Where does time go?

So it’s July tomorrow.
Where on earth has my life gone? Next month, I would have been in this “temporary” job for a year. Then it will be September. And the graduate scheme rat race will begin. This year has gone way too fast for me! I feel like I haven’t done anything!
So, I have lots of plans for July. This first weekend on the 2^nd we are going to see Foo Fighters at the Milton Keynes Bowl. And, I am so.very. excited. I . can. not. Breathe!

The weekend of the 9^th and 10^th, is Film and Comic Con http://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/  in London, and, my god, it looks –amazing-! A bunch of my friends and I will definitely be attending that! I am not going to pass up a chance to meet Christopher Lloyd!
The weekend of 16^th and 17^th is Gavin’s birthday weekend, and I have a surprise booked for him.

I don’t have any plans yet for the next couple of weekends after that, but I am sure I will have!

I was thinking about my very good friend’s inspiration week on her blog. I had a little piece on there, where I wrote about what inspires me. Lots of things inspire me. Books, films, places, music.

But the main thing is other people. yes. Other people. Not movie stars, or rock stars. Normal people. My friends, family. Strangers.

I hear people’s stories, I see friends photos, I read lots of blogs. People write about their life, their travels and their journals, and some of them are very inspiring!

I think one of the reasons why these people inspire me is because they are normal, and they have amazing lives and attitudes and ideas that all come from their own normal selves. They don’t have the help of millions of pounds to travel or write, which makes lives of those that do seem impossible and therefore uninspiring to me. Many of my friends at work and home have travelled to amazing places, and that just inspires me to go myself. Because if they can. I can!

So that was my piece. Then I thought, I also get inspired by photos. Especially artistic photos. Sounds strange. But I see them and I want to create my own. That’s another thing I love.  Taking photos. I mean, everyone does. My friend James Lyons is an amazing (albeit, weird) photographer, and takes great artistic, different photos. I may actually ask him to teach me how to take some good photos one day. I will blog about how it goes, and put some up! 

On a Slightly Lighter Note...

Gavin and I went to London on Saturday, and it was a great day. We began at the Tower of London (which is £19.80 to get in btw, hugely expensive!), walked around, learnt some London history, and then walked and walked and walked, ending up at St.Paul's Cathedral. We went inside, and head an evening service. It was very relaxing inside. So peaceful. When we both came out, we both said how refreshed we felt. Amazing. Then we waked on to Oxford Street and came home. It was a really good day, and I enjoyed walking with Gavin in the sunshine in our favourite city. 

St. Paul's Cathedral 

*Warning* Major Opinionated Rant Below....

Hello, .... . I probably say this about, oooh I don’t know, 50 odd times a day? And after nearly a year of saying it.. I’m getting a little bored of it. Bored of saying the same thing, doing the same thing and even getting frustrated over the same thing, day in, day out! It’s shame really. The place itself is great, my work colleagues are fab, (with a few exceptions) and it’s only a 10minute walk from where I live. Perfect. It’s just that, the job itself is so monotonous and sooo very easy.  There are no challenges; therefore, there is no job satisfaction.  I am a graduate, as are a few other girls here. And we are stuck in a job that a school leaver can do. Somehow I don’t see that that was how the further education system was meant to work. (I wasn’t belittling those without degrees on any level, I was simply saying, what is the point of having a degree, if the only jobs that we can get are those that require GSCE’s.)
The further education system is total joke anyway. Throughout GCSE’s and A levels, we are constantly bombarded that a “degree is the most important thing you can get in life; a degree will open doors; a degree will put you in a job with a 22k job”. And so go forth many, many, many students, including myself, onto university, getting almost £15k in debt, with the belief that this amazing qualification will put them ahead of everyone else who left school at 16 and 18. 3 years later, imagine my (and many others’ I’m sure) disheartenment when I find out, that after applying to over 150 degree orientated jobs, many of which were graduate jobs, that I got nothing. Why? Because I did not have any experience. What. A. Joke. What is the point, in getting a stupid degree, when all employers look for is experience. No one, throughout my educational life, told me experience was just as important as (if not more) a degree. I wish I had known this before I chose to go to university. I am stuck, in what feels like, a life, way behind those of my peers who left school at 16, and are managers and earning good money.
So, to end this bitter complaint, I say, to any possible readers out there who are considering going to university, think about it before you do. If you are going for the experience, then great, go and live! But if you’re going for an education and “better job possibilities”, then maybe you shouldn’t bother, or, be prepared to do a masters and maybe even a doctorate, to actually get a better job.

