Madeira and the Canary Islands

Our first four port days were spent in Madeira, an autonomous nation of Portugal, and a few of the Canary Islands: La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. 

Madeira was our first port of call and a welcome venture for someone who isn't used to staying in one small space for days at a time. Although there are hints of the tourist industry creeping in, as in most Islands with a tropical-esk climate, it has not yet completely taken over. Whether pottering around the more central area or exploring a little further out, you could really get the authentic Portuguese flavour of the region. New builds are sandwiched between older constructions and it is easy to wander from one of the bright and spacious main squares into the higgledy-piggledy maze of winding side streets, giving the whole place a rather homey feel, as opposed to the common clinical and uniform feeling that is slowly encroaching on many major cities.

I just love this pic :)

The fish market that Stephen insisted on visiting... ew ew ewwwwwww!

Chilling with the Aurora.

My favourite street was a little way out, on which each resident had painted their front door with various different images. It seemed to be in celebration of something, since they were all signed and dated around the same time, but unfortunately we couldn't work out what it was. Here are my top three...

Oh and I don't know if you were watching the news around 15th August, but Madeira was actually on fire on that day we visited. It was kinda crazy actually, I couldn't help worrying about the locals as we watched the flames growing and spreading throughout the day.

Pretty scary eh?

The siblings, Grandad and I spent very little time on shore in La Palma because we're massive wimps and just couldn't take the intense 38 degree heat. All we could manage was a little while on a volcanic beach with BLACK sand (which was kinda cool but extremely hot underfoot!) before heading back to the ship to cool off in the pool. Dad and Stephen did report that it was quite a lovely little place, less touristy than the other Canaries and insanely cheap. I also got told off by a good friend for not exploring the volcanoes in the area at all, apparently they make for some really interesting excursions.

My one picture from the beach in La Palma, not too shabby really.

My absolute favourite day of the entire holiday was the day that we spent at the Siam Water Park in Tenerife. I'm a big fan of water and swimming anyway, but this park was just fantastic. There was absolutely no stone left un-turned when it came to attention to detail and the slides were perfect for an adrenaline junkie such as myself. There was even one where you went under a shark tank in a dingy! And the wave pool was EPIC. My only complaint was that we didn't get long enough there, which really isn't much of a complaint at all.

Aren't we just the coolest?

It was SO BIG. That slide in the background was literally like 40ft high!

I think I'm correct in saying that Gran Canaria is my Dad's favourite place in the world. It's where he and Stephen want to retire to and I can see why. It wouldn't be my first choice, it's a perfect spot for people who just want to chill out in the day and party at night. Plus although the new part of town isn't particularly unique or exciting, the old bit really is beautiful and the weather is apparently fab all year round.

We went to visit the Cathedral and paid just €2.50 to climb to the top of the tower. The view of the city was pretty incredible and really colourful. I like me a good view, so we spent quite a while up top taking pictures, though the top of the tower was rather a tight squeeze, so maybe plan your visit before a meal time ;)

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

'Let's do a silly one!'

After that we strolled around a few of the shops, spending a little too long in a children's toy shop because the air conditioning was just that good. Us Brits really aren't built for extreme heat. Honestly, I found myself praying for rain at this point, much to my Dad's disapproval. I don't even burn like my ginger relatives - heh heh heh - I'm just not a big fan of skimpy clothing (see above) which makes for some difficult compromises on extra warm days.

I rather enjoyed all these taster sessions, it gives me an idea of where I'd like to revisit in the future. On to another sea day before the day I am most anticipating... our final stop in Lisbon!

Cruising

It seems that being at sea makes it incredibly difficult to connect to the internet, thus causing problems on the blogging front. But never fear, I have been writing about my experiences as the days went by so I can share them with you now I'm back. You simply have to pretend that I've only just gone away, ok? Brilliant.

I should probably start off with pointing out how cruising (if you haven't already guessed) wouldn't usually be my first choice for a getaway, owing to the restraints on time for exploring and the excessive amount of organised fun. However when my grandad asked if we'd like to go away with him, I was hardly going to turn down the chance for some quality family time, let alone a free trip to five places I've never visited before.

The Aurora! My temporary home :)

After an extremely early get up we finally arrived in Southampton to set sail at 4.30. I've quickly had to adjust to the importance of promptuity during sea travel. Not just for sailaways but also for on board activities and meal times; my fashionably late-ness isn't so fashionable on here it seems. 

