TOO EASILY INFLUENCED

Different things bring different people comfort. Also, different things influence different people. Certain TV series have brought me unmeasurable comfort and have influenced my life probably a bit too much over the years.

The first TV series that really grabbed my every limb and pulled me right in was Gilmore Girls. I have watched every single episode of the seven series show at least three times, just ask my family! Even my dad is know familiar with Luke the diner owner,  Kirk the weird village handy man and he even became invested in the rocky relationship of Rory and Logan. I can't remember exactly when I came across the series and I certainly didn't watch it the first time round - I think I was 6 when it first aired in 2000. Wherever and whenever I discovered it I instantly pressed 'recored series' on the Sky+ remote and have never looked back.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and the rest of the series writers are incredible and managed to make me laugh and get super tense in almost every episode. I love comedy and I have a select few comedic actors that I think are insanely good. These include but are not limited to, Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy (who is Suki in GG by the way), Will Ferrel and Lorelai herself, Lauren Graham. Graham's comedic timing is brilliant and I think it was this that really got me interested in comedy and the writing side of it. I just think that comedians and comedy writers are the cleverest people in the world.

Rory has been a huge influence in my life - when I first started watching the show I basically just wanted to be her! Except for that time where she is seen reading Sylvia Plath on a bench - I REALLY do NOT like the works of Sylvia Plath. Depressing much? AM I RIGHTTTT?!!She certainly inspired me to work hard, get to a good university and become a journalist. Seeing Rory as Editor of the Yale daily news got me thinking about journalism and since then I have been gaining as much work experience as possible from different publications and TV channels. I know that the characters in Gilmore Girls are imaginary but I think what they stand for is real. I know I get too invested in made up people's lives but there is something about a comforting, amazing, intelligent TV show that just makes me so happy about life!

The Office is another series that I will always, always go back and watch again and again (the US version that is). It's strange but when exam season comes around, especially since I've been at university, I suddenly become invested in a variety of time consuming activities that will have a naught to zero percent positive effect on my exam results. The first two weeks of revision is fine, I get into it and all is well but by week three I will literally do anything to delay that dreaded time of day when I have to sit at a desk, read and re-read and re-read (you get the picture) pages and pages of notes, journals and books on the Tudor monarchy or the creation of Labour in post-war Britain. The first thing I do is turn to books and books that will most definitely not help me in my quest to graduate as a historian. In my first year of uni I read Miranda Hart's autobiography along with a gazillion other novels but not like in a "oh, I might read a few pages before going to bed" kind-of way but in a "I am a heroin addict, please inject me now or I will explode" kind of way.

This year, along with reading yet another tower of books which had nothing to do with my degree, I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with The Office. I watched all 9 seasons in just over a month. It was a way for me to forget about the five dreaded exams I would have to face and instead I would worry about when Jim would finally ask Pam out, if Dwight would ever face the facts and publicly announce his love for Angela and if Michael Scott's film Threat Level Midnight would ever be completed. The writing on the show is insanely good and so intelligently written that not only do I sit there invested in the lives of these wholly fictitious yet utterly relatable characters, I also sit in total awe of The Office's writing staff. My favourite ever scene from any TV show/movie ever made is from Stress Relief: Part 1  in Season 5 of the show. If you have never seen it just please youtube it.

While watching The Office I started to research the writers of the show to see whether they had written any other shows or written any books and this is when I discovered that Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak were both writers on the show. I LOVE a show when there's a 'will they, won't they' story line - I become instantly hooked and want to skip right to the episode when the two characters get together because the suspense is just a little too much. I seriously watched the whole second series of New Girl in 2 days because I had no patience and wanted to know what was going to happen between Nick and Jess after years of secretly being in love with each other. I digress. What I am getting at is that while flicking through the channels one evening I came across The Mindy Project I think it might have been the last episode of the first series and I instantly picked up on the fact that Danny really did not want Mindy to go to Haiti with Casey (bare in mind that I had no idea who these characters were at this point). Also, I thought the show was fun. You can probably guess what happened next - I traversed the internet looking for a way to watch the show and by this point the majority of the second series had come out in the US so I just went straight for the second series and loved it.