Rant over.... for now! 

These are a few of my Favourite Places...

...that I have been to this year!

This is Great Yarmouth, where Gavin, my boyfriend of 6 years, proposed.. on this same beach!

 Great Yarmouth at Sunset

 This is actually the moon, we got engaged on a lunar eclipse! Amazing!

 This is Brighton, some friends and I went here for my friend's birthday.

 Brighton at Sunset

 This is an amazing enchanted forest in Groombridge, Tonbridge Wells. We went here with my best friend. It brought back so many childhood memories!

 This is Colchester Castle. My fiancé and I went here for my 22nd Birthday this year.

There will be more to come! Tomorrow, Gavin and I are going to the Tower of London! 

My Notebooks and Art journal

This is my notebook collection! It's not as impressive as some, but I'll get there! The only one I have been writing in is the grey one on the top second left, the one to the left of the purple one, and the one at the bottom row, second from right! 

 These are my art journal entries. 

I need to add a bit more to this one. Just not sure what yet! 

I know these are not that great, but I just sort of "doodle" when I feel creative. I have been neglecting it for a while. But I plan to add more to it sooner or later! 

What's in a name?

So a short note on the reasons behind my new blog name. I used “the big name generator”, one of those silly websites where you put in lots of information, and from that info, names are created. The content was the emotion I was feeling at the time, and notebook was the answer to “a random object”. “The content notebook” was the website’s answer to “my punk rock band.”

I could have just had “the content notebook” but I liked the fact that it was an answer to the rock band question. I love rock, punk rock, hard rock, metal, etc. So it was very apt.

I’ve also just had a whim of an idea. If notebooks were people, they would always be content. They don’t seem to mind being used, or being ignored. They are content in just being a tool that people use when needed.

So there. If I had a punk rock band, I would call it The Content Notebook.

(not really, the name doesn’t scream punk rock, but, still, I like the idea!) 

I'm back!

I'm back online! Well, at work at least! I can't disclose too much info, but I can finally add blogs from work, where, believe it or not, in the not-so-busy periods, I have the most time to write! Granted, not much inspiration is gained from sitting in an office, but, still, I can write my blogs again!
This site was actually blocked. Pathetic cyberblock system. Funny how the cyberblock guys (I say guys) block blog sites and certain fashion and news links, but not porn! Now, I don’t actively sit there looking at porn all day. Sometimes our managers have to carry out email searches, incase they are wrong and customers don’t get their info. A couple of times, these emails have been linked to porn. You would have thought that these sites would be blocked, but they are not! And we end up coming across some pretty horrific things (including “big breasted ladies” and “anal massages”!) So I argued this point, and, got this site unblocked! Too bloody right!

I have been up to a lot since I last posted my blog. I celebrated my 22^nd birthday, which ran across two weekends, (lucky me!) My parents, my fiancé and myself went to Zizzi’s in Billericay, Essex for a birthday meal on Saturday, the eve of my birthday. On Sunday, My fiancé and I went to Colchester, Essex, for a wander. That was a nice, chilled day! The following Saturday, my friends and I went to Fire and Stone, Spitalfields, London. Omg, the food was amazing! The service was nothing to shout about, but the food spoke volumes! I definitely recommend going there www.fireandstone.com . After the meal, one of my friends recommended going to a few bars and pubs in Shoreditch. We ended up walking around in a big circle around London Liv Street for an hour in the rain, before she realised she turned the wrong way out the restaurant! We ended up down Brick Lane (weird place..very cultured!) and went to a few bars there, one that looked like an abandoned crack house! It was an interesting night!

I have been cooking this week. Part of my “trying to eat healthier” lifestyle. I bought the Leon fast food recipe book from Amazon, and made the spicy cabbage from it. It was a good first attempt, but I added too much lemon and not enough salt. As someone told me at work, at least I know my mistakes, and that’s half the action of cooking!
My next lunch that I cooked was quinoa, red onion and garlic, olive oil and sea salt. That was a big success! The only thing I would change is that I would use less quinoa, I didn’t realise that cooking what appears to be a tiny amount, turns into such a huge amount!
And last night, I had poached ham, egg and a tiny amount of chips. Yum!
I need a few more qunioa recipes, as, unfortunately, the Leon book only has a couple.

I am still into my notebook and scrapbooks, (well, that isn’t going to change anytime soon, if ever!) and I plan to do what many notebook enthusiasts do that blog: I will upload some photos of my notebooks. I was also supposed to upload photos of my art journal, which, I will do. I may do it this evening... watch this space!