Travelling back in time.

As I don’t seem to have anything to say tonight, I thought I would get on with this Meme that I was tagged for by Emmy.  I have to write a letter into the past, to the 13 year old me!  This could be interesting!

So, the rules are:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Imagine you could send a letter back in time to yourself, when you were 13 years old.  What would you write?

3. Tag 5 other people to do this.

So, we’ll give this a go.

Dear Mini Alcoment

Don’t freak out.  I’m you, just the sort of grown up version!  This is as weird for me as it is you.  I think I’m meant to give you pearls of wisdom on what’s going to come up for you.  I’m not going to.  I have a horrible feeling that if I do that, there will be some weird space / time thing that will happen and I will suddenly find myself living another life, having altered events.  As much as it is tempting to tell you what to do (or not do, more to the point!) I don’t really fancy waking up in the morning and finding I am now a Nun, living in some obscure place or work in some kind of office!

So, what can I tell you.  Some small, but important things I guess.

In a year or so, you may get a sudden urge to get your hair cut short.  For Gods sake, whatever you do, DON’T DO IT.  It will not suit you and the hassle of growing it out is really not worth it.  Trust me.  Been there, done that.  Oh, and if for some reason you do get it cut anyway (and you probably will, we’re not great with being told what to do!) there is little you can do to make it grow any faster, tugging your hair on a nightly basis will not work!

A lad called Darren will ask you out in a bit.  Don’t bother.  All that will happen is that you will have a strange night, made worse by the fact that he will eat your burger because he drops his on the floor!  And he will still expect you to pay for half of it!

There will be a new Star Wars film that will come out in a few years.  Your friends will try to make you go.  Just be warned that if you do, you will fall asleep within the first half hour, drop your popcorn on the floor and look like an idiot when the person sat behind you complains about your snoring!  I’m just warning you…

That’s it really. The rest you’ll have to figure out for yourself – I did and it turns out ok in the end though.

Take care.

A x

PS  You’re going to hate me for this, but I can’t resist.  You know that crap people keep telling you about how you’ll regret playing truant from school so much?  Guess what, they’re kind of right, so get your arse into school tomorrow…

That’s it I think.  No tags.  If you want it, feel free to grab it!

This made my week.

Yesterday, waking up after a pretty crappy week, I found this! 

Heather, over at The Wishful Writer, has kindly awarded me the ‘You make me smile’ award.

Heather, what can I say?  Thank you so much.  Your blog always makes me laugh and yesterday you certainly made me smile!  Quick, everyone go over to Heather’s.  You’re guaranteed a laugh.

Trying a new thing.

A lot of blogs seem to have some sort of regular feature, whether it’s something like a Wordless Wednesday, blog reviews or a agony aunt slot.  I quite enjoy these and thought I’d give it a go myself.

So, my regular feature will be ‘Sunday Supplement’, a round up of more exciting bits of ‘news’ in the Sunday papers. 

A while back, I wrote about one of my Sunday rituals: my tabloid education.  I love getting the papers on a Sunday, not for the main news (there’s BBC24 for that!) but for the small stories down the sides, the celebrity gossip and just the pure trash factor.  There’s some great stuff in there, not much of it useful but I love it all the same and you never know, we might all learn something!

So we’ll give it a go and see what happens.  See you tomorrow!

Ooo, a pretty, shiny thing!

                                  

I have met some wonderful people in the blogosphere.  People that though I have never met them in real life, feel like friends.

I have been awarded the Be The Blog award by one of these people, Stealth.  Her blog is one of my regular reads and there’s always something there to make me laugh.  Stealth – thank you so much for the award.

The Be The Blog awards were created by Mark over at Me & My Drum.  This is a new award for bloggers who “make the blog their own, stay with it, are interactive with their readers and just plain have fun”.

So, in time honoured fashion, it is my turn to award this to other people who ‘are’ their blog.  I am going to award this to three women whose blogs I read as often as I can.  All make me laugh each and every time, are always welcoming and write some great stuff.  So, without further ado, I am passing this on to Fish, Heather and Agnes.

Woo-hoo!

Ok, so here we are (well, at least I hope you’re all here too!).  The move is complete and we can now have the party!  I’ve cracked open a few bottles but the nibbles haven’t arrived yet.  I’ll phone for pizza in a bit if necessary.

I’ll put your coats on the bed (don’t forget them, or I might sell them on Ebay!), the drinks are in the kitchen so help yourself and then make yourself at home!

Feel free to have a nose around, open a few doors and have a peak in the bathroom cabinet.  Some things have changed, some are the same.  There are a few tweaks here and there I want to make, but this is basically it.

