The meaning of feminism and #HeForShe

I've been meaning to write a post like this ever since the media's spotlight turned to Emma Watson's HeForShe speech that I absolutely LOVED. Here is the link if you have not already seen it before:

It has occurred to me recently as feminism has become a popular subject that not many people know what it actually means. 
For instance, something I am very glad about is the fact that more people now recognise that feminism is not "man hating". In fact, "man hating" is classed as sexism, which is the complete opposite of what feminists want. I suppose the stereotype that feminists hate men came around from the time in which women had to fight people high up in the government for their rights, with everyone high up in the government being men (as women were not allowed to choose careers for themselves). 

Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.

(men can be feminists too!!) 

So I am just glad that that has been cleared up. Something that has been bothering me though is the fact that many people do not consider themselves feminists as they do not realise the importance of feminism. I have seen people sharing their views on the internet who do not understand the full effects of their words against feminism, and, just today, I had an argument with someone close to me who did not consider herself a feminist because of "some of its areas"......???

One of the petty arguments I have heard today (and have heard in the past) is that feminism is wrong because it stops beauty pageants. Just..... no. 
First of all, I would just like to point out that I do not personally agree with beauty pageants and I am a feminist. However, being a feminist does not automatically make you hate beauty pageants. I'm sure many people who have participated in beauty pageants were feminists themselves and had their own views on the matter. My view on beauty pageants is that they are stupid because they just seem to search for the "perfect human", and I think that is silly and superficial. Also, beauty pageants pretend that they are looking for the whole package, whereas they just want to get you in a bikini(?). But that is a different story (possibly for another day??).
What was the message I was trying to put across? Oh yeah... not all feminists are the same, so there's no use in judging all of us based on some outdated stereotypes dragged up by certain sections of the media.

I thing that I would also like to add before I end my blog post is that many people who not consider themselves feminists are actually taking a feminist stance without realising it.

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so” ~Taylor Swift  

(also supporting Emma Watson in her campaign!)

So for those of you who have maybe never thought of yourselves as feminists, stop to think about your social, political and economic views. It does not make you a "man hater" or whatever bad thing you have been told in the past. It simply means that you want to be seen as equal to opposite gender. 

Speak to you later, 
Lucy x

"Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive.

Both men and women should feel free to be strong."

~Emma Watson

( one of my favourite quotes in the entire speech! <3 )

The good and the bad in the YouTube community

(do not bother reading if you are not bothered by the YouTube community or do not like going into gritty topics)

I (being a person who watches MANY YouTubers) have recently begun to notice more and more how the YouTube community is doing both positive and negative things to people's lives and our society. 

For instance, take the "Zoella Beauty" range. 
As soon as I heard about this, I was so happy for Zoe - as well as excited to buy the range itself! Everything about it seems so sweet from what I've seen on her blog and her vlog channel. And it was all made possible by her blog, YouTube channel and general internet popularity. Isn't it great how someone's life can be completely changed by that?
You will also find examples of this when you look at YouTuber best friends such as Zoe&Louise and Dan&Phil. How else would they have met each other? Some people owe internet fame their friendships, and that is an amazing thing. 

However, there is always a downside to internet fame. Sometimes YouTubers are faced with a scary pressure to satisfy their audience, leading them to panic and upset themselves. Or, in more extreme instances, yes - the Sam Pepper problem. I am not the kind of person who writes bad stuff about people online, but this particular subject really gets on my nerves.

(For more information, watch Laci Green's video)

If Sam Pepper had not been lead to believe that his disgusting public experiment of the "Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank" would satisfy his audience, would he have still pulled the prank? I think not. 

Why? Because as soon as he realised that what he had posted had caused so much controversy, he carried on to claim that what he had done was simply a "public experiment", and made such a show of it. If you watch his "THE REVEAL" edition of the prank, he claims that he did it all to make people think about sexual harassment and went into a whole lot of rubbish about why he did what he did. This is just a useless excuse. 

