Music Makes The World Go Round

Hey there people!
First, I have to apologise for the lack of posting yesterday. I know I said I would blog everyday, but I did also say that was reliant on my being able to do so. All the same, I feel you deserve an explanation.

Yesterday, I left the house at about 9:30, having gotten up at 8:45. I then went an hour or so down the road to Charlton Park for the annual WOMAD festival, which I went to with my family. I just had time to Tweet about what I was doing before I had to leave, and we didn't get back until gone midnight, so all I wanted to do was sleep.
What is WOMAD? you ask. Well, I will tell you.

WOMAD stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance, and is a festival held in various places around the world at various different times of year. The one I went to, Charlton Park, runs from Friday to Monday around the 1st of August (which this year just happened to be the same weekend as VidCon, though I doubt anyone but me was aware of that). The festival is specifically designed to showcase world music and global beats on a larger stage than they usually see.
The idea of WOMAD is to bring together musicians from all cultures, all over the world, from Africa to Japan to Spain to America to Wales, to share their music and their history, and give people a better understanding of the music in other countries. It also gives the musicians a chance to earn more than they would in their own country, and perform for a larger audience.

Most of the people that go to WOMAD, it has to be said, are hippies and other alternative types. But really, anyone can go. The tag line for this year was 'The World's Festival', and it really is. Just walking around the site, looking at all the stalls, is an immersions in a rich, incredibly different culture with almost every step. There are places selling every food you could possibly think of, and some you probably didn't know existed; as my mother astutely pointed out yesterday, you could go with ten other people, each choose to eat something different, and you still wouldn't have exhausted every possibility.

The music is as widely varied as the food. We only went for one day, but we saw a London based group with members from Italy Spain and Argentina, a Welsh Gothic-punk band performing traditional folk songs, a Japanese blues duet, and the incredible Baba Maal, a singer from Senegal, all in the space of about 12 hours.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. This is the second time I've been to WOMAD, and I plan to go every year as long as I can afford it.

On a side note, I'm sorry to say that I didn't get any questions to answer at all today, despite having told all my readers what I was doing. :( I plan to leave the offer open, so if you want to know anything, anything at all, let me know!

Until tomorrow lovelies!
Glitterb

I Love Lauren Kate: A Short Book Review

If I had to choose a secondary obsession after the Twilight Saga, It would definitely be the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate. I discovered Fallen at the library in audio book form, much like I did with Twilight. A little while later, I saw the book in an airport WHSmiths and bought it on whim, and because I absolutely love the story. Anyone who hasn't read it does not know what they are missing.

The series consists of three books, 'Fallen', 'Torment' and 'Passion', with the fourth, 'Rapture', coming out next summer. It tells the story of Lucinda Price (Luce for short), a teenage girl starting at a new school. That school just happens to be Sword & Cross, a reform school that she has been sent to after the mysterious death-by-fire of her sort-of boyfriend Trevor. The thing is, Luce doesn't remember if she actually started the fire or not. All she knows is that the shadows were there; the same eerie, frightening black shapes that she has been seeing since she was a child, which no one else can see. Once at the school, Luce meets the enigmatic and gorgeous Daniel Grigori, who she has never met but is sure she knows from somewhere. Of course, it's not long before she falls in love with him. Luce is plunged into the dark and dangerous world of the Fallen, a group of angels exiled from Heaven millennia ago, and finds herself caught between Daniel and the angels, who side themselves with God, and the equally gorgeous Cam and his band of demons, on the side of the Devil.
Oh, and she's been reincarnated every seventeen years for centuries, each time dying as soon as she gets close to Daniel.
Caught in a whirlwind of dangerous enemies and crazy friends, Luce struggles to come to terms with her past lives, while trying to build herself a future with Daniel, who won't tell her anything in case she vanishes in a column of flames.

I just started reading 'Passion' yesterday and I am already loving it just as much as I loved 'Fallen' and 'Torment'. Lauren Kate's writing style is no nonsense and to the point, while also holding back just enough information to keep you guessing without getting confused. The descriptions are vivid and detailed, the characters taking on a life of their own. When I finished 'Fallen', I couldn't wait to read more, and 'Torment' definitely didn't disappoint. The interesting thing is that you can very easily draw parallels between some of the characters; for example, I've always thought that Ariane, one of the angels posing as a Sword & Cross student, would get along very well with Shelby, Luce's best friend and part angel, who is a student at Shoreline (the school Daniel sends Luce to in 'Torment'). They have very similar attitudes and opinions, but there is enough difference in them that their personalities don't clash.

I would definitely recommend this book to Twilight fans, or anyone who enjoys a bit of fantasy romance from time to time.

I haven't had any questions yet for my 'Ask Glitterb' post on Saturday, so if there's anything you want to know, ask now!

Until then, my lovelies
Glitterb

How Soon Until November?

I am a regular (*cough* daily *cough*) visitor to the Twilight Lexicon, one of the biggest and most well maintained Twilight fan sites on the web. And usually, visiting them is fun; I get to see what all the actors are up to, new projects that the directors are working on, and various other related stuff. But recently, particularly this week in the wake of Comicon, everything they post just makes me more and more impatient for the release of Breaking Dawn Part 1 in November.

