Blogtober - Day 27

Day 27 and I’m officially stumped and rapidly running out of ideas so today I thought I’d do a little short post of why I originally started my blog. 

When I was younger I used to write a lot. I watched a ridiculous amount of Gilmore Girls / Sabrina The Teenage Witch so I completely blame those for my interest in writing and my obsession with wanting to go to Harvard - but that’s a whole different blog post! Then as I got older I just didn’t bother anymore. Maybe it’s because I had to write a lot throughout my education but recreational writing / reading went down to a minimum. 

When I graduated university I quickly released I had to make more use of my spare time so began reading a lot more again. My reading a lot more is insane, I’ve always had a quick reading speed and I was reading them faster than I could afford to buy more! So I thought I’d start up my writing again and blog my reviews on books. I figured if anyone read it and bought a book based on my recommendation then job well done. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to receive many review copies of books which I’m so thankful to have received.  

Around the same time I started this blog my interest in writing also came back. I really credit this down to one of my favourite authors, Giovanna Fletcher. She made a YouTube video on how to write a novel and really it gave me the kick up the backside I needed to start writing my own novel. I know I’ll never get published or anything but it’s so nice to be able to feel like I can write again.

Really though as much as I’m enjoying writing my blog, I know my writing is rubbish and that I’ll never be able to make a career out of it, but at least I’m well aware my writing ability is minimal. However, I enjoy writing and reading once again (more than I have in years) so I’m glad to have my blog in my life at the moment. After Blogtober though it is safe to say I’ll be going back to weekly blogging and not daily...

The Addams Family Musical

It’s been over a month now since I went to see The Addams Family Musical and yet somehow I’m yet to talk about it on my blog, which is unbelievable considering I’ve had the US tour soundtrack cd played on loop since I’ve seen the show. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this addicted to a musical. 

The Addams Family Musical features all your favourite Addams Family members except the big difference now is that it’s set a few years in the future. The Addams are just as kooky as ever apart from perhaps Wednesday Addams who has fallen in love...with a boy from a normal family! The show tells the story of the night that the Addams Family meets Wednesdays boyfriends normal family. 

To be perfect honest I went into the show without looking at the storyline and when the show started I was abit like really? Am I actually seeing a show about Wednesday falling in love? It just didn’t seem very Addams Family to me but I was proved completely wrong! The storyline was perfectly Addams. It didn’t revolve entire around Wednesday either giving each member of the Addams Family clan chance to shine. The catchy songs along with addictive storyline meant the show went unbelievably quickly. I was even practically in tears laughing at some of the parts! 

Whoever did the casting for this musical deserves a promotion. I have never been to see a show where every single person in it was perfect for the role to the extent that I can’t even write about stand out stand out members of the cast. It truly does seem unfair to actually mention people at this pointes the entire cast was unbelievable. However, Cameron Blakely as Gomez, Carrie Hope Fletcher as Wednesday and understudy Scott Paige as Fester were particularly wonderful. Scott Paige in particular deserves that mention as when the tannoy announced Les Dennis wasn’t in the show at the start the audience I was in did do a collective groan, however Scott Paige was a incredible understudy who I think should’ve been cast as Fester anyway! Like I say though the entire cast were absolutely fantastic, from the whole Addams Family, to the Ancesters to the Beineke Family, I cannot express how great they all were. 

Sadly, The Addams Family Musical only has a couple more stops left in the UK. If it is coming near you though and you love the Addams Family films you have to go and see this musical! An all round fantastic cast, catchy songs and a great storyline - what more do you want from the musical!

Blogtober - Day 25

For today’s post I thought I’d do something a little different. 

Long story short, towards the end of last year I had an amazing writing opportunity. I had to write a lot and I had deadlines, the only thing that got me through was this writing playlist on loop. Basically I read a lot of chick lit so it’s no surprise that’s what I write too so the songs kind of reflect that I think. This has been tweaked a little as the year has gone on but I thought I’d share with you what I listen to when I write. 

Songs - 

Two Is Better Than One (Featuring Taylor Swift) – Boys Like Girls

Meet You There – Busted

Sleeping With The Light On – Busted

Easy – Busted

Last Summer – Busted

Beauty And The Beast – Disney

Step By Step – Future Boy

I Can Hear The Bells – Hairspray Soundtrack

Perfect – Hollywood Ending

The Reason – Hoobastank

One Of A Kind – James Bourne

Don’t Let It Go To Waste – Matt Willis

No Worries – McFly

The Way You Make Me Feel – McFly

Love Is Easy (Live Ukulele Version) – McFly

This Town – Niall Horan

Too Much To Ask – Niall Horan

Falling Slowly – Once The Musical

Perfect – One Direction

Infinity – One Direction

Bless The Broken Road – Rascal Flatts

I’m Movin’ On – Rascal Flatts

My Wish – Rascal Flatts

Part Of Your World – Sierra Boggess

Perfect – Simple Plan

Today Was A Fairytale – Taylor Swift

Tim McGraw – Taylor Swift

If This Was A Movie – Taylor Swift

Last Kiss – Taylor Swift

Enchanted – Taylor Swift

The Moment I Knew – Taylor Swift

SuperStar – Taylor Swift

I need background noise on when I’m writing things so this is what I use. Does anyone else have a writing playlist or is this just something that I do?