The average age of the passengers is probably around late 40s/early 50s, so as you can imagine, me, Rach and Josh are in a bit of a minority (Rach being 19 and Josh, 17). We're trying to convince Josh to give the kids club a go, though maybe calling it the 'kids' club isn't the best persuasive tactic we could use... Luckily we are all quite introverted at some level and get on pretty well, so really I have no quarms about whether or not we meet other passengers. Usually I love to make friends and get to know other people's back stories etc, but since everyone on this ship is English and rather posh, I'm happy spending time in the company of my own family :)

Our first three days have been at sea, the majority of our time being consumed by swimming, sunbathing and eating far too much. Unlimited buffets are both a blessing and a curse (specifically on my waistline). At first I found it quite difficult to relax, as I'm not particularly good at doing nothing, but it's fair to say I'm starting to appreciate the break from the madness that is London. I've also enjoyed being able to catch up on recent film releases, since I haven't really seen many in the past two years.

Why are we all so fit?

Tomorrow is our first port day, I'm itching to get off and explore! First stop, Madiera.

Next Adventure

Tomorrow I set off with the family on a cruise around the Canary Islands and parts of Portugal for 12 days. Not the type of get away I've gotten used to but I'm super excited to chill out with some good books, spend time with fam and practice my Spanish :)

Any early get up of 6am tomorrow so we can catch the coach to Southampton where our ship sets sail. I just read the itinerary and apparently there are three formal and three black tie evenings. I don't know how they'll react to dreadlocks at these dos, let alone a girl who didn't know there was a difference between formal and black tie... At least there's an on board buffet with unlimited pizza as a back up :D

Feeling Restless

At the moment I'm finding myself feeling incredibly low at the prospect of spending three+ more years at university before I'm free to do as I please. Most people my age seem to LOVE university and are quite taken aback when I say that I'm really not a big fan and cannot wait to get away. It's not that there is anything wrong with my uni, course, tutors or friends, in fact I think I've hint the jackpot on all these fronts. Rather it's the overwhelming feeling of being trapped that seems to leak back into my life every time I return from a trip. Now I've heard of the post-travel blues before, but I can't help thinking that this is much more than that. This afternoon I've found myself debating with my best friend the reasons for staying at university, after she'd sent me a link to a youtube channel 'FunForLouis'. Unfortunately (for her I suppose, since she now has to deal with my incessant whining) she didn't watch the home page video before sending it to me. For context, here's the link:

I think we'd all agree that this dude is pretty inspirational. He'd achieved an incredible amount before he'd even turned 21 and I've found myself re-evaluating my life considering my 21st birthday is only a month away. Stupid quarter life crisis rearing it's ugly head again. Although it may seem silly, this video initially brought me down rather than elevated me, for reasons only evident to myself and those who know me pretty well. 

I've always been someone who has been ahead of my age with regards to ideologies and certain ways of thinking. For example: when I was 16, two of my older friends decided they wanted to live in tents for a few months to experience life free from the modern dependence on man-made technology, such as electricity and TVs and unnecessary material possessions in general. I went to stay with them a few times but was too young to be allowed to join them full time. At this point my beliefs were leaning towards the more radical end of the modern Christianity spectrum, so the idea of selling all my possessions and living off the absolute minimum was something that really appealed to me. Throughout my teenage years I also took part in a lot of events for various charities, always being the youngest and often being too young to help out for the first few years that I applied. Throughout this entire time I had an internal struggle between what I wanted to be able to achieve with my life and what my age restricted me from doing. I decided that as soon as I was old enough, I'd start doing all the things I'd wanted to do before but couldn't.

However the world and life had different ideas. I fell out of love with Christianity for various reasons around the age of 18, which ended up pushing me away from my group of 'radical thinking' friends completely. Although I did and still do have a very close knit group of incredible friends around me to this day, most of them tend to label me as the 'crazy hippy' and mostly I keep my ideas to myself. Not being able to voice or discuss certain topics has in turn pushed a lot of my youthful ideologies to the side lines, as I decided that whilst I'd still keep them close to my heart, sometimes it's easier just to get on with things and fit in for the time being. The time being. How long even is that? It's been nearly three years and I'm still living in the time being, becoming more and more materialistic and immersed in ways of thinking that I wholeheartedly disagree with. I've started swearing, eating meat and drinking excessively, forgetting the reasons why I used to be against all three.

