The Time Traveller

For me reading offers me two kind of escapism. The first one is diving into the book itself. I might be sitting on a bus stuck in traffic or in bed after a long day at my mundane job, but in my mind I am studying potions in the dungeons of Hogwarts or Surviving the Hunger Games. In books I have been to College in America, I have worked in a London Theatre, I've been a writer for a rock magazine, I've flown through the air on the back of magical beast and I have fallen in love over and over and over. 

But I also have a different form of escapism when I read. 

When ever I am travelling some where I like to take a new book with me. Something to help me while away the time. I spend a lot of time on trains travelling from the South East of England all the way up to Scotland, so I have plenty of time to take on an adventure. Or maybe something to read while I sit by a pool in Spain, or as I drive through Germany on my way to a Christmas market. I enjoy the journey far more when I have a book full of companions to keep me company. Then when the last page is done and the book is closed and I slot it into my book shelf and I can thank them all for the entertainment they offered. 

Then a few months later when I am low on money and want a book to read I pull one of these books down and I start to read.  Not only am I back in these fictional lands, but I am also back on that train to Scotland, or I am in Düsseldorf admiring their 10ft Christmas trees. Re-reading those words I first read doing something so exciting transports me back there. It sparks memories of those trips that had dimmed in my mind. I love it. They are like little time machines taking me back to all these great places where I met great people and have fond memories. 

My favourite, like so many readers of my generation, are my Harry Potter books. Because I have re-read these books so many times I have so many memories attached to them. I can remember my bedroom and how it was decorated. I remember sitting reading them  until the sun started poking its head above the trees after getting them at the midnight launches. I remember holding the book in one hand and making a sandwich with other because it was literally too good to put down. 

Also the first four books are paper backs. They have creased and bent over time, and when I hold the well worn covers in my hand you can see how my hands have grown over the year as the indents where my fingers grip the book have rippled out over time. Creases and folds over lapping each other as each time I re-read and fill these pages with my own stories and memories. 

When I read between the lines I am reading back my own life. The memories I book marked there for me to comes back to later. So I can relive those holidays or just sit in my childhood bed room as a twelve year old again. 

Rella 

I Owe it to Myself to Write.

I love writing, I love putting stuff out into the world, whether it be creative or a review heck I even feel good when I write a good email. Yet I have this blog which I love and I just gave up on it. Life got busy and I thought I would pick it back up when things settled down, but I forgot to make room for it. I would write blog posts in my head but I would never do anything with it, and doing something in your head just isn't creating. Locking my ideas away just makes my head fill and fill until there is no room for anything else and I just feel disappointed in myself for ransoming my own creativity.

I feel one of the reasons I gave up on this, is I was starting to get a fair few hits per post and I knew some of those people were people I new IRL and to be honest I got a bit shy and embarrassed. I felt like people have one perception of me, and this blog shows a side that people don't expect, and I worry that people might think I was pretensions or fake.

But I owe this to me, this is something I really enjoy, something I would maybe like to turn into something more then a hobby one day. I want this to lead me into the world of writers where I can make friends and read amazing things by other people. Why should I stop because someone I knew five years ago may think what I am doing in childish or lame ?

Lets shake of the cobwebs and reclaim this

I deserve to write 

Rella Reads

Re-Reading Your Story So Far

During the Victorian Era books became far more affordable. With the improvements to the printing press, national literacy skills, and in general the price of making a book fell. Not only did this mean more people could get their hands on books, but also more people were writing books. To be fair there wasn't a lot to get up too, your choices were needle point, sit  in your house and hope someone drops by, or you could always die of polio writing seemed like a pretty decent pass time. 

Paperbacks became very cheap and people could either by a whole book or some books were sold a chapter at a time. In fact paper backs were so cheap that people would tear out the pages as they finished reading them and throwing them away. 

I feel myself doing this often. I finish a chapter of my life and I was to rip it out and throw it away. Sometimes because it was a difficult time, or  things haven't turned out how I wanted, other times things have all been great but for one reason or another I just find it difficult to look back on that time. 

