What's that mysterious noise?

   We all go through stages of hearing things and thinking about it, whether it's songs, words/conversations or just odd noises.
   Visiting a small village in Turkey we experienced a noise that was unfamiliar to us.
   When we stepped outside the airport we were greeted by a wall of heat - even though it was like 3am. - we didn't hear much noise apart from the traffic and the odd shouts or car horns, bearing in mind this was in the city about 34598374598711 miles away from where we actually were meant to be and stay.
   Setting off in an old banger type car. - Yes, an old banger car that was too kindly labelled as 'trusty' and 'cute/smart' by my mother's partner. It was the opposite, I would describe it as a car that was old. Extremely old. Probably not to be trusted either. It looked like it would break down as soon as you moved 3 feet forward or less. Luckily it didn't though and it lasted, only just, for the week, even surviving the torturous drive up the cliff. - We drove along the edges of cliffs at three in the morning, avoiding fallen boulders and rocks and the odd branch in the middle of the road. We occasionally stopped for the obvious toilet and food break and then carried on, I slept most of the way because I was shattered and it was rather boring.
   After the exhausting drive to the village 34598374598710 miles away we then had to travel a further mile to find the hidden villa. Driving up every driveway we saw, small dangerous lanes and into the odd angry farmers house, with the farmer parading around in his discoloured pajamas shouting abuse at our lights, then I think he realized we were English and went back inside to bed. - Confused? I was. - it took us about 2 more hours to find the villa that appeared to be just around the corner from the farm. Honestly, I don't know how we missed it.
   Getting out the car a noise went off, it was something that barely any of us has ever heard before. The noise was a cross between a balloon being scraped with hands and an deep voice humming. It was so odd. It turned out to be crickets. Millions of crickets around us. Once one cricket made a noise, the whole colony started. It was annoying to start with but sitting by the pool with dragon flies landing next to you and the singing crickets around you, I felt it relaxing but it seemed to morph into the background and harmonized with the on-going calls of the birds and goats, oh, and the farmers shouts at the cows.
   Returning from the holiday my mother went to work. She had taken part in a leadership course dictated by the people she worked for and they tought her how to listen. Sounds strange but the odd minor detail we miss daily add up. What we hear is not always what is being said. There is sometimes somethings that are under the words, unsaid but still noticable. When she got in, she was really inspired to show us because it reminded her of the noise in Turkey, it showed her the true meaning of listening carefully and inspired her and all of us. It was shockingly weird. Take a listen to it and see what you think, it blew my mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujBTOPhGLMo
   ~ Soph.

Sellotape is everywhere.

  Christmas is the time of year, no doubt, when most rolls of wrapping paper, sellotape and gift tags are sold.
  Getting ready, wrapping presents, decorating the tree, even cooking the cakes for the family gets tiring. - They do their own things to prepare for Christmas, mine was to bake the cake, decorate the Christmas tree and sort out my presents and who they were going to. -
   The best part of my jobs would be decorating the tree. I get to 'style' it how I want it to be, with the colours I want and the decorations in certain places. - If any of my family touched or changed the decorations or even insulted it I would have launched a 'festive' miniature Christmas tree at them.
   The worst? The worst would definitely be wrapping the presents, although I enjoy wrapping square objects or things in a box, wrapping odd shapes like pentagons and circles are just plain frustrating to me. Either the wrapping paper admits defeat by ripping or I do and resort to getting my mother's help - I hate to do this because she seems to have the technique to do it quickly and efficiently whilst making it look easy.

   Wrapping my closest friend's presents is what I had most difficulty with. I used a whole roll of wrapping paper on about 7-8 presents. Multiple pieces on two due to the awkward shape of the container. Not only did the paper appear to be giving in but the sellotape wasn't even starting. - The end of the sellotape is evil to find, it blends in too well. Once it's found I will normally cut off about ten small pieces and put it down then curse at myself because I will have to spend at least twenty minutes trying to find it again. - Whilst enduring all this tediousness of the paper then the sellotape, my cat is sprawled out on my bed with it's taunting eyes fixed on my movements. The smug look made me want to throw a piece of paper at it, mainly to distract it for a few moments. Having all my family presents sorted, I needed to focus on the last one. This was by far the worst present to wrap I have ever come across. The hexagon shaped container made holes every single time in the paper, no matter how many layers I used. I was close to admitting defeat until I thought about a routine of doing things.
   Maybe that's all I need in the future, a routine to set me on my way, what do you think? Yes? No? Oh well it works for me.
   ~ Soph.

Relax, I have respect for myself.

    Sitting on the table and listening to the yearly blasts of Christmas music, I thought about many different things. Mainly things to do with make up designs, books, lives and my life in general.
     Thinking about the ins and outs of my experiences as a 16 year old I've begun to notice a pattern of me "Fixing things"
   Seeking out the problems I find, I feel the need to make people feel better. Often I will see someone annoyed or upset and find out every detail and piece the puzzle together then explain to them what they could do and things that they might do to make them feel better.
    Doing this "Fixing" I have experienced a few problems. One of them are described as "The black holes" Like in one of my other blogs and the others who tend to take it and throw it back in your face in order to seem more accepted. Anger instantly springs into my mind, I don't know about you.
    Feeling these negative things again seems to give them power (Once again mentioned in another blog.) over your trail of thought, putting you on a 'Downer.'
    When respect pops up though I find it confusing. I know, respect is so easy but what happens when it comes to respecting yourself and how you think?
    Respecting my emotions isn't exactly what I do best, I appear to put myself in situations that can make me feel worse than better. Although I find happiness in making others happy, I don't quite know how to do things by myself to make me happy.
    Absorbing myself in something to take my focus off another thing is what I would describe as happiness. Making up makeup designs, creating a fabity-fab meal for the family, making marzipan Christmas snowmen, going out with my closest friends or even just going for a walk by myself to give me time to "Zone out" and think about curious things that may pop into my slightly random/odd mind.
     Fixing people isn't going to make me happy and in my eyes it would be like a form of anesthetic, it kills the pain off, however after this numbing sensation the pain will be streaming through your veins and mind, playing over and over again until you find a cure to stop this torturous feeling.
    My life would be related to a candle. Burning in a certain way can show the emotions. The flame swinging from side to side shows me either an anger or excitement, the slow swaying flame shows a calm or a emotional side however when the flame is actually still it's curious. It doesn't appear to show any emotion within the actual energy or the room. The candle burns at a slow and steady point but in the end it slowly, gracefully and elegantly grows dimmer until it's a small wisp of smoke disintegrating into the air surrounding it.
     Living the life that I am currently leading with the habits I have to date, I don't see this happening very quickly. Being 16, I can appear quite impatient but I'm sure everyone can be with somethings. - Opening the biggest present under the Christmas tree can make me impatient to the point of exploding. Others it may be the most special things from that special someone in their life who means a lot. - Changing my life is something I would want to do slowly and make it worth the while. To be able to live the life I want to lead. Whether it's dancing madly in the wind like a mad swinging flame or if it's slowly waltzing around knowing that I've tried my hardest in life.
    I would want to have the best possible standards, as would you. This standard would hopefully be set by myself in the future.
    The thing is instead of me wanting this, I'm going to have it.
    I hope you think the same for yourself.
   ~ Soph.