Category: Random

Saving the Planet – A Little at a Time

Ok so I’m the worst for jumping on the bandwagon with trends and fads but recently I’ve been more interested in doing good stuff for the planet. No I’m not suddenly going to start hugging trees and protesting. I’m doing my own little contribution saving the planet – a little at a time.

Why did it start?

Well for the last couple of years I’ve made a lot more effort to make sure that I buy make-up and cosmetic products that are animal cruelty free, preferably vegan. Original Source and Lush for cleaning and Barry M mainly for make-up. It wasn’t much but I felt that I was at least doing something.

Then I watched the last series of Blue Planet. Obviously it was meant for educational purposes. I was truly shocked as I’m sure millions of other viewers were of the impact that humans are having on our own planet. The amount of plastic we are dumping in our oceans is frankly shocking.

Basically we’re ruining the planet.

I was touched how they had even addressed the human plastic pollution issue on Finding Dory when I watched it recently.

I no longer put my plastic bottles in the general bin. I always recycle. I even collect everyone’s empty ones from work and bring them home to put in our recycling bin.

After hearing my rants about plastic bottles, one of my colleagues shared a this link with me:

https://4ocean.com/

This company are working at removing plastic from the ocean and by buying a bracelet you are removing one pound of crap from the ocean. Go on their website to have a look at what they do.

Within a week I was the proud owner of my bracelet.

Saving the Planet - A Little at a Time

I’m not proclaiming that by me buying this bracelet I’m going to solve all the issues but I do think it helps highlight things. Ideally our government and the rest of the world would start working on our recycling habits. After all we are one of the worst countries for recycling in Europe.

Now I just need some more strategic marketing or friends to send me some other causes to follow and I’m sure I’ll be jumping on those bandwagons with both feet.

Love Emily

XOXOXOXO

Friendship – Should it be Forever?

I was scrolling through photos from a recent trip I took with 3 of my friends to Berlin and I thought that if this photo wasn’t perfect for a post about friendship I didn’t know what was.

Friendship

When you think about it, you make friends generally in certain situations; education (school/college/university), work, through hobbies, through friends, through family… and so on. At my age and in my current lifestyle I don’t get many opportunities to meet new people and the number of friends I have seems to be diminishing. I hope it’s not because I’m a horrible person but more that people change and their situations change and sometimes friends can’t go with you.

What is friendship?

I started by looking at what the definition of “Friendship” actually is.

Friendships Definition

No where on this does it say how long a friendship should last, who it should be between, how often you should communicate. There are no details. There is no written rule and all friendships are different.

Different Types of Friends

I’m sure everyone has different types of friends. I do. I have friends that I’ve met through work that I talk to on a daily basis. I have friends that I met at school and uni that I see very rarely. I have friends that I have met through other people or during other events in my life. None of them more important than the other. All are special to me.

I’m sure everyone has those friends who you don’t see for ages but when you do it feels like it was only the day before that you saw each other.

I also have friends who I’m no longer friends with. Some that at one point I would be texting them daily or maybe weekly. Things have happened and now we don’t talk and I don’t even know if we saw each other on the street whether we would even say hello. It’s not animosity between us (well I hope not) it’s just that we’ve “fallen out of friendship”. Is that a thing? Maybe it should be.

Is it wrong to let friends go?

I’m a big believer that friendships are just the same as any other relationship. They are a two way thing. If one person does not put the effort it, does this mean that they don’t care? Should you bother wanting to stay friends with them? Sometimes you just have to accept that these friendships aren’t the same anymore. Now I’m not saying that you should cut all ties or be that blunt with the other person and tell them that you are no longer friends but you should pull back. Stop trying. Accept that this person may have been your best friend once upon a time but their life/relationship situation may have changed and you may not fit in it the way you used to. It’s as blunt as that.

I’ve got friends that have moved away and had families and some that live pretty close that I may be lucky to see once a year. I don’t hold anything against them as their lives have changed a lot since we were young and free 16 year olds with the only responsibility we had was college work, working part-time jobs and getting enough money together to go out drinking. A huge part of friendship is acceptance. My friends have to accept that I’m a loud mouth with bright coloured hair, piercings and tattoos. I accept all of their qualities. That’s what makes us friends. I also accept that they don’t want to be with me 24/7 and can’t. They have other friends, may be in relationships and may have other commitments. I don’t hold any of this against them. I don’t get jealous when I see them out with their other friends. That’s their choice, that’s who they are. Their other friends help make them the people are. We shouldn’t be jealous that our friends have other friends unless they are completely neglecting your relationship. That’s not fair. If this is happening you are well within your rights to question your friend or communicate with them that you feel that your friendship isn’t what it is. If your friend is a true friend they will understand your concerns and if they want to be your friend they will work with you to get your friendship on track. I know friendship counselling isn’t a thing. Maybe it should be. Maybe sometimes we do need someone impartial to give us some advice and give us a kick up the arse.

What is the purpose of this post I bet you’re thinking? Well there really isn’t any. It was one of those passing thoughts that I had and I thought I’d share my thoughts. I’m not an expert.

Love Emily

XOXOXOXOX

New Year New Car

I’ve been desperate to get a new car for some time now. I’ve had so many issues with my old car that it was definitely way past the time to get a new one.

I’m a shallow yes, I go for looks. But after doing that with my DS3 I decided to listen to those around me an go for something more reliable. I was torn between the VW Sirocco and a Mini. After finding out that the Sirocco has been discontinued, I decided to have a look at Minis.

Long story short, I settled with a Mini John Cooper Works. It’s guy rapido. 0 to 60 in 6 seconds. I love it. I feel so much safer in this car than I did with my DS3. I just need to get to grips with all the buttons now.

