An open letter to the EDL

Dear bigots,

Do you honestly believe that 'storming' the streets of Woolwich, the place where a young man tragically lost his life on the 22nd of May 2013, throwing shit at the police, and shouting your foul mouths off to the tune of "anti-Islam!", "anti-Muslim", "Go home if you don't like it!", will be construed in anyway other than disrespectful, pathetic, fascist, bullshit?
Do you enjoy being uneducated about the world, religion, and different cultures in general? Ignorance is after all, supposedly bliss. ("ignorance is dangerous" would be a much more appropriate statement).
Do you think that attacking mosques will somehow alleviate your wildly mis-targeted feelings of injustice? It won't. All it will do is enhance your reputation as ignorant thugs and bully boys who have nothing better to do with their time.
We live in a multi-cultural, international world, where immigration and emigration rates have never been higher, and we have never had so much access to all there is to see and learn out there, yet you continue to judge people based on their sexuality, whole races on the colour of their skin, and whole religions on the actions of a few. I bet you don't judge all Christians based on what you hear about the Westboro Baptist Church, or all white people based on the views of the KKK. In fact, I'd be willing to bet a fair few of you admire the KKK.
Now, to be clear, I am in no way condoning the actions of those men yesterday, what they did was horrific, and they must definitely face the consequences, but by targeting innocent people who are just trying to live their lives and make their way in this world, I would say that your beliefs and ideas are no different to those two men. Don't take it any further, as they did, because then you really would be no better.
Pulling a balaclava on in order to disguise yourselves from the police and media hardly screams "peaceful protest" now does it? And all you're really doing is pulling focus away from the real issue here: a young mans life tragically cut short by hatred and violence.
Speaking of hatred and violence... Sound familiar?
A more useful, less destructive, and much less intimidating way to spend your time would be to take your own advice and go home. Hold a candlelight vigil, a minutes silence at your local, say a prayer if you are so inclined. You may say that these things aren't doing anything or sending a message (you do like to send messages) about the injustice today, or the injustices the world faces everyday, but then neither is mindless destruction or intimidation. All that does is breed hatred and cause people to be frightened.
Open a book, perhaps Winnie-the-Pooh. There are joyful, colourful pictures of stuffed animals going on adventures in the woods, and who doesn't love that little bear and his constant quest for honey? Who knows, you may even learn something about love and acceptance.


RIP the Woolwich soldier


Charlotte

Romeo & Juliet 2013

If you are so inclined to love Shakespeare and the most famously tragic romance ever, then you may be interested to know  a new film version, starring Douglas Booth (Pip in the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations), Damien Lewis of Homeland fame, and Ed Westwick ("I'm Chuck Bass"), will be out as soon as July 2013, and from the trailer it looks oh so amazing, although I would have cast Ed Westwick as Mercutio, not Tybalt.

 

Unlike the Baz Luhrmann version, this looks as though it stays true to setting, both in terms of time and space, and the beautiful Shakespearean language is kept intact as well. I can't wait to see this!!

 

"Never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet, and her Romeo"

It could be Amsterdam or anywhere

I'm writing this on the train as I attempt to brush off the cheesy Wotsit dust that, despite my CONSTANT VIGILANCE (hope you get that reference, or I look like a tit), has managed to get all over me. An old granny with some heavy bling-a-ling (most cringe thing I have ever said) and serious 70s afro is giving me the strangest looks from across the aisle, and I have the worlds biggest headache, not helped by the rar girls sat somewhere down the train who will not shut up about the importance of a good first impression (duh).

Despite all of this, I am in an amazing mood because I'm on my way to London to meet my friends Rosie and Emma before we head, bleary eyed and hopped up on caffeine, to Gatwick to board our plane to Amsterdam for 5 blissful days of museums, art, cafes, canals, excitement, and fun.

I've never been on holiday with friends before, apart from one disastrous (for me) weekend away in Cornwall last year, I've always been with my family or once with a boyfriend in 2009, so I'm really looking forward to it!

I could pull a Bieber and leave a note in the Anne Frank museum visitors book: "Anne was a cool girl, hopefully she would have been a Charlotte fan", but I won't because I'm not a narcissistic, self-important, wanker.

