IQ’s Obsession… Ebay!

Nothing has really changed since I last posted. I am still very much obsessed with Mr Hudson. I think it is possible that my OHD (Obsessive Hudson Disorder) is gradually getting worse.  I did meet him on 5th May 2010 at Koko in Camden, it was a mission of mine that I was so pleased to complete with success. I did get to stand centre front row although I would expect to have done so considering I arrived there at 11.30am; the earliest I have ever queued for a gig. It must be love! I will be seeing him again on 15th June and hopefully 4th July (providing I get my hands on  tickets for the Wireless Festival).

You must be asking yourself, why is she going on about this bleached blonde guy? What has he got to do with Ebay? For the past week I have raided Ebay like a bitch! I have searched under ‘mr hudson’, ‘mr hudson and the library’ and even ‘ben hudson’ to come up with a list of items being sold on ebay, from rare promo CD’s to signed photos or posters. If I am honest, there isn’t all that many collectibles of his to be sold or bought. However, I have realised how his popularity is slowly increasing. Especially with his ever encroaching U.S release for Straight No Chaser, the popularity will thicken rather rapidly with more U.S exposure. Most items are fairly cheap and I haven’t spent all that much. But to bid or buy something with a click of a button because you already have paypal linked to your bank account is… well… dangerous! It will go from “it’s only £1.99 plus postage and packing” to “it’s only £199 plus postage and packaging”. If you EVER hear me say such things, I give you permission to reset my ebay password and shut down my account! Plus, the only thing stopping you from paying or not paying is a ‘commit to buy’ button. Ebay should come up with new measures to help you think a little more rationally when buying!

IQ’s Obsession… Mr. Hudson!

My new obsession is Kanye West’s new BFF Mr. Hudson. Not much is known about him. I have tried to research about him but the only thing that is evident is that his real name is Ben Hudson!  He appears a proper English gent which is probably why I’m attracted to him. Blonde hair has never appealed to me; especially bleached blonde hair. But having said that, there is some mystique surrounding him. Maybe he’s strangely alluring because I never thought he would create music with any kind of R&B feel to it. It could be his Darcy posture and his slight aloofness or maybe it is because I cannot obtain his date of birth from anywhere!

Mr. Hudson’s songs are a cool, complimentary blend of R&B and indie. For this reason, I believe he is an original musical mastermind and  I hold very high estimations for him in the future. He has impressed the likes of Kanye and Jay-Z. I just hope that he can now win over the hearts of the British public and establish himself fully as an artist in his own right without having to be linked to American superstars for his success. Mr. Hudson mas made appearances on a few shows around the UK supporting Calvin Harris. I did not get tickets for any of those shows but I will be keeping my eyes open for when he tours under his own headline. Mr Hudson is the definitely the artist to watch out for in 2010!

After such a declaration, I leave you with this anthemic song There Will Be Tears on his Straight No Chaser debut album. It is hard to pick a favourite on his album but this song makes my spine tingle everytime I listen to it. Press play, sit back, close your eyes and relax!

IQ’s Obsession

The IQ’s Obsession feature on the right hand side will be display whatever my latest obsession happens to be. It may be a singer, actor, song, album, film, video game or a television series. Every time it is changed I will dedicate a post about my thoughts on that subject. So feel free to agree or disagree with whatever comments I will make!

 

 

 

The Ice Queen returns in June!

Anyone here? It seems as if my blog has been gathering a little dust… I haven’t posted since March. I apologise to those who were hoping I had something to say in April and well, the most of May! I have been very busy what with being in my final year of university. I have spent both yesterday and today sitting my exams. I have two more exams next week, one of them dreadfully occurring on a Saturday. But at least that will be my last exam as an undergraduate student, (what a terrifying thought)! I will have no excuse not to write a post every day after next week as I will be free to do as I please! I will update you on my busy schedule for the summer, I will be a very busy bunny indeed. But at least all the events I’m attending will provide me with something to talk about. I will also have a lot of time to think about what direction my blog should take, some very good blogging is in the pipeline from me. I have statements to make, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled in June. The Ice Queen is back!

P.S. This blog has reached over 4,000 views since I’ve been gone! I am grateful to those of you who took the time to visit and check what the Ice Queen had to say. I’m sorry I disappointed you by having no new blogs for you to read. I promise, starting from June, that I will put in 100% effort in giving you something enjoyable to read.

