Garbage In, Garbage Out

Well hello there! Long time no blog. I hope you've all been keeping well, and having lots of lovely adventures?

I have a feeling this could be a long post, so if you're here for nails, there'll be some of those coming soon, as I have more pretties to show you. 

My blog has been quiet for a couple of reasons. Let's start with the easiest. 

When I first started, nail art was not the massive beast it is now. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't in its infancy or anything, but it was still pretty experimental, and perfectly possible to come up with something not seen before. There were a few big faces, but they were quite new to their fame and usually all had time for a quick chat in their comments.

As time went gone on, things changed, as they have a habit of doing. Big business saw an opportunity to make some money, and filtered its way in. This was inevitable of course, and not entirely a bad thing. More people found the fun of nail art, and of course, the big faces got *really* big. Nail art blogging became a paying business for some, which is great.

However, with that came a down side. Suddenly there were "rules" introduced about things like sponsored posts, (where companies send you items for review) and you had to put certain wording on your blog to make sure you didn't get sued (?). Who actually devised these rules, and who on earth would police them never really seemed clear to me.

Alongside that, because so many people were enjoying doing their nails, the outpouring of creativity meant that no matter what you did on your nails, someone had usually done it before. Which is fine if everyone can accept that two people might have the same idea, but all too often I would see people getting comments on their blog accusing them of stealing other peoples designs, and I became nervous about that happening to me. 

So I got to the point where I was sticking to polish reviews, or checking Google every time I wanted to post a design I was pleased with, and usually something similar had already been done so I ended up not blogging about it. 

All these things kind of sucked the fun out of blogging for me. At the time I couldn't work out why I wasn't enjoying it any more, and I even wrote a post about it (probably to try and understand it myself) but it's only now with hindsight that I can see the bigger picture.

So that's part of the reason. I will try to write this next part without massively oversharing, which will be a challenge for me. About a year ago, i had a health scare with my breathing which resulted in lots of testing at hospital over a period of months. Everything they tested for was negative (thank God) but once they'd run out of tests to do, the doctors just shrugged their shoulders and left me to my own devices. Meanwhile I was still ill, and pretty worried. My hair and nails had turned pretty awful (another reason for not blogging), I was putting on weight relentlessly, everything ached, and I got pretty down. I put it all down to stress and just tried to get on with things the best I could.

Out of luck with the doctors, I turned to the internet for advice. I posted my problem on a respiratory health forum, and as with most of my experiences with people on the internet, everyone who replied was lovely. A couple of the replies suggested that I get my thyroid function tested, so after having read a bit about it (of course), I went to the doctor, who sent me for a blood test. Lo and behold, my thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level came back as abnormal. The doctor then ordered some more tests to see if he could see why my level was so high. However the two tests he ran came back as "within limits". My doctors words were "I see you're sick but I don't know why".  Once again I was sent away with a shrug of the shoulders. This whole thing so far had taken eight months. 

At least now I had an idea what was wrong with me I could try to work towards putting it right. My blood tests also showed I was deficient in certain vitamins and minerals (I'm convinced this is all related), so I've been taking several supplements since the beginning of the year to try to balance all these levels out. I am feeling better in myself, and the weight has stopped piling on, so something must be happening. I will book myself in for some more blood tests (if they'll do them) in the summer to check that I'm not doing myself more harm than good. 

So this brings us to the current day. I'm not cured by any stretch of the imagination, but I am feeling better than I was. Thyroid problems can make you lethargic and can suck out your motivation, so coupled with the other blogging issues, the whole thing came to a stop. I did manage to mess up all the posting dates on my past posts though, clever me, doh!

My new found interest in my health has led me to start paying attention in what I'm actually eating. Hence the title of this post. As I work full time, when I get home all I really want to do is feed myself as quickly as possible with the minimum of time and effort taken. Therefore I'm very much a convenience food cooker. If it doesn't come in a jar or a packet, I don't give it much of a second look, apart from potatoes. My Irish roots will not allow me to disrespect the spuds haha.

But although the convenience foods are quick and easy, they don't taste wonderful. They're not disgusting either, they're just "there", doing a job without being particularly inspiring. I also suspect that most of them are not that healthy, despite some claiming otherwise. 

So I have been experimenting with flavours. The picture in this post is my bacon and egg salad, which is okay, but was much improved with the addition of cherry tomatoes. Plus the leaves were a bit dry and could have used some kind of dressing, but I have no idea what type of dressing. Cheese maybe? More experimenting to do there.

I think all of this relates to my blog, as Making A Silk Purse Out Of A Sows Ear relates to improving yourself not only through beauty products, but also making yourself a more rounded person by improving skills and feeding your interests. And now I've got a bit more fire in my belly I intend to give it a good old go. I do have some beauty stuff I've been meaning to review for ages, so will get on to that soon too. 

If you're still reading, thanks for ploughing through my ramble! I have to say the Blogger mobile app is a hundred times improved since I last used it, the ease of being able to quickly write a post on my phone may also inspire me to do more. Anyway, I had better go before this post gets completely out of hand!

Until next time...

