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Wednesday 17 April 2013

It's been a while. This is a bit of a review.

      Hello there, my angel-faced friends. First of all, I'd like to apologise for taking so long with this - as you know, I was away last week so couldn't post as usual on Thursday (is that usual? it feels usual, I don't know.) But I didn't get ANY writing done while I was away. Then again, I don't know why I expected to get any done when I was being beaten up by a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old. 
      Anyway, I've been pretty busy since I've been back, what with unpacking to wash things, then re-packing to come back to uni, then having an oral exam in Journalism, a looming coursework deadlines and two looming exams, I thought I'd just sit here, and list some things that I've been impressed by lately. Think of it as a review, the reviews have been popular in the past. 

                                
http://www.villageinnlynmouth.co.uk/

       So, the first item on my list - the weather. The weather in Britain has been a complete atrocity for ages. If you're not in Britain, then let me clarify this - our winter lasted from October, until last week. The sun has been out now for three days and by typing this, I'm completely jinxing it, and actually, as I'm typing, the sun is going behind a cloud. 

      Secondly, there's a little pub in Lynmouth, North Devon called The Village Inn. I'll include a link to the website here. Basically, I'm impressed with everything about this pub, to be honest. They allow dogs, they make all of their meals fresh in the kitchen and bring it to you hot, they make you feel like a regular in there, even if it's your first time. In short, it's my favourite pub in the world, and if you ever happen to go in there, try their Steak and Ale pie. Oh, sweet Jesus their pie! 

       Thirdly, is something which JUST happened. I got an email through yesterday from The Body Shop with their new 'Spin to Win' feature, so I did it and got 35% off of my order. I placed an order at 11:30am yesterday morning, and my order turned up at my house today at 4pm. That kind of turn around is amazing. I didn't pay for any kind of special delivery or anything. They only deliver to the UK at the moment, but their products are so good and all natural, and with the aforementioned spin to win offer, you can get money off or something for free, so check that out.

         I think for now, that is everything which I can explain fully, I've probably been impressed by a cup of tea or the vegetable lasagne I made last night but that's not going to be of any interest to you. Neither is any of this post, in fairness, but hey ho!
          I'll come and be creative at some point in the near future.
                                                    
                                                    Thanks for reading! Laura
                                                                                  xoxoxoxox

Thursday 4 April 2013

Grace


                Hey hey! How's it going? I thought I'd post this story this week, only because I'm going on holiday tomorrow morning, and I won't be here to post next Thursday. This is new to most of you, but only required a little bit of editing on my part. This received some good feedback when it was shared in class, so hopefully you'll like it. Drop me a comment if you love it, or if you hate it, all feedback is good feedback! 
                                            
http://myburnoutthing.com/burnout-and-recovery/burnout-recovery-tip-8-counselling-and-then-not-going-to-counselling/
                

       

