Not forgotten friends.

So I have a lot of friends. I don't mean that in a braggy arrogant way, I just mean that I know and love a lot of people. Unfortunately I don't get to see the vast majority of them as much as I'd like, owing to the fact that I live a long way away and can't afford to travel very much. And often I can go a very long time without speaking to them.

So I'd just like to take the opportunity to say, right here, right now (as the majority of people who read this are going to be my friends) I have NOT forgotten you! I love you and I do think about you lots :) We are still friends!!

I feel like at times I can't keep up with all the people I'd like to so sometimes I lose touch. But thankfully, I am usually able to pick up where I left off fairly easily. Sometimes I like to call people up and just listen to their voices for a bit. Its nice :)

Sorry this is such a short post. These are difficult words! But you get the gist, right?

Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow
-Rosa
x

Found Friday 2

So what pops in your mind when I say the word moth? Probably, and perfectly reasonably, it's something like this:

But because this is Found Friday, it's something else. Today I'm going to talk about something my sister recommended to me- The Moth. The Moth is a story telling event across the USA, and as I live in the UK it's pretty inconvenient and expensive for me to attend every time they run an event. So I choose to listen to their podcast (which you can download on iTunes and their website is www.themoth.org )

The Moth is an event where there is a theme for the night, people who want to tell a story out their names in a hat, and are pulled out at random. Then, story tellers can take to the stage and the mic is theirs. 

Make no mistake, this isn't some place where people get together to repeat tales of old, or sit around with fairy stories. These have their place, but The Moth is for people to tell their real life stories. Things that really happened. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are sad. Sometimes they are quite epic and extraordinary and moving.

These stories have the impact they have because they are not just stories- they are real. And they make the best stories because they are told by the people who lived them. One episode usually features several stories (although some short episodes feature just one story) and they are extremely diverse in nature- from being caught in a new life having escaped prison, to the frustration of being a teenager and struggling to find your role in a new family and step coming together. People from all walks of life tell their stories at The Moth

Further to my post about storytelling I would say that listening to The Moth is similar to that quality- you feel like you're in the crowd that was there when the story was told. Personally, I like to go for walks on my own to listen to The Moth and wander around with my earphones in. It means I listen better! 

Anyway- to summarise I'd recommend listening to The Moth and if you like it, subscribe! 

Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow,

- Rosa

X

Social bubbles

Here is a picture of the town where I went to university.

Pretty small right? I think so! Smaller than my home town, and I consider that I be small! It is both a blessing and a curse to live in a town like this because on the plus side, you get to know the majority of the people there- and if you don't know someone, you do at least have one friend in common. And that makes for a really nice, close-knit community, but where its still quite easy to meet new people.

As a drama student, the students in the department tended to be very close to each other and quite sociable (make no mistake, drama is an extremely hard-working degree, whatever the media tells you) And this meant I was able to form some very deep, long-lasting friendships within the people I met at uni, even though I went away for a year to study abroad (but thats for another post ;) )

And yet, I feel there is something vaguely unhealthy about living in a town where you forget that the rest of the world exists. Sure, its a brilliant little bubble to be living in, but once you leave...? Its hard to adjust. Or at least, thats what I've found. I've missed seeing my friends every day, and much as I love them, my friends in my home town don't have the same dynamic that I have with my university friends (though thats not nescessarily a bad thing). And when I see pictures of my friends who are still at university, I find myself craving to return, because there is nothing quite like it. Being in Wales, living right next to the sea, only feeling like right now matters. Perhaps I should try and live a little more in the right now at the moment, but the bittersweet nostalgia is irresistable.

I've found though that since returning to my home town, my bubble has shrunk significantly. I find myself only leaving the house for necessity, rather than just for an aimless wander that I might have done before. Perhaps I just need to widen my circle of friends? I'm sure that can be arranged! I feel sort of like I'm suffocating from the lack of... learning. I'd forgotten how much I loved learning until I stopped doing it- so it looks like a masters is imminent- because I LOVE education. But I hate deadlines. But I can't have one without the other!

I am going to go back. But when, I'm not certain. But I will. Because I can't stay away!!

Do you have social bubbles? I'm very much attached to mine, even though I'm not living in it anymore. Let me know in the comments!!

Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow,
-Rosa
x

Danger signs

***DISCLAIMER*** I do not endorse breaking and entry to any place with signs saying that there is danger. The following blog post is about my own personal responses to danger and restricted access signs.