And this is not the only instance in which he has made young women feel vulnerable in his "pranks". In the past, he has handcuffed girls and told them that he would only set them free if they kissed him.
Obviously, I am only 14, so I am highly unlikely to be involved in this kind of thing. However, if he did that to me, I would call for help immediately. No matter how you look at it, he is essentially forcing girls to kiss him against their will.
Despite this, in the video, you see girls laughing in bewilderment. As I person who often laughs when in shock, what people don't understand is that laughing is merely a natural response to shock. Just because the person is laughing doesn't mean that they are amused. In situations such as this one, most people are upset, angry or just scared, even when they are laughing. 

This is why I am irritated by the fact that many people seem to be saying "she isn't uncomfortable, she's laughing because it's funny". Nooo. You don't understand what this laugh means. What this laugh means is: Did he really just do that??? -.- or I am terrified but I don't know how to object to this without seeming rude :(

The only thing more annoying than Sam's "prank" is the fact that so many people are defending him when what he did (along with everything else than can be labelled as sexual harassment) is inexcusable. 
It just goes to prove how YouTube, along with many other aspects of social media, can negatively affect people's views on serious issues that are not a laughing matter. Do we really want young people to grow up thinking it's acceptable to pinch people asses in the street, even as a joke??? No it's not, it is sexual harassment, and it is illegal!

This is why I am so happy that this also happened:

This is the kind of behavior that restores my faith in the YouTube community (not that my faith in the community really needs restoring when you look at how many wonderful people are part of it). 

Sorry this wasn't really a positive blog post. I just needed to rant for a while about this, and I figured I may as well blog about it since it is about recent events. I try to be a happy and positive person, but sometimes I feel you just have to vent before you can settle down. 

Rant angrily to you soon,

Lucy x

(jks... hopefully)

(P.S: It has also come to my attention that there is also something worse going on in the YouTube community between Sam Pepper and some very distressed people, though I'm not even going to TRY to go into that.)

For more information: click here to see YouTube Nation's view on this.

Social Anxiety?

First of all, I would like to start this post off by thanking everyone who took the time to acknowledge my "I'm so shy." post. It is now my most popular post! <3 It means a lot to me. 

In fact, that post has been on my mind a lot recently, and I wanted to investigate my lack of confidence and fear of people... Judging by the title, you can probably see where this is going. 
I am not "just shy". I have social anxiety. 

This is not just something that simply sprang to mind or I just made up to explain why I am the way I am. For a few years, I have been forced basically every day of my life just how shy I really am. Obviously, I know many shy people - the majority of which are my friends - but the way they act around people compared to the way I act around people has always seemed different somehow. 
I remember once I was talking with my friend about how scared I had been that day when I had to talk to a stranger and how I completely froze, but my friend didn't really understand. She just said "I'm quite shy too, I guess". 
This was just silly because this particular friend is probably the most friendly person I have ever met. I just said "Compared to me, though? Are you really shy compared to me?".
To which she obviously replied "No". 

I understand that you are not supposed to diagnose yourself with social anxiety, but I show so many symptoms of it and it has been on my mind for a while. Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone who commented on my post saying "same!" also has social anxiety too or whatever - I basically know nothing about you or your lives. That is up for you to find out!

I think that what scares me the most about social anxiety is that it is scary. It just is. Every time someone I am not 100% comfortable with comes my way and starts a conversation, I am filled with this scary uncertainty. I am also scared about how I will be affected by this in the future. However, I am fully aware that my social anxiety is not going to get worse purely because I am aware of it. All it means is that I am more aware of the problem, and that is a good thing, as it means that I will be more accustomed to dealing with my fear. 

If anyone reading this has the same problem (not that I expect many people to), do you have any method for dealing with your fear? I don't really, but I have been doing my research. 

I think my method for now is just going to be acting, as that usually works fine. For some odd reason, I can sing a whole song solo in front of around 50 people yet I have a slightly blurry memory of a speech I did in Year 8 on Anne Frank in which the edges of my vision went fuzzy and I almost fainted. I also remember spying on one of my classmates' review of my speech (we had to review everyone's) and him having written "It was good because she sounded like she was crying"... Luckily, in my next speech, my voice didn't shake so much. It was an interesting interpretation of what was one the scariest moments of my teenage years (so far) though, and it cheered me up a bit. :P

So that's the end of today's blog post. Sorry if it wasn't as action packed as you would have liked, but I kind of felt it was necessary. 

