As I write this I’m on the train to my university. The clock on my computer has just hit 7am. I’ve been up for two hours already and yet I feel compelled to go back to sleep. The temptation of letting my body jostle as the train moves along, swaying my unconscious head from side to side is haunting me. I want to sleep so badly and yet I can’t, because I’ve got a lecture in an hour and my stop isn’t at the end of the line. I feel asleep on a bus once and missed my stop completely, only to be awoken by the bus driver who wanted me to get off ‘his bus’. He was tired and so was I, too tired to argue, so I got off the bus at the last stop and caught a bus back to my planned destination.
When you get to that destination what do you do though? The trip has ended, there’s no point in sleeping, that stage of the journey is no more. So you trudge up the hill in your opaque stockings and aline skirt, a satchel full of text books and those few buys you bought in the city on your way home. You didn’t plan to buy the pieces but heck, you did anyway. There’s that gorgeous Cable Knit Dress and that fabulous pair of Marc Jacob flats that you just couldn’t resist. They’ve left a dint of about half a grand in your wallet but because it’s on the credit card it’s all good.
Credit Card? These seem to be the answer to our prayers but no, no, no they aren’t. Interest and growing dependence on the cards are dangerous substances to work with. It’s like you’ve covered yourself in fuel and you’re smoking a lit cigarette. I personally don’t own a credit card and it’s not in my future plans. So when I’m thinking about my latest purchase it strikes me, I COULD have used a credit card... but I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t have my own home loan to contend with, I don’t have a car, I don’t have children and I have a job so it’s COMPLETELY out of the question. As much as I love Marc Jacob shoes and Chanel handbags I’m not going to get myself a credit card or apply for a loan to buy their latest collections.
Don’t sound like much of a shopaholic do I? I remember watching “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in March, a while back now, and feeling shopper’s remorse without even buying anything. I walked out of the cinema and there it was, that big pit of shame, I couldn’t buy anything for a whole two days. It got me thinking, is this guilt selfish guilt or is it honest guilt? Are we honestly worried about someone else? About our partner or our family?; or are we so caught up in our own selfish guilt that we are more worried about what others (the outside world) will think about our spending habits? It’s not about our bank balance at all. It’s about our reputation.
Years ago it was cool to own the latest thing, to spend a lot of money to look fashionable, in some areas it still is, but the majority of the world are more fixated on getting the best price and finding the best bargain. If you get the latest Prada bag it’s nice but selfish guilt kicks in and you start to think about how you will be viewed by the rest of society. Will they look down on you for being materialistic or will they look at you and think you are looking down on them? The uncertainty of your position in society tends to make you feel concerned for your reputation. Those who have already established a firm reputation as ‘a shopaholic’ have broken through the stage of ‘reputation concern’. The stress of the situation has decreased dramatically and their self esteem has sky rocketed as a result.
♥
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Confessions of THIS shopaholic
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Romantic White
There's something a little bit romantic about a white winter and although Australia is not the place for snow you can still take a tip from Paris and dress in white. The tip to this trend is to show of a 'bit' of skin, but keep it to one area. If you're showing a bit of leg then don't show your bosom and vice versa.
♥
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Change... for the better?
Hey Sweetharts,
I am so happy at the moment I have to write about it all. I know this blog has turned somewhat into a lifestyle one, with weekly rambles, style tips and reflections. I love coming on here and writing everyday. I love having a routine of Free Thoughts, weekly top fives and weekly inspirations. I love writing...
but I have recently come to a realisation, thanks to my most amazing group of friends, my mother who is almost always right and one of my fabulous history professors; instead of solely writing as my career I will most probably teach others to do so. Haha. Funny it may seem now but i may be your child's history teacher!
In year 11 and 12 I had the privledge to be taught by, in my opinion, one of the greatest highschool teachers I've ever come to face. His marking was harsh and critical and he knew what he was talking about; he was able to drop a date out of the middle of nowhere. He began my fascination with Ancient Rome, as I knew only concise information before my classes taught by him. I still keep in contact with this teacher of mine and I use many many of this things he taught me in my work at university.