Part of the appeal of watching The Mindy Project is the fact that Mindy (Kaling) created, writes, produces, casts, edits (and everything else) her own show. Girl power to the max. I even bough her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me and loved it so much that I have been borrowing the book to my friends and urging them to read it. I really like the fact that she says her advice to people who want to do what she does or who want to be successful in any line of work is to work your arse off at school/university. There are no shortcuts. Amen sista' (what, did I really just say that. Apparently I have turned all ghetto all of a sudden).

I recently bought the first season on DVD since I never really watched it in its entirety and have watched all 24 episodes in 3 days. Last night I found myself ordering the Bridget Jones' Diary trilogy from Amazon and re-watching You've Got Mail for the gazillionth time. I told you, I get really easily influenced by TV, Films and music.

While I type this I have a shopping cart on Amazon filled with Nora Ephron movie posters that I am going to order to put on my wall in my new house at university. Gosh TV you've done it again.

I have only included three shows in this post as I could go on forever and ever - I might come back to this post and add to it one day but for now I will leave you pondering whether I am sane and thinking "wow, this Lisiloo lady needs to get a life".

p.s.,  The answer to your questions are - I am not too sure if I am fully sane, I mean who is, am I right! Also, yes I probably do need to 'get a life' but you know what, who gives a crap, a girl needs her relaxation time and mine just happens to be watching comedy shows (and getting too easily influenced by them).

WEST WALES ADVENTURE WITH ELLIE

A few weeks ago my friend Ellie from university came over to my part of the world for a few days. I hadn't seen her for a month or so thus it was super nice to have a little catch up. From Monday afternoon 'till Thursday morning we traversed West Wales from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth and from Mwnt to Aberaeron.

I know I live in the middle of nowhere and I think Ellie was a bit shocked at how in the middle of nowhere I do actually live but we do have some amazing views on the coastline and this is basically what I showed her.

Monday
Ellie didn't arrive 'till around lunch time on Monday so once I picked her up from Carmarthen train station and we went and had lunch at Pethau Da which is located in Pethau Bychain  on King St. After a lovely meal we perused some shops, drank some coffee and then hopped over to the beautiful Llansteffan. We decided to climb up to Llansteffan Castle just to see the incredible views that looked out towards the horizon. A great way to end a Monday!

Tuesday
A trip to Mwnt was on today's agenda and boy was I happy about that. Mwnt is my favourite place in the whole wide world. It has an awesome little beach hidden away between massive cliffs which not too many people know about, except for the locals and a few tourists. On top of the cliffs, overlooking the beach and the sea is the most beautiful church you ever did see and if I ever marry, this is where I want the ceremony to take place. Before Ellie and I headed down to the beach where we would later eat lunch, read and have a bit of a sleep (ok, that was just me), we climbed the little mountain that is near the church and sat at its summit watching the dolphins and attempting to see the coast of Ireland.

On the way home we stopped off in Aberaeron where we went for a little walk, bought some chips and ate them on the harbour wall. Scrumdiddlyumptious.

Wednesday
Today we headed north to Aberystwyth, a nice seaside town where my brother goes to uni and where thousands of tourists flock to in the summer to smell some fresh sea air. We arrived in the town at around lunchtime so after buying a few things on our little shopping date we finally downed tools and ate some beautiful sandwiches at Agnelli's. My brother is in the middle of writing his Masters dissertation so he spends most days up in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth so myself and Ellie went up to visit the Library. It had a really cool Dylan Thomas exhibition which I loved. Once we had finished looking at all the exhibitions we went and had a coffee in the Library's caffe.

Thursday
As Ellie was heading home in the early afternoon I had planned to spend the day outside walking with Hendrix but alas the Welsh weather got the better of us and with rain pouring outside we gave the walking a miss and started our journey back down to Carmarthen where we had a nice little coffee before Ellie was on her way back to Somerset.

I really enjoyed my few days travelling West Wales with Ellie. I am just continuously baffled by the beauty that surrounds my home and I am happy that I got to show off my little corner of the world to Ellie!