Everything (including me!) has more or less survived the move, a few things lost and a couple of broken ornaments, but otherwise, everything is present and correct.

So let’s dim the lights, put on some music and make idiots of ourselves by dancing on the coffee table!

A quick announcement

I know I said that I would be back with a blog about my Saturday night at the local meat market, but too be honest I’m too tired to post properly. I’ve been up since stupid o’clock this morning to get down to London for training for work. And I’m back there again tomorrow (yes, I know. Moan, moan, whinge, whinge!).

The sofa and TV are calling to me, so that’s where I’m heading. I’ll tell you about Saturday night soon.

I just wanted to let you know that I’m moving.

Blog host sites that is.

I’m going across to WordPress. As much as I loved Blogger when I started, I want more things to play with and WordPress seems to offer more of what I want.

At the moment I’m only going across to WordPress’s free host site, but it means that I can get my blog to look how I want it to.

I’m having fun playing around and working on the layout of my new home. I’ve still got a lot to do, but will let you know before I go and then we can organise a blog warming party!

I think there is some kind of redirecting thing I can set for people that come here, but I’ll have to look into it some more.

I’ll still be blogging here until it’s time to move across completely (probably the weekend), but I just wanted to let you all know what I was up to!

And it’s another one!

It really does seem to be Meme season at the moment!

This will only be my third one, but I was tagged for the last two in a very short space of time. These aren’t my favourite things, but I will join in.

This time I’ve been tagged for the ‘List of 7’ by Emmy from Inside Emmy’s Mind.

The idea is that each person lists 7 random facts about themselves and then tags 7 other unsuspecting people.

So, here goes:

I am obsessed with chewing gum. I can easily get through a box of 25 pieces in a day and get quite panicky if I run out.

I have a secret love of trashy magazines, full of nothing but celebrity gossip.

I can roll my tongue into a tube and raise one eyebrow, but would love to be able to wiggle my ears.

I have a habit of buying DVD’s and then never getting round to watching them. At the last count I have about 8 that I’ve had for months but have never watched.

I have a thing about being early for appointments and leave my house ridiculously early to make sure I get there in time.

I’ve only had a passport for about 2 years and the first place I went to was New York.

I talk in my sleep. Apparently, people have had some really interesting conversations with me when I’ve been asleep. I can never remember them and just hope that I’ve never given away any of my secrets!

That’s it!

Now, this is where I’m supposed to tag 7 other people.

No, stop trying to hide behind the screen, I can still see you!

I’m not going to tag anyone this time. Nearly every blogger I come across at the moment seems inundated with Meme’s, even if it’s not something they normally do. If you want to play then feel free to consider yourself tagged.

I’ll be back in the next couple of days with a blog about my Saturday night out and the perils of ending up at the local meat market!

Meme take two!

So, let’s give this meme thing another try. I’m not overly fond of them, but seeing as I’ve only ever done one before, I better give them a chance!

I’ve been tagged for the ‘3 things you won’t let go’ meme by Stealth over at No Middle Ground Here

I’m supposed to talk to you about three things that I won’t let go of and, I guess, tell you why they’re important to me. I think I’m also supposed to put photo’s up too, I’ve done my best, but I’ve only really been able to do it for one thing – sorry!

So, here goes!

Certain music from when I was a teenager.

I was a teenager in the 90’s. Like most people, certain songs take me straight back to that time. I lost a lot of my music collection when I moved a few years ago, but am slowly replacing those that I sorely miss.

Blur, Pulp and Oasis featured heavily. At the time, you were supposed to be either a Blur or Oasis fan; I was genuinely both, much to the dismay of certain friends of mine. Nirvana was also played all the time. Also, specific tracks are linked to certain years. Take 1996. I was 16 and hearing Born Slippy by Underworld takes me back to the best summer of my life and The Prodigy’s Firestarter to the surrealist night I’ve known (I’ll tell you about them both one day!).

Both of these and many of the others are on my Ipod or in my CD collection. Now I’ve got them back, they’re not going anywhere!

This painting.

Please excuse the quality of the photo. I had to take it with my phone as I still haven’t figured out how to use my digital camera, despite having it for a couple of years!

My aunt painted this for me when I was born. As you probably can’t read what she has written, it says

“Wishes that are sincerely meant usually come true, may you have happy days, good health, good friends, all your life through”

It used to hang in my bedroom throughout my childhood and has moved with me wherever I’ve lived. It currently hangs in my bathroom, brightening up a very small space!

