Instagram Worldwide InstaMeet - #InstaWalkAnge #InstaWalkScotland

Wednesday 26 October was the 3rd Worldwide InstaMeet day. What's that you say? Well Instagram is an iPhone photo app (one of my favourites) and an InstaMeet is a group of people who get together and chat, take photos all relating to Instagram. Well, that was the idea, but despite countless calls and few people saying yes, they'd come, I ended having a day to myself walking around taking pictures and posting them to Instagram, and Twitter.

As you might guess this is a picture heavy post so look away now if you don't like pictures. But I wanted to mark the day, my day, in pictures. I decided that i'd go to Edinburgh for this day that on Instagram and Twitter I called #InstaWalkAnge #InstaWalkScotland  I'll explain... The hashtag for the day was #InstaMeet - check the Instagram blog - with the name of the city attached to the end. But since there weren't many takers i thought I'd name it after our beautiful country. I mean surely we have enough going on in the wee nooks and crannies of our cities to capture. Yes we do and that's what i did.

I hope you like the photos. There will be more days like this soon so give me a shout if you fancy tagging along on the next one.

my pillow - the morning of Worldwide InstaMeet day

Connor - one of the angels

Stairs

Scott - The Scott Monument, Edinburgh

Never Ending - Princes Street, Edinburgh

Already Christmas

Occupied

Abandoned

Highland Dress

Pedestrians - Royal Mile

Tea Break - Hula Juice Bar

- - - , Greyfriars Cemetary

Rooftops

Skull and crossbones

Words, Sir Walter Scott

Edinburgh Castle

Castlebarns Steps

This one isn't an Instagram but these shoes kept me walking all day in comfort

White Building - Royal Lyceum Theatre

again, not an Instagram but a picture from food stop at Illegla Jack's

Stained

Castle by night

Door. Pillars

Trains

Last one of the day. Me. Ange

Hope you enjoyed my walk with Instagram. I certainly did. You can follow my photos on Instagram by looking for my username @Ange77H
And a big thanks to @Drgonzolives @CaesarLopez @Cheakodaman @littleembot @abzquine @nickdixon8 @ for the likes and comments on my pictures. Thanks for walking with me, virtually.

Angela x

Bucket List - Autumn Winter Edition

You all know about my bucket lists from previous posts, don't you? If not have a look HERE and HERE for a catch up.

I decided that I like the idea of these lists and i'll post them every few months so that you can keep me on track, or shout at me to do them. This is the autumn/winter edition so it'll be themed as such.

1. Beach walks. Yes. In the winter. Bracing wind and crashing waters to blow the cobwebs away.
2. More movies. I think this will always be on the bucket list no matter what season it is. You can hide away from the rainy weather in the cinema and enjoy hot fudge sundaes. What I really want to do is have a movie where we spend all day watching movies, two perhaps three. If you fancy that holler at me!
3. Seeing a Banksy in real life. This could be do-able after Christmas. I feel another little London break is needed. I'm searching for cheap deals now. Actually that's a lie because i'd go back to the same fab hotel I previously stayed at, The Hoxton. 
4. Keep getting fitter and leaner. This is pretty much still on track. This winter i will not sit and eat all the Christmas sweeties. Okay.
5. Wear my little black dress. Surely there has to be an occasion out there that will give me an excuse to take that dress from it's storage rack and throw it on? I have my beady eye on a killer pair of hot pink shoes to go with it too. Woot. 'citing!
6. Do more baking and cooking. I'm actually quite a good baker. I just never sit still long enough to be able to bake stuff. I love Pinterest and people are always posting easy recipes for meals and cakes. Starting with caramel apple bites! Perfect for Halloween.
7. Go on a date!! *scared face* I know, I know this is a strange one. I haven't been on a proper date for a while. A long while. So I'm hoping this autumn/winter will be known as Angela's date season. If you know any suitable candidates, you know where to send them! 