Before senior schooling I had never thought teaching was an option, that I could possibly be a historiographer with a class of students. I had never thought the label 'historian' could fall next to my name, but my history lecturer at university told me recently when he was reviewing my marks that 'you write like a very practised historian'. I was so thrown back by the comment that I took it to the side and didn't think about it, until I was talking to mum about the book I'm reading 'TYRANTS' by Colin Foss. It is a great read by the way. She said to me, "Fashion Journalism would be wasted on you Claire. Why aren't you reaching higher? Write about history." She also added, "and I don't know how you can read that before you go to bed. It's gruesome. Vlad the Impaler?" haha
So thanks to these two and my friends at university as well as the only person I trust with everything, my best friend and sister, "SHOUT OUT TO YOU BEAUTIFUL!", I think i'm on a new path, or at least i've gone right instead of left. After my study in history & communications I plan to do a post graduate in either teaching or journalism depending on which way I'd like to go and I'm already starting to write notes for my biography on Julius Caesar (the most fasinating figure in history).
I've also made a transition with work. I used to work in a jewelry store and before that a cinema franchise but now I am glad to stay I have been working at my new job, in homewares and furniture, for three months! It is a great permanent position that lets me interact with people and a great product and my manager is really nice.
So study & work is great. My friends are great but my group has changed since I graduated. In fact im not only part of one or two groups but five haha. My best friend and I go out to dinner, movies, parties every week with a group of girls, some went to my highschool, others didn't and we laugh. I love them because they are mature and although I love my other friends not all of them understand the term 'adult'.
My second group revolves mainly around my other very close friend. She is there for me when I need her and I'm there for when she needs me, whether it be to laugh, cry or just have a good bitch. We have organised a trip away in the winter break, just the two of us, as we had so much fun at schoolies last year.
The next two groups are present at uni. I have my history friends who are all fasinated with what I am, yay. We talk about the Romans and the Russian Revolution constantly. It's nice to have people who enjoy what you enjoy and are planning on riding the same path as you. The last group is my communications girls. We go on little adventures, watch the most random videos and just have an absolute ball. They are the funniest girls I know.
My last group live in a whole different state but not state-of-mind. They and I have been friends since middle school and we visit each other once as year at least. We have so much fun and I always wish the catchups would never end. There are other people I am friends with that I see often but we aren't a 'group' of friends neccesarily.
So yess it's a strange feeling. This sense of adultness, this sense of responsibility. There are friends everywhere, relationships change even if we don't want them to. So as a shoutout to all these people, they know who they are, thanks for sticking by me and not taking out friendship for granted. I meet people everyday but only a handful will change my life and quite frankly the above are there to help me along the way, they nuture my needs in different way. I laugh with some, I party with others, I can talk for others with others. Life is about the journey not the destination so I don't mind if I don't end up being a writer or a teacher or even a historian I care about what gets me to where I have to be.
I am happy but with happiness there's always a sign of a shadow. I recently had a biff with an old friend of mine, it wasnt the first time a friendship had fallen apart. Her niave view on the matter of argument as well as her irresponsible behaviour pushed me to cut her out all together. "Sorry" is such a strong word and frankly if she used that word with an explanation she may well be in for a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance. Of all the people who could have walked out of my life I don't understand why she had to but it's over now, as I know it to be anyway. Well I have got to go and get ready for work. What's changed in your life recently?
Is it just me or did I just write an essay of the top of my head?
♥
Friday, May 1, 2009
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
In a time where Britain was losing their empire, civil wars were breaking out all around the world and the age of discovery was coming to a close Thomas Hardy stood out from the rest. His novel 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' was so controversial that in 1891 when it was first published many sections were not released with the volumne.
For many years Tess was someone who had done and was punished for it, until that is the book was published in its entirety in the early 1910's. It is now a classic book which shows that Tess was done wrong as a result of her beauty and the infactuation two very different men had with her.
Do not, and I repeat, do not watch the film if your writing or reviewing the work. Read the book because the films I watched do not portray Tess correctly. They elongate what could have been without and scrap on of the most crucial chapters in the whole text.
Do read the book if you are one for drama, tragedy and romance. It will make you shiver with concern, squirm with delight and cry with sorrow. Tess is one of the greatest book ever written.
♥
