Laura-Rose Saunders

Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Earlier today I received this email from the team at Bloggers:
"Dear Laura,

Congratulation!

You have been featured on BLOGGERS as one of the Bloggers of the day. Your profile and Blog "Laura-Rose Saunders " has been showcased in Bloggers Home page (http://bloggers.com). In addition to that you are awarded with Featured bloggers badge on your profile.

Thank you again for your brilliant work. Enjoy the latest features and tell your friends to join this wonderful community.

regards

Thank you
The Bloggers Team"

That's right I can now proudly say that I am a featured blogger. Get in! :)

In Grant We Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:27:00 +0000

At UCL there is currently a motion up for vote that asks members of UCLU whether or not they have confidence in Malcolm Grant as Provost. Below is a video outlining why it is basically ridiculous to doubt having faith in Malcolm Grant as Provost. Apart from his stunning moustache the man has helped to raise UCL from the world's 37th best University to 5th. The list of reasons to support him is long as this video explains:

If anyone from UCL is reading this post please go to the Union website and vote 'yes' to the UCLU having confidence in the Provost.

Hymn of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:32:00 +0000

While at Church today I heard a favourite Hymn of mine that I hadn't heard in ages and thought would share it. It's from the Iona Community up in Scotland and is beautiful.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of proper blog posts moving house has somewhat hampered them. Real posts to follow soon.

A Year in Music

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:53:00 +0000

Now that 2011 has officially drawn to a close and 2012 has begun it is a chance to reflect on the past year, learn from last year’s errors, reveal in the joys and accomplishments, and generally reminisce about all that happened to you in the space of 365 days.
In my experience music is the best thing to jog memories so I have compiled a list of the songs that help me remember 2011. The list invokes a mixture of happy and sad memories but no year should be absent from either.

January – Taio Cruz – Dynamite

February – Ya Nichya, Ya Chuzhaya (I have no idea who the artist is but it’s a great Russian dance song)

March – Genesis – In Too Deep

April – Arvo Part – Alina/Kanon Pokajanen (I had 3 X 4000 word essays to write in 5ish weeks and it helped me keep focused while studying)

May – Buddy Holly – It Doesn’t Matter Anymore (The UCL Summer Ball was 50’s themed this year and I remember listening to this while revising for my exams)

June – Mumford and Sons – The Cave (I went to visit my friend and her family in Ireland and they always remind me of my trips to Ireland)

July – Biffy Clyro - Bubbles

August – Ed Sheeran – The A Team

September – Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (always makes me think of the night my friend and I went out ‘Chavy’ Clubbing and fell over while trying to dance in high heels)

October – One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful

November – Snow Patrol – How to Be Dead (I rediscovered this on my Ipod and spent most of the month listening to it)

December – Michael Bublé - Baby Come Home I have no idea what 2012 will bring as I am not psychic, however, I am hoping to be sat here at the start of 2013 compiling a similar list and reflecting on all that happened to me in 2012.

Tea Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:55:00 +0000

I was sent this advert by a friend of mine and thought would share it. After all the excitement of Christmas a little laughter is always good to stem off the looming' January Blues'. I have a feeling that this is how my friend sees me in a few years time :p Enjoy.

