Quirky Reads: Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Rachie's Musings on: Loser by Jerry Spinelli


Loser follows the story of Zinkoff, or Donald Zinkoff as he is known to his parents and teachers.

 The book follows Zinkoff through elementary/primary school and reminds us what it’s like to see the world through the eyes of a child.

Zinkoff loves school, for the most part he loves his teachers and he loves life.   You could easy assume that this book is designed for a young audience, it has a teen friendly cover and it follows the life of a school child, but it can also give us ‘adults’ a bit of a kick up the backside!!

Zinkoff has that same enthusiasm for life and fire in his belly that everyone is born with, where absolutely everything is a fun new discovery and it’s the most awesome thing ever.  
As we grow up, life beats that out of us a little bit, we lose the sparkle and we become grown ups.

While following Zinkoff through his story, I could almost see the sparkle starting to fade from him, although it never left him completely.  Zinkoff grew up like kids do, but while the other kids became ‘grown up kids’ and adapted to all the attitudes and etiquettes that come with getting a bit older and keeping up with everyone – Zinkoff stood out by holding on to the little eccentricities that make him Zinkoff.

I really enjoyed Loser, it’s not a long read, but it’s a damn good one and it’s encouraged me to try and make sure I keep the sparkle in my life :-)

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Learning new things.

I've been trying over the past year or so to develop new skills and hobbies.

Some of these have been to try and enhance my CV and job applications a little but some of them have just been for a little bit of fun.  

I'm still learning to drive which brings with it a whole new host of specific things to learn like how to work the gears and the pedals, how to follow a roundabout, how to do a turn in the road - I've yet to master most of these things but hopefully at the end of it I'll have an awesome skill - the ability to drive!

I think for the most part I just like to keep my brain active, I do like to relax and have a bit of a TV/Movie session but I hate doing absolutely nothing with my time, I have a compulsive need to fill it, so I search for things that I could try to learn.

One Sunday, while alone in the house, I came across an How-To origami video on youtube and by the end of Sunday I had learned how to make origami birds and bats.

I now have a box of origami, which I don't have any real use for but I find myself twiddling with bits of scrap paper while invigilating exams or waiting to go into interviews, which can be quite relaxing.

Maybe one day I'll put some string through them and put them on my wall or something. 

I came across BananaJamama's channel on youtube a few days ago by chance (She's awesome, check her out) and decided to try her Banana Jam recipe.  It was a fun way pass a Wednesday evening and I ended up gaining a new skill from it. Thankfully it looked and tasted like Jam! 

My problem with this whole learning new things kick that I have at the moment is once I learn something, I then want to find something new to learn.  It's not that I get bored, I still enjoy and keep doing the hobbies I have, but I have this thing in my head that says "That was fun, let's do that again! For right now though lets try this other new thing!"  Thankfully most of the things I've wanted to try are fairly inexpensive! 

I'm not sure what the next thing I'll attempt will be, whether it will be something sensible or something fun, but I look forward to attempting it!

If you have any suggestions, feel free to stick them in the comments! 

A few Jam and Origami pics below :-)

        

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Quirky Reads: Change Your Mind – 57 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Self by Rod Judkins

Rachie's Musings on: Change Your Mind – 57 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Self by Rod Judkins


I was wandering through an art gallery gift shop with friends and whilst my friends were soaking in the artsy stuff for sale, I zoned in on this little beauty.

 I initially bought it thinking ‘Great, maybe I’ll get some tips on how to become a bit more creative, cause I really wasn’t born one of those gifted people who can just are creative’

The first page gave me a much needed kick up the bum and bluntly explained to me that some of the greatest creative minds are just ordinary people with ordinary lives who have used creativity to become a bit less ordinary.    The rest of the book dispenses techniques and advice, through habits we can teach ourselves in order to tap into this much feared thing called creativity.

I used to think creativity was something you either had or didn’t have, you were born to be creative or you weren’t,  you had a talent through which to express it or you didn’t.  Reading this book helped me to see that having that mind-set is exactly what stops me from being creative.

I now try to have the mind-set that if I think my ideas are going to be crap and unimaginative, they will be because I’ve conditioned myself to think in an unimaginative and crap way, but if I tell myself my ideas might be interesting, there is a chance they just might be.

Since reading the book, I’ve noticed a bit of a shift in the way I think, I don’t tell myself that my ideas are going to be crap any more, I try to tell myself that I’m going to come up with an idea that makes perfectly good sense to me and run with it, if it doesn’t work out, come up with another idea.

A nice read that really helped to alter the depreciating way that I think about myself and my abilities at times and make some positive changes.

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Book Musings: The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker

Rachie's Musings on: The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker

When I picked up The Boy Who Kicked Pigs in a bookshop, I didn’t particularly notice who the author was, I just liked the cover.  Apparently you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, in this instance, I’m glad that I did.

Upon proper inspection I realised it was written by a man named Tom Baker, who just so happened to play the fourth incarnation of The Doctor in my favourite TV programme Doctor Who, so needless to say I was very excited to get stuck in.

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs focuses on a young boy named Robert Caligari, he’s a strange boy and his sister Nerys really gets on his nerves.  As an act of revenge towards Nerys, he kicks her piggy bank and unintentionally discovers a brand new hobby of kicking anything pig related, piggy banks, bacon, you name it – he’ll kick it.

Without ruining the story for anyone who hasn’t read it, the rest of the book continues to follow Robert on his pig kicking discovery and the discovery of his ultimate hatred of the human race, it’s an amusing and witty read that is full of complete and utter nonsense.

For me, whether intentionally or not, it taught me a valuable lesson.  There will be times when you despair of the human race and times when you want to seek revenge, but what starts out as a way to make yourself feel better can lead to something more sinister and have a negative effect on the person you become.