SUMMER ADVENTURES // CARDIFF, GBK & IPHONE

It has happened guys. I knew the day was going to come but you are never really ready for it are you. Yes, you guessed it - my iphone has broken. I can happily live without a phone for a long while and I don't suffer from text withdrawal symptoms but the camera. I use the iphone camera for the majority of my blog posts and just as a way to capture daily events. It wouldn't be that bad if I lived close to an apple shop but as I live in the middle of nowhere I have to do a 200 mile round trip to Cardiff to get it fixed. Yup - 200 miles! Well anywho, Carwen, Ruth and myself had planned to go to the capital on Tuesday to get my phone fixed but we were late in deciding train times and by the time I went to book an appointment at the Genius Bar there was none left - nooooo! Although I couldn't get my phone fixed we still went and had a lovely day.

First thing was first - we had to go and get lunch because we were starvin' marvin. Having been reading the Burgers and Bruce blog recently I really wanted a burger and, well, there is only one place to go and that is Gourmet Burger Kitchen by the Library in town. I had the beef burger with bacon and avocado. Wooow - delish. Also, I have no idea what's in their relish but it's the best I've ever had. Once we were energised we did a bit of shopping. I've been searching for some records recently and they are so expensive everywhere - £24 for a Justin Timberlake vinyl anyone? Crazy. The only time I've been willing to pay £20 for a record was when I found Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town album in Portobello Market. Anywho, Urban Outfitters currently have an amazing collection of old school records which is just awesome. 2 albums for £10!! I picked up U2's Rattle & Hum and a 50's rock 'n' roll album with artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Yaaaay. I also picked up a Beatles and a Guns 'n' roses  tee before heading home.

We had such a cool time together and sometimes when you're away at uni in different parts of the country you start to forget how awesome it is to be around people you've been friends with since you were 10/11 years old (gosh, almost 10 years! whaaat?!). Diolch Carwen a Ruth :)

Apologies: I have only got pictures of our meal at the GBK because as I stated earlier I have no camera at the moment. These were taken by Ruth. 

Me trying to create an artistic background for the photo . . . yeah . . . 

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, CARDIFF - 23.7.13 // Summer Adventures

“There are good Bruce shows, there are great Bruce shows, and then there’s Cardiff!” - Helen Jones 

Wow. I have thought about how to describe what myself and over 20,000 Springsteen fans saw on Tuesday night but there are no words. 

My Mam, my brother and I opened are deck chairs and sat in the Cardiff sun all of ten hours before The Boss made an appearance on stage. It had to be done. After being so close to the Golden Circle in Wembley last month we knew we had to be even closer this time. The E Street Band are like a drug which you just want to experience on a more intimate level every time. Next time (and there will be another E Street tour) we'll queue the day before if we have to  - Springsteen has that effect on you. The hours fly by because Springsteen fans are like a big family - everybody talks to each other, look out for one another and swap stories of their experiences of life on the road with the Boss. From Australia, Netherlands, America and Italy, they were all there ready to see Springsteen in the Welsh capital. 

Once we were in the stadium we were ridiculously close to the front and on many occasions during the 3 and a half hour set (yes you heard right, 3 and a half hours) Springsteen was at a face to face distance from us which was enough to almost make my mother (who has been following the Boss for 30 or so years) cry! That was enough to make it one of the best nights of my life but then the setlist, oh the setlist. What an incredible thing it was!

After being privileged enough to hear the whole of Darkness on the Edge of Town in Wembley I was quite happy for the Boss not to play another album from start to finish but just to play songs from his never ending back catalogue. And wow, what a show he put on for us. The band burst on to the stage with a fantastically gospel version of This Little Light of Mine which I was incredibly pleased about and this is also the song that ended the first encore.  I was already pumped by the end of the first song but when Adam Raised A Cain was played as the third song in the set I knew that the show would be one that would not be forgotten for a long time. Adam Raised a Cain is one of my favourite songs not only from Darkness on the Edge of Town but ever. 

After running in to the crowd to grab some sign requests (sadly not mine) we were treated to a world premiere of TV Movie. A song that has never been heard live before and according to Bruce, a song that will never be heard live again! Cynthia, another song from the 1998 "Tracks" boxed set was played after TV Movie to the delight of Steve Van Zandt and the crowd, before the band jumped in to a trio of Wrecking Ball tracks - Death to My Hometown, We Take Care of Our Own and Wrecking Ball. 

