One for the single ladies

I'm reading a book at the moment (shock!) called 'He's just not that into you'. Yes I have written a piece on the subject before and you may have heard of the film.

It's got me thinking about guys and girls.

Girls, we're taught throughout our life that a guy will come along, sweep us off our feet and we'll live happily ever after. Books, films, programmes even friends and family tell us stories about those guys but it rarely happens in reality.

What we want is a guy that will treat us how we want to be treated, buy us gifts just cause he felt like it, go on romantic holidays, take us out to nice places, love us, care for us, trust us, talk to us and want to be seen with us.

We don't want to settle for less than that... we want him!

What we want to know is do guys like that exist? I'm not trying to scare any of you by saying that guys like this don't exist, it's just hard trying to find them! I don't want you looking at books and magazines for help because they might sound like they know what they're talking about, actually they do know what they're talking about but stuff like that will only scare you and make you feel crap. They'll tell you about how to meet the perfect guy, how you know when you've found him and how to live happily ever after. Articles and books like that will only bring you down. You'll listen to them and take in their advice and then when you go out and test it and it doesn't work, you'll come home thinking you're gonna end up like that crazy lady across the road with 10+ cats. Or maybe you'll think you'll end up like Miss Havisham and lock yourself in a room full of stuff you were going to have at your wedding and constantly stay in your would have been wedding dress.

Ladies, ladies, ladies. How pathetic can we get?

Young girls these days... as young as 10 maybe even younger, will complain about not having a boyfriend! My friends are always on about how they haven't got a boyfriend like it's the end of the world. Unless you're over 40 and you're still single then what are you worrying about??

I get that you want to be loved and want to belong to someone and have someone to call your own but seriously, there's no rush. You don't have to lock yourself in your room crying thinking your life is over because you don't have a guy.

Please, because you feel lonely, don't go out and settle for less than you deserve! I know, it's hard feeling lonely, it feels horrible but you're not lonely remember... you do have mates and family! I know I've said that it's rare that you'll find a guy who'll treat you the way you should be treated but it will happen. There is someone out there for all of us... that's why there's so many people in the world!

Don't wait for that guy though and don't go out and search till you reach the ends of the Earth... it will happen on it's own. He might be right in front of your eyes and you didn't realise. You might be out for a walk one day and he comes round the corner and bumps into you. You might meet him while you're out shopping. The list is endless! Go out and have fun! Sure you might end up having a few relationships before you get to him but that's part of life, we all go through that.

One more thing, don't make a list of all the things you want in a guy because you'll never find a guy who fits all those things... you won't even find a human being that will fit every thing on your check list. It's not fair on the guys either. No guy will want to be analysed and want to tick off everything on your check list, it'll make him feel crap.

The same goes for all the men in the films and books. Because of all those fictional, handsome, brave, strong men (did I mention fictional?) women now have expectations of what men should be like... stereotypes if you will. If they don't walk, talk, look like the guys we fantasise about, we become disappointed and realise that we'll never find our Prince Charming. How do you think guys feel about that when we tell them 'I'm sorry but you're just not what I'm looking for.' If you act and think like that, you won't find what you're looking for!

You'll get some guys out there who will treat you like a princess but no, you won't want him because he doesn't look like Bradley Cooper or Gerard Butler (or whoever!) or doesn't act like... Romeo!

Leave the Prince Charmings and Romeos in the books and films. Find your own guy. Don't make check lists, don't settle for less than you deserve and just go out and have fun. You only get one life remember, you're not a cat (even though I'm pretty sure cats probably don't have 9 lives!) so live it! Don't spend the majority of your life searching for 'him' or sat being miserable in your bedroom wishing you were with 'him'.

Oh and remember, you're amazing, you're beautiful, you're one in a million any guy would be lucky to be with you and you deserve to be happy and live a fantastic life. Don't tell yourself any different and don't let anyone tell you different either! :)

One for the book lovers

Hey guys and gals!

You all probably know how much I love books- so much so, that I ran upstairs the other day when I remembered that I'd left my skylight (window) open and it had been raining. My bookcase is under the skylight!! Luckily my books were unharmed :) - So I thought I'd talk about my love for books!

So far this year I've read 5 books and I'm on my 6th. That's quite good for me! I take forever to read books, and I mean forever! The quickest I've read a book was in a week I think... Although! I'm doing pretty well with the one I'm on at the moment. Started it Sunday and I've read 353 pages out of 564 which is quite good... 353 pages in 3 days!

Anyway! My obsession with books started in January. I don't actually know what brought it on but since then I've had to physically stop myself from buying books! I even had to give my mum my bank card to stop me! The thing is... if I like an author then I'll end up buying the rest of their books. Take Cecelia Ahern, I read 'P.S I love you' last year and I loved it... I now have 6 of her books and I'm now waiting until the time when I can buy the rest of hers! She's amazing! Incredible, fantastic, wonderful, fabulous writer! She gets me hooked from the start of every book. I've got to say though, I loved the meaning behind 'The Gift' but I wasn't a fan... didn't really get into that one, but the others!! Just, wow. She's the Queen of modern day fairytale. I don't like romantic crap and with Ahern's books, yes okay there is some love in there but most of the time it's about a fantastic journey that the character, or characters go on. She's really unique. Just promise me you'll go out and buy (or borrow from a library) at least one of her books, I probably recommend 'The book of tomorrow' or 'Thanks for the memories'.

I'm really going off topic here and babbling on aren't I? But isn't that what I do best? and why people keep reading my blogs! I've got 700 and something hits, some people must like me!

So, to the point! I love books because they take you to a whole other world. You go places, see things in your head and meet people and get to know all about them and experience their adventure with them.

With days like I've had today, it's nice to escape from reality and just go off somewhere on my own and listen to someone else's life story (fictional life story). When I read, I'm really in the zone. Everything around me gets blocked out and it's the greatest feeling ever. I could just read forever, but I'm human so I can't... I have needs and of course a life. (Yes! I do have a life!!).

You know when people say that a good book draws you in and you can get lost in books. They're completely right. Obviously not in the physical sense but definitely mentally. You do lose track of time and you even put other things on hold just to get to the end of the chapter or the page.

'I just need to finish this chapter and then I'll do it!'

'Can I just get to the end of the page first?'

You know when you come across a successful author when they really have you hooked. Sometimes I get that into a book that I just have to read and read to find out what happens and I have to have something really important to do (like eat!) in order for me to stop. Leave me alone in a room with a book and I'll stay there for the day. I have been stuck at home all day today and I've just literally sat on my bed and read nearly all day because I was too ill to do anything else. Escaping to 'book world' today has been just what I needed. Put all my feelings and troubles aside and focused on the thoughts and feelings of the characters in the book.

Coming back to reality is tough sometimes but obviously no-one can sit and read forever. We each have our own book that we live out everyday. Yes, most of the time it is nothing like the books that we read but it's a completely different story altogether. No-one can make up the things that happen in our lives. Life is unpredictable, wonderful, tough, beautiful, stressful, filled with love, drama, sadness, happiness and of course the list goes on.

Reading isn't a waste of time. You learn life skills, they sometimes help you make your own decisions, you can learn a heck of a lot from books! Fictional or non fictional.

My challenge for those of you who don't read is to give it a go. You might say that you don't like reading, it's boring etc etc but give it a go! Borrow or buy a book that you've always thought 'That looks cool/interesting' and read it!!! There are so many books out there, there's literally one for everyone. Give it a go, you only live once and you might even learn something new :)