When a boyfriend broke up with me when i was eighteen it broke my little teenage heart. Of course being eighteen I believed we were in love, the real thing that was going to go the distance and no one had ever had a love like this before. Of course like most teenage loves, surprise surprise, it didn't quite turn out like that. So I decided to start ripping this chapter apart. I changed how I looked, made my hair go from black to bleach blonde, I wore clothes I had never dared to before, changed how I did my make up and removed all traces of him from my life. I told my friends not to ask about him, hell I made sure they didn't say his name around me. A bit extreme now that I look back but I was a heartbroken teen and I wanted to pretend like that year of my life had never involved him let alone revolved around him. 

When my Grandmother died I wouldn't walk down the road her house was on. I didn't want to see a place that was once a place so full of love and family and happiness belong to a stranger who didn't know I use to love running around the bush in the front garden, and they had never attended one of the BBQ's in the back garden where my Grandmother would always rent bouncy castle for the grand children. It was difficult to look at a place where so many memories were formed and now I wasn't allowed in. I didn't want to forget my Grandmother but I preferred her house to become a dream house that exist only in my memories and the physical form doesn't exist any more to me.

Then there are friends, because I so often scrub out sections of my life. I clean out everything I don't want, and just carry forward what I am happy with means I am terrible at keeping in contact.I mean if you rip out a chapter it is hard to go back and just re-read the bits you enjoyed. I had some really close friends as a teenager, but then my Mum sold my childhood home and I no longer had a base in the place they lived it meant it was more difficult for me to stay in contact. Then when I would visit I was almost insulted that they had carried on their life with out me, they had made new friends and got on with their lives and they grew into people with these lives I hadn't been apart of. Although I still cared about them we know longer knew  other, and now when ever I see them post on-line I feel a prang of sadness for a friendship that once meant the world to me and now had faded. I find myself telling the stories of my teen years less as I slowly tear these pages from life. 

However recently things have been going pretty good for me. I have a nice flat, and I get to spend more time with my family. I am talking to my brother more, who has always been one of my favourite people, and I have a boyfriend who is caring and funny always tries to makes me feel good. A website decided my writing was good enough to let me be one of their contributors, and I have even landed a full time job. Then just the other day I was sitting in my room and something suddenly reminded me of one the places I had hated living and I stopped myself thinking about it, while telling myself " no you are trying to forget about that" and like a blinding light I thought to myself NO. 

I am not going to keep ripping pages out of my life. Everything I have been through deserves to be in my story. Things have made me unhappy and angry and sad, but the memories of my past should also be able to make me feel happy and I should be able to enjoy where I have been.

Maybe I should reach out to more people from my past and re-connect or maybe I should remove them from social media and just be happy that I got to experience them in one of my chapters, that were shared what we did when we did. Rather then watching their lives go on wishing I was still part of it. 

I am ready to start my Hardback and stop ripping apart the Paperback.

Rella 

Xx

The Role Model For Your 20's

As you grow up most people want to be like their parents when they grow up. I know I did. My Dad is a Police Officer and I remember telling all of my friends about this. To the point that I would make up stories that he would take me on police chases to impress the other kids in the playground ! And my Mum, well I though she was the greatest Mum ever, and of course I still believe this, so I wanted to be a mum as good as her while fighting crime just like my Dad. Even my big brother was a role model. I thought he was one of the smartest coolest people ever. Everything he did I wanted to do, he was great at computer games and sometimes he would even let me be Tails when he played Sonic ( though this often resulted in my flying off screen and my brother having to take the controller off me to get through the difficult bits) .

As you get older you realise that there are so many people you can look up and admire and want to emulate. Of course my family are still and always will be a huge influence on my life. But I have other people I also look up to. For years these people were celebrities, that seem to live on another planet that no one could get access too. But as the internet expanded and grew and Social Media loomed out and grabbed every-bodies attentions I started to realise that there were other great people in the world and some just as close to home as family. 

There are two people that I really look up to, and they are both people I know personally. Girls I have had drinks with, gone shopping with, talk about boyfriends with and talked about what we want for the future, and then I have seen them take their dreams and run with it and it is truly inspiring. 

Stephanie Ellen Model

The first is a girl who I met when I was about 16, Stephanie and me had a similar friendship group and a we shared similar interest and our worlds collided. I remember at the time she had mentioned modelling a couple of times, but at the time I just thought that it was one of those interest you have as a teen but it will probably never happen. 