~Wendy~

MASPOOASE x x x

Blogging - Where's My Mojo?

This was originally part of another blog post, but it got so long and rambly, I think it distracted away from the beauty review it was in, so I've given it a little home of its own.

I must say that my blog mojo's been on a low ebb recently. Luckily I've got lots of lovely blogging friends, some who are going through a similar thing, and I've been able to talk it through with them.  Thank you all :-)

It's been going through my mind, "What's unique about my blog?  Nothing.  So many beauty blogs out there, all talking about similar things, many are much more popular than mine, so they're obviously doing it better." and it's kind of put me off. I don't want to think that I'm just another voice in the "buy this" choir. That's partly the reason that I spin off in my blog sometimes onto other things, like books, or recent events, or even just random ramblings.  It makes my blog more 'mine'.

And personally, I prefer blog posts about peoples lives, and their trials, tribulations, and thoughts, much more than I want to see *another* Rimmel Apocalips review.  Obviously I'm not in the majority here, because those kind of posts seem to be super-popular and their authors have mega page views, and that's great.  Everyone has their place, and mine's obviously not up there with the blogging elite.  I saw a blog post the other day that was just 10 photographs in a row and no words at all.  I was like, what?  That's a blog post? 

Maybe I should sack the beauty reviews and just become a lifestyle blogger?  I don't know, just thinking aloud.  I like reviewing things though...  and obviously I like nail art too, I spend enough time doing it...  but weirdly I don't post all the designs that I do, because I think, that's been done before, people might think I'm copying, or, my cuticles are bad... or, I've chipped it before I've taken photos.... and so on and so on...

Somehow these things don't seem to bother other people.  I've seen some awful manis on really popular blogs, and there have been such lovely comments.  There's obviously something about this blogging malarkey that's out of my comprehension.  Some people could probably just post photos of a turd from different angles, and get great comments about their diet.

Aaaandd that makes me sound bitter.  And I'm genuinely not.  If people can make a living out of their blog, or even just have a super successful one, I'm happy for them.  To get there they will have put alot of hard work in.  Hard work that I don't have either the time or inclination to feed into my own blog.  They are there, looking for every way to reach out to new people, members of all the networks, taking the time to comment in all the popular forums, getting their name known.  Not for me.  I. Just. C. B. A.

So, I can't complain.  And I'm not.  Just venting I guess.  And talking through my mojo loss with you.  Every time I've thought of getting my laptop out to blog, these things have all been going though my head, and I've ended up going off to do other things.  If it hadn't been for Artsy Wednesday, and not wanting to let the other girls down, my blog would have hit the rocks lately I think.

What am I doing back here then?  Well, when I'm not blogging, I'm thinking about blogging.  It's not that I don't like blogging any more, because I do.  I have a beauty review almost ready to go, and I'll probably post that today too, while I'm feeling the vibe.  It's just that life gets in the way.  I've had alot on my plate lately, and although alot of it's still there, I'm feeling alot stronger than I was.  If you can win the battles in your head, you're much more likely to win them out there in the world.  Well, that's what I think anyway.

As long as I can manage to stay true to my original idea for my blog, which was to share my thoughts on things with all of you, then I'll class it as a success no matter how many followers, or pageviews, or lack of, I have.

And so far, I've managed it.  I have been swayed when I've read a popular blog, to mimic its style, or be inspired by its posts, but at the end of the day, then it wouldn't be my blog anymore.  And for me, that's the best thing about my blog, that it's mine.  It reflects me and my life.  And even though my life may be similar to some peoples, it will never be the same, because mine has me in it.

So as I sit out here in the garden, cursing next door for strimming while I'm trying to think, what are my plans for my blog?  Hard to say really.  I have so many interests.  Like, SO MANY, it's hard to just stick with the nails and beauty.  I don't want to have two or three different blogs for different things, but that seems to be the done thing.  I find it hard enough to keep up with this one. 

It's tough finding time to actually do the things when you're working full time, never mind writing about them too.  That's another reason I take my hat off to the bloggers who manage to work or study full time, or juggle a blog with a family, and still manage to post every day.  Granted, some of their posts aren't very long, and I'd feel like I was short changing people if I put out posts like that, but they they are the normal ones, but I'm the exception rather than the rule, with my ramblings.

So if you're not really feeling your blog right now, take heart in the fact that you're not alone in feeling like that.  I personally feel that it's better to put your blog on a 'go-slow' post wise, rather than just churn out any old tat.  I've only been posting once a week, sometimes not even that, and I haven't seen a massive reduction in my pageviews (no, I don't understand it either).  According to Blogger I get roughly 150 pageviews a day, although I have no idea how many of those are real pageviews, and probably wouldn't want to know either haha.

I think it's just a muddy patch of blogging ground that we all have to trudge through from time to time, in order to get to where we want our blog to be.  Having talked this through here with you, I think I've come to realise that I want my blog to be a vibrant, fun, and creative place where like minded people (that's you) come to be inspired, and hopefully have a fun read.  This might mean mixing it up with a few other topics...

But don't worry, there'll still be loads of nails :-)

Until next time...

