The World in My Eyes

... I don't mean for one minute that I enjoyed this year in the slightest. It's safe to say that 2016 has ruined a lot of people. As an avid user of social media, every second person seems to have had a bad year or has found this year intolerable in some way. Let's be honest, December 31st can't come quick enough for most of us. This year has been horrendous in many aspects. We've lost some incredible names that we've grown up with; people who have inspired us and bought our imaginations to life over the years that they graced the world with their talents. The month of January is usually long winded and stressful, but after that, most years tend to improve. It seemed as though we reached April and it became fairly obvious that 2016 wasn't actually going to get any better. And by September, we were screaming at it all to end. We've had terror scares, brexit bullsh*t and Trump calamity, terrible crashes and loss of life. Seriously, how bad did this year

I write today having had my eyes opened wider to another side of football. Non-League. I'm not talking about the likes of Grimsby Town or Chester- more the teams whose players take on another part time job and can recall every name of the less than 100 fans that go and watch every week. I say opened wider, because having visited non-league football before, I do know what it's all about. But, on Saturday I witnessed the same lower standard football, cold weather and small ground, yet left with both a bubble in my heart and a stab in the chest.  My first game for Nottingham Forest was in 2001 away at Crystal Palace. I remember leaving that game filled with an emotion that I'd never felt before. Of course I feel that feeling all the time now, but back then, I didn't understand the world of football. I've grown into it and witnessed some of the best and most miserable days of my life. Every  football fan wants the very best for their team, as do I, but with the w

I must admit a few days ago when I thought about doing my usual match review I was dreading the content. I was envisioning a large scoreline, a manager-less perspective and a heavy feeling in my heart. I have been pleasantly surprised in all respects.  Nottingham Forest 1-0 Derby County  In the past I have only ever been 100% sure of a defeat on three occasions; one of those occasions was two years ago when we beat Leicester on their own pitch 2-0, January 2015 against Derby who we beat 2-1 and Friday... which ultimately ended in the above scoreline. I scoff at the word pessimist, I prefer the term "realistic". I was realistic about these fixtures and on Friday all signs pointed to a sure defeat for my club. Without a win in 8 and dark clouds forever looming over The City Ground and social networking, things were looking beyond bleak. On Tuesday night, following a poor defeat away at Preston North End, I, probably like many other Forest fans, was looking at our loc

As I'm currently attempting to do the 92 (currently on 82), I'm finding myself attending football grounds and watching football teams that I don't usually tend to give second thoughts about. On my travels I've been meaning to do the odd blog about which grounds I've been to, what I've made of the grounds and the games I've watched. I haven't got around to it until today, and I've found, surprisingly, my team of interest is actually a team I first visited nearly 8 years ago in 2007 when they beat my own team 1-0 in the FA Cup second round.  There is of course a slight history between Forest and Luton, however this history goes back way before I was born. I was unfortunately born into an era of Gary Megson, Junior Agogo and losing to Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday evening, not the glory days of beating Luton in cup finals at Wembley or indeed winning two European Cups. Despite this, coming from the family that I have, I was well informed as a chi

Depression. It's a word that is very romanticised in some ways. There are so many cases of the word being flung about for any situation that may suit. Some use it as an excuse to act in certain ways and some exaggerate it to gain attention that is so badly craved. However, believe it or not, some actually genuinely mean it when they say that they have depression. In actual fact, 350 million people suffer with depression world wide- and for those people, coming out and saying it doesn't come as easy as you think.  Whether people understand depression or not, everyone knows that the word depression comes with labels, labels that sufferers don't want to be associated with or judged by. Often, people spend so long in denial of depression that they make themselves worse, trying to avoid the labels and to try and avoid the upset that they may, or in their minds, probably will inflict on other people.   There are a million articles and blogs written by nume

Last week I was due to do an open mic session for my University's open night for 'National Poetry Day'. Unfortunately, due to ending up in hospital (I'm fine!), I was unable to attend and therefore read.  Safe to say I was unhappy about this, despite the fact I'm probably not that great at poetry. Regardless, I'll give you some background information. DeMontfort University (my uni) decided to base our theme around 'memory'. My boyfriend of a year's family and I have become, naturally, very close. During the time that I have been with him however, his grandmother has gradually declined in health due to suffering with dementia. I would first like to say that dementia is a horrible disease and if there's anyone out there reading this who has been through the torment of being close to someone with dementia, I salute you and my heart goes out to you all.  It's been a hard year for my boyfriend's family and the chances are that it wi