 Bruce treated the people of Cardiff to an awesome surprise as The Animals' Eric Burdon came on stage to perform We've Gotta Get Out of This Place with the amazed crowd shouting the chorus back at the performers. If the Millennium Stadium was not already almost filled to the roof with energy, Springsteen launched into a cover of John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom which was followed by Cadillac Ranch and (one of my favourites) Summertime Blues. The seated crowd were told to "get off their Welsh asses" when Pay My Money Down came on and they listened to turn to the atmosphere in the stadium up to 11. As the set came to an end with an immense version of Badlands the roof was now shaking and the crowd were jumping - could things get any wilder? 

With a 10 song encore, yes they most definitely could. The first encore included Springsteen hits such as Born to Run, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out and Dancing in the Dark and ended with a totally mental version of Shout which saw Bruce crawling across the stage in an almost see through shirt as the sweat flooded from the singer after 3 and a half hours on the stage. Not bad for an almost 64 year old. With The Boss ignoring cut off time and as the band left the stage, Springsteen continued with an emotional and sensational acoustic versions of Janey Don't You Lose Heart and Thunder Road which left many of the audience with tears in their eyes. 

Bruce, as one sign in the crowd stated simply - Thank You. 

IT'S PRETTY COOL ISN'T IT // MY AREA

I'm writing this on a sun longer as I sit (and occasionally lounge) in the glorious sun that we've been gifted with here in West Wales and, it seems, in the whole of the United Kingdom. It is on sunny days like these that I can begin to appreciate where I live. This appreciation was magnified this afternoon as I read the newspaper - uprisings in Egypt, teenagers murdered over smart phones, never ending wars in Syria and corrupted politics. It is at this moment in time that I appreciate that the only noise I can here is that of the screeching of a red kite being playfully attacked by another bird.

I understand that many, including me, at numerous times in their lives have disliked living so far away from everything. So far away from civilisation. As I now spend most of my time in an area where a less than ten minute walk can get you to a train station and a 35 minute journey can get you in to the English capital, I can fully appreciate how isolated we are here in West Wales. But, so what?

On Jeremy Vine a few days ago he was discussing and comparing newspaper headlines throughout the country with many urban areas sporting front pages with words such as "Two people stabbed in bus stop" whereas areas out in the country had calmer headlines that read "Dog found in shed". Some might find the latter pointless, laughable even but if you had to choose which area you would rather live in after reading these stories I'm sure I can guess which one you'd choose.

It's true we have nothing here. The nearest cinema is an hour away and so is the nearest shopping area but despite this we were never bored growing up. Who needs shops when you have rivers and who needs an arcade when you have forests. Simple.

Despite this I would not be able to live here throughout my years after university as I want to travel, live in those cities with such shocking headlines and to live between never ending streets of shops and cinemas. Although, I don't think I'd be able to live in places like London for long - too built up and busy. San Clemente or San Francisco on the other hand, well that's a different story! To live in California would be a dream - sea, mountains, desert, peace and civilisation. What more could you need?!

For now however, I am pretty happy with views like these.

LOOK AT THAT // Music & shiz.

 

I just realised that I had not done a Super Sunday Song on Sunday so I thought I might throw it on Wednesday. It's really incredible that we're in our third week of our seven week term. Before you know it we'll be back home for the summer. This summer myself and my friends have loads of awesome things to look forward to such as V & Reading festivals, road trips to the North of England, trips to the IMAX to watch the new Superman film - Man Of Steel, surf trips and more! Oh, and of course I'll be working as well. Now however, my days consist of revision! My last exam is next Thursday, wooohooo! We're planning to do a Hangover&Harvester evening. Hangover 3 comes out in the cinema the day we finish our exams so we'll be heading in the direction of the cinema come 4pm on Thursday and after we'll have a celebratory dinner in Harvester! The Great Gatsby also opens soon and it's going to be AWESOMEEEE!!! I love that book & Baz Luhrmann so it's a perfect recipe!

This week I've chosen Rival Sons' 'Keep on Swinging'. This is just an awesome tune by an awesome band. I heard them on Dermot O'Leary's show the other week while on the way down to Llanelli to watch the rugby and I instantly loved them. I ordered their album Head Down almost instantly and it arrived through the post on Monday! They are just a mix of like Seasick Steve, Bruce Springsteen, B.B.King and Kings of Leon - like the most amazing hybrid ever! Their style is pretty cool to.