I'll leave it at that just now. Plenty to be getting on with. What about you? What's on your Autumn/Winter bucket list? Spill!

Angela x

Words are all you need

*gasp* What do you mean you don't know what Pinterest is?! Go and visit it, please. It's a compendium of pictures (mostly) about all things and everything. There's recipes, clothes, architecture, art, houses, chairs, rooms, shoes, hair, gadgets, jewels and quotes. You get a lot of quotes over there. Some are good but others just grab you by the shoulders and give you the shake you need. Others, well they're simply wonderful and tear inducing. One such quote (or rather, a line from a story) I found this week was this... read it and enjoy.

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."”


Angela x

My iPhone and Me

With the imminent arrival of the new iPhone 4S on Friday, I've been thinking (that word again!) of how the iPhone and the Internet have really changed my life in the past two years that I've had mine. I know this sounds soooo dramatic but honestly friends, if you were to give up your iPhone (other smart phones are available) what would you do to fill those minutes of your day that you spend checking-in, reading emails on the run, playing your go in Words with Friends or catching up via Whats App. Yes, there is a counter argument that would actually be able to have a little bit of time out. You;d be on a train and can perhaps read a book, or (Jesus weeps) actually chat to the person sitting next to you for the best part of a three hour journey.


But seriously. In the two years that i've had my iPhone I have felt more connected to people and life outside my village. I have loads more confidence when meeting new people (and that sentence just totally contradicts my last two posts). I have discovered new things; some good new things, some bad new things. It has made me hanker after things that may be impossible to get but i hanker nonetheless.


Where the iPhone really comes into it's own are days when you're feeling down and suddenly it buzzes into life with a new message from Wee Bri on Whats App. Wee Bri being my cousin who has gone travelling to the other side of the world. He's now 2 months into a year away and is in Sydney if you're wondering. Anyway the phone buzzed the other day and it was him asking the price a new 16Gb memory card for a camera. These moments are priceless and would not be possible without the iPhone nor indeed the Internet.


Btw I keep referring to my iPhone but there are other just as capable phones out there. It's just that my phone of choice is the iPhone so for the benefit of this post, iPhone is what i shall refer to.


My phone has made it easier to Tweet and keep in touch on Facebook. It has found in me a new passion for taking photos. I've got 1900 photos on my phone currently and that's with deleting hundreds the other week! Photo and camera apps are my biggest vice. I have loads and I take loads of pictures, even getting them printed as prints and magnets via Hipstamatic and Stickygram. They're wonderful. Not forgetting Instagram. Another awesome little iPhone app. I can search for anything on the Internet at any time, as long as there's not a shite signal. I'm looking at you her O2! It's ironic that the one thing i don't do very often is talk on the phone, except to my mum or my sister. All those free minutes are wasted on me each month. I get beaten on a regular basis on Words with Friends, although I let the people win so they feel better *cough*...


Aaanywaaaaayyysss..... I'll be backing up my phone tonight, installing new iOS5 - hopefully without any glitches, and getting ready to buy the new phone on Friday. I've got a day off and everything. Sad i Know but when you all got the iPhone 4 I was so envious but glad I kept the 3GS.

iPhone 3GS with fully installed iOS5

Update: I wrote this post on Wednesday before I backed up my phone and installed iOS5. Well, what a palaver that was! it took hours and hours and hours. I started it about 8.30pm and it just wouldn't back up. Then it did. Then i had to download iOS5, which on my connection and very old laptop took another 2.5 hours. Then i started installing it and after a few go's it eventually did. Somewhere in between 1.30am and me falling asleep. In between though i had to get rid of the music on it as it was now saying there wasn't enough space for everything. So I did. I woke to iOS5 fully installed on my 3GS. It worked fine, but was missing the music.


I suppose what I value most that the iPhone has helped bring me, and I realise this may sound daft, but it has brought into my life thoroughly great people who I can now call friends. People who get me. People who take the time to get in touch. People I have shared laughs and stories with. Those people I'm sure will be in my future.


