on
Wednesday 31 December 2014
2014 has certainly been a roller coaster ride of a year. I started it by changing my diet and becoming vegan. I waved goodbye to The Stand Comedy Club and became the Press Officer at The Edinburgh Playhouse. I suffered a pretty bad case of mistaken identity with a certain football manager. Gary Lineker sent my Twitter into meltdown. I found my face splashed across every newspaper in the country. I lost count of the number of Twitter trolls who called me ugly and told me to die. I got mentioned in a Buzzfeed post. Graham Linehan tweeted a link to my blog. I started writing for Huffington Post. I drifted apart from some of my friends, and gained some amazing news ones. My heart got bruised on too many occasions. I met BJ Novak. I watched three of my beautiful friends get married. I saw Taylor Swift and Lena Dunham live. I started blogging for the Metro website. And I saw more musicals in the past 12 months than every other year put together. Here's to 2015 being filled with amazing friends, more adventures and no football managers!!!

Veganuary

on
Tuesday 30 December 2014
This week I was asked to share my story for Veganuary. The month long pledge aims to show people how easy it is to be vegan, and let them see the benefits of following a vegan diet.

If you want to read my story you can click here to visit the Veganuary website or find it below.  

My vegan journey began on the 1st January 2014 when I decided to take part in Veganuary.

I was brought up eating meat and animal products until I made the decision to become vegetarian when I was around 13 years old. Until the end of 2013, being vegan was never something I had even considered. But once I started looking into the dairy industry, I knew it was the right thing to do. It seemed ridiculous that I would protest about killing animals for meat, yet be perfectly happy to eat ice cream and cheese knowing that dairy cows are suffering just as much. I had no idea that they are regularly given antibiotics and hormones so they can produce 10 times more milk that they are naturally meant to. Then I looked into the conditions hens are kept in to produce eggs, and realised that being vegan was the only option for me.

My transition to becoming vegan was pretty easy because I was already vegetarian. People often ask me if I miss meat, but it’s been so long since I’ve eaten any that I can’t even remember what it tastes like. I’ve never eaten a steak or any big joints of meat, and I’ve never even had a McDonald’s burger. I guess my meat intake was so low anyway that it doesn’t feel like there’s anything to miss out on. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss some non-vegan foods though. My first Easter without being able to eat bags of Mini Eggs was a bit of a struggle. I also miss being able to have cheese on toast and order a Domino’s pizza whenever I want.

One of the many positive points about being vegan is that it’s completely opened by eyes to food I never thought I would eat. It’s pushed me to try new recipes and experiment more in the kitchen. I’ve become an expert at making waffles and pancakes without any eggs, and most of the time you wouldn’t be able to tell my chocolate cupcakes are also egg and dairy free.

I've found most people have been completely accepting of my decision, even if some of them struggled to understand it at the beginning. For a while, it seemed acceptable for people to question my choices but not okay for me to ask them why they fill their stomachs with alcohol and junk food on a daily basis. However my best friends have been fantastic and don’t mind me dragging them to vegan restaurants every time we eat out. I’ve found plenty of places in Edinburgh and Glasgow where I can eat vegan versions of my favourite foods. There’s even a takeaway beside my work that will put vegan cheese on pizza for you. I’ve also found normal restaurants to be really accommodating offering to make me soup without cream and provide alternative desserts when everything else on the menu contains dairy.

Being vegan was never something I thought would become a permanent lifestyle choice. However one year in and I’m healthier than I’ve ever been and my diet isn’t hurting animals or damaging the environment. And as things stand at the moment, I can’t imagine ever going back.

2014

on
Sunday 28 December 2014
2014 has certainly been a roller coaster ride of a year.

I made some pretty big decisions concerning my career and diet, lost some friends, gained some better ones, got mistaken for a football manager, and my heart got pretty bruised along the way.

I guess the first major thing happened in January when I decided to change my diet and become vegan. I said I'd give it a year, but it's something that I'm going to carry though 2015. I feel healthier than I have in a long time, and lost a few pounds that I'd been trying to shift for a while. It's opened my eyes up to foods I never thought I'd eat, and now I've become one of those people who could eat kale for every meal. I discovered just how accommodating restaurants can be to dietary requirements, which was the one thing I was concerned about. I've also realised how amazing my friends are because they let me drag them to vegan restaurants and never complain once. 

