Pages

Wednesday 28 May 2014

Elliot Rodger

Began writing post on 25th May


Wow, let's talk about this:



You must watch this. I am in total shock. Read this article to understand it all.


1) The guy looks like a god. He even refers to himself as "a god" in this video. It might be the gold sunlighting, or his beautiful features, but he looks flawless. As inappropriate as it may seem to say so, I'm finding it hard to believe he's never had any attention from girls.


2) I'm reeling at the fact that a lack of interest from the opposite sex could drive someone to do murder six people and then commit suicide. Twenty two is still so young. There was plenty of time to find a girlfriend, which he made clear was his intention.


This case just makes me feel sad. I'm so, so sad that it happened. I'm sad that Elliot Rodger felt so unhappy, I'm sad that he murdered six people, and I'm sad he killed himself. I'm finding it hard to put what I feel into words, hence why I started drafting this on Sunday morning and still haven't finished.


I'm not really sure I have that much to say, apart from the fact that it's such a shocker and such a tragedy. I wish this wasn't real life. It sounds so much like something which would go on in a film that I'm struggling to wrap my head around the fact that it actually happened. Six innocent people have lost their lives because one guy got angry about not having sex.


Read his 140 page manifesto here.


Rest in peace Cheng Yuan Hong, George Chen, Weihan Wang, Katherine Cooper, Veronica Weiss, and Christopher Michael-Martinez. 

Saturday 24 May 2014

Peachy nails, take 2


I absolutely love the Barry M Gelly polishes. I think they're so amazing; you don't need a top coat, they look beautifully shiny, and the colours are so vibrant. Click here to read an incredibly badly written post I did last summer on the shade pomegranate. The above photo is of papaya. It's not a colour I would have chosen for myself but I was lucky enough to receive it as a birthday present as it turns out I LOVE it.


It's just the right balance between peach and orange and I can't think of when else I've received that many compliments on a nail colour. 10/10, go and buy it now! (Or one of the other Gelly polishes, they're all banging, to be honest.)

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Messy plaits

2014 Blogger challenge - post 10


Messy plaits



I took the easy way out with the post and did what I do best: a Polyvore set. I've been loving messy plaits (or braids if you're American) lately and these are a few photos of my favourite looks. Just feast your eyes on Selena Gomez, wow. And no artfully messy hair style is complete without a really cute floral head crown featuring strawberries. I wonder if they're real?

SCHOOL'S OUT

On Friday 16th May, I left school forever. The only times I'm going back there are now are for a couple of revision sessions, my exams (agh!!) and results day. That's it. I've been at this hell hole for seven years now, although I originally didn't actually think it was a hell hole. Year 10 was probably my peak - I frickin loved school life then - but as GCSEs, AS levels, and A2 piled on, so did the pressure. I think it was at some stage in year 12 that I began to enjoy my online life more than my time at school, which is sad.


I am happy though (happy to be leaving hahaha) that I've made some wonderful friends in my seven years at school. I suppose I have had a good time, and overall I'd say I have enjoyed my school experience, but having been here since 2007 has started to take its toll and I'm more than ready to gtfo of there now and embrace the summer and university life.


We did the whole leavers shebang in true Brit style with honey on the toilet seats, eggs on top of doors, and fish put in the ceiling. I didn't actually partake in the messier pranks (boring old me, hey) because, having worked at McDonald's for eight months, I know what it's like to clean up other people's shit and it's not fun. My best friend and I, however, did manage to wreak havoc in a slightly more subtle way.


We typed up and printed out these posters:



We stuck about twenty of them up around the school and even put them in each tutor group's "important notices" shelf to be read out in tutor time. The slight fly in the ointment is that I happened to be wearing a huge Spongebob costume when I stuck them up on the Wednesday (for a dressup day) and our school happens to have CCTV. My head of year called me over on Thursday and told me that next time I pull a prank, to do it in a slightly less conspicuous outfit. It was a bit stupid of me, granted, but she found it hilarious and said it was one of the best pranks done by a year thirteen student. It even made it to our headteacher's end of year speech for us, and apparently most of the younger years had believed it. They were all set to bring in their hamsters, and one year 7 form tutor was going to bring in her dog. Apparently emergency messages had to be sent round to all the teachers, so I see it as a frickin huge success. We made it!!!!