One of Stephanie Ellen's early modelling work

But Stephanie did take no for an answer and she made it happen for her self. To be honest it is really impressive. I remember her first sharing her photos online, and I thought to myself " Oh they are pretty, but she probably won't keep it up for long" not because she wasn't any good, she is very good, but still being a model is one of the dream careers that so few achieve; but still the photos kept rolling in and they were getting better and better, and she wasn't slowing down. She was doing all this while studying Law and it was so impressive. Then at the start of this year, she quit her job and now is a full time model. 

She is always making bookings, and it seems she is often fully booked. It's just so awesome to watch someone go from talking about a dream job on a bench in your home town to seeing someone grow, peruse and and work hard to get to where wanted to be. 

The work she makes now 

Find her page here

Sarah Cook - Film Writer 

The second person is a girl I went to Uni with, Cookie is a brilliant and passionate girl who is incredibly friendly and fun to be around. I met her in my first year and we shared an interest in music and were both taking some of the same classes and I thought she was pretty cool from the get go. In our third year we had to choose between a dissertation or a creative project, and Cookie decided to take the creative option. I remember talking about her project, a website dedicated to her love of film and thought it sounded pretty good, and it made me wish I had come up with her idea rather then taking the dissertation option. 

 She created it and wrote frequently on it  for the duration of our third year honing her writing technique and growing in confidence, and after we graduated she kept up her website,and he hasn't stopped working on it. Every day she mentions what she's been working on, editing and interview and review and it is amazing what she has achieved. She started getting press passes to interview stars of films, she would get spots on the red carpet at film premiers and this year she was sat with other media big shots at the BAFTA announcements. 

It was because of her that I decided to start my blog. And her perseverance is what encourages me to write when I don't feel like it, or when I have sometimes felt like this is all a waste of time. Because I am able to see someone who I know grab on to future that she wants for herself and MAKE it happen its just so amazing. She is currently writing a film and that seems to be getting some real momentum behind it. 

Cookie's Short film 

I feel so often we are quick to put people down. If someone says to us that they want to reach for the star we would roll our eyes and think " yeah what ever". People are so quick to think you have your head in the clouds of idealistic wishes. If someone says they want to be a model or a writer they will say y "but what's your real job going to be?"I remember when both of these girls started out I thought to myself, "yeah nice idea but it it won't last" because that's what people do, rather then offer our support and encouragement they instead wait for them to fail and say told you so. Where as maybe if we said, "you would be great at that !" or " What you are doing is really impressive" or " I believe in you" more people would reach their dreams.

What has been so great about seeing people you know climb the ladder of success is you can see the hard work they have put in. It would be an insult to Cookie and Stephanie to say this has just fallen into their lap. They really have worked for everything they have got. You here celebrities say that all the time, but it hard to believe because they just seem to appear from no where and get paid incredible amounts of money and seem to live a blessed life. I don't doubt they worked hard but it seems so much more impressive when you can see each step of some ones dream becoming a reality. 

I hope both of these girls continue their amazing work, and inspire others to give their dreams a chance. Hard work really does pay off and I must say both of these girls seem so happy with their lives and I hope one day I will be able to look back on my hard work and see how far I have come.

Rella Xx

50 Books in a Year Challenge 2014 And how Game of Thrones Ruined my Life

So last year I didn't really set myself any New Year resolutions . Instead I set myself goals, as I felt re-branding them as goals made them less threatening. These Goals included get a new job, move out of the flat share, live a healthier lifestyle, start a Blog and complete the 50 Books in a Year Challenge. 

Well this blog now exists so I completed that one, and I did move out I also did go to the gym for a while and even went running a few times, and I am thinking when it warms up here I would like to start running on the beach, and I also feel my choices when it comes to food are healthier. I try to consume as little caffeine as possible, I have swapped sugar for sweetener, little changes that help me feel better about myself.

Now that leaves two goals that I have sort of missed the mark on. In terms of a new job I have been looking and had a good few interviews, but I am yet to leave retail but that won't stop me trying, and I am hoping that this year might offer me some new opportunities. 

And the Reading Challenge, 50 books in a year. It seemed so do-able. That's roughly one book a week, I am pretty fast reader and I own a lot of books and my To-Read list is out of control, so I wasn't short for options. I started off strong as well. I read the collection of books by Jennifer Worth, her memoirs which have also been turned into the BBC show Call The Midwife, and these books were fantastic and in particular In the Midst of Life had a real impact on me and I would urge all of you to go pick up a copy. 

