Thursday 30 April 2015

Currently: Life Update



One thing that I haven't done in awhile is tell you what i'm currently loving, hating, reading and doing in life, so here's a little update on my life...

reading  Girl Online by Zoella. I've began reading a lot more recently and I can honestly say that I've missed it so much, once upon a time I would reading would be all that I would do, then I found myself distracted my life, unable to concentrate, I guess that's when I know that I am sort of content with life, when I'm able to lose myself in a book.

watching  too much, yet not enough. If there's one thing in this world that I adore it's watching films and television shows, I've literally just finished watching Daredevil and I must say that I was absolutely blown away with how fantastic it was. I'm thinking about starting Once Upon A Time soon, I've heard great things about this show. I'm also currently in the middle of watching various other shows such as; Bates Motel, Under The Dome, Bones and, Supernatural...

trying to find myself a job. University is over and my life is moving forward, this is something that I've been excited about for the longest time, the time is here where I get to have control over my own life.

eating Nothing, although it's now past lunch time, I should probably make some food once this post is done with.

pinning EVERYTHING…I pin so much, fashion, crafts, places to fulfil my wanderlust, just everything.

tweeting Usually about my blog, hoping to get it out there a little more, hoping that it will interest people.

going to spend the rest of my day doing something productive. Productivity makes me feel like the day hasn't been wasted, it makes me feel alive.

loving My family…more than anything. They are my rock, they are the people that keep me strong, even though sometimes it's hard, and when I say family, I do also mean my best friend and boyfriend, without them I wouldn't be who I am, I would be so much weaker right now.

discovering that happiness is the key to life's success, that no matter how much you think someone is invincible, it doesn't make it true.

enjoying  life.

...thinking about my Grandmother, which is the same thing that I have been thinking about for the past month, thinking that we still have time to make some beautiful memories.

feeling content with life, happy that I have so many wonderful people in my life.

hoping that everything is going to be okay.

...listening to Tich - Obsession.

thanking  my loved ones for being who they are, for loving me and being there regardless.

starting to plan my life.

Leave a comment and tell me what's currently been happening in your life

xo


Tuesday 28 April 2015

The Fear of death



Ever since I was a little girl, my biggest fear was the idea of death, the night terrors that I used to have and still do have to this day, make these fears so much more intense. I can't even remember the amount of nights that I have woken up crying, or the nights that I was unable to sleep due to thinking and so desperately fearing death and all of the unanswered questions. Nothing in this world could ever comfort these thoughts, these are the thoughts that will stay with us for the entirety of our lives, mainly because the questions can never be answered. 

I'm now 21 and I find myself to be just as scared not as I was when I was a little girl. How can you expect these fears to go away when we can't ever possibly answer the questions? It's hard not to think about something that you fear, especially when trying to sleep, when your brain goes into overdrive.

Last night I found myself lay in bed struggling to sleep, with various thoughts coming into my brain, the subject of death screaming to be listened to. I can't help but fear what the world will become once I am done, I fear the idea of being gone, the ides of never being again, no one remembering that I ever was. I can't help but imaging what will happen after that, imagining the nothingness that I will feel…or won't feel. I can't help but hope that there is more to life than this inevitable, I hope that once we die, something else happens. I despise the idea of dying and never existing again, just disappearing into the dark abyss.

I fear oblivion, I fear it like the proverbial blind man fears the dark.

Death has always been a hard subject for me to process, it's hard to understand that this specific part of your future is inevitable, it's always going to happen and there's nothing that can stop this. There is no comfort in the idea of knowing that this happens to everyone, that there is no escaping it, in fact, this just helps to make these feelings so much worse, if I said that it makes my life feel claustrophobic would that sound stupid? This is because it's always around, it's never, ever going away. Thinking about this too much makes me feel physically sick, it sends my brain into overdrive, causes me to think about all of the unanswered questions that are often related with this subject…What happens when I die? What if I have nothing to leave behind? What happens to my loved ones?

If there is one thing in this world that we cannot avoid, it's fears and phobias, whether you like to admit it or not you are probably feared of something and it just so happens that one of the biggest world wide is the fear of death. Death means the end to everything for one individual, the end of everything that they knew, the end of everything that they used to be and everything that they could have ever been.