So life was ticking along pretty normally until March when this happened....


It still feels completely surreal and almost like it didn't even happen. I can't quite explain what it feels like to have that amount of attention in such a small space of time. I still remember coming out of a hospital appointment and having messages telling me The Sun were parked outside my flat waiting to speak to me. Then the next morning I woke up to find myself splashed across every newspaper you could find.



It wasn't just the media attention that was difficult to handle. My Twitter followers increased by 2,000 and with it came some pretty horrible comments. I found the extreme ones easier to brush off, but the constant stream of people telling me I was ugly took a good few months to shake off. It's now been 9 months since it happened and I'm still getting the odd tweet about it, but luckily it's nothing like it was before. 

One of the best things to come out of the whole thing was Graham Linehan tweeting a link to this blog. Then the Huffington Post got in touch to ask me if they could post it, and asked if I wanted to start writing for them. I've written quite a few posts now that you can see by clicking here. The one that seemed to get the most attention after my David Moyes one, was this one about Scottish Independence. It ended up getting 2k likes on Facebook and over 300 comments which was a little overwhelming to say the least. I know it wasn't the most amazing piece of writing, but I do still take it very personally when people comment on things I've written. I guess having thicker skin is something I need to work on a lot next year. I've had a bit of a writers block since then, but 2015 is going to be the year of putting my writing first. 

In April, I left The Stand Comedy Club and moved a few minutes along the road to take on the role of Press Officer at the Edinburgh Playhouse.


It's been a pretty big jump up from what I was doing before, but I've loved every second of it. I've always been a fan of musical theatre so to work for the biggest theatre in the UK is pretty amazing. There's nothing like standing at the back of the audience watching Defying Gravity to make you feel like you have the best job in the world.

It's the first job where I've been able to travel a little, and I get the chance to take journalists to other venues to see shows. I feel like I've really pushed myself out of my comfort zone and for the first time in years I feel really confident in my work. I've also made some great friends at the theatre which makes going to work lots of fun. 



This year, I also got to attend three wonderful weddings. Due to being skint and no one at either wedding knowing each other, I wore the same dress to all three. 

In July, I got hang out with my best friends from high school and watch our friend Lisa get married. It's strange to think we left school over 10 years ago, yet we can still hang out like nothing has changed and have lots to catch up about. 

In August, all the uni girls came together to watch Jen get married. Her wedding was special because I know her husband well, and it was lovely to see them so happy.

Then in October, I got to see all my old work colleagues from The Stand at Eva's wedding. Her wedding was exactly like I'd want mine to be if I ever get married, and it was just nice to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a while. 








2014 was also the year of getting to see people I never thought I would get the opportunity to see live.

I saw Taylor Swift in February!!! I know people make fun of me for liking her so much, but I don't even care. She is literally my favourite singer, and she sings about things I have written in my diary. In fact sometimes I'm convinced she's secretly read it and written about every situation I've found myself in.


I also got the chance to see BJ Novak and Lena Dunham this year. I wish I had a better photo of Lena, but the ushers kept telling us to put our phones away every time we attempted to take a sneaky photo.



Last month, I took on another blogging job for Metro. I've only written two blogs so far on Bond Girls and Zoella, but it's going to be something I do a lot more next year.


I think that pretty much sums up 2014. So here's to 2015 being filled with just as many adventures with some of the best friends a girl could ask for. 



on
Tuesday 23 December 2014

So I guess this is how 2015 is shaping up so far at work. Wicked is still here until the first week in January and then we've got some great musicals over the year like The Bodyguard, Shrek and Dirty Dancing. There's some really good music gigs too with Paul Weller and Nick Cave both performing here in the first half of the year. And I still get to work on comedy shows because Alan Carr, Billy Bailey and Kevin Bridges are all making an appearance.

Christmas in London.

on
Sunday 21 December 2014
London was pretty much all about Covent Garden, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harrods, Selfridges, Planet Hollywood, Five Guys, Camden, Cookies and Scream, and the London Aquarium. 


Stop criticising Zoella – does it really matter if she had help writing her book?

on
Tuesday 9 December 2014
When the Girl Online goes offline, you know there’s something really wrong.
 
