Knilly Frickers

Rachie's Musings on: Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher Billy and Me very quickly became one of my favourite books that I’ve read.  It is, as you would expect from the title, a love story about how girl meets boy but to me it’s a lot more special than just that. When I read Billy and Me, I felt as though Sophie, the ‘Me’ in Billy and Me, was speaking directly to me, I felt as though I wasn’t reading this story, I was sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, listening to my friend tell me all about this great guy she has met and all the adventures they have been on so far. Sophie appealed to me because I could relate to her. She’s roughly my age or thereabouts, her mum works in a library (so does mine!) she’s unassuming, she dislikes rudeness and gossip, she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life and found something she was good at by accident and most importantly, she works in a teashop and bakes cake every day – cake is my happy place! I won’t delve too much into Bi...

Happy is pretty much my favourite mood to be in. I can at times be a bit of a Pollyanna (if you aren't familiar with Pollyanna, it's a novel by Eleanor H. Porter about an eternally optimistic young girl who moves in with her grumpy aunt when her parents die and spends her days looking for reasons to find the 'happy' in every situation. Oh and Hayley Mills plays her in the 1960 movie and is awesome!). I like being a bit of a Pollyanna, but sometimes even I can be a bit of a Grumpasaurus. Since the latter half of last year I've been filling the pages of my London Underground notebook (from Paperchase ) with Happy Lists or as I call them - ' Things that Make Rachie Smile' . I noticed Carrie Hope Fletcher (You can read my musings on her recently published book here  - you can also find her blog here ) put some on her blog and I thought it was a good idea and might be therapeutic on days when I feel a little less than happy to think abou...

Choosing the Right Words :-)  I haven't blogged in a while, mostly because I've had fairly little to talk about and I don't want to ramble on for the sake of rambling!   Choosing words carefully is pretty important. Choosing the right words can make all the difference between getting your thoughts out correctly and causing offence.  Choosing the right words can make the difference between delivering a joke properly and hurting someone's feeling. Choosing words carefully can also make all the difference in starting a conversation with someone - word it wrong and you may find the conversation goes awry pretty quickly.  Conversation starters can be tricky things, they often require consideration, but I find us humans have a tendency to speak too quickly in order to fill up dreaded awkward silences. I've noticed lately that there are occasions when people try to start conversations with me they immediately base their topic on some element of my appearance.  I comple...

Rachie's Musings on: All I Know Now, Wonderings And Reflections on Growing Up Gracefully.  Before I start with my thoughts and musings, I'm gonna put it out there - I quite like Carrie Hope Fletcher! Well, I don't know Carrie, but I like the bits of her personality I've seen in her YouTube videos and in her writing.  Carrie and I share a few similarities, we both have naturally curly hair that is prone to doing it's own thing, we both like musicals, we both like to read and we both have a massive place in our hearts for all things Disney. Unfortunately I am neither a West End actress or a published author so that's possibly where our similarities end :-)  If you aren't familiar with Carrie, she's pretty cool! Primarily an actress, currently appearing as Eponine in London's West End production of Les Miserables, Carrie is also a singer, a writer, a YouTuber and honorary big sister to her 500,000 plus subscribers 'The Hopefuls'  Carrie, albeit...

A lot of the things I like doing, like eating out, buying shoes, going to the cinema, going out for the afternoon with friends (which can at times include all of the above) - all cost money, which I unfortunately don't have growing on a tree in the back garden. How cool would that be though? If you could just nip out the back and pick off a note or two when you need some pennies? I digress, moving on.  I've been making a conscious effort over the past little while to try and enjoy some of the things I can do and see for free, not because I can't afford to spend anything but because I don't always have to be spending money on something extravagant or exciting to have a nice day.   Most days, I can happily pass the time at home getting stuck into a book, watching films (three of which today were Disney  - whilst reading a book!) chatting nonsense with my parents or letting my imagination run away into the wilderness while I type nonsense...

All You Have To Be Is You.  It's probably not the best idea to blog when riled up about something but I figured I may as well take the passion and try and turn it into something positive.  There is this notion that a lot of us seem to have, it is communicated to us through popular culture, on the cover of some magazines, on the rails of the occasional shop - and that notion is that we have to aspire to look a certain way in order to be considered attractive, happy, normal or perfect.  Clothing sizes generally mean nothing and I mean nothing. Each shop differs in terms of what sizes they stock but they also differ in what size will actually fit you.  One shop could give you a completely different size from another and more often than not, clothes are made using minimal material thus resulting in you needing a larger size. It's frightening the lengths we can go to in order to change ourselves because we don't feel we measure up to what society deems as acceptable....

Am I a Grown Up? The Ponderings of a Rachie. I'm not really sure at what point you become a proper 'Grown Up' There are many milestones that you could attach it to such as, Reaching a special age like 18 or 21. Learning to cook. Clearing out possessions (toys, teddies, clothes). Getting your first 'proper' job. Passing a driving test or getting a car. Moving out of your parent's house and into your own home, getting a mortgage etc. Surviving the supermarket on a weekly basis. Learning your first important 'Life Lesson' (i.e. experiencing something horrible, heart wrenching or crappy). Falling in love. Losing a sizeable portion of your wages in tax. I haven't done everything on that list yet but I don't think that's why I don't feel like a proper grown up yet. I think I've always had this idea in my head where a grown up has certain traits and is someone who has everything figured out and has all their crap together.  I'm gradually...