Friendships

Friend: Noun 1 a person whose company and attitudes one finds sympathetic and whom one is not closely related

Thats the dictionary definiation of Friends. It states the basic truth of friends. What it doesn't tell you is the trouble, the patience, the trust, the secrets and the laughter which being friends with someone is meant to be.

Another way to define Friendships is someone with whom you feel comfortable. A friendship is another way to not find yourself on your own, and it's meant to alienate the feeling of loneliness.

But like any good relationship, you have to work at maintaining them, very much like a garden, weeding out the weeds and nurturing the flowers to make them grow.

When this break down, it all breaks down, and however hard you try to save it, the harder it becomes, because everything is popping up when you turn your back on it.

You try and try to saveage what is left, but you know, deep down that all is lost. It is broken beyond repair. And one thing that once could be fixed is blown out of proportion and makes everything irreverisable.

Friendships have to be nurtured, and have to be allowed to grow. They can become stale and dry like bread, and dead like the bleakest environment on earth.

The smallest thing can crack the ice in the beginning, just as the smallest thing can push it right over the edge.

Letting go is the hardest part, because in the really good relationship, and friendship alike, you don't want to let go of what you once had, and facing up to the fact that all is over, is one of th bravest things anyone can do. Moving is another huge step, and healing can take ages.

But the worst part is knowing that you've lost something really good from your life and you'll never have anything else like it. There will be other relationships and friendships but they all differ from each other, like people.

The fact is, you have to learn to move on with your life. The hardest part has yet to come.

Idina Menzel!!!!!!!!!!!

I met her! Today in fact, the lovely lady herself in London, at the Dress Circle showbiz shop!

Me and My friend were going to see her, and went up to London to see her, and get copies of her album signed!!! OH MY GOSH!

Well, we first we got lost! Went the wrong way, because I thought I knew where I was going and didn't. It turns out I have a crap sence of direction when I don't have a map in front of me! But anyway, we found the line eventually! It was well long!

Idina Menzel arrived at about One o'clock and and you could hear her arrival because all the fans at the front started yelling and screaming! Being relatively near the back, we couldn't see her arrival, but we saw her leave, but more about that later.

We were standing in the driizzle for about two hours, inching slowly forward towards the shop! We were getting board, and a Danish Gentlemen kept us amused, along with two very nice Amercian Ladies behind us.

Finally we were in the shop, CD's at the ready, cameras out, and suddenly excited.

Then we went down these steps in to the basement of the shops and There was Idina Menzel, sitting and signing copies of her New Album, I Stand, which I highly recommend. People were taking pictures, and as we were told that we couldn't have pictures taken with Idina, we were snapping away. Although when we got down there, an assisstant asked if we wanted pictures (She managed to cut the top of my head off- A nice one of Idina Menzel, but not of me!;-))

So we got to meet her, if only for a second or two, but it was amazing, because she was such an amazing person. She had only been going to stay for an hour, and decided to hang on to the end, and she didn't seem upset about that in the least, although it probably was exhausting for her! So kudos for Idina Menzel for sticking to it!

Once we were out of the shop, we went to get some lunch, and in probably the quickest meal ever recorded in the restaurant we were in, we were outside again, to see her leave the Dress Circle. She was just amazing!

So after we found a cash point and got some money, and once we were sure it was all ok to go back into the shop, we went back and I found the second best thing of the day- The Wicked Grimmarie! Oh Blessed day! For at least five pounds cheaper than at the Appollo theater! Shame I couldn't get Idina Menzel to sign it, but still it was a lucky find! There were only two left!

So all in all one brilliant day! And even better- Seeing Wicked in three weeks again! Yay! Just before Kerry Ellis goes to Amercia!

OH MY GOD!!! It was a faboulous day!!!

In One of Those Moods!

It's been one of those weeks where you actually look forward to going to school, yet when it arrives you don't want to be there.

So I have been all over the place this week. One minute, I want to be with my mates having a laugh, but when I'm with them I don't want to be there. ARGH! It's one of those things that make you so mad with yourself that you don't know what to do.

Anyway these mood swings have probably cost me a friend this week. I cut over her when she was trying to apologise for winding me up earlier that day. I shouldn't have got wound up, of course, but it's part of my personality, and I did. Anyway she's not talking to me now and probably for good reason because of what I did, and I don't know what to say to my other friends because she is rather popular.

The basics are that I can't seem to keep my temper, or my cool, or anything else recently. Right now for example I want to sit down and weep, but I know I can't because I would be being silly.

I know these are not excuses, but I am Tired, exams are only a week or so away and I've just got off my period. I know they are not excuses for snapping at my friends, but everything mounts up surely.

Benefit of doubt maybe?

iPod-less

So for the first time in about a year and a half, I find myself iPod-less!