And that’s exactly what Zoella aka Zoe Suggs did yesterday.
 
The girl, who shares her world with her 2.6 million Twitter followers, has decided to take a temporary break from the internet following the revelation that she had help to write her record breaking debut novel.
 
The official line from Penguin Random House is ‘to be factually accurate you would need to say Zoe Sugg did not write the book Girl Online on her own’.
 
This was also backed up by Zoe who said on Twitter: ‘Of course I was going to have help from Penguin’s editorial team in telling my story, which I talked about from the beginning. Everyone needs help when they try something new. The story and the characters of Girl Online are mine.’
 
So who is this mystery ghost writer?
 
It’s been suggested it’s Siobhan Curham. It was her appearance in the book’s acknowledgements that first sparked the rumour mill about how much Zoe contributed to the book.
 
But while Zoe may have had help to put her characters and ideas into book form, it seems like the 24 year old has had to put up with an unfair amount of criticism, especially considering she’s hardly the first person to have had assistance writing their novel.
 
And if you ask me, Zoe really hasn’t done anything wrong.
 
Yes, she didn’t write the book entirely herself. But this wasn’t a ghostwriter’s book that Zoe simply stuck her name on the cover of.
 
Are you telling me that you would turn down a book deal if your publisher offered to bring someone on board to help you write it?
 
No, I didn’t think so.
 
And as for a ghostwriter not getting proper credit, they took on the job knowing exactly what they were doing.
 
Whatever your opinion on this is, there’s no denying the success that Zoe has achieved with this book.
 
And while there might be an army of trolls out there to bring her down, it seems there’s an even bigger army of her loyal fans who will support her so she’s back to being the Girl Online in no time.

* You can also read it here on the Metro website.
on
Sunday 7 December 2014
There's a lot of things happening at the moment, so I'm trying to make more effort to update this blog with what's actually going on in my life.

Work is still very much all about Wicked. The reviews are all in now, and most of the press work has been done. However we do have a few special things planned for the next couple of weeks which will AMAZING if it all goes to plan.

This week I got to go to a meeting in Edinburgh Castle. I've not been up at the castle for at least 10 years or so, but it's just as magical as I remember. And the views you get over Edinburgh are pretty incredible. 
On Thursday, I had my first work Christmas event of the month. We went up to see Slava's Snow Show at the Festival Theatre. It's one of those shows that no one can explain, yet everyone seems to be completely in love with. You do have to be sitting in the stalls to get the best experience, especially when there's giant balls like this being thrown about.
On Friday, I had some post work drinks in Basement in Edinburgh. I have no photos, but it's fast becoming my favourite place to drink. 

I spent Saturday in Glasgow eating some delicious vegan food. I was told to be ready for 11am, wrap up warm and be prepared for food. We arrived at one of my favourite vegan haunts in Glasgow and tucked into pizza  and chocolate Oero cheesecake. 

Bond might be back, but isn’t it time we dropped the Bond girl?

on
Saturday 6 December 2014
A couple of weeks ago, I submitted some previous blog posts I've written to Metro who were looking for some new bloggers to come on board and write for their website. 
I got an email back asking me to write a test blog for them. I did that, and they seemed to like what I had to say. Fast forward two weeks and I've just had my first piece posted on their website which you can see here or read below.

