How Tom Odell brought back Happy Nats

Today I was a bit down in the dumps.

This wasn't for any particular reason – nothing tragic has happened – but I just really needed cheering up. Those who know me tend to recognise me as the ‘mad happy, smiley person’, but today I was not really feeling my usual smiley self. I needed someone or something to make this mad smile come back.

So in an attempt to brighten my mood, I decided to sit in my garden this evening, listen to my iPod, and write. At Uni, evenings can be mad but while I’m at home, they are the most peaceful time of the day.

I was having one of those days when I just needed to zone out and forget about all the stupid stresses and worries that are going round my head at the moment – they are things which seem so silly but that doesn't stop you thinking about them. Acknowledging the pettiness of your problems doesn't make them go away or make you feel any better.

It’s the end of the day and everyone is tired. The air is cool in the garden and the sun is starting to set. The birds are chirping away like they always are – I’m often convinced they’re having some form of domestic dispute because they can make such a racket, far more than is considered normal. Or maybe some kind of singing practice is occurring. Who knows? They’re birds for crying out loud. I’m going off the subject.

NME posted a review the other day about an artist who is fast becoming one of my new favourites. His name is Tom Odell. He's a friend of my friend’s girlfriend, he has blonde floppy hair and a voice so beautifully powerful that he could sing you Ba Ba Black Sheep and convince you that it’s the most sublime piece of music ever heard by human ears.

Sadly that’s only my opinion, and suffice to say I don’t think NME’s Mark Beaumont would agree with me.

I say this because Beaumont gave Tom a grand total of 0/10 in his review of the long-awaited debut album Long Way Down, which was released yesterday. He said it was too dull. Too mainstream. Too boring.

And when I read this review, it made me feel a little bit sad. I've been a fan of Tom’s since Christmas, when it was announced that he had been shortlisted as a nominee for the Brits Critics Choice Awards for 2013. Like many others, I've been eagerly anticipating his album for months.

So to read such a painfully negative review from the so-called music oracle definitely put me on a bit of a downer. Was it really that bad?

Well, in a word – no. Not really. Not even a little bit. Did Beaumont receive the correct copy of this album? Has Tom checked? I think he should.

To put it into a simple sentence – Long Way Down is absolutely beautiful. I adore absolutely every song and for me that’s a very rare occurrence. 

Tom has added a blend of ballads including 'Sense', 'Heal', 'Stay Tonight' and 'Grow Old With Me', as well as the more upbeat 'I Know', 'Hold Me' and 'Sirens'. Regardless of tempo or style, each and every song has a unique element of mellowness and serenity which is breathtaking, and just what I needed this evening to feel good again.

And now as I sit here on the bench in my garden jotting down these thoughts on a pad of paper, listening to Tom's album, I think I can finally say I’m Happy Nats again.

Much better.

Nats. X

When in Rome, literally.

With my holiday history on record, it's obvious I am certainly not a well-travelled individual, primarily down to my constant lack of money and terrible organisation skills. I've been to France and Germany a few times and I've even visited Greece on a couple of occasions before it got economically flushed down the toilet. However, until last Thursday, I hadn't actually been on a foreign holiday with my family for 11 years, so when my parents suggested a trip to Rome to celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary, naturally my brothers and I jumped at the chance.

I know what you're thinking and I know it sounds terrible - my brothers and I essentially gatecrashed our Mum and Dad's anniversary holiday, but we were all actually invited. I still don't really know why. But we certainly weren't complaining, and we certainly weren't stupid enough to turn down a free holiday.

We touched down in the sunny capital on Thursday and were immediately struck by the heat as we came off the plane. The weather in Rome was proper Summer weather - none of that ridiculous English rubbish with overcast skies and the odd burst of sunshine which lasts about five seconds before disappearing behind an enormous grey cloud. It stayed at 32°C for most of our trip and with the sun shining down on us, we were as happy as clams.

The second thing which struck me was the immense beauty of the architecture and landscape as we travelled closer to the heart of the city via train on the way to our hotel. It was simply breathtaking. Just from looking at the buildings you could see the history and the way in which it had been so well preserved.

