Rule #32 - Books.

I want to do a series of posts based on a quote from a favourite film of mine: Zombieland – ‘Rule #32 enjoy the little things’. I plan on labelling all the post’s that relate to this with ‘Rule#32’ so you can use that if you want to read them all together. It’s become apparent to me lately that when you start to focus on all the positive small parts of life, it makes your outlook all the more brighter. So this is what this series of posts will be, an appreciation of the small things in life that I think are wonderful. I hope it inspires someone out there to begin looking at the little things, or to even take a step back and think ‘oh yea, that is quite nice’.

                The first thing I wanted to write about was books. Not kindles, or smartphone aps that you can read on…but actual physical books. Before you even start to read the story between the covers, have you noticed the way it feels to hold a book in your hand? I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the feel of holding a brand new book that just feels awesome. The way it’s perfect – no creases on the cover from turning the page, no fingerprints or marks, just a perfect front cover.

                Then there’s the smell. I know there’s a few people in my office that adore the smell of new shoes (I brought in brad new trainers…that was an experience) but there’s also people like me who can tell the smell of a new book a mile away. It just one of those smells that kind of hit you. And you can’t describe it either – you can’t say it just smells like paper…and you can’t say it just smells like ink. It’s a very distinguished smell that if you know it, you’ll be able to envision it right now as you’re reading this. It’s something you just know – like the taste of hot food, what does ‘hot’ taste like?

                I love the way books look on a book shelf, there’s something quite ornamental about them. You can’t really deny it that a good looking bookshelf is a good feature (well I guess you could have your opinions against it) as I see post after post after post of bookshelves on tumblr on a daily basis. When I finally get my own place, that’s what I want. A floor to ceiling bookcase – at least. I would love to have my own library, that would be the dream. My own little quaint library with a big old comfy, high backed chair with a log fire – heaven! This is where my personality kind of comes through, my perfect escape would be a library and not some paradise island with sandy beaches.

                So all that’s before you even turn the first page. This is where the real magic is. Have you ever lost yourself in a book? Gotten so involved with the story line, you can feel the characters emotions? Not being able to put the book down so reading until the early hours? I definitely have. It’s an escape, after all. You get the chance to forget about your life, and live someone else’s. As you turn the pages, you get further into the plot – and the further you get into the plot, the more you want to carry on.  I’ve never understood how my brother could never get into a book. He didn’t like to read and the only time he ever did was if he had to for education…or if it was a comic to do with his video-games. To not read, to me, means you’re missing out on whole new worlds and adventures. In films, you can easily be put off by the casting, but with a book you can imagine it to be whoever you want it to be (this is probably why I think a lot of films are crap…cause I’ve created this ideal picture of the book in my mind that no physical creation can ever live up to)

                To a few people, this will sound really creepy, talking about the feel and smell of an inanimate object like the way I have. It’s just that I’m very passionate about reading…it definitely is my escape. And even though I do have a reading app on my Samsung, I love to have the hardcopy. The app’s convenient for when I’m travelling and can’t exactly fit five/six books in my bag, or if I’m not carrying a bag but want something to do on a long train ride…but just because an app is simpler or more convenient, I wouldn’t give up my books for the world.

Short Arse

Lately it’s been quite apparent that I’ve not been feeling too great. I’ve not had the effort / energy to do anything that I wanted to do (including keeping this blog updated) and even started feeling crap about things that have never bothered me before. For example…my height.

                From the bi-line of my blog, ‘the world from a 5ft1 point of view’…you can see how short I am. I had my last growth spurt when I was in primary school, so around 11 or 12. I’ve not grown since. Kind of grew at one point, I was once 5 foot 2. And then I shrunk. Both times I’ve been measured by a doctor and I lost an inch between visits. Even the doctor was confused on this.

                Being so small makes things a little…I wouldn’t say difficult…but more of an inconvenience. At work, most of my colleagues are a good foot taller than me, so this means I can’t reach the coffee cups, or the milk if they put it in the top fridge, or to look in the meeting room books… I’ve gone around the whole office and accommodated it to my height. I’ve moved the printer screen down ; I’ve moved the mugs to somewhere I can reach ; I’ve put the extra tea bags in the bottom cupboard instead of on top of the fridge. I’m probably driving all the tall people insane. I even have my own special chair. True story…I had to have a new chair ordered for me because my legs are too short and it would have affected my posture…with a foot stool…cause I can’t reach the floor. TINY LEGS!

                After having a giggle about how absurd it is that I have a special chair for my tiny legs, I have started to look in the mirror and resent how short my legs are. That I can’t go to the shop and buy a pair of pants of leggings without having to get them altered before I wear them…or in the same way…my arms are short to the point that ‘3/4 length sleeves’ are still too long for my arms. In a fashion way, it really is a pain in the backside. But also with weight and body shape. I know full well that if I was a half a foot taller…I’d be a few dress sizes less. That my body fat would be distributed differently and I would appear slimmer. It really has put a downer on me being happy with my body, and I don’t actually know how or what brought this on.