Kim Jong-Il

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Earlier today I heard that North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack while on a train in Pyongyang. This freaked me out slightly as on the metro ride in I had been reading an article about how you can go on a holiday tour of North Korea for about £600. At first I thought it was a wind up but after doing some online searching it turned out to be true.
The various news sites that I checked seemed to show numerous pictures of weeping North Koreans who seem to not know what to do now that they are bereft of leader. The general conclusion seemed to be that this event was both worrying (What will the successor decide to do with the country?) and exciting (Could the new leader transform the country and address issues such as human rights, famine etc?) The scenes of grief in North Korea seem to mirror those of Soviet Russia in 1953 after Stalin died. It would seem that total reliance on one person to hold a country together is not a great idea, not that there needed to be any real proof.
After hearing that Kim Jong-Il had died I decided to do some research into him. I felt it was a good idea before writing this post as the only two things I knew about him was that he seemed to like to look at things and that in the film Team America he sang about how he was 'so ronery'. Turns out that he was married 5 times, amended the North Korean constitution so that he had to be referred to as 'Dear Leader', 'Our Father', 'the General' or 'supreme Generalissimo', when he was born his birth was foretold by a swallow and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow, and that he is rumoured to have been able to control the weather depending on his mood.
As of yet no successor has been announced but it's likely that it'll be one of Kim Jong-Il's sons. It's unlikely to be Kim Jong-Nam after he was caught travelling on a forged passport while on a trip to see Disney Land in Japan. The current favourite is his youngest son Kim Jong-Un who has apparently been being groomed for the role for the past few years. Let's hope that some of that 'grooming' fell on deaf ears and that the situation in North Korea can be changed for the better.

Carol of this Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:26:00 +0000

Each year I have a favourite carol that seems to get lodged in my head for the whole advent period and, sadly for me, usually until around mid-February. While I have been busily working away on my new joint project with Edward on Voice of the 7 Billion I have found myself humming this to myself:

It's one of my favourite carols performed in a unique Glee-tastic fashion. Merry Christmas!

Voices of the 7 Billion

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:51:00 +0000

I am excited to announce that I have joined forces with fellow Blogger Edward Sainsbury to create a new non-aligned political site called Voices of the 7 Billion. We hope to launch the site shortly but at present we are looking for contributors. The site will be looking at UK Politics, International Politics and Culture. We also hope to have a section with articles in Foreign languages too. If you are interested then contact us! Full details can be found on the site.

Lego House

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:44:00 +0000

Just found my new favourite song for the month - Ed Sheeran - Lego House. Can't go wrong with a bit of Ed Sheeran before all the cheesy Christmas music hits the radio. His first single - The A Team - was beautiful and I had it on repeat on Itunes for ages. Lego House is his second track and is just as beautiful as his first. Below is the Official video to accompany the track, before you get confused the video features Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley to any Harry Potter fans) playing an Ed Sheeran obsessed lookalike fan, in reality they are two different people. Hope you enjoy this video as much as me!

Remembrance Day 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:44:00 +0000

'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.'

Soup, Soup, Soup!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:20:00 +0000

As the nights draw in and the days get colder I find that I am in need of something tasty and warm to look forward to when I return home from work. I come from a family where the two options for this are either porridge or soup. I was slightly put off porridge while I was in Russia (see my posts about Russia or click here for direct clarification) so now I err towards the soup. Plus porridge is much more of a breakfast thing then a dinner thing. So gentle reader I am going to share with you two of my favourite soup recipes that should hopefully brighten your evenings a little.

Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Coconut:
You will need 1 butternut squash (peeled and chopped), 1 sweet potato (peeled and chopped), ½ can of coconut cream (you can buy this from Iceland for 75p), stock (1 stock cube and about 500ml of water), oil, garlic (peeled and chopped), chilli powder, salt and pepper.
First chop up the onion and place in a large pan with some oil, the peeled garlic, the salt, pepper and the chilli powder. In each case add as much or as little as you find tasty. Fry gentled until the onions turn translucent then add in the vegetables and stock. Make sure that all of the vegetables are covered by the stock and add additional water if need be. Leave to cook for about 30-40 minutes on a low heat or until all of the vegetables are soft. Once soft mash or use a hand blender to mix them throughly together then gently stir in the coconut cream. Once it has boiled serve. I usually find it is best served with either crusty white bread and butter or a toasted naan bread.

Pumpkin:
You will need 1 pumpkin (peeled and chopped), ½ can of coconut cream, stock (1 stock cube and about 500ml of water), oil, garlic (peeled and chopped), chilli powder, salt and pepper.
This recipe is basically the same as the previous one the only difference is the vegetable that has been used. You should also note that pumpkin is basically tasteless so you will need more spice and seasonings than you did for the other soup. It also tastes best with a flavoured naan bread like garlic and coriander.

