Grace: Where is the 'good' in goodbye?

I found this quote recently when I was up to my usual pointless browsing on google, I had refreshed facebook and twitter a little too much for one evening and later stumbled upon this beauty of a quote. So where is the ‘good’ in goodbye? I’m leaving for uni on Sunday, and there is a very likely chance that I will not get round to uploading this blog post before then so if my friends are reading it and I’ve already left then goodbye...again! Oh and if any people are reading this who aren’t my friends...then goodbye to you too (and follow me on twitter!)

I saw a photo of me the other night, taken of me in our 6^th form common room a few months ago, maybe more than a few months ago as I was wearing my beautiful winter scarf...then again it was always cold in the common room so this photo could have easily been taken in May! This photo made me think of the old days, (yes they’re ‘old days’ already) and how I loved those cold mornings sitting round ‘our’ table in the back of the common room drinking coffee and avoiding any form of work in our frees and possibly counting down the hours until we could go to tesco and buy food...or at least I was! And you know what...I miss it already! I miss the easy routine we had, I miss the fact that I could see my friends everyday and they would always cheer me up no matter what, I miss complaining, ahem* bitching about teachers and the year 12’s and I miss watching the coffee machine every 5 minutes to see if anyone had left some credit in there!

But you know what, if someone said I could repeat 6^th form all over again I wouldn’t, because let’s be honest, it wasn’t sitting around and avoiding work in the cold that made these last 2 years amazing, it was the people I shared it with. I miss those moments for a reason, and that reason is that I shared these last 2 years with truly amazing people (yes this is going to get sentimental so hold onto that tissue) and I wouldn’t change any of it! I can guarantee that saying goodbye on Friday night will be quite emotional, rubbish and sad because I don’t want to do it!

However I know that uni is going to be amazing, and I’m excited for what lies ahead and can’t wait to come home at Christmas and celebrate it with my friends. I’m aware I haven’t yet said the ‘good’ in goodbye and to be honest I don’t think there is a correct answer for that question. But I’ll give it my best shot, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder‘and the distance between us will only make our friendship stronger. Plus think of all the stuff we’re gonna have to say to each other when we come home, that conversation is going to last for weeks!

So in case you feel I didn’t give you a proper goodbye on Friday, well consider this an even better one (it’s typed and everything) I love you guys, thanks for putting up with me and if I don’t catch you on skype within the next week consider our friendship over!

Joking!

Jack: Vogue Fashion's Night Out - The Excitement Builds

So Grace and I are off to a little thing called Vogue Fashion's Night Out this Thursday, and I’ll tell you, I’m pretty damn excited.

Why?

1.      Free cocktails. As an 18-year-old soon-to-be uni student, any kind of free alcohol offered to me appeals. We popped into Banana Republic last week for a Mad Men collection event and the Moscow Mule (Ginger ale, vodka and lime) I had there was bliss.

2.    Discounts. I’m also never one to turn down a good bargain, as evidenced by most of my coats costing me about £15 – being XXS small has it’s benefits when all clothes that size end up in the clearance section!

3.    Celebrities and style icons I'm told that Thursday will host not only us lowly mortals of the style world, but those who have a huge influence in it - if I get the chance to say Hi and 'OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOU SO MUCH' to a designer, the night will be amazing.

The only thing that scares me? What I’m going to wear. I’m perfectly used to wandering round shops in London, but wandering round London with tons of well-dressed people is a whole different story. 

I’ve started planning my outfit already.

Lucy: “May I admire you again today?” Duckie

Ok some of you hard core 'Brat Pack' film fans may know what 80s film this quote comes from, but for those of us who's prime of life wasn't in the shoulder pads and perms era I'll give you a clue:

Well its very pink?

...and pretty?

not got it yet?