                So I thought that it’s about time I snapped out of it. so for a start, I thought….why not find short role models. And to my surprise there’s quite a few. Just for those people who are interested too…I’ll put some names out there:

Scarlett Johansson – this is one of the most beautiful women, in my opinion, that there is. And she is just under 5’3.

Christina Aguilera is at a height of 5’2

And some of the beautiful women that are the same height as me include the likes of Hayden Panettiere, Hilary Duff, Eva Longoria, Jessica Simpson and the Olsen Twins.

                I don’t know why, but looking at these women and knowing they’re the same height as I am (or around the same height) started to make me a feel a little bit better about how short I am. Possibly because there is some of the most beautiful, talented bunch of ladies that are named to be the under 5’5. Is this part of the whole ‘media and body image’ issue again? Am I subconsciously wanting to be taller just because that’s what I see on tv? I don’t know. I did get turned down for a modeling job not long ago for being too short – even though it was an ad for short women… (too short for a short ad….how does that work?) they told me I needed to be at least five foot five to be considered. Well then. That might have been the start of this irrational body hate towards myself. All I know is that it’s silly and I need to start embracing my short legs.  

What's In My Bag?

I’ve heard this question a thousand times: WHAT DO GIRLS EVEN CARRY IN THEIR BAGS!? It’s safe to say that the majority of us ladies carry around a humongous bag filled with a bunch of crap that we most likely will not even need, but can’t seem to leave behind. So for the many guys that ask the question and are genuinely curious of what females have in our bags…I thought this might be handy seen as, y’know…I’m female and all.

                This is more of the ‘what’s in my purse’ YouTube tag that I keep seeing around, but as a written version. This is just a random days’ worth of junk, and I’ll probably fill my bag with different things tomorrow but, hey ho – here we go:

                1. First off is my trusty tub of Vaseline. I bought this little flip lid tub for 50p when I was buying hair dye because I CONSTANTLY dye my face as well as my hair. Putting Vaseline around your hair line is the best tip I can give you when you’re dying your hair, it stops dye from being able to set on your skin and is easy enough to wipe away once you’re done. It’s such a handy thing to have, and I will transfer this item to whatever bag or coat I’m taking out, because you never know when you might need it. I happen to lose a lot of my piercings for one reason or another, so need to pop another bar in the piercing and Vaseline makes this process a whole lot easier and quicker.

2. Following from that, I have a little plastic bag filled with differed bars (for piercings), just in case. I generally buy all my jewellery for my ears at ProBody in Bradford town centre. I have five piercings in my right ear at the mo, and they do a great deal when you’re buying a ton of stuff at one time. Now that I’ve stopped dying my hair, I’ve moved onto piercings, and I have weird urges just to go get pierced when I’m walking past my local tattoo and piercing studio. Though I’m not all that keen on facial piercings these days, I still think they look pretty cool on a select few people though I won’t be adding any to myself any time soon. I went through a phase when I wanted a Monroe piercing, and my eye-brow doing, and my anti-brow and…oh dear me – my grandma would KILL me.  

3. A book. And the book I have this week is ‘I’ve got your number’ by Sophie Kinsella. This was a complete impulse buy when I was at Tesco picking up some lunch (I’m dangerous with money, I just spend spend spend). To say I barely even read the blurb before chucking it in the trolley, I’m actually really enjoying it. I really do get my teeth stuck into a book and my emotions change to correspond with what the character’s going through – a bit of an unhealthy obsession really. But I love to read, especially on public transport (I’ve been wanting to write some book reviews in fact, not sure yet, what d’you think?). This book does something that I’ve not really seen all that often. There will be little numbers next to a specific sentence in the book which will be referenced to a little explanation at the bottom of the page. It’s like a little background info on something that may be out of context which I find really useful and rather hilarious.

4. I have the generic girly things like make-up wipes – B.Quick 4-in-1 cleansing wipes. These wipes are fab and do wonders for my skin, highly recommend them. These are for those little emergencies…like if it rains and you become a panda and other things along those lines (ladies, you feel my pain. I know you do). Alongside them, I have my everyday make-up bag which I carry with me in case I suddenly see a mirror and realise how shocking I look.

5. Weirdly, I have my little War Hammer figurine. I was taking it somewhere with me the other day to continue painting it and just never got round to taking him out of my bag. I call him Jim. Yea, I’ll put in a picture of Jim. He’s only got base colours on at the moment so looks a little crappy, though he’ll look super when I get round to putting the detailing in and things like that. It’s something I got into when I was younger with my brother buying them when he was 15 (I think) and I thought it would be good to give it a try. I find that painting them is very therapeutic. I don’t play though. I don’t have the time to look through the rule book, or even go to matches…too busy with work. But I do enjoy painting them. So I’ll make them look pretty and pass them on to my other half to play with. Not what you expected, right?

