Glastonbury Tor.

Hello World,

Glastonbury is one of my favourite places to go, amazing used bookshops and beautiful views. A long with their beliefs of witches, faeries and anything spiritual. I can't help but to make most of a beautiful day and go exploring there.


Claire

Love Yourself Valentine

Hello World,

Happy Valentines day! Today is a day where couples and many other people express love to their loved ones. I on the other hand am spending it alone. Which can be seen as a bad thing, but really it isn't. I have been single for a long time and at first I was one of those dreaded people who "hated" valentines day and called it a waste of money. Then as I got older, I have become more comfortable in my own space. So, that is why today I have kind of made it a day for myself. My day is doing things I enjoy, things that will calm and ease my mind into loving and generally making me feel good about myself.

I have been to gym already this morning, as loving the body I am in isn't always easy. Working out and trying to eat more cleaner is something I am working on, so I can learn to love my body even more. They say exercise releases chemicals in your brain that encourages you to feel happier. Today was an extremely intense work out on my part and I did leave feeling much more happier. I am also going to ensure that I will drink a lot more water.
I've even spent the rest of morning and early afternoon pampering myself, it was generally a bubble bath with particularly good book. I have included a face mask and body scrub!
Which kind of brings me to one my next favourite activities. Reading; I love escaping into a book and today I am probably going to be spending most of it behind a book. I am currently reading Jon Krakauer: Into the Wild and by far it has become my best read of 2016.

Drawing/colouring: I may want to sit down and try out some watercolours, who know lets see where this day will take me.
Placing yourself or making your area a happy place. I have currently lit up an incense stick and I am playing calming music. Feeling chilled and happy to be here. I am also doing another relaxing therapy for myself and that is writing. Here I am writing on this post and most likely will be writing in my journal later or in my dream diary.

If you are finding yourself single and feeling alone on this Valentines day, then I suggest you find activities or anything that you particularly love doing and get out there do it. It's a day of love, so why not make yourself happy and do something to make you love yourself.

Claire.

Catch a...

Hello World,

Creative Writing.. It's been a while and I feel rusty.

Catch a Star

And sing forever,

This rain may fall, 

But this smile is still holding.

Claire.

The Shelf.

Hello World,

It has been known that one of my goals to meet this year is to not buy any more books, until I have finished reading a large majority of books I have. I have created a shelf dedicated to books I have not read, only so it is easier for me to find a book I have brought and have not read. Plus it was easier to put away. 

Taking away the Harry Potter illustrated copy and looking behind it (look at the bottom photo), I have the shelf pretty full.

The top five books that I do want to read before the year is out is;

1. Raymond E. Feist: Magician; A fantasy book. I love a good fantasy book and I pick this one up a while ago in hopes of disappearing into another land.
2. Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase; I am a lover of Murakami and it wouldn't be right if I didn't read one of his books this year.
3. Timur Vermes: Look Who's Back; This book is kind of about Hitler coming back in the future and trying to take over the world. It's so wrong but sounds really funny and I kind of hope it fills me with giggles and not with horror.
4. Rosie Thomas: The illusionists; This book kind of reminded me of The Night Circus and that is properly why I picked it up. So I am aiming to read it and find out what it is all about.
5. David Mitchell: The Bone Clocks; I have brought a couple of his books after a reading a few quotes from his works. I am determined to read and finish at least one of his books this year.

Claire

Bookstagram.

Hello World,

Instagram is pretty much a fun place to share photos of our hobbies and of our lifestyle. Also what we mainly enjoy to eat, I know I have posted a few photos of my dinners. So it really isn't a surprise that I would completely enjoy posting my books and reading moments. Today it is just showing you some of them.

Claire.

#Book Review 19 Divergent.

Hello World,

I know, you're all thinking, why is she doing another book review on a young adult novel. I'll tell you why, I was in a panic of what my brother can get me for Christmas and I remembered liking the film so I said "Hey, get me those Divergent series!"

Problem solved. Just that I have to remember to actually read them. I am prone to owning books and forgetting to read them for about a year. It happens, I buy more books and read them first. My brother should be proud that I have read this book in the first month of the New Year!
So Divergent, a little romance and a little action, kind of my thing. I think it is? It doesn't really include any fantasy that I kind of like, but it is involved with a lot of Sci-fi goodness. 