Ever since the trailers started coming out, I want to fast forward time.

The worst part is, I can't even count down to the same date as everyone else, because I live in the UK and we have a later release date, which I don;t know yet!

Yeah, my obsession is unhealthy. But hey, them's the breaks.

See you soon my lovely ones.
Glitterb

How An Orthodontist Made My Day

I know, rather and oximoronic title for a blog post (is that even a word?). But it's true, my orthodontist made my day today.
You won't know, because I've never told you, but I have braces  due to about 11 years of thumb sucking. I've had them for a while now, at least a year and a half, and they are a PAIN! Between constantly having to watch what I eat, trying to keep everything clean, and how painful it is whenever something gets changed, I am pretty sick of all the metal in my mouth.

Good news is, it's all worth it. Usually I don't notice tiny changes in myself, but even I can see that my teeth are much better, and that makes me smile. Also, I went to the orthodontist today, and he told me that he is 97% sure I can have everything taken off at my next appointment, which made me very happy indeed. It was also nice to go back to the doctor I was with at the start, rather than the one I was moved to when he went off ill, because my original doctor is very nice and gentle and doesn't yank my mouth around and make me feel like I'm going to get cut every other second. Having someone tinker around in your mouth for 15-20 minutes is bad enough without being tense as well.

Anyway, despite the fact that I am sitting here with my teeth throbbing due to the chain-link elastics that will close up my last few gaps, I am much happier than I have been after an orthodontic appointment in quite a while.

Just a quick note that is also on all of my FF stories, I am opening up a sort of 'Reader's Question Time'. Each week (if this time goes well) you guys can ask me questions about anything and everything, either here, on FF or Twitter, and on Saturday my blog post will be an answer to all your questions. Hope to see some creative questions!

Until tomorrow
Glitterb

Childhood

Sometimes I think that letting go of childhood is a bad idea. Everything is so much simpler when you are five, six, seven... No one needs anything from you beyond what you are prepared to give. You don't have to worry about things like money and popularity and the future. The smallest things excite you, and everything is fleeting, passing in a blink of an eye, yet it seems like there will never be an end; like you will be little forever. Birthdays make you feel important. You are proud to say that you are one tiny year older, and even half a year makes a difference to your maturity.

Reaching adolescence makes everything more complicated. All of a sudden there's this thing called 'image', and you are paranoid about how people view you and what their opinion is of you. You don't feel any different at 15 than you did at 14, and the only change from year to year is the added pressure of a looming future, the decisions that have the potential to shape your entire life. School doesn't excite you any more; it is just an interim, the thing you have to do between weekends and holidays. Every Friday feels like the start of a long break, which makes every weekend feel too short, and the weeks blend together like there was never a weekend at all. Similarly, summer seems to last forever, until it is over, and then it is as if it never started in the first place.

Suffice to say, I hate being a teenager. Perhaps that's why I still have mountains of stuffed animals on my bed, and old dress-up costumes in my cupboard. Maybe that's why I still play with a baby doll that my mother said looked like a real baby when she looked at it this afternoon. Or perhaps I still play with that doll because it isn't  a toy any more; perhaps I play with it because my body is subconsciously preparing for motherhood. After all, this particular doll seems to be perfectly proportioned to my body; I can hold her in my arms, or sit her on my lap, or balance her on my hip, as if she were a baby of several months old.

Then again, maybe I'm just over thinking things. Who knows?

Does anyone else get the feeling that they grew up too fast? Let me know.

Until tomorrow,

Glitterb

Summer

So, today was the real first day of my summer holidays; the first day I would have been in school but wasn't. If that makes sense.
As is my tradition, today was a day of lazing around doing almost nothing productive. I didn't get up until nearly 12:45, which is when I had breakfast. I then had lunch at 4:10, got dressed at 6:30, and had dinner at 7:00. Unusually, I started getting ready for bed just after 9 like I normally do.
And here I am, at 10:05, in bed in my PJs having done nothing but read Fanfiction, play music, sing and watch 'The Glee Project' on line.
Tomorrow... will probably be more of the same, to be honest.
Until then
Glitterb

p.s. I know people are reading this because my view count is going up. Please, please, please, if you have a Google account and are in any way interested in what I have to say, follow me so I know I have an audience. Alternatively, comment and let me know what you think, or what your summer traditions are.
Thank You!

Beautiful

I am writing this while listening to the Glee version of 'Beautiful', and it's making me think a lot about what it means to be beautiful, and what beauty is. Personally, I don't consider myself to be beautiful. I am at that awkward stage of adolescence where everything is a mystery to me and I'm still trying to figure out who I am and what I want my life to be. I have braces and glasses and spots. I talk to myself and sing and dance in the corridor at school because I don't care what people think of me, but I never have a good word to say about myself. I can't see how anyone could love me, and I don't know how to love someone else. And it's a sad fact; no matter what a boy may say about it being personality that matters to him more than looks, the looks are what makes him want to learn about the personality.
I feel like no one is ever going to want to learn about my personality.

