SHOPS
Support Mind – for better mental health…
On the 27th of May (this month) – my best friend and I are going to run 10km together in the London Bupa 10,000. We are doing this in support of the UK mental health charity MIND.
Please support our cause and donate using this link - CLICK HERE – it is an online donation and only takes 2 clicks! Any amount at all is most appreciated!
Why support a mental health charity you ask?
Because as much as anyone likes to deny it, mental health issues are still a huge taboo and something that is kept hidden like a dark dirty secret and leads to discrimination and shunning when the truth “comes out”. The truth being that the person in question is simply ill and needs help. They are ill, they need a doctor or a therapist, they might need medication and they can be cured. Since when is that something to discriminate against?!
If someone is diagnosed with a broken leg – they go to a doctor, they go to a hospital, they have medical tests done, they need medication and then they need physiotherapy and training to get the full functionality of their leg back. When someone is diagnosed with a mental health disorder it is exactly the same.
Would you stop having contact or speaking with someone with a broken leg? Would you agree with shunning someone for a broken leg? Would you turn a blind eye when someone instigates vicious rumours about them and gossips about them behind their back? So why when it’s a mental health patient?
Whether we know it or not – every single one of us is close to someone affected by mental health issues - every 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year. And that’s not talking about the 450 million people worldwide that have been diagnosed…let alone the one’s un-diagnosed…
AND on top of that:
The UK has one of the highest rates of self-harm in Europe.
Suicide remains the most common cause of death in UK men under the age of 35.
Staff absence and lost productivity due to poor mental health management cost UK employers £26 Million every year.
Over 70% of prison population suffer from at least 2 or more mental health disorders that were never tended to in time.
Mind’s mission
“Our vision is of a society that promotes and protects good mental health for all, and that treats people with experience of mental distress fairly, positively, and with respect.“
The looong list of reasons to support mental health charity Mind goes on and on. No one has any second thoughts about donating money to cancer research, to schools in Africa or clean water in India…so why think twice when it comes to working on something that is so close to home and is such a gigantic problem which is affecting every single one of us – directly or indirectly?
Some ecards – a mini selection of my current favourites…
You may or may not know the website http://www.someecards.com/ - but it’s a big hit on Pinterest, and to be fair some of the cards are pretty funny – here’s a petit selection of some of my personal favourites…
Huile Divine by Caudalie
I’m one of those people known to go on a regular “beauty binge”. Yes, I have been known to spend loads of money on Aromatherapy Associates, Elemis, Yes To, Mama Mio, Morrocan Oil (amazing!) and MAC make up (to mention just a few of my regular beauty favourites).
This is all alongside the many dineros and time that I spend on having my face and eyebrows threaded, arms, legs & bikini waxed, the 5 hour permanent hair straightening with Yuko, and the laser IPL treatment 8 months ago. Oh, and did I mention the gym membership and the personal trainer?
So, you can only imagine how delighted I was when my lovely friend Marge gave me a little bottle of “Huile Divine” by Caudalie. To be entirely honest, I had bought and used Caudalie before – but had not been very impressed, so I had returned to Elemis – but I must say, this little bottle of Huile Divine is like a little bottle of magic potion – like a dream in a bottle!
First off – I’m a big fan of beauty oils. Bio Oil is an absolute must for me after every gym session and I’ve just finished a bottle of Elemis Cellutox body oil (smells great too!). So coming to this specific new oil – Huile Divine by Caudalie – it’s body oil heaven!
The Caudalie Divine Oil is apparently made of 4 different oils – grape oil (obviously, being what Caudalie is all about), extra virgin argan oil, extra virgin hibiscus oil and sesame oil.
The smell? Very sweet at first, but fades to leave a lovely dreamy after-smell, I think mostly hisbiscus? And do not be put off by the word “oil” – this is a dry oil that absorbs super fast without a trace, don’t fear the oil. It’s simply…divine?
I’m thinking – maybe a bit of Deadmau5 in Barcelona?
Deadmau5 (born Joel Thomas Zimmermann) is of my favourite electro/ dance producers – together with the one and only Tiesto, Daft Punk and Armin van Buuren (yes, I am half-Dutch, need to love my boys – they do it best).
Deadmau5 is also quite a fascinating character, from his outbursts of anger, bizarre mood swings between loving his cat and taking it out on DJs, he’s a pretty extreme person (unlike the always lovely Mr-Happy Tiesto). He’s not the Mr. Mellow you might expect (especially considering he’s Canadian and they’re obviously all super lovely). He never seems to watch his mouth and is often getting into trouble. But to me this makes me like him even more – he’s got this sort of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on it seems?
Like the famous quote about DJs from his October 2008 interview with the Irish Daily Star: “It puts me to fucking sleep, to be quite honest; I don’t really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to fucking tears and hopefully, with all due respect to the DJ type that will fucking go the way of the dinosaur, I’d like them to dis-a-fucking-ppear! It’s so middle man, they’re like fucking lawyers! You need them, but they’re fucking cunts. God bless them, they’re my number one customer right, so I’m not gonna go diss every fucking DJ. But to say you become this massive, “up on a podium” performer by playing other peoples productions, at the same speed as someone else’s productions and fading between the two of them, I don’t get it…”
My favourite track has got to be “Raise your Weapon“:
Anyways, I decided I should really go see Deadmau5 live as I’ve been listening to his music on repeat a LOT lately, so how convenient is it that as part of the 2012 Deadmau5 tour he’s going to be at Sonar in Barcelona the same night as Die Antwoord? They better not be in different areas at exactly the same time or I might have to hunt down whoever put together that schedule and have a go at them Deadmau5 style.
A bit of gold 60′s?
As anyone will be able to tell you – I love gold, I love retro and vintage fashion, I love Mad Men, I love big hair…so when I stumbled across this litle feature earlier today – I simply had to share!
Gold? Tick.
Mad Men? Tick.
60′s style fashion? Tick.
Cocktails? Tick.
Big chunky jewellery? Tick.
*sigh*
