HELLO VALENTINES DAY

As you're probably more than aware, tomorrow is

Valentines Day, and as is always the case with me,

I don't have a Valentine.

My Nan & Grandad took pity on me this year and

sent me an 'anonymous' card in the post (LOL LOL
LOL LOL) and bought me chocolates to make

me feel better (which I can't stop eating).

I have to say, from my first ever experience of receiving

an 'anonymous' card, I ruddy hate it because I don't

like not knowing who sent it me.

Does my absolute NUT in. 

As soon as I opened my card I was straight on the phone 

to my Nan & Grandad,interrogating them for five minutes 

straight until they finally gave in and admitted it 

was them.

Of course I then said they could do better aka. give me 

more chocolates next time plz. 

But back to the matter, this year is the first

year EVER where nearly all my friends have boyfriends and

whatevs', and they're all getting cooked for or taken

out and getting more chocolates than me & all that jazz.

I of course am single as always, but today I've

been thinking things through and realised that I haven't

really met anyone who 'floats my boat' yet, or basically

I like/ love enough to want him to be my boyfriend.

And I'm actually strangely excited, once again, at the 

thought of being a single lady (ooh er).

And as for Valentines Day, well I can't say it

matters that much to me any more. It's a cute idea but
me being me, I always expected some guy to come out of 

the shadows and proclaim his love for me on that one 

specific day every year, and that we would live happily 

ever after, which of course never ever ever EVER 

happened. 

So this year, I'm spending the day with one of my lovely 

single friends and weirdly enough, one of my friends who

is in a relationship, and who was moaning to me last year

about being single still (bless her), because she 'didn't 

want to be left out' and 'miss out on all the fun' (hah)

I think we're going to go mini golf in Nottingham

or stay in and watch movies and eat chocolates and

be like 'woo hoo, single lyf 4 da win'.

Either way, it's a vast improvement on last year

when I got locked inside a toilet in Spain and

had to be rescued by a hunky Spanish man in front

of my entire Spanish class plus some Spanish people 

too ;)

Happy Valentines Day to you all!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

THE ONLY SINGLE FRIEND

As of now, I am the only

single friend out of my immediate friendship group.

Wahey. It happened. The day finally came.

So if you're a single guy, and you see me and my friends walking down the street together, I'm afraid your only option

is me, the girl who probably just walked into a lamp post

or trod in a nice big pile of dog crap.

LUCKY YOU.

For some reason this occasion feels quite momentous

yet I don't think it's properly sunk in yet what this

actually means. 

I knew it was going to happen; it was, as Tinie Tempah

would say, 'written in the stars', inevitable, and I don't mind

because out of all my friends, I'm probably

the one who is least fussed about being single and

definitely the most boy impaired.

It's only been this last year or so that I've got

comfortable just talking to boys and that I've actually begun

doing something along the lines of flirting.

I know this to be true because a guy I sit next to 

in class wanted to ask me something, but I was 

talking with this other guy who I get on really well

with, and he was like "will you two stop flirting"

and I went bright red. So there.

I can flirt and look like a human tomato

AT THE SAME TIME. 

Beat that.

Now as you may recall me previously saying, I have been

single all my life so I am completely clueless as to what it's

like to be in a relationship or be kissed or whatever.

One friend is so used to me being single that

when she listed all her single friends that she wanted to hook up

with her new boyfriend's fit friends, she completely forgot

about me.

Ay caramba.

I can't say I mind though, because to me,

going out on a date with someone I haven't met before

scares the heeby jeebies out of me, and 

knowing me, I'd probably do my Marge Simpson impression

or something weird (cool) like that in an attempt to 

seem impressive and attractive and alluring.

So where does all this leave me?

Well it leaves me single, yes, but

that doesn't mean I'm not happy, or that I feel like

I need to find some poor guy quick and force him to be

my one and only so that I'm not the odd one out.

If you embrace being single, you can have a

of a time.