Speak to you soon,
Lucy x

General Knowledge and Lipstick Names

Hey there :)

I kind of feel bad that I haven't posted in a few days. This is because I have been...

(pause for effect)

SOCIALISING *gasp* 
I know, it sounds scary to me too. 

On Friday after school I went to a quiz with a few of my friends and WE WON, which was weird, because I was on the team. I'm definitely not complaining though, as I got a tub of Celebrations for it. I kind of felt useless as I only answered 3 questions in the 3 hours we were there, as it turns out that I am not the best when it comes to general knowledge. I was quite proud of myself for identifying the music that plays at the beginning of Grease though, so y'know, I guess I did help to some extent. General knowledge is weird, as you are rewarded for the kind of useless stuff that you wouldn't really think of as useful at all. 
I do tend to acquire tiny bits of useless knowledge throughout my life, though these tend to be tiny insignificant facts (e.g. Taylor Swift lyrics and every single event that occurs in The Hunger Games books - although both are very significant to me), as opposed to geographical facts or the names of television presenters.

Yesterday, just to add to the illusion that I am actually quite a social person, I went shopping with some other friends. I didn't actually go into any clothes shops as we didn't really feel like it, though we did wander round a few shops such as Pylones (oh my gosh, everything in there is so cool!) and Tiger (which is always just generally awesome). 
One particular aspect of yesterday I also enjoyed was going to Boots and looking around at the makeup. Have you ever been looking round at makeup and realised how weird some of the product names are? I have never really thought of this before, though I recently discovered some particularly amazing names. My friends and I actually managed to turn it into a game of "who can find the weirdest name for a lipstick". I think I won with the name "Gentlemen Prefer Me"!!! I find the best names are the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with the product itself (e.g. "Seductive Pink", with tells you absolutely nothing about the shade of pink whatsoever) or just the weirdly pretentious ones. 
Oh, the fun people at big makeup companies must have...

Also, in case you were wondering (not that I really expect you to), I did actually buy some stuff at Boots. In fact, the Baby Lips had a 3 for 2 offer, so I picked up the only ones on the shelf that I didn't already have. Maybelline just keep releasing more!

Left to right: Oh! Orange!, Berry Bomb, Peach Kiss

Sooo yeah, that has been my weekend. Tell me how yours has been down in the comments, I love reading them :)

Speak to you soon,

Lucy x

I LOVE AUTUMN

With everyone going back to school and moaning about the weather, I thought it was time for a post where I list everything I love about Autumn. I must warn you, Autumn is my favourite season! I understand that not everyone likes it, so some of the things on this list may not apply to you. So yeah... here we go!

Things I love about Autumn

• The weather

I know people hate it when it starts to get colder, but I think it's really awesome. It's not too hot or too cold. I mean, if you're in a cold place, such as England, then it might be slightly too cold at some points, but would you rather be too hot or too cold? If you are too hot, there's nothing you can really do to cool down besides making sure you have air conditioning and not wearing too many layers. Whereas when it begins to get colder you are able to put more layers ON until you are warm and cosy (warm drinks and blankets also help!). And that brings us to our next bullet point...

• Wearing Layers

I absolutely love layering my clothes in the Autumn and Winter. I think it's the cosiest, snuggest feeling ever when you have warm, fluffy layers on. I'd much rather be able to wear long sleeved tops and jumpers than shorts and vest tops. 

• Jumpers

Jumpers have to be my favourite items of clothing - especially the really fluffy ones. 

Being a blogger sometimes makes me feel like I should focus on fashion more, although I am aware that I am not that kind of blogger (not that that's a bad thing, I follow many awesome fashion bloggers!). Despite this, I would love to give you guys an insight to my wardrobe this Autumn as most of my clothes are suited to the season. I don't know yet though, it's just an idea. 