Srprs.me

You know those really annoying people who when they go on holiday, spend hours googling reviews in order to book the perfect hotel, plan every second of the day, pick restaurants to eat at, go on Google street view and virtually walk around the streets....and they do all this before they even get to place they're going on holiday? Yep, I'm embarrassed to admit this but that really annoying person is me. 

Usually when I go on holiday I plan for weeks to the extent I have notebooks full of my research. Not going to lie I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to holidays. Yet despite this I booked myself a surprise holiday via company srprs.me. It's never been easier to book a holiday, I picked how many days I wanted to go away, chose to add additional extras of breakfast and checked luggage and that's it, I'd booked to go on holiday. All I knew about my destination is that I'd be going to a European city and that srprs.me would be booking my flights and hotel for me all I’d have to do was turn up at the airport with my passport.

Believe it or not, the worst thing about booking the holiday was actually pressing the book button. Honestly, I must've bottled out of booking it a hundred times! My over planning mind was kicking into overdrive and thought of a million (some quite ridiculous...) questions that I had to know the answers to. Thankfully the lovely people at srprs.me have an online chat on the website, answered all my questions and put my mind at ease. Unbelievably since I actually committed and booked the holiday I was completely stress free about it and am absolutely loved the spontaneity of it all - something which my previous holidays have been very much lacking. Even when a week before I was due to fly I got the weather forecast and a time to be at the airport I didn’t even bother to google to try figure out where I was going, at this stage I’d booked a srprs.me holiday so I fully intended to keep it a surprise otherwise I could’ve just booked a holiday myself.

Going to the airport on the morning of my holiday was the oddest thing. It was such a bizarre feeling to know that you’re going on holiday but had absolutely no clue as to where. I was terrified that I’d end up in Malaga it another stereotypical party place but thankfully you can rule out places and I also added that I don’t drink in the hope that it helped choose my destination. I got to Manchester Airport a couple of hours ahead of my recommended time, sat down on the floor in the terminal, scratched the card and revealed where I was going! Srprs.me like to keep the destinations a surprise so in the spirit of that I’m not going to reveal where I went but I was so thrilled with the destination. As soon as I got through security I had a quick google of the hotel (it looked very fancy!), how to get from the airport to the hotel and quick look of things to do in the area but other than that my plan was just to walk and stumble across whatever I found and do things as I found them.

I struck lucky in the fact that I had glorious sunshine for all the days I was on holiday which only made my trip all the more fantastic. I stumbled across tourist attractions by complete accident rather than setting off to find them myself and I found that some of the best things I saw were down the more deserted streets. In fact, I tended to find the more deserted the street the more interesting it was! Yes I hoped on a bus tour on my last day just to tick off all of those must see places but other than that I just embraced the spontaneousness of the holiday. 

Honestly it was one of the best things that I have ever done. It was absolutely terrifying booking it but from then on it was so relaxed. The hotel was absolutely wonderful (and I’m quite fussy with hotels normally!) and it was perfectly placed for the city. Top that off with being sent to the most beautiful of places and it truly was a incredible trip. I know I can’t wait to go on my next srprs.me holiday and if you’re looking for a city break I can highly recommend srprs.me!

Blogtober - Day 23

You know those days where you feel like everything you’ve been holding in hits you like a tsunami so you put a McBusted dvd on to try cheer you up but that makes you feel worse so then spend the two hours of the dvd sobbing before tiring yourself out and exhaustedly falling sleep? Yep...that was my Sunday night. 

I’m one of those people who bottles things in. I keep things to myself for as long as possible and then every so often when things seem to really be getting on top on me I have a big crying blowout and that’s what I had yesterday. Then for the next day (today) I feel ridiculously emotionally drained and it takes me a good day to get back to my normal bottled up emotion self.

Really I think your place of work should allow you to take x amount of mental health days a year because my goodness did I need one today. I’ve been sat fairly quiet all day just wallowing in self pity, hoping no one would speak to me and say something that normally wouldn’t bother me but today would make my head explode. It’s a rubbish feeling to be honest. It’s so easy to try and ignore your brain and it’s thoughts and just push them to one side. Except every so often you can’t and everything you’ve pushed to one side just explodes out.

I really shouldn’t blog today as my head is completely and utterly not in the right place today. I feel horribly spaced out and not right but it’s day 23 and I really want to complete Blogtober now so sadly this is my pathetic excuse of a blog post today.

The Creakers - Tom Fletcher

One day Lucy Dungston wakes up and her entire world has changed. All the grown ups including her own mum and dad have vanished from town! Then the night after they all disappear, she notices eyes peering out from under her bed and discovers the existence of the Creakers. Will Lucy be able to defeat the Creakers and get the grown ups back? 