Love Emily

xoxoxoxo

 

Girl friends or copy cats?

So for some time I’ve been wanting to bring this subject to light. My good friend Rachel brought this topic to my attention a few months back on a night out in Manchester and it was like a revelation. All she said was:

“Have you ever noticed how groups of girls tend to dress alike?”

Well… I hadn’t before then but now I can’t undo that thought.

This question was risen when we were in a sports bar and there were two girls wearing matching outfits: long black rock style ripped t-shirt dresses, thigh high suede boots, chokers and blonde hair.

Undoubtedly these girls are/were (depending on when you’re reading this) bang on trend. Up with the current fashion trend but why were two girls, who were clearly friends or even sisters, dressing the same?

I have my own theory. I know myself that I’m very unadventurous with what I wear. I’ve only in the last couple of years tried things completely out of my comfort zone like bold prints, short dresses, strappy tops, the list goes on… Let’s look at one possible scenario; if someone I work with comes into the office one day in something I really like, I’m more than likely going to go online and find something similar, ponder over this item for a while and then decide whether to buy it or not. In my opinion this isn’t copying. I would definitely say this backs up the theory that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’. If someone did that to me I’d be chuffed to be honest.

I don’t think the carbon copy effect is intentional. I think it’s that one item/trend/make-up etc might be done by one of the group and it brings it to the attention of the others. And that it looked that good on the first one that the others want to copy. The most obvious thing I know I’ve done this with was lipstick. I’ve never worn lipstick before. Well, that’s a lie actually I used to wear it when I used to dress up as a child, but as an adult it’s generally been something I’ve avoided. Maybe because smoking got in the way and made reapplication a necessity. I didn’t really see it as being ‘trendy’. I’ve always had. Love hate relationship with lip gloss too. Then Rachel started working in our department. In she came like a bubbly holiday rep, ready to get everyone pumped to do some activities. The first thing I noticed was her lippy: dark and bold. Amazing! Loved it. “Why couldn’t I be that confident?”.

I remember talking to her about colors etc and then it because a thing. Now I don’t wear lipstick all the time. I tend to go for lip tints as they are more day-to-day friendly for me. My favorite one is from Lush – smells, tastes and looks amazing.

This is now something I do religiously and would have Rachel to thank for it, for the inspiration and also the confidence to pull it off.

So next time you see a group or girls together, whether it’s even just two of them, there are more than often signs of links within. Similar hair styles, similar clothes, similar make-up, similar jewelry… I could go on forever… I will also state that I’m not saying any of this is wrong. I think it’s great! It’s lovely to see the influences around us all no matter how big or how small.

Unexpected time away – life gets in the way

I do apologize for the lack of posts of the last couple of weeks. I was in the process of writing one about my new piercing. This one will be come soon once I finish it. I will also be making more of an effort to keep up with posting regularly regardless of what I’ve got going on around me.

Much love

Xoxo

Decisions Decisions – The Automotive Conundrum

It’s come to that time where I’m experiencing an automotive conundrum.

My car, a Citroen DS3, has caused my more problems over the past 4 years of having it that I’m ready to say bye.

In the beginning…

In 2013, after starting my current job, I knew that my car at the time (an old Ford KA) wouldn’t be able to cope with the commute. It had issues with the engine warning light constantly towards the end. I knew it was time to part ways. So bye bye it went in part exchange for this shiny 6 month old Citroen DS3 Sport Plus.

I will add at this point that I didn’t want the top spec model but I didn’t really have a choice. If I was getting a car, I was getting the best version of that car.

I did my research on other cars but I had my heart set on this one and there she was, all clean and gleaming at Evans Halshaw (don’t get me started in those cowboys!). I was very excited (and also terrified) of owning such an expensive piece of property. Literally this was the only thing I owned until we got our mortgage.

It all seemed so good…

I’d had Bitzy for just over 2 months when on a normal commute to work, a guy in a white transit van failed to notice the large queue of traffic in front of him and he went straight in to the back of me. In a state of shock and panic, and also confusion at my car ringing the emergency services itself resembling a scene from Nightrider, I only got this guys phone number. Cutting this whole scenario short, he basically had no intention of complying with me or my insurers to get my car sorted. Despite there being hardly any visible damage, the whole rear bar of the car was bent in half and cracked.

Luckily (and I say luckily as my insurance went up!!!) he ended up complying when the police got involved. Weird thing was that he came up on my Facebook suggested friends feed. Undoubtedly because I had his phone number and the algorithms Facebook use to automatically sync your phone contacts and potential Facebook friends.

He was filled away with the other many “not likely” friends on Facebook!

And back to Bitzy…

From that incident she’s never been the same. Reverse parking sensors never work properly. Either they just scream like a possessed turtle, randomly sense nothing or don’t work at all. Perry’s couldn’t seem to find I fault. I think it’s just her way of keeping me entertained and on my toes. I’m really good at parking now thanks to the fact that I’ve got something screaming at me everytime I do.

It wasn’t long after the accident that she was in the garage for weeks at a time with various problems and it’s been a re-occurring thing over the last 4 years.

This most recent incident with the water pump going is the final straw though. It’s never a £50 fix, it’s always something excessive.

In my sadness I’ve just calculated that I’ve spent roughly 2088 hours with this car. I’ve spent more time with her that I have with most people I know! It’s going to be sad to see her go but I’m hoping her next owner will love her as much as I have!

In to the future…

Today I went to have a look at cars. I’ve been considering for a while what I’d like. from Mercedes A Class to VW Sirocco, Audi A1 to A3. I had a sit in the S1, S3 and TT and I’m honestly swaying towards the TT.

I shall keep you updated.