MASPOOASE  x x x
~Wendy~

What's on my Bedside Table? *100th Post*

Hi there again everyone,

My 100th post!  Woohoo!  No surprise to me though, because I know how much I can ramble on haha.  To celebrate I thought I would make this post both personal and beauty related, a good summary of how my blog is shaping up.  I get bored if I write about the same thing too often, although obviously nails are my number one obsession. 

As a nosy parker, I love reading posts about what other people have on their bedside tables, so I thought I would share my own.  I admit to dusting it before showing you, as otherwise you wouldn't have been able to see anything.

So without further ado, here's what it looks like:

Those baskets to the left of my bedside table are where I keep my beloved nail polish.  I got them from Wilkinsons and they were only £15 each.  I've got some smaller ones of the same design too which only cost £8 each.  You can buy them online (here) .  The yellow item hanging off the end of my bed is a torch, in case there is a power cut in the night.  Be prepared is my motto, I should have been a Scout!

So now we get on to the close ups.  Here's my clock radio:

I have had this clock radio for the LONGEST time, probably over 25 years (scary).  The cassette player doesn't work properly any more, as it plays the tapes slowly.  I think I could probably have it mended quite cheaply if I wanted to, but even though I've still got a ton of cassettes, I don't listen to them that much.  My phone's never far from me and that means no fast forwarding.  However the radio gets all the obscure stations, even in low signal areas like mine, and the illuminated display is just the right brightness not to bother me at night, so after all these years I'm still happy with it.  It wasn't expensive when I got it, things were built to last back then don'tyaknow.  Oops, I see I knocked my lampshade wonky when I was dusting.  That's going to drive me bonkers later if I don't put it straight.

The next biggest things on my bedside table are my books. I've always got a couple on the go, and I decide which to read depending on what kind of mood I'm in.  Here's my current ones:

The Real Heroes of Telemark was recommended to me after I mentioned on Twitter about being inspired by a clip I saw on the Antiques Roadshow about the Norwegian WW2 resistance fighters.  I'm thoroughly enjoying it, it's an awe inspiring true story of amazing bravery and strength despite deadly peril.  As you can see it's by Ray Mears, who I'm totally in *LOVE* with.  If we were marooned on a desert island, let's just say he'd have some other jobs to do before he started collecting firewood heehee.  TX Maxx receipt as a bookmark, classy.

I love a good ghost story, and I've read this compilation book a few times.  I have no problems with reading a book many times if it's a good one.  I've read Desperation by Stephen King more times than I can count, but it's my favourite so I forgive myself for not minding that I already know the ending (and most of the words).

Guarding my books is Bun.  I've had Bun since school and he's a professional book guarder:

Because he lives on my bedside table he does get quite dusty.  Luckily I can just throw him in the washing machine and he comes out as good as new, although I do feel a bit guilty when I see his little face going round and round in the machine.  Thats a bell from a Lindt bunny round his neck.  He sits on my belly and guards me instead while I'm reading.

So enough of my nonesensicalness (is that even a word?), let's get on with the products.  There are a few on there that I don't use anymore and should really move somewhere else.  These are they:

I had quite high hopes for Pearl Drops Beauty Sleep.  I drink ALOT of tea, and my teeth get quite badly teastained.  So a product that worked in the night when I'm not eating or drinking anything for long periods of time sounded ideal.  However, after using it for about 3 weeks, I couldn't see any difference, so I got a bit tired of doing it.  I don't think I've used it for a couple of months now, so I should really either start using it again, or bin it.

Aqueous Cream does a brilliant job, expecially if you're on a tight budget, as it moisturises well, and costs next to nothing.  I did a full post on it (here) last June, and this is still the same tub, with hardly a dent in it.  That's not because I never use it, but just because there's so much of it!  The reason it shouldn't really be on my bedside table any more is when I want a body moisturiser, I find I'm reaching for the Aveeno more often.

So here's some other not-so-glam items that I keep at my bedside:

The aforementioned Aveeno body moisturiser.  This really does sooth itchy dry skin.  It claims to moisturise for 24 hours, and I would agree that it does.  You can get it for around a fiver from most supermarkets, so it won't break the bank either.

Dove Pomegranate and Lemon Verbena deodorant.  I was intrigued by how it would smell, it's nice, but it's still a 'Dove' smell, if you know what I mean.  You're not going to go out smelling like a fruit shop, which is what I was expecting.  It's still got a bit of floweriness to it, I will get it again when this one runs out though as I never feel sweaty when I've got it on.

Daktarin Aktiv spray foot powder.  I don't have athletes foot, but I always give them a blast just as a preventative measure.

Next up we have the totally random items:

No, that's not false teeth!  When I get stressed I grind my teeth in my sleep, so I sent off for a moulding kit to have my own toothguard made.  It was pretty quick and easy, and about £30.  It's one of those things I'm always saying "I should do a blog post about that" about.  Hopefully it will prevent any more of my teeth splitting, which is what has happened to one of them, and the thing that spurred me on to buy a guard.

