This is what I will do today

I'm in the mood for a listless day with my nose inside a book. No worries about the future, no thoughts about work and bills. Just me time, tomorrow will take care of itself. Worrying about it won't change anything, worrying about what may happen, or what may not happen. Ruminate, worry, ruminate, get anxious, worry. Not today, my life will not be dependent on the flap of a butterfly's wing. Today is just today.

So leave me alone Mr Lorenz...

Let's talk make-up.....

Browsing my way round Boots the Chemist the other day, as one does, clutching a No7 voucher in my sweaty little palms I came upon a rather attractive electric blue liquid eyeliner, which I thought I must have, afterwards reaching the till with my purchase, a rather enthusiastic assistant reminded me that it was a "buy 1, get one half price" day and proceeded to convince me of the wonders of No.7 Stay Perfect mascara. She proudly told me that her friend had worn it all day AND all night and it was still there the following day, just like it'd been freshly applied, I marvelled aghast. At a hefty 12.95 it's not cheap though, but I'm easy to bribe with special offers so I relented. With the eyeliner and mascara it all came to £13 anyway. I came away unsure as to whether or not I'd been done like a kipper, but the two would normally have come to around £20 anyway so I had saved some money.....even if I didn't really need the mascara.

The No.7 Stay Perfect Long-lasting volume mascara claims to be waterproof, smudgeproof, flakeproof, sweatproof, humidityproof and tearproof, which for me isn't too bad considering I've been cursed with wussy eyes that water at the slightest breeze, squint at a 40 watt bulb and pretty much water up whenever there is the slightest evidence of grass pollen, tree pollen or a quick blast from the back of some car's exhaust pipe, which has me welling up from one eye like an upset circus freak. Remarkably, my one two coloured left eye reacts while the other right eye just sits there looking relatively unaffected. I've been known to turn up at events looking like a Clockwork Orange tribute act simply because there was a powerful gust of wind that day.

So, yes, a mascara that promises to do all this is welcome. And it DOES stay on all night and the rest of the following day, which is great, although it really isn't a good idea to leave your mascara on for that long. And the one thing they don't tell you is that this wonderful mascara is also remove proof too. Apparently it comes off with warm water...really? Er not for me it doesn't and it doesn't come off easily with baby oil either, which for me is the ultimate waterproof mascara remover for me. I've actually been able to painlessly peel off an entire mascarad eyelash from my lid - not good. However, it must be said that when Boots say you can wear it all day and night, I assume that what they mean is you can wear it all day and all evening without having to reapply it, which is good.

The lesson here then ladies, or gentleman for that matter, is don't sleep in industrial strength mascara unless you want to lose your eyelashes. It isn't as awful as I'm making out, no, really. I do still have a full set on each eye, but I will be removing it in future a lot sooner. For those of you who tend to fall asleep in a drunken stupor complete with eye makeup then the No 7 Stay Perfect mascara is for you.

Aristole once said that beauty depends on size as well as symmetry, and there's no symmetry in missing stubbly eyelashes or one makeupless eye. One must choose the lesser of two evils. Yes, beauty really can be this complicated.

Au revoir for now ladies and gentlemen.

Paths of Glory

 

 Taken from Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas in 1957 and directed by Stanley Kubrick, this for me is one of the most evocative scenes illustrating the horrors of war, shot in black and white we see Kirk Douglas' grim face as a reverse tracking shot traces his path through a World War I trench at Ant Hill. There is no music, no dialogue, only gunfire. Stanley Kubrick made two war films; Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket, both films made 30 years apart. They were one of many genres that Kubrick covered in his lifetime. He is considered one of the greatest filmmaker of all time and rightly so.

Memories of my bedroom

" I still see my childhood bedroom exactly as it was, the pink walls and floor with the swirly patterns, the bedroom window looking directly out onto the garden. The little inlaid wardrobe to the left, the old brown wardrobe to my right. There's  that little shelf near the door my mother kept my night light on. My single bed faced the door. A dressing table complete with mirror faced the window. It was so cold in there, sometimes when I daydreamed I lay on the bed with my old auntie's bedraggled fur coat over me, my smoky breath coming out in quick bursts as I pretended to be someone else, or pretended to be somewhere else. When I rose I left an imprint on the bed like a criminal chalk outline.  The room was arranged exactly the way my mother wanted, it couldn't be any other way. Sometimes there'd be the glow of a two bar electric fire when the nights were really cold and a hot water bottle tucked under the various shaped blanket cut outs and shapes that decorated my bed. You had to be imaginative to stay warm.

I go there inside my head all the time and it is always as I remember it. I can't imagine how it must look now, I'm not sure I want to. I'm sure it conforms to the designs currently in fashion, maybe a wood panelled floor, oak floor boards if they can afford it, or linoleum if they can't, a cheap substitute but popular these days. Whitewashed walls and oak effect shelving, a minimalist dream. All a million miles away from the bedroom I remember. I can only remember it the way it was, that's the way it has to be.

I now have a better understanding of the word 'hiraeth,' a Welsh word that has no exact translation, it is a word for longing, a craving for the past, a place, or someone. In Levels of Life Julian Barnes had found a German equivalent 'Sehnsucht,' "a longing for something" (p.112). I wonder if someone has to die before you feel hiraeth or Sehnuscht, or maybe a broken love affair or a falling out will suffice. I do not have the answer."