6. I have the boring stuff that just needs to be in there. My security pass for work (I have to put it in my bag the night before so I don’t forget it). My keys so I’m not sat on my doorstep like a homeless person until someone gets home. My weekly pill box – the main reasons for that are 1.i forget if I have or haven’t taken my meds that day so it’s a good visual reminder, 2. It’s a lot easier having one little pill box that carries everything, than having 4 or 5 different boxes that take up far too much space – logical thinking for the win J.

7. My crappy little iPod. If you know me, you’ll know I absolutely hate Apple products. They’re good, yea, but always seem to malfunction or break as soon as I touch or go near them. I didn’t even have my little nano for month before I broke it. And I don’t even know how! The on/off button just won’t click down so I can’t use it anymore. I possibly know what you’re thinking: ‘if it doesn’t work, why’s it in your bag?’. Answer, I have no idea. I should probably get it fixed or leave it at home or something. Oh. Along with that though, I have headphones. Why do I need headphones if my iPod doesn’t work? You can see my logic only lasts for short periods of time. Even though I wrapped them very neatly, it will take me a month to untangle them if I ever wanted to use them. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS.

And that’s pretty much it other than a few receipts from Tesco’s or Nando’s… or for other chicken related items. This blog post is a bit different to my usual and I’m not sure if I like it yet. Very…chatty? Either way my next post will be coming to you shortly…tatty-bye!

Make Someone's Day

Lately I’ve realised the amount of people that go on their day to day business and somewhat blank out the world around them. We’re getting far too unsociable for my liking – hiding behind computer screens instead of going out ; getting our work done and ignoring those around us. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who don’t speak to the bus driver. This guy/gal has just driven you miles across town so that you can get where you want to be, and you just ignore them. NONONO. People who don’t thank the bus driver are instantly on my hate list. I make sure I go out of my way to say ‘good morning/afternoon’ with a smile when I get on, and a big ‘thank you, have a good day’ when I get off. Is that so difficult? It’s common courtesy , a trait of which a lot of the population seem to be lacking just lately.

                To combat this issue in the smallest way possible (seen as I only have a select few readers, aha), I thought it would be a nice idea to put out some pointers on how to brighten someone’s day. Amazingly, the things I’m going to mention aren’t ground breaking news – just common sense. Theirs been books written on this, in fact. But they really are not hard to do, so why not do it?

                First off, compliment someone.  How great does it feel to have someone you barely speak to go out of their way to tell you they think you look nice today, or they like your choice of clothing, or you have nice eyes…or something. And if you’ve not experienced that then that’s a huge shame so: BABE, YOU…READING THIS RIGHT NOW…YOU LOOK BLOODY LOVELY TODAY! A compliment does wonders to the way someone is feeling and helps give them a boost for the day. I love making people smile, and this is a sure fire way to do so. They won’t forget it either, I guarantee. Even if you tell them at 7am, they will remember what you said as they’re getting tucked up to go to bed that evening. It’s so simple, yet so effective – though do be genuine.

                Smiles go a long way. I know it’s said all the time and seems a load of rubbish – but just think about it. The last stranger to smile at you, did you smile back? Smiles are infectious. You can make the whole world smile back at you by just doing so yourself (bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea). One of the first things I notice about a person is if they have a nice smile – it’s THE most attractive thing in the world (to me) if someone has a nice, warm smile. Well no one would want to see a grumpy face walking towards them, would they?

(this is what i needed 25p
for, yum)

                Help out – if you see that lady scrambling through her purse to find 15p to pay the shop keeper and you have change in your hand…offer her it. I do this with so many people and their face instantly lights up – people on the bus especially for when the price suddenly jumps up by 10p without warning. Equally, if someone has their hand full of stuff, offer a hand or at least open the door for them. It’s trivial things like that which help people out and show that there is hope for humanity. Oh, by the way, the guy who paid 25p for me in the coffee shop the other morning when I was short on change, GOD BLESS YOU SIR! – see, people DO remember this stuff.

                If you’ve not seen the common theme here, it’s that LITTLE THINGS MATTER. It’s the smallest things in the world that make people feel that bit better about their day. It’s amazing how the smallest interaction with someone can change their whole outlook on their day to day activities. It’s not like it’s a huge inconvenience for you to do a small thing for someone like old a door open or compliment their shoes. So I urge you, today…at least once, do something for someone else. Not only will you make their day better, but you’ll feel fab for doing it yourself. So there you have it, the small things that make a big difference. My rant on common courtesy is now done, so go! Venture out in the world! Do something nice! Make someone’s day! – I dare you :’)