Cedarwood Essential Oil.  This one is organic and I got it from Amazon (here) it's supposed to be really good for your skin, but I've never used it for that.  I bought it because the scent of Cedarwood is supposed to repel moths and spiders, and I don't want either of those things in my bedroom, so I dot it about the room occasionally.  I definitely have seen less moths since, not so sure about less spiders, but I'll keep trying it anyway just in case.

Hair bands, because I take them off after I get into bed and they build up there until I move them back to where they belong in the spare room.  These ones are supposed to cause less damage to your hair.

The pretty rainbow items are actually anklets.  As you probably know I've suffered terribly with my achilles for the last 12 months.  I have a cousin who's really into crystal healing, and I asked him which crystals would be good for my achilles.  He told me haematite would be good to use as it aids circulation.  Now, I don't know if it's true or not, but as I already had this pretty haematite in my jewellery making kit, I made myself a couple of elasticated anklets, and I wear them in bed.  You never know, right?

Next up we get to all the hand and nail stuff:

Nu-Nale nail strengthening cream.  My go-to nail cream.  I did a post about it (here) and have bought it quite a few times over now.

My cuticles have been dastardly this last couple of months, so I have all the big guns out.

Flexitol cuticle and nail cream.  The one on the left seems to be the old formula, which is more gloopy and I prefer it.  The one on the right, which seems to be the new formulation, smells better, but doesn't seem as moisturising or powerful.

Leighton Denny Remove & Rectify cuticle cream.  It seems that all cuticle removers are not created equal, and this is the best one I've found so far.  I use the cream, leave it to soak in for a bit while I'm reading, then use the orange sticks on my cuticles, and then the cotton pad to wipe off the excess.  You can get it direct from the Leighton Denny site (here) but I have seen it a bit cheaper on Amazon.  I got mine from a kit in TK Maxx, no surprise there.

Healthy Cuticles Now by Sally Hansen.  I've only just started using this again, as I seem to remember my cuticles were in pretty good shape last time I was using it.  I bought a twin pack from Amazon, as it was cheaper that way, link (here)

Finally, we have a tube of Hydrocortisone Steroid Cream, which believe it or not, I also got from Amazon. (link) It's much cheaper than a prescription from the doctor, but I very much doubt if it's as potent.  As soon as the weather warms up, or if I get stressed, I get dermatitis on my hands quite badly.  This cream doesn't cure it, but it does make it less 'angry', and also shortens the amount of time I have an attack for. 

I wonder if the fact my dermatitis is flared up could be part of the reason my cuticles are suffering?  Unsure because my dermatitis is only on my palms, and my cuticle area doesn't seem to be affected this time at all dermatitis-ly (another made up word methinks).  Anyway, hopefully it'll all clear up nice and fast and it won't be an issue for long.

And last, but not least, we get on to my 'glam' items.  There's not as many of those, I am getting on a bit haha:

The Amazing Grace perfume oil was a gift from the beautiful Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link) 
I use it whenever I want to feel a bit special or chilled out, it has a lovely floral scent and it makes me feel calm and fragrant, and who doesn't like that? :-)

Nivea Pearly Shine is a really pleasant lip balm that I'm enjoying greatly.  I put a thick layer on when I go to bed, and my lips feel all nice and moisturised in the morning.  My lips are super thirsty when it comes to balms, so it must be good for me to be impressed.  I actually have another one of these in my handbag that I use during the day.

And there we have it!  Another monstrously long post from me, but I can't help it if I've got lots of things on my bedside table!  And as it's my 100th post, I will forgive myself.

So do you have any of these items?  What do you think of them?  If you have a 'bedside table' post, leave me a link to it in the comments section, I'd love to give it a read!

Until next time (and the next 100 times too)...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Justin Bieber vs Anne Frank House : My Thoughts

Hi everyone,

Ordinarily I wouldn't let people know my opinion on something like this, much less put it on my blog, but it's been gnawing away at me for a few days. 

On Saturday the Anne Frank House put up the following status on their Facebook page:

"Yesterday night Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank House, together with his friends and guards.  Fans were waiting outside to see a glimpse of him.  He stayed more than an hour in the museum.  In our guestbook he wrote: 'Truly inspiring to be able to come here.  Anne was a great girl.  Hopefully she would have been a belieber.'  Tonight Bieber will give a concert in Arnhem in the Netherlands."

This seems to have prompted an avalanche of critisicm aimed at Justin Bieber, which all seems to be pretty much along the lines of "Who the hell does he think he is", followed by a similarly large counter-avalanche of "Leave him alone" responses from the beliebers.

Now, I'm not a belieber.  Also I'm not an anti-belieber (if that's the term).  If anything, I'm a meh-ber.

But of course it's pretty much guaranteed that I would be.  I'm 41 years old, so his music and image aren't aimed at me, in any way.  My teenage self is still wandering around in 1987.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know the impact that Anne Franks Diary had on me.  I wrote a post about it (here) and since I read it, I've read many more books about Anne Frank, her family, and the people who helped her while she was in hiding. 

I actually have even more books on order, it sparked a seemingly insatiable interest.  If you haven't read the book, please please do.  It's not just for girls, it's an incredibly interesting historical commentary.

