To be inspired

Inspirational

I am the type of person who can take the biggest inspiration from the smallest of things. If I had to choose one characteristic I liked the most about myself this would have to be one of them. Life is so short, too short at the best of times and for some people that short amount of time is wasted. The time wasters use all amounts of excuses such as: There is no point in trying, I will never get it, He/She likes He/She more than me, I can't be bothered I don't feel like it anymore or what is the point in doing something to better myself it will never work this is my life. All of these one liners, or few whine like sentences I have heard so many times. We all need that little bit of extra faith in ourselves, I have a dream, the most enormous dream, one that often gets me laughed at, but its mine, its special to me and its the reason I have this fight within me. We are living in some incredibly tough times at the moment with no sign of what the future may possibly hold for any of us, but wouldn't you rather have something to keep you going? Don't you want to find something worth waking up every morning for? I cannot create miracles and if I could I certainly wouldn't be tucked up in my single bed in South Wales right now, but inside I am ready to escape and create the life I know I want. Surely we can all do this. LETS MAKE EVERYDAY COUNT STARTING FROM WHEN WE ALL WAKE UP.

Carmarthen Journal Articles

Sweeney Todd - My Review

On Thursday 15th September, I sang my way to The Lyric Theatre to watch Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street performed by Merlin Youth Theatre. For those who aren't familiar with the story of Sweeney Todd it is a dark tale of a man obsessed with avenging the misfortune of his daughter and wife, and along his path to do this he finds himself falling darker and darker, into the shadows of Fleet Street. I have watched the film of Sweeney Todd directed by the magnificent dark mind of Tim Burton, so I was intrigued to see how Merlin Youth Theatre could bring this production to life, in front of a live audience.
The opening scene, set and the use of a smoke machine, period costume, and a brilliant live orchestra really was rather impressive and the strength of the cast even more so as they sang the ballard of Mr Sweeney Todd. Amongst the billowing smoke Sweeney played by Gareth Morgan, emerged on set and as soon as he began to sing, you knew his performance was memorable. With such stage presence he captivated the attention of the audience immediately and just like that you were transported into Fleet Street and staring up at the man who was its resident demon barber. Gareth Morgan's cockney accent and ability to transform into this dark character really did make the show what it was, and that is an eerie and thought provoking musical.
The use of such an impressive set, also aided the performance as even though it didn't allow much being left to the imagination as most minimalist plays do, it did allow you to feel apart of their community and at parts leaving you want to shout "Don't sit in that chair sir, you most definitely do not need a shave!" It was a clever way of bringing the performance to life and literally covering all angles as the set revolved so you didn't miss a thing and the use of a drop seat chair was a powerful stimulus for the audience.
However it wasn't all doom and gloom on Fleet Street as you can always trust Georgie Tipping who played the town's beggar woman to add a bit of comedy with her once again impressive performance. Erin Doherty who confidently played Aldolfo Pirelli, also had the crowd in stitches as she taught everyone how to "Shave uh the face". I was apprehensive about how Merlin Youth could pull off bringing a play such as Sweeney Todd to Carmarthen, but throughout the performance they really did prove they are simply a chip of the old block when it comes to theatre!

Carmarthen Journal Articles - Fragments of Ash

Fragments of Ash Review

•  Every so often a performance is put on that is unmissable. This is how I felt about Fragments of Ash performed by Notional Theatre. Physical Theatre is a form of performance that is very close to my heart after studying it at A-Level. This combined with an incredibly powerful concept made this piece a work of theatre art! Notional theatre excel in bringing a new stylised way of theatre to the stage, one that leaves you as an audience unbelievably captivated. Fragments of Ash posed the question "What can turn an ordinary mother into a suicide bomber" with a stimulus as hard hitting and controversial as this I was intrigued at how this would be displayed visually. The use of such a minimal set was enough as Tracey Biggs who played the part of British mother Eleanor was bold enough. Her ability to perform such raw emotion left me as well as other members of the audience with tears streaming down our faces and lumps in our throats, as we saw the fulll extent of just how everyday individuals lives can be effected by the sadness and atrocities that happen at war. The whole caste was strong Sam Harding a recent graduate who played a multiple of characters was as equally brilliant and even though I had never personally been in a similar situation as the one he found himself in I could easily identify with every characterisation. I thought the use of harsh, almost ugly movements was critical and being such a fan of the work of Pina Bausch I felt that her work as a choreographer definitely had an effect of the use of physical theatre and stylised contemporary movements throughout this piece. The efforts of Rebecca Alexander, Dick Bradnum and Janine Cooper were also highly commendable. I must also mention the work of writer and director Terry Victor who has developed a piece that is such an eye opener, its brutal with a softness around it making it easier to digest. Fragments of Ash is a fantastic physical theatre performance, and throughout every review that I have done has to be the one that has left the biggest impression. I cant think of anything that could have been changed to make any improvements, it really was simply fascinating with a powerful message to be taken on board by all those who see it.

Friendship.

Meet Emma.

Emma (Left) Myself (Right)

Life can often be lonely if you don't surround yourself with good, honest people. I have always been lucky, I have an amazing family and am so close to my mum, a brilliant boyfriend and a best friend that I could not go a day without being around.

