Halloween's THIS week!!

So this week is Halloween, who’s excited?!?!

Apart from the abundance of pumpkins available, there seems to be little else for those above the age of 12. I have scoured the high street for Halloween things to do, or items that aren’t directly aimed at kids, and you know what lads, they don’t exist.

This makes me sad; I want to be able to enjoy the fun elements of Halloween as much as the next eight year old. So, out comes my skeleton onesie, scary pumpkin bunting and awesomely carved pumpkins (if I do say so myself).  The crap thing with being a twenty-something is that it’s no longer socially acceptable to go trick or treating! Damn it! Then again, in hindsight- you are literally begging for sweets. (Never thought of that before). 

With this whole trick or treating business, has anybody else noticed in the last few years that people are asking for money?!? It all started around 7 years ago. Where I live, we had one young child forced to sing to us, and his parents consequently asked for £5. Now I think this was a bit of a piss-take. Firstly, we did not want the kid to sing, secondly, it didn’t look like the kid wanted to sing himself, and finally, it’s a bloody cheek. Halloween is meant to be about innocent fun, with a spooky twist. Not a money making prospect for parents/carers.  These incidents have escalated in my local area, my mum told me last year that the same thing happened with two kids, and the adults asked for £10. I mean seriously, do people pay?? Have any of you experienced this?

Another brilliant element I love of Halloween is dressing up, but I am sick to the teeth of girls doing “slutty” versions of everything. While yes, sometimes it can be a laugh- there is a line. For example, dressing as a maid- okay, but is it really just an excuse to get your legs out, where as a murdered/zombie maid- go ahead! I’m starting to think that for some people Halloween is just an excuse to dress like a slut in public, with no element of the “scary”. What do you guys think? This aside, I have seen some AMAZING face painting on various sites, it’s amazing what some people can do, from china dolls, voodoo dolls, cereal (box) killer etc. If you are stuck for ideas, a quick search on Pinterest of Instagram will sort you out! It’s nice to see that more original ideas are now becoming more popular than the traditional witch/vampire etc. (not that there is anything is wrong with them!), but it is nice to see new things.

I realise this is more of a rant about Halloween, than anything else, so I apologise for that.

For those of you who enjoy Halloween for its traditional means, there are loads of food-related things to do for those of us who are a little too old to go trick or treating.

But for me this year, it’s going to be face paint, a few horror films, apple bobbing, friends and popcorn. Have a brilliant evening everybody!

Ghostly going-ons!

Ghosts

Are they real? Are they fake?

Well, that’s up to you to decide, I’m not sure myself, but I’m starting to sway more to their existence. A few things have happened during my lifetime that makes me think this. Some may say that the amount of horror films and ‘ghost’ programmes (Ghost Adventures anyone?)  I watch may be influencing my decision. But there is more.

I’ll explain, I’ve had things moving, changes in temperatures (no, my heating was not just turning off). During my time at uni, I even had breathing in my ear – ending up with me calling my parents to collect me INSTANTLY!

Is it just the unknown that we are scared of, or is it the fact that we have no control over it? What do you lot think? I’m genuinely interested.

My housemates and I even downloaded a ghost detector (Windows 8.1 store, if anybody is interested). I don’t think it worked, but it certainly got our hearts pumping! During these moments of madness we also found different ways to tell if there were any ‘spirits’ present, now I don’t know if our minds were just playing tricks on us, but there were a hell of a lot of the things on the list we could tick off!

Have any of you ever had any “incidents” of the supernatural kind, or do you believe it’s all hocus pocus, tricks of the mind or creations of the imagination? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

Tartan you say?

Tartan,

 

I bloody love the stuff; this was not always the case as my secondary school uniform involved a tartan skirt which consequently meant that I stayed clear of anything remotely resembling tartan. However recently, with many years passing between my secondary school days and the present day, I have slowly come round to the whole tartan trend, and now, it’s my thing.

