"I'm so much better when you're around"

Romeo & Juliet, Hermione & Ron, Beyoncé & Jay-Z...this world is full of love stories and like many other's, I was on the verge of getting fed up of them. WHERE IS MY ALFIE MOON? (shameless Eastenders reference).

It's safe to say that with every mention of 'love', I was turning a more sickly shade of green. Not because I was jealous (it is 100% because I'm jealous), but because it seemed that the entire world, minus me, had found somebody to watch car-crash TV with on a Saturday night. This was until I found 'One Day'.

On first glance, 'One Day' is ultimately a love story. But if you look closer, you'll see exactly why I've fallen in love with the novel turned film. A tale of friendship, loss, the crazy thing we call life...everybody can find a little bit of themselves in Em and Dex's story.

"You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this: Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that, or a scented candle."

I've read the book 3 times in the space of 2 weeks, seen the film once and watched the trailer until my laptop basically screamed at me to stop. It's safe to say I am well and truly addicted to Emma and Dexter. There should be a rehabilitation center for people suffering from post One Day trauma.
I started this blog post in an attempt to explain what the book/film is about, but now I've started, I've realised that I can't sum it all up in one little post.

I walked out of the cinema feeling a little lost; I had no idea what to do with myself. It's sad that a film can do that to me, but it's the truth. I wanted to be back with Emma and Dex. When they were walking through the streets of Edinburgh 'just friends', falling in love in Paris and trying for a baby in London.
It's the ultimate love story, in hindsight, but covered with obstacles that everybody overcomes at one stage in their life.

I'm still stuck in my 'One Day' funk so I urge you to go and buy the book, watch the film and YouTube the trailer until your computer refuses to open the video:

 'One Day' leaves you filled with a promise of finding your Em/Dex. Never giving up on your true love, even if it is your best friend. Overcoming obstacles to get to the point in your friendship where you realise you can't live without each other, not even for a second. Because after all, it worked for your new best friends, Emma and Dexter.

This addiction of mine has left me with the hope that with some luck, I'll finally climb over the final obstacle I'm faced with and I'll find my Dex. Even if I am 76 and he's in the form of a cat...

Can I make it better, with the lights turned on?

It's a Friday night, I've demolished half of a 'Devil's Food' cake (a majorly chocolatey cake that instantly sorts out a bad mood) and I'm now sat in bed, talking to one of my best friends. "Honestly, listen to Birdy's version of Shelter by the XX. It is AMAZING." said my friend.
Now, I'm not a big fan of Birdy, because I'm quite protective over music and personally, Skinny Love should ONLY be sung by Bon Iver but I knew my friend would make sure I had listened, somehow.
2 minutes later...
I'm now in love with this song. Birdy captures the lyrics so well and the music just seems to flow around her voice with so much ease. This is definitely a new favourite.

"Can you hear when I say I have never felt this way."

Am I the only person not hanging a pillowcase from my head?

Ever since we were old enough to understand just how important the day would be, young girls all over the world have been planning their wedding day:

"Ever since the first time she took a pillowcase and hung it off the back of her head. That’s what we did! We dreamed about the perfect wedding, and the perfect place, with the perfect four-tiered wedding cake with the little people on top. But the most important part is that we had the perfect guy who understood just how important all that other stuff was."  - Monica Geller, Friends.

I understand why this is; your wedding day is supposed to be the biggest, most important day of your life and obviously every little girl wants to feel like a princess as they walk down the aisle. One little slip up and the day can go from perfection to catastrophe in under 60 seconds and suddenly your wedding day has turned into the day you fell down the aisle/fell into the cake/had one to many glasses of champagne and ended up kissing the best man.
What I don't understand though is why girls who haven't spent their teenage years subscribing to bridal magazines, hunting down the perfect baker who will produce their 7 tier chocolate and vanilla, with champagne frosting, cake and rejecting any man who doesn't automatically tick every single one of their boxes are then supposed to feel awful when they don't have a instant answer to the question "what song are you planning to dance to for your first song?" (NEVER reply with 'Smack My Bitch Up - The Prodigy' - the disgusted looks you will inevitably get just aren't worth your 5 seconds of humour.)

I'm lucky that my parents brought me up allowing me to make my own decisions and form my own opinions, which I believe helped hugely when, at age 6, I declared I was never getting married and instead I was going to join the circus. 12 years later, my Mum still stares longingly at the 'Mother of the Bride' hats everytime I rush her past a bridal store.

I've held this opinion (I dropped the circus idea about 6 months later, when I decided I wanted to become a brain surgeon instead) on marriage ever since. At 18, the idea of somebody proposing to me is almost cringeworthy but lately I've been unable to sleep, worrying that it could happen any day now (it's just finding somebody to propose to me which is the hard part...).
I signed onto Facebook the other day to see three, YES THREE couples, the same age as me, declaring their engagement for the social world to see. How did he propose, over a Happy Meal?! Did he get down on one knee in the middle of a nightclub floor?!

Is it just me who wants to go out, flirt a little bit and come home to a double bed that I can stretch out in without worrying about hitting somebody else when I roll over? Don't get me wrong, I like being in a relationship. I like having somebody to hug when things get a bit too much, I like having somebody to drag to a screening of the latest chick flick and I like being taken out for dinner and sharing dessert with somebody (as long as they don't actually eat any) but having that permanantly and an engagement ring on my finger freaks the funk out of me. Yet when I admit to this, people look at me like I'm ill.
When I go to a wedding, I'm instantly surrounded by middle aged women telling me not to go for a veil because I don't have the face shape for it. I'm fed of having to pretend to be interested in the table place settings and who designed the bride's dress when all I really want to do is just demolish the wedding cake.

Now excuse me from subscribing to as many bridal magazines as I possibly can because I'm still waiting to find somebody who will oblige to dancing to 'Smack My Bitch Up'.

Greener pastures

So I've dyed my hair green...
Don't quite know what I was thinking but it's done now. It took about an hour to bleach the tips of my hair and 'dip-dye' my barnet, but it was worth it. I keep getting told I look like a mermaid, which I'm taking as a compliment. It's only semi-permanant which means I'm going to change it quite a bit. I'm thinking maybe purple or blue next, but I haven't decided just yet.

On another note, I went to see the brilliant Tara London perform an acoustic set at The Living Room, St Katharine's Dock on Sunday. I'll do a proper blog about the talent that is Ms London, but the gig was fun. We had so much trouble getting home as we missed the last train and ended up stranded in London Bridge station at 11pm. Luckily, a friend offered to let us crash at her's and after all stressin', we finally got to her's at about 1am.
We didn't get back to Eastbourne until 5pm Monday evening because there was so much hassle with the trainlines and stations, but it was so worth it. It was a fun evening and the journey home was, although stressful, a total laugh.

Right now, I'm about to make sweet and sour chicken for the first time ever and spend the day watching Sex and the City. Dying my hair leaves me with no energy.
Peace kids :) xx