It's REALLY not that hard!

I'm starting a new school come September and it was very much safe to say that apart from the hardship of A Levels, one of my biggest fears was being an outcast new girl with no friends at all. After attending the induction day, this fear melted after being accepted into a close friendship group that had already been established by the girls who had been attending the school for five years.

To be honest, I don't know why I was so scared of not making friends and why we all have this fear every time we go somewhere new. Nursery, primary school, secondary, uni and work. Before we start all of them, we all have a huge anxiety caused by our fear of being lonely and I honestly can't understand why. Experience has shown most of us that we will make at least one friend naturally. It just happens. I haven't asked anyone to 'be my friend' since I was in year 2. If I really think about it, most of the friendships i've now formed were formed by sheer coincidence or by spending large amounts of time around each other that being friends just seemed to be the normal thing to do. I'll never forget that one of my closest friendships was formed at an MUN Conference by me asking this person if there was something on my face due to the fact that he was staring at me and cracking up. When he explained why, we got to talking about other things and realised that we were quite alike. Bish Bash Bosh...friendship formed at a place where I least expected it and in a quite awkward situation. It just goes to show that it's not hard. Another friendship I have was formed in year 7 when I started singing 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet and the girl sitting next to me immediately joined in. This girl went on to become my partner in crime when it came to causing any mischief or discussing any current issue which plagued our minds. That same girl has made a resolution to make no friends at her new school. We both know that she won't be able to do it. She's a naturally sociable person who is likely to form a friendship under a similarly random situation.

Really and truly, the friendships which we form are signs of the huge prisoners of circumstance which we are. If you think about it, if we were anywhere else, at any other time, we would not call the same people friends and that's if we're even lucky enough to know them!

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

I don't know how many of you read the Evening Standard or how many of you read it today. If you did, you'll be aware of the HILARIOUS statement made by Simon Hughes against the Labour Government. To be honest, I didn't know whether to be angry or impressed at how low the Lib-Dems could stoop so easily.

Being a person who loves making a song and dance about certain things, I naturally wrote an email to the editor of the newspaper:

Dear Mr. Greig,

After reading today's Evening Standard, I was left absolutely staggered at the quote mentioned by Simon Hughes where he mentions that Labour's decision to not support the voting reform is "Staggering hypocrisy". Mr. Hughes has obviously forgotten the contents of the manifesto presented by the Liberal Democrats prior to the election. I say this because once 'clegg-mania' swept the nation, I decided to read the Lib-Dem manifesto, even though I have always planned to vote Labour, in order to see what all the fuss over the new 'Golden Boy' of politics was about. Even though this was a while back, I still remember various details of what their manifesto mentioned and was unsurprisingly appalled when I heard that a Con-Dem Government was going to be formed, due to the large differences between the two parties. Was the Lib Dem manifesto not warning people to NOT vote Tory because they would increase the VAT? Was that not one of the points that Nick Clegg repeated over and over again?

It's ridiculous! I'm still recovering from that hypocrisy and was somewhat soothed by the ironic and idiotic lemming-like image presented by the Lib-Dems when they began attempting to explain to voters and members of the party that the VAT rise was for the better. Make your mind up!

Whatever little respect I had for the Liberal Democrats after that immediately diminished after reading the article you published. I don't understand how Simon Hughes has the face to call Labour hypocrites after all of the things which the party that he co-leads has done in order to gain a minimal amount of power. In my eyes, this is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black. If he thinks that Labour is showing hypocrisy, he's obviously lacks knowledge of what his party USED to stand for.

Many thanks,

Andrea Campos-Vigouroux

When the mind wonders...

Earlier this week, I was trapped in a ridiculously boring situation, with nothing else to do, but look busy. In my eyes, there was no better way of doing this than getting the ol' note book out and ferociously write down what to the common person would appear to be notes on what was occurring. I was actually writing lists. Yes. Lists. I was THAT bored and i'd remembered a YouTube post by [The amazing and gorgeous] Charlie McDonnell with a list and thought I should make a couple myself for the sake of my own sanity.