No last day would be complete without a customised blazer and I thought my little flowery design was cute, but I was totally showed up by my friend who had glittered her blazer to within an inch of its life and made my effort look pathetic. (Also, hi split ends!)



After our final assembly, me and my nine best friends hit up McDonald's with my employee discount card for merriment and plenty o' food, before doing a quick tour of Primark and Boots. (What's a trip into town without some shopping?)



We then hung around in the park for ages until we got bored of the sun and our lack of snacks and went home. I got a text at about 7pm asking if I wanted to go down to the pub and our local nightclub to celebrate our freedom that evening. I think it's so much more fun when things are impromptu and not rigorously planned. I went to Brownies that evening and when I got home, ditched my Girl Guiding leader uniform and went to the pub (god, I feel like such a man saying that) and then onto the club. Someone had said before that if people from our year went to the club that night, it was "either going to be a half-hearted effort, or we're going to completely shut it down". It was definitely the latter. About half of the people in the club were from school and some even came in their school uniform, so it was basically like being back in school again. And it was weird, I hung out with people there who I'd been to school with for seven years but had hardly spoken to, but now that we'd left, there was a real sense of togetherness.


Three of my best friends, Jenny, Alisha, Oli, and I posed for one of those frickin awkward club photos which go on facebook and you just cringe knowing that hundreds of people have seen them. (Also, no matter how much makeup I put on before I go out, I always look super washed out in these kind of photos!)



Oliver and I also took some slightly more candid, and a million times less awkward, photos of ourselves because that "professional" photo is definitely not how I want to remember that night.


I got home at nearly 3am that night and was up again a couple of hours later to get to my 8am shift at work but you know what, it was so worth it. I had an absolutely fab day and it feels great to know that I've officially left my school days behind me. I also kept feeling overwhelmed with a feeling of huge love for my friends and I feel so lucky to have found them (ha gAAaAaaY).




Hope you're all well and swell! Good luck to those of you sitting exams, we need it.

Sunday 18 May 2014

Culture clash

I don't know if this is an appropriate title for this post but I'm gonna roll with it anyway. I'd like to state quickly that no, I'm not bashing foreign cultures, and no, I do not hate Sri Lankan people, so please don't think that I'm a horrible racist or anything. What this is about, though, is how I think that Sri Lankan marriage culture is affecting my friend. You know what, I'm not even sure that this is a nationwide approach to marriage and match making over there, or if this is just her family or something, but bear with.


My friend is twenty two years old, and let's call her Abby. I work at McDonald's with her; she's full time, working every day except Tuesday when she goes to college to study accounting. You can sort of tell straight away that she's led quite a sheltered life. I met her in October last year and she told me that she was due to marry someone her parents had picked out for her. Not an forced marriage, but an arranged marriage. She was going to move to Southampton with him after the wedding but, a few weeks later, she told me that it had been called off. She also said she had never liked him anyway. She wasn't even saying that to save face - she genuinely didn't like him. I asked her why she would have married him anyway, and she said it was to keep her parents happy.


A few months after that, back in March of this year, she told me her parents had picked out another potential husband for her. And it was through her parents - and also through his parents - that he asked her to marry him. I repeat, a fourth party (forget third parties!) was used to propose to her and she hadn't even met him yet. Sorry for sounding like an unaccepting bitch, but um, I don't like the idea of that.


The first time she met him - at this point, he was already her fiance - he gave her a keyring which said "Best Girlfriend" and she gave him a small teddy bear with a heart on it. What? She came back and told me she was "in love". This is the same girl who doesn't understand the difference between my saying I find a guy at work cute, and that I fancy said guy. She can't distinguish the two. To her, appreciating someone's good looks is the same as fancying them, and fancying them for more than, like, a week means that you've fallen in love. It kind of makes me angry.