I have some new posts ready for when I get back, but as it's only 5 days, nothing scheduled for while I'm away.

See you on the other side!

P.s. I definitely reworked the Beautiful South song for the title of this post, but since it's the same country, it's allowed right?

Exams! Revision! Stress!

This time two years ago, I was cooped up in my university’s library, alternating between panic attacks and staring blankly at the screen, with a steady supply of cheap energy drinks and chocolate. It was revision time for the final exams of my university career, and needless to say, I was terrified about messing up.

I have always been one of those people who was no better at coursework than exams, and vice-versa; I performed relatively well in both, but exams always scared me the most, as there are no second drafts, no friends to read over your work, no proof reading, and very limited planning time. I was also constantly worried for the whole of my final term that I had peaked too early at A-level, 1^st, and 2^nd year, and was going to fail these two most important exams of my life miserably.

Luckily, I managed to do pretty well in both, with a first in one of them, and I put it down to these little techniques for remembering, learning, and revising, that got me through the most hellish two months ever, so if you’re going through that at the moment, hopefully this will help. 

L: Just a couple of my revision sheets R: My housemate took a photo of my mental breakdown at the hands of the
library

1.       Repeat, repeat, repeat. I did drama up until A-Level, so knew that the only way to really drum something into your head is to repeat it over and over. I still remember my lines as the Mayor of Munchkin City from the Wizard of Oz in year 7, and my two big speeches from respective versions of Macbeth as the 1^st Weird Sister and Lady Macbeth.

 

2.       Purge your study area of any stupid distractions. I was useless at studying at home, so found myself hauling it up to the library at 9 in the morning and not leaving until 1 at night. 

  

3.       9am- 1am, or 16 hours, is a long time to be in one place, so you should take regular breaks, go and get a coffee, take a walk outside, chill out in the sun for 10-20 minutes. Longer for lunch and dinner… The vitamin D from the sun will perk you up. 

  

4.        Don’t forget to eat and sleep. You won’t be able to concentrate and you’ll make yourself ill if you don’t. When I first started revising, I had a new throat infection every other week, which the doctor told me was a combination of stress and lack of sleep. It’s the last thing you need at this time. 

  

5.       Write everything down. Writing something, as opposed to just typing or reading it, has been proven to help you remember more. My technique was to print out or photocopy extracts from books and highlight excessively, then write everything I wanted to know out on lined A4 paper, then get some sheets of A3 and break it down further to the most important parts: key quotes, key context, links, anything that may give you the edge. I also think that writing things out allows you to see things from a fresh perspective, and found it helpful when looking for links, patterns, etc. 

  

6.       Cue cards. Probably an obvious one, I think every student I know has relied on those little pieces of coloured card at least once in their 3 years. I used key cards for important terminology and things related to specific books/ poetry/ plays. 

 

 

7.       Leading on from cue cards, get together with a friend from your course and test each other. Get away from the library, order takeaway and do it at someone’s house. I did this on the night before the exam; we ordered Mexican, tested each other, and ended up laughing hysterically at nothing. We were a bit stir crazy by this point, but it helped. 

 

8.       Relax. If you find yourself getting worked up and panicked, as I very often did, get away from the computer, go outside and get some fresh air, leave campus, go for dinner somewhere, and breathe. I had some breathing exercises given to me by the doctor, but you can find them online if you just Google.

9.      If you find yourself having one of those nights where nothing is going in and you and your friends are just spending time looking up YouTube videos of Russian dances, don't feel guilty. You can't force it. Carry on having fun or go home and rest, you probably deserve it.

10.     Herbal tea. Peppermint tea in particular is known to boost concentration and relax you, and they're much better for you than 30p chocolate and cheap energy drinks. Drink plenty of water as well, and if you need the caffeine, go for coffee over energy drinks, but in moderation. My housemate and I ran out of milk and sugar for our coffees once and resorted to taking it black with a bit of honey. We were buzzing, couldn't concentrate, and I couldn't feel my heartbeat. 

11.     Speaking of coffee, If you're studying at home and planning an all nighter, have a cup of coffee then take a 20 minute power nap. Napping boosts your energy and I read in an article that it is most likely to put you in a good mood if you do it for intervals of 20 minutes. So 20, 40, or 60 minutes is good, 15, 30, or 45 minutes is likely to make you a little crabby. The caffeine from the coffee will also take around 20 minutes to kick in, so you'll wake up alert and refreshed!

