Blogging at the weekends

Ok, it has become clear that weekends are not a good time for me to blog. Ever. I have also removed a post which was on here. I decided I didn’t like it so I pressed the delete button. I have been incredibly busy this weekend. I went to a Halloween party on Saturday night dressed as a cat. Michiel went as a clown, and had a horrific mask which scared me, and some people at the party said that they didn’t like looking at him with the mask on.

Anyway just a quick update!

Where is the most relaxing place in your world?

I have two relaxing places when I’m tired and stressed out. The first is obvious to me. Being curled up in bed with a good book or a film and my man. Nothing beats the feeling of being comfortable and warm with a glass of wine, and the boy next to me.
The second is less obvious to people who haven’t got the same surname as me. Whitsands Bay, in Cornwall is one of those places that just thinking about makes me relax, and I instantly feel the nostalgia. I spent the best part of my holidays there as a youngster delving into rockpools, damming up the stream into the sea, and climbing rocks. It was a place for adventures. I didn’t go there for a number of years,from age 15 up until last year with my mum. A lot had changed since the last time I was there. The main one was that I was a grown up.

Whitsands Bay

It was so lovely to read the visitors book from when we first started going down to Cornwall, especially Vanessa’s entries for Rusty, our dog. It would appear that he got into a lot of trouble when he was there with us! The first time Vanessa herself ever wrote in it she said that she wanted to go back home and see the frogs (we had frogspawn in our garden, which was dead when we got home.)
I have so many happy memories from there – playing endless rounds of cards with Chris, Jack and Gary, line fishing in rock pools with Sam and George, visiting Chick in his bungalow and going on day trips to Looe.
Even though so much had changed, so much had stayed the same. It is still my little corner of heaven, even if I don’t get to go as often as I would like, it is still the most relaxing place I know in the whole world.

Write a sentence for every year of your life

Thanks to mum for helping me put with some of these.

26: I moved in with a boy!
25: I went travelling
24: I went freelance
23: I moved to London
22: I graduated from University
21: I had my 21st birthday party.o
20: I started university
19: I passed my driving test
18: I went on my first holiday with my friends.
17: My grandpa died
16: I got my G.C.S.E’s
15: I had my first boyfriend
14: I won a trophy for student of the year for karate
13: I got my first job
12: I presented flowers at my Grandpa’s Mayor making ceremony
11: I started secondary school
10: I developed my fear of flying
9: I was in a production of a midsummer nights dream.
8: I went to London Zoo for the first time
7: I started Girl’s Brigade
6: I learnt to swim
5: I learnt to read
4: I went to school for the first time
3: My sister was born
2: I went on a plane for the first time
1: I learnt to walk
0: I arrived into the world.

The Night of the Ad Eaters 2011 in Amsterdam

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to The Night of the Ad Eaters. The website describes it as having a ‘crazy atmosphere.’
This event goes on until 2.30am serving up a mixture of adverts from around the world interspersed with DJ sets and dancing. It does sound pretty crazy, but sadly it was a bit of a disappointment.
When we got to the cinema we had seats upstairs on the balcony, but after it became evident that a lot of people had either not turned up, or were coming later on so we were moved to downstairs. This was a sign of things to come.
It started off with two guys on stage who were dancing, and as far as I could tell they were there to try to get the crowd going. Then there was a quick speech from the cinema manager and then we were all sat watching adverts. The ads started at around 10 – 10.30pm and I got to a point where I asked Michiel what the time was, and it was nearly midnight. By this time I was totally fed up with adverts. Within the first 10 minutes we were playing guess the brand. Granted there were some incredibly funny adverts, but watching them for over an hour definitely gets tedious.
Then the adverts stopped and the DJ started to play music, and I think they wanted people to dance around to give it that ‘crazy atmosphere’ that they had been talking about. The two dancers on the stage were trying really hard to get people going, but people just weren’t biting. Probably because they had just been sat in the dark for an hour and a half watching ads.
Eventually it got too much for me, and so the group I was with decided to stay in the bar area for a while. When we went back in to get our coats there was a really funny advert on for condoms, so we decided to stay a while longer to see what else there might be.
Sadly, it didn’t deliver and so we left before the end. It was a shame because I think it could have been a brilliant event. I think this time combining cinema and a party didn’t really work very well. The event needed to be much shorter with more breaks. There’s only so much advertising one person can take in any one time and watching ads for an hour and a half in one go, even if they are good, gets tiring. I think that this event could be really great, it just needs to manage to keep your attention without going too overboard.

