Friday 23 December 2016

Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I was struggling for something to write this week, if I'm honest. It's the last post of the year and I felt a certain amount of pressure to make it really interesting. But if I've learnt nothing else this year, it's that sometimes you have to just go with the flow.


So with that in mind, I have to write about this book. I finished it about twenty minutes ago and OH MY FREAKING GOD. It was so good. I read it in two days. I spent the majority of today curled up reading it. I couldn't tear myself away.

The narrator, Rachel, takes the same train everyday and spends her time watching the people who live in the houses along the train tracks. She feels like she's a part of their lives, watching them do the same things everyday. Then when a woman goes missing, she feels like she has information that could help solve the mystery of what happen to her.

Between this novel and Gone Girl, I feel like thriller novels are my new thing. If you like to read and haven't read this yet, you absolutely have to. The next thing on my to-do list is watch the film adaption with Emily Blunt - hopefully it'll be just as exciting as this.

Sunday 11 December 2016

The Gift of Gratitudes

Image Credit: https://uk.pinterest.com/lmariefigtree/gratitude/

One of my new year's resolutions for 2016 was to write down something I'm grateful for every single day. And I can say with 100% certainty that I've done it. Between my diary and the app on my phone that I downloaded in August, I have a least one gratitude for every single day. And I think that's really an incredible thing.

I'm a pessimist. I'll be the first one to admit it. And challenging myself to keep a list of gratitudes every single day was a way of forcing myself to focus on the positive things that happen each day, rather than the negative things.

I have an app on my phone called 'Gratitude Log' that I downloaded in August, and I LOVEE it. I update it every single day without fail. I started using it on August 22nd, and in the 112 days that I've used it since then, there have been 431 things that I'm grateful for. That's more than one a day. Now tell me that isn't the most amazing thing.

They're not all massive, life-altering things. Sometimes a gratitude can be something as simple as 'had a lie-in'. It's such a nothing thing that most people probably wouldn't think twice about, but it's something that makes me happy, and therefore, it's something I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for my boyfriend, who puts up with my peculiar ways. I'm grateful for old friends, who have gotten in contact with me to say nice things about my blog. I'm grateful for my parents and sister, who always have time to chat. Mostly. There are so many things in my life right now that I have to be grateful about. Having them all on my phone in one place means I can look back on them and remember what great days they were. And even if not-so-great things did happen on those days, I can't remember what they are. It sounds crazy, but I can feel that my attitude and outlook has changed. I'm not an optimist yet by any standard, but maybe one day I will be.

Saturday 3 December 2016

2016 (A.K.A. The Year I Turned 21)

Image Credit: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/60728294948506728/ 

As I sit down to write this, I'm telling myself that it won't turn into a summary of the year, but even as I type this sentence, I sense that that's what it will become. Meh.

My 21st birthday was almost two weeks ago, and I had a really good time. Fairly low key - my family came at the weekend and I had friends over in the evening, but it was a celebration that was very 'me' and I loved it. But now, almost two weeks later, it's finally starting to occur to me that I'm twenty-one. I'm twenty-something. I'm now in my twenties. And that is one of the weirdest things ever. I think everyone, when they're younger, dreams of the day they turn 21, but a small part of me never really thought that day would come. I never really thought too closely about where I'd be and what I'd be doing when I turned 21.

And yet, here I am. In society's terms, I'm a fully fledged adult, but I still feel the same as I did at 17. I guess I'm just having a little epiphany as I write this. I'm 21.

I keep seeing this quote all over the place, and I never really thought too much about it until I saw it again the other day - 'It's the oldest story in the world. One day, you're seventeen and planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.' After a Google search, I've been informed that this is from One Tree Hill (which I've never seen), but I think that it's so true. My entire life, I've been working towards going to university. And now here I am. But not only am I here, I'm in my final year. I'm nearly done. And yet I still feel like I've just started. The opportunity has almost passed me by without my even noticing. And I guess that's just how life goes.