised it was the same one we had gone down 2 or 3 years ago when we climbed High Spy. Yey. We walked down it writing 2008 all over the slate. Aren't we rebels. Not.

Then, when we got to the bottom of the quarry, we saw a 'u' shape in the hills that we had to get to. At that point me and my brother decided to jog al the way down to the car. It was vair fun. We had to wait at a field full of sheep poo so we jogged round it. Josh ran towards a sheep and its legs has a spasm attack. Ha ha!!!

When M + D finally caught up with us me and Josh decided to go a quicker way. We could see the car park so we just ran towards it. Lol!! Mutti and Vatti went all the way round. Ha ha shame. We were there about 10 mins before them. Yey. The walk was about 4 hours I think.

We drove back to the Youth Hostel and I read (I'm not a nerd by the way) until tea which was spaghetti and meatballs. Dad cooked it (oo-er). It was yum.

Then, we all left everything on the table and walked down to the lake. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!! Really. We played around for ages.

In the youth hostel front gardens we all played blockie 123. It was getting dark. Wooooo. It was soo vair vair funny when mum fell out a bush. Haha!

On the last round Josh was on and we saw a man walking up the drive. He was walking in a weird way but he looked like dad. It was sooo weird. We couldn't decide whether it was dad or not. Then he started running towards us and (unfortunately!) we saw it was darling vatti.

Happy Families!

We had to do washing up then. Boo.

Dad + Josh played pool. Me + Mum played pool. Me, Josh + Zak, Scott played pool. Zak and Scott won. Noooo! We set it up for them. Honest.

It was quite late.

So we had a few rounds of the sock game and

zzzzz

P.S. Mum's camera phone went crazy + went upside down. But ho hum mum's bum."

Well, if you're still reading this, congratulations! Only one day left of the holiday (thankfully), which I will post at some point in the near future!

Harriet

daily routine

What I missed out on whilst too busy 'fulfilling my potential'

00:33

Now that I’ve been home from my five week stint at university for six months, I’ve started to realise how much of daily life I missed out on whilst trying to be that ‘perfect girl’:

Simple pleasures:

With my tightly packed schedule of studying and athletics training, I barely had time to breathe, let alone do anything vaguely relaxing. I assumed that a lazy Sunday breakfast listening to the radio and reading the newspaper was a luxury enjoyed only by the fictional characters in films. “How do they have time to do that?” was probably one of my most FAQs. Although I was a little jealous, I always thought that I was the one doing it right; if I got my head down now, surely I could enjoy these simple pleasures later on, once I was successfully settled into my well-earned Good Life? Possibly, but why wait, when this might never happen? Of course, it’s important to find the balance between work and play, but if I’m honest, I think I’d rather have had one too many cups of tea in the garden over having every single piece of homework completed to perfection.

Every-day tasks:

I’ve now found myself actually enjoying some potentially boring things that I never had time to do, such as doing the weekly supermarket shop with my mum on a Saturday morning, having the evening meal ready for my family when they get in and even emptying the dishwasher every morning after breakfast! So I guess in some ways, my previous lack of normal, everyday activities has worked in my favour, as I’ll never complain about having to do them again! (I’ll probably regret saying that in a couple of months…)

Life skills:

But as well as the simple pleasures and these rather unremarkable tasks, I also never really had the chance to learn how to be independent, which is something I touched upon in my first blog post. My dad sorted out my bank account, my phone contract and my cross-country fixtures, whilst my mum made my appointments and even booked me into the hairdressers. Let me just make this very clear; I do not blame my parents for anything AT ALL. They were simply doing their best to make my life easier and to give me a bit of free time to myself. I would probably have done exactly the same thing for my child. It’s only when I look back now and realise that I went off to university at the age of 18 with the life skills of a 10 year-old, that I see there may have been a problem. (I’m not even exaggerating- today when I was working on the till in Oxfam, a little girl came up and boldly asked whether we had any toy cats out the back. I was so surprised, until I remembered that it was only me who could barely even manage to order my own food in a restaurant until a couple of months ago!)

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I think everyone needs to be aware of the importance of the above things. It’s so easy to take them for granted, or to push them aside as pointless, especially when you’re so focussed on achieving and succeeding. But I really do believe that anyone who lacks experience in (or exposure to) any of them, isn’t prepared for ‘life after school’. Of course, there are plenty of other, more major things that prepare someone for university or the world of work, but these (especially the first two) aren’t so obvious. Therefore, maybe just try and keep them in mind and make sure you’re allowing yourself time to develop in all areas of your life, not just those directly linked to academic success.

Harriet x

It's been a while

Look Up

Making Time for Art

31 Day Blog Challenge- Day 7

31 Day Blog Challenge- Day 2

My latest article for Eat More Cake

Is this your idea of a healthy relationship with food?

Diet foods vs zero calorie 'foods'

The problem of obesity

Eating disorders

My Day of Great Adventure

The Very Special Diary of a Very Special 12 Year-Old: Part 3

In case you've forgotten what this is all about, here is the third diary entry from my holiday to the Lake District. I would like to remind you that I was twelve...TWELVE, okay?

I must have been pretty tired after that walk because that was a fairly half-hearted attempt at being funny. Not to worry, I was back on form the next day...

Well, if you're still reading this, congratulations! Only one day left of the holiday (thankfully), which I will post at some point in the near future!

What I missed out on whilst too busy 'fulfilling my potential'

Now that I’ve been home from my five week stint at university for six months, I’ve started to realise how much of daily life I missed out on whilst trying to be that ‘perfect girl’:

Simple pleasures:

Every-day tasks:

Life skills:

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