My Month Via Instagram - April 2013

Hi guys! Seeing as it is pretty much the end of the month now, I thought I would do a little post showing what I have been up to all throughout April.

1. This month, I have decided to go on a major health kick. I made a super healthy Caesar salad and it was amazing! I have a really terrible immune system and am constantly ill, so I feel like changing my diet may help me a great deal. Plus, now we are approaching the summer months, it cannot hurt to tone up a little bit too. I have started doing aerobics and Pilates a few days a week too. Sometimes I fall off of the wagon and eat junk or get a little lazy, but overall I am quite happy with my progress.

2. This month, I finally had to say goodbye to my first car (who I named Clive the Clio.) There was no way that it would have passed it's MOT at the end of the month, so sadly I had to say au revoir! I part-exchanged this car with my new car (see below.) It was really strange because on my last drive in Clive, I felt incredibly sad. Sure it had a lot of problems, but it was my first car so I will always love it!

3. Even with what I said above, I absolutely love my new car! Of course, I have carried on  the tradition by naming my new car Clifford. I decided upon this name purely because of it's colour, and yes, I am referencing Clifford The Big Red Dog. Some people think that naming your car is silly, and I guess in a way it is, but it's a tradition that I will probably continue throughout my life!

4. As mentioned in a previous post, I finally purchased John Green's book 'Looking For Alaska.' after hearing many rave reviews from friends and seeing a lot of quotations from it on Tumblr, I thought I must read it. I can happily say that it lived up to my expectations and I read the entire book in under 48 hours. I think it's safe to say that I was hooked!

5. In a nutshell, my Mum has been very stressed out lately and has been working a lot over the past couple of weeks. So, on my way home from visiting a friend one day, I decided to pop in to the florist and buy her some flowers to cheer her up a little :) I picked up this particular bouquet because the colours were extremely vibrant and I thought that they would brighten up our living room.

6. These past few days have felt a lot more like spring/summer. Whenever the sun rears its head in rainy England, everybody makes the most of it. As I haven't had a lot on over the past few days, I took the opportunity to do a bit of sunbathing. With just two afternoons in my garden, I actually have a nice little tan developing. As you can see in the photo above, I was wearing these cute little shorts from Primark. They only cost £4 and are part of their beachwear range. I absolutely love the floral and butterfly print, plus they were an absolute bargain!

I hope you have enjoyed this post and please let me know if you think I should make this a monthly thing, explaining what I have been up to and so on :) 

The Wonders Of Reading

I love getting completely and utterly lost in a book. Reading allows us to simply escape for a little while. We become so engrossed in the story line and characters in the book, that we allow ourselves to forget about our own worries and troubles. More often than not, we can connect with a book on a personal level. Every single person that reads it can interpret the story in a totally different way to one another, and I think that is amazing. I love being inspired and having my thoughts provoked by a particular quote in a novel. It is pretty incredible how an author can make a complete stranger emote so much just by reading their material and diving into their imagination. In this day in age, many people do not read books anymore - everything is electronic. However, sometimes the simplicity of reading a book and retreating into a different universe for a while is all we need.

One particular book that I have really enjoyed reading lately is 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green. I managed to read the entire book in the space of just under 48 hours, I literally could not put it down! I went through a stage at school where I completely went off of reading. I'm not really sure why - I think that I just did not have the concentration to switch off from all things social media related, sit in my room and simply read. Never the less, I have gotten back into reading mainly because I have a lot more spare time on my hands nowadays. After reading 'The Fault In Our Stars,' I quickly decided that I loved Green's style of writing and how well teenagers and young adults can relate to the content in his books. I think it's safe to say I am now a big fan.

If any of you are debating discovering a new book or if you want to get back into reading, I urge you to give 'Looking For Alaska' a go. It was a very enjoyable read with many twists, turns and revelations which always kept me on my toes. I think that the story is very unpredictable  which is why I could not put the book down for long. If you read the book after seeing this post or even if you have already read the book, I would love to know your thoughts and opinions - so please do not hesitate to leave a comment below!

Writing Inspiration

I have read quite a few books lately, seeing as I have a lot of spare time on my hands nowadays. Each of these books have made me feel like I can relate to them in some way - the emotions that they portray of young adults, and the way their minds work, is really quite amazing. Seeing as this is swiftly becoming a very popular book, I though that I would mention 'The Fault In Our Stars' by John Green. I really liked the way in which the author did not make the story into a typical cancer story, it had a lot more depth and underlying messages than that. I am really looking forward to reading some more of John Green's work soon, I think that I am going to read 'Looking For Alaska' next! 

I have been considering writing something of my own for a long time but I think I need to put in a lot of ground work before I can achieve this. I did very well at English at school, but as I dropped out of college after a mere two months, I feel like I may need to do some writing courses and broaden my horizons before I can consider writing my own material (to a good enough standard.) I need to read more classic books to widen my vocabulary and so on. Also, I am lacking inspiration. I have no idea as of yet of what I would want to write about, but I am hoping this will come in time. All I know for now is that maybe I would like to pursue creative writing a little further...