My Favourite film - In the west end.

Ever since I was a little girl, 'The Lion King' has been my all time favourite film. When I was younger I would go through phases of watching the film everyday. A couple of years ago I received tickets to go and watch 'The Lion King' up in the west end and obviously, I jumped at the chance, and I can tell you, it was a one in a life time opportunity!!

All the favourite characters from the film are there. The animal-aspect is represented through the movement of the performers and use of masks. This means the people behind the animals can interact, giving greater humanity to the relationships. I found this particularly effective in the romantic relationship of Simba and Nala. Pumba and Timmon remain a wonderful comedy double-act. Other characters are represented through a variety of performance, circus and puppet-based techniques.

As you would expect from a West End show, the manipulation of the stage is as important to the telling of the story as the characters themselves. You have great view, where the performers themselves add the detail. How simple it is to make an actor's headwear look like blades of grass, and how effective it looks too.

Superbly designed, the costumes create a great blend of humanity and animalism. This means they are versatile enough to cope with choreography which seems to blend aggression and passion, giving it a distinctly African flavour.

The songs by Elton John and Tim Rice are perhaps the most famous and successful aspect of the original film. Again, the theatre production doesn't simply fall back on these, filling the remainder of the show with light-weight fluff. You'll all be singing along to 'I just can't wait to be king'!

If you have the chance to see your favourite film up in the west end, I say go for it! You won’t regret it. Take it from someone with experience.

My idol, My hero, My everything.

Children always see their parents as the bad guys. As the ones who just don't understand, when in truth, they are much wiser than we are. Only when we've grown up a little and see more of life do we realise that they were right all along. They try so hard to keep us on the right track when it's so easy to get lost in this life. Whether it's a bad friend which they try to keep us away from or bad things that could ruin our lives.

They always want what's best for us, but we refuse to believe it. We always think we know better.

My Mum is a wonderful person. I appreciate her so much and I'm very grateful for having her in my life. She has a strong character which I deeply admire. She's been through so much in her life, but it's all a part of who she is. And it has only made her a stronger person. She's done her best to raise me, and she's done a great job. She's always wanted what's best for me and she's done her best to provide me with everything that I needed. She's spent many nights by my side when I was sick. She guided me through life, taught me right from wrong, and taught me manners and how to treat others. She helped me grow to be the person I am today. I look up to her. She IS my idol! She has such a beautiful soul.

Many people say I'm just like her and it makes me very happy. I'd LOVE to be like her when I grow up.

I regret all the times where I put my friends before my mum. It would be a Saturday (the day I'd be waiting for all week), time to go out with friends to a party and have fun. My mum would come to me and ask me if i wanted to spend time with her, go out for lunch or have a 'girly'  night in, but being a 'typical' young teenager I would refuse, telling her that I wanted to go out with my friends and that she would ruin my weekend or embarrass me. I would throw fits if she wouldn't let me go out. I'd scream, have a paddy. I can't believe how mean I am to her sometimes, she doesn't deserve it. Now being 14, I do believe I have 'grown up' although it was not too long ago I acted this way, I still regret my actions and words. Me and my mum are very close, I admire her. I do believe that one day, just one day, ill be the one in her shoes. And ill get a taste of my own medicine.

Things do not change, we do.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, ‘Things do no change, we do’. But what does it mean?

It means that things around us remains the same, for example; the sun rises from the same direction, but we find every morning different… just because we perceive things differently at different times doesn’t mean that they necessarily ‘change’. There’s a quote to back it up:
"life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it."

There has always been prejudice in this world and there will continue to be but we change because our opinions change and look at things from a different perspective.

Change is the only constant in life. This constant is the cause rather than the effect that sets things in motion. The ‘things’ do not change because they shape the basic structure from which a society may grow. However their forms or features may change just as human faces may look different depending on an individual’s ethnicity. These days, under the skilled hands of a plastic surgeon, the features of a human face can also change. This confirms the ‘saying’. The fact that we are now scientifically capable of altering the forms of our faces to match our outfits, indicates that we effect changes on things because our attitudes, needs, mindsets and expectations have and will continually undergo ‘extreme makeovers’.

Dont get me started on animal cruelty.

Why do they do it?

Over the years people have turned a blind eye to the cruelty which animals receive on a day to day basis. No one really knows what goes on behind closed doors; all there is, is the evidence in which physical abuse has taken place.

Pets are known for creating special bonds with their owners, and for the owner to abuse their trust in the way that they do, is totally unacceptable.

There are many types of animal cruelty but the most prominent are passive and active cruelty. Passive cruelty is where animals are neglected or abandoned. When checking for passive cruelty people would need to look for signs such as: being extremely underweight, chained up and left without food, water or shelter, left outside in extreme weather conditions without adequate shelter, or owner has chosen to ignore the fact that their animal is in need of medical attention.

For example, on the 18th May 2009 on a warm day a man left his dog in his car for four hours as he shopped away , Four hours later the police found him in the owners car with a temperature of 110 degrees the man was prosecuted with a jail sentence of 6 months for passive cruelty.

The other type, is active cruelty. This is where a person deliberately goes out of their way to scare or cause harm to an animal. Signs of active cruelty are very serious and should be considered signs of psychological problems. Cases are reported to animal rescue centres on a daily basis. On the 11th January 2010 Herald online published a rather disturbing article about a 7 month old orange tabby kitten, his paws and nose was glued to the pavement of the southern Minnesota highway. On the 18th of December 2009 a motorist heading west spotted the poor kitten and collected it unintentionally took some of the paw pads, skin and his claws. A week later and the poor kitten passed away. If the passer didn't collect him, he might not have even had that extra week.

Thousands of animals a year are left half-dead on the sides of roads after a night of what some people would class as ‘fun’. We can't control people but we can help decrease animal cruelty by reporting anything suspicious or inhumane that we see. There are many animal shelters or rescue centres that we can contact even if we want to remain anonymous, and most of them are open 24/7.

Be yourself. Make a difference. Say NO to animal cruelty.