When we finally got off the train and started walking around the city in search of our hotel, my Dad decided to make a fantastic first impression on the locals by shouting out very loudly in the middle of the street "Watch out on the roads, the Roman's are all flipping lunatics when they're behind the wheel of a car". At that point, all I could was look at the ground and pray that the fifty or so other people around us were not Roman and/or did not understand English. You can always rely on my Dad to be embarrassing at any given opportunity, and he certainly outdid himself on this occasion.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain), which was so beautiful. Traditionally you are encouraged to throw coins into the fountain in the hope that in doing so, it will bring you back to Rome in the future, so we all threw in a couple of cents with this in mind.

The following day we went to The Altare della Patria, which is a stunning monument made entirely from marble and built in honour of Italy's first King, Victor Emmanuel. I spent most of the time watching my footing as we walked up endless flights of stairs, terrified I would end up falling over and cracking my head open on the marble floor. With that aside, looking out at the view from the top was most definitely one of my highlights of our trip.

My Mum and Dad decided some time before we went away to buy us 'Roma Passes' which gave us free use of the city's public transport network and admission to two landmarks of our choice without having to queue, the first of which was The Vatican Museum.

I'm not Catholic or particularly religious, but just to look at the stunning patterned ceilings, statues and sculptures made it a brilliant and very interesting afternoon.

On the same day we visited the Sistine Chapel, which was equally as beautiful with its patterned walls and painted ceilings. It was, as you might expect, a very strict environment - you needed to have your shoulders and knees covered, and were asked to be completely silent so those who wanted to pray inside the chapel could. Then again, it can't have been easy to do so given the amount of racket the security guards were making yelling "Silenzio!" ("silence") every ten seconds. I was actually tempted to shout out something about double standards but it probably would have ended with me getting thrown out.

Afterwards, we went to a gorgeous little backstreet restaurant called La Scalinata. The restaurant owner was so lovely and fitted the Italian stereotype perfectly - he was a bit like the waiter from Disney's 'The Lady and the Tramp', but less fat and without a moustache.

On Saturday we travelled back to The Vatican so we could go inside St. Peter's Basilica, which was enormous and absolutely breathtaking inside and out.

That same day we also went to The Colosseum. Inside there were artefacts, stone carvings and stories on wall plaques about the persecution of Christians and the ways in which they were punished for their beliefs - we learnt so much in such a short space of time. Although naturally, it was the outside of the Colosseum which was truly astounding - as we went exploring it was so easy to picture how it would have looked back then and imagine the immense level of sound which would have roared throughout the arena.

For lunch we picked the ideal spot opposite the Colosseum in Ristorante Al Gladiatore, which had a beautiful painting on the wall of a Roman soldier bowing down for mercy towards a female gladiator. The waiter told us a story of this female gladiator and how she was avenging her people who had been killed at the hands of these Roman soldiers.

That evening we decided to go to the Spanish Steps, where we sat for about two hours simply chatting, people-watching and soaking in the atmosphere. In spite of the crowds, busyness and noise, it was so peaceful and I felt like I could just stay there forever.

On our final day, we wandered through the markets and shops, exploring the smaller places we had missed the first time we looked around. I might have accidentally bought more jewellery - a pair of earrings and two bracelets - but I was on holiday so I was allowed. That's my naff excuse.

We sat in a cute little place called Caffè Accademia and ate the most delicious ice cream I've ever tasted - it was proper Italian ice cream. It cost an arm and a leg though, maybe even a few toes.

At this point in the trip we also worked out that my little brother Luke had eaten Margarita pizza every day for the past four days (!!).

We had reached the end of our holiday, jumped back on the plane to a not-so-sunny England and said our goodbyes to our new favourite city. All in all, it was a fantastic trip with so many memories made.

Ciao :) Nats. X

National Blood Week - Do your bit and donate

I've written about NHS Blood Donation on here a couple of times before, so you can probably tell it is an organisation which, if you'll pardon the pun, has always been very close to my heart. And since today is the first day of National Blood Week in the UK, running from 10th-16th June 2013, I thought I'd write a bit about why registering to be a blood donor could be one of the best things you could ever possibly do.