Maybe I shouldn't be getting so invested in this and maybe I shouldn't care so much but it really riles me up. She wants to get a tattoo of his name (after having only known him for a month) but she let slip to me today that he gets really angry very quickly. She has to spend the rest of her life with him. A couple of weeks ago, she asked me about "her friend" (yeah right, we all know it's about Abby herself) whose boyfriend was quite controlling and would say she wasn't allowed to do things, but then go and do them himself. She implied that he forbade her from talking to other men, while he was allowed to go and talk to other girls. I took advantage of the fact that she lied and told me it was about her "friend" and said that in that situation, you need to get the fuck out. No one is allowed to treat you like that and you shouldn't have to settle for someone who treats you like shit. I probably couldn't have told her that if she'd said it was about her.


He never answers her calls. She was trying to show me something on her phone today and accidentally flicked onto her text conversation with him. 90% of the messages between the two of them are from her, and the ones from him that I could see simply said "No" or "I think so". She writes him essays. She's started to worry about her body because he told her she looks like a little girl and needs more curves. She used to get small fries and a small water on her break at work, but she now gets large fries and full fat Coke.


And the worst part? They're getting married in twelve days' time. Twelve days. They met one month ago and, from what she's told me, he treats her like shit. And she thinks she's happy. I know how this sounds: I'm a British girl who doesn't understand her culture and this is how it all goes down over there, and I should leave her alone, she's happy enough, bla bla. No. I'm sad that she thinks it's normal to have your fiance tell you to change your body because he doesn't like it. That she obeys this man she's known for four weeks and now won't talk to other guys without his say so. That she has to spend the rest of her life with him. One month in and she's stressing out about her body and cries when he doesn't return her calls. What's another sixty years going to do to her?


I'm so so saddened by it all. Writing this has made me see the reality of the situation: she's managed to kid herself into believing she's happy and that she's found true love with a guy who doesn't care about her and is so blase about their "relationship" (or I suppose you could say engagement now). I'm going to their wedding but I think I'm going to be so angry watching it happen. She's throwing her life away and it makes me so sad.


I hope this doesn't sound too horrible (although it probably does) and, once again, I'm not deliberately trying to be a bitch about it. I also haven't proofread this so apologies for any typos. Feel free to let me know what you think; I'd be quite interested to hear.


Pls no h8.

Thursday 15 May 2014

Swollen lips!

Are we all familiar with Twister ice creams?

Source

Well, I suppose it's really part ice cream, part ice lolly but that's not the point. The point is that I love them, yet I seem to be allergic to them which is absolutely heart breaking. I had one a couple of years ago and my top lip swelled up and looked frickin huge. I kind of forgot about my little reaction to them until last week when I pigged out on two of them (perhaps it serves me right) and my lip grew to the size of Africa.



This is not how my top lip normally looks. It's usually quite thin and definitely not fatter than my bottom lip. It takes about an hour to get back down to normal size after gobbling down a Twister, and I suppose the lesson in all this is Kate, do not eat Twisters. But they're so tasty. It's hard. Mother of all the first world problems.


Hope you're having a gr8 (or even gr9) day!

Friday 9 May 2014

EuroFEVER

I feel like I haven't done a little update post in a while, so here it is. I've been feeling horribly guilty about my lack of revision but I'm doing okay on past papers I've done in class and on my mocks (what kind of school gives you mocks in April?!) so that's something, at least. I'm currently watching a programme about rhinos in Thailand which isn't particularly interesting so I'm thinking of heading on up to bed soon. 


I know that I have to be at work in ten hours' time which is so depressing but Eurovision is is on tomorrow!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am for Eurovision. I'm totally word perfect on the UK's entry (Children of the Universe by Molly Smitten-Downes) and I've been watching the semi finals. In less than twenty four hours, I'll be experiencing some of the best hours of the year, trust me. Oooh it's so exciting. If the UK ever wins, I'll probably wet myself and I'll be so desperate to get tickets for the final in London. Aghh!!!


I've had a pretty sweet day today. I only had three classes at school and I popped into town with my friends Jenny and Will to try McDonald's new Nevada Grande burger, and to sit and gossip for well over two hours. I then hit up Boots with their bangin 3 for 2 offer and bought a Collection concealer, a Barry M matte polish in burgundy crush, and a Revlon lip butter in berry smoothie which is absolutely beaut!