Angela x

"You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Robbie Williams once sang about No Regrets. I'm sure we'd all love to not have any. Do you really have no regrets about anything?

I have no regrets about what I have done, rather some regrets about things i haven't done. And I'm not going to have them any more. I've decided. If there is something that needs to be said, I will say it. If there is something that i want to do, i'll be doing it. No longer will i shy away from taking the bull by the horns (so to speak).

You won't have failed to notice the sad passing of Steve Jobs last week - unless you've been living in a bunker for that duration! I watched his Stanford Commencement Address speech the other night and it was ace. I've read loads of quotes that various people were posting on Twitter and Facebook. Stuff that he's said about Apple. Stuff on business. Stuff on his early years. But the stuff i remember are the ones where he talks about life (maybe it wasn't about life but work with me here). There are a load of great snippets in that speech but in particular, these two things really struck a chord with me.

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart".

"A lot of times people don't know what you want until you show it to them"

Now that latter one he was talking about an Apple product but i think it rings true in life too. Sometimes you've got to show people 'something' for them to know that they want it.

The first quote is blooming awesome. For years I've never really said what i thought to people for fear of what they might think, good or bad. Recently i've read a lot of wise words from sayings, quotes, or from people who really believe in things and I've decided that this will be my new way of working too.

Perhaps it's all to do with that confidence / fear scenario of a few posts ago? All I know is I don't want to be trapped inside my own head anymore. I'm saying stuff. It may even be to you. No regrets. And remember...

"You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Angela x

No Words Wednesday

 

 

 

 

angela x

Music and Words

Music. Music plays a big part in my life as I'm sure it does for you too. I've never been a trend setter going out and searching for new bands or anything. I'm more of a hear a song and kinda like it person. I tend to get a cd and listen to it for months on the car and then change to another one. With the little deviational detour in between times.

It's only when things happen in your life and you really start to listen to the words of songs that they take on new meaning. I have a cd in the car that i made up myself from iTunes, it's relatively recent songs that i liked and i swear to whatever god you pray to that the songs have taken on new meaning in the past few months. It's strange. I find myself driving along singing these words and it hits me that some of these words i should be saying out loud to people (or persons), various.

I won't rhyme off the reasons why I should be saying the things that I should. If only I could, then perhaps the words would mean something totally different. Does that make any sense at all? I hope so.

Music can trigger feelings inside you that you forgot were there. Last week I saw someone played a jokey spoofy one hit wonder song on Spotify and i remembered wee John liked it so very much and it made me smile with love remembering him. I hear the name of an artist and i'm taken back to a great day out and a lot of laughs since. I hear a guitar riff and i think of a good friend who plays guitar. All of this is what music does to you. Elation. Emotion. Heartache. Belly laughs. Shivers down your spine. Wry smiles of remembrance. And above all a good old fashioned sing along in your car, music blaring no one can hear you and you're lost in that 3 or 4 minutes. Bliss.

Here's one of the songs... I like it.

Angela xx

There goes the fear

I was thinking about the previous post i wrote last week about having a dip in confidence and how i've always thought i never had any real confidence. Well, i still think that. But here's a thing. I was in the shower yesterday and was thinking about it (I do a lot of blog post thinking in the shower, it takes me a good 20 minutes to wash my hair so plenty thinking time...) anyway, i was thinking that i'm a bit of a contradiction. You see, i've never liked being made a fuss of. I've never had any parties to celebrate important birthdays like 21st, 30th or even my 18th! I don't like to create a fuss about anything. I don't take praise or compliments very well, although i'm learning to accept this. I don't shout about my achievements much, except here on this blog and yet here i am...blogging. I mean surely i blog and i expect people to read it?

I mean for goodness sake I have a different pair of brightly coloured trousers for each day of the week. You'd need a certain kind of confidence to carry off the purple trouser look, wouldn't you?