Playtime

When I was a child I played with old celebration cards, mainly old birthday and Christmas cards. They became corners in which to hide from unseen enemies and they could be changed to create different shapes, rectangles, squares and triangles of adventure, whole houses with their own rooms and corridors. A labyrinthe of mystery and chaos. My characters were interestingly shaped rubber pencil tops. They were characters in my stories; and they had their own monsters and shadows to slay. They would weave their way in and out of white card doorways and swirling patterns of festive baubles and pastel flowers.

I spent hours playing this way, sometimes not speaking for several hours unless one or both of my parents asked me a direct question. When I wasn't doing that I was reading. I could do that for several hours without speaking too, I was already becoming proficient at self-sufficiency in a small yet important way.

Beaumaris

Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour

 While strolling around the street of Beaumaris I had to visit my favourite ice cream parlour – the Red Boat. What can I say, if you love ice cream then you will need to come to the Red Boat in Beamaris, never have I enjoyed sitting in an ice cream parlour more, and it’s not just because of the ice cream either. I love the décor; the bright red fifties feel sofas and oak effect tables. The glass cabinets are bursting and teeming with ice cream of every flavour imaginable, puffins sitting whimsically on the shelves and the smell of fresh coffee in the air. Pictures of boats adorn the walls and there’s the delicious whiff of coffee.

 

 

Yes at Red Boat you don’t have to choose ice cream if you don’t want, although why you wouldn’t baffles me, there are at least 200 flavours to choose from and all hand made on the premises. It’s made of gelato which is Italian and meant to be less fattening than more conventional ice cream, so you can have a guilt free bowl of ice cream dream while you watch the world go by. Gelato dates back to the 16^th century and those cheeky Italians are responsible for spreading the word across Europe as to the saucy delights of the miracle that is gelato. What’s not to like?

 However, as I'm trying to cut down of late; on this occasion I chose a new item on the menu, fresh salmon, scrambled egg on brown bread and a generous mug of Americano coffee. A most congenial atmosphere as usual with customers of all ages chatting cheerfully away, some with a rather attractive plateful of those dinky little sandwiches, others with their young children ordering from the generous amount of ice cream from the glass cabinet.

 Did I mention the ice cream?

Well, there are 200 flavours to choose from all made on the premises; the ones in the glass cabinet are only a nosegay of what lies within the walls of the Red Boat Parlour. Sea Buckthorn and orange, orange and peach sorbet, organic apple sorbet, pineapple and basil sorbet, pear sorbet, crème brulee, strawberry and cream ice cream, pure vanilla, mint choc chip, banana and custard, heavenly chocolate honeycrumb crunch. Oh and they also have a delightful bara brith flavour. For the uninitiated of you that don’t know what a bara brith is, it's a cake type loaf that comes with currants and sultanas. Imagine that as an ice cream.

I don’t think I can recommend the Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour enough, it’s just about the sweetest, most delicious ice cream parlour you're likely to find.

 

Did I mention the Ice cream? Oh yes….

Find red boat ice cream parlour here...
www.redboatgelato.com

Gillian is a fulltime copywriter
providing web and blog content, brochures, leaflets, newsletters, and marketing SEO 
www.taith.net/
www.ysbrydion.blogspot.co.uk
email: Pandora.77@hotmail.co.uk

Beaumaris

tinkers & belles

I left behind my office desk and ventured out into the wilderness more commonly known as “outside” yesterday. This endeavour was intended to give me a little fresh air, introduce me to potential clients, and allow me to see that the sky is still blue and the grass is still green. That’s how often I go out these days as I’m so busy trying to build up business; you know what it’s like.

 Anyhow, I ventured out into the fresh air and decided that I would visit what has to be one of my favourite towns, Beaumaris. A small town full of quaint little shops, warm and inviting pubs and candy coloured houses, it’s flanked by a large castle complete with moat. It has to be one of the sweetest little towns in North Wales. What’s more important is that this town, unlike a lot of towns, is full of small local business struggling to survive a recession. The kind of local business we should all be supporting before we all end wind up living in another soulless town with a concrete shopping mall we’ve seen a million times before. The sort of shops where the owners remember your name and don’t have automatic email alerts that remember your name only because some stranger typed it in.

 

 

As I walked around casually taking in the scenery I ventured up a side street and accidentally fell upon what has to be one of the most delightful little shops for young children I’ve ever come across. It felt like I’d entered another world, and what really impressed me was that unlike one of those larger stores you find on industrial estates, the owner had clearly taken time to arrange everything in such a way that it made walking around it a real pleasure. Long eared cloth bunnies sitting prettily on brightly coloured shelves, long legged clowns peeking out from the side of a cupboard, rocking horses and books and sweet candy coloured petticoats all in a row. There were shelves of books and animal cars, stacks of brightly coloured clothes and knitted elephants. And what I absolutely loved were the animal shaped bicycle helmets. It made me want to be the mother of a small child again and I don’t say that often.

 

 

 

 

It made me reminisce about my own childhood; those bygone days when toys were toys and you were less likely to plonk the kids in front of the TV, and children were forced to use that mysterious thing they call “the imagination.”

 All in all a really delightful shop with a friendly and engaging owner, a shop that caters for young children and toddlers and is definitely worth a visit should you be passing, and the good news is that they have an online store with brands such as Bob and Blossom, Belle and Boo, Frugi, and Moi Kidz with free delivery all for orders over £30. www.tinkersandbelles.com

 

Gillian Jones is a full time freelance writer/copywriter.
Competitive rates: Web content/blogs/articles/marketing/SEO
White papers/reports/proofreading/CV Resumes/Brochures/Leaflets/Newsletters
www.taith.net/

www.ysbrydion.blogspot.co.uk
Email: pandora.77@hotmail.co.uk