A Is For...

All Good Things - Mandy Moore

 

I adore this song. This was on the first Mandy Moore album that I ever listened to, and I fell in love with it immediately. It was bought for me by my sister, of course. She introduces me to so much of the music I love! And while I do like some of the songs from her more recent album, Amanda Leigh, these are the ones I keep coming back to. It's one of those albums that never fails to cheer me up (Few Days Down is particularly good for this) and it's also full of good memories. It was one of the few albums that I took with me on my first trip to New York at the age of 19 with my boyfriend at the time, and I remember sitting on the subway back from Manhattan to Queens, exhausted after a day of walking around a city so new and huge, so full of excitement, this song filling my head.

 

This is one of the songs that I can't help but belt out in the shower!

Anne Of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

And Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island, and Anne of Windy Willows, and Anne's House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside. I'm a big fan of all of the Anne books. I've read them all countless times, and I never get tired of reading them. I remember my Dad reading them to me when I was young, and I could almost recite along with him as I knew them so well. If you haven't read them it's a travesty, and you must! They contain the stories of a red headed orphan who comes to live on Prince Edward Island. Anne is full of imagination and always running into adventures and one scrape or another. There is joy and tragedy and magic in each book as Anne grows up, goes to college, becomes a teacher, gets married and has children.

She is definitely a kindred spirit of mine.

You can read a wonderful synopsis of the story, written by Margaret Atwood, here and another shorter piece here.
 

Ally McBeal

I don't think I need to explain this... Ally McBeal had too many hilarious moments to recount, but this video gives a little reminder of the Barry White dancing which happened throughout the seasons. Watching this video made me want to rewatch Ally all over again!

Afternoons

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” - Henry James

 

 

For me, the word afternoon conjures up wonderful images of afternoon tea complete with scones and tiny pots of strawberry jam and clotted cream. Afternoon tea at my parents house with tea and biscuits, a daily staple. Long afternoons in the summer, the sun slowly descending, the shadows getting longer, playing croquet and sitting on the lawn before dinner.

 

At the moment, working nights means that the afternoon is when I start my day. But I'm looking forward to a time in the future when I can reclaim my afternoons. And until then, when the clocks change on Sunday, maybe I can get up early and enjoy some afternoons at the park across the road over the next few months.

Ambitions

I promised to write something about me for each letter of the alphabet, so I thought I'd start with a little about my ambitions. When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer, a lawyer, all sorts of things. At the moment, age 23, I'm working in a bar to make ends meet. It's fine for now and I'm grateful to have a job at all, especially a one that is full time, but I hope that in the future I will either own my own small business (my main ambition, career wise) or have a job that is fulfilling in some way.

 

I would still love to become a writer someday too.

 

I hope that Colm and I can finally move into our own flat in 2013. Living with another couple is great money wise, but it would be lovely to have our own home. And I hope that one day we will own our own home, and have a family together.

 

Other than that, I just want to be as happy as possible, and healthy, and I want everyone that I know and love to be happy and healthy too. That's not too ambitious, is it?

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the first post in my new blog series. Lots more to come!