Little Girl Lost...

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, I'm certain that you would have heard about the downward spiral of former squeaky-clean, Mouseketeer, "Baby One More Time", teen sensation, pop queen, America's sweetheart blah blah blah: Miss Britney Spears.

There was the 72-hour Vegas marriage to one of her childhood friends, the K-Fed saga, the head-shaving, the kid-dropping, the reckless driving, the 2007 MTV awards lipsynching and unflattering bikini, and most recently, losing custody of her kids.

I think it has all been downhill for Brit since that infamous kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV awards (hmmm, seeing a trend here?). Girls kissing girls just for attention is a recipe for disaster.

Now everyone loves to have a dig at Britney, but I have to say, I have nothing but sympathy and, in a way, pity for this woman who is still only 25 years old- yes, 25! She has really achieved so much already and I think that is the problem with these young Hollywood starlets- they reach the peak of their career at such a young age, and then have nowhere to go but down, or to jsut be torn down by everyone around them.

Britney has had a breakthrough today though, with Britster being granted two afternoon visits and one overnight stay per week. All visits have to be supervised and I can only imagine how hard that must be for her- having a perfect stranger watch her play and look after her own two kids.

But it is a start for Brit. Another plus for the Britmeister is the fact that her new CD, "Blackout", is just about to be released and has been receiving rave reviews in American magazines and newspapers. The USA Today wrote: "Britney Spears hasn't been able to lose the paparazzi in recent months, but she does joyously lose herself in music on her new Blackout".

I think it's all upwards and onwards for Miss. B. Spears and I wish her the best of luck. Seriously, who are we to judge her or try to understand what it must be like to live with constant stalking from paparazzi and crazed fans, etc. Britney just needs to surround herself with good, supportive people who will help her get back to her old self and not let her run free.

Any opinions?
Love bubblygirl!

Pic above left: Britney getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002

Pic above right: Britney shaves her own head in 2007

Both piccys courtesy of the Herald Sun website

Mind, Body + Soul

I am really into spiritual and mental health and have been for a little while now (see my procrastination post, for example). I think it's important to look after your whole self- body, mind and soul. My Girlfriend subscription arrived yesterday with a lovely little "Self-Respect Body and Soul Challenge" smack bang in the middle of the mag. It's all about eating food to fuel your body, thinking positive, exercising and just leading a healthy life. I love this self-respect message that Girlfriend is pushing- it is such a change from the bikini diets and gossiping you can find in other mags.

One of the key ideas I picked up from this month's Girlfriend was to cut back on "butt time". This is the amount of time that you spend sitting whether its watching TV, blogging (ahem!) or even homeworking (yes, I've decided that that is actually a word!) and getting up to walk, play, dance, run- anything to get the blood pumping!

In slightly related news, I started a four- week "Introduction to Meditation" course last week. It was sooo relaxing! My instructor says that its 'centering for the soul' which is true; I feel really 'together' and at peace after my daily ten-minute session. I would thoroughly recommend meditation, or something like it (yoga, pilates, etc.) to people like me who are busy/stressed/perfectionists/super-organised/worry-warts/going slightly insane with the pressure of life- it brings you back to life and makes you realise that the simple pleasures in life are often the most rewarding.

Stop and smell the roses, readers, even if it means just closing your eyes and breathing for ten seconds... just "be"!

Love bubblygirl

Picture courtesy of the Journey Holistic Health website

I'll Do It Tomorrow!

OK, so I am normally a hard-working, "let's get it done now" sort of person, but lately, for some inexplicable reason (it probably has *something* to do with the fact that the school year is drawing to a close... YAY!) I have become an absolute, hopeless procrastinator. Case in point- I am supposed to be doing homework right now, which I am putting off in order to write this blog. (So appreciate it, people! I'm blowing off homework to write this for you! Just jokes, guys, don't stress.)