Enjoy :)

FRIENDS REUNTITED

It's Easter time so that means almost everyone is back home from university and on holidays (if you can call them holidays with the revising and essays we have to do!). Since I'm restricted to the four walls of my house due to the back surgery I had last week, I haven't been able to go and see my friends so they came to see me :) yaaaay. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week I've had friends over and just catching up on their lives and the goss on what's been going on at home! It's been awesome to make the day not as boring and long and I haven't laughed so much in ageeees! Yesterday my friend Alaw came over - I've been close friends with her since the day I was born and she's actually clean off! She's also off to New York tomorrow and I'm so jealous - I love that city (my trip to NY).

Last night we had the school prize evening - this is where we get our A-level certificates and other people get their GCSE certificates and people also get other prizes. I received the History award :). It was so nice to be back in school with all my friends and most of the year. It was awesome to speak to some of my teachers - especially my A-level teachers because I think it's during your time in the Sixth form that you actually make proper relationships with your teachers. Especially in our school because it wasn't that big - in our Geography and English a-level class there was only four of us and only five of us in my History class!

I love school and even loved it while I was there - don't get me wrong I didn't feel like this during exam time but most of the time it was awesome. It was just the fun we had there and the friends I had, the teachers and the awesome opportunities that presented themselves. A year ago I was out in Ireland playing hockey and a year or two before that I was out in Sweden. Don't get me wrong university is absolutely fab and my friends are actually awesome (I use the word awesome a lot - I apologise!) and I would not want to go back to school again but you really didn't have to worry about anything really while in secondary school - not money, food, finding and paying for a house etc! Although all of these things are great because they teach you about the real world.

It's nice to chillax with people you've grown up with.

 

WALKING ON FILM

Last week I was in Superdrug and saw that their disposable cameras were only 40p (!!!!!) because they were no longer to be displayed in the shop (or something). So obviously I bought some - never miss out on a bargain. I was especially happy as I saw the exact same disposable in Tesco for £5! The week before I had already bought two disposables from Boots because with a disposable I have to go and get them developed or I won't be able to see them. With digital I never really get around to print them so at least with a disposable I will have hard copies of my pictures. Also the film does make the photos look cooler I think! Hollie used all her film on a walk down to Tescos and back on a sunny day last Tuesday and these photos are the result of this walk! We also had the idea of taking disposables with us to V & Reading fest this summer because if we lose them it won't be that bad, whereas if we lost our digital cams or iphones it would not be that great and also we'll have awesomely cool photos to look back on!

Prepare to be bombarded with photos!

They announced the last headliner for reading fest last night . . . GREEN DAY! Oh My Word - it's going to be awesome! Also The Lumineers are going to be there - yaaaaay!

A LITTLE CATCH UP :)

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Why hello there.
Over the last week or so I have been busy trying to complete most of my essays so I don't have a massive panic at the end of term due to work overload. I have so far completed two essays - a 2,000 word essay on the downfall of Juan Peron in Argentina and a 1500ish(1800) word essay analysing sources from the early modern period. I only have one left which is a 3,000 word research essay on a topic of your own choice, I chose Owain Glyndwr. I can not believe that we only have two weeks left of this term! The time has literally flown by - it is unreal. Although I am excited for next term and for summer!

We have not been up to much over the last couple of days because most people have a lot of deadlines coming up. However, we have watched numerous films, from A Midnight in Paris (one of my favourite films ever!) to Warrior, Into the Wild and many more.
After a day spent lying down as a result of a very bad headache, last night myself, Laura and a few of the boys headed to Nandos. I wasn't really going for the food, I just wanted to go for the walk. It was delish and when I came back to the flat I did my seminar reading in till around midnight.

I love spontaneous adventures. They are the best by far. Even if its just a walk in to town and back. I just enjoy being outside and doing stuff - any excuse not to sit down at my desk all day doing the mountain of reading they expect us history students to read every week!

I also bought a new top from ASOS this week - it is actually awesome! I love it. (picture below)

Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

(Bank - London during rush hour)

 (I will try to do anything other than work!)

I have also recently discovered SNAPCHAT! It is the best thing ever! Here are two collages of my snapchat faces and Hollie's!

Also you can check out my recent article on rugbyfancast.com here :)