Olaf

Hi guys!

Thanks for voting for my name. The votes were counted, and my name is Olaf. Olaf VDubb.

I am totally excited to be going on holiday to America!! Maybe I'll even meet that famous snowman that I was named after?!

I have been really busy packing and finding some holiday money today, I can't believe I fly out tomorrow afternoon!!

Guest Post: Mistletoe & Wine?

Mistletoe & Wine?

By Nicky, web author of www.weboftangleddreams.blogspot.com

As Sir Cliff would say, Christmas time, mistletoe and wine ...

Hmm, wine is not a good thing for me to be drinking; nothing
good has ever come of me drinking wine. These episodes are
infamously known amongst my friends, or those lucky (or unlucky)
enough to be witness to these goings-on, as my “wine decisions”.
The last one ended with a belly –dancing episode that is never ever
to be repeated, or spoken of again.

Mistletoe? Hmm, again, nothing good has ever come of me brandishing a sprig of mistletoe either.
There are far too many undesirables fancying their chances at this time of year, praying on young,
single girls like little old me. And trust me, where I live, there are plenty of undesirables lurking.

Okay, I admit it, Christmas is officially a difficult time to be single. Snuggling up in front of the
fire, swapping presents, being all lovey-dovey like on the TV. But come on, how many couples are
actually that perfect and festive?

It’s a proven fact that more marriages and relationships break down at Christmas than any other
time of the year. I don’t wish to be the bringer of doom, but it’s statistically proven, if you don’t
believe me, Google it. I’m guessing the reason for this is stress and expectation. The perfect present,
the perfect day, the perfect dinner, who to spend the day with, not getting too drunk, not saying the
wrong thing. It all adds up to a day of panic and worry that knocks the stuffing (pardon the pun) out
of the cute and cuddly festive picture that Hallmark would have us believe.

It’s hard enough spending the day in extreme close proximity to your extended family, when you’re
used to coming and going and having your own space, without having to visit someone else’s and
be on your best behaviour, whilst also putting up with Uncle Sleazebag slapping your arse in a joking
manner, all in jest – of course. That smile on your face will of course be plastered on, and giving you
aching facial muscles, whilst all you can think of is how much you would really like to knee him in the
unmentionables. In jest - of course.

The bottom line is there is far too much expectation, which basically just spells inevitable failure.
People don’t like failure. I certainly don’t like failure.

So this is why, despite the picture of perfect festive coupledom, I actually prefer to be single at this
time of year.

Alright, not “prefer”, but “can see the positives”. That’s probably a more honest assessment of the
situation.

I don’t have to buy a present for someone, wracked with worry that it’s either a) not right, b) not
expensive enough, c) too expensive, d) all of the above rolled together. I don’t have to feign total joy
when presented with a gift that more than likely consists of hideous lingerie, in probably the wrong
size, and I don’t have to split my precious day between two different places, exhausting myself by
eating two Christmas dinners and having to be on my best behaviour, when I could be vegged out
on my own sofa, snuggling up to a tin of Celebrations and watching Disney films on the TV, or Only
Fools & Horses, whichever comes first.

I can also get myself totally glammed up into extreme sequin sparkledom, and grab that badly-
advised mistletoe, inviting whichever young dude I see fit to join me underneath it. This I will admit
comes with the unfortunate downside of having to throw the above mentioned mistletoe in the
nearest bin when the undesirables come a-knocking, which they do, you try it, they’re like moths to
a flame. But the point is, I can do it, if I want, because I don’t have to answer to anyone.

If you are attached this Christmas, please don’t do what my friend does every year – “aww, don’t
worry hun, at least you can spend the money you’d have spent on a guy’s present, on you”. Hmmm,
condescending much? Methinks so. But actually, she has a point, so I took that as permission to go
and buy a new pair of shoes.

Equally, if you’re single this yuletide, don’t get so drunk at your office party that you do a Bridget
Jones, i.e. karaoke with glass in one hand, microphone in the other, singing I Will Always Love You,
or even worse, All By Myself. Dignity nil.