Bond is officially back.
Spectre – the 24th film in the series – was announced with a photocall in London this week. While all eyes in the room were on Daniel Craig who is returning to the role of James Bond, there was another woman on stage stealing some of his spotlight.
If you’re not familiar with Monica Bellucci you soon will be. The Italian actress is set to become the latest Bond girl to grace our screens.
She’s also making history in the process by becoming the oldest Bond girl in the film franchise. At 50 years old, she takes the title from Honor Blackman who was 39 when she appeared in Goldfinger.
But, while there’s no denying the popularity of the Bond films, is there really still a need for the Bond girl?
When you think about the role, you can’t escape the image of Ursula Andress walking out of the sea in Dr No. Yes, it’s an iconic image that worked all those years ago. But is that really the image of a modern woman?
In the past few years, feminism has become a huge talking point in the media. There’s also been an increase in the number of strong woman on our screens, so it’s almost insulting that it’s not being reflected in one of the most popular movie franchises of all time.
Sure there have been a few independent female roles in the past couple of films like M and Miss Moneypenny. But neither of these woman were technically Bond girls.
The role of the Bond girl has been reserved for the character that only really has one purpose on screen, and that’s to be the object of Bond’s affections.
While they were might be a lot more to their character, we don’t ever get to see it. Instead it’s hidden away under skimpy outfits and suggestive names like Pussy Galore.
It seems like we’ve become so used to the role that we’ve almost just accepted it that where Bond goes, a beautiful woman will be paraded on his arm.
I’m not saying that we have to drop the role altogether, but this old fashioned image couldn’t be further removed from how woman actually are.
And if Bond wants to move forward, then it’s about the female characters on screen were treated with a little more respect.
on
Sunday 30 November 2014
It’s a new soundtrack I could dance to this beat, beat
Forevermore
The lights are so bright
But they never blind me, me
Welcome to New York
It’s been waiting for you
Welcome to New York
Welcome to New York
When I told my best friend I was seriously thinking about moving to Edinburgh she told me it would be my 'Welcome to New York'. And I kind of have to agree. After all, I do pretty much think every situation in my life can be summed up by a Taylor Swift song. 

Moving to Edinburgh is not something I thought I would be thinking right now, never mind actually saying out loud to people. But the more I think about it, the more I really want to do it. 
I never intended to be nearly 28 and still living in Polmont. I moved back here a few years ago because I was living in Glasgow and had just been offered a job in Edinburgh. Back then, the thought of moving to Edinburgh terrified me. If I'm honest about things, then it still does. The reason I didn't move all those years ago was because Polmont had much more appeal back then. My brother was just about to get an operation, and I really wanted to be close to home for his recovery. I'd also just had my heart broken and I just needed my family and best friend around. But a lot can change in three years. My brother is healthy and at uni now. My heart, while pretty bruised, has certainly healed from that situation. And that friend who I had known since primary school is no longer in my life. 

It just seems like the perfect time to start a new chapter. I'm going to be 28 in January and I think it's finally time to grow some balls and do something that scares me. Something that will make 2015 the best year yet. 

What A Wicked Week It's Been!

on
Sunday 23 November 2014
It's finally happened. Wicked has arrived in Edinburgh. I figured with that in mind, I should try do a post about what actually goes on the average week of a Press Officer. I say average, but I've never actually had a week like this before. And if I'm honest, I don't know when I'll have a week quite like this again. 

Wednesday night was opening night, and we decided to turn the area around the venue into our own little Emerald City. 

So with opening night out of the way, it was time to focus on Thursday's press night. The day started really well when we discovered the photocall from the day before had made lots of the papers, including some nationals and the front of the Edinburgh Evening News. 


The press night itself was the usual type of thing, just on a much bigger scale than I'm used to. We ended up with around 80 press and celeb guests, so we had a lot of tickets to give out and lots of journalists to meet. It was also a good chance to catch up with some people I haven't seen in a while too. 

I only managed to see the last 15 minutes of the show while we were waiting with the photographer to do the curtain call photos. I missed 'Defying Gravity' earlier in the night, but i got to see 'For Good' and I think that might actually be my favourite song of the show. After the show, it was straight backstage to do some photos with Susan Boyle for the Friday's edition of the Edinburgh Evening News. 

Once the photos were done, it was straight up to the Assembly Rooms on George Street for the after show party. 
Most of the night was spent making sure all the cast photos were taken when they arrived. We did manage to get good photo of the old/new press and marketing department and then stop just before midnight to celebrate Pam's birthday. I ended up leaving the party at 1am, which is pretty early by my usual standards, to catch up on sleep ahead of Friday's Wicked meeting and STV coming to film for the News at Six.


(Me, Pam, Alan, Audrey, Sam and Catherine)

Undercut Sessions!

on
Saturday 22 November 2014

I finally did it. 

I went to the hairdresser for the first time in 5 years, and took some baby undercut steps. 
on
Monday 17 November 2014

Why is it that we only believe the bad things people think or say about us? 
It's like we're programmed to ignore all the nice things people say in favour of replaying all the bad things over and over again.