So, you'd think I'd be on the side of the people who are criticising Justin Bieber for his comment in the guestbook.  Well, not so.  I think it's more complicated than that.

Firstly there are some factors that are relevant, that are not stated in the original Facebook post.

We don't know if Justin Bieber requested to go to the Anne Frank House, or if he was told to go by his management company.  Similarly we don't know if he was told what to write or not.  He could have been told what to write and forgotten, or chosen to write something else.  Maybe he wrote exactly what he was supposed to.  He could have just written what came into his head in that exact moment.  Alot of don't knows.

Does it make a difference why he was there?  Yes I think it does.  If he has a genuine interest, and really wanted to go, then one level of cynicism can be kind of counteracted.  Although it is probably more likely that it was arranged by his management company as a profile enhancer, it's still another 'don't know'.

Also you have to bear in mind who he is.  There is a staggering amount of money to be made from him, and everyone around him is up for a slice of Beiber pie.  With his protectors, his pet monkey, and isolation, does he remind you of anyone?  It makes me slightly sad that history could quite easily repeat itself, and once again everyone's too busy getting rich quick.

The line from the Anne Frank House regarding him turning up with guards feels like it's been written with a slightly negative twist, but later on in the status it's mentioned that there were indeed fans there, and teenage fans don't stand on circumstance.  I should know, I've been one.  They'd rip his clothes off in a heartbeat if they thought they could.  Just for the clothes, not anything weird.  But that wouldn't be much consolation to him while he's trying to keep hold of his undies.

I actually don't have a problem with what he wrote.  He's written about Anne in a way that is fitting for who she was.  A teenage girl.  Yes, she was brave, and she stands as a beacon of remembrance for all the people who were brutally and senselessly murdered in the Holocaust, but she was also a fan of movie stars, and she had their pictures up on her bedroom wall. 

The pictures are still there, and he would have seen them probably less than half an hour before.  It makes his comment slightly more understandable.

I think the Anne Frank House Facebook status, in the light of all this, seems a bit harsh.  I'm pretty sure they realised that later, as they put up another status on their Facebook page:

"The Anne Frank House was pleased to welcome Justin Bieber to the Anne Frank House last Friday.  We think it is very positive that he took the time and effort to visit our museum.  He was very interested in the story of Anne Frank and stayed for over an hour.  We hope that his visit will inspire he fans to learn more about her life and hopefully read the diary."

As far as I'm concerned, this is the press release that should have been made in the first place.  It's less petulant, and more about persuading his fans to read the diary. 

I guess another relevant 'don't know', is who wrote the original Anne Frank House status.  It may have been someone quite young, or someone who was offended by him during the visit for some reason.  Or maybe it was just very badly worded.

I've seen some incredibly vitriolic comments on my Twitter feed against Justin Bieber regarding this, and it actually makes me kind of sad. 

If there's only one lesson we take away from Anne Franks story, it should be that there's nowhere near enough tolerance in the world.

And we start that by practising it ourselves. 

Until next time...

Wendy

Feelgood Friday 2 - Fantasy Jukebox

Hey there!

I decided to do another Feelgood Friday post!  Actually....  I've decided to do quite a few more.  Not every Friday, perhaps once a month or so.  After this Friday I'm going to try to do themed ones, rock, rap, girl power... and so on.  They'll probably be a bit more organised than this one haha.

This came about because I was listening to my music, and a song came on, and I started bopping away merrily, and tweeted "why on earth didn't I put this into Feelgood Friday?"  and from that moment I knew another one was in the making.  It was this song:

Awesome, right? I hope you were dancing!  U Got The Look by Prince and Sheena Easton.  I remember it was a big moment for Sheena Easton, going all cool an' that.

I couldn't find a YouTube with the actual music video on, but it HAD to be this version.  Also, I couldn't suss out how to 'add this video' in the blogger usual insert menu (it wouldn't show up), so I actually worked out how to add it in HTML!  I'm learning....  although I couldn't work out how to centre it.  One step at a time.

Then, last night I was listening to my music again, and this came on.  I'd forgotten how much I liked it:

The L to the I to the B to the E to the R to the T Y.  Too cool for school.  And yep, I'd left school by then.

Now another one:

Obsession by Animotion.  I had the hots for this guy so bad.... I still think he's pretty hot actually.....  I might Google him..... OMG, he might be on Twitter!

And now - LETS GO ON HOLIDAY

BAM-BO-LEEAOOOO !!  This reminds me of my holiday in Portugal many years ago.

I'm bopping about!

Lets go even wilder:

TIIIIIINNNNN ROOF! Rusty (rusty)...  me and my BFF have sung (sang?) to this many, many times, it's one of our faves, along with Rock Lobster and the Time Warp haha

And so, I'm coming to the bottom of my bottle of wine.... oh, ok, time for one more:

How could I not?! A ground breaker in its time, and a kick-ass beat.  Just too awesome.  I remember being allowed to stay up late waiting for it to premiere, and being totally blown away.  I'm not sure those magical music moments happen any more.

The other two post in this series can be found (HERE) and (HERE) or just click the "Lifestyle" tab at the top of the page.