I guess the bottom line is, single, attached, somewhere in between, complicated relationship,
whatever, there are pros and cons to each. I will not have a worse Christmas than my married
friends, and vice versa. We will all fall out with someone, we will all get too drunk at some stage
and say something inappropriate, we will all eat too much, feel sick and get debilitating indigestion,
we will all make some comment about the Queen’s speech and we will all be sick of eating Turkey
by Boxing Day. The thing that matters is that we spend it with someone we love, whether that be a
husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, family, friends or the dog. It may not be perfect, but things very
rarely are.

So Happy Christmas everyone .... now pass me the Quality Street.

If you enjoyed what you read, please visit my blog!
www.weboftangleddreams.blogspot.com

Look at this!

I have written another guest post at my friend Nicky's blog.

Easier said than done...

If you want to read my first guest post for Nicky, here it is:

I travel alone, for better or worse...

Guest post: What becomes of the broken hearted?

What becomes of the broken hearted?

 

By Nicky Curtis

Web author of Little Miss Dreamer

www.thelittlemissdreamer.blogspot.com

There are two certainties in life:

1. You are born, and then at some stage you die. There’s no point trying to run away from this happy little fact, you can’t beat the grim reaper, so deal with it.
2. You will have your heart broken into tiny smithereens somewhere along the way, whether you try to avoid it or not.

It’s a cheerful old life isn’t it?

There’s not a lot you can do about the first one, this is the deal you make when you enter into this world. You might not remember agreeing to this trade off, I don’t, at the time I was more concerned about the bright lights and screaming, but it really is the inevitable. So we’ll waste no more time arguing the pros and cons of that, because unless you make a deal with the devil, which I wouldn’t advise, then really you’re stuck with it.

Certainty number two however, is an event you could try to avoid, but sooner or later it will catch up with you, and if a person doesn’t do the breaking, then the loneliness will do it for you. Whichever way you spin it, basically you’re screwed.

So as Robson and Jerome sang, or whoever they stole the song from, what becomes of the broken hearted? This is a question I’m particularly keen to know the answer to, because right now my own beating heart is struggling to heal itself and any help would be greatly received.

I don’t regret the events that led to my heat being trampled on until it screamed, I opened myself up to a person I believed to be worthy of my love. He seems to be unworthy right now, although I am ever hopeful and believe that one day he’ll come good. Regardless of that, I am hurt, I am broken, and in need of fixing. The overwhelming feeling, other than ouch, is confusion. Why? I don’t understand how someone’s feeling can go from 10 and then back down to zero, mine certainly haven’t. His decisions and moods give me whiplash and deep down I know I deserve better. But can we choose who we fall in love with? I really don’t think so.

I guess that is where the problem lies.

I, like a lot of girls, am a sucker for a bad boy. Good boys don’t interest me. I like the drama, I like the excitement, I like the flattery. Yes, with that comes an element of risk, but there’s always the hope that maybe he’ll fall in love, maybe you’ll be the one to make him change.

I’ve never been a girl that thinks they’ll change, once a bad boy, always a bad boy really, but I do believe there’s some good in everyone. And that, ladies and gentleman, right there, that is why I get hurt. Because I am naive, I am stupid and I think the best of people. Not all people are good. Not all people are capable of love. Not all people are trustworthy. And not all people can be trusted with your heart.

I clearly don’t know the difference between the two species.

If you’ve ever been in this situation, you’ll know that around the time this life-altering event happens to you, everyone else in the vicinity seems to undergo some sort of positive change in their relationship/find a new love/get married etc, and you are left wondering what the hell you did to deserve it. I’m beginning to wonder whether I did something really terrible in a previous life and karma is now making me pay. The result of this sudden out-pouring of love to other people and the cup seriously running dry in your direction, is loneliness. And loneliness approximately one month prior to Christmas is not a good thing.

It will be lonely this Christmas indeed. It would have been if things were going well, considering he lives in Turkey and I live in England, but at least I would have felt something back. Right now, I feel like he’s slammed a door in my face, and I wonder if I will ever recover.