I then went on to read another fantastic book The Help Kathryn Stockett, I have written about this book in a previous post if you want to find out more about it, but once again I urge you all to go read this book. After this I decided to try a genre I don't normally read by picking up Horns by Joe Hill. I picked this book because it was going to get turned into a film staring Daniel Radclife I wasn't expecting to enjoy it but I really really did. However I am still not too sure if the Horror genre is for me.

After that I decided to try a genre that I use to love but don't read as often as I use too, YA, Once again I picked a book that was getting turned into a film Maze Runner and I was totally disappointed. Characters were one dimensional the protagonist was pretty much a Manic Pixie style of character. I found it to be very weak. Though I did like the idea of the story I just wish is had been executed better. It is safe to say I did not pick up the rest of that trilogy. I had a very similar experience with another YA trilogy Matched by Ally Condie. Again I felt character were very flat,and the story was very slow and in many parts very predictable, 

I then moved on to author Rainbow Rowell. I had heard great things about her work, so I picked up Fangirl.  First of all I loved the cover for this book, and I also loved it was about an 18 year old just starting college in America, and I feel this is an age range that is often skipped. I tend to find books are either about teens ages 15-17 or then are about mid twenties plus. I loved this book. Her Characters are well fleshed out, they are flawed and they are believable. She is very in touch with this generation that has grown up on line. It was very relate-able and a down right fun read. 

So I then went a picked up her other book Eleanor and Park, I didn't enjoy this as much as Fangirl but her writing style is so good it kept me engaged. I would say this book is for people who are a fan of John Greens Paper Towns as I often thought back to that as I was reading it. 

I then moved onto Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I am still not too sure how I feel about this book. It started out very strong, but towards the end I feel the writing slipped and I found it hard to work out which character was speaking and would have to flip back to the start of the chapter to find out which chrather it was about. 

So by this type it is April and I have a good few books under my belt. And I was out in town looking for some books to take on Holiday with me as that May I was going on my first ever proper Holiday aboard. Sun Sea and all that, and of course I wasn't going to part take in that with out a book to keep me company. I was in The Works, because who doesn't love a good bargain and I have come across some great deals in there. Little did I know I was going to come across a deal that would ruin my 50 Books Challenge.

They were selling all of the current Song of Ice and Fire books, also known as Game of Thrones, for £29.99! 6 books for £29.99! Who can say no to that ? I had never seen the show, but I had wanted to start watching it but I hate watching anything that I know is an adaptation of a book with out having a stab at the book first. Because I enjoy the process of reading far more then watching something, so if something has a great storyline I would rather read it and know what's going to happen on screen rather then starting a book knowing how it is going to go down. 

So I see this offer and think GREAT its a bargain and that's an easy way to fit in 6 books into the Challenge.Oh how wrong I was. So It's the day before the holiday and I start reading the first book in the series. I was nervous that I might not like it and I had no time to go get anything else and I really didn't want to take a book I had read before, and it starts off pretty good and I finished a good few chapters and I quite confidently pack it in my carry on and the second one in my case. I thought I could plough through them both during my weeks holiday to Tenerife. 

I loved book one. It was a lot to take in with all the new characters and the relationships between them. There were about a million people with the name Rob, Robert, Robb Robett, Robbie ect but I had never read a fantasy book like this before. The idea of a book with Knights and Kings and Jousting and Feasts had never appealed to me because I thought they would either be silly romances or just blood baths and battles that just didn't interest me, but this as so much more exciting. I liked all the secrets between characters. The rivalry, and love and tensions between families. I loved that women and girls were interesting people rather then just pretty faces and I torn through the pages. It took almost the full week to read it but on the plane home I was already on book two. 

And this is where it all started to go wrong. This book introduced more families and more history and a main character from the first book was dead but I trudged through but this book took me weeks to read, the longest it has taken me to read a book in a long time. I as tempted to give up on the series by this point but felt I should at least give book three a chance, plus I wanted to know how some of the story lines were going to play out.