• Autumnal colours

These are the BEST. I adore deep oranges and berry reds as well as many other Autumnal colours, they are absolutely gorgeous. 

• Autumn leaves

This one sounds really cliché, but the leaves turn the most beautiful colours in Autumn. I love that small space of time during Autumn, starting when the leaves start falling off the trees and ending when they go all mushy on the pavements (eew). Nevertheless, I find it really interesting how the leaves can be tons and tons of different shades up close when they all look the same from far away. And then you can jump in them! (oh my gosh I am such a child)

Having said this, every time I talk about Autumn leaves I am reminded on a poem I wrote in German last year called "Autumn Leaves", in which I attempt to sound pretentious in a language I don't understand. 

Let's not speak of that... 

• HALLOWEEN

Anyone who knows me will know how excited I get about Halloween every year. I'm sad to say that I didn't do much last year because most of my friends were on holiday (BOOO), though we have planned something this year. This is something I would like to include on WhatTheFudge, so I will post about this at some point. 

The only thing that irks me about Halloween is that my age makes it difficult to trick or treat. This will make me sound like I am 7 years old, but there is something really magical about trick or treating that makes me love it to pieces (I am probably just high on sugar, but still). 

I remember one year we were so hyper that we started barking at a dog (who was barking at us first) from behind a fence on my friend's street, and when the dog's owner came out to shout at us, we hid behind her shed so that my friend - who had been telling us to shut up the whole time - had to take the blame.

(In my defence, I was a werewolf at the time, so my response to the barking felt fairly appropriate)

I remember the woman screaming "STOP AGGRAVATING MY DOG", like it was yesterday.

...aah, fun times. 

Maybe this is why we are not allowed to trick or treat any more. We might just have to settle for a Halloween party (and not the Mean Girls kind!). 

• You have an excuse to drink hot chocolate every day (not question it, just go with it)

• Fleecy pajamas and onesies (they are so warm and fuzzy and cuddlyyyy...)

• You are one step closer to Christmas! (enough said)

• It gets darker earlier (I don't know, I really like the streets at night and it seems like an excuse to stay in and watch movies)

That's it for today blog post. Post in the comments if you think there's anything I've missed, and tell my your favourite season! I love hearing from people :)

Speak to you soon, 

Lucy x

I've been nominated for a Liebster Award! :D

I have no idea how these things work, and I only know what I have read on Tara's blog post, so sorry if I do this wrong! I am just hoping to bring myself and other bloggers together, as she says in the blog post in which I was nominated, which sounds awesome, so I am hoping to do just that. :D

Sooo yeah, I have been nominated by Tara, owner of the blog LoveTaraBabii♡. I have not been reading her blog for long, but it's pretty cool :) Go have a look for yourself!

And the nominees are.... (sorry if you have done this before!)

• Pen & Key
• Biba La Vida
• xBeYOUtifulx
• Rebecca Maria
• LittleLo16

Your questions are:

• Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (location or whatever)
• What/who persuaded you to start blogging?
• What is your favourite food?
• What thing/things would you like to do before you die?
• If you could meet one celebrity, who would it be?
• If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be? 
• What is your favourite band?
• If you could have one super power, what would it be? 
• Who is your idol?
• What is your favourite animal?

Here are the questions I was asked:

• What is your ambition in life?

Woooah, slow down! That's a big question to spring on a 14 year old, haha :P

I'm not really sure yet. I would love to get somewhere in the film industry someday or to write my own book or something. I love acting and writing, so those are the kind of things I want to focus on in life. I haven't really had that much time to set myself goals yet. 

• If you could only go to one place/country before you die, where would it be?

I've discussed this before with my friend, and we decided that we would want to go to Venice. I have been lucky enough to go to quite a few places/countries in my lifetime, though I have never been to Venice, and from what I've seen, it is beautiful :)

• What is one item that you cannot go without?

MY LAPTOP!!!

• What is your favourite colour and why?

This tends to change quite often, but if I had to narrow it down, I would say either purple or silver. My room is painted purple and I really love the colour and the variation between all the different shades of purple that can have very different effects. 

I also think that silver is just generally awesome :D

• Do you have any pets?