I've found that there's nothing that can stop my mind getting side-tracked  nothing that can stop me thinking and worrying about this. It's inevitable that once you leave this world, you will eventually be forgotten  everything that you have ever created will disappear with you, is that something we should fear? One of the worst things is not knowing when your time is going to come, not knowing how long you have to live your life. There are so many things that I want to do before it's my time to go, so many places that I want to visit, so many things that I want to experience. The idea of leaving behind something meaningful is wonderful, something that you can live through, some kind of legacy, to me that will be the family that I hope to one day create, my future children. 

Just as much as I fear leaving this world, I fear losing my loved ones. At 21, I have lost my more people in my life than I care to think about. The hardest thing that I have ever experienced was losing my beloved Granddad, knowing that I was never going to see his face again, I fear losing anyone else, I fear the breakdown that will come with that, I fear it more than anything. I'm just as scared of losing my loved ones as they are of losing me.

Spending time thinking and writing about this subject just makes me realise how precious life is, how much we often take it for granted, even though we shouldn't. We should not spend our time dwelling on the idea of dying, or the idea of losing those around us. We need to make every second of our lives count because we never know which moment is going to be our last. We should do what we enjoy in this life, achieve greatness, bring a family into the world and most importantly be happy. We should never let the idea of death take over our lives because it;s time will come. We should enjoy life as it is for what it is and remember that nothing in this life is worth is if you're not happy.

Until next time xoxo


Sunday 26 April 2015

April Playlist

Music takes me to another world



April has been a pretty hectic month for myself, a lot of changes have been made and I've been extremely stressed. Music is one of my favourite ways of escaping the world, my way of completely throwing myself into a dream world and forgetting reality. Throughout April I've listened to a varied amount of different music, so I thought I'd share the playlist that has helped me get from where I was this time last month, to where I am today…enjoy!


1. Mcbusted - Love Me Like You Do 


2. George Ezra - Listen To The Man




3. Taylor Swift - The Best Day




4. Olly Murs ft. Demi Lovato - Up




5. Mcfly - Love Is Easy 





6. Taylor Swift - Shake It Off 




7. 'N Sync - Bye Bye Bye




8. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk 



9. Christina Perri ft. Ed Sheeran - Be My Forever 





10. Demi Lovato - BelieveIn Me



These musicians could get me through anything, I could listen to these 10 songs over and over again and never get bored. What's been stuck in your head throughout April?

Until next time xoxo



Wednesday 22 April 2015

Invincibility doesn't exist

There's one major thing that you don't notice whilst you're younger, something that you continue not to notice as you grow older. That one thing is that everyone around you is growing older too, those people that you once thought were invincible don't look so invincible anymore.

Sometimes I look back and try to pin point exactly when I first noticed it, but I really can't put my finger on it, I don't know if I ever really began to notice. Your parents and grandparents kind of base their lives around you, you're one of their sole purposes for being who they are and doing what they do, they spend so much time looking after you when you're younger, helping you to decide the person that you're destined to be that we sometimes forget to take a good look at them, we just don't realise that as we are ageing, they are ageing too. 

The older I get, the more I worry. I'm 21 and I've already lost more people in my life than I care to think about, the most agonising being my beloved Granddad. One thing that's interesting about when I lost my Granddad was that I had never really noticed that he wasn't invincible, until he was ill, that was the moment that it hit me, like a bus, the moment that I realised that he isn't going to be here forever, the moment that I wondered how I could go on without him or any of my other loved ones. 

Losing people is by far the hardest thing that I have ever had to deal with in my life, despite all of the bad things that have happened in my life. Nothing can ever soothe this pain, the next time you lose someone, it's just going to be as bad as the first time, it will never get better and that's the disastrous thing about losing people. 

Take a good long look as the people around you, the people who have looked after you since the day that you were born and just remember to love them as much as you humanly can, remember to spend as much time with them as possible and create memories that will be remembered for a lifetime. 

Family is one of the most important things to any one individual, never should it be taken for granted. 

"Family, where life begins and love never ends." 



Give what you can to those you love, especially your time, time is the most precious thing on this planet. Love like you have never loved before and create memories that will be burned into your brain for as long as you live. Show the people around you what they truly mean to you, don't for one second think that it's okay to postpone that, and most importantly, never let them forget what they mean to you.

Until next time xoxo



Sunday 19 April 2015

Moving forward

Each blogger will understand what I go through on a day to day basis when I talk about just staring at the blank blog post before me, struggling and trying to figure out what to blog about. I'm learning that I shouldn't let it be as hard as it sometimes is, I should just blog when it comes naturally to me instead of trying to force out random words onto the blank page before me. 