I’m assured that things will get better. I have many arguments to the contrary and unless my emotions undergo some sort of major overhaul akin to a DIY SOS transformation, then I think next year will be as difficult as this one.

What am I dreading most? Seeing him again, with someone else. Going to the place I met him, where I always go, and feeling his presence even though he’s not stood in front of me. Missing him forever more and never getting over it. Never meeting anyone else who makes me feel the way he did. I think that’s the worst one. He gave me a taste of happiness and whipped it away.

So what does become of the broken hearted?

Well, I guess look around, every person you see will either be suffering from one, recovering from one, had one, or be about to have one. I guess at the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Well, they say love makes the world go around. Maybe we have to risk heartbreak to find true love.

See, I told you it was a cheerful old life ….

Like what you read?

Visit my blog: www.thelittlemissdreamer.blogspot.com

(It’s usually much more cheerful, I promise!)

Check it out!

I've written a guest post on my friend Nicky's page! You know, the one that wrote this post?

Check out my post on her page: I travel alone. For better or worse....

Guest post: Turn left, turn right?

Turn left, turn right?
By Nicky Curtis, web author at http://www.littlemissdreamer.weebly.com
 
I am 29 years old and I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Apparently this isn't unusual, yet everyone I know seems to have a plan. I have no plan. I would have no idea what to put on a plan if I thought about making one. I'm good at lists; plans, not so much. 
 
This is because I'm not known for my decision making skills, and I have ideas that switch from one degree to the next with speed enough to give you whiplash. It's quite the skill when you think about it, unfortunately not one to put on a CV. 
 
Over the last ten years I've had ideas that range from working in childcare, to beauty therapy, to overseas repping, back to beauty therapy, cruise ships and teaching. You couldn't get a bigger range if you tried. Well maybe if you threw chef into the mix, but I really have no intention to do that, I wouldn't want to poison people, I have too much of a consience. 
 
I try things, I like them quite a lot for a while, I get bored or something happens to make it tough to carry on, then I think about it a bit and come to the conclusion it's not going to work. So I start again with a different idea. Some would call this being fickle. I call it searching for the right option. It is what is famously known amongst my family and friends as "doing a Nicky". This is where I am patted on the head, looked at with an expression that suggests I'm a bit simple and people go 'awww bless'. This situation generally occurs when I have an idea to learn a new skill, new language, decide to change career, re-train, move out, move abroad or go on holiday for longer than is socially acceptable. I get this a lot, as you can imagine. 
 
Some would say I'm lost, I say I'm searching. One day I will find the right option, stick at it and be bloody good at it - I'll show you all!
 
I think this soul searching may be because I come from a pretty traditional family. My sister has gone down the route of finding a man, marrying him, having two sprogs and living in the village we grew up in, working in the village we grew up in, and probably never leaving the village we grew up in. The thought of a life never getting out and seeing the world makes me hyperventilate and demand brown paper bags. I love my sister to bits, I truly do, but we are very different. I sometimes wonder how two people who came from the same womb can be so different. But because my sister is the eldest by 11 years, I guess my wanderlust and general refusal to settle is seen by some as, well, pretty abnormal really. My argument to that is, who wants to be normal?
 
By reading this, I imagine some of you have the general idea I'm quite flaky. Well you wouldn't be wrong. I am a bit, I won't deny it, it's a girl's perogative. I just think it's impossible to really know what you want to do with your life until the right thing falls into your lap. Some people are lucky, they know that they want to be, I don't know, say, a nurse, from a very young age, so they do all the necessary things you need to do to become a nurse, and then they get their dream job. Boom, they're made for life. And that's great for them, until the inevitaible boredom sets in. Some of us have no clue until it happens, and there's nothing wrong with that. 
 
So if ever you find yourself with one of those famous looks aimed at you, the one I get when I'm "doing a Nicky", don't worry, because, girls and boys, one day karma will come around and that thunderbolt from the blue will hit, you will know exactly what you need to do and which direction to go in and it will all fall into place. Either that, or pay a visit to Mystic Meg, I'm sure she'll know exactly what to do .....
 
 
 
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