Signs like this:

They are just itching to be ignored!! When i see a sign like that, my first thought isn't "hmm... Better steer clear of that" it's more like "oooh! I wonder why?? Let's find out!" Perhaps it's just the child in me, or maybe I am reckless- but I always want to know why!! Better than doors with danger signs in are GATES. Because you can see through them!! And see what is. Doors however are basically saying "come and have a look" in my mind.

HOWEVER, signs like this:

are more likely to have me pay attention to them because they tell me WHY I can't go somewhere. If it was something like "Danger, killer wasps in this area" then sure. I'd stay away. Its not just saying "Danger...something here is dangerous, but I'm not telling you what" You'd think by now that people putting up danger signs would have the common sense to know that people like me with insanely high levels of curiosity are always going to be enticed when being told not to do something or go somewhere. If we're told WHY, then we're more likely to think about it more!!

A number of times I have been caught in places I shouldn't have been owing to ignoring "Do Not Enter" signs, mostly during my teenage years when wandering around with my friends. Not that I was going into these restricted areas to show off to my friends, I was genuinley curious as to what it was I wasn't supposed to do or see. It doesn't take a genius to look at a sign with a rabid dog on it next to the words "beware the dog" to suss out the danger. But when the danger is announced and not specified, it makes me SO SO SO curious that I go ahead and go in anway. I have a sneaky suspicion that lots of these plaees that have non-specific danger signs on them are not really dangerous places, just that it saves the people who own/run the place a lot of hassle if people are only on it when they are around to monitor them. 

What do you think? Ever gone into an old building marked danger? Ever been somewhere you know you shouldn't have? Let me know in the comments! 

Today,  this is me.

See you tomorrow,

-Rosa

x

Chickens!!

So- I have pet chickens!

And I think they're pretty great. They're stupid creatures, but we love them anyway. We have:

Fenimore- she's the oldest chicken, must be about 6 or 7 years old by now.

Thing 1- there used to be a Thing 2, but sadly she died.

Ginny - our ginger chicken. A bit of a bossy one who liles to think she's top of the pecking order.

Dot - a bit of a bully to the new guys

Artemis - a lovely grey chicken who I had to teach how to use the feeder because she couldn't work it out

Roxy - a black rock breed of chicken with a talent for escaping.

They should all be laying eggs, but we figure that Thing 1 and Fenimore are both too old for that now. Here's a picture of some of the eggs they lay.

I think its Dot that lays the greeny ones. The rest lay brown eggs, and Fenimore and Thing 1 used to lay white eggs. And they taste so much better than eggs from the shop!! The yolks in particular! They are such a dark yellow that they are almost orange. We have an egg skelter (exactly what it sounds like) to keep them on because if they are fresh they don't really need keeping in the fridge- which means they cook quicker too!

A lot of people ask us if we eat our chickens when they stop laying eggs. The answer is, would you eat your pets?? No. We don't eat them.

What pets do you have? Let me know in the comments!


Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow,
-Rosa
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I'm a coffee elitist.

Hey readers!!

So what springs to your mind when I say coffee? Most likely, I'd imagine it to be something like this:

To which I say - "Back you heathens!! You call that coffee?? THIS is coffee!!" 

Please allow me to explain. I am... something of a coffee snob. When I first started drinking coffee (around the age of 15, I think) I drank the absolute finest coffee that could be bought. I was raised on the best. I can't look back! I struggled a lot at university not having a cafatiere and only being able to afford instant coffee (back home, its usually my parents that buy the coffee). Which sounds hideously middle class of me... but when it comes to coffee, I guess I am hideously middle class. So whilst at uni, I simply viewed this pale imitation of coffee as something that woke me up quickly on an early morning, or kept me awake if I was cutting it fine on a deadline. 

Personally, I don't view coffee as a source of caffeine that is useful during the long nights of exam season. To me, coffee is an experience. In my town, we have a shop that roasts its own coffee beans and the smell wafts over the whole town. They get their coffee beans in from all over the world!! And in the last couple of years, they've opened two cafes in my town, much to my delight. Even before I liked drinking coffee, I loved smelling it. I love the sound of pouring coffee, I love watching the colour change when I pour milk in it. I love the clinking sound of the spoon stirring in the cup. I even have a favourite cup to drink coffee out of when I'm at home. 

So I'm thinking... perhaps being a coffee snob isn't so bad, so long as you can drink sub-sublime coffee. Which I can. The last time I visited my Grandma (a looooong way away) she seemed convinced that the coffee she bought (a brand called Miles', I think) was the best coffee could be. As I was there for a few days and had none of my preferred, vastly superior coffee to hand, I didn't have the heart to tell her that this coffee was mediocre at best. Having said that though, my Grandma prefers to drink decaf... which makes me think she may not be the best authority on coffee.