Yup! :)

I have a cocker spaniel called Paddy, a guinea pig called Panda and a goldfish called Sheila. 

This is a picture of Paddy when he was a puppy, so it was probably taken around January-time. He is now 11(ish) months old, and looks like this:

Panda :3

I don't actually have any good pictures of Sheila, though I don't think I need to, as I'm guessing all goldfish look the same. 

• If life had an undo button, what would you undo?

The stupid, embarrassing little moments that I know will haunt me for the rest of my life (I will not go into details!). These are basically just situations where I word-vomit or just do something really dorky or clumsy. There aren't any really big life decisions I regret. 

• What makes you different from everyone else?

I have many similar interests with my friends, though I have a particular passion for drama and acting. Also, I suppose my blog makes me different from everyone else! No two blogs are the same and I don't have friends with blogs (not including people I know because of their blogs, obviously!). 

• If you could only drink one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Hot chocolate! :o

Having said this, I am aware that it is incredibly unhealthy and this decision would probably result in multiple health problems unless I was living off grapes, so I would have to say water.

• Your favourite film?

Ohhh myyy goosshh this one is hard! I absolutely love The Hunger Games movies and can't wait for Mockingjay part 1 & 2. I also love romantic movies, dramas and some comedies though, so I'm not sure. I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Stuck In Love. Mean Girls also HAS TO BE an all time favourite for me though, and I will always relate to it. 

AAH, this question is killing me!

I'm going to have to go with Mean Girls. 

• If somebody made a film about your life, who would you want to play you?

Hopefully I would be offered to play myself, haha! 

...actually, on second thoughts, there are too many embarrassing stories that I would not want to reenact. I think I would leave that job to someone else!

Hmm... I suppose my biggest candidates would be Jennifer Lawrence, Amanda Seyfried or Chloe Grace Moretz (if only I were as glamorous as any of these people!). 

The more I think about the idea, the less I can imagine people finding the film actually interesting. Most people would fall asleep!

• How would you describe yourself?

Shy/timid, a daydreamer, a wallflower, nerdy and sensitive....

Also loud, quirky, bubbly, opinionated and excitable!

That's it for my questions! 

Here are the rules for those of you I have tagged:

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you.
2. You must answer the questions given to you, and then come up with 11 of your own.
3. You then nominate other bloggers with under 200 followers. 

Good luck! :)

Lucy x

I'm so shy.

Hey :)
In this post I am discussing a problem that is quite personal to me, so I suppose I don't really expect many people to understand. However, if you too have this problem, I am only sorry that I can't offer any advice. 

Just before we left school for the summer holidays (or "vacation") I had someone approach a friend of mine and ask her a question about me. I don't talk to this person much, so I had no idea what he/she thought of me at the time. 
I will not any information on who this person is (or anyone else in this blog entry for that matter), but he/she asked my friend whether I was a goth.

Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a goth - you can be anything you want to be! In fact, one of my best friends is rather gothic and she totally embraces it.
It's just that I am probably one of the LEAST gothic people I know. And it wasn't just one person that thought this - apparently many people I've hardly even spoken to before have assumed I was a goth. I'm guessing the fact I have hardly even spoken to them before is why they have made such a silly assumption. This kind of upsets me, as I would like people to know me for me, not just what they see from the outside. Only recently do I realise that what they see from the outside isn't very much for them to go on.
That's not to say I want to buddy up with everyone and get to know them one by one, I just wish I didn't see these people as strangers, which I suppose is also what I am to them: a stranger. 
To tell you the truth, I really don't want to get to know these people one by one. Why? 

1) There are some people in life you just don't want to get to know.

2) I'll admit it, the thought of it TERRIFIES ME. 

Recently I have been forced to face the truth about just how shy I really am. As a person, I have so much to say about the world and everything and so many opinions to express. My problem is that as soon as I am around someone I do not know very well, it's like someone's shoved in a plug in my brain to stop the words flowing. It is incredibly distressing and freaks me out quite a bit. 
It also makes it incredibly hard for me to make friends. 
E.g. I didn't properly open up and start talking to my best friend for about 3 months after I had met her. I'm surprised she was so patient with me!