(Please bear in mind that I as sooo bored, that I found EVERYTHING funny at this point)

Here goes:

10 things I'd do if I ruled the World:

1. Tie Nick Griffin to a pole in the middle of Brixton market with a sign saying 'I hate black people' tied around him and just let nature take its course...
2. Create great tasting no-fat, no-calorie food.
3. Send marmite to the middle east. Apparently, their lack of zinc is what makes them grumpy. Who knew?! World peace = Sorted!
4. Create a set nap time for everyone. There is no one on this Earth who doesn't love a good nap.
5. Try to bring back Dodo birds. They look hilarious!
6. Make Boris Johnson a bendy bus driver. See how the buffoon can grunt himself out of that one.
7. Help the less fortunate.
8. Get all the super-rich and influential to make poverty and exploitation history.
9. Get some boffins to work on a time machine, go back in time and put an end to the whole 'how was it all created/is Jesus real?' debate.
10. Give everyone a BGT-like buzzer and the power for them to press it when someone is boring them, pissing them off or being a twit.
    
    Ways of convincing people you're smarter than you really are:

• Flick through the dictionary and use the most ridiculously long and articulate sounding words you can find (and pronounce).
• Memorise random useless facts and come out with them whenever you get the chance.
• Milk your way through debates.
• Pick up a newspaper and pretend to be reading it, when you're really thinking about how the shampoo girl would look with a moustache.
• Wear glasses
• Tie your hair back.
• Nod and say "I agree", when people are discussing 'smart' stuff in order to seem like you know what they're on about.
• Not writing stupid lists in your free time.

Those are two of many. The rest were a bit... meh.

Sorry!

I created this blog under the naive assumption that I would be able to post at least twice a week, because working in a campaign office couldn't possibly be that tiring. As much as it kills me to say it...I was WRONG!

Working in a campaign office for the past week has been one of the most exhausting forms of work experience which I have ever done (apart from the haberdashery running I did at a boutique), since shadowing barristers, helping publishers and placements at solicitors aren't that exhausting. Since I thought that working at campaign HQ was going to be just like all the other admin stuff i'd done, I definitely received quite the shock.

The thing is, it's not WHAT we have to do that tires me out, it's the amount of effort that goes into doing it that really takes it all out of you. There really isn't one person in that office that doesn't put a huge amount of work into what they do, regardless of the long hours and the fact that most of them are volunteering. It's really great to work in an atmosphere like that, to be helping someone try to make a difference and most importantly, to have something to put on my CV and personal statement for uni. (Haha kidding!...Sort of).

Even though I haven't even been there long, i've actually managed to learn quite a lot, mainly that old people seem to ADORE my voice. Now that's not me being conceited. It's a fact. Out of every other phone canvasser in that office, I always seem to be the one to be stuck on the phone to pensioners who want to discuss the past, present and future Labour Party, the state of the country and of course, their children. As much as it kills me to listen to them for half hours at a time whilst everyone else's conversations are lasting at most 3 minutes (if the people even pick up), I must admit, it does sort of brighten my day in the end. Bless their hearts!

So yeah, you could say i'm enjoying myself! But really, how could I not? I'm surrounded by hilarious, lovely and smart people, in the middle of copious amounts of wit and banter and supplied with endless bags of percy pigtails and a Pret just down the road.

Good times!

Oii Babes!

Most girls will be familiar with the following:

"Oii babes! Come 'ere!"

"Can 'man' have your number?"

"I know you don't know me, but if you give me your number you can GET to know me"

Yup, it goes on and on and on. What happened to the days when boys were more respectful and trying to get a girl to like you consisted of more trying than saying, "You're sexy yah know."

Call me old fashioned, but seriously, what happened to wooing and seducing and how did abrupt approaches become 'The Thing' to do to get girls?