It's 'Pretty in Pink' duh! Ok, ok it was also made six years before I was born, and for some reason somewhat unknown to lots of people, so I'll let you off. Although this film includes many (oh so many!) white ill-fitting suits, prom dresses that aren't even suitable for the rag bag and an ending that sticks to your standard Cinderella story but for the romantics among us is a complete shambles (well..for me anyway)! There is one character in particular who can only be described as a complete LEGEND. If only all men where as stylish and hilarious as Duckie (how can you not be a legend with a name like the eh?!) then I'm sure the world would be a happier place.

For the meantime however, while the world is not fully aware of his power of making a yellow checked blazer look sexy, all I can say is " back atcha Duckie I am going to admire YOU today."

if these didn't divulge you to the marvel that is Duckie then his take on 'Try a Little Tenderness' might...

Grace: Time for Tea?

This is probably going to be one of the most bizarre articles you’ve ever read, but I’m going to tell you about a little ‘beauty experiment’ I’ve experienced in the past month in my quest to conquer the almighty, feared ‘sun burn’.

I recently went on holiday with my school friends, yes we decided to go ‘living it up’ and partying hard in Menorca; not your stereotypical eighteen year old holiday destination I’m sure. Whilst our other classmates were in Zante or Kos enjoying foam parties creating many brilliant moments that could easily appear on ‘Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents’ my group of friends had no desire to give our parents something else to hold against us...

So off to Menorca we flew, we had an AMAZING week filled with cocktails, dancing, relaxing...sunbathing, and well that’s really where my problem begins. I bought this BEAUTIFUL high waisted bikini shortly before we left and two days before the end of the holiday I decide I want a nice tan to leave with, I even undid the straps on my top as to avoid tan lines...Unfortunately it did not occur to me that half my waist (just below my belly button) was absolutely covered! Anyway long story short after about 2 hours of sunbathing or so I looked like one of those drumstick lollies, white, pink and white! My boobs were hideously white, my tummy (up to my belly button) as pink as Barbie’s convertible and yes the bottom half of my tummy back to that ghostly white skin tone of mine! It was NOT a pleasant sight!

Not only did I look RIDICULOUS, but my skin was on fire, I think I melted a good few ice cubes on my tummy alone in the early evening! One thing was for sure I wasn’t going to put up with this pain for the rest of the holiday, so off to facebook my sister I go, and what does she suggest for simple remedies to soothe sunburn. Why isn’t it obvious, have a bath in green tea of course!

I’m not proud of what happened next...but rest assured I was desperate, so I started running the bath with lukewarm water and dumped in a few tea bags. After 10 minutes or so of running the kettle back and forth from the kitchen to the ensuite bathroom, the tea bags had still not dissolved (in hindsight as my friend suggested, I should have dissolved the tea bags in a saucepan on the stove first, then poured them in the bath) this however was the sensible, obvious thing to do, so it did not occur to me! ! I can still rectify this situation I thought to myself, so once I had stirred this bath tub full of undissolved tea and slightly greenish water with a wooden spoon...it didn’t look much better. But never one to leave a job half finished, I stripped and climbed into the tub, 30 minutes should do it I thought to myself...

Long, long story short, I don’t think it made much difference, I stank of tea afterwards and accidently ended up flooding the bathroom as I forgot to tuck in the shower curtain after I washed off the tea from my burnt body.

In conclusion I would not recommend ANYONE jumping into a bath of green tea, unless you have a fetish for...organic tea, though I highly doubt this would be a desirable experience for anyone! Or if perhaps my disastrous experiences have not deterred you from wishing to experience this ‘beauty miracle’ for yourself, I would suggest a few recommendations you might want to consider...

· Actually buy peppermint tea, NOT green tea

· Don’t empty the tea bags leaving a residue of small grains sunk at the bottom of the tub

· Do not use a wooden spoon to mix this...concoction

· Make sure the shower curtain is tucked firmly into the tub to prevent flooding

Or perhaps the most simplest improvement of making sure you apply PLENTY of sun cream, thus not giving yourself the opportunity to get as burnt as I was , so you don’t resemble a drumstick lolly! Rest assured, I am STILL suffering, mentally at least! And worst of all, I now have the most silly, bizarre tan EVER! I hear block colours are in this Summer, so maybe there is a silver lining to this catastrophe as I will be the first to show off my white, pink, white combo! I should be in Vogue by Christmas!

