Today I'm wiling away the rainy hours writing an essay for English that discusses whether or not money can buy happiness. So, whilst I sat here trying to proof read and come up with a list of pros and cons I thought I'd make a little list of what I would buy, if only I had the money. Trust me, if I had the money to buy these things - I'd be a pretty happy lady :)

Spike Necklace - Topshop
Tusk Mini Pendant - Topshop
Cardigan - Urban Outfitters
Shorts  - Bitching and Junkfood
Wedges - Urbanog
Suede Pumps - Schuh
Ring - House of Harlow
Lip Balm - Urban Outfitters
x

I've got myself a new found love for the 1960's after rifling through loads of old family photos. The ones that I love the most are of my Gran in the 60's wearing micro-mini dresses and big bouffant hair. I'm loving looking at later photos and watching how she transformed over the years - changing from 60s sweetheart to 70s Mum, whilst keeping her style and infallible grace, raising two children.

Photos from top;

American Vogue Magazine Cover 1962
Big Round Sunglasses a 60s Staple
60s High Fashion Space Age Trend
Twiggy Fashion Icon
Andy Warhol and his muse Nico
Jimi Hendrix Music Ledgend
A Festival Crowd of the 60s

Really?

Glee, one of lifes guilty pleasures for many. Television adverts, one of lifes pains. Now, imagine you are a teenager watching Glee on a Monday night and it goes to the adverts. All of a sudden, an advert appears for a new film - The Mechanic...and it graphically pictures a man's head being blown up. Would your reaction be of shock and disgust at such a vulgar and inappropriate advert on during a teen show? Or would it be of dismissal, perhaps of even no reaction at all? I know what mine would be. What if I was to now tell you that The Mechanic television advert had been banned due to its violent nature? Wait, it gets better. The advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority after a mere 13 complaints were made regarding the content of the advert.

I suppose the main reason behind the banning of the advert was that adults believed that children should not be exposed to such violence when trying to watch a safe television programme like Glee. However, it could most definitely be argued that the chirpy Glee, would have a much larger mental effect on said children that the movie advert itself. The reason for this being that teenagers relate to the American drama, significantly more that they would relate to a movie about a 40 year old man with an over-active trigger finger. The ups and downs of the characters, have a lot more impact on the British audience of Glee, than a 30 second advert that they may or may not even register. Teens are impressionable, confident, shy and curious. All they want is someone to look up to and follow in the footsteps of. What if there's a 13 year old girl in Edinburgh who one day wants to grow up to be like one of the characters from Glee? What if during the series, the young girl's idol becomes pregnant at 15 or 16 whilst still at high school? Now, that's a dilemma.  On the other hand, the same 13 year old sees the advert for The Mechanic but doesn't connect even slightly with what the advert is selling. She doesn't want to go and see this movie, nor does the 14 year boy watching in Swindon. Really, if they're watching Glee, there's a very slim chance that they will be interested in The Mechanic - however there may  be a few exceptions to this statement.

Moreover, the fact that only 13 people out of the millions who will have viewed the advert, actually complained - must count for something. As a 15 year old, I know that after watching a lot of Glee and admittedly - a lot of scary and perhaps violent movies, I can say that I have in no way been affected in a negative way by either. Also, at the end of the day - it's a movie. Its not real. I mean, they probably used tomato sauce and cooked  chicken to simulate the contents of the victims head that was shot. Let's be honest here, banning the advert was more than a little extreme. If you are effected by a television advert that is on after 9 o'clock, you should probably already be in bed so that you're ready for the next hard day - of playing with the Lego at nursery.

Keep calm and carry on.

Now I don't want to offend the Scottish Qualifications Authority in any way. However, It would have been nice not to have too sit through hours of torture yesterday, courtesy of them. The maths exam was hard - as expected. Although, due to the difficulty of the exam I found myself fantasising about banging my confused head off the table until I could leave.

This did not happen, but from talking to others who were subjected to the horrifying experience also, I have gathered that the exam was not only hard for me, or for my fellow fourth years. It was also hard for the actual Maths Teachers to get their heads around some of the questions. Now, I'm sorry but how is a mere child of 15 or 16 supposed to be able to achieve a reasonable grade in a paper that was completely foreign, even to our teachers? In the immortal words of every mature adult I have spoken to since the experience "There is nothing I can do about it now..." Yes, that makes me feel so much better.