Because the way I see it is this: I'm happy,

I am free, I live for me,  I love my life, I do whatever 

I want, when I want, I love myself for who I am,

 I'm confident in myself, I'm independent, strong,

I can stand up for myself, I've got my friends and family

and lastly, I can flirt( and imitate tomatoes)with 

whoever I want.

SO

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?

I RUDDY LOVE IT.

JOHN NEWMAN LOSING SLEEP

As you may or may not know,

John Newman is a pretty talented guy when it comes

to music and singing and songwriting.

You would've first heard him on the incredible

dance anthem 'Feel The Love' by those groovy guys at Rudimental,

as well as on their follow up single

'Not Giving In'.

His powerful, soulful, rich, gravelly voice

is one to be reckoned with, and Newman has been hailed

as the purveyor of a certain brand of music

named good old NORTHERN SOUL.

Newman was born and bred in a little town called

Settle in North Yorkshire,

where some of my family happen to reside, so

I feel a bit like I have this super deep connection

with John y'know, because I actually know where he be coming from, yah?

(I'm kidding about the connection thing btw.)

But yes, back to the music,

now this genre is relatively new, and it's all to do

with the wonderful tea loving folk up north embracing the

fantastic genre of soul (with a touch of
Motown) and giving it a new lease of life with a little

Northern twist on the end,

just to spice and shake things up.

And as you may also know,

Newman does Northern soul so very well.

So well in fact, that his debut album 'Tribute'

slid in to the album charts at the sacred numero uno spot,

whilst debut single 'Love Me Again'

also fought off stiff competition to plonk itself

on top of the singles chart as well.

DOUBLE WHAMMY EH EH.

And not an easy feat to manage if you're new onto the music scene.

Newman's newest release is the utterly gorgeous 

'Losing Sleep', which isn't as fast paced as his

previous two singles, but I can assure you it's just as

electric and oozes sweet, rich soul 

that will hit you in just the right spot.

So with that being said, 

metaphorically run like the wind and go check it out!

And whilst you're at it whack

'Tribute' on your Chrimbo list and hopefully

good ol' St Nick might get into the spirit

of Chrimbo and get you a copy,

(that's if he able to resist parting with it).

LOSING SLEEP

LOVE ME AGAIN

CHEATING

BUY

TRIBUTE

HERE

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tribute-John-Newman/dp/B00DM2Q9E4

SORT OF KIND OF DOING A BEYONCE WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE

When I think of the personification of a strong, independent, feisty 

woman, I almost always think of the fabulous 

Beyonce Knowles.

To me, this woman is the definition of female

empowerment, and as of today, as the title says, I'm sort of kind

of doing a Beyonce myself and following in her footsteps 

and adopting her mantra when it comes to love.

Because you see, dear reader, lately something

inside me has changed.

I didn't notice this had changed until the last few weeks

it sort of hit me wham bam and I was just like

'what de.... when deed dees happen?'

And I'll tell you about it now.

For as long as I can remember being a fluorescent adolescent,

I have always had crushes and always always

always wanted a boyfriend and a super cute relationship and

yaddah yaddah yah.

Even earlier this year I was yearning for it,

and I always seemed to feel insecure because I didn't have

a boyfriend. I felt incomplete, like something was missing.

I felt frustrated that I didn't have what my

friends had, and that I could never seem to find love or a

boyfriend. 

It was like I deemed myself inadequate until

I found my match.

The thought of being the only girl in my friendship group

without a boyfriend scared the crap out of me.

The thought of never finding a boyfriend till university

made me want to cry up to the heavens to get

God himself to come down here and reason with me

as to why I couldn't have one sooner.

But then..... at some point this month,

something changed.

This longing, this insecurity, this need, this desire,

this sadness, this frustration, this wanting, this caring, it all

just disappeared, went right out the window.

And I suddenly realised that the fact of the matter was,

I DIDN'T CARE.

About boys, love, any of it.

And for me that's a pretty big thing.

And what I mean by not caring is this:

1) I don't care that I don't have a boyfriend.

2) I don't care that it's not working out with anyone I do meet.