And there we have it.  Feelgood Friday Mk2.  I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have! 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

a-ha : the soundtrack of my life

Hi there all,

After holding my 100 follower giveaway for you guys, this is my present to myself.  I've said from day one of my blog that if I got to 100 followers, I would write a post about a-ha.  I never thought I would get to 100 followers of course, but amazingly I have, so I get to talk to you about my number one love.  Yes, loved even more than polish!

So, where did this obsession start then?  Well, at the beginning I guess.  When the single Take on Me was released in 1985, I was 13.  I was the perfect target for a new pop band just starting up.  Music videos weren't massive back then (believe it or not), and alot of songs didn't even have videos.  So the arty, brilliantly made video to Take on Me caused a big stir, and made me sit up and pay attention.  But I wasn't really that keen on the song.  It was catchy, yes, but it was just another bubblegum pop song, and as you know now from my music post, I'm a little bit more eclectic than that.

The Sun Always Shines on TV was released, and that was a bit more like my cup of tea, with violins and drama.  But it wasn't until the next two, Train of Thought, and Hunting High and Low, that I became hooked.  And little did I know back then that I was irretrievably and permanently hooked.

I bought the I bought the records, I bought the magazines, I bought the posters.  Every time they were on the TV I recorded it.  Anything a-ha related was a pocket money stealer.  I didn't have enough pocket money to get all the magazines I wanted (I've always been a collector of things), so I came to an arrangement with my mum where I did extra chores for extra pocket money, which worked out well for both of us.  Now I could get the a-ha things I wanted.  Alot of them I never got rid of.  Here's a few:

As you can see, even as late as Stay On These Roads in 1988, I was still buying my albums on cassette.  The Cry Wolf 12" got mauled by my hamster, there were some singles that never made it though that.  I wasn't happy!  That videotape is my prized possession, there are all kinds of a-ha interviews and TV appearances on it.  I should really find a way to digitise it before it becomes unwatchable.  As with quite a few of a-ha's albums, you can see I also own Hunting High and Low on CD as well as cassette, because as times moved on, so did my collection.

Here's how I looked right back at the beginning:

Yep, I was a shutterbug even back then! That camera was 'borrowed' off my mum and dad, and it went to alot of places with me.  It was a Kodak I think.  You had to buy flash bulbs for it, they were four-sided, and once you'd used it once, you had to turn the bulb, so you got four uses out of each one.  They weren't cheap, and needless to say, most of my photos were taken during the day haha.

I had some posters on my bedroom door, and the door opened against the bottom of my bed, so when the door was open and I was lying in bed, I could lie and stare at the posters.  I had a idea that I could take a picture of the poster, and it would look as if I was there actually taking a photo of them.  When I got the photo back from the developers, it wasn't quite how I planned.  It was taken with that same camera:

I missed!  I remember taking this picture, even though it was getting on for 30 years ago (how scary is that), and the poster was DEFINITELY slap bang in the middle of the viewfinder, with no gap on any side.  It could have worked too.  A good plan, let down by 80's tools.

So, while I was taking random photos, and getting my hair cut to look the same as Lady Dianas, a-ha were busy knocking out the hits.  And true to form, they kept up the quality videos, although as I only really got my music fix on the radio, or on Top of the Pops, where back in those days the bands would actually be performing, I didn't get to see many of the videos until years and years later.  However, there's no such restrictions now, so lets have a bit of Hunting High and Low. DON'T SHOOT THE LION:

The climbing chords in the 'tearing myself to pieces' part of that song continues to be one of my favourite moments in music, and it still gets me emotional even now. 

My friend and I used to listen to that album, with our eyes shut, and let ourselves get completely lost in the music.  At least until her dad shouted up the stairs at us to turn down the "row". 

It's also excellent for singing at the top of your voice in the car while driving to work.

I was lucky enough to be able to get The Swing of Things by Jan Odahl from Ebay, a goldmine of information.

In the book, Magne talks about the Hunting High and Low album:

"I think the record's production was a bit schizoid. It's a record by a band who wants everything - all at once. Otherwise it includes some on Pauls purest gems, like "Hunting High and Low" and "Living a Boys Adventure Tale". That, by the way, is Coldplay vocalist Chris Martins favourite a-ha song, and to my ears, it could have been classic. "Train of Thought" is a bit too 'in your face'. "The Sun Always Shines on TV" has the best production on the album - Paul's drum programming here has never been surpassed.
The mouse voice in the middle of "Living a Boys Adventure Tale" seemed like a good idea at the time. "Love is Reason" will be played again in a heavy-as-lead Nick Drake version for my solo tour. Or maybe not. We wrote part of "Dream Myself Alive" much earlier - back in the Bridges/Poem days. I think it still has an edgy weirdness that most pop songs lack. In fact, it was one of my contributions that I had the greatest hopes for. Shows how wrong you can be..."

Magne has always been my favourite of the three.  Of course, Morten has the film star looks and the soaring voice, and Paul takes alot of the credit for the songwriting, but Magne with his beach boy curls and killer synth has always been the one for me.  If you notice, he was the only one of the three never to wear the trademark leather laces.  Me and my friend used to buy them from the local shoe mending shop.  I bet they sold SO many leather laces back then!