Watching this video brought up a whole host of emotions for me. As a person who is extremely disillusioned with society in it's current state, I'm finding it very difficult to live within the average bill-paying, wage-earning, every-man-for-himself lifestyle that we are conditioned to believe is the only way to live and this video proves to me that a) that isn't the case and b) some lucky dude is managing to live it! I'm both angry at myself for being sucked into a lifestyle I never wanted and in awe of the fact that the alternative seems to come so naturally to some people. I think it's hit me that I can't just be hanging around in the time being any longer, as it is finally becoming difficult for me to continue to suppress these aspects of my personality. But now I'm so far immersed in my current lifestyle that it is going to be a slow transition between the two.

Despite my doubts however, I think I'm going to be sticking out the duration of my university course. I vividly remember a conversation I had with my mum during my gap year about applying to university. Now a few years older, my struggle had developed from being too young to achieve what I wanted, to simply having to be patient about it. I remember tears streaming down my face as I said that I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to university because whilst I was studying, people would still be dying and homeless and starving and I wasn't exactly much use to them whilst cooped up in a classroom for another four years. I can't remember exactly what my mum said in reply, but between herself and my hero Mr Nelson Mandela, somehow I was convinced to go.

'Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world' - Nelson Mandela

I hope you're right Nelson and that this new found zeal for the future persists. I might feel trapped and restricted and hungry for things that I can't achieve right now, but if I look back just a few years I can learn a lot from my younger self on doing as much as I can within my means. And even though my emotions at the beginning of writing this post weren't particularly pleasant, I'm hoping I'll eventually reap the benefits of harvesting and allowing these mixed feelings to push me forwards towards greater things.

Here's To Never Growing Up

WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET!! We got it all installed and set up ourselves. Well, Will did, though I still feel rather accomplished. I've been gathering thoughts for this post for a while due to our connection drought, but it was only when I heard this song that I finally found the inspiration to start writing. And YES I still love Avril Lavigne. Belated teenage angst and all that.

Recently I've caught myself saying the phrase 'maturity is overrated' rather a lot, in a feeble attempt to protect myself from the process of aging, as if to defend myself from becoming - dare I write it - a 'grown-up'. Perhaps I'm having something of a quarter life crisis, having recently moved into a new flat and inherited all sorts of crazy responsibilities like paying bills and dealing with pesky estate agents. Sometimes I go on a night out and I feel OLD (granted most places in Preston are full of 16 year olds) and I'm now at that stage where I'm transitioning between being referred to as a 'girl' and a 'woman'. Oh and I keep getting excited about things like food shopping and interior decorating...

Maybe I'm just overreacting a little. It's not really the prospect of getting older that scares me; my Mum tells me constantly that she's never been happier than she has being middle aged. It's the idea that I'll start growing up in negative ways - all too often I'm told I'm naïve or that I'll grow out of my ideologies in time. A quote from one of my favourite German films 'Die Fetten Jahren Sind Vorbei' (The Edukators in English) goes, 'Wer unter 30 nicht links ist hat kein Herz, und wer mit über 30 immer noch links ist hat keinen Verstand' (Roughly translated: Anyone who is under 30 and not a socialist is heartless, and anyone who is over 30 and still a socialist is clueless). It's resonated with me ever since, just because I fear that the world will break me down and eventually I'll fit into this category. My world and political views are somewhat of a defining feature for me, so the idea of losing that is a little bit scary.

Personally, I think we can learn a lot more from children than we can from adults in terms of values. Children aren't rascist, sexist, homophobic, obsessed with tradition or believe in social hierarchy. These things are learned from - you guessed it - the older generation. I strongly believe that no child is born evil. Things are always very straight forward to children. Politicians get paid far too much money every year to sit around and debate issues like whether or not marriage equality should be legalised where as kids like the ones above think it's a no brainer. I'm not blaming adults for their ways, it seems to be something that develops through experiences, both good and bad and later in life people just want to settle down, which is understandable. I just hope I never opt for the easy life and become passive.

