On going weight loss and current results

At the start of this year, I weighed 13 stone 1 which I found out recently made me obese. In February, I went down to 12 stone 12. Just before Summer, I went down to 12 stone 6. In September, I went down to 11 stone 11. Last week, I went down to 11 stone 5. I still have another stone and a bit to lose before I am at my desired weight. The photo of myself in the black dress was from late June last year. 

The Stranger At The 4:00pm Bench

Victorian London. It's an odd place, very pleasing to the eye. The thick fog conceals the identity of each passerby. This then creates a sea of enigma. 

I sit on a bench, my bench. It's my bench because I sit here at 4:00pm every single day. As I am a regular visitor of this bench, I begin to become fairly well known amongst the locals. There is Marty, the sweet older gentleman who never fails to tip his hat towards me. I never fail to return the gesture. 

It's Winter at the moment. It gets considerably quieter during the winter. The cold is too much for many people. Personally, I love the cold, especially for this season. 

There is a beautiful building opposite I. It stands tall and proud. Solid iron gates embrace the building like a warm hug. The building is white with black rectangular panels going down and across. I still, in all the times I sit here do not have the faintest idea of what goes on there. I should find out someday. 

'Oh that's odd very odd' I mumble to myself
A peculiar man walks towards my bench. He dons a smart suit, top hat and cane. I assume he must be fairly wealthy. 

'May I take a seat on your bench'? The stranger asks
'Why sir, how could you possibly know this is my bench'? I enquire
The mysterious stranger smirks and proceeds to sit down next to me.
'I see you, always watching, I know how you wonder' 
This man has a very icy tone to his voice. 
Where do you watch myself watching from'?
The stranger's grey eyes pierce my soul like a dagger. After what feels like a good minute, the strangers mouth finally starts to drip a syllable. 
'The beautiful building that is white with black rectangular panels going down and across' he sings
My face drops.
'How, how do you-' I stammer
'Ah, that's for me to know and for you to never find out' 
'Tell me!' Tell me how you know! Who are you?' 

This may seem like an over reaction to this very peculiar stranger but I tell you now, I got a very, very nasty feeling running through my veins. 

'Now now Victor, calm yourself, so many questions' 
'How do you know my name'? I ask sternly
The stranger rose from my bench. 
'You'll never know, it's going to drive you insane' he whispers
The stranger turns so his back is facing myself and silently glides away humming an eerie melody. The stranger completely fades away. 

This bench, is my bench no longer.

^I wrote this short story as a spontaneous moment appeared with an interesting thought and this is what came out of that thought 

Soundtrack To My Life

I recently watched a Youtube tag video by Lily Melrose. In the video, she collaborated with Zoe London. They created a tag called 'The Soundtrack To My life'.

This video fuelled my thoughts about how I have certain artists who narrate my life in a way. The artists being; Lana Del Rey, Paloma Faith, Fun. and Florence and The Machine.

I listen to these artists the most because they all have a similar style but also because I relate to the stories they are telling through their lyrics. 

I have also found, I listen to this one particular band the most during the winter time. The band is 'Fun'.

My favourite songs by Fun are: Stars, We are young, Carry On, Some Nights and Some Nights Intro.

It is a well known fact that when you are in a particularly sad mood, you take notice of the lyrics to song and generally then have a better understanding of what the artist is trying to say.

I love music, it's a real mood lifter.

I will do the tag in blog form which contain the same questions Zoe London and Lily Melrose penned.

Song you listen to when you're happy? Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's

Song you listen to when you're sad? Born To Die by Lana Del Rey

What song will you have at your wedding? Cosmic Love by Florence And The Machine

What song do you dance around the house to? Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd (The Pulse version)

What song do you play in your headphones when you are out and about? Some Nights by Fun

Song you listen to when you are angry? Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paloma Faith

Song you'd have at your funeral? Songbird by Eva Cassidy

Song that makes you lose your shit at a party? Sex on fire by Kings Of Leon

The Last Song you listened to? Cosmic Love 

Your karaoke song? Dancing Queen by Abba

What song do you work out/exercise to? Everybody's on the run by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Song with the most memories attached? Born To Die by Lana Del Rey

Song that makes you cry? Flying Without Wings by Westlife

Song you hate the most? What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction

Your favourite song of all time? Born To Die by Lana Del Rey

Is Fanfiction Literature?

The other day, I came across Ariel Bissette's video 'Is Fanfiction Literature?'. You can view her video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtw7CSAxs1A

In her video, she posed a good argument and expressed her opinions on the question which you can see in her video. The comments are also worth the read.

Now, I am going to answer the question.

Personally, I do see Fanfiction as literature. Why you ask? Well, I class fanfiction as literature because if we talk about the basic meaning of the word, regardless of whether it's the same world or the same characters, it is still a written story. A lot of fanfiction writers put a lot of time and creativity in to their work so it would be an insult to say it isn't literature.

