The 10 Day You Challenge : 6 Places

I have a rather large list of places I want to go to, some of them are even fairly close to home. I mostly want to go to these places because of the sights and the culture.

1. Peru. And Venezuela, one after the other. For Macchu Picchu, Lima, and the Angel Falls.

2. Norway. To see the Northern Lights and hopefully stay in the Ice Hotel.

3. USA Tour. With special stops in Honolulu and of course Los Angeles. And I've been told that Vermont in autumn is goregous, so there too.

4. Spain and Gibralatar. Gibraltar is where half of my family is from, and I've never been. So that would be nice. And Spain is on the way, so I'll just take a small trip around the beautiful coast.

5. Italy. Verona and Rome in particular. And lets not forget the ruins of Pompeii.

6. Greece. With trips out to lots of islands. But mostly to go to Athens. And Corinth, and possibly have a look at Mount Olympus.

A seventh would be going back to the German Christmas Markets. Because I love them. Gluhwein and Bratwurst? YES.

If I had an eighth, it would be home. Because England is wonderful... and I really want to go to the lake district.

There are lots os places I want to go to, but these are top priority.
Others include Edinburgh, Ireland, New Zealand, Isle of Skye and so on.

The 10 Day You Challenge : 9 Loves

There are so many things to love in the world. To pick just a selct few is hard. So, there are probably far more than this, but heres my (probably) top 9:

1. Family, Friends and my Boyfriend. It has to be top of the list. The rest are in no particular order.

2. Stories and Reading. Anything. I just soak it up, take it all in and think about my view on the subject.

3. The Smell of the Night. you know when it's about 12/1 in the morning and you go to shut your window, but instead you lean out of it an just breathe in the night air. i love that. it's my absolute favourite smell.
I have a thing with smells. I often come out with "It smells like a good night". And it really does. I know what I mean.

4. Interesting Jewellery.  I have a penchant for weird jewellery. One of my favourites is one I bought from a stall at a craft market. It's a vintage-look necklace with an old American stamp inside it (picture of it, left). I'm holding out for some battenburg earrings still.

5.  Marzipan. Everything marzipan. I will get a whole block and sit there eating it as a treat. So fattening, but sooo good. Unfortunately you don't see many marzipan fruits around England these days, but I WILL have some soon.

6. Tea. Glorious tea. I'm drinking some now in fact. No wonder us British love it.

7. Films. Films are a passion. If I've seen one I'll usually know who's in it, and what else they've been in. It's a talent that has very little use.

8. Shopping. Don't most girls? Pretty dresses, gorgeous nail polishes, delicious food treats, killer shoes : heaven.

9. Nature. Because what's more beautiful than nature? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. My particular favourite item in natture are forests. Big, English, woody, mushroomy, bluebell-filled dappled sunshine forests. With cute baby rabbits and deer.

Yay!

Royal Weddings and a Brief, Biased and Odd History of Love.

So, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will soon be underway, so I thought it only right to have a look at the great history of love and romance and so on, seeing as it's not long til the big day, and we in England get a day off for it.

As much as it's nice to watch a wedding, especially one as fancy and no doubt beautiful as this one (plus I want to see the dress) I'm not sure I will be able to as I have a distinct lack of a television in my flat. Saying this, I may wheedle my way into spending the day at home or with my sister. Both places have a TV, and other creature comforts that my room sorely lacks.

So, the history of love, in my eyes, goes a little like this:

Prince William and Kate Middleton
From Mirror.co.uk

-St Valentine. I have absolutely no idea what happened there, so a Wikipedia page will be linked to, right HERE. But Valentine's day nowadays is a celebration of all things sufficiently cuddly and love-inducing. It's a couples day. And when you're not one of a couple it's a completely miserable day, considering it's supposed to be about love and happiness.

-Sir Lancelot and Guienevere. Yes, I know it's a legend, and I know that Guienevere was with King Arthur, but honestly, who can say no to a big rugged knight who just wants to whisk you away?

-Shakespeare. Well, he didn't half know how to write about love. Romeo and Juliet, Shall I Compare Thee? (one of his sonnets) and so on. Plus being a poet and playwright that everybody does love seems romantic enough for me. And also I'd say Jane Austen definitely does her bit for old fashioned English romance.

-Love in general. It may sound completely soppy, but as Wet Wet Wet concluded ' Love Is All Around'. And It's true. A million types of love. And isn't that very, very nice?

Images from google

- (carrying on) Love songs. My favourites being old rocky classics such as Aerosmiths' 'Don't Wanna Miss A Thing', Bon Jovi's 'Always' and 'Bed of Roses' and Bryan Adams' 'Everything I do'. But love songs are just generally there to make us all feel very, very soppy and adored. And for the most part I would say they do.

So that's my idea of what the L word is all about. Along with a few weird ideas about literature.
So yes, don't forget on the Royal Wedding day to remember this is all about Love. Not who may be running the country and definitely not about how expensive the dress is. Or how grand the guests are. Although these are definitely points to notice.

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Some Links you may find interesting:

BBCs History of Royal Weddings

The Official Royal Wedding Website

List of Love Songs (for weddings apparently)

Last But not Least, the WIKIPEDIA PAGE. (Oh Wikipedia, you are a saviour)

I Protest!

So yesterday I once again discovered something I despised.
Normal people probably aren't too bothered by it, quite a few even indulge in it, take part in it.
But I abhor it.

What is this, I hear you ask.
It's Protesting.