A few weeks ago I was at a wedding when someone leaned over the bar and told me I looked stunning. He wasn't some creepy old man or someone who was trying to hit on me. He was simply a really nice person who felt the need to give me a compliment. It wasn't that I thought I looked terrible, I just didn't look anywhere near stunning. I would say I looked ok at best, and that was mainly down to what I was wearing. It's hard not to look ok when you have a long red dress on. 

Surely I can't be the only one who finds it hard to accept a compliment. Even yesterday, I couldn't believe what my best friend was telling me. She sent me a text describing me as one of the prettiest people she knows. Instead of just accepting what she said, I decided to replay the horrible thoughts implied by other peoples actions.  

I've been bullied before and I had a horrible trolling experience earlier this year when people posted things like "What happened to your face or are you just naturally that ugly?" to me on Twitter. That was when the whole Moyesy thing happened, and it was not a nice experience at all. But I think sometimes all this is why I find it hard to accept it when people do want to say something nice to me.

The logical thing is to accept the 10 lovely things before say against the one horrible thing someone else thinks. That makes sense, even to the most unlogical mind. That should even make sense in my mind. So why is it that I still continue to think everyone is just being nice to make me feel better, rather than having any truth behind their comments? Yet I can't shake off what someone else thinks of me.

Harley's Coffee House

on
Saturday 15 November 2014

Falkirk isn't exactly the home of vegan food. So when you do find somewhere as good as Harley's Coffee House in Camelon, you need to make sure you buy more than one cake. 


I went into today with that in mind and came away with these three Frozen themed cupcakes. If you didn't know they were vegan, then you would never be able to guess as they're light and fluffy with the most delicious icing on top. I also bought a vegan scone but may eaten that before I had a chance to take a picture. 



It's not just cakes that Harley's sells. They have vegan burgers like the Kelpie Burger topped with lettuce, tomato and spirited spicy sauce. And there's a vegan Sloppy Joe burger and hot dog too.  They also do toasties, baked potatoes and a range of breakfast items. And if like me some of your non-vegan friends prefer to go somewhere with meat on the menu, then Harley's also caters for meat eaters too.



If you want more information then please visit the website  or you just come to mine since I will probably be stocking up on their cakes on a weekly basis. 

That Time Lena Dunham Came To London

on
Tuesday 4 November 2014


Excuse the blurry picture, but this was the only one I had a chance to take before the usher came over and told me to put my phone away. Apparently no one was allowed to take photos, although everyone did as soon as he turned his back to walk back to the door where he was positioned.


It's an understatement to say I'm a Lena Dunham fan. I feel like the biggest Lena Dunham fan, although that's probably a point that could be argued by everyone in the room. The event at the Southbank Centre in London, which is now one of my favourite places thanks to the bars and food market outside,  was filled with other famous people I'm a fan of. The cast of Call The Midwife including Miranda Hart had their own box a few rows in front of me. And Dawn O'Porter, Daisy Lowe, Gemma Cairney, Sarah Millican and Richard E Grant were also in the audience.



Caitlin Moran introduced Lena who came on and read a chapter from the book. I was hoping she would read 'A Guide To Running Away For Twenty-Seven-Year-Old Women' but instead she read 'Sex Scenes, Nude Scenes, and Publicly Sharing Your Body' which is still one of my favourite chapters in the book. Once the reading was done, she sat down to chat to Caitlin about the book, Girls, being a girl, and pretty much everything in between. She also answered some questions from the audience including a woman who told her that she'd inspired her to be brave enough to leave her marriage. 



I came away from it feeling pretty empowered by the whole thing. It was really amazing to be in a room filled with so many women who share similar views to you. Women who happy to celebrate another woman's success rather than being jealous and bitching about it. To see Lena, who is not much older than me, doing so much really gives me some ambition to chase other aspects of my professional life in the new year. My job is great and I don't want to change that at all, but I do want to write a lot more, and try and get back into broadcasting in some way too. 


Enchanted Forest

on
Tuesday 21 October 2014
After years of it selling out on me, I finally managed to get some tickets for the Enchanted Forest. It's this amazing sound and light show in a forest in Pitlochry. It's sold out for the rest of the run this year, but I highly recommend that you all go next year. I think the plan is to spend the weekend up there next year in a cabin. Just hopefully not in a Cabin in the Woods type situation. So yeah, next October we're doing a big road trip up north for another night in the magical forest. 






