Practically Alice

I have almost obsessively wanted to say goodbye to all of the people over this last week. I'm not sure why. I think, partly, it's because I'm a strong independent wooman who is moving to new placespeopleandthings. But I don't know. Yeah. (Gosh I'm eloquent this evening!) I'm sitting here in my room which, whence I return, will look different due to, you know, actually re-painting it after five or so years. All that I have on my desk is my laptop, glasses case, TARDIS mug, meds, lamp and socks for tomorrow. I'm prepared. My room is empty. It echoes. I have my belonging packed in boxes... it's weird. Am I ready to move? Yes. Do I want to move? ... Yes. I'm more hesitant about the latter. It's usually the case with change and me - I'm ready for it to happen, it needs to happen, but I'm not 100% on it actually happening. But I'd rather it happened than didn't, definitely. (You can tell my brain is fully awake and prepared for li...

There are plenty of times in life when you sit, reflect, and think back to either a) 'the good old days' or b) 'the crappy times of crap'. There are moments when you contemplate decisions that you have made and the consequences that have ricocheted from them. To use a cliche, you think back to all those pebbles you've thrown in the water and the ripples that were caused by it - and you even might have hit a fish or two on the way down... it happens. When I first decided to do a blog I was mainly thinking of it in terms of recording 'me' - recording my thoughts and feelings and, yes, venting a little in a very public domain. Sometimes I have these words and sentences in my head that just need to be written down. Whether or not they are of substance, whether or not they are eloquent, it's just nice to have them there and recorded. It is one reason why I have notebooks where I just write and write and write and write - and it doesn't matter what I say...

Ever since I was little I have watched/read/studied Shakespeare in some form or another; I've been really lucky that way. I remember whenever I was ill off primary school I'd watch the animated Shakespeare plays on CBBC. Secondary school also presented Shakespeare to me in film-form and in written form. It was finally my friend Jasmine, when we were both twelve or thirteen, who took me to see a Shakespeare play. I had the absolute pleasure of watching Sprite Productions perform  Much Ado at Ripley Castle for Jasmine's birthday present. We proceeded to go the year after to see Twelfth Night  - which included much hilarity due to the fact it was tipping it down (being summer in Yorkshire and all) and the opening song "the rain it raineth every day". I will never forget the magic seeing those productions created - the inspiration they gave me. In the eighteen years I have been alive I have seen roughly six Shakespeare plays performed, three times in a theater, o...

I remember the first time I got taught what an atom was. I was around eleven or thirteen years old and I was as keen as anything to learn. My science teacher held up a pen and asked people what it was made of, reduced the things down and down with a simple: yes but what's THAT made of? Until she described what an atom was; how everything we experience is made up of these tiny things called atoms. It blew my mind. I think there is something charmingly poignant about how much that one little fact opened my eyes; suddenly I was even more interested in everything. As the years progressed I learnt about neutrons and electrons and then the Higgs Boson came along and despite not knowing that much about it all I am so  interested in it. I love finding out about the world (one of the reasons why I love studying philosophy so much), I love that you can look up at the sky and know so much about it but know nothing at all - it makes you feel so small but so big at the same time. Reading ph...

I was about to start writing this post when I decided to turn my ipod on and, of all songs, Boys Boys Boys came on. Props to you Lady GaGa. Anyway, I was thinking last night about how the very romantic version of love we are fed is completely and utterly unrealistic. That's not to say that love does not exist, or you will die alone or anything melodramatic like that. But, honestly, there are over six billion people in this world; what are the chances that the person you may choose to call your 'soul mate' actually is? I don't mean this in a depressing way -- Romeo and Juliet can continue to be all star-crossed and all that sort of thing. Love does exist and I'd love to be in love because it feels great. But to say that our western culture feeds us an idea of 'true love' that is decidedly between one person and another person for their whole entire life is quite odd. I have one person in mind when I think of the possibility of whether without distance w...

I'm unsure if it is a nationwide event but every summer North Yorkshire County Council holds the Summer Reading Challenge in it's libraries. Ever since I moved to where I live now 14 years ago I have had some involvement with the SRC. From the ages of four to eleven I was an eager participant, then from eleven to fourteen I encouraged my sister to do it (though she tended to have a particular love for picture books until she discovered something she liked to read) and finally from fifteen to eighteen I have helped out as a volunteer, whether it be during the summer or encouraging people to do it. The aim of the Summer Reading Challenge is to get primary school aged children to read (I think) six books throughout the summer holidays. You get a pack full of stickers and a book log and you get little prizes every time you've read a couple of books. I always really, really enjoyed doing this. Not only did it make me addicted to reading and fall in love with the library, it go...

My wonderful friend Nicola is currently trekking around Europe. I am entirely jealous of her because of the experiences she is having and because of the incredible perspective she is gaining; we began talking about this trip of hers about a year ago and it has been a long time in the thinking and planning. Both of us being readers we tend to have book-goggles on and yes, our views of this trip were pretty overly optimistic! Saying that, Nicky has shown us on her blog  that sometimes it's best to have the best outlook and go with the flow. This is the attitude I uphold about pretty much everything. To me, being optimistic is what keeps me going. I fundamentally believe that things will work out okay. It does not mean that I don't get down or negative or sad because you can know things will be okay but also be sad or down. You can morn and appreciate that things are going to get better. Just as you can live in the present and go with the flow and know that even though things ma...