Who inspires me?

I’ve been feeling super inspired by a lot of people recently and thought a fun idea would be to start a bit of a series on the ol’ blog to share the lovely people I find inspire me.

First up is my wonderful friend Ellis. 

I wanna start off talking about her courageous and inspiring decision earlier this year to leave full time employment and follow her dreams of being a self employed full time illustrator. Not many people have the balls to do something like that, what with the fear of it not working out, but most people wont even try. But Ellis is doing just that, and whether she sinks or swims in this unpredictable world of freelance she will always be a huge inspiration to me. She makes me feel like anything is possible and that maybe one day I might have the skills and confidence to try and work for myself. 

Knowing Ellis has had a troubled past with mental health, especially at her old job, I admire that she put herself and her health first and left a job that was so corrupt it was seriously impacting on her mental health. She reminds me that putting myself first is key. And thats so important because you only get one life, and theres no guarantee you'll live it till you're old and wrinkly so you have to look after yourself. 

Recently I’ve been inspired by Ellis to think about the way I view the world and how I have an impact on it. I knew things like animal testing went on and that I was more than likely using products that had been tested on animals, but I was so close minded I didn't want to think about it but Ellis has opened my eyes and I couldn't thank her more. She made the decision to go vegan and in doing so has been exploring where food comes from and how important it is to be cruelty free. Because of Ellis I am now cruelty free and have majorly cut down on the amount of meat I eat. I’m heading towards vegetarianism but I have so many allergies and have found out I’m allergic to quorn so I want to slowly cut meat out while I learn about what foods I can and cant eat and how to keep healthy with already having a restricted diet. I can 100% say I would not be cruelty free or cut down on eating meat if it wasn't for Ellis. 

And d’ya know what, this blog of mine wouldn't exist without Ellis either, through her encouragement and support I’ve found a hobby that I love and have even made a few videos on youtube! 

Ellis is an incredible friend who never ceases to amaze and inspire me with her ventures and triumphs, she's supported me through my toughest times and I truly am privileged to have a friend like her in my life. 

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Our Last Night & Birmingham.

Last night me and Ellis hauled ass and went to Birmingham to see Our Last Night. They were incredible!!

Back in the day I was a hard core rock chic. Rock was my life, I was in a band, I was always at gigs. Yah!

I left this life behind in my teenage years but I was brought right back at this gig. I didn't realise how much I missed music, live music, rock music, playing an instrument till I went to see Our Last Night.

Ellis introduced me to Our Last Night in the last year or so and I've fallen in love! So when I saw they were touring and they were coming fairly close I asked Ellis if she wanted to go and she nearly blew my head off with excitement! 

There were two supports, New Volume, who were really good and the second support, can’t remember their name, weren't my cup of tea! Probably showing my age now but I was genuinely scared for them, they were head banding so much I was worried about bodily injury!

Then out came Our Last Night, and the glorious man that is Trevor Wentworth! *drools*

I can’t explain to you how good they were. We both had such a good time and it ended too soon.

Because I feel super fragile still after back surgery we hung around the back on some stairs and had a fab view! As Ellis said to me, it was nice just staying out of the crowds and soaking up the whole atmosphere, which is something I missed when I was younger.

It was so weird for me looking into the crowd and seeing people jumping, moshing, crowd surfing. I used to be that girl! Took me right back to those times!

Our last night: amazing. 

Birmingham: woah! 

I’ve been Birmingham before, not for quite a few years. First thing I noticed was how many homeless people and druggies there are on the streets! Every 5 mins we were being approached and asked for spare change. I’ve never been anywhere before and experienced this. Obviously there are homeless people and druggies everywhere but I've never seen so many in one place before. It was both heartbreaking that so many people were on the streets, and terrifying because I did feel quite unsafe. I probably had no reason to feel that way, most of the people were probably genuinely nice people in a horrendous situation, but I'm not used to being approached in this way and I feel uneasy with people I don't know so my anxiety was getting the better of me here and translated into fear. I think too seeing so many people suffering around me really made me feel uneasy.

I did however pop into lush, I've been meaning to try a shampoo and conditioner of theirs so we popped in to ask for a sample as I'm allergic to everything so didn't wanna buy and have to return and the girl in there was so lovely and went through the ingredients with me and hooked me up with a few samples to try! 

Then came dindins! Food is never far from my mind! We actually realised what a difficult pair we are together to eat out! Ellis is vegan, I'm allergic to nuts! But pizza express to the rescue! Had a yummy dinner then it was time to get to the gig!

Walking to the gig, I see some nice shoes on a guy, so look up to check him out, as you do, and it was only bloody Trevor!!! And the rest of the band!!!! And what did I do? Punch Ellis in the arm (sorry Ellis!), tell her who they were cause she’d missed them, probably in shock of the noises I made and the sudden arm beating! But we both chickened out and never shouted to say hi! We were both kicking ourselves all night, this is what I always do and then regret I after, because I'm so nervous meeting new people and don't have the confidence to introduce myself or start a conversation so I panicked and didn't! OMG I HATE MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!

Back to Our Last Night, I made a video of the gig, wanted to keep it fairly short and failed so its almost 11 mins long! It was all sooooo good I just couldn't cut any more down!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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