Why I Quit Facebook And You Probably Should Too

on
Sunday 19 October 2014
It’s been over a month since I deactivated my Facebook account.

I guess you could say that I’m somewhat of a social media addict. I spent my teenage years arranging my top 8 friends on Myspace and writing every little detail of my life on LiveJournal. And these days I still have an array of social media accounts including Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. 

For the past few years, I've used Facebook pretty religiously. It was the first thing I checked when I got up in the morning, and the last thing I would look at before I went to bed at night. I enjoyed posting pictures from my holidays, checking myself in when I was at gigs and keeping up to date with what my friends on the other side of the world were doing.

However while that side of Facebook was great, I found there was a darker side of it that was starting to make me feel really unhappy.

I know that Facebook only shows you the edited version of what people are doing with their lives. And let’s face it, the majority of the time it’s the parts that people want to brag about. It wasn't like I had nothing to brag about myself. I have a great job, an amazing family and supportive group of friends. However even with all that going on, I was starting to feel like everyone was leading a much more exciting life than I was.

Then there’s the issue of relationships. If you’re lucky enough to be in one, then Facebook can be a wonderful thing. But if you've broken up with someone, then there can be nothing worse than seeing that person you used to date all loved up with their new girlfriend. Even if you're friends and no longer have feelings for them, there's still a part of you that’s going to feel slightly weird about the whole thing.

I've also lost count of the number of my friends who have sat on Facebook waiting for their crush to appear online, only to then get upset when they don’t talk to them. And if there is someone on your Facebook who you like, then you can send yourself crazy overthinking the motive of every girl who likes their latest profile picture or comments on their status.

There wasn't one particular thing that made me decide to finally delete my account. I had previously deactivated it for a week here and there, but always ended up going back.
This time though I was starting to realise how much anxiety I had over things I was seeing. Then it got to the stage where it almost seemed pointless to keep my account active when I was hiding so many people from my timeline and purposely not looking at particular profiles.

So after a month of being logged off, do I actually feel different?

I definitely feel like it’s good for my mental wellbeing as I’m no longer worrying about what I see and comparing myself to others. I also feel like I'm making more time to actually talk to my friends, rather than just reading what they're doing online and thinking that counts as catching up.

It's not a decision for everyone, and I still know lots of people who love the site. But maybe this has given you something to think about next time you find yourself upset over something you've seen. Or when you realise that you've wasted an entire evening comparing yourself to the people from school that you really don't really care about anymore.

There's a much wider world outside of Facebook, and it's about time we put down our phones and started to realise it. 

Meat Free Monday

on
Monday 6 October 2014

In a bid to try and post more about food I thought I would attempt to post something each week for Meat Free Monday. The weekly event is about encouraging people to skip meat for one day each week. Even though I skip meat every day, I thought it would be a good weekly point to get me posting more.

So here was my dinner from tonight. I made the very simple, but delicious roasted sweet potatoes with humous, roasted chickpeas, salad and peppers. It's also an attempt at me trying to get my eating back on track to three proper meals a day. Yesterday I only ate a bagel and some toast which isn't exactly the healthy diet I should be on, even if my eating habits were completely influenced by my hungover state.

So here's to trying to eat healthy and getting into some sort of decent shape.

Not That Kind of Girl!

on
Sunday 5 October 2014
I still remember the first time I watched Sex and the City. I was convinced I had found a show that spoke to me in ways other TV shows hadn't before. I had just got into university to study Journalism, so naturally I thought I was going to be the next Carrie Bradshaw. I imagined I would live in a studio apartment in a huge city funding my life by freelancing for some fashion or music publication. 

That was until Girls came along. The HBO show which launched in 2012, focuses on a group of twenty-sometimes living in New York. It not only stars Dunham, but she's also the writer and creator of the show too. It gives a much more realistic view of young women living in New York through unpaid internships, awkward sex and challenging friendships. 

Since then, Lena has been put onto a put on a pedestal with people really feeling like she's some kind of voice of their generation. She may have joked about it through her character Hannah during the pilot episode of Girls, but in real life she really is thought to be one. And I have to admit, I am definitely one of those people. So when I discovered she would be writing a book, I knew without even opening it that I would love every page. 



