Sometimes, life can bring you to breaking point. You feel as though everything has turned pear-shaped and you’re not quite sure what you’re doing or we’re your heading…

A little over a year ago, everything had its place. There was a plan, a passion, a fret, a prospect, a smile-setter, a tear-jerker. Whereas, throughout 2011, these once vivid emotions had congealed into a mass of uncertainty, vacancy and disconcertion…

Life during 2011 had been hectic – speeding down a path which seemed to be taking me away from what I had wanted and leaving me with little time for anything else. For those of you that don’t know, I got myself a job working at Itsu in Piccadilly after returning from Thailand in November 2010. Then with Christmas on the horizon, my plans for sharing the foods/places from my trip became more and more pointless the longer I had been home. My mind was brimming with recipes, ideas and reviews from way back when and yet all of them seemed to get lost in the mess. This was thanks in part to the fact that our oven exploded before our holiday, proving any baking endeavours near impossible.

Then, in late June, I was offered a new job working in the West End at none other than Her Majesty’s Theatre – Home to Phantom of the Opera. Whilst I enjoyed my time there, I still hadn’t had the time to focus on my actual goals. The hours were unsociable and incessant and at the end of the day, I was behind the bar, not on the stage (where I longed to be)!

I truly hope reading the above, has not discoloured your own aura in any way. Putting such a dampener on my first post of 2012 was never my intention – especially considering I never even posted to wish you all a fantastic new year!

But this is where it all brightens up…

I was resolute on 2012 being different; motivated, dream-driven and meaningful. So, in late September, I auditioned for a place to study a Diploma at the Central School of Speech and Drama and within the week I was sent an acceptance letter to start in January. So I am now a student at the Central School of Speech and Drama and although it is only a part-time course, I absolutely love it. Unfortunately, the hours clashed with my job at Her Majesty’s Theatre and whilst I had hoped for a part-time position to be offered, this wasn’t available and thus my employment there ceased on January 6th.

On the plus side, I now have a lot of time to myself. The downside is I have too much time to myself. I can’t say my mindset has altered that drastically from what I was describing earlier in this post, however, I am a little more optimistic. I finished shooting a short film in Paris in late January and it is being premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year. I have been catching up with my friends and family and regaining my passion for cooking (currently my experiments are limited, as we’re have our kitchen refurbished but I’m very excited about the new concoctions I’ll be able to whip up once it’s finished).

I have a lot more people to tempt now, which makes it all the more worthwhile!

So, as it stands, my days consist of job-hunting, CSSD and Poppy (I’m sad to tell you that Gizmo passed away in September 2012 – living to a good age of 3). Over the coming weeks, I am going to try and revamp some of the pages/links on here, as well as renewing the annual ‘Easter Confectionary’ list. So fear not, if your still worrying about what/where to buy your vegan chocolate eggs.

As I start to wrap this post up, I have something a lot more exciting to tell you about…

On the 9th May this year, I will be jumping out of a plane from up to 13,000 feet and I am doing this for two reasons:

1. Because I will be turning 21 in April and it is my present to myself and something I have always wanted to do.
2. To raise money for one of my favourite organisations and one I have always admired and supported – the BUAV (http://www.buav.org/).

I talk about this organisation quite a bit but for those of you who don’t know, the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) is an incredible group that campaign throughout Europe to put an end to all Animal Experiments and fund research into finding more humane and accurate alternatives!

During the period leading up to my skydive, I will be going around with sponsorship forms and collecting donations online via PayPal and if anyone is able to sponsor me, I’d be ever so grateful!

Like with most of my favourite groups (Animal Aid and PETA included), the BUAV is as a campaign organisation and therefore I am not able to use ‘Just Giving’ or ‘Virgin Money’ because they are required to be a registered charity in order to be listed. After talking with the BUAV, I have learned that by being a registered as a charity, it would limit their campaigns and restrict certain campaign activities. You can contact the charity for any information – I’ve been keeping regular contact with them and keeping them up to date about the jump.

Having only started fundraising a week ago today, I have already raised over £100, which is a fantastic start! With roughly 7 weeks to go before the jump, I hope to raise plenty more for this fantastic cause! If anyone can spare even a few pounds, it would be so greatly appreciated!

Please click here to donate.

Alternatively, from the 1st April, the BUAV are opening a ‘Charitable Trust’ in order to make fundraising easier and allowing me to set up an account with Just Giving. The  only downside is that the charitable trust will only fund the their work in education (school talks etc) as opposed to their more hard-hitting campaigns.

Feel free to contact myself or the Karen Hoyland at the BUAV to find out more about their work or my odd desire to jump out a plane.

I will be posting photos from the jump, plus the total of how much I’ve raised the following day!

So do keep coming back!