It's kind of set in the future and it has divided people into five categories; Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Candor. Beatrice was brought up in a loving home with other Abnegation, until she was sixteen and then she had to take a test to find out where she belong and make a choice to join a division. When taking the test Beatrice learns that her test was inclusive and that she is actually a Divergent, so she leaves the Abnegation and joins the group known as Dauntless. Where she takes on a series of tests; of strength and skill to become a true Dauntless. This is where she meets another Divergent and surprisingly falls in love with him. But the danger is not over, there is a woman in Erudite who is hunting down and killing of Divergents and Beatrice needs to know why and how to stop her. 

For a Young Adult, this book was a breeze and a little light reading. I particularly enjoyed the way Veronica Roth had shaped up the way the city has become and how simple but still complicated the government is now run in that book. 
I was the person who had watched the film first and I can only imagine the characters the way they was in the film. But I had managed to create my own version of how the Dauntless compound had look and I can even imagine hearing the sound of roaring water. Roth has a talent for describing scenery and I was captured into the story by it.

Claire

Going to see Bloc Party.

Hello World,

Monday 1st February, Christina and I embarked on a mini adventure to see one our favourite bands. Bloc Party! 
Bloc Party had formed around 2003 and had realised their first album in 2005. Amazingly that was when I had first heard of them and since them I have been a huge admirer of their music. 
They have just released their fifth album and with two new members have completely created a whole new sound. Like most fans, I was a bit edgy. New music, new members etc.; however I was amazed and still loving their music as much as when I first heard them. It's a shame about the other fans though, some have not be quite as nice.

Never would I have thought I would get to see them perform. It never occurs to me that I can actually watch bands I like perform and I am rather lucky that I am not into the pop culture, because wanting to watch them live can be quite pricey! But getting the opportunity to watch performers as amazing as Bloc Party just never crosses my mind. I was just content in buying their music and listening to them. So, you just have no idea how happy I am and was to get to watch them perform. It was a night of dancing, jumping and singing so loudly there was no way it was in tune!


Claire

#Book Review 18. Lena Dunham, Not that Kind of Girl

Hello World, 


During my Christmas break I was concentrating on reading one book. Christmas actually really does feel like such a long time ago, that even thinking about when I read this book feel like it was ages ago.

Lena Dunham has kind of turned into an inspiration recently. When I first heard of Lena, it was when I was browsing through TV picks on Sky for something to watch. Girls, oh my god what a programme. It is about four best friends living in New York and trying to make a living through following their dreams. Lena plays a young writer called Hannah who filters through jobs and goes around having crazy sex, as well as battling through obsessive compulsive disorder. Girls is quite funnily one of my favourite TV programmes to watch, considering I am mainly a fan of The Big Theory, Ghost Whisperer and Supernatural. 
I began to see myself in Hannah in Girls, this dreamer who wants to write and create something everyone would want to read. Who is stubborn and consistent in making their own voices to be heard, but also can be arrogant and won't hear what other have to say. It was only natural that after reading the credits, (am I the only one who does that?) I have found out that Lena Dunham was the girl behind Hannah and the whole entire show.

Give me a few months and Google research. I have found out that Lena has her own memoir out and is also total besties with Taylor Swift. She is also hugely outspoken on her social media accounts. Which by the way, most of you all should follow. 
It only took one drunken night and I had purchased her book online and it had made it way to me via post. I am one of those guiltily drunken online shoppers, mainly this involves books. Although since the New Year I have stuck to my goal and have only purchased two books. 

Now this memoir was a truly interesting read. It reminded me of Caitlin Moran book, How to Build a Girl. The type of book you should read during puberty or just after because, there would be some scenarios in there that would make you feel, "Yes, I have been there" or "Now I completely understand why I feel that way."
Lena writes in such an honest manner and also quite blunt, which makes it so much easier to understand. She expresses herself well and how she grew up in an open household. She tells us ways in which her mum is a feminist and how she is also. 

Dunham had me laughing at page two and had me entertained throughout the book and also had me thinking very seriously as well. 

Claire.