However, things haven't really been how I imagined for my three favourite pop stars.  In the book Paul says:

"We were really tight in the beginning.  We were always in the same car, always at the same restaurant, always at the same hotel, as tight as you could get.  And it was great.  But after a while, we found out that the pressure of work led to side effects.  We were like lonely islands in a storm tossed sea.  We began to pick on each other as much as the people around us were doing.  We weren't the ones who created the problems, but we weren't smart enough to deal with them.  It began to affect the health of the other two.  Magne had panic attacks, and Morten began to bark a bit at people, which they interpreted as a star trip.  And maybe we were a bit hard on him, maybe we didn't understand the pressure he was under.  But even when we felt we were starting to pull in different directions, people would have been surprised to see how focused we were and how hard we worked to make the best out of every situation.  Looking back at it, maybe we should have done things differently, but it wasn't so gloomy then.  Not until the early nineties, when we stopped living at the same place, did things begin to come apart.  When Magne moved to Norway, with Morten living in England, and me moving to the States, we communicated more through middlemen and word of mouth."

That is not at all what I was imagining when I was picturing myself hanging out with the guys!  I thought it would be party, party, party.  Just goes to show that even the best jobs in the world, can sometimes still just be a job. 

This is a brilliant book, but I couldn't pay those high prices though.  I was lucky (and determined) enough to keep watching and waiting, and eventually a reasonably priced copy came up on Ebay which was being sold by another a-ha fan, who turned out to be a lovely lady.  The same with the CD that goes with the book, I kept waiting until I found one I could afford. 

So anyway, lets move on to the following year.  1986:

Here I am on my holidays.  My brother took this photo, and it's one of my favourites.  Apart from the fact that I'm bigger and more wrinkly now, I haven't changed much really.

A-ha released their album Scoundrel Days, and in there was my favourite ever song.  The Swing of Things.  As it was never released as a single (why not?!) it doesn't have an official video, so here's the music:

I've listened to this song thousands of times, probably most days, and I never tire of it.  "Sleep, you wrote sleep my dear.  In a letter somewhere."  Genius.

Paul says:
"On Scoundrel Days, we had learned a little.  It was also a much cooler album.  There's a spirit there, a sound.  It's very much typical of its period, but at the same time not.  Since Alan Tarney had done such a good job on 'Take On Me' and 'The Sun Always Shines on TV', we hired him.  But we were on tour and we were so busy that we finished half the album in Australia.  We started from scratch writing new songs.  It's good, but a little stressful.  It's very much on the edge, a very pure, youthful, go-get-'em piece of work.
The A-side (Paul is thinking here in vinyl terms), with 'Scoundrel Days', 'The Swing of Things', 'I've Been Losing You','October', and 'Manhattan Skyline', is pretty good.  The B-side was a little more uneven.
'The Swing of Things' was Mortens absolute favourite.  Morten is often thought of as being very commercial, but he can get totally hooked on the quirkiest songs.  And 'The Swing of Things' was one of those songs he just had to talk about all the time."  

Then after another couple of years Stay On These Roads was released.  I was most surprised to find that there was a couple of songs on there I didn't like.  Touchy particularly I didn't like, and I was only lukewarm with You Are The One and The Living Daylights.  The rest of course, were the usual a-ha excellence.  Out Of Blue Comes Green stood out for me, along with The Blood That Moves The Body.

And then life kind of got in the way, and I lost touch with a-ha.  Although I was still wearing my laces:

This was me at the Rovers Return at Granada Studios.  I had a great day there, happy memories!

They didn't know I'd drifted away though, so carried on making music without me:

Of course I always tried to keep up to date with what the boys were up to, but I didn't really buy any of the newer albums, although I was still regularly listening to the albums I already had. I'm not really sure why that is, just one of those things.  I got comfortable with my a-ha relationship, and just thought it would carry on like that. 

Then one day, I found something out.  A-ha were splitting up?!!  A farewell tour, an album, and that would be it.  Gutted.  But why split up?  I'll let the guys tell you:

Now I'd never seen a-ha live.  It just wasn't one of those things I thought I'd ever be able to do.  But now I was a bit (alot) older and it could actually be a possibility.  So I got in touch with my friend, yes the same childhood friend, and we arranged to get some tickets.

Our tickets were right at the back - Row W.  I didn't care. 

We were so excited.  We were sitting in our there a long time before anyone else, when all the other seats were empty haha.  Eventually, the arena was packed, and the 'special guests' had been on.... and then...

THERE THEY WERE!!!

A wave of emotion washed over me, and I started crying like a big baby.  The three people that had made all the music that was so important to me.  In the same room as me.  But my friend gave me a big hug, and got me back together (she's ace), and before I knew it, I was bopping along and singing at the top of my voice.  I'm a pretty loud singer too, so I feel a bit sorry for those people around me.  I didn't think of that at the time though, sorry everyone!  And I'm convinced Morten waved at me.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, and there were stewards everywhere telling us to put our cameras and phones away, so I don't have any mementos, boo hiss at the Buzz Killingtons.