I've been sitting here for a good half an hour, just staring at this blank, white page, so clean, so empty…that's the problem, it's empty…well, not anymore!


As most of you know, if you occasionally look at my blog at least, I have been a University student for the past 3 years and with this comes a string of regrets, a string of crushed dreams and aspirations. One thing that I do like to think about my time at University it that it's helped me to grow as an individual. I can honestly say that if I had never took the plunge into University, then I wouldn't be who I am today, I might not have the life that I have today.


The past 3 years I have been filled with so much hatred for the world, for my degree, for the people on my degree, but it's not their fault, it's not my fault, it's the education systems fault, and although I dislike to try and lay blame onto other people, that's all I can do here. If I'd have never been told from such an early age that the only way to get a good job and be successful was to go to school and achieve great GCSE'S, then to College and then to University, then I'd have probably never even considered going to Uni. What's done is done, although the last 3 years have been the absolute bane of my existence. I can honestly say that I am now feeling happy, happier than I have in the longest of time. My life is about to start, I'm about to be released into the real world, to get a job, to have money, most importantly, to have control of my own life, which is something that I don't think I have ever had.


Like I have said, University helped me to grow as a person, it encouraged who I have become. 3 years ago I was a completely different person in so many ways. Uni has helped me to grow up mentally, it's helped me to age in a way I needed to, although maybe now my brain is too old for my age, but that's perfectly acceptable. Do you know what the greatest thing is? Soon I will never have to do another Uni assignment, I feel like I'll be set free, like a bird from a cage, it's a wonderful feeling. I've never in my life found anything as hard and as challenging as Uni, and although it's a wonderful thing to challenge yourself in life, it's also good to make sure that the thing that's challenging you is actually something that you want because if not, you're not going to give it your all, you're not going to care if you fail or succeed, but like they say, it's better to try and fail than never to try at all. 


I will forever regret applying for this degree and accepting my place to study a BSc in Broadcast and Media Production at Liverpool John Moores University, but I will not regret who it has made me become, I'm a much better person for going through this, I know more about myself than I ever did, I know more of what I want and more importantly what I don't want, most importantly, I now know that being happy is the one thing that matters above anything else, nothing is at all worth it if happiness isn't in your life. 


My life is truly about to start, I'm about to move forward with life and that's the most exciting thing that I have ever experienced. No longer will I accept the unhappiness that I most certainly do not deserve, no more will I do something that I'm not passionate about, no more will I not be myself. The past few months of my life have already progressively got better, with the introduction of new and wonderful people into my life, a wonderfully incredibly boyfriend, a best friend who I can count on like a sister, a family who I can depend on, people who encourage me and inspire me…how can the people in my life get any better? Here's the time to begin concentrating on other aspects of my life, I now have a house to pay for, food to put onto the table, bills to pay for, bank overdrafts to pay back, student loans to payback and a life of adventure, love and happiness to plan for. I have so many plans, so many dreams to achieve, so many things that make me look forward to the future, so many wonderful people in my life that make me look forward to the future. 


The future is coming, it's coming fast and it's coming soon. Things are changing, my life is about to change for the better, it's time to feel like I belong in this world, like I have a place, a purpose. It's time to kick stress out of my life, after all, stressing solves nothing, it just causes problems. 





So here's to the future, here's to the life that I'm going to have, the people that will hopefully be in my life for the longest of time. Here's to who I have become, who I am yet to become and who I am forever destined to be. Here's to having passion, showing kindness and being happy…here's to the life that I deserve, the life that I am going to throw myself into. 


Have a wondeful day my lovelies xoxo


Have courage and be kind


Saturday 18 April 2015

COUNTDOWN - TOP TEN GAMES FOR THE XBOX 360 - EIGHT: MODERN WARFARE 2




Revenge is like a ghost…it takes over every man it touches…it's thirst cannot be quenched…until the last man standing has fallen...


Eight: Modern Warfare 2 

As an avid Call of Duty fan, there was naturally going to be at least one Call of Duty gams in my top ten games for the Xbox 360, and in my opinion, Modern Warfare 2 is most certainly one of the best, if not the best. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter that is considered to be a political war thriller, released to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Microsoft Windows.

