What I'm Listening To - January 2015

Hi Folks!
So it's that time of the month where I will be discussing my musical favourites this month. I'm giving a special mention to the wonderful Hudson Taylor on the Irish release of their album 'Singing For Strangers" that has gone straight to no.1 in the album charts but because it is yet to be released here I can't tell you if I love it or not, BECAUSE I'VE NOT HEARD IT YET ARGH! So with further ado here are my top 5 music favourites of January:

1. One Direction

Do even need to introduce these boys? and you there groaning in annoyance, I'm sorry....maybe...? The gorgeous One Direction boys (L-R: Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Harry Styles) have been a huge part of my musical interest for just over three years so it was inevitable that the boys would finally make it onto my list of musical favourites. This week saw me purchase their latest album Four (their fourth album) and I am head over heels in love once more with these 5 weirdos. If you don't know the boys, firstly have you been living under a rock???? 

Here's a brief run down of their career: formed by Simon Cowell on The X Factor, they came third but went on to achieve GLOBAL DOMINATION! Anyway back to their album Four, which is a few months old now but as an unemployed "student" taking a gap year I had to wait until Christmas to be able to buy it and NOW YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO PRY IT OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS! Their whole album is gorgeous and my personal favourites are Ready to Run and Illusion but the video I am sharing with you today is their latest music video for Night Changes where you get to "be on a date" with the boys (swoon!): 

2. Taylor Swift

I am loving this gorgeous lady at the moment! Her album 1989 was released in October last year and I have been OBSESSED since! Admittedly we've all gone through a phase of not really liking Taylor, but with this album she has won over the hearts of the world. I started really loving Miss Swift when I started college but have only truly fallen in love with her after the release of her latest album. Her music is just stunning and so beautifully thought out that it's hard to resist listening to her on complete repeat at any opportunity you can get.

So besides Four by One Direction, 1989 has been another album that I have had on complete repeat this month. My personal favourites (which was a very tough decision) are: Out Of The Woods, How To Get The Girl and Blank Space, but really all of the songs are flipping incredible! Taylor is such an talented writer and her songs are just absolute perfection! Decided to share with you the music video for Blank Space because I think it is just wonderful and a really wonderful way to stick it to the media:

3. Haim 

I am currently IN LOVE with Haim, with the uni visits and interviews well underway Haim is our go to band to listen to in the car. My mum and I ADORE them so much! Their voices are incredible and their music is extremely unique and gorgeously written. It's impossible to not fall in love with these ladies when you hear their music. When submerged into the cd you can't help but wish you were one of the Haim sisters because they are just fabulous in every way. 

It is physically impossible to pick a favourite song off of their album 'Days are Gone" because every song is just perfect in it's own way. You could start listening to one track and decide it's your favourite until the next song comes on and instantly makes you debate whether that one is actually your favourite. THEY WRITE SUCH GOOD MUSIC! I think out of all the artists I talk about these three ladies are who I am going to recommend you listen to most! I've settled for Falling as the song to share with you because I just adore the music video: 

4. Jessie Ware 

I have completely fallen head over heels in love with Jessie Ware this month. I discovered her whilst doing prep for one of my uni interviews as she was one of the guests on a show that I had to analyse. Her voice is just incredible, it's so soothing and it just makes you want to lay in a bath and listen to her for the rest of your life. She's also currently doing a Tough Love Tour Bake Off which I think is a pretty good way to name eating loads of cake whilst on tour!

Needless to say I cannot wait to buy her album Tough Love (out now) because I think her voice is just completely stunning and worth a listen. Whilst writing this post I have been listening to Jessie and every time I hear a song I think, that's the one I want to share with you, but then I listen to another and I think that maybe I should share this one instead. All of her songs are just incredible so after this I highly suggest you go and mass listen to Jessie Ware for hours, alone in a dark room and just take in her gorgeous voice. I will share the first song I heard of Jessie's and the song that instantly made me fall in love with her, this is You and I (Forever): 

5. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

My last favourite of the month is Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. This song has been in the charts for an impressive 7 weeks and has taken the January charts by storm by remaining no.1 throughout the month. This song is great and is extremely catchy, which is probably the reason it has clung to number 1 in the charts for such a long period of time now. The song and the music video are a real tribute to the 80's which brings a whole unique feel back to the charts. Bruno Mars has dominated the music world for years but this has topped it all and is possibly his catchiest track yet!

Thanks for reading!

Lot's of Love, 

Rebecca

xxx

"A Perfect 9 Stone"

Hi folks. 

So yesterday I went to my psychologist appointment and was told I had to take a physical exam (basically height, weight etc.). To be fair it was quite a pointless exercise but I couldn't help but leave the room with some weird thoughts about how the doctor reacted to my body. The doctor had to measure my height, weight, waist measurement, blood pressure and check for diabetes so it was a rather thorough test but it was still in the building with my psychologist. A building that is an outpatient service living with mental health issues. 

I had never seen this doctor before, she didn't know my diagnosis in regards to my mental health and to her I could have literally had anything. At 19 I was concerned that she was not more considerate with what she said to me in regards to my weight. When I stepped on the scales she read out my weight in kilograms and told me that I could probably work it out into stone before she found it on her sheet. I was a little taken aback by that comment because I'm not someone who is constantly monitoring my weight as it made my mental illnesses worse at one point so I refrain from weighing myself at home on a regular basis. I hated that there was that stereotype that being a teenage girl i'd easily be able to convert kilos to stones in an instant. Once she'd figured it out she told me "you're a perfect 9 stone"(arggggghhhh), for all this woman knew I could have been at the outpatient service with an anorexia diagnosis. Hearing "a perfect 9 stone" could have been extremely dangerous for me to hear and I was a little shocked by what she had said to me. 

