The Place I Call Home

I am from Northern Ireland.

It is the 96th smallest country in the world, has a population of approximately 1,799,392 (as recorded in the 2010 census), the biggest city is Belfast and the country itself is 99.15% white in ethnicity, with 91% of that statistic being born and bred in the country. It's made up of the six counties, Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Londonderry, Armagh and Down and the flag is the Ulster Banner.

We have a thriving arts and culture sector, with musicians, painters, poets, and writers being well supported by the community, as homegrown talent is taken seriously. Surf culture is growing on the north coast, which hosts some of what I think are the most stunning beaches in the world.

Since we're such a small country we're incredibly proud of anything that we can call our own, from C.S. Lewis to Liam Neeson, from the Giants Causeway to the Mourne Mountains, we're a patriotic bunch, even if we don't admit it.

This is the place I will always call home, the place that I'd like to stop pushing away.

Before I moved to Scotland for university I adored Northern Ireland, but after having lived in a country with more than 3 trainlines for almost 4 years, it's become a place that I struggle to return to. It feels like a bubble, restrictive and bland, sometimes a little bit backwards. When I go home I can't get a bus after 6pm and I have to rely on friends and family for lifts everywhere because I can't afford to drive. When I do want to escape my hometown I have to get the train which travels only 12 miles in the space of 40 minutes. In Scotland I spend the same amount of time, and less money, going 30 or 40 miles down the road to Glasgow, with the ability to further to the capital city of Edinburgh or, if I fancy it, as far as London. 

I don't know where I'll be later this year, but I know that if it's Northern Ireland, my main aim is to learn to drive. I want to explore the place I call home in my own time, on my own terms. I want to fall in love with it for my own reasons, not just stick it out because I have to.

I have reasons to be bitter about where I'm from. It holds a lot of negative memories, there were a lot of people who really tore me down, made me feel like I wasn't good enough. But university has taught me that everyone is worth my time, no matter who they are, so it doesn't matter if people still think I'm a nerd because, well, I am haha. But I embrace it these days.

But I don't know if I'll ever have to really call it home again. It will always be the place I return to, but it might never again be the place I reside. Who knows, really?

x

My Month As A Pescetarian

2:24am is a good time to start writing isn't it? Hah...

I have been mildly shocked and surprised this month, but not really by the food, mostly by the reactions of meat eaters. People have told me I won't get any iron without meat (though bran flakes are full of this, along with numerous other vitamins, such as vitamin D, B6, B12...), that I'd have to take numerous supplements (see previous brackets, as well as considering how much fruit and veg intake has gone up), that without meat there's nothing to eat (if this is true, then why am I not losing weight?!), that my diet must be bland... the list goes on. And, after a while, I learnt to ignore most of it because the past month has actually opened my eyes to so many different foods that I wouldn't of tried had I continued to eat meat. Some of my favourite vegetarian/pescetarian meals include spinach, sweet poato and lentil dahl, vegetable stir fry (which can be made with numerous sauces), mexican vegetable soup, Morroccan chickpea soup, goats cheese risotto, baked sweet potato (with so many different fillings), pasta bake, roasted vegetable tart, fish tacos, sushi, as well as so many different types of salad.

Someone asked me at one point "do you just eat fish and vegetables?" I mean, how does a pescetarian answer that? Fish and vegetables may be the main part of my diet but it's not like I just boil some veg, stick a slice of fish in the oven and eat it like that. Take the fish tacos, for instance. I bought smoked mackerel marinated in ginger, lemon and chilli, fried it up, and bulked out the taco with lettuce, tomatoes, jalepenos, salsa... And something like Morroccan chickpea soup is full of vegetables and beans, as well as different spices which give it the most amazing flavour. I have eaten well, cheaply, and have discovered so many diverse foods this month, that I wouldn't of even considered had I stuck with meat.

Someone also once said to me that all vegetarians eat is pasta. This month I have eaten less pasta than ever before. I usually go through a really big packet of pasta in a month, but this month I've only half finished a small packet. One thing that's really frustrated me is the pizza issue. Every time I say it's hard to get good, vegetarian pizzas someone comes out with "just get a margharita." I mean... what?! Margharitas are the most bland things I've ever tasted, if I want a vegetarian pizza I want it covered in as many different types of vegetable as you can fit on there, along with a few different types of cheese. This frustrated me massively when I didn't feel like cooking today and went to Tesco, to discover about 5 shelves full of margharitas and only one mushroom pizza in amongst the countless different types of meat pizza. I don't even like mushrooms on pizza. I had the same sort of issue in Filling Station last week, only finding about 6 or 7 vegetarian options (no fish, of course...) on the menu.