Most aspects of this game were completely on point, you can play Call of Duty: Black Ops and find yourself hammering bullets into someone and then dying yourself…where's the logic? The hit detection on MW2 is incredible, all of the maps were well designed and you would remember them. This game appealed to everyone, skilled gamers and new, with the ability for skilled gamers to pubstomp quite easily, the new players to gain their skills, and it's best we don't even go into those people using noob-tubes. 

When this game was first released back in 2009, one of the most constant and annoying problems was hacking/modding, sometimes this would happen a lot, sometimes not so much. I mean it's pretty simple to just leave a game, but I mean, that can just be pretty irritating…I doubt this is a problem now, in fact, this probably now hasn't been a problem for a long time. 

I've always had this little joke about Call of Duty, it's been along the lines of the fact that nobody buys COD for the campaigns, just the online, but most people do actually play the campaign at some point, although most then regret it, they still play it. When it comes to MW2, the campaign was by far one of my favourite COD campaigns, I am not afraid to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I can honestly say that one of the main reasons I ever stopped playing this game wasn't due to the fact that it wasn't that good, it was actually due to the fact that time moved on, new Call of Duty games came out, and with that, everyone went to play those. 

Modern Warfare 2 has been ranked 8th on my all time favourite Xbox 360 games, with very good reasoning.

Check back here next week to find out what's been ranked 7th on my all time favourite xbox 360 games, you might be surprised!

Until next time…

xo

Tuesday 14 April 2015

My Biggest Dreams: Swim With Sharks

3. Swim with Sharks

"Many people continue to think of sharks as man-eating beasts. Sharks are enormously powerful and wild creatures, but you're more likely to be killed by your kitchen toaster than a shark!"
- Ted Danson


Everyone has dreams, I probably have too many, too many to actually fulfil  but one thing it for sure…I'll give it my best shot.

I love Sharks, I think they are one of the most wonderful, beautiful and misunderstood creatures alive today. I love how they are like the king of the ocean, but in every single film you watch, they are made to be the bad guy, always made to be the bad guy. 

Most people want to swim with Dolphins, I want to swim with Sharks, I think it would truly be a memorable and magical experience. I'd like to swim with Sharks at Typhoon Lagoon, or even cage dive with them, just so long as i get to experience this beautifully remarkable creature up close, I honestly don't care how this happens. 

"Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks."
-Sylvia Earle

I do have one problem, one fear I will have to overcome before this dream could ever become a reality, that problem is my inability to swim. I've never knew how to swim, I had bad experiences when learning to swim when I was younger and I now have a fear of swimming, a bit of an anxiety if you will, something that I need to overcome. 

Sharks are remarkable, they are beautiful and misunderstood and one day I will swim with them!

Until next time! 
xo

Saturday 11 April 2015

A Letter To My Future Self


A letter to Granny A.


Dearest Ashleigh,

How's life been treating you? I hope the years have been kind to you, I know that you always feared growing old, I want you to know that if you're holding onto any grudges or if you have any regrets, then you should let them go, life's too short. I'm writing to you in the year of 2015, some would say this is the prime of your life, you've just turned 21 and I believe a lot will have changed since then.

2015 was the year that you moved into a new house with your dearest friend Stacey, the year you had a fresh start, I don't know how much of it you will remember, but at this moment in time you're absolutely loving it. You've been living here for nearly 3 months, I'm not going to lie to you and say that it has been easy, but know that this has been one of the best years of your life so far. How is Stacey by the way? I hope that she's still in your life, she should always be in your life, I'm not quite sure how you'd cope without her. This was the time in your life that you found out more about your bestfriend than you ever thought possible.

All through your childhood and young adulthood you found it quite hard to fully accept who you were and who you were always going to be, know that being at war with yourself for so long was one of your biggest flaws, know that you should have never hated yourself so intensely. I'd like to think that by now you fully appreciate yourself, you're worth so much more than you once thought.

You get addicted to things, quite easily actually, you have quite the addictive personality. You could literally watch Netflix none stop, for days on end, marathoning your way through Television Shows like there's no tomorrow. You currently have 3 different xbox consoles, you absolutely love to game, it's your way of switching yourself off from the world, you're known as the "geeky" friend. You drink a lot of water, I really do mean a lot, they say it's healthy to drink water, but probably not the amount you currently drink.

You find it quite hard to be alone, especially being alone in your home, it's something you haven't quite got the hang of. You sometimes find it incredibly hard to sleep at a reasonable time, although you love the morning, you love gazing at the sunrise, sometimes you just don't have the choice but to miss out on that, you have sleep tremors, usually more often than you don't. The world is something you love, you can't wait to travel, to explore the beauty that it holds, I hope that's something you managed to do, I know that if you didn't then that's probably something that you now regret.

