Friday 18 December 2009

Tantrums over TV


It seems that with television, like presents, the best things come in small packages. Or rather small series’. I’ve noticed a recent trend with my favourite shows: they all end far too soon. Take my current TV love Misfits which came to an end last night, leaving me feeling lost. Without my Thursday night routine of Gavin and Stacey (which is also drawing to a close, sob) followed by Misfits, I’d have to actually do something useful with my time, instead of curling up on the sofa and laughing my way through to Friday.

And it’s like that with all my favourite shows: as soon as I’d discovered BBC’s Miranda she’d slipped away from my life, ditto with True Blood which the nasty TV Guide told me is also ending.

Why does this keep happening to me?

Is it a coincidence that all my favourite shows have this in common, or could it be that a short series is the key to an excellent show?

An all time favourite show of mine is the wonderful Ugly Betty, and for her latest series we got to join Betty in a series of New York romps lasting 24 episodes. At first I was delighted with this, but my delight soon turned to horror when I did some shoddy maths and realised that translated to: 24 weeks of commitment, 24 weeks of always having to be in on a Wednesday night, 24 weeks of always eating my special Ugly Betty viewing snack of Ben and Jerry’s and as a result it was more than likely to be 24 weeks of dieting afterwards to recover from my Betty Binge.

I’m not sure I can cope with long series’ anymore. I might be a television commitment phobe, always chasing after the TV shows that will satisfy me for a short time, but will never stick around long enough to fuel me with entertainment long term.

So, what will I do come January when I’ve slept around with all the short series’ and I’m left with nothing to watch at night but endless documentaries starring my much hated Tony Robinson?

Luckily for me, I have one long lasting television love. Something that never lets me down, always wraps me in a warm hug at the end of a hard day and never fails to make me laugh: the e4 Friends double bill.
Maybe there is something to be said for the long running series after all…

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Weaving my web


I have a confession to make: despite working for an amazing website and writing this some-might-call amazing blog, I actually don’t know too much about the internet apart from how to expertly stalk people on facebook.

However, 2009 has been my personal internet revolution. Being a magazineaholic I must spend about a tenner a week consuming all the magazines I can get my hands on, but ultimately they’re not enough to satisfy my addiction in fact sometimes (I’m ashamed to admit) I have to buy TV guides to stop my cravings.

But the net! Oh the wonderful internet allows me to get my fix anytime I want. Why didn’t I begin exploring it earlier? I should never have let my stubborn hatred of World of Warcraft get in my way.

There is a site for all aspects of my personality, from my shameless love of pop music to my interest in modern day feminism. And best of all, my favourite sites feel so personal –it’s like having an intelligent discussion over red wine with your best friend or bitching about celebrities with your GBF, all from the comfort of your living room.

Take a look at my top 7 sites (I'd love to get this number up to 10 so if you have any suggestions let me know...)

1, DorkAdore: an excellent site reviewing all things dorky that women love, from True Blood to the latest technology. It’s also a site I’m lucky enough to write for occasionally and want to continue in the future.

2, What Katie Wore: I’d love to be friends with Katie from WKW, she’s so fun and brightly dressed and she and Joe seem to be the perfect couple. When this project ends at the end of the year I’m really going to miss seeing Katie in her bright clothes, so much so I may actually have to track her down and make her be my friend…

3, PopJustice: I love pop music and I’m not afraid to admit it, this site celebrate today’s pop music in the same way the much missed Smash Hits used to.

4, I Don’t Like You In That Way: A very, very guilty pleasure – the writers of this site are so bitchy but so hilarious you can’t help but love them.

5, Running In Heels: I feel like intelligent, stylish and fabulous whenever I read this site. What more could you ask for?

6, Domestic Sluttery: I want to have a nice Cath Kidston esque home but I don’t want to live my life like a desperate house wife. This site encourages me that when it comes to my home I can have my cake and eat it too (even if it’s not home made…)

7, Wahanda: The key to happiness is indulging yourself every once in a while, with wahanda you can do that- in the best places for the absolute best prices.

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Monsters In My Closet


I’m not someone who is particularly scared of ghosts or aliens, bugs or worms. But monsters, monsters are a different story entirely. And I’m not talking about the monsters that live in your closet or under your bed, but the monsters of the mind – the ones that truly have the power to control your life, ruin it even.

There’s one particular monster that has plagued me for years and no matter how hard I fight him he still crops up in the most unlikely of moments: the green-eyed-monster.