As the autumn kicks in, it gives us an excuse to layer up, and dig out our scarves, hats and gloves. This year I feel that tartan is the ultimate way to layer up. It gives a little flare to any plain piece of clothing without being too ‘out there’. 

Loads of high-street shops are selling various different tartans this year that would go with various different outfits you lovelies may be piecing together. That’s another thing, tartan is not just resigned to one gender, it can be worn by all. So, you’ve got no excuse ladies and gents.

It’s going to be a key item this autumn, and doesn’t need to be kept to clothing. Tartan blankets are amazing too. You can get them from The Works- (yes I do mean the book shop)for £2.99 or if you’re feeling a bit more flush, the National Trust shop sell them too for around £15 and they are made from recycled materials.

It’s time to embrace the cold, and get your tartan on.

Instagram... What is it and should I ?

So I am new to this whole Instagram business, at first I thought it was just another pointless phase that society seemed to be going through.

Like, what is the point? Surely it’s just like Facebook and Twitter without all the crap boring bits, right? RIGHT. This is what grabbed me, so I unwittingly signed up thinking that I wouldn’t get too enraptured by it, was this the case? Wrong.

I seem to find myself thinking “ah, I should Instagram that” more often than not. However in my case, I’m not sure that many people will have the greatest need to see my concert tickets from a year ago, my over stacked bookshelf or even my morning coffee- but hey ho. That’s the deal, and people seem to like it.

If many people start to feel this way, which I am sure they do, are we just looking for acceptance like any other social media output through the idea of portraying our lifestyles as aspirational without the mundane elements. Or is Instagram in fact a place where people get to showcase their “photography” (although I wouldn’t class some of the things I’ve seen as photography- we can all take a blurry photo of us on a night out and put a filter on it, it doesn’t make it a good photo).

I feel that while it may have its dark side like any popular entity, that it also has a prosperous side. By this I mean that users are exposed to elements and ideologies that they would otherwise be oblivious to.   I myself have come across loads of wicked crafty ideas trawling through the “explore” section of Instagram, and I highly recommend that you check some of these users out, for example the various DIY accounts make for some interesting scrolling!

There are good and bad elements to get lost in with Instagram, but I just say, give it a go! What have you got to lose, it’s pretty easy to navigate around, and could open your eyes to new things!

Just be careful to not waste every waking moment on it…

The Riot Club

The Riot Club

So, the other day I decided to go to the cinema- not on a Wednesday (Orange Wednesdays= half price cinema party) but on a Saturday. However I was not prepared for the £8.55 cost, and that was with me swindling a student ticket with an out of date NUS card, keep them in your purse ladies and gents, you never know! My friend had to pay a whopping £10.50! No wonder more and more people are just waiting for the DVD to come out.

Back to my point. The Riot Club has a wonderful cast and a great director (e.g. she’s directed An Education amongst others.) The plot itself was a little strange; I didn’t really know what to make of it. It focuses upon an elitist society based at Oxford University (and is issued around a real club that the likes of David Cameron and other influential people were involved in.)

Audiences are subjected to the antics of the members of said society- the highs and the ultimate lows. The film itself is well produced, and it is easy to follow the story. Yet it is the subject matter that is a little alien. While yes, it is interesting, I feel that the elitism represented in the film was a little too difficult to relate to, but if you’re able to enjoy a film completely with an element of detachment, I would say go for it. Then again, either way I would say go for it, there are sure ways that I would have preferred it, especially the ending, but all in all it is actually a fairly good film. The actors in this film are brilliant (and not too hard on the eye!)  they allow for you as the audience to feel more involved with the film, which is deffs a good thing, it’s got to be said that this film does get very dark, very quickly  so bare that in mind if you decide to go and see it. It made me feel rather uncomfortable, and to put that into perspective, I’m used to watching some pretty screwed up stuff.

There are certain highs and lows about this film, but that’s just my personal opinion, overall I think it sways more to a positive side than a negative.

So go forth, watch some eye candy and messed up crap all at the same time.