Online musings

Recently I binge watched a 13-episode TV series which was thought-provoking and very well made. It's a Netflix original series called 13 Reasons Why . It is based on the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. The story is about a high school student Hannah Baker who commits suicide. Before she kills herself she makes a series of recordings on several cassette tapes, detailing the reasons that drove her to suicide and naming the people responsible. This is a very powerful story as it shows that actions by other people can have very serious consequences. Hannah is befriended by several people who end up using her for their own gain. They turn out not to be true friends who let her down. They either spread false malicious rumours about her, they abandon her or they betray her. They put her down and make her feel bad about herself. Some even treat her cruelly and she becomes miserable and isolated. Hannah has one very good friend whose name is Clay Jensen. They work together in ...

Last autumn I went to Liverpool but just for a day trip. My gosh! It had been a long time since I last set foot in the city of my childhood. The city where I went to school. The city where I was brought up. It was 14 years to be exact. It brought back memories but also parts of the city had changed. I remember when every Wednesday I would go to the town centre with my mother and sisters to do shopping and I would see St. John's Beacon and the two cathedrals from afar. It was great to be back. Liverpool played an important part in the slave trade so my friend, MisBeee and I made a beeline for the International Slave Museum. We saw a lot of pictures and objects which illustrated how the city's port was used to transport slaves from Africa to the New World. I also learned about the slaves' long battle for freedom and how they fought their oppressors for it. The museum also showcased handiwork of the African people such as pottery and clothing. I even saw the beautiful K...

Recently I read a book that was so gripping I finished it in less than two weeks! I very rarely read books in such a short time. The fact that I did with this one meant it was that good. It's called The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and it came out in 2015. The story is told through the eyes of three different women whose lives become interlinked. The first woman is Rachel, an alcoholic who goes on a train every day. She is divorced. When she is on the train she passes a house where a couple live. She becomes interested in their lives and when she notices something untoward happening she becomes curious and starts getting involved. The second woman is Megan who is married to Scott. However their seemingly happy marriage is not all it's cracked up to be and we slowly begin to discover why. The third woman is Anna who is married to Tom, Rachel's ex-husband. They also have a baby together. Anna thinks Rachel is a nutter who won't leave them alone. However somethi...

At last! Here is an update about my writing venture. Lately I have been taken a break from writing as I have a lot on at the moment. I am currently making preparations to move out of my house after nearly nine years. I will be getting my own flat. For further information look out for my future blog on moving homes. I have started on a prequel script of the Timespy series. This is when my protagonist is much younger and less experienced and he has just joined the Timeline Protection Agency. I am planning on writing four more Timespy scripts after this one, making it a prequel series. In this series my protagonist will start going on a learning curve and following his mentor. He will make some serious mistakes along the way and he will even doubt himself but he will become a much better secret agent towards the end of the series. Afterwards I will begin the long awaited sequel to Vendome . The journalist and her friends travel to Brazil where the Amazon rainforest is being polluted...

There are some songs that have made it up the charts on their own merits. This is because they are that good. An example is Adele's comeback single,  Hello . However, there are other songs which you have never heard of before until the internet grabs hold of them. Some of the songs are international and are sung in another language. Others are American. I marvel at the effect that social media has on songs and at the way it turns them into smash hits. Once upon a time Myspace went further and launched the careers of some musicians, including Lily Allen. Now with the decline of the social networking site's popularity, other websites like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are helping to make certain songs famous. One song that was made popular by the internet is Dragostea Din Tei by a Romanian-Moldovian pop music band O-Zone. It was a catchy song which I really liked. It was not popular outside Romania until a video of a man dancing and lip synching to the song was posted on New...

When one of my closest friends told me something rather disturbing about myself that I didn't know, I was very shocked to say the least. My reaction was disbelief. But then again I know that no human body on this earth is perfect. Every single person has something wrong with them either physically or mentally. Some may be open about it whereas others may hide it. Some may be obvious and others not so obvious. It may be present since birth or acquired later on in life. Some people may even be unaware of it. When I was little I knew that there was something wrong with me. I used to scream and cry for no reason whatsoever. To other people that did not seem normal. To me it was a way of getting rid of the frustration inside me as I had difficulty in expressing myself. As an adult it grew to violent outbursts of temper. It didn't help that I always bottled in my feelings. My family would view it as childish temper tantrums. Other times I would get so depressed and would even...

When my friend, who is a former colleague of mine, saw the play and told me that it was hilarious I knew I had to watch it. One of the reasons was that I wanted to find out if I shared his sense of humour. I finally watched it and I could see why my friend was so eager for me to book the ticket. My first thoughts of the play was that it was definitely like no other play I had seen. When I entered the theatre it rapidly became packed. That was a great indication of how popular the show was and how word had spread about it. After all the play won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards and I must say, it was well deserved. Before the show even started the crew of the play were frantically asking for the whereabouts of Winston the dog. They even asked members of the audience where the dog was but it was nowhere to be seen. A man from the audience was then roped into helping out fix the mantelpiece before the play began.The director then introduced the show...