Busybusybusy!

Today has been mega busy. I went to Expatica’s “I am not a tourist”event which was really great. I attended two presentations. The first was about improving employability, and the second was about the 30% ruling (basically a major tax benefit, which I won’t be able to take advantage of because I was unemployed when I arrived in the Netherlands) and this morning I caught up on Skype with my mum and sister.
The expatriate fair was really good, with some really valuable resources. I have yet to sort through all of the paperwork I received so this is really just a quick update.
I’ll resume normal operations tomorrow.

Do you agree with the 99% and the Occupy Movement?

When I read on Facebook that one of my friends was annoyed at the fact that the Occupy London Stock exchange movement were camped out at St Paul’s Cathedral I immediately leapt to their defence, since I know some people who were there. I was told that they were forced to St. Paul’s by police. Canon Fraser told the police that the protestors were more than welcome to stay there.
I saw this and thought that some of it made a point. Particularly this:
‘Those assholes almost destroyed our economy. Do you remember the feeling of panic? John McCain wanted to suspend the presidential campaign so that everybody could focus on the crisis. Hallowed financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch went belly up. The government started intervening with bailouts, not because anybody thought “private profits and socialized losses” was fair, but because we were afraid not to intervene – we were afraid our whole economy might come crashing down around us if we didn’t prop up companies that were “too big to fail.”

So, even though you and I had nothing to do with the bad decisions, blind greed and incompetence of those guys on Wall Street, we were sure as hell along for the ride, weren’t we? And we’ve all paid a price.

All the” 99%” wants is for you to remember the role that Wall Street played in creating this mess, and for you to join us in demanding that Wall Street share the pain. They don’t want to share the pain, and they’re spending a lot of money and twisting a lot of arms to foist their share of the pain on the rest of us instead. And they’ve been given unprecedented powers to spend and twist, and they’re not even trying to hide what they’re doing.’

Which to me makes total sense.
I have seen the initial statement that the Occupy London Stock Exchange have made.

It seems to me that for different people it means so many different things, and this is where their weakness, and strength is. I think that some of the points they make are extremely valid and this is why the movement has so much support. There is something in their initial statement which every person agrees with. You don’t have to agree with it all, but there will be at least one point which you think that they’re right about.
I read this on the Guardian website that ‘People always impatiently ask what the occupiers’ “demands” are, and why collectively they seem unwilling, or unable to provide quick-fix solutions. These questions miss the point. First, there are lots of occupiers, all from different social and political backgrounds, who understandably need time to thrash out what it is they want to achieve together. The camp gives them that time. Second, if there’s one thing that does unite almost all of them, it’s their rejection of capitalism – although they are wary of how they couch this. Nevertheless, a huge “capitalism is crisis” banner hangs over the entrance to the site…’

So if capitalism isn’t the answer then what is? Communism? Because for me, that isn’t the answer at all.

And my friend made another good point. Because of the protestors, St. Paul’s cathedral is now closed until further notice, which is a real shame. They have requested that the protestors leave the area so that they can re-open.

While I agree with some of the points made by the 99% movement and occupy London, I think it’s very difficult to implement change, and it begs the question – what will this protest really achieve? And what will they do next?

Does technology help you write?

I’m sufficiently dosed up on several lotions, potions and pills (being ill in Holland is an adventure, but that’s another story). If technology helps you to write then even though I have been ill recently, I should still have blogged over the last few days.
There are two points here. Firstly, I own an iPod which I sometimes use to blog on (therefore a technology easy to get to from my bed). Secondly, I chose not to. I’ve been using my iPod to access Facebook and e-mail. I was looking at my e-mail, and occasionally updating my status on Facebook. I wanted people (mainly my mum) to know that I was still alive. I didn’t really worry about blogging.
However, normally I feel fresh as daisies, and even then I think technology is easy to ignore. BUT it does make it easier. I have so many options. Do I use my WordPress app on my iPod to blog? Do I e-mail my blog? Do I switch on my computer to blog?
I suppose in some way I am a bit traditional when it comes to blogging. I like to sit up at my laptop. I have a big screen, it’s easy to view all of the text and I can really get into it. Maybe this is why I chose not to blog, because I didn’t feel like sitting at a laptop for too long while I was feeling sick.
I know some people swear by a particular software which helps them blog. I really don’t need any software which makes me want to sit down and blog. Once I turn my laptop on the urge to write is always there, regardless of anything else. For me, the action of sitting at a laptop or computer is enough.