Top 50

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:27:00 +0000

After narcissisitcally deciding to Google myself today and see what came up I discovered that I am at number 33 in the Top 50 Conservative Blogs list. It seems that in the last few days I have moved up the list again. So thank you to everyone who voted for me I owe you a pint or too.
The full list is as follows:

1 (2) Conservative Home

2 (11) Archbishop Cranmer

3 (3) Daniel Hannan

4 (5) John Redwood

5 (-) Egremont

6 (8) Douglas Carswell

7 (41) Dilletante

8 (6) Norman Tebbit

9 (-) Felicity Parkes

10 (25) Platform 10

11 (21) Steve Tierney

12 (-) Boris Backer

13 (4) Dizzy Thinks

14 (37) A Very British Dude

15 (53) Alan W Collins

16 (-) Ed Staite

17 (16) Raedwald

18 (-) New Right

19 (50) Lightwater

20 Politics on Toast

21 Joshua Lachkovic

22 James Burdett

23 (43) Mark Reckless MP

24 (-) The View From Cullingworth

25 (66) John Ward

26 Old Rightie

27 (85) Robert Halfon

28 (-) Steve Baker MP

29 (-) Nadine Dorries

30 (-) Feminism for Tories

31 Glyn Davies

32 (26) Walaa Idris

33 Laura-Rose Saunders Blog

34 Ed Mayes

35 Ian Parsley

38 Mugwump

39 Nick Webb

40 Guy Opperman

41 Norton View

42 Tory Inquisitor

43 A Conservative's Blog

43 Charlotte Leslie MP

47 Tory Radio

Battling Oligarchs

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:20:00 +0000

This is a clip that has been doing the rounds on the Internet featuring owner of the Evening Standard and the Independent Aleksandr Lebedev punching fellow Oligarch Polonsky in the head during a TV debate. It would seem that Polonsky and Lebedev had been in a heated debated before the fight, but that in the end Polonsky finally pushed Lebedev over the edge. Polonsky can be heard to say that he is tired of debating with Lebedev and wants 'to punch him in the face'. Lebedev says something like 'well go on then try it', Polonsky doesn't but makes a retort then Lebedev lamps him one knocking him off his chair. The Presenter then calls for Security while a few screams, presumably from the Babs in the audience, can be heard.

Given that Lebedev used to be a member of the KGB winding him is probably not a smart idea. Anyway the scene is more akin to shows like Big Brother or Jeremy Kyle rather than a debating show. Still it is different from what we in the UK normally see during our debates and politics shows.

Top 15 Non-Aligned blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:29:00 +0000

In other news one of the other blogs that I write for The Hackery Blog was voted 13th in the Top 100 Non-aligned political blogs. This is great news for a site that has only been in existence for a few months and has placed only 3 spaces below Nick Robinson. A huge thank you to all those who voted for the site and a massive congratulations to all the other contributors to the site.
The list of top 100 Non-Aligned blogs:

1 (2) Political Betting

2 (-) Dale and Company

3 (1) Paul Waugh

4 (3) FT Westminster

5 (5) UK Polling Report

6 (14) Bagehot

7 (-) The Slog

8 (9) Boulton & Co

9 (-) The Grapevine

10 (4) Nick Robinson BBC

11 (-) Charles Crawford

12 (-) Underdogs Bite Upwards

13 (-) Hackery Blog

14 (-) Wikiminster

15 (-) Huffington Post

16 The Groucho Tendency

17 Politics Student

18 Cllr Andrew Wallis

19 The Institute for Ideas in a Post Bureaucratic Age

20 Julie's Think Tank

21 The Broken of Britain

22 Benefit Scrounging Scum

23 Britain Votes

24 Frank Davis

25 The Commentator

26 The Student Journals

27 Ed West

28 WalesHome

29 Zelo Street

30 The Vibe

31 Inspector Gadget

32 Golem XIV Credo

33 Blighty (The Economist)

34 Velvet Glove, Iron Fist

35 LSE UK Politics & Policy

36 Inside Croydon

37 Politics Live with Andrew Sparrow

38 Tea and Cigarettes

39 Ambush Predator

40 Borthlas

41 The Online Society

42 Bella Caledonia

43 Brighton Politics Blog

44 Bishop Hill

45 Jac o' the North

46 Gary Gibbon

47 Hen Rech Flin

48 Insane Ramblings of a Village Idiot

49 Waste Watch

50 Watt's Up With That

51 Dioclese

52 Evening Standard Politics

53 NewsNetScotland

54 Real Street

55 Son of Robespierre

56 The Appalling Strangeness

57 Ward'slog

58 Flip Chart Fairy Tales

59 Political Pulse

60 Heresy Corner

61 MHP Blog

62 Migration Watch

63 Vaughan Roderick

64 Where's the Benefit?

65 A Man's A Man

66 Tales from Gun Wharf

67 The Dispatch Box

68 The Thunderer

69 Boatang & Demetriou

70 Captain Ranty

71 Damned to Hell

72 Tax Research UK

72 Winston Smith

73 Betsan Powys (BBC)

74 Fleet Street Fox

75 Full Fact

76 An Englishman's Castle

77 The Media Blog

78 Burning Our Money

79 Gerry Hassan

80 Letters From a Young Contrarian

81 Lexington's Notebook

82 Nationalist Mythbusting

83 Rob's Cornish Blog

84 Spiked Online

85 Channel 4 News Fact Check

86 Paul Mason

87 Simon Maxwell

88 Oh What NOW!

89 Political Promise

90 Revolts

91 Valleys Mam

92 After Watt

93 Beyond Clicktivism

94 Don't get fooled again

95 Muffled Vociferation

96 Not a sheep may be a goat

97 Planet Politics

98 Political Reboot

99 Politics on Toast

100 The Anger of a Quiet Man

Top 50 Get in! ^^

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:18:00 +0000

Earlier today Total Politics released their list of Top 100 Tory blogs and I came in at no 42. A jump of 30 places from last year. I'd like to wish everyone who voted for my blog a massive Thank you! The full list is as follows:

1 (2) Conservative Home

2 (11) Archbishop Cranmer

3 (3) Daniel Hannan

4 (5) John Redwood

5 (-) Egremont

6 (8) Douglas Carswell

7 (41) Dilletante

8 (6) Norman Tebbit

9 (-) Felicity Parkes

10 (25) Platform 10

11 (21) Steve Tierney

11 (-) The Commentator

13 (-) Boris Backer

14 (4) Dizzy Thinks

15 (-) Peter Hitchens

16 (-) EU Referendum

17 (37) A Very British Dude

18 (53) Alan W Collins

19 (-) Charles Crawford

20 (-) Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

21 (-) Daniel Knowles

21 (-) Melanie Phillips

23 (-) Ed Staite

24 (-) Ben Brogan

25 (-) Ed West

26 (-) New Right

26 (-) Tim Worstall

28 (50) Lightwater

29 (-) Francis Urquhart

30 (43) Mark Reckless MP

30 (-) Standpoint

30 (-) The View From Cullingworth

30 (7) Tory Bear

34 (66) John Ward

35 (-) Old Rightie

35 (85) Robert Halfon

35 (-) Steve Baker MP

38 (-) Nadine Dorries

39 (-) Adam Smith Institute

39 (-) Feminism for Tories

39 (-) Katharine Birbalsingh

40 (26) Walaa Idris

41 Orphans of Liberty

42 Laura-Rose Saunders Blog

43 Fountain

44 Voice of Reason

45 Nonsense Yorkshire Rants

46 Nick Webb

47 Mugwump

48 Janet Daley

49 Ian Parsley

50 Graeme Archer

51 Ed Mayes

52 Dissecting Leftism

53 Thinking Strategically

54 The Welfare State We're In

55 Small Dead Animals

56 Samiz Data

57 Phillip Blond

58 Norton View

59 Direct Democracy

60 The Raging Tory

61 The Dispatch Box

62 The Conservative Blog

63 Roger Helmer

64 Rational Optimist

65 Glyn Davies MP

66 Conservative Libertarian Alliance

67 Charlotte Leslie

68 Bracken World

69 A Conservative's Blog

70 Your Freedom and Ours

71 Witterings from Witney

72 Vicky Ford

73 Tory Radio

74 The Freedom Association

75 Taking Liberties

76 Nick Clarke

77 Iain Lindley

78 Hurry Up Harry

79 Tory Totty Online

80 Tony Watson - Hoo Peninsula

81 The Cornerstone Group

82 Red State

83 Man in a Shed#

84 Byrne Tofferings

85 The Tap

86 Tammy Bruce

87 Surbiton People

88 Paul Scully

89 Max Farquar

90 Jihad Watch

91 Tracey Crouch MP

92 The Talking Clock

93 The Cynical Tendency

94 Behind Blue Eyes

95 The Westminster Pundit

96 The Druid

97 Polittiscribe

98 Charlotte Gore

99 Nourishing Obscurity

100 Lord Credo

7 Films

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:41:00 +0000

In addition to my scribblings on The Hackery Blog I can also now be found writing about film on Discover 7 Films . My first post went up in the week and is on my choice of 7 contemporary films that I believe should be watched. Click here to read the article in full. The idea of the site is that each post contains mini reviews, images and trailers for 7 films of the same genre e.g. 7 French films, 7 Chick flicks etc. For anyone with an interest in film this site is a must!

Hackery Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:47:00 +0000

In case gentle reader you are wondering why I have been most quiet of late it is because I have been blogging in a different location. I am now a proud contributor to the Hackery Blog a new site where already established bloggers can post and raise their profile a little. The site primary blogs about UK politics, Foreign Affairs and Culture. So far I have written two posts for the culture section which can be read here and here. More ideas are swirling around and I shall noting them down shortly. In the meantime check out this wonderful new site and be sure to comment on my posts.

Seen in the City

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:44:00 +0000

On the tube on the way home yesterday I was reading the Evening Standard and stumbled accross this rather witty version of hte Lord's Prayer. It tickled my funny bone so I thought I'd share it.

'Our Father, which art in prison,
Only mum knows his name,
They riots come.
Read it in the Sun,
In Birmingham as it is in London.
Give us this day our welfare bread,
And forgive us our looting,
As we're happy to loot those who defend against us.
And lead us not iinto employment
But deliver us free housing.
For thine is the spliff, the Blackberry and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Innit.'

Riots

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:11:00 +0000

For those of you who have not kept abreast of UK current events last week saw a spate of mass riots and lootings take place in various locations across London. The looters didn't really seem to have any kind of motive other than greed making it hard for the police to reason with them or the public to feel any real sympathy for them. The only reason given that I read on twitter was that they were apparently 'claimin back [their] taxes, innit' despite the fact that most of those taking part did not pay taxes either as they were too young or on benefits.
Apart from a great sense of fear these riots have raised issues with regards to the levels of police in the capital, the treatment of people rioting (e.g. is it ethical to use water cannons or rubber bullets to disperse them? Most on Twitter seemed to think so, and indeed the reply to anyone harping on about human rights is that as far as I am concerned you need to be human for those to apply) and the benefit system.
I have seen various petitions flitter their way across my Facebook feed urging me to sign a petition for those involved to lose their benefits. This idea I find tricky - on the one hand I would very much like to see those involved punished for their actions, yes I have very much enjoyed the sight of more uniformed policemen on the streets of London, but their actions are after all criminal and cannot remain unpunished. On the other, those on benefits are clearly on them for a reason. Not every person on benefits is a lying chav claiming JSA because they 'can't be bovered to get a job', some are on them because they are genuinely unable to work and taking them away might satisfy the grumbling upper and middle classes but will probably eventually lead to more lootings caused by necessity rather than greed.
The riots have also had a positive effect too almost daily I am invited to become part of one of the various cleanup operations taking place in the worst effected areas. These riots have shown that while there is a part of society who is happy to behave violently and criminally in order to get a new phone, MP3 player and, for some unknown reason in Enfield, a new carpet there are those, and they luckily seem to be in the majority, who want to help their fellow man.
Rather amusingly the riots also highlighted the stupidity of those involved; some felt it a wise idea to post photos of themselves next to their 'swag' on Facebook and Twitter. The choice of shops targeted was also interesting in Clapham, one of the worst affected areas, any electrical shop, supermarket or sportswear shop was left in tatters while the local branch of Waterstones was completely untouched. This somewhat hampered Members of the Opposition who claimed people were looting as their libraries had been shut. If they wanted books so badly surely they would have targeted Waterstones?
At any rate it will be interesting to see what Dave and Nick decide to do next which regards to policies and changes in the Human Rights law. It will also be interesting to see how long it takes Ed Milliband to claim it's all the Tory's fault despite their being in government for little over a year and the causes more likely stemming from over a decade of Labour policies.

