What's Going On In My Friends' Lives

A continuous in my life has always been that I am a very very boring person. I don't drink, I don't party, I really don't do much at all. It hasn't changed, you're probably sat there thinking 'woah! She's about to tell us how she turned her social life around!' Nope! Okay yes I am going away for a night without my parents for the first time in my life (Bristol if you were wondering, uni research for a friend) but that isn't enough to fill a page. A lot of my joy in life comes from supporting all the other people I care about. And my god when I tell you my friends are cool. So, instead of talking about me and my life (which I will do later on) let's talk about them.

You know a love a movie, but did you know I know a writer? Like a real published movie writer. Joe Derrick, my best friend in the entire world's dad, an all around legend, and he's written an entire film. 'Against the Ice', starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who's probably best known from Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinder's Joe Cole, is an adventure movie based on the story of Captain Mikkelsen, played by Coster-Waldau, and his survival mission across Greenland. It was adapted from the recount of events 'Two Against the Ice' by Derrick and Coster-Waldau and premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival the Wednesday just gone, the 16th February for all you future people. My best friend actually went to the premiere and can vouch that not only was the experience of a movie premiere everything we could have ever dreamt of but the movie was genuinely, truly a work of art. Maybe, when the movie comes out I may be a little biased, because I've followed Joe through this project through little updates from Georgia and every step of the way I've been thrilled for him. But I've been instructed to remove emotions from the equation and give an honest review of this movie when it's released for Joe and the wonderful people behind and in front of this movie when it's finally released on Netflix on March 2nd.

I'm also friends with musicians. My good friend Jake is a guitarist in a little indie band called Sunblazed. They're a Birmingham based band who currently focuses on covers rather that originals, but bloody good ones at that, I went to see their first supporting show and it was genuinely incredible. Though, I do believe they're releasing a single followed by their debut EP 'Silhouettes' very very soon. Don't ask me when I am not their manager, but if you want details they do have an Instagram page @sunblazedband and an upcoming headline show in Birmingham on the 3rd of March. Busy month for me apparently.

Similarly on the creative path, my uncle creates NFTs! No, I have no idea what that means either, but he draws cute little robots and posts them on Twitter. Each robot has it's own backstory and one day I do believe there will be a story arc that will link all these bots together with the catchy theme tune he produced right at the start of this adventure. I'm not too sure what the full story is yet, though I was told I could get involved so Uncle Kevin give me something to do please! I'm joking, kind of, but if you guys want to follow an an account just to see some cool drawings and a catchy song @AbndndBOTS on Twitter is the place to be.

The next friend may be more for personal benefit, because she did promise me free stickers if I wrote about her. EmsEssentialsGoods on Etsy. Need I say more? She's got sticker packs, wax melts, an entire list of things she believes are essential to your life of luxury. The shops only been open a few months but she's already a star seller on Etsy, I honestly don't know how she's done it. Products currently aren't of a huge variety but are of wonderful quality and she's been actively trying to increase her products. She's got a rainbow cow sticker set being released soon, and if you get yours we will allow you to be honorary members of our English language club (yes most of my English class now have pastel cows on the back of their college lanyards. Mine's the mint green one, I've named him Monty). She's got plans for zodiac sets and from my very specific request a marvel sticker pack should be coming your way soon if I play my cards right. Not only that, but 10% of proceeds from her Etsy shop goes to Bone Cancer Research, a charity that's very close to her, so with your new cow friend you'll be helping thousands of people across the country!

Emily while you make my free Captain America sticker, let me tell the internet about the cool things in my life. There's not much. I've firmed my place at University for September, finally! I went to visit it last weekend and fell in love with the campus, the city, the course content and the lecturers. I'm genuinely so excited to go to the point that if I could skip ahead I probably would. I have a long list of things I want to do but don't have time to do, including writing a fantasy book I've had swarming around my mind for a while, and I have a lot of things I need to do but don't want to, like the four page English homework I need to get done over half term and the revision I need to do for my A Levels that are just over three months away now. Horrifying thought! As I write this now, it's almost 1am and I think to myself I could be doing something more productive: revision would be a start, but instead I'm sat on my bed listening to the group of teenage boys in the livingroom below me laughing about something indistinguishable gushing over the cool people in my life as if I couldn't be one of those people if I put the work in.

Here's a message to you reading this, it's okay to have no motivation to do that thing you want to do sometimes, because the people around you and their drive will fuel you for a while. Vicariously, they will keep you going until their achievements spark that thing in you to finish what you started and follow in their footsteps as they leave their mark on this world. You might think it's rubbish, but honestly it's them that have made this, because without all the talented people I know I would never have the drive to write for this blog, and a lot of time I don't, hence the sparse updates, but it's them that make me feel like I could be good at something too.