What about you? Do you like coffee? I drink mine with lots of milk and a little bit of sugar! Let me know in the comments.

Today, this is me:

I'm a very sleepy Rosa, despite all the coffee talk!


See you tomorrow,
-Rosa
x

Stories and storytelling

Hello Readers!

Sorry I am posting a little later than usual in the day, but I have been very busy today! I've just got back from seeing NT: Live's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. It was very very good. I heartily recommend it to anybody who likes a well told story. Which brings me in nicely to today's topic! Today I wantd to talk about stories and story telling.

Sometimes, I have trouble reading. Not because I have any learning difficulties (that I know of) but because I have poor focus on tasks that require me to sit still for a very long time. As a concequence of this, I much prefer doing physical tasks. Growing up, I always preferred to be read to from a book, usually by my mum, than read the book myself- right up until my early teens. But I have always loved stories. 

I expect that this is the reason that I so enjoy films, and theatre in particular. To me, the best way to be told a story is to be shown a story. And that is why I had such an enjoyable time watching The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time this evening. 

For a number of years now, I have been involved in making theatre. And one of my favourite things about being a theatre maker is that in the end, we get to share a story with our audience. And hopefully, they would leave the theatre, having enjoyed the show and go and tell their friends about it, and then they would come and we would get to share the story with more people. I love to share stories with people (which is probably why I suck so badly at devised performances that don't have narrative or characters). 

But I think back to how people told stories before the theatre existed. And we know this must have happened because we can see back to forms of storytelling as far back as cave paintings. This makes me think that it must be a very human thing to do, to be telling stories to each other. Not so long ago, I went to see a professional storyteller tell The Epic of Gilgamesh (here's the storyteller's website, incase you were interested: http://benhaggarty.com ). The man telling the story was absolutely phenomenal. The way he could hold the attention of the room, tell the details of the story, remember more than three hours worth of story, was extremely impressive. I hope some day to be as good at my job as he was at his.

And yet, it seemed to me that this was different from acting. He was not playing a specific character, nor was he reading lines. There was no music, or sounds and no scenery. Just a man, in a room with a few small props. But there was definitely a performance telling a story there. And I'm glad to think that this very raw form of storytelling has not died out completely, even though we have films, and tv and theatre and radio and the internet all vying for our attention. But to sit in a room, and listen to a story is like nothing else. 

What do you think about storytelling? Have you ever been to see a storyteller? Let me know in the comments :)

Today, this is me: 

(Don't worry, it's stage make up- I'm not dead!)

See you tomorrow,

- Rosa

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How I manage to cope without bacon

Hello there, Readers.

Some of you who know me will know that I do not eat food like this:

or like this: 

And you have probably guessed by now that I am a vegetarian. If you didn't already know that. When people find this out there are a number of questions they usually ask:

- How long have you been a vegetarian for?

- Don't you miss bacon? (or whatever their favourite meat is)

- But you eat fish though, surely?

- So you don't eat eggs then?

The responses to which are "I have always been a vegetarian. I have never eaten bacon and therefore don't miss it. A fish is not a plant. Yes, I eat eggs and dairy" 

All my responses tend to be met with confused expressions- as if I had said something incomprehensible. My reasons for being a vegetarian have changed over time though. Originally, I was brought up vegetarian and so had no choice in the matter. I simply didn't eat meat. The reason I continue a vegetarian are now different. 

Firstly, let me explain- I do not believe that there is anything morally wrong with the concept of eating animals. We are evolved to eat them. Our teeth are shaped to eat meat. Its completely natural, as far as I am concerned. However, this doesn't mean that I don't believe that the conditions animals raised for slaughter are kept in do not need changing. Were I to eat meat, I would be so phenomenally picky about where my meat came from (must be from the UK, must be free range, must adhere to certain standards of humane living conditions) that it would be expensive enough for me to eat meat extremely seldom. 

The reasons I stay vegetarian can be narrowed down to two main reasons:

Firstly, meat production has enormous environmental impact at its current rate. Cows are super farty. Lets faee it. Lots more methane in the air. It also causes pollution of the water, of the soil, and the air. 

Secondly, it is extremely wasteful of resources.  Huge amounts of resources are used to produce comparatively low yields of food, compared to if the same resources had been to produce fruit, grain or vegetables. ( http://bit.ly/1t7eA4v ) And in a world where millions are starving to death, don't you think there is a responsibility for that land to start producing enough food... for everyone? The planet's population is growing and ageing at the same time, so we need to be able to feed everyone.