Voting time!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:30:00 +0000

The Total Politics Blog Award Polls aare now open and it would be great if you could take a few minutes to vote for my blog. Below are the details and instructions, which I took from Total Politics:
"There are lots of ways of measuring how popular a blog is. You can compare the number of people who visit it. You can use complicated formulas and maths to plot the different variables. You can map its range on social media.

Or you can just ask the people who read blogs what they like best. That’s what the Total Politics Blog Awards is all about. There are no shortlists and no pre-selection. You can vote for any blog you like, large or small.

This is our sixth Blog Awards. But this year, we’ve made a couple of tweaks to the way it’s going to work.

Instead of sending your choices by email, you can enter your votes on this survey and choose the categories you think each blog belongs in.

We’ve also added a new element to the awards for individual bloggers. The blogosphere has changed a lot since the awards first started, and it is now much more common for bloggers to contribute to a number of different websites rather than maintaining their own personal blog.

Here’s how it works. Say you’re a fan of Iain Dale. You follow him on Twitter or through RSS and like reading his blogs. So you read him on his old blog, on his new Dale and Company site, on Total Politics, at the Telegraph and others. There’s no one site you can vote for to reflect your preference for one particular author. So now you can just vote for authors, independent of which sites they write for.

Of course, you can still vote for whole websites. So if you like the mix of authors and content on a particular blog, you can vote for it in the same way you always have.

This year, Twitter has continued to rise in influence in politics, so we’re also asking you to nominate your favourite political tweeter. We can work out who has the most followers and most influence, but we also want to know who is your favourite to follow and why.

Here are the rules in full. Voting opens at 9am on Monday 8 August and closes at midnight on Friday 19 August. Any votes submitted after that will not be counted.

The rules are simple.

Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. The higher you rank a blog or author, the higher up they will appear in the aggregated results. You must enter a minimum of five names for your vote to count. If you don't want to enter more than five, just write 'blank' in the remaining boxes. Every box must have some text in for the vote to be submitted successfully.
Only submit your vote once. If you vote more than once, it won’t be counted.
Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents and based on UK politics are eligible.
Anonymous votes left in the comments on the Total Politics website or emailed to members of staff will not count. You must submit your vote via the survey and you must enter a valid email address when you do so.
Do not publish a list of ten blogs on your site and try to persuade readers to vote for them. Any duplicate voting of this nature will be disallowed.

Any queries, contact caroline.crampton@totalpolitics.com

If you have your own blog, we’d love for you to encourage your readers to take part. Just download the code from the 'related documents' tab at the side of this post and copy it to insert the blog awards logo with an automatic link to the survey."