So I have a few days left of being pescetarian and, in all honesty, I'm not sure I'm going to go back to being an omnivore. I like how much cheaper my groceries are and I'm so much healthier, because eating less meat and more veggies and fruit has encouraged me, over all, to eat better and to cut out the junk. One of my main reasons for giving up meat was because of the fact that we take advantage of our meat supplies in the west, and I've been thinking more about this over the past few weeks. Today I cracked open an egg to discover the yolk was a very pale colour; this is a sign of a stressed out chicken that hasn't had enough living space. Those eggs were labelled as free range. So how much are farmers getting away with these days? Are these supposedly free range chickens really free range, or do they just have a little bit more space than the average battery hen? As a media student I'm very aware of how much the media (and the government) hide from us, so it makes me a little nervous to think that the people who sell me my food could be lying to me as well.

Anyway, I shall head off to bed now.
x

I Am A Sparrow

Sometimes life knocks us off our feet.

It makes us realise that we weren't as sure of ourselves as we thought we were.
Wounds are once again opened, the salt is poured back in, and things start to sting.

We think we're a great lion until that day when we realise we're actually a little Sparrow,
Drifting in the wind, eating earthworms.

But something we often forget is that,
While the lion may roar oh, so loud,
The little Sparrow fights against the cold, winter chill,
Clinging on to branches when storms come,
Building its nest on tree tops,
And soaring above the clouds.

I'm happy to be a Sparrow.

War Horse: An Alternative Review

So I realise that War Horse was released a really long time and the reviews on it have been and gone, but I didn't manage to see it until last night, so I want to give you my thoughts.

War Horse may not have been made brilliantly. There may have been some obvious green screen useage and overly orange lighting, but I'm coming to realise that maybe Spielberg's heart doesn't come out in his great filmmaking abilities. I think Spielberg wants to tell epic stories. People don't care for stories much anymore. They want explosions and dead bodies and war and pain that looks real. War Horse was not a war film, and I think that upset some people. This was a film, a beautiful film, about the way we connect with animals. Which isn't something many people appreciate, because it's viewed as "cheesy" or "silly".

Throughout history animals were sent to war, just like people. They took part in the fight but had no option to turn back. When a soldier was wounded and could no longer fight he was sent home; a wounded horse was shot. I believe that, without animals, the war would have been even tougher.

The film ends with Albert, the main character, sillhoueted on horseback, riding home across the Devonshire countryside at sunset to one of the most beautiful film scores I have ever heard; John Williams certainly did this story justice. War Horse was not a great film, it wasn't a work of art, it wasn't a war film, but it was a great story, and, call me old fashioned but, for that, I think Spielberg deserves some credit.

x

My Lush Experience

At the minute I'm trying to sort my skin out and I've heard so many good things about Lush, so today I went to the store in Stirling to get some samples of their skin care products, and it was probably one of the best shopping experiences I’ve ever had.

I went in, got a nice hello from one of the sales assistants and when I asked for some samples I was expecting for her to just ask my skin type, put some stuff in some tubs and send me on my way. I was very, very wrong. The lovely lady sat me down and went through a bunch of products with me, testing them all out on my hands and fully explaining what they all contained and advising me when and how often to use them.

It’s crazy the amount of products I’ve come home with: two cleansers, two toners, two moisturisers, two face masks, and a wee sampler of their ‘Grease Lightnin’ spot treatment. Unlike brands you’ll find in a drug store/chemist all Lush products are made with natural, organic ingredients and nothing is tested on animals.
These are the products I got:

• Brazened Honey face mask
• Cupcake face mask
• Eau Roma water
• Tea Tree water
• Angels On Bare Skin cleanser
• Ultra Bland cleanser
• Enzymion moisturiser
• Imperialis moisturiser
• Grease Lightnin’ moisturiser

I plan to do a review of all the products once I’ve tried them out and will hopefully be heading back into the store in a week or so to pick up my favourites! I would recommend to anyone who thinks that Lush sells nothing but bath bombs and soap to go in and ask for a few samples because it really is one of the best shopping experiences I’ve ever had.

x