Society Rules.

It's crazy the way society has turned out. You know when you just end up watching videos on youtube? Well I found myself watching old-ish videos of Catherine Tate doing her 'Am I bovvered?' routine, and it's funny stuff; want to know why? Because it's all true. It's not as if she is overexaggerating either, just look around and you are sure to see plenty of Lauren Coopers..

And I suppose we shouldn't really be laughing but instead trying to help these poor souls who have quite clearly lost their way..

It is ridiculous the way society can create so many groups and cliques. I guess school is where it all starts, on one end of the scale you have the populars, the Regina Georges' of today.. and on the other end you have the so-called geeks, loners, freaks..

But one thing that I have noticed which is rather lovely is that once you leave school, those kind of cliques don't seem to matter so much anymore and everyone grows up. And you learn to be proud of who you are.

But I think schools need to change the perception that being different is a bad thing. Instead they need to reinforce the idea that individuality is important and nobody is the same. 

I fear for the next generation. I worry that they will have no understanding of the concept of playing with one another. Colouring in will be an activity long gone, and forget about 'pretend' games. Any imagination will be lost and soon the concept of tooth fairies and Santa Claus will be long gone.

If you compare nowadays to society around 100 years ago, the main differences seem to be the technological and scientific advances. Yes, as people we are a lot more outspoken and no longer so afraid to say what we think, but the original cliques still exist, they're just slightly more modernised.

'Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..'

Yes. Christmas is fast approaching, which means it's almost the end of another year and (if the Mayan predictions are anything to go by) very soon the sky will fall on our heads (as it does in Chicken Little - brilliant film!)

It is a time of year that I really love, the leaves are turning gorgeous colours and crunching on the ground as you walk over them in your warm, fluffy boots leaving the trees bare. The nights are longer now, with darkness coming quickly and there is a frosty bite in the morning when you wake up. The gloves, hats and scarves are all coming out and people are panicking as they suddenly realise how much shopping there is to do and how very little money they have.

So you start evaluating the past year and what to differently next time round. Then you realise you have lost your list of New Years Resolutions; but even if you did have them it would still be a disappointment because you haven't achieved them anyway!

But you start getting excited about the thought of seeing all the family, and everyone sitting round the TV to watch Elf. Your mouth starts watering at the thought of gravy, roast duck (we don't do turkey or goose), roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, bread sauce, mince pies.. In fact all of these images are something that can be seen in the Asda advert - sorry, going off on a slight tangent here! - but I love that advert, it's all about how much of a panic there is around Christmas time, there may be rows but at the end of the day, most of it goes to plan.

It's a wonderful time of year though and you can't help but hum "All I want for Christmas" whilst washing the dishes at work..

I've just read another amazing book. The main character is Sam - a schoolgirl - and throughout the story you see her trying to correct her wrong-doings by living the same day again, and again, and again.. Throughout this she deals with a number of important life lessons;

1. Never judge a book by it's cover
2. Have no regrets
3. Live every moment as if it was your last.

I don't want to give away the storyline so I'm all I am going to say is go and read it, it's brilliantly written and leaves you with a number of things to think about afterwards.

'I started to think about time, and how it keeps moving and draining and flowing forever forward, seconds into minutes into days into years, all of it leading to the same place, a current running forever in one direction. And we're all going and swimming as fast as we can, helping it along.. Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around in it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. So much time you can waste it. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is you never really know.'

I love that :) It's so true. Life is precious and we should live it as well as we can. We can't all be perfect but there is always room for improvement.

(Apologies if I sound like a self help book!)

"What have I been doing lately?" I hear you ask. "Looking for Alaska", I reply.

I've just finished reading Looking for Alaska. And it's uh-mayzing. It's basically about a boy looking for Alaska..  but in this case Alaska is a girl and they are looking to find who she is. NOT where she is.

I love books like this, the main character is so normal yet so different. Being a loner, he struggles to fit in, until he comes to boarding school. So he might be slightly messed up and misunderstood but that makes me like and understand them and I feel I can more or less relate to them. But it's a really good book and very well written. It's message is unclear but at the same time it's not. I guess it can mean whatever you want it to.

And if you're anything like me, you'll love it. So go on, have a read.

(Apologies if this post is slightly rambling, but my brain is slightly scrambled 'cos I'm still fangirling over how amazing it was)