Book three was fantastic ! I was pulled right back in, People were killed off the you didn't expect and stories turned in unexpected directions, yeah it was still taking me a few weeks to get through the book but reading one chapter of George R R Martins work can be really tiring. He can first more description into a paragraph then you ever though possible. It can be a read joy to read and some times a total chore. 

I am sure you can see how the nest book went, I wasn't so keen on but by that point I was in too deep, and here I am the first month of 2015 and I am still working my way through what was suppose to be my Holiday reading. I am on the second to last book with 120 pages to go. But I am enjoying this one, it's just with every page you are worried about your favourite character dying, and the next chapter could be someone who you have been reading about since book one or it could be a whole new person you have to quickly learn about and why they are important, and I never felt I could take a break from the books because I was worried if I did I would be lost as to what was happening because I would forget what everyone was up to.

 I have definitely stepped out of my comfort zone with these books and for the most part I am really enjoying them. Plus I quite like the TV show as well as I have allowed myself to watch episodes as I finish the books they are based on. 

Though when I finish the final book in the series so far I know it will be a relief but at the same time I will be counting down the days till the next book it released. I have definitely got myself into something pretty deep with these books. 

This year there is anew Reading Challenge I have seen floating around Blogs which looks pretty good and i wouldn't mind having a stab at. I don't feel like I have totally failed at this challenge because I feel the point of reading 50 books in a year was to force readers out of their comfort zones and I definitely did that. 

Rella

Xx

Bargain Christmas + Video

I love Christmas, every year from about October I start looking forward to it. I plan what presents to get, start dreaming of Christmas Dinner and begin to watch Christmas movies. However for the past five years I have lived in a house share. but this year, as you all know, I moved into a flat which means I can finally have my own Christmas Tree something that was never possible before!

However to decorate for Christmas you need money, something that is always tight with us. So feeling like Bob Cratchit I started looking for bargains and ways to save money, and I thought I would share my finds with you. 

1. Start Early.

I bought my first Christmas decoration in October, along with my first few Christmas presents. It is always important to spread your money as far as you can, so start buying things in September October time and store them away, when December rolls round it will be like a mini Christmas as you re-discover everything you have bought.

2. Use Coupons 

I am with the mobile phone provider O2 and they have something called O2 Priority Moments and you often get Coupons for free items from shops such as W H Smiths Game and Halfords. So far this year I have got Wrapping Paper, Christmas Cards, Chocolate Coins, a Calendar, a Hunger Games Keyring and a Disney Infinity Character all for FREE ! I also got a coupon for 20% off everything in store for 7 Days at W H Smiths so I picked up Advent Calendars Stocking Fillers, Chocolates and Annuals all for 20% off. I also work in retail so I used my 10% staff discount to buy Christmas Trees and Fairy Lights.

3. Find Out What Promotions Are Going on 

In Argos they ran a Toy Drive for Bernardo's Children, where if you donated some old toys you got a £5 off voucher on £30 worth of toys. They also had a get a £10 voucher if you spend over £50 and get £10 if you spend over £100, so when I bought new stuff for my flat I collected a few of these vouchers. The store then fan a 20% off all toys for one weeks so I picked up my brother a set of Lego that normally retails at £70 but using all of these vouchers I had collected I got it for £25 !

4. POUNDSHOPS!

As these pound shops are getting more and more popular here there stock is also improving. I picked up Tinsel, Candy Canes, Baubles Garlands and much much more. The quality is just as good as the items you would pick up at any Supermarket. You don't need to buy high end expensive decorations when you can get items that look just as good at the fraction of the price. Next have a Merry Christmas garland for £10, I got one that looked just as nice for a £1 all you had to do was thread the letters on yourself.

5. Look in Unexpected Places.

Sports Direct have a great range of Christmas Jumpers, especially mens. In most shops mens jumpers are comical where are these ones fore more traditional Christmas knit designs. In Argos I picked up a Tag and Bow set for wrapping gifts for £1. Keep you eyes Peeled as you never know what you might find.

So I hope you found this helpful and enjoyed it, let me know if you have any money saving tips you use at Christmas. I made a little video on my iPhone to show you the result of my bargain decorations. 

(though be warned, the quality is really low! So probably best to watch it on a small screen!)