          ‘I’ve been in love with Grace for one year, two months, three weeks, two days and half an hour. I first saw her in the supermarket, then two weeks later in the gym. I saw her two more times in the supermarket, and then, I saw her in my mother’s living room.
                I was scared to look at her but I could hardly look away. My mother is used to me being quiet, but I think even she noticed something was a little off.  I hardly touched my dinner and was scared to drink my tea, in case I spilled it or dribbled it, or choked on it; then I’d look stupid in front of her and she wouldn’t smile at me anymore.
                She looked different when I saw her in October. It had been three months and I was starting to worry that she’d gone away. She’d styled her hair differently this time and her make up was darker. She looked really beautiful, even though she wasn’t smiling. I wondered if she looked angrier because of something I’d done. I didn’t bother her this time, because she looked like she didn’t want to be bothered.
                I next saw her in December. She looked radiant; she was wearing a thick red jumper and was really beaming at me. I took her to lunch that day, and then back to my place, where I plucked up the courage to speak to her;
“You look really beautiful” I said, she only smiled in return. “That’s one of the things I like about you, you’re modest.” I told her. She was still smiling back at me, her face hadn’t changed at all but I didn’t mind. She had one of those really lovely smiles that brightened up the room. She was just so quiet; why wouldn’t she speak to me? “Tell me something about yourself” She still only smiled back. I didn’t know whether to be endeared or annoyed. We watched some TV together and then I took her for a walk to the park. We sat there on the bench for an hour or two, and then I went home, alone.
I felt bad about leaving her in the park, but then next time I saw her; in February, she was smiling at me again. She looked even more stunning now than she did in December – she was wearing a blue dress, it was a really nice blue too; it complimented her eyes and her skin tone perfectly. She was telling me about her New Year’s diet, and how she lost a stone in three weeks. I was fascinated by her words. I wanted to take her out again that day, apologise for leaving her in the park like that; I think she’s the one, so I wouldn’t want her to ever think badly of me. Just as I was about to take her from the store, another man took her away from me. I was crushed, because she’s mine.’
‘So what did you do then?’
‘Well, I followed them. I wanted to see where he was taking her, and what he thought he was doing, taking my girl away from me.’
‘Where did he take her?’
‘I don’t know. I decided that if she liked this guy, and he could make her happy, she should go with him. She might decide that she likes me better and come back to me. I’ve seen her around since, and she’s been smiling and wearing nice clothes; so I guess she was happy.’
‘Okay, Adam, this has been a good session. I’ll see you again next week.’ I closed my notebook and left the room. Three assistant nurses were moving towards me, anxiety and the need for gossip deepening their crow’s feet and loosening their hairspray.
‘Well, what’d he say?’ asked the eldest, ‘He seems so…so normal, I can’t picture him doing what he did!’ They stood staring at me, expectantly, their eyebrows raised in encouragement.
‘Look. He firmly believes – or he wants us to believe that he firmly believes – that he simply let the guy walk away from the supermarket – ‘
‘What, he doesn’t remember the fight at all? But he bit chunks out of the guy’s arm!’
‘I know that, but judging by what he’s told me, he was in a different mental state to the one which he is in now. My guess is, he really doesn’t remember what he did to this guy, and after a couple more sessions; I think I might be confident enough to swear it in court.’
‘Wow. Imagine if a bloke would react like that to you, Susie! It’d be scary, but really romantic too. You know, in a psychopathic sort of way. So, what does this girl look like?’
‘Well, you can see her in just about any newsagent’s, supermarket - basically anywhere that sells magazines.’
‘What, Why?’
‘She’s Grace McEllen. He saw her photo on the front of a magazine, and constructed an entire narrative in his head; wherein she was his girlfriend and not just a photo on the front of a magazine. Which explains why she never said a word to him, apart from to tell him about her diet. So, I’ll catch you ladies at lunch? I have my 2 O’clock now. Bye.’ I turned on my heel and left them standing there gawping. You’d think that working in an institute such as this would make them more ready for that sort of story. Evidently not.

So that's it! Hope you liked it; personally, I've never been overly happy with the ending, so if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them, like I said, drop me a comment! Have a great week, I'm hoping to find time next week to write part 4 of The Following with a view to uploading it on Saturday. I do have a post in mind, which I know quite a bit about, and would be able to get some accompanying pictures for next week, so that could happen as well. 
Oh! and while we're here, I wanted to share this with you, because I made it on this website to celebrate the start of series 3 of Game of Thrones


They're really fun to make and you can create yours on the link I put up there. It made me laugh more that my friends who created them were putting inspiring slogans like 'Strength to the end' and things like that, with a flaming torch icon, and I come along and give a panda a smoking pipe and talk about cake. That's where my priorities lie! I'd love to see yours if you make one, so if you can add pictures to comments, drop it in, and if not, mention @EmphaticPanda in a tweet or Instagram, if you have either or those! 

                                                   Thanks for reading! Laura
                                                                                   xoxoxoxox