Also, I don't like the rules that I'm now 'too old' to do certain things. Things like having Disney dance parties in the kitchen and singing in public and wearing certain clothes... I don't see why adults can't be silly too. I understand there are some necessary rules of social etiquette that begin to apply as you get older, but where's the fun in taking yourself too seriously? I wrote in another post about how on starting uni, I became a lot more insecure and worried about other people's opinions of me. However due to this recent epiphany I seemed to have gone full circle to how I used to be, basically not giving a damn. And believe me, this is way more fun.

'It's never too late to be what you might have been' - George Eliot

I'm often reminded of this when I set out travelling, with friends and family telling me 'embrace the opportunity now, you won't be able to do it when you're older'. Um, why not? If you want any inspiration on really living, I'd recommend 'Old Man On A Bike' by Simon Gandolfi, who rode across South America on an old pizza bike at the age of 73. That's SEVENTY THREE. I want to be like THAT when I'm a pensioner. So none of this 'I'm just to old for that', alright? As I said earlier on to my Dad who is turning 49 again in a few days, you're only as old as you feel ;) (I don't care how cheesy that sounds, it rings very true. Also you should be used to cheese on here by now).

Doing the 'love train' at Hideout festival. One guy came up to us and said 'Have you ever been to something like this before? What are you doing?'. When I retorted 'Well who made you the fun police?' his come back was 'Grow-up'. No thanks Mr Cool Hipster Guy. We'll just dance with your mate instead. :D

Being referred to as a woman is possibly the strangest part of it all for me. I mean, I'm often told I seem older than I am, that I'm 'mature' for my age, but I can't say I feel anywhere near like a woman yet. It's the same as when news reporters say, 'an 18 year old man blah blah blah' and I'm all like 'MY BABY BROTHER IS NEARLY 18, HE CAN'T BE NEARLY AN ADULT'. Can anybody tell when exactly this feeling of being a grown up starts kicking in? A friend at work told me that he'd heard that really, a person isn't really deemed an adult until they're 35. Does that sound about right? I think I finally understand what Britney was singing about back in '01.

I suppose that my main concern really, is that I'll start taking myself and life in general far too seriously. Life can be both sucky and awesome but in my opinion, the only way to get through it is to be as carefree as possible. Of course there's times for being serious and fighting for things you believe in, but in the end you're going to die one day so don't forget to live now. So if someone tells you you're too old to travel or act in a certain way, tell them to do one or even better, get them to join in.

10,000

That's right, I finally reached my 10,000th blog view yesterday!! I can't actually believe that so many of you are continuing to read my ramblings - thanks so much :)

I thought I'd do a quick post dedicated to all my trips since I started the blog. I suppose this could act as a bit of a catch up for any new readers, as well as a celebration of all the wonderful things I've experienced and incredible people I've met over the past two years.

East Coast USA

New York - Philadelphia - Washington DC - Knoxville - Nashville - Atlanta - Orlando - Miami. In three weeks. Possibly the most hardcore travelling I've done to date. These first two trips are the reason I started the blog, which is pretty crazy considering how much it's come along now!

Started off the trip with Rach and Ferris as well as Aimee to celebrate Rach's 18th birthday! We managed to pick the rainiest cloudiest day to visit the Statue of Liberty and to be honest were pretty underwhelmed by how big it was... Still, been there, done that, got the t-shirt and it was still a pretty good day.

WE MET ED SHEERAN. In Nashville after a Snow Patrol concert at which he was the support act. He smelled wonderful where as I was sweaty and horrible and hadn't washed my clothes for far too long. Sorry about that Ed.

Our first basketball game! Heat vs Pistons and Heat won it by a mile. We also got on the big screen by dancing like loons whilst people around us held up giant cardboard cut outs of H E A T.

Peru, Chile and Bolivia

Lima - Cusco - Arequipa - Arica - Iquique - San Pedro de Atacama - Uyuni - Potosi - Sucre - La Paz - Copacobana - Isla del Sol - Cusco - Huacachina - Lima. A beautiful continent full of beautiful people. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

Peru: This was actually taken on our return to Peru at our last stop in a place called Huacachina. It was a great place to end the trip, with our good friend Sam from Aus, pretty much just partying all night and eating BBQ chicken wings all day. In this picture we'd decided to go on a midday booze cruise on the tiny lake with a surprisingly strong current in the middle of the oasis town. Such a great memory :)

Chile: Arica, the dryest city in the world, where in 10 years in rains only enough to fill one tea cup. 25 degrees everyday without fail. What an incredible place.