Jack: Boys Do Cry

At that climactic emotional moment in a movie, that point at which a character realizes something dramatic or experiences something meaningful, you’ll find me sat there crying. I couldn’t count on my fingers, toes and eyebrow hairs how many times I’ve bawled over a film, a book or a television show. Whether it’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Tigger Movie or even (and this has shocked many) The Devil Wears Prada, I just can’t resist having a good cry. Does this mean I’m overemotional or simply in touch with my emotions?

Well, I could certainly be seen as overemotional, or at least I used to be. When I was younger, I wouldn’t just make a mountain out of a molehill, I’d make mountains out of flat land, creating issues that drove me emotionally when they meant absolutely nothing to me. It was not good. In fact, I still know people that do that and I know from first hand experience that it just drives you into a vicious cycle of ‘why does everything in my life go wrong?’. That’s not to say my childhood wasn’t fun too, but that’s another story for another time.

This one is 'Bought from Japan by my Godfather'

I find myself making emotional attachments to each and every object I own, which is why I couldn’t bear to part with any of the many, many cuddly animals I had for years – I still have a huge stockpile of them in my attic each with their own story, ‘the first Beanie Baby I bought’, ‘Travelled with me to Florida’ or ‘Was given to me by my grandma’. They’re like little furry reminders of beautiful moments in my life. I take this even further when watching TV shows or films, where I become attached to fictional character’s possessions. Take, for example, a scene from Scrubs a little while ago. One of the doctors, Elliot, has decided to get rid of her ‘good girl’ image and have a life makeover. Thus, she begins destroying her bedroom. I have to admit, I was mildly distraught by this and couldn’t help thinking ‘didn’t you want to keep any of this?’. It didn’t bring me to tears, but I was pretty close.

Perhaps I am oversentimental in this regard, or even dangerously materialistic, but what’s the harm in a little nostalgia every now and again? After all, I think it’s only by looking on what you’ve done that you can change yourself for the better and be who you want to be. If I didn’t address my past and my emotions, and kept it all bottled up inside, I’d be a mess in no time.

But what is it about art that causes me to cry? Books, television, movies all contain these life stories and development, emotional highs and lows that lead me to crying. In my young age, I’ve still managed to become quite a cynic and I find myself recognising and predicting a lot of cliché moments. In most stories you know that the guy will get the girl, the hero will overcome the villain and love will conquer all or indeed, if you’re in a tragedy that everything will go wrong. You can watch a film and know exactly what will happen. 

I'm not this bad, honest

Why then, do I cry at the end, if I knew it was going to happen? I think that’s actually exactly why I cry. It works as dramatic irony, I can see the end coming but it only makes it more powerful when the characters encounter it themselves; I’ve even found myself crying before the end, just because I know what’s coming.  Music, also, is actually a huge part of the ‘crying reflex’ for me; the rousing, tension building symphonies, or indeed cheesy pop songs, in TV & films means that I feel that extra bit more emotionally connected and at a peak of vulnerability to the overstrung emotions. Of course, there are many other reasons like the quality of the writing or acting and the visual presentation but these two seem the most affecting to me.

But really, I don’t care what it is that makes me cry because I’m quite happy doing it. It means I’m capable of empathy (hoorah!) and that I have outlet for my emotions – I was a stress-depressy child, but now I’m a pretty damn chilled adult (just about) which is good with me.

Hi!

Hello all,
We're finally ready to start blogging so this serves as a little introductory post.
So hi from: Tom, Jack, Lucy & Grace.

We hope you enjoy our blog!