3) I don't care that my friends have boyfriends and dates

and I don't; I don't feel any less than them or

like I'm missing out.

-How can I miss something I've never had or experienced?

4) In a typical British sentiment I quite simply cannot be

arsed to stress over this anymore.

Q) Who cares?
A) Not me! (finally)

I'm not yearning for love and romance and relationships and boys.

I literally do not care.

Today I decided it was the right time to hold my hands

up and surrender, admit it's not working, it's not my time or my

moment, and take a step back out of the game.

I read somewhere that sometimes you need to give in and accept

defeat in order for better things to come together.

And that's what I'm doing. 

I'm not walking away with or out of shame or defeat or weakness,

I'm walking away because I realised actually I'm happy on my own.

And this is where the whole Beyonce bit comes in.

I realised that I have never felt as strong, independent or

mentally and emotionally well as I do right now.

To use another British sentiment, I feel BLOODY FANTASTIC, and 

if there was anytime that I felt I was ready

to stand proud on my own two feet, it's now.

I can handle being single.

I don't feel like I need anyone to complete me or support me,

and I'm actually kind of glad I haven't met the right person yet and

that it hasn't worked at all for me yet.

Having said that, I know I'm on this love sabbatical and all that,

but if the right person happened to pop up and say hi,

or if my dream way to fall in love happens, where I see

a stranger across a room and I just know right there and then

that he is the one, then that again is BLOODY FANTASTIC.

But until that moment comes,

I bid you farewell tonight as a girl on the brink

of womanhood who is feeling single and proud and pretty alright

and just a little bit sassy, if I must admit it.

And if I can make it to this stage,

then I'm pretty sure you can too.

Don't be afraid to walk alone and don't be afraid to like it <3

ONE FOR THE ROAD, AKA. TRACTOR PROMO, AKA QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST THING I'VE EVER WATCHED

You're yet to realise it yet, but my absolute FAVOURITE

BAND EVER TO EXIST EVER EVER EVER

is the Arctic Monkeys.

If you let me, I could literally rabbit on for hours 

and I mean, HOURS, as in, if you got me going now,

I could probably still be quacking on 365 days later,

I just love them that much.

And yes I know they're not everyone's cup of tea,

but I ruddy love them, and yesterday they released the video

for 'One For The Road', their third single of fifth

number 1 album 'AM'.

And you can't say you don't like them after watching it.

This band will forever amuse me because fame to them

is just something that came with success,

and they don't really give a crap about it, not like other

musicians or artists might do.

Just to give you a few examples as to what I mean, this

is the band who turned up to the Brits circa 2007, their first Brit awards may I add, dressed firstly as the Wizard of Oz quartet, and secondly as the members of the infamous YMCA.

This is the band who, for comeback single 'Do I Wanna Know', didn't even feature themselves in the video, 

despite a two year absence from the music scene.

This is the band who sung about pick and mix and gobstoppers and made it cool, the band whose lead singer looks like Elvis

re-incarnated yet still manages to look cooler than the King himself, if that were even possible. 

And in this video, they step things up a notch,

crank it up a tad just to put it one way....

If you've heard the song, or the album itself, you'll notice

a slight 90's R&B influence that's present

on numerous tracks, this being one of them. 

'One For The Road' in particular is probably the track that embodies this, and when you picture a video in your head,

you think instantly of house party, 

late night antics, 

cool cool cool and nothing less.

You don't, think TRACTORS.

So of course that's EXACTLY what the Monkeys have gone and decided to do.

Make a video about TRACTORS.

This would be like Kanye West & Jamie Foxx making the video for 'Gold Digger' and deciding to film it in a 

giant bubble bath floating around on giant yellow ducks.

IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

But I was absolutely WETTING MYSELF as I watched it.

You can see that the Monkeys are taking the mick, 

just because they can, but ugghhhhh it just works so well!

How they make tractor riding so cool I do not know...

I'd urge you watch the vid right now,

and in order to understand exactly how amazingly funny this

mad creation is, please please please skip to

0:57 and then come back and

laugh with me, because it's GENIUS.