I've been a leader at a Brownie pack for four years now and I'm an adult leader as of last month which is pretty great, and means that I was allowed to take the Brownies out of the church today and onto a field nearby. We played duck duck goose and I fell over in front of all the girls. I fall over a lot! There's a nice little graze and a bruise blooming on my thigh and my pride is slightly wounded too.


I'm not sure exactly how sure interesting these posts are for you but I kind of get a sense of comfort from doing them. It reminds me of how I used to blog like two years ago and I think I miss that. Hope you're all having a swell week! xo

Tuesday 6 May 2014

TIME CAPSULE - A letter to myself

Hey everyone, and twenty three year old me (wow, that's old). I was watching a video of Laci Green's today where she created a sort of time capsule for herself five years ago and recently watched the video back to answer her own questions. I thought it seemed like such a great idea so I wanted to do one now but in blogging form. If any of you guys want to do this too, please do! Leave me the links to your post and I'll take a look at it. I think it's going to be so interesting. The main part is, however, not to read this post until five years' time. I don't know if I can do that, if I can restrain myself, but let's see. Let the fun begin! (Questions taken from here)


  • Where are you now?
I am sat on the Oscar sofa in my living room, alone. Mum, dad, and Heike are in the kitchen, and Henry is upstairs. I've just got off the phone with Lola - she was telling me about that charity worker guy she met in London a few days ago, who she saw again yesterday.

  • What is the date? What is the weather like?
It's currently 9.21pm and the date is 6th May 2014. It's been kind of sunny today, kind of cloudy. No rain, except for when I went for a run this evening. It was bright and sunny, yet it was raining.

  • What’s the last movie that you saw? What was the last movie that you loved?
I can't remember at all. I'm sitting here racking my brains and I have no clue. I love a lot of chick flicks, but I think maybe Inception was the last film to really make me go woah.

  • What are you listening to on your iPod?
My iPod is currently sitting upstairs, totally uncharged, but I really like Haim right now. This is what I've been listening to all day, though.

  • Who are you in love with?
I'm not really sure I believe in love but I have fancied the same guy for like nine or ten months now which is crazy. It's Tom.

  • Who is your best friend?
Beautiful Lola. I'm going to be so upset if we aren't best friends when I next read this post.

  • What do you wish you could own right now?
A sheet of paper with fabulous A level results on it to take to Chester so I can go there.

  • What do you want your next vacation to be?
We're going to Zante next month and Latitude in July. A lad's holiday and my first festival seem like pretty good holidays to me, but I'd love to go back to Amsterdam.

  • What are you most worried about?
I'm terrified of not getting what I need to go to Chester for uni. I know I should be revising more, I'm not stupid. I'm just so worried about failing my exams.

  • What is one amazing thing you expect to do in the coming year?
I expect to go to uni and (in a sense) move out and start living independently.

  • What is your favorite recent memory?
I'm struggling a bit with this one. It might be Wonderland the day after my birthday with Nick, Lola, and Tom. Perhaps the bit where we killed some time in McDonald's beforehand and laughed a lot.

  • What were the top 3 accomplishments from the last year?
Getting semi-decent AS grades, applying to and getting accepted at five universities, and getting my first job... at McDonald's! Do I still work there in 2019? There's a question.

  • What made you laugh the hardest most recently?
I really can't remember! Probably something with Lola where we laughed until we cried and/or wet ourselves.

  • What are you best at?  What do you think are you greatest assets and skills?
I think I'm quite rational. I'd like to think I'm a good friend and a good sister, daughter, grandaughter, niece. I read something today that you shouldn't define a woman merely by her relationships with other people, but that's the thing that makes someone important to you, so defining myself by the relationships I have with other people seems okay to me. Does that make any sense?

  • What are your life goals at the moment?   Did you make any progress on them?
My only life goal right now is to get okay enough A levels to get to uni. I haven't really thought much beyond that. Isn't it sad how much my life only really revolves around school right now?

  • How much do you think gas will cost at the end of next year? In 5 and 10 years?
I just looked up the average petrol price in the UK. I think it's £1.275 per litre. That sounds about right. I don't drive, so I don't really have a clue about these things. Will I be driving by the time I next read this? I hope it doesn't go above £2 per litre in the next ten years. That would be crazy.