I both read and write fanfiction and also I write what a lot of people would say 'true literature' which varies from poetry to short stories. 

There is a big controversy with fanfiction because of the writers taking characters out of the world they were put in and putting them in to situations that the character would not ever be in. An example would be Johnlock. However, there have been fanfics which have ultimately become TV Shows or soon to be films, i.e. BBC Sherlock and Fifty Shades Of Grey. 

I personally don't see why it is a problem for people to put their own spin on characters. Whether they put them in likely situations or not, I still view it as Literature.

Yes, you may be using the same characters but you aren't re writing the story in the way of copying, you are being creative and coming up with your own plots. That to I, is worthy of the title 'Literature'.

Fanfiction deserves as much credit as any short story or novel because the creative process is still the same.

Female Characters in Classic Literature

Literature has changed drastically over the years.

Now, we see a lot of strong and dominant female characters such as Katniss Everdeen. 

Somebody said to me a couple of days ago how they were working on a piece of writing which had a strong female character because of how female characters are often portrayed as submissive, specifically in classic literature.

Take A Scandal In Bohemia for example by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Irene Adler was possibly not your every female of that time but she still was far from being dominant over Sherlock Holmes. She still had that air of submission to a man.

Irene Adler is supposed to be as intelligent as Sherlock therefore posing a challenge for him but the way she is portrayed is still not as dominant as her potential shows.

Other novels with characters similar are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and quite the majority of classic literature.

Elements of Literature such as this don't bother me as much as they do a lot of other people but I can see why. It can be very frustrating when a female character isn't as developed as they could be because they have to be somewhat inferior to their male counterparts.

I do think it's nice and refreshing to see strong dominant characters but that can't happen in every book because some people just aren't like that at all.

What do you think?

Mirrors- A Slam Poem by I

It’s I that’s broken
Not the mirror
If it was
I wouldn’t hate myself so
But when I sit and delve in to the tunnels of my soul
I find that piece of rubbish that is my self esteem
All it needs is a polish to make it gleam
No.
It needs more than that,
It needs
Something or someone
To morph it back
To it’s original monotonous shape
Climbing out of the tunnels
My self esteem dissolves yet again
Too many mirrors
Too many cracks
I can see everything
Everything that is wrong with the casing
My heart
My heart is as full as I am after a fillet steak
My self esteem continues to shatter
And crack until the end of the time
And I am afraid
Afraid that it will never be able to reshape itself
It will be forever
Broken
How broken is broken?
I’m all smiles but inside
Inside I am pale faced and tired
Tired of feeling unhappy
Unhappiness is an enemy, one that you never want to face
Want to know why?
You should never face unhappiness because when you do, you become unhappiness and nothing else
This is the first time words don’t hurt
Words don’t hurt because you already hate yourself enough that any words with negative connotations pass you by
Or are merely accepted in the trainwreck that is your mind
Your mind has so many openings yet so many closed doors
What’s behind those doors
Is it the key to stitching your self esteem?
That’s the problem
It’s too deep
No easy access to the thing that gets you through the day
How can you step out in to the daylight if you’re surrounded by darkness?
Mirrors are everywhere, my reflection is everywhere, I need to get that lipstick off of my teeth but I can’t bare to look
I’m as scared as a child watching their first horror film from behind a pillow
Scared of what I will see
Me
The putred me

One Day Book Review

Last year, my friend recommended I watch the film One Day. I took her up on that suggestion and watched it. The film and the book because they are both very similar as the scriptwriter is actually the author of the book. Don't let that put you off though because I adore the film as much as I adore the book.

One Day surrounds two university students, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew. It begins on the day of their graduation, the night they officially meet. In both the book and the film, it follows their lives the same date every year to see what has happened and is currently happening. 

I absolutely adore the concept of this story and I adore the characters. Emma is a very easy character to relate to. She is geeky, shy and level headed.

Dexter on the other hand is her polar opposite, he's a bit of a tearaway, has no ambition, constantly trying to pick up girls. He's your typical jack the lad.

Emma and Dexter complete each other, quite like Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Emma needs that bit of life and soul of the party element that Dexter brings and Dexter needs the grounding that Emma brings. 

The book has a tiny bit of extra detail than the film but other than that, the film does a great job. The cast is perfect. Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess build an excellent rapport and really connect with shines through in the film.

Bringing us back to the book. Every word has you hanging on and not wanting to let go. David Nicholls writes so poetically and there are many quotes which you will want to take away with you from this. One that I love that won't spoil things for you is 'Whatever happens tomorrow, we have today, I'll always remember it'.

This book is funny, thrilling, satisfying and emotional. I recommend you all watch the film and read the book. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.