Another thing that adds to my shyness-induced anxiety is the fact that someone that I would not properly consider a friend, though I have talked to for a year or so, recently asked if I was an emo. Although I sometimes do wonder just how close people pay attention to me at all, it does get to me. It feels like my fault for not talking to people. If you are not familiar with the term, emo tends to stand for "emotionally unstable" or just "emotional". I do not believe I am that person. 

Don't get me wrong, I do have a group of understanding friends that are very close to me who know me better than most people ever will (I am so grateful). I am just tired of being a kind of wallflower to so many people sometimes. Often people are given a shock when they realise how loud and clear my voice is when I am not terrified of the people around me (usually when I am acting, for some reason that actually has the ability to calm me down), because when I am talking to someone I am not yet confident with or a large group of people, my voice resorts to a whisper. 

Also, my friends told me that I give people I don't know very well this impression because I give them very weird/creepy looks. In truth (and I mean this in the politest way possible!), I give them this look because I don't want to make eye contact with them at all. 

Anyway... the first step to solving the problem is admitting to it, right? This feels like a kind of therapy for me. If you have any words of wisdom for me, please comment below or contact me elsewhere!

Speak to you soon,
Lucy x

Happy Monday!!

Hey there :)
Sooo... 
Happy Monday everyone! (note the sarcasm...)

Just kidding! 
Well, kind of. I hope everyone had a happy Monday!! :3
It is my third day back at school today, and although school itself has been cool so far (it feels luxurious to finally be in Year 10 and have the privilege to choose my own subjects!), everyone seems to be kind of down-in-the-dumps. 

I don't know whether this is partly due to the weather at the moment, but I can kind of understand if that is the reason. This morning when I set off for school I almost believed I would freeze to death - I tend to get cold really easily and I remember this year I wore my winter coat until about May. 
This afternoon, however, when I was at the park with my friends, the sun decided to come out in an attempt to FRY US ALL.

Anyyywaayy, enough of that! This blog post doesn't exactly have much point, but I thought I'd just kind of mention a few random things. Let us begin...

So recently I discovered this thing called a library! 
You'd think I'm joking, but I'm not. Until about 3 weeks ago, I had literally never even had a library card other than my school one which I have only ever used for homework. This is weird, considering I absolutely LOVE reading. I used to not like the thought of libraries as the books you take out of them aren't really your own. Despite this, I think I am beginning to love the library, and I have only ever been there once! It gives me the same feeling as I get when walking into a book store, which is an awesome feeling!
Anyway, one of the first books I got from the library was Beastly, by Alex Flinn. 

I had actually watched the movie before reading this, and didn't know about the book before seeing it in the library. 
Let me tell you, if you like the movie and/or the story of Beauty and The Beast, you will LOVE the book. I mean, obviously there is no Alex Pettyfer included in the book (it's a book, what did you expect?!), but I personally believe that the book is SOOOO much better. I have been reading the edition of the book that includes Lindy (the main female character)'s diary, though even before I started reading that, I kind of felt like I could relate to Lindy on a spiritual level. 
For instance, when she is exploring the house on her first day and is way more excited by the library than she is the wardrobe. 

Obviously I have never experienced anything as terrible as she has in her life, but she is one of those characters that I REALLY wish could exist because I think we'd get along great. 
Not to mention that Beauty and The Beast was always my favourite story growing up (it was the first movie I ever cried at!). 
Warning: The book will give you the strange urge to suddenly make a rose garden! 
(is that just me?!)
I also would not really recommend it if you aren't into soppy love-stories (I am, personally). 

Something else that I am really into right now is the band Paramore. I know that some Paramore fans my age have been listening to their music since they were little and everything, but for me, when I was little, Paramore music was the kind of music I would hear in shops or as cars came past with music blaring and got me thinking, Oh my gosh, I love this! and then I would not hear that same song again for years because I never knew the song name (doh!!). However, it was probably sometime last year when I really properly discovered them, and I LOVE their music so much! I have the album Riot!, and recently their songs have been in my head all day, every day! I really want to get some of their other albums!
For now though, I will have to settle for listening to some of their other songs on YouTube. *sigh*

That is all for today! I will probably make a post based on stuff I love about Autumn soon (just to warn you, Autumn is my favourite season!).