Yes, the human right to protest is what really pees me off.
Predominantly because protests are supposed to be peaceful, but do you really call jerking around placards (thanks to Ed for that wonderful word) saying possibly aggressive things, whilst yelling about being wronged and shouting at others to do the same peaceful?

Student protest

And that's just the usual, well-mannered protesters.

In the past, and in particular in the student population, the right to protest has well and truly been worn out. People used to protest quite a lot. And it's been getting more like that recently. People usually seemed to only protest to say that they had done it, and that was OK. It was a major part of student life. Did you really care if you didn't protest?  Of course you did, about certain things, but maybe you just didn't see the need to do things quite so overtly.

Protester and photographers

And these days, it just gets worse.
There are the ones who go out there only to attack people, to cause criminal damage and to get in the papers. And this is sometimes only for their 15 minutes of fame. To get a tiny bit of attention.
Others want to be seen to be doing something about their cause. To make it known.
But why would you need that?
If you really cared about your cause you would do something about it by yourself, make small changes to your life, and do it quietly.
For example, I care about people dying from not having working organs, so I've been an organ doner for quite a while now. I don't rave about it because I know I'd be making a difference to another persons life at some point.
Why would you want to stampede around the street gibbering like a monkey?

I think this is the same principle.
Plus, protesting for whatever it is doesn't really make too much of a difference. All it does is bring attention to your cause. Yes, this is a good thing, especially if the cause is well justified.

But the same thing would apply if, for example, MPs were inundated with letters. They would have to address the issue, whether they liked it or not. A well worded letter is a far better channel than shouting about it and possible violence.



Police and Protesters

There are also added drawbacks. One is that some people will try to hijack a protest. Certain gangs for example. And they do this with the sole purpose of causing damage and being violent.

The other is that protesting wastes police time.

Which would you rather have? A) The police using their time to catch the real criminals (robbers, murderers, terrorists) or B) The police using their time to watch over an unruly crowd of normal people protesting about, say, cuts.

So really, what I'm saying is, why protest when there are other means of doing things? You'd just have to be a little more creative.

And also, is there really anything 'peaceful' about protesting?
I don't think so.

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Some useful webpages:
-Your Rights- The Right to Peaceful Protest
-How to become an Organ Doner

The American Revelation.

I may have said this before, but I adore the USA.
So when I had the chance to go to Washington DC I absolutely had to go. (Not only for the amazing Criminology experience, but because I wanted to see if at least just one small part of America lived up to my expectations. Let me tell you, it completely exceeded it.)


Ted Bundys car. Creepy.



Of course, I went to all of my crime things; Institute of Justice, George Mason University, The Pentagon (I know! That was very very exciting :D.. And nerve-wracking), the National Crime and Punishment Museum. Which were awesome.. and the Crime and Punishment museum had Ted Bundy's car in it. (He's a favourite serial killer- I think it's OK to have a favourite only because I do Criminology and because he was very interesting.)

Then did all the tourist areas - The Washington monument (Which is astonishingly huge. Seriously.. why does everything have to be so huge in the US.. not that I'm complaining at all, it was amazing, but in England things aren't nearly so high.

A few of the Smithsonian buildings: Air and Space, American History and Indian American. Which was amazing. Except for that I was just waiting for things to come to life a la 'Night at the Museum 2'.
The Lincoln Memorial (Also ginormous) The Reflecting pool, the White House (where we chatted to some very friendly policemen who told us how many rooms there were in it. It's something completely crazy, I can't remember the number), The World War Two Memorial, The Viet Nam Memorial.


Washington Monument with Sun

We did so much in the space of a week, but I wish we had stayed for far longer. And the weather was beautiful, which was very strange seeing as it was November.

But the thing I was most impressed with, and what touched me the most, was the obvious pride in their country, the friendliness, the compassion and the expression of freedom and joyfulness. The blatant patriotism was astounding. It was also beautiful.

In America the flag flies proudly at every street corner, whereas in England you'd probably be told to take our flag down because it was offending someone who wasn't British.

NBA match

I think something that I most enjoyed was going to an NBA Basketball game in the Verizon Center.  It was amazing. So much entertainment and good spirited competition. Singing the national anthem at the beginning is something that I've never experienced. I've seen some football games and other games, but none of the English matches I've seen have ever been so.. friendly I guess.

I think friendly is definitely the right word to describe the USA. It was lovely. People asked if you looked a little lost, chatted to you on the metro, said good morning in the hotel. In England that would never happen. On the tube nobody talks to anyone. It's like an unsaid rule. And usually you'd have to ask if you didn't know where to go. Of course there are some people out there who do say 'hi', have chats with you and ask if you're OK, but it's just not the same.

Chinese in a box! (Exciting, oddly)

Also I got to sample some of the cuisine. Went to a diner (of which there were surprisingly, and upsettingly few) and had a burger. Had a Hot dog at the NBA game. Some mini corn dogs at the bowling alley (which were strange, nice, but a little sickly after a while) and had a snow cone (which was lovely in the middle of an oddly hot day.) And had Chinese in a box. Yay!

The only thing that I'd say was bad was the tax. As it's added on as you buy it, rather than already added on. So I'd already got out the right amount of money most times, when I then realised I would have to get out more because I'd forgotten about the tax. So that was a little annoying.

The White House

And the streets were confusing too. We'd walk down the end of one block only to find that we'd gone the wrong way down the street, so had to turn around and walk the other way. Of course it was fine after a week. By then we'd gotten used to it. But It's much easier when all the roads look completely different.
The worst thing was going back. Knowing that work had to be in, and that the holiday was over.
And although it feels nice to be in a place that I know, I can't wait to go back and explore more of America.