St Patrick’s Day vs. St. George’s Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s day and I hope that everyone celebrated with high spirits. I couldn’t celebrate, mainly because I had been stressed out about my final project and it’s slow progress. I have nothing against celebrating St. Patrick’s day, St. Andrew’s day or even St. David’s day. But it seems that most places in the world, especially the UK and the US, celebrate St. Patrick’s day, they go all out with festivities. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything Irish! I love Irish people and my 21st birthday present this year from my parents is a weekend trip to Dublin. What I really can’t fathom is in England, why St. Patrick’s day is celebrated whilst St. George (our patron saint) is hardly remembered at all. There is hardly any fuss about St George’s day. Why is this? It seems like St. Patrick’s day is more commercialised than St. George’s day, but why is this the case? We do have a fair amount of Irish people residing in England which could be a factor. In my view, it seems that to celebrate St. George’s day would be such an uncool thing to do. I don’t understand this, England football, rugby and cricket supporters don’t hold back their patriotism. Even during the Queen’s Jubilee we saw massive celebrations. So why do we neglect St. George? Maybe the patron saint day is dedicated to the people of that country, so in England we must have more fondness for our Irish neighbours than ourselves. Irish are stereotypically more charismatic than the straight laced English. Our country needs to hold itself with more esteem. We have a lot to be proud of as a country, as a nation and we really need to stop letting the dull weather get us down (and maybe Gordon Brown as well).

International Women’s Day

It is Women’s International Day today. What has surprised me in today’s culture is that even though women attend University and pursue careers; there are still women who choose to become stay at home mother’s all their life, even at a young age. Women of the past have fought for our independence, our freedom to vote and to have the same equal rights as men. I am not a feminist and I am not against marriage or against having children. But I think it is pure ignorance if a woman chooses to become a housewife and/or mother without having taken further education or actually worked for a living. These women have so many opportunities available to them that were not possible for women of centuries ago and they are not taking full advantage of them. I believe it is foolish to abandon such rights which women of the past have fought so much for, even to the point of death. I do believe in freedom of speech and freedom of choice, women can do whatever they please. But by the same token, this is my opinion and I will stick by it. (To view more about International Woman’s Day click here).

The Ice Queen Diaries hits 1000 views!

My blog has reached 1000 views today! Whether you stumbled here by accident or succumbed to my endless plugging (mostly over Facebook), I want to thank everyone who has viewed my blog and taken the time to read my posts (this blog has only been up and running for a month)! A special thanks goes out to the regular readers and those who have commented on my posts. I like getting feedback from those reading my blog. I also want to let you know that it is International Woman’s Day this Sunday, 8th of March! I will be blogging then to commerate the day. It may coincide nicely with my Samaritans’ training, the next session being tomorrow. Please bear in mind that I will not be posting so frequently. I am in final year, it is nearing the end of term and it is all a bit hectic for me at the moment trying to get all my work done in time. Be patient and I will post as soon as I can!

Blogger’s block.

I apologise for not writing here that much last week. I went to visit my family back at home and it is easy to get sidetracked there. It also seems that I have lost any inspiration I once had to write posts which has left me with what I call ‘blogger’s block’. I will not fret though. I know there are a lot more blogging topics left in this head of mine and I will attempt to tap into my muse again and give you more of a reason to keep reading my blog. So instead of this post being useless, I though I’d post a few of my favourite online games. I know a lot of people who come across boredom (or should I say procrastination). If you’re interested, try these games.

Jonas Brothers are not the worst band!

There has been some bad press lately about one of my favourite bands the Jonas Brothers. The boys picked up Worst Album and Worst Band at the NME Awards in London on Wednesday, February 25th. The article (which can be found here) claims that “The band are officially worse than Scouting For Girls and Fall Out Boy”. I’m not a big fan of  Scouting For Girls or Fall Out Boy but there is nothing wrong with their music. I absolutely hate it when people think they are music aficinado’s and that anything that is too mainstream is not to be considered decent music. They are not music experts but closed minded, arrogant twats. Anything that does not fall under punk rock or indie rock is to be shunned? That is total bullshit. I feel I have more of a stand in judging music, my musical tastes range from pop to rock to R&B to soul, I even have a few oldies put in for good measure.  By looking at my Last FM page you’ll be able to see my top 8 most played artists: The Cure, George Michael, Jimmy Eat World, Take That, Jonas Brothers, The Script, Ne-Yo and Robert Pattinson. No one can tell me I have no idea about music. And that’s just my top 8! When it comes to music, no one can deny me of being open minded. It is just about the only thing I am open minded about! So, after clarifying my right to talk about what music is good music, I will now begin to defend my love of the Jonas Brothers.

