The Monthly Playlist: March

Until the last couple of days my March playlist had half the number of songs in it than the previous two months. There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, at the end of February I went to see Mary Poppins in Manchester. Now, I love musicals and whenever I go to see a musical I end up just constantly listening to musical soundtracks on loop for weeks. So my musical playlist (link here) has had some serious plays this month.
Secondly, one song I discovered this month is an acoustic cover of Teengae Dirtbag by a man called Frank Hamilton. I'm not sure how I found it but ever since that day it has been listened to numerous times. I've actually lost track. Does Spotify tell you how many times you've listened to a song? Answers on a postcard.
I've been listening to some of his other stuff and it is all brilliant but that cover... wow. Please listen to it.

A couple other things that happened this month that inspired the songs on the playlist... I went to London at the start of the month with my friend, Becki. And as always when in London, I get The Jam's Going Underground stuck in my head. Also, The Jam are the first band to feature in two consecutive playlists, hurray! When we were on the tube, Becki said the noise the door makes as it closes sounds like the very first note of Natasha Bedingfield's These Words. I found this very funny. Because it does. Go listen!

And at the moment, I am rewatching Sense8 on Netflix as the second season will be out in a few months. If you haven't watched it then I highly recommend it, it is very well done with a really interesting plot. Anyway, at the end of one of the episodes What's Up by 4 Non Blondes plays and they all sing it. The song is brilliant any way and I love the lyrics and I just love how well it fits in with the scene and what's going on with the characters.

Then there's a few golden oldies from Bowie, The Beatles and Michael Jackson. Some favourites that I'd forgotten exist and some new songs I discovered as well as the new Gwen Stefani song - yesssss!
Let me know what you've been listening to this month.

Ooh, and whilst I have you here... I wrote a little something on eating disorders after B&M decided to sell a product with a pro-eating disorder slogan on it. I'd really love if you could take a read.

International Day of Happiness

Had I of known that today has been the International Day of Happiness I would have been more prepared with this post and have uploaded it in the morning. However, I only realised when good ol' Snapchat pointed out today's day and at that point I was rushing to go out with my mum. That being said, I was taking her to Liverpool to see Disney on Ice. I got tickets for her for Christmas and as far as Happy Days go... spending it seeing Disney characters dancing on ice is pretty wonderful.

When you spend a lot of time feeling very unhappy, I like to find the tiny, little things that make me feel good. Things that maybe other people see as insignificant things that they wouldn't usually think twice about. So, here is my Happy List...

1. Lipstick. Especially red lipstick. If you are feeling crappy, lipstick will make you feel like a superhero. Red lipstick will make you feel like a powerful machine and nothing will take you down.
   
2. Following on from that... make-up. Just, make-up in general. Some days I just feel rubbish. I try and work but have no motivation. So I shut down, grab my make up and I will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour painting my face. It makes me feel good. It's therapeutic.
   
3. And then the last make-up related thing, I promise... I LOVE taking my make-up off. I love putting it on so much, but getting out my cleansing oil and a flannel when it's been on my face all day is just bliss! I use The Body Shop's Camomile Cleansing Oil. I have repurchased it constantly for about two years. It's the bee knees!
   
4. Candles and fairy lights. The photo below is what my view in my bedroom currently looks like. I have fairy lights pinned from my ceiling (I got them from Matalan a few years ago and they're amazing.) and I always have a few candles. I love vanilla and also spicy smells, and fruity. I just like candles. It makes everything look and feel relaxed and chilled.
   



5. Toy Story. I mean, who doesn't love Toy Story?! But it doesn't matter how many times I see it, I will still laugh at the same jokes every single time. It gives me a great feeling of nostalgia and you just can't be sad whilst watching Woody and Buzz and the gang!
   
6. My songs from musicals playlist. Because how can you be sad listening to the Hairspray soundtrack? Here's my musicals Spotify playlist. And if there's any musicals I should add in, please let me know!
   

7. New bedding. I forgot how much new bedding was one of life's greatest pleasures but I just changed my bed and now it feels like I'm getting a cuddle of a cloud.