Bolivia: Sugar Daddy, The Cow (that's me...), G-meister General and Evester, setting out on three day 4x4 tour of the salares and salt flats. The trip consisted of the absolute coldest nights I've ever experienced, as well as the most breath-taking views.

Eurotrip 2012

Prague - Vienna - Budapest. A trip to reunite all the homies after a year away at university and travelling.

Prague: For some reason we decided to climb a really big hill just to see what was at the top. If I remember correctly, there really wasn't much up there, but the view was pretty special.

Vienna: This is from the night out where we went to the club 'Flex' and got invited on stage by the DJs simply because we were 'foreign'. Great night, from chucking shoes at Peter to the wall of sweets in the bathroom. Even though I wasn't wowed by the rest of the city I had a really good night.

Budapest: Since we're dead mature and all we decided to spend a day renting go carts and bikes and ride around the park. One of my absolute highlights of the trip as Pete and I rented a tandem and failed miserably at riding it. We also enjoyed ice creams and played in the musical fountain.

Abersoch- Girly Summer Holiday

A week holiday with all my favourite girls from high school. Unfortunately I didn't blog about this at the time but we had a lovely time chilling out at the beach and doing some serious charity shopping, whilst sleeping in a lovely cottage we rented.

The beautiful girlies. We decided we weren't too old to fit on this little train ride around the park and all six of us crammed into the back seat, making the ride rather squished.

This was pretty much our own private beach, about 15 minutes walk from the house and hidden away from the main busy one. This is also the beach that destroyed my apparently indestructible camera that had survived three months in the USA and South America... 

Five days in Amsterdam

Another one I didn't blog about - sorry fellas! - because I only really started blogging again in January where as this trip was in November. In short we stayed in a caravan, visited a lot of Van Gogh exhbitions, the Botanical Gardens, Anne Frank's House and a fair few coffee shops. You know, the usual Amsterdam thing.

Note to self: Going on a holiday with four boys and no girls to a place like Amsterdam is probably not the smartest thing you could have done.

Me and the guys chilling in a pretty cool coffee shop in the Red Light District. Going with four guys means you spend a little too much time in that area of town.

I met Desiree and Sophie from the Machu Picchu trek!! We went out for a lovely traditional Dutch meal and I tried Bitterballen which I am a BIG fan of. It was great to be reunited with some old travel friends :)

We LOVED the Botanical Gardens. I can't remember the exact price anymore but I know it was pretty reasonable (especially if you have a student card) and they also have a butterfly house!

Eurotrip 2013

Siegburg, Cologne and Bonn - Krakow - Vienna - Bratislava - Budapest - Belgrade - Sarajevo - Mostar - Novalja, Pag (Hideout Festival!) - Zagreb - Dubrovnik.

I spent the first four nights with my friend Mani who I met in Cusco, Peru. We had such a great time chilling in the sunshine, swimming, sharing a few beers and throwing popcorn at each other.

Highlights picture created by my wonderful friend Mitch. I joined the trip at picture number nine. I can't believe how much we did in such a short space of time!

Mitch and I chilling at the lake in Bratislava, one of my favourite pictures from the trip. This is the day we tried Bull's Testicle Goulash and Josie burnt her ass and stomach. Silly girly.

And last but not least... Hideout Festival and Zagreb!

On Novalja, Isle of Pag with 11 other members of the Preston crew. Probably the best festival I've ever been to.

Danny and Ki living it up on the first day. This was at a pool party with a live DJ set (goodness knows who it was) where we danced like crazy and drank tasty but pricey cocktails.

Sunrise at 6am. I saw four of these during the five day festival. Not bad for a girl who didn't even like house music before she went.

(Almost) Everyone together in Zagreb, which pretty much acted as a recovery session for the festival. Despite the criticisms it's had I actually really liked the city, which is much more chilled out than others so a welcome break on a busy trip.

And that just about sums up my last two years worth of travelling. Looking back at the post I really haven't done too badly have I? Especially considering I had to cancel two trips to Madrid and Dublin. I'm really excited for my cruise round the Canary Islands in August now :D Once again, thanks so much for reading (I wouldn't be a proper Brit if I wasn't excessively grateful now would I?), it really is quite flattering that so many of you want to read my thoughts, documentaries and rants. You're the best! :)

Being yourself: Officially a Dreadhead!

Another dread update! Last time I mentioned their progress I'd just brought the number up to 11 in Sarajevo. I now have a couuuuuple more than that.