Anyway, I feel completely guilty the entire time I am procrastinating, but I JUST CAN'T STOP! My usually focussed, long attention span is now resembling that of a five year old boy (or a fifteen-year-old boy for that matter... basically, boys of any age just can't, nay DON'T tend to pay attention all that often for all that long!). Maybe it has something to do with this crazy weather (31 degrees one day, 15 the next -what the?!) or maybe it is just complete exhaustion due to my relentless routine. Hmmm. I don't know. But I found this great article on the Net about how to procrastinate effectively. You can read it here on positivesharing.com (incidently where I found the great photo above). The best tip I got out of that article was to throw yourself into the procrastination 100%, just as I would in anything else in life. If you are going to procrastinate, don't waste the procrastination time thinking about WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING, just enjoy the break from life and enjoy everything you do and get the most you possibly can out of whatever it is you are doing.

Basically, just enjoy life, kids!

And on a little sidenote, how much would you just love to be lying on a couch in a sun-filled loungeroom, like the women in the piccy, before your gorgeous boyfriend/husband comes home and decides to cook you a beautiful dinner before whisking you out for a night on the town, agreeing to dance to as many girly songs as you want, and happens to look like either David Beckham, Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Collingwood footy player Shane Wakelin (google him, he's gorgeous!) and quotes romantic Shakespearian lines to me all day long while working hard on important things like saving the world, curing cancer and ending climate change... Whoo sorry! Got a little carried away there! But see, I was procrastinating/day-dreaming 100%, throwing myself into it wholeheartedly!

Sorry about the prolix post, but I just had to get all that off my chest (and put off my homework just a few minutes longer!).

Love always and happy procrastinating!

Obsession

Hi guys!

Is it just me, or do you have TV obsessions, too? Like today, for instance, is Tuesday, which for me and two of my friends is 'ALL SAINTS' DAY! Wohoo! (BTW, it's a fictional medical/drama show with lots of love stories and a few gory operations every ep!).

We will text each other when the show is on, dissecting storylines and arguing over which doctor is the hottest (my vote is Dr. Steve Tyler- phwooaahh, that voice! Those eyes! Those dimples! That's him at left, sorry the picture is such bad quality- it was all I could find).

I am also obsessed like this about my footy team, the Collingwood Magpies (AFL, for those who don't know!). (Oh, on a little sidenote, the president of the Pies, Channel 9's Eddie McGuire, has come out and said that he will take Ben Cousins to play in his team after he finishes his stint in rehab! Yay! I fully believe in second chances, so come on Ben, get it together and then I can love you even more when you are part of my team!) I call and text about six of my friends and family when a game finishes and we will go through the whole thing again. Love. It. All!

Do you have a TV obsession, too? Be honest, don't worry if it's embarrassing! I also love 'Australian Idol' and 'Lost', so my TV loves are fairly embarrassing also!

Promise me you'll watch All Saints tonight, ok? Please? 9:30pm, Channel 7. Don't miss it!

The Future Looms...

So earlier this year I had to pick my Year 11/12 subjects for school next year. Talk about nerve-racking! These choices may define the next ten years or so of my future! If I don't choose the right prerequisites for the university course I am hoping to take, I won't be able to get into that course, which means I'll have to do a uni degree I don't particularly want to do or I will have to do a TAFE course or go travelling overseas or work until I am old enough to qualify as a "mature-age student" and then go and do the course, which means I will be like 30/35 years old before I even start my career! So basically today just brought home to me how close my future is and how the decisions I make from this point on will really resonate with the rest of my life.

The thing is, since I was about four years old I have always wanted to be a vet. I even went and did work experience at a vet clinic earlier this year- helping to wash dogs, prepare animals for surgery and observe operations. I absolutely loved it but i can't help but wonder if in twenty or thirty years I will be so incredibly bored with that job- you know, desexing another dog or de-fleaing another cat, just like every other day. Ho-hum. I mean, just in my week of being a workie I watched nine cat or dog desexings- yes nine! In five days! The vet could practically do it with his eyes closed! So I am looking at other career options, and the one which stands out most to me is that of a primary school teacher. I love, nay adore, children- always have. Plus, lots of people tell me that I would be good as a teacher.