To quote The Cookie Monster “Today, me will live in the moment, unless it is unpleasant, in which case, me will eat a cookie.”

If there is a moment or a person that I find to be unpleasant, instead of plotting imaginary acts of revenge or waiting for karma to bite them on the backside, I’m going to let things go and eat a cookie! It’s a far better use of my time :-)

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I Don't Wanna Talk About It.

I Don't Wanna Talk About It.

I'm not really a fan of talking about feelings or something that's troubling me. I much prefer to be an ear or a shoulder for someone else and their worries, its where my comfort zone is at.

When it comes to talking about things that make me feel down or unhappy, its not really a case of bottling it up and not dealing with it, it's just that I don't always find that talking about it works for me.

I remember hearing a character called Ephram in the programme Everwood use this quote to describe overcoming grief and it's something that I like to remind myself of when something makes me feel a bit crappy.

"Like if you busted your right hand, you figure out how to use the left one. And sure, you might resist for a while because you're pissed off that you have to learn all this stuff again that nobody else does. Eventually your body takes over and figures it out for you, and your glad, because if it was up to you…you'd look at your broken hand forever and try to figure out what it was like before"

I'm not dealing with the loss of a loved one or a busted hand but I like to trust my body and my mind to look after me.  I get a bit down after interviews when I don't get the job or when there is a bit of a lull in things to apply for or a long line of no 'thank you' and it feeds into my insecurity of not feeling good enough that I've mentioned in previous blog posts.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not the biggest problem in the world, I have a roof over my head, a kind and supportive family and friends, I have some money coming in from invigilating exams and I have a kick-ass shoe collection.
I have a pretty good life, even if I'd prefer it to be just ever so slightly happier by getting past the interview stage of a job application.

Even when there is something a bit bigger or sadder going on that's getting me down, I still like to find a way to come to terms with it naturally rather than to reach out to others.

I get where my friends are coming from when they encourage me not to bottle things up and talk - they are right but just because I chose not to speak about things doesn't mean I don't process them in my own way.

I find my own therapy in writing letters to myself, nonsense blog posts, making origami birds/bats or even helping others.

What about you guys? Are you a talker or do you prefer to handle things in your own way?

Today's Shoes

Something I'm more than happy to talk about is shoes!
Today's shoes are my Disney Villian Vans which I acquired from Schuh.
This is an old picture of them as I forgot to take one today.
They combine two of my biggest loves - Shoes and Disney!

They are also super comfy!

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Quirky Reads: One Million Lovely Letters by Jodi Ann Bickley

Rachie's Musings on: One Million Lovely Letters by Jodi Ann Bickley


I ordered One Million Lovely Letters after hearing about it from various people.
It arrived on a Tuesday morning and by Thursday afternoon I had finished it, I literally only put it down when I had to. 

One Million Lovely letters tells the story of its author Jodi, I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book (you really should, it’s pretty awesome!).

In the book Jodi openly talks about the struggles she has had to overcome and how she has had to adapt in order to carry out some of the day to day tasks we often take for granted or don’t even think about while doing them. 

Jodi has channelled her experiences into a fantastic project called One Million Lovely Letters where she reaches out to others all across the world offering them kindness, understanding and support whatever their struggles may be.

Reading this book not only gave me a kick up the bum for feeling sorry for myself over nonsense but also reminded me that a little bit of kindness can go a long long way, all across the world in Jodi’s case!!

If you haven’t already come across it, you can read more about Jodi’s project One Million Lovely Letters here :-)http://onemillionlovelyletters.com/

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Rachie goes to the Zoo!

This week, I went to the Edinburgh Zoo with James as part of his birthday.
I've been to Monkey World in Dorset, which is a bit like a zoo, except it specialises in Monkeys and I've been to the Botanic Gardens in Southport which has a pretty cool aviary, but this was my first zoo.

I initially started the day off a little bit sad as I learned I didn't get a job I had been to an interview for the week before but after some chocolate and a cooked breakfast I was right as rain and good to go!

Aside from the fact it's mostly uphill, the zoo was really fun!

The Koalas were asleep and the only Panda that was at the viewing part of the enclosure was lying down having some dinner so I didn't manage to get many pictures of those.

As well as the monkeys, I think my favourites were the penguins and the meerkats!

Before we went home, we stopped by Krispy Kreme for a few doughnuts, which were seriously epic! Awesome day!



 

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Quirky Reads: The Fault in Our Stars

Rachie's Musings on: The Fault in Our Stars

When The Fault In Our Stars was published in 2012, I was still at uni and in my ‘not reading books unless it is to quote and stick in an essay/dissertation’ phase so this little beauty passed me by.

As time went on I became aware of its existence because it was being turned into a movie.  Despite being aware of the ending in advance because….the internet exists, I decided I wanted to read the book before seeing the film just to see what all the fuss was about.

I read the book in three days, only putting it down to sleep because my eyes couldn’t stay open any more, I was gripped straight away.

On first impressions  you’d probably think it’s a teenage love story but The Fault In Our Stars is so much more than that. Not only is it laugh out loud funny, witty and heart-breaking all at once, but it’s also honest. Life isn’t always fair and it doesn’t always work out the way we hope it will and The Fault In Our Stars isn’t afraid to hit you right in the face with that.    

The Fault In Our Stars also reminds me that just because the odds are against you doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy  and cherish every second life gives you.

I’ve deliberately tried not to go into much detail on the story because a) the internet exists and I’d simply be reiterating what already exists and b) I’d be taking away the joy of reading the story for yourself from anyone who hasn’t read it.

Now that I’ve read the book, I finally got round to watching the film, not so I could compare the two but just to see it brought to life and the characters were just like I pictured them in my head, that almost never happens! :-)

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