Lena writes with the open and raw honestly I could only dream of having the guts to do myself. Her book of personal essays and advice details her life through her childhood, long therapy sessions, OCD and string of dates and relationships. She talks so candidly about her sexual encounters in the way I don't think I ever could. It's the sort of information I shared with my best friend this morning, but wouldn't want the world to read. Not only because they don't really care about it, but also because I don't feel like I can talk about other people in that way, even if I only have the most complimentary of words to say.  


"The end never comes when you think it will. It's always ten steps past the worst moment, then a weird turn to the left."

"What a goon. He's lucky to know you, but too stupid to ever realize it."

The book is also full of advice and words that feel like she's climbed into the head of every confused twenty something women who is questioning their life at the moment. 

"Don't put yourself in situations you'd like to run away from."

The above advice that ends the chapter entitled, "A Guide To Running Away For Twenty-Seven-Year-Old Women". It's one of the best pieces of advice I took from the book, especially since I found myself in quite a few situations I wanted to run away from this year. I'd almost have an anxiety attack on the way to certain events, then spend a lot of time hiding in the toilet or outside the party because being inside gave me that sick to the stomach feeling that I shouldn't have to feel. Maybe next time, I'll think about how worth it is to spend hours feeling that rubbish about myself when I can spend time with people outside of those situations. 

She goes onto detail different versions of running away, a lot of which I've tried when needing to escape my own thoughts. Whether it's "listening to a Taylor Swift song about dancing in the rain" or "Going radio silent, then saying you lost your cell phone somewhere in your bed".  

Another great piece thing she said in the book was this - 

"I decided then that I will never be jealous. I will never be vengeful. I won't be threatened by the old, or by the new. "

I would love to think that I could take on board, but I realise it will take some work. Jealously and over thinking situations is probably one of worst qualities. It's embarrassing to admit that I constantly feel threatened by other women.  I have such low confidence that I generally feel 95% of the female population are funnier, smarter, prettier, fitter and more interesting than I am. Even when I'm with someone, I assume that there's someone they think is better than me. It's not a feeling that I enjoy and it's certainly not one I would entertain if I could help it. 

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read it years. With 20 odd pages bookmarked, I feel like it's the sort of book I'll go back to for advice and reassurance and I stumble through the rest of my twenties in a general state of confusion and self doubt. 
on
Thursday 18 September 2014


I decided to deactivate my Facebook again, and become classy like Jessa. I was starting to feel like it was heightening my over thinking quite a bit. It doesn't matter how many people you block and hide from your news feed, you still stumble across things that let your over active mind play tricks on you. 
So for now I am waving goodbye to Facebook.
 P.S - If this bothers you then you can just click on the links on the right to follow me on Instagram and Tumblr. I'd welcome you to follow me on Twitter as well, but I'm coming close to deleting that at the moment too. 
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Thursday 4 September 2014




A friend of mine left a comment on my Facebook saying after the whole Moyesy thing, he wasn’t surprised that my latest blog post went viral. Well I was VERY surprised. I don’t expect anyone to really read anything I write, nevermind the numbers that have read this post. 
When I posted a blog about body image a few weeks ago, I ended up getting some lovely messages from people about what I wrote. A couple of people even said it was beautifully written, which was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about it. The post was more personal than anything I’ve written before, so I decided not to submit it to Huffington Post. Instead, I just posted it on here and again thought no one would notice it.
I decided I wanted to submit the Independence blog though as it's the most talked about subject in Scotland just now. I thought it might get a couple of comments at the most, but even then I thought I was being  little too optimistic. At the moment, it’s sitting there with just over 300 comments. What’s even more insane than that is it’s been shared 80 times on Facebook and been liked 1.3K times (now 1.7K likes but updating the photo might be a step too far).. If I’d thought for one second that it was going to attract this much attention, then I probably would have checked it a lot more for spelling and grammar. I might have also taken more time to write it, but I find I write best when I write as quickly as I can.

It’s also the second time a blog of mine has been one of the featured blogs on the homepage of the Huffington Post website this year. I don’t even know how to begin to get my head around that. If you're one of the people who read/commented/shared/like it then all I have to say is THANK YOU.