This year's campaign 'Know Blood, Give Blood' is asking donors to share the facts with as many people as they possibly can, in order to help NHS Blood Donation continue to recruit the 200,000 new donors they need every year to replace those who can no longer donate.

This is why I'm here today - to spread the word!

Did you know...?

• 96% of us rely on the other 4% of the population to donate blood

• The number of regular blood donors has fallen by 23% over the past decade

• Hospitals around the UK need around 7000 units of blood every day to treat a vast range of health issues

• Each unit of blood donated is split into its constituent parts, which means it can save up to three lives

• Over a lifetime, some blood donors can help more than 500 people through their donations!

• You can donate up to three times a year, and it takes no longer than an hour per session.

• Your blood will be used to help a variety of patients, including children suffering with leukemia or other terminal illnesses, burns victims, women giving birth and people with conditions that require regular blood transfusions

• In one session you will donate 470ml, just under one pint, of your blood. After donating you will need to rest and will be offered refreshments to avoid faintness or dizziness (a.k.a. free drinks and biscuits, woohoo)

• When you fully process what a monumental difference you have just made to another person's life, the feeling is indescribable - all I can say it is like no other!

Learn more about National Blood Week and how you can help by clicking HERE. Visit the NHS Blood Donation website for more information about eligibility and registering.

June

You'll have to excuse me; I'm typing this with a slight hangover. However, I find writing is often so therapeutic that it works as the best kind of cure, so that's why I'm here instead of hiding in a dark room under a duvet. Weird, I know, but from me are you really expecting any different?

The last few weeks have been very busy as I've been travelling back and forth from home to my Uni house for work, family events and birthdays. It's been very strange spending a few days here, a few days there, because normally I'm only in one place for fairly long periods of time. However, on Wednesday I'll be heading back home for a longer stint of 4 weeks which I'm looking forward to, especially as it means I won't be packing and unpacking my bags every 5 minutes.

Last night we had our Summer Ball which was so fantastic! Admittedly most of it is a bit of a blur, but it was brilliant to see so many of my Uni friends looking gorgeous in their dresses and smart suits coming together to celebrate the end of a mad and eventful year. On the line up we had The Hoosiers and Pendulum, who were both amazing, and Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens and Wiley, who I unfortunately missed, but I've got it on good authority that they performed great sets as well. Because I work in the coffee shop on campus I actually bumped into a few of my colleagues who were working some of the stalls - thankfully I found a small piece of common sense when seeing my boss' boss from a distance and realising it was probably not a good idea for me to go and have a chat, bearing in mind I was not of sober/sound mind and would have ended up babbling about all kinds of nonsense. I have no clue where this piece of common sense sprung from, but I'd be very grateful if it started to make an appearance more often in my day to day life. All in all, it was the perfect way to round off my second year.

On Tuesday, my housemate Vic and I went to an event called Tune In To Volunteering to collect awards for the volunteering we've done for our University, and we had a really lovely afternoon. It was all quite sophisticated and civilised (an environment which I'm obviously not naturally accustomed to) but it all ran smoothly with very few hiccups and moments of stupidity on my part, with the exception of me walking into one of the poles that was holding up the marquee, but I can't be held accountable for that; it was definitely the pole's fault.

There was a broad selection of people there who had completed so many fantastic acts of charity and volunteering - it really was an honour to be amongst them. Vic and I met a lovely guy called Adam who had been working with Age UK for three years and was being awarded for his 510 hours of volunteering with them. It was brilliant to see someone so humble and others like him be recognised and congratulated for such amazing work.

Finally, I've been asked to do a shout-out (or something of that kind fit for a blog post) to the fantastic people I work with - they're a mad lot and drive me crazy sometimes but I love them all. I'm not going to list all your names like you asked me to as there's bound to be whinging of "why was I listed last", "why was so-and-so first" etc., but just to say HELLO and you're all super.

Enjoy the rest of June you lovely lot.

Nats. X