Long time no blog.

Hello, dear ones.

It's been a LONG time, hasn't it? I think it's safe to say that I've missed typing to the anonymous reader and endeavor to star this all back up again.  

As a new years resolution, I am going to try my best to write a new blog post every week (commitment commitment commitment) to get back into the swing of things and - attempt - to document my next year or so as some exciting things are hopefully going to happen!!

First of all, I feel like I should update you on some things that have happened over the past few months whilst I have been absent from this, Oh so fabulous, Blog. 

1. I shaved my hair off for charity at the end of November 2013. Pretty scary, right? It was an amazing/terrifying experience that I do not wish to EVER go through again. I quite liked the look of me bald, but after a while I found myself wanting my hair back. All in all I raised nearly £700 for Syria which is AMAZING! I just want to thank each and every person that donated, came to the fundraising concert and supported me through this whole thing - you're all beautiful and brilliant people. 

2. I dyed my hair bright pink. You might be thinking at this point, "Lydia, you have just informed me that you shaved your hair in November...how on Earth did you dye it pink in such a short space of time?..did you dye the scalp?!". I can understand your thinking, darling reader, but you must know that my hair grows ridiculously fast and 3 months after the head shave I had a pretty good head of hair, ripe for dying. I thought it looked amazing...others...didn't share my opinion.

and 

3. I am starting up a new blog all about my experiences, advice and future hopes as a Singer/Actress. This is something I've wanted to do for a really long time and I finally feel as though this is the year to do it. Hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll be able to keep two blogs going at once but one might suffer under the weight of the other..so bare with me. 

I really hope you all had the most amazing Christmas/New years and are settling into 2014. I can't quite believe it's February...This means I'm 18 in 20 days. That's rather terrifying for me...it should be for you too.  I'm NOT ready to be an adult.

Anywho, speak soon, lovely ones.
xx

Charity.

Hello there, old friends.  I haven't written a blog post since January and I am deeply sorry - my life has been a little hectic and I simply have not had the time! Anyway, back to the matter in hand. CHARITY!

Before you read this post, will you please just sit and think about what your definition of the word 'charity' happens to be, and then carry on. 

Now, like most people, I am hopeless when it comes to giving to charity. I often forget or just am a little selfish and want to keep my money to myself (don't judge me, we all do it!). In all honesty, it's not the first thing that comes to mind when I wake up in the morning nor the last thing I think of when I go to sleep. I truly admire those people who have the conviction to make a direct debit and give 10% or more of what they earn away and save the lives of people that they will never, ever meet. But really, is it better to shun away your giving into direct debits and forget about them or actively give to charities on a daily, weekly or monthly basis up front on the streets? Or even help someone cross a road? Offer them your shower? Give them a warm meal when they simply can't afford it? Or just carry someone's shopping home from Tesco with them when they look like they can't cope? What is charity? Is it the action of giving money away? Or is it the choice to help someone when they're in need?

The truth is, it's both.  The definition of charity is;
"The voluntary giving of help, typically money, to those in need."

I strongly believe that as humans we have about 50% more money than we actually need. I mean, if we think about it, do we honestly need to buy that new pair of shoes? or will the old ones do for the next few months? Or have we spent a little too much money on something just because of the brand name? I think so. We've all done it. In truth, we can survive without all of this nonsense - all we need is basic food, water and somewhere to sleep at night. I know that all of these things are lovely, don't get me wrong, I love them as well! but if we cut back on all of the branded items, all of the extra packets of crisps, chocolate bars, meals out, fancy drinks, special TV packages that allow us to watch so many films that we don't even care about and simply gave that money away. Gave it to someone who was selling a Big Issue magazine on the street corner. Gave it to a charity that was actively stopping children from dying on a daily basis. Bought your friend a coffee when they can't afford it. Bought a homeless person some lunch instead of the massive McDonald's you were planning on. Give it to your friend who is saving up for their Gap Year and they haven't quite got enough money yet. How much better would life be if we just helped someone else with the money we don't even need? Charity work is not just out in poor places like Africa and India - it's here too.  What are you going to lose (except weight, probably, but I don't think that's a bad thing) by giving this stuff away?