I'm not suggesting EVERYONE stops eating meat entirely. Just cutting down to having one meat free week a month is thought to make a huge difference (google meat free week per month to find out more) 

If it didn't before, does this look more appealing now? 

So yeah. Let me know what you think about eating meat- are you a carnivore? Could you not give up bacon? Perhaps you are a vegan, or a vegetarian like me! Leave a comment and tell me :)

Today, this is me:

I promise I had face paint for a reason :p

See you tomorrow,

-Rosa

x

Found Friday

Hey everyone- just a little explaination of what's gonna be happening. Every Friday dailysplodge is going to have something found! And I'll be putting my two cents about it underneath. So without further ado- here we go!

Many people internet wide are subscribed to the vlog brothers, Hank and John and Hank Green. If you have somehow been living under a rock an don't know who they are, here is one of their videos I'd like to share with you today. Watch it before continuing to read!

Ok- so I think john has a good point. I know that there are something that I I definitely take for granted. I am born to a white, middle class family in a society where White is the majority race and middle class is favourable. I am born in a country where women are legally equal to men, in a time when women can vote and have an education.  I am born in a body that is the sex which matches the gender to which I identify. Viewed from the outside, I am extremely lucky. 

And yet, I often find myself thinking "it's not fair!!" To various things such as "I don't have enough work!" "I'm still living woh my parents!" "I have to take extra care with my health when other people are throwing theirs away!" "I'm not happy because of x, y and z " 

But there are also things that I am hugely grateful for- like the fact that I have a place to live, food to eat, clean water, family and friends that love me. But still I want more from my life than I already have. Is this greedy? After some considerable thought, I have decided that it is not. I think it must be a part of the human condition to want to be a better, or at least more well off version of yourself. Think of the richest people in the world- they are still doing things. It's not like they become rich and then they buy a big house, a big car, and retire from life. They still have the options to use their wealth for social, charitable causes. Lots of them do this. If I were insanely rich, I wouldn't know what to do with it all (once I'd paid off all my student debt and so on)  so I think I'd spend some on myself and then... Sit down with a cup of tea, maybe a financial advisor, and work out what to do. But I'm getting away from the point. The point is appreciate the things you have. Take the time to tell the people in your life that you appreciate them! Look at your situation and realise- as you are using the internet- you are fantastically lucky.

And if you still want more? Thats ok too :) Work hard for it, and hopefully you'll achieve!

What sort of things do you take for granted in your life? Let me know in the comments.

Today, this is me:

It was windy!

See you tomorrow,

-Rosa
x

I'm always feeling stressed!

So it seems nobody can get by these days without saying once in a while "I'm feeling so stressed!" And it's true. There is a lot more to be stressed out about the older you get. I look back and think "I wish I was 10 years old again, when the world was simpler and kind" yet I know that when I was 10 I couldn't wait to grow up and do grown up things.

So it might be helpful to remind y'all some of the symptoms of being stressed: 

• not sleeping well, or sleeping lots but not feeling rested. 

• drinking lots of caffeine 

• feeling like there isn't enough time to do all the things you need to do 

• yelling at perfectly innocent friends, family and bystanders

Yep, got one or more of those, it's likely you're feeling stressed. I probably ought to put some sciencey bits in about stress, so here's a round about version of what I learned in A level psychology. 

Stress is a reaction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Originally this evolved sat a defensive mechanism- fight or flight stuff. Something is perceived as dangerous, and your adrenal glands leap (often prematurely) into action. Cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline flood the body. Know that feeling that starts low in your back when you've been startled? That's your adrenal glands. They live just above the kidneys. Here is my not to scale, not nescessariy accurate diagram:

I know. I should be an artist, right? But that role in my family is already taken by my sister, so I'll leave the drawing and so on to her because she is great at it. 

Because the body's reaction to stress is a primal evolution we can feel very stressed about things that aren't actually life threatening. Here are a list of non-life threatening things that make me feel stressed out:

• deadlines

• money (and lack thereof)

• work (and lack thereof)

• not being able to see all my friends as much as I'd like

• being misunderstood.

But here's the thing folks: Stress is really really bad for your health. Not just your mental health, but your physical health too. It diverts energy from all sorts of normal processes in the body, such as digestion. Stress can aggrevate all sorts of things aswell, including diabetes, athsma, arthritis, depression, skin conditions. I know my eczema can get much worse when I'm stressed. 

COPING WITH STRESS! 