Merry Christmas

Rella

Xx

Leaving the books at home

When I was 20 I started seeing an ex boyfriend again for the third time. I was convinced once and for all we were going to make it work because to me he was this wonderful perfect boy and we were made for each other. One day I returned home and my house mates announced a gift wrapped packaged had arrived while I was in my lesson. I very excited opened it and discovered this guy had sent me a Kindle. 

Kindles were brand new at the time and cost about £119, and I had mentioned in passing that I would like one as I had to carry a lot of books around, what with doing an English course. And suddenly a week later I had been sent one, and I was shocked and touched by this gesture. That evening I downloaded some books onto it and in my next seminar when I whipped out my flash new toy the whole class wanted to have a look and my lecturer asked what I thought of it and I sang its praises how the books were so cheap and in some cases even free, and it was so light and the battery life seemed endless. 

A couple of months later unsurprisingly, the somewhat rocky and pretty unhealthy on off relationship with this boy came to an explosive end, though we were not officially together picture of him in bed with someone else while he was at his ex girlfriends wedding, and him not wishing me Happy Birthday on my 21st birthday which all happens to be Valentines day finally did it for me. We had a heated phone call and after I sent him a strongly worded text telling him to never contact me again culminating in my throwing my phone across the room. We haven't had any contact since, and neither has the Kindle and me.

Once I cut off ties with this guy I wanted to rid myself of everything that reminded me of him. I threw out stuff he had given, re arranged my room so it wouldn't remind me of him, I dyed my hair so I didn't look like the same girl who liked this guy, and because I couldn't bring myself to throw out a perfectly good working Kindle it went into the bottom of the wardrobe where it stayed until this September where it finally made its way into the bin. 

My feelings toward e-Books also changed. A Kindle was not practical for a Uni student, I couldn't highlight important parts of the text. You couldn't quickly flip to a page to refresh your memory on what had happened, You couldn't read it in bight lights and they Uni didn't have a format that allowed you to properly reference digital books. I honestly didn't like them, I only liked them because the boy I fancied had bought me one, and I didn't use another e-book format again. 

Until the latest iPhone update where they introduced a new app rather un-inspiringly named iBook. When ever my Phone updates I have a little tinker around with the new apps, and they never touch them again ( has any one every used the Pass Book app?). So I clicked on it and it is basically the same as the Newstand on the iPhone which allows you to down load Magazines but this one it for books. I saw they had a few books which you could download for free and I browsed through thinking they would all be rubbish books because why would an author of a good book allow their work to be given away for free and I came across a book I really like Starter For Ten by David Nicholls. Which made we think the other free books might not be that bad after all.

I decided to download two books, both genres that I normally wouldn't go for one was a crime book The Woods  by Harlan Coben  which is actually pretty good and would recommend you get if you have an iPhone, and the other was a Chick-Lit book called The One you Really Want by Jill Mansell which really isn't that great. I started reading The Woods  first and it is a genuinely interesting book about a man whose sister was killed when they were at a summer camp together as teenagers and her body was never found. The story had lots of twists and turns and suspense it was a good read. 

I found reading it on the iBook meant I was reading at times I wouldn't normally read. The Advert breaks on TV, while waiting for my Boyfriend to meet me in town, and on the bus to work which is only a ten minuet journey. Because the book is right there in my pocket and the pages are only the size of the screen I can whip it out read a few paragraphs and pop it away again. I also really liked that the screen alters is brightness depending on the room your in, If the room is well lit it will display traditional black text on white, but if you are reading in bed in low lighting it will display white text on black which is easier on the eye which reading off a screen. 

Also at the bottom of the page it tell you how many pages you have to go before the end of the chapter, which is handy because if you are reading on the go rather then trying to rush to the end of the chapter you can instead plan to stop at the next paragraph break because you know you just wont make it to the chapter end. 

How there are still thing I dislike. I will never get use to not being able to quickly flip back a few pages to re read a line with out loosing my place. And the other day while reading I accidentally flipped to the end of the book and it was very hard to find my place again. Also I just don't think I could ever bring myself to pay for a book on this app. Because in the back of my mind I will always be thinking "for a couple extra pound you could have a physical book" 

So as far as my relationship with e-books, I feel we can work it out, we will never be where we were but I feel we can be friends. As for that guy ... well that ship has well and truly sailed.

Rella

Xx