Electric Violins & Charity

I couldn't think of anything else to call this so this will have to suffice.

So I went on my lunch break yesterday and as I was walking through the local shopping centre I could hear a violin playing.

And as I got nearer I saw a young woman playing the electric violin and she had a sign that said she was raising money for Cancer Research UK and Hilton In The Community Foundation by busking in 9 different places over 5 days which would add up to 24 hours. I'm a little late to this party because I'm pretty sure that yesterday was the last day of her charity tour.

I looked her up on the internet when I got back to my desk and it turns out it was Alexandra Parker who was on Britain's Got Talent in 2011. Now I don't watch Britain's Got Talent but in my opinion either the act that beat Alexandra was absolutely phenomenal or she definitely was robbed.

She has a blog and a YouTube channel.

If you go to her blog or watch her recent vlogs you can find out more about this including where you can donate... ;)

And I'll leave you with Alexandra playing the violin...

Heat Induced Ramblings

WARNING: This is a ramble. I repeat this is a ramble.

It is hot in the UK at the moment. For the last week it has been almost constantly in the late 20s to early 30s (degrees centigrade).

Now I know there are some of you out there where that kind of temperature is nothing. But this is the UK... we aren't used to this kind of heat. Every couple of years we might have 2 or 3 days of sun but that's about it. The last time we had a heatwave like this (apparently it is being classed as a heatwave) was in 2006.

Something that makes weather like this unbearable is having hay fever (I love some of the advice they give out for hay fever sufferers - which tends to be DON'T GO OUTSIDE!). I can't really sleep with the windows open, and walking along outside can be difficult when EVERYONE is cutting their grass (and yes I do take hay fever medication - but that does have it's limits).

So heatwave facts. I haven't actually slept in bed for over a week, I've been sleeping on top of the covers. I haven't worn socks for a week, and I have worn nothing but dresses for just under a week.

The building I used to work in has lovely air conditioning. But the building we expanded in to and I had to move in to has no air conditioning whatsoever - fans just seem to move warm air around the room (that being the same room that has 4 computers running in it).

And as I briefly mentioned last week my skin has 2 shades - pale and burnt, so I can't even lounge around in the sun without first having a bath in sun lotion of the highest factor.

In other news I had a bit of a splurge online at New Look - if you can call 3 tops, a pair of knickers, a bracelet and a necklace a splurge. But this splurge got me thinking. Every winter I put my 'summer' clothes in vacuum bags, and every summer I do the same with my 'winter' clothes.

Well I use these times to get rid of some clothes that I haven't been wearing or don't want any more. And I can already think of a few tops I'll be getting rid of - even though when I took them out of the vacuum bag not too long ago I made the decision to keep them.

And by getting rid of I mean take to the charity shop, and for a slightly selfish reason - I can't be bothered at the moment to put them on eBay. I can't be bothered to go through the rigmarole of photographing the items, and describing them, and working out postage, and for them not to sell the first 2 or 3 times, and then having to post them.

So I'll be lazy and let the charity shops in my area have them instead.

If you're in the UK how are you coping with the heat? And if you're not in the UK what's the weather like where you are?

Shopping & Charity Shops

I like shopping... if you look at my blog header it declares that I'm a shopaholic.

I'm not a bad shopaholic, I'm not greatly in debt to shopping (In fact I have no debt to shopping only to student loans).

And when I inevitably end up with things I no longer like or want. Or things I can't turn in to something new or sell on eBay, I donate them to charity.

But I don't often do the other way round - I can't think of anything currently in my wardrobe that I got from a charity shop.

I come across blogs every so often declaring charity shops to be fantastic and just look at whatever treasure they found in their local.

Well I must live in the wrong area because a lot of what is in the charity shops near where I live leaves a lot to be desired. (Although I've never come across anything I've donated.)

Retro Chick posted earlier this year a guide to charity shop shopping. And although I read it at the time I might need to study it further as clearly I'm not looking in charity shops properly.

The only treasures (to me any way) that I find tend to be on Etsy... or the aforementioned eBay.

Whitby In November...

...is cold.

The other week I went to the Whitby Goth Weekend. I seemed to mention it constantly on my writing blog, even though it was in no way writing related (I was using it as an excuse for no NaNo-ing - yes NaNoWriMo is upon us).

I went during the Whitby Goth Weekend. I felt a little under dressed in my purple jeans and purple Dr Martens. I'd decided to not go completely in black because that's not me... I did put on eye makeup which I don't usually do when I'm not at work or going out at night. But I only did that to avoid being mistaken for a child... like the other day when a shop assistant who was probably younger than me asked the man ahead of me if it was alright for her to serve 'this little girl first'. I came very closer to shouting 'I'm 26' at her but thought better of it.

It rained for the first two hours that we were in Whitby so we got a little bit wet to say the least but it was better than being at work.

There were some pretty cool vehicles there too. I didn't get a picture of the Rolls Royce hearse but there is one on Dolly Cool Clare's blog - if you scroll down about two thirds of the way down the page you can see the hearse there. And some other pictures of Whitby.

I actually bought some jewellery from Dolly Cool a couple of months ago, that I really want to blog about because they are indeed cool... so I will try and do that before the end of the year... which is also fast approaching.

Anyway back to Whitby. I took some photos, not of any of the Goth things that were going off. I feel odd about approaching strangers and asking to take their photos so I didn't bother.

I went all the way to Whitby, across the misty North York Moors, which was a little scary, and what did I take a picture of?

A robin! A slightly demonic looking robin but a robin all the same... they are so cute.

So anyway before I sign off on this random post about Whitby I thought I'd mention a charity that was at the Goth Weekend - The Sophie Lancaster Foundation

Sophie Lancaster was a girl who was kicked to death in 2007 purely because she looked different. The people - and I use the term loosely - who did it are a waste of space and resources.I know I'm incredibly naive when I wonder why we can't just all get along.

You can get some pretty cool merchandise to help show your support - well I think it's cool anyway. Good designs to help get the message across.

Til my next post... toodles!