The headphone connection broke sometime on Monday, as I realised when I was walking home from school after Geography! At first I thought it was the head phones, because sound was only coming out of one side of them, but ..r investigation it wasn't the headphones, because no other headphone or my iPod speakers worked either, thus leading me to the conclusion that it was the headphone connection that was broken.

So, after having got my dad to take it in to the place where were brought it, and being told we had to send it to Apple, we found out that only two Apple shops in the area are in London! Instead we checked the site to see if there was anyone around who could fix it, and to cut a long story short, we found someone in Caversham who could fix it for about sixty quid which is not bad considering how much I paid for the iPod!

The snag is that the iPod can't actually be repaired, which means that they replace my iPod with a brand new(ish) one, as in same make, same edition, but without the fault, and needing my music to be uploaded to tbe iPod again.
Not that I'm complaining too much. I mean I get a new one, for a very low price, and in about five days, so thats like on Monday or Tuesday! Soon!

And until then I have my mum's MP3 to keep me entertained! I had my own a few years back, but I can't say I liked it. It was all a bit too fidderly for me, and I wasn't a fan.

My first digital portable music device was an old iPod Mini, which was second hand and was on it's last legs and didn't last long, and was Pink, but it was brilliant! And when it broke I wanted another one, but my parents said "no". Instead they got me a MP3 for my birthday which wasn't what I wanted but took it with good grace. Needless to say, it didn't last very long.

Finally, with a job, money and some persauding I was allowed to but my 5th Edition Classic 30 gig iPod, and have never looked back. Now I'm without it and have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to have a "New" one in place of my old one, sent and picked up!

Ah well. We can't always have it our way!

WICKED!!!

Today I went to see the Musical Wicked, with two close friends!

What can I say that hasn't already been said before! The costumes were a delightfully crazy!

The singing- oh the singing- not a note out of place! Kerry Ellis was Fab-u-Lous!
UNluckily Diane Pilkington wasn't on stage as Galinda/Glinda but her stand in Sarah Earnshaw was a very good choice to fill the shoes of Glinda!

Alas the Lovely Oliver Tompsett was not in this Matinee Performance, but his stand in, Dougal Irvine was a very strong vocalist!

The show was a huge aray of colours, catchy songs, and touching moments between friends, sisters and Lovers.

And the little twist at the end of the show added something special to the performance. The book doesn't have this twist which makes the show unqiue from the book. I could have sat there for hours watching this show, and am kept prepared to see it again as soon as possible! Fully worth splashing out on!

The show does vary from the book, but is as good as the original writing of MacGuire. The shows livilness, and the involvement, enthrals everyone. Each song got it's indiviual round of applause, but at the end of the show, although there was a huge amount of tulmutuilous applause, there was no sign of a full standing ovation. There were pockets of people standing and clapping and cheering wildly in which I took part!

The show was very uplifting and I can't wait to go and see it again, before the cast is re shuffled in June 2008.

I'm quite willing to five Wicked! A five star rating! *****

if you get the chance to go and see Wicked, I suggest you do! It's a brilliant experience and a lovely show!

WICKED WAS AWESOME! lol

New Books!

"Oh Gosh! That's wonderful! Thank you!" David Morton breathed excitedly down the phone, as his twelve year old twin brother and sister, Dickie and Mary hopped excitedly up and down waiting for him to finish.

David put the phone down, and turned around to face his brother and sister, his eye gleaming.

"What was that all about David?" Mary squeaked, seeing the excitement in her brothers eyes, "Who was on the phone?"

"Not now twins," David said, "Get on your bikes and go and get Tom and Jenny from Ingles, tell them we have an impromptu club meeting! Go on! I'll call Peter!

Oh and if you see Jon and Penny walking back, tell them to hurry up!"

"What about Harriet?" Dickie asked, "She's with Peter!"

"Then I'll tell Peter to bring Harriet as well," David said nodding, "Now go on!"

The twins, ran for their bicycles, willing this once to carry out David's orders to find out what the mysrtious phone call had been about.

Half an hour later, the Lone Pine club members stood under their old Pine tree on the side of the Long Mynd. They were all interested to find out, why David had sent them urgent messages to attend an ever so sudden meeting.

"What got you so excited David? You're normally so thorough," Jon said taking off his spectacles to polish them, "I must say, this impetuous side of you is not making a good start, old chap."

"I think it's fun to have on the spur meetings," Harriet remarked as Mary began to look impatient.

"Hush a minute," Mary said over the babble, picking up her darling Scottie Dog, Macbeth for fear of him being trampled, "David's had a very interesting phone call! Hasn't he Dickie?" She added turning to her twin.

"Hm? Yes, he did," Dickie said, poking the fire.

"Look, shut up and let David talk," Tom said glaring at the twins.