  • What are your wishes for the upcoming year?
I've said it many times: go to uni, and hopefully not fail while I'm there. I want to make new friends there, get a new job, and try not to get fat. I think I also want to try out blonde hair - just to see! - and maybe get it cut a lot shorter.

  • What do you think you will be doing this time next year?  In 5 and 10 years from now?
I hopefully will be studying for exams at the end of my first year, a year from now. In five years, I'll be twenty three and will have graduated two years previously, so I'd like to think I'll have an okay job and that I won't still be living at home! In ten years, it would be nice to have a flat or a house with a potential husband, maybe with a baby on the way. That's kind of cringy to write, but really all I want to do now is get married and have children!

  • What do you think will change about you over the next year?  How do you want to grow?
I hope I become a nicer person. I am trying, really I am, but I want to be as nice to everyone as Livvie is (will I even remember who she is when I next read this?!). 

  • Where will you be living next year?  In 5 and 10 years from now?
I hope I'll be living on Cheyney Road this time in 2015 but that's not really my decision, so who knows? In five years, maybe in a cute flat share with some friends; in ten years, hopefully with aforementioned potential husband.

  • What is one piece advice would you give your future self?
Stay happy. Are you still happy, 2019 me? Don't let go of the people who care about you because they might be kind of hard to find later.

  • What is your purpose in life?
I hate this question. Nobody has any purpose but I just want to try and be as good a person as I can and not mess up too much.


*


My current weekly routine is school everyday from Monday to Friday. I run in the evenings with Dad twice a week, either Monday and Wednesday, or Tuesday and Thursday. I try to do Parkrun on Saturdays when I can - I'm at 52 right now! I still lead at Brownies; it's been four years and six days now, and I made my adult leader promise last Friday. I work eight hour shifts at McDonald's on Saturday and Sunday, so I make about £70 in a weekend, which isn't that bad. I have a lot of fun there.


At school, my closest friends are Lola and Eliza, but we all hang out with Alisha, Izzie, Jenny, Alex C, Will, Oli, Alexa, and sometimes Toni. Will I even remember who all these people are? Do I still talk to Milan? To Tom? What about Matt Brett? Alex Lane? Have I travelled a bit more and actually ventured outside of Europe?


I'm pro-choice. Is that going to change over these next five years? I hope not. When I'm home alone, I wear tracksuit bottoms and a hoody. Today, my skirt buttons popped open when the delivery men came to drop off Mum and Dad's new metal garden furniture. I feel quite content right now.


This is what I look like now. How will my face have changed by when I next read this?


Will I still be a size 12? (Please god!) Will I still believe in God?


Okay. The next time I read this, I'm going to be twenty three years old, and as much as that's terrifying, it's also so exciting.

Monday 5 May 2014

(2) Doing Uni: Booking open days + making a short list



Well hi there, you uni applicant, you! Did you make your long list? Did you go to that UCAS convention and pick up prospectuses from all the institutions you're considering? Even if you didn't, I'm going to assume that you did because that makes writing this next bit easier for me. 


Once you have the prospectuses, just flick through them. I found that even doing this gave me a good feel for the university and you learn little basic bits and pieces like exactly where the uni is located, and anything about placement years for specific courses. You'll also see the courses' entry requirements which should be a real eye-opener. I threw out some of the prospectuses I had simply because I knew there was no way I was going to get AAA or because I didn't want to aim for just CCC. Speak to your parents and relatives, or even people you know who are at uni now. Ask them what they think but, as cliche as is sounds, the final decision should be yours.


I'd say chop your long list of unis down to about seven or eight - you can only apply for five anyway, or four if you're applying for Medicine. Also, quick tip if you're a wonder child who's looking at Oxbridge-type places: you can only apply for Oxford or Cambridge, not both. Maybe that's kind of obvious but it's something that I didn't realise (not that I'm Oxbridge material!), and also something that a lot of people at my school weren't aware of. Make sure you're cross referencing all the uni league tables that you find on google with each other, but that you're also taking other factors into account.