I used the twist and rip method and despite the adverse advice, used elastic bands to secure the sections because my hair is just to smooth and straight to do it without. Will be taking them out within a week though! No product and I'm going to throw out my crochet hook because I've only heard bad things about them since I starting using it. I also have a few beads and fancy bits which I intend to start putting in soon. So yer, this is how they look right now:

Dread count: 36

I finally took the plunge and thought, 'Hashtag YOLO, let's just go the whole hog and hope I don't look too ridiculous'. I've wanted to dread my hair since forever (well early high school but that does seem like a life time ago) but to be honest I never really thought I'd pluck up the courage to do it. It's not that I've always tried to blend in, far from it, I've always liked to do my own thing. However, for some reason doing anything crazy with my hair has been something I have been worried about being judged on.

I worked out recently that this was mostly to do with the fear of not being considered 'attractive'; that because so many have people have warned me that I won't suit dreads or they look dirty or just plain awful, I started to think, 'Well maybe they're right. Maybe if I change my hair I'll all of a sudden turn into some hideous monster that no one will ever love ever again and I'll have to become some crazy-cat-lady-spinster who is forever alone.' When in actual fact, that is just THEIR opinion (the not liking dreads thing, not necessarily the crazy-cat-lady bit) which of course, they are fully entitled to. I, on the other hand, have always loved dreadlocks. If I see someone rocking dreads I will literally fall in love with them on sight (no exaggeration, ask my friends) and have always thought of it as a really beautiful and individual hairstyle.

Most of the above realisation came to me during a conversation with a friend whilst travelling, when discussing how society has conditioned us to think that looking a certain way is attractive, whilst everyone else becomes completely undesirable. It attempts to impress on us an ideal way to look and boxes us off into categories. Short skirts, long blonde hair, fake tan etc etc are a big yes, whilst dreadlocks, baggys jeans and facial piercings are a big no-no. Now I'm not suggesting that if you want to have the blonde and bronzed look there is anything at all wrong with it - I'm merely suggesting that if that's not how you want to look, don't just to it because society says you should. I know plenty of people who find their other half more attractive without make-up and dressed down anyway.

Too many times this year I've found myself wearing tighter and more revealing clothing than I'm comfortable in, simply because that's how you 'look nice'. Then I spend the whole evening feeling self conscious and either go home early, or get a stupid level of drunk so I don't have to think about what I look like. True, I'll get a lot more attention dressing that way than I do dressing the way I prefer, but it is attention I've never enjoyed. It's nice to be called pretty, but when it's accompanied by a slap on the ass (swiftly followed by a return whack in the face from yours truly) it completely loses any complimentary value. Being treated like a piece of meat just makes me feel cheap.

I finally made the decision to progress from my 11 hidden dreads to a full set due to meeting a guy in a hostel in Zagreb, who was just as infatuated with the hairstyle as me. I'd never met someone else who has as much love for dreads as I do, whose first question wasn't, 'Have you thought about how you're going to take them out?', but rather, 'They look incredible, when are you going to do the rest?!'. I know it sounds silly, but that was literally all it took and my mind was set. I think far too often people are scared to do what they want to do with their lives because they feel like they'll be the only one to think that their choices are the right ones. That they'll be alone in their decisions and it'll be difficult to find any support. But if I've learned anything from that accidental meeting, it's that sometimes you'll find people you can really relate to completely by chance, in the strangest places and at the most unexpected times. And really, if the decision is right for you, who cares what anybody else thinks? Also it turns out that after all my worrying, aside from a few exceptions, almost all of my friends and family admitted they actually quite like the do, or can at least tolerate it.

(Instagram @gracelund1)

Aimee and Pete actually HELPED to finish off the last couple.

I know it might seem a bit odd getting all deep about a hairstyle, but for me it's more about what it represents. It's a lifestyle choice that allows me to express myself, despite the stigma which can come with it and I'm just really pleased that with a little encouragement, I've finally been able to carry it out. In today's society I don't think there's enough emphasis on the importance of being yourself, so I hope I can at least do my little bit to spread word that it's OK just to be you. Judging people is for losers, so who cares what anybody else thinks?

This post is inspired both by my new dreads and the above video my Jenna Marbles, who I think is an absolute babe. It's an inspiring video for me, so I thought I'd share it with you all :)