May be I'm a Londoner

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000

When I first moved to London to begin University London seemed like a completely alien world compared to my hometown in Gloucestershire. However, after nearly five years in the city I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. During the time that I have lived in London I have begun to notice that Londoners are unique and that the differences between non-Londoner and Londoners is striking. Over the last few weeks I have mentally begun to compile a list of 'you know you're a Londoner when' situations most of which seem to revolve around public transport. If there are any that I have missed feel free to add them in the comments box.
You know you're a Londoner when:
1. You hear that there is a delay to your service due to 'a passenger under a train at X' and rather than thinking 'aww poor person' your thoughts are more along the lines of 'selfish **** why didn't they go through themselves in The Thames rather than screw up my commute'
2. You see tourists as a massive annoyance simply because they walk so darn slowly and have no idea where they're going.
3. You come across people who just don't get the 'go left, keep right' system on the tube and consider them worse than tourists, especially when you're late for work and they're slowing you down.
4. You're amazed when someone talks to you on public transport. You're even more amazed when they continue the conversation for the whole of your journey even though you've only been giving one word answers.
5. You get pavement rage. Like tourists, people who walk slowing are terrible and you're anger levels get so high that you think they're only walking with a stick so as to wind you up.
6. You're amazed if you have to wait longer than 3 minutes for anything be it a tube, a bus, your morning coffee or the bill in a restaurant.
7. You're no longer surprised by anything, especially if you regularly travel through Camden Town. Odd piercings, tattoos, brightly coloured hair or people wearing underwear as outer wear no longer register on your radar.
8. You're amazed by the sight of anything green and begin to feel just a little agoraphobic when you walk through a park or a heath.
8. You get offered drugs, a free newspaper or food vouchers almost daily.
9. You see celebrities on the tube and are no longer amazed by the fact that there is someone from the TV near you. Instead you begin to get a bit snobbish about who it is that is near you; 'Is that Ed Milliband across from me? Ugh, wish it was David Milliband or Boris Johnson *sigh*'
10. You consider Charity Muggers worse than Tourists, slow walking people or chatty people on the tube. Especially when they try to prevent you from getting to the Tube or MacDonalds.
11. You're shocked by how cheap things are outside of London and feel oddly superior about the fact that you pay £7 for your pint in your local but £7 for a round in a non-London pub.
12. You have an Ipod volume battle with the person next to you on the Tube and consider it to be perfectly normal.
13. You get freaked out by silence and darkness. The fact that you can't hear traffic and that somewhere isn't lit confuses you.
14. You're amazed when shops keep 9-5 opening hours and wonder how people can function when they can't buy milk at 4am.
15. You consider the highlight of a night out the conversations you have with fellow intoxicated Londoners on the Nx bus home. Especially if they are drunker than you and think that you're famous.
16. The fact that you actually have to go to a specific location to do something is confusing. 'What do you mean I have to travel to X for my nearest bank?! Why isn't there a branch on my road?!'
17. You start to get out your Oyster card when you get off the tube because you know that if you search for it any closer to the exit someone is likely to punch you for time wasting.
18. You're amazed by anyone who does not own or know what an Oyster Card is.
19. You consider anything outside of the M25 as 'The North', or in some cases anything north of Euston Road.
20. Despite all of the things listed above you honestly believe that London is the best place in the world and anyone who lives anywhere else must have some kind of mental problem. In short, 'may be I'm a Londoner that's why I love it so...'

R.I.P Amy Winehouse

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:22:00 +0000

According to the news it would seem that singer Amy Winehouse had died at the age of 27. Early reports on The Telegraph Website and BBC news 24 state that it was from a drink/drugs overdose. In all honesty it is a shock that she is dead, but the cause of death is no surprise.
For as long as I have been aware of Amy Winehouse as a musician I have been sadly aware of the fact that she had a weakness for alcohol and drugs. When the London Lite was still in circulation images of her on nights out often graced the front pages and her reputation for partying was infamous. As a fan of her music, and only being a few years younger than her, I did hope that she might be able to turn her life around but in this case it seemed her addiction was just too strong.
Amy Winehouse is not the only star to die young from substance abuse. Amy now joins Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrisons as stars who only made it to 27. Amy will probably be best remembered for her song 'Rehab' in which she sings about how 'they tried to make me go to rehab, but I said "no, no, no"'. In hindsight Amy clearly should have said 'Yes!' Video below:

Happy Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:55:00 +0000

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Dad a very Happy Fathers Day. Thank you so much for everything that you do for me. You're the best Daddy in the world. Sorry I cannot be at home to say this in person, but I hope you enjoy the card and present.