As a Church, we like to think of ourselves as people who do good deeds. Like giving 10% of our money away to charities on a monthly basis. Like preaching to people that they should give everything away to those who need it more. However, in practice, are we really doing that? Are we actively giving a home to the homeless? Feeding the hungry? Looking after those who can't look after themselves? The likelihood is...No. We're not. BUT WE SHOULD BE! Jesus told us so so so many times to give everything we have away. And he's still telling us now! When God comes back to take us to his Glory he'll ask us three things. 
"Do you Love me?"
"Did you feed my people?"
"Did you tell people about me?"
Right now, how would you answer? Truthfully. Don't lie to yourself.

So many people have already given this message and I realise that I am one in one million who have preached to you this year about giving EVERYTHING you have away. That everything doesn't just include your money, it's your time, it's your love, it's your home, it's your food, it's you. Charity is giving to those who need it most. And let's face it - you probably don't need half of the things you buy. 

Go on, give that homeless person your burger today. They'll love it. 

When it doth snow...

"When is snows, people turn into one of two things; Bulldozers or Snow Conservationists."

Today many a child and young person was blessed with the gift of a snow day (it looks like our snow dance last night paid off, eh?) and consequently every child and young person went a little crazy and headed out into the snow.  
 I stayed in the confines of my garden - afraid, primarily, of falling over in public due to the ice caused by the hundreds who have gone before me to leap and frolic in this winter wonderland. As a self professed Snow Conservationist I took careful steps in the deep snow and proceeded to build a snow man.  
As you can see, my snow man looks very Russian.  He has a cossacks hat and is indeed folding his arms.  I know, I hear you cry 'Lydia, why did you now take Art A-Level?! This is a piece of the highest beauty' and I understand your frustration with my subject choices.  I can tell you with complete confidence that I don't think the school could handle my raw ability at sculpture.  It's just a well known fact that they are not ready for this.  Moving on.  I have named him Rachmaninov (after the composer...that's not pretentious...right?)

Everything gets cancelled when it snows.  I don't always understand why.  Surely it's more dangerous to let children slide down a hill on a tea tray into some kind of lake or fence than travel in a bus and sit in the safety of a class room? It's probably also the option that endangers them to more illness? At least school is warm. Not that I'm complaining. I quite enjoy sitting by my bedroom window and watching all those poor snow-goers out side trying to walk and not slip over, break their coccyx and suffer perpetual embarassment. It's a wonderful past time. 

Enjoy your snow day, all you people. Remember - if you have a baby, please please please cover their ears and hands (WITH AND HAT AND GLOVES, NOT A HOOD!) because it pains me to see little children with no protection from the cold.  They can't dress themselves..Keep your baby warm!
Rant over. 

Blog over.

Over and out x

Worship - Why, how and what is it?

Definition of Worship: The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity

Reverence: Deep respect for

I AM NOT A THEOLOGIAN.  PLEASE DON’T THINK I THINK I KNOW EVERYTHING.  I REALLY DON’T!

Question: What is worship? How do we worship? Why do we worship? How can I worship?

If I were to ask you ‘What is worship?’  What would you say? If someone had asked me that a few months ago I would have said “singing songs to God” or “praying” but actually, I had no idea what it meant to actually worship God. By definition, worship is an expression of deep respect and adoration for a Deity.  By ‘singing a song’ are we expressing deep respect? Are we expression adoration? Or are we just going through the motions that we are used to in order to get home and have our Sunday lunch?

Let’s take two of the questions – ‘What is worship?’ and ‘Why do we worship?’