You have an introverted personality, people often don't understand, most just think you're rude and that hurts to know. Talking to new people can often be hard for you, but you have the most wonderful friends in your life right now, you also have such an amazing boyfriend. OH YES! You have a boyfriend! How did that one work out? Was it the 'one' ? I hope so, I truly do. You've never been as happy in a relationship as you are at this present moment, you've never connected with someone so deeply, never had so much in common with one individual, don't ruin that, don't let that one get away. You're so loving, you care so deeply about so much, you risk your feelings too much and get hurt even more.

You're quite restless, you always feel like you should be doing something. You adore blogging, you've actually nearly been blogging for a year now, so congratulations! I hope that this never stops, this makes you so happy! You love music, I mean really love music, you absolutely adore Taylor Swift, she's your role model, she's always been your role model and you love her so intensely. You love McFly, they are your boys, a few years ago they joined up with James Bourne and Matt Willis to create the ultimate supergroup, McBusted, it's a wonderful experience, something you'll never forget, don't ever forget.

You've grown up so much in the past few years, you're so much wiser than your age.

You want to be a writer, a director, a zoo keeper, a singer, a photographer, a columnist, a time traveler, a forensic anthropologist and a demon hunter…I don't think you actually know what you want to be, but a writer seems to be the winning idea for you. You're a dreamer and a believer. You believe that time travel will one day be possible, you believe in extra terrestrial life, you believe in many conspiracies, in fact, you're practically Hodgins from Bones. You are kind, you believe that being kind is the greatest legacy that you can leave behind, you've been doing so much for charity lately, I hope that's something that never stops.

How's the family? I really do hope that everything worked out with you and Mike because you should never be alone Granny A, and he's so incredibly perfect. You find losing loved ones to be one of the hardest things in the world, you're not strong, not at all. Earlier this month, April 2015, your dearest Grandmother was sent to hospital, you were right to worry from day one, she's incredibily sick and you're currently incredibly heartbroken, I hope that everything will be okay because I know that you're going to hurt so much if it's not. Losing your Grandad was the hardest thing that you have ever had to experience, sometimes I look back and wonder how you made it past that moment in time, but you did and it was so hard. Think positive.

Remember 2015 as the year that was going incredibly awesome, apart from a few things, remember it as the year you truly understood what it was like to run your own house, the year you fell in love harder than you ever thought possible, and the year you made so many plans for the future.

I'll be seeing you Granny A, until we meet again…

Your dearest self, Ashleigh.
Aged 21.
11/04/2015

P.S. NEVER FORGET WHO YOU ARE.


2015 IN PICTURES
BECAUSE PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.









































Wednesday 1 April 2015

Goodbye March, Hello April! : Reflection and Goal setting



First of all I'd just like to announce that I am now on Bloglovin'  so come check me out Here

I've recently realised that I need to start checking up on what goals have been set for the month, it seems I completely forget about them until the time comes to set more goals.

Here's how I did with the goals of March:

MARCH GOALS

  • Fix my sleeping pattern.
  • Wake up in time for the sunrise as often as I can.
  • Read 4 books.
  • Keep the house clean.
  • Try not to burn any food.
  • Work towards achieving my dreams.
  • Have 4 chapters of my book complete.
  • Blog every week.
  • End procrastination for good.
  • Disconnect from the world when working.
  • Split my time evenly between the things and people that matter.
  • Be happy.

I'm quite looking forward to April, I'm excited to see what will come of this month. This is the month of the bunnies and the eggs and it will be marvellously chocolatey. Life's been amazing recently, here's to hoping it stays this way! 

APRIL GOALS


  • Fix my sleeping pattern.
  • Wake up in time for the sunrise as often as I can.
  • Read 4 books.
  • Decorate Easter Eggs.
  • Bake Easter Egg cupcakes.
  • Work towards achieving my dreams. 
  • Complete 4 chapters of my book.
  • End procrastination for good.
  • Disconnect from the world when working.
  • Fly a kite.
  • Complete the 'walk in her shoes' challenge. 
  • Blog every week.
  • Visit many book stores and read many books
  • Visit a farmers market.
  • Pick fresh berries.
  • Be happy
I have a really good feeling about April and I cannot wait!

Until next time xo!

p.s. stay positive! 


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