The Creakers is a great story to be honest. It captures every story you’ve ever heard about monsters being under your bed and rewrites it into a whole new story which I actually loved. It’s the perfect amount of scary for kids but without it being scary enough to give them nightmares for weeks. Plus like with the Christmasaurus it comes jam packed with wonderful drawings throughout. 

I am a long shot off The Creakers target audience but I really enjoyed this book. I thoroughly enjoy the way in which Tom Fletcher writes his novels. They are so incredibly wrote for children and are constantly engaging the entire way though. I really like the fact that in this novel, the author actually talks to the reader throughout. I felt this is something that works very well particularly in a children’s novel.

I’ve said before how talented I think Tom Fletcher is and it certainly shows in this book. He’s invented a whole new set of fearsome, smelly creatures complete with their own brand new world. Honestly the whole thing is truly believable and as someone who doesn’t take much to scare I know I’ll be checking under my bed for Creakers tonight...

If you have a person whose probably around 10 you have to pick them up a copy of The Creakers for Christmas. I loved reading it and I’m way over the target age so I know for a fact that a child will absolutely love The Creakers.

Synopsis -

The darkly magical new story about the monsters under the bed, from bestselling author of The Christmasaurus, Tom Fletcher.

What silently waits in the shadows at night? What's under your bed, keeping just out of sight?

Do you ever hear strange, creaking noises at night? Ever wonder what makes those noises? 

Lucy Dungston always did.

Until, one morning, Lucy discovers that all the grown-ups have disappeared - as if into thin air. Chaos descends as the children in Lucy's town run riot. It's mayhem. It's madness. To most kids, it's amazing!

But Lucy wants to find out the truth. Lucy lost her dad not long ago, and she's determined not to lose her mum too. She's going to get her back - and nothing is going to stop her . . .

. . . except maybe the Creakers.

Blogtober - Day 21

I was browsing Twitter earlier and stumbled across a post that Carrie Hope Fletcher made about her 25th birthday tomorrow. This particular post showcased all the things that she's achieved in her 25 years, and its actually unbelievable. She's had leading roles in a variety of (my favourite!) musicals, she written novels, she has a successful YouTube career...long story short she has done a lot! And I have absolutely no doubt in the slightest that her career will just keep going from strength to strength for the next 25 years.

I am only a few weeks older than Carrie Fletcher so it got me thinking about my own life earlier. I did pretty well in school then from then it’s all just gone slightly rubbish. I did a degree that I realised shortly after I started wasn't the right one for me because I listened to too many people about it not being wise to do a media based degree - but that is a whole other blog post! And now I'm stuck in a dead end job that I absolutely hate. It’s been 4 years since I graduated and I honestly can’t think of anything worthwhile I’ve done in that time. 

Realistically it was only a matter of time before I ended up writing a blog about my job because let’s face it, I spend 45 hours a week there so it pretty much takes up most of my life. I work long days for minimum wage. Have you ever tried working so many hours and getting absolutely peanuts at the end of the week? Its soul destroying on payday and you still don’t have any money. It’s the type of place where that Secret Millionaire program would send someone on. Truthfully I don’t have many financial outgoings so it isn’t all bad but for many of my colleagues they have houses and children to support so I can only imagine how tough it is for them. 

The days are long – really long. I’m sure it’s the same for most jobs but I wake up, I go to work, I go home, eat and then it’s time for bed and before you know it the entire circle repeats again the next day. I’m not even exaggerating when I call it a dead end job either. We all are well aware there is absolutely no chance of a promotion, no chance of a better wage, no chance of more holiday days etc. Top it all off with the fact that I work in an accounts office and I absolutely hate maths, plus my current position is about as dull as you can get. For someone who spends half their life daydreaming / wakes up in the middle of the night and writes book ideas down before going back to bed / has always done education choices that offer multiple correct answers where if you waffle it enough you can be right, being in a one thing is right job isn’t exactly my career of choice.

It isn’t all bad. I mean, as much as I mumble and grumble I do work with some of the best people. We all have our moments, after all we spend a hell of a lot of time together but I know that each person in my office has their hearts in the right place and frankly that’s important. Plus, I know the job inside out now (after all I have somehow been there over 4 years now!) which only makes you feel more confident in your work.

It’s got to the point now though where myself, and pretty much every person I work with, have realised that life at my work isn’t going to get better. We’ll all be stuck in this position forever if we don’t find new jobs. So I need to get my backside into gear and get myself a new job. This certainly isn't a woe is me kind of post as I know the only person who can change things is myself. I’d love to be in a newspaper/publisher/BBC/Disney/Penguin/afford to be living in London/Busted’s assistant...kind of job. I don’t know if that will ever be possible as I have zero experience but if you don't try you'll never succeed. Though at the moment, I’d just settle for more money and holidays and hopefully doing something that I enjoy. Someone hire me?