Worship is thanking, praising and engaging with God.  It’s telling him how much you love him and how much he means to you.  If someone gives you a present, what do you do? You thank them.  God has given us this AMAZING present called life and this AMAZING present called his love and I tell you now, it never runs out.  He never gives up.  He never leaves you. How fantastic is that present? Yeah, I know.  Just think about it.  Think of all those people who don’t know that they have this present - don’t you just want to give it to them? I know I do. So what do I do? I thank him with worship for the best gift I have ever received.  I thank him that whenever I’m kicked down by the bad things he picks me up.  Whenever I lose my faith he’s always there to show me that he loves me.  Whenever I want to cry he’s there to comfort me.  Basically, whenever I need my God I know he’s there. I want to thank him because he’s the best friend, the best father, the best therapist, the best comfort that you will ever have. That is why we worship, because he’s pretty darn amazing.

Plus, he loves hearing you say that you love him. Wouldn’t you?

How can I worship, I hear you ask. Well, let me tell you.

I have a friend called Seannah (Hi Seannah if you’re reading this – I love you!) and man, can that girl sing.  Seannah will tell you herself that I cannot stand next to her when she is worshipping because I cry – and I mean gushing tears.  I’ll tell you for why.  When Seannah sings you can physically feel her praise coming from her soul and through her song and it is the most beautiful thing.  That girl has the Lord inside her and it shows.  I can’t do that.  I’m very jealous. But my point is that Seannah worships through her song and that is how she praises her lord.  Some people praise the lord through their prayer and they have beautiful languages that they can’t even speak pouring from their mouths in adoration of the Lord God. I wish I could do that as well, but I can’t.  You worship God when your soul connects with your head and your head connects with your actions and your actions connect with God. You should worship the Lord in everything you say and do. Are you doing that? In the Bible it says in James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” and by worship you are telling God that you want to get nearer. You want more of his love and you praise him.  He will draw closer. He wants to! He wants a relationship with you, so for goodness sake worship him! In Psalm 59:16 it says “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress” and he is our fortress.  He will protect you from evil. His love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out and that’s a promise. 

One of my favourite songs has the chorus “I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus.  I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it when it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus” and it really is all about him. I have made worship about me in the past thinking it was really cool to stand and sing about him when in actual fact it’s not about me at all.  It’s all about him, ALL ABOUT HIM. It’s no longer something I think I should do, it’s something I know I should do and WANT to do. I want to let him know that I’m running to his arms.  I want him to know that I love him. I want to worship him.

My last point, I promise.

My beautiful friend once had a message for me from God.  He had said that He loves me; I am his daughter and his heir.  He is so proud of me and he is my heavenly Daddy. Why the heck would I not thank him, praise him and love him for that? He uplifts when you’re feeling down. He comforts when you’re at the bottom of the pit.  He carries you through the wind and the rain and shields you from the bad weather. He is the only think you will ever need and he provides for you just like he does the birds in the field.  Do not worry. You are loved.

The trick to Auditions...

I am really bad at auditions.  

This is something I have come to understand, and accept. My problem is that I get really nervous, tense and shaky and everything seems to go wrong.  I have cried before, during and after auditions.  I have been rude to the audition panel (never a good idea!!) and I have made a song so different to the original that I'm not sure it was even classified as a song.
HOWEVER! I am going to impart my wisdom on how to give a good audition (It's surprising that I know how) and what to do when you're nervous, etc. 
I am going to classify these in two ways - Acting auditions and Singing auditions.

Acting:

1 - LEARN YOUR WORDS
                  You have no idea how many times I've gone into an audition room with a piece of paper in my hand holding my words.  This is such a bad idea! The audition panel will know that you're not very confident and probably will be able to see that you're shaking and you will be looking at them every two seconds out of nerves.  Take about 5 minutes every day leading up to your audition to learn your words and make sure that you're 100% confident on them. If they specify that the piece has to be from memory then this is obvious.  If you go in without words, you'll look confident and you'll actually be able to act it rather than bury your head in the piece of paper. 

