Antisocial Media

I was reading this article, "Six ideas for making social media safe", on BBC News yesterday and it really struck a chord.

Not just because I'm a total social media addict, but because I know that my younger sister uses sites like ask.fm quite a bit...

It made me remember the days when I'd come home from school, throw my school bag down and rush straight to the house computer, impatiently waiting for dial-up broadband to work so I could chat on MSN Messenger to my whole year group who I'd spent the entire day with already.

I remember the gossip, the group chats, the spilled secrets and of course the hilarious screen names (I think I had filthy 50 Cent lyrics as mine the majority of the time - something my fourteen year old virgin self knew sweet FA about...). But I also remember things getting catty and bitchy, with classroom notes and playground rivalry being carried on over instant messaging.

Secretly, if things turned a little nasty, I could get away with feigning just the right amount of protesting to mum before she pulled the plug and stole the landline to phone a friend.

Now it's different though. Today we have unlimited, all-consuming, relentless social media. You can switch from screen to smartphone dipping in and out of a plethora of social media platforms all designed to be as addictive as possible. Don't get me wrong, I know I pose a risk here of sounding like my grandma - I love social media. I'm an addict. But I can see how much more of a problem it is for young, impressionable teenagers who are out to fit in.

I'd like to think that my thirteen year old sister, with two older sisters and an older brother, is disillusioned by the idea of a 'cyber bully' typing hatred online (she was better at sarcasm when she was ten than I am today, and sure knows how to get what she wants...) but you never know do you? Or, if she was bothered by something, that she'd confide in me about it.

As the eldest sibling, without that big-sister security blanket, I think that maybe I had it hardest - but that was in a world where a bitchy text message stopped after 160 characters because at 10p a message, you weren't wasting your credit on NOBODY (and how offensive can "u fkin hor" really be when it doesn't even make sense..)

Can any of the tactics the BBC describe work? I don't know. But tragedies like poor Hannah Smith need to stop, soon.

Fit Feast: baked egg & avocado

I saw this article on Buzzfeed the other day and was drawn to the avocado and egg combo. So, today I thought  I'd try it out to see what all the hype is about.

It's the perfect post-gym snack: eggs are packed with protein and avocado is full of good fats, vitamin K and fibre.

To make it just the right size for one person, you'll need just two things (pretty self explanatory really):

• 1 egg


• An avocado

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Chop your avocado in half and scoop out the pip. Take a teaspoon and carve out a little more to make room for all that yolk.



Place your avocado half (or halves, depending on how many you're making) on a baking tray - don't try and crack your egg into them before hand.. moving runny raw egg from chopping board to baking tray is tricky, sticky and poses too much danger potential!

Crack your egg and let the yolk fall where the pip once was.



Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the white has set.

Enjoy!





It's really nice, perfect if you fancy something quick, easy and healthy to eat. The avocado was still a little bit hard on mine so you might want to leave yours in a little more towards the 20 minute mark - but this'll depend on how big your 'cado is.

Champagne & Haunted Mansions

I've been doing my fair share of exploring and getting out of the city recently. On Saturday I made my way over to Holmfirth in Yorkshire for tapas, champagne and a lot of laughing.

I'd never been there before - such a beautiful part of the UK! We paid a visit to Holmfirth Vineyard hoping to have a tour and engage in some seriously sophisticated vino tasting. We were too late and the last tour was just finishing up as we arrived.

As it happens though, it was probably for the best - to say that the wine tastees looked windswept when they came in from the vineyard tour would be a massive understatement. The vineyard is on this huge hill, and with the wind, I was struggling to stay upright as we walked to the bar, so who knows how the party managed to feign concentration sniffing grapes.. or whatever it is you do wine tasting. Anyway. We sat inside in the warm and enjoyed a fine bottle of Merlot, a much better idea!

On Sunday, after all the over indulgence from the night before, it was time for a brisk walk in the woods.

We pretended we couldn't see the rain clouds or hear the wind and ventured out into the countryside, with wellies on and two excitable dogs at our heels.

Through the woods we stumbled across Storthes Hall, an abandoned wreck of a building that was once a "lunatic asylum". It was really fricking scary... look at it!! :-



Edging closer through rubble and overgrown bushes, we were suddenly stopped by a man shouting at us to get out - that we weren't supposed to be here, it was private property.

Startled (and just a teeny bit scared, although the boys would never admit that!), we ambled as quickly as possible back the way we had come. Spurred on by our semi-freakish experience, we spent the rest of the wooded walk swapping ghost stories, ending with a much needed cider at the end of the trail...

                       

... and then scaring ourselves again by watching 'Mama' when we got back (although I didn't really rate it to be honest, very weird towards the end... almost comical?!)

It's nice to get out and about but I wish the weather actually felt like summer!