Have a good week, 
Lucy x

Why am I laughing?!

Heeey :3 
In today's blog post I wanted to talk about a bad habit that I have and think I have always had: laughing in awkward situations. 

This tends to annoy quite a few people as no one else tends to laugh at the time. Here is a recent example of this when I COULD HAVE DIED...

(okay, maybe that's a slight over-exaggeration. Either way, here's the story:)

Earlier on this week I went to a drive-through zoo type thingy with my friend (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, we were basically driving through animal enclosures). 
We had only been in the zoo for around 10 minutes and had already passed the rhinos and some animals that looked like deer when we entered the bear enclosure.

 

You may or may not see where this story is going at the moment. 
We had just come into what appeared to be the centre of the bear enclosure when the car shuddered to a halt, just ONE METRE AWAY FROM A SLEEPING BEAR!! 
My mum's car broke down just a few weeks ago, so I knew what was going on. 
Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh, I kept thinking, though I was maintaining a straight face as my friend is pretty scared of bears and I didn't want to make her more panicky than she already was. If I was freaking out on the inside, what must have been through her head at that moment?
We established that we had broken down and my friend was in a bad state. I'm not really sure what was going through my head... I just know that I was laughing. 
"Oh my gosh haHAHAH this is a terrible place to break down! Why couldn't we have broken down somewhere else... HAHAHAHA"

I DON'T KNOW WHY I REACTED LIKE THAT. It wasn't funny! 
(Well, it sounds slightly more funny now I look back on the situation... but that's not the point!) 
I just really didn't want to have abandon the car and be left in the middle of the enclosure.
In the end, almost miraculously, the car started again (YAY!!!). We then continued to make our way through the rest of the animal enclosures, clinging to the hope that we would not make an unexpected stop in the tiger, lion or rhino enclosures (I wouldn't have minded the giraffes!). 

Cue sexy giraffe shots:

Sorry, I got a bit distracted there - where was I..?
Oh yeah, I was still confused about the way I'd reacted.

I do this all the time, mostly in awkward silences when people are particularly angry, upset or moody (or all three).
For instance; recently I was at the park with my friend when she randomly fell off the swing and went flying. She fell quite badly (though she was alright in the end).
I suppose she expected me to be sympathetic, and I did try to be, though it didn't really have the desired effect as I was talking to her through giggles - needless to say, my reaction was unsatisfactory. 

In other words, although I am not the friend that will film you falling down the stairs, I will laugh an annoying amount before I help you up (even if I don't find it funny!). I think my friends have got used to my habit now, luckily.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or maybe you have another annoying habit that gets on yours and/or other people's nerves? Tell me down in the comments :)

The rest of the day was pretty awesome. I discovered that I was destined to become a sea lion and that they are my soul-animals (I LOVE THEM SO MUCH). The penguins were also quite cool. 

Speak to you soon, 
Lucy x

I couldn't think of anywhere to put this but it looks pretty cool

SASSY TIGER

(#sweg)

First day of school

As you can probably guess, today was my first day of school. It was actually better than I expected :)

The day started out with a 30 minute lie-in, as school started later today than it does usually. This basically meant extra sleep and watching YouTube videos, both of which I consider to be a great use of my time :3
When I got to school, I was given my timetable, which I was extremely happy about, as I got into all the subjects I put down for my GCSEs! These subjects consisted of French, History, Drama and Media Studies :) I was quite lucky to get into Media Studies, as not many people do. 

I thought I would panic more about meeting so many new people as well as some people I haven't spoken to since I was 11, but it was actually less nerve wracking than I thought it would be. Even in my first lesson of the day I was in with one of my best friends who I had never had a lesson with before, so that calmed me down a bit, and all the people I spoke to seemed nice :)

If you started school recently, how was it? Tell me down in the comments :) 

Best wishes,
Lucy x