Some of the ways I like to cope with my own stress may seem obvious, but they really work for me. Obviously they may not work for everyone, but there you go. I like to set time aside specifically for relaxing or doing something creative. I watch mindless tv that I can do nothing with. Because doing nothing means I'm not exposing myself to any stressful stimuli. The only thing stressful about doing nothing is the procrastination factor, so were I still a student, I'd finish any work I had to do first. I like listening to music without lyrics and going for walks by myself, preferably near water. I like rivers and the sea. Being outside is also great for stress because sunlight helps you to produce serotonin that can help combat stress. Also, I just love being outside! 

What makes you feel stressed? How do you cope with it? Leave a comment and let me know :) 

Today, this is me: 

Nice brolly, huh?

See you tomorrow,

- Rosa

X

Goals

So! Goals!

My goals right now are:

• be happy

• be healthy

• get full time work 

• pay off student debt

• live independently 

So how can I get towards these?? Well some general advice for achieving long term goals is to prioritise. It seems obvious, but sitting down and deciding why has to come first is a good place to start. What matters the most? Well to me, it's being happy and healthy. Everything else is secondary. Yes, I do need a job or someway to support myself financially (I guess I'll just win the lottery or something, right?)

Next thing to do is to break down the goals into easy to attain chunks! so for me thats:

• Job! I'll do my best to get a job. Take a step every day. Even if the Job Centre are being *****. 
• A job with people I like, who like me. Whats the point in having a job if all it does is make you miserable? 
• A job in the crative industry. Acting, writing, youth theatre, singing. All things I want to do.

Ok. So perhaps those chunks aren't that easy to attain. But its having a plan that counts.

Things I'm doing to try and help me stay happy, and occupied are stuff like doing this blog! every day using my words :) Keeping my mind active. I've also joined a choir and a theatre group, so things are looking on the up for me, as far as happy goes.


Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow,

- Rosa

X

Strangers and Anonymity

Hey everybody :)

Today I wanted to write about the anonyimty we have from strangers and the same anonymity we hvae to them.

Often, when I am travelling alone, I like to pretend that I'm someone else. Not in a manic-episode I-think-I-am-the-leader-of-the-world sort of a way. But in a it'd-be-fun-to-try-out-being-this-person way. I frequently wonder if other people do the same thing.

One day, a long time ago I was getting onto a train to New York City all the way from Toledo OH. Thats a 14 hour journey, changing at Pittsburgh. As a foreign exchange student at the time, I had gotten increasingly exasperated by being asked every single day "Oh my god! Are you from england?" Which was flattering at first to have so many people interested in talking to me, but soon became extremely tiresome. So when I got onto this train, I decided to become someone else. When I got upstairs (yes, upstairs. Weirdly, American trains have to decks...!) and found myself a seat, the woman sat beside me immediately started engaging me in conversation. This is something I LOVE about American people, they are so much more friendly to strangers than British people seem to be. Anyway, tired of being "the token brit" I decided I would take a fresh spin on this and decided to put on my Scottish accent. It was fun at first, but then I realised that if I dropped my new persona, it could be potentially very confusing and/or distressing to this poor woman, and I'd be exposed as a fraud. So...I ended up having to pretend to be a Scottish person... for a good 8 hours until I got my transfer in Pittsburgh.

It probably serves me right for lying to this woman, but I viewed it from several angles:

• The lie was doing no harm. She would never know that I wasn't really a Scottish person, or any of the other things I made up about myself. 
• If I had dropped the persona, it'd be potentially very embarassing to have to explain that, really, I was just pretending to be Scottish. 
• It was a good opportunity to practice some form of improvisation. I know I'd be great in one of those undercover shows now! 

I was suprised how much I could say and people would just... believe me! Rest assured, for the second leg of the journey, I decided to be myself. And although I didn't speak to anybody for rest of the train ride, I was quite relieved not to have to.


Has anybody else ever...created themselves a new, temporary persona? Let me know!

Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow

-Rosa

X

Welcome!!

Hello everybody


Lots of people seem to be starting blogs recently... so I think I shall do the same :) And I want to get into the habit of writing something. Every day. Like a diary I suppose!

If you're reading this, you're likely to be somebody who already knows me, but if not I'll just introduce myself.

Hello there *shakes hand* I'm Rosa. Nice to meet you. I graduated last summer from University and am now living in a little town in the north-west of England with my family and trying to find one of those impossible things, a full time job. And to make it more difficult, a full time job in the creative industries. But I shall persevere!

A few little info-nuggets about me:

• sometimes I make up words
• most of my clothes are t-shirts featuring giraffes
• I play the ukulele
• I act
• I write
• I breathe

I think this is going to be a blog of...well, whimsy. Anecdotes. Things I come across that I find interesting. Stuff I think is important for people to know. Rants. Recipies even! Just about anything.

Here is a picture of me as I am today: