Adele

The fabulous singer-song writer was in the news today after matching the 1990's star Madonnas record with 9 weeks at number one in the UK album chart.

As explained by BBC News: "Her second album, 21, has now spent the same length of time at the top spot as Madonna's first greatest hits record, The Immaculate Collection, in 1990."

She was first noticed at just 19 years-old as the winner of the BBC's Sound of 2008. Both of the singers albums '19' and her latest, '21' have been     hugely popular in several countries topping charts and selling up 1.5 million copies.

Adele is extraordinary, yet when I first heard her voice it didn't appeal to me so much and she wasn't really an artist that I took time to identify with but with her recent success and her absolutely beautiful music my interest has grown and I can confidently say her voice is amazing.

Her most recent song, 'Someone like you' is extraordinary. Her performance at the 2011 Brit Awards was a powerful and emotional display of true talent. It's been highly viewed on you tube and it's a performance I cannot get enough of.

It's one of those songs that you have to stop what you are doing and listen to it, listen to the words that Adele sings and listen to the tone of song. It's powerful and I think you'd agree it tugs on your heart strings and it really makes you feel especially for all those people out there which can identify with the words.

I mention this song in particular but all her other songs are similar, the capture you for a couple of minutes and they strike a reaction because the words mean something and the way the Adele sings them is honestly wonderful and full of feeling.

Next time you hear one of her songs, actually listen to the words they aren't just thrown together to make a good sounds, they tell a story.

A decision well made.

With the first year at University nearly over, I ask myself: "Where has 6 months since we started really gone?" Okay so, technically Uni doesn't finish until June/July but with Easter only a week away meaning 3 weeks at home and with final deadlines in early May there isn't that much of Uni time left to be honest.

The days at Uni fly by, rolling in to one another and becoming a jumble of memories. The nights out all seem like the same now, and it's difficult to tell them apart. With hundreds of photos all looking the same, they hype and excitement of that new adventure is pretty much over now.

Being a fresher was a hugely new experience, one full of new faces, new places, failed attempts at cooking, cleaning and washing clothes, drunken nights, lots of giggles and a huge amount of learning.

I came to Uni, excited and ready to embrace a new life but at the same time I was pretty clueless, I couldn't cook or use a washing machine but I learnt pretty quick, lets be honest I didn' really have a choice in the matter.

To begin with I was embarrassed to cook in front of my flat mates, they all seemed to be able to cook up amazing meals, while I stuck to my pasta, pizza and cheese toasties. Soon though, I realised half of them were just as bad as I was and we learnt together. Who needed to be embarrassed?

When your parents drive away, leaving you in a small room in flat full of complete strangers it's extremely daunting and terrifying. I remember thinking: "Oh my god, what the hell am I going to do now."  What I did do was go in to the kitchen, said hello to those that were in there, made a cup of tea, got to know the strangers, went to the SU bar, got drunk, when to a club, got a bit more drunk and the rest is history.

It didn't take long before it felt like we'd known each other for years. Living in a flat, so close to people, seeing them each and every day, eating with them, socialising with them, it's pretty much impossible to not get close to them.

Something I learnt however is that when your put in to a flat with 7 other people, and floor with 14 other people there is a huge difference in personalities experiences and characters. Therefore, it was silly of me to assume we'd all be a happy little family.

You learn to adjust, and except the differences and disagreements and you learn to live with people you wouldn't neccessarily chose to. I think that's all part of the Uni experience. It's amazing the amount of different people with different backgrounds that you meet. You learn from people and they learn from you because everyone here is different and everyone has different stories to tell.

Of course, you don't come to Uni to learn to cook and clean or learn to live on your own you come to do a degree and start a future for yourself and of course that's exactly what I came to do.

Whilst living at home, working 5 days a week I often though to myself: "What am I doing and where am I going." Now though, although I complain I'm running out of money or I have too much work to do, I know I'm doing what I want to be doing. Not like in school when you had to do the things you hated like Maths and Science. Now, I'm working towards what I want to spend my life doing, which is writing.

I used to think I had a long way to go, and now although I still have a lot of work to do I finally know that I am in the right place at the right time. There is the work I don't enjoy but I have to do but then there's the work I love to do - the creative stuff!

All of a sudden there's opportunities opening up to actually get work out there and with work experience offers coming back positively it all makes it worth while and reminds me why I worked so hard to get here in the first place.

On a whole, coming to University has completely changed who I am, I will not for second argue with anyone that says I am different person. I know who I am, what I am doing and where I am going and this time last year I could not have said that.

So, with the first year nearly over I can definitely say coming here was the best decision I have ever made and now I've taken that step away from my comfort zone I feel like I can do anything and I can't wait to see what this summer has in store for me!

Christian Lacroix

While writing a piece on the rise and fall of french designer Christian Lacroix I figured writing my blog about it my give me a little more inspiration and help the piece flow a little better.

A fashion fairy tale memoir, Christian Lacroix and the tale of Sleeping Beauty is the traditional tale of sleeping beauty but incorporating the life success of the designer, illustrated by the man himself.

Through his drawings and designs he expresses his ideas, feelings and emotions. If you really look at the image you begin to see what he is trying to say or what he he trying to make the reader feel.

 I need to look closely at what the designer is trying to say through his illustrations of the book.

Here are a few illustrations taken from the book that I have found on the internet. Using the words from the pages of the book sometimes they help to search for some meaning within the images:

Some people say it with words, Christian Lacroix says it with art. My job now is to work out what exactly he is saying and write about it. My plan was writing it in a different context such as my blog would inspire me a little, I am hoping when I start back on the article it will just flow.

I think This is What We Call The 21st Century

After reading an article from this months Company magazine inspiration came to me.

The article is a column by Jameela Jamil titled : "Cyber schmyber!" She discusses comically the way technology has changed communication in the world, and not in a positive way.

We get too wrapped in facebook, email, skype, twitter, apps and BBM - whatever happened to writing letters, face to face communication. You know where you have conversation and as Jameela pointed out: "I'm sick of writing LOL and LMAO. I'd much rather laugh out loud with a real person."

 I'm not for a second moaning about it because I am guilty of this. I am a facebook addict, I have recently discovered Skype and a blackberry will be heading my way shortly. I spend way too much time pointlessly scanning facebook for updates on peoples lives.

Just because their latest status reads: "Just been to the hairdressers and having a lovely afternoon off." Means that we know what's going on in their lives. Or because they have a new photo album from party they went to Saturday night, we know what they've been doing. All points Jameela made, that I totally agree with and can identify with.

What did are parents do when they were are age? They certainly didn't float around in a world run by technology and if you think about it all the other aspects of life are still there but we don't embrace them.

Even as a child I wasn't playing computer games, I played in the garden with friends and played with toys that provided hours of entertainment. What do children do these days? I dread to think.

I miss writing letters and recieving letters, I miss hearing my friends latest news first hand rather than by computer screen and miss the art of conversation.

I think this is what we call the 21st century and everyones adjusted well.

Inspired by an Interview

Today I interviewed an author from Southampton called Penny Legg.

Something she said: "If you write about something that doesn't interest you your enthusiasm will not be reflected - write about the things that you are interested in."

Doesn't that just sum up the fact why I didn't exactly love the first semester. Too much news writing, I can't write about things that I don't feel for.

Penny is an extremely knowledgeable lady and very interesting she has a lot to tell from the stories people tell her to the stories of how she gathered the information for her books. As I sat in the Art House Cafe in Southampton sipping coffee with her I was thinking: "Wow, I would love to know the things this lady does, I would love to have the experience she has." It was truly inspiring.

Something else she said: “You always think you know everything but as you get older and the more you learn you realise you don’t actually know that much.” 

I liked that. It's so true though isn't it. You always think you know it all until you meet someone else who teaches you something and you think: "Wow, I don't know that much." We are always learning though aren't we? We learn from experiences and other people.

Penny has written three books, 'Folklore of Hampshire' 'Southampton, then and now' and her most recent 'Haunted Southampton' with two others due to be released later this year. 'Winchester: History you can see.' and 'Voices of Southampton'

She is also an editor, photographer and a tutor and has had many articles published in various different publications. She has lived in many different countries including the Carribean Island, Anguilla where she took courses in Scuba Diving which became a big interest of hers. 

It really was inspiring to talk to this lady and the interview gave me more enthusiasm and determination to be an excellent writer. 

I have written a piece on Penny and her books for Solent Splash. 

http://www.pennylegg.com/index.html

Time

There really isn't enough hours in the day to do and say it all.

A forgotten love.

Today I learnt that I miss reading.

Okay so maybe not something I have learnt but more something I have realised. I can almost here my parents crying out: "At last - she'll read a book!" The truth is though, I love reading - obviously I do! I love writing so I should love reading. Over the years I have got lost in many novels but the phase seems to come and go.

I ask you though, do you always find time to read? It seems to me that my days go so fast before my eyes that they start to merge in to one and before I know it all the things I've been wanting to do don't happen because I get wrapped up in a life of routine that the unusual never happens.

I read a book today, not a thick 400 paged novel but a short fairy tale take on the life of fashion designer Christian Lacroix: "Christian Lacroix and the tale of Sleeping Beauty." By Camilla Morton, illustrated by the man himself. I will admit, I read it because I pretty much had to for a piece I will be writing about the designer for Rapture Magazine, but I'm glad I did.

Reading is a way to escape reality, you can lose yourself in the life of someone else and sometimes when you get so deep in to a story it's as if you are in the book itself. This isnt news to me, I know what it's like to get lost in the pages of book so why don't I do it more often?

As I said before I get wrapped up in routine and there's never the time to sit down by myself and read. Yeah, I read magazines but it's kind of different. A magazine you can read in company and share it with people but a book is more personal and private.

Reading is forgotten love that definitely needs re-kindling. If only there were more hours in the day.

Experience is everything

Experience is the key to everything in life, wouldn't you agree?

It's like people always say, you might pass your driving test but your not a good driver until you have been driving on your own for like a year. You're not wise until you've explored the world and seen the harsh reality. You're not going to make it in an industry solely based on a First in your degree, it's the experience that means the most.

I think I've always known this, you can learn more from experience than you can from sitting in a class room and listening to someone telling you how to do something or how to be something. Yes, you do have to go to School, College or University to have the education behind you but without the aid of first hand experience, what makes you any different from all the other people with the same education?

This being fact, encourages me to gain all the experience I can in life, from jobs, people, events, places, travel and holidays - there's different experience and different lessons in everything that we do. This is why since starting my degree I have been trying to organise work experience and after many emails and many rejections the work experience offers are finally gracing my inbox.

Today has been a good day, maybe because I have secured my first week of work experience, (if only at Perfect Weddings Magazine in Bristol) the sun was shining, I'm on top of everything on my to do list or maybe because every things falling in to place and making sense.

Whatever the reason, it's made me smile a lot and from experience happiness is one of the keys to success :)

Paris

So far in life, I haven't travelled or seen that much apart from whats right in front of me. Slowly I'm hoping that will change, now that I have taken that step away from home I feel like anything is possible.

Starting with Paris last week with my University Course - three hectic and tiring days but exciting, inspiring and truly wonderful. The city of Paris is like nothing I've experienced, it gave me a sense of history, culture and love. I suppose it is said that Paris is a city of love. Now I've seen this for my self.

It's true, I lost count of the amount of couples I saw, freely expressing their feelings in public. Honestly, there were so many people kissing in the street, on a benches, by fountains and up the Eiffel tower and who can blame them. It's beautifully romantic.

From the moment I arrived I was learning things about the new city stretched out before me. The first night we travelled on the metro - which is an experience I can tell you - to the Trocadero so see the Eiffel tower by night, tired and hungry I was slightly lacking in enthusiasm but as we turned the corner I looked up at the stunning historic tower towering above me I forgot my complaints and I was speechless.

I have only heard about the Eiffel tower and seen pictures but to be stood there, beneath it all lit up and standing proudly it's a striking image, one that I will never forget. There's nothing like seeing it with your own eyes. It's then that you understand the beauty.

The whole weekend opened my eyes to the beauty of Paris, the historic and stunning buildings, parks, statues and fountains, the tradition and lives of the French. It felt rewarding to finally be able to say I had experienced the beauty for myself.

I will be going back.