There's just a few things that I find happiness in. Things that I need to remember more often, really.

My friend Becki has done a post of things that make her happy, which you can read here. She sends me weird, wonderful and hilarious things she finds on the Internet (as I do to her) which makes me very happy indeed! -inserts dancing girls emoji-

Another New Home

I've moved. Virtually, anyway.

I've moved away from Wordpress and I am back to Blogger. Sorry, Blogger. I knew I always loved you best really.

When I set up the blog, I couldn't think of a name. I ended up picking the only thing I could think of that wasn't taken but I never really liked it. I just needed to have something so I could post my "Time To Talk" piece on the correct day.

I've been trying to think of something better since and I thought I wanted something with my name included. Turns out my name doesn't sound right with anything!
Then I was just sat doing some work and Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis popped into my head.
That is my favourite song of all time. My earliest memory is my dad teaching me the lyrics. I'd have been about 4, maybe 5, when that song came out and I remember him putting VH1 on the TV all day just waiting for it to come on to see if I'd learnt it.

"Slip inside the eye of your mind
Don't you know you might find
A better place to play."

"Eye of your mind"... Eye of my mind! It just felt right, and made sense. I'm really happy with it so now hopefully I will get around to posting a lot more. If only for my own sanity.

I Met Caitlin Moran...

... and she was just as incredible as I had hoped.

People say you shouldn't meet your idols/heroes/role models, but Caitlin (being all these things) proved that statement utter bullshit.

On Tuesday 8th March (aka International Women's Day) I got a 3 and a half hour train to London, met up with my friend Becki and we had a little explore of London before heading down to the Southbank Centre in the evening. About a month or so prior, I saw a link on Twitter that Caitlin Moran was doing a talk/book launch for her new book and you could win tickets to go. I entered the competition and sent the link to Becki to do the same. She responded "Can we go anyway?"
Initially when I went on the site it seemed to be that only members could attend but the following day general sale began... HURRAH!
I messaged Becki... "Tickets are £20. Should we?.... I've found a hotel for £18 each and it's only half an hour away... Train tickets are £20 return. SHOULD WE?!" Within 10 minutes everything was booked and we spent the next month EXTREMELY excited.

So we're in London, we get to the Southbank Centre and go to pick up a copy of the new book where I overhear a member of staff saying Caitlin will do a signing after the talk. CUE FANGIRLING.
We get to our AMAZING seats (7th row and end of the aisle) and we are GIDDY. Becki has written an amazing piece about the whole day. READ HERE.
Caitlin came on stage and read passages from her book and talked to Jude Kelly (Founder of the Women of the World - the festival the event was part of) about feminism and the reason behind writing her book. I could have sat and listened to them talk for days. Almost 2 hours was not long enough. But it was insightful, funny and inspiring. You could hear people in the audience all around us muttering "yes!" and clapping at everything she said. I even cried during one of the readings. It was about what we should say to young girls who are struggling and it hit so hard. I'd have loved someone to have said those things to me as a teenager. Hell, I need to hear those things now! I could see Caitlin herself getting choke up as she read. And on an even more personal note, my medication has stopped me being able to cry. I've had the odd tear fall out of my face but nothing more. But I cried and so many emotions were going round in my head. I think at that point: relief, comfort and belonging. So that is only good, right?

The talk was over and with our amazing seats we managed to get out the room pretty quick and ended up about 4th in the signing queue. There was 2500 people in attendance. Pretty impressed with ourselves. There was a table and chair ready for her and then she came out and stood in front of it. She spent time talking to everyone, one on one. Everyone got a hug. She was so lovely to everyone. She was happy to sign copies of the other books and take selfies. There was no security rushing everyone along. It really felt like you was just catching up with an old friend.
I, however, am rubbish when it comes to meeting people I like so I can't actually remember what I did or said. I know she hugged me, she wore an incredible jacket, we had a selfie and she drew a pair of tits in my book. We also shouted "TITS!" in celebration of International Women's Day.

So delighted we made the spontaneous decision to go and we're already planning on going to the Women of the World Festival next year to get involved with other events and talks they do. But for this year, best way to spent International Women's Day I could think of.