2 - CREATE A CHARACTER
                Creating a character for an audition is just as important as creating it on the stage.  You need to understand and portray this character to the panel so, one, they know you're serious, and two, you can show off! If it's a well known character do some research and if not, have fun with it! But whatever you do...BE CONSISTENT! 

3 - ACCENTS
              Everybody dreads doing accents in auditions. I know they're difficult and hard to keep consistent but if you can do them it will show that you're above everyone else in that batch of auditions. If you decide to do an accent, say you want to do Welsh, I would suggest picking a famous person with that accent and studying them like there's no tomorrow.  Listen to how they sound when they say certain words and try to do the same yourself.  With Welsh I would watch Gavin&Stacey - not only because I love it, but because THEY'RE WELSH! - and maybe pick Bryn or Gwen (the less crazy people...well maybe not Bryn...) but because they have a more natural accent to copy.

Singing Auditions

1 - RELAX
           Singing is often the scariest part of an audition because so much can go wrong. You can miss your note, pitch something differently to your accompanist or you can just forget everything and freak out.  Just to make you feel more comfortable, I have done all of these.  You just need to relax! I know it's a difficult thing to do during a time of such pressure but seriously, it helps! My main trick is to lie on your back and breathe. This accesses deeper breathing muscles than you would normally use (hence why we lie on our back when we sleep, it's more relaxing) and you relax your whole body.  Not only are you doing this but you're actually preparing yourself to sing.  It will calm your nerves and relax your vocal folds making it easier to produce beautiful notes!

2 - WARM UP
            Never go into a singing audition 'cold turkey'. You will probably damage your voice and the nerves will kick in even more because you will probably hit a wrong note. Try running some simple scales up and down on the vowels (A E O U - no one really bothers with I).  Make sure to warm up higher than your song requires so that you feel as though it is lower when you come to it - no one wants to be scared by a high note, they're fun! If you do need to sing high notes, don't be scared by them.  Practice them before you go in and belt them if you need to.  If you back off them they're probably going to be flat and no one wants a flat note. Just go for it! 
I once had an audition for Mabel in the Pirates of  Penzance (look up 'Poor Wandering One' if you're curious) and I didn't warm up at all...stupid Lydia! If you know this song you will understand how high it goes.  I didn't think about it and I think I hit quite a few flat notes during that audition...it's a wonder how I actually got the part! But the moral of this story is (not just me showing off to let you all know how high I can sing) but if I had warmed up they wouldn't have been flat...actually...this wasn't a very good story to tell..there was no real point....oh well.

3 - THE ACTING
              You need to act during your songs.  The most common mistake is people thinking that singing doesn't require you to act and all they'll be looking for is how lovely your voice is.  WRONGO. You really need to give as much character to your song as in your dialogue (this is if you have both...if not, it still applies!). If needs be sing in front of a mirror  - because its really difficult to sing to other people - and make sure you see your facial expressions and try to mirror these with your voice.  The more feeling you give, the better the song will be.

So now you know how to give the best audition in the world.  JOKES.  But I hope this helps, I really do.  I'm not going to say that you should enjoy your audition because that's pretty much impossible, isn't it? I never enjoy them. However, you shouldn't be too scared about them because at the end of the day the theory is 'the more you do the better you'll get'.  It's kind of true.  I have done so many know that I'm not going to bother to count, but I try and remember that whatever happens in that room no one else but you and the audition panel will ever know (unless some horrible person tells other people...) and you just need to go in there and show them that you're the only one who can do this role, yeah?
Awesome. 

The Lion King

On Wednesday 17th October I was lucky enough to go and watch The Lion King at Bristol Hippodrome.  It was honestly the most beautiful and moving piece of theatre I have ever seen.

Everyone had always talked about this show and how amazing it was and how I needed to go and watch it because it would 'change my life'.  I, obviously, didn't believe them.  I thought that they didn't really know about the stage and musical theatre and were just thinking the whole idea of it was wonderful.  Oh how wrong I was.   Throughout the opening of the show I was in tears.  The movement of these dancers was just so beautiful and controlled, so accurate to the animals that they were portraying and the music was just so powerful.  