When i was younger i never followed the crowd. I didn't drink. I didn't go out to clubs much. I've never been on a package deal holiday to Benidorm, Tenerife, or Gran Canaria. I wear Converse trainers most days and i shirked wearing make up for years! I wore a suit to a wedding and a skirt suit to my senior dance at high school...... wait, perhaps that's why I never got asked to dance. But you get the drift i never followed what everyone else was doing. At a work Christmas night out I wore a red velvet suit whilst all other women were in black. Looking back it was very poor taste, I looked like Santa, but it was in fashion at the time (mid 90's).

I suppose what i'm saying is that i *thought* I had no confidence but to stray from the crowd takes a certain kind of confidence. Another example is this. I wore a hat to work last week. A very cool tweed flat cap my great friend Linda bought for my birthday this year, i wore that and you'd have thought i had two heads the amount of comment it got. So you see, I must have some confidence. I just need to nurture it and bring it to the fore in certain situations. Situations where work is related. Matters of the heart. All of the above... I need to let it flow and get rid of the fear. Because that's what lack of confidence is really isn't it? fear.

Angela xx

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Confidence, where are you?

You know that feeling when you get punched in the face with a brick? Yes? well that's what has hit me the past two days. Not a brick really. Not punched in the face with one. But a little confidence dip that feels like a punch in the face with a brick. Although I wouldn't actually know that feeling since i've never been hit in the face with a brick but i was hit in the forehead with a hockey stick once, when I was 10, still got that scar and i know that hurt!

Anyway. Yes. I'm having a mini dip in my somewhat already low confidence. Resultant from a few things really. No one thing to pinpoint it down to other than 'that' feeling. You all know it, right? that feeling. When things just seemingly aren't going your way. Perhaps they are but you just can't see it. You overthink everything, ten times. You listen to every word with the kind of intesinty you'd normally listen to a muffled warbled train announcement just before your train is due, hoping it's not been cancelled - again!

So the question is how to get over this mini dip in the confidence rollercoaster? How do you do it? I see and hear people, and outwardly they appear to be the most confident thing in the world. But what's going on behind the eyes? Are they really so self assured? Maybe they are. But secretly I think we can all suffer from little dips. It can take just one thing to trigger it off. Usually the silliest little thing. But getting yourself pointing in the right direction can take longer than the dip.

I think it was my hair that set it off. I got it cut and coloured last week and it's too dark. Too dark for me anyway. Mahogany! I asked for my own hair colour and I got MAHOGANY!!!!..... I'm no more a natural mahongay haired person than a blonde! Although the cut is great and my curls are sitting so perfectly and bouncy and lovely, even if i do say so myself. I love my hair - not this colour though. But I do :)

Sometimes you just got to have a word with yourself. Pretend. Pretend to be a little box of fireworks. But is that being true to yourself....

Someone, help me get my confidence of 2 weeks ago back. Or just tell me your stories of little dips and your fabulous selves! I love to hear peoples stories.

Courage doesn't always roar
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says
I'll try again tomorrow
-Mary Ann Radmacher

Big love,
Angela x


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My Hipstamatic Week

Hipstamatic in case you don't know is a really cool iPhone photography app - commonly known as iPhonography. I've had it for ages and i love the different film, flashes, lenses and camera cases you get with it. I've amassed quite a few pictures. I love playing about with different iPhonography apps and with this one you can even get your photos printed off and sent all the way from America. I've had a pack, they're pretty cool. Here's my week in Hipstamatic photos, Saturday 24 September - Saturday 1 October... enjoy! (picture heavy post ALERT!!)

New Converse RED - my sparky shoes

Edinburgh Castle - from behind

Princes Street barriers

jewel encrusted tiger in Harvey Nichols

favourite drink

navy nails

poorly Connor

new gym programme

Castle silhouette

what?...

Those feet again

too much Coke in Illegal Jack's

Dumyat

for you...

dangerous tree?!

yum

Halloween window

Angela x

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