"Yes please do," Jenny gulped happily, "Is it thrilling David? Have you found us another adventure?"

"You're as bad as the twins, Jenny," Peter said smiling from her place at the foot of the Lone Pine, "Now let David speak."

"I'm with Peter on this one," Penny said blowing a red curl out of her face, "Come on David! Why all the secrets?"

"Well," David began, smiling, "Someone form a publishing Agency's just been on the phone to me, and they're company has decided to reprint the Malcolm Saville Books!"
"Oh wonderful!" Peter said, smiling, "Our books back in print again!"

"Smashing!" Said Dickie laughing, "Can we have something to eat now?"

That's right! I heard it today!

I was in my local bookshop, and I was just browsing the shelves, when I spotted a name I have never seen in print before! Malcolm Saville!

His books, the Buckingham Stories are being reprinted by Evan's publishers for his Centenary! I was speaking to the women who owns the bookshop and she said that she would let me know after talking to the Evan's representative who calls at the shop every month whether they have the rights, and the manuscript to re-print the Lone Pine adventures, which were probably Saville's best known work!

The Lone Pine adventures, follow the fortunes and adventures of nine children ranging from the youngest (The Twins Dickie (Richard) and Mary Morton) at about nine in the first adventure (Mystery at Witchend) to eighteen nineteen at the end (Home to Wicthend) where they're older brother David is at least eighteen.

The books started in the middle of the Second World War, when the Morton Family, minus Mr Morton- who has gone to be a fighter pilot in the RAF, go to stay up in Shropshire on the Long Mynd in a cottage called Witchend. From there they meet a girl called Petronella Sterling, who likes to be called Peter, and Tom Ingles, who works on his Uncle's farm, similarly named. From there they go on to have adventures together.

In the second book, Seven white gates, the Five of them meet, Jenny Harman, who becomes a member of the Lone Piners. And In The Third Book, they meet Jon and Penny Warrender, who are cousins who live in Rye, where the Morton's go on Holiday.

They don't meet they're last member, Harriet Sparrow, until Book ten, Lone Pine London, where Jon asks Harriet to show him the way home, because he's lost in London, while staying with the Mortons.

Without giving anything away, that's as breif an outline as you'll get from me. But I have to say, after being introduced to them a few years ago through my Mum's old copies of orginal print, I would love to own a selection of my own, to read so the orginal copies that I already have can be preserved.

Saville has become one of my most favourite authors next to the work of Enid Blyton. Much the same style as Enid, Saville's adventures seem to be aimed at the slightly older audience, but are just as thrilling as Enid's which at the beginning were written around the same time.

One major difference I can see between these two authors and they're "Best work" in my opinion, the Famous Five by Enid Blyton and The Lone Pine Adventures by Malcolm Saville is that after a period of time, where the post War rationing etc had burned off, Saville decided to age his characters, of course giving him more possible storylines, where as Blyton decided to try and keep her characters all the same age for the duration of her series, to keep the books aimed at Children.

But I must say, both sets of books, will never stop being a thrilling read for me, because of the magic of them. Alright I didn't read Saville until a few years ago, but I was able to apperciate his style and plots more, but Blyton never has lost her appeal to me, and I hope that as I get older (And Hopefully wiser) that both authors, and both sets of books, remain as dear to me as they are now, and that I can encourage more people to read some of the greatest Children's classics of the 20th Century!

The New Famous Five! A Whole Load of Crap!

Right, So I know my first post was on the new update of the Famous Five, but suddenly over at least Four British Papers today, there have been articles on the New animation series.

I get that to get people to read the books you might have to make an animation of the books, but that does not mean that you have to update it so much that it is as unreconisable as The Famous Five- which it orginally started out as!

I suppose for most Enid Blyton Fans the definitive series of The Famous Five was the 1976 Version- which is fair enough. But as a "Verteran" Of the 1996 series I have to say along with Many others that this is going to spoil the Magic of the books and the Magic of Enid Blyton herself!

I see the point in updating the stories to Animation, but why change every single thing about The Famous Five!

These characters will become icons for the next gernation for potential Enid Blyton Fans! They will come to read the books and fall flat on them because of the fact that they are nothing like the TV Series that they grew up with!

Obviously things would have to change, for Political correctness sake (Although God knows why, Because the books are of their time) that you would have to have Ethnic Diversity, but seriously! They thing is un reconisable from it's counter-part!

To prove my point, I have posted the links to the articles in the papers, today! The Sun is particulally interesting because it has a very bad clip of the first episode! The Sound's a bit crap!

Well see what you think and Let me know you're thoughts and feelings!

Stef

Check out the whole load of crap coming from the mouths of Disney!
The Sun with added Video!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article938216.ece

The Telegraph!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/nfive119.xml

The Times!

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3584003.ece