It was such a dangerous thing to say and even still looking back at it I cringe at her choice of wording with it. Maybe, she was trying to make me feel good about myself but that could have been devastating news for a girl recovering from anorexia or bulimia. To be fair 9 stone falls into the "healthy weight" category for my bmi but even then I am falling to the lower end of "the healthy weight" spectrum where being underweight is on the horizon. The doctor then went on to take my weight measurements. This is where I begun to feel slightly grateful that I had the mental health diagnosis that I did because she commented on my "skinny, perfect waist" and then audibly "grrrr'd" jokingly as she took my waist measurements. 

I never took my waist measurements from her and came out of the appointment feeling rather weird about myself. On some parts I felt good about my weight and things she had said but on other lingering parts of my mind I couldn't help but think about patients walking in there with eating disorders and how the same treatment would affect them. I know that yes, I'm over thinking and probably being very dramatic about the situation but I couldn't help but think how damaging that could be to other mental health patients. 

Everything went well though and that's one thing off of the checklist for the next few weeks. Just the uni interviews to go now.

Lot's of Love,

Rebecca 

xxx

Book Review: How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran

Howdy folks,
It's time for a book review which I haven't yet done on this blog before!

So today's book review is How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran. I had seen many feminist bloggers and vloggers talking about this book and was desperate to read it so I was rather excited when I unwrapped this at Christmas.  What I loved was it was one of those empowering feminist books and not the man eating side of feminism but the equal rights and understanding is the way forward type of books. I loved this book more than I can express with words. It was so perfectly written, going from Caitlin's experience growing into a woman and including parts of her life now. I read this book and things I was reading made me realise that I wasn't a complete nutcase at 15, instead it was completely normal how I was thinking and feeling. Yes I'd had reassurance from mum over the time but there's nothing like reading that a stranger went through the same experiences as well. Caitlin's book was so beautifully written, it had so much wit and intelligence and had me laughing multiple times through out. It's one of those books that I think every 15 year old should be made to read. I would have been such a different and more confident person if I had been given this at 15 and shown that I was normal.

The gorgeous Caitlin!

Caitlin covered an array of topics in her book from "I Need A Bra" to "Why You Shouldn't / Should have children" and you get to follow Caitlin on her journey of becoming a woman. It was an inspiring read and so though provoking. I sat in fits of laughter at various points, one of those being the chat she had with her sister about what to call their vagina's and then how that changed when she had children. The whole books is so honestly written and nothing is seen as too "disgusting" to be written about. It's going to sound rather strange but it's like having a chat with a friend whilst reading this book as Caitlin is so open about her experiences with growing up and becoming a woman. Admittedly I'm fangirling a little over her now as I think she is just completely wonderful and I cannot wait to read more of the books that she has written.

I like to rate books out of five and spend ages thinking long and hard about how I want to rate them. I want to give How To Be A Woman 4 and 1/2 stars because it was just spectacular and I highly recommend it to you all!

Lots of Love,
Rebecca
xxx

A Letter to Future Becky

Dear Rebecca (we all know you prefer your proper name much more).

I'm writing you a letter from the 2nd of January 2015 so hopefully this time next year you have something to look back on and be stunned by how much you have achieved since then. It feels weird talking to myself like this because I know that this time next year so much would have changed that you could be a completely new person altogether (even though you insist you're not going to drink alcohol at uni, how's that one going by the way???).

We had a tough year last year and I hope that it's something that we can look back on and not feel depressed and upset over but instead look at it as the times when things started to get better. Yes we've had several bad patches of depression where we've been unable to get out of bed, let alone make sure we were still eating and drinking enough to keep us alive, but this year we knew what it was for the first full year ever! In June - October 2013 we were diagnosed with Depression, Panic attacks and Anxiety and OCD (even the and's in that sentence drive your OCD up the wall) so coming into 2014 we knew what was happening and I knew that we weren't just some lazy freak who couldn't get out of bed.

Things changed massively for me this year, WE COMPLETED COLLEGE WITH A-LEVELS and although you were stupidly hard on yourself about your grades, we did it, we finished college and proved a whole load of people that we could do it! Last month (your teacher, who still continues to help you greatly) disclosed how many people around the college wanted to kick you out because of your attendance but with the fighting and perseverance of others you did it, you made it to then end and even now looking back I am so proud that we did it!

This was the first year that you haven't felt alone on new years, I know that we both remember the new years nights, alone, in bed and just sobbing because we didn't have any friends, any support or comfort from people my own age. This year however I realised how stupidly wrong we were, I have a family who LOVE me unconditionally, I have a radio family that also love me just as much as my own family and both continue to support me in everything and anything that I choose to do. Yes I have a few other friends but nothing comes even close to the realisation that my family have been here the whole time and I never truly was "alone".

We started 2015 on a high, no expected depressive breakdown and some incredible news that shocked you immensely. As of midnight on January 1st you were announced as one of the top 10 best newcomer radio presenters by the hospital broadcasting association, I still can't quite get over it and it was just the boost of confidence that I needed. I don't really mind if I don't make it to the top 3 at the end of march because to make it even this far was crazy!

As I look into 2015 the major change is going to be university. I hope you got a place at one of your two choices and have begun to settle in safely. I know it's not going to be an easy thing for us to do but I'm determined to keep going so that I can make it into the career that I really want. As of now that is a presenter at Radio 1, it's my ultimate dream. But who knows a year can change a women and 4 and a bit months of uni might have changed our dream all together!

I hope you're doing well future Becky, I really really do. Keep being determined and motivated and I know that we'll be able to do anything!

Lot's of Love,
Past Rebecca
xxx