Only time will tell what happens and what I will become... I just wish I had a time machine to zoom ten years into the future and just know that I'm happy and OK.

But that is obviously NOT going to happen, so I'm just going to have to settle for making informed decisions that relate to every situation individually and hope it all works out.

Soory for this extremely self-indulgent post, I just wanted to send this out into cyberspace and see what comes back to me...

(Piccy courtesy of www.edsnet.na)

Cousins In Crisis Continued

OK I'm just about to head off for a day of shopping (Wohoo! I love being a girl!) but before I go, I just wanted to quickly update you guys on the Ben Cousins controversy. The charges made by Perth police have been dropped due to the fact that the substances found in Cousins' car and his pocket, a type of prescription sedative, was in tablet form and in Western Australia, a person may only be charged if they possess the drug in a liquid, injectable form.
Cousins' lawyer is urging the former-West Coast superstar to pursue all legal options, including sueing the WA police for defamation- after all, it was these false charges that led to West Coast sacking the star player.
Cousins' lawyer said yesterday: "I will strongly advise my client to pursue all legal channels open to him," Mr Brennan said. "From the charges led so far, I'd suggest police have jumped the gun."
I will keep you posted on this case and all further updates...


Have a good weekend!!

BTW, Ben, would it be too much to ask for you to do up all the buttons on your shirt, tuck it into your pants and throw on a tie and jacket for your APPEARANCE IN COURT?! And maybe consider getting a good night's sleep and cleaning yourself up a bit before an important and potentially life-changing event such as this. Come on Ben, I really want to support you and a lot of the rest of the country is trying to do the same thing but why should we make the effort if you can't even pull it together for court?!?

Picture above right: Cousins' in court earlier this week. This and all previous Ben Cousins photos courtesy of The Herald Sun website.

Book Review: "My Sister's Keeper"

I am an avid reader. Even since I was a really little kid, I have always loved escaping into another world and getting wrapped up in the supsense, romance or comedy of it all. I used to beg my parents to read my just one more story before bed, even though I knew them all backwards. Now most of my books are just school-assigned novels, but I try to make time to read some stories "just for fun". I especially love biographies (Richard Branson's autobiography was fabulous- read it!) but I recently read a fantastic book written by an amazing American author, Jodie Picoult.

My Sister's Keeper tells the tale of Anna, a young girl whose sole purpose for existence is to donate her perfect-match blood, bone marrow, a kidney -any and every part of herself- to her older cancer-stricken sister, Kate. We follow Anna's journey as she makes the difficult decision to sue her own parents for medical emancipation. The story is told from a variety of angles- Anna, each of her parents, her brother Jesse, her lawyer Campbell and her guardian ad litem, Julia.

The emotions of the book are so powerful. As readers, we are allowed into the many different lives of the characters, the secrets they keep from one another and the ones they choose to reveal. We are kept in suspense throughout the entire novel as to whether Anna will go ahead with the court proceedings and effectively leave her sister to die, or give up her own rights and keep herself and her sister living their half-life.

Please, promise me you will read this book! It is life-changing, and the ending is spectacular. This is my favourite Jodie Picoult novel, but I also love these other titles from the same writer: The Pact, Picture Perfect and Keeping Faith.

P.S. The reason I have so much energy to write all this at midnight is that I have just devoured a pack of Starburst lollies with my friends! Wooo sugar high!

P.P.S I will give more book, magazine and movie reviews in the coming weeks.

Cousins In Crisis

So a lot of you reading this are probably aware of this man at right here, Ben Cousins, whether you support AFL or not. Cousins, West Coast Eagles superstar, Brownlow medallist and captain of a premeirship- winning side in 2005, was yesterday charged with drug possession and failing to take a blood test and will face court in Perth tomorrow.

