Favourites of the Week

Favourites of the Week

Okay, I need to think of a better name for this at some point. But I thought it would be fun to put together all my favourite things for each week - you should all check them out!

Best Buy: Jackie annual 1978

Ebay

I’ve been collecting vintage girl’s annuals since I was about 9 – I love them for the fashion tips and old stories. This one hasn’t actually arrived yet, but it’s been ordered and I can’t wait to read it!

Song: Above The Clouds by Turin Brakes

I only discovered this one recently, and it’s one of those songs I can’t stop listening to! Both the lyrics and the tune are gorgeous

TV Show: 

Not Going Out Series 9 Episode 2: Escape Room

BBC1 (Iplayer)

One of those shows that had me laughing out loud the whole episode!

Book: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

“Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.” (Amazon)

I might do a book review on this at some point, but for now I’ll just say I loved the story. It was brilliantly written, and one of those books that’s set disturbingly recently for the story it tells, taking place in 2011. It’s more than just an issues book, though – the main character feels brilliantly vivid and real, and the book has so many other quirks that make it well worth reading.

Quote of the week:

(Pinterest)

Outfit of the week:

 (Hat: Depop, jacket: New look, patches: Ebay, top: H&M, skirt: forever 21)

DIY of the week: twirling Flying bird

(https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Origami-Flying-Bird)

I found this for one of the kids at the nursery where I volunteer, who’s really into paper aeroplanes at the nursery. It’s really nice and easy to make, even for kids of that age, looked great at the end and flew really well too. Great for kids and really fun to make J

Place of the week: Norfolk Broads

I picked this one because it’s almost our 10-year-anniversary of the first time me and my family went there on holiday. We’ve gone nearly every year since, and it’s just one of those places where I feel truly happy.

Thought for the week

Being the Outsider

Really, really sucks. It’s like I can’t stop pushing people away, even when being with them makes me so, so happy. It’s like I’ve got a phobia of getting close to people, and that means I always, always end up on my own. It’s like I’m so low that even the smallest bits of criticism push me so far over the edge that I can’t get back, and so that means that I push myself further away from it all, just to cope, just to stay where I am. Because being in the real world, doing anything to try to make things better, is just going to push me further down. Because all it does is show me just how far I have left to go. And that maybe, just maybe, I can never get there.

 And I have to stay strong. I need all the hope, all the fight, left that I can get. I need to cling on to it; can’t lose even a scrap of it. That’s the only way things can ever, one day, get better.

 But at the same time, that means that I just stay where I am. I never move forwards; and, as time passes, unless I go forwards, the only way left for me is back. And I have, have, to stay at the front.

 But the fear of knockbacks keeps me paralysed and stuck, because I’m so afraid that I’m not strong enough to cope with them.

 And every knockback just sends me further down.

 And every risk I take just shows me how out of my depth I am.

 But even if on the outside, I’m going nowhere, one thing you need to know about me is that inside, I never, never stop fighting. And I never will.  Because I have so much to fight for. There are so many awesome, amazing things in my life that I can get. My past is filled with them. Memories, friends I had, people and places and things that were just so brilliant, so wonderful, that even at my lowest I still have them in me. Even in my present, I catch glimpses of them. People who have clung on, no matter how hard I pushed them away; stories and nature and the whole world around me, which always will be with me. Shadows of everything I know I can have, one day, if only I find a way to fight for it.

 And that is what fuels my future. Because when you know that the only thing standing between you and your dreams, is you, you know that you HAVE to keep fighting. Even if it is the hardest battle you have ever fought, and maybe ever will fight.

 Even if the only progress you make is in knowing that you’ve added another stick to the flame that is keeping your hope alive.

 I am, like so many others in the world, a silent warrior. Months can pass without my fight ever even getting close to the surface. But I am fighting. And I will never, ever give up.