This is a photo of my Dad and I when I was a lot younger.

30 Day Movie Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:32:00 +0000

For the last 30 days on Facebook I have been doing The 30 Day Movie Challenge. The Challenge is simple - find an example for each of the questions. In some cases it is simple like 'what is your favourite movie?', but in other cases it was hard to think up a movie for example 'a movie you loved but now hate'. The problem I kept having was that every time I tried to think of a movie my mind went blank. Eventually after much thinking I compiled this as my 30 Day Movie Challenge list:

Day 1 - Your Favourite Movie (4 weddings and a funeral)

Day 2 - Your Least Favourite Movie (Nightmare on Elm Street Original)

Day 3 - A Movie That Makes You Happy (Enchanted)

Day 4 - A Movie That Makes You Sad (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1)

Day 5 - A Movie That Scares/Disturbs You (Gruz 200)

Day 6 - A Movie Starring Your Favourite Actor (A Driver for Vera or Lion King – very tough choice)

Day 7 - A Movie Starring Your Favourite Actress (Becoming Jane)

Day 8 - A Movie That Is A Guilty Pleasure (Twilight)

Day 9 - An Overrated Movie (Atonement)

Day 10 - Your Favourite Childhood Film (Beauty and the Beast)

Day 11 - A Movie That Describes Your Life (Legally Blonde)

Day 12 - A Movie That Makes You Laugh (Borat)

Day 13 - A Movie That You Used To Love But Now Hate - NA Can't think of one

Day 14 - A Movie With A Character You Can Really Relate To (Bridget Jones’ Diary)

Day 15 - A Movie That You Watch When You're Angry (Hairspray)

Day 16 - A Movie That You Watched In The Last Month (Lolita 1997 Version)

Day 17 - A Movie That You Don't Understand (any of the Mission Impossible films)

Day 18 - A Movie That You Wish You Could Star In (Master and Margarita)

Day 19 - A Movie You Wish Was Real (The Golden Compass – I want a daemon)

Day 20 - A Movie With An Actor/Actress You Would Marry If You Could (Made of Honour)

Day 21 - A Movie With A Character You Would Be Best Friends With In Real Life (Amazing Grace)

Day 22 - A Movie With A Character You Would Be Worst Enemies With In Real Life (Bride Wars – not a massive fan of Kate Hudson!)

Day 23 - A Movie That Shouldn't Have Been Made (Burnt by the Sun along with most things directed by Nikita Mikhailkov)

Day 24 - A Movie That Is On TV A Lot (The Great Escape)

Day 25 - A Movie That You Have Seen Over 5 Times (Night Watch)

Day 26 - A Movie That You Used To Be Scared Of (Watership Down)

Day 27 - A Movie With A Good Theme Tune (Casino Royale)

Day 28 - Your Mum's Favourite Movie (Casablanca)

Day 29 - Your Dad's Favourite Movie (The God Father)

Day 30 - Your Favourite Movie This Time Last Year (The Banishment/The Return)

R.I.P. Boris Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Laura-Rose) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:41:00 +0000

Earlier today I received some sad news that my beloved Boris Cat had fallen ill and that after an examination by the vet there was nothing more that could be done for him. He was about ten and had lived a happy life eating mice, frolicking in the garden and sleeping about 22 hours a day. He will be greatly missed by myself, my family and his brother Zeppy Puss. He was the best cuddly ball of fluff that I could have wished for and it will now be very lonely while I write my dissertation. Below is a recent photo of my Boris Cat:

R.I.P. Boris cat you'll be greatly missed :'(