This is the same man who, earlier this year, was shipped off to Miami for the best rehab that money can buy for his addiction to an as-yet unnamed drug - $150 000 of rehab all paid for by his football club. He then came back to play late in the season to a hero's welcome and had an amazing 38 touches in his return game. He was then embroiled in the suspected overdose of his good friend and ex-West Coast star Chris Mainwaring earlier this month.


There have been calls for the AFL to force West Coast to cut all ties with the troubled star, and according to the Herald Sun website, "West Coast's decision to end Cousins' career could stave off any AFL punishment to the club, which was threatened with loss of draft picks or premiership points if Cousins, or any Eagle, was found involved in the drugs again."

Cousins is undoubtedly a football legend, and it is so sad that his illustrious career is now tainted by his terrible addiction. Of course we all want him to return to good health and get help in order to do that, but where does West Coast's responsibility end and Cousins' begin? After all, Cousins is a grown man who has made decisions that have led him to this point. Cousins is at the edge of a precipice- it will be the next few weeks and months that will determine his future, not just as a football player (as his career is most likely over- too much red tape for West Coast) but as a man who has his whole life ahead of him. Will he return to rehab and finish his course this time around, or will he plunge further into his self-destructive downward spiral of devastation?
Only time will tell...
Above right: Cousins yesterday sat and smiled as police completed their two hour search of his vehicle
Above left: Cousins is led by police into a Perth police station. His torso tattoo, which he got on his return to football, reads "Such Is Life"

Worry!

I'm feeling slightly worried about the future today. It is a widely known fact that around 50% of Australian marriages end in divorce, but here are two new fun facts for you: firstly, an American study has shown that one in three marriages in the States end within the first three years, and secondly, a Swinburne University study has proven that half of all Internet relationships begin when one of the participants is still in a relationship. Thus internet affairs are being cited as a major cause of the skyrocketing divorce rate in Australia.

What does any of this have to do with me, you ask? It's true, I am not married, nor am I expecting to get married within the foreseeable future, but here's the thing: another major reason for divorce in the first few years, as cited in the American study, is partners heading into a marriage with high expectations of their significant other. So the great relationships of our parents generation, on which we base our own relationships, are now unattainable when we fail to be good wives, and particularly when we become mothers- the first two years after the first child is born is the most likely time for divorce (apart from the first three years of marriage, as mentioned above).

So what will happen by the time I get married? Will we all be single mothers with only one or two children, so the birth rate will drop, so the population will decrease, so our workforce will be smaller when supporting a larger pension-age population, so the economy will suffer... where will it end?!? Are the days of perfect, fairy-tale marriages now one in a million, or more?

Let me know your thoughts...

My First Post- The Trials of Adolescence

So here I am on a Saturday night, sitting at home with my younger sister and my dog, trying to do my homework which I have no other time to do over this weekend, due to a Friday night formal event, a Saturday outing and working all day Sunday. Tell me, is there anything sadder than working on a Sunday, wasting the "sabbath day", the one reserved for rest and recouperation? The answer to that question is- a big fat yes. The only thing sadder than working on a Sunday is BEING HOME ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. I'm supposed to be out, living life and meeting people, dancing all night long and generally enjoying myself.
The only problem with that is that I'm not yet legal, so "going out" is not that easy. I feel like I'm stuck in between, in limbo- not a little kid, content with eating lollies and watching "Finding Nemo", but not yet a 'grown-up' who can go out or drive myself around wherever I want to go, anytime.
I'm reminded of that classic Britney Spears song and vital plot point in her fantastically terrible movie debut (and oddly enough, only movie to date), "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman". Ah, the pitfalls of adolesence. No freedom, no rights, homework, growing pains, encounters with the opposite sex (I'll give you another post on that later in the week- very juicy stuff happening at the formal event last night!), it goes on and on!
Tell me how you manage/managed your adolescent years- any advice for a confused young girl stuck in the suburbs?