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the aforementioned method worked for one boy and he went and told all of his friends about it and the rest was history. Manners went out the window, compliments went down the pan and niceness was made extinct.

However, the fact that boys are continually doing this is a greater cause for concern. Why? Well because it means that some girls are actually accepting to be spoken to in that way and giving 'man' their number. Now i'm not saying that girls shouldn't give boys who approach them like this their numbers (especially if they're good looking), but before you do, why don't you give it a second thought.

If you really think about it, first impressions count for a lot and the way you meet someone says a lot about you both. Does giving your number out to an abrupt stranger say something about you? And doesn't the way they approached you say anything about them? To me it screams, I don't know how to respect or compliment women, but they probably like it when I talk to them like that.

I dunno, maybe i'm just being up-tight and expecting too much from a certain percentage of the current young male population. In the words of footballers:

"At the end of the day I still have hope."

That Age Old Situation

You know that typical boy/girl situation...

Boy and girl are friends. Boy tells girl he likes her. Girl doesn't feel the same way.

Bitch.

Girl leads boy on and boy gets the wrong impression. (Girl loves boy's personality, BUT isn't sexually attracted to boy)

Shallow bitch.

Lets face it, we've all been there at some point. Trapped in a bubble of awkwardness that not even the World's Sharpest Needle from JML could pop.
Morality and countless chick-flick rom-coms, which lets face it, have been the main source of primary relationship socialisation for the most of us, have always taught us to 'follow our hearts' (preferably by running up to the person in slow motion, then smothering them in kisses- in the middle of the road and when it's pouring down with rain), however, these fantasy filled flicks never discuss the situation where the person doesn't feel the same way or isn't physically attracted to the other person.

And what does that lead to?

Broken hearts, feeling guilty, shallow and about 3cm tall.

Is it wrong to not want to be in a relationship with someone just because you can't see yourself snogging them?

Sure, it might seem shallow, but if you think about it, in order for a relationship to work, you have to want to pounce on that person when you see them!

Or at least be able to imagine far-fetched 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'-esque scenarios where he's Hugh and you're Andie. It's silly things like that which I suppose separate a friendship from a relationship; in situations like this one, there is no in-between. The no-man's land of a friendship with benefits becomes non-existent, as it's the lack of want the 'benefits' that erase the neutral territory and create ridiculously thin emotional borders, where, in order to cross, your heart has to by-pass your brain in addition to your sexual instincts which usually play a huge role in partner picking.

But lets face it, most of us would feel too guilty or just plain embarrassed to tell someone that you'd gladly date them [if their personality was in someone else's body!]. There's no way to drop that bombshell softly or in a diplomatic manner. A line like that in the friendship equivalent of Hiroshima, release it and you will have successfully annihilated any chances of you and said person being friends, let alone partners.

So what do you do?

Keep schtum and keep it as a friendship?
Get into a relationship with the person and get over your lack of sexual chemistry?

Or...Do you spontaneously flee to Switzerland, claiming you need a tax break, only to never be heard from again?

I'd like to pick Switzerland. At least I can eat chocolate whilst I bask in my guilt. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen, since I don't even pay tax yet and can't even afford to go to the airport, let alone Switzerland! Instead, I think I'll just settle for keeping schtum to save my friendship, although when question time comes, we should all remember that honesty is the best policy, but be sure to start off with the biggest and oldest half-truth known to mankind, because, trust me, when it truly come's down to it...

It's not him. It's you.

Losing My Blog-ginity

Blogging is quite a big step for me, as I've never really done something like it before...apart from Facebook notes.

However, since I find myself facing a ridiculously long summer holiday with nothing in particular to do in it and due to the fact that I quite enjoy writing, it seems to make sense to start a blog.

I don't know whether anyone will read it, but that's not why i'm writing it. I'm just writing it as a creative outlet to my boredom, in the hope that it will temporarily help cure the boredom of whoever chooses to read it.

So please, feel free to read, enjoy and comment on my blogs!

Mucho love!

Drea.