I met Emma in secondary school. That was a scary experience going from a girl dominated privately educated primary school to in my eyes an enormous state secondary where I didn't know a single person to say I was a fish out of water is an understatement! The first thing I remember saying to her was when I jumped onto the school bus home she turned to me and said,
"You live in .......... then" my reply in this new found dog eat anything world was,
"Uh obviously I'm on this bus aren't I?"
From that moment on I can't pretend that I knew we would be friends forever as my main daily focus was to not get thrown down another bank or put in a wheelie bin! Em only lived two streets down from my house and after school we would go round our other friend's homes and play Pop Idol on the playstation and as we got older, sip cosmopolitans and throw chicken fillets around finding it hilarious. A normal sleepover to us was way too much food and a good old sleeping bag race, as we both resembled two caterpillars at the best of times this was a game we thoroughly enjoyed. Our friendship grew as we as people did and now we are inseparable. I have lost count of the amount of strangers who ask if we are sisters or the ones that just immediately assume we are! Nowadays however our idea of a good night has changed somewhat, it still always includes our love of most things edible, but now we wash it down with far too many alchoholic beverages and then stumble around a bit, long gone are the days of a quiet night of Pop Idol!
         We have recently booked a holiday together to Turkey and we cannot wait, its a chance to make some new memories together and get some sun on these cheeks of ours! In all seriousness I am so lucky to have someone as truly beautiful as Em in my life, we do nearly everything together and we know everything there is to know about each other, we find the same things hilarious and any silence is usually filled with us in hysterics, we burst into song at the exact same moment, and have together created the best new dance moves ever to be seen on a Saturday night! I don't know anyone else who has as much fun as I do driving through busy streets shouting the names out at random people we have never met before!
         Through Em I have gained another family, and I always have an excuse to go and stuff my face anytime of the day, she is one of a kind and by saying something stupid cheers me up in an instant, through my pants week, she turns up with the brand new dress I have had my eye on! If that's not impressive I am not sure what is. Nine years on we are only getting more and more closer and there is definitely no sign of us drifting apart anytime soon that is not before Turkey anyway (joke). It is true what people say without friends we don't have much, and by just having Em in my life I have a lot.

When the turning of a page, changes your day.

Megan - Leigh Peat.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teenage-schoolgirl-murdered-at-house-party-870504

There is always that moment when you turn the page of a newspaper and it changes your whole day! As an aspiring journalist I always have my head in a newspaper but today whilst reading this article in the Metro, I didn't envy not having the opportunity to find this story!

What kind of world do we honestly live in? A fifteen year old stabbed to death at a house party at the end of a schools half term. The suspect at the moment appears to be her on, off  boyfriend of ten months. It makes my heart ache that this happens. Such a loss of life to a girl who hoped to be a midwife in her later years. From the facebook pages and feeds on twitter she was a much loved individual who had so much to give to her friends, family and everyone who knew her.

Words are lost, when something like this happens. I have so much that I want to say, so much anger and pain to vent out and I didn't even have the pleasure of ever knowing such a beautiful person and I am still in complete shock that somebody could ever do such a thing. As I mentioned earlier being an aspiring journalist and writing for my local paper, there are far too often stories that hit you hard in the chest but the sadness and severity of this one in particular has stayed with me all day. If it was her boyfriend then she trusted him, she loved him and how can somebody use that against someone they "Supposedly" are deeply in love with. I don't understand how tragedies like these even happen.

A house party in a quiet neighbourhood, surrounded by friends and people you know, having a good time with those who you trust and then this at the end of it all! My heart goes out to her family as this is incomprehensible as much as I try to empathise I am so lucky that I have never had to experience loss of this kind due to its unforgivable circumstances.
 What happened to the days that everyone could walk out of their front door without looking over their shoulder?
What happened to the days that everyone could go out with one another and have a good time, come home safely?
What happened to the days when stuff like this didn't happen?
Megan - Leigh Peat, didn't deserve the end she was so brutally given, at fifteen a whole life ahead of her, a life full of adventure and new experiences, cut short by some horrendous individual.
My heart is honestly with everyone who knew her.

Do one thing everyday that makes you proud!

Race for life

They say that as people to lead a healthy lifestyle we are meant to do one thing everyday that scares us. Sunday 10th June I participated in the Race for Life to raise money and awareness for those who have loved, lost and fought cancer. As I arrived with my mum and friend for life Em in tow it was clear that today was going to be a very special one at that. I looked out onto this sea of pink, all women joined together, not bitching about the girl who is that bit skinnier than us, or whinging about our partners and their lack of help in anything and everything we do. No today we joined together to show our solidarity and passion for a cause that had affected all of us in some way or another.
      Armed in our pink race for life t-shirts, fancy dress costumes which included three runners in wedding dresses, and elaborate wigs we set off. All of us with one goal in mind, to make those who we were doing this for proud, wherever they may now be! It was perhaps one of the most emotional days of my life, with children as young as five rushing around, the notes on the back of their t-shirts written in their finest handwriting with things such as "To my granny" or "To my grandpa" "Auntie Mary" or others such as "I race for everyone" "I race for a cure" "I race for my mum", as all of these memories ran around you couldn't help but get caught up in the moment.
     I felt so incredibly proud to be around such amazing people that took a day out to do something that mattered! To take time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to say "This matters to me" its times and days like these which come too far and few between. I for one did it for my great grandmother (Dee,dee) and for my close friend who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and fought the disease with more bravery than I ever could have, thankfully she is still here today and is in herself such an inspiration to simply live everyday. At the ripe old age of twenty you often think your invincible however its times like these that prove we are mere humans! Its a day like the 10th June that proves the more we do as mere humans, the luckier one day we will hopefully all be.