Everybody works differently and has different methods for working and revising, but I hope this has helped a little. 

No Concealer, Concealer!

Dr Perricone No Concealer Concealer- £37 (c/o). Available at John Lewis

Confused? I was. Bet you’re intrigued though (I was). There’s not really much I can say about this little bottle of miracles. It promises to hydrate, conceal, perk up, nourish, and make you look fabulous, and does pretty much all of that, although, as I am quite a rubbish girl when it comes to this stuff, I can never tell when something has nourished my skin, unless it’s after drinking a shitload a lot of water. Water: nature’s nourisher (?). Making words up today.

Anyway, I’ve been using this concealer (despite the name, it is actually a concealer) under my eyes pretty much every day for the past 4 weeks or so, and I love it. The closest thing I can compare it to is Benefit’s Erase Paste but it feels almost as though it's been air-whipped, like a mousse. You really don’t need much, they recommend around one pump, which is pretty much on the mark, some days I’ve needed less.

It's a really easy product to apply as well, I just dot it around my eyes first thing in the morning, pat it in, and I’m ready to go. No touch ups needed. When it first arrived I was a bit worried as it looked very orange on my pale pale self; however, it blends in well with my skin tone, brightening it a little, and will probably match most skin tones. You can use this on other areas of the face to hide red marks, scars, spots etc., but I’ve been quite lucky in that department recently, so have used it exclusively on my under eyes. 

My only real hang up is the price. £37 for 9g of product does seem like a lot, but it will last for ages, as I said, I've been using it for around 4 weeks now and am barely a quarter of the way through, so it really is good value for money, especially if you like to think of things in terms of ppw (price per wear), like I do. 

DIY Denim Cut- offs

This little 5 minute task may not be anything to shout about, but for someone as disastrous as me when it comes to DIY clothing (I once destroyed a beautiful vintage lace top by putting a great gaping hole in it when trying to cut off the pockets), this was quite the achievement. 

I somehow managed to turn this pair of men's knee length Levis, which I think were originally full length trousers as the label reads W34 L34, into a pair of high waisted denim cut-offs for personal use, without accidentally turning them into knicker shorts or cutting a giant hole in the crotch. 

The purpose of this post was to show that all you need to create one of the most versatile items in your wardrobe this summer, is a cheap pair of thrift/ charity shop jeans or shorts, a pair of scissors, a pencil eyeliner (or a pen or real pencil if you're a bit more organised than myself), and a steady hand. They don't have to be men's originally either, but I wanted them high-waisted and a bit loose, and have around 5 belts that have never seen the light of day and need to get out more.

The process could not have been more simple: I put the shorts on beforehand so as to determine the length I wanted the finished product, marked this with the eyeliner, sat down, held my breath, said a little prayer, et voila! Because I wanted the option of wearing them as turn-ups, I went a little longer, but haven't sewn them up in case I change my mind; it could well be the case that next week I'll want to turn the turn-ups down. Denim shorts are one of my favourite items for the summer, and I know I'll wear these to death. 

Easy squeezy, and all for the grand old price of £2.

A Ball of Light in Ones Hand

This is just a quick post about my new Kindle skin. I really hate calling it a skin though, so I'm just going to call it a giant stick-on instead, which is essentially what it is. The design is a print of a Van Gogh painting, and I love it. The pictures really don't do it enough justice and the colours are so much more vivid and the print is so much more detailed in real life.

I bought this on eBay for about £5 and it took 3 days to arrive, which I couldn't really complain about given that postage was free. It was really easy to apply, although it did take me a few tries to get it straight. It didn't bubble either, unlike those annoying phone screen protectors, and I just really think it makes your Kindle (or other eReader device) stand out and a little more unique. 

Mine is from this seller here, although there are millions of other sellers and designs on eBay and probably Etsy, and you can get one for all models and shapes, old or new. I originally thought "one size fits all" and bought one for a Kindle Fire, which is twice the size of mine (a Paperwhite), so if you have a Fire and want a free 'skin' then drop me an email with your address and I'll happily send it on! :)