Basically guys, this woman stands on the edge of the stage and starts to sing 'The Circle of Life' and you cry and you have no idea why you're crying. Her voice is so emotive and pure and you just want to be able to sing like her (IN AFRICAN!!!)

There is one song in the show called 'They live in you' and it will send shivers down your spine.  It's a song sung my Mufasa (Simba's father) about how the great kings of the past are watching over you and and live inside of you.  IT'S SO GORGEOUS. The Mufasa in this production was amazing.  His voice was a rich Baritone and it just worked.  Combined with all the instruments (mostly drums) it was enough to make even the worst musical theatre haters accept the beauty of African musical genius.

An appreciation paragraph for the dancers is needed. 
These people are amazing.  The amount of control needed for these dances and pure skill was just immense.  I did not see a dancer put a single foot wrong (and trust me, I was watching).  Their attention to detail was incredible - there was one woman with a leopard puppet.  Oh my literal goodness.  She cannot have been on the stage for more than 5 minutes in the whole show but by Geoffrey was she amazing.  Her shoulders were slinking back and forth like a cat whilst her head was attached to that of the puppet so when she rolled hers so did the leopard.  At one point the leopard reared up on its back legs and she just stretched back so her head was so nearly touching the floor.  GAAAH.  Why can I not do this!? I am sat at my computer applauding you, oh great dancer people.  You deserve world wide recognition.

I walked out of that theatre thinking "What the Hell am I doing with my life? Why am I not doing this and being a freaking antelope in the Lion King?"

Watch the show.  Seriously.
Oh, and keep smiling and loving that Chay.

20 Questions

Right now I'm tired, ill and wanting something to do...so I decided to do a 'tag post'...

Here are my 20 questions :)


1 - What is your favourite item of clothing?
Do shoes count? If they do..MY UGGS! They're freaking beautiful and I love them very much.  I would literally wear them every single day and night if I could but I think I may get a little too hot and sweaty and that would not be attractive now, would it?

2- What are your biggest obsessions?
Oreos, Percy Pigs, shoes, shopping and audiobooks.

3- Who inspires you? 
I think I'd have to go with Julie Walters.  She is the most amazing, talented woman I have ever seen and I would give all my limbs to have a quarter of her skill and comical genius. 

4- Who is your favourite designer?
I love Marc Jacobs.

5- What is your favourite song ever?
Hammer to Fall by Queen and I'm Yours by Jason Mraz.  I would actually sit and listen to those two all day long. 

6- What is yours favourite song right now?
Somebody that I used to know by Goyte.  Such an amazing song.

7- If you were a sweet, what would you be? 
A sour skittle because they're the best things ever.  I want to taste like the rainbow!

8 -  Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – what words would you use to describe your rainbow?
I don't know, I'm too ill to think of this right now.

9 - What's your favourite film?
The Notebook.

10 - Who's your favourite actor?
Julie Walters!

11 - If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
I quite enjoy being here, thank you :)

12 - What are your three favourite smells?
Garlic, Lush's "Snow Fairy" and petrol.

13 - What are your three favourite tastes?
Rare steaks, Pina Colada jelly beans and Bacon.

14 - What is your most treasured posession?
My photos.

15 - What did you always want to do/be when you grow up?
I wanted to be an actress...until I realised that I would never get any work.

16 - If you were ice-cream, what flavour would you be?
Cookie Dough.

17 - If someone made a short film of your life, who would play you?
Keira Knightely because I like to think that I'm just that beautiful...I'm not...but a girl can dream, right?

18 - What would your perfect afternoon consist of?
Shopping followed by a film in bed with a massive pizza.

19 - If you were a flower, what would you be?
One of those large Daisy looking flowers? I think they're real pretty.

20 - Tell me a random thing – a quote, a line from a song, book, movie…

"Now say you're a bird too"
"If you're a bird, I'm a bird"