I often wonder whether envy is a trait of those with just one sibling. I’ve noticed that friends of mine with just one older brother or sister tend to spend their lives comparing themselves to said sibling or even worse seeing everyone around them as better than them.

It is certainly the path I’ve gone down. When I was younger I felt constantly compared to my sister, with older relatives commenting on how smart she was whereas frowning on my artistic abilities. I longed to be like her, even fashioning a pair of glasses out of play dough to be like her. Luckily my parents loved us both so much, even more so for our differences, that I learned that comparing myself to her was pointless. I had to be my own person.

Unfortunately, my dalliances with the green-eyed-monster didn’t end there. As soon as I became old enough to don a uniform, wave goodbye to my parents and embark on my first day of school it became scarily clear how many other girls there were just like me - in their pig tails, ironed uniforms and shiny shoes. And worst still they could colour in better than me.

For the rest of my school life I made the same mistake over again: I chose to be friends with who I thought was the prettiest, smartest, well dressed girl and lived my life putting myself down because I wasn’t like her.

It’d be easy to blame my choice of friends but it wasn’t and still isn’t their fault – I love to be around them for the precise reason that they are pretty, smart and well dressed. I’d hate to be the type of woman who surrounds herself with dull, less attractive friends in order to make her feel better. It is my own demon that makes me resent them for everything I love about them.

And it seems I’ll never learn…

A very good friend of mine got offered a job today. I am delighted for her, it’s a dream job and it will be amazing for her career. However, it was also one I went for and didn’t get. And despite being very happy in my internship and concentrating on how well my life is doing, my same old feelings of inadequacy and self doubt kicked in. And then I began to feel guilty for not being 100% happy for my friend, which made me hate myself even more.

But then do you know what I did? I told someone how I felt. And not a close friend who will love me no matter what but someone who I’m just getting to know. Confiding in her a side of myself which I wasn’t proud of was a risky move – I’d hate her to think less of me. However, she didn’t react with disgust and order me to erase such hideous thoughts but told me what I was feeling was perfectly natural. It’s human to feel jealous every now and again, just make sure you don’t let it consume you. She told me she believes that in order to get what you want in life it throws a few challenges at you and sees how you react before giving you what you really want. You have to make the most of everything before you are rewarded.

So that’s how I’m now seeing this situation: the job is not only a great opportunity for my friend, but an opportunity for me. I have to take the high road and not use this as an excuse to wallow in self pity but simply keep on applying for the jobs of my dreams and use her as an inspiration that the right job is out there for me somewhere…

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Todays Interesting Tit Bit...

... depends on what your idea of interesting is.
But if you make spaghetti bolognese using tagliatelli it tastes much, much worse.
Who knew pasta could make such a difference?

I had a bad day...

Bad days, everyone has them, right? And today I was blessed with one of the worst days ever. From the moment I got up to the moment I got home in the evening things just seemed to go from bad to worse.
But now sitting on my sofa thinking about my day I realise it wasn’t that bad at all. I brought all the irritating things that happened today on myself - by not just grinning and bearing it.
I’m normally a half glass full type person but looking out the window this morning from my boyfriend’s warm bed onto the dismal, wet surroundings outside I felt dread in the bottom of my stomach: today was not going to be a good day. Deciding to be brave and not pull the tempting sickie I so wanted, I dragged myself to the bus stop. Only for two busses to pass me, full up with people not wanting to walk in the rain. Harumph, I thought, as expected today will be terrible.
After taking some time off, work seemed to have piled up and I had no idea how to do any of it. This came as quite a shock as everything I’ve done so far in my job has come as a breeze and I suddenly felt very insecure in my ability to be a journalist.
It didn’t help that I had also received feedback on a job I had applied for, which despite my previous entry on wanting to receive criticism, actually upset me a lot.
All the typical annoying day ruiners followed after that: getting caught in a rain storm on my lunch hour, just missing my bus home, terrible traffic and having that evening’s plan cancelled. But actually these are things that happen to people every single day; every day this week I’ve felt low in myself or got caught in typical London rush hour but I didn’t let it get me down then. The key to that was because I woke up feeling good, on the right side of bed - I looked at the positives in each bad situation and found them, whereas this morning I decided it was going to be a bad day and it was.
I’ve seen so many people succumb to negative thinking and let it ruin not just perfectly good days but how they live their lives. Today I made a promise to myself never to become one of those people and from now on I will make sure I always get out of bed on the right side (even if what’s out of the bed isn’t as appealing as what is in it…)