Just to add insult to injury I would like to point out how disorganised our particular invigilator was. Room 74 seemed to have a distinct shortage of answer papers and therefore, a distinct shortage of anyone actually allowed to do the exam. Ten minutes after the official start of the exam, the 'Chief' invigilator came running up the stairs and produced two question papers. This was not what we were looking for. Another five minutes after that, he came bounding back into the room (I say bounding but it was more of a brisk walk) with  exactly what we needed to begin our exam. I proceeded to clap, as I was grateful for this man's kind and helpful actions. Apparently he didn't want me to clap. I stopped clapping. We were able to start the exam 15 minutes after everyone else, and all was at peace. That is, until the wind picked up speed and began to blow in through the window, driving the huge set of blinds crazy and encouraging the classroom door to randomly open and close on a regular basis. It was very distracting and my left hand started to turn a strange shade of purple which was also highly worrying. In aid of the problem, the tiny little invigilator closed the windows and all was at peace once again. Apart from the raging battle between numbers and sanity that was occurring in the brains of many, that is.

So, its over to the examiners now. I just hope to god, they get through at least half of my paper without becoming teary eyed and depressed at the state of the youth of today -  well, their maths skills.

The way we get by...

I'm having a dilemma. What do you wear if you have no idea what everyone else is wearing to a party. I often wonder what teenagers did in the olden days, when there were no phones and no Facebook. They must have just thrown on one of the few dresses that their mothers could afford and hope for the best. Mind you, with the variety of clothing available in Victorian times I wouldn't be surprised if they all ended up wearing exactly the same thing anyway. In a way they were much better off back then, they didn't have to worry about decisions like whether to wear heels or flats on a night out...they just didn't have nights out! I suppose it sounds silly to say that maybe it  would be better if it was still like that today. Pfffft! Who am I kidding? I need clothes and shoes and bags to function! They don't have to be expensive - my most used bag at the moment was from a charity shop and was only £2.50 - you just have to make sure that you have something that goes well with it and most of all make sure that you love whatever the item is. Still though, wouldn't it be soooo much easier just to wear a black bin bag for the rest of your life? That would save me from constantly having to pick up clothes from my bedroom floor and also having to rearrange my stash/pile. But hey, The Victorians didn't have Topshop now did they? Ha, who's laughing now?

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Jeans or skirt, brogues or converse...tshirt or blouse?!!! Oh, somebody shoot me now.

this and bits and pieces of that...

Here are some pictures from my laptop that I love! Some old, some new and some absolutely hilarious. Forget 1000, these pictures are worth 5000 words! Not posted in ages! I feel guilty about that, but for some reason I just haven't had anything to write about. Despite this being my first post in forever, its not going to be too long or meaningful...Its prelim time at school and revising is pretty much at the top of everyone's list, but I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has ever been there for me, ever, ever. Those who are gone will be remembered forever, I'll make sure of it! Those of you who are still here, you better believe I wont be forgetting you any time soon! I love you all,

Rachel xxx

Okay, so I'm just back from the couple of days I spent in Paris with my Mum and I must say that I have been enlightened to the ways of style and Fashion! Paris style, is so laid back and comfortable, that I almost felt overdressed in my simple jeans and t-shirt combination. I have never seen so many well dressed people in one place (except from at certain award ceremonies and in magazines), Paris has got to be my favourite place in the world to date. Now, the three pictures above were all taken on different days...however I was only able to take one jacket so there isn't much variety between them. I had to wrap up pretty warm against the harsh October weather and I took my two favourite pairs of shoes in the world with me, which just so happened to both be very comfortable! I really enjoyed seeing all the different cultures and people there, but I'm back in sunny Scotland (not) now despite how hard it was to tear myself away from the gorgeous Paris setting...aaaaaah, life goes on.

Rachel xxx

Leopard Coat - Topshop
Work Boots - River Island
Red Brogues - Office
Jeans - Topshop
Beatles T-shirt - a gift from my Mum
Floral Scarf - Accesorize