I know I've made progress in how i feel about myself and my image recently; my Facebook/Messenger profile picture is actually one of me, fairly close up. But I still don't have the confidence in my appearance to post a video of myself singing onto my YouTube account, even though my friends say I should. Who knows, maybe one day I'll actually do it. Just not today. Or any time soon.

Sorry if this post has been overly depressing; I'm just in that kind of mindset at the moment.

I promise to be more positive tomorrow!
Glitterb

A Different Perspective: The Story That Wouldn't Stop

For some reason, I can't stop writing A Different Perspective. It started out as a contest entry that didn't win any prizes and wasn't supposed to go anywhere, but it has turned into this huge thing that has nearly filled a very thick Paperchase notebook.
The thing is, ADP, like most of my stories, has an eventual outcome that I am already contemplating. Unlike other stories, this seems to be inspiring me to write more.

Maybe it's just because I take that notebook to school. But that makes no sense, because I've written other stuff in there (the prologue and ch 3 of TSN and ch 6 of Lost & Found) and I'm never tempted to write pages of those stories on a whim. Honestly, I have no clue; but once I get started, the creative juices get going and I don't want to stop.

Now, if only my other stories would do that. I'd be a very happy camper if they did.

Here's to speedy typing and a future filled with stories that write themselves!
Glitterb

P.S. Click HERE to see the latest ADP update.

Friends Who Steal Computers

Sorry this is so late guys, but I only just got my computer back from E.Ghost-Writer (my only RL and FF friend) who is sleeping over at my house tonight. We just finished school today, so we celebrated with a shopping trip and some nice Sainsbury's pizza (yum!).

I have another friend attempting to simultaneously form a new relationship with a guy in our year and end the relationship she is currently in with a 19 year old. E decided it would be fun to use my laptop to IM with her, which then turned into a three-way conversation using two computers, as I inserted my views and comments on the matter.

Teenagers: we're better than soap operas.

Anyhoosles,
SCHOOOOL'S
OUT
FOR
SUMMER!
Boy am I going to have some fun this year *heavy sarcasm*. We will be visiting my cousin and aunt in France (like every year) and probably visiting all the same places as usual too (if we go anywhere at all). On the plus side, I don't have to get out of bed until lunch time, and I get to see her ADORABLE kitty cat.
J'aime le chat Tigre!
Until tomorrow cherubs.
Glitterb

Mixed up purposes

Is it me, or do things you do for one reason often end up being for something completely different? Did that make any sense at all? Probably not.

Thing is, I set up my Fanfiction account to write The Silver Necklace, which is pretty much the only story I write with a non-Twilight related original idea in it. Becky and her adventures had been kicking around in my head for a while - she visits every TV show and book I get obsessed over - and I thought I would actually get some of them out for others to see. Only now, TSN, as I call it sometimes, is the story I update least often.
The problem, I think, is that I tend to pre-plan what I want to happen in a story about five times in my head, and I go so far ahead that what I actually need to write all becomes boring and filler-ish when I try to write it down... or at least that's how it seems to me.

Anyone else get that feeling?
A demain! (that's french for 'until tomorrow')
Glitterb

The Madness of the British School System (Or My School At Least)

As you may or may not be aware, I am still in full time schooling for another year. After that I can leave if I want to, but I'll probably carry on to a higher qualification.
Anyhoo, my school has this thing they do during the last week of term before the summer. They do this thing called 'Activity Week'. We spend one day on the field pretending to give a toss about Sports Day, one day on a trip to a theme park or doing an activity in school, and two days doing pointless and often boring activities in random groups, before finishing off with a half day of timetable 'lessons' which tend to be watching DVDs. One of the lessons is taken for our end of year assembly (one per year) where we sit through 40 minutes of teachers twittering on about who-knows-what and giving out a bunch of awards, all the while anticipating the set by the staff band that comes at the end (they always play the same songs, but it's still a high point of the year).
We are into that week now, and I spent today doing Design Technology and Languages work with a tenuous link to the Olympics. Yesterday I painted walls to help liven up our Art department, and tomorrow we have Green Day, which I probably spend most of in front of a computer 'Googling Green'.
Bring on the summer, is all I can say.
Does anyone else get frustrated by the stuff that schools do to try and make things exciting near the end of the year?
Let me know!
Until tomorrow,
Glitterb

My New Personal Challenge

Hey guys!
So, I'm not entirely sure how many people actually read this thing, but here we go anyway.
I recently received my very first Twitter follower, and this has made me decide to kick my ass into gear and actually use the various social networking sites I have accounts on. As such, I will be attempting to Blog and Tweet at least once a day, as long as I have an internet connection/ access to my laptop. Of course, I won't be able to update if I don't have internet; for example, I'm going away in about two or three weeks for my summer holidays. But, until I leave and after I come back, you will get a post everyday.
Check out my Twitter HERE
See you tomorrow!
Glitterb