These other factors might include:

- Distance from home
- Location of the uni, ie. in a small town, city etc.
- Type of accommodation available
- Reputation of the uni (it matters a lot to employers!)
- Who you'll know there


I put in that last bullet point because that was a huge thing for me: I wanted to end up somewhere that nobody I knew would also end up. Perhaps that sounds a bit stupid or like such a small thing because you'll hardly see them anyway, but it matters a lot to me. So definitely take all those factors into account. Take a few days, or even a few weeks, to whittle your list down to about eight universities.


Once you've done that, the next step is to hop along to each of the uni's websites and book yourself onto open days. There's no way you can make an informed choice of which uni you want to go to without seeing them in the flesh. I know a lot of people don't visit the open days and they love uni they end up at regardless, but there are also people who regret not seeing it beforehand. Anyway, this little Doing Uni guide is all about being organised and going about everything in the most effective way possible, so open days are a must!


Most of the open days are in June or July, I think, so it gives you time to whittle your shortlist down to five unis and to get writing your personal statement over the summer. Hope you're all having fun revising for your exams because I'm shitsure not. Happy open day-ing!

Come on, Brittany!

2014 Blogger Challenge - post 9


I work at McDonalds in the lobby, wiping down tables, sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, and chatting to our "regulars" who all seem to be over the age of eighty. There's always music playing in the dining area and, while I don't think it's a set playlist, the same songs do come up pretty frequently. Sometimes, one will grab me and I won't be able to get it out of my head. When this happens, I go home and google the lyrics so I can add it to my iTunes.


There was a song which I absolutely loved, yet the only lines I could remember were "I got so much to do, I ain't got much time" (story of my life) and "hold on". It wasn't much to go on and it took quite a lot of scouring google results pages and listening to shitty songs which weren't the one I was looking for until I found it.


"It" is the beauty of a song, Hold On, by Alabama Shakes. I was convinced that the singer was a man, but after watching the video, I saw that it was in fact an incredibly badass woman by the name of Brittany Howard.



I think she's bangin. There's not really another word for it. Read this interview with her. She's just so chill, but also so feisty and is definitely not afraid to say what she thinks. I think she has such a zest for life and she's all about empowering girls regardless of body image which is so great. She's such a role model, can you tell I'm crushing hard on her?

Source

Who'd have thought I'd discover one of the best women in the world through my job at McDonalds?

Thursday 1 May 2014

If you think of me, I will think of you



Things are a little bit sad in the life of Kate Green now, but really, in the scheme of things, it's such a first world problem. I'm sure most people have had to let go of someone they care about a lot but I haven't had to up until two days ago. I think I'll probably end up writing this post really cryptically and not understand what I was on about in a year's time, but what's a blog for if it's not for my, um, "creative" musings.


The main gist of this is that I care about a particular guy a lot. I've been lucky enough to have had him in my life for over a year but now we've kind of reached a stage where things should go one way or the other. The long and short of it is that we want different things from each other and rather than stay close friends, we've made the decision to move on from each other. Perhaps this is sounding really melodramatic but I'm a lot sadder about this than I thought I would be. It's been less than forty eight hours but I miss him already. Oh so tragic.


I'm not sure exactly how this is going to pan out, given that we live 0.9 of a mile away from each other, we go to the same running event every Saturday, and that we have a lot of mutual friends. We also happen to be going to the same place on holiday in a couple of months' time, so it's obviously not the last I'll see of him. But, somehow, it feels like the end of an era. The time frame I'm talking about it one year, so I'm not really sure if that qualifies as an era.


In this time, though, he's become as important to me as my best friend is, and I love him as much as I love her. I know we're only young, we're only eighteen, but I think I'm always going to care about him. I love him, but I'm definitely not in love. I'm glad I can make that distinction because I feel like love is a bit more permanent than being in love, which I see more as lust. I don't know.


What I do know, however, that this is a really pathetic post. Is it almost worth agreeing to something you don't want if it means you get to keep the person? Because it's definitely not fair to keep "seeing each other" for nearly a year if it's not going anywhere. And that's what this is about. I'm not sure if it qualifies as leading each other on, but it seems more fair to sort of let it all go so we can each move on. "Conscious uncoupling", if you will!


I hope this hasn't been too dreary or melodramatic a read, and that you don't think I'm really pathetic. Hope you're all having a swell May so far.