My aunt was in and out of my life when I was a kid, but I’ve always kept it. Now, my aunt is one of the main people in my life and she likes the fact that I’ve always kept the painting.

My memory box

At least I think that’s what they’re called, that’s what we used to call them when I was younger. I’d take a photo, but it’s really nothing to look at, just a plain box.

I guess it’s full of things that I don’t want to let go. It’s got stuff like old letters from friends, cards that mean something, cinema stubs and so on in there. Each thing means something, or reminds me of something I did or someone I know (or knew!).

Again, this is something that has moved around with me. I’m always slightly surprised that I’ve got one of these, I’m not overly sentimental and don’t tend to keep hold of things, nor do I feel the need to take millions of photo’s. I guess I figure that they’re just ‘things’, or props or something, but every now and again, I get an urge to put something in my box to have a look at again further down the line. God, I’m a soppy cow sometimes!

So there you go, there’s my three things. Now I’m supposed to tag some other people. I choose Fish, Heather and Emmy.

Sorry guys! If you don’t want to play, then no problem. Also, if anyone else sees this and wants to have a go, then feel free to grab it and join in.

Oh, and I was also tagged for the desktop meme by Rosie over at Nobody asked me, but unfortunately my laptop won’t play ball. Sorry Rosie!

Please excuse me for a moment!

I’m a bored blogger!

I’m playing around with my blog (I’m going all girly!) as I appear to have blog block. However, I seem to have lost all the little bits that are usually in my side bar! Please bear with me whilst I carry on playing and try to get everything back to where it should be.

Normal service will resume shortly, I just didn’t want you thinking you’d come to the wrong place!

Blogging Against Abuse – Rape, it can happen to anyone.

Today is the day that (hopefully) hundreds of bloggers will unite to blog against abuse. This is my post for Blogcatalog’s Blogging Against Abuse campaign.

It’s taken me a long time to decide what to write about, but in the end I decided to talk about something that has affected me personally. I decided to write about rape.

Rape has nothing to do with sex but is all about power.

When many people think about rape, they think about a woman (or man) being attacked by a stranger. However, the majority of women are raped by someone they know, whether that is a family member, friend or partner.

When I was 17 I was raped by an ex-boyfriend. Though we had split up, we still occasionally slept together; we just didn’t work in a relationship. On the night in question, he decided that ‘No’ didn’t apply to him and that he had the right to do what he wanted anyway. He couldn’t believe that I meant it when I said no or that he was doing anything wrong by continuing.

I never reported it to the police and it took me several months to even tell a friend. I didn’t feel that I would be believed. The lifestyle I led at the time would have been held against me. Unfortunately, many women do not report they have been raped and, for those that have the courage to do so, there is no guarantee that it will even reach court. In fact, research has shown that women are more likely to report domestic violence than they are rape. For many women, the fear of not being believed, or the fear of being judged, stops them. We’ve all heard the comments of “She was asking for it, look at what she was wearing” or “She accepted drinks from him, what did she expect?”.

Over time, I began to tell a few friends. I was lucky; the majority were very supportive and believed me immediately. Only two people said it was my fault, one said that I had no right to call it rape as I had been sleeping with him anyway, and the other said I had no right to deny him sex as it was ‘expected’. Bullshit. I was also lucky that only one person didn’t believe me at all, saying that I was trying to get back at him for breaking up the relationship. Though her perception was not right, I can sort of understand why she needed to view it like that. My rapist was her brother’s best friend, he was in her house a lot and I think she was scared.

I’m not saying that I knew it was not my fault straight away. I spent months feeling that it was my fault; that I should never have put myself in that situation or that I should have never said no in the first place. At first, I didn’t even know that it was still classed as rape if it was done by someone you knew. It was only through talking to friends, reading and, eventually, getting into counselling, that I saw it for what it was. All I knew at the beginning was that I hadn’t wanted it to happen.

Rape is always rape. If one party has said no, then it is not consensual. That is rape. It does not matter what relationship you have with someone, if they force themselves on you that is wrong. I have a friend who was systematically raped by her husband for many years. She eventually worked up the courage to leave him, though still does not feel able to go to the police. Mainly, because he was her husband and she does not feel that people will consider it to be rape. It was.

I have not written this as a ‘poor me’ exercise. I am trying to show that anyone can be raped, by anyone. Rape is what it is and it is never right or the victim’s fault.

If you have been raped and need some support or information, there are lots of places out there that can help. Just speak to someone, if you can’t talk to a friend then try one of the help lines below.

Rape Crisis
Rapeline