AmyLouiseDoesLife

Our granny taught us a lot about life, about friendship and most importantly about unconditional love. She has never been just a grandmother to us, but our teacher, our friend and our inspiration. Granny has inspired us to be strong, courageous and to never let life get in the way of what we want.  We will treasure the memories of our time together - the trips to the park, the gingerbread she would buy us from the bakery, the time she would make us eat our peas and the amazing dumplings that she made in the winter.  Sleepovers at Granny’s always meant ice cream after bedtime and the electric blanket on for the time that we went to bed. She looked after us so well - I even remember not so long ago when I stayed whilst she was poorly - she had got out of bed before me in the morning and had come and tucked me back in so I could sleep some more.  Our Granny was always our constant in our slightly turbulent childhood and i do not believe that we would be the people we are toda

Me, aged 16 - NYE Amy, You are now 16. You think that you have your life planned out. Hear me now -  you don't. A ton of shit is coming your way  and at that moment you are going to think that you will not be able to deal with it. Before pain and suffering capture your good heart, I hope you know that even when you’re pushed to the very edge of defeat, everything will be okay.  Stop trying to have control over everything in your life.  Stop being the adult. You will grow up very quickly and you will wish that you could have your teen years back again. When Dad and Sonia are strict with you  - don't have a go at them. Don't scream at them and tell them they can't stop you spending the night out... They aren't doing this because they want to control you. They are doing it because they care about you and want you to have a bright future. They are doing it because they know that you don't have much structure at home and they want to be the consistenc

I've been very quiet on the blog front for a long time. Firstly because I've had no time what with juggling two jobs, a social life, time with my family... Secondly because I just haven't known what to blog about. Today, however, I have taken the day off work on 'Compassionate Leave' to care for my Granny. For those of you who don't know - Granny was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in April/May time. It has been a horrible few months... Times in hospital, lots of tests, lots of Morphine, a week or so spent in Willen Hospice . During her time at the Hospice, I took her for an appointment with the oncologist (Cancer Doctor). He had decided that there would be no more treatment. The reason given was 'The quality of life was now more important than the quantity of life'. This broke me. It meant that they'd given up on the cancer. They weren't going to make her better. She wasn't going to get better.  Her 'quality of life' was more impor

T H E   B A S I C S Title: The Remains of the Day Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Date Published: 1989 Genre: Historical Fiction Rating:  5/5 About thirty pages in to The Remains of the Day I really wanted to put it down and get on with something else. The plot was slow and I didn't care much for Stevens, the old, pushing retirement, grumpy butler. However now that I have finished it, I can say that I am so thankful that my friend Delia recommended this novel to me - I have well and truly loved it. The novel follows Stevens, a butler of Darlington Hall, on a journey to the West Country to visit Miss Kenton, a former colleague. However, Ishiguro allows us to delve into Stevens' past as he recounts memories that have led him to be where he is today. He is full of nostalgia.  In this sense it reminded me of Mrs Dalloway - Although in Mrs Dalloway, Woolf presents readers with many different character perspectives, rather than Ishiguro's one, it has th

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life. I have loved this poem since I was 14. My English teacher gave us the task of finding a poem online and me and my friend Alice were stuck. She showed us this poem and explained that she was going through a break up with her boyfriend and this poem was helping her through it. Fast forward eight years and with every poignant moment in my life, I have always found comfort in this poem. Heartbreak, grief, depression. The mea

T h e  b a s i c s Title: Memoirs of a Geisha Author: Arthur Golden Date Published: 1997 Genre: Historical fiction Rating: 3/5 Firstly, I want to say that I did actually enjoy this book. I found it quite slow and I wasn't emotionally invested in it at all...however I did find it interesting.  Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel disguised as a memoir that follows a Japanese girl who is sold from her family to become a geisha pre WWII. The novel takes us through WWII and demonstrates the drastic effect that the war had on the Japanese culture. In Memoirs of a Geisha we are taken on a journey  where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to charm the most powerful men; and where love is detrimental to ones success.  Before I read this book, I had actually never heard of geisha and I didn't know anything about Japanese culture. When I mentioned this to Chris, my partner, he said 'Oh geisha...That is a

Whenever I go to Tesco I always go hunting in the reduced aisle first - yes I am THAT person. I do this for different reasons to most. Most people go hunting in that aisle because they love bargains and will do anything to save themselves a few pennies...even if it means buying a leg of lamb that they really didn't fancy but hey it was down to £2.77 and that is too good to miss out on. However, I'm don't do it because of that.  The reason I like looking in the reduced aisle is because it's always the random things that get put there. And by random I mean the products that sophisticated people buy...not your standard chicken breasts that we end up with usually. I don't have much imagination when it comes to food (this is something that I want to improve on) and because of this our meals tend me be pretty boring, easy and repetitive. I actually think we have had fajitas four times this month. Some people say to look in recipe books to get inspiration but I a