And before I knew it, it was all over.  That was it.  Finished.  So what now?

Magne put out a statement on the a-ha website :

"A message from a-ha:
where to begin…
i suppose ‘thank you, all’ for once sums it up perfectly.
thank you is really the only thing that makes any sense at this point. thank you fans and friends – for giving us your time, your minds, your passion, in some cases a good chunk of your respective lives, and no doubt considerable amounts of your money.
you have made it possible for us to do what we loved in the way we had hoped to do it.
this is the end for us, and we will not know what a future together could have brought.
but we do know what the past has held; it was pretty amazing to be a part of it.
from the start as childhood friends, to the peak of our career, and all the points inbetween,
a-ha has coloured our lives in ways we don’t even seem to comprehend ourselves.
this is as far as the road took us – but hey, we came a fair distance by any standard!
one thing is certain: we did it together. now a-ha will be a memory of a life we once shared.
so thank you all
we will not forget you and we hope that you do not forget us.
snipp snapp snute…
magne f (on behalf of a-ha)"

Snipp Snapp Snute.  I love that.  I have it taped to my monitor at work to remind me that magic should always be around us, and not to get bogged down with soul crushing daily business. 

But that doesn't mean they guys are gone - oh no, far from it.  Now I have three careers to follow! 

Morten is making music, without the other two, I find his albums a bit too sad for my taste, still beautiful of course.  I'm sure that in time there will be an album that strikes a chord with me.  I still watch him with interest.  This is one of his recent releases:

Magne has continued to grow as a celebrated artist, as well as still producing music.  He even wrote the soundtrack for a Norwegian horror film, and released it as an album titled Hermetic although I didn't buy it, because quite frankly, it's a bit barmy haha.  Perhaps you have to have seen the film to properly appreciate it.

I want his new book In Transit so so badly, but I'm not sure I can make my budget stretch to £54.  C'est la vie, again I return to waiting for a bargain.  Unless my mum needs some more chores doing...

I did however, buy Past Perfect Future Tense and A Dot of Black In The Blue Of Your Bliss both of which I enjoy very much, and listen to alot.  You can feel a-ha still in his work, and in his earlier album, a heck of a lot of Coldplay influence.  Magne continues to work with Guy Berryman from Coldplay in their collaboration Apparatjik and you can visit their website here. 

He is also heavily involved at the moment with the winner of The Voice – Norges beste stemme Martin Halla, having written and performed on a large number of the tracks.  There's more information, and a video, on a-ha's website here

On Magnes 'Dot of Black' album there's a song called The Longest Night, which was the precursor to a-ha's Foot of The Mountain single, and I think that the two side by side show a very interesting example of how a song can change from its original birth to its big budget all-singing, all-dancing fruition.  I personally prefer Mags' version in this instance, it seems to touch my heart in a way that the a-ha version can't:

And here's the a-ha version:

Which version do you prefer?  To me, they're like chalk and cheese, but they still both have their place in my life. 

And now we move on to what Pauls been up to.  I always knew him in my youth as Pal, but I think he uses Paul more now.  Well, he too has been making music.  To be honest, I never really took much notice of him in his a-ha days, and I'm pretty sure that's the way he wanted it. 

But since the split, my interest has started to grow.  He formed a band called Savoy with his wife Lauren, and Frode Unneland, and it turns out he's a really good singer!  See what you think:

Whalebone.  This song & video has everything I love.  It's stunningly beautiful to look at.  Fantastical, haunting, and a tiny bit spooky.  Awesome.  You can really see and feel the powerhouse of creativity that kept a-ha going too.  The Savoy Songbook is well worth your money.

And in fact, it's only since seeing the guys go their separate ways, and watching their creations, that I'm starting to really understand all the layers that a-ha have.  They somehow seem to rue the fact that they're so different, and that they pull in different directions, but without that they wouldn't have become not only the band they became, but also, the men they became.  What we have is far more important than what we could have had.

And there we have it.  All the way from the beginning.  Not to the end, but to the present. 

Morten, Mags and Paul have been a constant inspiration to me, from my young shutterbug days, to the grown woman I am now, and no doubt they will continue to be even when I'm an old old woman. 

So I say thank you to them.  Thank you for those moments in my life that have been enriched by having them there.  For lifting me up when I'm down, and inspiring me when I feel lost.

And I still listen to Hunting High and Low occasionally with my eyes shut. I get just as immersed in the music as I ever did.  I don't know if that's a reflection of the music, or a reflection of me.  Maybe both.

And also thank you to you - for taking the time to listen to me go on (and on).  This post has been ALOT larger, and taken alot longer to write, than I anticipated.  I considered cutting some of it out, but hey, in the end I decided that those people that don't want to read it can close it, and those that do - that's you - shouldn't have to miss any.  So I kept writing.

Who knows, one day, one of the guys might actually read it!  Aim high, right?  Dreams do come true sometimes?  I remain an eternal optimist. 

Reunion?

Until next time...

Wendy

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