• They are heartthrobs. It isn’t just teens who like the band. Joe Jonas has been rumoured to be dating Camilla Belle. She is 22 and he is 19. I am not too old to like them. The oldest, Kevin, is 21. He is six months older than me. I don’t think that’s paedophilia!?
• Think about boybands of the 90’s, they were way cheesier than these guys! JB’s songs are catchy, very catchy in my case. So why all the hatred?
• You cannot deny their business skills. They have released album after album after album for the past three years, have performed at countless of shows, have had two movies released… these boys aren’t so stupid! I don’t think they’d care about haters. Would you care if you had millions of dollars rolling in? I think not.
• They are great role models for kids. They are all round nice guys. Whether or not you believe in their virginity pact, they are setting a good example.  Their songs are not about sex, something which is unusual for music of today.
• They are amazing performers. They know how to get a crowd going with singing, instrument playing and acrobatics. I have seen them perform twice and am going to see them again June 15th. I can’t get enough.
  

  Meeting JB at Hammersmith Apollo on September 11th, 2008

Whatever anyone says to me, these guys rock my socks! And people can call me sad or say that I have bad music taste, but I know that I do have good music taste. I am open minded too. It’s just a shame that haters aren’t that way too.  I believe people to be jealous, JB have the money, the success, the fame, the girls. It seems like these factors cloud haters’ judgement and instead of viewing their music for music, all they see are reasons to dislike them. Reasons that have nothing to do with their talent.

I swear by Evening Primrose Oil.

Today I am going to talk about girly stuff. Girly stuff that can turn a man pale in the face. Girly stuff is what plagues a women’s life from adolescence to the menopause. Of course, I am talking of menstruation. I first started menstruating at age 12. In actual fact, I came on my period on the last day of term in year 7. It is quite daunting for a young girl to go through such an ordeal. I was slightly embarassed and tried to deal with the bizarre phenomenon by myself. My mother intuitively knew that something was not right and told me that I should have let her know about it sooner. Her little girl was growing up.

Ever since my first period, I have always been irregular up until about six months ago. My cycle could span from 20 days to 50 days, it had a mind of it’s own and did whatever it felt like. You may think being on your period is enough to make you kill yourself. But not actually knowing when it’s going to come gives you no time to prepare yourself both physically and mentally. This makes PMS symptoms all the worse. It seems like your body never gets enough time to recuperate. It is not merely one week of every month that we have to endure this pain. As soon as you finish your period, your body starts getting used to not being bashed about. You then spend a week feeling awesome, not a care in the world. A week later, you start to feel a little groggy, the physical symptoms of PMS appear and then the psychological symptoms slowly creep in. Another week ensues with you being on your period. By this train of thought, us girls only have one week to feel fabulous.

I am not exaggerating when I say that my periods are like an illness. Sometimes I can feel really depressed just before my period, I become a self-pitying, sobbing wreck! I have terrible mood swings too, picking fights with loved ones about petty things. It is as if I suffer from Jeckyl and Hyde syndrome, PMS can turn me into a monster! Also, on the first day of my period, I get excrutiating pain. I feel bed-ridden and the toilet becomes my best friend. It is a sort of hysteric feeling, I turn hot and cold, hot and cold. I bloat like a ballon. I feel faint most of the time and sometimes I feel naseous. When periods interfere with normal, every day functioning it cannot be a good sign.

Here’s where the good news starts. For the past six months, my cycle has been quite regular. Spanning from 31 days to 41 days, the average being 35 days. I do not know what has occurred that would regulate my cycle so drastically. I have not changed anything about my lifestyle or diet. It is quite a mystery to me. But this mystery I cannot complain about. As for the depressed feelings, I have come on my period today and during this cycle, I have not experienced one low feeling. What have I been taking, you may wonder? My mother has been nagging at me to buy Evening Primrose Oil, it provides you with nutritional support during the menstrual cycle. During my last cycle, I got so fed up with my PMS symptoms that I decided to listen to my dear mother. Mother’s are always right. I have been taking Evening Primrose Oil every day since I finished my last period. Of course I get a little twinge here and there, but during this cycle I have not wanted to commit suicide! It is not expensive. I purchased Tesco’s High Strength Evening Primrose Oil for £1.45 (1000mg, 30 capsules). At that price, it’s hardly going to break the bank. It is a definite must buy for anyone suffering, even the least bit, from PMS and periods.